The Water's Daughter

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

I was wondering the streets of Sunnydale with my head in the clouds. Dad was training Buffy which meant he was critiquing her skills as a Slayer. She hated it, but it's one of the many things that came with having a watcher, I guess. I looked up at the skies and smiled at the peacefulness. If one didn't know any better then they would say it was the perfect night. But not only did I know better but my mind was full of thoughts that probably shouldn't have been there. Thoughts about Angel. I knew what he was, part of my mother's parting gift. My mother was a Slayer and a witch. A very powerful witch. When she died it was in a car accident with me inside. I was only three at the time and I still had nightmares. The scars didn't help either. Father insists vampires were behind the car accident and the Watcher's Council did nothing about it. I might not remember anything from being so young, but I couldn't recall vampires.

"You're out late." I jumped and looked quickly to see Angel. I sighed in relief before smiling at him.

"Don't you know you shouldn't scare people like that?" I joked.

"Don't you know you should pay attention to your surroundings? Especially at night," he pointed out.

"Touche," I said. "Walk a girl home?" He smiled before nodding. We walked talking about nothing that was completely important. How my day was, how he slept, etc. It was nice being normal for a time.

The next day, I sat at the table in the library with Buffy sitting on top of it. Dad made his way to us from the stacks while leafing through a book. He filled me in on everything on the way to school this morning.

"That symbol on the ring... I believe it's the rune for fidelity, but, uh, it doesn't connect with any of the sects that I've studied," he told us while Buffy studied the ring.

"What about this?" Buffy asked showing him the ring. "On the inside. It's a sun and three stars. Haven't we seen that somewhere?"

"Let me see." Dad took the ring and looked at the symbol closely. "No, I-I don't think this, um, represents any..."

"Wait, it's right here," Buffy told him looking at the book he'd put down. "Sun and three stars. Yuck, check these guys out." She handed the open book to dad. "Told you it looked familiar."

"Oh, the Order of Aurelius. Yes, you're right," Dad commented looking through the passage he was reading.

"Ooo, two points for the Slayer, while the Watcher has yet to score!" Buffy cheered and I laughed. We heard the doors open and looked at see Owen walk into the library and approach us. "Oh!" Buffy slide off the table and fixed her skirt. "Owen! Hi!"

"What do you want?" Dad asked him rudely.

"A book?" Owen asked.

"Oh!" Dad said seeming to suddenly remember where we were.

"See dad? Even in America teenagers check out books and learn things from them," I said sarcastically.

"I was beginning to suspect that was a myth."

"I lost my Emily. Dickinson. It's dumb, but I like her around. Kind of a security blanket," Owen told us.

"I have something like that. Well, it's an actual blanket. Uh, and I don't really carry it around anym-more..." Buffy dropped her sentence awkwardly. "So! Emily Dickens, huh? She's great!"

"Dickinson."

"She's good also." I rolled my eyes at her as dad pointed to the stacks.

"Poetry."

"I didn't think I'd find you here," Owen told Buffy as they made their way up the stairs.

"W... Why not?" Buffy asked him.