Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation by TheBear Book II

Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: If I owned 'em, they'd have to show it on the Ecstasy Network.
Distribution: http://www.papa-bear.com/
http://mysticmuse.net
Feedback: Feed The Bear!
Pairing: Willow/Tara/Buffy
Summary: Sequel to Repercussions Book I.

"Okay, all the words are starting to blur together," Xander announced tiredly, closing the tome he'd been reading from and setting it aside. "I'm wiped."

The whole Scooby Gang, including the two parental figures, and the newest junior member, were sitting in Giles' living room researching, as they had been for several hours now.

"I take it you haven't been able to find anything helpful?" Giles asked, looking up from his own book, just a little bleary-eyed himself.

Everyone's eyes moved quickly to the young man as he stood. "Yeah, I found out all about it, there was a whole chapter on how to gain absolute power through repetitious three-way girl-lovin'. I was just keeping it to myself because I felt it would be more dramatic if I waited until we'd spent a few more days wading through the book dust before I said anything."

All the girls smiled, even Joyce, though she turned away so Giles wouldn't see it if he looked.

"Yes, well...it's unfortunate that the exhaustion hasn't spread so far as to render your sense of humor dormant," Giles said with resigned annoyance.

"Oh, that'll be the last thing that goes," Willow snarked, causing more smiles and a few chuckles.

"You know it," Xander agreed, stretching and yawning mightily. He smiled when he ended the stretch and noticed Buffy, Willow, Faith and Joyce all with answering yawns on their faces. Tara was grinning at him with a raised eyebrow.

'I wish I knew why she kept doing that!' Xander thought. 'It's like she knows something I don't...I don't know if I'm in trouble, or what!'

As soon as his eye's met her face and saw her staring intently back at him, he dropped his gaze to the floor, avoiding her eyes. 'I'm like some kind of freak or something...' he thought, feeling the now customary desire and guilt that rose up inside him whenever looking at the youngest Summers.

Xander felt a dart of panic and adrenaline at Buffy's interjection. 'It's like I keep expecting her to smack the crap out of me!' he thought with annoyance at his body's response. 'I haven't done anything!'

'Unless you count incessantly ogling and fantasizing about her little sister...' his conscience reminded him, making him cringe.

"I...I didn't get around to mentioning it to him yet," Dawn explained in the face of her sister's directed glance.

"How come?" Willow asked, sounding surprised. "I thought you went right over to Xander's after our 'lesson' this afternoon."

"I did, he didn't get back from work until it was time to come over here," Dawn explained with just a hint of defensiveness in her voice.

Again Xander cringed in guilt. 'No, I just couldn't trust myself to be alone in my apartment with your little sister for two hours without doing something stupid.'

"It's, ah...it's been a long week," he mumbled, unwilling to discuss his job at the moment.

"Exactly!" Buffy said, blithely unaware of Xander's emotional state. "A surreally normal week of school and work after the battle to save the world from utter destruction."

"And subsequent weekend of kidnapping and attempted assassinations," Willow added.

"Right," Buffy agreed. "I think that deserves a celebratory dinner and night at the Bronze, don't you guys?"

"Certainly we would love to come for dinner," Giles said, looking at Joyce for confirmation.

"Of course," Joyce said with a smile. "I'm not sure about the Bronze, but dinner sounds lovely."

"Okay then, everybody's in. We'll eat around six, but feel free to show up anytime after five or so," Buffy said.

"And on that note!" Xander said loudly, interrupting any response from the blonde Slayer. "Casa del Tara, after five, before six. We'll be there." Looking over toward the dark Slayer, he added, "You need a ride, Faith?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," Faith said in a voice that promised filthy, obscene, wonderful things for the recipient, if only they'd give in.

"Faith? Can Dawn and I take you home...and leave you there...by yourself?" Xander asked, pretending he hadn't been dumb enough to ask that question in a way that left such an obvious opening.

Faith laughed while Dawn shot her a glare before rolling her eyes. "Nah, I'm too antsy to get any sleep right now. I think I'm gonna go see if I can find something to kill. Thanks though," she said, brushing past him and opening the door. "See you guys tomorrow," she called back over her shoulder to the room as she exited.

'I'm glad she's getting along with everyone so well,' Xander thought hopefully. 'I just hope it lasts...I vividly remember how painful a crush on Buffy can be...'

"Yeah," Xander nodded, forcing a smile at the same time he tried to ignore the painful stiffening in the leg of his jeans. "Okay, night everyone," he said, his eyes traveling the group.

'Why do I feel like everyone in the room is staring at my crotch?' he asked himself as he turned and walked out the door, following Dawn and trying with little success to stop himself from watching her hips sway.

"So, how are the magic lessons going Dawn?" he asked as they headed for the car, hoping to distract himself enough to walk comfortably.

'This is why I can't tuck my shirts in anymore...I'm a walking hard-on,' he lamented.

"Rupert, is all this research really necessary?" Joyce asked tentatively. "I don't mean to question you."

Giles took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes for a moment. "You needn't fear questioning me Joyce," he said gently. "Though, I do appreciate you waiting until 'the children' have gone."

Buffy, Willow, and Tara had left not long after Faith, Xander and Dawn's departure, leaving the apartment comparatively quiet and empty.

She was blushing, as she tended to do anytime he described the Scooby Gang as 'the children'.

"I suppose I am...waiting for the other shoe to drop, as they say," Giles said, trying to sum up his rather nebulous feelings on the matter.

Joyce walked over to him and sat down in his lap, bringing a smile to his face as it ever did. "Something has happened to increase the already present abilities and powers in these girls...something so very extraordinary...I fear there may be an unknown cost down the road, as it were."

"And you'd like to know what it is, so you can be ready for it," Joyce said, staring intently into his eyes.

Her smile once again melted Giles heart. "You tease me, calling them 'the children' as though I were their mother, but you love them like a father just as much as I could ever be their mother," she accused him gently, and not for the first time.

"I," he started to protest, as he always did, that he was Buffy's watcher, and it was his job.

"Ah ha!" Joyce crowed, grinning delightedly. "I knew it, you're just an old softie at heart!" She snuggled up against his chest with a happy chuckle.

Giles laughed as well, the feel of his lover's lithe frame in his arms filling him with nothing but joy.

"Are they really so much different?" she asked softly. "I mean, the thing at the docks was pretty amazing, but."

"It is rarely the showy magic that takes the real power," Giles explained. "The building was a simple corrugated metal structure, and while extremely impressive, it is nothing compared to what she did to the firearms."

"Really?" Joyce asked with surprise. "I guess I really don't understand magic...I mean, turning something invisible seems like it would be almost a parlor-trick."

"A glamour to make them appear invisible is the equivalent of a parlor-trick...such as the glamour that made us seem to switch places with Gunn and Faith, though even that was extraordinary in it's tactile component." Giles said.

"You mean the way you felt like you were wearing different clothes, and your body seemed different shaped?" she asked.

"Exactly," he agreed. "Normally a glamour is a visual effect only. Touching someone, or something, under a glamour gives it away, sometimes even disrupting the spell altogether...however, the effect Willow rendered on the firearms was entirely different."

"Willow...changed...the very structure of the materials that made up the firearm. Not a temporary effect, a permanent alteration of the very nature of the metal and plastic that formed the weapon...and without compromising the utility," Giles said in wonder. "The steel, brass, and lead in each gun actually passes light. It is as invisible to light as the clearest glass, yet it remains strong and durable in a way that glass could never match...It is essentially an entirely new material. Willow created materials that previously, at least to my knowledge, did not exist in this world before last week."

"So...you're saying that's not a normal, or even a powerful normal spell?" Joyce asked, sounding still confused, but making an effort to understand.

"That, is an understatement of epic proportions," Giles said, his voice filled with awe. "Not only did she manage that, that...well, frankly, that *impossible* task, she did it with absolutely no preparation, no incantation,"

Giles barked out a short laugh. "Willow seems to have a sense of showmanship, a...flair for the dramatic, if you will."

"Willow said, "Onde lasciate dell'esposizione chiara con non diminuito" which is extremely poor Italian translation meaning 'let exposed waves clear undiminished' or some such nonsense." Giles explained.

"It means nothing. It was just for show. Clearly she could have said anything she liked�or nothing at all. The magic came from an exercise of will...she simply *made* it happen," he said wondrously.

"An incantation is used by a practitioner of magic for two primary reasons; in order to focus their will and attention, and to invoke certain powers related to a desired effect. It can also be a ritual summoning of an intelligent power, either demonic or benign," Giles began, settling into lecture-mode. "Some very powerful practitioners, primarily those who are the so-called 'born witches'�practitioners who were born with magical powers and abilities�can cast simply by exercising their will."

"Think of picking up something, a stick on the ground for example...you simply will your arm to move, your hand to grasp. You do not need to tell them what to do, they are inherently attuned to your mind's desire," he said as an analogy. "Magic is generally more like training a puppy to fetch the stick, you command, and cajole and hope for the best. If one is very good, very focused and willing to invest the time, one can train the puppy to do many things, and do them well. However, there is always an element of uncertainty. Is the puppy tired? Hungry? Simply unwilling to perform today? All of these are metaphors for possibilities when using magic."

"Hmm, What would be an analogy for what they do?" Giles wondered aloud. "Do you recall that ridiculous film wherein the US President was replaced with a body-double by his chief of staff?"

"There was a scene where he was visiting a manufacturing plant of some sort, and was controlling an enormous set of robotic arms."

"I once caught a fish *this big!*" Joyce suddenly said, holding her arms out wide.

"It was called "Dave." I'm surprised that you would have watched a movie like that," Joyce said, sounding surprised.

"Yes, well," Giles said, sounding embarrassed. "I had a great deal of free time on my hands between the time we destroyed the high school, and the time I acquired the Magic Box."

"Anyway," Joyce prompted with a snicker that boded much teasing in Giles future.

"Right, yes...In any case, the large robotic arms are the simile for what Tara and Willow do, save for the fact that in Willow's case especially, the arms would be many, many times larger."

"Really?" Joyce said, sounding somewhat awed now that he had provided a frame of reference with which she could work.

"I do not think it is an overstatement to say that Willow Rosenberg is quite likely the most powerful human being on the face of this earth," Giles said seriously.

"I can't wrap my mind around that Rupert," Joyce said, sounding a bit frustrated. "I hear the words, but they don't mean anything. What does that mean for us? or for her?"

"Very good questions," Giles said resignedly. "Unfortunately, we don't have any of the answers...and thus the research."

"Isn't that a good thing, having the most powerful human on the face of the earth on our side?" Joyce asked after a moment.

Giles sighed. "That is also a very good question to which I don't have a good answer," he admitted. "Certainly, it is quite handy when it comes to everyday slaying. Also, her newfound power reduces the likelihood of any successful attempt to open the Hellmouth."

"Yes, it does," he admitted. "My concern is that, as a powerful force for good, she, and perforce we, may become the target of those who are a powerful force for evil."

He felt a slight shiver from his lover and decided, 'More than enough for one night.'

He began to move his fingers in slow circles where they lay about her waist. He nuzzled her hair and allowed his warm breath to blow across her ear as he softly spoke. "Let us change the subject, shall we? There are other topics I would rather we explore this night."

"Hmm, if you must ask, then clearly I am not doing it properly," he said in a low, gravelly voice as his hands grew more adventurous.

"N-no!" Joyce gasped as Giles let his thumb graze the underside of her breast. "No, this feels pretty proper to me,"

Giles smiled with pleasure at the hitch in her breath. 'I am constantly amazed that my touch so affects you...'

"Mmm, why don't we go upstairs and see just where all this propriety can take us," Joyce said in a drawn out groan.

Demonstrating that he still held the vigor of youth, Giles stood, sweeping her into his arms. As he headed for the stairs, he said, "Yes, I think we should definitely do some exploratory research on that subject."

"Long, deep, hard research," she agreed in a husky whisper before using her mouth to treat his ear with some entirely non-verbal communication.

"So, how are the magic lessons going?" Buffy asked, her tone betraying the fact that she wasn't totally on board with the idea of teaching her little sister the magic arts.

Tara smiled as she looked out the windshield of 'their' van. 'It's only fair that we kept it; after all the council won't be needing it anymore,' she thought with a smile. She was riding shotgun while Willow drove. Buffy sat between the two witches, snuggling against Tara, while occasionally reaching over to touch and stroke Willow.

"Well, we aren't actually doing any magic yet," Tara explained to her lover and pet. "We're starting with the basics; meditation, focusing, that sort of thing."

Tara smiled at that. 'My fiery witch, so impatient sometimes...' Tara thought tolerantly. 'She does apply herself though.'

Buffy leaned away from Tara and moved more firmly against the redhead, saying, "Pet, I want you to know that I appreciate you taking the time and helping Tara teach Dawn. If she's going to learn magic, I want to be sure she gets the best training possible, with all the fundamentals and stuff."

'And that's why she applies herself so diligently...' Tara thought gleefully. 'Mmm, I can feel her melt all the way over here!'

"O-of course Mistress," Willow said in a low, but intense, voice. "You know I'd do *anything* for you, Mistress!"

"I do know that, pet," Buffy said in a joyful voice. "Even if it means the boring basics of witchcraft 101."

"It's not that bad," Willow admitted, slightly sheepish. She perked right up as she continued, "Plus, it's important stuff, even more important with what we're gonna teach her."

"Whaddya mean?" Buffy questioned hesitantly. "What are you going to teach her...?"

Tara took over the explanation at that point. "Whatever is happening to us it not only made us more powerful, but Willow managed to make a kind of leap into an entirely new kind of magic," she said, her voice filled with the wonder and awe she had been feeling all week since Willow first demonstrated this new magic.

"Not me�we," Willow said self-effacingly. "You were right there with me, baby!"

"Yes, I was able to see and understand what you did, but the initial leap was all you Willow," Tara corrected. "Don't be afraid to take credit; I would never have imagined it in a million years if you hadn't done it first!"

Willow blushed and ducked her head slightly, though she didn't lose sight of the fact that she was driving.

"I guess the effect isn't really that different in a lot of ways," Tara began, trying to work out the best way to explain it to someone unfamiliar with magic. "Take a basic spell that most witches learn really early; ice into fire. Basically, the spell you cast calls for the element of fire to move into the space currently occupied by the element of water. You're using ritual language and actions to ask one element to supplant another. The amount of power you put into the spell dictates how much of the ice changes into fire."

"But that's not how this new magic works?" Buffy asked, clearly struggling to follow along.

"We no longer need a spell...we're not invoking elements any more," Tara answered. "Now we can look at the ice, see the...shape, I guess. And then we can change that shape, just by willing it to be so," Seeing the look of incomprehension on her lover's face, she shrugged and said, "It's hard to explain. I guess the most important difference between this and witchcraft is that there aren't any spells, no invoking of spirits or elements. You just make things happen by...willing them to happen."

Willow interjected, "It's a lot more precise than witchcraft. There's a much higher degree of control, and it lets you put the power to use more efficiently."

Buffy shrugged. "Okay, if you guys say so," she said, apparently giving up on understanding and settling for acceptance. "And this is what you're going to teach Dawn?"

"But, if there aren't any spells or stuff, how will you teach her?" Buffy asked.

'And once again my Slayer demonstrates that ignorance is not the same as stupidity,' Tara thought with a sense of pride.

"Very perceptive, my love," Tara said, stroking her hand along Buffy's thigh. "Unlike witchcraft, this is going to be a magical discipline that can only be taught by someone who knows it."

"You won't be able to pick up a book and figure it out on your own, like I did," Willow added.

"It's almost more like teaching someone a physical skill...like when you teach someone a tennis swing by holding their hand and moving them through the motion so they understand it by doing it," Tara explained.

Buffy snuggled even more tightly against the taller blonde at Tara's touch on her thigh. "Mmm, and how will you 'show' her?" she asked.

"Well, once we teach her to center herself and focus her inner eye, we think we can link with her, and then it's just a matter of doing something�through her," Tara answered, her own voice low as she was affected by her lover's touch.

"Mmm, so you're gonna hold her brain and move it through the motion so she understands by doing it?" Buffy almost crooned, turning an allegorical question into a sexy groan.

"Mmhm, just like that," the blonde witch crooned back before allowing herself to be distracted entirely.

"No! Oh God, No!" Xander Harris shouted, struggling under his bedcovers before sitting bolt upright with a loud gasp.

He frantically looked around the darkened room for a moment, as though searching for an attacker. "Oh God...nightmare, just a nightmare," he muttered, panting heavily.

"Well, there's another night pissed away...What's that, seven in a row? I'll never get back to sleep now." he groused as he dragged himself out of the bed. "Of course, it's not like I'm gonna be late for anything if I oversleep," His voice was rife with bitterness.

His body exhausted as though he had just finished running a race, Xander slowly wandered across the room, stopping to grab a t-shirt and throw it on to accompany his boxer shorts. He quietly opened his bedroom door and wandered out into the living room.

He briefly pondered getting something to eat, but�surprisingly for him�he didn't feel hungry at all. He ended up sitting on his couch, staring at the black screen of his television and feeling sorry for himself.

'I can't keep going like this...it's killing me!' he thought miserably. His eyes started to tear up and he leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees and his face in his hands as he softly wept. 'It hurts so bad! And I can't even wish I hadn't done it, cause I had to do it...I couldn't take the chance, couldn't let Glory kill Dawn!'

He sat there in quiet misery for several minutes before he felt a warm hand gently land on his shoulder.

"Xander?" Dawn's sleepy voice and soft touch startled him and he jerked sideways, away from her.

Xander stiffly stood up, facing away from her while he scrubbed the tears from his face. "Yeah, I'm fine Dawn, just couldn't sleep, that's all. I'm sorry I woke you up," he said, forcing a cheerful tone to his voice.

"Please don't do that," she said in a small, hurt voice, sending a bolt of guilt through his heart.

"Do what?" he asked, though he had a pretty good idea what she was talking about.

"Avoiding you?" He interrupted. "Dawn, I take you to school every morning, I see you at the magic box after school every day...you're living in my apartment! How can you say I'm avoiding you?" his voice raised as he spoke.

"I...I," Dawn's voice was breaking and it drove a dagger of guilt and self-loathing into Xander's chest. "Look at you; you can't even stand to look at me!" she cried softly.

Xander was immediately on his knees before the crestfallen brunette, babbling out an apology. "Oh Dawnie! I'm sorry, it isn't you, you didn't do anything," Her hands were wringing together in her lap, and he grabbed hold of them, gently prying them apart and holding them in his own. "Dawn, it has nothing to do with you. I've been having some trouble sleeping...and it's been affecting my work...I," He paused and took a deep breath and exhaled in a forceful sigh before continuing, "I lost my job today Dawn. That's why I'm not in the best mood...but that's no excuse for me to be�"

Dawn's eyes were downcast, but she interrupted him, quietly asking, "It's the nightmares isn't it. That's why you can't sleep, and..." she dragged her tearful eyes up to meet his as she went on, "That's why you got fired. It's my fault!"

'God I'm such a jerk!' Xander raged at himself. 'I can't keep my hormones in check around her, and now she thinks I'm avoiding her...which I kinda was, but not for the reasons she thinks!'

Her next comment stopped him like a splash of ice cold water running down his spine.

Squeezing her hands and giving them a shake, Xander tentatively asked, "What are you talking about Dawn?"

In his mind his thoughts were spinning around at a hundred miles per hour, 'She can't know, she can't know, oh God! Please don't let her know what I did!'

"I...I know what you," Dawn began with a loud gulp. "What you did t-to protect me."

'No, no, no, no, no, nonononononono!' Xander's mind started chanting in fear. His body began buzzing in a distant kind of way, and it felt like he was becoming disconnected from it.

Dawn's next sentence, despite being softly whispered, sounded to him like the loud crashing of cymbals...with his head between them.

Xander's whole body went cold. His hands were numb as he jerked them away from hers. He could hear her crying out to him, but it was as though from a great distance, barely registering at all. Mostly, all he could hear was a dull roar of white noise in his head, canceling out his thoughts.

It was an even tossup which came as the bigger surprise�that he was throwing up, or that he'd made it to the bathroom in time to throw up in the toilet. Either way, he didn't remember getting himself there.

Eventually he ran out of anything to bring up, and the heaves finally subsided. 'She knows...she knows...How can she stay in this apartment? How can she force herself to get in the car every morning and sit next to me knowing what I did, what I am...?'

Woodenly, Xander turned on the tap and rinsed out his mouth. He spent a minute or two splashing cold water on his face until he once again felt something approximating human. All the while a question kept floating around in his head, 'How can she stand to even be around me...?'

When he walked out of the bathroom the first thing he saw was Dawn standing just down the hall. She was dressed in a long t-shirt that he suspected had come from his dresser at some point in the week.

Xander had to choke back a sob at the guilt in her voice. "How...?" he started to ask aloud what he'd been asking himself in the bathroom. However, the lump that rose in his throat cut off the rest of the question.

Dawn kept her eyes down as she said, "I, I was worried about you...I couldn't sleep, and I heard Giles when you connected online, so I went out to hear cause I needed to know, I couldn't wait to hear if everyone was okay," Lifting her face to meet Xander's gaze, she continued, "I swear I wasn't trying to be sneaky or anything, Xander! I, I just wanted to know you guys were okay...and then you started talking and I just froze...and then when you were done, I was so," She dropped her head once again, blushing furiously as she admitted, "I ran into my room and put my pillow over my head and bawled like a little baby. At first, I was so mad at Giles for making you do that. But really, I was mad at myself cause I know you did it for me...you had to do something so horrible just to protect me, and I could hear in your voice that it was hurting you so much!"

Xander shook his head, ignoring for the moment her incomprehensible guilt in favor of his own. "How can you stand to be around me? How can you even look at me?"

Dawn had tears streaming down her face, and she sniffled loudly. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her torso as if she were trying to hold herself together. "Do you...do you w-want me to l...leave?" she asked in an anguished whisper.

Dawn once again sniffled back her tears. Xander could see the effort it cost her to speak clearly as she said, "I u-understand if you can't be around me right now...I, I'll leave in the morning...as s-soon as I can get someone to pick me up," Her lower lip began to quiver as she continued, "Just...please, Xander...please don't ha...hate me. I don't think I could bear it," her voice trailed off in a whisper.

'What the hell is going on here?' Xander wondered. His mind was spinning in confusion and it was causing him to feel frustrated and angry.

"I don't," he began loudly. "I...What?! You're talking, but...I don't...It's like, you're speaking in a language...and I," He shook his head in bewildered anger, and then pressed his palms to his temples as though trying to keep his brains from splitting his head open. "You're talking, and...whatever language it is, I don't speak that language!"

He was breathing in heavy pants now and feeling a little dizzy. His hand shot out to the wall to support himself as he tried to figure out what was going on. "You think I'm mad at you? And I want you to leave? And I hate you?! Dawn! *I* killed a man! I drove a knife through his chest so hard that it chipped the floor on the other side! I watched his life drain away right before my eyes!"

Dawn nodded miserably, tears once again pouring down her face as she sobbed, "Because of me!"

Xander's eyes bugged out and his jaw practically hit the floor as he got it. 'Oh God! She thinks...Oh God!' the realization was a wrenching sensation in his chest.

Trying to swallow past a lump the size of his fist, Xander gasped, "You think I blame you?"

An overwhelming wave of bitter shame crashed down on Xander and he gaped like a fish out of water for several seconds.

She appeared so fragile in that moment that Xander was overcome, shedding his reticence and ignoring his lust, he stepped over and wrapped her up in his arms, kissing her forehead for long moments as he tried to pour out reassurance to her.

"Dawn, I'm so sorry, I'm so damn sorry," he whispered to her, keeping her tight against his chest. "I didn't realize you knew, that you were blaming yourself...please believe me, it was not your fault!"

Dawn grabbed tightly to him and began to bawl openly against him, her body shaking as the emotions poured out.

Xander too wept strongly. 'I was so afraid you'd freak out...why aren't you? You should be freaking out...I killed a man!' he vacillated back and forth between relief, worry and self-recrimination.

When Dawn's shuddering sobs had quieted somewhat, Xander led her over to the couch and sat down facing her. "Dawnie, look at me," he asked softly. "I'm not mad at you, and I don't blame you for what I did, okay?" he held her gaze questioningly until she nodded in agreement.

After a bit, Dawn broke the silence. "Xander? If you don't blame me...and you're not mad at me...Why have you been avoiding me?" she asked in a still fragile voice.

'Oh boy,' Xander thought nervously. 'This is a subject I really don't want to visit right now...I mean, you're sitting there, no makeup, your eyes and nose red from crying...and you look so damn beautiful! I don't know what it is...I'm a glutton for punishment, that's what it is! If your sister got one whiff of the way I've been thinking about you lately...I'd have the whole power-trio over here taking turns to see which one could eviscerate me the most messily...'

Squeezing his eyes closed, Xander berated himself, 'That's perfect...even now, I sit here and stare at you like some kind of freak!'

"Dawn, I," he began, unsure of what to say. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, as much to stall as because he needed to center himself. "You shouldn't even want to be near me right now. You have no idea...Dawn I killed a man!" he hissed, opening his eyes and staring into hers. "Not a vampire, not a demon...a human being!" Looking down in his lap again, he muttered, "I'm a monster, you should be running far and fast to get away from me."

