` food for t h o u g h t, open

[DAWN SUMMERS]

dawn summers was hungry. she had a long day of doing nothing and she wanted to eat. okay so doing nothing was a lie. she had spent a rather large time trying to translate an old watchers journal that had been saved from the old watchers council. it was written in ancient sumerian, what she considered her forte. ever since she translated her first sumerian text, it's been her pride. she could even speak it a little bit, though it really didn't come in handy. too bad the local college didn't have sumerian as one of the foreign languages offered. she'd ace it. she could teach it actually. that's what i should do as my money making job. be a sumerian teacher. she laughed. no one would take sumerian. she'd be a history teacher or something.

a waitress came over and dawn quickly ordered the chicken pot pie and a rootbeer float. then she pulled out a book from her little bag. this one wasn't supernatural. this one was her homework. she somehow found the balance that few did, balancing her real school work with the real save the world work. she was convinced that really willow was the only one who could do it. she managed to just barely get a grasp on it. after all, hellmouth was a little more important than nazi germany. i wonder if hitler was really some kind of demon. that would've been nifty. he didn't die, he was slayed. that would be really cool. i should ask giles. she grinned and waited for her food.

a few minutes later, her root beer float appeared in front of her. she took a drink and remembered milk shakes with tara when she was a teenager. way back when tara was alive. she frowned, her brow furrowing. happy thoughts. like bunnies -- nope makes me think of anya. like chocolate. ooh chocolate's good.

her eyes lightened back up and she allowed them to scan the diner for anyone she would recognize.

[KENNEDY ROSENBERG]

You wouldn't think, watching Kennedy walk down the street that she had super powers. Sure she didn't wear a cape, or have cool claws sticking out of her knuckles but sometimes it felt nice to be appreciated, to be noticed for somethnig other than some spoilt rich kid in a small town. She had an urge to run and leap over a carp, or punch a hole in a wall...just to show people she wasn't just a normal girl. But her 'inner willow' told her not to, told her that the people of Story City didn't ALL need to know that the town was slowly becoming over run with demons. A hell mouth had mysteriously opened, and although Kennedy didn't know much about the subject she was betting it wasn't normal. You especially knew that something wasn't right when Giles, Buffy and the gang decided to pack the Slayer army into the town. If it was as bad as the last hell mouth Kennedy welcomed it...that was a blast!

The young Mrs. Rosenberg walked slowly down the streets, dressed pretty casually in some dark blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a matching denim jacket slung over her shoulder, that Willow had bought her last Christmas. Her long brown hair was tied back in a pony tail, and the constant feel of it on the back of her neck gave her the sudden urge to chop it all off. She let the thought leave her mind and, concentrated on something else...her stomach. Kennedy hadn't eaten since this morning and wanted something to fill the void before dinner. She'd patrol tonight to burn it all off.

Turning quickly she surveyed the street around her, and spotted the food place that one of the younger slayers had mentioned. The girls words exactly were 'Theres a really cute guy in the food bar on the main street...' Then seeing who she was talking to quickly added 'and the foods good'. She loved living around and training the younger slayers, so many different communities in one town. Sure this was the twenty first century but she was sure this town had never seen a lesbian...or a black person. Not that they were unpleasant, just they seemed a little cut off from the rest of the world.

She stepped into the diner and was almost knocked over by a young teen boy rushing past, trying to follow his friends out of the diner. He almost knocked her over, because she was like a hundred times stronger than him, and it was like he ran into a brick wall. Looking a little hurt before rushing out after his friends. She silently cursed him before looking around the small cafe, spotting a familiar face. Dawn Summers. Sister of Buffy, and budding watcher. Dawn was pretty cool and although Kennedy hadn't really spoken to her she was pretty cool. Kennedy hadn't really tried to talk to Dawn, as willow had told her that Dawn and Tara were really close and Kennedy felt a little mean trying to make friends with her when Tara was dead. But that didn't stop her walking over and smiling at the younger girl "Hey Dawn"

[DAWN SUMMERS]

dawn was very caught up in her book. she didn't notice the surroundings around her. she didn't notice the dark haired slayer walk in and nearly get plowed down. why would she? she was reading a book on ancient history and her class had just hit the sumerians. yes, she took summer courses. all the easier to get the college thing finished quicker. she read about the sumerians and filled in gaps from her own knowledge. mysterious disappearances in the right years, documented in sumerian text that no one could really decipher translated to different demons she had read about (sometimes to help buffy know what she was up against.) it was really cool.

but her book induced reverie was jolted aside when she heard her name, accompanied by a greeting. as in the greeting preceded her name. she looked up and into the eyes of kennedy rosenberg. she hadn't talked to kennedy as much as she had some of the other potentials who had lived in her house. she wondered why that was. why did kennedy not talk to her as often as she talked to everyone else? her old issues screamed that kennedy just didn't like her. but if that was the case, she wouldn't really come talk to her at a diner in a town that there were plenty of slayers (not to mention kennedy's own wiccan wife) to talk to.

dawn's blue eyes lightened a little and she smiled. "hey kennedy. what brings you to the nash eatery?" she was oddly curious. so far, none of the scoobies, excluding dawn, had been seen much in this dive, this greasy spoon.

she looked over one more time at the standing slayer and then indicated all the seats around her. "you know you can sit. unless you feel more comfortable standing."

