A/N: Thank You for DBZFAN 45 for commenting on my every chapter . Truly, it means a lot. Also I nearly have 400 views, 4 favs and 3 follows. Thank You so much for everyone who faved and followed me and also for the views.I know I said I'll take a break. The situation IRL is resolved so here I am. Back to writing.

"Are we informing about me to any of our friends?" I asked Buffy.

"The fewer people know it, the safer I'll feel" She returned

Well, That settled it. She's going to keep it a secret. It's still a wonder how she told me things.

At least I wouldn't have to run away and do a witch hunt. The monk did say something about putting a soul which was about to die into this body. Gotta search what that was about.

Giles and Buffy discussed some more about the mysterious blonde that nearly pulverized her. I was too tired so I dozed off.

The Next Day

"Shaun wake up!" I heard Buffy scream from the living room. God is she loud.

"Do I have to?" I mumbled and rolled around in the bed. Yesterday was very exhausting.

"We have to. I'm vacating my dorm room and you told you'll help" She was now outside my room with folded arms.

"Why are you vacating all of a sudden? Plus when did I ever tell you I'll help?"

"You told me and I quote 'You'll always be my sister' "

"Wait. That is so unfair!" I whined.

"Does this have anything to do with yesterday?" I whispered.

"Not just that. With mom not being well, I'm hardly ever there" She used the mom card.

I can't refuse now, can I?

"Fine. I'll go. Now," I wrapped the bedsheet around myself which Buffy threw away to the opposite side of the room.

I groaned but proceeded to take bath.

After eating breakfast which turned out to be omelette again as mom was sick and Buffy's a bad cook, we went to her dorm.

The entire Scooby Gang was there. Including Tara. Now that I think of it, I know the least about Tara. Like I don't know anything about her family. Nada. She's way too mysterious.

Sorry, I need to focus on important things here. I'm here to help my sister and that's what I'll do.

I was handed a lot of cardboard boxes with the so many CDs that Buffy had. She also had a lot of dresses and her hostel room almost looked like a mini home.

After I left the CDs in the parking spot, you know, the spot outside her hostel where we decided to group things until we finally shift the things home, I returned.

"Shaun!" I hear Buffy call out with a tinge of concern in her voice.

"You're buying me new CDs" I demand her commission for my hard work.

"Fine, I will. Now come help me fold" Buffy just redirects me to her bed and she joins me as I fold the bed covers.

She goes to the far side of the bed and drops a cardboard box after which she holds her right bum in pain.

"Startin' to feel that fight?" Cardboard queried her as he made his way near us.

"Nothing like gettin' your ass kicked to make your ass hurt" She gives a sassy reply but her pain showed on her face.

"You will surely defeat her next time" I tried my best to reassure my physically hurt sister.

" 'Cause, you'll have backup, baby. She's messin' with all of us." My goofball older friend joined the session of 'let's reassure Buffy'.

"Yes, uh, we'll, we'll, uh, find her weaknesses, and then, uh-" Giles stuttered.

"Yeah. You learn her source," Tara grinned as she continued "and, uh, we'll introduce her to her insect reflection."

I cackled like a maniac but others gave weird looks directed at me and Tara.

Tara smiled at me and the grin dropped from her face.

"Guys, come on! Tara will change the mysterious blonde into an insect and make her look at the reflection in the face"

I could see Tara's face dropping and others give me a weird look.

Tara went outside with a sad frown on her face.

I had obviously done something wrong. So, I decided to follow behind her and apologize for upsetting her when suddenly Willow appeared.

"Okay. Guys, now remember, you have to be at the Bronze by eight" The redhead announced with an excited smile plastered on her face.

That was sudden. She got a blank look from everyone in the room including me and Buffy.

"Bronze?" Buffy enquired with an innocent look on her face.

"Tomorrow night! Tara's birthday!" Willow clarified.

I had just made Tara feel worse on the day before her birthday, just great. I am the worst dipshit in the entire multiverse.

"Right! Right," Buffy just realized that she had absolutely no clue about Tara's birthday until now.

"We have to bring presents, right? Birth is a present thing?" Anya asked Xander as she held on to an empty mixer.

"I got something ... picked out, yeah" There was something insincere in Xander's assertion to Willow but I decided to let it slide.

"You-you guys can all still come, right? I mean, I know there's ... this new evil and all, but..." Willow was obviously anxious by this point and was almost on the verge of starting her own Willow-babble which was interrupted by Buffy.

"No, no. We'll be there. I could definitely use a break from all this craziness"Buffy reassured her.

