Dawn – Tactless Wonder
Spoilers: Right up until 'The Body'.
Notes: The idea for this one's been bugging me for a while. We've all seen what Dawn can be like with blurting things out honestly and to the point, and who needs it more than Angel?
Summary: Angel's in Sunnydale after Joyce's death, helping to take care of a certain younger Summers. Dawn, never one to keep her mouth shut, tells him everything he doesn't want to hear.
- - -
"You, uh, you want some…some tea? Would you like tea?"
Dawn didn't bother responding, simply rolled her eyes and continued to play with the button of her jacket.
"Water? Anything at all?"
This time, she let out an exasperated breath.
"Look, Dawn, you need to have something. We could, I guess we could go out later. If you want, that is…do you want to? We don't have to, I just thought maybe that would be better."
The opportunity was staring her right in the face. Now came the really tough decision: keep ignoring him, or lose the chance to lay in a few shots? Evidently, she couldn't help herself.
"You do that a lot."
Relieved that she had finally decided to speak after four hours of silence, Angel asked, "I do what a lot?"
"Decide what would be better without asking first."
Slightly thrown, the vampire finally stopped rambling. Which, to Dawn, came as a blessed relief.
Finally gathering himself, he asked what she meant.
"Oh, please. You totally know what I meant."
"Look, what happened between Buffy and I-"
"I know what happened. I know way more than you think. I bet I know more than you, too."
"If you were older, you'd understand. Buffy does."
"Oh sure. Not even."
With that, she stood and moved across the room, passing through a strong beam of sunlight along the way. Angel tried to follow, but instead had to settle for standing at the rays edge.
"Care to explain that last part?"
"Why should I? It's none of your business, anyhow."
"Dawn…" Angel said, his voice low in warning.
"What? It isn't. Hasn't been since you packed up and left without saying goodbye."
Catching the slight surprise in his eyes, she continued. "See? I told you I knew more than you'd think. But, while we're on the subject, I need to say that your excuses? They sucked. Big time. Except that one about her getting old and you…well, not. But you know, not so much of a problem anyway. Looks like none of us are gonna have or have had long life spans anyway."
The bitterness in her voice was so clear that Angels growing annoyance faded in an instant, replaced by sympathy. Dawn immediately saw the change, and two years worth of anger flared out of control.
"Don't look at me like that! I don't want you to feel sorry for me. Anyway, that's not what we were talking about. You know, you might have left but Buffy still cries because of you. Maybe it's not about you, but it's still because of you. If you left about six months sooner maybe things would be better, but you didn't. You just hung around and let her think that you would always be there. See nobody else got it, but I totally understood why Xander hated you so much. You know why?"
Angel stood frozen, not even able to make a move.
"Okay mute boy, well I'll tell you. Because you being around, it only reminded her about what she couldn't have. And most of the time? She was never even sure that you really loved her, or that you didn't blame her about that whole hell thing. All the time I would hear her when she got home, and she'd just start crying. She thought nobody knew, and I never said anything, but the walls aren't that thick, you know? I would have been so glad when you finally left, except it made her about ten times worse. But I think she saw it coming. For the last few weeks, after that thing with Faith, I think she saw that you were gonna leave. I did too, and I would have been happy about it, but you'd never guess how much she changed. It was like 'can't be happy, I'm about to get sucker punched'.
"Oh, and we can't forget the whole 'Miss Self Involved 2000' phase. All that time she couldn't get groiny with you, well her and Riley really made up for it. What a closet nymph she turned out to be. But she never really let herself love him. She thought she did, but you scared her right out of ever doing that again. He left because of it. Never said anything right until the end, though. Maybe she could have done something if he'd told her. Or maybe it would have ended up the same, who knows. He was good for her. Too bad he was just a rebound guy."
They stood in silence for the next few minutes, Dawn thinking of more to say, Angel trying to absorb what he'd already been told. After a couple of dry swallows, and a growing fascination with the wall, he spoke again.
"It's a little unfair to blame all that on me. I haven't been around for almost two years."
Scoffing, the Key began her next tirade. "Like that makes a difference! There's no way you can stand there and tell me that just because you haven't seen Buffy that much she means any less. Can you?"
"No. I can't," he replied honestly.
As soon as he'd finished the small confession, the front door to the mansion swung open and Xander strolled in. Taking in the somewhat incriminating view of Dawn and Angel seemingly at a standoff, he quickly leapt to the side of the Slayers little sister.
"What's going on? Dawn, did he try to hurt you or something?" he inquired urgently, scanning her for any signs of a struggle.
"No! No, we were just talking. That's all."
"Just talking? Why're you hiding behind the light?"
"I was…just coming back from the bathroom," she explained.
"Right," Xander conceded, still unconvinced. "Come on, we've gotta go. Buffy's waiting for us."
"Okay. Um, see ya Angel."
Angel merely inclined his head by way of goodbye, and watched them as they left, leaving him alone. He busied himself by strolling through the empty mansion for the next few minutes, taking in the blank gray walls, the utter lack of life. He'd forgotten how lonely it was here.
And with another six hours of sunlight left, he'd have plenty of time to remember. Everything.