Summary: Dawn gets frustrated at Buffy and Giles.

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Really I don’t. I’m also not making any money off of this. Really.

Beta’d by the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife.

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Chapter 10: Making Up

Dawn sat on a chair looking over the book she and Spike had stolen from Giles. Around her minions were eying her neck. Spike had announced, without ceremony, that she wasn’t to be touched. Lots of good that would do her, one stupid minion to not know his place and she would wind up dead in a cemetery again.

Twigs really hurt when they were tangled in her hair.

“You read Latin?” Spike asked.

“Yes, once upon a time I was a mini watcher. And I also know for a fact that you read Latin too,” Dawn countered.

“Haven’t in while. Got minions to do that for me now.”

“Says Mr. ‘I graduated from Cambridge’.”

“You think the Slayer will go back to distrusting you? ‘Cause of the book?” Spike asked, pacing the room, ignoring her jab at him.

“For a bit, maybe but I’m sure Mom will say something about it, she always did.”

“And just how is it that I know instinctively that that bird that hit me over the head with an axe not a week ago is your mum? I know you haven’t told me. I’m pretty sure that the Slayer won’t admit to being your sister…”

“It’s true.”

“Then how?”

“It’s all in the power of the hug. Who will be hugged next? It’s all a mystery,” she taunted.

“Don’t mock the vampire, little girl.”

“Ooh, colour me scared. You can’t do anything to me. ‘Sides, you like having me around too much,” Dawn countered.

“I’d like it more if you found out just which part of that bleedin’ book is supposed to restore Dru to health.”

Dawn turned around to face him, a glare apparent in her eyes. “Not a minion, Spike.”

“No, you are right, sorry,” he apologized. “So does the whelp know about you too?”

“Xander? No way. He’s clueless.”

“You haven’t hugged him?” asked Spike, raising an eyebrow.

“No. Apparently sex and hugging are two very different things. Don’t ask me, I didn’t make up the rules.”

“Glowy little girl!” came Drusilla’s cooing voice from the doorway suddenly.

Dawn turned in her seat to take a better look at Dru. She did look ill. Of course, Dawn had seen Drusilla at her very, very best on more than one occasion.

“This is Dawn, pet,” Spike explained. “She’s helping to make you well.”

“The pixies like you,” continued the loony vampire. “I like you.” Drusilla smiled.

Leaving the book open on the table, Dawn stood and stepped towards sickly vampire with a smile on her face.

“I was wondering when I was going to bump into you, Dru. How’ve you been?”

“Tummy’s all grumpy. Not supposed to have the party yet. Too soon. Too soon,” Dru ended out with a whisper. “My dark knight doesn’t know yet, does he?” she continued conspiratorially to Dawn.

“No, he doesn’t,” Dawn giggled. “He’s gonna be shocked when he finds out.”

“My Spike doesn’t like surprises like that,” Dru giggled back.

“Oy! What are you two birds whispering about?”

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Dawn walked up to her mother’s house eager to spend some mom time. She checked her watch, assuring herself that Buffy would already be at the culture dance thing and hence out of the way during mom time.

Dawn knocked on the front door, unsure whether she was expected to knock or not. There was a thump thump of feet on the stairs and Buffy opened the door.

Crap.

“I thought you were going to the dance?” Dawn asked. “You weren’t supposed to be home.”

“You are in league with vampires.”

“And?”

Of course it was then that Giles walked up beside her on the front step.

“Thank heavens you’re home!” greeted the watcher, walking into the house without waiting for Buffy to invite him in.

“Yup! Not at the dance. Not with my friends. Not with a life. Just talking with Future Girl who hangs out with vampires. What are you doing here? I thought we were gonna meet at the museum to find the bodyguard.”

“No, he's already been found. In a school restroom. Mummified,” Giles explained.

“Okay, I don't get it. Why would the mummy kill her own bodyguard?” asked Buffy perplexed.

“Oh my god, are you kidding me? I translated that seal myself. I gave you all the clues right there on that piece of paper! How are you still trying to figure this out?” ranted Dawn.

“Someone spilled a slushy on it,” explained Buffy looking at her feet.

“You spilled a slushy on it?” Dawn practically yelled.

“Hey, I didn’t say me, it could have been Xander…”

Dawn put her hands on her hips.

“Okay, okay, I did it, happy?” Buffy countered back.

“Getting back to the point. I've cross-referenced, and, uh, I've looked at the pictograms anew. He was a guard alright, but it was his job to insure that the mummy didn't awaken and escape,” explained Giles.

“So, Ampata translated wrong,” Buffy continued, ignoring Dawn’s tapping foot.

“Ampata’s the mummy!” Dawn growled in frustration.

“I beg your pardon?” asked Giles.

“AMPATA. IS. THE. MUMMY!”

“What?” Buffy clearly didn’t get it.

