Chapter Twelve
"How about a costume party?" Andrew asked panting as he struggled to catch his breath along side his teammates.
"Why so you can dress up like a girl?" Kennedy asked with a hint of laughter in her voice.
"I'm not gay!" Andrew shrieked.
"Keep telling yourself that dude," Ken said as she slapped him on the shoulder playfully.
This was the first time they had been out on patrol by themselves since their move to Scotland just over a month ago. The original Scoobies with Faith and Olivia, packed up and headed out for their "mission" earlier that morning. Dawn knew that there was no mission in the states, but rather that they were taking a much needed vacation.
At first Dawn was upset that she wasn't going… jealous even that she was going to miss out. But the more she thought about it, the less irritated she was about the whole thing. After all, Buffy had left Kennedy in charge… meaning that they were going to have some fun while the "parental figures" were away.
It didn't take long to convince Kennedy and Satsu that a party was in order. Hell, Kennedy jumped on the idea the second it was mentioned by Andrew. She needed some good old fashioned fun to take her mind off of her break up with Willow. Even though she wasn't heartbroken about the failure of their relationship, she was still slightly worried about Willow. She was glad that the red haired witch was getting some time off, and some time away. It would likely do both of them some good.
"Alright Rona, how much we got so far?" Kennedy asked.
"About four hundred and four bones."
"That's it? We've been out here for four hours, had to wrestle twenty wallets out of undead hands, taken out at least two dozen vamps and we barely have enough to get a house full of slayers buzzed!" Kennedy shouted in annoyance.
"Dawn, Giles or Buffy had to have left you something. There's no way they left you here without an emergency fund. Credit card… pizza money…anything?" Rona asked
"Nope," Dawn replied quickly.
"Fuck!" Kennedy shouted even louder this time.
"So, THE slayer left town and left the rugrats to fend for themselves, huh?" a female vampire dressed in a blood red leather jacket and black jeans said as she stepped out behind Team Buffy.
The group spun around to see their enemy whistle, and immediately saw as 9 other vampires surrounded them.
"I heard slayer blood is a natural aphrodisiac," the red jacketed vampire who appeared to be the leader spoke out with a wolfish grin.
"So Rona, what do you think?" Kennedy asked as she and the other three women started to slowly form a square around Andrew.
"Moe money, moe money, moe money," Rona replied with an evil grin and dollar signs in her eyes.
With that, the vampires started to charge forward toward their prey. Kennedy smiled getting read for the incoming attackers.
"Let's go collect," she said.
"Duck!" Andrew yelled. His female companions did as he commanded and Andrew proceeded to whip out two plastic water pistols, filled with holy water. He quickly began to spray anything that was moving. He managed to score direct hits to the faces of 4 of the vampires before his human wall had to come back up to protect him.
One by one, Kennedy quickly shuffled through the pain stricken vampires pckets and staked them after each successful raid, while Dawn, Vi and Rona were protecting their young watcher, who was reloading his water pistols. It was taking all their energy and focus not to let the slayer in them take over and stake the vamps in front of them immediately.
"Crap guys, I'm out," Andrew shouted as he threw his summer toys to the ground and only 4 vampires remained.
"Andy… stay back," Dawn said quickly when she realized he was no longer with a weapon in his hands.
"C'mon girls, let's mug these assholes old school," Kennedy announced as her team was starring face to face with an even amount of vampire faces starring back at them, growling.
Vi was the first slayer to last out at her opponent, as she ducked a haymaker swing and delivered an elbow strike to her vampire's kneecap, downing him instantly with a piercing scream. Kennedy attacked her advancing enemy in similar fashion. When he came within range, she launched a thrusting pump kick to the vampire's shin, followed by a knee with her other leg to where he was now kneeling, breaking his facial bones as she did so.
