dragonyphoenix

Stepping out of his office, Rupert found Xander inadvertently dusting the library's main table with some sort of orange foodstuff. Well, he presumed it was food given that the boy was shoving it into his mouth. Rupert grabbed a plate but then thought better of it. As he stepped behind the checkout counter to find a newspaper, Xander spoke up in a girlish falsetto. “Oh, Angel, I'm cold.” The falsetto gave way to something deep but mocking. “Well here, baby, take my jacket. Looks better on you anyway.” Rupert suppressed a sigh. Could the lad not lay off the blatherskite just for once?

As Rupert joined Xander at the table, the boy leaped to his feet, tossing orange chip somethings high into the air. They fell not only onto the table but onto two of the chairs and the floor as well. “Xander.” Rupert pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shouldn't you be in the cafeteria for lunch?”

Apparently Xander needed to be reminded to clean up after himself. Rupert went to fetch a broom and dustpan from his office. “Buffy said we'd be going over three ugly vamps who'd attacked her last night.”

Rupert returned to find Xander picking up the lose chips and tossing them out, the ones from the floor at least; the others he seemed prepared to eat. “Here, this will make clean-up easier,” Rupert said, handing the cleaning items over. “If we're discussing the vampires, shouldn't Buffy be here?”

“They're still at Willow's locker, gossiping about Angel and his perfect hair and his perfect jacket which Buffy won't take off.”

Giles sat at the other end of the table, far from the orange dust. “Angel was at the Bronze?” Buffy hadn't told him that. In fact, she'd flat out told him Angel had appeared after she'd been attacked.

“Huh? No, no, she just was wearing his jacket because apparently she can't take it off.”

“That's Angel's jacket she's been wearing.” That would explain why it was too large for her.

“Yeah, and who goes around exchanging clothes on a balmy night, anyway?”

Gods, the boy was jealous. This Giles could use. “I am concerned about this Angel. Honestly, I don't trust him.”

“See?” As Xander dumped the chips into the trash, orange flakes fell onto the floor from the dustpan. Giles decided to ignore it for now. No need to distract the boy at a crucial moment. “Me either. I'm big with the not trusting, but the girls, they think he's the cat's pajamas.”

“Would you be willing to, um, share any information you learn about Angel?”

Xander dropped the dustpan by the bin and leaned the broom against the wall. “You want me to spy on him?” He sounded pleased.

“I don't want you following Angel himself. We don't want to arouse his suspicions. But if either of the girls happen to share anything with you, I'd like to hear it. Buffy knows I don't share her high opinion of Angel.”

“She knows I don't like him either,” Xander said.

“But you're a student where I'm a figure of authority. She'd share information with you that she never would with me, and then there is Willow.” Given the girl's inexplicable crush on Xander, Giles didn't think she could keep anything from the boy.

“Oh, yeah, that's true.” Xander mused. “Deal.” Xander held out his hand and they shook on it.

“Have you learned anything about this Angel?”

“He's buff,” the boy replied. “She'd never said he was buff. Oh, and Willow said something about a tattoo, uh, on his back.”

“How does she know that?”

By his expression, Xander obviously hadn't wondered about it. “Not sure. It's new info though. It wasn't a subject of conversation before today.”

“That must have been at her house then.”

“Yeah, at her house that makes …” Xander's voice rose him outrage. “He was at her what?”

“She said he'd been wounded and that she'd bandaged him. Since she'd called me from home, presumably that's where this bandaging took place.”

“Oh, well that's just …”

“Xander.”

“I mean what was she thinking, bringing him home?”

“Xander!”

Xander startled and shut up but stared as if Giles were the one being unreasonable. “What?”

“This tattoo, do you know anything more …”

“Hey Giles, what's the sitch?” Buffy's voice carried through the library like a trumpet, an impressively ill-timed trumpet.

“You brought Angel into your house?” Xander's voice also carried but more like a discordant rumble.