"What I should be doing is throwing myself to my knees in front of you and thanking you with all my heart like I wanted to do since the moment I heard what you did!"

"In fact," Dawn muttered, scrambling to the floor and doing just that; kneeling before him.

'Oh my God!' Xander screamed silently. 'Giles and Angel naked. Giles and Angel and Wesley in a threeway gangbang. With the mayor. And the master!' Xander desperately tried to think of something to keep himself from tenting his boxer shorts like the circus was in town.

"Thank you Xander!" Dawn said intently. "Do you have any idea how terrified I was of Glory? I had nightmares of her taking me and hanging me by my feet and slitting my throat open over some kind of magic pot...cauldron...thingie."

'That worked!' Xander thought. Dawn's description of Glory sacrificing her was all it took for his libido to turn off like a light switch.

"Whatever," Dawn muttered with a quick shake of her head. "The point is this," she went on, looking into Xander's eyes as though searching his very soul. "You did something really hard, something that's tearing you up inside, and you did it to save my life."

Xander felt his eyes welling up with fresh tears at the look of deep gratitude in her eyes.

'I wonder if this is how Buffy felt when I told her that same thing?' Xander thought as his insides melted and he felt a sense of pride unlike anything he'd ever felt before.

"Dawn, I," Xander's hand moved toward her face as if to cup her cheek�almost of it's own volition.

When he realized what he was doing, he changed the gesture, using his thumb to wipe away the tears on one cheek and then retracting his hand before he gave in to the more intimate gesture.

His voice was a whisper as the heartfelt emotion constricted his throat. "That's the most amazing thing anyone has ever said to me in my life!"

Dawn got up from the floor, moving back up to the couch. His eyes followed every move as she sat right next to him and tucked her legs underneath her. She had a sad look on her face suddenly and she reached out to put her hand on his chest over his heart. "I wish I could reach inside and take away all the hurting, all the pain," she whispered regretfully.

Though his inclination was to reassure her, he was too tired and hurting to come up with anything. He covered her hand with his own for a moment as he closed his eyes and whispered, "Me too."

'Man, I'm tired...I need, like, a week's worth of sleep,' Xander thought. His body felt achy and fatigued and restless. 'It's no use though...if I go back to bed I'll just either stare at the ceiling for hours, or I'll fall asleep and let dead Ben chase me around some more...and then wake up and stare at the ceiling for hours.'

He opened his eyes and glanced at Dawn, who�after their emotional breakdown together a few minutes ago�seemed content to sit quietly next to him and stare at the wall.

'Hmm, she looks tired too,' he thought as his eyes roamed her features. 'Tired...and gorgeous, and sexy, and...but we're not gonna go there right now, remember Xander? There will be no admiring of Dawn's bedroom eyes or her pouty lips, or...'

He squeezed his eyes shut before they got to the weather report. 'You're a bad, bad man Xander Harris!' he kicked himself mentally.

Forcing his mind back onto a less dangerous track, Xander decided, 'Just because I'm captain insomniac, that doesn't mean she should suffer.'

"Dawn, you should go back to bed and get some sleep," Xander recommended softly. "Don't let me blow your whole night."

"I can't sleep." Dawn explained with tired resignation in her voice. "I was just laying there staring at the ceiling when I heard you wake up."

"Yep," Dawn answered succinctly. After a brief pause, she unfolded herself and got up from the couch. "I'm gonna get a soda, you want anything?"

"Um," he stalled while he yanked the reigns on his libido yet again. "We got any real Pepsi in the fridge?"

Dawn smiled happily for some reason that Xander couldn't fathom. "Dunno," she said, maintaining the silly grin. "If we don't, you want one of mine?"

"Ack, Diet Pepsi? Seriously, I don't see how you can stomach that stuff," Xander said with an answering grin of his own.

His grin fell away as Dawn drew her hands across her torso, pulling the oversized shirt snugly against her. "Stomach," she said, tapping her fingers against her flat tummy. "That's exactly why I can," she explained before letting go the material and bouncing off to the kitchen.

'Weather report says there's a slight chill in the air,' Xander's mind reported happily.

A minute later Dawn returned and handed Xander a can of Pepsi, saying, "You're in luck, the real deal�in a can, for He-Man Xan."

"And the lite version, in a glass with ice for the more refined, lady of the house," she said as she sat.

Xander couldn't help checking the weather again as Dawn leaned back and took a long drink of her beverage. "Lean forward a second," he said when she moved the glass away from her mouth.

Xander pulled the flannel throw off of the back of the sofa and spread it out so it covered both of their lower bodies.

When he looked back up at her face and saw the question there, he mumbled, "Uh, you looked cold."

'Doh! Idiot!' he gave himself a mental smack, wishing he could retract his statement the moment it left his lips.

Dawn frowned and glanced down at her lap, then immediately replaced the frown with a knowing grin.

'I dunno Xander, could you be a bigger dork tonight? God I walked right in to that one!' Xander lamented as he felt his face burn with embarrassment. 'Yep, there's no digging my way out of that one...'

Fortunately, he had matured enough at this point in his life to realize the only course of action, 'I'm just gonna shut up right there and quit while I'm ahead. Anything else will just get me in more trouble...'

To Xander's great relief, Dawn didn't make a point of it. She said, "Oh, thanks," with a blush of her own despite her grin, and then dropped the subject.

"So," Xander began after a minute. "I know why I can't sleep, why can't you sleep?"

'So, I'm not only a jackass, I'm insensitive too...' Xander thought guiltily when he saw the pensive look on her face. 'She's obviously having issues with this whole experience too, but I've been so wrapped up in my own 'issues' that I've totally missed it.'

Dawn nodded her head very slightly, obviously reticent about speaking on the subject.

Xander shifted slightly so that he was facing her without having to crane his neck sideways. He tentatively put one hand on her knee�over the blanket�trying to be reassuring without any impropriety.

"Dawn, if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. But, if you do...I want you to know that I'm here for you; any time, day or night," he offered sincerely.

Dawn smiled slightly at that, but almost immediately the pensive look returned. "I," she paused, then licked her lips and tried again. "I want to tell you...I wanted to tell you since you came and got me," she said, her voice sounding nervous.

When she remained silent for a moment, Xander gently prodded, "If you wanted to tell me, why didn't you?"

She took a deep breath and exhaled tremblingly. "I didn't want you to...to look at me...differently."

'Oh God, did she get...was she...raped?' Xander felt icy panic flow down his spine at the thought.

"Dawnie," Xander choked out, struggling not to sob. "Whatever you tell me...it's not going to change the way I look at you. I promise!"

Dawn nodded hesitantly and set her drink on the side table. She sat rather stiffly upright and wrapped her arms tightly around her torso before beginning to speak.

"We were walking back from the casino where we had dinner to where we parked. About the time we had finished eating, both me and Giles felt this...I dunno...we thought someone was watching us. Anyway, it didn't go away until we were almost back at the parking lot...and then all of a sudden these guys were there, grabbing all of us."

Xander was almost shivering with fear and anger at the thought of someone touching Dawn. 'Oh God, oh God, oh God, please don't let her have been raped!' he chanted over and over.

"Giles hit the guy that grabbed me, and shouted at me to run...so I ran into the parking lot and hid," her voice betrayed her discomfort as she told the story. "I was so scared, I don't even remember anything until I stopped running," she whispered with what sounded like shame in her voice. "I remember I was breathing so hard, and my heart was beating so fast, and I thought I was going to throw up or something," she admitted. "I tried to listen to hear if any of them were chasing me, but all I could hear was my breathing and heart."

'I know just what you mean!' Xander thought as his own heart was pounding in his chest.

"At first, they tried to trick me," Dawn went on, visibly becoming lost in the retelling of the story. "I was like, 'yeah, right! How stupid do you think I am?'" She shook her head at her attacker's stupidity. Her face returned fear rather than disbelief as she went on, "Then they started to shout out what they were going to do if I didn't come out...I had this picture in my head of Mom and Giles," She choked back a sob before continuing in a high, reedy voice, "...lying on the sidewalk with their throat's cut."

She clenched her eye's shut, squeezing out a single tear that slowly traveled down her cheek.

Watching the single tear fall as if in slow motion, Xander's guts were twisting with fear and worry of his own. The picture in his head was even worse than Giles and Joyce dead on the ground. It was an effort to restrain himself from speaking.

"I found a spot where I could see that all three of them were still at the entrance of the parking lot. Mom was being held by one guy, and Giles had one holding him from behind like Mom, and the other was holding his dagger against his throat...Giles looked so angry! His hands were all clenching into fists over and over...I could tell he wanted to tear them apart with his bare hands. The one holding Mom had to be the one that had grabbed me in the first place, cause his face was all bloody."

"That's when I saw the tattoo on their foreheads...I recognized it from what Buffy described. Somehow I knew they were there for me even before that...but when I saw they were those knights of whatever...It really sank in that they were there to kill me...it's like their whole purpose in life to destroy The Key, which just happens to be me." She blinked her eyes and met Xander's gaze for the first time since beginning the story, saying, "Do you remember the first time someone wanted to kill you? I mean, you specifically. They wanted you dead, and they were ready to do it?" She didn't wait for an answer, but continued, "That was my first time."

'Preying mantis lady...' Xander remembered. 'That was my first time, I think. First time someone wanted to kill me specifically...and I somehow for that one moment I just knew I was dead; no one was gonna save me...' the sense of emptiness and desolation he'd felt in that moment came back for a second. 'That's what Dawnie must have felt right then...'

She dropped her eyes again as she resumed the story, "I remembered that Giles had that gun in the glove box in Mom's jeep...he said so at dinner, and I just then remembered it," she said in a voice that clearly indicated her discomfort with the tale she was telling. "So I was all freaking out, trying to remember where we parked...When I finally found it I opened the door, and they saw the light go on. The lead guy was screaming 'Get Her!' and I almost lost it...I grabbed the pistol and ran." Her breathing had increased, no doubt she was remembering and re-experiencing the fear of that moment.

"They threatened to kill Giles if I didn't come out, and I didn't know what to do next, so I thought, 'What would Buffy do?' I figured out where I was again, and I sneaked over to where they were holding Giles and Mom...I wondered if I could really do it, if I could pull the trigger," She gave a humorless chuckle and said, "I thought, 'Just like playing Quake with Xander...' then the one guy told the one with the knife to kill Giles and I...it was like I just...I felt cold, like I didn't really feel anything."

Dawn sniffled back her tears and lifted her chin a bit, though her eyes didn't make it up as far as Xander's face. "I stood up and...and it was just like the game...point and click and his head just went pifft! He fell so slowly...and I didn't feel anything," she whispered, shaking her head as if in wonder. "Mom screamed and pointed and when I turned around there was another one like right there charging at me. Same thing, point and click and pifft! and nothing...I didn't feel anything at all."

"I just stood there...I don't know how long. Then Giles was there, telling me to look at him, and he said 'it's over'," Her lips quivered and she visibly swallowed before continuing. "That's when I felt...everything."

'It's bad, but it's not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be...' Xander thought, relieved and saddened all at once.

"I killed those men Xander...I shot them in the head and killed them," Dawn said

"Dawnie, yes you shot them, yes they are dead, but it was to save Giles and your Mom's life!" Xander reminded her. "Why would you be afraid that I'd look at you any differently for that?"

"But," Dawn had an expression on her face that was at once both worried and confused as she looked up to meet his eyes. "But that's what you did...You killed Ben to save my life...a-and you called yourself a monster!" she cried in a quiet, anguished voice.

"Oh Dawn," Xander said sadly. Unable to formulate an adequate response, he pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

He rubbed up and down her back soothingly as she cried. It wasn't the wrenching sobs of earlier, but she was obviously upset nonetheless. "Dawnie...I don't think you're a monster. Not at all! I guess I just...I just feel so damn guilty, you know?"

"Exactly. It hurts, I feel bad, I think I'm a bad person...but I guess I can't keep thinking that, cause I don't think you're a bad person," he softly explained. "In fact, I think you're amazing! What you did...most people would have been so terrified that they would have just kept running."

'I probably would have just attacked them...probably ended up throwing my life away for nothing,' Xander thought, growing more and more amazed and beguiled by the slender girl in his arms as he considered what she'd done.

His voice filled with wonder, Xander praised her, "Dawn, you...you showed situational awareness, tactical planning, proper execution and a hell of a lot of guts! I am seriously impressed!"

Xander couldn't help but laugh at that. "Well, you saved his life, I'm sure he forgave you for the shoes," Even she got a chuckle from that.

Dawn's arms tightened around him as she said, "Thank you Xander." Her grip loosened, but didn't fall away entirely as she added, "It still hurts though."

Leaning back in the couch with Dawn still snuggled close, Xander nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah," he replied, his whisper laden with intense emotion. "It still hurts."

Long moments later she ended the kiss, only to trail her lips across the velvet skin of Willow's cheek and over to her delicate ear. She gently nibbled and sucked on the redhead's earlobe for a second, generating a high pitched sigh that sent a bolt of pleasure straight to Buffy's already damp center.

"We don't do this enough, Willow," Buffy whispered before moving her lips down to the sensitive spot below her lover's ear.

"W�oh! We do this all the t-time," Willow disagreed as her hands clutched at Buffy's back.

Buffy smiled against the smooth, sweet skin of her girlfriend's neck, then scraped her teeth along it, making Willow shiver and moan slightly. "No, I mean this, just making out on the couch."

She punctuated her sentence by sliding one hand down to squeeze the redhead's butt through her skirt.

"Unh! Tha�at's cause you're always so...Ooh!...impatient," Willow answered in-between the grunts, sighs and cries her lover was eliciting from her.

"True, but can you blame me?" Buffy asked as her other hand traveled over the redhead's blouse to cup and gently fondle her breast. "You know I just can't help myself, you're too yummy!" she growled just before she started nipping and sucking on the pale column of Willow's throat.

"Mmm!" Willow hummed in obvious pleasure as Buffy marked her flesh above and below her collar. "If Tara hadn't said otherwise, I'm pretty sure I'd be naked right now...probably with a certain Slayer's legs wrapped around my head!" Willow said with a delighted laugh.

Buffy pulled away and put on her most innocent face. "Is that so wrong?" she asked in her 'naughty little girl' voice as Tara had labeled it.

Her lids slipped halfway over her eyes as Willow slid her fingers up through Buffy's blonde tresses.

Buffy's eyes slipped shut as she met her redheaded lover halfway for another deep, sweet kiss. 'Gosh I hope Tara doesn't take too long getting whatever it is ready, if I can't get this girl naked soon, I may explode!' she thought in delighted frustration.

'*This* is going to be so much fun!' Tara thought as she looked at the scene she'd created.

The luxurious bedroom glowed in the warm light of over a hundred candles. Blood red velvet covered the canopy over the king-sized bed, and a rich gold and red striped duvet covered the mattress. The head of the bed was piled with red and gold pillows, and she'd replaced their usual sheets with four-hundred thread-count Egyptian cotton.

'So expensive, but so worth it!' Tara thought warmly, remembering the silky smooth texture of the sheets against her cheek when she'd purchased them. 'Goddess, when I felt that, all I could think about was how good they'd feel against my skin as I laid naked on them, wrapped in the arms of my Slayer and her pet...'

'That's for later though,' she thought with a smile and a stirring of warmth and wetness at her center. Turning to the setup she'd constructed across the open space at the foot of the bed, she felt that wetness begin to seep out of her, coating the tender flesh of her sex.

"Thank you Willow!" she whispered in sigh as she looked upon what she had wrought. 'Who needs a hammer and drill when you can just ask the wood to merge itself?' she wondered as she took in the imposing sight of the Saint Andrew's Cross she'd created from two enormous beams. Where the beams would normally be joined with a half-lap joint at their crossing, these looked more like the individual wood fibers had been woven together, as though two trees had impossibly grown through one another. Even the metal eyebolts at the bases and apexes of the X-shape seemed to merge seamlessly into the wood, as though by nature's own design. For color, she had magically evoked the pigmentation in the wood, staining it a dark chestnut black, almost dark enough to hide the wood's grain from sight entirely.

"It looks like it was created by Gaia herself," Tara whispered almost reverently. "Goddess, this magic is beyond amazing!"

The cross was mounted on a stone pillar that the blonde witch had coaxed into growing from the stone floor, merged into the foundation of the building. The meeting point between the pillar and the cross was on a pivot so that the cross could be tilted and locked into place in three positions, fully upright at ninety degrees to the floor, tilted at forty-five degrees, or flat out like a table about three feet off the ground�perfect for play.

'Of course, it would take someone with Buffy's strength to lift it back upright once it's laid down,' Tara thought, remembering the magical effort it took to move the massive form. She ran her hand over the smooth surface, taking in the wonderful texture and grain of the wood.

The only other piece of furniture near the cross was a simple wooden chair, placed about six feet away, facing the cross.

"Oh goddess! This is so exciting!" Tara breathed out as images of the events she had planned for this night played out in her mind. She looked at the array of toys laid out on a separate piece of black velvet across the foot of the bed; items of polished black leather, gleaming chrome, crystal clear Pyrex, and a special treat in a steel bowl, covered for now by one end of the blood-red towel on which it sat. The condensation on the sides of the steel necessitated the towel, as well as hinting at the contents of the bowl.

The last thing she checked was herself in the full length mirror near the dressing area. "Buffy and Willow are going to absolutely melt when they see this," she whispered proudly. A black, custom fit corset girded her torso, squeezing her into a modern version of the Victorian hourglass shape. Instead of built-in cups to support her large breasts, the corset flared slightly in the front, and rose high enough that her breasts were pushed up and in, leaving the entire top halves presented as a pillow of creamy white flesh threatening to spill out of the funnel of black leather. The barest slip of silk covered her already-wet and swollen vulva�leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

'Not the most comfortable thing I've ever worn, but as long as I don't have to bend over very far, I'll be okay,' she thought humorously. 'So worth it though; with this thing I've got a sexy shape that puts me right up in my girls' class!'

The only other thing she was wearing was a pair of knee-high boots, also in black leather of course, with 6 inch spiked heels that clicked on the stone floor as she walked. 'Of course I had to resort to magic just to walk in these things, but there's no way I could wear flats with this outfit!' She grabbed a red silk robe and put it on, covering her from neck to toe, thinking, 'I can't wait to see their faces when I uncover!'

Tara licked her lips and whispered, "Okay, it's playtime!" and turned to walk out the door.

"Mmm, you two look *so* good together!" Tara said loudly, alerting her lover's to her presence.

Buffy was lying on top of Willow, both still dressed, stretched out on the couch. The Slayer's hands were buried in her pet's hair, while the redheaded witch was kneading Buffy's ass over her jeans. At the sound of her voice, they hastily broke off their mutual oral exploration and quickly sat up.

'You two look like you just got caught making out by your parents!' Tara thought with a delighted laugh at the expressions on her lover's faces.

"Um, sorry. Didn't hear you coming," Buffy muttered, eyes down as if she half expected a scolding. Willow just sat quietly with her eyes down.

"What did I tell you to do when I left, Slayer?" Tara asked in a gentle, but definitely 'Mistress' voice.

"You said to play with my pet till you got back, and to keep hands outside of clothes, Mistress," Buffy replied without hesitation.

Tara walked over to stand in front of her still sitting pet and cupped Buffy's cheek as she quietly asked, "And did you do that, my sweet Slayer?"

"Ooohhh...yes Mistress!" the Slayer said with a visible shiver as she leaned into Tara's touch.

Tara's voice was dripping with arousal as she commented, "I can't tell you how much I love seeing you two like this, hair all mussed from needy touches, lips kiss-slicked and swollen, skin flushed with lust...You're so beautiful together!" She reached out to caress Willow's face as she was Buffy's, adding, "I could watch the two of you for hours!"

Buffy boldly reached over and caressed Willow's breast through her blouse, speaking in a seductive voice, "Is there anything...special...you'd like to see?"

'Oh, tempting...' Tara thought, dropping her hands back to her sides. 'but not this night!'

"As much a I would no doubt enjoy seeing you two perform together, I have other plans, my Slayer," she said with a wicked grin.

"Buffy, I want to ask something of you...I would like for you to relinquish your pet to my control for this night," Tara began.

"Of course my Mistress," Buffy quickly answered. "All that I have, all that I am is yours to command my Mistress!"

Tara's heart warmed at her pet's declaration. "I know that, Slayer. However, this is one thing I will always ask, not command, of you."

"Willow belongs to you alone, Buffy. If I take her back as I please, then she isn't really yours," the blonde witch explained.

"And I will always say yes, my Mistress," Buffy said with conviction in her voice and adulation in her eyes.

Tara couldn't help but well up with joyful tears at that. She looked at both of her lovers and saw equal devotion in Willow's expression. "There are moments even still when I cannot believe how incredibly blessed I am to have the two of you in my life!" she whispered intensely. "I love the two of you more than life itself!"

Before tears began flowing, Tara shook her head and made an effort to be Mistress Tara. "So then my Slayer, you agree to relinquish your pet to me tonight?"

Tara turned her attention to her redheaded lover. "Look at me, pet," she instructed.

"Tonight I belong to you Lady Tara." Willow answered softly. Her face betrayed the lust and anticipation that her voice had not.

"Then assume the position, pet," Tara said, pleased. "You too, Slayer!" she snapped, enjoying the rush of power that came from dominating the two most powerful women in the world.

Despite the head start Willow had, Buffy managed to put her newfound speed to use and ended up naked on her knees before Willow even had her bra off.

Despite being a distant second, Willow managed to assume the position with remarkable alacrity herself. 'Mmm, someone's very eager...some-two really!' Tara thought happily as her pets obeyed her command with enthusiasm.

"Last week we promised you a surprise, pet," Tara began. "Unfortunately other events interfered, and we never got around to it. I intended to make up for that tonight."

Tara smiled in delighted anticipation as neither girl broke position in the slightest. 'Oh, my girls! I can feel how excited you are, but you're being so still...I'm so proud of you...you're such good pets!'

"Slayer, you stay for the moment. Pet, stand up and follow me," Tara instructed, turning and walking back to the master bedroom without bothering to watch for compliance.

The moment that Tara entered the door and stepped aside to allow Willow entrance, she heard the redhead gasp and then moan softly. "Do you like what you see, pet?" Tara asked softly, a thrill of warmth in her belly at the redhead's reaction.

"Lady Tara," Willow breathed, clearly overwhelmed. "I...it's absolutely amazing!"

"Step up onto the cross, pet," Tara softly instructed, her heart beating fast with expectation.

"Oh, yes, Lady Tara!" Willow cried, jumping into place, holding her wrists up to be cuffed into place.

Tara hesitated for a moment, taking in the image before her. 'So, so beautiful...' she thought with a tender ache in her heart.

Moving forward to attach the restraints, Tara said, "For tonight, you may call me Milady for short if Lady Tara becomes too cumbersome during our play."

Tara stepped back and once again took a moment to stare at her redheaded lover. "Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!" she hummed in delight. Walking over to the foot of the bed and picked up the flog. She turned quickly, spinning the lower part of her robe around her legs.

'Mmm, silk, leather, and willowskin...I love them all!' she thought salaciously.

"Pet you look so sexy...all that pale white skin against the black wood," Tara said, trailing the leather thongs of the flog over the length of Willow's torso. "I love your stomach...it's going to look so good with red stripes across it," she crooned in a low, rumbly voice.

"Mmm, later pet...I have other things in mind for you first...and your Mistress!" Tara said, her voice full of wicked promise. "I'm going to bend your Mistress over that chair and whip her ass until it's bright red...would you like to watch that?"

"Then I'm going to take her with a strap-on until she begs me to let her cum...I won't though, I won't let her," Tara taunted. "Then I'm going to put her in that chair and strap her hands and legs to the sides and let her watch while I go to work on you."

"Oh Willow my sweet little pet, I have so many things I'm going to do to you," Tara promised lustily. "I'm going to make you scream and cry in pleasure and pain before I'm done with you!"

"I want you to know that I've shielded this room against any magic entering, or exiting...so I don't want you holding back, do you understand? When I finally let you cum, I expect the whole room to shake with you!" Tara explained in no uncertain terms.

"Such a good pet," Tara said. "Now, as beautiful as you look just chained up like that...I think a few accessories are in order."
Tara stroked the handle of the flog along the column of the redhead's throat, down between her small but well shaped breasts, across her navel and to her smooth-shaven sex. "Pet, I need you to hold this for me for a minute, okay?"

"Um...oh!" Willow's momentary confusion cleared right up as Tara slid the pommel of the flog inside her slippery pussy. "Y-yes Milady!" she gasped.

"Don't drop it pet," Tara admonished as she walked away to get the 'accessories' for the redheaded witch.

"No Milady!" Willow assured the blonde, her voice breathy and sounding desperate.

'Now, lets see...' Tara thought, perusing her toy box. 'Nipple clamps, definitely...something light, though. She'll be wearing them for a long time.' She picked out a pair with adjustable tension, and wide, flat, rubber tipped jaws. 'Mmm, these'll feel like nothing at first...but by the time I'm ready to take them off she'll have a hard time paying attention to anything else,' she thought happily.

'Of course, I can't have her getting too distracted, so...' Seeing a toy that Willow had just recently acquired on the net, Tara thought, "Oh that's perfect. I've been wanting to try that during a play-session...of course I've been thinking of trying this during a research session too, but that's for another time.'

