TITLE: 'The Nature of the Beast' Part 4/10 AUTHOR: Cherry RATING: PG-13 PAIRING: B/F SUMMARY: Sunday with Dawn ARCHIVE: http://www.thekeep.org/~cherry/ SPOILERS: S6 'Wrecked' FEEDBACK: Yes, please. PREVIOUSLY: Anya, restored to human, turns the Magic Box into a micro petting zoo, maximizing her profits. The slayers continue to spend time with each other. DISTRIBUTION: Wicked & Divine ** From Part Three ** The two slipped out silently into the forest, headed for a large nest they had scented last night. Part of the way there, Faith spotted a doe drinking from a stream. A moment's glance to agree on a plan, and Buffy hunkered down to wait for Faith to circle around and chase the deer to her. The deer never had a chance against the two cats, who feasted, cleaned each other, and headed to the next hunt. ** End Part Three ** Dawn dashed up the few steps to the door, digging in her pocket for the key. Trust Anya to have had a spare made and a copy kept at the magic shop. She paused, noticing and then staring at the two large cats on her porch. It was a bit disorienting seeing them from a normal perspective again. It was a bit disturbing to realize that it hadn't just been the size difference that made them seem so large, they really were quite big. She didn't have very many memories of Faith, mostly just from the Christmas that Buffy had run off to save Angel. She couldn't recall where she was when Faith had broken into the house to swap bodies with Buffy. It was painful to realize over and over that you hadn't been real. Which meant it was the perfect time to make new memories. ***** Faith had woken up with the first tap of feet on the steps, but hadn't bothered to rouse herself. It was early, her belly was full, and it was simply too comfortable laying half against Buffy's warm flank. She simply flicked open one eye, checked that it was Dawn, and then went back to napping. It couldn't have been more than two minutes later that the door opened again. After a short pause, she heard a soft click that sounded familiar. Some footsteps, then another click. More footsteps getting closer, then her head snapped up just in time to look right into the camera as Dawn took another picture. Momentarily blinded, she yelped, startling Buffy who leaped up and collided with Dawn, knocking both of them down, and dropped Faith's head to thud into the porch in the process. Trying to rub her head with a paw, she was surprised when Dawn suddenly started laughing, probably at the three of them tangled up together. Buffy seemed rather confused by it all, and started cleaning herself; ignoring Dawn, who was already making fun of her clumsy awakening. ***** "Buffy, come on. Get out of the way. Look, my arm is fine again." After playfully chasing Dawn back into the house, Buffy had blocked her from leaving again. Faith stretched out on the floor and sighed again. Dawn had been arguing with the stony faced cat for ten minutes, and neither seemed ready to give in yet. She'd already started to repeat herself. "It's sunny out, no vamps around." Dawn paused to try a new angle. "Besides, it's not like you could go with me." There was a silent pause, during which Buffy simply got to her feet, and walked to the door, waiting for Dawn to join her. "You can't be serious." Dawn looked to Faith for support, but her only response was a shrug. Buffy turned her head to look at Dawn, saying as clearly her expression could, and despite her new look, her expression was as easy to read as ever, that the only way Dawn was leaving was if Buffy came along too. Faith slipped over to the table, and caught the strap of the camera in her mouth, carrying it back to Dawn. Whatever it was that made B so friendly was unlikely to last once she was changed back, so pictures might be the only thing she'd have to remember this week. Dawn had a decidedly evil smirk on her face when she accepted the camera though... It was only the fact that it was directed at Buffy that kept her from turning tail. ***** The walk down Sunnydale's main street had been amusing, and Faith was beginning to suspect that Buffy's motivation was simply to have fun. Which she could whole-heartedly support. But Dawn's destination wasn't the Magic Box, which surprised Faith slightly. Instead, she found herself following the distracting gold tail into a store that stunk of animals cramped in too closely together. "You guys stay here, I'll be right back." Dawn tried to casually walk away from the immediately suspicious felines, who shared a quick glance at one another, then moved to follow silently. Staying one corner behind, they heard Dawn find an employee. "Hi! Where can I find collars?" The response from the as yet unseen male clerk was a bit insulting. "Flea collars, choke collars, or plain?" Lucky for Dawn, her quick response was to ask for the regular kind. This produced one more shared glance. The selection was fairly simple. She picked up two of the largest available, two other items, and headed up to pay for them. A quick visual check to make sure the catty slayers hadn't sneaked off, and then Dawn did her part to contribute to the capitalist economy. "Oh, no bag. I'll use them right now." Dawn ignored the leering look that got her, and scooped up the leather items from the counter. She continued to ignore him when he spluttered and made panicked protests about animals in the store, having noticed Buffy and Faith for the first time. "See, I even got leather, since I know you both like it." Buffy accepted the collar stoically, but began to growl when Dawn brandished the matching leash. Faith noticed the poor kid behind the counter was turning white as the sisters glared at each other. His eyes bugged out when Buffy cut off her snarling suddenly. Faith looked back just in time to see Buffy looking to the side, giving in to the leash. While she certainly couldn't say that being on a leash sat well with her either, Faith made no protest when it was her turn. Having him take pictures of the three of them was really going too far, but it was quite satisfying to see his face when Dawn asked them to smile for the camera, nearly making up being in the picture. ***** The small shop bell chimed as it swung open. Not unexpectedly, Anya and her monkey were the only occupants. Xander, who had perched on her shoulder took one look at the cats on leashes, and