Title: Teamwork
Author: Christine
Email: Buffygirl43@hotmail.com
Rating: R
Summary: While most of the Scooby Gang is in England restoring the Watcher's Council, Xander and Dawn stay behind in Cleveland.
Author's Notes: This takes place about a year after 'Chosen'.
Disclaimer: Xander and Dawn, nor any other BtVS character is mine, doesn't that just suck? I should write a letter.

Sometimes it's just in the way she walks into a room. The way her sun- kissed brown hair sways back and forth from side to side as she's ordering pizza, or the way she hops on one foot when her legs go numb from sitting too long. It's the little things I notice about her when she's not looking. Those are the things that keep me going; the things that make me wake up to a new day. I notice how her nose scrunches up at the smell of cheese doodles and how she sings along with the radio in the kitchen early in the morning when she thinks I'm still asleep. It's because of her that I'm beginning to feel like my old self again. It's because of her that I can smile again. The only problem is that I have no idea how to tell her these things, how to tell her how much I'm in love with her.

It's been a rough transition from Sunnydale to here. By here I mean good ol' Cleveland, Ohio. If I could've picked a place to park ourselves after saving the world for the umpteenth time, it would not have been here. But it wasn't my decision to choose the location of a second Hellmouth, so here we are. Besides the location change, having to say goodbye to pretty much everyone except for one person has been hard. Everyone decided to go to England to start the new Watcher's Council, leaving Dawn and I here. Sometimes I think it had to have been fate for things to work out this way. Although Buffy and Willow would argue me over the reasons Dawn and I stayed behind, I pretty much chalk it up to the fact that I still haven't gotten completely used to being half blind, and Dawn needed to get her GED from high school. They also needed people to watch the town and warn them if anything wacky started happening.

Its been almost seven months since we've seen them, though it feels like so much longer. We call each other almost every other day to check in and see what's the what, but Dawn and I still miss everyone. Truth be told, I even miss playing Dungeons and Dragons with Andrew. Dawn tried playing with me one night but I knew it was a lost cause when she refused dress up and talk like her character. Aside from that, living with Dawn is damn near close to perfection. We've got a cozy apartment right outside the city and direct access to the two cemeteries that accompany the town which is where we are right now patrolling much to Buffy's dismay.

She's quiet as we walk past the same mausoleum for the second time. I glance over at her and catch her looking at me.

"What?"

She shakes her head and twirls her stake in her hand. "Nothing."

I smile and nudge her with my elbow. "Come on, you've got something face."

She rolls her eyes at me and grins back. "I'm just thinking about how great its been spending all this time with you is all. I mean, I miss everyone, but if I had to pick someone to live with while everyone else was away it would've been you anyway."

I stop walking and just look at her. "Really?"

Dawn nods, and strand of her brown hair falls out of her ponytail as she does so. "Definitely. I mean, I love everyone and you know I love Buffy, she is my sister after all, but if it were just me and her we would've killed each other by now." She glances at me and her eyes revert down to the chilled ground beneath our shoes. "I just feel really laid back with you. We're never at each other's throats or anything like that. It feels like we've been having one big slumber party or something you know?" I shake my head in understanding. I know exactly what she means.

She gets quiet for a moment before going on. "Of course I'm discounting the time I got mad at you for teasing me about getting teary during that Lifetime movie but I had my period so it doesn't count."

I laugh, "It wasn't easy picking all those popcorn kernels out of my hair you know."

She punches me lightly on the arm before tugging my shirt to keep moving. "You deserved every buttery piece of popcorn in your hair that night."

I open my mouth to say something but Dawn motions for me to stop again and I see her point to a clearing in between the trees up ahead. She leans into me to whisper something into my ear but all I can think about right now is how close she is to me and how damn good she smells, like oranges and vanilla. I continue to look in the direction she's pointing her finger at but I see absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

"Look up on that tree there!" She says in a hushed voice by my ear. I look up at the tree she's talking about and I swallow hard when I realize there is a huge dragon looking thing perched on the topmost branches.

"Oh crap."

