Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from ‘Halloween’. Thanks once again to the great Bloodytearsoflife for the beta.

Disclaimer: All hail Joss

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Chapter 16: Buttercup

Dawn Summers had a date for Halloween, and despite the evil looks that Cordelia was still giving her at the high school, she was looking forward to it. Dylan was nice. That was all she could say for him though. He wasn’t Xander with whom she had a deep and long history, he wasn’t Drusilla who used thrall in all the right ways, but he was nice.

He was also essential for staving off Dru’s further advances. Though she did threaten to eat him many times.

Dawn found though, that she was spending more and more time with Spike and Dru during the times she wasn’t needed in the library. A month off from doing anything about Ben and she was bored.

Well maybe not as bored as she had once been. Spike and Dru were interesting vampires to hang out with. The minions grew accustomed to her presence, and even though occasionally she’d catch one looking at her neck with hunger in their eyes, she never felt that she was going to die there, again.

This particular day, confident in her knowledge that she had a date with Dylan for a Halloween party at his res, she found Spike watching and rewatching tapes of Buffy fighting.

“Here it comes,” he said eagerly, as he watched the video. “Rewind that. Let's see that again.”

With a huge smile on her face, Dawn sat down next to Spike and watched the master vampire’s face.

“She's tricky. Baby likes to play,” Spike commented, his eyes never leaving the screen.

It was kind of sweet, really, watching the beginnings of something that would become the center of her life. Buffy and Spike.

“You see that? The way she stakes him with that thing? That's what's called resourceful. Rewind it again,” Spike continued. “And what are you smiling at Bit?”

“You,” Dawn started. “Watching Buffy. You’re falling for her.”

“Am not.”

“You are, and it’s cute,” Dawn answered, turning her head to see Drusilla walk into the room.

“Miss Edith needs her tea,” Drusilla cooed as she made her way to Dawn‘s side and sitting down. “Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?” she asked Dawn.

“Ugh, no,” Dawn muttered. “Remember I’m the one that left you.”

Spike turned to look at his two girls with a raised eyebrow.

“Only a saint can deal with the crazy for long. That’s right, Spike, you are a saint,” Dawn explained.

Drusilla pouted for a moment.

With a sympathetic look, Spike reached out to Dru and she took his hand.

“I’m here to take care of you,” Spike assured his sire. “We’ll get you well again, strong again. You’ll have the whole world at your finger tips.”

“Don't worry. Everything's switching. Outside to inside,” Dru breathed. “It makes her weak.”

Dawn’s ears pricked up.

“Really? Did my pet have a vision?” Spike asked.

“Do you know what I miss? Leeches,” Druisilla continued.

Dawn stuck her tongue out at that.

“Come on, talk to Daddy. This thing that makes the Slayer weak? When is it?” Spike prodded.

“Tomorrow,” Dru responded.

“Tomorrow's Halloween. Nothing happens on Halloween,” Spike stated, confused.

“Someone's come to change it all. Someone new,” Dru explained.

“Oh!” Dawn exclaimed, as if something just occurred to her. “It’s this Halloween!”

Spike and Dru looked at Dawn curiously.

“Not crazy! This is the Halloween that they turn into their costumes!” Dawn explained. “And I have a date! Phooey! I wanted to see Buffy all helpless! It was going to fun! I thought it was next year.”

“Helpless?” Spike asked.

“I guess this means that I have to rethink my costume for the party with Dylan then,” Dawn continued ignoring Spike.

“Dylan?” Dru asked with jealousy.

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Dawn posed in front of Willow and her sister. “What do you think?” Dawn modeled her Halloween costume to the pair of teens, the flowing red dress and long blonde hair creating quite the look.

Buffy raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t think the blond hair is an improvement,” Willow noted, sitting on Buffy’s bed.

“Well I couldn’t very well be Princess Buttercup with brown hair could I?” Dawn asked. “Dylan’s going to be Westley.”

“You seem to have rebounded pretty quickly from Xander,” Willow continued with a glare.

“Life’s long and boring, there’s no point in being lonely, it makes the boredom last longer,” Dawn advised. “So, show me your costumes!

A few minutes later Buffy came out of the bathroom sporting a burgundy 18th century dress, complete with brown wig.

“It’s beautiful!” Willow gushed.

“It’s large and bulky,” noted Dawn. “Do you really think the slayer should be wearing that monstrosity for Halloween?”

“Halloween’s my night off. Giles said so,” Buffy explained. “Willow, go change!”

As Willow left the room, Dawn circled her sister.

“You dressed for Angel, didn’t you?” Dawn asked.

“Please don’t start on the whole, Angel is bad for you thing. It’s really getting old,” Buffy countered.

“Whatever. Personally, I think the whole dress is a little much. You’re trying too hard.”

“Maybe I have to work at it. I don’t have a line up of people willing to go out with me. I’m not you.”

“You would if you gave up on the broody vampire,” Dawn noted. “I just think that you deserve to have someone who’s not going to be guilt ridden for the rest of his life. Someone who will think of you as an equal, instead of someone to protect.”

“And I suppose, being from the future, you know just who I should be going out with?”

“I do,” Dawn said nodding. “And it’s not Angel.”

“Where're you meeting Angel?” Willow asked from the bathroom, obviously trying to say something that would take Buffy‘s side of the argument.

“Here. After trick-or-treating. Mom's gonna be out,” Buffy responded, glaring at Dawn. “And Dawn’s going to be away far, far away.”

“Does he know about your costume?” Willow asked through the door.

“Nope. Call it a blast from his past. I'll show him I can coif with the best of 'em. Okay, Willow, come out. You can't hide in there all night,” Buffy ordered.

Dawn faced the bathroom door with her sister.

“O-okay, but, but promise you won't laugh?” Willow asked nervously.

