Work Text:
CLASSIFICATION: Former Buffy/Angel, Dawn/Connor bonding.
SPOILERS: Set in an alt universe of sorts in BtVS's season 7 (no appearance by The First); no real spoilers except for BtVS's "Chosen" since the Potentials being trained at the Summers' house is the issue being discussed between Buffy and Angel.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, I don't own it. Joss Whedon, Kazui Sandollar, The WB, UPN, et. al. most likely do.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: My answer to my first ficathon, the Male Ficathon:
For: S J Smith
Male: Angel
One other person you'd like to see: Buffy or Dawn or Connor (your choice!)
Requirements: Comic book pop culture mention, PG-rating, "'Ohana' means family. And family means no one gets left behind. Or forgotten."
Restriction: Slash
Ohana
By Ragna
***
It wasn't that strange of a night, Dawn mused. Except that Angel was there. And so was this boy who every one said was Angel's son. And the two younger members of the foursome were watching "Lilo & Stitch."
"Okay. Once again...what's 'ohana' mean?" the boy, Connor, asked.
Dawn sighed again. It was like this kid had been gone for a while. A very long while. "'Ohana' means family. And family means no one gets left behind. Or forgotten." She shrugged. "It's the whole message of the movie...Stitch becomes part of Nani and Lilo's 'ohana' and.."
"And what?"
"Isn't Angel your family?"
"Not really."
"He's your dad."
"Not really." Connor shrugged. "Someone else raised me. It was a lie, though. My whole life...it was a lie."
"Well, at least you weren't implanted on everyone's memories," Dawn said, pausing the movie. "You were actually born and you were loved and you were real. I was just...a Key."
"I was a tool, too, to get others what they wanted."
Dawn shook her head. "When I say Key, I say it with a capital K."
"There's a difference?"
Dawn shut her eyes, counted to ten, and then yelled, "Buffy!"
***
Buffy and Angel paced around the kitchen. There was a charged silence between them, like there was so much they wanted to say but couldn't, and there was a lot they didn't want to talk about but they needed to.
So they just paced.
Finally, Buffy stopped. "He's really your son?"
Angel nodded. "Locked me up in a cement box, dumped me in the ocean and everything."
Buffy nodded for a moment. "And why did he do that?"
"Because I didn't raise him."
"How could you not raise your own son?"
"He was kidnapped as a baby, taken to another dimension. Raised by a man whose life I destroyed when I was Angelus. And then he had Connor sent back here, hating me, and just when there was a...connection, the man had himself killed and convinced Connor that I'd done it."
"And then what?"
"Then the whole cement-box-in-ocean thing."
"Oh." Buffy started pacing again. "Well...he's interesting, to say the least."
Angel nodded. Buffy looked as though she wanted to ask him something else, but the look on his face convinced her it was time to drop the subject. Angel spoke up then. "What is it about these Potentials that you needed my help with?"
"Spike...he's gone, he had to go to search for this talisman that we need. Only a souled vampire could get it and we couldn't get a hold of you. But I need help training all these girls. I mean, everyone's helping, even Anya and Xander and half the time they can't stand to be in the same room together." She paused. "I need you. You know?"
Angel nodded. "Let me call Wesley."
And then they heard Dawn yell.
***
"You know where the book about you is," Buffy said, handing her the heavy tome from Willow's room. "It isn't as though she wouldn't mind you getting that book."
Dawn stuck out her tongue at her older sister. Then she turned to Connor. "We keep this book here with us," she said, opening it up to the section she read with Spike all that time ago. "Even though we defeated Glory, her minions are still around and...well, we don't know if I'm still mystical or not. Them getting ideas like Glory's would be bad for the world."
"Who's Glory?" Angel asked Buffy quietly.
"The evil god who killed me. Tacky blonde with bad fashion sense." Buffy shrugged, and Angel was alarmed at how nonchalant she was about it now. She'd only been back about a year and a half now, almost two years.
Connor was shaking his head to what Dawn was saying. "So you think that being born human to two vampires isn't something...unusual?"
"Not if you've lived in Sunnydale, no."
Buffy crooked her finger at Angel and they silently walked back into the kitchen. "Can you help me?" she whispered, not taking her eyes of the two teenagers.
"I'll see what I can do." He headed towards the phone on the kitchen counter and dialed Wesley's number.
A sleepy voice answered. "Hello?"
"Wesley, I need to stay in Sunnydale for a while. Is everything okay there?"
"Nothing we can't handle."
"Good. You have Buffy's number?"
"I'm sure I can find it in your office."
"I may be like Superman, but my office is no where near as clean as Clark Kent's was."
"Angel, run that by me again please?"
"Never mind. Her number is area code 398 555 2833. Got it?"
"No...let me get paper first."
"Oh." Angel waited and heard the sounds of Wesley rummaging around.
"All right. What is it again?"
"Area code 398 555 2833."
"Got it. If we need you, we'll call you."
"Thanks." Angel hung up and turned to Buffy who was grinning.
"Superman? Clark Kent? Did Xander have some influence on you while you were in Sunnydale?"
Angel shook his head. "TBS. They show the Superman movies every once in a while."
"Oh." She shook her head. "I see you've changed. A lot."
Angel shrugged. "It happens."
Buffy turned her head back to Dawn and Connor, who were now talking animatedly. "They seem to be hitting it off."
"Yeah."
The door slammed and the talking stopped for a few seconds before Kennedy shouted, "We're home!"
Buffy shook her head and laid it on the island in the kitchen, then straightened up. "Might as well meet the troops." She held out her hand to Angel. "Come on."
Angel took her hand and allowed himself to be led out to meet the Potentials. Strangely enough, the whole thing felt...right. Maybe helping these young women out would be the best thing he could do.
Buffy squeezed his hand before telling the twenty or so girls standing in her living room. "Guys, I see you've met Connor. This is his father, Angel..."
END