I was thinking it would be really nice to write just a cute, monster-of-the-week fic set between “I Robot, You Jane” and “Prophesy Girl” where Giles and Jenny end up investigating something together and they have to pretend that they’re dating. So I was wondering, what’s a good scenario that would require them to be fake-dating?
And then it occurred to me: there is no reason for the fake dating. Giles and Jenny are investigating something together, and someone approaches them to ask who they are or what they’re doing, and there’s a million things they could say, and maybe they don’t even necessarily have to lie even. But they both kind of panic, and they have the same idea at the same time: Jenny takes his arm and starts to say, “well, um, we’re...” and Giles finishes, “we’re on a date.” And they both just go with it. And make up some whole elaborate backstory, completely unnecessarily.
Giles relates the investigation to Buffy later, and she’s like, “Okay, interesting... why are you pretending to date Ms. Calendar though?” And he doesn’t have a good answer.
And then he and Jenny have to go back, for whatever reason, and because they’ve already created a whole web of lies, they need to keep up the charade. And then after, Willow and Xander are filled in on the monster/mystery thing, and Willow says, “There’s one thing I’m still confused about...” and Xander’s like, “Yeah, why are you pretending to date Ms. Calendar?” Giles just gives him an exasperated look and turns to Willow, who says, “That was my question too.” And Giles, who is very flustered and confused from spending so much time with Jenny, is just like, “That is entirely besides the point!”
That would be fun to write. Still need a monster-of-the-week, though.