"Willow, where's Tara? I need to apologize" Everybody suddenly looked at me.

"Why though Shaunie? Also don't spoil the surprise for Tara" Great. Just Great. Willow also has joined the 'Let us treat Shaun like a kid' party just because she is 4 years older than me.

"No. I might have told something about insect reflection. Need to apologize. Please" I begged Willow as she relented.

"Shaun..." Buffy had a knowing look in her eyes and she continued as I nodded "... come with Willow and Tara and then meet me at the magic shop"

"Sure will do Buffster" I smiled at Xander as I copied a word from him and left along with Willow to meet Tara.

Willow brought me to Tara.

"Tara, I'm sorry for making you upset" I apologized.

"What? Why would you think that Shaun?" Tara asked sweetly.

"Obviously I made you upset by saying something wrong about the insect reflection. Sorry"

Tara smiled. I swear her smile was infectious as I found myself smiling too...

"Well, you at least tried" Tara chuckled.

"So, what exactly is an insect reflection?" I asked Tara.

"if you, um, studied Taglarin mythic rites.." Tara started explaining the whole thing and Willow also joined the session of insect reflection explanation.

I listened as they explained the whole thing together. They were also kind enough to take me to their dorms and show me around. We walked as they held their hands together and discussed a lot of things from studies to magic.

"You two are cute" I remarked.

Willow and Tara suddenly looked flustered.

"What? I know you guys are lovers ok. Don't have to hide from me." I smiled.

They too smiled in return as they let out a small chuckle in chorus.

"See cute!"

We chatted about some trivial stuff and later found ourselves at the magic box.

"Well, what do you know?" We saw a guy standing at the centre of the shop.

After seeing the said guy, Tara's smile dropped.

"What's the matter? You don't have a hug for your big brother?" That question from him greatly surprised me.

Tara looked on at her brother with wide eyes and her lower lip quivered.

"Brother?"I found Willow looking at Tara with a shocked look on her face.

Buffy and Xander looked at each other obviously confused.

"Willow and Shaun, this is..." Tara did a reverse nod and stuttered but she recovered "... Donny" She completed.

"Hi" Willow greeted.

"Bro..." I greeted him in my own way.

Donny smiled and shook both our hands and said "Nice to meet you to both of us"

"And, uh, these are my-my friends."Tara stuttered.

Looking at Tara feeling so uncomfortable, I sensed that something was definitely suspicious about this Donny. Also, Wakanda name is Donny? Black Panther comics are awesome.

Donny looked around at others. Buffy and Xander waved their hands while Anya and Giles gave a curt nod. Anya giving a curt nod? Well, hell must have frozen over.

"How did you find - I, I mean, how come you came?" While Tara smiled, I could see something in her eyes which showed that she was on edge.

"Well, duh, birthday girl. Uh, we came down in the camper, been all over the campus" He rolled his eyes.

"We?" Tara asked surprised.

I, Tara and Willow turned back as we heard the bell tinkle to find the door open.

An Old man with a black long coat entered followed by a girl who was hidden by him as she was shorter.

"Look what I found" I heard Donny say from my back.

"Well, here's my girl" Tara's dad grinned.

"Uh, Dad, hi." I and Willow watched as Tara went on to hug her dad awkwardly.

The new girl was now in view. I remembered seeing her somewhere just couldn't place where.

"Cousin Beth" Tara invited with a curt nod.

"Hey" The girl greeted her back with a smile.

Oh, wait, friggity firkity fraggity frigaty fruck. Holy shit! This was Lois Lane from Man of Steel. But she's WAY WAY younger here.

Does this mean every person in this universe is an actor in the universe from my previous life? I wondered how much would this information help me. If at all.

Meanwhile, I found Tara introducing all of us to her father.

"Oh. Oh, um, these are, these are friends. Um, this is Mr Giles, um, he runs the shop." Tara introduced us to her daddy.

"Pleasure. Well, I, I don't mean to interrupt your plans, I know we've come on you kind of suddenly, but I thought we could have dinner." He curtly returned to Giles and announced his intentions to Tara.

"Okay" Tara replied meekly.

"Why don't I pick you up at six, And we'll ..." The old man glanced back at us and continued "do some catching up"

"Yes sir" Tara might as well have done a salute. That was the biggest red flag for me.

"Forgive me for running out. We're double-parked." He addressed us as he went outside.

"Nice to meet you all" Donny waved at us from near the doorway.

Willow waved back as Tara's family left.

"That's so weird. Your ... whole family" Willow grinned.