Luckily for Rona, she saw the left hook her attacker was telegraphing and heavied her own arm upward to block the incoming blow. She then stepped into her enemy and judo flipped him to the ground hard. She wasted no time in following up her attack as she lomed over her downed vampire on her toes, and then came crashing down hard on his face with all her weight, landing a fierce form arm strike which dazed her opponent. Dawn wasn't so lucky, as to get the first shot in. The vampire she was facing was the leader of the gang… older, stronger, faster and more experienced than the others. Her attacker landed a quick jab to Dawn's abdomen, followed by an uppercut and fresh spinning backhand slap across Dawn's face. Dawn spun around in pain, lip split, vision temperoraily impaired… and extremely pissed off. She use the momentum of her oppontents blows to increase her spinning speed and deliver a back ebow strike to the vampire's nose. It broke instantly and Dawn then reached back for her stakes behind her back inside of her jacket, as the vampire held it's nose in pain with both hands. She staked both of the female vampire's kneecaps, downing her enemy instantly and the vampire leader let out a blood curling scream.
By this time the rest of Team Buffy had finished off their attackers and circled around Dawn and her prey. Dawn was still fuming, and she leaned forward to her kneeling victim, roughly grabbing a fistful of dark black hair. She pulled the vampire's head back.
"So you wanna taste a slayer huh?" She ripped out a bloddied stake from one of the kneecaps with a sickening suction sound filling the night air. "Well taste this."
Dawn sucked on her split lip, cleared her throat and spit the blood directly into the open mouth of the vampire as it screamed and begged for mercy. Dawn quickly started to strip her prey out of the leather jacket she was wearing, and once she had succeeded, she ended the life of another undead.
Silence filled the air with what felt like minutes as Team Buffy looked at Dawn with shock at her rage.
"Guess someone is rough in the sack huh?" Kennedy quipped. The others started to laugh, including Dawn at her joke. Andrew for his part could only stare at the woman he couldn't stop fantasizing about and he took a few steps back, covering his crotch that showed exactly how turned on he was.
The group began to walk over toward the base of a tree, and as soon as Andrew had collected himself several seconds later and shaken his head of the images of him and Dawn together, he joined after them.
"C'mon Rona, big money! Big money!" Ken joked as they reached the base of the tree
"Sorry captain wheel of fortune, only two fiddy," Rona remarked.
"Cheap mother fuckers! Seriously, why can't anyone rich die?" Kennedy cursed.
"Aww, big bad Ken-Flow not getting her way again? Want me to go call mommy Buffy so she can kiss it and make it all better?"
With a knowing smirk, Kennedy and her team spun around to see Satsu and her crew standing there in all their gear, with smiles plastered on their faces. They were hollering and high fiving one another after their leader's comment.
"Well, I was gonna wait for Buffy to ask me out or treat me to dinner but…" Kennedy shrugged right before she got a slap on the ass from Dawn, making her smirk turn into a full smile. "Tell me you have good news Kimo-sabi," Kennedy pleaded. Satsu smiled , flipped Ken off and pulled out a rather large wad of cash in the same hand.
Kennedy and her crew strode over to join Satsu's group, smiles everywhere as Kennedy swung her arm behind Satsu's neck and shoulders.
"That's my Asian… love you long time, happy ending girl!"
Three hours had passed and Kennedy was well on her way to out drinking every other slayer at the house combined. She could feel the low hum in her body from the alcohol that was swimming around in her system and her mind had finally stopped thinking about the breakup with Willow.
When the two teams had arrived back at the castle, after making a beer run at the local market, the other slayers had already started putting the party together. They had ransacked the kitchen, making sure there were enough snacks to last all the hungry slayers during their night of drinking and fun.
It didn't take long for the party to get going, with Ken cracking open a bottle of Jack Daniels and drinking directly from the bottle, claiming it as her own. The other slayers followed suit, and soon enough there was fun being had all around. They had contests playing Rock Band on the Xbox… Team Buffy emerging victorious over Team Faith due to Andrew's excellent singing. The lounge had quickly become a disaster zone… with chips crumbled into the carpet and beer spilled all over the new couches. Everyone was thankful that Buffy and Faith were away… and they were taking advantage of their freedom.
So as the party rolled on and time ticked away, Kennedy found herself sitting in a circle with her team… Dawn was directly on her right, with Vi next to her. Rona was seated close to Vi's side, holding her hand and Andrew sat on the other side of Rona, completing the circle.
"It's your turn Andy… truth or dare?" Rona asked as she took another sip from her beer she had been nursing for quite some time.