Tara took the twin pronged, remote controlled vibrator, and the clamps, and returned to her bound lover. "Lookie what Lady Tara found, pet!" she said, holding up the chrome vibrator. "Just think, I'll be able to drive you mad without even having to touch you!"

"Oh, I can see by the look on your face that you like that idea, don't you pet?" Tara asked seductively, pressing and twisting the flog's handle to punctuate her question.

Willow's head nodded frenetically and her voice was nearly unintelligible, "Uhn, yess Milady!"

Tara pulled the flog out of her pet and smiled at the sight of the secretions coating the handle almost all the way to the hilt.

"Oh you got the handle all sloppy! Now I can't use this, it'll slip right out of my hand," Looking up at Willow's face she modulated her voice into pure innocence, asking, "We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Willow's mouth fell open and her tongue reached out towards the flog as if it had a will of it's own.

"Do you think you could clean this for me, pet?" Tara asked, enjoying her naughty/innocent act for the moment.

'Poor pet, you are definitely in for a long night, but I know you'll enjoy it!' Tara thought as she held the whip up to the redhead's mouth. 'Goddess! You're not the only one who's going to be mad with lust before this night's out!' she thought as she watched Willow feverishly lick and suck her own sweet syrup off of the leather.

She took advantage of Willow's distraction and slipped the first clamp on one of the redhead's turgid nipples. The bound witch's answering gasp shot straight to Tara's own soaked center. By the time she had the other clamp in place, Willow had finished her task.

"Very good," Tara said, examining the handle and finding it to her satisfaction. "Now lets get this in place, and I'll go get your Mistress," she added, rubbing the surface of the rear-plug through the copious lubricant between Willow's legs. The plug was flared out from a narrow base so that it would stay put inside her pet, while the vaginal prong was a smooth cylinder with a curved tip to stimulate the g-spot region.

She smiled at the ease with which both prongs slid into her obviously eager pet. "I suppose I should test the remote," she muttered, looking down at the keychain-like device. It had two sliding buttons, one marked 'F' and the other 'B'. She slid the 'F' button up roughly a fourth of its available distance and was rewarded with a grunt and soft moan from her shackled lover.

"Well, the front works," she said, turning it off and doing the same to the rear. A gasp this time demonstrated that the toy operated as advertised. Turning it off as well, Tara said, "Good. Now, let's get started!"

She walked out of the room and went into the great room. "Slayer, you're just as I left you." Tara reached out with the handle of her flog and put it under Buffy's chin, tipping her face up.

'You know, seeing that kind of adoration in your eyes is completely addictive,' Tara thought warmly.

"Such a good pet! Now, stand up and come along," she said, eagerly anticipating her pet's response to the room's changes and additions.

There was a definite strut to Tara's walk as she led her pet to the bedroom. 'Even the binding feeling from this corset doesn't seem that bad,' she thought as her excitement kept increasing. 'I love, love, love being Mistress Tara! Not even casting feels as good as this does...'

As expected, a gasp escaped Buffy's lips the moment Tara entered the room and stepped aside. "Do you like what you see, my Slayer?" she asked saucily.

"Oh...God yes, Mistress!" Buffy gasped, dropping to her knees at the sight before her.

"Glad to hear it pet," Tara said as she draped the leather strips of the flog over Buffy's back. The Slayer's skin twitched in a shiver and Goosebumps rose up as Tara tickled her with the same instrument she'd soon be using to stripe that tawny flesh.
Tara dropped the handle of the flog, leaving it draped over the Slayer's shoulder as she walked out into the middle of the open space between her lovers. "Look at me my pets," she instructed. When their attention was on her, she made a show of untying the sash and shrugging her robe off.

'Stereo lust!' Tara thought with a giggle at the resulting twin gasps and moans from her lovers.

"Now then, stand up Slayer. I want you to stand behind that chair," Tara instructed, gesturing toward the wooden chair that faced the bound redhead.

Tara sauntered over to her Slayer and wrapped a fistful of hair in her hand, tugging her head up. "Look at your pet, Slayer. Isn't she just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, all trussed up like that?" Tara growled in Buffy's ear.

"I'm going to do wonderful things to your pet, but first I'm going to get her in the proper frame of mind. Do you know how I'm going to do that?" Tara asked, her voice dripping with honey sweetness.

"Nuh...no Mistress," Buffy grunted as Tara used her free hand to scratch her nails across the Slayer's tight tummy.

"Hmm, you don't know?" Tara whispered in her pet's ear, continuing to play her nails over her lover's smooth flesh. "no idea whatsoever?"

"M-mis...Mistress...right now I c-can't th�th�think at all," Buffy gasped and stuttered.

'Goddess, I feel as though I'm on fire with desire!' Tara thought. 'Something...something...' a feeling nagged at the edge of Tara's consciousness for a moment, but it flitted away before she could grasp it. The flesh in her hands overwhelmed her senses once again and she quickly forgot about anything else.

"Shall I tell you how, my sweet, sweet Slayer...?" Tara crooned, her nails running down almost to the seam of wet flesh at the apex of the petite blonde's thighs before scratching back up again.

"It does, my Slayer," Tara breathed. "Look at the lust and desire on your pet's face up there," she tipped Buffy's face up to see what she was indicating. "That pleases me very, very much. And to drive her even more insane with lust I'm going to let her watch while I turn your smooth, delectable flesh red with the lash and then I take you from behind until you beg me to let you cum."

'Oh goddess that's music to my ears!' Tara thought as Buffy let loose a loud and desperate whine. She ground her teeth, feeling a hunger inside unlike anything she could remember.

Tara grabbed the flog and pushed Buffy's head forward, bending her over the back of the chair until she was up on her tip-toes, with the back of the chair pressed into her waist. Tara willed the shackles at the foot of the chair to close about the Slayer's ankles, and the shackles at the front of the seat to secure themselves around her wrists.

Stepping back, the blonde witch breathed, "Absolutely beautiful," she breathed. Buffy's ass was pointed up in the air, and her legs were showing their muscular glory as she strained up on her toes. "Isn't she beautiful pet?" she asked the red witch on the cross.

"Ahh! God yes Mistress!" Buffy cried out as Tara began laying strike after strike on her pet's ass and thighs.

Buffy's skin began to glow ruddy red all over from the top of the cleft of her cheeks, down to the backs of her knees and every strike, every cry was a wave of pleasure through Tara's body. 'Yes, yes, yes! Goddess, so good!' she thought as her body began to quiver. Finally she cast aside the whip and strode to the bed, quickly fitting the strap-on harness to her waist and crotch.

As she turned back towards her well-whipped Slayer, she noted Willow's wide-eyed, panting countenance. "Oh, I almost forgot," she said with a leering smile. She took the remote control she'd clipped to her corset and began manipulating the buttons so that first one probe vibrated at full speed, then the other.

Willow began crying incoherently and writhing on the cross like she was dancing in her restraints. "Delicious!" Tara sighed.

She alternated the vibrators several times, and then dropped them down to the lowest setting above off. 'Absolutely delicious!' she again thought as Willow was reduced to the barest quiver and a low, continuous groan.

Tara clipped the remote to her bodice once again and immediately strode over to Buffy. Only the height of her heels allowed her to be in line to penetrate her Slayer, bent as she was over the back of the wooden chair. Grabbing the girl's hips, Tara slowly slid the false phallus deep down into her pet's sloppy sex.

"Ahh, do you like that, Slayer?" Tara asked as she began deliberately moving back and forth within Buffy's wet sex. "I picked one of the Pyrex toys, pet. Doesn't it feel delicious? So hard, so much harder than any man could ever be," she crooned as she slowly withdrew, and then snapped her hips forward, slamming deep into her pet and slapping loudly against the hot red skin of her ass.

"Please, Mistress, please," Buffy cried over and over as Tara took her, utterly possessed her.

"Goddess, I almost wish I could feel how hard you must be squeezing against it," Tara mumbled, feeling the resistance of Buffy's tight channel as she stroked in and out. "You're so unbelievable! So sexy, so hot!" she cried as she sped her tempo. Over and over for long minutes she pounded into her pet, enjoying the power of the position, as well as the delicious way the base of the glass dildo smashed repeatedly against her clit.

'Oh goddess!' Tara thought in amazement as a nimbus of crackling energy began to surround the two blondes. Before another thought could cross her mind, Tara found herself shuddering as a strong and unexpected orgasm exploded through her.

"Please Mistress, Please!" Buffy's soft, crying chant brought Tara back to an awareness of her surroundings.

'Oh, poor pet, I'm probably crushing her!' Tara thought as she realized she was draped over her bound Slayer. She straightened up and immediately released her pet's bonds.

Buffy slowly pushed herself upright, her body visibly shaking with her suppressed orgasm.

"Look at me, Slayer," Tara said as she turned the helpless girl around to face her.

Buffy's eyes were dilated and unfocused. Her lips continued to call out a whispered mantra, pleading for release.

"Shh, shh. Be still my Slayer," Tara said, tracing her fingers along her lover's trembling lips. "I know you need to cum, but you can't. Not yet."

A high pitched whine came from the frustrated Slayer, and a tear started from one golden brown eye.

"Remember, Slayer. Tonight isn't about you. Tonight is about rewarding your pet," Tara said, both explaining and testing for understanding.

"That's right. You get to cum when I let Willow cum, do you understand Slayer?" Tara asked, using one thumb to wipe away the lone tear from Buffy's cheek.

Buffy's eyes grew focused once again and she nodded slowly. "Yes, Mistress. I u-understand, Mistress," she softly answered.

"Good," Tara said. She punctuated it with a deep, hard kiss, leaving them both panting when she ended it. "Now, since you've been such a good pet, I'm going to let you come watch me play with your pet. Would you like that Slayer?"

"Oh, yes, please Mistress?" Buffy replied with a little bit of a bounce returning to her stance.

Tara smiled happily at the excitement in Buffy's voice. "Of course, Slayer. However, I don't want you touching yourself...shall I cuff you, or can you control yourself?"

"Cuffed it is," Tara said with a warm smile. She grabbed a set from the foot of the bed and returned quickly to her pet, stepping behind her. "Don't be ashamed Slayer...I take it as a compliment...I got you so worked up that you can't restrain yourself even though you want to, to please me," she reassured Buffy as she secured her hands behind her back.

Turning her pet to face her, Tara pulled her close and brushed her lips in a barest kiss before whispering in her ear, "Besides, I like you in restraints," Then she nipped the earlobe before her, eliciting the surprised and lusty gasp that she so loved to hear.

"Okay Slayer, stand over here and watch," Tara said, moving Buffy into place while using a bit of power to lower the Saint Andrew's Cross down to the horizontal position.

"Look at your pet, Slayer. She's so hot and ready," Tara whispered, turning her attention to the still writhing and whining redhead. "Goddess, she's flushed and panting and," she reached down and cupped her hand over the gently vibrating toy Willow was filled with and then pulled her hand away, adding, "So very wet!"

Tara showed her dripping fingers to her own pet, garnering an openmouthed sigh of desire from the naked blonde.

"I bet she tastes a sweet as ever," Tara taunted her pet, bringing the willowsyrup covered fingers to her lips and loudly slurping them clean. "Mmm! Oh yes, she tastes like candy, she's so sweet!"

"First things first," Tara muttered, turning off the vibrator and slowly withdrawing it from her pet. "Goodness, it's a good thing this is waterproof, pet. It's completely drenched!" she observed, amazed at what Willow's body could do sexually.

"S-s-sorry Milady," Willow stuttered, her voice as drenched with lust as her body.

"No, pet, I'm just amazed!" Tara corrected as she set the toy aside on a towel for later cleaning. "You and your Mistress both just overflow with such yummy juices, I love it!" She picked up a length of black velvet and turned back to the cross and her two lovers. "Lift your head, pet," she instructed, tying off the blindfold just above Willow's ear so she wouldn't have to rest her head on the knot.

Tara once again picked up the flog and began to trail the tails across Willow's flushed skin. "Goddess I love your skin, pet!" she said in a low, passionate voice. She dragged the flog up and flicked the tails at the clamps on Willow's nipples, eliciting a groan from the prone redhead.

'Mmm, just wait till I take those off...I'm going to do wonderful things to those little buds...' she thought with anticipation. 'But not until I bring a little more color to this lovely white skin!'

Tara brought the whip down across Willow's tummy, just below her navel. 'Oh, music to my ears!' she thought at the redhead's startled gasp and shuddering exhale.

'I love this so much!' she cried silently, bringing the whip down again and again, striping Willow's body from breast to knee. Her own breathing was deep and fast, and sweat was dripping from her brow. She looked up at her blonde pet and saw her own response echoed. 'Goddess, she's lost in the feeling too!' she realized, her head and body buzzing with pleasure.

"Slayer...why don't you...put that...tongue to work!" Tara panted, referencing Buffy's open mouth and salivating tongue. "You're pet is soaked...clean her up!" she instructed, gesturing toward the redhead's dripping center.

"Oh God yes, Mistress!" Buffy cried, nearly sprinting around to latch her mouth on to Willow's pussy.

'Such a noisy girl,' Tara thought as Buffy loudly sucked on Willow's wet sex. 'Not that her pet is any quieter!'

Willow was whining loudly and pulling at her restraints, clearly frustrated and desperate to cum. No words were formed by her twitching lips, only incoherent cries and grunts as her Mistress ate her out.

"So amazing!" Tara sighed. She quickly grabbed the two items she had decided to 'surprise' Willow with last week, but hadn't actually gotten around to using until now. She first freed Willow's nipples from the clamps, causing the girl to flinch and cry out as the return of blood-flow to the stiff flesh burned her with a moment of pleasurable agony.

Before the intensity of the sensation could diminish completely, Tara dragged an ice-cube up along the underside of one pale breast, slowly bringing it to the tip, where she circled the areola for a moment and then the nipple itself.

A loud hum from further south on the redhead's body caused Tara to look at her Slayer, who was wide-eyed and staring at the witch's handiwork, while still licking and sucking her pet.

"That's just the first half of the surprise," Tara whispered, knowing Buffy's preternatural hearing would pick it up. "Watch this!"

Tara followed the path she'd set with the ice, but this time the material was molten wax, poured from a thick, white candle she'd taken from one side.

"Delicious!" Tara exhaled when Willow yipped loudly at the unexpected sensation. "Absolutely delicious!"

She began randomly moving all over Willow's body from the neck down, alternating between hot wax and cold ice, switching the order now and then to keep the quivering redhead guessing at what sensation she might feel next.

By the time Tara'd finished her 'surprise', Willow was grunting, moaning and crying out loud with not even a token effort at restraint. She tugged at her restraints and undulated her body wildly as Buffy continued her oral assault in counterpoint to Tara's sweet torture.

For herself, Tara was as aroused as she had ever been. She was lightheaded and panting hard as she blew out the candle and set it aside. 'Fire and ice, definitely a new favorite!' she thought as she watched and listened to Willow's continued and fervent reaction. 'Oh she wants to cum so bad!' she thought, feeling as well as seeing her pet's overwhelming need.

Her eyes locked the redhead's mouth, Tara was overcome with the urge to kiss her passionate and desperate cries away.

'Oh...oh! Like ambrosia must be...' her mind spun as she feasted on her lover's mouth. 'I feel...I feel like I'm on fire!' she realized. 'energy pouring into me...burning down my throat...filling me so good! Like I'm drinking Willow's power!'

The realization forced her to pull away. "Oh goddess!" she whispered. "Slayer, stop!" she commanded her blonde lover.

Buffy pulled back, but reluctance was written clearly on her expression as she acknowledged the instruction, "Yes, Mistress."

"I feel...I feel," she began, panting deeply. "I'm on fire! It's...oh it's so good Mistress!" she gushed.

Tara immediately turned her attention back to the undulating redhead. She put one hand on her red-striped, wax-splattered belly and the other on one flushed cheek, stilling the girl's quaking. "Pet?" she asked tentatively.

"Muh! Milady!?" Willow grunted, her chest heaving like a bellows despite Tara's calming touch.

"I," whatever question she might have asked died on her lips as she was completely filled with the realization of what Willow needed before any thought of discussion might arise. "Cum pet," she instructed simply.

Willow's body arched like a bow, and then collapsed back onto the cross with a loud grunt.

"Wha," she started to ask when suddenly all the candles in the room went dark. An afterimage of the light being literally sucked from the candles and into Willow's still form flashed in Tara's consciousness for a bare moment before it was erased by a pulse of pure white.

The very air in the room seemed to ignite and Tara's body was wracked with wave after wave of pleasure so intense that she screamed her lungs empty and collapsed on the floor unconscious.

Dawn stood nervously, shifting her feet as she waited for her mother to answer the door.

The porthole in Giles door opened to reveal her mother's eyes looking out with suspicion.

"Sorry about that, honey. I wasn't expecting anyone," Joyce said as she stood back and gestured for Dawn to enter. "Is something wrong? Where's Xander?"

Dawn smiled, thinking 'Even with all the weirdness in my life, I can count on Mom being 'Mom'!'

"No, nothing's wrong really. Xander dropped me off," Dawn explained as she walked in.

"Well, have a seat. Rupert needed to go in to the shop this morning and I was just about to have some coffee."

Joyce wandered into the kitchen, her voice light as she said, "I think he's getting me hooked on tea, but I still prefer a cup of coffee in the morning."

'Well, I can guess what they did after we left last night,' Dawn thought with some amusement at her mother's glowing smile and bouncy step.

A moment later Joyce came back into the living room with two cups on saucers. "I didn't know you were a coffee drinker, Dawn," she said as she handed over one cup and sat down facing Dawn on the couch.

Dawn smiled slightly. "Well, you know. Teenagers can't have alcohol, so coffee makes them feel more adult than just soda and stuff."

Joyce raised an eyebrow when Dawn spoke of teenagers in the third person, but didn't comment on it. Instead she frowned slightly and said, "You look tired honey, are you sleeping alright?"

Dawn sighed, thinking, 'I shouldn't have lied about it in the first place, but she was just so freaked out...'

"Honestly, Mom? Not so much. I've been having nightmares about that night," Dawn admitted, knowing her Mom would understand which night she was talking about.

"Oh, Dawn! How come you never said anything?" Joyce asked, sounding distressed and reaching over to touch her daughter's arm.

Dawn interrupted, "Mom, it was a seriously stressful situation, and you really didn't need to deal with that too. There's nothing you could have done anyway except hold me and tell me how much you love me...and you were already doing that."

'You know it's true, though. That's why you aren't arguing against my reasons,' Dawn thought.

"I'm telling you now, Mom," Dawn said softly. "Cause, now we're not in the middle of getting shot at, and not knowing if Buffy and everybody are okay, or if Glory or the Knights are still out there...all that stuff that was just too much all by itself, let alone with my nightmares added to the mix."

"Cause that's a Mom's job?" Dawn asked, getting the impression that that was her Mom's reasoning. At her mother's nod, Dawn answered, "You were. I knew you were there for me, just like I knew once the craziness was over, I'd be able to talk to you about it and you wouldn't freak."

"I dunno," Dawn answered. "It must be from you, though; 'cause I sure didn't get it from Buffy!"

Dawn took a sip of her coffee, delaying the subject she had really come to talk about.

"The nightmares," Joyce began, clearly uncomfortable with the thought. "Are they bad?"

"Yes and no," Dawn said, unable to quantify the dreams to someone who hadn't experienced them.

'Xander understood exactly,' she thought, remembering their emotional episode the night before.

"Actually, the stuff Tara and Willow are teaching me is helping a lot," she offered, wanting her Mom not to worry.

"No. No, I can't tell them yet...maybe ever," Dawn said; her gaze falling for the first time since the conversation began.

"I can't tell Willow or Tara something and ask them to keep it from Buffy. Maybe Tara could keep a secret if she really believed it was, like, totally crucial...but it'd be really hard for her; and there's no way Willow could keep a secret from Buffy...and I don't want them," she broke off, embarrassed by her rambling reasoning. "I just don't want them to look at me...different. Especially Buffy."

"I see her sometimes," Dawn softly interrupted. "Looking at Faith with that look...Like she did back when that whole thing with the deputy mayor happened, only I didn't understand why back then."

Dawn set her coffee down on the side table and crossed her arms around herself as she explained, "I know she's forgiven her and everything...but sometimes I see her look at Faith and it's like I can read her mind." Dawn felt a tiny chill shiver her flesh as she whispered, "just for that one second, she thinks; 'Murderer!' and then it's gone, and I can tell that she even feels bad that she thought it...but still it was there."

Dawn looked up into her mother's eyes and wasn't surprised to see a tear forming there. "I don't think I could stand it," her voice cracked and she took a shuddering breath as the emotion overwhelmed her momentarily. "...seeing that look in her eyes...when she's looking at me. I just don't think I could take it."

'Nothing like a good cry to make you feel wiped out,' Dawn thought as she looked at her mother and saw her own torpor reflected.

Wiping her eyes, Joyce stood up and said, "Well, I could use a little more caffeine to go with my gut-wrenching emotion, how about you?"

'Ah, there it is,' she thought sarcastically as her heart started to pound and her hands grew chilled. 'I wondered where all that fear and adrenaline was hiding...'

"Uh oh, that doesn't bode well," Joyce said apprehensively as she returned with the refills and sat down once more. "There's more?"

Joyce's eyes narrowed, but she refrained from comment as she sipped her steaming beverage.

"I'm thinking it's going to be a strange conversation, and I'm really hoping you won't freak out too much," Dawn started meandering towards the topic she wanted to raise.

"Dawn, whatever it is, just tell me," Joyce said with a look of resistance forming already. "I don't think I can take any 'beating around the bush' right now!"

'Yep, this is definitely not gonna start off well,' Dawn thought. 'Pretty much what I expected.'

Dawn took a drink of her coffee and then set it aside. She sat up straight, clasped her hands in front of her and took a deep breath in through her nose, letting it out slowly through her mouth as Tara had taught her to do when focusing on, and maintaining her center.

"Mom, what would you think, of Xander and I being...together?" she asked calmly and evenly.

Joyce set her own cup aside and clasped her hands much as Dawn had. Her tone wasn't so calm and even though as she asked, "What do you mean, 'together'?"

Taking in the narrowed eyes, the gritted teeth behind frowning lips and the overall tension her mother was exuding, Dawn said, "Um, well, pretty much exactly like you're thinking."

There was a momentary pause, then her mother began speaking; softly at first, "I'm going to kill him. Then Rupert's going to kill him some more, and if there's anything left, Buffy's definitely going to kill it!" Her volume raised dramatically as she continued, "how could he?! We trusted him with your life! We trusted...How could he do this? You're only fifteen years old! How could he take advantage of you like that!? That son of a�"

"Do you really think that little of him?" Dawn asked calmly�refocusing herself and not letting any anger show. "Xander hasn't done anything."

'That took the wind out of her sails,' Dawn thought as her Mom deflated mid-rant.

"I asked you what you would think of us being together. I didn't say we had been." Dawn clarified.

Joyce had the grace to blush slightly, but seemed unwilling to cede the point. "Honey, you're only fifteen and Xander's," she paused and crinkled her brow in thought. "He's twenty?"

"He's nineteen. I'll turn sixteen before he'll turn twenty." Dawn explained. She was still practicing her deep breathing and focus as she spoke. "Or, you can look at it another way; I'm not even one yet...a year ago there was no Dawn Summers."

"Actually though, I've been around for thousands and thousands of years, just not in human form," Dawn went on relentlessly. "Sometimes I feel like a little kid...other times I feel really old. Mostly though, I feel like I'm a young adult."

"Dawn, I," Joyce broke of, clearly unsure of how to respond to what her daughter was saying.

"How old were you when you started seeing boys, Mom?" Dawn asked, careful to maintain a respectful tone, and not sound accusatory. "I remember our conversation a few weeks ago when we were talking about loneliness...I said I thought about sex all the time and asked you if you were any different when you were my age."

"You didn't come right out and say it, but I got the definite feeling that you were doing a lot more than just thinking about it at my age."

"I know in your eyes I'm your baby, and it's hard for you to think of me differently," Dawn said sympathetically.

"Dawn, you're asking me to give you permission to have sex with someone four years older than you!" Joyce said in a strangled voice.

"Not really," Dawn countered, again maintaining a calm and even tone. "I'm telling you that I want a relationship with Xander, and I'm acknowledging that you have the power to make that impossible. Xander would never agree to be with me if you were against it." She snorted slightly and rolled her eyes as she added, "Buffy's going to be an even harder sell."

Joyce shook her head, looking confused. "Wait a minute, you're not...you haven't talked to Xander about this yet?"

"Mom, I warned you that this would be a strange conversation," Dawn said with an understanding smile. "Xander and I haven't discussed anything about a relationship, because I know his answer is going to be either, 'Your Mom would kill me!' or 'Buffy'd kill me!'. It might start off with the age thing, but it'll definitely end up with the whole 'being killed' thing."

"Dawn, honey? How can you be sure Xander even...I can't believe I'm even asking this!" she said suddenly.

"I've seen him look at me," Dawn said simply, utterly confident in what she was saying.

"How does he look at you?" Joyce asked, her voice once again taking on some hostility.

