Title: Sunny Daze
Author: Lowdeen
Disclaimer: Faith, Buffy, all characters and the show all belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, and Mutant Enemy. The story contains implied love between two women, so if such things offend you, don't read it and upset yourself.
Spoilers: First Season
Author's Notes: Alternate universe set up. Starting over in Sunnydale. Names remain unchanged. Events don't.
Rating: R

Two weeks. That's how long I've been waiting for Faith to get here. It seems so much longer than that, especially since I still didn't know anyone in this town. Mom had opened an art gallery and found a great deal on this house as she so likes to point out from time to time. Apparently, it was a steal. She's not here right now. She's picking Faith up from LA and they're supposed to get here any minute. My stomach's been churning since this morning and sitting here waiting for them isn't helping my nerves. It's kind of strange to think of Faith as my sister but that's technically who she is now...in the eyes of the law anyway.

I clicked on the remote again and flipped through the channels of the TV. There wasn't really much to pick from in the weekday morning lineup but I wasn't really paying attention anyway. I was way too distracted, listening for mom's car to get into the driveway. Pretty soon, I started obsessively looking at the clock, wondering if the batteries were going dead or something. I was just starting to get up and see if that was the case when the faint sound of a car stopping outside made me hop up and run to the door.

Stepping outside, I waited on the doorstep as the car door opened and Faith stepped out. She looked around and then her eyes locked on mine. A large smile began spreading across her face as she walked around the car and right up to me, immediately pulling me into a smothering hug. In all the time I've imagined our reunion, I never even came close to imagining how good it would feel finding myself buried in Faith's arms again.

"Hey sis," she whispered in my ear. "Miss me?"

Her voice sent a shiver running through my body and instead of answering, I just held on tighter.

Mom's voice came from the side as she got out of the car. "How about we get inside first girls?"

Faith pulled away as she gave mom a crooked smile. "Sorry Mrs. S. Let me grab my bag." She went to the trunk of the car and took out a duffel bag before following us into the house.

"Why don't you show Faith her room while I get lunch started?" Mom asked with an indulgent smile as I grabbed Faith's hand and practically dragged her upstairs.

"So how have you been? What've you been doing? Was the ride over all right?" The questions just seemed to tumble and trip their way out of my mouth and when I looked back at Faith, she had a smirk on her face. "I'm babbling aren't I? You should stop me when I babble."

"Why?" She asked. "It's so unbelievably cute. And anyway, I've missed hearing your voice, B."

I'm sure my insides have already turned into the consistency of melted wax at those words. "You're not the only one that's been missing. I've missed your nickname for me."

She gave me another easy smile as I led her into her room. I carefully watched her face to gauge a reaction as she walked further into the room and slowly turned around, her eyes wandering over everything. The bed with its light blue comforter, the window looking down into the backyard, the large, antique dresser mom had brought a few years ago at an auction and the bookshelf that was just waiting for someone to fill it up. Her bag dropped out of her hand as she turned back to me again. She looked down briefly at the floor before bringing her eyes back to mine. "This is...Shit, B, I've never had all this before. I still can't believe this is happening to me."

"Do you like it?" I asked, slowly walking up to stand in front of her.

"B," she said, taking my hands in hers and staring intently at me. "I love it...Thank you." We continued looking at each other, neither one of us saying anything because nothing needed to be said. My hand reached up to brush her hair back, tucking the thick strands behind her ear.

"It healed beautifully," I said, referring to the gash she'd gotten at the party with Jack. "You can't even tell it was ever busted open."

"Time heals all wounds," she said drolly. "Especially the ones given by drunken pricks." Her eyebrow quirked up as we shared a chuckle over the incident. She turned around suddenly and belly flopped onto her bed. "So how's the vamp situation around here?" She asked, rolling lazily onto her back.

