Love Is a Four Letter Word

Chapter One – The Key

Author's Notes: Thank you guys so much for the reviews. This chapter is mainly about Dawn, and, sorry, but the Spuffy will be a while off since Spike does not love Buffy. Yet. And I don't really have much of this story planned out at the moment, which I need to get on, pronto. Anyway, this is the first official chapter, so enjoy!

"You're not my sister."

Buffy's harsh words reverberated in Dawn's head like a drum as she tossed herself down on her bed. Wiping away her tears, Dawn thought back to the cruel words her sister had uttered. Her cheek still stung from the power behind her sister's arm that had delivered a literal slap to her face. How could she? How could Buffy slap her like that, and more importantly, did she really think she could get away with it? As soon as mom came home, boy was she in a lot of trouble. First she slaps her and then leaves her all alone by herself in the house to go talk to Giles, claiming that she wasn't her sister. How dare she?

She just wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. Instead, Dawn turned her head into her pillow and cried. Was this how things were going to be now? Was she a modern day Cinderella?

Mom leaves and Buffy's free to be the mean step-sister, except this was worse because there was no prince and Buffy was her sister by blood. There was no way of escaping her. Buffy would hunt her down if she ran away, but kick her out if she stayed. There was no winning against her.

It was too much.

And what was so special about Buffy anyway? It was a question she found herself asking a lot these days, either to herself or when blowing of steam to her best friend, Janice. Though she didn't really know if Janice could be considered her best friend, because a best friend is someone who knows the real you and doesn't care about all the craziness you go through every day, but Janice didn't know the real her. She had to stick to telling her about the normal things that happened in her life when complaining to her.

It was so unfair.

Buffy got all the friends, all the special treatment. She had this amazing gift and she treated it like a burden. If she had superpowers, a way to really make a difference, she'd treasure it forever. Okay, so some things would be hard, but she'd never have to face most of the problems that Buffy had. One, she'd never be stupid enough to fall for someone like Angel. So many things were wrong with that vamp, number one being his stupid forehead; either that or his stupid hair.

No, she'd fall for a guy like Spike. Though not Spike himself. If anything he was more of a friend to her than a potential boyfriend, plus Buffy would kill him, then her. No, she wanted someone who knew how to have fun, but also had a brain. Angel had neither of those qualities.

Dawn jumped at sound of a fist banging on the front door.

Who could that be? Everyone they knew usually barged in. Except Giles with his proper this, proper that attitude he had going on.

Dawn left her room and cautiously made her way down the stairs as the banging increased. Normally she would just answer the door, but seeing as she was alone, at night, on the Hellmouth, she didn't want to take any chances. Making sure to was standing at least a foot inside she pulled the door open. On the other side was an old man, pacing back and forth on the porch.

"C-can I help you?" Dawn asked nervously.

Startled, the man turned towards her. "You," he gaped.

Dawn stepped back when the man tentatively reached a hand out towards her, ready to close the door at a moment's notice. Seeing that he'd frightened her, he immediately took a step back to assure her he meant no harm.

"No, I'm not going hurt you. I have something I need to tell you, before it's too late, and it's not going to be easy to accept, but you have to listen. Okay? Good," The monk sighed in relief when Dawn nodded her head, to curious to close the door, but too afraid to step outside. He could only hope she would hear him out. He would have preferred to talk to the Slayer herself, but he'd seen her walk into a shop on Main Street not too long ago. This information was private, but at the same time needed to be told before it was too late.

"We – my brethren – that is to say, had this energy… the key. For centuries it had no form. But we, it's only keepers, hid the key, gave it form, molded it into flesh… made it human," the monk finished.

Dawn saw the way the monk was looking at her, as if she had this object, no, person that he was talking about. But when the monk raised his hand to point to her, his eyes begging her to believe him, she understood.

"Me?"

"You're the key," he confirmed. Dawn shook her head in denial, prompting the monk to continue. "We knew that the slayer would protect you."

Protect her. Yeah right. Her sister, no, not her sister, – maybe there was a bright side to all this – had slapped her and left her alone by herself. Some protector Buffy was. She was doomed. For whatever reason, some monks had made her… human. She was some sort of key. So many questions, so little answers. Did Buffy know? Did mom, the Scooby's? Had they lied to her? Was she even real? If she was a key, what did she open? Was she evil? But one stood out more than the other.

"My memories… my family's," Dawn wondered aloud.

"We built them."

"What about my life? I didn't ask for this. I don't even know…" Dawn paused in her rant. "What am I?"

"Human… helpless," the monk had unknowingly eased Dawn with those two words. She wasn't evil, she was a helpless human. "Well, not exactly helpless."

"What?" Dawn asked.

The monk reached for a bag that she hadn't noticed had been leaning against the side of the house till now. She watched from her spot halfway behind the door as the monk pulled a big black book out of the bag and preceded to hand it to her.

"Everything you need to know is in this book. You must tell the Slayer about this, she will protect you," the monk looked nervously behind his shoulder. "I must go, before she finds me."

The monk turned to leave, but halted on the front steps when Dawn called out, "Wait! Who's she?"

"The beast," the monk answered. "Her and her other-half must not learn of your identity. Yes?" Dawn nodded, though she didn't exactly understand, and watched as the monk left her with so many unanswered questions.

