Sister Bonding Time!! Who: Buffy and Dawn Where: The Summers Home When: A little bit before Prom
Los Angles. So much different from Rome. Or Sunnydale, from that matter. Dawn Summers couldn't help but be in a strange sort of awe over the city. Granted, she'd been there before, but this was different. This was her home now. It was time to come back. Get a fresh start. Yeah, she'd been a huge part of all of that nasty drama involving Ash back in Sunnydale, and yeah, it had been worth it to go study abroad in Italy, but enough hiding. It was all in the past. Besides, Dawn had missed everyone back in the states too much. Especially Buffy....speaking of which, she hadn't even told her sister that she was coming back. Told their mother, yes, but she'd wanted to 'surprise' Buffy. Stepping out of the taxi that she'd taken from the airport, she pulled her suitcases out of the trunk and made her way to the front door of her family's new home. Heaving a sigh, calming her nerves, she pressed her finger against the doorbell.
Buffy was the only one home right now. Graduation had come and went, and now she was just hanging around the house until college in the fall. Right now she was flipping through a magazine while laying on the living room floor. When she heard the doorbell go off, she jumped up and answered the door, only to nearly keel over in shock when she saw Dawn. "Oh my god! You're here!" she squealed and wrapped Dawn up in a hug. "What are you doing here?"
Dawn's face broke out to in a wide grin. "Hey sis," she said, promptly returning the hug. "Long story short," she said when she broke away from the older girl's embrace, "I'm back. To stay."
"To stay? Europe not all that it was promised to be or something? The boys not as romantic as the brochure says?" Buffy asked as she pulled Dawn's bags inside.
Dawn laughed, "Actually, it was fantastic. And the boys were gorgeous. I just...missed everyone back home. Especially you. I also figured that all of that nasty drama would be water under the bridge by now."
"Very much water under a huge bridge," Buffy told her, pulling her inside. "And you've got to tell me about all of the gorgeous boys."
"Oh, I will," Dawn said, linking her arm through Buffy's, "Not one single detail shall be spared."
"I'm so glad to have you back," Buffy said. "You have no idea how much it has sucked around here without you being around."
"Well," said Dawn with a devilish grin, "I am the life of the party."
Buffy sat down on the sofa, kind of flopping into it. "You are. LA is dead, I think. That or I mostly run into jerks who dump me for slutty DJs, I don't know."
Dawn plopped right down next to her sister. "Psh," she said, "Those guys are morons. Any guy would be extremely lucky to get you, Buffy."
"You'd think so, huh?" Buffy asked. She couldn't believe how grateful she was to see what she had once only thought of as a bratty little sister right now.
"I don't think, I know." Dawn said, giving her a holier-than-thou look.
"Right..." Buffy still wasn't sure if she believed. Her confidence in herself had pretty much been shot. Sure, Ash was working on the Slayer confidence, but her regular confidence was still miles off. "So, how was Europe, anyway? Hot guys, true, but did the classes live up to expectation for you?"
"I actually enjoyed all of my classes," she said, "It was an English speaking school, after all. I loved all of my teachers, believe it or not."
"Really? And you left all of that wonderfulness to come back here? Almost makes me feel special," Buffy said with a gin.
"I really, really, really missed you." Dawn said.
"I've missed you, too," Buffy said, reaching over and hugging Dawn again.