"It's no secret that I've had a crush on Xander for, like, ever," Dawn began, explaining in her own fashion. "I've spent many, many hours watching him, and I remember the way he used to look at Buffy, back when he was so head over heels for her...back when she broke his heart."

"Yes, well your sister wasn't necessarily the brightest candle on the cake back then," Joyce muttered. Immediately her eyes widened in shock.

At her mother's sudden look of horror, Dawn laughed out loud again. "Didn't realize you were saying that out loud?" she asked. "Don't worry Mom, your secret's safe with me."

Joyce glared at her youngest daughter and mock-growled, "I can actually *feel* the gray hairs sprouting as we speak, you understand."

"Sorry." Dawn said unrepentant. "Watch Xander tonight at dinner. Watch him look at me when no one else is paying attention. You'll see the look I've been waiting for, like, all my life."

Dawn nodded. "Of course, about a second later you'll see him realize what he's doing and he'll start kicking himself...That's when he'll look for you or Buffy to see if you noticed what he was doing," she said with a sympathetic smile.

'At least she's saying it like she's almost sorry that she feels that way,' Dawn thought. 'I wasn't sure this conversation would go anywhere near this well...'

Joyce gaped wordlessly for a moment before finally saying, "I'm really, really uncomfortable with this conversation, Dawn." She sounded extremely reluctant.

Dawn chuckled and said, "Believe me, this isn't my idea of the perfect Saturday morning either. I was planning on making Xander take me shopping so I could tease him with sexy clothes and get him all worked up, but here I am."

'Oops, I may have broken her...' she thought with a huge smile as her mother's eyes bugged out and she gasped loudly.

"Of course, that was just my real-world plan. My fantasy plan was more along the lines of us staying in bed all morning having hours and hours of hot, sweaty sex."

Joyce's hands were trembling as she fumbled for her coffee and she immediately drank it down in one long gulp.

Dawn suppressed the side-splitting laughter that threatened to burst forth upon her mother's stunned expression. 'She might just kill me if I laughed right now,' she thought.

Dawn reached out and held her mother's still shaking hands in her own. "I'm really not, Mom. What I am trying to do is tell you that...I'm your daughter, and I love you very much, but I'm not your baby girl anymore�not withstanding whether or not I ever really was."

"These are my thoughts and feelings, this is what I'm experiencing in my life right now. I've seen what hiding stuff does, and I don't want us to be like what you and Buffy were during all the denial years," Dawn said earnestly.

Joyce's expression melted at that point. "Oh honey, I don't want that either. That was...terrible."

"Even worse than this," Joyce answered with a look of humor bordering on manic. "But not by much!"

'I think Mom needs a break for a second,' Dawn thought. She took that moment to stand up, asking, "More coffee?"

Joyce glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "Unfortunately, it's too early for wine, so I guess coffee will have to do."

'Ouch, she wasn't kidding,' Dawn realized as she walked into the kitchen to refill the cups. 'Still, I could only wish the conversation with Buffy will go this well.'

Stirring the sugar into her cup, Dawn thought, 'I wonder how hard it'll be to convince Xander? I wonder if I'll be able to be this brave when it's him instead of Mom or Buffy...'

When she sat down and handed a cup to her mother, Dawn asked, "Were you in love?"

She took a moment to blow on her coffee and then take a couple sips before answering. "I was thirteen. I thought I was in love, I suppose."

'Thirteen!' Dawn thought, outraged. 'I didn't even like boys�except for Xander of course�and Mom was doing the nasty in junior high?'

Joyce closed her eyes and leaned back against the arm of the couch as she reminisced. "Tony Stewart. He was fifteen, and I was so thrilled that he would spend time with me...He was so handsome."

"Of course, I didn't know it until it was too late," Joyce continued in a calmer tone.

"I regretted it when he dumped me a week later," Joyce said sadly. "Honestly though, it wasn't bad...I'd heard horror stories from other girls. He at least knew how to make it...pleasant...for me."

Joyce opened her eyes and focused on Dawn's for a moment. It looked like she was trying to decide something. Finally, she nodded and said, "It did. It actually hurt a lot, but only for a moment. I was sore for a little while, but he was gentle...and pretty soon it felt really good."

Dawn smiled happily. "Thank you for telling me." she said quietly but sincerely.

The smile on her mother's face was radiant. "You know, as amazingly hard as this conversation has been...I, I'm glad you felt you could trust me enough to come to me."

"I know it's going to be weird for you, seeing Xander and me together," Dawn began.

"Can you say 'understatement'?" Joyce asked, her voice half serious, half in jest.

"No man knows me like Xander does," Dawn said with a joyful smile on her face. "Could you imagine me explaining to a potential boyfriend that I wasn't really born, that I was created out of a glowing ball of energy and the blood of the Slayer? I've been hunted by a hell-god and an ancient brotherhood of knights; I've killed men to defend my family from death."

Dawn had tears in her eyes, even though she continued to smile happily as she continued. "Xander knows all my deepest, darkest secrets...stuff I could never tell someone who wasn't a Scooby. Stuff I'd be locked up in the nut-house for if I ever told anyone else; he knows all that, and he still looks at me like he does," She shook her head in wonder as she said, "What man would I ever meet that would drop everything and fly across the country to come get me, knowing someone was trying to kill me, knowing there could be an assassin gunning for me...what man would do something like that for me and not even think about the risk to themselves?"

"I...I never really thought about it like that," Joyce said, sounding almost startled.

"No one does, we're all just so used to him acting like that, that we take it for granted," Dawn said sadly.

"Buffy was chosen to be the slayer, Giles is her watcher, Tara and Willow are powerful witches and plus they're Buffy's lover's...Faith's a Slayer too...But Xander wasn't chosen," Dawn said with awe and wonder in her voice. "He doesn't have any special powers, and he's lost his best friend, been possessed by a hyena, been beaten up, like, hundreds of times...all with no Slayer healing...He's helped save the world a bunch of times and he does it all because he's Xander. He chooses to help, over and over, never caring that he could, like, die."

"He's a good man," Joyce said, emotion choking her voice. "You're right Dawn. I'm ashamed to say that I've taken him for granted too. I never really thought about it, but you're right...everything you said is true, and he never makes a big thing about it."

"It makes me wonder what stuff he's done that no one knows about," Dawn said, thinking about it for the first time. "I mean, he never brings up the stuff he does, so if someone wasn't there to see it, we'd never even know," she trailed off, wonderingly.

Joyce took a deep breath and sighed loudly. "Okay," she said with a noticeable tone of reluctance.

"I really, really can't believe I'm saying this...in fact, I'm hoping I'll wake up anytime now and realize this was just a bad dream, but...okay." Joyce said resignedly. "You sold me."

Exhilaration coursed through Dawn's body like she'd been hooked to an electrode. "Okay?!" she squealed excitedly. Pulling her mother into a hug, she cried, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Releasing her, she bounced in place, extolling, "Oh God! Mom, you are the greatest!"

Joyce tried to glower, but a grin kept threatening to break out. "Don't think this means I won't threaten him within an inch of his life if he ever even *thinks* of hurting you for a second!"

Dawn laughed in delight at the threat. "You really are the best, Mom!" she said intently.

"Promise me that you will *never* tell me *any* of the intimate details of your relationship!"

'Well, she sounds sure...' Buffy thought, still feeling a little concerned, but too relaxed to get very worked up about it.

They were lying together in bed, Willow on her back and Buffy spooned against her side. On the other side of the bed Tara was softly snoring, still sleeping off the effects of their tryst the previous night.

"I think she just got a heavier dose, what with her touching me when...you know," Willow said with a grin.

Buffy idly traced the red lines on Willow's stomach, causing the redhead to hum in a lazy, relaxed way. "You mean when she detonated Little Miss Orgasmabomb?" she teased her lover, quoting Xander's description for the magical effect Willow created. "Hmm, I love it when you blush," Buffy happily observed the witch's reaction.

Buffy smiled. "I wonder if I could get some panties made that said that," she wondered aloud as her fingers traced circles on the skin just above Willow's cleft.

"Ooh, or better yet, we could get it tattooed right here!" Buffy jokingly suggested.

'Oh wow, that's a sexy picture...I wonder if she'd go for something like that...' Buffy thought suddenly. 'I wonder if Mistress Tara would like something like that on me? That has possibilities...'

"Anyway, like I was saying," Willow said, distracting Buffy's line of thought for the moment. "I think Tara just got a stronger dose 'cause she was touching me. Plus, it seemed a lot stronger than the other times...I could definitely tell it was magic this time."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, interested, but feeling too languid to be overly excited or worried about it at the moment.

"When she finally let me cum, I took this deep breath and it's like I could feel all the energy in the room suck into me along with the air," Willow started explaining. Her voice was relaxed and dreamy as she recounted the experience, "Then all that power was swirling inside me and it was the most amazing feeling!" Her hazel green eyes seemed to glaze over as she recalled the moment. "I felt so buzzy, so hot and tingly, and at the same time it hurt *so* good! Pleasure and pain all mixed together."

Willow blinked rapidly for a moment, and then focused on Buffy once again. "Then all that energy just shot out of me...and I don't remember anything until I woke up in your arms a few minutes ago," she finished with a warm, sensual smile on her pink lips.

"Mmm," Buffy hummed lazily, continuing to absent mindedly stroke her pet's red-striped flesh. "I remember how amazing it was, watching Tara play with you like that. Oh, man that thing with the wax."

"Is that what it was? I wasn't sure; of course I was having a pretty hard time thinking at all...just cold and hot and...Wow..." Willow spoke up at Buffy's pause.

"No, I think it was more of the shock...when that hot hit the cold from the ice," Willow reminisced languidly, her voice laden with pleasure.

"Ohh, I hope I get to experience it sometime soon," Buffy said with a tingle of anticipated pleasure. "It looked like you were really enjoying it."

"Oh yeah," Willow agreed with a slow nod. "You can definitely do that to me any time you like, Mistress!" she cooed.

"Hmm, it's a good thing pussy isn't fattening, or I wouldn't be so little anymore," Willow replied with a chuckle.

'I'm always surprised when you talk dirty, my love. It just seems so...un-Willow!' Buffy thought as Willow just laughed. 'After everything we've done together it shouldn't be such a shock...'

"Oh, well...after I'd recovered from the bomb-blast," Buffy began, eliciting yet another blush from the girl in her arms. "You two were totally out of it, so I put Tara on the bed, and started cleaning you up."

"Nah, it mostly came right off, some of it I had to scrape with my fingernails, but it was no big," Buffy replied offhand.

"That's good," Willow opined. "Don't want to delay post-play snuggles any longer than we have to."

Buffy smiled warmly, "No, wouldn't want that," she said, hugging her lover close. "So, then I got Tara out of that amazing outfit...it's a good thing I was all worn out from your little explosion, cause that leather thing she was wearing made me want to ravish her right there on the floor!"

"But, I was good," Buffy said with a wistful grin. "I put her under the covers, then got you under the covers and had just enough energy left to lie down and I was out too."

'Oh, so cute when you scrunch your nose like that!' Buffy thought warmly, her eyes roaming Willow's face like well-loved and familiar territory.

"Weren't you...didn't Tara cuff your hands behind your back?" the redhead asked.

"Well, how'd you get out?" Willow asked with a frown. "For that matter, how did you get me out of my cuffs?"

"Oh, well...I musta pulled too hard when I came, cause the chain was broken when I woke up," Buffy said sheepishly.

"And, I couldn't find a key, so I had to...you know," Buffy continued her story. "I'll just have to buy some new ones."

Buffy tilted her head to the side, "Uh, no they weren't," she said, confused. "They came right off."

Movement from the other side of the bed distracted Buffy from the subject as Tara stretched and grunted, "MMMmmm."

"Hey, look who finally decided to join us!" Buffy teased, her voice betraying her relief.

"Well, since I can't roll on my stomach, and Buffy can't roll on her back, maybe you should scooch your sexy body over here and join us!" Willow said, punctuating her tease with Buffy's favorite grin.

'God I love how your tongue just barely pokes out between your teeth when you grin like that!' Buffy thought.

"Ohh, tongue-grin," Tara observed as she moved to join her two lovers. "Someone's in good spirits this morning!"

'You two are so darn beautiful!' Buffy thought warmly as her lovers kissed before her. She threaded her fingers through Tara's bed-mussed hair as the two witches gently made out.

Tara smiled into her kiss with Willow as Buffy stroked her hair. Breaking off, the blonde witch mumbled, "S'amatter Buffy? Feeling left out?"

'Like I would ever resist this,' Buffy thought as her lips met the other blonde's. 'My Mistress...love you so much!' she thought as Tara gave her a good-morning kiss.

"Stereo sighs!" Willow giggled as Buffy and Tara broke apart and settled in on either side of the redhead.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Buffy asked Tara. "You were sleeping pretty hard there."

'Sated...yeah, that's a good word for it,' Buffy thought. 'I mean I've been awake for, like, an hour and I haven't ravaged Will yet; must be sated.'

"Goddess Willow, I've never felt anything like that before in my life!" Tara continued, her voice filled with awe and wonder. "It felt like every orgasm you two have ever given me, all at the same time plus some!"

"Really?" Buffy asked, astounded at the described intensity of Tara's experience.

"Oh, it was incredible, but not like every orgasm ever, all put together!" Buffy explained. Her voice turned pouty as she added, "I wanna be touching her next time we detonate Little Miss Orgasmabomb!"

"It was probably for the best, otherwise you two would still be passed out on the floor, and I'd still be strapped to the cross and covered in wax!" Willow laughed.

"Yeah, but you looked good strapped down and covered in wax," Tara teased Willow, and then kissed the side of her face.

"You really did, Will," Buffy agreed. "Still, I think next time we should finish in bed. Much more comfortable."

"Plus you won't have to schlep two unconscious bodies into bed," Willow added, giggling.

The chirping of Willow's cell phone interrupted before Buffy could manage a comeback.

Willow had left the phone on the dresser, which was across the rather large room.

"Don't bother," Willow interrupted, grasping Buffy's arm. "Hello?" she spoke out loud.

"Oh, hey Willow," Dawn's disembodied voice seemed to emanate from the air in front of the girls.

"Whoa!" Buffy whispered, eyes wide with astonishment. A glance at Tara showed a similar reaction on the blonde witch's face.

"Is Buffy with you? Oh, duh, of course she's with you...when is she not with you? I mean, can I talk to her?" Dawn asked, nervousness clear in her voice.

"Oh, hey Buffy. Wow, like speaker phone, huh?" Dawn answered. "Um, no nothing's wrong. I just wanted to see if I could talk to you."

Buffy traded concerned glances with Willow and Tara before answering. "Uh, Dawnie? You are talking to me."

Dawn's answering laugh sounded strained. "Um, yeah, I meant can I talk to you in person, you know face to face, one on one...I was trying to find out if you had, you know, some time...like lunch, or I guess more of a brunch, it's kinda early for lunch."

"Okay, you're starting to freak me out, here Dawn. Just tell me what's wrong!" Buffy demanded.

Dawn's pause for a deep, slow breath was audible even over the cell phone; and whatever magic Willow was using.

"There's nothing wrong, Buffy. Seriously." Dawn's voice was much calmer as she went on, "I would like to talk to you about something, and I just wanted to see if you were available right now."

"Where are you?" Buffy asked, bewildered by her sister's sudden switch to calmness.

"Mom's fine, she's here with me. Giles is fine, he's at the magic box." Dawn answered, once again inscrutably calm, which only heightened Buffy's anxiety.

'There's something in her voice...' Buffy thought, still freaked out. 'first she's wiggy, then she's fine, and now I'm wigged out!'

"Why don't you come over Dawn, by the time you get here, Buffy'll be ready for you to take her out for brunch-lunch." Tara's calm and decisive voice rang out.

'How can she tease Dawn and reassure me with the same voice that's so clearly an order from Mistress?' Buffy wondered, feeling her body's visceral response to Mistress' commanding voice.

"Okay, don't bother knocking when you get here, we might still be in the shower. Just come in and make yourself at home," Tara said with a grin.

Dawn laughed. "Okay, I'll walk slow," she answered knowingly. "Bye," she added and then there was the click sound of the phone disconnecting.

"Okay, what's up with that?" Buffy immediately asked, unsure herself which strange occurrence she wanted addressed first.

"Obviously your sister wants to talk to you about something, and she's apparently nervous about it so she must be worried about how you'll react," Tara said, her Cheshire-like grin unabated.

'Okay, that sounds reasonable, but why is she grinning like that...' Buffy wondered.

"Well, she's almost sixteen...maybe she wants you to teach her to drive, Buff," Willow said with a huge grin.

"Hey!" Buffy protested with a pout. "I'm not *that* bad a driver," she muttered under her breath.

"Come on, let's shower," Tara said, wiping a tear from one eye as she rolled out of bed.

"What did you do with the phone, Will?" Buffy asked in an effort to change the subject away from her questionable driving skills. "And, will I understand it when you explain it?" she added as she rolled out of the bed on the other side.

"It wasn't anything much," Willow began as she followed the two blondes. "I just replicated the vibration of the air at the speaker in the air right in front of us, and vice versa to the air in at the microphone, well, with some amplification, of course."

'My head hurts already,' Buffy thought ruefully as she followed Tara into the bathroom.

Tara closed the door behind the exiting Summers sisters with a broad smirk on her face. 'Oh yes, I knew it!' she thought with a chuckle.

'Of course she's nervous,' Tara thought. 'it should be very interesting to feel how Buffy's going to react...'

"She must have something pretty important to ask," Willow continued her concerned rumination. "I wonder what could be so bad?"

"I think Dawn's going to make a move on Xander," Tara answered the redhead's rhetorical question with a barely suppressed laugh.

"A move on Xander?" Willow's strangled gasp caused the blonde witch to chuckle aloud.

'Oh, sweetie!' Tara thought at Willow's expression. 'You look really funny with your mouth hanging open like that!'

"Yep, I think our little Dawnie wants some Xander-lovin; and she has very wisely decided to talk to Buffy, and probably her Mom too, before-hand to try to forestall any family resistance." Tara continued.

Willow's voice was filled with amazement still as she replied, "I know she's got a crush on him."

Tara stuck out her lower lip slightly and pretended to be hurt as she said, "What, are you jealous?"

'Oops, that worked,' the blond witch thought as Willow's astonishment quickly disappeared and her eyes flashed with outrage.

Willow gave her a glare and growled, "You! Big faker!" before settling into a pout of her own.

Tara laughed softly, pulling the slightly resistant redhead into an embrace. "You're just so easy to tease, Willow." She said affectionately.

Tara licked her lips as she felt Willow's arms move to return the embrace. 'I do so love the feel of your arms around me...your hands on my back...every part of being in your arms is like heaven!' She smiled happily as Willow tilted her head slightly to stare back into the blonde's eyes.

"I'm just surprised," Willow went on. "I mean it's one thing to have a crush on him, but I never imagined she would actually try and, you know."

"I know, baby. It's hard not to think of her as our little Dawnie...but she's not a child," Tara said gently. "Even if you ignore the whole 'Key' thing, she's definitely not a little girl anymore."

"My, my, my," Tara said teasingly. "Xander's not the only one checking out Dawn, I see."

Willow blushed, but didn't back down. "Oh, like you haven't? Come on, Tara. That girl has turned into a major hottie!"

"Yeah," Tara said, instinctively knowing what Willow was thinking. "Buffy would definitely not want to hear us talking about her sister like that."

"You know, they're not *really* sisters," Willow said with a seductive purr in her voice.

Now it was Tara's turn to go wide-eyed with shock. "Willow Adena Rosenberg!" she barked, dropping her arms and taking a step back.

Willow's face broke into a huge grin and she began giggling hysterically. "Ha! I so got you!" she crowed.

'Oh, I feel so dirty!' Tara thought, flushed and embarrassed. 'I should not be envisioning that!'

Willow did a little victory dance and started chanting, "Tara's having naughty wrong thoughts, Tara's having naughty wrong thoughts!"

Tara reached out and gave the redhead a resounding slap on her skirt-covered ass. "You little minx!" she laughed, unable to keep her voice stern.

'Goddess, she's so beautiful when she's being silly like that!' Tara thought, 'Nothing is as delightful as a playful Willow!'

Willow immediately stilled, her smile changing from silly-playful to playful of a different variety.

'Okay, some things are just about as delightful...' Tara thought as arousal tingled down in the pit of her stomach.

"Un uh! Don't you start with me Willow!" Tara growled teasingly. "No sex for you until I get some breakfast!"

"Oh, no you don't," Tara said, remaining firm. "You may taste great, but you're not filling!"

"Oh, I see...now you're comparing me to lite beer!" Willow joked with a teasing smile.

Tara wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, you taste much better than lite beer!" she said. "Now, a strawberry daiquiri on the other hand..."

Tara stepped into Willow's space, reaching around to grab the redhead's ass and pull them together at the hips. "Oh, I don't know," she whispered, moving her face in to rub noses and just barely brush her lips across Willow's pink glossed mouth. "I find you very intoxicating."

Tara waited until Willow's eyes fluttered shut and she gave a shaky sigh, then the blonde witch dropped her arms and said, "Come on, let's get breakfast."

Tara laughed as she took her lover's arm and headed for the door, "You amaze me, Willow! You can go hours and hours when we're playing; but when we're not, you're the most impatient person I've ever met!"

Changing the subject, Tara said, "Dinner tonight's going to be interesting, everyone's going to be staring at Xander."

"We have to be careful though, we don't want to give anything away before Dawnie talks to him," Tara cautioned.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked, sounding confused. "You don't think he knows she's talking to Buffy?"

Tara laughed out loud at that. "Oh sweetie!" she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "That's priceless!"

"I'm sure Xander doesn't even know that Dawn plans on them being together!" Tara said, closing the door to her new mansion behind them as they left.

"Okay Dawn, you're wigging me out here," Buffy's voice broke into Dawn's fugue state as she stared into the depths of her coffee.

They were at one of the outer tables at the Espresso Pump, the place unusually only half full on this late Saturday morning. Brunch consisted of two blueberry muffins and two double Grande mochas with whipped cream and sprinkles.

"You said you wanted to talk, and then you're staring into your mocha there like you're hypnotized!" Buffy complained. "I don't think I've seen you this quiet for this long a time in my whole life!" she exaggerated.

"Oh ha, ha," Dawn answered. "Seriously Buffy, stick to the slaying, cause I don't think you're gonna make it as a comic."

'That's Xander's job,' she carefully didn't say, though it was on the tip of her tongue. 'I so have no idea how to bring this up without you going all psycho-Slayer-sister and running off to kill my soon-to-be-boyfriend...' she lamented.

"Come on Dawn," Buffy continued, more seriously. "I know we may not have ever been huge on the whole sister sharing thing...but that's all in the past. We're in the new and improved Scooby gang here, where we're all about sharing and caring."

"Okay, that was corny, I admit," Buffy said, looking a little sheepish. "Seriously though, one of the things Tara and Willow and I have really been working on is the whole, not-hiding-stuff thing. It's hard sometimes, but I really think its been a lot better than the way we used to be."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah, I have to admit, I think everyone is happier with not being all secrety and stuff...I'm just a little nervous that you'll freak..." she trailed off.

'Good one Dawn, tell her not to freak, thus guaranteeing that she will...' she chastised herself.

"Just tell me Dawn. I promise not to freak." Buffy said, a small smile on her face.

'uh huh, I'll believe that when...well I was gonna go with when hell freezes over, but I think that happened here a couple years ago already...' Dawn's mind meandered.

'Oh God!' Dawn went wide eyed and her pulse doubled instantly as her fears were fulfilled.

Buffy laughed out loud, pointing at Dawn. "Ha! You should see your face!" she crowed. "I got you so bad!"

'Okay, heart, back in chest, please,' Dawn thought, angry and relieved all at once. Her hands trembled with adrenaline as she picked up her coffee and took a long drink of the hot, sweet beverage.

Dawn meliorated her glare a bit, still feeling the icy sensation along her spine. "Yeah, tell that to my heart," she grumbled.

"Aww, I'm sorry Dawnie. Come on, tell me; so there's a guy. Is he nice? Is he cute?" Buffy queried, seeming to get excited at the prospect of a girl-gossip session. "I do have to warn you, I'm not the best person for advice on guys though...my love life pretty much sucked till I switched teams."

A combination of thoughts of Xander, coupled with the humorous truth of Buffy's admission thawed the last of Dawn's annoyance. "That's no lie," she agreed. "You always did have sucky taste in men."

"Yeah, but," Buffy objected half-heartedly. "You don't have to be so quick to agree,"

'Hmm, the secret to distracting Buffy...get her to talk about herself," Dawn realized, seeing how quickly the subject of 'her guy' had been forgotten, at least for the moment.

"I know you aren't exactly in the market for 'meat' anymore," Dawn started, getting a surprised look from her sister at the semi-risqu�llusion. "but what would you look for in the 'perfect' guy? Perfect for you, I mean."

"Oh, I don't know Dawnie," Buffy said, staring upward as she apparently gave the question some thought. "You know, the same as everyone wants, I guess...he should be nice, and sweet, and cute...strong...you know, good muscles; but not like a body builder or anything...he should definitely have a nice, firm butt!" she added, her hands making grasping motions.
Dawn laughed, but then chided, "Yeah, that's what everyone wants, but what about what Buffy Summers...the Slayer?"
Buffy's smile faltered. She closed her eyes and sat silently for a moment before answering. "Someone who I could trust. Someone who wouldn't get all freaked out about me being the Slayer, *and* he wouldn't try to be all macho and competitive."