fell backwards as he laughed, grabbing onto Anya's blouse to keep from landing on the floor. He poked his chin under her arm, still laughing as he clung on. Buffy and Faith looked quite ready to have a monkey appetizer until Dawn stepped in as an equalizer. "Anya... you've got a monkey on your back." She unclipped the leashes, adding, "I'm sure my little kitties would be happy to take care of that for you." She dropped the leashes and her bookbag on the research table, and casually picked up the nearest book, flipping it open. Luckily, no one was close enough to see that it was upside-down. "What an excellent idea!" Anya completely failed to notice the four shocked looks. "Now they look like pets instead of wild animals. Which is good, because there's a zoo really close by." She looked around, finding confused faces. "The collars." "Oh! That, and it was really fun. Where's everyone else?" "Tara got this strange idea about practicing magic. Something about being skyclad, but I think Wesley's sign language is rusty. Anyhow, Amy & Willow are with her in the back room." Dawn rubbed her healed arm unconsciously. "I thought Willow gave up magic. Wasn't that the whole point of Tara moving out? Or did they make up? 'Cause you know, it was kinda weird when I was a ferret. Like human stuff wasn't as important." Anya shuddered as she repressed her brief experience, and focused her attention on the cats instead, cleverly changing the subject. "Wesley bought fresh meat for the two of you. It was very expensive, so I won't mind if you're not hungry yet. No eating Xander, though." The only response her offer got was an ear flick from the curled up pair. Fresh was a relative thing, and food always tasted better when you made it yourself. Or better yet, hunted it yourself. ***** Homework just wasn't as much fun by yourself, so after a quick negotiation with Anya, Dawn got permission to call her friends to study at the shop. Pointing that the table was used for research all the time didn't fly, but pointing out that if it became a cool teen hangout there might be more be more sales because teens follow trends was enough to convince Anya. It was the discussion on dissecting a cat that really caught Buffy's attention. She rolled to her feet, and poked her head around the corner into the table alcove. Dawn was sitting just to her left, and so was the only one who didn't notice her at first. She didn't even notice when the entire table went dead silent. "I'm so glad I'm not in that class. The frog is bad enough. Was it like a cat from a shelter that was put to sleep?" Dawn looked up from her book. "Sharon?" She looked at the others at the table, and then followed the fixed gazes to her right, where Buffy was standing. "Oh, hey you." Dawn reached out and scratched behind Buffy's ear without really thinking about it. "Bored?" Buffy's eyes closed as her head dropped into Dawn's lap, rumbling in an extra-large sized version of a purring sound. This lasted for all of a minute before there was a high-pitched shriek from one of the girls as Faith appeared, investigating her suddenly missing partner. Sharon, who was sitting on the far side of the table, liked cats. She'd found out about the honors biology class dissection project, and had shared her discovery out of a sense of outrage that anyone would do that to a cat. It was an interesting coincidence that when the slightly jealous jaguar suddenly decided she wanted attention too, it was her lap that the black furred feline went to. She was thus the first to make the connection between the leash ends hanging out of Dawn's bag and the matching collar that her hand bumped into. "You have a panther as a pet??" ***** Faith was lastingly grateful that none of the girls had had pink ribbons to tie on her collar. She liked Dawn, really. And helping to improve her popularity was well and good, but no cutesy ribbons. Dawn still had the damn camera, after all. Her own fault, really. She'd thought that Dawn would have fun taking pictures of Buffy, and hadn't realized she'd be in them all too. Wesley had showed up close to sundown, making sure that Anya would be there the next morning with Xander. He'd actually smiled at the feline pair, commenting that the council had always wanted them on a tight leash, and would be fascinated to learn that all they'd needed was the right Key. Somehow, they were able to forbear the humor to go on patrol. More accurately, it was a quickly plotted escape. They roamed through the usual in-city haunts, sniffing at the openings to abandoned buildings, of which Sunnydale had more than was usual for its size. Only one was inhabited, which was quickly corrected. Faith took great pride in taking out more than Buffy did. The usual next stop would have been the Bronze, but after prowling the alleys around it for a time, they gave up and headed to the first of many cemeteries. Buffy took the lead, heading directly to, and without pausing, into a crypt. Faith slipped past the heavy stone door that was bouncing back to slam closed just in time to hear a voice with a British accent react to the intrusion. "I can see the new shape hasn't changed your manners, pet." Spike grounded his cigarette out on the arm of the chair he was sitting in. "It'll make it harder to punch me in the nose, at least." Buffy simply stared at him and waited. Spike nonchalantly looked back at her, and took his time getting up and picking up his duster from the floor. "I imagine you're wanting me to attend your royal highness, and go somewhere." He lit up again when she nodded. "I don't suppose there'll be any demons to kill?" A second nod, and a smirk crossed his face. "Right, off we go then." The unusual trio were unusually effective fighting together. Spike was somewhat disappointed when the competition ran out of targets early in the night. Still, he followed along behind when Buffy led them into the woods. He shared in the feasting when they found dinner; cold pig's blood was the poof's thing. It was when the slayers followed Spike back to his crypt and curled up on the floor next to his bed that he remembered this was the same Buffy who had wrecked the house with him. He mumbled to himself as he fell asleep, "Like the new you, luv. Hope you keep that attitude when you change back." -- End Part Four $Revision: 1.11 $ $Date: 2002/06/14 07:16:46 $