(Untitled)

[noprevaricating]

Who: tothelibrary and noprevaricating.
What: A walk and a serious talk.
When: April 28th, late afternoon.
Where: Just outside the village, on the path to the Cullen House.
Summary: There are a few things Dawn needs to know.
Rating: This is getting into some dark stuff. There will be discussion of abuse. We'll say R-ish to be safe, with a possible trigger warning.

Comments

[tothelibrary]

Archie's not exactly subtle. He's not like Xander or Spike, all the feelings loud and out there and easy to interpret; Dawn can look at them and almost always predict what's wrong. But that's probably more years of knowing each other than anything else, and as much as she cares about Archie there are large blind spots in what she knows about him.

...Still, it's obvious he's building up to something, and it doesn't seem like it's something along the lines of 'do you want to get cookies today'. She almost wants to just ask him, make him talk before he's ready to just end the waiting.

Instead, she hooks his arm through his and just waits more, uncharacteristically quiet.

[noprevaricating]

Dawn is only two inches shorter, so his immediate response is to rest his cheek against her hair--she's at a lovely height for it. For just a few more heartbeats, everything can be beautiful and normal. Then, turning just a little, he plants a soft kiss against her hair and stops walking. With a soft touch, he turns her to face him and leads with the line he practiced before, trying to keep a tremor out of his voice.

"I think I...I understand you a little better now."

[tothelibrary]

It's on the tip of her tongue to say something like 'why, did you lose a bet and Jack made you wear heels' but she's afraid joking right now will psych Archie out, because it's pretty clear whatever he wants to talk about isn't easy to bring up.

"Which parts of me? Because I'm multitude-y. In the containing way."

[noprevaricating]

"You are." That gets a nervous smile. "I really like that about you, actually. You're never quite predictable." He clears his throat. "I meant we've both been made to believe Buffy Summers is our older sister. Even if I don't...have those memories anymore, I certainly believed them for a week, and I...I don't particularly want them back now that I have the truth. It isn't much, but it's half a glimpse, perhaps."