Author's Note: This can be read standalone, or as a sequel to "The Open Window". Both stories were byproducts of a longer work that has not yet been posted.
Angel and Buffy aren't quite as secretive about their relationship the second time around. As in, Buffy admits that she's dating him- which Dawn thinks is an awful, terrible decision, but what does she know? She's never dated and therefore can never understand the glorious love that is Buffy and Angel, apparently. Angel actually comes to visit the house all of, like, twice. Of course, he spends the first visit acting so weird that Dawn whips out a cross halfway through and demands to know whether he isn't actually still evil, which everyone thinks is just rude, as opposed to completely reasonable. The only exception is Angel himself. He knows what he did, and the guilt's eating him alive. She can tell. It's probably why he's acting so shifty.
The second time he stops by the house, he smiles at Mom, but it looks like it's causing him physical pain. Dawn's pretty sure that Buffy gave him some kind of talk about making a good impression on her family. He valiantly attempts to make conversation, which is definitely one of the top ten most awkward things Dawn has ever seen. She finds the forced conversation almost as painful as Angel does, and she's about to excuse herself to her room when Buffy pulls their mother into the kitchen and blabs something to her about keeping Angel company.
The tension in the room is like nothing Dawn's ever felt before. It's like when someone tries to force two "plus" magnets to stay together, even though they really, really want to fly apart. There are probably about a thousand things that need to be said, and neither one of them is saying them. Dawn opens her mouth.
"So I guess you've killed a lot of people, huh?"
Dawn mentally labels Angel's expression "controlled horror", and belatedly realizes that that was probably not one of the thousand things that needed to be said.
"Yes," says Angel.
More silence.
"But you're not going to kill anybody else, right?"
"Right."
More silence. Longer this time.
"Spike tells better stories than you do."
Angel gapes at her. "He does n- when did you hear Spike tell a story?"
"Last fall. He talked about Brazil and stuff, and it was way more interesting than yours. Do you even know how to tell a story? Beginning-middle-end, three act structure, plot-setting-characters?" She trails off, waiting for him to say of course I do, thank you very much. It's a lie anyway; Angel's horrifying stories were ten times better crafted than Spike's stack of complaints, but she really just wants him address what happened last winter. "Well?"
"I can tell stories," says Angel, defensively. "Just not ones your mother wants you to hear."
Well, that's true, as Dawn can readily testify, but it's not what she's looking for. "You've had a soul for a hundred years or whatever. Haven't you done anything since you got cursed?"
There's a terrible moment where she thinks he's going to say no, and then she'll just be sad for him, because she's only twelve and already has stories to tell that don't include torture or anything else really horrible.
"I saved a submarine once."
Dawn glares at him, but he's looking at his shoes instead of her reaction. "You did not."
"I did! During World War II. The government came to me and asked me to save this sub that they thought had been captured by the enemy."
"Why you?"
"Well, think about it. Vampires don't breathe, and they can't be killed by pressure. I was the perfect person for the job."
"That makes sense. So what did you say?"
"Well, at first I said no, but they insisted, and I didn't really want to end up a pile of dust, you know?" Dawn nods- they're making eye contact now. "So they weight me down with a few hundred pounds, then drop me off roughly where they think the sub is. I had to crawl in through one of the torpedo tubes- you ever see a torpedo tube?" Dawn shakes her head and leans forward. "They're all dark and claustrophobic, barely big enough to crawl through. I get to the end and I start tapping."
He raps on the table, tap-tap-tap, a pattern that Dawn takes a second to place. She frowns with the effort. "Morse code?"
"Yeah. SOS, which is-"
"Save our ship. What you say when you're in trouble."
"Right. So I'm tapping on the inside of this dark metal tube, can't see anything, and it's just gotten to the point where I think everybody on this sub is already dead and I'm going to be stuck at the bottom of the ocean forever, when they open the hatch, and I'm looking at these five navy guys who look like they've just seen a ghost."
When Buffy and mom leave the kitchen, Dawn doesn't even notice. She's completely engrossed, and although Angel had to have noticed them, he's too busy telling the story to glance over or say anything to Buffy. He sort of half-smiles during the funny parts, and frowns during the sad parts, and answers Dawn's questions when she interrupts, never telling her to shut up and listen to the story. She's already stopped keeping track of what percentage of forgiveness this earns him, but she's definitely moved past the electromagnetic repulsion stage.
"So wait- wait. Spike was a Nazi?"
"Mostly he's just vain. I mean, kind of obvious, with the hair and the makeup and stuff, right? He just stole the SS officer's clothes after he ate him. It's a pretty common thing for vampires, especially if the person you're eating is wearing something nice-"
Buffy clears her throat, loudly. Angel's and Dawn's heads snap up. "Hi, Buffy. You wanna hear how Angel and Spike saved a submarine?"
"Some other time, maybe," says Buffy icily. She's glaring at Angel almost as severely as Dawn was an hour ago. "It's late, and Angel has places to be."
"Actually, I can- I mean, yeah, uh, lots of things to do." He stands up awkwardly, and shoots an apologetic glance at Dawn. "I'll just be going now."
"Oh, well, we'll have to get together again sometime," says Mom, but it sounds just as forced as it did at the beginning of the night.
Dawn frowns at both of them, then runs upstairs to her room like the petulant child she absolutely is. She locks the door behind her and sits by the window for a while. She's not really sure what she's mad about, only that she is. It probably has something to do with the fact that Angel's creepy murder-rape-torture stories go unaddressed (not that she told anyone, but still), while awesome stories about saving submarines get him ejected from the house. It's not fair.
It's a few minutes before she sees Angel on the sidewalk. She immediately wrenches the window up, which is enough by itself to get his attention. She stares at him, and he stares back.
"Hey," whispers Dawn. "Can you tell me how you and Spike got off the submarine sometime?"
Angel frowns, but only for a moment. He nods.
"Don't hurt my sister again."
Angel nods.
"'Kay. Just so we're clear. 'Cuz you do, and I'm gonna drop you into the ocean all over again."
She's pretty sure he says something to that, but she doesn't have vampire super-hearing, and she can't make out what it is. She waves at him, watches him walk away, and snaps her window shut.