“Who are you two?” Spike asked in his usual tactful manner.

“We can’t say” said Chloe, nodding vehemently and Asha joined in her defiance. “We can only talk to Buffy.”

“Can’t you at least tell us your names?” Dawn tried to inch towards them, doing her best to look non-threatening. Not that the little girls seemed phased by anything much. They’d hardly flinched a muscle when Xander let slip that Spike was a vampire. It’s like they knew already. Since then, the 3 had seen little point in trying to be discreet around them about supernatural stuff. Given their track record, there was a very high possibility that these two were supernatural themselves.

Dawn sighed and motioned for Spike and Xander to follow her out the door.

“What do we do with them?” Xander asked when they were out of earshot.

Xander, Dawn and Spike stood in the hallway, talking in hushed voices and watching the little girls through the open living room door. They were both sitting patiently side by side on the sofa under the window, seemingly oblivious to the fact they were being talked about.

“What do we do with who?” Buffy opened the door and slung her jacket over the end of the stairs. Asha and Chloe, recognizing her voice immediately came charging out at full speed and wrapped themselves around her legs.

Xander rolled his eyes. “Them.”

* * *

The two girls sat down again on the sofa and the four adults placed themselves strategically around the room. Buffy was kneeling in front of them.

“Ok” she said, smiling, “can you tell me who you are now?”

“Yep” said Asha, mirroring her grin. “I’m Asha.”

“I’m Chloe” the other girl said, flicking her blonde hair behind her ear.

“Hi” said Buffy, taking her time. “Where did you come from?”

“We were sent by M….” Chloe began but was stopped by a sharp jab in the ribs by her friend.

“From nowhere” Asha said and Buffy looked suspiciously at Spike who was leaning on the bookcase.

“How old are you?” she said, deciding to change the subject without a fight. She could tell they’d be here for a while trying to get the necessary information out of these two stubborn kids. Even longer if she didn’t play nice. Not that it was hard when they were both so adorable.

“Six!” they chorused at once.

“Why did you have to find me?”

Asha’s eyes were darting impatiently around the room while Chloe seemed transfixed by something in Spike’s direction.

“Do you have any cookies?” Asha spoke up. “And some juice.” Chloe took her eyes off Spike for a second.

“Please!” she said, sounding very grown up and Dawn couldn’t help smiling.

“Sure, I’ll see what I can find.”

All five of them watched Dawn go into the kitchen. Xander looked at his watch. “Oh, There was meant to be a delivery at the site this morning, I’m dead if I’m late.”

“You’re in charge” groaned Spike. “Gonna kill yourself?”

Xander shot him a sarcastic glare. “Oh no” Buffy said, raising a hand. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“We’ll be good” Asha told them, flashing one of her best ‘I’m-a-good-girl-honest’ looks. Chloe just giggled.

“Hehe” she said, pointing at Spike. “You’ve got funny hair!”

“He does doesn’t he?” Buffy said. She smiled at the little girls and they hopped off the sofa. “Let’s go see Dawn.”

* * *

“So, you’re Dawn right?” Chloe climbed onto a stool and hopped up onto the counter. “You were the key.”

Dawn shut the cupboard door and peered at the girl. “How did you know that?”

“Oh” said Asha, joining her friend. “We know loooooooooads!”

Dawn turned around and faced them both putting her hands on her hips. “OK then, what’s my favourite colour?”

“Purple!” they both said at once with mouths full of chocolate chip cookie.

“That was too easy” said Dawn, “I’m wearing a purple top. Tell me something that’s not obvious.”

Chloe and Asha turned to face each other. “Hmm…” Asha mused, the expression on her face making her look a lot older than she was. “How about that you kissed a vampire last Halloween?”

“Bleurgh. Kissing!”

Asha rolled her eyes at Chloe and continued. “Buffy was turned invisible by 3 geeky guys, Xander left Anya at the alter cos some crackpot pretending to be him showed him a fake future, you used to have a massive crush on him and Willow dates girls.”

Now it was her turn to fold her arms. Asha glared at Dawn as if challenging her to ask her something else. When there was no response, she carried on. “And, you know, there was that time at Christmas when you threw up all over the tree after too much egg nog…”

“Okay….” Dawn said, ramming another plate of cookies into the child’s face to make her stop, “I get the picture.”

Chloe tugged on her friend’s sleeve, “Um, Asha. we need to talk to Buff…”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of time. Let’s explore!”

* * *

“We still don’t have the faintest clue who they are yet” Xander said, looking towards the kitchen nervously. “You remember those Hansel and Gretal wannabies right? How do you know these two aren’t 2 halves of a demon coming in here and winning us over with their cuteness?”

“Xander, stop it. We’ll get Giles on it right away. You know, as soon as he gets back from his quest.”

Spike looked at Buffy and let out an involuntary scoff. “Love to see Mr. Tweed do the hokey cokey.”

Buffy ignored him and he shook his head, heading outside for a cigarette. “WE better call Willow” Buffy continued. “See what she knows.” Xander nodded.

“We really need to talk to you.” Asha stood at the other end of the hall and looked at Buffy. She wasn’t sure how long she had been standing there but decided it didn’t really matter. Chloe appeared beside her.

These two girls couldn’t be more different. Asha was much taller than her companion. She had wavy shoulder-length brown hair and walked ad spoke with a certain confidence that would almost be cocky if she wasn’t so cheeky with it. Chloe was more shy, with long straight blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She currently stood there biting her nails but Buffy could sense from the little girl that she gave as good as she got when provoked.

Buffy may have been quiet for a bit too long because Asha started tapping her foot impatiently. “We need to get to work” she said, trotting off upstairs. She got about half way up and turned to look at Buffy. “Come on then!”