Disclaimer: Needless to say, I am not Joss Whedon

Update: I decided to condense the story slightly, as the itty bitty chapters were bugging me. Don't worry, I just put some of the chapters together, I haven't changed anything! Well, except Dawn's age – I've lowered that from fifteen to fourteen. It's still not as young as she's supposed to be, but I thought the love story was more realistic this way, rather than having her falling madly in love at twelve or thirteen (not to mention it's slightly less illegal!). Hope you enjoy the new format!

Prologue

"Buffy! I really need to pee!" Dawn whimpered as her sister dragged her by the hand out their front door.

"We'll be at Giles' place in a few minutes, you can go then," Buffy snapped. "But I have to go talk to him, and there's no way I'm leaving you on your own in the house."

"I'm nearly fifteen," Dawn replied indignantly. "All the girls in my class are allowed stay on their own, some of them even babysit! How come I have to come with you?"

"Because the last time Mom left you in the house on your own, you decided to go out, alone, at night, in Sunnydale, and you almost got killed!"

"First of all, I wasn't supposed to be alone – you were supposed to minding me. And we were out of Cheetos. I was just going down to the store to get some. And anyway, it was only a little vampire. It-"

Buffy gave a little scream of irritation, and snapped, "Stop dawdling, I thought you had to pee!"

Dawn glared at her. "I was trying to distract myself. Now you've reminded me again!"

~*~

Buffy opened Giles' heavy wooden door and called, "Giles? I got your message – what's the emergency?" Dawn pushed her aside as she scurried madly for the bathroom. She sat on the toilet with a blissful sigh, and it was only when she reached for the toilet paper that she realised there was a blonde-haired man with a surprised expression on his face sitting, fully clothed and manacled, in the bath tub.

"Eep!" she squeaked.

The man's expression shifted from surprised to amused in a flash. "'ello, little mouse," he said, smirking.

"Who are you?" Dawn asked, glaring at him. "And why are you in Mr. Giles' bathroom?"

"I'm Spike," he said, as if that explained everything.

"Do you often sit in other peoples' bath tubs?" Dawn asked.

"Not very often, no. Don't even sit in my own all that often, to be honest." He smirked again.

Dawn sniffed at him, then giggled. "You really don't, do you?"

"Oi!" he yelped. "I'm offended now! And don't you go sniffing me – I don't even know you!"

"I'm Dawn," Dawn said, offering him her hand. He raised his shackled arms slightly and shook them, making the chains jingle.

"I'm a little tied up right now, pet," he said. "And besides, in case you hadn't noticed, you're sitting on the soddin' loo at the moment. Haven't you ever heard of germs?"

Dawn flushed slightly. "Well, I can't really finish up here with you watching, can I!"

Spike closed his eyes theatrically, and turned his face to the wall. "Fine, no peeking," he assured her.

She hurriedly grabbed a bit of paper, then pulled her pants up and flushed the toilet. As she walked over to the sink, she said, "Okay, you can look now. So why are you in here, anyway?"

His face morphed into the characteristic vampire ridges. Showing his elongated canine teeth, he growled, "Cos I'm a big bad nasty vampire who eats little girls like you."

He looked at her expectantly, but when all she did was say, "I'm not little, I'm nearly fifteen," his face fell and his shoulders slumped.

Dawn looked with surprise at the downtrodden way the vampire reacted, and felt a wave of sympathy. She squatted down beside the bath and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. "Don't be sad," she said gently. "You really are very scary and evil-looking, I'm just sort of used to vampires. My sister Buffy is the Slayer, see." Spike continued to sit miserably with head hung. Dawn suddenly said, "Why don't you try again?"

Spike raised his head, a slightly happier look in his golden eyes. "Really?" he asked, then looked sad again. "No, there's no point. It's no fun when you're just pretending."

"I'll be totally convincing," Dawn promised. "I'm a really good actress, and I was Rapunzel in first grade, so I'm like, qualified at being the damsel in distress." A thought struck her. "Maybe you could bite me? I'd probably be scared then for real. But I don't want to be a vampire... Do you always turn into a vampire if you get bitten by one?"

Spike was grinning widely now, which somehow made his terrifying visage look less frightening, even though it brought his jagged teeth into even greater prominence. "No, the vampire has to drain all the blood out of you. And then you have to drink some of their blood too," he explained, amusement evident in his voice. "And thanks for the offer – you do look like a nummy little treat." His smile faded. "But I can't bite anything at the moment."

"Do you have toothache?" Dawn asked sympathetically. "Cos I had that once, and it was so sore that Buffy had to give me Mom's prescription pain stuff until I could get to the dentist, and-"

"No," Spike interrupted her, laughing again. "No toothache. I keep my pearly whites in proper working order." He flashed her another very pointy smile. "But I've got this problem at the moment, see. A chip in my head, making me behave myself."

Dawn looked indignant. "So why are you locked up then?"

"I suppose the poncy old Watcher doesn't trust me," Spike said, with a shrug. "And he's bloody right not to. If I had this chip out, I'd gut the bastard. But-"

He was interrupted by a shriek from outside the bathroom door. "Dawn!" The door burst open, and Buffy whirled in, a frantic look on her face. When she spotted Dawn crouching on the floor next to Spike, who still had his game face on, the panic changed to fury. She grabbed Dawn's arm and jerked her to her feet and away from the vampire. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Dawn wrenched her arm out of Buffy's grip and glared at her. "I was peeing."

"You were talking to Spike!" Buffy yelled at her.

"Well, it would have been bloody rude of her to pee in front of me and not introduce herself," Spike said, grinning. His face had returned to its human contours once more, but the smirk was certainly not endearing him to Buffy.

She punched him in the face and hissed, "Stay the hell away from my sister, you bastard." Although she had not used anywhere near all of her Slayer strength, the force was sufficient to bloody his nose and send his head whipping back to crack against the wall. Dawn gave a cry and darted forward to help him, but Buffy grabbed her by the arm again and pulled her out of the bathroom, berating her loudly for her actions. As she was tugged through the door, Dawn turned and gave the vampire a wave and a little smile. Spike, who had his hand to his nose to stop the blood, grinned back at her.