Mother's Wisdom
Spike, Season Seven
There was a time, Spike thought vaguely, when everything was simple. You slept sheltered from the sunlight and hunted under the moon; you drank and fought and shagged when the opportunity arose; you loved the night and your mate and fuck humanity, this was living.
And then there was a time where everything was complicated. You started working with humans instead of against them. You fell in love.
And now everything's just fuzzy, overexposed. The lines are gone.
Mother used to warn him to watch what he wished for – that he just might get it.
God, he wished he'd listened.
Bliss/Ignorance
Dawn, Season Seven
Her teacher read the sign repeatedly during the year: "Real winners aren't content with yesterday's victories. They excel even after the job is done."
Nice words. Except Teacher Knows Best hadn't ever fought a demon, had she? Staked a vampire? Been kidnapped by evil minions? No? Didn't think so.
Dawn wanted badly to stand, hip jutting, arms folded, and ask Inspirational Educators exactly how many apocalypses they'd managed to stop. How many they'd even heard of.
Four? One? Wait, no, maybe none?
She wanted to show them true Hell.
But instead, she let them live in ignorance. They deserved it.
Theories of Invisibility
Xander & Willow
"Xander, what exactly are you doing?"
"I'm working on simultaneously being cool and becoming invisible."
"And there's a reason for this."
"Of course. There are many non-school things to be learned in school. For example, if I project 'cool Xan-man' down the hall, then teachers are less likely to ask for—"
"Mr. Harris, might I have a look at your pass?"
"I, uh, that is, Willow was going—"
"He's with me, Mr. Fendrick. We were just on our way back to class."
"Very well, Miss Rosenberg. Please don't dawdle in the halls."
"You were saying, Xander?"
"Shut up."