Summary: Dawn revisits her childhood home.

Disclaimer: All hail Joss

Author’s note: *huggles* to Bloodytearsoflife, for the great betaing!

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Chapter 2: Seizing the moment

She’d tried to protest. She’d tried to sneak away. But at this point Buffy had resorted to dragging her by the hand. Dawn was coming home with her and that was that.

This could only lead to badness.

The word home meant mom in Dawn’s brain, and there was no way that she could go home and not cry because she found her mommy again. She’d tried to say that she had somewhere to live, that she didn’t need to be taken care of, that she was old enough to look after herself. The whole looking like a nineteen year old didn’t make Buffy act any different towards her at all.

It was way annoying.

“Let go!” shouted Dawn, pulling her hand away from her sister’s grip.

Buffy grabbed Dawn’s hand again and pulled harder. “I am not letting you go. Giles, Willow, and Xander might be all, ‘she needs a place to stay’ but I’m not that naïve. I want to keep an eye on you and if that means I have to tie you up in my basement until after parent teacher night and after this St. Vest thingy…I will. You’re from the future, didn’t you know how bad a time this was for me?”

“Oh, like I picked this day specifically. Do you know how hard it was to make the witch send me before the big mistake that was Riley?”

“Who’s Riley?” asked Buffy suddenly curious, stopping her journey.

“Ugh, boring, the most boring of your boyfriends, ever. I mean even Angel with the brooding and the no sex, I’m sure he was much more fun than solider boy...” explained Dawn.

“No sex?” asked Buffy worried.

“Oh ya, you have sex with Angel and he loses his soul, big death, not fun.”

“What?”

“There is a chance I shouldn’t have told you that,” said Dawn sheepishly, looking down at the ground. “But hey, now you know. Break up with Angel, ‘kay?”

“What!” exploded Buffy. “No!”

Dawn sighed. “Look, I know I can’t make you do anything. I’m just the gal with the info. If you do what I want, then I’ll tell you everything, and I mean everything that I know about the next couple of years. Should help you out lots. But no more info until I get what I want, ‘kay?”

Buffy rolled her eyes.

“And!” exclaimed Dawn as if suddenly remembering something. “I can totally stay by myself. I’m way older than you think I am. Don’t need to be taken care of by you, who is clearly younger than me.”

“And a big no to that one,” noted Buffy grabbing Dawn’s hand once again. “You are coming home with me and that’s final.”

“And to think I would have blocked out the bossy and remembered our time fondly together. Nope, here’s the bossy that I loathed,” muttered Dawn, following reluctantly behind her sister.

The two sisters entered 1630 Revello Drive by the back door noisily. Buffy slammed her school bag down on the kitchen’s island counter and started rooting through the fridge.

“My mom’s not home tonight. Some buying trip in LA again, you can sleep on the couch. Don’t even think about leaving before morning. I’ll find you and tie you to it if you do,” spouted Buffy.

“Why can’t I sleep in my...” Dawn started, catching herself before she said what she was going to say. No doubt Buffy wouldn’t understand that Dawn had her own bedroom in this house. Of course right now, that bedroom was storage. It saddened the Immortal Key a little, that she had no bedroom yet, but she would make do. She had a mission in this time line and she wasn’t going to mess it up, even if the living room couch was uncomfortable to sleep on. Luckily Buffy had exited the room and hadn’t heard her almost faux pas. Dawn followed her sister into the living room and took at look at said couch.

The couch that her mother died on.

She couldn’t do it.

Dawn shook her head vehemently. “No.”

The slayer put her hands on her hips and turned around slowly. “No?”

Dawn copied her sister’s pose. “That’s right, no. Not going to sleep on the couch, not going to stay here tonight. You don’t seem to get it. I’m the one doing you the favour here. Sure I get something out of it, but you’ll get the info, and hey, not dying that’s gotta be a bonus too.”

Buffy stood dumb founded for a moment, like she wasn’t expecting this kind of response from her visitor.

“I have a place to stay. And I’m staying there,” Dawn continued.

