Author's Notes: This story started as an idea for a funny situation and it went from there. Hopefully you'll give it a chance and enjoy it. Thank you in advance to any and all who read this! I just hope I can put a smile on your face :)
"Guys, I really don't want to be here. The Watcher's graduating test is next week and you know how hard I've been working for that. I really should be spending the night studying and not here," whined Dawn to her two friends.
Charity looked at her with a contemplative finger on her lips. "You know who you are Dawn?"
Dawn rolled her eyes, "Who am I Charity?"
"You're Hermione Granger. A beautiful brilliant witch who's a slave to her books and never gets out much. Something that I have to do something about at least once in a while or else what kind of friend am I?" said the tall perfectly gorgeous redhead.
"Stop complaining Dawn you know you'll never talk her out of it. Just buck up, shut up and get in there and have some fun. It won't kill ya, I promise," said her other friend Isabella, a short slightly butch Hispanic witch-in-training who always reminded Dawn of Michelle Rodriguez.
"You both know I have twice the workload that either of you has. That means I don't have time to go out and 'have fun' especially when my Watcher training is almost finished! I've been killing myself for this and I really don't want to screw it up."
Indeed in the two plus years since the Sunnydale collapse and their subsequent relocation to Scotland Dawn had become a girl on a mission. When she realized she had a gift for languages, a sharp intelligence for things supernatural and a respectable amount of magical power Dawn decided to commit herself to being both a Watcher and a Witch. Giles had set up a curriculum for training Watchers and Willow had set one up for training those with the potential to be Witches who wanted to join in the good fight. Both were almost full time affairs in and of themselves and for the last two years Dawn had done nothing but eat and breathe obscure lore and Witchcraft while taking both programs simultaneously. Now that she was nearly done with her Watcher training and her Witch training would reach a major milestone in a few months time she didn't want to be distracted.
Isabella was a year older than Dawn and had started studying with Willow as a Witch-in-training almost from the beginning. Charity was almost three years older and was the daughter of one of the Watchers who had been killed by the First and she had been one of the first to begin Giles's new Watcher program alongside Dawn. Between her two friends they sort of knew everything she had to study day in and day out which was a fantastic. They just didn't seem to get it that she had to do twice as much work as either of them did the way they acted sometimes.
"We're already in front of the club Dawnie-baby," said Charity, using the nickname she had donned on her that both amused and annoyed the young Summers. She entwined her arm with Dawn's and gave the other girl a brilliant smile showing off her perfect white teeth. The tall big breasted redhead was too charming for her own good. "It would be kinda silly to go all the way back home after coming this far. Just a few drinks and if you're not having fun we can take you home. No fuss, no muss. We promise right Isa?" she said addressing the third girl of their party.
The other girl who stood a good half head shorter than Dawn took her other arm. "If you want to slink off and go home after a few drinks I guess I won't stop you. But once you start feeling the beat and start dancing that booty off, girl I promise you you're gonna feel a whole lot better. And you are not going to want to leave, I guarantee it," said the other girl, giving Dawn a mischievous smile that promised to get them into all kinds of trouble.
Dawn sighed dramatically and bowed to the inevitable. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Dawn couldn't remember the last time she had gone out dancing, much less had a guy who was interested in her touch her in any way. Pushing aside the impulse to run back to her books Dawn smiled widely. "Ok, ok I'll give it a shot. If I don't then I'm half afraid you'll both have catastrophic aneurysms and your heads will explode. Let's just get in there and do this already," she said with just a bit of a pout. Can't have her friends thinking they completely won her over.
"That's the spirit!" said Charity brightly and led the trio of them inside.
The club was called Poisoned X and it was what Dawn imagined a typical club would be. Low lighting with colored lights on the ceiling that sometimes flashed on and off to the beat of the music. A bar off to the side and a second floor with tables and more people. The place was packed and all of a sudden Dawn wasn't feeling so sure about this anymore. Back in Sunnydale she hadn't exactly partaken of what little night life there was and since they had arrived in Cleveland she had become a virtual recluse in her mad dash to become the best Watcher and Witch she could be. That she was feeling anxiety suddenly being in a crowd of partying young people made her think that she was maybe on her way to becoming – Heaven forbid – another Giles.
