1. When she was little, her dad used to say “Katarina Vit!” in the happiest voice. He wasn’t so zesty, usually. He was rumpled and tired and wanted her to keep away from the wet paint on the house. But he liked Katarina, and so Buffy loved Katarina.
And then came the ice. Oh, the ice. You could move impossibly fast in a brand new ice-blue outfit. Someday there’d be a partner to catch her, a pretty one with a mysterious Russian name who’d hold her high enough that Dad could see her from where he would sit to watch.
2. She hates tea, but he’s always giving it to her anyway. It’s the only thing he really tries to change about her. The rest is him changing for her, shaking off years worth of must and tweed. He’s not dangerous, not like he says he used to be, but he’s happier now. Even his glasses aren’t so dorky.
And he notices. Notices everything, even things he thinks are stupid like new shoes. He knows when she’s sick, or tired, or worried about something. Even when he has to pull himself away from a prevention-of-Apocalypse book, he always, always notices.
3. His eyes light up when he sees her. He knows she’s there long before, what with the vampire senses, but you can always tell the exact moment he sees her, like there are shutters in him that only she can open.
It could be creepy, that he’s always around even when she can’t see him, but it’s so comfortable. Somebody knows. And when she can see him…
It must be foreign and boring, her stories about high school and the beach. But the words don’t matter. They just fall away, because he gets her. He knows just what she is.
4. Her screams are pretty otherworldly, but you’d never know she was fake. She needs. Not just protection, but the kinds of things a good sister can give her. She needs movie time, and home-cooked dinners, and the occasional stern talking-to.
A fake memory of little Dawn who followed her around and begged for rollerblades just like Buffy. It’s almost better, now, her real face that screams that Buffy is no longer cool. Stolen sweaters, whining, shouting, slamming. Annoying? Oh yes. But necessary, kind of, because she makes it so hard to remember that Buffy could kill her with one hand.
5. He’s always moving. She’s learned to hold herself still, inside and out, but he’s always tapping and humming and catching at the hem of her shirt on his way past. He’s always laughing, and eating fried things and driving too fast. She caught him moonwalking in the kitchen, once, when he thought he was home alone. You can see everything he’s feeling all over his face, and when he thinks it comes out of his mouth. He’s pushy, and snippy, and keeps stealing her new clothes because he hates the cuts this season. He’s nothing like her, nothing at all.
The End
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