"They're not moving," Andrew observes.
"They're asleep," Jonathan says dismissively.
"People still move when they are asleep," Andrew points out.
"It's a deep sleep then."
"Their open eyes with the whites is kind of freaky."
"Then just don't look at them."
-0-
"Dad? What are we training for?" Buffy asks.
He ponders. That question shouldn't be as hard as it is. "Self-defense is always a good skill for a girl to have."
Buffy can't help but wonder if her dad isn't preparing her to fight off Spike. Not that that was ever going to happen. "I think I have enough self-defensives," she says, kicking and spinning in the air and doing an impressive back handspring.
"Quite," Giles says, taking off his glasses to give them a good cleaning.
"Besides, I don't want to fight. I'm very tired of fighting." Which was, of course, ridiculous, because she'd never fought in her entire life.
He smiles at her. "Okay, you don't have to fight. If you ever run into problems, I'll be there to take care of you."
"Or Spike," she says.
"Yes, William and I will look after you," he says with reluctance.
-0-
Willow's finger draws the information out of the computer screen. There is no need to read or even think. The information goes straight from the computer into her brain. Learning has never been this effortless before.
Well of course it had been. It had always been like this. How else could it be? How else would you learn anything?
Tara is in the kitchen frying eggs with magic. Halfway through she decides she doesn't want eggs, and makes a cake instead.
She's going to have a cake for breakfast. There is some reason you shouldn't do that. It's bad, naughty, shameful.
Who cares? She's going to eat cake for breakfast, and no can stop her.
Probably because she and Willow are the only people left on the planet. Left? No, they were the only people who had ever been on the planet, and that was the way it was supposed to be. The way it had always been.
Complete. Perfect.
-0-
"You've got to love us having the house to ourselves once in a while," Spike says drawing Gothic letters on her bare back.
She's pretty sure it's a love poem. He writes those for her. A lot. He's embarrassed by it. He tries to hide it from her. People have made fun of him for the poems before. She would never though, she loves him.
"I love you," she tells him.
He smiles with that abused puppy face that always makes her heart melt.
He kisses her neck, and it scares her, for one second. Why would that be scary?
Then one of Spike's kittens jumps up on the bed purring. He inserts himself between Buffy and Spike.
"How many of those things do you have now?" Buffy asks.
"I lost count at a score," he replies.
He uses really old language sometimes, like he's lived for a hundred years or something. It must be because he is British.
"Maybe we should slow the rate of kitten rescue down," she suggests.
"Come on, you love the fluffy little buggers," Spike protests.
"You know? I really don't," she says, slowly nudging the kitten out of the way so that she has more access to her boyfriend. For cuddles and what not.
-0-
The Magic Box is empty. It's always empty. There is no one else in the world. Still, Anya likes to sit at the cash register and play with the money. Not that she doesn't have more money at home. It's just fun both ways.
Giles is at the table with Dawn reading demon books.
He is filtering them for her, keeping the traumatizing one out. Actually, none of them are traumatizing, and they are not about demons. They are fairy tales. Full of unicorns and rainbows.
She doesn't have to be annoyed though, because there is nothing in the world but unicorns and rainbows. He's not protecting her or babying her.
He doesn't have to worry about her either. His little girls are safe. The battle is won.
Well, there was never a battle. He's just been reading too many fairy stories.
-0-
Xander is taking care of his daughter today. He's not sure that he's qualified to do this. Especially because he still doesn't know what the girl's name is. He must have done this before though. Like a lot of times. She's his daughter, and he always takes care of her when Anya goes to the store, doesn't he? She's like…how old?
"Let's play a game," he suggests.
She bounces.
"How old are you?"
"Four."
"What is your name?" he asks, grinning at the success.
"This is a really boring game, Daddy," the little girl says, running off.
Yep, his wife is going to kill him when she finds out that he doesn't even know his own daughter's name.
-0-
"Spike is here!" Dawn says running out to the motorcycle.
Giles goes out to see them off. "Helmet," he reminds.
"Don't worry, mate, I wouldn't let anything bad happen to the Little Bit," Spike says, handing the helmet over to her.
"Spike, can we get ice cream?" she asks.
"Yes," he says, revving the engine.
Giles glances at his older daughter and her brightly colored skin tight skirt. "Did you really ride the motorcycle in a skirt?" he asks with obvious disapproval oozing from his voice.
"I was very ladylike," she defends.
Sometimes he wishes that his daughter would just grow up a little. He worries about her all the time. She would never be able to take care of herself if he wasn't around. A parent's job is to make sure that their kids are ready for the world, and he's failed at that.
Well of course he hasn't. Look at her in her little pant suit getting into a car to go to work. "I'll see you later Dad," she says.
Now all he has to do is teach her how to do her own laundry.
-0-
Tara kisses Willow and it tastes familiar. Not in a good way where her girlfriend tastes like all the kisses she's had with her girlfriend before. It's a taste that makes her remember that she forgot something.
Not that that makes sense.
What is that flavor? Maybe she's just using a new kind of lip balm. It tastes like…flowers? Yeah, it tastes like flowers. What kind of flowers, though? I'm pretty sure that it's important. That if she could remember what kind of flower Willow tasted like she would be able to fix what was wrong.
Well, that was a silly thought. Nothing was wrong. She was kissing Willow. Everything was perfect.
-0-
Anya's daughter rushes into her arms. "Mommy! I missed you!" the little girl shouts in excitement and joy.
"Did your father not provide you with amusement?" she asks, glaring at her husband over the child's head.
"Daddy plays boring games."
"Well, now Mommy is here to save the day," Anya says. "What game do you want to play?"
"Hide-and-go-seek," the kid replies, running off.
"Okay, Mommy and Daddy will find you!" Xander says, looking after her. He's going to find out her name though. He really is.