"Yeah" Tara's nervousness showed in her smile.

"They seem nice" Willow remarked.

Yeah right. Tara was so nervous around them. There had to be something fishy going on. But who am I to poke my nose into Tara and her family's business? So, I had to be the good guy and let it slide.

After some talk about how families usually made people crazy, Willow and Tara went into full research mode and I found myself back home with Buffy after a few minutes.

"Honey, I'm home" Buffy announced as she opened the front door and entered.

As grandpa cardboard, ha! new nickname, I'm so using it. Sorry, got distracted. Back to the point. Grandpa sorry I am unable to control my internal snickering again.

"Hi, Grandpa Captain Cardboard!" I waved at my sister's boyfriend who was now coming down the stairs.

Buffy playfully slapped my arm and I winced in fake pain.

"Did you have a good day at work?" He asked Buffy.

"It's a rat race" Buffy whined and then she moaned as they kissed.

"Blegh!" I imitated vomiting.

They separated from their kiss and cleared their throats.

"Shaun! Go back to your room" Buffy gave me a knowing look which said I'm dead if I didn't respect her wishes so that was exactly what I did.

That was when I remembered that I had promised Shannon that I'll tutor him. So, I wrapped up the computer textbook which was basically about C and C++ as I lived in a primitive human civilization which hadn't heard of Java. Ok, that was an exaggeration. Java was just a new language which was taught in colleges and not at the school level. I stopped my internal ranting and headed down the stairs.

I found Buffy and oldilocks kissing again. You know Grandpa, Captain Cardboard, Oldilocks.

I tried to sneakily escape but Buffy grabbed me by the bag which I was wearing and dropped me harshly on the nearby couch.

"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?" Buffy questioned me.

"I'm going to Shannon's for tutoring" I replied.

"Since when?" She pestered me again.

"Right around now" I told her.

"You can't. I-it's not safe for you to walk there" Buffy tried to prevent me from fulfilling my promise.

"Come on. It's literally just the opposite house. I promised Shannon that I'll tutor him" I was coming at a blank here. It's just the opposite house.

"No. It's family night and with the psycho demon bitch out there, I don't feel safe allowing you outside the house"Buffy reasoned.

My face dropped. I so didn't want to be an extra source of headache for Buffy. Moreover, it was nighttime. Means Vampire time. So I did the most sensible thing and headed inside upon the stairs back. After dropping my bag on the bed, I headed downstairs to contact Shannon and tell him of the sad news when I found Grandpa and Buffy talking about some serious stuff.

"Every time I think I'm getting closer to you..." Grandpa shook his head.

"I've gotta take off" He suddenly announced.

I just peeked from the staircase so that I didn't disturb their conversation.

"Wait! What?" Buffy asked surprised.

"I'll call you later" He took off to near the front door.

"Riley, I want you to help. I'm not.."

He interrupted Buffy "Yeah. Know you got a lot on your mind. You decide you wanna let me in on any of it," He opened the door and added "let me know. I'll come running"

Buffy looked down at the floor with her eyes on the floor. Something's troubling my sis.

"Buffy, is it about?" I gestured at myself.

"No. Shaun. Don't worry. You know the usual. Lovers' quarrel" Buffy tried to reassure me but her eyes told an entirely different story.

"Come on. It's me you're talking to. I know when you hide things. I might have just been with you for 6 weeks but I know you." Buffy chuckled dryly as I reassured her.

She just walked toward me and hugged me. I just returned the hug. I decided to bug her when she was ready to talk but for now, I had to let it go.

Magic Shop, The night of Tara's 20th Birthday

I had managed to tutor Shannon luckily during one of the free periods today morning at school. The rest of the day went by fairly uneventfully.

All the Scoobies except Willow decided to hunt down the magic shop for some gifts. Giles had already gift-wrapped a crystal ball to give to Tara so the others were on a witch hunt to gift the witch. Well, cringe puns aside, I found myself in the magic shop along with them.

I was allowed to roam around the shop. I thought the best thing to do would be to search around for a book that could talk about rebirth. So, that was what I did.

I suddenly found Xander struggling to enter Buffy's training room and being thrown away from there. Is that a ghost? What the fuck am I supposed to be doing? What in the actual hell am I supposed to be doing? I found myself frozen looking on as Willow took a chair and made contact with air just above Xander as he looked like he was being choked by something invisible.

"Where did it go?" Anya screamed as Willow was being thrown away by the said invisible force.

"Go on. Hide under there" Giles motioned me to hide under the nearby table.