I rolled my eyes. "Do we have to talk about that now? It's the middle of the day, the sun is shining, the mood is happy, why do you want to ruin it by talking about undead demon blood suckers? Blood, blood, blood, suck, suck, suck. That's all they ever think about. Where's the fun? Where's the fun for *me*?"

She just looked at me until I finally threw up my hands in defeat. I plopped down next to her and went through what I knew about the Sunnydale vampire populace. Not that much different from the LA crowd but there seemed to be more of them, especially for such a small town like Sunnydale. "And another thing, there's tons of cemeteries around this place. It's like you can't go two blocks without running into another one. It's insane how many dead people they have."

"Hmmm. Wow. Sounds dead," she said looking at me with a straight face.

I punched her on the arm. "Stop with the mocking," I said, trying not to grin.

"Hey, if you keep hitting me like that, I probably will," she said, rubbing the spot on her arm where I'd punched her.

I scrunched up my brow. "Is that a promise or a threat?" I wasn't prepared at all when she suddenly jumped on top of me and began tickling my sides. "Stop, stop," I pleaded with her in between giggles. She gave no mercy, continuing to turn me into a laughing puddle of goo and only jumping off when mom's voice yelled from downstairs that lunch was ready.

"How did...how did you know I was ticklish?" I asked, trying to catch my breath.

"I didn't," she said simply, winking at me and disappearing out the door. When I'd finally gotten myself together enough to go downstairs, I found Faith and mom sitting at the dining room table talking about school. I groaned as I sat down across from Faith, wondering why they had to bring up something so distasteful while we were trying to eat. I still hadn't gotten over how I was so unceremoniously expelled from my last school. I don't think mom had either. I think she believed me when I told her that I didn't mean to blow up the gym but the fact was, I *had* blown it up. I wished I could tell her the real reason why but that would just freak her out and put her in danger. I can just imagine her reaction if I told her that I was a vampire Slayer and the reason why I burned the gym down was because it was full of vampires at the time. Yeah, she'd probably have me committed or worse, grounded for the rest of my life.

I watched in amusement as mom tried to sucker Faith into participating in some after school activities. I'd already gotten the speech a couple times already since we got to Sunnydale so I was glad there was someone else for mom to lay her hard sell on. Faith nodded and agreed in all the appropriate places and when she mentioned that she'd joined the track team at her last school, mom began to latch onto that like a pitbull with a bone. I think she thought that if we were too busy doing school sanctioned activities, we'd also be too busy to fall into the wrong crowd either.

After lunch, mom gave Faith and me some money to go shopping. I thanked her with a kiss on the cheek and Faith gave her a big grin. School, that hallowed institution of higher learning -- or was that college? -- was starting tomorrow....at least the second half of the semester. On a Thursday. I don't really know how they came up with the wacky scheduling for these things and it was short notice, especially for Faith. But she didn't seem to mind.

"I'm used to it," was all she'd said when I asked. There are some things that Faith is reluctant to talk about. It's almost like pulling teeth when certain subject matters come up. And one of those subjects is her history. All I know are the bare bones of it. I know that her mom and dad are dead. I know she's been alone in the world for most of her life and that she's been dumped from one foster family to another but aside from that, nothing. And that's a problem because, like I'd said before, I want to know everything there is to know about Faith. I want to know about all the things that have happened to her to make her the wonderful and complex person that I know now.

"All done," she said, holding an armful of clothes she'd picked up in less than twenty minutes. Yes, Faith is a complex girl but not in the fashion sense in any way, shape, or form. Tank tops, spaghetti string tops, tube tops, T-shirts all in one of three basic colors: black, white, and dark red. The pants she has picked out are even more straight forward. Leather and denim, all black of course.

"You can't be all done," I said looking over at her plaintively. "I haven't even begun to shop." At her exasperated expression, I forcefully added, "Go back and pick out some more stuff --- maybe something a little more colorful."

She shook her head and walked away but not before I heard her mutter that "Black *is* a color."

