August 27 - From the Mouths of Babes
Title: From the Mouths of Babes
Author: LadyWinterlight (songs_of_winter)
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Avengers/MCU
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 542
Notes: In the same 'verse as the rest of my challenge submissions so far. This one also doesn't actually contain MCU characters, but some are mentioned via shared universe.
I still do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers or anything to do with the MCU. I could wish, but that's dangerous.
“Auntie Buffy?”
“Hmm?” Buffy absently answered; she was watching Dawn’s kids as well as Xander’s, all of whom called her ‘auntie’. But she’d tuned out for a bit while they watched a Disney movie. “What’s up, Anya?”
Xander’s eldest girl, just over ten years old now, looked at her seriously. “Are you lonely?”
“How could I be lonely when I have all my nieces and nephews with me?” Buffy asked, putting on a bright smile.
“I mean, you always come to visit alone unless Auntie Faith is with you,” Anya said. “Daddy thinks you’re lonely because you don’t have a partner.”
“Hey, now,” Buffy protested. She pulled her niece into her lap, crossways so they could still talk. “I’m perfectly fine being single. I don’t need a man - or a woman - in my life to help define me.”
Anya shook her head. “You can be fine and still be lonely,” she pointed out, and once again Buffy had a moment of wondering whether naming this child for Anya gave her some of the old Anya’s habits and traits. Blunt honesty, and more insight sometimes than someone her age ought to have.
“It’s a complicated situation, honey,” Buffy admitted with a sigh. “I’ve not had much luck with relationships over the years, not like your mom and dad. Or Dawn and her husband. See, while everyone around me is getting older… it looks like I’m not. If you look at a picture of me from your daddy’s wedding, I look pretty much the same as I do now. Not like your daddy, who has more gray in his hair and other little signs of getting older.”
Anya frowned in confusion. “Why is that a problem?”
“Because a lot of adults worry about or are afraid of getting older,” Buffy explained patiently. “It makes them envious that I’m not. And envy is a feeling that can wreck relationships.”
“So just find someone like you?” Anya’s face crinkled as she made the logical suggestion.
“Oh, sweetie. I’m not sure there are people like me. Maybe Auntie Faith, but she’s family.” There were the Asgardians, but though friendly a lot of them still had odd ideas about relationships with mortals. There were the known super-soldiers, too, and rumors abounded about other successful test subjects from the various attempts over the decades at recreating Erskine’s success with Rogers. But no one had any idea if there was truth to the rumors, and Buffy doubted anyone with traces of an old serum in their system would admit to it.
“Mummy thinks you’ll find someone eventually,” Anya stated firmly. “You just have to accept it when you do.”
Buffy laughed. “Your mommy might be right. But I guess we’ll see, hmm? Would you like it if I brought someone else to visit when I come?”
Anya thought about it for a long moment, then nodded. “If they made you happy, I would like it. We don’t like seeing you sad or lonely.”
“Think you can keep me company until then?”
“Yup!” Anya hugged Buffy tightly. Buffy hugged back, holding in a sigh. Maybe her niece was right, but anything could seem simple from the perspective of a ten year old. Buffy hoped they might be right, though.
Perhaps someday.