Title: Dancing

Author: Rylee Jane

Rating: Totally G

Disclaimer: It's all Joss', I only wish it was mine. Especially Spike. I really, really wish Spike was mine. *sigh*

Summary: My idea of what the gang might have done, post-Chosen. It's my first fic (ficlet, in this case) here, so please be kind if its formatting isn't up to standards yet.

Read and Review, please, just to let me know how I'm doing. Thank you!

Thanks to Shaw_thang, who did the beta-reading for me! She's a sweetie!

**********************************************************************************

Dancing. God, so much was wrong with this scene, but no one cared. They were all too busy dancing. Xander was in the middle of a group of newly-risen slayers, dancing to his heart's content, forgetting for the moment that said heart would be broken tomorrow. He had thrown himself into the less than graceful, side to side bounce that he was famous for, letting the grin on his face say it all.

Willow and Kennedy were off to one side, arms around each other, doing a slower version of the grind, smiling at the possibilities tomorrow would bring for them both. Dawn and Andrew were doing the hip bump, trying their damnedest to knock each other over with each bump, laughing like they didn't have, and never before had, a care in the world. Giles was leaned against a pillar not far from them, a glass of damned good scotch in his hand. He wasn't dancing, because he just didn't dance, but he was bobbing his head just a little to the music, and he, too, was laughing.

Faith had dragged Buffy into the middle of a large group of guys and was doing her best to make sure that everyone of the men around them was drooling over the two girls. Faith herself was grinning like a kid at Christmas, and even Buffy had managed to get a smile or two out by now.

And they were having fun. Because they needed to. It would be left for tomorrow to remember the end results of the fight. They would take the time later to sort through the remnants of their past lives, and move on with their futures. Right now, it didn't matter. The world hadn't ended, thanks to them. They'd done it again, and since the shopping trip was off (the mall having actually been buried with the rest of Sunnydale) they'd decided to celebrate by dancing.

No one outside their little circle knew why they all seemed so happy just to be alive. No one needed to. It was theirs and theirs alone to celebrate, just like it had been theirs alone to fight.

The memories would come back soon enough and no one would feel like dancing, but for now---

There were still a few in the hospital, but they'd be fine. Eventually. They'd all be fine, eventually.

Each of the original group had their own individual pains to work through. But for now, they were all here, surrounded by their friends, old and new, and it was like high school again. High school on a good day, with no impending doom.

The groups drew closer together on the floor, and ended up in a circle, with Xander in the middle. And he danced, the snoopy dance that he'd always danced for Willow. And everyone cheered. Then it was Willow's turn and she did the Brave little Toaster dance and they all cheered. And Buffy, who did a little bit of a dance that they'd never seen before, but that was OK, so they all still cheered. Even Giles, who had lost his scotch glass on a table somewhere, stepped out and did a dance that looked like a mix between Frank-n-Furter and Mick Jagger, and everyone really cheered.

And it was fun. And they laughed. Because they had to laugh or they would cry.

There were four people in the circle that no one else in the room ever saw, but the group saw them, clear as day. Not physically of course, but they were there none-the-less. They were there in the smiles of everyone in that circle, in the way that they were laughing. In the fact that could even be there dancing at that moment.

A small blonde with wide eyes and a smile that could melt ice, a tall man in a leather coat with a sneer on his lips, a tall girl with long dark hair and a shy grin and a pretty Asian girl who was just happy that there was no language barrier to laughter.

And they were dancing too.

**********************************************************************************

OK so there's no dialogue at all to this story, and it's probably not all that important to anyone but me, but this is my take on what the survivors of the Big Battle of Chosen would have done the next day. Don't know why I thought of it this way, but it was just what I had in mind. Also, I was listening to Lean On Me by Club Nouveau when the idea popped into my head, so it may help if you listen to it while you read this. Thanks for reading it. R&R please!