Feels like now by Criss Moody

Date: July 7^th, 2001
Distribution: The usual fools. Otherwise, ask.
Disclaimer: Numfar, Our Lord owns them all.
'ship: Giles
Rating: G
Summary: Giles visits a familiar place.
Spoilers: Through The Gift.
Notes: Who knows where this came from. It's short, but not a drabble.

Feels like coming home, to stand here in this hollowed out shell of a library.

First, lasts, tragicomedies of teen life. How lucky he had been, to see all of that. He chuckles as he absently brushes a dust off the remains of a chair. The entire gamut of drama had played out here. Love and it's consequences. Learning how to stand up for yourself and face your peers' judgement. Accepting your differences. Falling for the wrong people. Falling for the right people.

Feels like right now, this moment of end and beginning. Death marks change, but he cannot accept the change without first revisiting the place where he learned so much from those little dramas.

He slowly turns, and walks out. Stops at the place where the front door to the library once stood to take a last look. Closes his eyes to the memories ghosting through the space. Almost too many to mentally sort in one turn. Good and bad and things he will treasure always. His wards against the fear and darkness.

The monsters are real, and life is far from perfect. But for five years, he mattered to three teens who needed him.

He bows his head briefly. Offers a prayer to the gods he knows and forgets when it is convenient.

And leaves the past where it belongs.

~end~