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Be Careful What You Wish For

By Rach

SUMMARY: What if Xander wasn't the least repulsive one of all?
TIMELINE: Season 3 BtVS - during The Prom.
RATING: G
DISTRIBUTION: Anywhere that has my stuff, take! Anyone else, please ask :)
DISCLAIMER: Not mine!
FEEDBACK: Please :D rach@satans-toady.net

Anya flounced into the library. "You're taking me to the prom."

Giles jumped and turned around. "I'm … what?"

"You're taking me to the prom." She nodded decisively.

"Give me one good reason why I should!"

"I don't have a date, and it's your fault that I'm stuck here." She thought for a second. "That's two, and both of them are pretty damn good."

"But…" Giles looked put out. "I don't want to!"

"Well, if you hadn't destroyed my amulet in Cordelia's wish, then you wouldn't have to. But you did, so you do."

"I'm too old for you," he protested. "Take someone your own age."

"My own age is eleven hundred and twenty. You're as close as it gets."

Giles sighed. "Will it shut you up?"

"Probably not!" Anya grinned.

Rolling his eyes, Giles nodded. "What if I say a definitive, not going to change my mind 'no'. Will *that* shut you up?"

"Definitely not!"

"Looks like I have no choice then."

"Looks like!"



****

Buffy bit her lip to hold back a laugh. "Anya? Nice choice!"

"She bullied me into it!" Giles glared at Buffy. "She's bloody persuasive, that girl."

"Years of tricking people into making wishes, I guess." She sat on the table in Giles' office, swinging her legs. "She's kinda hot, though. I mean, for an ex-demon, she's pretty scale-free."

"Well, I never said she wasn't attractive, I just said she forced me into it!"

"Aha!" Buffy exclaimed, gleefully. "So you do think she's hot." She grinned, and jumped down from the desk. "Giles has a cru-ush."

Giles swatted Buffy with the back of his hand. "I do not, I just -"

"Giles!" Anya strode into the library and right into his office. "There you are. We need to discuss our outfits for the prom."

Buffy let out a giggle, lower her eyes at Giles' glare. "I'll leave you two lovebirds to it…" She headed out of the office, and Giles looked panicked.

"But … Buffy! Help!"

Buffy turned and waved, jokingly blowing a kiss to him, before leaving. Giles sighed, and turned back to Anya.

"So, I was thinking of wearing pink. Perhaps you should match?"

Giles sighed again, and sat down with his book. "I'll be wearing a tuxedo, Anya. A normal one. Wear what you bloody well want - I get the impression you will anyway."

****

"So she wished her husband's head would explode, which was great except we were -"

"Anya! It may surprise you to know this, but I don't really care about how or why you made his head explode!" Giles complained to the young woman on his arm. "In fact, to be completely honest, it makes me more than a little uncomfortable!" She was exceptionally pretty, he admitted that much willingly, but her stories of flaying and evisceration … those, he could definitely do without.

"Why not? Aren't you interested in my life? Don't you like me?" Anya pouted.

Giles wanted to scream. "I didn't say I don't like you! I just wondered if maybe you had any other conversation starters in your repertoire. Something less … violent. Like, flowers, or rabbits, or something."

Anya looked horrified. "Rabbits? Why would you do that to me?"

"So we can talk about how you made a young man's parts fall off, but not bunnies?" Giles shook his head in disbelief. "You're a strange girl."

Anya grinned. "So I've been told."

Giles laughed, and gestured towards the dance floor. "Perhaps if we can't agree on a topic, we should dance?"

"Finally!" Anya dragged him out onto the dance floor and found a space, wrapping her arms around his neck before he even had the chance to think.

Giles slipped his arms around her waist, and she leant her head on his chest. As they swayed to the music, Anya closed her eyes, smiling to herself. Giles rubbed his hand across her back, and there was just something about her that meant he couldn't help but grin. She snuggled closer into his arms and made a mental note to tell Giles that he was a much better dancer than he looked - something told her this wasn't quite the moment to mention it.

He absently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled, realising he was having a much better evening than he'd expected that he would. He wrapped his arms around her, liking the way she fit there as if she'd been made for him.

She looked up at him and grinned brightly. Barely thinking, he leant down towards her, and before he knew it his lips had connected with hers.

****

Xander and Buffy stood to the side of the dance floor with Oz and Willow.

"You two not dancing?" Buffy smiled at Willow as her best friend shook her head violently.

"Oh, no. Oz and I have this understanding where there's no dancing."

Buffy laughed as Oz nodded. "It's true."

Willow gestured towards the dance floor. "Never pegged Giles for a dancer, though. I figured -" She stopped herself mid-sentence.

"What? You figured what?" Xander turned around to follow her gaze across the room. "Oh! Oh…oh."

"Why is everybody -" Buffy's hand flew to her mouth as her eyes landed on Giles and Anya. "Giles is … making out with Anya."

"I think I'm gonna hurl," Xander announced.

Willow nodded. "That's…"

"Gross?!" Buffy supplied.

"And yet I can't seem to take my eyes away…" Xander complained.

"I'm going to be scarred for life."

"I don't know, I think it's kinda cute." The three of them turned to look at Oz in disbelief. He shrugged. "Stopped you looking over there."

Giles pulled away from Anya, blushing slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Buffy and Xander staring across at them, and he felt a laugh building up inside him.

"Anya," he whispered. "People are staring."

Anya shrugged. "Screw em!" After planting another kiss on Giles' more than willing lips, she smiled triumphantly. "Perhaps not all of the males of the species are quite as bad as I thought…"

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