Fanfic Friday

"Dawn at Dusk"

Dawn was still standing by the kitchen sink as she cleaned the gasoline off of her hands when Kennedy came into the house from the back yard.

"Dawn," she asked, "have you seen Spike today? It's almost time for our nightly training exercises and I don't see him anywhere."

"I don't think Spike is going to participate in any more training exercises," said Dawn. "He and my sister had a big fight yesterday and I believe that he's decided to move on."

"A fight?" asked Kennedy. "Was that what all the shouting was about yesterday?"

"Probably," said Dawn with a shrug.

"So that explains all the bruises on her arm," said Kennedy. "He didn't try to -- "

"Well, he tried, but he didn't succeed," said Dawn. "Once again my sister was too strong for him, which is just as well since he'll never be doing that again."

"What do you mean, 'again'?" asked Kennedy. "And how do you know that he'll never be doing it again?"

"Oh, just a hunch," said Dawn. "Buffy is not the only one in this household who has visions. By the way, there's a notebook on the table full of phrases in Cantonese that I found on the Internet. I figured that as long as Chao-Ahn is staying with us, we might as well find some way to communicate with her."

"Why, thank you, Dawn," said Kennedy. "That's so thoughtful of you. But why didn't you let Giles or Willow do that?"

"Because there are some certain things that need to be done that Giles or Willow -- or even Buffy -- can't -- or won't -- be bothered to do," said Dawn. "And apparently that is my job now -- to do the things that need to be done that others seem unwilling to do. Now if you'll excuse me, Kennedy, I need to go clean up the basement."

"Yes, I suppose you'd better," said Kennedy. "It smells like somebody's been burning trash down there."

"Yes, that's one way to put it," said Dawn with an enigmatic expression on her face.