This was something she needed to do something about, stat.
"Let's go get some drinks then we can hit the dance floor!" said Isabella over the noise of the club. The Latina didn't give them a chance to respond before dragging them off towards the bar. Dawn let herself be dragged along but couldn't shake off the feeling of uneasiness at being in a place so completely crowded with people. It was strange since this wasn't a problem she'd ever had before.
Then again it had been a long time since she'd been in a place like this.
Dawn let herself get dragged off to the bar and Charity went up and ordered for them, taking the excuse to fold her arms under her bosom and push her assets up as she leaned over the counter. To his credit at least the bartender made the effort to keep his eyes on Charity's face but couldn't help the way his eyes occasionally flickered lower. Charity tried not to look too smug about it. Dawn just rolled her eyes at her friend's antics.
"I'm not even sure why you put so much effort into it. It's not like showing off the girls is going to get you free drinks from the bartender or anything," said Dawn, a little resentful when looking at her own more modest and well covered chest as opposed to Charity's ample girls on display.
"Oh Dawn, Dawn," said Charity in playful sympathy, "it's one of the pleasures of being a girl that Isa and I have to get you up to speed on. It's one of the prerogatives of good looking women to short circuit the brain of the opposite sex with a look or a gesture-"
"Ahem!" said Isabella.
"-or members of the same sex, whatever your preference may be. I've seen Isa here turn more than one woman into a sputtering idiot with that gorgeous Latin ass of hers, for example."
Isabella's face split in a wide grin at the compliment before turning to Dawn. "You gotta work what you got Dawn. Charity's got the hair, the gorgeous face and a rack to die for. I've got my exotic looks, killer curves and an ass you can bounce quarters off of. You just gotta figure out what you got going for ya and show it off. Trust us, it's fun as hell."
Dawn looked at her friends skeptically before looking down at herself. She didn't have a very big chest, not like Charity. Sure Dawn thought they were a nice shape but she didn't think they would be up for turning heads or causing nosebleeds at fifty paces. Her butt was young and perky even though she didn't work out but she didn't have anything like what Isabella had, the girl could give J-Lo a run for her money on the butt department and knew just what to wear to show it off. Dawn also didn't have big gorgeous hair like Charity or that exotic sultry look that Isabella managed to pull off. She thought she was cute but didn't know if she had anything going for her besides that.
Dawn suddenly thought she knew what the ugly duckling must have felt like. Ok maybe not the the ugly duckling and instead just the plain and easily overlooked duckling. Not a huge improvement in her book.
The brunette teen was saved from replying having to reply to her friends when the bartender brought their drinks over. Dawn grabbed one of the drinks having no idea what it was and took a big gulp. The strong burning down her throat made her sputter and cough.
"Easy there Tiger. If you wanted to get buzzed fast you just had to say something," said Isabella with an amused grin. Without waiting for a response she asked the bartender over. In short order there were six shots lined up in front of them.
"Oh God, you cannot expect me to drink that. This one is already killing me, why would I drink more of that vile stuff without even the splash of soda to water it down?" asked Dawn, making a face as she looked at the shots. Her friends just smiled at her in a way that made her uneasy.
Isabella seemed to take pity on her. "Relax, this isn't really hard liquor I ordered us. It's Sambuca. It's a popular drink where I'm from and it's flavorful. Thought you might like it better than a straight shot of Jack or Tequila. Besides with how often you party – you know like never – I have to take into account that you're a light weight," she said teasingly.
Dawn arched an eyebrow at her friend but she wasn't about to turn back on that challenge. Besides she did want to give the having fun thing a try even for the night. Even if part of her was nagging her that being here and all of this was not the best idea Dawn didn't want to feel like a party pooper.
"Ok then," said Dawn grabbing one of the clear shots, "bottoms up." She tossed it back and drank it in one go. Once again she sputtered and coughed in the aftermath.
"Good huh?" said Isabella after drinking her own.
"I always liked this," said Charity after her first shot, "though I always thought of it as more of a dessert type drink. I love that it tastes like-"
"Liquorish!" said Dawn in disgust. She hated liquorish!
