The Totem Rating: Explicit
Ship: Giles/Buffy Length: 5831 words Summary: Buffy finds an object that seems to have a particular kind of influence on her and Giles. Only it's not exactly what they think...
Written for @summerofgiles 2021! Preview: “So, I made with the slayage but he dropped this before he went poof.” Buffy held out a plastic grocery bag to Giles. She’d come in without knocking and found him still awake and seated at his desk, open books covering the surface. Her skin felt warm, tingly with post-slay energy and she graced him with a lopsided grin. “Seemed like he was trying pretty hard to hide it so it must be, y’know, evil or something?” “Oh well thank goodness you brought it into my home, then,” Giles observed dryly, his mouth twitching upward as he rose from his chair. As usual, he was sure he must have locked the door at some point - or at least thought about locking it - but Buffy’s arrival was never a bother. Taking one plastic handle in each hand, he peered tentatively inside. “Rather certain he didn’t get it at Ralph’s.” “Not unless they’ve really updated their novelty section,” Buffy leaned in to look again. She’d already opened the bag once to take a gander but not a close one. She could tell there was some definite magic mojo going on so she figured she may as well get it to safety. Giles, whether he realized it or not, was the safest place in the world to her. Her mouth twisted, eyes narrowing as they traced the item’s shape. “Huh, it kinda looks like…” Giles felt his face heat as he came to the same conclusion. Clearing his throat a bit too loudly, he snapped the sides of the bag shut. “Yes. Well.” He met Buffy’s eyes briefly before they both looked away. “Yes. Um. You are correct.”
She raised both brows at him. “A-about the mystical properties, as well,” he added, dropping the object on his desk so he could clean his glasses. They were almost spotless but he needed a moment to consider his wording. Buffy had matured considerably over the years but she wasn’t immune to a little puerile humour now and again. Neither was he, if he was being honest. He blamed Xander’s influence. Buffy covered her grin with one hand. Giles was rather adorably flustered and it was taking all her inner strength not to giggle. “Anything we should be worried about?” “I suppose that would depend on the intended ritual. This sort of… um, totem would most likely be an amplifier for… certain kinds of magic.” Given its shape and distinct carvings, Buffy could make an educated guess but it was hard to say the exact words out loud. “The, uh, X-rated kind?” He nodded, his expression purposely neutral. The flush in his face had descended to his neck and the room was feeling distinctly too balmy for his chunky knit sweater. He pushed the sleeves up his arms as far as they would go. “In a manner of speaking.” Buffy’s eyes flicked to his suddenly exposed forearms and she was reminded of the tattoo lurking a little further up, just out of sight. The notion that Giles might be speaking from personal experience made her tummy do a little flip. “Do we need to destroy it or something? Before all of Sunnydale comes down with a serious case of teenage-boy?” She shifted closer, noticing for the first time that Giles must be wearing cologne of some kind. It was faint but distinct, spicy and complex. It made her mouth water a little. She swallowed self-consciously and tried to turn her attention to the issue of the unknown sex totem. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that didn’t actually help much.
READ THE REST ON AO3