“I promise,” the two girls said in unison.

Willow opened the door and came out sporting a very un-Willow like outfit. She looked good, but Dawn knew that the red head was extremely uncomfortable with what Buffy had forced her to wear.

Buffy smiled. “Wow! You're a dish!”

Willow stepped next to the bed and took the ghost costume she’d bought, trying to cover herself up.

“I mean, really,” Buffy continued, taking the sheet and throwing it aside.

Willow tried to cover herself with her arms.

“But this just isn't me,” the red head protested.

“And that's the point,” Buffy continued. “Look, Halloween is the night that not you is you, but not you. Y'know?”

Dawn looked at Willow’s expression and shared in the confusion. With eyes that begged her to do something Willow looked right back at Dawn. The doorbell rang.

“Oh! That's Xander. Are you ready?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah. O…okay,” Willow responded nervously.

“Cool! I can't wait for the boys to go non-verbal when they see you!” Buffy flounced out of the room with a smile.

“Help?” Willow asked Dawn.

“You don’t have to wear this if you don’t want to,” Dawn offered. “You could just go down as the ghost.”

Willow nodded and Dawn reached around the bed, where Buffy had thrown the sheet. She handed it back to Willow. As Willow covered herself with the sheet, Dawn righted her costume and took a glace at herself in the mirror. Willow was right, the blond hair was a little on the side of wrong. With the glamour in place though, she didn’t think Dylan would mind what colour hair she had.

Dawn followed Willow down the stairs to see Xander and Buffy in the hallway talking.

“ ...Casper,” Buffy finished.

“Hey, Will! That's a fine boo you got there,” Xander started. “And Dawn. You look great.”

“Thanks Xander. I hope Dylan likes it,” Dawn responded, wondering why mean things slipped out of her mouth. It wasn’t Xander’s fault that he’d started snogging Cordelia. “Have fun tonight you guys!” Dawn ushered them out of the house. “Remember, don’t eat anything that looks like it’s homemade.”

Shortly after they left, Dawn grabbed her bag and headed out to her car, destination: the UC Sunnydale campus and Dylan’s dorm.

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One minute, Dawn was chatting up Dylan’s friends from the hockey team, the next, all she knew was that she was in a strange place and that she was lucky that Westley was by her side. Later, after she and Dylan had had the obligatory, ‘we’re okay’ sex, she decided that the Buttercup costume wasn’t probably the best one to have chosen, considering that she knew about this before hand.

She should have dressed up as the Slayer or something.

Dawn left Dylan snoring in his bed and drove the streets of Sunnydale, looking for information about what had happened. She supposed that everyone was indoors, now that everything was over and enjoying their luck at surviving. She turned the car towards her mother’s house, with the possible intent of finding out if Angel was still there.

Two streets from Revello Drive, Dawn spied a lone figure walking in the middle of the road as if they didn’t care about anything except whatever was on their mind. Of course it was Angel, being brood boy.

Dawn screeched her tires to a stop in front of him. “Hey Captain Forehead! What’s shaking?”

Angel looked up and scowled. “What do you want?”

“Finished snuggling with my sister?” Dawn asked. “Or are you out here to charge up the brood batteries?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but there was no snuggling with Buffy tonight. She had another guest.”

“That’s too bad,” Dawn in false concern. “Any idea who the guest is?”

“Seems that Spike saved her tonight. She’s feeding him hot chocolate,” Angel growled.

“And you aren’t there kicking his ass for honing in on your territory?” Dawn questioned. “Why? Not that I want you to, but it seems out of character for you.”

“She asked me to leave,” he almost pouted.

“Good for her!” Dawn giggled. “This is me, being proud of my sister for once. Thanks for the info Angel!”

Dawn revved the engine of her car and sped off into the darkened street leaving the vampire standing there, alone.

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Dawn stopped the car in her mother’s drive way and tip toed to the dining room window. Sure enough, Spike and Buffy were sitting there, cautiously enjoying hot chocolate together. It was sweet that Buffy was rewarding Spike for any sort of saving, and the way that Buffy was looking at the blond vampire, it was clear that she didn’t know what to do about him yet.

Quietly, Dawn moved to enter the house, via the back door and stalked closer to the blond pair at the dining room table.

“So then I said to the little demons, ‘Somewhere out here is the tenderest meat you've ever tasted, and all we& have to do is find her first!”’

They both laughed.

“’Course, the Bit missed it all, being at that party with her new boy,” Spike continued, looking at Dawn now standing in the doorway.

“Did you have a good time?” Buffy asked, in a very elder sister type way.

“I did, even the swashbuckling wasn’t so bad. At least I went with someone that turned into someone who could protect my princessness. I ran into Angel on my way here. Well, no I didn’t run into him, ‘cause if that was true there would be vampire all over Palmerston street. He said that you’d saved Buffy.”

Spike nodded.

“He really did. I remember it,” Buffy noted. “Larry was a pirate. Ugh, the idea that Larry was going to do to me…”

“That is what pirates did, love…” Spike responded.

“Have I mentioned just how glad I was that you were there, and that you aren’t entirely evil.”

“Oy! Still evil.”

“Oh you’re still the big bad,” Dawn said laughing. “Thanks for saving her. You two are my most favourite people in the whole world. If something happened to either one of you I know that my life would be drastically messed up.”

Even as she said it, the Key could feel tears coming to the fore. She knew that Spike would be able to smell the tears, but then she couldn’t do anything about that or about the crazy range of emotions she was currently experiencing. She must be PMSing.

“Hot chocolate?” Buffy asked.

Dawn nodded and sat down next to Spike as Buffy went to get Dawn a cup.

“Nothing’s going to happen to us, Bit,” Spike whispered, petting her blonde hair.

“Not this time,” the Key whispered back.

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Tbc…