authoressnebula, Prompt #70, Learning, 1/1, PG-13

[authoressnebula.livejournal.com]

THIS is my prompt response for number 70. LOL

Title: Learning
Author: authoressnebula
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: #70 - Arcane for tamingthemuse
Chapter: 1 of 1
Fandom: Joss-verse
Summary: Ever since he'd been a child, he'd wanted to do nothing but learn.
Disclaimer: Don't own the ideas; it's all Joss.

Wordcount: 950

A/N: WOW! I'm writing in the Joss-verse again! ^_^

Ever since he'd been a child, he'd wanted to do nothing but learn.

History, for example. How things had changed, from horses to cars, from spears to guns, from togas to suits. All of it had him pouring endlessly over his books, seeing what had happened years and millenniums before he'd even existed.

Then, when he'd been fourteen and enough of a man, his father had sat him down and told him about two things that hadn't changed through the years. Humanity hadn't changed; men hadn't really changed, and women would always be unknowns that men would try forever to figure out.

Other things, though, things he'd never heard about (and if he had heard, hadn't believed in), they hadn't changed either.

Demons. Vampires. Witches and magic. It was all real, all very true, and it hadn't changed.

His historical interests had changed dramatically, as did his library of books.

He'd put down the books on the wars that had swept the world and picked up the books on different worlds, one filled with completely different wars and races. He forgot about guns and spears as weapons, and picked up a religion book on holy relics and how to use them against the evil that spread the world. Even his mother's book on gardening came into use as he learned about the arcane: herbs were used in spells and for healing purposes. It all had a use.

Then, when he'd turned twenty-one, and had been officially a man, his father had brought him to a library that had exceeded everything he'd ever dreamed of. The books there had been many, and his time with them too short. He'd met other men in the library (a few women here and there), and found he wasn't the only one amazed and caught up with the knowledge of it all.

They told him about the academy that actually instructed them on all of this. Nothing had sounded better, and he'd begged his father to let him join. His father, who had told him that he'd gone to the academy years before, had agreed to let him go. “Just one thing,” his father had said. “You should come with me tonight. It's something related to the academy, I promise.”

He'd gone with his father and had met a small girl. When he'd asked if she was a student at the academy, his father had told him no. Puzzled, he'd asked what all of this had to do with the academy.

“Watch,” his father had told him. “And learn.”

Reading was learning, but that night, he'd learned far more by simply staring in shock.

A vampire, an honest to goodness vampire, had come out from a building, and the small girl had fought it. Fought it and killed it.

His father had turned to him and said, “This is why you learn what you learn. To help-”

And then they'd all been under attack. Vampires had appeared from everywhere, and his father had told him to run. To run to safety, to get out of the soon to be massacre.

In all his learning, he'd never really learned how to fight.

He hadn't gone far when he'd heard a scream and a shout. He'd turned back as fast as he could, and had made it in time to watch his father, bloodied and torn, kill the last of the vampires.

Then his father had knelt beside the body of the girl, dead now in a dark alley. “We're supposed to help and guide her,” his father had told him, looking up at him with dark, serious eyes. “That is what we do. She is the one who will save the world and its people from the evil that infects it. She is here to protect us. If we cannot teach her, impart what we have learned to her, she cannot fight for us. Do you understand me? Of everything you learn, this is the most important thing.”

He'd understood clearly. Two months later, he'd started at the academy, and had learned so much more than he ever had before.

Even as he'd come up through the ranks, even as he'd graduated, even as he'd taken the final step into his place in the world, he'd never forgotten what he'd learned from his father.

“You did good with them, out there.”

“Not really. I don't know any more about what's going on than they do. How am I supposed to help them?”

“Simply be there for them. They need someone strong to look up to, someone who's going to protect them and teach them what they need to know. Someone who's willing to listen when everything goes to pieces, someone who's going to be there through the worst of it all.”

Her eyes met his in the dim light of the kitchen, and she smiled. “You're right. It's what I needed to get through.” She turned and left, and he was content to watch her go.

His father had been right on everything except one thing: he wasn't just there to guide and teach her. He was there to protect her just as much as she was there to protect the world. How was she supposed to stand against the forces of evil if there was no one standing for her?

He watched her head up the stairs, before Giles turned back to his coffee. Buffy had corrupted him, but as much as he hated to admit it, he was learning to love his early morning coffee as much as he loved his tea. He'd learned a lot from her.

And he intended to make sure she lived long enough for him to continue learning.

~Nebula

Comments

[blue-icy-rose.livejournal.com]

What a lovely look into Giles and how he's changed, yet stayed the same, over the years. And I really enjoyed the fact that throughout that entire first part, it could have been any other Watcher. This flowed so well and there was a very...well, I can't seem to find the right word for the feeling of this. I almost want to say nostalgic, especially with the details of how his books changed and how he used his mother's books on gardening.

“We're supposed to help and guide her,” his father had told him, looking up at him with dark, serious eyes. “That is what we do. She is the one who will save the world and its people from the evil that infects it. She is here to protect us. If we cannot teach her, impart what we have learned to her, she cannot fight for us. Do you understand me? Of everything you learn, this is the most important thing.”

He'd understood clearly. Two months later, he'd started at the academy, and had learned so much more than he ever had before.

Even as he'd come up through the ranks, even as he'd graduated, even as he'd taken the final step into his place in the world, he'd never forgotten what he'd learned from his father.

There's just something very touching about that scene, especially when you consider that Giles and his father didn't always get along when it came to being a Watcher. But this piece shows how he had this curiosity and how it changed him as he grew older and then that final scene where Giles realizes that while his father had been right but not about everything is just fantastic because right there you see how Giles has come full circle and learned what his father taught but learned things that his father didn't know as well. Not many people write Giles and write him this well so kudos and brava and yay! :)

[jesterlady]

When you put Xander in your icon I expected you to write about him. But it was pretty clear it wasn't. It's good to know Giles really didn't want to be a grocer though.

I like learning about him. He really was amazing up until you know, those parts where he wasn't. But it is Giles!

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Lovely insight into Giles and what makes him who he is. That intense, fatherly love toward Buffy is what makes him such a strong character.

[anneliz-a.livejournal.com]

Neb, great ficlet - I love how you depicted Giles's role as something he inherited from his father, and I loved the part where he admits he had always loved books but then cast them aside in behalf of practical experiences, and how his time with Buffy is a on-going reciprocal learning experience!
I'll be sure to vote "Learning" at tamingthemuse!

(I chose this icon because it's the only one I have about Giles, not because it's what I wanna say!)