tamingthemuse | Prompt #159 Babylon - Are You Watching Me Now (1/1) - spikesdeb

Title: Are You Watching Me Now
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: #159 - Babylon
Rating: PG
Word Count: 913
Pairing: Dawn/Xander (allusion)
Summary: During the long, dark days before the final Apocalypse in Sunnydale, Dawn finds that she no longer regards Xander as a big brother.
Author's note: First the disclaimer - nothing belongs to me except the thoughts in my head and the fingers that type them out. Thanks Joss for the privilege of having Buffy et al to play about with. Thanks also to

seductivembrace who despite a killer schedule manage to fix my boo-boos.

ARE YOU WATCHING ME NOW

It was an ongoing argument. Xander would go all out in favour of Babylon 5 and Andrew would hold tight to Star Trek as being the best sci-fi show ever made. Xander would quote dialogue and Andrew would rebuff with a Spock put-down, accompanied by the live long and prosper finger spread. Xander would accept that Gene Roddenberry was a veritable god amongst writers, but would insist that the storylines on Babylon were far and away more complicated and exciting and this would move Andrew to jump up and wag his finger in Xander's face. At this point, Dawn would suggest a snack to prevent any blows being exchanged and would giggle every time as Xander winked at her. He was only messing with the nerd-boy; everybody knew that Star Trek beat Babylon 5 hands down every time. Yet Andrew always rose to the bait and another hour or so would pass when the potentials and the Scoobies would be distracted from thoughts of the impending battle.

Dawn watched, as always, from the sidelines as the potentials trained, as the potentials bonded, as the potentials spent time with her sister. It was all about the potentials. Every now and then she'd notice Xander looking at her with a slight smile on his face and dip her head to hide the blush. Xander saw everything, even with his handicap. He was truly a watcher, but not a recognised one. He watched in a good way, a useful way – and his crooked smile made her heart beat faster.

It had been a while since she'd thought of boys. The vampire Halloween show had sort of dampened her enthusiasm where dating was concerned. But the old crush she'd had on Xander way back when she was a child – a simile of a child, really, given that she hadn't ever been anything other than a fake memory back then – had definitely kicked back in. She was sure that Anya was giving her the evil eye,, but due to circumstances otherwise known as “Impending Apocalypse”, and despite her best efforts to avoid being alone with Xander, and therefore sweaty-palmed, they kept being thrown together.

He may have started out as a big brother, but that certainly wasn't the way she thought of him now. She just wanted to sweep that curl of hair away from his forehead and palm his cheek, rubbing her thumb beneath his jaw to feel the stubble. She wanted to feel his arms wrap around her, as they had many, many times before. She wanted to feel his breath on her neck and gasp around his kisses and taste his tongue as it curled around hers. In the dead secret of night, she dreamed about his naked chest and his construction-worker arms and other things she'd read about in magazines. He made her pulse race and she wanted him.

“Hey, Dawnster. You're looking pretty serious. Big thoughts in your noggin?”

Dawn jumped. While she'd been preoccupied thinking of Xander and his manly arms, the man in question had extricated himself from the fawning attentions of Andrew and snuck up behind her. She felt faint as he set his arms on either side of her where she sat at the dining room table and kissed the top of her head. She could feel the heat from his flesh flushing her own beneath the sheet of her hair and stifled a smug giggle. Anya was hovering by the stairs throwing out negative vibes that were chilling the air, but that didn't matter. A moment of pure clarity hit her: Dawn felt like a woman. A woman who knew what she wanted.

She leaned back into Xander and tipped her head back, gifting him with a full on dazzling smile and huge blue eyes. Xander blinked and went to move away, obviously realising that something unexpected was taking place, but Dawn stopped him by putting her hands over his and whispering, “Don't go.”

The potentials and Andrew were still debating the merits of the sci-fi genre all around them, but Dawn tuned them out. All she could hear was the thud of Xander's heart where she leaned on his chest and the reassuring cadence of his breath as it heated the air between them. Her skin tingled where they touched and she couldn't calm the quivering deep-down in her belly. Her own heart thumped quick and heavy and she could barely breathe, not wanting to break the intensity of the moment.

Anya flouncing to the table and dragging Xander away put paid to that idea, leaving Dawn to turn in her seat to watch Xander as he disappeared out of the door. She dipped her gaze to the floor, blowing air between dry lips to calm her racing pulse – then looked up just in time to see Xander staring at her in bemused fascination as he was yanked through the doorway and out of sight. She could hear the shrill tones of the ex-vengeance demon berating him in the hallway and Xander's deeper voice calmly replying, although she couldn't make out the words. It mustn't have been what Anya wanted to hear, though, as the front door slammed and after a few seconds Xander strolled back into the dining room and stood about a foot away from her, just looking.

Watching. Always watching.

And, Dawn hoped, finally seeing that she was much, much more than the slayer's little sister.