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"No, Aunt Willow," Tyler explained with the patience of an eight-year-old who understands everything. "They're not magic beans. They just have weird flavors. See, that one's grass, and this one's earwax..."
Willow couldn't think why anyone would eat an earwax-flavored jelly bean if not for a spell, but she knew that grade-school boys were a law unto themselves. Probably they dared each other to eat the candy.
"Maybe they could be a little bit magic?" she suggested, holding her hand over the box in Tyler's hand.
Dawn swept by at that moment, carrying a basket of rolls. "No magic on anything Tyler's going to eat," she hissed in passing. Willow shrugged an apology at the boy.
Buffy and Spike were late for Christmas dinner, which had annoyed Dawn's daughter-in-law Carole. Willow felt bad for Dawn, who had to deal with the woman every time she saw her grandson. Alex's wife had her head firmly in the sand. At any hint of the uncanny, Carole would keep Tyler away from Alex's family for weeks. Spike's text to Dawn, explaining that he and Buffy were delayed due to a slayage emergency, had to be reinterpreted as car trouble.
Willow winked at Tyler. She wiggled her fingers toward the jelly beans. A barely visible sparkle scattered over the box. Tyler suppressed his grin when his mom appeared, calling everyone to the table.
"They're finally here, so let's eat." Willow could hear Alex at the door, offering to take Buffy's coat and Spike's duster. The thick cloud cover had made a blanket for the flammable vampire unnecessary.
Willow found herself seated next to Alex's sister Celia. "What was the emergency?" Celia asked Buffy as Alex carved the Christmas turkey.
"False alarm." Buffy shook out her napkin and slipped it onto her lap.
Willow passed the green bean casserole. She didn't get to these holiday dinners very often. It was nice to be back home with family.
A small tremor made the water in the glasses shiver. The native Californians took it in stride: minor earthquakes weren't worth getting excited about. A second tremor was followed by the distant sound of sirens.
"Tyler, come back to the table," Carole called. Her son had slipped out of his chair and was looking through the living room window.
When the boy turned to the grown-ups, his eyes were round. "Aunt Buffy..." He pointed toward the street. Buffy and Celia both went to join him, followed by Spike.
Willow crossed to the hall window. In the park across the street, something obscured her view. It looked like... feet. Feet and legs and-- Willow twisted her neck to look through the top of the window, but she couldn't make out the top of the figure.
Everyone filed outside, leaving a huffy Carole upset about all the food cooling on plates.
"Wow!" Tyler tipped his head back so far he would have fallen over if his dad had not been standing behind him. The huge legs Willow had seen from inside rose up to a pair of monstrous knees. There was probably a head somewhere, but it was too lost in the clouds for Willow to see it.
"What do you think?" Celia asked Buffy. "Axes?"
"I don't know," Buffy answered. "Even if it holds still long enough for us to chop it down like a tree, where's it gonna fall?"
Buffy was walking down the street to get a better angle when a huge gout of water splashed down on top of Spike. He cursed and jumped back, shaking his head.
"It's salt," he called, wiping water out of his eyes.
Tyler, standing beside Willow, whispered, "He's crying."
The water was followed by a splash of something thicker.
"And his nose is running," Tyler commented more loudly. "What if he needs to pee?"
Tyler broke free from his father and ran back into the house. Buffy and Celia debated the merits of rappelling gear over a rocket launcher. The giant stood quietly in the park, splashes of saltwater occasionally hitting the ground like water balloons.
When Tyler burst out the front door again, he was followed by his mother. Her protestations cut short as she caught sight of the figure rising from her neighborhood park.
"Tyler!" Carole screamed. Her son ignored her, racing across the street. Spike intercepted the boy just yards from the giant, but not before Tyler had hurled a fistful of brightly-colored pebbles toward the ground in front of the huge feet.
Another tremor shook the neighborhood. A green shoot sprouted from the park as Spike backed away with Tyler in his arms. While the group watched, the sprout grew upward until it was a rope of leafy green, stretching beside the giant into the clouds above. The pavement buckled as the plant's roots spread under the street.
"This is not normal!" Carole was in her doorway, stamping her foot.
The giant's hands disappeared from view as it stepped close to the beansprout. It set a foot carefully on one branch, testing its weight. When the vine held firm, the giant climbed upwards, quickly disappearing from sight.
Alex tried to calm his wife, who was having hysterics. Dawn shot Willow a baleful look. Willow tried for who-me face, but knew she was unsuccessful.
"Good thinking, Squirt," Celia told Tyler, who had squirmed out of Spike's grasp.
"You were gonna kill him, and he wasn't hurting anybody," the boy accused his aunt. "I wish he could have stomped my school, though."
"Is that going to go away?" Buffy asked Willow, pointing at the beansprout.
"Probably?" Willow shrugged.
Everyone trooped back inside to finish their Christmas dinner. When the police arrived, they assured them that nobody had seen a thing.