"A good book is…"
By Snowballjane
Disclaimer: All characters are the creations of Joss Whedon.
Note: This fic was written for Mara, who requested warm, funny friendship fic for her birthday. So that's what it is.
***
"Dawn! Parcel for you!" Rona's voice rang through the rented apartment which was chock-full of recovering slayers.
In the kitchen Dawn gave a delighted squeal and waved her hands in the air, causing soap suds to fly in all directions.
"Hey!" complained Andrew, wiping bubbles from his face before the teenager grabbed the tea-towel from his hands and ran out of the room. Curious as to how Dawn could possibly be getting parcels just two days after they had moved into these overcrowded rooms, he followed her into the hallway and was just in time to see Rona hand over a cardboard package. The new slayer hobbled back into the living room and a loud squabble immediately erupted over someone having changed TV channels while she went to answer the door.
The staples holding together the parcel popped loudly as Dawn tore it open and lifted out a small dark leather-bound tome. On its cover was embossed a silver triangle.
Andrew peered over her shoulder trying to get a closer look. "Ooh, the Klamrar Grimoire," he said admiringly. "Such a classic."
"Well, our entire demonology library is at the bottom of a great big hole and I figured it's only a matter of time before something big and mean turns up," said Dawn, flicking open the book to its title page. "Giles has loads of books in England we could use, but they're no good to us there. This is all I could afford for now."
"I can't believe Giles didn't even bring Terecos' Treatise with him. Can you believe it? The only known copy sucked into the hellmouth." Along with all his own personal collections, he reflected bitterly, but he bit his tongue and somehow managed not to complain about the treasured comics that had gone the way of Giles' library. Dawn wouldn't be interested.
"Oh, I loved that one," she said, sounding as enthused as the average teenaged girl would talking about designer jeans. "Terecos' illustrations are so cool and accurate, it's as if he managed to get all those fire demons to do angry poses while he sketched them," said Dawn, carrying the book through into the kitchen.
Trotting after her, Andrew realised there was something about that comment that seemed very familiar to him. Then it clicked. He'd read exactly the same description of Terecos' art at alt.demonology.books last year. And who else had access to the Treatise?
Despite the fact that she was the only other person in the kitchen, he pointed wildly at Dawn. "You! You're Thekey."
"It's The Key, not 'Thekkie', but well, um yeah, that's me," she said.
It was astounding. He'd assumed Thekey was some kind of major demon expert, or at least an adult. Surely not this sweet-seeming girl. But then, she had not merely grown up in Sunnydale – she had been babysat by a vampire, kidnapped and tortured by a god and spent a lot of time sitting around in a magic shop, bored enough to start reading her way through Giles' collection. She was bound to be well informed.
"I thought your post on honorific titles in demon languages was masterful," blurted out Andrew.
Dawn blushed, ducking her head over the book which she had laid on the table and was leafing through. "Hold on," she said, her head snapping back up, long hair flying as she turned on him. "Who are you then?"
"Um, er, ah," stammered Andrew.
"Y..you're evilgenius23! You are aren't you. Oh my god! That name's so lame," she said, laughing.
He cringed and looked away, his shoulders tensing under the mockery.
"Hey," said Dawn, quietly. "I'm sorry. Most people's names there are pretty silly."
He looked back at her and she was giving him a teasing, friendly smile. "You posted some pretty good stuff on musical summoning," she said. "I think it went over everyone else's heads though."
Feeling warm and fuzzy at the praise, Andrew grabbed a packet of chips from the cupboard and sat down at the table next to Dawn.
"Nyah! No greasy snacks near the book!" she said, batting him away.
"Woah there Summers. You've been spending way too much time around Mr Giles. You turn the pages. I'll just sit here and look."
They sat for a while in companionable silence, the only sounds the crunching of chips and the swish of turning pages.
Eventually Andrew broke the silence. "Just think how much expertise was lost when the Council was blown up."
"Yeah," said Dawn wistfully. "I mean, after Giles and Wesley, you and I are the next most demon-knowledgey people I can think of. Willow knows loads about everything, but she's kind of busy with the magic to focus on the demon stuff. Anya obviously knew loads, but…"
The thought hung awkwardly in the air.
"Wesley?" asked Andrew
"Faith's Watcher. Works with Angel in LA. It's, er, complicated."
"So who's going to do Watcher duty for all these new slayers? I know Buffy gave them all that speech about being strong and independent, but I've not seen one of them pick up a book since they arrived in Sunnydale."
"Yep, the slayers are not much with the reading," said Dawn. "And it's the books and the research that have swung it most of the time for Buffy, I reckon. I guess it'll have to be us."
"I.. I don't think they'd have me as a Watcher. Since I, y'know, tried to kill the Slayer." He shuddered. Not getting to die a neat redemptive death in the battle with the First meant he'd been spending a lot of time thinking about the bad and stupid stuff that had happened over the past couple of years. He had tried to fathom why getting rid of Buffy had seemed like such a good idea at the time. It was all very well to claim he'd 'just been caught up' in the excitement of having a plan. But in the cold light of hindsight he still couldn't understand why.
"Oh, Giles has a load of weird dark stuff in his past you know," said Dawn, closing the book and pushing it to one side. "Or was that just bad fashion sense? No, I'm pretty sure it was both." She made a grab for the chips and stuffed a handful into her mouth.
"Really? Cool, we can be Watchers then," said Andrew. It was a rather pleasant idea. To actually be something, rather than just tagging along and doing the kitchen chores.
"So whose Watcher would you want to be?" asked Dawn.
"Not Kennedy. She's kinda scary."
Dawn grinned. "And how! I think we can leave Willow in charge of her. Vi seems nice and she'd probably work pretty hard," she said.
"I liked Amanda," mumbled Andrew. "She was…"
"I know," said Dawn, turning serious. "She was."
There was a clatter of keys at the apartment door.
"Oh, hey, that'll be the gang back from visiting Robin at the hospital," said Dawn, jumping up from the kitchen chair. The teenager dashed out of the room.
Andrew picked up a tea towel and headed for the draining board to finish drying the dishes. The past hour had been the most pleasant he had spent since before he and Jonathan had returned to Sunnydale, but it wasn't likely to happen again. Dawn had plenty of other people to talk to. Better people.
"Andrew!" The squeal came from the kitchen door. He span around to see Dawn, jumping up and down and waving a new lap-top. "Look what Willow bought!"
The End