Swinging of the Pendulum
"So, help me puzzle out the Dawn thing, Angel," Buffy begged, as the two of them hung-out in her room after this new Slayer had been activated—or Buffy assumed that Dawn was a Slayer, anyway; that was part of the mystery of her—right when they'd started dating.
Oh. Perhaps "right when they'd started dating" should have been her first thought here, Buffy allowed. But she'd had so many doomed relationships, she didn't want to put too much attention on this one and jinx it, too.
And the Dawn thing was such a conundrum, that her brain was definitely doing mental gymnastics in trying to figure that all out right now.
Angel shrugged—absentmindedly pulling at Mr. Gordo's ears, Buffy saw (she kind of wondered why he was doing that. Maybe in detecting with Angel Investigations all the time, Angel now had to constantly being doing something with his hands?). "You did a DNA test for her, right? And she came back having your blood? She must be your long-lost sister, Buffy… I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there must be some secrets in your family. People are rarely as squeaky clean as you would hope they would be. And as for why she doesn't remember anything… she must have some sort of amnesia. My guess would be because she was traumatized by something big. Unfortunately."
"I mean, that is the logical solution, Mister-Logic-Guy," Buffy agreed, spinning around in her swivel chair, that was right beside the beanbag chair that Angel himself was in. "But they said that her DNA is the same is mine. Like, an exact match. We're talking identical twin type match. Except that Dawn isn't identical to me.
"And I know that genes can mutate and do weird things like that, so maybe that could explain it. But the really weird thing, is all the doctors think that Dawn is way, way younger than me. So how do you figure that one, Angel?" Buffy asked, getting up and stealing Mr. Gordo from his arms, just so she could cuddle the little guy herself. Seeing him with Angel had just made her miss him, that's all. And watching Angel grin at her as she did so, was pretty cute, too. "I guess their best guesses could be wrong, but it's still wonky to me. And that's not even getting into some of the things that Willow thinks she's found out with her magic. Which just makes my already crazy life, all the more batshit."
Willow's theory—and Buffy couldn't even believe that she was entertaining it—was that Dawn was somehow a created human being.
Or, moreover, that she had somehow been created as the next Slayer from Buffy's blood, when Buffy had died recently had just barely been brought back to life… by one of Angel's "children" Penn (something that Angel was still of miffed about. Not that Penn had saved Buffy, of course. But that he'd "finally found a way into Buffy's life", as Angel had put it, but he hadn't been the one to save her. Just because out of all of them, he'd been the one closest to her and the defibrillator. And Penn had only rescued her, because Angel had promised him that he'd eventually give him his death if he did: a contract Buffy would find a way to break, if it killed her).
"Willow told me about some of that," Angel told Buffy, with sympathetic eyes alighting the somewhat dark room. "She thinks that since the last Slayers—Kendra and Faith—were created when their predecessors jumped into the Hellmouth, it somehow made the system think that Slayers should be created that way from now on. So, when you- when you died, and triggered the activation of a Slayer the old way, the magic freaked and didn't know what to do anymore, and created a Slayer from scratch. And she thinks that it's Dawn.
"Buffy, if I'm being honest… that's as insane a theory as I've ever heard one. Not that I want to storm into town and start doubting your friends' abilities. You've all done a great job as guardians of the Hellmouth. So, if Willow believes this is the case, who am I to judge her? But if that is the truth, and Dawn really has nothing to remember, then you have to make her life now really something special."
No one had to tell Buffy that one. She'd been considering it for a long while now. When Willow had first told her about her nutty hypothesis (one that Giles was now starting to backup, as well), Buffy had thought back to the sheep, Dolly… Not that Dawn was a clone or a sheep, of course.
But Buffy knew that animals had souls and emotions—and were far more intelligent than people ever gave them credit for—and she'd wondered and feared if the poor thing had somehow known when people were calling her a copy, or treating her differently and with maybe less respect (surely with some poking and prodding) than a usual sheep would get.
And she didn't want that for Dawnie—who her mom and Eric had already decided to adopt the moment she'd appeared and saved Buffy from a nasty vampire, after she'd tried Slaying too soon after her heart surgery—so anything she could do for the young girl to make her life something extravagant, she would do.
"I think I'm going to try and get her into 'Power of the Pen,'" Buffy spoke, daring to be a bit braver now, and to sit beside Angel on his bean bag now. Maybe she was even sitting on his lap a little bit, too.
…There was a part of Buffy that really wanted to throw herself into her relationship with Angel, the way she had Pike, Robin, and Cordy in the past—they were well past her distrust his being a vampire and his being possessed by the Hellmother and attacking her, after all; the former was even kind of a turn-on for Buffy now, because she must have been some kind of horrible Slayer or something—but since she was only nineteen and had bad relationship, after bad relationship, after bad relationship (not to mention all the deaths in her young life already), she was determined to take this slow and pray that in doing so for once, things would finally be different for though… even though it was killing Buffy to do that.
There was just something about Angel that drew her in. Maybe there always had been.
"Power of the Pen?" Angel asked, cocking his head to the side and bringing Buffy back to reality once he did so.
"Oh, yeah! It's, like, a writing group that schools have. Moreso for writing novels, but I've noticed that Dawn likes to write a lot in journals, since she doesn't talk a lot yet. And maybe writing stories is something that could help her find herself—whatever her story ends up being—too."
Angel smiled at that: a thousand-watt smile, that instantly had Buffy's heart beating a mile a minute, the moment he got even closer to her (were they not going to take it as slow as Buffy had hoped? She'd known coming to sit with Angel here had been playing with fire), and she hated him for it. Hated that that, and the twinkle in his eyes, made her have to knot her hands in her jeans, so she could keep her hands and breathing under control.
