Dawn was doing her best not to fall asleep during the day, so far she hadn't portaled while sleeping at night, just when she'd fallen asleep during the day. Problem was she was becoming paranoid about sleeping because she was afraid she'd also portal while sleeping at night. Since no one knew exactly what had triggered it, just napping or a dream state or something else, no one could assure her that it wouldn't happen. Xander's theory was that being tired and low on energy triggered it, but that was only a theory and no real way to test it. Joyce's theory was that the fluctuating emotional state of being a preteen starting puberty might be contributing to it. But being afraid to sleep was compounding the issue of tiredness and her emotional state anyway and not helping with her temper. And Buffy's backseat mothering was only adding to the list of annoyances Dawn was dealing with.

Hence the current argument.

"I saw you talking to that boy, Dawn, he's way too old for you!" Buffy stormed after her sister, who was charging into the house and tried to slam the door in Buffy's face. Fast reflexes saved her from a bloody nose. "He's at least five years older then you!"

"And that's all we were doing, Buffy, talking! His sister is on my field hockey team, he complimented me on a goal I made at last week's game. What's the big deal?" Dawn demanded.

"He was flirting with you and you flirted back!"

"So what?! I can't practice flirting with a cute guy? I'm not a little kid anymore, Buffy and you have a lot of nerve to criticize the fact that the guy I was flirting with is what, four or five years older then me when you dated a guy who was more then 200 years older then you! Oh, and dead at the time! At least Brad has a pulse and won't catch fire in the sunlight!"

"You could practice flirting with Xander or Johnathan or Oz - no, not Oz, he barely talks, let alone flirts." Buffy ignored the reference to Angel, someone she hadn't seen or heard from in nearly a year. "Although neither Xander nor Johnathan really flirt and that would be kinda gross since they both treat you like a little sister."

Dawn looked grossed out at the idea of flirting with any of the male Scoobies, even Xander who she'd once had a crush on, because yes, they did treat her like a little sister and that made the idea of flirting nausea inducing. "Do you have to gross me out?" She headed for the kitchen where Joyce silently handed her a snack, before turning to Buffy, who had pulled off her hair tie and tossed it on the counter.

"Buffy, take a breath and calm down." Joyce handed Buffy her own snack, Slayer metabolism was worse than a teenager's and both sisters paused to take a bite before resuming their argument.

"All, I'm saying is, he's too old for you, so you shouldn't be flirting with him."

"Grrr." Dawn glared her. "Mom can tell me that, not you. You're the Buffy shaped annoyance, she's the Mom, stop telling me what to do!"

"I'm just worried about you, Dawn, that's all! A guy like that -."

"If you've got a problem with him flirting with me, take it up with him! I'm sick of this argument, get out of my face!" Dawn flung her hand toward Buffy and the air rippled around her and she just disappeared.

"Dawn! What did you do?!"

"I didn't mean to, it just happened. I've never sent someone else through a portal before! Except for those demons, I mean."

"I'll call Xander. Hopefully he'll be able to see the portal with the Eye and reopen it with his ring. Calm down, Dawn, this was an accident and I'm not mad at you, okay? So, just calm down." Joyce stepped over to her purse and pulled out the communicator Xander had given her and explained the situation once he picked up. A couple minutes later and he entered the house through the backdoor, having teleported into the back yard.

"Cordy's on her way." He told the two Summers women. "I called her after I got off the communicator with you, once she's here we'll go after Buffy." He activated the Eye, checking for the portal and found it. "She can take care of herself." He reminded them. "Unfortunately tracking her might not be so easy, unlike Dawn she doesn't have a Chime and I doubt she had her staff with her. Mrs. S, I'm going to need something of hers to use for a locator spell once we're on the other side."

"She just came from school, so no, she didn't have her staff with her." Joyce responded, trying to keep calm herself. "That hair tie on the counter, she took it off just before Dawn accidentally made the portal."

"That should work." Xander picked up the hair tie and tucked it into his pocket. Cordelia arrived not long after and Xander reactivated Dawn's portal and the two of them stepped through, hopeful of finding Buffy quickly.

Joyce called the rest of the Scoobies, just in case Xander and Cordelia ran into trouble and needed backup, while Dawn anxiously prayed that Buffy was alright and that Xander and Cordelia would find her fast, hopefully before she got hurt, because Dawn wasn't sure she could handle knowing her sister had been hurt because of her.