“…date, memories, cake, presents – all fake.” Her voice trembles slightly.

Cautiously, Connor puts an arm around her. “I know how that feels.”

Up on the roof, they can hear faint laughter from below. He thinks she might cry.
Her sister is her whole family, her *world*. But Buffy’s world is someone else, probably always was.

“Birthdays suck.”
At twenty-one, Dawn Summers is beautiful and lonely. Bliss is bitter, from the sidelines. He understands that, too.

Happiness is overrated. But as he holds her close and she sobs softly, he vows that from now on, he’ll be beside her, at least.