[fic] Noona-Verse: Origins (5)
title: In which Dawn is invited to dinner, Xander steals Buffy's phone, everyone is scolded, and she loses her shoes
fandom: Buffy, Infinite, Miss A
characters: Dawnie and her bros
word count: 1400
summary: One doesn’t grow up the sister of a warrior without learning a little bit about knowing who needs protection. One doesn’t grow up surrounded by knights of old without wanting a cause worth fighting for. Dawn's senior year of high school she crashes into three ridiculous boys... who introduce her to more boys... and some lovely girls... and maybe along the way she falls in love. Ridiculous amounts of Dawnie/Yeollie bro-ing. Dawnie/Grandpa-gyu bickering and maybe eventually snuggling. Crack, obviously. Character-centric, naturally.
a/n: Tumblr won't let me post so it is coming to lj first!!!
chapters 1-4
[Spoilers: Fei-unni is my favorite]
When Sungjong looked up at her with his wide eyes and said, “Well of course you are coming over for dinner,” she didn’t have an option. Not really.
Not with Myungsoo’s eyes doing that starry little dance that they do when he’s really, really present and she actually feels like he can see her.
Not with Sungyeol literally bouncing up and down beside her, unable to contain his excitement. Or his energy. Boy has far more energy than any human Dawn has ever known.
As she took a moment to mull over the younger boy’s request, Myungsoo sidled up behind them and caught the Sungyeol around the waist, resting his chin against his other shoulder, without saying anything.
There was no perceptible change -not one that anyone else would have seen. But as Myungsoo pressed himself up against Sungyeol’s back, Dawn noted the smallest shift in the taller boy’s energy. It wasn’t exactly a calming - his fingers still buzzed about - but there was a sense of ease that Sungyeol seemed at times incapable of creating for himself.
She didn’t really have an option, but she still protested: “My sister will be expecting me.” She thought maybe appealing to Sungjong would be the best bet, so she pushed a little, “She doesn’t like me out alone after dark.”
Suji tugged on Sungjong’s bag and whispered to him something Dawn couldn’t make out. He pulled her arm through his and squinted at Dawn, “Your unni has nothing on hers. Come on.”
And with Sungyeol on one side, his long stride causing her to almost gallop along beside him, chattering along about the play they (she?) were going to write and produce that semester and Myungsoo on the other, gripping her hand and staring off into space - she really just didn’t have it in her heart to say no.
(3:57PM): Made new friends. Invited for dinner, kk?
(3:59PM): Be home before dark. Save room for dessert.
(3:59PM): Are they vampires?
(4:00PM): Walking in the sun. So unless there’s a loophole we don’t know about…
(4:03PM): Xander wants to know if they’re demons?
(4:04PM): How will I know?
(4:07PM): um… He says they’ll be attractive…
(4:09PM): oh. Obscenely. You won’t believe it.
(4:10PM): RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!
(4:10PM): Sorry, Xand stole the phone from me
(4:11PM): txt every hour so I know your safe
(4:12PM): I always do
(4:18PM): Spike will walk you home if you want to stay later
(4:21PM): <3333 thanks sis
It took a little over twenty minutes to get from the high school to the block of duplexes where they lived. It definitely should have only taken them five, ten minutes tops (Dawn may or may not have trekked the same route… in heels… at midnight… while on patrol only two nights previously), but Sungyeol kept prancing around like a puppy -showing off, doing tricks, jumping off sidewalks and rails, kicking his soccer ball across the street and having to run for it, while Myungsoo behaved as though he hung the moon, encouraging each antic. Sungjong and Suji kept a slow pace behind them, occasionally peering into his phone and oohing, and Dawn was positive they were talking about fashion or shoes or something, but she didn’t join them.
It was a warm day in Sunnydale -right on the edge of Autumn, when summer in Southern California makes its final stand - there was no homework, no deadlines, no Scooby-meeting, no heavy tome waiting for her to translate, no one waiting anxiously … and so she played.
It was far too easy to play with Sungyeol. He was all smiles and limbs and bouncing, his hair falling into his eyes, his humor restless and hungry. It was all so familiar to her - like a dream she once forgot. And she became all flowing hair and dancing feet and twirling, her limbs stretching out to match his, her laughter easy and covetous. And so they galloped along like newborn fauns.
Cars sped by full of her classmates and she thought briefly of the girl that she was supposed to be - the girl in heels with a head held high - thought of the girl she was - buried underneath books and monsters and epic battles - and laughed louder. Maybe she had grown up too fast. Maybe she had never cavorted in such a reckless fashion. Maybe it was high time she learned how to. Before the world caught up to her again.
When they arrived at Suji’s home (a cookie-cutter duplex, one of many in a long row) a small woman -probably around Buffy’s age - with wild, curly hair wearing skinny jeans, stilettos, and a loose shirt that exposed the soft flesh just above her jeans under an apron, came streaming out the front door and down the driveway, right into Suji’s arms. What commenced next, Dawn would never be quite certain of -there was a flurry of Korean as the woman grabbed Suji by the shoulders and checked the girl (for injury?) and scolded Sungjong (presumably) as he tried to calm her down, standing near Suji protectively. The woman was all cheekbones and lips and hair and fury. Her eyes flashed at Dawn fiercely before Suji was able to whisper a few words in edgewise. And then everyone was being petted and checked on and her voice took that maternal edge that Dawn remembered from when her mother was alive, when Tara was around. That edge that said, “You are all still on my list and I’m not happy, but tell me all the lovely things you did today because I love you and want to know everything.” And then a flurry of talking erupted all around her - the boys jumping over each other and gesturing (at one point the woman bowed to Dawn and then touched her hair softly and cooed over her just a little) and laughing until Suji started tugging the woman into the house.
After it became quiet Dawn turned to Sungjong, “Unni? It means sister?”
He smiled wide and nodded, then shrugged, “Sort of.”
Dawn laughed to herself. There wasn’t much in the world that could take down Buffy Summers - in most things she was more than most people could ever hope to be - but after seeing that little woman’s strength oozing out of her body in protection and defense of Suji (and then of the boys, too - so quickly and easily)… “She could probably give even my sister a run for her money.”
“Fei’s really cool,” Myungsoo burst out from behind her. And the other two boys laughed, teasing him gently, heading off across the driveway.
To the other side of the duplex.
Dawn blinked when Sungjong pulled out a key and waggled his eyebrows at her, placing the key in the lock and opening the door. “Sungjong lives next door to Suji?” she asked Sungyeol.
He shrugged, “We all live here.”
“Wait. What? You all live together?”
The three of them stared at her like she had grown a third eye. Sungjong shrugged as if her comment didn’t dignify a response and swept inside without a second glance back.
And that’s how Dawn found herself ushered into a dimly lit little house, her shoes manhandled off her at the door, and thrust into a cramped little living room that looked into a kitchen. At the kitchen table sat two older boys with books and papers spread all over it - obviously studying - Sungjong went straight to them and sat next to one, immediately engaging in a soft conversation as he pulled out books from his own bag and the other two made room for him at the table. As if they did this every day, making space for him as though they were only waiting for him to come claim it. In the living room was another boy, who barely glanced up at them as they entered, absorbed in a video game - Sungyeol tackled him and tore the controller from his hand. Myungsoo plopped himself down on the other couch and watched, laughing.
And then a seventh boy turned away from the stove in the kitchen, a spatula in his hand, calling out something to the boys in the living room in Korean. When he saw Dawn he smiled broadly and bowed.
And he was the most disgustingly attractive human being she had ever laid eyes on.
“Well,” she said to the room. “This is just ridiculous.”
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