Days Of Wine & Roses: The Last Class of the Day
by Fairfax
And relax.’

Buffy happily came to a halt, she was already starting to buzz from the warm up the class had been guided through. Unarmed combat was the final session of the day, after hours in the classroom she was looking forward to exercising her body not just her mind, and shaking off the fatigue that had weighed her down since Mrs Siegle’s lecture.

‘Okay, I’d like to introduce you all to Caitlin Kelly who is the active Slayer on the Galway team.’

Mr Stanger smiled across to a slight girl with long red hair that made Buffy instantly think of how Willow had looked when they’d first met. The similarity ended with the hair colour, the Slayer was clad in urban style combat gear and looking at them all with a surly expression.

‘Miss Kelly has kindly agreed to demonstrate a few of the moves she is finding useful in the field so I shall leave you in her capable hands.’

With a final encouraging beam he walked out.

‘So you’re all gonna be Watchers?’ She asked, not bothering to hide the contempt in her voice. ‘That’s the last thing the world needs, more soft as shite bookworms who wouldn’t know what to do with a stake if their lives depended on it.’

‘That’s a bit…’ one of the group made a weak attempt at defending their calling.

‘Got a problem?’

With impressive speed, Caitlin pushed off from the wall she’d been lounging against and got right in the unfortunate speaker’s face, staring at her until she backed away with a hurried apology.

The group exchanged nervous glances, this Slayer was on an extremely short fuse which is the last thing anyone wanted to see in someone who could rip them apart without breaking a sweat. Buffy noticed a couple of the bigger guys swapping smiles, they still hadn’t got it into their heads that their height and their muscles meant nothing compared to Slayer strength.

‘Sure let’s get this over with. Pair up and show me what you can do’

They began to spar, those who had a martial arts background pulled the trickiest moves they knew, everyone was working at the top of their game peevishly determined to wipe the sneer from the Irish Slayer’s face.

Buffy sparred with Lee, keeping her movements fluid, not bothering to show off. She kept her eyes on Caitlin, watching her go around the room and talk briefly with separate pairs. Buffy saw that whenever she demonstrated anything she was making full contact leaving people winded and grimacing.

At Caitlin’s instruction they formed a large circle.

‘There’s not one of you here whose got anything that would keep them alive for more than ten seconds against a real enemy.’

As she spoke Caitlin went through a short sequence of stretches that showed just how supple she was. Bouncing lightly from foot to foot she continued.

‘Best thing a Watcher can learn is to get out of the way, so I’ll teach youse all some rolls.’

This wasn’t what they were there for, but no one was going to interrupt.

‘I need a volunteer.’

Nothing.

‘Alright, you’ll do,’ she said dragging Lee forward.

Caitlin deftly performed a couple of rolls, then gave Lee a few practice attempts, offering tips on improving each time. Everyone relaxed, this wasn’t too bad.

‘Right, so I’m a vamp. Grr argg an’ all that. I’ll come at you and you get out of the way.’

‘No problem.’

She didn’t give him a chance, Lee barely had time to react before he got a punch in the ribs and went down hard.

‘Rubbish, next!’

Predictably Didier, the biggest guy in the room decided to try his luck and took a spinning kick to the head that knocked to him to his knees.

‘This stops now,’ said Buffy stepping up. ‘You’re hurting them, back off.’

Caitlin gave her a wild look.

‘Another volunteer, did you not get the message the first two times?’

‘I’m not going to fight you, get over yourself. Hurting people who can’t fight back is not what Slayer strength is for.’

‘Nah, it’s a bonus,’ said Caitlin lunging towards Buffy.

********************

Giles regretted his decision to return to Council Headquarters, but the instinct had been so strong, as it had been all those years ago after his attempt to create a life away from his vocation reached it’s desperate, blood soaked conclusion.

Intending to go to his office and lose himself either in paperwork or the bottle he kept in his filing cabinet, anything to stop the barrage of unwanted thoughts and memories that flooded his mind, Giles had already been stopped three times with various enquiries.

Now coming towards the training rooms he could hear cheering and a fight taking place. Of course one became accustomed to the slap of bodies hitting pads, the occasional exclamation of pain or exasperation, however Giles had been in enough conflicts to recognise the sound of genuine violence, he broke into a run.

********************

‘Might want to do one of those fancy rolls of yours, keep ‘youse’ self out of trouble,’ suggested Buffy lightly, easily deflecting an elbow jab and kicking the younger Slayer’s legs out from under her.

Caitlin flipped back up, leaping at Buffy sending them both sprawling.

‘I’m gonna hurt you so much, you’ll wish I killed ya.’

They scrambled to their feet and began trading rapid, vicious blows.

‘Stop that this instant!’

Reacting to who she could see over Buffy’s shoulder Caitlin dropped her fists, the room fell silent, Buffy relaxed her fighting stance and turned around.

‘Miss Kelly go to your quarters and stay there until further notice. The rest of you get out.’

Not wanting to be anywhere near her, the trainees waited for Caitlin to leave then raced for the door, leaving Buffy and Giles together.


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