[KENNEDY ROSENBERG]

She could remember her childhood, how when her watcher was around she wasn't even aloud snacks never mind eating in places like this. He would always say 'The Slayer is a chosen warrior not some fast food munching fatty' and like always she had taken this to heart, and very rarely ate at places like this. But since Dawn had stopped reading to talk to her she figured that she might as well enjoy herself. She smiled at a waiter who walked past "I'll have whatever she's having..." She pointed a thumb to Dawn who was still sitting "Except the drink...I'll have a water" The drink Dawn had in her hand didn't seem very pleasant. She nodded as Dawn offered her a seat "Yeah sitting sounds much more comfortable".

She sort of admired Dawn, being the sister of the Slayer Dawn was pretty much never in the lime light. Dawn would always be the 'Slayers sister' so that was why Kennedy presumed she was becoming a watcher. If Alex, her half sister, had gotten to be a slayer instead of Kennedy, the brunette would have been looking for her sister with a microscope...and even worse. If Alex became a Slayer, as well as Kennedy she knew she would come and find Kennedy and embarrass her. She'd be 'Alex the Retarded Slayer'...she would only last a few minutes. Kennedy peeked over the top of Dawns book frowning when she actually saw the text "Your just like Willow" She smiled fondly, remembering how Willow used to lay up all night reading books that looked like someone had just done random patterns all over the pages.

"So Dawn..." The silence was a little unbearable "What...you doing later?" She almost hit herself in the face for saying that, she had survived an apocalypse with this girl and had shared a house with her for months she should be able to talk to her properly. Kennedy gave a small, inward sigh of relief as the food came. Smiling at the waitress who brought their food, Kennedy frowned at the plate in front of her...what the hell is that?

[DAWN SUMMERS]

she heard the skeptical tone in kennedy's voice as she ordered whatever dawn was having. well, that was okay. because well, dawn was known for having some rather odd tastebuds. but to her, that was okay. probably some epic fail on the part of the monks but she had never known how to eat like a normal teenagers. she liked anchovies, that about said everything about her abnormal tastebuds. surely in the time that kennedy had known dawn, she had realized that.

she sighed a little and watched as kennedy sat down. then began the silence. it was of the awkward variety. not a good silence to be had at the dinner table. even if it was an impromptu dinner table. dawn wished that she could find something to say to the brunette slayer, but they never had anything to say. they weren't that close. dawn was never that close to any of the scoobies, besides willow, xander, buffy, giles, and anya. and sometimes andrew... when he wasn't talking. so that was very rare.

she heard kennedy's comment, about how dawn was like willow and she smiled. coming from kennedy, that had to be a compliment. "thanks. i think the monks accidentally stole will's studiousness gene because buffy doesn't study. or read. she has all of us make with the studying and the reading." she nodded. she couldn't believe she had said something like that, but it was true. more and more often she was becoming curious about her roots. if glory hadn't wiped out all the monks, i may have been able to get some answers. stupid glory.

the awkward silence resumed. then kennedy asked a question. a question that was obviously spurred by awkwardness. she asked what dawn was doing that night. dawn shrugged her shoulders lightly. "assuming we don't need black hat research, i have absolutely no clue." she leaned in closer to kennedy to whisper. "have you noticed this place is like totally quieter than the sunnydale seal? like maybe all the... people like clem... haven't noticed that it's here yet." it was strange. sure, there were a lot of big bads here, well little bads. she wondered if it was the calm before the storm.

she pulled back and rested her shoulders on the table. then the food arrived, looking very great. her eyes lit up and she noticed kennedy look slightly confused. "it's a pot pie. it's got like chicken and gravy and veggies and all the other good -- ew peas." she laughed and started to pick out peas from her spoon.

[KENNEDY ROSENBERG]

She listened to Dawn's comments on Buffy and Willows variety of differences "Yeah you may get a studious gene from Willow but, Buffy is strong, she's brave and she's a born leader...you got the best genes around...The Slayer" She quickly added "The best genes at the time" She laughed a little hoping, she wouldn't have to try her food. Dawn was a good person, and a good watcher (or so she had heard) and she was even a little bit mystical but...god she had awful food taste. Kennedy hadn't remembered how bad until she had actually gotten what Dawn had, and could clearly remember when Dawn would eat the weirdest things. Willow had told Kennedy that Dawn was a mystical object that had almost brought about the end of the world, and was created by a group of powerful monks to hide it from an angry hell god who was very fashionable, and although Dawn was important...she was a weird kid.

Willow had also told her that Dawn went through a kleptomaniac phase, stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. Kennedy had done that, after her watcher had left (and died) she had started taking things, from small department stores that she could have asked her dad to buy, and she never got caught. She had stopped when she got a dream. She wasn't sure if potential slayers had the future dreams, but hers had seemed real. It had been a young woman from some Asian village running from two men. In her hands she had a loaf of bread, and when they caught her they killed her! If it was a past slayer dream, Kennedy had learnt two things. Humans were just as dangerous as demons and vampires...and stealing slayers god sliced.

The silence that filled their little bits of conversation were...tense? Awkward? Damn right annoying! That was why she had asked that question, and listened in to Dawns reply about black hat research...which she presumed was Watcher lingo for demon research. "Like you said, Willows the more studious one...I tend to just stab and lift where she asks!" Kennedy laughed a little "Yeah I don't know if the 'People like Clem" she used her fingers as quote marks in the air "Have noticed this place. I mean I don't really know where everything is. Their probably away licking their wounds from the last battle" She said it but she wasn't too sure, it all seemed a little odd...a little weird. And that was just the pie!