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“Does Dawn have a new boyfriend?”
Willow looks up at Buffy’s question. She had been reorganizing the magical volumes shelves when Buffy came in. Enough of the volumes are volatile that it requires some focus.
“Not that I know of. Why?”
Buffy sighs and slumps down in one of the chairs.
“I overheard someone talking about how Bob was looking for her the other day,” she says, “And we keep arguing lately so I thought maybe you’d know more than me, if it were a boyfriend visiting. Is it not a friendly situation? Oh god, does Dawnie have a stalker? She’d tell me, right? I mean, hello, castle full of slayers! We could totally handle a-”
“Buffy!”
Buffy pauses and inhales. Willow is looking nervous now. Not the typical my-friend-is-making-with-the-jumps-to-conclusions nervous though. No, Willow has an edge of guilt. Buffy’s expression hardens.
“You know something.”
Willow grimaces.
“Maybe we should talk about this later-”
“No, tell me!”
Willow does not tell her. Neither will anyone else. Buffy goes around the castle and all she gets is…
“Uh, what? Who? You know, I should be dusting off my X-Wing…” from Andrew.
“You know teens! Trust me, Buff, you’re better off not knowing,” from Xander.
“Bob…? Oh, I think that’s a character in some show on telly. Right, Kenzie?” “Oh yeah, I think they were talking about a program-” from the two slayers she stopped.
Spike just stares at her with his lips twitching for a moment before kissing the top of her head and getting called away by one of the slayers.
None of them answering her question.
Buffy is getting more annoyed as the day goes on. She stomps into the kitchen right as Dawn’s laughing and saying-
“Geez, Bob’s on a rampage today!”
Buffy’s had enough.
“Who is Bob?” she demands.
Dawn and Vi both look at her with wide eyes. Kennedy, on the other hand, doesn't even look up from the apple she’s slicing when she speaks.
“Brassed off Buffy.”
Silence.
“What?” Buffy blinks.
“Brassed. Off. Buffy,” Kennedy repeats, looking at her now, “B.O.B. Bob. The others started using it for when you were in a mood, since your British vampire calls you that.”
Buffy stares. Dawn and Vi are frozen. It takes a few seconds for the words to process.
“...you have a code word for when I’m in a bad mood?” Buffy says slowly.
“Uh huh,” Dawn says.
“Does Spike know?” Silence. “Did Spike come up with it?” Three heads shaking no.
A look at Dawn’s expression tells Buffy exactly who coined the acronym. Dawn’s braced like Buffy's going to huff at her. Instead the blonde grabs a tub of ice cream from the freezer and walks off without another word, much to the relief of two of the younger slayers.
Fine. Whatever. She can get brassed off sometimes - everyone does, that's totally normal-girl according to her therapist - but not always! She can be a good-mood slayer. Like she will be in an hour, after she’s eaten her ice cream and gotten Spike to help put her in a good mood.
God, she loves him. And he loves her too.
(Even when she’s brassed off.)