I went back to looking through a rack of clothes and was just deciding between getting the powder blue or the mauve skirt when Faith came back again. "What did you get?" I asked, frowning at her suspiciously.

She held up a pack of underwear. "Colorful isn't it?" She asked with a smirk.

I groaned in dismay. "Fine. If you don't want to shop the right way, why don't you just pay for that and wait for me in the food court."

She gave me a wide grin. "Thanks B. Try not to spend all day in here 'k?" She walked away before I could come up with a proper retort.

I really wasn't keeping track of the time but when I was finally satisfied with my new wardrobe, it was later in the day than I had anticipated. Hurrying over to the food court, I looked everywhere but couldn't find Faith so I found myself an empty table and dumped all the shopping bags on the chair next to me, hoping that Faith had just gotten bored waiting and would come back from where ever she'd gone...soon. In the meantime, I sipped from the soda I'd gotten and spent the time people watching.

I was so engrossed watching a group of little old ladies walking aimlessly around the floor that I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Faith walked up from behind me and smirked.

"Where's that famous Slayer sense?" She asked, straddling a chair.

"You mean the one where I can tell when a certain someone's going to appear out of nowhere and scare me for no good reason at all?" She stared innocently at me from across the table. "I don't know. It must be on the fritz. Where were you?" I asked a little peeved.

She folded her arms on the table and stared intently at me. "B, do I need to remind you which one of us has been shopping for three hours? Cause if I need to, I'll start naming names."

I could feel myself reddening slightly at her stare. "I guess I got a little carried away," I replied sheepishly.

She lazily glanced over at my bags. "I guess you did," she said with another smirk. "Please tell me you're done."

"I'm done," I said, watching as she looked heavenward and uttered a silent Thank you. "Come on you," I said, gathering up my bags. "I want to get back home so I can show you what I bought." I ignored her groan and shoved some of my bags into her hand as she got up.

She looked at me like I was crazy or something. "Why am I holding *your* bags, B?"

"Because," I patiently explained, "I know you wouldn't want me dragging all these bags by myself." She looked like she was actually mulling that over when I walked around her and forcefully nudged her out.

"Hey," she complained as I kept pushing her forward, "Stop with the man-handling. I'm still thinking."

"Okay," I said nonplussed. "You can think all the way to the car but you're still going to hold my bags."

I heard her laugh out loud but at least she didn't drop them. When we got back home, the first thing I did was drag her upstairs after yelling "We're home" at the top of my lungs. Pushing her onto my bed, I began rooting through the bags, trying to mix and match my outfits for that maximum mesh of classy coolness and hint of sexy aura to spice it up. Faith took out a comic book she'd gotten somewhere and began reading as I changed.

"How's this?" I asked, twirling around.

She glanced over at me for about one second and said, not too convincingly, "Fine."

I put my hands on my hips in the classic slightly pissed posture. "You think you can at least pretend to look?"

She sighed, throwing the comic off to the side as she got up and walked right up to me. "It doesn't matter what you have on, B. Cause to me, you're always going to be beautiful. And I think that's the only way I'll ever be able to see you whether you have on a potato sack or a polyester pants suit or whatever." She shrugged, walking past me and out the door. I just stood there for a few minutes, my mouth gaping open before a big grin started spreading across my face. That just totally made my day...week.

****

I had already finished eating breakfast by the time Buffy finally hauled her ass out of bed. Mrs. Summers, who insisted I call her mom from now on, had to bang on her door twice before she made an appearance --- kinda like a groundhog peaking around for its shadow. She looked wicked cute though, all sleepy and grouchy like that.

"Don't want to be late for your first day, B," I said, teasing her as she sat down at the counter with a plate of waffles in front of her.

"I am not going to be late," she said through a mouthful of half chewed waffle bits. "And if I am, then you're going to be too."

"Okay you two, I'm leaving for work," mom said, stopping briefly at the kitchen entrance as she put on her earring. "Faith, make sure Buffy isn't late. I'll see you tonight."