"Do I have to do this again?" Andrew whined. "I think you are skipping other people because it's always my turn!"
"Shut up Andrew! Truth or dare?" Kennedy shouted out at him, careful not to slur her words. She didn't need the others to know just how intoxicated she really was.
"Fine… this time I'm picking dare… I don't want you to have any more funny stories about my past to make fun of me for," he declared, sitting up straighter on the floor and puffing out his chest to try to look a little more manly. The others only laughed at his attempt.
"Okay watcher boy… I dare you to take off your shirt and pants and run around the room in just your undies, singing the song of your choice at the top of your lungs," Rona said with a grin on her face. Vi's eyes brightened up at Rona's dare and she did everything she could to hold back the laugh.
"No! No way!" Andrew said, standing from his spot on the floor and back up toward the doorway leading out of the lounge. "There's no way I'm going to do that."
"A dare's a dare Andy… so strip," Ken said with a smirk on her face. Dawn sat quietly next to Kennedy and Andrew caught her eyes with a pleading look. She only shrugged her shoulders and looked away from him, not wanting anyone to catch on about her sudden attraction to the young man.
Andrew sighed heavily and with one last look to Rona hoping she would change her mind about his dare, he groaned out.
"Fine…" he said as he pulled up on the hem of his t-shirt and lifted it up and over his head. The others had stood from the floor and began to giggle immediately after his shirt had been removed. "What's so funny?" he asked in a high pitched voice.
"Dude… I think you're new nickname is going to be nipples," Kennedy said in between laughter as she pointed at Andrew's chest.
"It's cold in here!" he shouted, covering himself with his hands. "I'd like to see you take your shirt off and run around here and we'll see if you aren't cold!"
"Uh oh Andy… you better be careful," Vi said as she noticed Kennedy's face light up as a plan came into her mind. Andrew glanced over at Ken and noticed she was inching up toward him, getting a little too close for comfort. He gripped tightly onto his shirt that was in his right hand.
"Please… don't," Andrew said carefully, hoping to distract her from whatever she was planning to do.
"Don't what? What do you think I'm going to do to you huh?"
"I don't know but whatever it is… please just don't," he said again, this time a little more quietly. Kennedy stopped just a few inches from him and he shivered both from the cold and the fear.
"NURPLE!" Kennedy yelled as she lunged forward toward the junior watcher. Luckily Andrew saw her coming and managed to back up slightly before she had moved and he had a foot head start out of the lounge and down the hallway.
"No! Please NO!" he was screaming as Kennedy chased closely after him with Dawn, Vi and Rona hot on Ken's heels.
"Careful Ken… he might actually like it!" Rona said with a laugh as they continued to chase the shirtless man. They managed to back him into a corner against the wall and he had no where to run.
"No way, the only way Andy here would like it would be if some hot dude came along and gave him one, ain't that right Andy boy?" Ken quipped.
Andrew took a deep breath, still annoyed with all the jokes about him being gay.
"I'm NOT GAY!" he shouted as loudly as he could, causing everyone to stop closing in on him. When he realized they had stopped moving he pushed off of the wall a little bit, holding his head up high.
"Right… I'm not gay either," Kennedy said sarcastically. "Dude, just admit it… no one here really cares if you like dudes or not… it's cool with us," she finished.
Dawn stayed silent as Andrew let out a sigh of complete and total frustration. She could see the anger in his eyes and the sadness that lingered behind the anger. Something about the way he glanced over at her, made her heart ache for him and she couldn't help it as she stepped away from the other slayers and walked to Andrew's side.
"He's telling the truth," Dawn said, trying hard not to show the timidness in her voice. Her teammates looked over at her with confusion etched across all of their faces. Other slayers had joined in the hallway with all the commotion from Andrew's shouting and were now whispering to themselves several yards back.
Dawn knew that there was no way she could back down now. She sucked in a huge breath and grabbed the young man by his shoulders, spinning him so he was facing her and then she quickly leaned in and planted her lips onto his.
