"Coming Home"
Buffy trod her way into the house and, once there, plopped the greasy bag down on the dining room table. She turned to her sister and, though very tired, managed a smile.
"Soups on! Although it's more sort of burgery."
"No thanks sis. Not really hungry." Dawn muttered barely, her foot already placed a few stairs toward her room.
Buffy heaved a heavy sigh. "Well you didn't eat lunch so that's gotta be a lie!"
"How do you know what I want?" Dawn spat without turning around.
"Dawn!" Buffy began in an agitated tone.
Before either could speak, the door burst open and a looming figure stepped inside. Buffy was instantly on guard, but softened when she saw who had come in.
"Hey ladies! We're just two wild and crazy guys!" The man stopped his silly dance and came to a realization. "I kinda need a second guy to make that plural don't I?"
Dawn paused and spun herself around to run down the steps with a huge grin on her face. "Xander!" she giggled before wrapping him in a hug.
"Hey! There's my girl!" Xander said while rubbing his hand through the scalp. He looked up at Buffy. "Well and then there's you."
"Yes. You. That's my name." Buffy uttered in sarcastic monotone.
"Ooo!" Xander exclaimed after glancing past Buffy. "I see your sister made soup burgers again!" he stated before breaking Dawn's hug and attacking the loudly crinkling sack.
Dawn shot a huffy look to Buffy that was accentuated by the crossing of her arms before she fled upstairs. Buffy could only sigh again, this time adding a shake of her head. She walked over to the table to lean on it, getting herself next to her friend's face.
"You? Your sister? Tell me Xander do you even know my name anymore?"
Xander paused his decent into his next bite to think. "Uh...Buffy, The Dogfaced Girl?"
Buffy's eyes slanted while her mouth went into a hateful smirk. "I should shoot you." She turned her gaze toward the wall behind which the stairs were hidden. "What do you think's up with Dawn? I finally start training her and it seems like she hates me more for it."
Xander shrugged. "I dunno. She's a teenager. And a female one at that."
Buffy's gaze shot back to Xander. "You do realize you're about three seconds away from a Slayer choke hold. I'd say the amount of burger in your throat would only help me to serve my cunning purpose."
"Yeah. I don't know." All of Xander's chewing stopped. He even went so far as to lay what little remained of the burger down on its wrapper. "I guess I just don't get girls." A deep sigh from his throat seemed to direct him toward the front room picture window.
Buffy followed and covered one of his shoulders with her chin and the other with a rubbing hand. For just one minute there she had her joking jovial Xander back and now all it took was an eye's blink to turn him into the pensive Xander of late. He was trying to hide his pain with jokes as he always had, but lately their plaster was easily cracking. Buffy couldn't count the nights he had come over and just sat on her couch, not saying a word. He didn't want to be alone, but it was as if he were punishing himself when around other people and not letting himself feel a part of them either.
A depressed Xander. An angry Dawn. Buffy wondered if anyone had survived the last few weeks in tact.
