madimpossibledreamer

          The first thing Xander says when he walks out and sees Aura sitting next to Andrew on his doorstep is “Don’t tell me there’s two ‘a ya now.”
          “All right,” she responds cheerfully and goes back to tapping away on her phone.
          He sighs, sounding upset, and Andrew squirms.
          “Why is there two of you now?” he repeats, frustrated, fiddling with his eyepatch, and Aura looks up again.
          “Cordy didn’t stop worrying about you just because she didn’t feel equipped to handle you,” she explains.  “I on the other hand have spent the last decade or so scheduling all the Cordettes and tackling their issues.  Compared to them, looking out for you should be a breeze.”
          He stares, mutters something about meddlers, goes back inside for a cup of coffee, and rejoins them after a few sips.  “Buffy is in charge.  Don’t get in the way.”
          “Sounds good,” she agrees.

          After talking to Andrew (she refuses to call him Annie-chan even if she thinks it’s funny), Aura goes and gets a tattoo started herself.  She waits, unlike Andrew, until it’s done before she shows it off.  There’s a long silence when she does, and she looks over her shoulder to see him staring, eye wide and shocked.  It had been a gamble showing him, but given that he’s not leering at her, seemingly a good one.  “What the hell,” he eventually mutters.
          “And still the raven remains in my room, no matter how much I implore,” she begins singing, and the look gets even more disturbed.
          “I didn’t know you were such a fan of Poe, or Alan Parsons Project,” he manages eventually, intimidated.
          “It was either that or a bad penny, considering you can’t get rid of me, and I’m not putting a penny on my back,” she tells him cheerfully, and he looks torn between laughing and crying.