Title: What Lies in Your Heart

Author: Froxyn

Rating: FRM

Pairing: Buffy/Giles

Timeline: Sometime after Riley, but he’s a non-issue. And…there’s no Dawn because she annoys me. Basically, this is AU.

Synopsis: Buffy and Giles become trapped in a cabin in the middle of a blizzard. How did they get there? Why are they there? Will they be able to return to Sunnydale? All questions answered in time.

Special thanks to wyvernwolf for being such a wonderful beta!

“Dammit!” Giles swore softly as she disappeared into a maze of trees, hot on the heels of the fourth vampire of the night. He gripped the crossbow tightly and broke into a run in an attempt to catch up to her.

Five strides into the woods, he was tackled by a cold, heavy body and lost his grip on the weapon. He grunted as his back connected with a log, the air forced from his lungs. He reached for the crossbow only to have a cold hand wrap around his wrist.

“Not so fast, Watcher.” The vampire snarled as he used his foot to kick the weapon further away. He grinned down at the fallen man, wrapping his cold hand around Giles’ warm throat. “I’ve often wondered what the blood of a Watcher would taste like.”

“Coppery, I would imagine.” Giles spat out as he stared into the demon’s yellow eyes.

The vampire growled and drew back his fist.

“Hey!”

The vampire and Giles both turned towards the voice. A smile appeared on Giles’ face when he saw Buffy standing there, the crossbow in her hands. The vampire chuckled menacingly.

“Too late. I’ll snap his neck before you can take one st – ”

The bolt piercing his heart halted his sentence. Giles coughed lightly as the cloud of dust covered him. Buffy ran to him, kneeling at his side.

“You okay?” She asked worriedly.

“Quite.” He offered her a smile, his soft voice soothing her. “And the one you chased into this death-trap?”

Buffy grinned as she stood, reaching down to take his hand. “Dust. Any reason you followed me in here?”

He stood and brushed the dust from his clothes. “I’m your Watcher. You were out of my sight and I couldn’t…”

“Watch me?” She finished for him with a chuckle.

He gave her a glare, which held a tinge on amusement in it. “Well, yes.”

She rolled her eyes and nudged him. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Forests freak me out.”

He snorted softly, turning in the direction he had entered the woods. “This is hardly a forest, Buffy.”

Buffy fell into step beside of him, gesturing at the trees. “Lots of trees, less than good visibility. Seems foresty to me.”

Giles laughed and took a step to his right to avoid a fallen branch. His laughter ended abruptly and he inhaled sharply. Buffy looked at him in alarm, jumping over the branch and grabbing his arm.

“Giles?”

He looked around, studying their surroundings. “Can you feel it?”

“Feel what?” When he didn’t answer immediately, she tugged on his arm. “Giles, you’re freaking me out more than the forest is. Feel what?”

He took her free hand and pulled her towards him. When she gasped in surprise, he looked down at her.

“That.”

She shivered lightly as the cold air surrounded them. “Um…what is that?”

“I’m not entirely sure.” As the temperature began to plummet, he grabbed her arm. “But, I think we should get out – ”

His thought remained unfinished. They both wobbled slightly and collapsed to the ground. Seconds later there was a bright flash of light. When the light faded, there was no sight of either Watcher or Slayer.

The only sign that there had been anyone there at all was the crossbow lying in the grass.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Giles opened his eyes and pushed himself off the hardwood floor. His eyes surveyed the room as he stood, his brow furrowing as he tried to make sense of where he was and how he got there. Hearing a soft groan next to him, he looked down to find Buffy’s eyes fluttering open.

He exhaled slowly, shivering against the cold. “Buffy?”

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly, inhaling sharply as her skin broke out in gooseflesh. “Jesus, it’s cold in here!”

He took in her attire, sighing when he realized that she wasn’t even wearing a jacket. She rarely did when on patrol these days. Buffy’s eyes darted around the room.

“Uh, where is here?”

He ran his hand through his hair and looked towards the window. “I have no idea. But, there’s snow.”

“Snow?” Buffy jumped up from the floor and ran to the window only to find that the snow was deep, almost to the windowsill and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. “Lots of snow. Like, enough snow that even if we had a car, we couldn’t drive anywhere because we can’t even get out of the freaking house!”

He turned to her quickly, lowering his tone in an attempt to soothe her. “Calm down, Buffy. We’ll figure this out.”

“Calm down?” She stared at him incredulously. “We don’t know where we are, why we’re here…I don’t have my phone on me, and there’s twenty feet of snow outside!” She shivered as her panic grew, her voice rising with each word. “Not only that, it’s fucking cold in here!”

He nodded in understanding, quickly slipping his jacket off and wrapping it around her shoulders. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.”

He sighed and walked into the next room. Buffy followed closely.

Giles began opening cupboards in the small kitchen, a tiny smile playing on his lips. “Well, there’s food at least.”

Buffy flicked the light switch on the wall, groaning when nothing happened. “No electricity though, so no way to cook.”

Giles looked at the stove and smiled. “Wood stove.”

Buffy stared at him and pointed towards the window. “Great. But…wood? You’ve seen what it’s like outside!”

