“It’s not that we don’t take you seriously Dawn. It’s that you’re a walking disaster magnet.” she said. “We tell you not to do something. You do it. Then I have to rescue you! And even if we factor out the thirteen years where the monks made up all my memories of you, you get in trouble more than Xander.”
“Yeah, well,Xander doesn’t have a neon sign saying ‘kidnap me, I’m the Slayer’s sister!’ hanging over his head at all times!” she bites back. Sure, sometimes Dawn got into normal trouble on her own; but that was just classic teenager stuff. The serious things were rarely supernatural-free. “Did you ever think that maybe YOU’RE the walking disaster magnet, not me? No demons would even care about me if I wasn’t with you!”
“That’s a rhetorical question right. Do I need to start listing all the times that you did sneak out. And maybe you didn’t mean to do bad things, but bad things kinda just happen around you Dawn. I want you inside where you’re safe. It’s not like I have fun when I’m out after dark.” she said. “I’m doing my job.”
“Well, maybe I always sneak out because no one ever lets me do anything around here! With you guys, it’s always ‘Oh, Dawnie, don’t do this!’ or ‘Don’t worry about that, Dawn, you wouldn’t understand.’ Why can’t you ever take me seriously?”
“I need you to stay calm Dawn.” Buffy said, raising her hands up to show that she didn’t mean her any harm. She wasn’t a threat. “And I need you to listen.”
“Buffy, where’ve you– -”
She stopped mid-turn with her smile frozen in place. It doesn’t take long for it to start to fade at the sight of the look on Buffy’s face.
“No, I had a curfew I just ignored it.” She paused realizing, that probably wasn’t the best thing to say. “You can stay up, but you can’t go out. And no answering the door.”
Dawn couldn’t help but smirk at Buffy’s slip- up; she wouldn’t say anything about it now, but she definitely was storing that information away for later.
Buffy pressed her lips to her sister’s head drawing strength from the little girl. I would kill even him to keep you safe. She promised, keeping the thought to herself. She loved Angel, loved him so much it hurt - but she would kill him to keep her family safe.
“I’ll stay until Xander gets here, how does that sound?”
Dawn let her eyes flutter shut as she felt her sister’s lips pressed against her hair. This didn’t change the fact that Buffy would leave, she was well-aware, but at least this way she’d wouldn’t be alone in the meantime until Xander arrived.
“That sounds really good.”
She waited another moment, and then two, before finally pulling away and opening her eyes. Finally meeting Buffy’s gaze, offered her sister the best smile she could manage– - on some level, she understood that this was just as scary for Buffy as it was for her; but unlike her, her sister would be all alone as soon as she left.
“I’m always careful,” she promised. Reaching over she pulled Dawn into a tight hug. She kept her there like that for a few moments. She pressed her cheek to Dawn’s head. “I love you Dawn. I love you, and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She returns the hug for as long as it lasts, pressing up on tiptoe in order to bury her head in her sister’s shoulder. Sure, Dawn understands why Buffy has to leave, but that doesn’t make it any less nerve-wracking every time. Especially since now, she’s facing Angel.