“Well, yeah,” Buffy said as she and Willow crossed the room. “Those guys were still outside, or, well, they might have been. He slept over.”

“He spent the night? In your room? In your bed?”

“Not in my bed,” Buffy replied. “By my bed.”

“That's so romantic,” Willow added. “There all night and a perfect gentleman.”

“Buffy, c'mon, wake up and smell the seduction. It's the oldest trick in the book.”

“What?” Buffy asked. “Saving my life? Getting slashed in the ribs?”

“If we could,” Giles interrupted. “I'd like to get back to the three vampires that attacked you.” He brushed orange dust off the book he'd left on the table, and opened it to the page he'd marked. “Did they look like this?”

“Yeah. What's with the uniforms?”

“It seems you encountered the Three. Warrior vampires, very proud and very strong.”

“How is it you always know this stuff?” Willow asked. “You always know what's going on. I never know what's going on.”

“You didn't spend the night engaged in research.”

“No,” Willow replied. “I was sleeping.”

“Along, right?” Xander added. “Unlike someone we could name?”

“What is with you?”

Giles interrupted before Xander tore off on his obsessed tangent. “I understand you saw a tattoo.”

“Oldest trick in the book,” the boy muttered.

“Well, yeah, but it wasn't because he was being all seductive.” Buffy glared at Xander until the boy wilted before her. “God, Xander. He was injured and I was there with bandages and stuff.”

So much for keeping them off of Xander's tangent. “Would you describe the tattoo please.”

“Black ink, no color. The letter 'A', a capital letter, not a small one, and above that , um a sort of bird, but not really a bird. I mean, it had feathers, sort of, but its feet were more like animal feet and its head, well, it had animal ears?”

Animal ears? Right, of course, because a rabbit and a cat naturally had the same exact set of ears. Was the girl honestly that unobservant? “Thank you. Can you recall anything else?”

“Like a distinct lack of a shirt?” Xander muttered.

“Xander!” Giles beat Buffy to the punch. “Finish cleaning up your mess.”

“What mess?”

Giles pointed at the trash can.

Xander looked and then looked back. “I ask again.”

“The orange dust from your chips. Get it off the floor.” Xander stood staring at him. “Now!”

“All right, all right. No need to get your panties in a bunch.”

Giles turned back to Buffy. “What else did you notice about the tattoo?”

“Nothing, that was it.” She turned her glare on him. “Hey, wait a minute. You want to research Angel. You still think he's a baddie.”

“Buffy, I've explained my reservations …”

“Shouldn't we be worrying about, oh I don't know, the real threat? These Three guys?”

“Not really. The Three, having failed, will offer their own lives in penance.”

“You mean they're gonna kill themselves?” Willow sounded upset. “Which, I mean, okay, fewer vampires so good, but, um, also sort of icky.”

“With vampires, ritualized murder is more likely but, basically, yes. I'm more concerned about the Master. He's trapped and so I assumed he wasn't a danger to Buffy, but given that he's called the Three, I'm afraid I must revise that opinion.”

“Giles? English?”

Willow replied. “Because we defeated the Master at that Harvest thing, leaving him trapped in that magical bubble, we thought he couldn't do any more damage, but now we know he can.”

“Um, yes, thank you Willow.” He turned to Buffy. “We must step up our training with weapons. We will work an extra hour each night until this situation has been resolved.”

“An extra hour? Giles, I don't have time for stuff now.”

“Buffy.”

“Fine.” She grabbed her bag. “But I'm getting to class before you decide to give me anything else to do. Oh, unless you want to work this extra hour during the day, say during biology?”

When Giles declined, Buffy sailed out with Willow in her wake.

“You should give her more to do.”

“What?” Giles turned to see that Xander had, surprisingly, gotten all the orange dust off the floor.

“Buffy. If she has time to run into Angel outside the Bronze, then she can make more time for Slaying.” Apparently he didn't appreciate Giles' expression because he added, “Hey, I'm just saying, although I'd really, really appreciate it if you didn't tell Buffy I've been saying.”