Shocked sounds were uttered out of all of the slayers in attendance, and Andrew's eyes remained opened in shock of his own for a few seconds. It wasn't until he felt Dawn's tongue swiping at his lips that he closed his eyes and opened his mouth, inviting her in. The kiss that had began as just a chaste kiss, quickly became passionate, their tongues familiarizing with one another's mouths and Dawn had wrapped her arms around Andrew's shoulders, tugging lightly on his sandy blonde hair. He ran his fingers through her long brown hair and sighed as the kiss came to an end when the need for air hit them both.
The backed away from each other then, and looked at the faces of Ken, Vi and Rona who had eyes wide open and their mouths hanging slightly.
"See… I'm not gay," Andrew said quietly when the silence that had taken over for a few brief seconds became too much for him to handle. He looked over at Dawn and smiled warmly at her, and even after her display of affection for him in front of everyone, he was still surprised when she smiled warmly back.
Vi's coughing broke Dawn and Andrew from the trance they had fallen in while looking in one another's eyes
"So she kissed you… doesn't prove anything, your still big with the gay to us" Kennedy remarked, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Ken's eyes moved over to Dawn and she saw as Dawn rolled her eyes. Kennedy was taken aback when Dawn stepped forward two steps with her back now to Andrew, and roughly grabbed at Andrew's crotch as she shouted, "GAYYY THIIISSSSSSS!".
"Bet that proves it," Dawn said with a huge grin on her face as she watched Ken's surprise wash over her again. She couldn't help but laugh at her sister slayer's face as Ken, Vi and Rona all glanced down to the young watcher where Dawn was holding and realized exactly what she meant.
"Girl has a point," Rona was the first to say.
"I guess she does," Ken said as her surprise turned into a smile. "Point taken."
The sun was about to rise and most of the slayers had fallen asleep wherever they had landed with alcohol heavy in all of their bodies. There were a few stragglers who were sitting on the floor playing video games with one another, every once and awhile shouting out in anger when they lost.
Vi and Rona were in a heap on the floor, Rona's arm holding tightly to Vi just in front of the couch that Dawn and Kennedy were on. They were sitting with their legs up, Dawn holding them close to her body and Kennedy comfortable, leaning back against the arm of the couch.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ken asked. She and Dawn had been sitting up talking once the others had started to pass out and the party had begun to wind down. For some reason neither of them was ready to fall asleep yet.
"I don't know, I guess I wasn't even sure exactly how I felt," Dawn replied, taking a sip from the beer she had vowed would be her last for the night.
"I don't know what you see in him," Ken said with a little chuckle. She lifted a beer bottle up to her lips and frowned when she tipped it up only to realize there was nothing left in the bottle. She sighed and tossed it over the back of the couch, smiling when Dawn reached out with hers, handing it to Ken for her to take a drink from. "I mean, look at him!"
Andrew was passed out cold on the air hockey table that had been set up in the lounge. After Dawn had kissed him, proving to everyone that he was indeed not gay, he was so wound up and excited that he had a few more drinks than he should have to celebrate. He had been one of the first to fall, his shirt still off and tucked into his back pocket. His team had taken advantage of his party foul and promptly ran off to find permanent markers. They had spent over an hour drawing funny faces and writing things such as "I love Dawn" all over his stomach and face.
"Sometimes I wonder the same thing," Dawn said with a giggle as Ken handed her back her beer. "But honestly, between you and me… this is the first time I've ever really felt this way about a boy," Dawn confessed.
Ken's eyebrows shot up in question at Dawn's statement. She knew that Dawn was naïve… she had her big sister to thank for that, but she never guessed that Dawn hadn't experienced a couple of go rounds with a guy a time or two.
"Wait… you mean to tell me that you've never felt that low down itch… that rumble in your stomach… that need to ravish before?"
"Only when I was under a spell… does that count?" Dawn smiled at the memory of her, Anya and Buffy all fighting over the same boy because of his enchanted jacket.
"Okay, but you have at least had some action before right?" Ken asked, suddenly very involved in the conversation as she sat up a little more so she could see Dawn better.
"Ewe! No Ken! No action… Andrew is only the second boy I've ever kissed!" Dawn exclaimed.
"Man, you did live a sheltered life," Ken said as she grabbed Dawn's beer from her hands and took another sip.
