Returning Home
Prologue: It's been five years since the big 'earthquake' in Sunnydale (Spike somehow survived) and Dawn and Spike left the US a couple of months after it. They've been around the world a lot and they've changed. Now they're coming back to L.A. How will the others take it?
Chapter 1
It was a dark winter night in Helsinki, the town that had recently gotten acquaintanced to an unusual pair; a master vampire, William the Bloody, had teamed up with the little sister of a Slayer.
After Sunnydale was destroyed, Dawn had decided she needed some time away from the others, she wanted to travel around a bit, see some new places.
The little trip had streched out, a lot. It was now five years since she'd last seen her sister and her friends.
Sure, she'd called them a few times, but it was expensive, and since the pair got all their money from taking small jobs from people involved in the demon world, they didn't have a lot of money. The last time she spoke to her sister on the phone was two years ago.
Spike had decided to go with her, partly because he wanted to go back to Europe and partly because Dawn wasn't old enough to travel on her own.
The trip slowly evolved into demon searching and fighting for both of them.
Five years was a long time. They'd been to England, where they stayed for two whole years before they got bored. Then there'd been France, which neither of them had liked very much, China, where Dawn had learned Kung Fu from a master, Russia, which was just cold and now finally Finland, which was almost as cold.
They were situated behind a few dumpsters in a dark, windy and freezing alley.
"Do you think the tip was fake?" The tall, dark-haired woman whispered to her companion.
"Would appear so." The once bleached vampire who now had jet black hair took one last look down the alley before sighing loudly and leaning against the wall behind him. "So, what're we gonna do now? That was the one and only tip we've gotten on them and it turns out it's phoney. And we've been in this godforsaken town for three weeks!" Spike banged his head against the wall, growling in frustration.
Dawn could do nothing but agree with him. They'd been chasing some kind of dwarf-like demons here for a while, and they weren't getting anywhere at all. Besides that, the silence and the absence of action was becoming unbearable. Dawn guessed it was like drugs. You get addicted to violence like that.
Maybe they should just give up and leave this horrible, cold-as-hell place and go somewhere warmer. The Canary Islands seemed like a very good option at this point.
Dawn envied Spike, who didn't feel the cold in the same way as her, his body temperature just sank. So he wasn't any good at warming her up. Truth be told, Dawn just wanted to get the hell out of here.
They'd found a couple frozen bodies in allies, just dead. Killed by this city's cruelness.
Here, if you fell asleep outdoors, or even stood still for too long, you would probably freeze to death.
They stood up, Dawn jumping around to warm herself up, Spike just standing there, feeling guilty of not being able to warm her up.
That's when they heard the panic-stricken screams.
"MITÄ VITTUA SÄ TEET?! LOPETA! APUA!"
It was a woman's voice. Though three weeks wasn't enough to learn Finnish, they could hear the panic in her voice.
They ran towards the screams that seemed to get louder.
There was a woman in her twenties, dressed in a way too short skirt, squirming in the arms of the vampire biting her.
Spike quickly tackled the vampire, Dawn dusting him before he hit the ground.
The woman was half-lying on the street, trying to brace herself up with her arms. She was weak; the vampire had been a fast blood-sucker.
"Mitä- toi tyyppi—se- se puri mua. Minne se katos..?
Spike just smiled and helped the woman stand up. He had no idea of what she'd just said, but he guessed she was confused.
"Listen, do you speak English?"
The woman nodded.
"Well, you were being robbed, we saw what was going on and came to help, scaring him away. Okay?"
"Okay, but—never mind. Thank you." Then a confused expression washed over her face as she looked at a spot behind Spike.
"Well, well. Finally we meet. I did expect it to be more honorable, though, not just accidentally bumping into each other like this."
Spike had turned around and was looking at- nothing.
"Down 'ere, ya poof." Spike looked down, into a pair of angry red eyes.
Spike almost laughed. Did this tiny guy really think he could beat him and Dawn all by himself?
"Spike, look, there's more of them" Dawn was sounding excited, not even a little bit scared.
That's my Nibblet. Spike silently thought.
There were about twenty other small-sized demons.
The leader stepped back, ordering his minions to attack.
The fight had begun.
Spike got three on himself instantly. He smiled, inwardly thinking that he'd not kill these instantly. He'd enjoy kicking their small asses first.
I'm the trouble starter, punkin instigator
I'm the fear-addicted, danger illustrated
He ducked one dwarf's blows, shook his leg so that the one clinging to it flew straight into a wall. The third jumped at him but was met with a solid punch to the face. He fell down unconscious.
