Title: Unmasked

Author: Kate R.

abelard950@aol.com

Disclaimer: not mine and never will be.

Rating: PG-15

Pairing: Giles/Ethan

Summary: What If on Halloween...


Unmasked
by Kate R.

Xander who had been smirking had given him the jacket earlier today and Giles had heard him wager with Buffy that he'd never wear it or an outfit that would go with it. Giles sighed but then thought why not? It was Halloween. Maybe he should go as he truly was instead of whom he wasn't? The jacket was so like his old one and he smiled as he tried it on. Yep, it fit, just like his old one. He shook his head as he got home and changed into a pair

of worn jeans and combat boots as well s an old t-shirt. Finally, he slid the jacket on and put in an earring he hadn't worn in far too long. Then, he walked out his front door and for the first time in years, a man who had not been seen in that long walked the streets. He hadn't felt this comfortable in years and he wondered why that was? He got back to the library and began his cataloguing. He was dressed as he had been, as he truly was deep down inside, but did he dare go out and be that man? The children would mock him if they saw him.

They'd...they'd...

And then something happened, something that reeked of powerful Chaos magic and Rupert Giles looked at himself and decided to finally be himself. He stood up from where he'd been stooping to look at something and he stood taller and straighter. At his full height and not the slouch the children were accustomed to seeing him in, he headed to where he knew the spell had come from.

He didn't know how he knew but he did. Only one person set his magic radar off like this: Ethan Rayne

He made his way through the chaos on the streets. Yes, this was Ethan's handiwork he knew. But why? And then he started walking faster as he recalled something Ethan had said to him once, long ago: "I only take my mask off when everyone else is wearing one."

He'd said it so cavalier but Giles had seen the pain he'd tried to hide. Now, Ripper Giles was making his way along the street. Ethan wanted to take his mask off for a while, so be it. But Ripper would be right there with him. Ripper, the only person he'd ever felt safe with. Safe enough to be without his mask. And then Ripper had left him. Ripper had put on an ill-fitting mask. Well, it was gone now and he didn't think even with the reversal of the spell it would go back on. He hadn't been changed into something he wasn't; he'd been changed back into who he truly was. Let the world...and the children who walked all over his Mask...beware.

Ripper did not play nice.

He smiled thinking of all the things he would do to the brats when he walked into the shop and saw Ethan sitting looking out the window looking so sad and childlike. This was Ethan without his mask. This was the man Ripper loved.

Ripper knelt behind him and looked up at the sky as Ethan was and he laid a gentle kiss against his temple. He felt Ethan stiffen and then inhale and relax.

"Hallo Ethan," he said gently as he kissed him again. "Been awhile."


END PART 1
TBC?