"No, she isn't. I rather thought that she was with you."

"Oh."

"Perhaps you should explore some of her hangouts."

"Yes sir. Like.?"

"The Bronze," said Giles, with far more patience than he felt.

"Oh, of course. But what if she's not there?"

"Check some of her other haunts." Giles said through clenched teeth.

"Right." But Riley stood staring at Giles. Finally he blurted out. "She's mad at me. Because I didn't know that Faith was in her body when we, um, we, you know. She thinks that I should have known."

"Yes. She seemed a bit put out with the rest of us as well." Giles concurred. Uncertain where, exactly, this was leading.

"But you know her better than I do. If *you* didn't know, how was I suppose to?"

"I would think, that since you have been, shall we say intimate, that she felt that you should have noticed a difference."

Riley moved a little further into the room. "We haven't been 'together' that many times. Twice, actually. Not counting, well, you know, Faith."

Giles held up his hand. "I really don't want to know." Giles looked at him saw how Riley was fidgeting and realized something. "You didn't come here looking for Buffy, did you?"

"Wh-What do you mean, sir?" Giles' eyes held Riley's unyieldingly. "Okay, I just thought that maybe you could tell me about her. You know. Stuff."

"Why would I do that?"

Riley looked at him, thought about what he knew about the relationship between Mr. Giles and Buffy. Then he answered. "So I can make her happy."

Giles winced. "Fair enough. Sit down."

"Yes, sir," Riley said as he moved to comply.

"Would you like some tea?"

"Water, please, if that's okay."

"That's fine," Giles replied as he went into the kitchen. He took out one of the bottled waters that he kept in the fridge for Buffy. Before he returned to the living room, he shook his head at his own foolishness.

Before he had taken three steps into the room, there was another knock,
and Willow walked in, followed by Xander and Anya.

They stopped at the sight of Riley sitting on the sofa. "Oh," said Willow. "Buffy's here?"

"No," Giles replied. "Riley is being given lessons in 'Buffy 101'."

"Oh," said Willow, with an odd look at Giles. "Well, you're the expert."

"You think so? Because she feels that I let her down over the whole thing with Faith."

"Don't feel bad, Giles. She thinks we all let her down." Xander said. He sat on the sofa, next to Riley, Anya on his lap. "So Riley, what do you want to know?"

"Her favorite flower."

"Daisies," said Giles.

"How do you know that?" Asked Xander.

"I don't remember why exactly, but something to do with a young man in fifth grade."

Willow nodded. "I'd forgotten that. Billy Fordam, who she had a huge crush on, gave her a bunch of daisies one day, for no apparent reason. She gets all sappy." Willow grinned.

"Okay, so daisies." Riley made a mental note. Before he could ask anything else, there was another knock on the door. They all waited for it to swing open, but whoever it was just knocked again.

"That's odd," said Giles as he went to answer it. He opened it to reveal a nervous looking Buffy.

She bit her lip, before launching into speech, "Okay, so I know that maybe it's my own fault that you don't know me so well, so I came over for some Watcher/Slayer bondage. Bonding, Watcher/Slayer *bonding*." Her face was blood red. "Bonding," she repeated, her eyes tentatively meeting his. His expression was similar to the one he'd had when she had said that it wasn't the time for bondage fun. Intrigued, but with a bit of amusement this time. He opened the door, so that she could see the Scooby-gang. "Eeep." She said. "Did they.?"

"I don't think so, Buffy. Please, come in. We were talking about you."

"You were? Why on earth.hi Riley. You, too?"

"Yeah. Learning about you. I didn't know that you like daisies."

"Willow spilled, huh?"

"No, actually, Mr. Giles."

"Oh." Buffy said, her voice small, eyes darting to Giles. He nodded before raising an eyebrow at her. "Yes, please. Just water." He nodded again, and went back into the kitchen. Riley watched this with some interest.

When Giles returned he had a tray, on it were Buffy's water, tea for Willow and Anya, and a soda for Xander. They all said thank you and settled back.

"So, you guys were talking about me?"

"Yes, as Mr. Giles put it. 'Buffy 101'." Said Riley.

"Oh. Why didn't you just ask me?"

"I don't know. Sometimes you don't like to talk about stuff."

"You should talk. You're not the most sharing of information guy there is, you know. Even Giles tells more personal stuff than you do. And he's a very private person." Buffy retorted.

"Okay, okay. That's fair." They just looked at each other.

Then Buffy spoke. "Okay, here's the deal. We go around, each person gets a turn to ask anyone a question."

"Truth or dare?" Xander asked, afraid of what Anya might think was a suitable dare.

"No," said Buffy. "Just truth. You have to answer truthfully. If you don't answer, then you have to leave. That's all." The others were exchanging looks.

"We can ask anyone?" Xander questioned.

"Anyone who stays." Buffy answered, with a challenging look at Riley.

Xander answered, "Okay, I'm in."

"Me, too," said Anya.

"Count me in," said Willow.

"And I," was Giles' response. They all turned to look at Riley, the dare implicit.

"Okay, I can do this." Riley finally said.

Before anyone could say anything Xander spoke. "Me first."

Buffy braced herself and nodded.

The End

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