431 - Spatchcock - dragonyphoenix - BtVS

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Title: Extraneous Tomes
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: 431 - spatchcock; also prompt: war at Giles' Shorts
Rating: G
Summary: Giles finds a few books Willow hadn't fed on
Word Count: 638
Note: I'd already planned out what to write for this prompt. It went out the window when I read Beer Good Foamy's The Brian Situation.

Giles' few remaining tomes, those that thankfully hadn't been in the Magic Box when Willow had fed off of them, were scattered across the dining room table, treated no better than an assortment of paperback novels. He found her in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher. “Buffy.”

“Huh?”

“Where do you store my tomes when they aren't on the table?”

She turned and stared over her shoulder. “Toe what?”

“Tomes. Books that is. My books. Where do they live?”

She turned, leaned back against the counter, and crossed her arms. “The ones you left behind when you went back to England?”

“Left behind? I didn't abandon them …” He stopped. She'd startled at the word abandon. Damn.

“We usually keep them at the Magic Box. With the other books.”

“The Magic Box.” Of course. Willow had fed off of almost his entire working collection. None were irreplaceable. He wasn't careless enough to bring the only extant copy of a book into the field, but still the loss … Nothing to be done. Buffy would still need the information in the tomes. Perhaps Wesley's books were still in the states. “I'll ask Xander to put together bookshelves.” She'd need several sets. Perhaps Joyce's room could be turned into a study? No, Willow and Tara were … No, Willow was coming with him and Buffy wasn't ready to lose her mother's room to a study. The edges of rooms, Xander could build shelves to make use of any extraneous space. Buffy could make a final resting space for the books when she was ready.

“Whatever.” Buffy went back to unloading the dishwasher, leaving Giles standing there. Extraneous. Unwelcome.

“I'll just go catalog the tomes we do have.” He'd need a list if he was to fill in the gaps.

Giles organized the books, straightening them out along the table so they didn't look so scattered, so abandoned. He ran his hand over the covers, allowing the roughness to soothe him. Apparently some of the more useful texts had found their way into Buffy’s home. He picked up the Clavicule of Solomon and took comfort in its hefty weight. He placed it next to the second of Agrippa’s books on occult philosophy. Unfortunately the third would be more relevant to Buffy’s mission although it was easily replaceable. The Grimoire of Armadel he dropped down quickly next to the other two. He’d never felt comfortable with the text containing Eyghon’s Mark after he’d returned to the Council. Picking up the Sotos Codex, Giles skimmed through the pages.

He was surprised to find it at Buffy’s. The Codex itself wasn’t the most useful tome. In fact Giles preferred Auf Dämonen created by Lindskold and Eberstark although only when he could find a version that did not include the spatchcocked footnotes that amounted to little more than a verbal war between the two authors. Granted when one was a student the verbal sparring, especially when it devolved into off-color insults, could be amusing and indeed edifying but such nonsense did not belong in a scholarly work.

Something bright and yellow caught his eye. Giles flipped back a few pages and almost dropped the Codex in shock. Bright yellow highlighted the text. Words were underlined. Doodles scrawled along the margins. Only Dawn, of all of them, sketched out magnifying glasses although never before in his tomes.

Rupert closed his eyes and took in three deep breaths. The text hadn’t been damaged. The words were still visible. He looked back again to see what the girl had been reading. Fulgrash demons. Hmmm, he wondered why. They didn’t tend to be problematic. He read on, focusing on what she’d underlined: diurnal, vegetarian, anatomically compatible with Homo Sapiens.

As Giles slammed the book shut he felt a sense of relief, suddenly content to be leaving the tomes with Buffy.

Comments

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'd already been thinking about the footnotes because Robert Anton Wilson has a story that uses footnotes in a manner similar to what I'd described. When I read Beer Good Foamy's story I realized I could work those into a response and was very, very happy.