"Since when did you become the responsible one?" Buffy grumpily asked, staring at me from across the table.

I smirked at her and just tapped my watch. When we got to the school fifteen minutes later, Buffy's car screeched into the parking lot, barely nicking the bumper of another car when it made the sudden turn. I nearly bit my own tongue off at the unexpectedly jerking stop. Sometimes, I wondered if Buffy knew exactly how bad of a driver she was and who she had to bribe to pass the driving test. But there's one thing I have to give her credit for. She hasn't hit anything...yet.

We were walking to the front of the school when I heard some panicked shouts, followed almost immediately by the crash and burn of some goofy Tony Hawk wannabe slamming into the metal handrail of the stairs.

"Nobody worry, I"m all right," he announced, quickly jumping back up with a noticeable wince.

I flipped his board, grabbing it by the wheelbase. "Then you might want to hold onto this," I said, holding it up to him.

"Uh, thanks," he said, staring at us with a glazed over expression. When he didn't take his board right away, I shoved it into his chest and Buffy and me walked past him and into the school.

We were supposed to see the Principal first so he could personally welcome us. When we got to his office, "Bob", who told us to call him that even though he said nobody actually called him that to his face, sat us down and gave us this speech about how fair he was and how starting at his school would be our opportunities for a clean slate. And he even went so far as to tear up our transcripts to show us how serious he was...that was, before he noticed that little asterisk next to Buffy's name that mentioned something about the burning down of a certain gym. After that, he was a lot less caring, new age guy and a lot more closed off, taping-the-transcripts-back-together-again guy.

"Not the dream start I'd envisioned," Buffy dejectedly said as I walked her to her first class.

"It could've gone worse," I said, trying to cheer her up. "At least now it's over, right?"

"Faith," she said, stopping me at the entrance of a classroom. "We still haven't even gotten through the rest of the day yet."

"But we will," I assured her with much more confidence than I felt. "See you at lunch?" I almost went to give her a hug but I stopped in time and just gave her a wink before walking towards my own class. When had I become this strange clingy, touchy feely person, anyway? I realized, it was only when I was with Buffy that I was like that. With everybody else, I'm always trying to keep them at arm's length, both with the physical and the emotional parts of me. But with Buffy, it's like we connected even before we talked. We were 'kindred spirits.' That's a term I got out of a Batman comic book. Who says comics aren't educational?

I walked into my first class which hadn't even started yet. At least that's what it looked like. Everybody was talking, some were walking around, and one or two other people looked like they were asleep. There was some old guy sitting behind the teacher's desk but since he didn't seem too interested in taking my name or anything, I just grabbed a seat in the back, put up my feet and went to sleep. Last night had been a total fucked up mess. I hadn't been able to get to sleep and when I did manage to doze off, I woke in a cold sweat every time. I must've been dreaming but the thing was, I couldn't remember what it'd been about. Only that I felt like shit the whole entire night. And even though the class room wasn't the most quiet place in the world, I found myself asleep as soon as my eyes closed.

The ringing of the bell woke me with a start and my feet fell from the desk onto the floor with a thump as everyone else started filing out of the room ahead of me. I let out a yawn and stretched, hoping the rest of my classes would be this relaxing.

They weren't.

They were the same old boring lectures that had always made me want to gauge my eyes out with a rusty spoon just so I'd have something to do with my hands. When lunch rolled around, I was more than ready for a break. I walked outside onto the school grounds where different groups were already beginning to gather. I spotted Buffy talking to some red headed chick and I was starting to head towards them when I felt someone bumping me from behind. Turning around, I came face to face with this tall, dark-haired hottie who was probably one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen in my life, and she would've been even more beautiful if she didn't have that frown on her face.

"Excuse me," she haughtily said. "But do you mind watching where I'm going?"

Letting my eyes run slowly up and down her frame, I said with a leer, "No, I don't mind. I'd actually *like* to watch you go."

