"...never done that. And I bet you've never got high, literally; have you ever even left this state, let alone flown? Been all around the world, me. No, you've never done that. And don't get me started on the classic -"

"We didn't ask you to start at all," Giles interrupted wearily. "Spike, a gag's not an idle threat, you know."

"Chip wouldn't stop me chewing it up and spitting it out," Spike said smugly. "Where was I? Oh, yeah. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you've actually had sex, Harris, because that Anya looks like she wouldn't give you much choice, but you haven't had time to get really inventive, now have you?"

Xander walked over and poked Spike sharply in the chest with the stake he'd been carving, aiming a crucial inch wide and not doing more than make Spike yelp and Giles chuckle unfeelingly. "Shut up, fangless wonder." He felt increasingly sorry for Giles who had this to put up with 24/7.

"Make me," Spike suggested. "I don't talk much when I've got something better to do with my mouth."

"Like what?" Xander asked, his voice tight and his mind going to all sorts of inter- weird places.

Spike's gaze flickered to Giles who was leaning against the wall, watching them both with narrowed eyes. "Kiss me."

Xander sneered. "Given where your mouth's been, it'd have to happen after you'd drunk a gallon of Listerine. But don't bother; I'd sooner kiss my grandmother's dog."

Not a lie, either. This close Spike smelled of blood and ash and it wasn't all that tempting. In fact it was making him feel ill. That was why he was clammy and his heart was thudding fast, right?

"I dare you," Spike said, visibly losing his insecure hold on his temper. "I fucking double dare you. I bet you've wanted to, haven't you, Harris? Lain awake at night getting all hard and messy just thinking about the sneak peeks you got in the locker room."

"That's enough," Giles said harshly. "Xander, perhaps you should -"

"No," Xander whispered, his gaze locked with Spike's. "Go on."

"Nothing else to say," Spike told him. "Pucker up and kiss me; proper kiss, mind you, couple of minutes long, and prove you've got the balls. Because you know you want to."

"Want to what?" Xander said, walking slowly around the chair Spike was bound to and curling his fingers tightly around the stake he held, feeling it grind and rub against his palm. "Kiss a man? Maybe. Just to see. Yeah, maybe. Kiss you?" He put his hands on Spike's thighs, high up, fingers spread and leaned in close. "Not going to happen. Ever. I've got standards and I'm not stupid. Get off on this if you want; I don't think you're harmless. I can think of ways you could hurt me and I'm not trying hard. Thing I'd let your fangs near my face? Forget it."

He straightened and Giles made a soft, approving sound.

"Fine," Spike said, yawning. "So where was I? You've never kissed a bloke, you've never -"

"Shut up," Xander said.

He walked over to Giles, with Spike's head whipping around in surprise, and raised his eyebrows. "Can I? And if you even start to polish your glasses, I'll take it as a 'no'."

"You don't have to do this," Giles told him.

"If it'll shut him up, I'd do more than this," Xander said, taking a deep satisfaction in the quality of the silence behind them. Stunned? Yeah, he thought it rated a 'stunned'.

Giles didn't say yes and he didn't say no. What he did do was take Xander's hand and lead him over to the couch, lying down and smiling up at him. If he'd felt weird before it was nothing to the way he felt now. Light-headed. Hard. Dry-mouthed. Really hard.

"Hey! I can't see you if you're down there!" Spike said indignantly.

Xander snorted, although the diversion wasn't unwelcome. Really hard ...

Spike's lips thinned. "I won't shut it if I don't get to see. Two minutes, full visuals, proper kissing and look like you mean it."

"Oh, very well," Giles said with a long-suffering sigh. They hauled Spike's chair over to the couch and Giles lay down again.

Xander perched beside him, his tongue flashing out to lick his lips, nerves taking over. "Uh -"

"Bottling out already?" Spike said silkily.

Giles reached up, grabbed a handful of Xander's shirt and pulled him down so that Xander fell between his legs. "Count. Under your breath. Do not comment or I'll cut off your blood supply for a few days."

This close there was nothing to see but the green of Giles' eyes because he'd slipped off his glasses and there was this red indentation across the bridge of his nose that looked as if it needed...

"On the mouth, Xander. Christ, how thick - oh, okay."

Giles' head tilted back and Xander let his mouth move down until it found Giles', which was easy because Giles was holding still so there was no awkward fumble and nose-bumping cringiness.

Brush across and brush back, feeling the shape of them, starting to taste them... Xander closed his eyes and felt Giles' arms wrap around him lightly, loosely, large, warm hands stroking his back with all the encouragement he needed to forget that they were being watched.

Then Giles kissed him back at the precise moment Xander realised that Giles was hard, too, and his lips parted on a startled gasp, allowing Giles' tongue to slide past his lips and flicker teasingly around his mouth.

Xander's head jerked back and Spike said gleefully, "Fifteen... oops. You stopped. One... two..."

There was enough hurt in Giles' eyes to make Xander want to reassure him. "It's okay. Just took me by surprise."

"Less talk, more -"

"Shut the fuck up," Giles snarled.

Xander kissed him just for that and this time he didn't stop, not even when breathing became an issue as Giles' mouth moved under his and clung and slid and didn't stop kissing.

He didn't know what to do with his hands. They were curled around Giles' shoulders but that meant that his elbows were digging into Giles' ribs, just a bit. Couldn't be comfortable for Giles. So he let his hand slide over a soft cotton shirt, tracing the shape of the chest beneath it and rubbing his thumb slowly over a bump that hardened under his touch. That did something. That changed everything. He'd made Giles' body react. Something he'd done had mattered.

He didn't notice as he was tugging at Giles' shirt, yanking it free, that the air was suddenly cool on his own back, but when he realised what Giles was trying to do, he broke the kiss for no longer than sixty-one to sixty-three and peeled his T-shirt over his head, Giles' hands skimming over his chest and stomach before they were too close for hands to fit between them again. The buttons on Giles' shirt were disintegrating, disappearing, coming undone - something. Or maybe it was the way they were squirming against each other, with Giles sucking hard on Xander's lower lip until it stung and burned and throbbed. Didn't matter and he didn't care. He was too busy finding out what it was like to be lying on a broad, strong chest, dusted with crisp-soft hair and lifting and falling with each quick, snatched breath Giles took.

This didn't count. Two minutes out of time. So when Giles' hand found Xander's ass and his nails dug into it, and Xander's hand was exploring the raised ridge of Giles' erection it really didn't count. Giles wouldn't remember how Xander moaned into his mouth and squirmed eagerly against that spread palm, Xander wouldn't remember how close he came to undoing the button on Giles' pants, easing down the zip and getting a tantalising, hot, damp handful of shorts-covered cock, quivering and lifting up into his hand...

"Time's up and you can stop that right there," Spike said. "I'm not getting any, so I don't see why you two lovebirds should."

Xander looked at his hand, buried to the wrist inside Giles' pants and curled around - oh God. He eased it out slowly and Giles whimpered.

"Stake him," Xander begged. "Please? Can we?"

Giles closed his eyes. "I can only think of one thing more tempting. Please dress, and perhaps you'd better go home now, Xander."

As the door closed behind him he heard Spike's voice, so it hadn't even shut him up.

Waste of time.

Total, complete -

The door opened and he turned back and saw Giles. "Willow's coming over to watch him. I wondered - Xander -"

"Yeah. Yeah, we can," Xander said.

Giles fell into step beside him and they walked through the streets as the seconds ticked away, endless and full of expectation.



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