AUTHOR: Tisienne Blue

E-MAIL: tisatko@msn.com

DISCLAIMER: Joss owns everyone you know from TV.

RATING: G to PG

DISTRIBUTION: Charity can have it if she wants...

FEEDBACK: sure... why not... although this may suck badly...

DEDICATION: for Witchy (she's promised me a birthday fic... promises, promises...*G*)

NOTES: OK, this has been bouncing around in my head for a while... it's pure fluff and nonsense, and as I said, it may very well SUCK, so I'm sorry... Oh, and this is really, really silly and fluff-y, so... sorry again!!!

SPOILERS: only in the vaguest possible sense...

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The young woman grinned at her husband. "I'm going to go check on Katie," she said, speaking of their young daughter, "You know how she likes to stay up after bedtime..."

The man laughed, smiling adoringly at his beautiful wife. "Yes... I do. She's a rebel... Wonder where she gets that from?"

The woman laughed softly as she left the living room. "I can't even begin to imagine, my love... no idea whatsoever..." She continued to chuckle to herself as she climbed the stairs and approached her daughter's bedroom, well aware that her husband would be following her up in mere moments. She stepped softly, her ears attuned to the room her child should have been fast asleep in, and grinned as she heard the young girl's voice. Once again, Katie was awake, and apparently talking to herself for amusement. The woman reached out silently and... threw the door open, catching her sweet little daughter red handed. "Katie," she said, trying to sound fierce, "You know you're supposed to be asleep!"

The five year old pouted prettily, her lower lip sticking out. "But, Mama, I don't want to go to sleep yet!" Her miserable tone was belied, of course, by the mischievous gleam in her eyes. "I'm not tired!"

The young woman sighed to cover her laughter... the girl was so much like her father! "Oh, you're not, are you?" she said, scooping the suddenly giggling girl off of the floor and setting her, once again, in the small bed. "Well, how about if I tell you a story? A special story. A bedtime story for my girl...?" She grinned as the child snuggled down under the covers and stared at her expectantly.

"Well?" Katie finally demanded, "Are you gonna tell me the 'Bad Bunny' story or not?"

