Here's the next chappy.
Enjoy.
Harmony woke up in the middle of the night, startled by the darkness and her strange surroundings. She sat up, her eyes quickly adjusting in the dim room.
Where was she?
Faint light seeped through the window behind her, creating shadows around the bed and in the corners. Fears of monsters and boogie men plagued her as she tried to find signs of someone in the room. She could hear everything and nothing at the same time, frightening her even more.
Why was it so dark and quiet?
Where did everybody go?
Whimpering, Harmony brought her knees to her chest, hugging the yellow stuffed bunny Angel had tucked in with her when he put her to bed.
"Gunn?" Harmony whispered; her tiny voice filled with fear and uncertainty.
No answer.
Where did Gunn go? He was the last person she saw. "Gunn?" She called out again, louder this time. Maybe Gunn would find her again. He was big and strong and he had saved her from the mean boy at the park and his mommy. "Gunn?"
Still, there was no answer.
Her bottom lip trembling, Harmony sank back down on the bed, pulled the covers over her head and squeezed her new stuffed bunny as tight as possible.
Maybe, if she didn't move, didn't make a sound, the monsters would not come for her and eat her. Harmony heard something move in the room and her tiny body stiffened. She heard heavy footsteps coming closer and closer to the bed.
Unable to contain her fright, Harmony screamed. A hand touched her shoulder and she jerked away, screaming even louder.
"Don't eat me! Don't eat me!" She pleaded, dissolving into tears.
Angel shook her slightly, before gingerly pulling Harmony into his safe embrace. "It's only me, Harm. Angel. No one's going to eat you." He reassured her, looking around to check anyway. Maybe some part of Harmony knows about the curse. He thought.
"The monsters." She whispered, panting, her tiny body trembling. "They're waiting in the dark."
The vampire nodded understandingly as he rubbed her back soothingly. "There's nothing there. Don't cry. Now, go back to sleep."
"Don't leave, Angel." She pleaded, grabbing his hand quickly. "They'll eat me if you leave. They will."
Sighing, Angel relented easily. "I'll stay here and keep watch. Go to bed now, Harm." He said as he sat next to her on the bed.
Mollified, she smiled, tucked her bunny under her arm and scooted as close as possible to Angel for protection. "Tell me a story." She demanded.
Angel shot her an uncertain look. "But you're supposed to sleep." He told her.
"Please? Please, Angel? I really, really like stories."
"Fine, and then you're sleeping." Angel conceded. He really couldn't argue with her, especially when she was looking teary eyed and waif-like. He paused for a moment, wondering what to tell her. "Once upon a time, there was a king and queen." Angel began.
"And a princess?"
Angel blinked, smiling. "No."
"But why? There has to be a princess." Harmony insisted firmly as she yawned. "With a sword."
"I thought I was telling the story." Angel declared. Harmony gave him what seemed to be becoming her trademark pouty face. "Alright, there was a princess too and she had a sword. They lived in a castle-"
She smiled, pleased. "You have to start over now."
"But-" Sighing, he gave up. Who thought story telling could be headache inducing? "Alright, once upon a time there was a king and queen and a princess."
"Princess named Harmony!" She squealed; delightedly clapping her hands. Angel just smiled and went on.
The five year old blonde nodded approvingly. "You look pretty, Lorne."
Lorne grinned. "That's what I like to hear, princess. Keep it up and maybe I'll let you have a drink at Caritas on your sixteenth."
Angel rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. "She's way past that in case you forgot."
Lorne dismissively waved Angel's comment off.
"Spike!" Harmony squealed as she let go of Angel's hand and threw herself on the blonde vampire who swiftly caught her just in time.
"Hey, pet. Has peaches been taking good care of you?"
Harmony nodded. "He saved me and Little Princess the Second from the shadow monsters. He's my hero."
Angel beamed. "I'm a hero."
"Of course you are, Angelcakes. You're one humongous hunk of hero sandwich." Lorne reminded him, swatting his arm.
Spike nodded and cheekily scoffed at Angel. "Who's Little Princess the Second, pet?" He curiously asked.
"The bunny I gave her."
"Want to play wrestling, Spike?" She eagerly asked. "Little Princess can be my sidekick. You and Angel can be partners. It could be a Smackdown!"
Spike smiled. "Another time, Harm. Angel's out of shape. He'll make me lose." The aforementioned vampire scoffed huffily.
"Hey guys." Fred greeted as she joined the group. "Hi, Harm."
"Hi."
"How about we hang out today? You and I can do anything you like." She suggested; her trademark happy smile on her lips.
Harmony looked excited. "Anything?" She echoed with a mischievous look in her eyes.