“Buffy…” Giles sighed, the smile fading from his lips. “Follow me.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly, but followed him as he opened a door off the kitchen. She walked into the small room and looked around. “Wood. How did you know this was here?”

Giles shrugged his shoulder. “Wood stove. Most houses that have a wood stove have a storage room used specifically for this. I hazarded a guess.”

“Oh.” She said in a small voice. When she noticed him shiver, she moved around him and started gathering pieces of wood. “Come on, it’s cold. The last thing we need is to get sick or freeze to death before we figure out where we are.”

He nodded slowly. “There was a fireplace in the main room. We, uh…we can use that for heat. It should be sufficient if we close off the room.”

She met his eyes and offered him a gentle smile. “Why don’t you see if you can find some blankets or something and I’ll get the fire started.”

He picked up a few pieces of wood and returned her smile. “I’ll just get the wood stove started first. It’ll take a while to heat up. I’ll see what I can do about putting something together for dinner while you’re working on the fire.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

She busied herself with loading a bushel-sized barrel with wood as Giles got the stove lit. When she walked back into the kitchen, he was gone…but the fire in the stove was burning well. She lugged the barrel into the main room and began strategically placing pieces of wood into the fireplace. She had just gotten the kindling lit when he walked back into the room, a blanket in his hand.

“I, uh…there’s one bedroom. One bed, one blanket.” He spoke softly.

She turned and looked up at him, trying to hide the disappointment in her eyes. “Okay, better than none.”

He lowered his eyes and cleared his throat. “It does seem to be quite warm and large enough for both of us.”

She placed a log on the fire and smiled softly. “Bring it over and sit in front of the fire. We’ll be all toasty in no time.”

He hesitated for a moment, nearly stating that she could have the blanket to herself. When a cold chill raced up his spine, he realized that he’d probably die of hypothermia at some point if he insisted on that. He took a deep breath and walked over, sitting down next to her and wrapping the blanket around them.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the orange flames lick around the log. Buffy bit her lip nervously and looked up at his profile.

“You didn’t happen to see a phone or anything, did you?”

“No. I…I did look.” He responded quietly.

“Um…bathroom?”

“This is a very old house, Buffy. When it was built, it was uncommon for a bathroom to built indoors.”

Buffy’s eyes widened as she stared at him. “There’s no bathroom? I’m going to have to go outside…in a fucking blizzard, no less…to go to the bathroom?”

He chuckled lightly and turned his eyes to hers. “However, a bathroom has been added on to this house. Down the hall, last door on the left.”

“Asshole…” She muttered under her breath.

The smile danced in his eyes as he nudged her shoulder with his. “I’m sorry. I just felt that the mood needed to be lightened somewhat.”

She huffed and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “Were you joking about there only being one bed too?”

His smile faded as he shook his head. “No. Um…you’re more than welcome to the bed. I’ll, uh…I’ll sleep out here.”

Buffy narrowed her eyes. “Okay, I don’t know much about fire safety, but…I’m thinking it won’t be too safe to have a fire burning all night out here.”

“No. I’ll put the fire out after you go to bed. The room should maintain some heat for a couple of hours.”

She stared at him, her voice softening. “And then what? Freeze to death during the night because I have the one and only blanket? And, besides…” She gestured around the room. “Where do you plan on sleeping? A cold hardwood floor? If you haven’t noticed, there’s not even a couch.”

He was quiet for a moment before slipping out from under the blanket. “The, uh…the stove should be hot enough for cooking now. I’ll see what I can do about dinner.”

She stood up as he left the room, the blanket still wrapped around her as she walked into the kitchen. She leaned against the doorframe, listening to him mumble incoherently as he pulled various boxes and jars down from the cabinets. When she distinctly heard the word ‘idiot’ fall from his lips, she stepped forward and spoke.

“Who are you calling an idiot? Me or you?”

He jumped, startled by her voice, and turned around. “You should be in front of the fire, keeping warm.”

“I’m warm. And you would, wouldn’t you?” When he narrowed his eyes at her confusing question, she continued. “Allow yourself to freeze to death overnight on a cold floor to make sure I was comfortable?”

He lowered his eyes from her gaze before turning back around and pulling a large pot down from the wall. She took the two steps needed to stand beside of him and slipped her hand out from under the blanket to touch his back.

“We’ll share the bed…and the blanket. I’m not letting you freeze because we’ve never shared a bed before, Giles.”

He coughed lightly, but couldn’t meet her eyes. “I, uh…”

“No arguments, Giles. We’re both adults and I’m sure we can both control ourselves.”

“Yes, of course.” He lowered his head slightly. “You should, uh…your hand is cold…you should get back in front of the fire. I shan’t be long here.”

Realizing he had closed the subject, she nodded and stepped away from him. She sighed sadly as she walked back into the main room and sat down in front of the fire. ‘Yes, of course’ wasn’t exactly what she had wanted to hear. She shook her head and pulled the blanket tighter around her.

“I’m the idiot…” She mumbled.

* * *

He waited until he heard her leave the room before lifting his head. He took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in his throat.

‘I’m sure we can both control ourselves.’ The words played over and over again in his head. He grumbled softly, knowing that he was going to have to figure out where they were and how they were going to get back to Sunnydale. Soon.

“Idiot.” He murmured again and set to the task of making dinner.

Chapter Two

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