Dawn growled. She stepped into the house and behind her sister, pushing her out onto the porch. “You can figure it out on the way to the Bronze.” And with that Dawn shut the door on Buffy and Giles.

“God, they frustrate me so much!” Dawn ranted at no one in particular.

“Buffy can be like that, but there is no reason for you to yell, Dawn,” came her mother’s voice.

“Oh, yes there is,” Dawn muttered following her mother’s voice up the stairs. “Xander better not be a corpse…”

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Pleasant Mom time aside, Dawn couldn’t help but worry. Xander’s life hinged on Buffy and Giles getting to the Bronze in time. She had thought she’d taken care of the whole Xander’s life in danger thing.

Stupid Buffy.

And I thought food and drink weren’t allowed in the library?

Joyce noticed her nervousness. All the while her mother was trying to calm her fears, trying to get her to see that Xander was a considerate man, that he was just taking Ampata to the dance because obviously she’d turned him down, Dawn started chewing her nails.

“If you are so worried, why are you here with me, and not out there with Xander?” Joyce asked. “Sometimes you have to fight for what you want.”

“What if I want him now, but not in the future? What if I’m not around? How is that fair to him?” Dawn asked her mother hypothetically.

“Why wouldn’t you be around?” Joyce asked. “And if it doesn’t work out, you move on. We all make mistakes, it’s not limited to romance.”

“Like you and Daddy?”

“An example, sure, but then there are a lot more famous couples that seemed right and they couldn’t make it work.”

“How about the couples that don’t seem right but you know, without a doubt, that if they tried their love would be eternal?”

“Have you been reading my romance novels again?” Joyce asked.

“No,” Dawn answered honestly.

Bet my love life would have made even the raunchiest romance novelist blush, Dawn quipped to herself.

“You and Xander aren’t immortal, my dear,” Joyce continued.

“Xander isn’t…”

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She’d struggled against it, but she hadn’t gone to find Xander. She’d have to put her trust in Buffy and that was something she wasn‘t used to doing, not since Buffy was killed anyway. But here and now, Buffy saved people…and the world…a lot.

An uncontrollable shiver made its way through Dawn’s body, remembering her sister’s graves, the one from when she’d died to save the world from Glory, in Sunnydale, and the one in Paris, after the Immortal killed her.

They both had said the same thing. She saved the world a lot.

What Dawn was doing in Sunnydale now would make sure that at least one of those tombstones never had to be commissioned.

What a fantastically happy topic to think about,she thought. I need a drink.

Making her way home in the dark, her thoughts turned to exactly where she had hidden that bottle of Bailey’s, which she still hadn’t found.

Maybe Spike would be up for drinking with Dawn, part two?

The idea had merit, unfortunately she couldn’t commit to the whole thought, as standing in front of her front door was a dejected Xander Harris, still wearing his cultural dance costume.

So now she had to deal with him being all apologetic and ‘I don’t know what the hell happened’ thing.

But Xander sex had to be better than a hangover.

“Xander,” Dawn greeted the teen as she removed her house keys from her pocket.

“Would it make a difference if I said I’m sorry?” he started, following her into the house.

“No,” Dawn answered, kicking off her shoes.

“No?” he gulped back.

“No, it wouldn’t. Look, I don’t know what you were expecting when you showed up at my doorstep Xander. I’m not going to get hung up on the fact that you fell for a mummy. I’m not here forever, and you aren’t going to want to get tied to a girl who looks like a fourteen years old. You’re gonna wanna move on to other people eventually. I get that. I might get madly jealous, but I understand it.”

“You were jealous?” he asked, blinking at her.

“Not the point, Xander!”

“Right, back to the grovelling. I don’t know what the hell happened. She was nice; she killed people. You are much nicer, you’ve got the…hips, but you don’t kill people.”

“You’ve done a pros and cons list? Great, that makes me feel loved. And how do you know I haven’t killed people? I could kill people all the time!”

“You? No way. You’re…Dawn. You don’t kill people.”

“I set the school on fire today…People could have died.”

“Buffy told me about that. She said you were with Spike,” he tossed back at her.

“Not with Spike. We just hung out, set the school on fire, stole a book. But, oooh, see I can be bad!”

He gave her a look like he didn’t believe her.

“Fine, directly I’ve never killed anyone. I’m usually the planner. I’ve planned a lot of people’s deaths. I’ve got possibly thousands of people killed.”

“Right.”

“Really not convincing you, am I?” Dawn asked, flopping down on her couch.

“No.”

“So you came here tonight so we could get back together?” Dawn asked.

“Pretty much. I expected a whole lot more grovelling though.”

“Do you want to continue the grovelling? Or would you rather just go upstairs?” asked the Key, not a hint of subtle in her voice.

“Uh…”

Dawn sighed. “This is the part where we have make up sex. Are you up for that?” she said catching his eye, before quickly casting a glance at his crotch.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she continued with a smile.

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Tbc…