DISCLAIMER: I own Kaya and the rest of the kiddos. All others and the general mythos are the property of Joss Whedon et al.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Everyone seems pretty evenly split on most of the kiddos, with Val and Drew being the most common favorites and the twins flying completely below radar because I don't really like them that much… so, I guess I'll be keeping all of the kiddos around for awhile, and I'll try to do bits with each of them as long as you guys are interested.
SMALL PACKAGES: Chapter Three
Standing at Willow's side, Val watched silently as Noelle, Claire, and the twins joyfully ran toward the weapons. Val wasn't much of a weapons girl herself. Watching with wide eyes, she lifted her hand to her mouth and sucked softly on a couple of her fingers. Absentmindedly, Willow stroked the child's brown hair, and Val inched a little closer towards her.
Brandon had rallied the rest of the boys around him and was currently shooting dirty looks at the weapons. He didn't understand why boys had to have weapons time, too. They weren't slayers, and they certainly weren't girls.
Once Xander had sat her down, with one last admonition not to bite anyone, Kaya walked deliberately toward the boys.
Xander tried not to, but he couldn't help but think that Kaya was her mother's daughter.
Brandon looked at her suspiciously. She'd bitten Claire, which was a good thing, but she was definitely a girl, which wasn't.
Kaya stared back at Brandon. "Boy," she addressed him, not bothering to learn his name. She pointed to herself. "Kaya." Then she narrowed her eyes at him. "Here now," she said, daring him to challenge her. Brandon, with all of the dignity of his four and a half years, when faced with the tiny three year old girl, fierceness clear in every fiber of her being, wisely chose not to argue.
"Sure," Geyton said, willing, as always, to go with the flow. "You can play weapons with us, Kaya."
"Weapons are for girls," Brandon reminded him.
"She is a girl," Drew pointed out. "And she bit Claire." Drew thought for a moment and turned his attention back to Kaya. "How did she taste?"
Kaya wrinkled her nose a little.
"Told you so," Drew said, turning to Geyton.
Geyton shrugged. He thought that Claire looked like she'd taste okay, kind of like cotton candy. Oh well, he thought.
"Okay, kiddos," Xander said loudly, trying to talk over the small roar of the room. "Today, we're going to talk about battle strategy."
"Sharp things," Noelle said, her eyes dancing.
"POINTY THINGS!" Claire yelled joyously.
Xander looked at Willow, and after she motioned a little with her head, her eyes opening wider and a smile settling over her lips, he changed plans. "Today," he said, "we're going to talk about pointy things."
"Pointy pointy pointy pointy," Brookie sang, bouncing across the room, twirling in circles. "Pointy things for Brookie!"
Xander tried not to shudder at the idea of the hyper two year old with pointy things.
Seeing that Claire, Noelle, and the twins were already more than Xander could easily handle, Willow stepped in and crouched down to Brookie's level. "How about we get you some Holy Water?" she asked, making her voice sound very excited.
Brookie tilted her head to the side. She wasn't so sure what she thought about that. "Pointy things?" she asked, her voice bordering on a whimper. She hadn't really had a nap today, due to Xander's napcapades, and her lower lip trembled just a little. She sniffed and pointed to the older girls. "Pointy things," she said.
"Don't cry, Brookie," a soft voice said, and Val came to stand beside the little girl. Willow smiled at the child. As quiet and painfully shy as she was, Val was tender hearted, and couldn't stand to see anyone else in pain, even if it meant speaking up. "I'll play with Holy Water with you. I can make it shiny. You like shiny things, right?"
Brookie beamed at Val, and Willow was eternally grateful to the motherly little girl.
Across the room, Drew was staring at Kaya. "Whatcha lookin' at?" he asked, wondering if Kaya was planning to bite anything.
"Her," Kaya said simply, her eyes fixed on Willow, Val, and Brookie.
"Which her?" Brandon asked, somewhat disgruntled. "There are lots of hers here."
"They miss them," Kaya said cryptically. "Where tweed man?" The change of subject seemed natural coming out of the little girl's mouth.
Drew knew immediately who she was talking about and set off on a ridiculous Giles impression right away.
"Watch me clean my glasses," he said. "Talk funny." His British accent was unquestionably horrid.
Kaya giggled. "Silly," she said out loud.
Drew posed for another moment, Brandon sighed, and recognizing the light in the little werewolf's eye, he stepped back. Drew was getting ready to go into wrestling mode. Like any small puppy, Drew loved to play physically, romping with whoever was handy with very little forewarning. Usually, it was Geyton.
Sensing a fight coming, Geyton grinned lazily. He didn't have any bad feelings toward Drew, but wrestling was fun.
"Grrrrrr," the little boy growled in a high pitched, baby growl.
Kaya looked at him, startled for a moment, before turning her attention back to Drew.
"Wah-tahhhhhh," Drew yelled, launching himself at Geyton.
"Hiiiiiii-yah!" Geyton returned, joyfully wrestling with the werewolf, his little face vamping.
Kaya looked around, an evil grin on her little face. Brandon wasn't sure how much he liked that look.
"Wah-tahhhhhhh!" Faith's daughter yelled in a very good Drew impression before tackling the older boy, giggling as she did. She was definitely her mother's daughter.
Willow, seeing that Val had Brookie's full attention, tried to intervene, but she just got sucked into the wrestling match herself. Somehow, fun with weapons time always ended up like this.
"No fair," Noelle said, seeing the brawl. "I didn't know we were playing spar!"
"SPAR!" Claire yelled as a war cry, and the two little slayers launched themselves into action.