She seemed startled by my naked assessment but to her credit, she quickly made a recovery. "You're obviously new around here so let me give you a clue. If you're looking for people more your style, the slutty, white trash don't get out of their trailers till half past one. Until then, please keep your Salvation Army self away from me."

"I'm wounded," I said, stepping in front of her before she could huff past. "And here I thought that was a love tap you'd given me. Don't tell me that didn't mean as much to you as it did to me."

"You're a freak," she finally said, pushing past me, her composure cracking ever so slightly.

I watched her go, my eyes inevitably drawn down to her posterior. Even though I was checking out some girl's ass, I don't think I could label myself gay cause I checked out everybody. As long as they were hot, it didn't matter whether they were a guy or a girl, I'd get turned on. I hated labels anyway. They never really described a living, breathing person, only some one-size fits all cardboard cutout. I shook myself out of my inner rambling when I saw that the hottie was walking straight towards Buffy who had attracted herself a new guy while I was preoccupied. I thought I remembered him as the one who'd nearly ran into us this morning.

Walking towards them, I heard him call her Cordelia. At least now I had a name to put to the face and I now knew who I was pissing off. I walked around Cordelia, brushing against her way more than I needed to and moved next to Buffy. Cordelia wouldn't look at me cause she was spending too much time glaring at Buffy.

"Buffy, do you know this...person?" She asked, folding her arms up in a defensive posture.

"She should," I replied, putting an arm across Buffy's shoulder. "I'm her sister."

Cordelia's face clouded over in confusion as she looked back and forth between us. I could feel Buffy's arm snaking its way around my waist and squeezing painfully. I just kept smiling as Cordelia finally shook her head in disgust and walked away muttering something about family trees.

As soon as she moved away, the guy from this morning blurted out, "Wow, you're sisters?" He had that glazed over expression on his face again and I could just see the wheels starting to turn in his head.

The redheaded girl was the first to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Willow," she said, smiling shyly and giving a little wave. She poked her friend in the ribs.

"Xander," he blurted out. He was kind of cute, in a goofy, bumbling sorta way. But the guy looked like he'd dressed himself in the dark, what with the neon green hawaiin shirt he was sporting.

"Yeah, I'm Faith," I said, flashing them all a brilliant smile. Never hurt to put in a good first impression.

Buffy ducked out from under my arm, muttering that she had to go to the library. I jogged to catch up with her. "What's the hurry?" I asked, wondering at her cool attitude. "When did you start spending lunch at the library?"

She ran up the stairs to the school and suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned on me with a barely suppressed glare. "When did you start checking out Cordelia's ass?"

"Is that what you're pissed about?" I folded my arms and leaned back against the wall as I carefully looked at her. "I don't get it, B. Why would that bother you? The girl's hot. What's wrong with me checking her out? I never thought you'd be so...narrow-minded."

"I'm not...that's not what's bothering me." She shook her head, frustrated and started walking away again but I snagged her arm, holding her back.

"Then tell me what's the problem," I said, almost pleading with her.

But she shook my arm off and changed the subject instead. "Cordelia mentioned that they'd found a dead body in the girl's locker room," she said, all business now. "I'm going there first to see if it was a victim of a vampire attack. My new Watcher's also the school librarian so if it turns out the dead guy was killed by a vampire, I'm going to go there and see if he has any information." She turned to leave again and this time I didn't try to stop her. Instead, I followed, still wondering about what she could be so mad about. I honestly had no idea. And then the thought struck me. Maybe Buffy had actually wanted Cordelia as a friend and I, being a complete moron that I was, had ruined that for her. After all, Buffy was used to running with that kind of crowd. If that was it, I was all ready to apologize and go to Cordelia myself and tell her that Buffy wasn't really my sister, that we weren't even related. But, first things first.

Buffy had already walked into the locker room having removed the yellow police tape across the door. I followed her in as we searched for the body which wasn't too hard to find. She reached out a hand and turned the guy's head and there they were. Two little holes.