"I'm too big to hide under a table" I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind.

"Just hide somewhere" Giles advised with an angry voice.

Before I could react though, I felt some invisible force punch me and Giles.

"It's over there" Xander pointed in a random direction as he still lay on the floor.

Giles and Anya talked in overlapping voices so I couldn't make out anything. I was just sitting down on the floor at this point.

"Shut up!" Buffy shushed everyone.

Tara meanwhile opened the door and gasped as she entered.

"Buffy! Behind You!" She warned the Slayer.

Buffy turned around and was thrown away by the said invisible force.

"Tara where is it? Can you see it?" Buffy asked as she looked around.

"Oh God" Tara rushed towards Buffy who was slapped by invisible demons.

Tara panted, closed her eyes and chanted "Blind Cadria, lift your veil. Give evil form and break my spell"

A demon suddenly appeared and slapped Tara who now fell on the ground due to the effect of the slap.

Buffy goes on to punch the demon multiple times in the face but gets thrown away and rolled over on the ground several times.

The demon now looked like it was about to attack Tara who lay on the floor.

"Tara!" Tara's dad suddenly shouted.

As the demon approached him, Buffy kicked the demon's legs making it trip and fall on the floor.

Buffy flipped up to her feet and stomped on the back side of the demon's neck until a loud crack was heard. That meant the neck of the demon broke I guess.

I stood up from the floor as Giles lent me a hand.

"What in god's name is that?" Tara's father asked incredulously.

"Lei-ach demon" I turned around to see Spike as he added "Fun little buggers. Big with the marrow-sucking"

Tara looked guilty for some reason. Right. Satan cycled into a charlatan.

"I don't understand" Tara's old man stated as he stood up.

"I'm not sure I do either"Buffy remarked as she folded her arms and looked down at Tara who was sitting on the floor with teary eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm s-s-so sorry" Tara sniffled, stuttered but she steeled on "I was, I was trying to hide"

Willow went and knelt beside Tara.

"I didn't want you to see ... what I am" Tara added.

"Tara, what?" Willow was puzzled by the response from her lover.

"What do you mean, what you are?" Buffy joined the quiz party.

Tara's lower lips quivered. It looked like she was trying to talk but couldn't get the words out of her mouth.

"Demon. The women in our family..." I looked in the old man's direction along with others as he continued "...have demon in them. Her mother had it. That's where the magic comes from"

Tara at this point just bent her head to look down at the floor unable to face Willow but the guy droned on "We came to take her home before..." he sighed "...well, before things like ..." now he pointed the dead demon as he continued "this started happening"

"You cast a spell on us, to keep us from seeing your ... demon side" Giles turned towards Buffy and added "That's why we couldn't see our attackers"

Buffy turned back to look at me.

"But we could see Tara" I butted my head in.

"Bloody Slayer did not thank me for saving her life" Spike entered the chat.

"Spike!" Buffy did her charming routine of calling Spike's name with disdain.

"Ok. No need to be so bitter Slayer. I get it if you do not want to acknowledge you're weaker than me" Spike taunted.

"Spike seriously, when was this?"Buffy rolled her eyes.

"In your training room, like a couple of minutes ago. you were fighting with a Lei-Ach demon when I butted in to save you from another one which tried to attack you at the same time"

"I DID NOT SEE YOU. Spike, Shut up!" Buffy yelled.

That's when a light bulb went off in my head and I started to understand things.

"Buffy..." I started.

"What Shaun?" Buffy's anger now got redirected towards me.

"All right. All right. You're Mr." I offered to shake my hand to the old man.

He looked back at me with a frown but offered his hand anyway and completed"Maclay"

"Mr Maclay here is fu.." I tried again "fu..." Right, I can't swear in this universe.

"fu... What?" Buffy was irritated now as she gritted her teeth.

"Mr Maclay here is spewing crap. Tara is not a bloody demon" I announced my conclusion.

"What?" Everyone else asked in chorus while Mr Maclay sorry Mr MF looked at me furiously.

"Ok, Tara. You did a spell to make us not see your demon side but yet we could see you. Spike here is a vampire AKA a human-demon hybrid. So Buffy should have been able to see him but she couldn't because the spell makes anything evil invisible. So, you are not evil AKA not a demon and you do not have any demon in you" I formed my theory into a long speech.

"Vampire? What kind of nonsense is this? Tara comes with us" Maclay sorry MF decided to divert the conversation in another direction.

"I'll go" Tara scrambled on her legs and apologised to us.

