Day-Old Bunny of the Day: Post-Shanshu Spike/Dawn

[rsadelle]

Influences: "Hands On" (Wes/Dawn) by entrenous88, "Crazy Diamonds" (Angel/Xander) by tesla321, and "Across the Miles" (Spike/Xander) by Rakshathewolf.

When the battle was finally done, Spike got the Shanshu and Angel was dead, forever this time.

Giles's sources in LA passed the news to him, and he, in turn, told the original Scoobies.

"I couldn't tell you," Andrew said when they found out he'd known Spike was back. "They made me promise not to."

"When are we going to get him?" Dawn asked.

"We're not," Giles said firmly.

Dawn appealed to Buffy.

"He didn't want us to know he was back," she said quellingly. "We are not going."

"Then I'll go."

"No, you will not." Buffy wasn't just arguing with her, she actually meant it.

They had a good screaming fight about it, and Giles chimed in to forbid her from going.

Dawn slammed the door to her room and cried. Spike was back, had been back, and they hadn't told her. And now he was human and everyone else was dead, and he must be lonely and hurt, and they weren't going to help him.

She sulked for days, spent a lot of time in her room, and avoided speaking to Buffy. Or they thought she was sulking, anyway. While they left her alone to sulk--"Don't indulge her," Buffy had said sharply--Dawn made plans. She hadn't grown up around the Slayer for nothing.

She waited until Andrew was out of his office and no one was looking to sneak in and found out where Spike was. Andrew, of course, had all the information in a neatly labeled file.

She took only what she could fit into a backpack. They'd figure out where she'd gone pretty quickly, but if it didn't look like she was going far, they wouldn't notice she was actually gone until she was already really gone.

She walked to the Tube and took it into the heart of London. She went into a branch of Barclays and withdrew as much as she could from her Council account without raising suspicion. She used an ATM to get her daily limit of cash from the Council credit card.

She used the cash to pay for a plane ticket when she got to Heathrow, and then she was on the next plane to LA. When the plane was actually in the air, she let herself relax. They'd be a couple of hours behind her at least.

Customs on the other side was easy. She was still a US Citizen, after all, and she just looked sad and told them a story about a suddenly dying relative to explain her lack of luggage.

She took a cab to the address in Andrew's files. She wasn't sure exactly what she was expecting, but it was just an apartment complex. She took a deep breath and hitched her backpack up on her shoulders before she went up the stairs to number 28.

Spike answered the door with a carton of Chinese food in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other.

They stared at each other for what seemed to Dawn to be an eternity.

Spike left her standing at the door and wandered back into his apartment. "Watchers send you?"

"No." She stepped inside, closed the door behind her, and let her backpack slide to the floor. "They don't know I'm here. Well, they will once they realize I'm gone, but they didn't send me. They said I couldn't come."

"You shouldn't have." Spike sat down at the breakfast bar and reached for a different take-out container. "I'm not going back with you."

Dawn took the other stool and helped herself to a pair of chopsticks and the sweet and sour pork. "Then I'll stay here."

Spike dropped his head into his hands, and Dawn realized he looked tired. "You can't do that, Niblet. You have a life, school, your sister. Council wants nothing to do with me."

"I'm eighteen," she reminded him. "I get to make my own choices now." She licked a bit of sweet and sour sauce off her lip. "There are plenty of colleges here in LA. I can apply to one of them."

"Bit--"

"Look," she interrupted him, "do you even have any friends here?" His slumped shoulders were answer enough. "Well, now you do." She slipped off her stool and put her arms around him. "You shouldn't have to be alone."

He didn't say yes, but he didn't throw her out either, so she counted it as a victory.

After dinner, she took her backpack into Spike's bathroom for a shower and clean clothes. She felt much better afterwards, and more confident in her plan to stay with Spike.

She explored his apartment while he was in the shower. There was a picture of her and Buffy in the living room, a journal she didn't open next to the bed in the bedroom that was clearly his, and no food in the fridge.

"Do you even know how to cook?" she asked him when he stepped out of the bathroom.

"Don't need to know. Plenty of take-out in the neighborhood." Spike shoved wallet and keys into his pockets. "Have to go to work." He seemed to be thinking about that, and then offered, "Want to come?"

She let the smile stretch wide across her face. "Yeah. Where do you work?" She fished her purse out of her backpack and followed him out the door.

"All-ages club down the block. Tend the bar."

Dawn sat at the bar and watched Spike for a while. He was different from before, but the same in some ways. He was still confident in his ability to hold the attention of everyone in the room, but it wasn't predatory anymore. When he flirted with patrons, he was friendlier than she could picture the Spike she knew being.

