Seven Virtues - Dawn
By
Vanilla Tiger
AN: For the seven virtues challenge going around livejournal.
Feedback to fitchers_bird@yahoo.co.uk
Patience (Bargaining Part One)
They told her that these things take time. However slowly it may seem, the wounds would heal by themselves soon enough.
And, after the initial grief and anger had worked themselves through, she began to listen.
Things will get better. She knows this. She's lost enough to know that one day she'll be able to think of Buffy without tears.
What if she needs a little reassurance sometimes? Eventually she'll be able to get through the night by herself.
She can survive this, Dawn tells herself while she curls up beside the machine that is pretending to be her sister.
Faith (Smashed)
"So, anyway that's when I walk in and the look on their faces…"
Tara laughed appreciatively at the anecdote, and Dawn was able to forget for a little longer.
Buffy would be back any minute now, with some wild story about how she'd averted yet another apocalypse. For that matter, Willow and Amy had probably run into her, providing valuable assistance. They'd saunter in together arm in arm, apologetic yet relaxed. Dawn couldn't wait.
Any minute now, they'd come back. Then Willow and Tara would get back together, and Buffy would be happy again, and everything would finally be alright.
Chastity (All the Way)
Seriously humiliating to admit, but Donny had been kinda right.
Sure, Dawn had been kissed before but nowhere near enough to actually count. She'd never been able to relax.
It's to do with being the Slayer's sister, growing up on the Hellmouth.
Dawn's seen what monsters lurk in the hearts of men, both literal and not.
Kissing is just the start. There'll come a point where she'll won't be able to stop things going further.
And Dawn's never been quite able to lose the fear that she'll wake up one morning, look in her lover's eyes and see Angelus reborn.
Justice (Him)
He was wonderful. More than that, Dawn doubted that there were enough words in any language to do him justice. He was everything that she had ever hoped for in a man.
It made sense that he loved Buffy.
She was a hero, saving the world on a near daily basis. She was beautiful, athletic, compassionate, and much more experienced than her little sister.
Compared to, Dawn was just a girl. No more than a kid.
That's why it's only fair that Dawn gives her life for him, just like Buffy once gave her life for her.
Those two deserve love.
Perseverance (Potential)
Dawn wasn't a Key anymore.
There was no great magical power hovering within her either. Now it looked like she would never be a Slayer either.
She was just a girl, an ordinary vulnerable human.
She wasn't exceptionally strong, swift or resilient. She couldn't kill with a word or a punch. She would never be first choice for a mission. But she could practise fighting skills, until she could be sure that she would never get her sister killed again.
Dawn sighed, and returned to poring over the ancient texts. She wasn't special, but at least she could be useful.
Mercy (Storyteller)
God, but Andrew was so annoying. Did he even have a single clue of what was happening to them all? He just lived in his own geeky little world, completely out of touch with reality.
He seemed to think that they were all friends now. Well, Dawn remembered what he had done to his last friend, even if Andrew didn't.
What's more, he'd been snuffling in the corner for over an hour now. Dawn couldn't take it anymore.
She sat down next to him, placing a comforting hand on his back. "So explain to me the Cell saga again."
Hope (Chosen)
Dawn can't grieve the destruction of Sunnydale.
She mourns the dead, of course, and pities the survivors for all they have lost but she just can't bring herself to regret the city's loss.
Her home, Sunnydale High, her mother's gallery, the Magic Box, miles of land covered with memories that never truly existed.
The whole place was tainted by association with a life the monks had made, trapping her in choices decided by choices made by strangers. How much of her past was actually her?
Now it has all gone, and Dawn is free.
From hereon in, everything is real.