First Contact
***************************************************
Okay, so I’ve
always wondered about the D/S friendliness. Also, I never get tired of S4
Spike-in-Giles-house, being a complete pain in the ass. So, what if Dawn had
been there? Wouldn’t they have bonded? Hey, I’ve written a Dawn-based fic!!!!!
Timeline: S4, post
Pangs.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Joss
owns the real world, in which Dawn didn’t appear until S5 anyway, so I’m not
sure why there’s any need to clarify that point at all…….
***************************************************
“Why did you bring
Dawn?” asked Giles, with an impatient edge to his voice.
“Mom made me,” was
the succinct reply. “Deal.”
“Yes, well, it’s
just that under the circumstances…..” Giles indicated the ever-present vampire,
bound to the chair but not gagged. He made a mental note to see about a gag.
“Feel the love,”
grouched Dawn, slumping into a chair and throwing a ferocious glare at the chained
vampire whose presence was making her own even less welcome than usual.
“Dawn!” yelped a
concerned sister. She made a scootching motion with
her hand.
“What?” replied
Dawn, determined to be uncooperative. Can’t even sit in the same room as a vampire. Might get corrupted.
Might get like Buffy. She looked innocently at her sister.
“Not so close to
Spike,” Buffy grumbled, indicating a seat on the far side of the room. “And
don’t look at him. And don’t…”
“Breathe?” finished
Dawn. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” She left her chosen seat
and moved to the one required, making as much noise as possible as she dragged
her feet and – accidentally - overturned a big rock. Big rocks in Giles’ house
were usually *special* big rocks, and sure enough, he sighed deeply, removed
his glasses, and glared at Buffy. Dawn smirked, and for a moment was she sure
the big-evil-vampire-thing grinned at her.
She scowled at it.
“I thought he was
in the bath?” Buffy was saying - no, complaining.
“He was, but I was
overwhelmed by the sudden need to actually take a shower,” was Giles’ response.
“So I set him free upon the world, in that I tied him firmly to a chair.”
“You should have
called me,” Buffy grumbled.
“I can tie one
vampire securely to a chair myself, you know!”
“Boy
scout’s knots?” Buffy was laughing now. Giles glared.
“Isn’t he all, you
know, can’t-kill-people?” interrupted Dawn curiously, watching the argument and
the vampire with equal interest. It wasn’t often that she got to see her sister
be a pain in the butt with other people and it was pretty much never that she
got to see a real live dead vampire.
“Dawn! He’s a vampire. What have I told you about
vampires?” Buffy sounded exasperated.
Dawn considered
this for a moment. “Not to sleep with them and make them loose their souls?”
Buffy blanched,
Giles removed his glasses for the second time and the vampire chuckled.
“Stay away from the vampire!” Buffy
growled, shaking a finger at the vampire in question.
“But if he can’t
bite people?”
“And how do you
know what he can’t do?” asked Buffy in a tone that expects to win arguments.
“
“
“Oh, come on!
What’s he going to do to me? Call me names?” Dawn left her designated sitting
area and walked towards Spike. He eyed her suspiciously. She poked him in the
shoulder and he growled.
Screeching, Buffy
ran at them, grabbing Dawn by the arm and pulling her away, then returning to
smack Spike around the head.
“Don’t you *ever*
do that again!” she yelled at Dawn. “And don’t ever think about *looking* at my
sister again!” she screamed at Spike, punctuating her order with a vicious
punch.
“Giles!” complained
the vampire. “I didn’t do nothing!”
“Truest words
you’ve ever spoken.” Giles sighed more deeply than ever, assessing what would
soon become general mayhem.
“Buffy?” he said.
“There was a reason for this evening. Research?”
“Huh?”
“With
the books? And the reading?” he reminded her. “To find out about the…” he
remembered Dawn. “The uh……” He indicated Spike with a wave of his hand.
“The
fucking wankers that did this to me? I hope you string
them up!” offered Spike. Buffy thumped him again.
“Mind your mouth in
front of my little sister!” she hissed.
Dawn rolled her
eyes. “Oh, come on, Buffy. I’ve heard you say…”
“Research!” shouted
Buffy brightly, turning to her Watcher with a pleading look. “Let’s do
research!”
