"Good evening Buffy. How was the Bronze?" Rupert walked to her, but she didn't really seem to notice.

"Are you alright?"

From up close she looked pale. Rupert put a hand to her forehead. "You're warm. Why don't you go to bed? I'll make you a fresh cup of tea."

"Umm." Rupert helped her of the stool and guided her towards her room. It was only than that I noticed she was wearing his bath robe. The one I got him for his birthday.

Buffy walked down the corridor a little unsteadily and Rupert got into the kitchen. "Tea or coffee?"

"Tea, thank you." I sat on the stool Buffy left out of place and watched him as he made two teas with sugar and one with honey.

"She didn't look very well."

"It's just a little bug that's going around. She'll be fine in a day or two. Excuse me."

He took her cup, handed me mine and went down the corridor as quickly as he could without spilling anything. I turned back to my tea. I didn't know a lot about how she got to be in Rupert's care. All he would say is that her mother had died. He was a friend of the family and took her in. I was there once when her father called, so I knew he was alive. He didn't seem to be around much, though.

He came back a few minutes later. "Would you like me too leave?"

"No, thank you. She's gone to sleep."

I nodded and followed him to the sofa. "You know, I couldn't help noticing that she was wearing your birthday present."

"She was probably cold and found it in the bath room."

I decided to drop the issue. One thing I could guess about Rupert was that he wouldn't take kindly to criticism about her.

We talked a little. He was by far a better company than any of my previous boyfriends. Actually he was far better then any of them on many aspects. Except he kept putting Buffy before me. I think he actually put her before everything and everybody.

We sat there until we heard a door slamming open, little feet run and another door rattling on its hinges. Rupert leaped to his feet and rushed down past the kitchen to the now open door of the bathroom. I followed him.

I found him gently wiping Buffy's mouth, cradling her to his chest. Dry coughs rocked her small body. He helped her up and to the sink, steadying her while she drank and washed her face. The only indication they made that they even noticed I was there was walking around me as he led her back to her room.

She slid into bed and he wrapped her tightly in the blankets. I sat on the chair next to the bed and looked at them as he ran the back of his fingers across her cheek. "Buffy…"

She opened her eyes. "Feeling any better?"

She nodded a little. "Good." He bent down and placed a long kiss on her brow. "Go back to sleep. Or do you want some more tea?"

"Sleep." Her tone was almost childish and she was practically pouting. He smiled down at her, a wider smile than I have ever seen from him, kissed her again and held the blankets in place as she turned on her stomach. His hand rubbed her back slowly, watching her with affection.

"I think she's asleep."

Rupert looked at me as if noticing for the first time that I was there. Which he probably did. I doubt if anything other than Buffy had stayed in his mind the last few minutes. He looked back at her. "Yes."

He continued rubbing her back for another minute or two, than got up, and I followed him out the room. "Maybe I should leave…"

He shook his head a little absent mindedly. "Um… what do you give someone who's sick? Food, I mean."

"Chicken soup? I don't know, I don't think I've ever cooked for a sick person."

"Um. I… I think I'll go to the 24 hour store. Could you stay with her?"

What am I, her mother? "Sure."

He smiled. "Thank you." I nodded and watched him leave, then went back to the room, sat on the chair and watched Buffy.

After a while she woke up and looked at me. "Where's Giles?"

"Went to the store. He'll be back soon." She nodded and closed her eyes.

"Buffy?"

"Hum?"

"How long have you known Rupert?"

"10^th grade. Got to school, librarian."

"Ho." I knew he was the librarian in her high school. I didn't know that was the first time they've met. And he got her after her mother died?

"How long had he known your mother?"

"10^th grade. Hospital, he came to see her."

"Were he and your mother close?" I was taking advantage of her fevered disorientation, I knew that, but I needed to know.

"Not really."

"Than why did you come live with him?"

"'Cause he's Giles." Wonderful answer. Well, they hadn't known each other for very long. I figured there's a limit to how hard it could be to take her place as first violin.

Buffy fell asleep again. When I heard the door I left her. Rupert was standing in the kitchen, looking at the bags he had brought with him and scratching his head. "I'm not sure what to do with all of this."

"Why don't you just cook her favorites and hope she can keep them down?"

"Buffy usually does most of the cooking. I… she's better at it. I'm not even sure what's IN her favorites."

"Well, I'll do the cooking. You can, um, hinder."

He smiled at me. A shadow of the smile he had given the girl. "Thank you."

I gave him a smile. Always play nice with the kids, even if you're already starting to hate them for no reason other than being alive.

Rupert did hinder for a while, until I lost my patience and sent him to check on Buffy. I wasn't surprised, when he didn't return for half an hour, to find him watching her as she slept. She mumbled something and he chuckled. A beautiful sound I put a lot of work into getting out of him.

"Rupert?" He looked at me. "Let the soup cook for another twenty minutes, than turn of the fire. Everything else is ready."

"Alright, thank you. I really appreciate it."

I gave him a sweet smile and left.

Damn girl.

I came in the next morning and took my shoes of. Tiptoeing up the stairs, I let my hair down and fluffed it a little.

What do you know, she was in his bed. He sat next to her, reading a book, and it took him a couple of minutes to notice me. When he did, he put a finger to his mouth to shush me and followed me down the stairs to the kitchen, but not before tucking her in snugly.

"Good morning Sharon."

"What was she doing in your bed?"