"Well learn something new every day. Dawn doesn't like liquorish," said Isabella amused by Dawn's reaction. She held up the second shot of liquorish-burning-poison for Dawn to take.
Dawn looked at the vile thing in contempt but was too stubborn to back down from the challenge now. She took it with a grim look of determination that wouldn't have been out of place when facing an apocalypse.
"Bottoms up," said Isabella echoing Dawn's earlier words and she and Charity took the shots. Dawn hesitated a moment longer before downing the second shot of Sambuca herself. There was thankfully no sputtering and coughing this time. Instead she had to settle for a scrunched up face and making sounds of disgust.
"Next time you guys make me try some mystery drink Charity picks it out. I don't think my taste buds will ever forgive you for that Isa," said Dawn.
"Don't worry I'll protect you from those vile liquorish drinks in the future," said Charity teasingly, "come on, let's go dancing!"
Dawn let herself be dragged out to the dance floor, her head starting to swim in not an entirely unpleasant way. Charity led he by the hand and Isabella followed the three of them cutting through the dance floor to get right in the middle of the action. Dawn was feeling fine until somebody bumped into her and then she noticed the tight press of foreign bodies all around her. And then she started to feel uncomfortable.
Fedde Le Grand & Nicky Romero ft. Matthew Koma - "Sparks" Vicetone Remix
Charity found them a small clearing in the press of bodies and wasted no time putting her hands in the air grinding her body to the music. When Dawn didn't immediately start dancing she felt a hand touch her back. She almost jumped out of her skin and twirled around to yell at whoever had gotten fresh just to realize it was Isa. The darker girl grabbed Dawn's hands and started moving her own hips in a sensual sway in in time with the music, silently encouraging Dawn to join in.
Dawn was feeling incredibly awkward and the press of strange bodies around them was starting to feel more hostile and threatening. Trying to push down her increasing discomfort Dawn did her best to let Isabella guide her movements. As she tried however Dawn felt clumsy and couldn't for some reason find the beat like Isa and everyone around them seemed to be able to do without effort. It wasn't really a good song for hand holding so soon after Dawn started to move Isa let go of her hands and began to turn slowly with the music, body undulating and sensually riding the beat. Dawn thought she made it look sexy and good which just made her own hesitant attempts feel ridiculous and childish.
Dawn remembered being able to dance... sort of. What had happened to her? She didn't remember feeling this awkward trying to dance even in her dances in middle school. Then again that kind of dancing hadn't been dancing like this.
The brunette teen was not used to dancing to this type of music. After a minute on the dance floor she felt like a kid trying to fit in with a bunch of confident adults. It was uncomfortable and after only a minute or two Dawn decided she didn't like either the dancing or this place anymore. But that wasn't the wort of it.
The worst was the people all around. Seeing the press of faceless bodies all around her was rapidly increasing Dawn's level of anxiety. She was finding it hard to concentrate on dancing when all around her were people she didn't know and they were all so close and she had no way out. Dawn was starting to feel trapped and she really did not like the feeling.
Dawn started hyperventilating. She wanted out but she couldn't see a way out through the mass of people. They were all so tight around and the space around her was closing in and oh Gods it was getting harder to breathe. A rational part of her mind was telling her that she was close to a panic attack and that she needed to extract herself from the situation. This definitely was not a good place for her. If she could get out from around all these people she could calm down. The problem was getting through them to escape.
The final straw came when some guy came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Dawn panicked ripping herself from his grip and bolting off the dance floor. She no longer cared about the press of bodies all around her and just pushed through people trying to get away. The brunette was in a mad dash for freedom and didn't care who she had to push out of the way.
She burst through the final people out of the dance floor to the bar when she crashed into someone who was bending over picking something up. They would have both fallen to the ground except...
Except that on reflex she pushed the person she had run into towards the floor as hard as she could to keep from falling. If she had just bumped the woman from behind she might have recovered and not fallen. However by pushing her down on reflex to keep herself from falling she made the woman fall flat on the ground, her drink breaking and spilling everywhere. Realizing what she had just done some of the panic she had been feeling just a second before fled and was replaced by guilt and embarrassment.
