Day one: One Declaration of love Title: The Journal Fandom: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer Season Five characters: Dawn and Frankie Rating: PG Summary: Frankie gives Dawn reason to not give up living after she finds out she was until recently just a mystical Key to another Dimension. Notes: Do not own Buffy, but Frankie is my creation, ask before borrowing.
Frankie stood at the door, and ran a hand through his hair, unsure of whether to ring the bell, knock, or just walk right in. He wanted to see—no, needed to see Dawn. After everything that had happened today, he needed to tell her something. He shifted the hastily wrapped gift from one hand to the other, still unsure what to do. He raised his hand to knock on the door, and then let it fall down to his side again.
“Well, bullocks, half moon, are you gonna knock or stand there in the doorway like some bloody lawn decoration all night?” Frankie jumped, and whirled on the peroxide blond vampire standing by a tree outside the house. The fourteen year old sighed. “Dammit, Spike, don’t DO that! Besides, I don’t even know if they’re back from the hospital.” He said, in defense of his indecision.
Spike raised an eyebrow. “They’ve been back for about half an hour, Half Moon. Here, how about I give you a hand, since yours seems to be not working.” Before Frankie could stop him, Spike knocked on the door, then slipped silently back into the shadows, leaving a very wide eyed werewolf behind.
Luckily, it wasn’t Dawn who answered the door, but rather Buffy. She gave him a wry smile, as he stood there sputtering in her doorstep. “She’s in her room,” was all she said, opening the door wide to allow Frankie to come inside. Thankful he didn’t have to give his meager excuse; he entered the door and headed up the stairs.
He felt the same dilemma as he stood outside Dawn’s room. However, as he had already come this far, there was no point in turning back now. He knocked on the door. “Dawnie?” He called, just so she wouldn’t think it was Buffy being all sisterly again. He ran a hand through his hair again, a nervous gesture he’d had since he was nine.
He could hear the sigh in her voice as she said. “Come in.”
He opened the door. The smell of smoke hit his nostrils, despite the window being open. He had overheard Xander talking about the burned diaries, but he wasn’t expecting to be accosted by the scent. He fought down the cough as he smiled nervously. “Hey.”
She didn’t look at him. She sat, cross legged on her bed, looking out the window. The edge of the bandage on her arm just showing under her sleeve. Its presence made his heart wrench. “So, I suppose you knew too? Knew that I’m not real.”
Frankie shook his head. “No. I didn’t find out til this,” motioning to encompass the entire day, “happened. I don’t think they intended to tell either of us.” Even his voice sounded bitter as he said, “After all, how could we possibly understand?”
She looked at him. “So, are you here to end our friendship? After all, we don’t really know each other, do we?” She gave a humourless laugh, something that sounded more like a bark than a laugh.
He looked at her like she had grown a second head. “No! I came to cheer up my…my best friend. And I know you. I know you better than anyone.” He sat down next to her. “You think that’s gonna change now?”
“But, Frankie,” she said, “I didn’t even exist until this year! How can you know someone who just showed up? I’m not even human.”
“I know you because this,” he pointed at his head, “and this,” he pointed at his heart, “tell me I know you. After all, who else would be the treasurer of the We don’t trust Angel club? Not Buffy, certainly. Well, maybe Giles or Willow, but honestly, you’re the only one who never asked me to give him a second chance.”
“That’s because I wasn’t there. Those aren’t real memories, Frankie. The monks just put them there so no one would question Buffy suddenly having a little sister.”
“I don’t care, Dawn. To me, the memory makes it real, no matter how that memory got there. How do you know it’s not that you were just sent to Buffy? Maybe they sent you back in time to grow up with Buffy this whole time. Why does everyone assume just because you weren’t biologically born that they didn’t let you grow up that way? I have a lot of good memories of us hanging out, but you know the one that sticks in my mind the most?” He smiled gently. “When I woke up in that hospital room after being left for dead by Angelus, and seeing you hang all those crosses in the room and the bottle of holy water sitting on the bedside stand. I missed half of what Oz was lecturing me about because you looked so determined that it was adorable. And nobody is going to tell me that didn’t happen because I have every single one of those crosses hanging in my bedroom right now.” He looked down at his hands in his lap. The wrapped gift there in his arms. He ran his hand through his hair. “I…uh….I have something for you.” He shrugged. “I was gonna give it to for your birthday, but…with all that’s going on, I thought maybe now would be a better time.” He held it out to her, a slight blush climbing up his cheeks.
Because he was looking away, he missed the cute little confused smile she gave him. “Well, this is the first time I’ve gotten a present on my sister’s birthday.” She took it and gingerly unwrapped the Sunday funnies. Inside the wrappings and brown twine was a leather-bound journal with bronze plated cross embedded in it. “A journal?”