"Willow doesn't want to wrestle," Willow said, trying to put on her resolve face. "There will be no wrestling, no little wrestling outfits, no WWF style fighting."
Brookie's eyes wandered to the fight. Thinking on her feet, Val muttered a few words of an incantation, and the holy water turned hot pink and glittery.
"Ohhhhhhhh," Brookie said. "Pretty."
Sighing, Xander ran after Noelle and Claire, but along the way, he saw the magicked Holy Water and got distracted. He tilted his head to the side. "Ohhhhh," he said. "Pretty."
In the middle of the ruckus, Kaya tickled Brandon, and the older boy laughed despite of himself.
"Coming, coming, coming," Kaya said in a sing song voice.
No one heard her.
"Who else has she spoken to?" Buffy asked, not wanting to force Faith to think about something that was obviously painful for her, but not able to resist asking.
Faith sighed. "People I don't know," she said. "One of our neighbors in Seattle had a little girl who died right before we moved in." Faith sighed. "Her name was Sunny. I thought she was an imaginary friend."
Buffy grinned softly despite herself. The words seemed so odd coming out of Faith's mouth.
"Hey, don't laugh, B," Faith said, somewhat offended. "I had an imaginary friend, and it's not like I thought that Kaya was any different from normal kids." Faith's voice dropped again, and Buffy saw that Kaya's difference was killing her. "I just don't want it to be hard for her, B," she said.
Buffy looked at Faith. The dark slayer seemed so open, so honest, and yet, there seemed to be something that she wasn't telling her.
"Who else has she seen Faith?" Buffy asked.
"Spike," Faith said softly, "but you already knew that. Anya sometimes, too, and there are others. Sunny." Fury came onto Faith's face. "And Angelus."
For a moment, Buffy's heart stopped beating. "What?" she asked roughly.
"She'll scream," Faith said. "Blood curdling screams, like she's being cut to shreds, and the look in her eyes…" Faith trailed off and then slammed her hand onto the chair leg, breaking it. "That look shouldn't ever be in her eyes."
Looking at Faith, Buffy knew that the look in the younger slayer's eyes was the exact look Faith had seen in Kaya's.
"They protect her," Faith said softly, "the others."
Buffy looked at her. "You don't sound so unsure anymore," she said shrewdly. "I thought you didn't know whether or not Kaya just had a big imagination, what exactly it was she saw."
"I wish I didn't know," Faith said. "I wanted you to tell me I was wrong." Faith paused for a moment. "But, B, I'm not wrong."
"Then why come here?" Buffy asked.
"Because I need help," Faith said, and Buffy knew it wasn't easy for her to say. "Because you guys do the prophesy thing. You do the saving the world thing. That was never my bag. You know that."
Buffy said nothing.
Faith sighed. "I think the world is gonna need some saving," Faith said finally. "Because I know my daughter, and I know that something's happening. Me, I don't care too much about the world. I care about Kaya. I love Kaya, and I don't know if I can protect her on my own. I don't know what's coming, B, but we'd better find out, and soon."
Buffy nodded, the name Angelus still ringing in her ears. Looking at Faith, she got the distinct impression that the not-caring-about-the-world thing was an act. There was a difference in Faith. She'd thawed. Something had cracked.
"I already called Dawn on the prophesy front," Buffy said, even though Faith had watched her make the call. "I think I'd better call Giles, too." Buffy paused for a moment. "I guess we don't need the gift divination spell," she said under her breath.
"We might," Faith said. She looked off. "See," she said slowly. "The thing is, I don't know exactly what else Kaya can do."
"There's more?" Buffy asked.
Faith shrugged. "There might be," she allowed. "I'm a slayer."
"And her father?" Buffy asked, cursing herself when Faith took the question as blow.
"Kaya doesn't have a father," Faith said. "At least not one I can remember."
Buffy stared at her.
"Damn comas," Faith muttered. "The second one isn't nearly so much fun as the first."
Outside the school, they spread out. They had their assignments, knew which children they were to take.
They needed three, and the school had been so kind in rounding up the innocents for slaughter. It would be a neat and tidy kidnapping.
The underground division of Wolfram and Hart liked things neat and tidy.
Spike chuckled. "Little chit has spirit," he said, nodding his head toward Kaya, who had Brandon pinned firmly to the ground.
"And impressive stamina," Anya said, her eyes stuck on Xander. He was so close she could have touched him, but they were separated by a plane. Damn plane.
Spike chucked Anya under the chin and longed for a cigarette. "We aren't here for that," he said. "We're here to protect the little halfbit over there. Bad things coming."
Anya wriggled her fingers at Spike, her voice cheerfully sarcastic. "Ooooo," she said. "Bad things. I'll tell you what's bad, Mr. Big Not Bad, and that's the stark lack of ghost currency. It's appalling."
Spike looked toward Buffy's office, longing for Kaya to return to the blonde slayer, so that he could look at her, smell her.
"Bloody hell," he muttered.
"Bloody hell," Kaya said cheerfully, repeating the word she'd heard one of her others say.
"Bloody bloody bloody," Drew echoed.
"Hell hell hell," Geyton said compliantly.
All three of them burst into laughter and stopped wrestling.
"Bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell," Brookie said from across the room, no longer entranced by the sparkly Holy Water. She bounced up and down and wriggled her bottom.
"And that," Xander said out loud, "is the oddest rendition of the snoopy dance I have ever seen."
TBC… I'm trying to move the plot along without short changing any of the kiddos on the fluff area. It's really late. I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, but y'all were good about reviewing, so I wanted to update.
PLEASE REVIEW
And don't worry, next chapter, you see some of the kiddos parents, and we start crossing over with Angel, as well as some more former Buff characters.