Tash paced Sanna's room impatiently. She'd tried connecting to her sister's locket but Sanna hadn't responded. It was probably because she was busy but this was freaking serious! She growled as the skirt she was wearing to dinner twisted uncomfortably and she pulled it aggressively back into place. This was not going the way she wanted. She was supposed to come and remind her father how wonderful her mother was and oh wow, wouldn't he just love to track her down and sweep her off her feet? Then they can live happily ever after with both their daughters. That was as far as Tash's plans went because she so did not want to think about her parents doing the naughty. Yeesh.
Her pacing slowed and she sat on her bed with a sigh. No matter how much trouble her father was causing by re-acquainting himself with Veronica, she didn't want to cause animosity between him and Sanna when they eventually swapped back. If they swapped back. Tash ran a hand through her hair, ignoring the ten minutes she'd spent trying to get her fringe to sit right. Their plan was so defective. She laughed softly. They'd have to have a plan for it to be defective. This wasn't a plan, it was a whim. A stupid whim that was going to get them both in trouble.
It was a good thing that she liked trouble.
There was a knock at her door and Tash sat up, plastered a fake smile on her face and called, "Come in."
A blonde head popped through and Tash smiled genuinely at Victoire. "Hey V."
"Sanna," the younger girl said, entering and closing the door behind her. "I just wanted to see how you were. You didn't look happy before."
Tash smiled wryly at her. "That's one way of putting it. Come on over here and fill me in on what I've missed, apart from our dads getting pissed." Tash patted the bed next to her and thanked Spike for filling her head with British slang.
"There's not really much to fill you in on. Dom's being a little prick as usual. Let's see... I'm not sure if this is exactly worth telling you but Katie and Luna have been having talks."
Tash perked up. "Really? What about?"
"Apparently Hayden's been bullying Adele." Tash mentally searched through the extended family Sanna had been telling her about. She remembered Adele as Blaise and Luna's only child, so Hayden must have been one of Marcus and Katie Flint's.
"Bullying? As in pigtail pulling and pushing into the mud?"
Victoire nodded and was confused by Tash's grin. "Sanna, it's nothing to smile about."
"Are you kidding? It's adorable." At Victoire's blank look, she rolled her eyes. "He likes her, V."
"No." Pause. "Really?"
"Really."
Victoire looked doubtful but seemed to take Tash's word on it. "Well, what about you? How was camp? Your description before seemed a bit vague. Something you don't want getting back to Charlie?"
Oh, how right she was. "Not really." Lie. "It's all just a bunch of 'you had to be there' moments." Truth. "Though I did wage war with another girl from across the pond." Truth
Victoire laughed. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Maybe because you know me?" Tash felt horrible. She was genuinely having a good time and she was lying to her cousin. Her cousin. The first one she'd ever met. The first one she'd ever had. She was so tempted to tell her right then and there but she couldn't. She'd blow the whole thing out of the water. "Hey V?"
"Yes, Sanna?"
"I'm glad I'm back." Half-truth. She was back, after fifteen years.
"Me too." Victoire stretched and Tash envied her. Her cousin was all grace and poise. Tash had inherited her mother's lankiness and was more likely to knock something over than anything else. "I'll leave you to finish getting ready. Charlie's probably getting anxious. I think he wants to impress this Veronica woman."
"Probably." Tash's face clouded over and it didn't escape Victoire's attention.
"Don't get into too much mischief, cousin."
"I can't promise anything, cousin."
Victoire shook her head and left, and not a minute too soon. Tash's locket began to glow and she floundered for the catch. Sanna's holographic image shone out.
"Sanna! Where have you been?"
"Mum took me out to dinner. I couldn't very well answer the locket in front of her, could I?" Sanna noticed the anxious look on her sister's face. "Tash? What's wrong?"
"I thought you said she was gone," Tash hissed, getting straight to the point.
"What?" Sanna looked baffled. "Calm down. What happened?"
"Dad's taking me out to dinner tonight with Veronica!"
Sanna paled and Tash felt bad for being so grumpy but Charlie was messing up their plans.
"Veronica Veronica? Veronica Aubrey?"
"That's the one. What do we do?"
Sanna chewed her lip. "I don't know. I really thought he was over her. She was a bit of a hussy," Sanna admitted.
"Why did they break up in the first place?"
"He didn't really say at the time. He just cited some 'irreconcilable differences' rubbish."
Tash huffed. "Well, watch out Veronica Aubrey."