'Poor Buffy,' Dawn thought as her sister again grew silent, almost pensive. 'I'm glad you never fell for Xander, cause then I wouldn't be able to have him now, but you would have had a much happier time, I think, if you had...'

"Someone who could know all the worst stuff about me...the darkness in me...and still accept me...still love me," Buffy whispered.

'Aww,' Dawn thought, moved by the emotion in her sister's voice. She reached over and grabbed one of Buffy's hands, squeezing reassuringly.

Buffy's eyes fluttered open and she immediately wiped the moisture away from them. She put on a smile and said, "And I managed to find two of them, they just didn't turn out to be men."

Dawn smiled warmly, "I'm happy for you Buffy. I think Willow and Tara are the best."

"Just me personally; I don't think a girl is what I'm looking for," Dawn said, still grinning.

"Well, that's okay," Buffy said. "Honestly, I don't think any girl other than Tara or Willow would ever interest me either."

Buffy blushed deeply and looked away. "I, uh, I don't know what you mean," she stammered unconvincingly.

'Yeah, right!' Dawn thought with an evil smile. 'You're so lucky that I don't want to upset you right now, or I'd be taking a long look at you and Faith right now...' Dawn thought regretfully.

"Besides, I thought we were talking about your new boyfriend," Buffy said, obviously trying to divert the subject away from Faith related attraction.

"How come you never went for Xander?" Dawn asked, again redirecting Buffy's attention.

"He didn't freak out about vampires, or about you being the Slayer...he knew all kinds of stuff about you; good and bad, and still stuck around. He was nice, and trustworthy, and funny, and cute," Dawn said, trying to keep her tone one of casual interest only.

'and strong, and masculine, and he smells good, and his eyes are so beautiful...' Dawn continued her list in her head. 'God, he's just so...so...Mmm, yummy-looking!'

'Mmm, I bet he tastes good too...' Dawn thought, still lost in a Xander-fantasy. She gave her head a little shake and thought, 'Focus Dawn! Buffy doesn't really need to know I'm dreaming of licking Xander's whole body like an ice-cream cone...I'm thinking it wouldn't be good for his heath.'

"I guess there's lots of reasons," Buffy went on, thankfully oblivious to Dawn's little mental side-trip. "I was really into Angel back then...plus Willow was pretty fixated on him, and I'd have really hurt her if I went after him."

"You know, I think the biggest thing...I just never looked at Xander like that," Buffy said with a tone of certainty. "I mean, I could see what Willow saw in him, but for me there was just no...I dunno, no sparkage or whatever you wanna call it. I love Xander, he's a really great friend and I would never want to lose that, but I guess I just never saw him as anything more-than-friendly...you know?"

"I guess," Dawn said aloud. In her thoughts she was more truthful, 'I don't get that at all!'

"Anyway," Buffy said, changing the subject. "I thought you wanted to talk about 'this guy' you mentioned."

Buffy blinked slowly several times, then tilted her head slightly and said, "Huh?"

"Hey Jessie," Xander said softly as he kicked some leaves away from the grass in front of the small grave marker and sitting down. "I know we just talked last week, but now I've got another problem that I can't talk to anyone about."

He looked around the secluded corner of the graveyard where Jessie's parents had put up a small memorial to the son that disappeared from their lives, never to be seen again. 'I wish I could have told them, but they would never have believed me,' he thought once again, as he always did when coming here. 'It took them two years to finally give up hope and move on with their lives...'

Shaking his head at the futility of that line of thinking, Xander continued his quiet conversation with his best friend's headstone. "I guess it's ironic, last week it was having to murder someone to save the world, and this week it's back to girl problems again," he said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"Funny, I found this girl that helped me with the murder thing, but now she's the problem!" he groaned, rubbing his hands tiredly across his face. "I've known her for, like, ever...she's beautiful, smart...and lately I've suddenly realized that she's really sexy. Oh, and I'm pretty sure she's got a big 'ol crush on the Xanman."

A brief chuckle escaped his lips and he added, "Yeah, I know. We had this conversation almost three years ago...but this time it's not Willow, and the problem isn't that she's seeing another guy...not that Willow is even into guys these days. That's another story all together. No, this time she's single, I'm single...we seem to like each other."

"I was having nightmares again last night...just like every night since I...since it happened. Oh, and I lost my employed status yesterday cause I was falling asleep on the job again, so there's some more stress in my life...Anyway, I'm sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself...yeah, again...and then she's there. I think my nightmare woke her up, even though she says it didn't. But she knew about my nightmares...about why I've been having them. She told me that...and I freaked! I was so sure she'd never want to see me again."

"She knew what I did, but she was afraid I hated *her* for it...'cause she knew that I kinda did it for her...I mean I did it for the whole saving the world thing; but at the end when I almost couldn't do it, when saving the world wasn't enough...I did it for her. I remembered what Glory would do if she ever came back, and that was enough to make me do it."

"I was so afraid she'd hate me for being a murderer...but she was there for me, bro. I'm waiting for her to start screaming at me and instead she literally got on her knees and thanked me for saving her life...no, not like that...yeah, it was the first thing I thought of too."

Xander shook his head briskly at the erotic mental images that instantly filled his head once again. "Yeah, I know, she's perfect�knows my deep dark secret and is totally cool with it...in fact, she knows for herself pretty much exactly what I'm going through...We fell asleep on the couch and I didn't have any more nightmares all night. It's the first good sleep I've had in a week!"

"So, what the hell's my problem? My problem is she's fifteen. She's the Slayer's little sister! I'm like some kind of freak-pervert, falling for Buffy's little sister! I'm so going to die the moment Buffy finds out...and I just can't keep it secret, man. Every time I see her, my eyes are, like, glued to her. She's all I think about; well, that and how Buffy or her lovers might kill me when they find out. And that's if her Mom or Giles don't kill me first, either way I'm screwed, and not in the good way."
"You should see her Jessie. She's so damn beautiful. She does not look like she's fifteen! She doesn't act like it either...I mean, she's almost sixteen but if you didn't know her you'd totally think she was, I don't know, like she's in college at least! Of course I know it doesn't matter. I should just get over it, 'cause it's never going to work...I keep telling myself that, but then I find myself thinking about her, or watching her, or coming up with ways that it could work."

He sat silently for a moment, just staring at the air in front of him. "Oh God, there has to be something wrong with me, I can't ever do the right thing when it comes to women!" he lamented, covering his face with his hands. "I feel so stupid...I ignore Willow for, like ever...fall in love with Buffy, who's so clearly beyond me. Then I fall for women who turn out to be demon insects, or killer mummies...Cordy and I hooked up and all we did was fight and make out. She dumped me on Valentines Day and what do I do? I get someone to cast a spell that makes every girl who *isn't* Cordelia in Sunnydale obsess about me...to the point of wanting to kill me rather than let anyone else have me; that was fun times! Cordy took me back just in time for me to figure out that Willow was a beautiful, sexy girl. More fun and near death injuries when we got caught with the unauthorized smoochies; plus it almost ruined mine and Will's friendship...I lost my virginity to Faith, who threw me out of her room right after, leaving me confused, ashamed and, well, sticky."

"Anya, Anya, Anya...Don't get me wrong, the sex was amazing...but it's like, that's all it was. God, I feel like an idiot! I was so completely pissed at myself when I finally figured it out; it's like she was the man, and I was the woman. She seduced me, wanted to do it constantly, and was completely insensitive to my, or anyone else's feelings...I even tried to change her; I constantly nagged her to try and make her behave the way I wanted...just like a stereotypical woman! I suppose I should just have given in and started wearing dresses!" he grumbled. "We were together for almost a year, and with a couple exceptions, all I have to show for it is regret,"

His low voice dropped to a hoarse whisper as he continued, "I just want something real; I want to be with someone I can love, and who can love me back. Something where we both know all the deep dark secrets about each other, and it's cool�and we don't try to change each other," He laughed bitterly as he finished his thought. "And this is how reality punishes me once again�I actually meet that girl, and she's my former crush's underage sister!"

'Yeah, I guess whatever the answer is, it ain't sittin' on my ass feelin' sorry for myself and talking to an empty grave,' he thought, pushing himself to his feet. He was distracted suddenly when he heard something nearby. 'What was that?' he thought sharply, looking around to try and place the noise. 'It sounded like something sliding...'

His years of graveyard patrols caused his skin to crawl between his shoulder blades.

When no repetition of the sound occurred he shook his head, thinking, 'Sun's shining, Xander. You're being paranoid even for you...'

He took one more look at the headstone and said, "Bye Jessie, I miss you bro," before turning and walking away.

'Boy, those blonde roots go all the way in...' the snarky thought popped into Dawn's mind.

Dawn lifted her coffee and took a long drink, trying to keep her hand from shaking. 'Adrenaline and caffeine...at least I'll have a good excuse for not sleeping tonight,' she thought ruefully.

Setting down her coffee and taking a deep breath, Dawn looked into Buffy's eyes and repeated her statement, "I said; we *are* talking about him."

Buffy frowned in confusion. "But," she lifted her own coffee to her lips. "We were talking about Xander," she said just before taking a drink.

'I do love you, Buffy...' Dawn thought with both humor and sympathy. 'Sometimes though, you're not the brightest candle on the cake...'

Buffy's eyes flew wide open and she made an aborted coughing sound. Twin jets of mocha sprayed out the Slayer's nose, splashing over her hand and cup.

Dawn slapped her hand over her mouth as she tried to restrain her laughter. 'Oh my God! That's, like, the funniest thing I've seen!' she thought as tears streamed down her face. 'She's so gonna kill me, but I just can't help it!'

The stifled laughter created pressure of another kind and Dawn jumped to her feet. "Oh God! Gotta pee!" she squeaked before running toward the ladies room, laughing hysterically and trying desperately not to wet herself.

'Holy cow! That was close!' she thought as she just managed to get her jeans and panties down in time to hit the toilet seat. She was still laughing out loud as the image replayed in her mind over and over.

She hadn't even finished her business before she heard the door to the bathroom slam open, followed by the sound of stomping feet.

"I...I'm s-sorry!" Dawn gasped out between peals of laughter. "I r-really am! But that...that...that was *so* f-funny!"

"Oh God! The coffee...it...it was like f-fire hose!" Dawn gasped, clutching her stomach.

"Well, you certainly went to a lot of trouble just to get a laugh!" Buffy groused sourly.

"Huh?" Dawn thought aloud. She forced herself to take deep, slow breaths as she thought, 'Okay, calm down...you're not making things any easier on yourself here Dawn...'

Before she managed to get herself put back together, Dawn heard her sister's retreat out of the ladies room.

"Oh good, you're back!" Joyce's voice rang out as Giles entered his, now their, apartment. "You won't believe what happened this...Are you okay?"

Giles smiled and tried to put his whirling thoughts into some semblance of order. "I...I just had the most unusual experience...I'm not quite certain yet how I feel about it," he explained as he hung his jacket on the coat rack.

His eyes slipped shut and he let out a sigh of pleasure as he felt his lover's arms slip across his chest and her body press against his back. 'Good lord, how I love you!' Giles thought happily. 'Already I cannot remember how I managed to come home to an empty apartment every day...'

"Come sit down and tell me about it," she whispered to him. "I'll even make tea."

"You are entirely too good to me, Joyce," Giles said with a warm smile as he allowed himself to be lead to the couch.

"Nonsense," she said dismissively as she walked into the kitchen and began filling a pot with water.

'Goodness woman, you make me feel like a young man again!' he thought, watching the sway of her hips as she walked away.

"I, um, you mentioned that something happened this morning?" he asked as his mind filtered her words from a few moments ago.

"You first, Rupert." Joyce said as she put the water on the stove and walked back into the living room. "What has you so discombobulated?"

"Hmm, that's as good a term as any, I suppose," he muttered. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose as he began to recount his experience. "I had gone to the cemetery...I...oh, you don't know...of course you don't." he trailed off as he came to a realization.

"I imagine you'll think me a sentimental old fool, but I have made a habit of visiting Jenny Calendar's grave every other week or so," He felt somewhat embarrassed at the admission and dropped his gaze down to where he was fiddling with his glasses,

"I suppose I felt more comfortable confiding some things to her, though she was gone, than to any of the children."

He looked back up at his lover and smiled sheepishly, "I wanted to tell her about us...Somehow it just didn't feel right that I should have such happiness in my life at last, and not share it with her, as I had all of the less pleasant times."

"It's not silly Rupert," Joyce said in a reassuring voice. "When Hank and I were growing apart, I used to visit my mother's grave every week, just to talk...to share my feelings when I felt that I had no one else to turn to."

"Yes, well," he said, feeling grateful that she sympathized. "In any case, I walked a rather circuitous route as I was leaving, and it happened that I came upon another person having a conversation with a marker. Normally, I wouldn't imagine intruding upon someone in such a manner, however I recognized the voice; it was Xander."

'That's interesting...' he thought as Joyce's expression changed. 'A rather knowing smile...almost a smirk.'

Joyce shook her head, "Go on, I'll explain later," she said with a humorous note.

Giles raised an eyebrow, but when Joyce seemed disinclined to elucidate any further, he continued with his own story. "Yes, well...Normally I wouldn't intrude on Xander's private conversation either, however, of late I have been concerned with his morale."

"He has seemed a little down lately," Joyce mused as he paused. "I wonder if something didn't happen to him in that fight...he's been different ever since then."

"I'm afraid that I overheard something rather disturbing," he said with concern. "It seems that Xander has...developed rather strong feelings�"

Giles mouth hung open for a moment as he stared with shock at his lover. "Good Lord! How did you know? I was so shocked that I nearly gave myself away!" he said with surprise and disbelief.

"Dawn came by this morning," Joyce said, her smirk softening into a gentler smile.

"I see," Giles said with a frown. "I had not gotten the impression that they were actually together, merely that Xander had developed strong feelings for her."

"No, they aren't together...yet." Joyce said with a pensive expression on her face.

He stared at Joyce for a moment, studying her face. "I must say, you aren't reacting at all as I expected," he said wonderingly. "When I overheard Xander's feelings toward Dawn, I myself wasn't certain whether I should shout at him, or console him. I would never have imagined that you would take such a revelation nearly so well."

The whistle of the tea kettle impeded further conversation at that moment. Giles again watched with interest as she walked away and as she began preparing the tea.

'Dawn and Xander...I certainly never imagined that pairing...' Giles mused ambivalently as he waited, his eyes never leaving his lover.

Joyce smiled quizzically as she handed him his cup and sat down next to him. "What?" she asked with a note of self-consciousness in her voice.

"Before you moved in, I never imagined that denim and fleece could be so...stimulating," he teased gently.

"Now then, why don't you tell me about your conversation with Dawn, before I am overcome, and entirely too distracted to listen." He suggested with a smile.

Joyce blushed again, but answered back. "Hmm, something to look forward to," she said with a predatory grin. Her smile fell somewhat as she began recounting the morning's events; "Dawn told me that she's been having nightmares."

'Oh dear...' Giles thought uncomfortably. 'I didn't imagine Dawn would be so quick to share that bit of information...'

'Well, I imagined there would be more rancor to that question,' he thought with relieved surprise.

"Yes," he replied simply, waiting for her response before offering any explanations.

Joyce stared into her cup as she continued, "I asked her why she didn't tell me...She said that she didn't think I could handle knowing about it at the time."

"I'm ashamed to say...I think she was right," Joyce whispered; the sadness clear in her down turned eyes.

Giles reached out, pulling her close to his side in a one-armed embrace. "There is no reason to be ashamed, Joyce," he reassured her. "You didn't choose this life for yourself or your daughters. You've had a burden dropped on you...something that the vast majority of the populace couldn't even imagine, let alone believe, and you have born up remarkably well!"

"I'm her mother, Rupert. I'm supposed to be there for her, to support her, not the other way around," Joyce said softly.

"You were. Despite not knowing the full extent of the difficulty Dawn was having, you were there for her. You offered her the support and love that she needed, Joyce," Giles said consolingly. "And, clearly, she did believe you would be able to deal with that knowledge, or she wouldn't have shared it with you today. I'm sure she simply didn't feel that that was the moment to do so."

Joyce nodded, "Yeah, that's what she said too...We had a nice little cry together, and then she dropped the bombshell on me."

"Oh yeah," she affirmed. "She asked how I would feel about the two of them being together."

"I, of course, assumed that she meant they were already," Joyce left the word unspoken.

"*Together*" Giles filled in, emphasizing the word and shaking his head. "That was rather a shock, I imagine."

"I imagine my first response would have been to go find Xander and give him a sound thrashing," Giles said, picturing his response to that question.

"That was my first thought too," Joyce admitted. "Of course, then I felt embarrassed when she explained what she meant."

"Really?" Giles asked, surprised. "I would imagine that most people would react the same way...I certainly would have!"

"She asked me if I really thought that little of Xander; that I would believe he would do something like that," she said.

"I...I can see her point, I suppose," Giles said as he mulled it over. "However, I think she might be judging you a bit harshly."

"She's right though," Joyce said, sounding chagrined as she defended her daughter's point despite it being against her herself. "I mean, we trust Xander with her life, without a second thought."

"Indeed," Giles agreed. "But this isn't a matter of trusting him with her life, but rather trusting a young, single man with a, a beautiful young lady whom we all know has a crush on said young man. I don't believe either of us would sit down and think it through and end up assuming that Xander would take advantage of Dawn, or we would never have allowed her to stay in his home."

"However, we also know that Xander has been prone to errors in judgment in the past, especially in matters of the heart," Giles reminded her. "I don't believe it is beyond reason to imagine that something might have happened despite either of their better judgment."

'Good Lord...' Giles thought as he was struck by a sudden realization. 'Could she have been deliberately trying to provoke that reaction...? Surely not...That would be a rather advanced manipulation...'

"Anyway," Joyce said with a little head-shake, "we ended up talking about her feelings for him, and she knew from one of our past conversations that I had been sexually active at a young age."

Joyce blushed. "Yes," she replied with a rueful expression. "We had a talk sometime after we found out about Buffy being together with Willow and Tara...she said she was thinking about sex a lot...she didn't mention Xander at the time, but I'm pretty sure that's who she'd been thinking about. Any way, she made a passing comment, asking if I hadn't thought about sex a lot at her age...I said something about doing more than just thinking about it."

Joyce shook her head and pursed her lips. "I know; daughters shouldn't be allowed to be so darn observant."

"I tried to divert the conversation, but she kept asking how old I was my when I...had my first experience," she said, looking flushed.

Giles licked his suddenly dry lips. "Oh my," he rasped as his mind created images of a young Joyce Summers in her first sexual encounter.

He was at once relieved and disappointed as she moved on from the subject. "I'd be a hypocrite if I tried to tell her she's too young," she said reluctantly.

Forcing himself to focus on the immediate discussion once again, Giles offered, "It wouldn't be hypocritical, if you were offering her advice based on your own experience. Do you feel now as though you were making the right decision when you first...when you were younger?"

"I...it's hard to say, Rupert," Joyce admitted. "My first reaction, of course, is to say that it was a mistake...I was a lot younger, and certainly less mature than Dawn is...but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it."

'Good Lord! Are you trying to kill me?' Giles wondered, setting his tea aside and squeezing his eyes shut as his body reacted to the images Joyce was inadvertently putting in his head.

His eyes snapped open and he gasped as he felt her hand brush over his hardening cock.

"Are you getting turned on by the thought of my first time?!" she demanded, setting her own tea aside with a clank.

"I, uh, well, that is I," he sputtered, trailing off as he saw the glint in her eye, and the smile tugging at her mouth. "Why, you...you wicked woman!"

Her attempt at a stern expression failed completely, and she giggled loudly at him. "I may be that, but you're the one acting like a dirty old man, Rupert...imagining young, teenage me...being with a boy for the first time."

"Now I know the source of Buffy's seemingly inexhaustible public coquetry...it was inherited!" Giles teased, feeling a little breathless at the look of lust in his lover's eyes.

"Why Mr. Giles," Joyce said, modulating her voice to that of a little girl's as she twisted and moved to straddle his lap. "Are you calling me a tease?" she asked in a tone dripping of sweet innocence.

Her voice, combined with her body pressing tightly against his own, caused the once staid watcher to swiftly reach full tumescence. His whole body rumbled with the low groan she elicited from him. "N...not at all my dear," he rasped out, any attempt at maintaining his composure hopelessly lost. "I was just considering...if your youngest daughter inherited the same tendencies...it may well be that Xander's past experience with Anya will be the only thing that saves him from an incendiary, albeit most pleasant, demise."

Joyce's answering laugh was less innocent and more predatory. She leaned close enough that he could feel her warm breath against his ear as she huskily whispered, "But, what a way to go!"

His breath caught in his throat as she slid down his body and ended up kneeling before him. "In...indeed," he agreed stuporously as she unzipped his fly and reached in to grab his erect member.

"Oh, look at what I found!" Joyce said, once again reverting to the little-girl voice as she pulled him out through his boxers. She began slowly stroking him root to tip and looked like she was about to say something else, when suddenly she looked down at herself and frowned. "I don't think the sweatshirt and jeans work for this...I really should be in a plaid skirt and white blouse," she said in a normal tone.

Joyce smiled up at him warmly. "You like that idea?" she asked, still with her usual voice.

Giles nodded rapidly, thinking, 'Role-playing...I never considered that she'd be interested in such games...'

"Well, we don't have time for that right now, we'll just have to make do," she said, releasing him just long enough to whip off her sweatshirt and kick off her jeans, leaving her in white cotton panties and bra.

Immediately she was back on her knees before him, stoking his cock and looking up at him through her eyelashes. "Mr. Giles! It...it's so big!" she said in a high, breathy voice. "And so hard!"

"Mr. Giles? If I promise to be a good girl, can I suck on your big, hard cock?" she asked, batting her eyes coquettishly.

"I...uh," he tried to articulate something, anything, but ended up just nodding his fervent agreement.

'I'm not going to last,' Giles thought, watching through slitted eyes as his lover leaned forward toward his engorged prick.

Joyce's eyes were nearly crossed as she looked down to his dick and gave it one long lick underneath the head from the frenulum up to the tip. "Mmm!" She smacked her lips and said, "Oh, Mr. Giles! You taste *so* yummy!"

"Oh Joyce!" Giles shouted hoarsely, finding his voice once again as she began to noisily suck on him, slurping and moaning on the head while she pumped her fist up and down the rapidly spit-slicked shaft.

"Nunhh! Ohhh, too good! Toooo Goooood!" he moaned loudly only a minute later. His hips began twitching and his inner thighs began to tingle in the manner that heralded his imminent release. "Oh Joyce...I'm," he strained out, trying to warn her.

She pulled him out of her mouth with a loud pop and keeping up her innocent voice, said, "Yes Mr. Giles? Do you have something for me?" She opened her mouth in a wide smile and reached out to tease the tip of his cock with her tongue before adding, "Something good?"

'I am a complete lecher!' Giles thought, her little-girl act sending him over the edge with a loud grunt as his orgasm overtook him. The sight of his lover as she caught the first surge of his release in her open mouth, and then swiftly gobbled his spurting cock back down her throat, caused Giles to throw his head back and squeeze his eyes shut, shouting her name in a long, drawn-out cry.

'I am a dirty, dirty old man,' he thought ruefully as his head lolled and he panted to catch his breath. He barely even noticed the feel of her climbing up onto his lap as he tried to recover his equilibrium.

"Mmm, that was fun!" Joyce hummed in obvious pleasure. "I always wanted to try something like that...but," she trailed off, leaving the rest of her thought unspoken.

"Clearly...your ex-husband," he began, speaking in between deep breaths, "was a fool."

"So, you enjoyed that?" she asked. Before he could answer she once again used her little-girl voice and added, "Was I a good girl, Mr. Giles?"

'Good heavens!' he thought as, remarkably, his spent cock actually twitched at the sound.
"If you'll...give me a moment...I'll show you...just how good!" he panted.

'Great, she's still pouting,' Dawn thought sarcastically as she returned to the table after having washed her hands and dried the tears of laughter off of her face.

"Okay, two things Buffy," she said with a serious voice. "First; that was funny, and you know it. If that had happened to anyone but you, you would have been laughing just as hard, if not harder than I did. Second; I wasn't making a joke. I am head over heels, madly in love with Xander Harris�and before you go running off to do serious bodily harm to the man I love, you need to know that nothing has happened between us yet. I wanted to talk to you before I pursue something with him because I know your first response would be to go beat him up."

Buffy sat silent for a moment. Her jaw moved up and down, and her face flushed red, but no sound came from the Slayer.
'Wow, that wasn't so hard,' Dawn thought, forcing herself to breathe slowly and steadily despite the adrenaline and caffeine racing through her veins.

"I know, you think of me as your bratty little sister...but you can't judge me on those memories Buffy. That's not who I am," Dawn said fervently. "I know it's hard, I remember me that way too, but I don't feel like that person."

"Dawnie," Buffy whispered, her expression softening as her eyes filled with some obviously strong, but indefinable emotion.

