Giles wasn't being much use. He'd taken one look at Xander and dissolved into very unlibrarian, or un-magic shop owner, giggles. He took a deep breath, steeled himself and looked directly at Xander again. The young man was faintly magenta, you could almost mistake it for sunburn or acute embarrassment, but then a swirl of vibrant yellow drifted slowly across Xander's cheek before disappearing into his hair and Giles was gone again.

"He's definitely upset somebody. It's a very impressive curse. I used to see it all the time, but this is one of the better variants."

"Anya," Xander snapped in impatience, turning a bright blue as he raised his voice.

"See, Giles, that's the colour he turned last night when we were having dinner." She was quite taken by the multi-hued Xander, although she was a bit concerned that she wouldn't be about to coordinate the apartment furnishings if he insisted of constantly changing colours.

"Yes, yes, very interesting." Giles had a theory but testing it out would involve hearing things he'd rather not know about. "Anya, did you notice anything last night that set off certain reactions?"

She thought for a moment. "He was almost his normal pinkish skin tone when we had sex and the patterns disappeared completed when he gave me an orgasm."

"Anya! We've talked about this." Xander flared into neon blue again.

Giles point was proven. "Ah, I see, a teaching curse."

"Really? What's it doing? Teaching Xander how to be a psychedelic flashback?"

"It's reacting to the way he behaves towards you. If he talks to you in a civil manner there's little or no response, but if he treats you poorly the patterns increase in density and contrast and Xander turns a quite fetching shade of Yves Klein Blue."

Rubbing her hands together at the news, Anya walked Giles to the door. "Thank you very much, but now you need to be going so I can cure Xander by making him give me orgasms."

As Anya bustled him out the door, Giles managed to whisper, "It'll wear off in a couple of days."

"I won't tell if you don't."

Giles smiled as he headed home. Perhaps something good would come of this after all. Which reminded him that he would need to talk to Anya tomorrow about the dangers of letting Spike and Dawn loose in the restricted books section of the store.


15minuteficlets — picture #14
Part of the Mischief!verse