And damnit! Angel didn't even seem to be thinking about their relationship, like she was! His mind still seemed to be completely on the Dawn thing!
"I think that's a really sweet idea, Buffy. I've only met Dawn a few times. But when she was in one of the Scooby meetings… you're right. She seemed to write more than she spoke. She was writing battle strategies on little post-it notes. I imagine a club like that would be good for her. And someone taking pictures of her new life, too, and putting them somewhere for her to- Buffy, what's wrong? What's with the face?"
She didn't know what was wrong. That was the problem. Buffy was telling herself over and over again that she and Angel needed to be safe and rational about this (as much as a Slayer and vampire dating could be safe, of course. There were definitely still days where she thought this was just plain madness and a horrible idea. It probably was).
And she'd had the idea of just coming back to her apartment for their first date (as opposed to somewhere fancy), but staying in her living room, with her crappy furniture here, in thinking that it would keep them on the straight and arrow.
But already, that was proving to be impossible. Buffy's mind was going into the gutter over and over again, like she'd thought she hadn't wanted it to. Except now she was finding… that maybe she did want it to, and was a little offended that Angel wasn't right there with her?
"I- I don't know, Angel. I really don't. I wish I could. I feel like I need a dictionary here to define myself."
At that, they both chuckled. And as they did, in some magical way, Buffy found that they'd both grabbed each other's hands in the same instance (Buffy's breath might have hitched in her throat when that happened).
And that, at least, allowed her to get a handle on her emotions some, so she wouldn't sound like a raving, crazy woman—jealous of her newfound sister—when she told her new boyfriend what was in her heart now. "I'm thrilled that you're so interested in Dawnie's happiness. I truly am. That poor, sweet girl deserves nothing less. God… you're such a sweet guy, Angel. Really. But I guess I'm just wondering… uhh, are you feeling anything for me right now?"
Just like that, any semblance of the easygoing, friend-like night they'd been having, disappeared… if they had really ever been having that to begin with. There had always been some sort of undercurrent here, Buffy knew, and now that jumped up tenfold.
"Buffy, how can you even ask me that?" Angel gasped, pulling her into his arms.
At some point during all of this, he'd gone from sitting on the beanbag, to laying on his side there. And now Buffy was in his arms on the thing, lying flush against him, and she could feel every inch of him pressed against her, and knew for sure just how much he wanted her; she gasped. "I've felt for you since the moment I met you. But you- I- it wasn't our time, then. And as painful as that was, it's probably a good thing that you pushed me away then, and I didn't see you again for years after that.
"Now, though: now is our time, Buffy. And if you don't push me away now… I'm afraid to tell you, you're never going to get another chance to, lover."
That should have frightened, Buffy. She knew it should have.
After she'd faced Angel in the Hellmouth, she'd come back and read all the horror stories about Angelus, to assure herself she'd made the right choice in cutting him out of her life.
And while now Buffy could differentiate between the two of them, and knew that Angel wasn't Angelus—at least not entirely—she was still aware of all of Angelus' numerous past sins.
It was always those he had had some sort of obsession with—or loved, if Angelus could have been able to love at all—that he hurt the most.
But his words here just made Buffy ache for him all the more.
She just felt for Angel too much.
Loved him too much, already.
And had been fighting these feelings for him for too long.
Perhaps even since the Hellmouth, back when she'd felt that connection to him and thought that he was just like her.
Angel said that he was glad that she had thrown their chance away and that nothing had happened with them then, but Buffy wasn't so sure she felt the same anymore.
Maybe if she'd kept him with her, she would have had one more person in her corner and she wouldn't have had to face all the pain that she had. Angel was the one always telling her she needed people with her, after all.
And so Buffy definitely wasn't ready to tell him to depart now. Quite the opposite, really.
"Angel… I don't want you to go away. When I look at you—maybe it's because of your immortality making me think of it, and some silly schoolgirl daydreams, I'll admit it—I see forever. Please stay and give me that. At least for tonight."
Angel's lips descended onto Buffy's own then, so fast it was like lightning had struck and they danced with with her like the most skilled partner she'd ever known. Then, one of his hands went up to free her hair from a hairband it had been trapped in, while another crept up under her shirt.
And Buffy found herself wrapping her legs around her angel's waist, while one of her nails traced the vein in his neck.
She actually wasn't sure she was going to give Angel everything tonight. But she must have been a horrible Slayer… because she thought that she might just reward him for some of his kind ideas for Dawnie, by trying to drink from him.
Author's Note: I know Dawn being a Slayer in this gives us Way. Too. Many. Slayers. In. Boomverse. But I really have no other ideas as to how she may be introduced there (if she's ever introduced). Unless they just do the Key thing again. So, to avoid the Slayers being too OP, just imagine they're deploying some of them other places than the Hellmouth, or that some of them have died and have not activated other Slayers when dying for Reasons.
Buffy and Angel don't quite have sex at the end, because I don't want them to deal with Angelus yet (they just started dating, I mean). I'm not THAT cruel. They do do other stuff, imo, though.
And the ending is, of course, foreboding to hint at Angelus stuff (maybe even some slight Buffy corruption, or her wanting to be a vampire some or something?), and some of the stuff that Boom's already said: how Angel will fall in love with Buffy, but it will lead to the kind of pain that only love can cause and she'll have to kill him (probably because of Angelus again?):(
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed!
I tried to put a different spin on some stuff here, since the Boomverse IS an AU, of course, and also try to guess at what they might eventually do (though we all know I'll be dead wrong, but that's kind of the fun of it). But also still have them be Buffy and Angel, and add nods to the OG verse, too:)
Edit: Oh! And Dawn will talk more-and be like her canon self-once she gets more used to her environment!