The young woman smiled wistfully at her little girl, and began to speak...

~~~~~~~~~~and here's what she said~~~~~~~~~

A long, long time ago, many years before you were born, there was a small kingdom called Rainyhill... it was located far to the west, on a great continent, and was inhabited by all manner of people... Some were monsters, or witches, or werewolves, and there were even some vampires there. But none of that mattered, because they were all people! And just like people everywhere, some were good, and some were bad. The good ones stuck together, though... and tried to protect each other from the bad ones. All in all, it was an idyllic existence.

Now, in this small kingdom of Rainyhill, there lived a tall, dark and handsome prince, and he was a very good man... of course, some people wouldn't call him a man at all, because he was, in fact, a vampire! But he was a good vampire, and tried his best to help all of the other good people in the kingdom. Unfortunately, he was just a bit shy, so he never let himself be seen if he could help it... and being a prince, that wasn't easy! We'll call him... Prince Pain-gel.

There also lived, in a very nice house somewhere on the other side of the kingdon from Prince Pain-gel, a very smart, but somewhat insecure, redheaded human girl. She didn't know that she had skin like fine porcelain, or eyes that glowed like the best emeralds... she wasn't even aware that the colour of her hair called to mind the loveliest of autumn leaves. She was called... Lady Rowan.

Now, Lady Rowan, as I said, was very smart. Unfortunately, she had been largely neglected by her paerents, the Duke and Duchess of Rose, and so she didn't know about the many different kinds of people in Rainyhill. She had grown up mostly on her own, with only her two best friends, Lord Xapper and Sir Guessy, for company. Unfortunately for Lady Rowan, she found out about Rainyhill's worse inhabitants in a very unhappy way, which we'll get to in a little while.

When Lady Rowan was all of sixteen years old, she and her two best friends were joined in their studies by someone they'd never met before. It was a girl... But not just any girl... Oh no, this girl was special! She was a small, somewhat attractive blonde from the nearby kingdom of La-la Land, and she had been sent to Rainyhill by a group of councilors who had somehow made her believe that all beings who weren't fully human were evil in and of themselves. They told her that it was her job to stop every not human thing from ever hurting any human... Not being too bright, she believed them, and her name was... Princess Bunny.

Now, Princess Bunny didn't want to be the one to save all the humans. She wanted to shop, and have fun, and gossip with her friends all the time, and she was very upset at having to leave La-la Land in the first place, especially to go live in a tiny back-water kingdom like Rainyhill, so as soon as she arrived in her new home, she tried to become friends with the nastiest, meanest girl in the kingdom, the Lady Spordelia!

Lady Spordelia was not, contrary to appearances, a very happy girl. Sure, her parents were the wealthist people in the kingdom, and she had everything she wanted within moments of expressing a desire for it, but somehow, deep down inside, she had never felt... special. And the older she got, the more bitter she became, until finally, by the time that Princess Bunny arrived, she had become just... icky.

Princess Bunny, however, didn't see that part of Lady Spordelia... She saw a girl who reminded her of all the friends she'd left behind in La-la Land... and so, she tried her best to make friends with her, and was over-joyed when she succeeded! Now she'd have someone to talk with about gowns, and suitors, and, oh yes, everyone else who just was not up to their standards. Life was good.

Unfortunately for the rather dim-witted princess, it would not remain that way! Soon she would meet Prince Pain-gel, and find herself head over heels for him... And she did meet him... and she fell hard... and by the time she found out that he was a vampire, it was too late! She had managed to convince herself that she loved him... and that he loved her!

After Princess Bunny met the handsome Prince, but before she found out his deep dark secret... One night, while at a ball that was being thrown at the Baron Bronze's estate, the princess noticed a vampire walking away with the Lady Rowan, who the princess had met only a few days earlier! Now, while Princess Bunny didn't really know the girl that well, she was concerned, because of what the Councilors of the Watch had told her about vampires. She found that she was worried for the young Lady Rowan, even though the two didn't move in the same circles, and so she followed them. Fortunately for the princess, this particular vampire was not the good kind, so no one made any fuss about it when she stopped him, and she managed to protect the lovely Lady Rowan. Un-fortunately, by following the girl and the vampire away from the ball, she missed noticing the other evil vampire in attendance.

She was a rather small, pretty little blonde thing herself, and her name was Garla. Garla had been watching the attendees at the ball, and had set her sights on Lady Rowan and Lord Xapper's friend Sir Guessy. As she was small, pretty and blonde, she had no trouble convincing him to leave the ball with her, and that was the last anyone ever saw of him.

Now, the Princess Bunny started spending time with Prince Pain-gel. She thought that he was just too cute for words, and he thought that she was... the best he could do.

The thing was that Prince Pain-gel had had a secret yearning for the beautiful Lady Rowan for quite a while... almost since the first time he'd seen her! But he was sure that a creature as wonderful as she was wouldn't want to have anything to do with him, and so... he decided to settle for the princess. He figured that she was attractive enough, and so what if she couldn't hold a conversation? She'd look good on his arm if he ever had to go to any court functions, and if he couldn't have the girl he really wanted, well... he just didn't care that much about who he was with. So imagine his surprise when Lady Rowan suddenly became one of the Princess' closest friends!

Well, many things, both good and bad, happened in the kingdom of Rainyhill over the next few years... Lord Xapper was possessed by an unhappy animal spirit, Lady Rowan was courted by a big metal monster, and Princess Bunny's relationship with Prince Pain-gel went from good, to great, to horrible, and back to good again... But the prince had never forgotten the Lady Rowan, and when he finally admitted to himself that he could never have her, he decided to go away... and he did! Prince Pain-gel went to La-la Land!

After he left, the Princess Bunny lowered her standards, allowing herself to be courted first by the nasty Viscount Barker, and then, when he proved to be one of the bad people, by the very nice but dull Farmer Smiley. Now, Farmer Smiley was almost interesting, as he had spent some time in the kingdom militia. What nobody knew, at least at first, was that Farmer Smiley had actually been part of a special group that hurt non-human people just for being non-human. Well, when Princess Bunny found out, she decided that he was a keeper, and attached herself to him like a Garfield doll to a car window. She was afraid to tell him that the first love of her life had been a vampire, and hoped that he'd never find out... Of course, he did find out, but that's another story.

Meanwhile, in La-la Land, Prince Pain-gel had found his calling! He was working to help others, much as he had done in the kingdom of Rainyhill, but it was somehow... better! He had two helpers in his quest for justice. One was a smart, funny, and cute little half-demon with lovely blue eyes... we'll call him Boyle... Boyle got visions from the gods of people in trouble, and he passed those visions on to Prince Pain-gel. That way, the prince always knew just where to go to keep horrible wrongs from being committed. The prince's second helper was, surprisingly enough, Lady Spordelia!

Lady Spordelia had run away to La-la Land shortly after her father had made a big mistake with the tax collectors. She had thoughts of becoming a famous stage actress, or maybe a coutourier, but alas, that just wasn't to be. She had only been in La-la Land for a little while, but she was already short on funds, and very unhappy, when she met up with Prince Pain-gel. Fortunately for her, he was in need of someone to handle his correspondence, so she was suddenly a little less short of funds, and a lot less unhappy!

Things continued in this fashion for quite a while, only interrupted by momentous events... Prince Pain-gel and Lady Spordelia's friend Boyle went away after an encounter with some really bad people, and Lady Spordelia was stuck with getting the visions from the gods... An old aquaintance from Rainyhill, Sir Parsley Windy- Mice, came to help them, and then the Prince found out that he would become human someday! He was so excited that he almost walked into the sun by accident, and you know how dangerous that is for vampires!

Finally, Prince Pain-gel, Lady Spordelia, and Sir Parsley decided that the prince wouldn't be becoming human anytime soon, and proceeded to go on about their business as they had before. But... they were wrong!

It was barely a year later that the Prince righted a particularly heinous wrong, and suddenly... he had a heartbeat!

It took Prince Pain-gel all of a minute and a half to decide what he wanted to do with his new life, and he found himself back in Rainyhill almost before he knew what had happened. He wandered through the kingdom for a little while, asking everyone he saw about the Lady Rowan. He was concerned for a moment when he heard that she'd been courted by Duke Woz, but felt better when he found out that it apparently hadn't progressed terribly far... the Lady was not betrothed! It was then that he truly made up his mind... he would have the Lady Rowan for himself!

Lady Rowan, of course, was wildly surprised when the prince made his intentions known... She didn't know why such a perfect man would want to court her! So she made him wait, and eventually allowed herself to be convinced that she was the only one for him.

The Princess Bunny, of course, was very angry when she heard that her Prince was human and had come back to Rainyhill for... Lady Rowan! She had always hoped that he still loved her, and to know that he didn't want her anymore, now that they could finally be together, was more than she could take. She went to Lady Rowan, finding her closeted with the prince. The princess ranted and raved, shaking her little fist angrily in the air, and finally, when she realized that she could never separatethem and have her Prince Pain-gel back, she turned her back on them, informing them both that she was going to marry Farmer Smiley and move with him to his home-kingdom of Oh-My-O.. and that she never wanted to see either of them again!

Prince Pain-gel was then, finally, the happiest of men. He would never have to see the irrational Princess Bunny again, and he had the woman he loved more than life itself... After a very short courtship... only three weeks!... the Prince and Lady Rowan were married in a small, private ceremony in the nearby kingdom of Mas Pegas, and just under a year later... they had a beautiful baby girl. Her hair was dark, like her father's, but she had her mother's eyes...

