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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: None of the characters or worlds of the Buffy show belong to me, especially Rupert Giles. Miranda Lindley, Warren Giles, and Derek Lindley-Giles are joint property of the Avatar Chronicles group.
Once again, a lot to tell, things moving quickly. Maybe these are the most exciting times of my life, haha. Of course, it helps that I really haven't had a chance to write anything in this journal all day.
Well, let's see, where to begin? Of course. I was woken up in the middle of the night by a tentative knock on the door. I had been dozing restlessly, so it's not surprising that even a quiet noise woke me up. And 'middle of the night' probably isn't quite accurate, considering that the darkness outside my window had become the dark blue of dim early morning twilight. Whatever.
I had a fair idea of who to expect as I crossed over to the chamber door in my dressing gown. I was right, but the sight of Miranda Lindley standing at my door, carrying a candleholder with both hands surprised me just the same. Or maybe it's just that she took my breath away by wearing a see-through blue nightgown, and not much else.
Seeing her this way was the most beautiful sight I could ever remember being witness to. But I wasn't about to let her good looks soften me. My Princess was engaged to marry someone else, my brother no less, and she had kept that secret from me all the weeks that she'd known me. The whole time that I'd been falling in love with her...
"I couldn't sleep," she said simply. "May I come in?" And she nodded towards the interior of my room, golden hair bouncing.
I backed away from the door somewhat antagonistically, and reached out to close the door behind her. When I turned back to her, Miranda was standing in the middle of my small, somewhat cell-like bedroom nervously. "You're engaged to marry Warren," I repeated, just as if it had been ten seconds since I learned and not... ooh, how many hours? Only four, I guess. And most of those were when I had been asleep. Still, it seemed like half my lifetime.
"Yes I am," she said, trying for a conversational tone of voice, but ended up with 'anxious.' "I'm a little surprised that you never heard about it, actually. The arrangements were made in September, not long after you started the year at Oxford. I thought that one out of Warren or your father would have told you, in a letter or when you came home for visits..."
"I didn't go home for visits," I muttered, cutting her off. "There was something of a family spat this summer. No-one sent any letters, either." And then it hit me. The fight with father... arranged marriages. Had the old bugger been trying to lay the ground for an arranged marriage between me... and Miranda?? 'Probably,' a logical part of my mind answered. I've generally been Father's favorite simply by virtue of being the eldest, (a source of much friction with Warren,) and his hopes of building a dynasty of the Gileses would naturally have come to rest on me first. But when I blew off the idea quite so thoroughly, he moved right on to Warren, I guess. So nearly, with just a bit of patience, this horrible mess could have been averted before it started...
I shook that thought off. Nothing good could come of it now. "So... how do you find Warren??"
"He's..." I think I saw a lie starting to form in her mind, and then thrown mentally away. "He's quite an impressive young man actually. Intelligent, talented, sensitive... a fascinating individual. But..." She paused, unable to continue, while my heart threatened to break inside my chest from the sheer suspense if nothing else. "But... but I don't love him like I love you, Rupert."
And then we were together again, in body as well as heart. Night clothes being stripped off, eager fingers touching, stroking, fondling, teasing, seriously intense, passionate foreplay. Miranda moved me towards the bed, and her lips were all over me, on my own mouth, then dipping down my throat to lick my chest. I've been around the block a few times, but I've never felt desire anything like that. Carnal ardor was flooding every part of my body, and I could tell that Princess felt the same way. We were just at the point of progressing from foreplay to the main event...
When, like a total idiot, I had to screw it all up. Of course, I didn't realize that was what I was doing at the time. I just realized, with a dim portion of my brain, that neither of us had said anything since Princess had said she loved me, again. I knew what I wanted to hear her say, and like a total git, I asked for it.
"You're going to break the engagement to Warren, aren't you??"
She... it was like Miranda collapsed inside. "It's not that easy," she whimpered, sagging where she was on my bed. "There's my family to think about - my parents simply adore Warren, they're very satisfied with the match. With your father's support, Daddy will be next in line to be Watcher to a Slayer - it's his dream. And... and I like Warren, and I know he's crazy about me. To just break things off so suddenly, I don't think I could do that to all three of them..." She was yattering on and crying at the same time now, and I wrapped her in my arms, not letting on how sorry I was that I went and spoiled the mood.
"Don't worry, Princess," I murmured, trying to soothe her. "I'll talk with my father. There are traditions involved in this sort of thing. We can get the alliance with your family transferred from Warren to me." That was a pipe dream, and I knew it as I said it. Considering the trial, and everything that had happened over the past year, there was no possibility that I still had half the influence with Father that Warren did. And Warren would have to be crazy to step aside and give up a girl as incredible as Miranda - unless we could convince him that she would never be happy unless he set her free...