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In retrospect, challenging the Slayer about accommodations was probably not the wisest move Dawn could have made. While Buffy was alive, Dawn had never been the recipient of the full magnitude of the power her sister possessed.

Oh she’d tried to evade, she’d tried to fight her off. It all failed miserably.

This was why Dawn Summers found herself chained to the basement wall that night, sleeping on a cot.

The Immortal Key stared up at the rafters that constituted the basement ceiling and reflected on the position she had been put in. She was chained to the wall like Spike had been when the First had been messing with his head. This was the very same cot.

The door to the basement slowly opened, revealing Buffy, ready for patrol, short tight skirt, barely there top, large silver cross and completely impractical boots to finish off the package.

Buffy never grew out of the boot fetish, Dawn observed to herself as she waited for Buffy to say something.

“I’m going out on patrol,” the Slayer finally stated.

“Duh,” retorted Dawn. “Only you would think that that outfit was slaying appropriate. Trust me when I say you will look back on this and wonder how you ever slayed in that get up. And no, I will never want your skanky hand me downs.”

“Why would I ever give you my clothes?” asked Buffy.

Dawn raised her eyebrows realising that she just let too much slip again. “No reason, nope, no reason here.”

“You rode the special bus when you were in school, didn’t you?” responded Buffy. “Don’t go anywhere while I’m gone, ‘kay?”

Dawn rolled her eyes.

Somewhere above her the door slammed.

Dawn looked about the basement just wondering what she was going to do to entertain herself while Buffy was out patrolling. So much of it was familiar, while some of it was clearly not where she remembered it being. That extra chest of drawers in the corner, it was supposed to be in her room. She remembered covering it with stickers during her ’I love stickers more than life’ phase. It made her sad that she didn’t belong here yet.

Dawn shook her head trying to clear these unwelcome thoughts. There was a reason she was here. She didn’t want to live this life anymore. She was over 2000 years old and she was bored.

And she was really bored now that she was chained to the wall in the basement. She couldn’t even twiddle her thumbs.

There was no clock on the wall to let her know how slowly time was passing. So she couldn’t tell if it had been an hour or three hours when she heard someone open the front door and walk into the house.

“Buffy?” came Xander’s voice. “Are you here?”

There was a pause. Dawn envisioned Xander stalking through the rooms on the main floor and possibly contemplating going to the second floor to find traces of life. Or Buffy’s underwear.

“How about uh...Dawn?” he continued. “Surely someone’s gonna have time for the Xan-man.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Down here!” she called up to him.

The basement door swung open and Xander clomped down the stairs, stopping at the bottom to take in the scene. His mouth did a good impression of a fish for a moment, and Dawn rolled her eyes before speaking.

“Little help?” she stated, pulling on the chains for emphasis.

Xander shook his head. “If Buffy chained you up there had to have been a good reason.”

“Reason being she’s unreasonable?” muttered Dawn. “Come on, please, Xander. I’m not going to run away.” She batted her eyelashes in his direction.

“I don’t know…” he hesitated.

“She’s out on patrol and just left me here. It’s inhumane. I could be doing something useful…I could be Bronzing.” She looked up at him softly. “You know what I’ve been thinking about since I got in town Xander?” the key asked.

He stepped closer and crouched low, eagerly anticipating what she was going to say.

“I’ve been thinking just how nice it would be to dance with you, Xander,” she purred.

That got him going. He tugged at the chains futily, until she told him where Buffy had placed the key. The old sex appeal was working full tilt. Finally freed, Dawn rubbed her wrists before allowing Xander to help her to her feet.

“So, uh, Bronze?“ he asked, still holding her hand.

Dawn faked a blush, and nodded. Sure it wasn’t what she was planning for tonight, but then she hadn’t planned on being chained to the wall. She lied too. She hadn’t really thought about dancing with Xander as much as something else with Xander.

But at least she wasn’t chained to the wall anymore. Xander held her hand all the way up the stairs. He held her coat for her as she slipped it on. Pure gentleman.

“You have seen me dance, right?” he asked questioned, unsure of himself.

