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[lockless_key]

The door behind me can't slam loudly enough. I stomp several feet down the street before I make myself stop and breathe. God! How could Anya... we were her friends! I mean, I know she's feeling hurt and rejected, no duh with the whole vengeance thing, but why is she being such a... bitch to us now? We were her friends, we took her in, accepted her

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[soon_to_be_blue]

"Dawn! Wait up!" I call after her as I exit the store, though she has cleary seen me coming, based on her stance. She looked like she was awaiting my approach. She must've seen me tear out after her.

"What you said in there, I mean, I don't know y'all real well, but what I do know...I agree with you. You have a right to be mad. Times are tough, and people actin' all crazy just makes 'em tougher."

I pause. I think of Wesley, and I think of the talk of betrayal in the shop.

"...and especially in times like these, it's hard cause you don't know who to trust, or who is on your side."

I reach out, and gently place my hand on her shoulder. Just lightly though, not enough to seem overbearing.

"...and I know you don't know me that well, but I wanted to come out her and tell you that I am."

I smile.

"On your side, that is."

[lockless_key]

"Thanks." I smile a little, this Fred girl seems really nice and she makes me feel a little more relaxed. "That's good to know."

I kick at the pavement and sigh. God. "It's just all so much to take in at once. I mean, first Buffy, and then stuff got crazier from there. I don't know how we're going to deal..."

Looking back towards the Magic Box, I can feel my face setting in a resolute expression. "I didn't expect that from her." Then I look back at Fred and laugh. She's probably totally lost and has no idea what's going on.

"God, sorry, you must feel like you walked into a loony bin. Usually stuff isn't that weird." I pause. "No, it is, but this is pretty big even for Sunnydale standards. I think."

[soon_to_be_blue]

I smile sheepishly and shrug

[lockless_key]

"Yeah, sure." I smile at Fred. Good thing she doesn't seem too wigged out by freaky Sunnydale stuff. I guess working with Angel in LA, you get to see your share of freaky stuff, just LA-style. You just can't get away from the freaky.

"The Espresso Pump is just across the street, and it's like, the best coffee place in town. And, okay, pretty much the only coffee place in town, but it's good, so we're pretty lucky." Okay, babbling again, here goes Dawn the crazy girl. I motion to Fred to follow and begin walking towards the Pump.

"And I can fill you in on Sunnydale stuff, while we're at it," I suggest. She called me a real resident. Hah, real, it's all relative here. "You know, if you can keep track of it all."

[soon_to_be_blue]

"Oh yeah, keepin' track of y'all is difficult. Cordy once was trying to tell me about her life in Sunnydale before she moved to LA, and I was like...gosh, I hope there isn't going to be a test later."

I smile as we walk to the Espresso Pump. I liked Dawn, she seemed down to earth, and like me she seemed like she was a little lost in the storm that was this existence. But instead of getting taken away with the current, she was fighting to stay up.

That's something I do, and that's something I respect.

As we order our drinks, I give the cashier money, covering Dawn and myself.

"Don't argue, my treat."

I raise my iced latte in the air, "To new friends."

I take a sip and set my cup on the table and settle into a seat.

"Alright, I am not gonna kill you with small talk, cause I hate when people do it to me. So let's get down to it...what did you want to know?"

[lockless_key]

"To new friends." I raise my coffee in the air with Fred and take a drink. It has so much sugar and stuff in it that I don't think it's real coffee, just something else masquerading as coffee. And as much as I like sugar and stuff, I do like coffee, too. I'm not a coffee-wimp

[soon_to_be_blue]

I can't help but let a little laugh escape my lips when Dawn refers to the "Cordelia-version" of things

[lockless_key]

"Right," I say slowly, then take another sip of the coffee and smile. "You might need the espresso for the kind of talking that we're going to do. I'm a total coffee-holic now, even though everyone was all 'oh no, Dawnie, you're too young' but nobody gets through a six-hour research session without coffee

[soon_to_be_blue]

I stare wide-eyed.

"I'm going to need a truck of espresso at this rate. Here I thought things were nuts for us in LA, evidently we got nothin' on y'all here."

I take another sip of my coffee.

"...and if it's any consolation Dawn, I am sorry."

I pause for a moment. Recommend sympathy time, and then I continue, cause I sense Dawn isn't the type to want to dwell on things, and I'm not much of a dweller either.

"Well, tell ya what. You read Mr. Giles books, and you tell me afterward if there's anything that isn't written that I can tell you about, cause sometimes the most interesting parts are the parts that didn't make it to any kind of page. But if there's anything I can tell you now, I'd be happy to."

Sip, it was tasting less like pure electricity and more like coffee by this point

"One question I DO have though, is where a good hotel is located. If I'm going to be in town, I'm going to need to set up base somewhere, and I'm not imposing on y'all since you already have quite the stacked house."

[lockless_key]

"Well, you know what they say about small towns," I shrug. I don't even know what they say about small towns, but there's gotta be something out there about how crazy and weird they are. Maybe not on a demonic level, but... who knows.

"Thanks," I say when Fred offers an apology. Yeah, we're all sorry. Well, I'm done with being sorry. It's not worth it. There are more important things we have to deal with now other than grief.

"I'll just look at the diaries, and then we can talk about it. Sound good?" I smile at Fred. I really like her, she's an adult but she doesn't like, wave it in your face, like, I'm older than you, therefore I am more wise and whatnot. She treats me like an equal and I really like that about her.

"As for the hotel, I'm not sure." I've never had to stay in a hotel in my own town. Maybe someone's renting out a room somewhere? "You could come back with me and we could look some up in the phonebook?" I'd really like to be able to offer her a place at the house but it really is full, especially with Tara moving in.

[soon_to_be_blue]

"I can deal with that."

I lift my cup to have another drink and suck in open air. I lower the mug a little bit and glance down into it.

Empty.

"Wow, this must've been much more addicting than I thought, since I totally unconciously drained it down. Oh well. Coffee talk is good talk, but it's always kind of brief...only about as long a cup of coffee."

I place the mug back on the table.

"If you're done, we could head back to the house, that might be a good plan, cause I'm sure I should check in to one of these hotels sometime soon, before I become homeless Fred for the night," I say standing up.

I really liked Dawn, I'm glad we got a chance to sit and talk. Take a real moment for some normal old-school chit-chat in our otherwise bizarre lives.

As I am reflecting on how good it is to do normal things on occasion, I'm pulled out of my reverie by the sound of a crash.

I turn over to see a boy lying in a heap on the group near the register of the cafe.

"Ouch," I comment to Dawn, "That had to smart."

[lockless_key]

"Evil corporate plot," I say confidently, draining my cup and stand up, following Fred. "To get you to buy more because the coffee and time goes by so fast, and you need more time, so you buy more coffee..."

I pause. Wow. "I sound like Anya. She was big with the buying. Or, well, the selling." It kind of hurts, thinking about Anya. Like, I thought she'd be there forever, being her tactless, greedy self, and for her to do that to us, well, I never expected it.

I'm distracted from my Anya-reflections by a loud crash and see someone go sprawling on the ground. Guy, not to tall, blonde hair... I try not to laugh and kind of fail. I know I shouldn't laugh because at school, I'm the one usually doing the weird klutzy things, but it's funny to see someone else doing them for a change.

"Wow, that sucks." Falling down in the middle of the Espresso Pump. I don't know if he'll ever live this one down. Wait...

He looks familiar.

[soon_to_be_blue]

I hear dawn laugh and I can help but laugh a little myself, but after I compose myself, I turn to her.

"Poor guy, should we go see if he's ok?"

((To the Andrew post, Batman!))