"The camper's outside" MF announced.

"Wait! Go?" Willow stood up and grabbed Tara's elbow.

"I, she just did a spell that went wrong. It-it was just a mistake" Willow justified.

"That's not the point and it's not your concern. She belongs with us. We know how to control her ... problem"The MF asserted emphatically.

"Tara.. Look at me" Willow continued as Tara did what Willow wanted "I, I trusted you more than anyone in my life. Was all that just a lie?"

"No" Tara proclaimed teary-eyed.

"Well, do you wanna leave?" Willow asked

"It's not your decision, young lady" God, I swear the MF is annoying.

"I know that!" Willow sharply countered MF and softly repeated her question to Tara "Do you wanna leave?"

Tara shook her head now as she cried.

"You're going to do what's right, Tara. Now, I'm taking you out of here before somebody does get killed. The girl belongs with her family. I hope that's clear to the rest of you" MF taunted.

"It is" Buffy returned as Willow looked anxiously at Tara.

"You want her, Mr Maclay? You can go ahead and take her"Buffy WTF. No! No! No! You can't allow him to take Tara. Who knows what horrors await her?

MF looked smug and Tara looked sad.

"But you gotta go through me" Buffy asserted with a swag as she stood there with hands on her hips. HA! Classic superhero pose!

"What?" I heard his annoying voice again.

But Tara looked hopeful. That's good I guess.

"You heard me. You wanna take Tara out of here against her will? You gotta come through me" Buffy stared him down with a tough expression on her face.

"And me!" I went to stand beside Buffy. I tried my own impression of a steely glare. I hope it worked.

"Is this a joke?" Ok. That might not have worked.

"I'm not gonna be threatened by a little girl and a teenage boy" MF managed to demean us. Not a great plan!

"MF, you don't wanna mess with us" I addressed him.

"MF?" Buffy whispered.

"You know pulp fiction Samuel Jackson's most used word" I whispered back as Buffy snickered.

"And.." I turned back to see Giles wear his specs as he continued "you're not just dealing with, uh, two little girls"

"You're dealing with all of us" Xander said as Tara's face sported a wide grin.

" 'Cept me" Spike announced.

" 'Cept Spike" Xander repeated.

" I don't care what happens" Spike tried his whole I'm too cool for this thing act but he obviously did care.

"This is insane. You people have no right to interfere with Tara's affairs. We ... are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?" MF finally finished his final attempt to cause misery for Tara I hoped.

"We're family" Buffy asserted as I, her, Giles, Xander, Tara and of course Willow were standing in a group against this MF.

"Daaad. You - you gonna let 'em just... " Donny stomped forward "Tara, if you don't get in that car, I swear by god I will b*at you down"

"Oh Pony!" Donny looked puzzled "Yeah you. I would looovve to see you try and break your skull"

"Well. I hope you'll all be happy hanging out with a disgusting demon" Beth insulted us.

"Ok. Didn't we just establish Tara's not a demon with sound logical reasoning?" I asked everyone.

"Yes, we did" Giles confirmed.

"There's no demon in there. That's just a family legend, am I right?" Spike smirked as MF looked angry "Just a bit of spin to keep the ladies in line. "Oh, you're a piece of work. I like you"

"Mr Maclay, I would say your business here is finished" Giles stated nonchalantly with a smirk amid glares from all of us directed at MF.

"Tara. For eighteen years your family has taken care of you and supported you. If you wanna turn your back" MF's speech was interrupted by Tara.

"Dad... Just go" Finally! Tara stood up to him.

"MF and pony are off" I mumbled which got a light snicker from Buffy who playfully smacked my arm. I mock winced in pain.

"Are you happy now?" Beth asked as Tara's grin widened.

"Oh yes, she is Lois Lane! Out! Now!" Buffy looked at me with wide eyes. Beth just looked at me confused but she was out of there.

Everyone went and hugged Tara.

"Family" I stated.

"Family" She smiled as we hugged.

Later at bronze, I found Willow and Tara hovering above the ground as they hugged each other in a romantic embrace after Tara received her birthday gifts from all of us. I gifted her a Lapis Lazuli Ring. She smiled and got it from me.

Some more time later, when we returned home, we found a guest waiting for us.

"Hi, B!"

A/N: I would be trying a lot of new things in this fic which I have personally not explored before. If something seems off, remember that I am exploring new things. Also, this chapter was the longest of this fic and most close to canon ever. I was trying something comfortable before things veered away from canon and 'Cause I was coming after a break. The romance that I promised will start in the next chapter.