Lorne arched an eyebrow. "You sure that's a good idea, Fredikins?" He asked. Harmony may only be five, somewhat small for her age and remarkably adorable but he knew the damage she could create.
She had nearly given a pyrophobic employee a heart attack by the fire she set on his garbage can and their poor shy mail room guy was never going to recover from yesterday's incident as well. He was quite attached to the cart that Harmony somehow managed to steal from him, used as a race car for a few hours before sending it to an inevitable death-Harmony style. She had crashed the cart to a wall, on purpose, despite her claims of innocence.
"Of course. Right, Harm?" Fred confidently said. "I'll have someone take over for me for the day."
Harmony nodded. "Bye Peaches, Blondie Bear, Lorney Tunes." She waved as she took hold of Fred's hand and let the other woman lead her away. "Wanker! Ponce! Sodding hell!" She added loudly. A few hours with Spike yesterday had given Harmony a whole new vocabulary.
"She's a quick learner." Spike chuckled. Angel glared at him and walked away.
Fred smiled at the little girl. "No, we're not poor. You're clothes just don't fit you anymore." She explained. "Let me just get my stuff from my office and we can go shopping."
"Wow." Harmony whispered in absolute wonder as her eyes scanned the busy laboratory. She was eyeing everything with interest. "It's like magic!" She whispered, looking back up at Fred.
The Texan smiled proudly. "Well, it's science but I guess there's a bit of magic involved." She quipped. "Come on Harmony, my office is up there."
Harmony distractedly followed. She wanted to play with the magic stuff too.
"Excuse me, Fred?" One of the scientists uttered. "Do you have a minute?"
Fred's gaze went to Harmony who was standing by the doorway. "Alright but we're kind of in a hurry." She said. "What do you need?"
Harmony listened as Fred and the other woman proceeded to speak in science-tongue, a language that still made no sense to Harmony. Realizing that Fred was momentarily distracted, Harmony took the opportunity to silently go down into the laboratory. Eager and excited, she touched and picked up as many things as possible.
Spotting what looked somewhat like a large silver gun, Harmony quickly perched herself on a stool and climbed onto the table where it laid. "Cool." She whispered, looking around to see if anyone else in the room had spotted her. She lifted the weapon, inspecting it closer; her fingers touching the shiny material.
It wasn't a sword or a knife like the ones she saw in Angel's office but it was just as pretty.
Thrilled with her discovery, Harmony aimed it. "Bang! Bang!" She played, giggling to herself. "Gotcha!"
"You! Put that down!" Someone yelled.
Startled, Harmony turned and accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting the guy who had yelled at her. There was an loud anguished cry followed by the thud of a fallen body. Not quite sure if what she had done was bad or not, Harmony climbed off the table and stood over her newest victim to inspect the damage.
He was groaning, yellow slime oozing out of his wound. "You're leaking. Are you dead?" Harmony asked, looking down at the man, quite worried for him despite her calm appearance. She wrinkled her nose when the slime slid close to her shoes. "Eeww. Are you dead?" She repeated, kicking him to the side.
The man winced. "Ow!"
"Harmony!" Fred frantically exclaimed as she rushed over to the little girl, taking the weapon from her hand. "What happened?"
"She blew a hole through my right side. Fred, I think I see the light. It's bright."
"It's the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, dude." Someone blurted out invoking giggles from the onlookers.
Fred grimaced. "Oh, Lord. Oh, dear." She mumbled, quite panicked.
"He's not dead." Harmony quipped, smiling. "I knew that. Cool."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Jones. I'm sure Harmony didn't mean it." Fred apologetically declared as she helped the man up. "You're going to heal back fine, right?"
He groaned, touching his already healing side. "I knew my Heklar demon heritage would give me an advantage in case of emergencies but I still don't like being shot for fun. You ruined my shirt." He said, glaring at Harmony.
"But you're not dead." She reasoned inoffensively. "We can play war a lot. And I can shoot you." The man sputtered in indignation before storming away, mumbling to himself. "Did I do something bad?"
Fred sighed, smiling at her sympathetically. "Well, you kind of hurt him, Harm."
"But he didn't die."
"No, he didn't but you still hurt Jones. No more playing with weapons, okay?" She said; her smile still there. "Someone could get seriously hurt next time."
Harmony was silent. Was that a request not to play weapons or an order? She wondered. Fred didn't have an angry face on and she was smiling. She was being awfully nice for someone scolding Harmony. The tiny little blonde decided she liked Fred. "Okay. I'm sorry but it was still fun."
"Good girl. Now, come on. We need to go shopping."
"Yeah, sweetie?" Fred asked as she scooped her ice cream daintily.
