Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all the Buffy and Angel characters. I own all the characters I create.
Chapter 2 - Positively
"Werewolf, werewolf, werewolf," Dawn kept repeating to herself, looking at Simon, then at Anya for some sort of explanation.
"Um, Dawn, someone might hear you," Simon offered gently, hoping she wouldn't blow his cover. He had heard this town had some strange characters in it, but he didn't quite feel like being listed as one of them.
"Oh, now you're self conscience of being known as a werewolf," Dawn hissed, "I guess that explains why you kept it from me."
"I don't see why you're so upset. I'm still Simon, the guy you were making out with an hour ago. I just have a little hair problem every once in a while, but I mean, I can shave if it's that big of a deal," he joked, drawing a glare from Dawn.
"You also have a fang and wanting to rip people apart problem. I know about werewolves, thank you," she replied as the doctor approached.
"Ms. Heartman will be fine, she just needs to rest. You are lucky you found her when you did and pulled that stray dog off of her," the doctor looked at them suspiciously as he said this. He had never seen a dog bite quite like this.
"Right, stray dogs. Better call the animal shelter and have them on the lookout when we get home," Dawn said, now speaking to Anya.
"Yes, well, you should all go home and try to get some rest. Ms. Heartman will have to stay here for the night," the doctor said, then made his exit, leaving the three alone again.
Taking that as her cue to also make an exit, Dawn stood, hoping Anya would get the hint and follow.
"Dawn, we haven't sorted this out," Simon said, following the females down the hall, and into the main corridor.
"You pretty much hid what you were from me, Simon," Dawn replied, "and I don't like that."
Running ahead of them, out into the night, Simon stood in front of her, "listen, I may have hid what I was, but I was planning on telling you. How hard do you think it is to find an opportunity to do that," he asked.
"I...I don't know, but you could have found one," Dawn replied stubbornly. He was making a good case, she had to admit. It would've been quite hard to just come out and say 'I'm a werewolf' in the middle of their makeout session.
"Bloody hell," Simon cursed, "I don't know what you expect of me, I really was getting to telling you". He sighed, running a hand through his brown, spikey hair. "If you want to know, Dawn Summers, I know everything about you, and so does my aunt. Your sister is the Slayer, Anya here is a demon, you consort with vampires, which may I add also have a fang and wanting to rip people apart problem, and you, you are just beautiful," he added.
"H-how do you know all this," Dawn asked, taking a step out into the moonlight,"how do you know about my sister?"
"How do you know about me," Anya asked, "wait..."
"You know, you have some nerve," Dawn interrupted Anya.
"No, Dawn, I have no nerve. I only have hope. Hope that I can offer some assistance in the battle that's coming. That's why we came here," he said, taking a step towards her.
"Dawn...," Anya tried again.
"What do you mean," Dawn asked.
"There's a battle that's going to rage soon, a war between your sister and something very evil, and very strong. I don't know what it is, but I know I have to be here to help," he offered.
"Dawn! Look at the moon," Anya finally got frustrated enough to shout.
"What about it...," Dawn asked, then realized, it was a full moon, which meant...
Looking at it, too, Simon scoffed, "you two obviously aren't the werewolf aficionados you think you are. Now, can we go somewhere so I can explain this to you, and not all of Sunnydale?"
"So, you're a werewolf," Dawn asked the boy now sitting on her couch, "but you don't change with the full moon?"
"That's right," Simon said, calmly. It was if he was used to answering these questions on a daily basis, which Dawn was sure he was not.
"How," she asked, letting her curiosity get the better of her.
Smiling, Simon leaned back into the couch, patting the spot next to him, "One, I'm not going to bite you, and two, it takes a long time to learn it. You have to meditate for a few hours each day in the beginning, then you learn to just...control the beast inside of you."
"Meditate," Dawn asked.
"You know, sit in solitude for a few hours each day, thinking on how you're more human than beast, and how this thing can't control you. My...my father taught it to me before...he gave me up to my aunt," Simon hesitated as if this was a revelation he had only recently come to.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Simon," Dawn began, but he waved his hand and put on a smile.
"It's fine. I didn't fit into his plans to be a true watcher and have his own slayer to guide," he said, surprising Dawn.
