Flashback - Christmas
After dark, everyone was celebrating, eating around the Summers' dining room table.
Christmas lights were lit around the walls. Candles were burning all around.
On the left side of the table were Buffy, Anya, Xander and Layla.
On the right side of the table were Dawn, Zoey, Willow and Tara.
Giles sat at one end of the table, Joyce at the other.
Joyce, Layla and Giles stood.
"I think we're just about ready for pie," Joyce told them.
Joyce, Layla and Giles started to clear the dishes.
"Then I'll be pretty much ready for barf," Xander told them.
"Xander!" Buffy told him.
"No, no," Xander told them. He looked at Joyce. "Barf from the eating. 'Cause all was good, and too much goodness..."
"I'm taking it as a compliment," Joyce told him.
"Yes, uh, everything was delicious," Giles told her.
"Yes, I'm going to barf, too," Anya told them.
Joyce walked out, leaving.
"Everyone's so sweet," Layla told them sarcastically, following Joyce.
Giles followed them.
"How you doing there, Will?" Xander asked. "Are you in the vomit club, too?"
Willow groaned in pain. "I had too much nog."
"Oh, baby," Tara told her sympathetically. "Want me to rub your tummy?" She looked at the others' amused,weird expression. "She likes it when I... stop explaining things."
"My nog tastes funny," Dawn told them. "I think I got one with rum in it."
"That's bad," Zoey told her.
"Yeah, now Santa's gonna pass you right by, naughty booze hound," Xander told her.
Dawn and Zoey laughed quietly.
"Santa always passes me by," Willow told them. "Something puts him off. Could be the big honking menorah."
Tara looked at Dawn. "Oh, did you write him a letter?"
"What'd you ask for?" Zoey asked.
"Um, guys, hello?" Dawn asked. "Puberty? Sorta figured out the whole no-Santa thing."
"That's a myth," Anya told them.
Dawn nodded. "Yeah."
"No, I mean, it's a myth that it's a myth," Anya told them. "There is a Santa Claus."
Everyone looked surprised.
"The advantage of having a thousand-year-old girlfriend," Xander told them, turning to Anya. "Inside scoop."
"There's a Santa Claus?" Buffy asked.
"Mm-hmm," Anya answered. "Been around since, like, the 1500s. He wasn't always called Santa, but you know, Christmas night, flying reindeer, coming down the chimney, all true."
Dawn smiled hopefully. "All true?"
"Well, he doesn't traditionally bring presents so much as, you know, disemboweled children, but otherwise..."
"The reindeer part was nice," Tara told her.
Buffy smiled, walking into the kitchen.
Joyce, Giles and Layla were taking care of dinner and desert.
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Sister, Sister (Book Five, BTVS)
FanfictionWhat if Zoey Francis, the other Slayer in Sunnydale, was never an only child? What if she had Dawn as a sister instead of Buffy? That she and her mother Layla had to deal with Glory and her minions trying to take Dawn as the key to the other dimensi...
