𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘 ● BTVS

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍.

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄

dakota had her back resting against the wall of the magic shop, a cigarette between her lips, inhaling the smoke in her lungs. she knew smoking was a bad habit and that the others would hate her if they knew. but it wasn't like she was an excessive smoker.

plus spike seemed to enjoy her occasional smoking, it meant he had a smoking buddy. and he could share a cigarette with her, something he liked doing a little too much. 

dakota was ripped from her blonde vampire thoughts when dawn and tara rounded the corner, buffy, willow and giles close behind them. the brunette flicked out the cigarette, crushing it under her foot. 

she turned to them quickly, a bright smile forming on her face, "hey, it's lil' dee and tee".

"dakota," dawn squealed, rushing to embrace the older girl. the harris twin chuckled lovingly, her arms wrapping around the young summers girl. "i've barely seen you all summer. where have you been?".

dakota pulled back to look at dawn, "oh, you know me, dawny. always busy". dawn grinned widely in response.

"shops kinda dark. maybe it's closed," the voice of tara caught everyone's attention. 

"that's odd," giles frowned, getting closer to the building to look for himself, "have any people been in, dakota?".

dakota's face lit up with fake enthusiasm, "totally! in the past two minutes i've seen a whooping zero people".

both him and buffy shot the twin unamused looks before walking into the shop. dawn let out a little giggle, sticking right by dakota's side as they entered the shop right after the others.

'dakota's, like, so totally cool. so much cooler than any of buffy's friends. which is saying a lot considering there's nothing spooky about her. she isn't a slayer, or witch, or vampire, or demon of any kind. she wears cool clothes, not like what the other girls wear, she isn't into girly dresses and stuff. and she has really cool, curly hair. i wanna look like her when i'm older. plus she hangs out with this totally evil vampire, spike, all the time. she thinks no one knows but i've seen her sneak off to his vampire lair loads of times. i think they might secretly be in love'.

the inside of the magic shop was covered in darkness, furniture overturned and stock scattered around the shop. "i think 'odd' just got upped to 'bad'," buffy spoke as she looked around the wrecked store.

"yeah, super duper bad," dakota commented, inspecting areas of the store for herself, dawn shuffling close behind her.

"hello? anyone here?" giles called with no response.

"mr bogarty?" tara asked out, everyone turning to look at her in question, "the owner. i-i come in here a lot".

"well, maybe this happened late at night... when nobody was-" the redhead was cut off as she tripped over something, tumbling to the floor. 

"will?".

willow propped herself up, "i'm fine. i just tripped over". she looked down only to see the lifeless body of, "mr bogarty".

"wha- what is it? is he okay?" dawn tried to push her way forward to get a look at the body. dakota put her arm out, stopping the small brunette. 

"it's nothing you need to see, dawn, go wait outside," buffy hustled her sister towards the door, dragging her by the elbow. 

"i don't wanna wait outside!" dawn protested, still trying to peer over buffy's shoulder.

"dawn!" the older girl snapped, pushing her out the door and onto the street.