Magic Box, Friday

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles made his way through the cold rain, breathing a sigh of relief when he made it to the shop.

Yes, he had grown up with weather more like this than what he'd been experiencing the last few years, but it was days like this that he felt a twinge of nostalgia for Southern California's climate.

There, all you had to worry about was the world ending. None of this near freezing rain nonsense.

The Magic Box was open.

Comments

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew came in shortly after the store opened. He almost turned around and walked right back out, but seemed to lose that internal struggle, walking haltingly towards the counter.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles looked up from the tea he was brewing and smiled when he saw who it was. "Good morning, Andrew," he greeted him. "Would you like some tea?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew put on a smile, kind of like someone pulling on a mask. "Thank you, Mr. Giles. I would love a cup of tea," he said brightly.

"But no milk, because I think that's kinda gross."

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles nodded and poured him a cup that he handed over. "So," he said after a moment, "is everything okay?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes!" he exclaimed. Followed by: "Well, no."

He frowned. "I mean, things are kind of better than they ever have been for me, like, um, on a personal level. They're really, really good." Andrew sounded like he couldn't quite believe it himself.

"But I've been thinking...," he started, but paused before going on.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"You've been thinking...." Giles said, giving him an encouraging look over the top of his mug.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"About our lessons," he continued, looking down at his feet. Then he very quickly said, "I just feel like maybe it's time to stop going over and over the theory and the history and maybe do some actual summoning."

He hadn't summoned anything since the flying monkeys, and was feeling rather like Mr. Giles was stringing him along with their lessons.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles nodded and took another sip of his tea. "Do you have a reason you need to summon something?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew shrugged. "Practice?"

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"Do you really think the risks are worth any benefits of summoning something just for pratice?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew sighed. He had kept telling himself it would be worthless to ask.

"Well, what's the point in studying it if you're not going to let me do it?" he asked. "There are plenty of, um, less harmful demons that I can practice with."

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"Less harmful doesn't mean harmless," Giles pointed out. He sighed and pulled his glasses off, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "Andrew, this isn't about my not thinking you're capable. Or trying to ruin your... fun or anything. But I've been where you are, and I experimented with all kinds summoning. And it ended up with getting one of my best mates killed, and almost releasing a really bad demon onto the world. I don't want you to have to go through what I did."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Back in Sunnydale, we summoned things all the time. No one ever got hurt." That was a lie.

"I'll be really careful. It's just, well, I've been working more with pan flute, studying how it was used to summon and control demons. It's really cool. You don't even need words or diagrams or anything to bind them..."

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles winced at the thought of how many things could go wrong with that kind of summoning. Also, at how close it was to his own experimenting with demon control with his electric guitar back in his Ripper days.

And he knew just how likely he'd have been to listen to a voice of reason back then.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt, Andrew," he said, trying one more time.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"But I wouldn't do it without you there," he said, maybe a little desperately. And maybe also a bit untruthfully.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles sighed heavily. If only he could believe that... But he had a growing certainty that Andrew was going to mess around with this stuff one way or the other. "All right," he said. Better if it was going to happen that he be there to stop things from getting out of control.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew opened his mouth to try and argue his point again, when re realized that Mr. Giles had just agreed.

"Really? You mean it?" He beamed.

And then he moved to give Mr. Giles a hug. "Thank you!"

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

Giles awkwardly accepted the hug and when Andrew stepped back, warned, "But we do this my way. There won't be any dabbling on your own, and I'll be the one to decide what we try."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Of course!" Andrew had a few ideas, but he could bring those up later.

"You will be in charge." He bounced.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

God, he was so young. Now if he could only keep this one young person from learning things the hard way...

He seriously needed something stronger than tea.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Oh, and I needed to talk to you about something else," he said, looking a little more apprehensive than before.

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"Am I going to need to break out the scotch?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew smiled apologetically. "It's just that Liir," his cheeks flushed slightly at the mention of the name, "has invited me to go to his world next week. So I won't be able to work my Wednesday shift."

[exwatcher.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Giles blinked. "That's perfectly fine. I can manage." Compared to the whole demon summoning, missing a shift didn't even make it onto the radar.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," he said, relieved. "I'm really excited about this trip. I've never been to another world. And, it means a lot to Liir."