"I'm so, so sorry! It was an... acci... dent..." she said, trailing off as she saw the person she had knocked over get to her knees and send her a positively murderous look over her shoulder.
"Faith!" Dawn squeaked. The other woman stood slowly and she pinned the younger Summers in place with eyes that held a terrifying amount of anger.
"Dawn..." Faith growled out at the younger Summers sounding about ready to kill.
Suddenly Dawn was transported back to six years ago. Faith had gone from someone she practically worshiped to a terrifying specter who everyone told her was ready to kill her and everyone she knew at the drop of a hat. She had never seen that side of Faith up close and personal but she thought she could see it now. The evil one. Big Bad Faith. The one who was ready to kill.
If she had been in a better mental state she might have realized that Faith wasn't really going to hurt her and that she had, in fact, been one of the good guys again for years now. But she had already been three quarters of the way to a panic attack just a few moments before. So Dawn did what she had always been told to do when superpowered things were trying to kill her.
Turned and fikking ran!
She headed towards the back exit of the club in a mad dash bumping into people and weaving through them as best as she could. Dawn risked a glance over he shoulder and saw that after a moment's hesitation Faith started chasing after her. Double, triple crap!
When Dawn burst through the back door into the alley Faith was right behind her. She knew it would only be another couple of seconds before the seriously ticked off Slayer would catch her. Hoping it would be enough to get away Dawn started channeling magic into her hand.
Eos, Goddess of dawn, lend me your light!
Something began to glow brightly in Dawn's fist as she completed the spell. Without stopping Dawn turned and flung and opened her hand at Faith who was almost on top of her. The spell in the shape of a bright light flew at Faith and detonated almost right in front of her face.
The spell was like a flashbang, lots of blinding light and disorienting loud noise that left the Witch unaffected. Dawn saw Faith cover her eyes with a surprised yelp and stumble, falling heavily on a pile of disgusting garbage bags stacked on the side of the alley.
Oh Gods and Goddesses, she's really going to kill me now!
Dawn sprinted towards the end of the alley doing the best she could in her party shoes. To her dismay the mouth of the alley was at the end of the block over a hundred yards away. There was no way she would be able to get there!
"I'm so going to kick your ass Dawn!" she heard Faith yell behind her. Dawn clenched up in fright. Looking back the Slayer had already recovered from her spell and was chasing after her, gaining with terrifying speed.
Out of tricks to try and slow down Faith Dawn put her head down and ran hoping against hope that she could get out of the alley and somehow get away before Faith caught her.
Her hope of outrunning a Slayer did not work out for her however.
When Dawn felt vice like arms wrap around her waist and lift her up she screamed. Faith quickly set her down and turned her around none too gently. The angry woman wrapped her fists around the front of Dawn's shirt and lifted her straight off the ground, bringing the younger woman's face inches from her own.
"Think you can get away with that Dawnie? Just knocking me on my ass and runnin' off like it was nothing? Boy I really thought you knew me better than that kid," said Faith dangerously right up in Dawn's face.
"I-I'm s...sorry! It was an accident!" said Dawn, still both rationally and irrationally scared out of her mind.
"A 'sorry' might have gotten you off the hook before you decided to use your little witch-fu and dumped me into a pile of trash. These leathers were brand new. I'm thinking a little more painful payback is in order," she said, shaking Dawn a little for added effect and letting a pants-crappingly evil smirk come over her face, "what do you think?"
Dawn was panicking. She knew she was absolutely helpless in the hands of a Slayer and nothing Faith was saying and doing was doing the least bit to put her mind at ease. In her sudden panicked desperation Dawn did something she never would have otherwise done.
She had been working on designing a spell as part of her Witch training but it was still very much not completed. Dawn knew it was beyond irresponsible to use a half finished spell without prior testing. Willow would definitely read her the riot act and rake her over the coals if she found out. But dammit, her very life was on the line! Or at least that's how Dawn's panicked mind saw the situation at that very moment.
Dawn said the words she had designed in her head.
Hypnos and Morpheus, by my life force and your power, make this woman sleep!