"But what if we can't??" Miranda cried softly, obviously feeling the same reservations that I did. I didn't say a word, just reached a finger around so I could put it to her lips, and lay down, still holding her in my arms. Soon we both relaxed, and drifted back to sleep. Having this angel in my bed was like a dream come true, no matter what else the cruel world might throw at us...
Well, let's see. The next thing I remember is, once again, a knock at my door. Guess that's gonna be pretty usual in a place like this. I dressed again, leaving Princess where sleeping where she was, and greeted my dawntime visitor. To my surprise, it was Chairman Raleigh of the council. Still conscious of the way he had apparently spearheaded an effort to shielf me from serious incarceration over the Eyghon incident, I was poilte and grateful, and did my best not to let on that I had a babe watcher in my bed.
Raleigh had stopped by, as it turned out, to inform me of my new duty assignment - working as his assistant on a book he was putting together on the history of the Watchers. A plum assignment, if a little dreary, and Raleigh says it'll 'foster respect for our tradition.' And just as Raleigh was about to take me to his office, he told me to leave a note for Miranda reminding her that she had to report for her own assignment in an hour. He's got a sense of humor, buried under that correct watcher protocol! I think we're going to get along well.
For today, he assigned me a series of books, relevant passages of which I need to be completely familiar with before we begin. Interesting stuff, though I keep finding myself getting immersed in this passage or that, which I don't have time for on this deadline. Ah well.
And I had a visitor late this morning. Warren. I'd been feeling quite a bit of anger towards my little brother this morning, (not surprising considering he's the number one problem for me being with the girl I love,) but all that bad feeling drained away when I caught sight of his cleancut, youthful face as he entered my alcove. I shouted out his name with a smile, ready to indulge in a handshake or a brotherly hug at his preference, and willing to try to settle out this ugly situation on a polite basis, without bitterness.
Too bad Warren didn't feel the same way. His reaction to my friendly rush was a good straight punch with his right. Man, my little brother can hit. I ended up on the floor, the top of my skull not far from my very solid new desk. "What the hell?" I groaned. "You could have split my skull right open, like that..."
"That was the outcome I was pursuing," Warren commented with what seemed to be to be a... a dangerous mildness?
"Let me guess," I muttered. "You've spoken to Miranda already."
"Yes, of course," Warren sighed, as if I was a child. "Even though I was coming here to see how you'd weathered your trial, it's understandable that for a man to visit with his fiancee would be his first priority, wouldn't it? Imagine my surprise when Mira tells me that she wants me to break off the engagement because you, and she, are madly in love!!"
I groaned. Princess, in her well-meaning enthusiasm, had gone and done exactly the wrong thing. Warren felt put upon now, with the righteous indignation of a man who others have attempted to deprive of his due. My chances of trying to suade him had just gone down two notches.
"It's nothing either of us planned, Warren," I said, picking what seemed like the most appropriate point in the script and giving it my all. "Miranda and I met by chance and we just... clicked. Are you really going to stand in our way because of a business deal our parents made that says you're supposed to marry her?"
"Is that what she told you??" Warren shot back. "A business deal? This is our way, big brother. You and I, we're standing here because of an arranged marriage. Watchers have been planning their generations in this way for..."
"For five thousand years, yes, I know the speech," I spat out. "What about love??"
"I love Mira," Warren said simply. (Irrelevantly enough, the nickname clicked at this point. That was what Brawny had called Princess too. Was he a friend of Warren's??) "And I think she loves me too - maybe not with the passion of the forbidden that she's found with you, but with affection and respect that we can build a life out of."
"How wonderful you make it seem. 'Just enough love to get by.'" I'm afraid I may have sneered.
"DON'T!!" Warren shouted. "Don't ever cast doubt on my love for her. If I eschew poetic superlatives, it is because they are meaningless in any real way. I could honestly say that I love Miranda Lindley more than there are stars in the universe, with a passion hotter than the sun itself, but that would only leave you searching for a yet more dramatic metaphor, wouldn't it??" He chuckled hollowly. "I love her enough that I shall not give her up in favor of any other man. Not while she still feels any love in her heart for me."
I had had enough - this time, it was my turn to lash out. A part of my mind watched with surprise as my left landed a vicious uppercut on Warren's chin, and a trace of blood flowed from between his lips. Then his balance failed, and he tumbled back out of the cubicle.
"That's okay," he mumbled, picking himself up. "Act out all you like. It won't change anything. I don't think Mira is really about to break our engagement unilaterally. I know her well enough to be confident about that. And we will be married, on the agreed day." He laughed one more time. "It's three years from yesterday, you know. May the fourteenth, 1978. I won't be offended if you decide not to attend, big brother." And then he was gone.
I spent a long day in that office, nursing the goose bump on my skull and skimming over battles against demons, incredible magics, and dramatic council politics. Raleigh came in to give me a little lunch after noon, and I didn't even mention the visit from Warren.
Oh, sorry for the interruption, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to break off and finish this account up later.
You see, Princess is waiting for me.
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