"Oh no, Tash. Don't do anything too rash." Funny how Victoire and Sanna both said the same thing.
"Oh please, sistermine. This will be a breeze. A total walk in the park. How's the old homestead?"
"Glad to have you back, it seems. I'm in hiding in your room at the moment. I haven't managed to meet anyone else except Mum and Mick."
"Remember, it's pronounced Mom, and Mick wasn't too rough, was he? We tend to tickle."
"No sign of tickling so far," Sanna said, thinking back to that first hug.
"All right," Tash replied suspiciously. There was a funny look on her sister's holographic face. She didn't know what it was yet but she was going to find out.
"How's the Burrow?"
"Pretty darn awesome. Grandma Molly is amazing. I met V too."
"V?"
"Victoire."
Sanna laughed. "Trust you to give her a nickname."
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed the whole nickname thing. Name one person in LA who doesn't have a nickname."
"Well, I haven't met too many of them yet so I'll get back to you on that."
"How's Mom?"
Sanna smiled happily. "She's amazing. Funny. Pretty, too. How's Dad?"
"I definitely wasn't expecting him. Did you know he went out and got drunk with Bill, Harry and Ron?"
"He didn't." An exasperated look came over Sanna's face.
"Oh, yes he did. Watching Grandma Molly tell him off was pretty funny. You got some good family over here."
"We have some good family, I agree. Promise you'll look out for them?"
"Only if you do the same."
"Deal. See you soon, Tash."
"Back atcha, San."
Tash closed her locket and felt better for having talked to Sanna.
* * *
Sanna closed her locket with a perturbed look on her face. Their first day of swapping and things were already going wrong, though to be fair the debacle with Charlie would have happened regardless. Sanna scowled at her father's bad timing. He couldn't have waited until Tash and she had fixed his love problem with Dawn?
Her door opened and Mick strolled in, lounging onto Sanna's bed next to her. Merlin darn it, she still wasn't used to so much physical contact. She knew from her experience with Tash that "Scoobies are all about the contact" but that didn't make it any easier.
"So, you up to a bit of patrolling?"
Sanna blinked at him and smiled unsurely. "I don't know. I'm kinda tired. Plane trip and all."
Mick shrugged. "Tomorrow night?"
"Sure. Sounds good." Sanna flashed a smile, hoping it was more confident than the last.
He nodded but didn't move except to sit up. Sanna stared expectantly at him and he just stared back. She lost her nerve and looked away, blushing. This was wrong, very wrong. He was Tash's best friend and Sanna was feeling a little more than just friendship at the moment. She could honestly say that he was one of the most attractive people she'd ever met and she knew Fleur and Gabrielle Delacour. He stood up, in front of her. She glanced up at him and got caught in his gaze again.
"D-did you want anything else?"
"You feeling all right, T?"
"Fine. Like I told you, I'm tired."
He held her eyes for a moment longer before turning and leaving. Sanna groaned when her door closed. If that didn't make it obvious that she wasn't Tash, nothing would... until she went patrolling tomorrow night.
Her door burst open again, but it wasn't Mick this time. It was someone she recognised from the photos as Connor, her mother's best friend. He froze and he sniffed. Her eyes widened and her mouth formed an 'O' as she realised something they hadn't thought of. Around the same time Connor realised that she was not Tash.
She yelped as he pounced and pinned her against the bed. For what felt like the hundredth time today, Sanna felt out of her league. What had they been thinking?
"Who are you?" He growled.
Sanna swallowed loudly and laughed nervously. "Hi. Nice to meet you. I'm Susanna."
Connor blinked and just as quickly as he'd pounced, he was off her, standing in between her and the door. She wasn't sure whether it was instinct or on purpose. "Sanna?"
"I take it you've heard of me?"
"I drove Giles to the airport to pick your mom."
"When she came back with just Tash."
Connor nodded and studied her. Sanna wasn't sure what he was looking for but he seemed to find it because he relaxed. "Summer camp?"
Sanna nodded.
"She show you the photo?"
"She took it just before she went to the airport so you wouldn't be able to take it off her again."
Connor snorted. "Sounds like Tash."
"You believe me?"
"You smell like her, but different."
"Well, we are twins. Is it all right if I tell you that the smelling thing is kind of disconcerting?"
He shrugged again. "Don't forget, you're going to have to deal with Angel as well."
"We didn't think of that."
"Obviously. You're lucky Spike's on a mission. So what's the deal?"
"Deal?"
"Why did you swap?"
"I wanted to meet Mum. She wanted to meet Dad. It seemed logical at the time."
