AN: Here's chapter two... hope you like this, again I've improved this, so reviews are much appreciated... um... that's about it for now!

Disclaimer: All things Buffy belong to Joss ...

Be Kind, Rewind

By Secret Slayer

Chapter Three

Keeping Secrets

The small brunette stomped down the stairs and into the lounge. She crossed her arms and gave her sister the dirtiest look a ten year old could form. She had her light blue pyjamas on, with a fluffy pink robe wrapped around her. She had bunny slippers on, which were adorable, unless you were Anya then they'd be terrifying. Her brown hair was tied back in a tangled bun and she still had pillow creases on her left cheek. She looked both cute and scary at the same time. She was obviously not happy.

She was about to start yelling at Buffy when her jaw dropped. In her fit of madness from being woken up at eight on a Saturday morning from a loud noise, she hadn't even noticed the new guest in the house. Her face went from terrifyingly angry to terrifyingly shocked. It got worse for her when she realised she was in bunny slippers and still had pillow creases. She blushed a shade of red and shot deadly eyes at her sister.

"Dawn you're up," Buffy stated, trying very hard not to laugh at her sisters reaction to seeing Spike.

"No thanks to you!" she snapped forgetting about being embarrassed and returning to angry.

"Actually that was my fought. Sorry," Spike admitted. He had never seen Dawn look so young.

"Whatever," Dawn huffed, "I'm going upstairs to get dressed, I'm suddenly not so tired."

"Do you want pancakes?" Buffy asked.

"You cook? That's a good one Buffy," Dawn giggled as she went upstairs.

"I can make pancakes," Buffy wined.

"Sure thing luv," Spike assured her, but knew that cooking anything was not Buffy's strong point. Now killing things she was good at.

"I can," she detected his small white lie.

About ten minutes after Dawn had gone to get dressed, Buffy and Spike moved into the kitchen. Buffy made herself and Dawn some juice, while promising to get Spike some blood this afternoon. Buffy had put some toast in the toaster and was now waiting patiently for it to get toasted. She was in the middle of daydreaming when Dawns voice floated into the room and she sat herself next to Spike at the counter.

"I told you so," the ten year old said.

"Buffy luv, I think your toast is burning." He pointed to the smoking toaster.

"Huh?" she turned and quickly pulled out the cremated toast.

"How can you burn toast?" Dawn asked trying to embarrass her sister in front of the strange man that sat next to her.

"It happens. OK so I suck at cooking, but I'm really good at kil…kilt making." She nearly told her ten year old sister she kills things and covered it terribly with kilt making. Kilt making? Yeah Buffy sure she'll believe that she mentally slapped herself.

"Sure thing Buff. So who are you?" Dawn faced Spike with curious eyes.

"I'm Spike, a friend of your sisters." He put his hand, which she shook. "Nice to meet you," she blushed.

"Spike huh? What sort of name is that?" Dawn asked sipping her juice.

"A very good name," was the only that Spike could think of.

"Whatever. So Buffy, are you going patrolling tonight?" Buffy was in mid sip of her juice, which she began to choke on. Her jaw dropped and she stood speechless and shocked in front of her sister.

"What do you mean?" Spike asked Dawn.

"Well according to her," she leant into whisper in Spikes ear, "She thinks she's the vampire slayer" she pulled away again and returned to normal volume, "How lame is that?"

"Dawn how do you know?"

"Your diary," she mumbled as she drank the last of her juice.

"You read my diary!" Buffy shrieked. "I hid that really well."

"I know, but it's not like it's true, I mean a vampire slayer. Like I'm gonna believe that," she began to poor out more juice, but accidentally spilt some on Spikes arm, "Oh I am so sorry."

"No problem." He smiled at her letting her know he really didn't mind.

"See Buffy cant you be more like that," Dawn began.

"Dawn," Buffy said sternly trying to hint now wasn't the best time for big sister tips.

"I mean if I had done that to you I wouldn't hear the end of it," she gulped down juice.

"Dawn."

"I'm only saying…"

"DAWN!"

"What?!"

"Do the dishes," Buffy thought this the best punishment for now.

"What? Why?"

"Because I said so," meanwhile Spike couldn't help but smile. He missed being with his two favourite girls, well three when Joyce gets back.

"I'm telling mom!" she wined in true ten year old fashion.

