A Little Light Reading

[madimpossibledreamer]

The reason there are so many of these is because I pre-wrote a gazillion of these during winter break because I was kidnapped by plotbunnies and so then I just have these sitting around.  I give them a once-over, get them to a nice even 5's word count (or just a number that amuses me), and post.  It's fast and simple and doesn't require much brain power compared to, say, writing an entire new Shadowed Suspicion chapter.
Much as I hate to leave it on hiatus like this.
~Dreamer~

Main Points:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Iron Man Crossover (Self-Made Hero)
Summary: Mostly, Giles has preferred to pretend that he set everything back to normal when he destroyed the bust.
Word Count: 575
Rating: Gen

        Xander can tell the exact moment that Giles gives up on pretending that nothing’s changed.
        He struts into the library, because Tony does not know how to just walk.  Besides, he’s feeling nervous, and falling back on those memories is all that’s keeping him from total panic mode.  And it’s ugly, all babbling and unhappy noises and dark Angel-like brooding.  No one wants that.
        “Giles,” he says, because his mouth has decided to speak before he’s on board, “…I have a favor to ask.”
        Giles stands from his desk, where he’s been perusing a book.  He doesn’t have to speak or even to raise an eyebrow for Xander to fill the silence in.  Do I want to know? Or I don’t think I’m in a position to give you whatever it is you have in mind are probably the top two.  He sighs and rests the book gently on the desk.  “What do you have in mind?” he asks mildly, but those and other sneakily snarky British things wait in the wings if his tone is any indication.
        “It surprisingly involves you doing, you know, your actual job.”  It’s bland and factual and he’s even doing really well keeping the smirk off his face.
        That throws the man off-kilter enough for him to feel more in control.  (And how weird is he, that he feels like the only way he can be confident or in control of a situation is when no one else has a clue what to do—you know what, don’t answer that.)  He hands over a sheet with his journal article access wishlist.  “I’ve got enough money for access to the journals themselves,” he says casually like it’s no big deal.  “It’s the ‘high school student getting access’ that I think they’d have a problem with.  Whereas, librarian, not so much.  A librarian’s job is obviously to have access to all knowledge ever.”  He sighs, but never say he did nothing for his friends.  “In exchange, I think I could manage a little more for you to have access to whatever liberal arts journals you want.”
        Giles looks like he’s about to faint.  “But that’s…”
        “Several hundreds of dollars.  I know.”  Part of him is Tony Stark, but most of him is Xander and understands exactly why that’s such a big deal—because it has been.  “I’m actually working for Uncle Rory right now.  Restoring old junked cars and stuff.  It’s so hard not to accidentally make them fly.”  His tone is light, joking, but once the idea came into his head it was very, very hard not to pour everything into the newest project.
        Priorities.  Suit first, he tells himself, and it’s a little successful which is more than he hoped for so he’s going to call that a win.
        Giles stares at him for one long second, and he knows that look, the look of someone reevaluating everything they knew.
        “I can do that,” Giles says, eventually.  “We have to talk about this.”
        “Make an appointment,” Xander responds flippantly, and then rolls his eyes at himself.  Is that how you talk to someone who’s helping you?  “I’m not the best at this,” he admits.  “I don’t even one hundred percent know what’s going on, but I can go over what I know.”
        “That’s a place to start,” Giles responds, and disappears into his office.
        “I want spice tea but only if you’ve got sugar on hand,” he hollers after.