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Giles stood in the doorway of his kitchen and studied the frozen tableau leaning awkwardly against the counter. He gave a resigned sigh. He'd seen the way these two had been watching each other, though to give them their due, they had been amazingly subtle about it, for them. But even given Xander's unfortunate habit of becoming entangled with supernatural beings, Giles had believed that his avowed hatred of anything vampiric would have kept him out of trouble. A look but don't touch scenario. Obviously he'd underestimated this particular vampire's ability to make himself irresistible. Ah, well, much too late now for the 'I really don't think that would be a wise course of action' talk. Now it was time for damage control.

He wondered if Spike and Xander knew that they were wearing identical expressions of mingled guilt, arousal, and resignation that everything that was good in their lives was about to come crashing down around their ears. That look of resignation was a somewhat familiar expression for Xander, but he was momentarily surprised to see the same one gracing Spike's paler features. Then he remembered how Spike had been deserted by Angelus after the return of his soul, and how Dru had dumped him for being too human and gone off with a Chaos demon, and how every single one of his artfully crafted plans had crumbled despite his best efforts. On second thoughts, that expression was probably more at home on Spike's face than it was on Xander's.

As Giles took a step forward and closed the kitchen door behind him, Spike and Xander both reacted instinctively and identically. Two sets of arms tightened around the body they were clutching, and two backbones straightened in determination. Two bottom lips were pushed out in matching expressions of stubbornness, and Giles knew this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd hoped. If they'd pulled back from each other and let their guilt take over, it would have been relatively simple to separate the two and then maybe talk some sense into Xander and, if necessary, Spike. But they had gravitated towards each other, clinging tightly to what they wanted, and Giles realised it would be futile to try and break them apart. All he could do now was try and get through to them as a unit. But first he needed to give the girls their drinks before they came in and complicated matters even more.

Spike and Xander shuffled warily backwards as Giles approached, wedging themselves into a corner and watching silently as he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice. Quietly amused, he reached up and extracted five glasses from the overhead cupboard, filled two with juice and turned to frown at them in warning.

"Stay here, be quiet, don't do anything. I'll give Buffy and Tara their drinks and then I'll be back. We are going to talk about this."

They watched him stalk from the room and fractionally relaxed their stance, foreheads coming to rest together.

"How bad do you think this is going to be?"

"Dunno, Pet. He didn't exactly look surprised, though, did he?"

They turned as one when the door opened and Giles re-entered the room bearing a half-full bottle of Scotch.

"I think we can all agree that this conversation requires alcohol," he announced, pouring generous measures into two of the remaining glasses and a smaller amount into the third. This was the glass he held out to Xander, who took it reluctantly, his other hand gripping Spike's arm tightly, as if he was worried that Giles might try to pull him away from his lover.

"Hey, how come I don't get as much as you do?"

Spike answered before Giles could even attempt to formulate a suitable response that wouldn't reduce Xander to the level of a child spending time with his elders.

"Cos, you're not a seasoned drinker like me and Rupert here. If you tried to match us shot for shot you'd be passed out under the table before he could finish running through his list of why we shouldn't be together." Spike accepted his own glass from Giles. "And there's no way I'm sitting through that alone, so you have to stay conscious, if not entirely sober."

Xander pouted but stayed silent, which in Giles' eyes was a minor miracle.

Giles decided to jump straight to the point.

"So, Xander, can we assume that you've revised your opinion of vampires in general, or just the specimen you're sharing your bed with?" Spike bristled, but stayed silent. He knew he had to let Xander answer for himself so that Giles would understand that he hadn't been pressured into something he didn't want.

"Spike's different, Giles, you know that."

"Ah, yes. The chip."

Xander took a large sip of his drink and grimaced as it went down. This was not going to be easy...

"No, Giles, not the chip. Well..." He paused to hug the blond still tucked under his arm. "Not just the chip. Spike's always been different. He loved Dru enough to come to the Hellmouth and brave the Slayer, trying to make her well again. He betrayed Angelus so he could keep Dru. And even though he'll never admit it, I know he didn't want anything to do with Acathla, because he enjoys the human world too much."

"Oi!"

With a quick kiss, Xander silenced his incensed lover. "It's true, Spike. When you became a vampire you lost your soul, but you kept your humanity."

Two frowns greeted his announcement and he sighed. "Okay, so maybe that's not the right word exactly, but you enjoy the human world, Spike. You eat our food, listen to our music, watch our TV. Face it, you like the human race, or at least what the human race has to offer besides the 'walking happy meals' thing. And the chip didn't do that."

The couple shared an intense look that made Giles feel like a third wheel and he decided to interrupt before they forgot he was there.

"I can accept the fact that Spike wouldn't want the human race to be destroyed, and maybe not only because it would mean the loss of his primary food source. But he didn't necessarily love Drusilla. She was his Sire; of course he would want her to be well again. I'm sure it was expected of him. He was trying to restore her to health as a vicious, insane killing machine, Xander. In what way is that the action of someone who loves humanity?"

"Giles, he loved Dru enough to attack her Sire in an attempt to keep her by his side. And when Willow cast that stupid spell, he was in love with Buffy, and you know he couldn't have been faking that. And that had nothing to do with Sires or what was expected of him. He was a vampire in love, Giles, and you know that Willow's spell wasn't that complicated. It couldn't have made him fall in love if he wasn't capable of doing it in the first place."

Giles looked at the pair in front of him and tossed down the rest of his scotch before reaching for the bottle. He refilled his own glass and the one held out by Spike before he spoke again.

"Very well. I concede that Spike is capable of love. But that doesn't mean he has any intention of loving you, Xander. How do you know that this isn't part of some complicated plot to break up the support network that Buffy has come to rely on?"

Xander snorted. "Oh, please, G-man. You've seen how good he is at sticking to the plans he comes up with. He doesn't have the patience to follow them through."

Spike poked at the ribs under his fingers and spoke up. "'M right here, Pet. And while I appreciate you leaping to my defence, I'm not sure I like the way you're doin' it. It's hardly complimentary, now, is it?"

"But it's true, Spike. We've been dancing around each other for months now, and if this was one of your big plans you would have skipped to the good bit ages ago. But you didn't. You teased, and tempted, but you didn't try anything on. Not until this last week, anyway." Xander blushed and rubbed his forehead against Spike's.

"And you made sure I really wanted this. You even gave me a chance to back out when we were both naked on my bed and I was ready to beg."

A tiny sound in the room abruptly reminded Xander that Giles was still in the room, and the blush deepened and spread down his throat and under his collar. Spike nuzzled into the hollow between Xander's neck and shoulder and pressed a soft kiss to the skin before nipping sharply.

"You're gonna pay for that little confession later, Pet. I'm evil, remember? I have a reputation to protect. The last thing I need is for you to go telling the Watcher, here, how I'm so considerate in bed and all."

"While I'm sure that you will find a way to restore your reputation to it's former, tarnished glory, I believe that Xander has made his point. If you had been planning anything you would have shown your hand long before now." Giles paused and considered the level of liquid in his glass before shrugging and tossing the entire measure down his throat, swallowing hard. "So, we can conclude that this is not some harebrained scheme of Spike's to cause dissent in the Slayer's camp." He ignored Spike's growl and continued. "That doesn't mean he won't accomplish exactly that when Buffy finds out about this. Or do you plan to continue hiding this relationship indefinitely?"

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