She looked up at him, “Believe it or not, I don’t have to fight you on everything.”
He had to laugh, “I find that hard to believe.”
“Ha-ha. Well, William, it just so happens that I am being serious about going with you. I will. But—“
“Here we go.”
“I want you to do something for me.”
He raised a brow and smirked, “I knew it.”
She stared at him, and he was surprised to find her blushing. Profusely. Well, isn't that interesting?
“Knew what?” she said, stumbling on her words.
He could not resist. “You’re mad for me aren’t you?” he said, a big grin on his face.
She started to laugh.
“Not exactly what I wanted to hear,” he muttered.
“Oh stop it. I know you’re teasing.” The way she said it was halfway in between a question and a statement. He opted to take it as a statement.
“What is it you want me to do?” he asked and went to the fridge to take out more eggs.
“I want you to take class with me today.”
He turned to her, eggs in hand. “Surely, you’re joking.”
“I’m serious, and don’t call me Shirley.”
He laughed, “Airplane?.”
She smiled, “Yes. Please William?”
“Why do you want me to do that? I did that once, remember?”
“Because you need to loosen up and relax. That jogging you do is obviously doing nothing for you. You’re wound tighter than a drum.”
“Gee, and here I thought we were getting along.”
“We are. Will you? It’s not like I ask a lot from you, you know.”
He sighed and handed her the eggs. “Fine, I’ll take a class. What time do I need to be ready?”
“Five. You have plenty of time to work.”
“You’re bloody hysterical, you know that?”
She smiled brightly, “I know. Why don’t you put some toast on? Your niece is gonna starve at this rate.”
“Bossy chit,” he muttered.
“I heard that!”
Buffy had to keep reminding herself that laughing at William would not help him; it would only hinder him. Watching him try to twist his body into some of the maneuvers was funny as hell to watch though. It was not so much the move itself that was funny, but the look on his face, the intense concentration, the way his brow furrowed and how he focused so hard. It was . . . cute.
The students, most of them anyway, knew the moves and fluidly eased into them. William on the other hand, his movements were jerky and not at all fluid or graceful.
Taking pity on him, Buffy picked up her mat, and made her way to the back where William was trying to do a series of moves that Riley was leading the class into. Coming up to him and plopping her mat down next to him, he looked at her gratefully. She smiled and came up behind him.
She talked to him quietly, easing him into move after move. Soon, he was stretching right along side her, and she would touch him, guide him, and he would take what she said and imbibe it, doing exactly as she said and she would push him just a bit more until he was working to his full capacity.
Moreover, she liked touching him. The more she touched him, the more she laid her hands on his body, the more she wanted. She was not relaxing. She was getting hot.
Excited.
When class was coming to a close, Riley had them sit quietly in prayer pose. Buffy and William faced each other, staring into each other’s eyes. The room had fallen away completely.
“Buffy,” he murmured.
She nodded, somehow knowing instinctively what he wanted. He wanted to kiss her again, and God, she wanted him too. On the other hand, maybe it was just her that wanted it so bad that she made it his desire too.
“So, how’d you do William?”
Their heads jerked up at the same time to find Riley grinning down at William.
The spell had been broken. Climbing to her feet, Buffy sighed heavily and folded up her mat.
“I uh, I might take another class,” William said, watching her intently.
She smiled at him, “I doubt that.”
William looked at her indignantly, “You just never know, Buffy.”
“Buffy, I had a few ideas for next class I wanted to go over with you—“
“Oh crap!” Buffy exclaimed.
“What?” William and Riley asked at the same time.
“I’m not going to be here next week. I’m going to London with Ella and William.”
Riley frowned, clearly disappointed. “Oh, all right.”
“I’m really sorry, Riley. I should have told you so we could have told the class. It was a sudden thing this morning.”
“It’s all right—“
“I’ll help you call them and tell them. It’ll just be next week and then we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming.”
Riley grinned, “You’re a gem.”
William made a noise that sounded uncannily like a growl and placed an arm about Buffy’s shoulders. “Isn’t she though? Don’t you have things to do now, Riley? People to call. Chop, chop, let’s go.”
Riley did not seem to know quite what to make of that and he scampered off quickly.
Buffy started to laugh, placing a hand on William’s chest. “Chop, chop?”
He smiled down at her and to her great surprise, leaned down and pecked her nose. “I’m full of surprises. One of them being I might just take another class. Especially if I have such a gorgeous teacher right there to help me through it.” With that, he sauntered off, leaving Buffy nearly panting with her want of him.
“So are you excited?”
After her cold shower, Buffy had gone to tell Willow about their upcoming trip to London. Willow could not contain her excitement and had offered to help Buffy pack.
“I don’t know,” Buffy shrugged as she pulled her suitcase from the wardrobe and sat it on the bed. “Part of me is excited. I have wanted to see London ever since Angel moved here. We kept making plans but we never got to them,” tears welled in her eyes; she tried to blink them away.
“You miss him,” it was not so much of a statement from Willow more like a point of fact.
“Not all the time, with everything going on sometimes I don’t even think about him being gone, in some ways that worse than mourning. When I forget, I feel guilty,” she stopped not wanting to go down that path. “So what do you think the red or the black,” she held two sweaters against her.
“Um, how about both. Did William say what we were going to do in London?” Willow moved over to the window where she could see William taking his usual run around the grounds.
“Not really, he just asked us to go, didn’t give a reason, he’s not really big with the casual conversation you know.” Buffy pulled out a pair of black boots and packed them into the bag.
“Really he always seems chatty to me, well as chatty as an Englishman can get.” Both Willow and Buffy laughed at the thought.
“It seems ironic to me that the country that invented the English language should be so inept at using it.” Buffy pulled out her black evening dress. She had been in such a panic when she had packed for the funeral she had not realized what had gone into the bag.
“Oh that’s pretty,” Willow exclaimed as Buffy put it back into the wardrobe.
“I packed it by mistake in the rush of getting over here.” Willow went over and took it back out.
“Why aren’t you taking it?” Buffy looked at her strangely.
“Where am I going to wear something like that in London?” she took it from her hands and put it back into the wardrobe.
“Master William could take you out for dinner one night,” Willow said carefully not wanting to over step her mark.
“I don’t think so Willow. The only reason he asked for Ella and I to come up for the week was to alleviate his guilt in leaving Ella each week. There will be no dinners out. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hardly see him at all.”
Willow looked over at Buffy busily packing the suitcase, from the tone of her voice, she knew that topic of conversation was over. As Buffy walked into her ensuite to pack her toiletries, she could not help herself as she took the dress and snuck it into the case without Buffy knowing.