"I wasn't that sheltered!" Dawn objected. "He was a vampire after all," she finished. Ken coughed at her statement and couldn't stop the beer from being spit out of her mouth directly onto Dawn. "Gross Ken!"
"Hold on a sec… stop. What is with you Summers chicks and your vamps? Please I just don't get it!" Ken begged as she wiped at her mouth where beer had spilled out of. She ignored Dawn's glare for being spit on and just looked at her with wide eyes. "Well?"
"I didn't know he was a vampire at the time… he seemed so normal when I met him."
"Bet your sister threw a fucking fit huh?"
"She wasn't thrilled. She ended up tracking us down with Spike and Giles in tow. It was just after I had finally realized he was a vampire," Dawn explained, remembering the day like it had just happened the day before.
"I remember my first kiss… she was so hot," Ken said, leaning back again on the couch and getting comfortable. Dawn smiled at took another sip from her beer.
"Did you always know… that you were into girls I mean?" Dawn asked. For some reason she felt completely comfortable talking to Kennedy. She knew that their friendship had grown practically over night, but she could just tell that she and Ken were meant to be great friends.
"I was pretty young," Ken said. "I tried to hide it you know, when I was younger. I even dated a couple of guys but it just wasn't for me. There's just something about the soft skin of a woman... their delicate hands that can touch you in all the right places…"
"Please don't continue," Dawn said, laughing slightly and taking the last sip from her beer before setting the bottle down on the floor in front of the couch.
"Speaking of which… how do you feel about your sister coming out of the closet and everything? And with Faith of all people?" Ken asked suddenly.
Dawn leaned back on the couch as well, using the opposite arm to rest her head and stretched her legs out so they were resting on top of Kennedy's.
"At first it was weird… and not so much the Buffy being into girls thing… it was more her being with Faith that bothered me."
"You had to have known that Faith was totally in love with her from the start though right?" Ken asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well Willow always said that she had a feeling you know… that the reason the two of them could never get a long was because they were totally into each other."
"Willow said that?" Dawn asked, wondering why if Willow had known all along she hadn't ever mentioned it.
"Yeah, a couple of times." Ken grew silent then as if she remembered she was no longer talking about her girlfriend, but her ex instead. Dawn watched as Ken's demeanour changed and sat up slowly, reaching her hand out to place on Ken's hand.
"It's okay to miss her Ken," she said softly.
"I know," Ken replied just as softly back. She sat up quickly after a few seconds of silence and the surprise of her movement made Dawn draw her hand away just a quick. "But that's just it… I don't really miss her you know? I am worried about her sure, but I don't miss the constant fighting… or the constant feeling like I could never compare to someone else," Ken explained.
"She brought up Tara a lot huh?" Dawn asked quietly.
"Yeah… she didn't always say her name, but I knew that she was always comparing me to her," Ken said. As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could have put them back in. She had said the last word "her" in such a way that felt wrong. She knew how close Dawn had been to the blonde witch who had passed and Ken could tell by the look on Dawn's face that talking about her wasn't something Dawn liked to do. "I'm sorry, I know you guys were close," Ken apologized.
"It's alright… it was a long time ago."
They sat there on the couch together then… both of them relaxed using the arms as pillows. The silence was comfortable between them and the last of the slayers who had been playing video games had drifted off. Dawn knew that she needed to change the mood between them, not wanting to end the night on a sad note.
"So… now that you and Willow aren't together, you got your eye on any of the other girls? Like a young Asian slayer perhaps?" Dawn asked, breaking the silence. She wore a huge grin on her face and Kennedy's eyebrows furrowed at the mention of Satsu.
"Hell no! No way in hell and I'm hooking up with that one! But there are a few good prospects," Kennedy finished with a laugh. She closed her eyes and relaxed even more into the couch, feeling the sleep tugging at her but not willing to give in just yet.
"We need to come up with some sort of system for the room for sure!" Dawn said, her exhaustion hitting her at the same time Kennedy's did. She watched as her sister slayer closed her eyes.
They both lay there quietly and Dawn was almost asleep when she heard Kennedy chuckle one last time.
"For sure, the last thing I need is to see you and Nipples over there getting down and dirty!"