Spike looked over at Dawn, seeing her flexible body bend, ducking all the minions' punches, kicking them elegantly, punching them away with ferocity.
She was getting good. Really good. Spike had almost taught her all he knew about fighting, and now he wasn't so sure he'd win if they ever duelled.
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
Dawn truly enjoyed herself. Fighting felt so good after the long break. All the kicks and punches seemed to come naturally now, leaving her to close her eyes and breathe in the power of violence.
I'm the bitch you hated, filth infatuated
I'm the pain you tasted, well intoxicated
Spike was rummaging through them now, only dealing them a few kicks each before throwing them off to recover so they could attack again.
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
Dawn too was holding back, not wanting this fight to be over just yet. "Ha! You worthless piece o' shit! Did you really think you'd beat us, wanker? Why don't you just go fuck your mother cause that's probably all you're good for! On second thoughts, don't. your mother'd have to pay for therapy for the rest of her life! But then again she probably already has to, having a kid like you!" Dawn's venomous laughter echoed through the alley.
I'm the one infected, twisted animator
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
That woman's got such a bad mouth! I wonder where that came from Spike thought.
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
When they both got fed up with holding back their powers, the fight was over in minutes, a layer of dead dwarf's lying on the street. The woman was long gone.
They walked home feeling truly happy and relaxed, big smiles on their faces. Dawn wasn't even cold anymore, since she'd almost worked up a sweat in the fight.
"Well, you're becoming quite the fighter if I might say so." Spike broke the cold midnight silence.
"Yeah. It just feels like it's my thing now you know. At first, when you began giving me the lessons, it seemed like I was never gonna get the hang of it. But now.." She looked up at the clear sky.
Spike remembered when Dawn had first come to him, asking him to teach her how to fight. They ended up seeing each other almost every night, often training but sometimes just hanging out, watching TV. That was when he'd began to like Dawn as a woman.
"Let's get outta here for good tomorrow, ok?" Dawn asked him, slipping her hand into his.
"First flight, luv." He smiled at her before capturing her lips in a soft kiss.
The next day they had checked out of the hotel and were waiting for the taxi that would take them to the airport. They didn't have any idea where they were going to fly this time, though. They had been traveling around the planet for five years now, and Dawn had grown up to be a confident beautiful young woman, she'd cut her hair somewhere along their journey, and it was now shoulder-length, but still as shiny as it was before. She had developed more curves, making her very beautiful. Her style had also changed a lot; she'd ditched the childish teenager clothes a long time ago, and her look was now not long from a certain dark-haired slayers'.
Spike hadn't changed much, aside from his now jet black hair (it still was gelled back like before). He certainly hadn't aged. Physically, anyway. The truth was that he felt younger here with Dawn than ever before in Sunnydale.
The couple fitted very well together. Since they were a couple now, a real couple with all the included kissing and lovemaking. They'd even gotten engaged four months ago and they were planning to get married soon. Spike had gotten fake papers from an old friend in London.
Buffy and the others had no idea about them being a couple and they'd realized that they'd have to tell her, at least before they got married.
"So, where to now, my lady?"
"Well, I've been thinking about that. Spike, I think it's time to return to L.A." She watched him carefully, wanting to see his reaction.
But he didn't look all that surprised at all.
"I've been waiting for you to say that. Knowing we'd have to go back someday. And honestly, I have to say that this is a pretty good time." He smiled genuinely at his lover.
"Oh. Well that's a relief. You know I'm really missing Buffy and the others. Do you know that we haven't actually spoken to them in over two years?"
"Yeah. I know." Spike would hate to admit it, but he also missed every single one of the former Scoobies, even the Whelp.
"So it's two tickets to Los Angeles then?" Dawn was smiling with her whole presence.
"Looks like it, Nibblet." Though Dawn was as excited as a schoolgirl about this, Spike didn't know what he felt.
At least he hoped that Buffy didn't stake him after finding out about her little sister and him.
When they'd last spoken to each other, Buffy had still been fighting and researching demons with her little 'gang', including the Wicca, the Whelp, Anya (who now owned a little jewellery shop of her own) and Giles, who'd moved to the States for now.
They'd also been co-operating with Angels team (Angel, by the way, didn't own Wolfram and Hart anymore).
More than that didn't Spike know, and that information was several years old, so much could've changed since that. He thought that they still lived in L.A. though, cause they had been planning to set up some kind of 'Investigation/Demon-fighting place'. Spike wondered how that had turned out.
AN: I've already got more chapters written down but I wont post them unless you want me to so if you review, I'll post the next chapter here as fast as I can (two days at the absolute most, probably a few hours.
So review, all you mighty readers out there, you'll make my day happy!