"You really are Dawn's kids, aren't you?"
"I'd like to think so." There was a pause before Sanna asked uncertainly, "You're not going to tell her, are you?"
Connor looked at her and for a moment, Sanna thought the whole thing was up before he shook his head. "Just as long as when you see your dad again, you hit him for me. I've been waiting for fifteen years."
"I know you're biased and all, but it hurt Dad just as much."
"I know. Doesn't make up for it, though."
Sanna wasn't too sure but Connor was her mother's best friend and was therefore inclined to hate any guy that caused her pain.
"I was going to take you out patrolling as a welcome back but I don't think I want to put you anywhere near a vampire," he said critically.
"I can take care of myself just fine, thank you. I'm..." She was going to say she was the best in her Charms class but that didn't really matter. Class is nothing like being out there and experiencing it for herself. It was idiotic just to think it, even for a moment.
"Sleep tonight. I might think about it tomorrow."
"Connor," she said as he turned to leave. "Don't let my mum get hurt. I'm growing attached to her."
"Don't say that with Tash's voice. It's Mom. And I never do."
* * *
Tash had never been to a dinner that had been so awkward. Not even when Riley and Sam Finn showed up and Willow invited them to stay the night. She'd never seen Aunt Buffy so uncoordinated. That, however, had nothing on what Tash was doing to Veronica. As far as she could tell, the woman wasn't that bad, outside a few fatal personality flaws, but she'd chosen the wrong man to make the moves on.
It didn't help that they were being sickeningly cute. Literally. One more hand-fed mouthful and Tash was going to barf up her chicken parmagiana all over the table.
"So Sanna," Veronica turned her sickly sweet smile to her side of the table. "I heard you've been away on summer camp. How was it?"
"Pretty good, actually. I spent most of my time warring with another girl."
"Sanna," Charlie warned. Tash ignored him.
"The trick to it is waiting until they don't expect anything. It's actually pretty funny how worked up some people can get by a little pranking."
"Sanna, you told me you wouldn't get into trouble."
"And did you know that an amazing amount of people are scared of a little spider? I swear, it can cause grown men to squeal like little girls."
Veronica's smile was less sweet and a little queasy. Spider fear, check.
"So Veronica, have any kids of your own?" Tash asked innocently.
"Merlin, no, I don't deal well with children."
The table was silent as Veronica realised her slip-up and Tash grinned nastily. Charlie quickly took control of the conversation and steered it towards safer ground. Tash let him. She soon found out that Veronica worked at St Mungo's as a receptionist. High achiever, this one. They spent most of their time talking about Charlie and his dragons. He offered to take her to the reservation for a sneak peek but it looked like poor Veronica was as fond as dragons as she was of spiders. Tash almost felt like she hardly needed to do any work to show her father what a waste of time this woman really was.
Sadly, Charlie seemed to have a weakness for a pretty face. Tash just couldn't see how he could even contemplate someone as shallow as Veronica when he had Dawn to compare her to. Intelligent, funny, independent Dawn.
The rest of the dinner went by rather uneventfully, Tash throwing in a few quips around dessert that left Veronica flustered and caused Charlie to save the day more than once. Tash would have laughed at the stern looks she was getting from her father if it hadn't meant that he obviously wasn't finding this as funny as she was.
It was made obvious to Tash just how annoyed Charlie was with her when he made her use the fireplace in the backroom to Floo home, so he could Side-Apparate Veronica home. Probably to apologise for his bratty daughter. Tash landed in the Burrow's living room with a grumpy look on her face. Arthur was sitting there reading the Quibbler when she arrived. "Sanna?"
Tash was annoyed that her grumpiness with Charlie was going to ruin the first time she was meeting her grandfather. "Hi Grandpa." She hugged him and smiled despite herself when he kissed the top of her forehead kindly.
"What's got you in such a mood?"
"Nothing. Dad's just being silly."
Arthur chuckled. "Sometimes you have to let him make a few mistakes."
"What if they ruin everything?"
"You pick it back up and start rebuilding."
"But what if it's impossible to make the building you wanted? What if you make some horrible modern monstrosity instead of a nice beach house?"
"Sanna, what's wrong?"
"Don't worry about it. You'll find out eventually."
"Just make sure you don't do anything rash."
"Why is everyone saying that to me recently?"
Arthur chuckled again and squeezed her hand. "Welcome home, love."
"Thanks Grandpa." Tash blinked away tears and went to her room, confounded at how her mother could have left this amazing family.