CHAPTER 9: Hot Chocolate and Monkey Brains

Dawn rolled over and stared at her alarm clock. Stupid blinking colon. Is it a colon? She squinted her eyes, glaring at the clock. Probably not. Probably some stupid special name 'cause it's used to tell time. Stupid blinking time-colon.

She sighed and flopped onto her back, her arms going wide. Shadows on her ceiling. Everything was quiet. She listened hard, heard chirping crickets and the scritching sound of a branch against her window. She closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and she could hear the faint timbre of Willow and Tara's voices. They sounded worried.

Dawn took a deep breath through her nose, smelled the faint scent of lavender and rose. She sniffed again, realized it was pretty strong. She turned her head, pushed her face into her pillow. It reeked of the flowery sweet scents.

What the hell... I told them not to use that scented stuff on my pillows -

All thoughts stopped when she sat up, lifted her pillow to throw it off her bed and saw the small bouquet laying there.

"What...?" Dawn carefully picked up the dried flowers and smelled them. There were more flowers than she could identify. She sniffed. Sniffed again. She winced and seized as a sneeze errupted.

Dried petals and twigs rustled, some breaking loose and scattering on her bed.

"Dammbit." When she sniffed again, it was to keep her nose from running like a toddler's. She chucked the flowers on her bed, reached for tissues and blew her nose. Then she scooped the remainder of the bouquet together and bunched it up in her blanket. She marched it to her window and shook it out, then waddled down the stairs with the arm-load.

She sneezed again as she rounded the corner, and almost jumped out of her skin when Buffy said, "Bless you."

"GAH-BUFFY-DON'T-SNEAK-UP-ON-ME-LIKE-THAT!" She blushed when Buffy shushed her and glared. "Sorry. You scared me."

"What's with the nose-works?" Buffy asked, taking the blanket from her and delivering it to the laundry room.

"There were flowers on my bed."

"What? Why?"

"I think it was prob'ly Willow or Tara. They used lavender and it made my siduses go all wonky."

Buffy nodded, headed to the fridge. "Want hot chocolate?"

"Yeah." Dawn blew her nose again, the honking sound louder and more obnoxious than she'd intended. Buffy grinned over her shoulder but said nothing of the noise.

"Marshmallows?"

"Ugh, no thanks."

"Weirdo."

Dawn rolled her eyes and sat at the counter. "You're the one who told me they were monkey brains. I can't help it if I won't eat another marshmallow as long as I live. Totally your fault."

Buffy shrugged and set a cup of milk to boil on the stove. Dawn yawned and looked down at the counter, the events of the night coming back to her slowly. Her eyes darted between Buffy and her own hands. The small scar on her wrist where she cut herself the previous year was barely visible.

"I don't know why we're freaking out about this," Buffy said, her voice low. Dawn looked up, saw Buffy staring down at the pot. "Since Mom died I've done the best I could for you."

"I know," said Dawn.

"I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

"I know."

Buffy turned towards Dawn, eyes sad and scared. "I don't want things to get weird with us, Dawnie. I need to know -"

Dawn's eyes grew wide and she closed her eyes tight, rubbing them with the palms of her hands. She opened them and blinked a few times.

"What's wrong?"

"Your face!"

Buffy gave her a small glare. "Really mature, Dawn."

"N-no, your face... There are… Buffy there are scars!"

***

A/N: Dun dun DUNN! . Okay, so I'm sorry it took so long to update. I'm working two jobs, running a shadow cast and a web radio show... oh and I'm moving and trying to clean up family dramaz. Please excuse the tardiness, but know I love you guys and will continue to update as often as possible.

Next Chapter: "Wicked Wiccan" (tentatively titled)