Buffy paced in front of the round table that her Watcher was currently sitting at and cleaning his glasses. Typical Giles; there's an evil… thing inside her house, making her mother sick, and yet, there was always time to clean your glasses. Why couldn't he see that something was wrong here?

"I'm telling you Giles, I know what I saw," Buffy protested. "Dawn's not my sister. What if she's what's making mom sick?"

Giles sighed, "Buffy, is it possible that maybe you're over reacting? After all, y-you're not a witch. It is entirely possible that perhaps you did, or um, said something incorrectly while performing the spell. Magic is very precise."

Buffy sat down in one of the chairs that had been offered during her arrival. What with all the denial Giles was doing, she was beginning to doubt herself. She knew what she saw, but maybe the spell went wrong. She was, after all, very aware that it could happen.

Mm… Spike lips. Wait. No. No Spike lips. Bad brain, she scolded herself.

Giles cleared his throat, bringing her out of her memories, which was all she had, because Spike wasn't likely to ever kiss her again; which was fine with her. Everything was good, gooder than good even. Crap, what was Giles saying?

"What?"

Giles gave her that stern look he always gave her when she wasn't paying attention, at which she'd always roll her eyes. This time was no different.

"I was saying," Giles glared at his charge. "That you should go home, get some rest, and if this is still bothering you in the morning, I'll ask Willow or Tara to try the spell again."

Buffy nodded. She had been tired for a while, and maybe she could try to think all this through in the morning with a clearer head.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I gotta get home to check on," Buffy paused. Dawn! "Oh my god."

"What, what is it?" Giles asked worriedly.

"Dawn," Buffy explained. "I slapped her."

Shocked, Giles asked, "You did what?"

"Well," Buffy cried. "I thought she was an evil demon thing."

Feeling a headache coming on, Giles abandoned his glasses on the research table and rubbed his forehead. He loved Buffy dearly, as if she was his own child even, but the girl could do some… questionable things at times. Though, questionable was putting it lightly in this case.

"Buffy, it is very important that you go home, and make sure Dawn feels like your sister, because if she isn't, and she really is some demon, what do you think she'd do if you exposed her," Giles asked, always the reasonable one.

Buffy's eyes widened, "But I thought you said she was my sister?"

"And I'm sure she is," Giles objected. "But, on the Hellmouth, I've learned, to never rule anything out to common sense."

"Gotcha," Buffy was halfway to the door when Giles called out to her.

"Oh, and, um, Buffy. I need you to stop by that warehouse again. There may be someone there that can tell us more about the Dagon Sphere."

Buffy rushed home, telling herself she'd go by the warehouse later. Right now she had a crisis to solve. She had to get home before her mother came home and Dawn tattled on her for slapping her – which, okay, was wrong, really wrong, but in her defense, she'd thought she was a demon – and leaving her home alone when she was supposed to be watching her wasn't scoring her any points either. She would be so dead. Luckily, when she arrived home, her mom still wasn't there. Maybe she wasn't dead after all.

"Dawn!" Buffy called, though she had a feeling her sister wasn't downstairs since most the lights were off, so she bypassed the kitchen completely and made her way upstairs to her sister's bedroom.

Thinking knocking would be better after all that had happened earlier, Buffy cautiously walked into her sister's room, all too aware of how her sister handled anger. But to her surprise, Dawn was sitting on her bed, doing her homework. When she looked up at her she wasn't mad, no? She was… crying? Buffy was instantly at her side, wrapping her arms around her sister.

Seeing her sister and knowing that she wasn't really her sister, was the straw that broke the camel's back. Dawn had tried doing her homework as a distraction after sitting in the dark for a while, but it was like, suddenly, eighth grade math was too complicated for her fourteen year old brain. She knew that she knew the answers, but she couldn't seem to dig the them from her mind. So she'd sat on her bed, staring at the blank homework pages, trying not to think about the big black book that she'd hidden in her dresser. Unbidden, thoughts of the worst kind had entered her head. She remembered the words her fake sister – was that right since she was the fake one – had said.

"You're not my sister."

Over and over again till her head ached the words were like a broken record, repeating itself like a mantra. Did she know? Would she kick her out of the house? Where would she stay? You know, it was these stupid monks fault. Why couldn't they had made her some European kid with an inheritance. Not that she didn't love her family, but they'd be safer if she was just some random kid that they didn't know. And why did she even need to be a person. If she wasn't a person then she wouldn't have all these emotions running through her mind. She'd just be some object that needed protection. Wait, she didn't want to be an object. What was she even thinking? Urgh!

So when her sister had come home, she'd jumped nearly out of her skin. Her eyes had immediately been drawn to the top drawer of her dresser where she'd hidden the book. Was that really a safe place to hide it? She'd need to find a better place to keep it later.

So when her sister came home, she'd wrapped herself in her arms and cried. She didn't hear Buffy's mumbled apologies, her cries drowning them out.

How could this be fake? It was her family? Sure, they might not be blood – then who's blood was she? It was probably in that stupid book – but they couldn't change her love for them, right?

Okay, so I don't know if this was clear or not, but the meeting with Buffy and Spike didn't happen outside of her house, as much as I love Spike's famous line in that scene, there'd be no reason for Spike to be standing outside, unless he was planning to kill her or something, so I didn't add it.

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