He blushed harder. “I...uh…Will told me you burned your old journals. So I thought….oh, just read the inside.” “You know you’re cute when you blush.” Dawn smirked as she opened the cover and read the inscription.
My Dawn, it read in Frankie’s hastily written hand, Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not real. I don’t care if you aren’t exactly human. I’m not exactly human am I? Whether the memories were implanted or not, they are there, and therefore they are real. I wouldn’t be in love with you if you weren’t real. So you don’t think what happened before isn’t real, fine. Use this to write our story. This is day one. The rest of your life is still ahead of us. Write it here. Love, Frankie
Dawn looked up from the inscription, shock on her face. “Frankie?”
He looked over at her, face as red as Willow’s hair. “Yeah, it’s sure not gonna win any Pulitzer prizes, but it comes from the heart.” He smiled at her, biting his lower lip, glancing quickly at the door, in case he had to make a hasty heart broken retreat.
She closed the journal, and ran a small hand down the cross. “It’s beautiful,” she said quietly. She knew why Frankie brought up the cross incident in the hospital. What he didn’t know is she begged the hospital to let her put them up. She had to convince the staff that Frankie was devout catholic and that he couldn’t sleep in a room without crosses. She set the journal aside and turned so she was facing her childhood friend. “Frankie, how can you mean that?”
“Because I listen to my heart, and it says that this is right.” He turned toward her as he said that. “I love you, Dawn.”
The two teens looked at each other for several minutes. Dawn tucked a strand of brunette hair behind her ear, and Frankie ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. He sucked on his bottom lip til it turned red. He paused, looking at Dawn, and let a little breath escape in a rush. She looked at him sideways, not quite meeting his eyes. She seemed to find a strand of hair very fascinating.
The awkward moment passed as they stopped fidgeting and looked at each other for what felt like the first time. They leaned toward each other as their eyes closed and their lips parted slightly. Frankie was excited and nervous about this, his first kiss with Dawn. They moved closer. He could smell her strawberry lip gloss. The world dropped away, it was just the two of them in all the world.
Then his hand slipped on Dawn’s purple comforter and he squaked in a most unromantic manner as he fell into Dawn, their lips not so much meeting as bashing into each other in a hard uncomfortable way. He felt the ooomf from Dawn on his lips. It felt weird, and he giggled into her lips. She grabbed onto his arms, holding him like she was drowning. He moved an awkward hand behind her head, holding their lips together.
It was clumsy. They tried to mimic what they had seen around them, but movies and siblings were poor references. Their lips slipped away from each other, and back again as they tried to get it right. They almost had it when Dawn slipped and she bit down on Frankie’s lip as she fell backwards.
“Ow!” He cried, a hand going to his lip. He looked down, crossing his eyes as if he could see his lips beyond his nose. He rubbed his lip gingerly. “That is not how it’s done in the movies.”
Dawn gasped, and giggled. “Oh! Are you all right?”
He smiled awkwardly around his swollen lip. “Yeah, didn’t even draw blood.” He moved his hand down from his lips. “I’m going to write to those film producers and chastise them for false advertising.”
Dawn laughed. Her eyes were twinkling as she playfully shoved Frankie. “You goof. You can’t blame the movie theaters because you don’t know how to kiss.”
He grinned back, cheekily. “Hey, who said it’s me who doesn’t know how to kiss? You’re the one who bit me.” They laughed and it lapsed into a comfortable silence between the two.
Dawn curled up and laid her head on his shoulder, sighing in contentment. Frankie looked down at the brunette, startled. She looked so sweet there. He tentatively put his arm around her, and relaxed immediately. It felt right. She looked up at him with those piercing blue eyes, and said, “I love you too, Frankie.”
He felt his heart soar at those simple words. He stroked her hair with his hand, and stammered, ‘So…uh…does this mean…uh. Dawn, will you go out with me? Like, be my girlfriend?” God, he sounded like such a dork.
Dawn shook her head and laughed at the inarticulate boy. “I thought that was established with the awkward first kiss. But if it would make you feel better, yes, I will be your girlfriend.”
At this point, Buffy slipped quietly away from the door and headed downstairs. She needed to go out patrolling, but she wanted to see the exchange between her sister and Oz’s cousin first. She smiled ruefully as she left the house with her trusted Mr. Pointy. At least one Summers girl seemed to be having good luck with relationships. Frankie was a good kid.
She would still have to sit him down and put the fear of Buffy into his heart, but for now, she was content to let the two get used to the idea of being an item without Big Sister interference. She looked up once as she turned the corner, and smiled again. The two were obviously listening to music and being their goofy selves, dancing around, not known that somebody was watching. “Keep an eye on them,” She said to Spike as she headed to the graveyard. “I’ll be back before Sunrise.”