A/N: AU during Band Candy. For lack of contradictory evidence, I am assuming
Andrew is 17 at this point. Blame Aphedas for the pairing, and thanks to Emony
for the beta.
Feedback to fitchers_bird@yahoo.co.uk
Andrew wasn't quite sure exactly what was going on. For some strange reason, the adults were suddenly acting all kinds of screwy. His aunt had skipped out without a word of explanation, and rumors of freaky happenings down at the Bronze were spreading through Sunnydale.
Tucker hadn't been fazed though. With the grown-ups distracted by God-knows-what, he'd quickly realized that no one would be around to stop them from doing whatever they wanted. How he'd got to be the one who went out and had fun while Andrew got stuck with stealing mystical texts from the school library was something the younger Wells brother didn't quite understand. Nevertheless, there was a job to be done and he was the man to do it.
Dressed for stealth, in black jeans and a black turtleneck (Tucker had refused to let him wear his super cool secret agent shades), Andrew sneaked into the building. Everything was quiet, still and uncanny. It's just school, Andrew reminded himself. Nothing to be frightened of … Well, no more than usual.
He made his way to the library, keeping his back to the wall whenever he could. He was just like James Bond, trying to steal top intelligence secrets from the Russians. Only the Russians weren't evil any more. Andrew was a little unsure which country was the bad guys now …except for France of course. But try as he might, the only way Andrew could conceive of the French taking over the world involved a nefarious cheese plot, and that just didn't seem quite right. Maybe James Bond could battle demons in the next film. He wouldn't be able to do it alone though. He'd need help, perhaps from a young, blond demon summoner. Yeah, a young man who had been unfairly overlooked by the world until his amazing talents helped save it!
Immersed in his fantasy, Andrew almost blindly made his way to the back of the stacks where he placed various books carefully into his bag. Overly imaginative he may have been, but Andrew knew better than to piss his older brother off. He remained lost in his dream world until the growl of a voice alerted him to the fact that he was no longer alone.
"And what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Andrew turned, panicked, and backed away, his fingers clenched around the bag's handle. Unfortunately he ended up trapped against the wall, with the newcomer leaning over him.
"Well, well, well. What have we got here?" It was Mr. Giles, but not as Andrew had ever seen him before. The old diffidence had gone, along with the tweed, replaced by denim and danger. He looked amazing, not that he was bad looking before …not that Andrew ever noticed how guys looked at all.
Andrew gulped and told the story he had made up in case of emergency. "You see, I was doing this school project for biology and it's really interesting. You should take a look sometime. You're a librarian so you'll probably like, you know, smart stuff. But the thing is, it's due in tomorrow and there's this book I really needed so I thought, Hey! Why not quickly get it from the library since that's what it's built for and everything."
Amused eyes stared at him, almost through him. Mr. Giles took the bag as the boy's hand instinctively relaxed. He glanced through the books it contained with a sly smile. He had been caught out in his lies. Andrew shrank back as he prepared himself for the inevitable interrogation.
It never came.
Instead, he found himself pushed against the wall as the Englishman leaned in further. A callused hand gently pushed his chin up and Andrew found himself the subject of an intense regard.
This was too new, too unexpected. This intruder appeared to have nothing in common with the bumbling librarian who acted like someone out of Masterpiece Theater. "Who are you?" Andrew gasped out.
He was answered with a widening smile. "Call me Ripper."
The powerful odor of cigarettes and alcohol made Andrew uncomfortable, yet he didn't try to move. He could probably leave any time he wanted, after all his experience of escaping Tucker's headlocks. Nonetheless something about the predatory masculinity emanating from Ripper fixed him in place.
Judging from the look in the older man's eyes, he knew it too. He didn't have to enjoy it so much though.
"You're far too young to be messing with dark magicks, boy. If you really want to 'experiment', I've got something you’ll probably enjoy a tad more." With that Ripper bent down and pushed his lips against Andrew's. Losing no time to hesitation, Andrew responded enthusiastically.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. But there were Ripper's lips on Andrew's, Ripper's tongue inside Andrew's mouth. One hand held him against the wall while the other snaked down the boy's body until it reached his crotch. The only way Andrew could stop his head from exploding was to treat the whole situation as if it was one of his fantasies, where he was manly and attractive. He had had dreams about something like this before; this was no more than one of them. He could do this.
Infused with a new confidence, Andrew closed his eyes and let his hormones take control. His hands explored every inch he could reach of this new, unfamiliar territory. It felt amazing. It was better than any dream could ever be; he never wanted it to end.
"Eager little tyke, aren't you?" said Ripper as Andrew nipped at his ear.
Andrew could only whimper in reply, due to the overwhelming feelings Ripper's touch was causing in every nerve ending. A single thought broke through to his lust-fogged mind. Clothes. They were, they were most definitely wearing too many of them. He just about managed to communicate this to the older man.
Ripper stood back, and smirked. "Sure you want this? I'm not about to put up with a little cocktease."
Andrew nodded numbly. Everything was just moving so fast. He decided to simply concentrate on breathing. That wasn't so difficult. In. Out. In. Out. In…
"Giles! Are you in here?" It was Buffy Summers, storming into the library as if it were her own personal domain. What right had she to be here now, after school was out? thought Andrew, conveniently forgetting his own illegal entry only a little while earlier.
Ripper pushed Andrew behind a bookcase. "Stay down," he growled as he went to meet his student. "I'll be back in a jiffy."
Andrew crouched and listened. He caught a few scraps of conversation, a mention of a warehouse and some guy named Ethan, just before Ripper swore and ran out the building. Buffy followed him, unaware of the boy hidden by centuries of knowledge.
A few hours later, Andrew finally figured that Ripper wasn't coming back. After picking up the books, he went home, where Tucker's mocking laughter barely reached him. He went to bed and dreamed of rough voices and rougher hands.
It was two weeks before Andrew dared to set foot in the library again. Mr. Giles barely saw him at all, and when he did there was no sign of recognition. The general consensus around town was that whatever people thought had happened that night was no more than a dream, or possibly the result of a chemical leak.
Ripper was long gone, with only the memories of a bruising desire as evidence he had ever been there at all.