“And Dawn?”
enquired Giles.
“Oh! I can help
with research!” volunteered Dawn, with great enthusiasm.
Buffy, who had
seemed confused, now made up her mind quickly. “NO research!” she intoned, in a
voice of doom.
Dawn scowled. “I
could so do research,” she muttered resentfully. “And when was the last time you read a book?” Again, she thought she
noticed a benevolent grin from the vampire in the corner. She stuck out her
tongue at it.
“Giles?” wailed
Buffy.
“This was why I was
surprised that you brought her,” offered Giles. “We’re going to be looking up
books that are most unsuitable and the alternative is……”
“I can eat her for
you if it makes things any easier?” offered Spike, helpfully.
He received for his
trouble a punch in the ribs from Buffy and a magick-rock
in the head from Dawn.
“See, I can defend
myself against the vampire that can do absolutely nothing to me?” said Dawn
encouragingly. “Or, I could help you look at books and explain what they mean?”
She smiled patronisingly at her sister.
“Giiiles!!” Buffy groaned.
“She’s quite safe
here,” said Giles soothingly. “You’ll only be in the next room.”
“Hear that, Fangface? I’ll be in the next room. If you try anything……!”
“Quivering in my S&M
bondage gear,” he replied cheerfully.
“And I’m fine too,”
said Dawn pointedly.
“Just don’t, you
know, do anything?” Buffy begged, looking pleadingly at her sister.
Dawn gave her a
mutinous glare and slid further into her seat.
Annoying adults
left. She continued to glare at the remaining vampire.
He – it – he –
stretched out and yawned.
“So you can’t
bite,” Dawn stated, feeling the need to get the facts straight.
“Your sister’s a
bitch,” he countered.
Hmm. “Well, yeah, but
you’re a vampire. Vampires are way evil, so Buffy’s allowed kick your ass.”
“So why’s she
allowed to pick on you?”
“That’s not even
the point,” said Dawn, with as much contempt as she could muster, looking
firmly in the opposite direction.
“Yeah.”
Silence. Dawn considered
the situation. This was the closest she’d got to a vampire…..except for those
few unfortunate times with the capturing and the hostage-ness and the
Buffy-having-to-save-her-life. And except for Angel.
This was different.
She could beat this vampire up herself if she wanted to. She could hit him, he
couldn’t hit her. And Buffy *still* didn’t want her around.
“You’re so not scary,” she informed him,
confidently.
He went all fangy and vampire-y and she suddenly recalled the
oft-repeated lectures about not taunting vampires. But, she reminded herself
firmly, this one was all tied up, and there was
something about - his head would explode if he tried to bite her?
“Still not as ugly
as Angel,” she said smugly, watching in amazement as his face slid back to
human and he began to laugh.
“Spent a hundred
years tryin’ but that one’s a lost cause,” he agreed.
“What’ve you got against the pillock? He try and eat you?”
“He’s stupid,” she
retorted, wondering about the ethics of getting drawn into conversations with
vampires. “He was stupid before he went evil and he was stupid after he was
evil. And he’s even worse now.”
She frowned deeply.
“All vampires are stupid,” she added.
“Some vampires are
hungry,” said Spike, deliberately ignoring the insult to his type.
Dawn sniffed. “You
can’t bite, so hey, tough.”
“There’s blood in
the fridge,” he informed her, “But they wouldn’t give it to me.” He scowled at
the memory.
She frowned. “Why not? And, by the way, eeww?”
“Vindictive
bastards think if they starve me to death they…’ll
starve me to death,” he concluded. At Dawn’s raised eyebrow he continued
plaintively, “They’re blackmailing me. I came here of my own free will and now
they won’t feed me unless I tell them stuff I can’t even remember. I’ve already
been neutered by the bloody army, now they won’t even give me pig’s blood! And
I’m hungry!” he whined.
Dawn’s brow
furrowed. “That’s not right,” she said, thoughtfully. “There’s the Geneva
Convention and Human Rights and we learned about this stuff in school. Making
prisoners confess by mistreating them is illegal! Under the Geneva Convention,
prisoners of war have to be fed and they can’t be mistreated for refusing to
confess!” She was quite shocked now. Buffy being mean was nothing new, but this
was breaking several international laws.
