"What is that smell?" Jonathan asks, horrified.
"I think one of them wet themselves," Warren offers.
"Did we know that was going to happen?" Andrew asks.
"I guess we should have figured. I mean, they've been asleep for hours. When is the last time you went that long without peeing?" Warren challenges.
"Well, what are we going to do about it? I mean, we're just not going to let them pee on the floor forever are we?" Jonathan asks.
"We're going to have to get some adult diapers," Jonathan says.
"Who is going to change them?" Warren asks.
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Andrew suggests.
-0-
"I'm going to bed," Dawn says with an faked yawn. She's not really tired. But she is pretty sick of being around people. Who would have ever thought that would happen? Of course, that's the way it always was. She was going to slip off and write in her diary for a while.
"Me too," Buffy says.
"I'm going to have a cup of tea, would you like one?" Spike asks.
Giles really doesn't want to spend time alone with this man, but he does really want a cup of tea. He should also get to know the man better. After all, his daughter had chosen him.
"Certainly."
Spike puts the kettle on the stove, and Giles cleans his glasses.
"I love your daughter, sir," Spike says.
Sir, that was an odd thing to say. Spike had never called him sir before, had he? "Quite," Giles responds.
"I want to marry her," Spikes says.
Giles cleans his glasses again.
"I'm asking your permission to ask her."
Giles nods.
"Great!" Spikes says, bounding up the stairs.
"No, I was merely acknowledging the fact that I understood your intentions. I was not giving my permission."
The electric kettle whistles. But right now, he's a lot more in the mood for whiskey than tea.
-0-
Buffy is in bed, but not asleep, when he gets up to her room. Her eyes fall on him in the darkness, and they are full of love.
He needs a ring, though. He can't ask her to marry him without a ring.
"I love you," he says.
"Too tired," she mumbles.
"Okay, we'll talk about our love later," he says. Not the time.
-0-
Anya is reading a bedtime story to their kids.
Wait, didn't they only have one kid this morning? No, of course now, that was silly. It had always been the two. The four year old girl, and her six year old brother. Yep, that's the way it had always been.
"And then, the Poinwa demon disemboweled them all…" Anya says.
"I think we've had quite enough of story time for today," Xander says, reaching over his wife to grab the book from her.
"I was not done with the story yet!" she protests.
"I think that story is going to give the kid nightmares," Xander says.
"I don't have nightmares, I am way too tough for that," his son proclaims. Yeah, he doesn't know the boy's name either. He's pretty much failing at the whole fatherhood thing.
"Daddy, can you read us a story then?" his little girl asks.
"Yes, love," he says, going over to the bookshelf in the hope that there is something there he is not going to find objectionable.
Disney princesses. Objection. Talking trucks. Objection. Barbie. Actually, the demon book looks pretty good about now. Ah yes, Shel Silverstein. He can live with that.
-0-
Tara and Willow are sitting on the floor of their living room, facing each other, cross legged, with their hands touching. The magic is flowing through them powerfully, almost painfully powerfully. Willow can feel the power from the ruts of the Earth growing into her veins. Flowing through her, through the woman she loves again and again. It's a feedback loop, and the power gets greater every second.
She thinks about all the things that she can do with the power. Well, she can't actually think of much that she could do with the power, now that she really considers it. What is power for anyway? It's for changing things, but what do you want to change? Everything is perfect.
This power is…a waste.
Willow pulls away from Tara's hands. Tara's eyes open, and she smiles at her. "I want a kitten," Tara declares.
Yes, that's what the magic is for. Making wishes come true, and making the woman you love happy.
A little Latin, and a flick of the wrist, and there is a cat squirming onto Tara's lap.
-0-
"You seam really distracted," Dawn says as Spike pauses in the middle of story. He knows stories that have all kinds of nasty violent bits, the kind of stories that everyone else has forgotten a long time ago. If they ever knew them.
"What would you think if I married your sister, Little bit?" Spike asks.
She grins. "Can I be in the wedding?"
"I don't know, we haven't really discussed it," he says. There is a faint memory for him, as if he had talked about this before. Then there is the unsettling feeling that he doesn't have enough memories. He lived a whole life didn't he? Even more than one? Why doesn't he remember much?
He remembers love, and that's probably all that really matters.
"I want to be a bridesmaid," Dawn declares. "But not in one of those ugly bridesmaid dresses."
"I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have anything to do with the selection of bridesmaid dresses," Spike says.
"What color do you think she is going to have as her theme color?" Dawn gushes.
"I haven't asked her yet, and you can't say anything until I do."
Dawn pouts, "You're going to ask her soon, though right? Really soon? Like now?"
He'll have to, because there is no way Dawn is going to be able to keep this under her hat for long.
-0-
They are fighting monsters. Buffy wasn't aware that there was such a thing as monsters, but clearly there is. She doesn't like the idea of fighting. She hates it, really. She thought she was never going to have to fight again. (She'd fought before? That can't be right). But he likes to fight, and she loves him so much that she would do anything for him. So she's fighting monsters.
His eyes never leave her the whole time they spin, and kick, and jump, and punch. It's like foreplay, only better.
Then the last monster turns to dust, and he pulls her in for a long kiss. When he finally pulls away he says, "Will you marry me?"
She wonders why he hasn't asked her long before, and she says, "Of course."
She is shocked the next second when she is dressed all in lace in the middle of an ancient catacomb with family all around saying vows. Then again, she isn't really shocked. This is always how weddings happened wasn't it? You decided to get married, and the next second you just were.
There is a second before the "I do," where she suddenly worries that she doesn't. Then she looks at his face, that abused puppy dog face, and she is sure that she does.
She loves him. Of course she does.