"From the moment you guys told me...I...I dunno Buf; in a lot of ways I feel like that was the first day of my life�my real life," Dawn said softly.

She smiled as Buffy reached out to her and grabbed her hand fast within her own.

"Well, obviously a six-month old is too young to start dating," Buffy said, in a clearly teasing voice.

"Well, I'm actually thousands and thousands of years old�I just look really good for my age," Dawn teased back.

Buffy's smile fell and she said, "Still, as far as the world is concerned, you're fifteen. That's too young to be dating a twenty year old."

"I'll turn sixteen before he turns twenty, Buffy. We're three years, eight months, two weeks, and four days apart," Dawn explained.

Dawn didn't bother to answer that, she just lifted one eyebrow and thought, 'Duh!'

Dawn shook her head as she thought, 'So like her...her opinion is like a sinking ship, but she won't jump off until her head is about to go under with it.'

"Hello pot, this is kettle!" Dawn said with a incredulous smile. "Let's work back through your boyfriends, Buffy. Riley was a grad student and you were a freshman...that's at least four years apart...you had a one-night stand with a senior while you were a freshman...that's three years...and then we have the biggie. How old was Angel, and you were sixteen?"

"I know that was kinda a low blow," Dawn said softly, feeling slightly ashamed. "But, you're being a little bit hypocritical, don't you think?"

Buffy visibly pulled herself together, apparently still clinging to her sinking ship. "I don't think that's a very good argument for your case, Dawn," Buffy said. "Angel and I didn't work out...in fact I'd have to say it was a mistake for us to ever get together."

"Don't get me wrong, I did love him," Buffy quickly pointed out. "I just think we...weren't meant to be," she finished with a slightly wistful note.

"I think you're right Buffy," Dawn said, careful to leave the 'duh!' attitude out of her voice. "Don't you think that was more because you were, like, natural enemies rather than because he was older?"

Dawn smiled at her sister's patented cluelessness. 'I swear, I wonder how you made it through High School sometimes, let alone college...' she thought uncharitably. 'It had to be cause of Willow...'

Out loud, Dawn explained, "You know; he's a vampire, you're a vampire Slayer," She laughed as she went on, "You guys always reminded me of that Far Side cartoon, the one where the wolf is handing the sheep a bunch of flowers...and the caption is like, 'it didn't work out, cause the wolf was afraid of what the pack would think, and the sheep just ate the flowers anyway."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "No Buffy...you're the wolf, Angel's the sheep...you know; you hunt his kind?"

"Oh," Buffy said sheepishly, completely missing the inherent irony. "Well, that's okay I guess...But you know, Me and Rye didn't exactly make a good match either."

"That's true, Buffy," Dawn admitted. "Do you really think he'd have been less insecure if he was younger? Do you think Parker would have been less of a jerk if you two were the same age?"

"The point," Dawn emphasized, hoping to get back on track, before Buffy derailed things with another tangential argument, "is that I agree that two people should be kinda the same in maturity, but I don't think the fact that we're around four years apart makes any more difference for me and Xander than it does for Mom and Giles, or for you and Angel or Parker or Riley."

Buffy sat silently for several moments, apparently absorbing that argument. Finally she said, "I dunno, Dawn. It just seems wrong, somehow."

"No, I didn't mean�" Buffy said ruefully, apparently just now realizing how that sounded.

"I know, Buffy," Dawn interrupted. "But, really, what's wrong with it? Don't you think Xander deserves someone who knows and accepts him, good and bad, and loves him with all her heart?"

"Don't you think I deserve someone who can accept the fact of my past, who can know all the secrets of my life and still love me?" Dawn interjected.

Buffy's face softened into a sympathetic look. "Of course," she reached to Dawn and cupped her cheek in one hand. "Of course you deserve to be loved."

"I don't think he loves me, yet. But I know he wants me," Dawn said with her smile turning sensual. She intercepted Buffy's predictable comment, saying, "I know, I know. Just because he's attracted to me doesn't mean anything, but it's a start. And I know he cares about me...isn't friendship a good building block to a relationship? After all, you and Willow started as best friends, and then when the attraction thing added up and you guys having nasty, hardcore snuggles�that worked out pretty good!"

"You wanted me to be open and honest, Buffy," Dawn reminded her sister. "Honestly, Xander's, like, all I can think about lately. I want to be with him in every way possible," her voice trailed off as images filled her mind.

'I don't think I'm quite ready to share these details with you Buff,' she thought. 'No matter how honest you think you might want me to be...'

"Hmm? Oh!" Dawn said with a little head shake and a slight feeling of heat in her face. "Sorry, I was having yummy Xander thoughts."

Buffy brought up her hands as if warding off an attack. "Whoa! *So* don't wanna know!" she said urgently.
Dawn laughed.

Buffy sighed heavily, staring at her coffee for a moment before taking a drink. "Obviously, whatever I say, you're gonna do what you think you should anyway," she said resignedly. "And...I guess whatever problem I have with it is really my problem to deal with anyway," she admitted with obvious reluctance.

"Thank you Buffy," Dawn said seriously. "I really appreciate you being understanding about this...I know it's probably going to feel strange seeing us together�and not pummeling him," She finished with a grin.

Buffy lifted her coffee and then smiled before taking a drink. "I just wish I could be there to see Mom's face when you talk to her.

'Okay, this time it's on purpose,' Dawn thought as she said, "Oh, I already did; she's cool with it."

Dawn didn't even bother trying to restrain herself, bursting into gales of laughter as Buffy once again jetted mocha out of her nose.

'I think this dinner just might be the most excruciating time in my whole life...' Xander Harris thought miserably. 'And, I'm including the times I've been chained up and awaiting certain death!'

He glanced across the table at Dawn and once again felt a shiver of desire run through him. 'God almighty, when she walked out of her bedroom after getting ready for tonight, I almost died right there!' he remembered. 'those jeans are so thin and tight, I don't know what's keeping them together! And that little halter top might as well be body paint for all it's hiding!'

"What do you think? This'll be okay for Bronzing tonight, right?" Dawn had asked as she walked into Xander's living room earlier that evening.

"Ahem!" he'd cleared his throat loudly, and then asked, "Wh...where did you g-get that...uh...outfit?"

'Spectacular. Truly spectacular. That is surely one of the finest asses that has ever been my pleasure to behold,' Xander's brain announced with an almost comical lucidity given the circumstances.

"Me and Buffy went by the former house after brunch and found a few boxes in the rubble of the basement...This is something she outgrew a couple years ago."

'But you're bigger than she is now!' he'd exclaimed, having just enough presence of mind to do it silently.

"Be honest, Xander," she'd said with a little pout when he remained unresponsive. "Do I look okay in this? Cause, it's not like I've got a lot to change into...until Mom springs for a little trip to the mall anyway."

'Good, as in so good all I can think of is how much I want to tear off those almost-clothes you're wearing, lay you down on the carpet and drive myself into you until I screw you right through the floor!' his libido had screamed inside him.

He recalled the way her smile fell, and her whole mood seemed to deflate a little. "Good?" she'd said with a frown, "Oh...I was kinda going for sexy," she mumbled with a shrug, turning away from him as if to hide the fact that she was blushing.

'Man, I can't believe how turned on I was!' he thought. 'I can't believe how close I came to jerking off in the bathroom�even with her standing in the hallway waiting for me!' he remembered with embarrassment. 'Thank God five minutes of ice cold water on my face was enough to get it down enough so I could at least walk semi-normal!'

Realizing that he was staring�again�Xander averted his eyes and looked out into the great-room of the girls' mansion. 'Jeeze, this place could use some repairs!' he thought.

"Yeah, Xan, didn't you enjoy the lasagna?" Buffy asked with a tone to her voice that Xander couldn't readily identify.

He felt his face flush slightly as he turned back to the table and saw six grinning females plus Giles with an eyebrow raised.
He gulped loudly, unable to immediately formulate a response.

Dawn didn't help matters when she said, "You only had two helpings, is that really all you want to eat?"

"Um, no thanks Dawn," Xander's voice rasped out harshly. "I, uh...would you all excuse me for a second?"

Dawn winced as Xander pushed back his chair and nearly leapt up and ran out of the room toward the nearest bathroom.

'Oh, God, I didn't mean to say it like that!' Dawn thought, humiliated and angry with herself for embarrassing Xander like that.

She turned to see various looks of disbelief from her family and friends. Giles was polishing his glasses furiously, and everyone else had bugged eyes and/or dropped jaws.

Except for Faith, who had a huge grin on her face. "Damn, little sis, that was a good one!"

Dawn covered her face with her hands and whined, "I swear I didn't mean for that to come out like that!"

'I'm a bad, bad person!' Dawn lamented silently, truly mortified at the scene that had just occurred.

"Come on ladies, let's clear this mess," Tara said to her two girlfriends as she stood up and began picking up plates.

"I, uh...I need some fresh air," Dawn mumbled, getting up from the table and walking out into the great room and out onto the patio/sunken-garden area.

'Good job, Dawn,' the youngest Summers berated herself as she stared up at the moon. 'I'm sure nothing's more attractive to a man than a girl who will humiliate him in front of his friends...'

'This is stupid, I should just tell him how I feel, and then tell him that Mom and Buffy are already okay with it, and...' a wicked smile crossed her lips as she thought of what she'd like to see next. 'Then I could take off all my clothes and get on my knees and beg him to teach me how to suck his cock. There's no way that he could say no to that, is there?'

Dawn closed her eyes and enjoyed the thrill of pleasure that flowed through her as she fantasized. 'I don't want him to think I'm like Anya or anything...but God I want him so bad!'

'Cause, with Faith, there's always something...' she thought with just a hint of trepidation.

Faith took a deep drag on her cigarette and blew the smoke upward into the night sky. "So, you're gonna make a play for X-man, huh?" she said almost challengingly.

Dawn smiled. 'So that's your game...' she thought. 'Too bad for you, I know your secret!'

"Maybe I was planning on steering him through the curves again," Faith said, feigning casualness.

The dark Slayer recovered quickly, and smiled as she said, "Well, you know, he wasn't bad last time I had him; pretty good for a virgin really...and I hear he's had lots of practice since."

'You're going to have to do better than that,' Dawn thought. 'I mean, sure I was pissed off, but that was, like, two years ago. Practically ancient history.'

"Too bad you kicked him out of your room right after," Dawn said, maintaining an even, friendly tone. "You could have been the one he practiced with."

"Well, you know," Faith said with just a tiny waver in her voice, and another long drag on her cigarette.

"...he had to spend a couple years in the minors, but maybe he's finally ready to get called up to the big league," Faith said, recovering quickly.

"Please, you've been trying to get into his pants since after the big fight with Glory," Dawn said. "You struck out every time," she added.

Dawn saw through the French doors as Xander re-entered the great room, and she decided to end the discussion with a decisive blow before Faith could rally. "Besides Faith, Xander's not the one you're in love with."

'That one made it through your armor, didn't it?' Dawn thought with a mixture of victory and sympathy as Faith's eyes widened in shock.

The brunette visibly struggled to regain her composure, saying, "You don't know what you're talking about, Dawn. I'm not in love with anyone."

Dawn ignored Faith's protestation of indifference and said, "You know, at least when Xander was with Anya, I knew it couldn't last forever; but even then it hurt every time I saw them together."

Faith looked like she was on the verge of panic as Dawn continued, trying to put her very real empathy into her words as she said, "I can only imagine how much it must hurt, seeing those three together and knowing they're gonna be together forever."

'She looks terrified...like she can't decide whether to run screaming, or tear my head off,' Dawn thought with a pang of trepidation.

"Don't worry, Faith. I'm not going to say anything to her...it's not my place." Dawn reassured her.

Just before she turned to leave, a thought occurred to her and Dawn said, "Oh, and Faith? Don't call me little sis anymore."

Xander vigorously dried his face off after another prolonged bout of splashing cold water on it. 'Oh man oh man I am so totally screwed!' he thought as he looked into the mirror. 'And, not in the good way!'

'They all know...there's no way they could *not* know after that little performance,' he lamented. 'Maybe Buffy'll take pity on me and kill me quick.'

"God I can't believe you said that, Dawn," Xander groaned out softly. "If you only knew the thoughts I was having, you'd probably have killed me yourself!" He looked over at the shower almost longingly, muttering, "I could really use a cold shower right about now."

His mind was more in tune with his body, however, and he immediately thought, 'or a good, hard...'

He took a deep breath and spoke to his reflection, "Okay Xanman, lets go out there and act like a fricken human being, not some hormone-challenged spank-monkey!"

He left the bathroom and slowly walked over to the dining room. He was surprised to find only Giles and Joyce there.

"Where'd everyone go?" he asked, not quite meeting either one's eyes directly as he stood behind the chair he'd recently abandoned.

"Willow, Tara and Buffy are tidying up the dishes, Dawn stepped outside for a moment, and I believe Faith joined her in order to smoke a cigarette." Giles answered.

Joyce stood up at that moment and said, "Well, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I need to use the facilities," and walked out of the room, leaving Xander alone with Giles.

Xander reluctantly sat down. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, and said, "So, you got elected, huh?"

"Yeah, you know," Xander explained. "I figured Buffy'd want to handle it personally, but whatever, I guess," he said resignedly.

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Xander," Giles said in what looked like genuine befuddlement.

Now it was Xander's turn to frown in confusion. "I thought...you aren't going to yell at me? Or lecture me?"

'Okay, I feel dumb enough most of the time, but this...' Xander floundered for a moment.

Giles looked surprised, and then laughed out loud. "Good Lord, Xander...I would have thought by now even you would have learned; women don't get angry when they're tormenting men successfully! They only lose their tempers when we're too thick to notice their efforts!"

'I'm sensing a reprieve here, but I'm not sure why...' he thought, feeling both mystified and relieved at the same time. 'Probably wouldn't be the smartest thing to question it though...'

Giles chuckled for a moment longer. When the laughter had died down, his face turned serious and he said, "Xander, our lives are necessarily very different from 'most' people."

After a moment, Giles spoke again, asking, "Have you ever heard the saying, 'War makes for strange bedfellows?"

"Uh, I thought that was politics," Xander answered, wondering 'Where the heck is this going?'

"Yes, that too I suppose," Giles said contemplatively. "The reason that our lives are such a strange mix of extremes is that we are, in essence, at war. It is akin to a guerrilla conflict much more than any quote, unquote 'traditional' sort of war...but war it is, have no doubt."

'No!' Xander thought. 'No way are we having this discussion, not here, not now!'

Before Xander could interject, Giles went on, "And, while this is not the time or place to discuss some of the more unsavory extremes to which we must sometimes go, there is also the other side of the coin to consider."

"We will likely give our lives to this conflict, Xander." Giles said bluntly. "Whether that means we sacrifice ourselves to an early grave, or we spend decades upon decades at it, it is unlikely that we will ever enjoy what might be considered a 'normal' life."

"Ookaay...I think I understand what you're saying, G-man, but I'm not sure where you're going with it."

Giles' smile was sardonic. "No, I don't imagine you do, but you likely will soon enough. For now, you should simply remember to be as open to the positive extremes, as you are the negative."

"Be open to positive extremes," Xander repeated, uncomprehendingly. "Right, I'm all over it G-man!"

"I swear, Shaw was right; youth truly is wasted on the young." Giles muttered, sounding exasperated.

It was Xander's turn to laugh. "I'm not gonna comment on that, except to say, think about what you would have said to that at my age, and feel free to apply it to yourself now."

The moment was broken when Buffy, Willow and Tara re-entered the room just then.

"Hey, where's Faith?" Buffy asked. "We wanna do a quick patrol before we hit the Bronze!"

"I believe she's just out in the garden," Giles said, pointing toward the French doors.

"Cool!" Buffy chirped. "Hey, you and Mom gonna hit the dance-floor with us?" she asked brightly.

"Ah, no. I think, emphatically not." Giles responded forcefully. A sly grin tugged at his lips a moment later and he added, "I believe your mother and I can find more...enjoyable...ways to spend our evening."

Tara and Willow nearly cried with laughter as Buffy and Xander simultaneously slapped their hands to their ears and shouted "No details!"

As Dawn walked into the great-room, her mother was walking out of the dining room toward her. 'Great,' Dawn thought resignedly.

"Come over here, Dawn," Joyce said. "Let's give the boys a moment to themselves."

Dawn collapsed onto the couch with a groan, "Oh, God!" She rubbed her hands down over her face and then shook her head, annoyed with herself. "The moment it slipped out of my mouth, I wished I could just suck it back in!" she explained.

When she opened her eyes, she saw her mother blushing and staring at her with wide eyes.

Joyce laughed suddenly, shaking her own head. "I think, with all the unresolved tension between you two, you're going to have a lot of unintentional double-entendr�"

'The moment it slipped out of my mouth...' Dawn mentally reviewed her statement. It hit her about halfway though and she again closed her eyes and groaned, "Oh God!" as her mother cruelly continued to laugh at her. 'I'm a bad, bad person...' she lamented as she felt her face grow hot.

After a few moments, her mother finally stopped laughing and said with a more serious note, "I saw what you meant...about him looking at you with *that* look."

Joyce smiled wanly as she responded, "He doesn't look very...I think he's attracted to you, honey, but I don't think he's very comfortable with that fact himself."

Dawn smiled with relief. "Oh, I know what you mean. I'm going to have to convince him, I know. But, could he possibly be more uncomfortable about it than Buffy was?" she asked rhetorically. "I think *not!*"

"Yes, how did your talk with your sister go?" Joyce asked. "Obviously she must have come around, but I take it that she wasn't easy to convince?"

Dawn laughed at the memory. "It was frustrating...but it was funny too, I made her snot coffee out her nose twice!"

"Uh huh, you'd have laughed too!" Dawn challenged. "It's her own fault, anyway."

Dawn chuckled at the memory. "She wouldn't believe me! I mean, we talked about why she never went for Xander for a little bit, and then when she got uncomfortable and said we should talk about the guy I was interested in, I said we were." Dawn shook her head and said, "It didn't register at first, cause she's all, 'no�we were talking about Xander', and I'm all; 'Yeah, I'm in love with Xander,' and then it was mocha nasal spray...only backwards."

"Oh dear, what did you do?" Joyce said with a grin pulling at her mouth despite her apparent efforts to stave it off.

"I tried not to laugh, really I did!" Dawn said earnestly. "It actually was hurting holding it in, but I think I would have made it, except then all that coffee I drank."

Joyce's eyes widened and dropped towards Dawn's lap seemingly of their own volition. "Oh honey, did you...?"

Dawn had to laugh at the blush on her mother's face at that moment. "No, thank God! I ran to the restroom and made it just barely in time," she recounted with remembered relief. "I was so sure I wasn't going to make it! And, of course I'm all laughing my butt off the whole time, cause no way I could hold that back too."

"She didn't believe me!" Dawn said indignantly. "She came all storming into the bathroom and bitching that I had done it on purpose." The brunette shook her head at the memory. "She thought I just made up the whole thing just to make her blow coffee out her nose!"

"Well...that would have been a little bit elaborate, even for you," Joyce agreed hesitantly. "However, you have to admit that it isn't completely out of the question."

Dawn ducked her head a bit and could feel her face grow slightly warm at her mother's gentle remonstration. "Okay, so maybe I do like to play with her...a little," Dawn begrudgingly admitted.

'Busted!' Dawn thought, privately adding, 'Hey, when you have a talent, it's a shame to waste it, isn't it?'

Joyce chuckled at her daughter's thin excuse. "Still, she obviously came around eventually," she said.

Dawn nodded and allowed the change back to the earlier subject. "Yeah, it was kinda hard for her to really push the age thing too much."

Her mother nodded, but didn't say anything for several moments, appearing to be lost in thought.

Eventually Joyce said, "I think you need to talk to him as soon as possible, Dawn. Before the poor man goes insane from the tension between the two of you, and guilt he seems to be suffering over it."

'Holy...! I can't believe she said that!' Dawn thought, shocked. 'It doesn't look like she can believe it either!' she thought at her mother's uncomfortable-looking body language.

'Joyce shook her head, rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "I never in a million years imagined that I'd be the cheerleader for my teenage daughter trying to seduce an older man, but," she trailed off, shaking her head again.

Joyce looked intently into Dawn's eyes and said, "I thought about what you said all morning...about Xander, and what he's done for you, and for Buffy...He's a very special man. You don't really notice it, he's so unassuming and down-to-earth...always trying to make people laugh, and be at ease around him." She looked down at her hands and said, "It was the same with Rupert; I never really noticed what an incredibly wonderful person he was...and how lucky we were to have him in Buffy's life compared to some of the other watcher's I've seen...I feel very fortunate that I had a second chance with him considering how I pushed him away after the 'band candy' incident."

'Wow, I never knew she felt like that,' Dawn marveled at her mother's revelation. 'I always thought she just lived in denial...'

Joyce took Dawn's hands in her own and again stared deeply into her eyes. "Listen to me Dawn, you grab Xander with both hands and never let him go! He'll be the kind of man that women fantasize about, but never believe is actually real."

"I will, Mom," Dawn said softly, but with all seriousness in her voice. "I plan to make Xander Harris mine!"

Joyce searched Dawn's eyes, as though looking for something. 'She must have found it,' Dawn thought as her mother's expression softened into a smile.

"Good!" Joyce said decisively. "Just remember one very important thing," she added.

"I never want to hear *any* of the intimate details of your relationship!" Joyce said with a smirk.

'Okay, this is bad,' Xander thought. He was sitting in the dining room in the triad's mansion, by himself. Joyce and Giles had gone home, the triad and Faith had gone on patrol. 'Just me and Dawn...alone...together.'

Dawn appeared at the entrance to the dining room, her body language tentative. "Hey Xan, what'cha doin?"

'Hiding from you!' Xander's mind shouted. "Uh...nothing," he said slowly. 'Jeeze, I can't even come up with a halfway decent excuse!' he lamented.

"Oh," Dawn said, her own speech sounding a little hesitant. "Can you come out here? I, um, I kinda want to talk to you about something."

"Sure," Xander said. He managed a relatively calm exterior, but inside he was trembling. 'Oh man, oh man...this can't be good...either she's going to call me on my little wig-out, or...or worse!'

'Oh God,' Xander thought as he followed the slender brunette out into the great room. 'I just can't keep my eyes off of you, Dawn! You're so...God, those pants are...I'm a bad, bad man!'

Dawn sat down on the couch and Xander took a seat at the end farthest from her, nervously rubbing his hands on his thighs. 'So sexy, God Dawn, you're killing me!' he thought as his eyes kept roving her body, despite his efforts to keep them on her face.

His nervous tension drove him to speak before she could say anything. "Look, Dawn, about earlier...I'm sorry I was such a spaz."

"Don't," Dawn interrupted him. "I didn't mean to say it like that, at least, not in front of everyone else like that." She said with a faint blush and a small grin.

'I don't know what to say to that,' Xander lamented. 'At least, not without digging myself even deeper...'

Dawn licked her lips and scooted closer to him, until their knees were touching.

'Holy God!' Xander flinched slightly at the contact. His breathing deepened and his heart sped up significantly.

Dawn's eyes were the deepest ocean blue he'd ever seen. She licked her lips again before speaking in a husky voice, "The way you look at me Xander."

'I'm dead! I'm so dead!' he thought, his eyes widening like saucers as the youngest Summers looked at him with a hungry expression.

"I feel like I'm going to melt from the heat in your eyes," she continued, her voice dripping with desire.

"Oh God!" Xander cried in a strangled whimper as Dawn's hand came to rest on his thigh.

"I know you want me, Xander. You couldn't hide it if you tried," Dawn said with a confidence that was surprising.

'No freaking way should a fifteen year-old be able to say things like that!' he screamed in his head.

"I need to know something," Dawn said, not sounding quite so confident suddenly. "I need to know if," her eyes dropped and her voice held a note of almost fearfulness.

"What?" Xander surprised himself by asking. 'God, why can't I just get up and run!? I can't let this go where I *so* want to go right now!' he cried in silent shame at his perceived weakness.

"Dawn...I...we can't," he stammered, confused by the shifting emotions both inside himself and in her demeanor.

She looked up into his eyes intently and quietly spoke. "We can talk about all the reasons it'll never work in a minute. Right now, I need to know...Xander please, forget about everything else and be honest with me," she pleaded. "Do you have feelings for me? Or, is it just lust? Am I just a sex-object to you?"

"Oh God, Dawn! Of course you're not just...I mean, I shouldn't even...what I feel for you...I...God if you were just a little older, I'd," Xander sputtered.

"Try to win your heart," he blurted out. Immediately, he shut his eyes and shook his head, 'Stupid! Idiot!' he raged at himself.

Xander stood up and moved several steps away from the source of his confusion before saying, "I shouldn't have said that, Dawn. It doesn't matter 'cause it's not going to happen!"

'Jesus I'm weak!' Xander chastised himself as his eyes moved to hers as if of their own volition.

"Well...you're almost sixteen, but that's a few months off yet," he said. 'Where are you going with this?' he wondered.

Dawn stood up, taking a step towards him as she asked, "Do I speak like a fifteen year-old?"

"I guess, not usually," he muttered, thinking of how girls talked when he was in High School.

Moving closer, Dawn's voice grew softer as she said, "Would you describe my emotional maturity as that of a fifteen year-old girl?"