Then she leaned in and pressed her lips to Faith's.
Both stayed stunned and frozen for half a second before the spell took effect. Dawn felt her life energy, her magic and her consciousness flowing out of her body and into Faith through their combined lips. It was the strangest sensation of her life having most of what made Dawn Dawn flow into the body of another. The magic guided and manipulated her life force to do what it needed to do inside the body of Faith. It pacified Faith's consciousness and life force making them sleepy and passive inside Faith's own body. Dawn felt Faith's hands release her putting her on her feet again.
Dawn grabbed Faith's face with her hands to make sure they wouldn't be separated for the last phase of the spell. When Faith's mind and energy was fully stilled and dormant Dawn's own energy, magic and consciousness flowed back into her own body through their lip locked connection. When it finally all was where it was supposed to be Dawn let go of Faith's head and let the unconscious woman fall to the floor. She looked down at the woman and then at her hands, a strange feeling coursing through her.
"Woa, what did you just do?" came a voice from a little ways back down the alley.
When she turned to look she saw Isabella and Charity who looked like they had been running after her. Both of them were looking at her and at the woman on the ground, wide eyed and questioning.
"Is that- Oh my God is that Faith Lehane?" said Charity with a twinge of panic in her voice.
"What did you do?" Isabella asked Dawn for the second time, "And why were you locking lips with her? Not that it wasn't hot to watch but most people I kiss don't tend to pass out on me," she said with a teasing and somewhat lecherous look on her face.
"It was," said Dawn, pausing to look for a good explanation and deciding she could trust her friends with the truth, "it was a spell I've been working on. So far I've only been able to get it working from two points with the highest concentration of life energies. From lips or, you know... er other sensitive areas..." she said with a small blush.
"You experimented with an incomplete spell on one of our Slayers?" asked Charity incredulously, her English accent sounding thicker and making her sound every inch the disapproving Watcher she was training to be.
"That sounds like a pretty cool spell. And not just in how you apply it though that also sounds like a great deal of fun," said the other Witch with little smirk she just couldn't seem to wipe off her face.
Dawn suddenly felt bad. Now that she was out of immediate danger she could see that what she had done was probably disproportionate to the actual danger she had been in. Probably. Faith was absolutely terrifying when she went all 'Dark Slayer' mode on you.
"Dawn we need to report this to Head Witch Rosenberg. And the Watchers at the castle. We should probably call Head Slayer Summers too," said Charity.
"No!" shouted Dawn instantly, "please Charity that would get me in SOOO much trouble. The spell should be totally harmless. I've gone over it a thousand million times, the only reason I haven't tried it out for real is the whole lip locking pelvic thing."
"You shouldn't try a new spell at all unless it's supervised by Rosenberg," said Charity doubtfully.
"Please Charity. She was like, attacking me you saw that. I just knocked her out. It's a low risk spell by any standard, its strictly white magic since there is no harming involved. Come on Charity, please?"
At this time Dawn made liberal use of the famous Summers pout. It only took a few seconds of looking at that trembling lower lip for Charity to give in and fold like an old pack of cards.
"Fine. I won't tell. Though I wouldn't be so sure that Lehane over there will keep this all to herself."
"Thank you Charity," said Dawn with genuine relief. She wasn't worried about Faith telling. The Slayer would probably either be too stubborn or embarrassed to do it. The only thing she did have to worry about was potential payback...
"So um, what do we do with her? We can't just leave her lying there on the street," said Isabella.
"Well," said Dawn suddenly feeling guilty as she looked down at the unconscious Slayer, "I guess we can carry her back to the club..."
It was then that Faith started to moan as if she was waking up. Dawn saw with rising panic that Faith's eyelashes were already starting to flicker and her hands looked to be curling into lose fists.
"She's waking up!" she hissed at her friends with wide frightened eyes, "run!"
Charity looked at Dawn with amusement, "I'll hang out and make sure she wakes up without any problems. You two can bail if you want."
Dawn didn't need to be told twice. She took off running eager to get home and leave potentially vengeful Slayers behind. When she realized Faith knew where she lived she made a note to find a way to Slayer proof everything she owned.