"Your father was a watcher," she asked, forgetting her nervousness over Simon being a werewolf and leaning in to hear his story.
"Yes, as was his father, and his grandfather, and so on. We're one of the oldest watcher families in the whole of England. It creates a lot of pressure," he said, seeing she wanted him to continue, and for the first time actually having the nerve to do so. Something about her made him so comfortable. He couldn't pinpoint what though.
"I was a boy when I was bit. A few days shy of my eleventh birthday. My father had taken me to the park. He took me there quite often to get me out from under my grandfather's nose. He knew how much I enjoyed it. I was playing on the swings. My father had disappeared for a moment, and suddenly there was a growling behind me. I figured it was a dog," he paused, "but I was wrong."
"What happened," Dawn asked, now intent on knowing more about this boy.
"It was a werewolf, a young one," Simon said, taking off his shirt to reveal a large scar between the nape of his neck and his shoulder.
"Oh, Simon," Dawn said reaching forward to touch the wound, "you were just a child."
"Yes," he replied, smiling inside at how close she was to him.
"How did you get away," she asked, noticing the small smile playing at the edge of his lips as she removed her hand from the scar.
"I'm fuzzy on that part. I remember hearing a shot, and seeing the werewolf scramble away, but I don't exactly know where the shot came from," he said, looking off into space as he recalled that fateful night. "The next thing I remember is my father with his head buried in his hands sitting beside my hospital bed. He had told my mother and grandparents that the bite had come from a dog, but we both knew differently."
"Your mother? You haven't mentioned her until now," Dawn asked, curiously.
"Well, that's because there's not much to mention. She and my father became pregnant with me when they were both just eighteen, which you can imagine brings great shame to a watcher family as prominent as mine. However, they married...for a few years, then when I was three she decided she loved someone else and took off, only seeing me on certain weekends. I don't honestly know much about her," he finished.
"So what happened after you were bit? You said your father taught you how to meditate," she wanted to know everything about him.
"Yes, he knew we had limited time until the full moon, and so he took me aside everyday after I returned from school, and we'd sit and he would tell me to think about my memories as a human, tell me to think about the beast inside me in a cage, and so I did. I still changed with the full moon, but by that time I was living with my aunt and uncle. She picked me up from school one day, said we were going for ice cream. I ate the ice cream, but the next thing I remember was being in a small home in the south of Italy. I haven't seen my father since. I suppose he didn't want a werewolf for a son ruining his chances at becoming a true watcher, like I said," Simon finished, this time with a tone that let Dawn know he was finished divulging his past. It was just too much to talk about all at once.
"So, what about your mum and dad," he asked, trying to sound chipper.
Dawn grimaced, realizing so much had happened in the past few years. True her parents hadn't given her up because she was a werewolf, but there was still a lot that had happened to her. She began with her father, and how he had abandoned his family after Buffy had began getting in trouble at school. It was Buffy's fault. She was the slayer, and what's more is that their father had been wanting to leave for years. He just hadn't had an opportune time until that point. Then, she went on to describe her stint as the Key, her mother's illness, and how Buffy had found their mother dead the previous year. It was all too much she found. She had cried about it before but something about him made her feel safe to cry now. As she did, he wrapped his arms around her, trying to let her know she was safe.
After, she had calmed down, she leaned on his chest, his right hand playing with her hair, his left arm wrapped around her. It was the first time she had ever felt this kind of comfort from someone.
"Dawn," he said her name softly to check and see if she was still awake. Sunrise would be coming soon, and he knew her sister would be home with it. His aunt didn't think too much if he spent the night out. She just supposed he was hunting in the woods, or had transformed and fell asleep somewhere else.
"Yeah," she answered sleepily.
"I think I have to go soon," he replied, trying to edge his way out from under her.
"Please don't," she begged sleepily.
"If I don't I feel like your sister might kill me," he replied, placing a hand on her head, and leaning down, "but I will see you soon, later today in fact."
Smiling she leaned in for the kiss he gave her, and watched as he exited through the front door. This surely meant they were boyfriend and girlfriend, she thought to herself. Positively.
Author's note: How is Buffy going to take her little sister dating a werewolf? And what about that pesky First? Everything answered in the next chapters.