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Title: Dawn's Dumb Wish Author: Keswindhover Rating: PG-13 Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, but I haven’t hurt any one (well, I made Spike bang his shins on a bucket, but that’s it). Pairings: Willow/Tara, Giles/Anya Spoilers: Everything up to the end of season 6. Distribution: Ask me first - but I’m going to say yes. Feedback: Yes, please: keswindhover@yahoo.co.uk . Props: Regina Welch, who very kindly beta’d this story and helped make it way, way better by pointing out the missing jokes, drawing my attention sternly to roving POVs, and laying down the law on active/passive verbs. Dumbsaint whose “Once More, All Naked, All Gay” is a) brilliant and b) got me thinking about nakedness and gayness. Drbutterfrogg, whose ridiculously addictive “Wacky Adventures of the Buffybot” were quite clearly on my mind. All the authors of the enormous amounts of Buffy fanfic - good and bad - that I have been consuming recently, in a sick compulsive fashion. *************************************** An eerie calm had settled over the Magic Box.... Anya had made tea because Giles liked it, because he was English - and there must some truth to that stereotype because Spike had accepted a mug too. Xander was drinking it as well, but then, he’d drink anything, she thought scornfully - the big lunk. Buffy and Dawn had refused, and Dawn was apparently reading something personal into the fact that there was no orange juice in the shop, and was slumped in a chair kicking the table leg in an annoying manner. Willow had asked for herbal, but settled sheepishly for English Breakfast like the rest of them once Anya had glared at her. She sat anxiously beside Tara, who had accepted a mug as well but was now staring rather doubtfully into it, wondering if there were any hallucinogens swimming in there... it would explain a lot. Giles took a cautious sip, and winced. For God’s sake, what was complicated about pouring boiling (boiling mind you, not tepid) water over a handful of teabags in a teapot? A chimpanzee could do it. And Anya was smiling that big crocodile smile at him again, it was really rather frightening... could she really have feelings for him, as Buffy suggested? He pulled himself together. “Right then, now everyone’s a little calmer. Let’s try and establish just exactly what Dawn wished for, and what we’re likely to get instead. Dawn?” Dawn stopped kicking the table leg and folded her arms again defensively. “All I wished was for all of us to be back together again, like we were before, before that asshole started putting holes in everything.” “Language, Dawn,” said Buffy automatically - she was getting the hang of this parenting thing, slowly. Dawn shot her an annoyed look. “So, when I found Tara’s pendant - which I so did not steal - and I found out what it said on it...” Hey the kid’s been stealing my stuff, thought Tara indignantly. “... I realised that I could make a safe wish,” Giles opened his mouth to interrupt but Dawn plunged on, “and Tara had explained to me about limiting wishes - because if they’re vague in any way at all, you get unexpected consequences...” “That bastard lurky demon!” Spike snorted violently. “...so I was very specific. I wished that all the Scoobies could be together again, just as we were that morning, when Willow and Tara were doing the bedroom thing, and before Warren showed up, but that nothing else should change.” Tara looked across at Willow, alarmed. She and Willow had been doing the bedroom thing? What bedroom thing exactly? A dreamy reminiscent smile tugged at Willow’s lips, and she moved a little closer to rub one nearly bare thigh up against Tara. Tara shied nervously. “Did you wish that everyone would come back naked? asked Anya, interestedly. “Because if not that was at least one unexpected consequence. Well, actually not everyone was naked. I wasn’t naked,” she pouted momentarily, feeling left out, “and Xander wasn’t naked, and you weren’t naked. “ “I did not ask for anyone to come back naked!” Dawn shouted, blushing to the tips of her hair as she recalled naked Spike bursting out of the store cupboard. She looked across at him involuntarily, and blushed again. Buffy looked across at him as well. “Yeah, and that’s another thing. Why did the spell catch Spike? “No way is he a Scooby.” Giles sighed, “Apparently Spike is a Scooby - hard though it is to believe.” Spike was speechless for a moment. “I am not. No way am I a Scooby. It’s bollocks, is that. I have happy daydreams all the time of slicing you lot into tiny pieces.” “I think it’s more a matter of how Dawn regarded you, on the morning that her wish referred to. She included you in her definition of the Scooby gang at that moment, so here you are. Now, lets establish exactly what the pendant says - I can’t read it without my glasses - so, Willow?” Willow straightened up self consciously. She had been trying to hold Tara’s hand again, but Tara had hunched herself defensively into the mackintosh, with her hands pushed into the pockets, her knees pressed firmly together and her long legs crossed at the ankles. Willow tore her gaze away from Tara’s legs and turned to Giles. “It says make not this wish good, that no harm may come.” “Hey, said Xander, proving more observant than anyone could reasonably have expected, “you didn’t read that.” “Well actually,” said Willow bashfully, “I wrote it." Chapter 6 trailer: This is all about the spell, with a shock for Giles to keep you interested. Oh, and some people really should have remembered about wishes and Anyanka.... Chapter 6| HOME | WHAT'S NEW | ABOUT | FANFICTION | BLOG | LINKS | VERBIS | NOMINATIONS | |