Dawn's thoughts were much more stressed as she walked to the address Shannon had told her. She reached the house and knocked on the door. It was quickly opened by a little girl of about ten.

"Hi, my name is Dawn, is Shannon here?" she asked nicely.

"Hey." Shannon appeared behind the child. Dawn couldn't help checking her out. She was wearing jeans that clung to her hips in just the right places, and a boy-cut tank top that was just tight enough to show off her breasts. Her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, showing off her face. It wasn't a fancy outfit, but it was clear she'd put effort into her appearance tonight.

"You look nice." Shannon's words shook her out of her brief distraction.

"Um, thanks. So do you." Dawn blushed slightly. "You uh, ready to go?" she cursed her tongue that couldn't seem to get the right words out.

"Yeah."

"You're leaving?" the little girl whined.

"Yeah. It's almost your bedtime anyway Sarah. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" she bent down and gave her a hug.

"Kay. Love you."

"I love you too. Night." She closed the door behind them.

"How old's your sister?"

"Nine. She doesn't really like the move. I wasn't too excited about leaving my friends either I guess."

"We moved here when I was nine. From LA. I don't remember caring that much as soon as I made new friends."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be fine."

Silence fell for a minute. Dawn decided to try Tracy's suggestion.

"So did you, uh, leave anyone in Detroit?"

"Anyone?"

"Yeah you know, were you dating anyone or anything?"

"Oh, no. Not when we left, anyway. I broke up with someone a few months ago."

"Sorry, didn't mean to bring up bad stuff."

"Don't worry about it. It wasn't a big deal."

Dawn's insides churned. She hadn't said a guy, but then maybe she just hadn't said it.

"…either, right?"

Dawn blinked. She'd just completely missed Shannon's question.

"Um, what?"

"You're not dating anyone either, right?" she repeated the question.

"Oh! No. Oh, here we are." They stopped at the end of the short line waiting to give the bouncer their cover. Shannon was first in line and she paid for both of them before Dawn realized what was happening. It boosted her spirits. Watching Shannon slip her wallet into her fairly tight back pocket boosted them in another way.

Once inside the Bronze, Dawn instinctively did a scan to make sure there weren't any vamps. Seeing no obvious ones, she showed Shannon around. They ended up near the bar.

"So, that's about it. Not the greatest, but it's what we've got."

"Hey, it's cool. Thanks for bringing me here. Want me to um, get us some drinks?"

"You paid for cover, I'll get drinks. What do you want?"

They soon settled on a couch near the back with a good view of the band that was just starting to play.

"Hey, I like your earring. Did that hurt?" Dawn noticed Shannon had a third piercing in her right ear, in her cartilage. She also realized with a jolt that it was a little tiny rainbow. She'd been around Willow and Tara long enough to know what that probably meant.

Shannon's face split into a grin. "Thanks…no it didn't, I'd heard it would but I was sitting there bracing myself for the pain and the woman said I was done." She fingered the earring and paused before going on. "I like this one. My ex got it for me, she was always telling me I needed to show more pride. Normally I think all that stuff can get tacky, but this is little, and straight people don't usually notice it."

Dawn's brain was too addled by this confession that she couldn't think of anything good to say. "Oh. No, it's nice. Not tacky at all." She finally came up with.

It must not have been very convincing, because Shannon scooted slightly further away and looked down. "I'm sorry, did I totally misread this? I'm sorry."

"No!" Dawn almost shouted. The patrons around them looked their way briefly. "I mean, no." she said more quietly. "You totally did not. I was just not sure I hadn't, until then, and I didn't know what to say and I freaked and said that instead of something good."

Shannon laughed slightly.

"What?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, nothing, you're just really cute, you know that? I'm really glad I was right." She scooted closer again and Dawn felt blood rushing all over her body.

"I uh…me too. I'm glad you were right too." She grinned. "And I promise, I usually do have complete control over language."

"Like I said, it's cute." She put her arm on the back of the sofa, just barely touching Dawn's shoulder. "So um, is this the sort of town that would be scandalized if I asked you to dance?"

Dawn shook her head. "Nah, people are cool here. Willow and Tara come here all the time."

"Willow and Tara?"

"Oh, my sister's friends. Well mine too. They live with us. They're together."

"Oh wow. Why do they live with you?"

"Um, it's kind of complicated. See, my mom died two years ago."

"Oh god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"No, it's cool. I'm much better now. I mean, I still miss her of course, but I can talk about it and everything. Anyway, so it was just my mom and Buffy – my sister – and me before that, so she has to take care of me. But she was…sick for a while and Willow and Tara moved in to help and it worked out so well they just never left."

"How old is your sister?"

"Twenty-one. Willow and Tara too. They go to UC Sunnydale. Buffy used to go there too, but she works now."

"That's kind of cool that you live with them."

"Yeah, it's okay."

"I guess it was easy for you to come out, huh."

"Oh…I um, haven't. To them. I came out to two of my friends though." She hurried to say so that she didn't sound quite so lame.

"You haven't? But wouldn't it be easy? I mean, you know they're not gonna freak. My parents…I wasn't so sure."

"Did they?"

"No, I got really lucky. Seriously, you haven't told them?"

"I dunno, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I mean, I haven't had a good reason to either." She said, eyes twinkling, to get this conversation back where she wanted it.

"Really. Well, back to my original question, do you want to dance?"

"Absolutely." She grinned as Shannon pulled her up and didn't let go of her hand as they made their way onto the dance floor.

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Two hours later, two tired high schoolers made it back to Shannon's house. They stopped by the mailbox.

"I had a really good time tonight." Dawn said quietly, her fingers interlaced with Shannon's. She didn't want to let go.

"So did I. We should do something over the weekend, a movie, maybe?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay. Then um…I'll see you tomorrow." Shannon leaned in and cautiously pressed her lips against Dawn's. Dawn eagerly kissed back.

They pulled back and reluctantly let go of each other's hands.

"I should…"

"Yeah. Night Shannon."

"Night."

Dawn watched to make sure she got inside before turning and walking quickly home. She touched her lips. That had been way better than kissing that vamp on Halloween last year, and better than kissing Tracy too. She couldn't believe Shannon liked her.

She was still grinning like the Cheshire cat when she reached her house. Willow and Tara were still downstairs, books open.

"Oh, hey Dawn. How was the Bronze?"

"It was great."

"Did you have fun with your new friend?"

"Shannon? Yeah, we had a lot of fun." Her face lit up unknowingly. She almost told them, but for some reason chickened out. "I uh, I'm tired though, I'm gonna go right to bed."

"Okay. Night." Willow said flippantly.

When she was gone, Tara closed her book.

"Something's up with her."

"Huh?"

"With Dawn. She's hiding something. I asked her earlier if she was going on a date, and she said no, just going out with a new girl from school, but it sure seemed like it to me."

"Why would she hide that?"

"I don't know. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Unless she really was going out with a new girl from school." Tara said meaningfully.

"You mean…"

"Yeah."

"Nah, Dawn's totally straight. Right?"

"We've always assumed she was, but come on, we of all people should know not to do that."

"But…she'd tell us, wouldn't she?" Willow said, scrunching up her forehead.

"I hope so. It's hard though, you remember."

"Yeah but hello!"

"Still."

"Should we talk to her?"

"No, I don't want to freak her out, plus if we're wrong... but keep it in mind, ok?"

"Okay. You ready for bed?"

"Always." Tara said with a sideways smile.

"Vixen."