the ground could open, he could still say please

[slavophile]

Comments

[barely]

( -- Bye -- she says, hung up on. Rude.

Alaric holds the door open for Jo as he brings what little they were able to take with them. )

We made it. Traffic cleared on our way back. ( He meets Dawn halfway and brings her close for an appropriately timed welcome kiss. Turning to face Alaric and Jo, he introduces his girlfriend. )

Dawn Summers, this is Alaric and Jo Saltzman.

( "Summers?" Alaric asked, having spent quite a bit of time with or corresponding with Buffy Summers. Has to be a coincidence. )

[ooglyboogleys]

Yep.

[It's her name, don't wear it out. Or something.]

Why? Is there something weird about it?

[barely]

( "Coincidental," Alaric says. "A friend is in a relationship with a woman with the same last name."

It's more about it being a small world. )

Buffy's last name is Summers?

[ooglyboogleys]

You know Buffy?

[And then, because she's smart enough to put two and two together, she turns to Jeremy, amused.]

You didn't tell me you knew Stefan.

[barely]

I don't know him, he had this thing with my sister in high school. ( Which probably sounds problematic for all the reasons it was, but, vampires. He also lived in his house for like two years, too. That's true. ) They're still friends. Wait, you know Buffy?

[ooglyboogleys]

Yep. Buffy's my sister.

[Not that there are a lot of Buffy's in the world, but it's hard to imagine that it would be quite that small.

She will pull out her phone and text her though: Alaric and his wife say hi.]

What a small world.

[barely]

( Saltzman? I had dinner with them a few weeks ago. You know Alaric Saltzman?

Confused, slayer of one. )

Literally.

( "We had dinner a few weeks back," Alaric says, putting everything together. "What are the odds?" )

[ooglyboogleys]

Smaller than you think.

[But at least this is a good coincidence rather than a bad one. They've had a few too many of those over the years.

Apparently they're our new house guests. Jeremy is Elena's brother. We're going to assume that Jeremy has referred to his sister by name at some point.]

She was just telling me about her trip to Mystic Falls. Damon is in Scotland, by the way, in case you were wondering.

[barely]

( That's random. 👋🏻 Jeremy and Alaric and Jo.

Are they your house guests because of the doxens? He has of course, he's not a weirdo. )

We don't wonder about Damon.

( "Thanks," Alaric at least gives. Their friendship has since been strained. Very naturally, Alaric became more of a father-figure and made better choices. They still went on trips now and then but there were far fewer outings to the Grille. )

Is anyone left in Mystic Falls?

( "The Salvatore School opens back up at the end of September." But, no, he thinks that most everyone of relevance is out of town at the moment. )

[ooglyboogleys]

["Lindsay is still there. But she's a Slayer, so not sure if she counts," Jo points out.

Dawn nods.]

She counts to me. Thanks for the heads up. Oh, and Buffy says hi.

[barely]

( "Tell her I'm paying for the next dinner," Alaric says with a smile.

And slayers count. )

So, everyone knows everyone knows everyone.

[ooglyboogleys]

I guess we do. That makes things easy to start with.

[It certainly provides a bit of shorthand, when Dawn has to explain what to do and what not.]

But we should get you guys settled. Welcome to our humble abode.

[barely]

( "Thanks for having us," Alaric says, giving a look around Jeremy's home. It has Dawn's touches and Jeremy's rugged, barely-trying sense of style. Jeremy's done well for himself.

"Do you still have the gallery?" he asks. )

Yeah, we had a showing this past weekend. You just missed it.

[ooglyboogleys]

It did really well, though. Hopefully, it will draw in other artists and we can get some wider exposure.

[Hopefully with no magic paintings that will endanger the clientele.]

[barely]

And it only attracted one whole ( He holds a finger up. ) vampire.

( And he shows them the rest of the house and tells them tales of Dawn's badassery. )