“Yes, Xander, I’ve seen you dance,” Dawn answered.

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It was sweet how he held her hand all the way there. She was changing the future right here, not that she cared. Who cared if Xander ever went out with Cordelia Chase? They managed to avoid Buffy while walking to the teenage hangout, but Dawn couldn’t avoid feeling that she was leading Xander on. Once Glory was gone hopefully she would be gone, one with the greenness, leaving Xander alone.

Was it hypocritical to enjoy this life before she shed her mortal coil?

Dawn looked over at Xander as they entered the bar. In her world, he’d died so long ago, his life ruined after Anya was killed in the battle against the First Evil. He was buried in that damn cemetery that set this whole thing off.

She excused herself to make a phone call. Her lawyer was familiar with time travel and interdimensional transitions. The secretary at Wolfram and Hart forwarded her call with no qualms. Dawn slipped into older than time key mode in an instant, orders falling from her lips with ease. She wanted the Crawford Street mansion purchased and cleaned. And she wanted a car. They had three hours to do it in.

He led her to the dance floor and began to dance awkwardly beside her. She smiled and regardless of the song’s tempo she brought her arms around him and forced him into a slow dance. He didn’t seem to mind.

She missed him. She missed them all really, but Xander was special. He saw her. He knew what she was going through those last days before Spike saved the world and Sunnydale sank into the ground.

This Xander wasn’t her Xander yet. She wouldn’t be around when he finally grew up and got all responsible.

His hands sunk down and grabbed her ass as they danced. Dawn giggled slightly at this move. No, grown up Xander was a long way off.

“How about you walk me to my place?” Dawn suggested after they had danced a few more songs.

With a nod and gulp, Xander took her hand once more and led her outside into the darkened street. He tried to make small talk, and she tried to respond, but her mind was more agreeably engaged. It wasn’t according to plan.

The plan was to get in, kill Ben, cease to be human. End of plan.

But the tingling she was having for Xander was familiar and felt right. And she hadn’t condescended to do this in a long time. A very long time.

Xander walked her up to the front door of the mansion and gave her a peck on the cheek, wishing her a good night. Dawn smiled sweetly, not letting him leave. She was seizing the moment. Something she hadn’t been able to do the first time around.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay a while? It’s already dark, the vampires are out. You aren’t safe walking around out there in the dark.”

He shrugged and looked awkward. “There is that,” he noted.

“I’m sure it will be a lot more fun if you come in,” she said opening the front door.

“Will naked Twister be involved?” he said before catching himself. “Uh…I…shouldn’t…” he stammered looking embarrassed.

“I don’t think I have a twister board, but I’m sure we can make something up.” She closed the door behind her and reached for a light switch, then she pressed her body against his, and up against the wall.

“You are the most perfect girl ever,” he moaned.

“More perfect than Buffy?” she asked for clarification, pulling back his plaid button down shirt.

“Buffy who?” asked the teen.

“Ooh, good answer,” the key noted, smiling, before lightly biting on Xander’s lip.

His hands on her waist shook a little, and Dawn couldn’t help but feel that she was moving a little too fast for him, even if he was a teenage hormone bomb. She pulled back.

“Xander? How old are you?” she asked, pulling his white t-shirt out of his waistband slowly.

“S…Seventeen,” he whispered.

She nodded, as she tried to still her movements. She really did try. “And you’ve never done this before?” she quizzed him, her hands on his stomach pushing up the shirt.

“The…the sex? Actually…this…”

“I’m not rushing you?” she asked, scraping her nails down his skin. “We could stop.”

She didn’t want to stop. She really didn’t want to stop.

“Stopping bad,” came his articulate response.

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Dawn Summers, Immortal Key woke up the next morning with a smile on her face. She also had a male body in her bed. A Xander body.

She examined her feelings on the subject of having deflowered Xander Harris and found that she had no regrets. Once upon a time she had thought herself in love with Xander, it had been a really long time ago, but the feelings had been valid. She’d slept with men for whom she had less feelings.

Sleeping with Xander was going to complicate matters.

Big time.

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tbc…