Title: Late at night

Rating: G

Pairing: None, B/A implied, D/X crush implied, D/A friendship

Summary: A fake-Dawn memory inserted into early season 1. How she and Angel might have first met.

Disclaimer: Btvs and all its characters are property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. Not me.

It didn't take him long to notice he wasn't the only one following her that night. He watched the little girl who obviously thought she was being very sneaky dash behind bushes and trees, and was surprised that Buffy hadn't yet noticed her.

This is not good, he sighed, and realized he had to do something about getting the girl home before she found herself in a dangerous situation, or before she saw her big sister fighting the kind of creature that would give her nightmares for months.

He approached her swiftly and quietly. "Hey," he greeted softly.

She jumped and turned suddenly to look at him with wide, frightened eyes. She apparently hadn't thought of the risks of sneaking out late at night until now, not having planned for dealing with potentially dangerous strangers.

"It's ok; I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a friend of Buffy's. Aren't you her sister?"

"Um… y-yes," she squeaked out, not quite as afraid as she was initially, but still on edge. She was too nervous to ask how he knew who she was.

"What are you doing out so late? It's dangerous. Shouldn't you be home in bed?"

Her fear was immediately pushed away by the anger she always felt when people treated her like a kid. Her eyes flashed, "What is Buffy doing out so late? What are you doing out so late? I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself."

It had been a long time since he had dealt with children, but she was already reminding him of his own sister, and he tried to remember how he was supposed to act and what he was supposed to say. He tried, "I'm sure you're very capable of taking care of yourself in most situations, but it's dangerous to be out this late at night, and not just for kids. What would you do if you ran into a mugger? Or a kidnapper? There are bad people out here, you know."

"So then why does Buffy sneak out every night?" she challenged. "If it's dangerous for me, it should be dangerous for her too. She does this every night, trust me, I know. I always hear her sneaking out after she thinks we're asleep. Mom can pretend nothing's going on, but I wanna know. I only snuck out tonight so I could see once and for all where she goes and what she does."

"Curiosity killed the cat, you know."

She just glared. Ok, dumb attempt to appease her. He tried again, "There are things about Buffy that you don't know, things she can't tell you or your mom. It's just something she's got to do, she has obligations. It's complicated, but trust me, sneaking out to find out what she's doing isn't the way to find out. Maybe she'll tell you someday."

The sad little girl sat on the ground, defeated. She mumbled something.

"What was that?" he asked, trying not to smile when he noticed that her pout was just the same as her sister's.

"I said, 'I just want to know my sister,'" she repeated, louder.

He rested a hand on her shoulder. He began to speak in a comforting tone, "Hey..."

"And what about the dangers?" she cut him off, fiery again. "The muggers? The kidnappers? Buffy's not so big herself; what if she gets hurt?"

He was expecting that question, but had trouble thinking of an answer he could give her that would satisfy her without telling her the truth, which she certainly wasn't ready for. "Like I said, it's complicated. I can't tell you everything. But I promise you, Buffy knows what she's doing. She has things to do, and she does them well. And I'm always here in case she ever needs a hand. She's also very good at defending herself; she's a lot stronger than most people would think."

"Yeah, I've noticed she's strong. Sometimes, she accidentally breaks things that most people couldn't break if they tried."

He was surprised she was so observant and perceptive. He got the impression that Buffy worked hard to keep her other life a secret from her family. Her comment made him wonder if their mother noticed things like that.

She motioned to the path ahead of them that Buffy had taken. "She's long gone now, anyway. Guess I wasn't meant to find out."

"Guess not," he agreed. "So since that's no longer an option, and it's late, how about I walk you home?"

She nodded slowly in tacit agreement, still distractedly looking ahead for some sign of her sister's presence remaining.

"And will you promise me you won't sneak out so late again?"

She became focused and looked at him. He seemed genuinely concerned with her well-being, but that was probably just because he was a friend of Buffy's. Still, she had to grudgingly admit to herself that he was right, and that being out like this was probably not the safest thing to do. And if Buffy had secrets that she didn't want to tell, then fine. She wouldn't want Buffy to find out all of her secrets either. Plus, maybe he was right, maybe Buffy would tell her someday anyway. "Yeah, ok. I promise."

He smiled lightly and motioned for him to walk with him. She perked up a bit as they began the short journey back to her house. She really did feel safer walking with a tall, fairly tough-looking guy who seemed prepared to defend her if necessary.

She had a sudden thought, "Hey, you won't tell Buffy I snuck out, will you? 'Cause I bet she'd tell mom and I'd been in lots of trouble!"

"Tell you what," he said. "I won't tell her I saw you out if you don't tell her you saw me out. Deal?"

"Deal," she grinned. That worked for her, because telling Buffy she saw him out was the same as admitting she'd been out herself. "So you're a friend of Buffy's, right?"

"Yeah, in a way," he answered.

"So have you met Xander?" she asked, somewhat excitedly.

His face soured a bit, "I've seen him around."

"'Cause I like Xander. A lot. Do you like Xander?"

"He's, uh…" he tried to find a word, not sure he was prepared to deal with her sudden upbeat chattiness.

She saved him from describing his thoughts on Xander with her short attention span, "Hey, what's your name anyway?"

"Um… Angel," he answered cautiously.

"Angel…" she said thoughtfully, trying to figure out why the name sounded familiar. She suddenly grinned again, and giggled, "Oh, so you're the one Buffy's been writing about in her diary!"

As she skipped ahead slightly, he stopped for a moment, somewhat startled, and then grinned bigger than he had in a very, very long time and went to catch up with her.

A/N: I realise Buffy wrote 'A' in her diary, not Angel ("A is for Achmed, a charming foreign exchange student") but I changed that little detail to suit the story.