~~~~~~~~~ She stopped speaking~~~~~~

The young woman smiled softly, gazing at her sleeping daughter, as her husband sat down beside her on the edge of the bed.

"Willow," he said softly, wrapping his arms loosly around her waist and nibbling gently at her earlobe, "Come to bed..."

The redhead laughed a bit breathlessly. He knew, after all this time, exactly what that did to her. "All right, Angel... just let me turn off the light." She reached out, turning the knob on Katie's bedside lamp, and leaned back into her husband's warm chest for a moment before pulling away and standing. She went to the bedroom door and looked back at him, wondering at the look on his face. "Angel?" she said softly, not wanting to wake their child, "What are you thinking?"

Angel smiled, moving swiftly to his love's side. "Two things, really... What do you think is going to happen when she shares her favourite bedtime story with her 'Uncle' Spike..."

Willow groaned slightly, almost frightened by the very thought. "And the second thing?" she said timidly, hoping it wasn't something along the same lines.

He leaned down, pressing his forehead to hers as he spoke silkily, staring into her eyes, "Well... I was wondering..." He brushed his lips softly against hers, tesing them with the tip of his tongue. "Do you think," he said softly, pulling slightly away as she responded, "That we could maybe give Katie a little sister... or brother?" He grinned as her face lit up.

"Oh, Angel..." Willow sighed, almost breathlessly, "Do you really mean it?"

Angel smiled again as he picked the redhead up in his arms. "Well, I can't make any promises, my love," he said as he carried her into their bedroom, shutting the door quietly, "But I'm more than willing to give it my best shot... repeatedly!"

The redhead giggled almost maniacally as she stripped her husband of his clothes... she hadn't even known that she'd wanted another child until just now, but obviously Angel had... he had always known her heart so well.

End.

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