Imposed Resolutions

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Buffy/Yakuza AU (Slayer's Mad Whelp)
Chapter Summary: Having someone who cares is still a little strange.
Word Count: 390
Rating: Teen
Warning: reference to already canon bit where xander doesn't care if he lives confronting the zombie (and majima does not help), non-canon stabby instincts

        Xander immediately starts flailing, the instant he comes home and there’s a hug waiting on his arrival.  Honestly he should just stab the perpetrator, but it’s the smell of Giles’ shampoo that he recognizes from the one time they’d accidentally mixed it up that stops him.  Not that he wouldn’t want to stab a Giles-doppelganger, but he’d have to be careful about that shit so the doppelganger can’t bleed out before he gets some answers, like where, how, why, and is Giles alive, because if not I’ll get my best friend Willow to resurrect you just to kill you twice.  You know.  The essentials.
        “Don’t you dare do that again,” a very Giles-like voice whispers, hoarse and on the verge of tears, and behind Giles he sees his wannabe kohai wincing from the kitchen where they’ve evidently been talking.  “He informed me of the events at the high school.  I would rather you have trusted me with such information yourself, but—please, do not put yourself in harm’s way in such a manner.”
        Xander stops fighting the hug, tears beginning to prick at his eye again at the sudden realization that no matter how barmy he thinks the librarian is for caring the way he is, that’s entirely genuine.  The anguish and heartbreak is real.  “Wasn’t gonna let him blow up the school,” he mumbles.
        Giles actually chuckles wetly through tears no one in the room is going to acknowledge.  “You may not have Buffy’s strength or my or Willow’s book smarts, but you’re clever.  I believe in you, that you can find another way.”
        Xander pulls away, wiping discreetly at his eye and pretending not to notice Giles doing the same, and then grins, probably looking a little unhinged, as a thought occurs to him.  “Well, Oton, I do believe I’ve got a bonafide wizard applying to be my minion.”
        Andrew actually shrinks away, looking intimidated for once.  “…I only know a few spells,” he corrects weakly, like it’s actually paining him to do so, and at Giles’ glare quickly adds, “But I can learn!”
        “I just keep giving you more work,” Xander teases his father, and the librarian just shakes his head fondly.
        “I suppose I’ll manage somehow.”  Which is absolutely fantastic, because now that he’s looking for it dry Giles sarcasm is one of his favorite things.