[location: a sidewalk cafe] hours of happiness more or less

[inquitvigiliant]

It's early evening, and a pair of men are sitting close together at a small table outside a little cafe. It looks like tea or coffee now, although there are the remnants of something that might have been a light supper or possibly dessert. Giles is dressed somewhat uncharacteristically in an old leather jacket that looks like it could have been

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[fuckyouripper]

On Ethan's side of the table it's coffee and nerves, and he's been off and on a little abstract through their conversation- pulling himself back towards the current moment the best that he can, but every now and again that alarmed, distant look in his eyes dominates and he has to ask Giles to repeat whatever he just said.

(Giles has always been better at lying to people for their own good. It's funny, in a way, except it's not, really.)

He's there now, though, sipping from his mug and making a face in agreement. "I know, love. But you have to think, you and I have something to go back to. What about Tara? This place is seductive that way."

[inquitvigiliant]

Giles has noticed, in a back-of-his-mind sort of way, that Ethan seems to have something important on his mind, but he hasn't put it together enough to call him on it just yet.

And Ethan's always been too good at distracting him by alternately being sympathetic and verbally smacking him upside the head, depending on which he needs worse at the moment.

"No, you're about that. Sometime like Tara...I suppose this is a sort of blessing, isn't it? Time to live a bit more than she'll...she'll have the chance to do..." Giles' voice peters off and he frowns down into his tea.

[fuckyouripper]

"She knows what's going to happen," Ethan explains, his fingers laced together around his mug. "I don't know if I'd be so gracious about it if it were me."

He wouldn't. At all.

"It's easy to get attached. I think you're right, I just- well, I'm as bad as anyone else. Trying to start a shop with her."

[inquitvigiliant]

"I- Good heavens. I had no idea." He really hadn't, Giles has been assuming Tara's in the dark about her future. They need to sit down for a talk, and soon. "It's good that you are, for both of you, I think."

He smiles a little, glancing up at the other man. "I worry less when you've something to occupy yourself with."

[likeajoan]

As coincidence would have it, Buffy is currently walking along that precise sidewalk, on her way to some conveniently vague and shadowy destination. Lost in her thoughts, she spots Giles and Ethan when she's only a few feet away from them, is momentarily paralyzed by horror, and then with a spectacular lack of subtlety, turns tail and walks in the opposite direction, desperately hoping they didn't see her.

[inquitvigiliant]

"Buffy!"

Too late, she's already been spotted. And conveniently too, because Giles has been wanting to talk to her again.

[likeajoan]

"Crap."

This is muttered inaudibly under her breath. Of course she could continue walking and plead temporary deafness, but she has a feeling that isn't going to fly. Stopping in her tracks, she forces a smile onto her face and turns around, retracing her steps to hover by the table. "Hi."

[fuckyouripper]

"Buffy," Ethan greets her cordially, with an expression of awkwardly brittle politeness; he might not be as close to her as he is to Dawn, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love her and that he isn't affected. ('Parent unsure of how they fucked up with their adult child this time' isn't actually that hard to recognize.)

He takes refuge in his coffee and gives Giles a look, like 'deal with your child, I don't know what to do'. That, at least, is hardly a first for them.

[beenthroughhell]

Tara is passing by, and waves, with a little smile, but leaves it to them whether to say hello or not. She doesn't want to bother them if they're looking to be alone, but she's happy to see them both and is probably the only Scooby who would be, sadly.

[inquitvigiliant]

And Giles is happy to see her, in fact waves her over so she can sit if she likes. At least he can expect this to be a pleasant conversation.

"I hear there's to be a magic shop in our future."

[beenthroughhell]

She'll gladly come join, then. She's always happy to see Giles, and more and more looks forward to seeing Ethan too - enough that she looks like her old cheerful self, for the most part. "Looks like. I'm sure you've heard we found a place for it."

Giles probably would notice that there's a little bit of weight she seems to be carrying, but if he's heard that she knows, it's fairly obvious as to why. Still, the first bad shock is over.

[fuckyouripper]

Ethan is still uncharacteristically tense, but he smiles gamely for Tara and shifts his chair a little to make more room for her. "I was about to tell him about it."

[ location: a sidewalk cafe ]

[tothelibrary]

Because they're in a weird underground city where people who don't even know who you are think they have the right to talk to you like they know you, it isn't too much of a stretch that Dawn stumbles on Giles and Ethan while going to get her own food. (No more free stuff kind of sucks, but Dawn is saving up a truly massive told you so dance about the sheer number of clothes and shoes she hatched prior to the cutoff. She wasn't being frivolous, she was planning ahead.)

There are two options, here. Turn around and hope they don't see her, or... do what she does, which is plop her ass down in a chair at the table next to them-- but she does turn it towards their table, so that's something-- and then just stare, arms crossed over her chest defensively. This version of Ethan will recognize the stubborn set of her jaw as translating to something like 'I don't want to, I don't have to, you can't make me'.

[fuckyouripper]

...and if he'd been thinking that that heartwrenching conversation with Buffy might be the worst today had to offer, apparently whatever powers that be really have it in for Ethan. He can't even hand this one off to Giles - or at least he refuses to consider doing so, because it is Dawn and she's his girl-

Only she's not. Not even slightly. He avoids Giles's gaze as he makes up his mind and shifts a little so he can meet Dawn's defiant gaze. (Yes, he knows that look. He's even had it pointed his way more than once. Just- not like this.)

"Would you like the cliff's notes from our conversation with your sister before we start?"

[tothelibrary]

Her arms don't get any less crossed, but the hard set of her jaw softens slightly. (She doesn't like Ethan, he doesn't like her, but a mix of 'maybe in some world I actually have parents' and the deep, intense fear that someday she's going to wake up and no one will remember her means that he gets slightly less hostility-- and more leeway-- than he did at first. Solidarity in potential not existing, or something.)

"No. Just explain it."

[fuckyouripper]

"It's probably a glitch and it's definitely an alternate universe either way," he says, tapping his fingers against the table. He's restless and his gaze keeps wandering, but it always comes back to her- searching for just a hint of recognition, for indications that he already knows better than to think he'll find.

She looks older. He just feels old.

"Or were you looking for something more specific?" You know. Why he's acting like he's her dad, maybe.