"No," Xander said. 'Definitely more mature...heck sometimes I think you're more mature than me!' he mused. 'Not that that's saying much...'

Stopping well inside his personal space, just short of touching him, Dawn asked, "Xander, do I look like a fifteen-year old girl to you?"

Looking down at her, Xander was treated to an excellent view of her cleavage, as well as her large, seductive eyes and her pouting lips. "God, no!" he rasped, feeling desire mix with shame.

"No one likes to talk about it, but the truth is; a year ago I didn't even exist," Dawn said, still with that soft, sweet voice.

"Or, I did, but not in human form," she went on, ignoring his interjection. "Really, I'm older than you can imagine...I just don't remember any of it."

The side trip away from overt seduction gave Xander a chance to re-start his brain and think a little more clearly. "Dawn, everything you said is true...but, in people's minds you're still fifteen."

'Hell no!' his libido chimed in its opinion. 'Shut up, this is reality time, not fantasy time! Great, yelling at myself...now I'm schizophrenic!'

"Honestly, Xander. In your mind, do you see me as a little girl, someone who can't be trusted to know her own heart?" she asked.

"Dawn, I...it's hard to think with you standing so close," he blurted out before he could sensor himself.

"No," slipped out of his mouth as desire momentarily won over reason. "I mean, yes, thank you."

She stood silently, and after a moment her smile turned into a grin, and she tilted her head, giving him an, 'I'm waiting' type look.

'Doh! The question!' he chastised himself when he realized he was staring like an idiot. 'What did she ask me?'

Still, she didn't laugh at him. She just calmly said, "You said I'm still just a fifteen year-old girl in people's minds. I asked if that's how you see me, as a little girl."

'How do I see you...other than the total hottie I've been fantasizing about for a week now...' he considered the question.

"Honestly, Dawn, if you had asked me that a couple weeks ago I probably would have said yes," he said after a moment.

"I'm not asking you two weeks ago. I'm asking you now," she prompted, her voice still calm and even.

"No, I guess I don't," he admitted reluctantly. "I...That doesn't matter though, Dawn. We can't just think about ourselves�other people matter. Other people's opinion's matter!"

"And your Mom, and Willow and Tara and Giles and Faith," he started. "Well, Faith would probably just tell me to go for it," he said as he thought about her.

"But, yes, especially Buffy!" he said, getting back on track. "Do you think I'd live for more than five seconds if your sister ever found out I'd...touched you," his rant trailed off as he finished the thought. 'God I so want to touch you Dawn!' his libido once again offered its opinion.

"You think about it, though, don't you?" Dawn asked; her voice once again husky with desire. "You've thought about touching me...being with me?"

She stepped closer to him, not as close as she had been, but only a step away as she asked, "Xander, if Buffy and Mom and the others weren't against it, would you give us a chance?"

"Dawnie," Xander said gently. 'Sure, in fantasy land something that good might happen to me...' he thought cynically.

"What if I told them that I had found somebody," Dawn began, moving a little closer as she spoke. "Somebody that knew the truth about me, where I came from, what I am...someone who wouldn't run away when they found out people were hunting me...someone who would risk their life...who would fly across the country on a moment's notice to come to my rescue."

"Dawn," he again tried to interject despite the warm emotion filling him at her description.

"What if I told them I'd fallen for a wonderful, loyal, handsome and incredibly sexy man...a man who was strong, and devoted, and would never hurt me, but would do anything to protect me�even if it hurt him terribly? Do you really think they would still object to us being together?"

Xander suddenly remembered his conversation with Giles from just a little while ago. 'Be open to positive extremes...Oh my God!' Chilling fear suddenly washed through Xander's body. 'She...she's not talking hypothetically...'

"Dawn?" Xander's voice was hoarse and raspy. He attempted to clear his throat before continuing, "What did you do this morning?"

"I told my Mom and my sister that I was falling for this incredible, wonderful guy."

Dawn continued on blithely, "...convinced them not to hunt him down and kill him...explained all the reasons why he was perfect for me...and eventually got their permission to try and win him over."

Dawn closed the remaining distance between them as she said, "I knew I'd have an even harder time convincing you, than I would with Mom and Buffy, so I started with them."

'Burning...hot...Oh God!' Xander thought as Dawn's body pressed against his own.

She reached up with one hand, pausing, hesitant for a moment before completing the gesture and cupping the side of his neck just below his ear.

'Oh God, oh God, ohGodohGodohGod!' he thought, panting as her touch sent an intense heat through his flesh.

"Will you let me try to win your heart?" she asked with an audible gulp. "Please? You already have mine."

"She is, isn't she," Tara said in agreement. 'Of course it goes without saying that she's not even in Buffy's class...' she thought, feeling just a little smug.

'I wondered how long that would take,' Tara thought, her grin threatening to grow into laughter. 'I wasn't missing your subtle hints...not that they were all that subtle...'

Schooling her features once again, Tara said, "I don't know...You don't want to watch Buffy?"

Tara noticed out of the side of her eye that the redhead was pouting as she said, "But she's not doing anything! She's letting Faith have all the fun."

There hadn't been any vampire activity during their patrol until just a few minutes ago when they came across four scraggly-looking vamps menacing a drunk frat-boy who had apparently made a wrong turn on the way back from a party somewhere. Faith had leapt into the fray, taking down two of them, and was now in the process of pummeling them. Buffy had taken the other two and was actually holding them up in the air by the scruff of their necks, apparently unfazed by their wild gyrations as they sought to free themselves.

Frat-boy had knocked himself out when he tried to run away, and ran straight into a lamp post.

"...Still, it's pretty impressive, don't you think?" Tara asked Willow. "I mean, look at her! Those things are at least twice her size, and she's holding them up like they're light as air!"

"You're right, it really is impressive," Willow allowed. "Why do you think I'm so antsy?"

"That's just it," Willow answered in a seductive tone. "One of you I could deal with...but with Buffy over there showing off, and you standing right here, smelling so delicious that I want to go down on you right here in the alley...it's driving me crazy!"

Tara watched, captivated as the redheaded witch slowly licked her lips and ended up slightly biting her lower lip, all the while moving her gaze up and down Tara's body. 'Oh my!' the blonde thought, suddenly feeling flushed. Beads of sweat popped out along her hairline as a feeling of heat washed through her body everywhere Willow's gaze went.

The spell was slightly broken as Faith's voice rang out down the alley, "Hey B, what'cha doin over there?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to wait and see if you wanted a couple more playmates. I figured you could stand to burn off some energy."

Faith performed a spinning high kick, smashing one vampire's nose and knocking it to the ground. She continued her turn, dropping to a crouch in order to sweep the feet out from under the vamp on her other side, sending it so the ground nearly parallel to the first one.

"Tell you what, B," Faith said, dodging a punch from the vamp who had just jumped to his feet. "Why don't we split 'em," she said, grabbing the arm of that same vamp and throwing him over her shoulder into the other, who was climbing to his feet just in time to be bowled over once again.

"Okay," Buffy agreed. "Head's up!" The blonde Slayer threw both vampires straight up into the air, nearly ten feet above her head. Before they had begun their journey back down, Buffy leapt into the air, performing a pirouette that spun her short skirt straight out from her body, and then snapped her legs out in a splits-kick that sent one vamp flying through the air towards Faith, and the other right into the brick wall of the building on the near side of the alley with a meaty 'thwack'.

Faith had the presence of mind to duck, letting the flying vamp pass overhead and right into the two she'd been fighting, sending all three into a pile at the base of the wall on the far side of the alley.

The pile of three vampires took that moment to get up and, sensibly, run toward the mouth of the alley.

"My pleasure Mistress!" Willow called out excitedly. She made a casual flicking gesture with her hand and the three immediately fell to the ground screaming. Their bodies glowed red and then burst into flames, as though burning from the inside out. Within a second of them hitting the ground, all that remained was ash and the echo of a scream.

Tara's eyes flicked over to Faith at the Slayer's soft gasp. 'Oh goodness, I think you frightened her badly, Willow,' she thought. 'She's white as a sheet!' A shiver went down Tara's back herself at the intensity of Willow's chosen demise for the vampires.

"Mistress?" Buffy brought Tara's attention to the remaining vampire, who was beating feet down the alley in the opposite direction. "Would you like that one?"

"I'll let Faith decide," Tara said, not wanting to leave their hunting partner out of the action.

Faith still looked shaken by what she'd seen. "Ahh, that's cool, you go ahead," she said, her voice higher than was usually the case.

'Poor Faith,' Tara thought. 'Not used to being the least powerful girl in the crowd, are you?' she wondered as she reached out with her power and dragged the fleeing vampire back down the alley towards them. She levitated a stake into the air and pulled the vampire onto it in a reverse of the usual staking motion.

"Are you okay Faith?" Willow asked, her voice sounding genuinely concerned. "You look kinda pale."

"Yeah, uh, Willow...Ya'know, five by five," the dark Slayer said, her voice growing stronger as she visibly pulled herself together. "So, we gonna go hit the Bronze, or what?"

"Yeah, and we can drop off the Greek, who had to much to drink on the way," Willow offered her opinion.

'Uh huh, you just want to get me and your pet hot and bothered...not that that's really a problem,' Tara mused. Aloud, she said, "We have to go back and pick up Dawn and Xander first."

"Oh!" Willow interjected. "You don't think they're...you know," she trailed off, grinning and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"What, you think maybe X-man's popping little sis's cherry right there on you guys' living room rug?" Faith asked with a coarse chuckle.

"Ugh! Faith!" Buffy immediately chastised her sister-Slayer, getting a sour look on her face. "Please! Mental image I *so* don't need!"

"I think they'll make a cute couple," Tara said with a warm smile. 'Plus they won't both be so stressed out all the time...' she thought humorously.

"Yeah, Buff," Willow added with a giggle. "I mean, I get that it's kinda weird for you, Dawnie with a boy, but you just can't ignore the hotness that is your sister these days."

Faith seemed fully recovered as she interjected, "Yeah, plus the X-man's looking pretty good. All grown up and filled out in the right places...it's no wonder little sis is lookin to take him for a test drive."

"Argh!" Buffy closed her eyes, slapped her hands over her ears and chanted, "La la la la la, I can't hear you!"

Tara couldn't help but laugh at the girls' antics. 'Now, this is more like it,' she thought. 'I much prefer it when we're all getting along. Though, I think Buffy's going to be in for some serious teasing...and Willow's in for some serious spanking!'

Buffy dropped her hands and grimaced. "They'd better damn-well not be! I might have to forget my promise not to pummel him to death!" she growled threateningly.

'Okay, enough for now...' Tara thought. "Come on," she said, leading the way out of the alley. "Xander wouldn't do something like that."

'Well, maybe just once more...' Tara thought with amusement. "No matter how hard Dawn begged," she added, smiling broadly at her Slayer's choking sound behind her.

A panting form entered the underground tunnel, scrambling to find its voice. "I found her! I have seen the Slayer with my own eyes not twenty minutes ago!"

"She and her attendants were toying with a handful of vampires, and I overheard them speaking of a place called the Bronze," said the news bringer.

"A gathering place for the young ones in this Sunnydale," muttered the third voice.

"We must gather all that remain and face the Slayer as soon as possible, perhaps as they leave this Bronze," came the command.

"Though she slay us to the very last, nevertheless this we must do!" was the final command.

'Wow! Oh...mmm...lips...warm...good...' Dawn's mind was reduced to monosyllabic thoughts as the object of her affections for the last several years fulfilled one of her many fantasies�giving Dawn her very first kiss.

Xander's lips slid slightly away from hers for just a moment, then returned with short, nibbling kisses on her upper and lower lips.

'Xander...oh God!' Dawn thought as her world narrowed down to soft lips and warm breath. She was barely aware of her hands clutching tightly to his shoulders. His hands were more noticeable as one came to rest on the bare skin of her lower back, his fingertips just resting on the swell of her buttocks. The other hand was slowly moving up under her hair, blazing a hot trail along the flesh over her spine until it came to rest gently cupping the nape of her neck.

'We can do this for the rest of my life...' Dawn imagined, finally achieving some semblance of a coherent thought.

After a minute, Xander pulled away from her, but rested his forehead against hers, their noses rubbing just slightly together as he sighed heavily and whispered, "Dawn...God I've been thinking about doing that for the last week."

Dawn laughed briefly and said, "I've been dreaming about doing that...well, for longer than I've technically been human, really."

'Uh oh,' she worried at Xander's answering laugh. 'That was a little bit strained, I think.'

'No, please...don't push me away. Not now...' she thought as her hands slid down his shoulders to just below his ribcage.

"It's just what?" she softly asked, her hands moving around his back as if unconsciously seeking to keep hold of him.

'That look!' Dawn thought, her heart fluttering. 'You make me melt when you look at me like that!'

"It's not a dream," she said, her arms tightening around him as she tried to reassure him, as well as herself.

He grinned as he continued, "Another part of me is expecting Buffy to walk in her any moment now and kick my ass."

Dawn smiled back, saying, "I think the worst she'll do is tease you mercilessly."

"Please, oh please don't run away from this, Xander!" Dawn thought, feeling her heart squeeze in her chest.

She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until he softly answered, "I'm...I'm not going to run away Dawn."

"I...there's just," he stammered, seeming to be having difficulty putting his thoughts into words.

"It feels a little weird?" Dawn offered, even as she felt a pang of sadness at the possibility.

"Not so much weird," he said, causing her chest to unclench a bit. "There's just...it's not going to be easy, Dawn."

'God, Xander! Your hands...are a little distracting!' Her eyes slipped half shut at the sensations his softly stroking fingers were eliciting.

"The age thing...I get that you aren't a little girl, Dawn...boy oh boy, I get it!" he said with a shuddering breath.

"I get it, and maybe even Buffy and your mom get it...but you're still a freshman in high school!"

'Mmm, not seeing point...' she thought. 'Feel hands, fingers...touching...Focus Dawn!' she chastised herself.

"It's just, if people...if teachers in your school were to find out that we..." Xander trailed off, his hands suddenly moving over her skin with more deliberation.

"That we...?" she breathed. Her own hands began to explore his back, moving down to his butt. 'God, I've fantasized about your butt, Xander...'

The tips of Xander's fingers dipped just barely under the waistband of her thong, grazing across the top of the cleft of her ass, and Dawn's whole body trembled. 'Oh God, these panties are so ruined!' she thought as the heat flowed like a river through her body.

"I think...I shouldn't want that...but I do," he whispered, his eyes dropping almost as if in shame.

"Hey!" Dawn exclaimed. "If anyone found out that we think we fight vampires and demons on a regular basis, we'd be in trouble too, but that doesn't stop us from doing what we have to do."

"It is," Dawn acknowledged softly. "The point's still valid though; we shouldn't let other people's opinions tell us how to live, especially those who don't have a clue what's going on with anything, let alone us."

"That's easy to say, Dawn, but not so easy to do," Xander remonstrated gently. "We have to be careful, people are a lot more likely to believe in me taking advantage of you, than they are vampires or demons."

"Then we'll be careful," Dawn acknowledged. "Xander, I...this isn't just a crush that I feel for you. And I'm not putting you up on a pedestal, I mean, you have faults like anyone else in the world."

Dawn chuckled. "Seriously, I like you a lot, Xander. I like being around you, I like talking with you about everyday stuff, I like how you always try to make everyone laugh, even when I can tell you aren't really in a laughing mood yourself."

She moved one hand around to his front, stroking up his chest until she was resting her hand on his neck. Xander's eyelids grew heavy with desire and his fingers continued their maddeningly light touches.

"I like watching tv with you...the way you always chastise the characters for doing dumb stuff...even if you do always hog the chips!" she said lightly, though her voice was deepening with desire.

"Hey, a man's gotta protect his chips!" Xander protested, but his voice clearly indicated that his mind was less focused on his declaration, and more on the sexy girl in his arms.

"I love the feel of your hands on my skin," Dawn blurted as her hormones took over her efforts to communicate her feelings. "And your lips."

Her eyes slipped shut, and her arms tightened around him as she succumbed to the feel of his lips. 'Oh, tongue...tongue is nice!' she thought as she was gently encouraged to open up to his probing kiss.

Xander's tongue slowly explored her mouth, twining around her tongue laconically. Eventually she grew accustomed to the sensation and began her own tentative movements, actively participating instead of passively experiencing. Kissing instead of merely being kissed.

'This is...wow, I totally get it!' Dawn thought, feeling deep joy springing forth from inside her. 'I figured it must be great, cause people really seem to enjoy it, but this...is incredible!'

Her hands move to mirror his own, one of them moving up into his hair, combing through it to cradle the back of his head, and at the same time pull herself closer to him. Her other hand moved down to his butt. 'Oh Xander!' she moaned mentally as he gasped against her lips. 'Nice, tight butt!'

She gasped right back as his hand moved over her own derri�, squeezing softly, and cupping her cheek. 'Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Xander! I so want you right now!' she thought with a desperate whimper.

She had to take a couple breaths before she could even say his name in answer. "Xander?"

"Yeah, I mean...with the physical stuff," he said almost sheepishly. "I...I kinda jumped into the physical stuff too fast before...and then it was too late to try and build all the other things a relationship is supposed to have."

Dawn moved her hands back to his sides, not letting go, but not pressing things either. "Xander, I," she began with a slight note of disappointment in her voice.

"I...I guess I'm okay with that," she said with some hesitancy. "But I'm not Anya or Faith, Xander. I'm not just looking for something physical, or something short term here."

Xander smiled gently. "I get that, Dawn. I really do. And I don't think of you that way...like Anya or Faith I mean."

"I mean, I don't know exactly what you planned, I'm not saying you just wanted to jump straight into bed or whatever," he began explaining.

"But I'm not making that mistake with you Dawn," he continued. "Like I said, this won't be easy...you and me...but I'm definitely interested in trying to make it work."

'Hmm, I notice that going slow apparently doesn't include letting go of my butt...' Dawn moved her hand back up to his hair, and in a sultry voice said, "Just so I'm clear on this...The kissing thing�is that allowed under the 'going slow' policy?"

Xander's eyes widened for a heartbeat, then slipped half-shut as he answered, "Oh yeah. Kissing is definitely part of the policy."

'Aww, they're adorable!' Tara thought as she and the other three girls quietly entered the mansion to see Dawn and Xander sitting on the couch, gently making out.

Dawn was sitting in Xander's lap�sideways, not straddling. Her back was to the room's entrance, and Tara could see one of Xander's hands supporting her lower back and he was combing his fingers through the hair at the nape of her neck with the other.

Dawn and Xander reacted like someone had shot a gun, leaping apart and up from the couch with looks of shock. 'That was mean! Poor Xander looks scared to death,' Tara thought, humor warring with sympathy. 'Uh oh, Dawn looks a lot more mad than startled.'

Buffy and Willow and Faith began cracking up, while Tara restrained herself to a smile.

"Damn, Xman, I thought you were gonna wet yourself!" Faith joined in on the ribbing.

Willow was still laughing too hard to say anything as she wiped tears from her eyes.

Xander collapsed onto the couch, one hand clutching at his chest, the other gripping the arm of the couch. "Oh God!" he panted. "Bad Slayer...Not nice."

Tara watched with trepidation as Dawn approached Buffy. 'Goddess, if I didn't know Buffy was the Slayer, I'd actually be worried about her right at this moment!' she thought, seeing the look of determination on the younger Summers' face.

Dawn stepped well into Buffy's personal space, using her slight, but noticeable height advantage to look down at her older sister as she said, "Not funny Buffy Ann Summers."

Buffy stopped laughing and looked up at her sister with a confused, but slightly haughty expression. 'Well, she certainly doesn't look intimidated...' Tara thought. 'I wonder what Dawn is planning...'

"You'd better behave yourself around my boyfriend, *big* sis," Dawn said, emphasizing the irony of the term.

"Or...the next time we have a family dinner, I'm gonna tell the story of the homecoming carrot incident," Dawn said with a smile that screamed 'checkmate'.

'Homecoming carrot incident?' Tara thought with a frown. 'What could...oh my goddess!' her train of thought was derailed by the look of abject horror on Buffy's face.

"I know everything...I see everything," Dawn said with a winning smile. She shot a glance at Xander and winked, adding, "I'm Dawn the spy!"

Xander actually managed a dry chuckle at that, despite apparently still trying to catch his breath.

'I wonder what could be so bad?' Tara thought, mystified at Buffy's reaction. 'Of course, I'm going to have to find out...later. Oohh! Maybe I should paddle it out of her, after all it's not nice to keep secrets from Mistress Tara!' she thought as warmth filled her loins.

Dawn looked at Faith and said, "I dunno, you might get lucky. I'm not sure Buffy can play nice or not."

"But Dawnie!" Buffy whined. "My best friend is gonna be dating my little," she broke off at the look from Dawn.

"...younger sister," Buffy quickly changed her terminology. "How can I possibly not tease him?"

Dawn's glare softened and she said, "I expect you to tease him, Buffy. But that was just mean, and there will be no being mean to my boyfriend allowed."

'Poor Xander,' Tara thought with a laugh as she watched the man in question lean forward and put his face into his hands, shaking his head and groaning.

"You all realize I'm sitting right here, right? I can actually feel what little masculinity I have left slipping away," he complained.

A female chorus of, "Aww, poor Xander" sounded out, causing him to groan louder and mutter, "I'm a dead man."

Dawn walked over to him and sat down, putting her arm around him and consoling him. "Don't worry Xan...I bet I can come up with a way for you to...reestablish your masculinity."

Tara laughed even harder, and was joined by both Willow and Faith as Buffy reacted to Dawn's comment.

"No!" She exclaimed sharply, covering her ears with her hands and chanting , "No, no, no, no, no!" She dropped one hand to point firmly at the couple, stating, "There will be no masculinity reestablishment or discussion thereof while Buffy is in within hearing distance!"

Dawn took Xander's hand and stood up, saying, "Come on, lets go dance! This is starting to sound like some kind of lame sitcom...thing."

'Goddess, it's a good thing there's two of us!' Tara thought as she started to catch her breath. 'Even witchcraft can't match Slayer energy!'

She watched as her redheaded partner took a turn on the dance floor with the Slayer. 'If you can call that dancing,' she thought with no small arousal at the way Willow and Buffy writhed together. 'Mmm, they look so good together!'

Her attention wandered over to the new Scooby couple and thought, 'They've hardly taken a break since we got here...I wonder if they're subconsciously avoiding Buffy?'

She smiled at their dancing compared to that of her two lovers. 'They look cute together,' she thought. 'Not as graceful as Buffy and Will, but...Poor Xander, he looks like he's expecting to get yelled at every time she presses up against him...but I notice he's not stopping her from doing it...' she thought with a grin.

As one song ended and another began, Dawn and Xander apparently decided to take a break. Tara smiled widely as they approached the table, each having a light sheen of sweat on their face. 'I wonder if that's from the exertion, or the heat from the sexual tension between those two?' she mused humorously.

"Hey you two, I didn't think you were ever going to take a break," she said in greeting.

"What can I say? Time flies when you're having fun!" Dawn said with a happy smile.

Xander just smiled, his eyes barely leaving the brunette long enough to acknowledge Tara. After a moment he blinked and shook his head and said, "Drinks! Can I get you ladies something to drink?"

"You know what I like, Xan," Dawn said, her voice turning the otherwise innocent answer into a sultry tease.

"Right, ah...diet pepsi," he said, visibly affected by the youngest Summers. "Tara?" he asked with a tiny squeak to his voice.

Tara smiled, stifling a laugh. "Sure, I'll have what she's having," she said, unable to resist making her voice low and sexy, echoing Dawn's tease.

Xander's eyes shot open, snapping over to meet Tara's gaze. "Ulp!" he gulped, his jaw sagging a bit.

"I think *she* meant the diet pepsi," Dawn said, reclaiming his attention while at the same time clearly implying that she herself might have meant something else entirely.

Xander closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, two unleadeds," he said in a clearer voice, turning and quickly walking towards the bar.

As soon as he was out of range, Tara let out a giggle. 'Oh I'm so bad!' she thought. To Dawn she semi-apologized, "Sorry, I just couldn't help myself!"

Dawn didn't turn towards her until Xander was out of sight. Then she faced the witch and let out a deep sigh. "S'alright, it was pretty funny...and it's not like I have to worry about you wanting to compete," she said.

'Oh my, you are so smitten,' Tara thought, her smile widening at the besotted look on Dawn's face.

Dawn sighed dramatically. "God, you have no idea!" she gushed. "I was so scared that he'd say no! I mean, talking to mom was scary, and Buffy too, but I had this, like, nightmare fear that he wouldn't get past the age thing."

'Oh dear!' Tara blushed as she realized the double meaning. "Convincing him, I mean!" she quickly clarified. 'Come on Dawnie, it's not like I'd be thinking that!' she thought exasperatedly.

Dawn blushed even harder. "Oh, um, well," she stuttered, dropping her eyes. She was clearly embarrassed by her automatic assumption. "It definitely took some convincing...we talked pretty much the whole time you guys were gone."

"Really? It looked like you'd moved way past the talking stage by the time we got back," Tara teased.

Dawn smiled again, ducking her head slightly. "Yeah, that was just the last five minutes or so."

"I'm really happy for you Dawn!" Tara said effusively, briefly grasping the girl's hand and giving it a squeeze.