“And this applies
to vampires too?” enquired Spike with a wry smile. “Must get
me a layer!”
Dawn’s face fell.
“I guess not. But still, you should be allowed to eat.” She looked at his various
chains and shackles. There was no way she was falling for that one again. His
chatter and clear dislike of both Angel and Buffy was quite winning but she was
not getting into trouble with any
more vampires. On the other hand….
“I suppose I could
get you some blood?” she offered, with a tinge of reluctance and a wrinkled
nose.
“Take it out of the
fridge and pour it into a cup. Then put it in the microwave for two minutes on
medium. No more than that, it’s not to boil. Then let it stand before you take
it out.”
Dawn stared. She
hadn’t realised she was signing up for ‘Gourmet Blood-Heating-for-Finicky-Pigs.’
“You’re worse than
Buffy,” she sighed, leaving the room.
“And not in the sodding librarian mug!” he called, “I have some self
respect, you know!”
Dawn’s head
appeared around the door. “Self respect?” she enquired with an innocent smile.
“Sod off and get me
blood!” he growled, sulking.
“Big baby,” he
heard, as she vanished again.
His features
softened to a smile. The sister of the Slayer was a by-word amongst vampires.
Everyone wanted to capture the girl; kidnap her and hold her to ransom;
threaten the Slayer by way of her. It occurred to him that he rather liked her.
She had……something about her – smarter than the rest of the bloody gang by a
head and more, that was obvious. And she was getting him blood instead of taking
the piss out of his….little problem.
“This cup good
enough for Your-Scariness?” she asked with a smirk, waving the blood under his
nose.
He grinned. This
would be fun. Giles was apparently the possessor of a fine Sex Pistols mug.
“You’re not bad for
a human,” he said, slurping appreciatively through the straw.
“You’re not
completely bad – for a vampire.” She looked with distaste at his noisy
blood-consumption. “But you’re still really gross.”
He noted the
direction of her gaze. “Yeah, this stuff is pretty gross,” he agreed. “But the
real thing is….” He broke off, a dreamy smile on his face.
“Yeuch,” Dawn reminded him. “If you’re going to talk about
eating real people I’m taking your blood away and telling Buffy on you!”
“And I’ll tell
Buffy you talked to the evil vampire and got it blood,” Spike countered.
She made a move to
withdraw the cup and he yelped in protest. “I’ll be good. Promise.”
Dawn smirked at her
success in vamp-handling. She’d be a pro yet.
Her satisfaction
was short lived, ended by the entrance of Xander and
his look of utter horror.
“Dawn, get away
from that vampire!” ordered Xander nervously.
“Who’s afraid of
the neutered vampire?” scoffed Dawn with a show of bravado. She wasn’t scared
of the neutered vampire, admittedly, but was a little nervous about Buffy
hearing of this.
“Put the cup down
and walk towards me,” said Xander, with his best
imitation of staying calm in a crisis.
Dawn rolled her
eyes and reluctantly put the cup on the ground.
“Oi!” Spike complained, “I was drinking that!”
Ignoring him, Xander continued his rant. “I can’t believe you did that
Dawn. That’s a killer! He could take the hand off you.”
Spike snorted.
“What am I, a bloody rottweiler?”
“That’s exactly
what you are, my friend,” said an advancing Xander.
“And you’re going to be getting put down any of these days.”
“Xander!” squeaked Dawn, “Don’t!” She tugged on his sleeve.
“Don’t be so mean!”
“What in the name
of good god is all the commotion?” demanded Giles, entering the fray, and
turning on the presumed cause. “Spike, be fully aware that there is a Slayer in
the next room who is more than happy to stake you at my word. And I will give
her that word if you can’t BE QUIET!”
“And I’ll have you
know that under the Geneva Convention a prisoner of war has the right to be fed
and can’t be mistreated for refusing to answer questions put to him by some
librarian wanker,” Spike informed him smugly.
Giles gaped.
“Oh,
and Rupert? I really like the cup.”