Strangers in the night. In bed.

Ω▬Ω▬Ω

And the worst landing ever award goes to...

She fell directly on top of him.

This would not have been so bad if they were outside, or in a crowd, or someplace that she could blame it on someone or something else.

But no, she fell on top of him at night. While he was alone. In bed.

She barely had time to be aware of soft sheets and hard muscles before she heard a growl and suddenly found herself on her back. Pinned to the mattress by a whole lot of that same rock-hard physique.

There was a tense moment or so of silence before -

"Um, could you maybe let me up?"

No reply.

"Because I'm sorry I fell on you and all, but it was a complete accident and I'll be right on my way if you'd just maybe um, get OFF OF ME!"

She felt him shift his weight slightly and tried not to be hyper-aware of all that nice-smelling guy on top of her. "What are you?"

Dawn shivered a little at the growly voice, no accent but it reminded her of Spike all the same. "Don't you mean 'who' am I?" Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness, she could just make out his head and some indistinct facial features above her.

Gradually his head lowered, burying his nose in her hair he took a deep sniff, "I meant exactly what I said: what are you?"

How to explain this?

"Um, if I promise to tell you, will you get off of me?"

He paused to consider this for a moment, then slowly moved increment by increment until he was sitting beside her instead of above. The faint clicking sound of a switch being flicked was Dawn's only warning before light flooded the room, making her blink and causing her eyes to water slightly.

"Ouch. Ok, um..." She opened her eyes and lost her voice, he was purdy. Smooth chocolate-colored skin, long dark dreadlocks, and startlingly intense green eyes.

Hello salty goodness, hello over-active hormones...

Why were all the good ones in other dimensions?

She shook her head trying to get rid of any and all inappropriate thoughts. "Anyways, um, mind telling me where I am?"

"St. Louis."

"Huh," she frowned, she could sense the different magics inundating this universe, it was truly a unique signature. 'Home' magic was on the dark-light spectrum, this seemed more wild... yes, the magic here felt very uncivilized. In fact, some of it seemed to be radiating off of salty-goodness!

"Quid pro quo."

Her head snapped up, "Say what?"

"Something for some - "

"I KNOW what it means," she snapped. "I don't know what you mean by it!"

He smirked and her hormones cooed, "I told you where we are, now you tell me what you are."

"The Key, I can open interdimensional portals. Now what are you?"

"Werewolf," he answered shortly.

"Huh," she said again, but his magic was so different from Oz's. It was so... melded? Unthinking, she put out a hand and touched his aura - trying to sense what the difference was.

Instantly he was across the room, glaring at her, "What the hell was that?"

She flushed to the roots of her hair, "Sorry! Sorry, I should have asked before I did that, it's just that one of my friends back home is a werewolf and he's never been able to control his beast... which isn't to say that I know whether or not YOU can control yourself, it's just that the magic is so different here and I just wanted to feel how you guys are dissimilar cause then maybe I could help him when I get back and..." She took a deep breath and her blush renewed itself at his nonplussed expression, "Sorry, I babble."

He came back and sat on the edge of the bed again, "Does being this 'Key' remove your need for oxygen?"

"No, it's just something I picked up from a friend back home. She babbles when she's nervous, or excited, or had too much coffee..." She trailed off at the speculative look on his face, "What?"

"Which are you: nervous or excited?"

"I, um..." She coughed delicately, "I just had a latte before I came here?"

"Uh-huh," he said in a tone that stated that he clearly didn't believe her.

The best defense is a good offense, so Dawn bristled, "Well look, mister - "

"Jamil."

The interruption killed her fledgling rant, "What?"

"My name is Jamil."

"Well look, Jamil - "

"Quid pro quo."

She glared at him, she did NOT like being interrupted! Besides, she was tired of saying the words 'what' and 'huh.' It was making her feel stupid. So she folded her arms over her chest and glared at him, waiting for him to elaborate.

His lips quirked up into a small grin, "What's your name?"

"Dawn."

"Pretty name."

"Thank you," she bit out.

There was another silence while Dawn glared and Jamil tried not to grin.

"It's your turn to ask a question."

"It's my turn to - oh." She stopped scowling for a minute, thinking, "Would you mind if I did that thing again?" At his frown she hastened to reassure him, "I just want to see if anything you do could help my friend back home."

Jamil thought this over for a moment, then nodded, warily holding out his arm.

She shook her head, "No, sorry - your energy points would be easier to use, I can sense them."

"Energy points?"

Dawn gestured pointing to his head, heart and lower belly regions, "Those places emit the most magic. May I?"

He nodded again and she scooted closer to rest one hand over his heart. Her magics unfurled slowly to swirl through his, it felt like nothing he'd ever experienced. Anita's magic was death-touched, his beast didn't like it at all. Yet this girl didn't feel like another shifter either. It was strange, she felt almost like a full moon: that sense of possibility and sheer energy filled the room making it difficult to breath.

Jamil needed something else to concentrate on, his beast was a little too close to the surface. "So which would it be now?"

"Huh?" She didn't even look up at him.

"Nervous or excited?"

She shot him a distinctly flustered look and he bit back a grin. Breathing deeply through his nose as he was he could easily smell her attraction, pheromones didn't lie.

At last she sat back, muttering under her breath, "Maybe if I could bring Oz here he could learn to organize his magic like you do..."

Jamil shook himself and blinked the amber from his eyes before she could notice, she seemed rather accepting but he wasn't going to take any chances.

Dawn began setting out different ingredients for the spell-casting while drool-worthy looked on. She was almost finished when -

"Leaving so soon?"

She flushed and damned her fair skin, "Yeah, I really need to get back home, it's been a while. I got kinda lost along the way..."

"Will you come back?"

Dawn looked up at that, "Yes, definitely. I have to bring Oz back so he can - "

He cut her off with a kiss, effectively shorting out the brunette's speech capabilities for weeks - if not months - to come. It was merely a brushing of lips against lips, no tongues, but the electricity was palpable and magic flooded the room.

"Visit me."

"Mm-hm," Dawn nodded, blinking rapidly. "Visit you, um, ok." She shook her head harshly and set out the final few herbs, "Ianua est Propinquus."

There was a flash of green and she was gone.

Ω▬Ω▬Ω

It took a week for the HQ to settle down. Somehow Dawn had managed to return to the exact moment she had left. It had taken her nearly an hour to convince her sister that she had actually DONE any inter-state traveling, let alone interdimensional.

"So when are you leaving?"

"What?" Dawn snapped out of her reverie with an audible click as the pen she'd been holding clattered to the table.

Willow grinned at her young friend, "C'mon, you've had a bad case of the joneses since you got back, who'dja meet? Details, I want details!"

The brunette grinned, "They're not the kind of details you'd want, Wills, unless you're back to driving stick!"

The Wicca pouted, "Just because I don't want to buy the cow doesn't mean I can't enjoy the milk - ok, bad analogy..." She flapped her hand at the giggling Key, "Just spill already!"

Dawn sighed dreamily, "Well the first four dimensions were a bust, but number five went something like this..."

Ω▬Ω▬Ω

A/N: I felt the need to end this, maybe I'll do more FFA ficlets, but not in an actual STORY, it's too hard! As always, like it, love it, loathe it with the fiery intensity of a thousand hot suns? Lemme know!