A look of lust filled Dawn's eyes as she answered. "Whew! I mean, not like I've got anything to compare it to, but...serious wow!" Her eyes became unfocused and she licked her lips, apparently reminiscing.

'Lucky, lucky boy you are, Xander,' Tara thought, looking at the girl from an appreciative perspective. 'She is so beautiful! Just like her sister!'

"It felt...it made me feel," Dawn trailed off, her voice deep, her eyes drooping shut and her hands unconsciously stroking across her stomach.

"Wet?" Tara squeaked. 'Conversation, going too far!' she immediately chastised herself.

"Goddess!" Tara whispered. "Well, um, th-that's...um, that's a good kiss," she stuttered, feeling silly.

Both sat in silence for a moment before Dawn said, "Thing is, he wants to go slow," Frustration was evident in her voice.

Dawn looked up at her quizzically. "What 'oh'?" she asked with a frown of her own.

'Open mouth, insert foot,' Tara thought ruefully. "Um, what I meant was...I didn't think that men had speeds."

Tara blushed a little, but laughed it off, saying, "You know. I always thought it was either full-speed ahead, or complete stop. I didn't think there was anything in between." Her voice was mostly teasing.

Dawn raised an arched brow, "Hey, I get that you aren't into guys or anything, but some of us like them just fine!" she said back, her voice filled with mock-offence.

Tara laughed, happy to be back on safer ground. "Oh don't get me wrong," she started. "They're good for some things...um, like if there's heavy lifting that needs to be done and you don't have your very own Slayer...or, uh...when stuff needs to be fixed?"

Xander returned at that moment with three glasses. "Hey, what'cha gals talking about?" he asked as he set the drinks down on the table. Then he paused and added, "Um, or do I not want to know?"

'They really are too cute together,' Tara thought warmly as Dawn interlaced her fingers with his and smiled up at him. 'She so adores him, I'm glad he gave in.'

"Oh, Tara was just telling me what men are good for," Dawn said with saccharine sweetness.

"Oh really!?" Buffy's voice interjected snidely into the conversation as she and Willow appeared at the table.

Dawn looked up at Xander, each wearing a warm smile for the other, and said, "Whaddya say we go home? I'm sure I can find a whole buncha ways for you show me what men are good for."

Xander initially looked startled, but he smiled as Tara saw the younger Summers sister shoot him a wink and a grin that Buffy wouldn't be able to see from where she was standing.

"Oh I think I can come up with something that you'll appreciate," Xander said smoothly.

"On that note!" Buffy interrupted. "I think I'm ready to call it a night...anybody seen Faith?"

Tara looked over where Willow was pointing and saw that Faith had insinuated herself between a dancing couple. 'Goodness, neither of them seems too upset to have her there!' she thought with a smile.

Buffy whistled, getting the dark-haired Slayer's attention. She made a circling gesture, and then pointed toward the exit. Faith responded with a negative hand gesture and a smile that clearly stated that she was just fine where she was.

Buffy gave a thumbs-up and turned back to the group, saying "She's set, let's jet!"

'I can't believe it!' Xander thought as the emotional roller coaster he was on continued to dip, dive and turn. 'I'm touching her...I'm allowed to touch her, right in front of Buffy, and no one's killing me!'

He and Dawn followed the triad out of the Bronze, leaving Faith in the company of her newfound companions. 'God I can't believe how hot she is tonight,' he thought, glancing down at her as they walked hand in hand. 'Just look at her! Oh, man, that little bit of sweat weighing her hair down just right...speaking of sweat, how much do I keep wishing I could lick that drop going down between her...oy vey!'

'Oh busted again, but it's okay cause she likes it...how lucky am I?' he thought, embarrassed, aroused and amazed all at once. 'Man, it's going to be really really hard to go slow...'

Xander's attention was so fixated on his new girlfriend that he almost ran into a suddenly unmoving Tara. "Huh?" he blurted, surprised.

Xander looked ahead over Tara's shoulder towards the source of the voice. 'Oh crap!' he thought.

Arrayed before them in a roughly triangular formation were at least a couple dozen of Glory's former minions.

"You have slain the great and powerful Glorificus!" the voice of the lead minion. "Now you must receive your due!"
The air suddenly felt ionized as a blue nimbus of electricity started to crackle around Willow and Tara.

As one, the minions dropped to their knees and bowed till their faces were pressed to the dirty ground. The group of them formed a single voice, chanting, "Great and shining one, your magnificence above all others, we are your lowly, humble servants."

'Oooh, warmy hands...' she thought, realizing that she was feeling soft, warm touches trailing up and down her body.

"Good morning my magnificent, witchy lover!" Buffy's voice whispered into her right ear, the blonde's warm breath on the sensitive skin of her arm and face sending shivers down Willow's spine.

"Mistress," Willow hissed in pleasure as one of the hands roaming her skin moved to cup her breast, squeezing gently.

"Good morning my sweet Willow," Tara's voice crooned passionately into her left ear, causing more shivery feelings.

"Oohhh, Milady!" Willow sighed as the blonde witch's hand mirrored the Slayer's, gently grasping Willow's breast.

She was laying on her back, arms stretched above her head. 'Blindfold...' she thought when she tried to open her eyes. 'Oh goddess, cuffs!' she realized with an aroused whimper, as she tried to pull her hands down to touch her lovers.

"Ahh!" Willow gasped as Tara softly nipped the flesh of her arm where it lay along her face. "Lucky me!"

"Mmm, not luck, Will," Buffy hummed as her fingers began trailing up the redhead's breast, lightly scratching fingernails up to the tip, until they captured her nipple, pinching lightly.

"You were absolutely amazing last night!" Tara raved as her hand mirrored Buffy's actions on Willow's other breast.

"Last night?" Willow mumbled, her mind predominantly focused on the physical pleasure her lovers were visiting upon her.

"You know," Buffy said with deceptive gentleness. "That...'little favor' you did for me?"

Willow's back arched a bit as Buffy and Tara once again captured her nipples in their fingernails, this time pinching a little tighter and pulling away. "Oh!" she gasped at the dart of pain, then hummed in pleasure at the flood of warmth that accompanied the pain, and the stretching sensation in her breasts. "Mmmm! Oh, that."

"'Oh that' she says!" Tara huffed, sounding incredulous. "Only one of the most amazing displays of magic the world has probably ever seen," she said, her voice filled with awe. "Certainly from a human, at least," she qualified.

"Well...they were getting on Mistress' nerves!" Willow protested. "Wh-what kind of pet would I be if I-I didn't ser-erve my Mistress' needs?" she stuttered as the blondes repeated their attentions to her breasts over and over.

It had only taken a couple of days before the constant toadying of the creatures who had formerly served Glorificus began to get under the Slayer's skin. They were constantly underfoot, like a litter of eager puppies, trying to anticipate and fulfill all of 'the golden, shining one's' needs. By the time two weeks had passed, Buffy was rapidly reaching her limit.

'She would have ended up killing them, and then feeling all guilty,' Willow thought. 'Even though they were demons, Buffy has a hard time with the slaying when the baddies aren't actively trying to kill her...though I think they were killing her with kindness!'

"I know, she's far too modest," Tara agreed. "Opening a stable portal, sending fifty demons through it�against their will, by the way, and closing it securely with no leakage...and no injury to you! Willow," her voice trailed off, sounding awed.

More warm feelings flowed through the redhead at the wonder in her lover's voice. "Well, it did...mmm, oh!! feels so good!! Uh, it did make me kinda tired," Willow said, distracted by the attentions the two blondes were paying to her breasts. 'I love this! Oh, goddess I love these two women so much!' she thought as lust, pleasure, arousal, and heat continued to flood her body and mind.

Any response Willow might have made to Buffy's passionate declaration was overwhelmed by the gasp she made as the Slayer replaced her fingernails with her teeth, sucking and biting Willow's breast, dragging along the creamy flesh until the redhead's nipple was captured. "Oh, yes Mistress!" she cried as Buffy bit down hard on that engorged bud, slowly squeezing it between her strong white teeth, lashing it with her tongue at the same time.

The amazing sensation she was experiencing was compounded as her panting mouth was suddenly invaded by a deep Tara-kiss. 'So good! Goddess, so good!' she silently cried in rapture, joyfully twining her tongue with the blonde witch's. Her fingers tightened into fists and she pulled strongly against the cuffs binding her wrists as her Mistress tormented her nipple with pleasurable agony.

'Could mere words possibly describe this?' she wondered. 'rapture, nirvana, heaven, perfect...they aren't big enough...' she realized in answer to her own question.

Willow's body undulated under her lovers attentions. 'Goddess, I'm on fire!' she thought, humming and whimpering into Tara's mouth as her Mistress' Mistress kissed her senseless. 'Too much! Not enough! More more more moooorrrrreeee!'

Buffy's mouth left Willow's breast with an audible pop. Before she could even miss the attentions, Tara finished their kiss by sucking her tongue hard and pulling away with a similar pop. A high pitched keen was the only sound Willow was capable of making in protest.

She could hear both her lovers chuckle briefly and Buffy commented, "Don't worry, Will, it's only going to get better!"

"Hmm! Oh yes!" Willow cried as Buffy made good on her promise. Tara's mouth took up where Buffy's had left off, only on the opposing breast, while the Slayer slid down and began laving Willow's sex with wide, flat licks.

"Oh Mistress so good! Bite it baby, oh yes! Bite it!" she gasped out at the sensation of Tara nibbling on her nipple. Her body began to shudder and quake as she felt Buffy's tongue flick at her clit-hood.

"Mmm, oh...yes M-Mistress?" Willow stammered, finding speech difficult in the face of the sensations flowing through her.

"Thank y�oh! you," Willow answered, gasping as her Mistress tongue suddenly delved under the flesh it was teasing and curled around her clit.

"Holy!" Willow screamed at the sensation of her bundle of nerves being sucked into the Slayer's curled tongue like fellatio in miniature. 'Goddess I can picture her head bobbing up and down!' she thought, barely aware of Buffy's jerking movements�mostly focused on the incredible, overwhelming feeling as her clit repeatedly slid in and out of Buffy's curled tongue.

Fingers filled her center, pistoning in and out at the same pace as her mini-blowjob, pushing her over the edge. "Nugh! Cummminnnnnnnggggggg|!" Willow grunted and screamed. Her head thrashed hard within the confines of her bound arms and the chain rattled as she jerked against it.

"Buffybuffybuffybuffybuffybuffybuffy," Willow's voice descended into a repetitious mutter of her lover's name as the aforementioned lover slowed, but not stopped, her ministrations. In that eternal moment, her mind was empty of anything other than thoughts of Buffy and emotions of joy and pleasure.

"Mmm, welcome back sweetie!" Tara's voice was accompanied by her warm breath against Willow's cheek as the redhead blinked her eyes open.

"Look at that smile!" Buffy's voice crooned from the other side, also coinciding with warm breath against Willow's other cheek.

"Oh Mistress, Milady; that was wonderful! Thank you both so much!" Willow groaned, coming to full awareness once again.

"My love," Tara's voice whispered passionately, her arm embracing Willow's torso, just beneath her breasts.

"My heart!" Buffy's voice crooned intensely, her arm a warm line across Willow's tummy.

'Perfect!' Willow thought joyfully. "I love you two so much!" she gushed. "This is like, better than anything else could ever be!
She lay in silence for a minute, just enjoying the closeness of her lovers.

'Uh oh, I know that voice...' Willow thought with trepidation. 'She's worried about me.' She sighed and said, "It was pretty draining, like, I wouldn't want to have to fight a Hellgod after, but I promise Tara, it wasn't more than I can handle."

"We just don't want you to get hurt, Will," Buffy interjected. "We both love you so much."

Willow smiled. "I know you do, Buff. And I'm not, like, offended or anything Baby," she directed to Tara. "We have all somehow gotten, like, scary powerful all of a sudden�especially me�and you're worried that the power might be too much for us to handle."

"You guys don't have to worry...not about me, and not about yourselves either," she said reassuringly.

Willow pushed herself up and turned around so she was kneeling between her lovers, facing them. 'Poor Buffy, she looks so worried...probably more for herself losing control than me. Tara just looks worried,' she thought. "I can be sure, because it's not me, or you Buffy or you Tara. It's us. Now more than ever, we're like linked together. Each of us puts the other two above ourselves and I just know we can't fail as long as we're together! I don't know how I know it, and I don't need to know how I know it. I just know it!"

"Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?" Buffy asked with a tremulous, emotional tone in her voice.

'Enough serious,' Willow thought as she added, "Besides, if I get out of hand, you can just tie me up and spank me!"

The two blondes broke into laughter, and Buffy sat up, pulling Willow into an embrace.

"No, that's what I do when you're good!" the Slayer said teasingly. "When you're bad I'll have to figure out something else to do!"

"Tie her up and not spank her!" Tara offered, sitting up and joining the embrace.

"So Buffy, you're not going to miss having a horde of minions at your personal beck and call?" Tara asked teasingly.

"Gah! No!" Buffy said with disgust. "Do you remember when that one offered to bathe me? So eww!"

"They kept looking at me like I was stepping on their turf or something," Willow remembered.

"Yes, I did get the distinct impression that they were jealous of you Willow," Tara agreed.

"What, because they didn't understand how their 'golden shining one' could be subservient to someone else?" Willow asked with a giggle.

"I didn't like how they kept acting like they expected me to hit them," Buffy said, sobering a bit. "I mean they were demons and all," she trailed off.

"It's one thing to hunt those that are dangerous to people, and to take pleasure in beating them up when they're trying to kill you," Tara offered. "When they're like this, you almost think of them as people."

"They aren't though," Willow reminded her Mistress. "They killed and hurt people for Glory...they would do it again if they weren't under your control...and who knows how long they would have stayed under your control if you weren't going to keep them under your thumb like she did?"

"Gah, I'm just glad they're gone," Buffy said decisively. "Thank you again for that, Will!"

"You know, they did have one redeeming quality," Tara said, looking around the room.

"Well, look," Tara said, gesturing up to the windows in their bedroom. Have you noticed that all the damage to this place has been repaired?"

Willow watched as Buffy looked around with surprise on her face. "I did notice that," she said. "You didn't?" she asked her Mistress.

"I...I guess I never really paid attention," Buffy said, frowning. "Did they fix that retaining wall? Cause that was messed up. Xander said it'd take a couple thousand dollars in materials alone to fix."

"You think they used magic?" Willow asked. "No, they couldn't have...I'd have felt it for sure," she said in answer to her own question.

'Goddess, I get so excited when you look at me like that!' Willow thought, immediately slipping into her comfortable sub-space. "Shower time Mistress?" she said in a breathy voice.

"Mmhmm, you can help me wash my Mistress, and then you can wash me!" Buffy said in a low rumbling voice.

'I suppose it was too much to hope that demons would have embraced the computer age...' Willow thought with a grimace as she pulled another leather wrapped journal out of the chest at her side.

"You know," Buffy's voice had a wheedling tone to it. "Spring break is only a couple weeks away."

'Ohh! I hate when she does that...acts like she has no idea what you're talking about,' Willow thought with humor and annoyance. 'At least this time it's Buffy's turn...' She returned her attention to the aged paper in her lap. 'It's bad enough everything is on paper, but did they really have to write everything in ancient Sumerian? I mean, seriously, they all *spoke* English...grumble grumble...'

"Hmm," Tara hummed noncommittally, continuing to page through one of the tomes left behind in the minion-exodus.

Willow glanced up at Buffy, who was sitting on the raised hearth around the fireplace, drumming her heels against the stone. 'Poor Buff, she tries not to show it, but she's so fidgety,' Willow thought fondly. 'Mmm, squirmy girl...Oh, bad Willow...focus on this, squirm with Buffy later...' She went back to her translating with a wide grin.

"You know? I've heard that some people...during spring break...you know, do stuff," the blonde Slayer mentioned casually.

"Some people...young people," Buffy continued airily, "not unlike those in this very room."

'Oh, someone's starting to sound just a little bit interested...' Willow thought with a glance at her other blonde lover.

Buffy apparently caught the slight change in tone as well; her fidgeting stilled as she answered, "Oh, I've heard it involves water, sand, warm air," Her voice had taken on a wistful softness by this point.

"Sandblasting?" Tara asked innocently. "You want to spend spring break doing sandblasting?"

Willow giggled along with Tara, but kept her eyes on the journal in front of her as she came upon a grid with columns of numbers and letters. 'This is different,' she thought, becoming intrigued.

"I wanna go somewhere for spring break! Somewhere with a beach, and sunshine, and, you know...other beach stuff," Buffy trailed off petulantly.

'This is weird...' Willow thought as she went through page after page of inexplicable numbers and letters.

"Well, Sunnydale has a beach," Tara began, actually engaging in the conversation.

"I want to *go* somewhere! Someplace that's away from Sunnydale, and vampires and monsters and stuff. I want a vacation! Just me and the two most beautiful women in the world, laying on the beach, soaking up the sun, laughing at all the boys who will drool in hopeless lust at the sight of the three of us."

'Finally, some kind of legend...' Willow thought as the grid finally came to an end. 'Village in three towers? Usury Armamentaria? What...?'

"Sure we could, I mean, things have been pretty quiet lately, and Faith could cover while we're gone easy! I mean, it'd only be a week," Buffy argued excitedly.

"That's not what I meant, sweetie," Tara explained. "I think a vacation sounds great, I just don't think we have the money to afford to go very far," Tara offered almost apologetically. "Maybe we could go to San Diego?"

'Holy!' Willow thought in stunned disbelief. 'This can't be what I think it is...could it?' she immediately began riffling back through the pages of the grid, only half-listening to the conversation between her lovers.

"San Diego?" Buffy said as though it left a bad taste in her mouth. "I was thinking more like Puerto Vallarta...or Acapulco."

Willow shook her head slightly as she closed the journal and set it down. 'Goddess!' she thought in shock.

"How about a Mediterranean cruise?" Willow asked, joining the conversation for the first time.

"Yeah, in our dreams maybe," Buffy said with a dismissive laugh. "No way we could afford that!"

Willow's face broke out into a radiant smile as she contradicted her Mistress, "Actually."

"...Okay, so the minions were getting on everyone's nerves and Buffy was getting really pissed, so I opened up a portal and sent them back to Glory's original plane of existence and then the next morning we were wondering how it was that they could afford to do all the repairs on the mansion, cause it needed a lot and they did a lot, and so I was checking through their stuff and found this ledger thing and it had all these records�of course they were in ancient Sumerian, which I guess is kinda redundant; that is the ancient part, not the Sumerian part�and anyway it turns out that she owned not only that building she was in, but the other two next to it, and also a bunch of bank and investment accounts all over the world�which, by the way, it took me almost a week to track them all down! They were pretty well hidden�and so, anyway it all adds up to about two hundred forty five million or so, but of course that fluctuates as much as one-and-a-half to two percent daily, depending on market conditions."

Despite its smaller size, the entire Scooby gang was meeting at Giles and Joyce's apartment to hear the 'news' that Willow had to share. It had been a week since initially unearthing the former hell-god's finances and the triad had decided to wait until everything was worked out and set in place before sharing their discovery with the gang.

She couldn't help but giggle at the quintet of shocked faces before her. 'Buffy and Tara still look a little bit surprised by the whole thing,' she thought as she glanced back at her lovers. Tuning back to the rest of the Scooby gang, she decided, 'I think they took it better than the others are taking it, though.'

"Xander!" Dawn's reproving voice sounded out. "You're not dreaming! You don't have dreams this good."

Xander turned and looked at his girlfriend with a soft, adoring expression. "Sometimes I do," he said softly.

'Okay, those two are officially too cute!' Willow thought, both happy and annoyed. "Ahem!" she cleared her throat loudly and shot Xander a raised-eyebrow. "That's it? A 'Good Lord' from Giles and Xander pinching himself?" she asked with surprise.

"Did you just say that you had opened a portal to the hell-dimension from which Glorificus originated?" Giles asked in a raspy voice.

"Yep. It was pretty tiring to, let me tell ya!" Willow quipped. 'Don't laugh, Rosenberg, or Giles'll bust for sure! Of course, he looks like he's about to bust anyway...'

Willow felt Buffy's breath on her ear as the Slayer leaned in and whispered, "The portal thing, is that one of those really incredibly huge, like, world shaking things...the ones where you just make it seem like it's nothing, but Giles is the only one who knows better and gets all freaked out?"

"Have I mentioned lately how incredibly, amazingly much in love with you I am?" Buffy's warm breath stirred Willow physically as her words stirred the redheaded witch emotionally.

"Ohh, well, I think so, Mistress, but I never get tired of hearing it!" Willow crooned softly back.

"Could you repeat the part where you said some kind of dollar figure?" Xander's bewildered voice rang out. "'Cause I thought I heard you say two hundred and forty *million*."

"Right. That part," Xander went on. "The part with the *million* in it." He turned to Dawn and asked, "Are you really sure I'm not dreaming? 'Cause I gotta tell you, this feels pretty unreal."

Dawn smiled indulgently and said, "Xan, if this was one of your dreams, Giles and mom would have left already, and the rest of us would be naked."

'So busted!' Willow laughed out loud at that, as did Buffy and Tara. Faith got a wicked grin on her face and the two parental Scoobies blushed almost as hard as Xander was blushing.

"Actually, that number is probably low, Xander," Willow explained once she was able to speak again. The interest alone over the last couple days has probably pushed that as high as two fifty."

"Two hundred and fifty *million* dollars. As in quarter of a *billion* dollars," Xander said, shaking his head. "I...I don't even know what to say to that."

"That's awesome you guys!" Dawn gushed, clearly less overwhelmed by the news. "Congratulations!"

"You opened a portal to a�a hell dimension!" Giles stammered, apparently having found his voice again.

'Poor Giles. We've turned his whole world askew,' Willow thought sympathetically. "Giles, it's okay�really! It was more like a vortex, really�one way only. No way anything could get through from the other side, and plus I shielded it completely, so even if something could have come through�which it totally couldn't, but just in case�it would have been contained and shoved back through! That was the most draining part�I mean the portal wasn't that hard, it was all the precautions I took! You're just going to have to trust me�You know I would never endanger Buffy or Tara in the slightest...it would have been riskier getting in a car to drive to the mall than it was when I sent the scabby-hobbits home."

'I'm not gonna argue with you Giles, you're just going to have to accept that we know what we're doing,' Willow thought, resolve face in place.

"So, what are you going to do with all that money?" Faith asked, speaking for the first time.

"Oh! I'm glad you asked!" Willow said gleefully. 'This is the fun part!' she thought excitedly.

"See, none of this stuff could be directly in Glory's name, cause, you know, it wasn't like she had a social security number or anything...So when you make it through the paper trail, it's all owned by a company, well more of a corporate entity really, anyway it's called Girl's Luciferous, which I realize isn't the most friendly name, but changing it will take some doing, but the point is," Willow trailed off, turning to Tara with a broad smile for her lover. "You got those packets, baby?"

"Oh," Tara said, apparently not realizing that they had reached her part. She dug some envelopes out of her bag and handed them to Willow. "I was distracted," she softly explained. "You know how turned on I get listening to Willowbabble."

Willow blushed, but grinned smugly at the same time. "No, I don't seem to remember," she teased. "Maybe you can show me later."

'Okay, back to the subject at hand, Rosenberg,' Willow chastised herself. "You can lust after the girlfriends in a little bit..." She quickly handed each of the Scoobies an envelope with their name on it and explained, "As I was saying, the point is�all you have to do is sign the papers inside that envelope, and you will officially be employees of Girl's Luciferous!"

"It's not like that, Faith," Buffy spoke up. "This isn't about any of us working for anyone."

"Yeah, this is just a way to let us use the money without worrying about taxes or stuff�they'll all be taken out of our income just like it was a real job," Willow explained. "This way it's all legal and stuff, but it doesn't stop you from doing whatever you want...I mean, we all had a part in saving the world here, so we should all share in the bounty."

'What's that all about?' Willow wondered. 'He looks almost sad...and Dawn's hugging him like she's trying to reassure him?'

"How much is this?" Joyce asked, speaking at last in an almost frightened tone as she stared at the envelope in her hands.

"Oh, well," Willow said with a shake of her head, distracted away from Xander's strange melancholy. "Um, we thought we should send a check to Angel Investigations, you know for services rendered...plus a nice bonus check for each of them. Then we figured that, just interest alone should allow for the eight of us to have about a million dollars each."

"Oh my God!" Dawn said excitedly, her hands trembling slightly as she looked down at the packet in her suddenly tight grip.

"Good Lord!" Giles said once again, apparently finally letting go of the portal topic. "With a bit of care, we could live the rest of our lives quite comfortably on a million dollars," he said, looking at Joyce.

"Um, Giles, Mom?" Buffy thankfully interrupted before the watcher could go off on a tangent. "You're kinda missing the point."

"Oh, and if investments and interest add up to more than that, we'll divvy up the rest equally between us too...kinda like a Christmas bonus!" Willow explained excitedly.

The resulting silence was at last broken by Xander's exclamation, "Holy Jackpot, Batman!"

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Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation
Book II

by The Bear

Copyright (c) 2010

TheBear@papa-bear.com

Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation Book II

by The Bear

Copyright (c) 2010

TheBear@papa-bear.com

Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation
Book II