"What for?" she crossed her arms, "Invading my privacy, embarrassing me in front of my friend or soaking my guest with orange juice." By the time she had finished her face was red with rage which was made worse when Dawn simply stuck her tongue out in response.

"Now, now Slayer, go easy on the pint-size; I'm sure she's sorry, aint that right Dawn?" Spike knew when Buffy was mad she was deadly. Of course she wouldn't kill her sister, but she wouldn't be nice either. Best someone stick up for her he thought. She gave him a thankful look.

"Sorry Buffy, wait a minute did you just call her Slayer? So it's true. How did you know?"

"I'm gonna be honest with you Dawn," he started.

"Spike she's ten" Buffy intervened.

"Yeah, but she's no scaredy-cat you and I both know that." He took his gaze from Buffy and looked Dawn in the eyes. "I'm a vampire"

"Yeah and I'm Madonna," she chuckled.

"I am. Look I'll prove it." He picked up a spoon from the table and looked into it revealing no reflection. Dawn gasped.

"That is soooo cool!" then her face changed to worried, "Buffy are you gonna dust him. Please don't because I like him I don't think he's gonna eat any body and…"

"Dawn calm down, I said he was my friend remember. He'll be staying here for a few days if mom doesn't mind. But you can't tell anyone. It's a secret that I'm the slayer. Ok?" Dawn nodded frantically.

For the whole afternoon Dawn talked non-stop to Spike. It was just like old times when she'd visit his crypt, except she was even more verbal as a ten year old. She kept asking to see his vamp face and when he did she gasped every time, but wasn't scared. Whilst the pair talked and Spike told her some horror stories that Buffy wouldn't approve of, the slayer went to the butchers to stock up on some pigs blood for Spike. Luckily Joyce was going to be gone until Monday because of some special shipments and a meeting, so they had time to figure some things out before having to explain their situation.

It was about five o'clock in the evening when Buffy arrived to see the reformed vampire playing some kind of card game with her sister in the lounge. It was obvious from the huge grin planted on Dawns face that she was winning. Naturally, Spike was letting her win because he had played card games for a hundred plus years, it would be criminal if he used all that experience on a ten year old. They were so caught up in their game, they hadn't even realised that Buffy entered the room with large amounts of shopping bags.

She had missed the Sunnydale mall, so thought there'd be no harm in going on a short shopping spree. Of course she left the house at eleven in the morning and it only took twenty minutes to visit the butcher, so maybe short wasn't really the right word.

Buffy's smile faded when she noticed the large amount of dollar bills in her sisters pocket. Spike had been there five minutes and he'd all ready started teaching Dawn his bad habits, like gambling. There was no way that was going to carry on. Of course she knew from experience that as soon as she turned her back he'd be teaching Dawn to pick locks or worse. Then a thought occurred to her. Joyce was still alive, her mother, their mother, wasn't dead. She didn't have to deal with these things any more. She got to be a normal teenager again. So she was a teenager that fought evil to save the world on a day to day basis, but it was more normal than she could remember. Her smile formed again.

That's when another thought crossed her mind. She was a teenager. She was sixteen. She wasn't sure if that was good thing or not. She must have looked a lot younger than she did. Like seven years younger. Then there's high school. That was something she wasn't so keen to live again, but it hadn't been all that bad, except Snyder. He was awful. A frown creased her brow. Maybe she could stop Flutie getting eaten. This could be good. She smirked to herself.

Meanwhile Dawn and Spike had finished their card game and were now staring oddly at Buffy. They had found it quite peculiar how many times her expression had changed in the last three minutes.

"Err Buffy…what you doin'?" Dawn asked, before she noticed the shopping bags, "Oooh did you get me anything?" She scurried across the floor and began rummaging through the bags.

"I might have done," she teased. "So you had fun?"

"The best," Dawn replied with a huge smile.

"I see you err won something?" Buffy raised her eyebrows at her sister, who suddenly looked sheepish. Spike said not to tell. "Don't worry about it; I'll hit Spike later for teaching a ten year old to gamble."

"Your not really gonna hit him are you?" Dawn asked worried for her new best friend's safety.

"I dunno," she was teasing again.

"How about you Slayer, have fun?" Spike asked eyeing the shopping bags. "I hope you didn't forget my dinner whilst you shopped 'til you dropped. I'm peckish."

AN: And, there's another chapter... wow, who'd of thought that editing is more hard work than writing in the first place... hopefully all you lovely readers will make it worth while and review for me...

thanks x