She crouches down on the ground and I see her quietly sifting through some of the items she brought with us in a handmade bag that Willow had given her for her last birthday. I stoop to her level and ask her what she's trying to find.

"These." She pulls out tranquilizer darts and silently starts loading them into the small gun Giles gave to us before they left for England along with an infinite supply of other weapons. She hands me another gun with pre- loaded darts and gives me a small smile before standing up again. "Lock and load Xan."

She tugs on my hand to get up and points to a tree near the one with the creature in it. I nod my head and we slowly move towards the tree. I take a moment just to look at Dawn before aiming my dart gun. She's dressed in all black, her hair is pulled tightly in a long ponytail with wisps of it coming loose, framing her face. I suddenly realize that we both probably look like bank robbers or something and I almost laugh out loud. She looks at me and motions for me to aim which is something I have yet to master with only one eye. She closes one eye and pulls the trigger quickly. It hits the demon and it lets out an ear-piercing wail as I shoot the second dart into its body and before it can let out another horrible shriek it falls from the tree and hits the wet ground with a loud thud. Dawn turns to me and we share a high-five before going over to the creature. I quickly follow her, nervous that the thing isn't unconscious yet, but its eyes are shut and it's motionless.

Things like this are routine for us now. Not that we aren't cautious, but with the training we've gotten over these past years and the gadgets we carry with us, things don't seem as scary anymore. Especially the last big apocalyptic battle with the First Evil. It tends to put things into perspective. Sometimes I'm still surprised Buffy trusts me enough to protect Dawn while she's out scouring the planet for new Slayers. Dawn's hand on my shoulder snaps me out of my brief reverie and she grabs my cell phone out of my back pocket and snaps a few pictures of the demon to send to Giles back in England.

"Do you wanna call them?" she asks me before pressing send.

I shake my head. "Nah its okay, go ahead."

She presses the button and as she lifts the small flip phone to her ear I hear a crunching noise behind us, but when I turn around, there's nothing but a small rabbit standing there. I think of Anya for a moment and smile. Even though I miss her tremendously, things are getting better each day, and I know she's okay wherever she is. I overhear Dawn on the phone and roll my eyes when I realize she's talking to Andrew. From the one sided conversation I'm hearing it's apparent that Giles still refuses to play Dungeons and Dragons with him during downtime.

She realizes I'm looking at her and she rolls eyes too as she tries her hardest to get off of the phone with Andrew. Finally she says goodbye to him and Giles gets on the phone. She presses another button on the phone and sends him the pictures of the demon. I see Dawn frown and I raise my eyebrows silently questioning her. I hear her curse under her breath and she hands me the phone.

"Hey Giles, so what's up with this demon we got?"

I swear I can hear him clean his glasses over the phone. "Xander it would be best to pack up your stuff and leave the area you and Dawn are in at once. The creature you caught is called a Xurquios demon, they are highly dangerous and - "

"But Giles, we tranquilized the hell out of it, it'll be unconscious for hours."

"-Let me finish Xander, this particular species does not travel alone. Especially young Xurquios demons like the one you caught. They have a poison reservoir in their claws used for paralyzing their prey, preventing them from moving around in mid-flight. Now I would kill the one you caught, but do it quickly and get out of where you are now. They're much stronger then both of you. Call me when you get home so I know you're alright."

"Alright, thanks Giles, we'll call you in a few." I flip the phone back, making it smaller and shoved it back into my jean pocket. I look over at Dawn who is standing there looking nervous and I run back to our backpack and pull out a small battle-ax. As quick as I can I chop the head off of the demon and its head rolls a few feet away. Dawn's nose scrunches up as her eyes follow the head rolling away.

"I don't think I will ever get used to the head rolling."

I chuckle softly as I motion to her that we should get going. As she turns around though, her face goes pallid and she grabs my hand. "Don't look behind you." I swallow hard and realize what's behind us. Slowly, without dropping the ax, I turn and see another Xurquios demon who's twice the size of the one I just killed hovering two feet off of the ground.

The words leave my mouth before I even think about them. "Fuck."




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