After a while, she got up and danced. She turned down a few propositions and could almost feel Spike watching her. She certainly caught his eyes on her whenever she turned to look at him.

"It's a nice place," she said on the way home.

"Yeah, it is," he said, and he sounded almost surprised to be saying it.

Dawn slipped her hand into his, and Spike stopped walking.

"What are you doing here, Dawn?"

"I'm here for you," she told him. She stood her ground and met his eyes. "I know what you did to my sister, and I was angry for a long time. But you did the right thing at the end. You saved us all, and you were always good to me. I wanted to see you again." She stepped forward, so they were close enough for him to see the sincerity in her eyes. "You shouldn't be alone."

"Dawn," he said, "I'm just human now."

"I know. So am I." She leaned in and kissed his cheek. "We don't have to save the world anymore. I'm here just for us."

"I don't need saving."

"Neither do I." Dawn thought about what she wanted to say before she said it. "I don't want to just be Buffy's sister anymore. I'm eighteen. It's time for me to be me." She squeezed his hand and smiled at him. "I want to stay with you."

Spike started walking again. "I'm not going to help you convince them."

Dawn counted that as another victory.

***

Spike dropped her hand when they got back to his complex and found the whole group--Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, and even Andrew--waiting on the stairs.

Andrew saw them first and scrambled up. "I didn't tell them, I swear."

Spike nodded. "I know you didn't. Appreciate that." He walked past Andrew and threaded his way through the others up the stairs. Dawn followed him and let the others follow her.

"I was sorry to hear about Anya," Spike said to Xander when they were all inside and the door was closed. "She was..." Spike trailed off, clearly unable to think of exactly the right word.

"She was," Xander said. "I was sorry to hear about Angel. I know he was your Yoda, or whatever."

"Yeah. Were almost starting to be friends again, before it all went to shit."

"If we're finished with all the catching up," Buffy said acidly, "can we get to the point? Dawn, you're coming home with us."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You are not staying here with him."

"I'm eighteen," Dawn pointed out. "I can do whatever I want." She walked across the room to stand next to Spike. "I want to stay here."

"If I may ask," Giles said, in a tone that made it clear he was going to ask with or without permission, "how do you afford this flat?"

"Got a job. Angel left me some money."

"And can you provide for a young girl as well?"

Spike glanced at Dawn. "Told the girl I wasn't going to help her. Whether she stays or goes is between her and all of you." He retreated to the kitchen for a snack and a glass of water.

"I'm staying," Dawn said.

"You're not," Buffy told her.

"I am." Dawn crossed her arms across her chest and mentally dug in her heels. This was her life and her choice.

"What about school?" Willow asked. "You've been doing so well, and you got accepted to Cambridge."

"There are plenty of schools in LA. I'll go to one of them." She relaxed her arms. "I'm not giving up on my life. I just want to live it here."

"She does have a point," Xander said. "She does," he insisted when both Willow and Buffy turned to stare at him. "She has the right to make her own choices. We've all made our own choices. It's her turn."

"Why are you even here," Buffy asked, "if you're not going to help me?"

Xander held up his hands. "I'm just here so the bleached menace knows he'll have to answer to all of us if he hurts Dawn." He craned his head to look at Spike. "Or the not-so-bleached menace, I guess."

"Do you know what bleach does to living hair?" Spike asked rather rhetorically from the kitchen. It was good to know he hadn't changed too much.

"Dawn--"

"Buffy," Dawn cut in, "I need to do this. LA has an airport and there are phones and email." She softened her approach. "I'm not abandoning you. I just need to do this."

"I think," Giles said, "that perhaps we would all do well to get some sleep before we discuss this further. Dawn, we will be at the Council apartments. You have the number?"

"It's programmed into my cell."

Giles nodded. "We will see you tomorrow then. Perhaps we could all meet for lunch."

"Yeah, Giles. I'll call you tomorrow." Dawn ushered them all out with hugs and kisses for everyone, even her cranky sister and Andrew.

She grinned at Spike as soon as they were safely out of earshot. "I'm staying. Can I paint my room? All this white." She waved her arm at the walls.

"Didn't exactly sound like a yes."

"Trust me," she said, "that was a yes."

"Huh." Spike held out the box of crackers for Dawn to take a handful. "Can't paint. Don't own the place." He munched on crackers thoughtfully. "Can do pretty much anything else you want."

"Cool." Dawn yawned widely. "I need some sleep. Are the sheets clean in my room?"

"Yeah, should be. Have a cleaning service. They come by on Wednesdays, told 'em to change the sheets when they do." At Dawn's look, he shrugged and said, "Seemed the sensible thing to do. Just in case."

Dawn planted a kiss on Spike's cheek. "See you in the morning. Or," she said, glancing at the clock, "later in the morning anyway."