Harmony licked again, making large droplets on the table. "Do you have a bumpy face too?" She curiously asked, making a loud slurping sound with her ice cream. The people who passed them by smiled at Harmony.
Fred instinctively touched her face. "Oh. No, I don't."
Astounded, Harmony stopped licking her melting ice cream. "Why?"
"Well," Fred drawled hesitantly. She wasn't quite sure if it was right to tell the five year old she was a vampire/human anomaly. "Sweetie, it's because…because-"
"Because what?"
"Well, I have no bumpy face because I'm not like you."
Harmony didn't like the sound of that. "What am I?" She asked.
Fred sighed. "You're a pretty little Princess. You're special."
Appeased, Harmony smiled. "It's a princess thing?"
"That's right. It's a princess thing."
Harmony pursed her lips. "Is Wesley a prince, Fred? He has two last names."
Fred blushed at the mention of Wesley. "No, but he's British. It's close enough." She replied.
"He's a pretty British man, Fred, don't you think?"
"Yes, Wesley is very pretty." Fred beamed, snapping herself out of her Wesley filled reverie. "Now let's go shop some more before you bathe yourself in that ice cream."
A few hours later, after buying numerous of clothes, a princess costume and toys and an enormous plastic axe that Harmony would not leave without, the girls were finishing up in the bathing suit section of one department store.
"I want to wear it." Harmony boldly announced just as the cashier was putting it and the two piece suit that she talked Fred into getting for herself.
The saleswoman smiled. "Harm, you can't wear a bathing suit in the mall." Fred declared. "You can wear it the minute you get home."
Harmony folded her arms insolently and jutted her bottom lip out. "But I want to." She whined, her voice rising. "I want to! Now!"
She could recognize the signs on an oncoming tantrum and Fred was not prepared to handle one. "Harmony." Fred said, giving the little girl a warning look.
"Please, Fred. Please!" She begged as large tears welled up in her dark eyes.
Fred sighed, glancing at the saleswoman who was looking at her disapprovingly, like she was depriving the adorable little girl of a great necessity. "Fine."
A few minutes later, Fred was struggling with the shopping bags while holding onto Harmony's hand. The little girl was proudly donned in her brand-new lime green bathing suit with frills around the waist. She was getting plenty of attention from the other shoppers; a lot of smiles and awws and how cutes from the women while others were looking at Fred like she was one crazy mom.
Unlike Harmony, she did not like attention; especially one that generated people into making strange enamored noises.
"Hi-hi!" Harmony cheerily waved at her spectators. "Hi! I'm a mermaid!"
We're almost to the exit. Fred thought with relief when she spotted the doors. Hastening her walk, all Fred could think of was getting out of the mall. But Harmony had other plans. Spotting the enormous fountain to their right, she let go of Fred's hand and ran towards it, her blonde hair flying as she made her way through the crowd.
"Harmony no!" Fred exclaimed stridently, startling a few people, just as Harmony climbed into the fountain and began splashing fervently; giggling animatedly. Sighing sharply, Fred ran towards her. "Harmony, get out now."
The blonde proceeded to ignore her. "I'm a mermaid princess, Fred."
"Harmony, please get out." Fred coaxed softly. "You're going to get sick."
"But you said we could do anything."
Fred frowned sternly. "Not this kind of anything. Now, come to me and we are going home."
Harmony flashed Fred her best smile and shook her head. And then she proceeded to sing at the top of her lungs. "The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake." She bellowed, shaking her head and doing a little dance. "Under the sea. Under the sea! Darling it's better, down here it's wetter!" People were either giving Harmony strange looks or shaking their head at Fred.
"Yes, wet." Fred mumbled irritably just as Harmony stomped her feet, drenching Fred and a few other people. "Harmony!"
"Fine." Fred quickly replied as she set the bags down. Harmony was already dashing to Angel's office, still in her lime green bathing suit.
"You look a little frizzy there, beanpole." Lorne commented, eyeing Fred's hair. "How bad was it?"
Slumping her shoulders, Fred smiled wryly. "Harmony gave me and a few other people a bath at the mall while shouting the lyrics to the Little Mermaid."
"She peed on you?" Lorne grimaced as he wrapped one supporting arm around Fred's shoulders.
Fred laughed a little. "No, she used the fountain as a swimming pool."
"Oh. Must have been a sight to see." Lorne quipped. "Well, at least you weren't shot and then kicked on the side. Yeah, I heard. Jones threatened to quit. It was the talk of Wolfram and Hart while you guys frolicked in the mall."
"She's quite a tornado, Lorne."
The Host nodded. "That's an understatement."
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