Early One Morning (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Title: Early One Morning
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Prompt: Morning
Medium: Fanfiction
Size/length: 1091
Summary: Dawn doesn’t care anymore, Tara’s got things covered.
Rating: G
Pairing: Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya
Content Notes: Canon character deaths discussed.
AO3
For the first week Dawn didn’t care. People brought food over to the house and sometimes Giles or Anya or Willow would make her eat. Xander pushed her into the bathroom once and ordered her not to come out until she’d taken a shower. She didn’t go to school, she didn’t get dressed and unless someone made her, Dawn stayed in bed.
“Morning, time to get up.” Xander knocked on the door of her bedroom.
“No thanks.” Dawn called back. She hadn’t gotten much sleep, she kept dreaming about things and she looked down and then she woke up.
The door opened and Xander came in. He looked awful, two days of beard growth and she was pretty sure he was wearing the same clothes he’d had on yesterday.
“C’mon Dawnie, it’s breakfast time.”
“Not hungry.” Dawn pulled the blankets tighter and resolved to ignore him.
The bed sunk down when he sat on the edge and she jumped when he put his hand on her shoulder. “We need to talk to you, everyone’s here. Just, come down. Please?”
Dawn shrugged and his hand moved with her shoulder.
“We’ll be waiting.” Xander squeezed her shoulder and the mattress popped back up when he stood.
She waited until he closed the door to roll out of bed. Her pyjama top was damp with fear sweat and stiff where it had dried. It took her a minute to wriggle out of it and another to fish something comfortable and not too gross out of her dirty laundry. She couldn’t open the closet, there were too many things inside it, things that she didn’t want to see.
It smelled good, like pancakes. Dawn walked quietly into the kitchen, it was already full. Xander and Anya, Willow and Tara, Giles and a woman she didn’t know. She stood there in the entrance waiting for someone to say something.
“I made pancakes.” Tara said, she was sitting close to Willow and Dawn was pretty sure they were holding hands under the table.
Dawn nodded. “I’m not hungry.” She sat down in the empty chair and Xander poured her a glass of orange juice. “Or thirsty.” She added, but she picked up the glass, it was just so her hands had something to do.
“Dawn,” Giles started, glancing at the woman sitting next to him, “we need to make a plan.”
She shrugged and fixed her eyes on the way the pulp stuck to the inside of the glass as she swished the juice around.
“You have to go back to school and you need to find somewhere to stay.”
“I’m staying here.” Dawn put the glass down and crossed her arms. “I’m not leaving.” She looked at the Scoobies, Buffy’s friends, all of them were staring at her.
Willow and Tara exchanged a long look and Willow tried to smile at her but it was weak and sad. “That’s what we thought. Actually Tara and I. . .”
“We’re almost done school.” Tara continued. “We’ll stay here with you. It’s not too far to commute for a couple of weeks. And we’ll be here all summer.”
Giles looked at the woman and Dawn followed his gaze. She didn’t look like his usual type, not weird enough to be from the magical side of things, not stuffy enough to be one of his intellectual booty calls.
“Will that be sufficient?” He asked.
She nodded and produced a folder of papers from somewhere. “The Council will take care of the rest. If I can just get your signature?” She handed a paper to Willow and Tara.
Dawn had to sign a couple of papers too. She didn’t really read them, Willow and Tara were here now. There was going to be a moving truck and they’d be in Mom’s room. Dawn had to bite the inside of her cheek when she thought about Mom. It wasn’t fair, first Mom and now Buffy and both of them were her fault.
“Thank you.” Giles said once all the papers were collected. He was forcing a smile and it looked painful.
“You’ll be hearing from us.” The woman told him before looking at Dawn. “You have to go back to school by the end of the week. Don’t make this any harder for us.” She frowned at Giles, “It’s going to be difficult enough.”
Giles went with her, showing her out of the house.
“Was she?”
“Watcher’s Council.” Anya opened her mouth for the first time that morning. “Can I have your pancakes?”
Dawn shrugged. “I’m not hungry.”
Tara pushed the plate of funny shaped chocolate pancakes over to the ex-demon. “Is there anything you want? Cereal, eggs, toast, bacon. . .” She gestured around the kitchen. “We’re going shopping today.”
“I don’t want anything.” Dawn gave in and took a swallow of the orange juice. It tasted wrong.
Willow sighed and leaned her head on Tara’s shoulder. “You want to come with us to the school? We’ve got to get packed up.”
“I’m going back to bed.” Dawn announced, but she took the juice with her. She didn’t look back as she walked to her room, but she could hear someone behind her. She didn’t close the door to her bedroom.
“It’ll get better.” Tara’s voice was soft and the mattress didn’t shift as much for her as it had for Xander. She rubbed her hand up and down Dawn’s back. “I know it doesn’t feel like it will, but it will, eventually.”
Dawn turned over and let Tara pull her into her arms. She didn’t cry, she was done crying, there were no more tears left. She sagged in Tara’s embrace and let the blond console her.
“You can stay here all day.” Tara whispered in her ear. “We’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want.”
Dawn nodded into her shirt. “What about tomorrow?”
“Things will look different in the morning.” Tara promised her. “I’ll make you some more pancakes. We’ll go out, not to school, maybe a park. How does that sound?”
“Terrible.” Dawn admitted as Tara transferred her back to the bed and pulled the blankets up.
“Just sleep for now.” Tara smiled at her, gentle fingers stroking down her cheek. “It’ll be different in the morning.”
Dawn’s eyes slowly drifted closed as Tara’s fingers rested on her head, a soft whisper of it’ll be better in the morning floated through her head before she sunk into a blissful sleep.