Discovered
By Northlight

Title: Discovered
Author: Northlight
email: uzenet@videotron.ca
Summary:  Buffy discovers the benefits of doing her homework...
Distribution:  Any and all B/G sites that want it, or just ask :)
Disclaimer: Joss owns all.
Note:  Welcome to my first B/G fic.  I hope it doesn't suck :)  I don't think that it's all that great, nor do I find it particularly horrible, either.  It's... bland.  I'm hoping that the fics will improve once I get into writing B/G.

Buffy flopped on her bed, chin propped on her cupped palms.  She glared down at the painfully blank piece of paper arranged on a random textbook with acute dislike.  The sound of her pen drumming against paper and book filled an otherwise quiet room.

Ms. Harras - a young English teacher still filled with enthusiasm and the belief that she held the potential to shape her bored students into great minds - had decided to evaluate her student's talents with written words by assigning them a paper.  "I want you to describe your ideal man or woman in 200 to 250 words" she had chirped.  "Just a simple little paper that will help me get to know you and the kind of work you're capable of."

Buffy had come to the conclusion that there was nothing at all simple about her assignment some minutes earlier.  She had started off describing Angel, and had, in fact, hit the 100 mark before she had realized that the words that had poured onto the paper sounded less than healthy.  She'd written of obsession and agony and heartbreak.  Put onto paper and stripped away of Angel's soulful eyes and the rest of the eye candy she had so enjoyed, the relationship that had cost her so much seemed ages away from the grand love affair she had painted it as within her own mind.

She'd stared at those hard words for a long moment before crumpling up the paper and savagely flinging it across the room.  The balled up paper stared at her reproachfully from beside the leg of her dresser. Buffy ignored it.

The thoughtful tapping stilled as Buffy brought her pen to the paper.  It scratched along the surface, a flowing line of blue letters curving across the faint lines.  Banishing all thoughts of Angel, Buffy searched for the image of a man she could truly love and share happiness with.  Without Angel lingering in the forefront of her mind, the words came easier than she had expected.

When she finished, both sides of the paper were filled with small, rounded letters - as complete a picture of the man she needed as mere words could paint. 

***

"So, did you finish the assignment?" Willow asked softly when Buffy settled into her own desk the next morning.  "You probably had it easy... just think of Angel."  Her eyes widened.  "Oh!  Or am I not supposed to be talking about him?"

Buffy smiled.  "I finished!  Did you think I'd _not_ do my homework?" she asked, eyebrows raising as a look of mock-hurt slid into place.  The mask cracked almost immediately beneath the force of Buffy's laugh.  She leaned across the aisle, her hand searching out the paper on Willow's desk. 

Willow jumped, her hands slamming down on the paper that was slowly being dragged from the center of her desk.  "Hey!" she protested.  "No glimpse of my dream guy unless we trade."  She grinned, "and as an added bonus, I'll even correct your spelling and grammar."

"Not that I need a proof reader, but go ahead," Buffy said, handing her paper to Willow. 

Willow quickly dove into Buffy's paper.  "Oh!  You wrote about Giles, too," she said, and immediately flushed.  "Not that I... Okay, fine.  I put a bit of Giles in my paper.  What?  Why are you looking at me like that?!  This isn't cheating on Oz, is it?  I mean-
-"

"I didn't write about Giles, Wills!" Buffy stated.

"Really?  I just thought... Someone who is kind, and loyal.  Who loves you for who you are and accepts you no matter what you do.  Someone who you can talk to..."  Willow trailed off.  "That part is pretty general, but when I was reading it I just kept on picturing Giles.  But it's not, because you said he's not.  Which means I was wrong and it isn't Giles even though I don't see why anyone would not want Giles, and... shutting up now," Willow said, and promptly did just that.

"It can't be Giles.  Because that would just be..."  'right?' her mind prompted. "Strange," Buffy disagreed.  "Giles is _Giles_ and Giles and Buffy would be..."  'something worth considering?'  "_Strange_," Buffy stressed.

"If you say so, Buffy," Willow replied, noting with interest the various emotions chasing across the Slayer's features.

"It's not Giles."  'It could be,' that unexpected little voice answered.  'If you want it to be.'

Did she want it to be Giles? 

Maybe... that did deserve a bit of thought.

END

Ta-Da!  I swear, I'm usually better than this!  I've gotta learn how to write B/G. It's harder than the other unconventional 'ships I write, because there's already a relationship there to deal with.