"I woke up and found her there. Must have wandered over in the middle of the night." He looked suspicious. "Why?"

Oops. "It's just… you could catch what ever she has, you really shouldn't be so close to her so long.'

"Nonsense, what ever she's got I'm fastening it as we speak. As are you, for that matter."

Marvelous. "Right you are."

"The soup was excellent, by the way."

"Ho, you liked it?"

"um, no, I didn't have any, actually. But Buffy gulped it down." I go through all the trouble of cooking and he doesn't even taste it? What does it take to get a reaction from this man when Buffy's not involved?

"I'm glad she enjoyed it. Is she feeling any better?"

"No." We didn't notice Buffy shuffle into the kitchen until she spoke. "But I liked the soup. I think. Sick, food bad, tea good. Tea?"

Rupert smiled at her and kissed the top of her head. "I'll make you tea, you go off to bed. You shouldn't be walking around in the cold."

Never mind that she was, once again, wearing the robe I got him. "Bed, good. Bed. Tea?"

"I'll bring you the tea."

She nodded, grunted, sniffed and wobbled out of the kitchen and down the corridor to her room.

Rupert turned towards the teapot. "Would you like some?"

"No, thank you. I'll just have some juice."

"We're out of juice, actually… Buffy buys it, only she hadn't…"

"Ho. Tea than." What did she have, total control of the household? Time to share, little girl.

Again, he handed me my tea, took hers and disappeared for several minutes. I sat there, sipping my tea, until he finally remembered I was alive.

We were sitting on the sofa, talking. His hand was on my thigh, eye contact… I was moving in for the kill, um… kiss…

"What you doing?"

I tried hard not to scream as Buffy showed up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She opened them slowly, not really foxed, then padded over to the sofa. God help me if she didn't sit between the two of us.

And Rupert didn't even seem to mind. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she buried her face in his shirt, grunting and mumbling something. Again with the chuckle I haven't been able to get out of him, and that damn, gentle kiss on the top of her head with the smile she wasn't even looking up at him to appreciate.

She sat with us until lunch. Sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. Rupert fussed around her, making sure she's comfortable and warm and forgetting she wasn't the only attention-seeking woman there.

At lunch we had a little disaster in the form of her inability to keep anything down, even soup. A little tired of it all, I excused myself, saying that I had some errands to run and that I'll be back before dinner. He didn't even bother to remind me it was Sunday, just nodded and carried Buffy to bed.

When I came back, they were in front of the TV in the living room, sitting again on the sofa they seemed to like so much. His sweet little Buffy was all wrapped up in a blanket, leaning against his chest with his arms around her and his cheek against the top of her head.

I woke him up. I wanted to do it with a kiss but I couldn't reach his mouth, so I just nudged him a little.

He blinked himself awake and it took him a while to understand what was going on.

"How is she?" I managed to sound like I gave a damn.

"Better, actually." He got up and she slumped against the sofa. He picked her up and out of sleep she wrapped herself around him. They disappeared into her bedroom, and he came back two minutes later.

"She'll be all right, than?"

"Quite all right, thank you. I gave her a bath, that seemed to bring her up."

I almost chucked. A bath? As in, he undressed her? And scrubbed her clean? My GOD! Had this man on shame?

Like I give a damn.

I moved up behind him as he went about preparing some more of his damn tea. Wrapping my arms around his chest, I started kissing the back of his neck and nibbling his ears.

"Sharon, please, Buffy might wake up…"

"She's a big girl."

"Not big enough." This isn't a mental picture I needed. I almost ripped my hair out as she made another one of her perfectly timed appearances. It was almost as if she was trying to ruin it for me every bit as much as I was trying to ruin it for her.

"And what are you doing up?"

"Bed was cold. Up. Feeling better."

He smiled at her and handed her a cup of tea. "Good. Are you going to sleep?"

"Not tired."

"That's a good sign. Why don't I run down to the video store and bring us something to watch. Sharon can keep an eye on you."

"Ho, please, you're not dressed. I'll go." I picked up my purse and left. Great, another session of having Buffy sit between us.

She didn't sit between us this time. We sat on either side of him, and he, of course, was oblivious to territorial war raging on his torso. For every piece of flesh I concord, she got two. By the time the first movie was over, she had won the battle. She was sitting on his lap, leaning her all body against his chest. The worst part was when he took the arm he had around my shoulder and used it to rub her back, smugly shoved in my face, while the other one supported her so that she wouldn't slip out of his lap. Heaven forbid.

I fought back during the second movie, getting unexpected aid as she fell asleep and Rupert shifted her from his numb legs, leaving her head in his lap and an arm around her waist, but leaving the rest to me.

That didn't last long. She woke up and pulled herself up, resting her head on his shoulder and draping an arm around his own waist. Once again, he moved to support her campaign by trailing one arm up hers and rubbing her back with the other. It left me with nothing but the outer part of the shoulder.

Half way through the third movie, I won the strategic clasping of the hands, complete with fingers – entwining. Of course, that meant nothing as his back was half turned to me in an attempt to make himself comfortable as the little brat turned around, holding the arm on my side, forcing him to turn to keep his spine from snapping or waking her up. Not that she was really asleep, but he didn't notice that.

That movie was the last one. By the time it ended, Buffy was back in his lap, her legs dangling over the side of the sofa. I was left with the shoulder, as she once again made sure her position forced him to hold her with the arm on my side. Ho well, she won the battles. But the real war had not yet begun.

 

The End

 

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