justprompts: sulk

[vampirelayer]

Image prompt from justprompts

 

Timeline: Pre-S1; though it's a memory that's not real, like all memories involving Dawn
Also S5, after Buffy learns the truth about Dawn

"Why do you always have to be such a baby?" Buffy demanded, pounding on the door of her sister's bedroom.  

"Go 'way," came a muffled voice from inside.  There was the distinct sound of furniture being dragged a little ways across the floor, before her sister gave up.  9 year olds didn't really have the muscle for barricading.  

"Mom and Dad left me in charge because I'm the oldest, and that means you have to do whatever I say," Buffy said, crossing her arms in what was her best attempt at an authoritative pout.  

"Does not!  You can't make me do anything, " Dawn shouted.  

"Can too."

"Can so not."

Buffy hit the door as hard as she could, but it didn't budge.  Why in the world did Dawn get the room with a lock on it?  She was way too young for that.  Buffy was a teenager.  If anyone should have privacy, it was her.  She let out a growl of frustration, wishing she could just kick the door in like they did on TV.  She'd love to see the look on her sister's face then.

"You're such a brat," Buffy said.  "I'm going to tell Mom when she gets back that you locked yourself up, and she'll be so mad.  You could hurt yourself.  You know you're never supposed to lock your door."

"You know you're not supposed to call me names.  I'm telling Mom that," Dawn exclaimed, a note of victory in her tone.  

"I'm going to hide all the Oreos," Buffy threatened abruptly.  "Every last one, and you'll never find them."

"You can't do that!" Dawn yelled back.  Buffy stomped up the hall so that it would sound like she was leaving.  

"I'm doing it right now!" she called out, and then after a moment, snuck back down towards the door, flattening herself against the wall.

There was a silence that lasted for all of 25 seconds, before Buffy heard the lock unclick, and the door creak open.  Very tentatively, Dawn's little head poked out.  It was enough.  Buffy reached over her head and smacked the door wide open, causing her sister to scream bloody murder, as if the Boogey Monster had jumped out.  Buffy scooped her up and started carrying her down the hall, but Dawn was wriggling with annoying vigor, beating on her back with tiny fists.

"Let me go!  Let me go!  You can't make me clean up!"  As they got to the bathroom door, Buffy had to readjust her sister in order to grasp the handle, and Dawn saw her advantage and took it.  She delivered a well placed kick that took Buffy by surprise and then slipped out of her grasp.  Buffy wheeled around, expecting her sister to flee down the hallway, but instead Dawn slipped past her into the bathroom and slammed the door.  Buffy was too late to grab it and open it before the lock slid shut.

"Oh you are so dead," Buffy yelled, pounding furiously again, as her sister cracked up laughing inside.  "That's it, Dawnie," she said, venom in her tone.  "I'm telling Mom all of this.  No matter what.  You can't get out of it now."

"You will not!"

"Too late for that."  Buffy was livid, and not in the mood for accepting apologies - not that her sister would ever actually offer one.  "I don't care."

There was a sniffling sound from inside.   Oh no, Buffy thought to herself, she doesn't get to start crying when she's the one being a brat.  The sniffles turned indignant however, and finally she heard rustling.  

"What are you doing?" she asked, pressing her ear to the door, suddenly concerned.  Her eyes widened as she remembered she'd left some of her school books in there, that she was reading while brushing her teeth.

There was a ripping noise.  Buffy gasped.  "What are you doing in there?" she repeated, punctuating it with pounds on the door.

There was a pause.  And then the toilet flushed.

"No.  Way."  Buffy stared in astonishment.  "No way.  Dawn... I hate you!"

Another flush. 

"I hate you!  I wish you'd never even been born!"

Flush.

"I wish you didn't even exist!"

Flush.

"Mom told me you're not even my sister!"

The malicious lie spilled out, and actually managed to provoke a silence from the bathroom.  Moments later, a tiny voice spoke up: 

"Did not."

Buffy felt victorious.  "She did.  She said you were adopted from a family of cave trolls.  Even the trolls didn't want you."

"That's not true!"

"It is... and guess what?  If you don't behave, we're giving you back to them."

The door was flung open, Dawn's lip quivering, tears in her eyes.   "You wouldn't."

She really should have taken it back.  She could see that her sister was really hurt, that she really believed it, that she was really honestly afraid.

But Buffy could also see her textbook lying next to the toilet, opened up to where ragged pages had been torn out.  Her stomach twisted, and she looked back at Dawn completely seriously.

"We would.  We don't want you."

-------------

Buffy sat up with a gasp, surprised by the sudden dark, the sudden quiet, the sudden onslaught of reality after the harsh dream.  Memory. 

No -- not even a memory, she told herself.  Not even real at all.  

Back then, all she'd wished was that her sister wasn't real.  Wasn't really her sister.  Even if it hadn't really been her, those monks knew that it was what Buffy would have wished.  Her eyes crossed the room to where Dawnie slept now, and grief seized her heart.

All I wish for now is to unwish that.

Comments

[huntedhunter.livejournal.com]

Maybe we weren't quite that bad, but this reminded me a bit of the way me and my sister used to be.

Okay, seriously though. That last line? Ouch. : (

[cuzitswrong.livejournal.com]

XD I actually based this on one of my best friends and her sister. My brother and I always got along really well.

Ouch is what I was going for. ♥ Thanks for reading, hon.