Title: The Knight and The
Princess
Summary: Very post NFA.
Buffy tells Dawn’s daughter
a story.
Pairing: B/A Dawn/Spike
Prompt: Written for
Still_my_girl. “True love
doesn’t have a happy ending
because true love doesn’t
end.”
“Aunt Buffy, tell me a
story,” Joy said as she
clamored up in her lap.
Buffy smiled, wrapping her
arms around the little girl
and settling her on her lap
more securely. She smoothed
one hand over the little
girl’s dark hair before
pressing a kiss to her head.
“What kind of story, Baby?”
she asked even though she
already knew. Joy wanted to
hear the same story every
time Dawn and Spike brought
her to visit.
“The one about the knight
who fell in love with the
princess,” Joy said as she
laid her head on Buffy’s
shoulder, adoration and
admiration shining in her
eyes.
Buffy laughed softly. “You
never get tired of that one
do you?”
“Nuh uh ‘cause it’s
romantic,” Joy said in her
four year old voice.
“Romantic? Where do you hear
words like that?” Buffy
asked.
“Momma says Daddy is a
closet romantic but he
blusters and yells and
curses in British so no one
notices.”
“I think your Momma is
right. Okay…so once upon a
time there was very
tortured, very sad, quite
frankly emo knight in not
quite shining armor.”
“Daddy says the knight was a
nancy boy,” Joy inserted.
“Yes. Your daddy would say
that. Now close your eyes
and listen,” Buffy tried to
sound stern but a smile kept
teasing the corners of her
lips, allowing the amusement
to bubble up in her voice.
She cleared her throat and
started again. “Once upon a
time there was a knight who
was sad because he had no
princess. One day he saw his
princess in the sunlight and
he knew immediately that she
would change his life.”
“And that he’d love her
forever,” Joy reminded
Buffy.
“Yes. And that he’d love her
forever. Well the Princess
was a bit of a hard sell.
She wasted a lot of time
telling herself she didn’t
love the knight. When she
finally admitted she loved
him, he wasted even more
time telling her she
couldn’t love him. He didn’t
deserve it.”
“Cause he was a wanker,” Joy
added gleefully.
Buffy barely contained a
laugh as she fixed Joy with
an arched eyebrow. She
lowered her voice and
whispered “secretly most of
the time I agree but we
can’t tell anyone that. It
doesn’t go well with the
story.”
“Cross my heart,” Joy
promised with a bright
smile.
“So anyway, for a little
while the knight and the
princess were blissfully
happy. Then a very mean
monster came and tore them
apart. Well the knight had
to battle dragons and evil
monsters and demons and
black hearted villains but
eventually he found his way
back to the princess.”
“Because she was his true
love,” Joy said.
Buffy nodded. “Exactly. The
knight and the princess had
to part ways because there
were battles to be won and
dragons to be slain but they
always loved each other.”
“And then the dragon killed
the knight,” Joy said in a
voice that trembled with
tears. “Fairytales are
s’posed to have happy
endings.”
“Fairytales have happy
endings but true love
doesn’t. Do you know why?”
Buffy asked Joy, knowing
that the little girl could
repeat her words verbatim at
this point but she never did
when it got to this part of
the story.
“True love doesn’t have a
happy ending because true
love doesn’t end,” Buffy
whispered and pressed a kiss
to Joy’s head. She stayed
like that a moment, her nose
buried in the child’s hair,
trying to blink back her
tears.
Dawn stood in the doorway
and watched her sister and
her daughter. After a moment
she stepped inside the room,
crossed over to Buffy and
lifted Joy up into her arms.
“So it was the story about
the knight and the princess
again?”
Buffy shrugged. “She always
asks me to tell it.”
Dawn nodded. “It’s true you
know. I never realized it
until I fell in love with
Spike. And don’t shudder.
I’ve been married to him for
six years now. Eventually
you’ve got to stop going
ewww every time you see us
together.”
Buffy laughed. “It’s a knee
jerk reaction. What’s true?”
“The part about true love
not having an ending. As
much as I want to hate Angel
because he left you…I can’t.
I know he’s waiting for
you…where ever he is,” Dawn
told Buffy.
Buffy nodded and took a deep
breath. “Yeah…he is.”
