By Dawn's Early Light by Grundy

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Over The River And Through The Woods

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Buffy still felt nervous about leaving Dawn behind- even though in this case, ‘behind’ meant leaving Dawn at home in the care of both her parents. It was all the twins' fault. Her incredibly irritating brothers had gotten the brilliant idea that as the ‘baby’, Dawn should have some bonding time with her parents and sister without the three of them underfoot. And Buffy needed to meet her grandparents. So they’d somehow persuaded Celebrian and Elrond that it made total sense for them to drag her off to Lothlorien while Dawn stayed at Imladris.

It had taken the two of them together to wrestle Buffy onto her horse over her protests. (It totally wouldn’t have worked if she didn’t have to worry about what Mom and Ada would say if she broke either of her brothers. Or both of them.) Willow had been enthused about the idea of coming along, but Xander had been reluctant- Buffy wasn’t the only one who had been put on a horse against her better judgement.

Consequently, two of the party making camp for the night were in a foul mood. Buffy hadn’t spoken to her brothers all afternoon. Willow and Tara had retreated to the relative safety of the cave they’d found, while Elladan- who Buffy had decided was definitely her smarter brother- had announced he would be in charge of providing dinner tonight and vanished into the trees.

Xander pulled Anya away to find a clearing of their own for a discussion Buffy could still overhear about how in a relationship, people decided important things together- she didn’t get to make unilateral decisions for both of them. Buffy tried not to listen after that.

Besides, she had a target for her own ire right in front of her.

“Alright, Elroy, what gives? There is no reason we had to go visit the grandparents right now.”

Elrohir smirked, ignoring her deliberate mangling of his name. He knew perfectly well that she had no trouble recalling his name- or any of several insulting variations thereof Tindomiel had already worked out. He also knew that if it came to names, all he had to do to wind his small sister up was call her by her given name, as she preferred the odd mannish one she’d grown accustomed to in the other world.

“Of course there is.”

Buffy glared at him. It annoyed her no end that her glares had zero effect on her brothers- if anything, they were amused when she did. This time was no exception.

“Think, little one. Arwen has just returned.”

“Yeah, and…?” Buffy demanded. “I’m already over not being the oldest.”

“We noticed. We like to think our good influence had something to do with that. However, we also noticed that someone else did not exactly welcome her older sister.”

Buffy paused. This was the most annoying part about having older brothers. They were often right.

Against all expectation, Dawn and Arwen had not taken to each other. More accurately, Dawn hadn’t taken to Arwen, to general surprise. Buffy knew from things she’d overheard that everyone had been holding their breath to see her reaction to her older sister. They’d just assumed that Dawn and Arwen would get along.

She was being honest when she told Elrohir that not being oldest wasn’t really that big a deal- after all, by the time Arwen got home, they’d had nearly a month to adjust to Arda. After several weeks in the company of brothers a few thousand years old, a big sister wasn’t such a big deal. Arwen seemed nice enough. A little bit of a queen bee vibe, but then Buffy could only imagine what it had been like for her to live with her dad and brothers after Buffy and her mom had gone missing. She was pretty sure Arwen had gotten the full on ‘daddy’s precious princess’ treatment.

That might have been what got Dawn’s hackles up, but then again, it could have been something else entirely. She had no idea what, though. Arwen was super excited to have two little sisters to dote on, and that seemed to be her main mission right now- spoiling her kid sisters rotten. Buffy hadn’t gotten to ask what exactly had rubbed her little sister the wrong way, seeing as their stupid brothers had given it all of two days before hustling her off.

To be fair, her brothers had half a point about getting the heck out of dodge for the duration. It was probably on now- Arwen had been perfectly nice to Dawn until Dawn had managed to find something equivalent to itching powder and treated Arwen’s hairbrush early that morning.

“So your solution is to run off to hide at grandpa and grandma’s place?”

Elrohir smiled, pleased that she was such a quick study.

“Exactly. Grandmother and Grandfather will be pleased to see you, and we want to be there to see their reactions. Also, we think they will be curious to meet your companions. And we will all be at a safe distance while Arwen and Tindomiel fight it out. I think Adar can be trusted to make sure everyone ends up alive and with all their hair. If not, perhaps Glorfindel can intervene. He has fought a Balrog, after all…”

“Glorfindel hightailed it out this morning as soon as he heard Arwen shrieking,” Buffy informed her brother.

“One of our greatest warriors thought it prudent to retreat yet you question our wisdom?” Elrohir asked with a raised eyebrow.

Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Fine, you win, it’s a great plan. Tell Elladan he can quit skulking around the woods. To grandmother’s house we go.”