"I guess we have our answer," she said softly as we walked back out.

"Who's the new Watcher?" I asked, following her to the library.

"His name's Giles." She scrunched up her brows and I wondered if she was thinking about Merrick again. I know she still blamed herself for her ex-Watcher's death. She'd put herself through hell, trying to shoulder all the guilt and it still surfaced now and again even though she'd gotten a better handle on the pain over time. "Real stuffy guy," she continued walking through the library doors.

As soon as she walked in, she was demanding to know what the situation was. The guy, who I'm guessing is the new Watcher, looked up from sorting his books or whatever and stuttered, "Sorry?" He was all decked out in a tweed suit and an English accent which was kind of sexy, if you liked that sort of thing. He kept looking nervously over at me as Buffy explained what she'd seen.

"I don't believe we've met," he finally said to me.

"Faith," I told him.

His face immediately cleared up. "Oh, yes, of course." My name seemed to mean something to him but I know I've never met the guy before.

"Okay, how about getting back to the vampire situation," Buffy said impatiently.

"Do you know anything about this town?" He asked, ignoring her 'tude.

"No, but I'm sure you're going to give me a history lesson." Giles went on to explain how Sunnydale was perfectly located to be this magnet of demonic activity and that the vampire chew toy we'd found was just the beginning of this weirdness. He ended his speech by stating that the only way we could prepare for what was about to come, which is pretty much anyone's guess, was to train hard.

Buffy had listened through his version of the 'state of the union' speech with a pretty neutral expression on her face and when he'd finished, she just asked, "Is that it?"

Giles wearily took off his glasses and started fiddling with them. "Yes, that about covers the generalities." As soon as he said that, Buffy turned and walked out the door. The G-man looked to me with a confused expression on his face. "Was it something I said?"

I shook my head and took off after Buffy. We seriously had to talk.

****

Faith had come after me when I blew out of the library but I couldn't deal with her asking all those questions which all basically boiled down to why I was acting like this. She actually thought I was mad at her because she'd made me look bad in front of Cordelia. God, I can't believe she thinks I'm that shallow. I finally forced her to go to class when the bell rang. We'd both missed lunch but I wasn't feeling all that hungry anyway. Before she left, she gave me this last look that almost made me want to tell her everything.

That is, if I knew how to voice what I was feeling inside but I wasn't even too sure of that myself. Why had I gotten so mad in the first place? I sat down in an empty chair of my next class, totally unaware of anything else around me as I thought about it some more. And I kept thinking about it throughout the rest of the day until finally, I came to some conclusions. I wasn't mad that Faith had checked out Cordelia although it kinda wigged me out at first. I'd never really seen Faith flirt with anyone so overtly before. Mostly because, usually, she was flirting with me. This was an epiphany that had smacked me on the back of the head at the end of my last class. I was used to Faith flirting with *me*. I just never consciously thought of it as flirting before. It was almost like I was --- jealous. Honestly, I think I missed the attention.

And then I wanted to slap myself because here I was pulling this mini-tantrum the first time I didn't get *all* of Faith's attention and I just let her believe that somehow it was all her fault and that she's the one who's done something wrong. When I met her outside after school, the first thing out of my mouth was, "I'm an idiot." When I saw her frown in confusion, I smiled self-deprecatingly and took her hand. "I'm sorry about today. I think it might have been all the mystical energy in this place like Giles was talking about. Made me act all not me..."

Her eyes narrowed slightly but she didn't question my lame explanation. If I'd told her the truth, she would've thought I was this selfish, needy brat --- which I'm not.

"So you're back to the normal loveable B I know and worship like a TV idol?" She asked with a grin.

"Completely," I said with all earnestness. "Now shouldn't you be doing something?" She looked at me with a blank stare. "Shouldn't you be trying out for the track team?" I prompted, nudging her as she got that smirk on her face.

She stepped into me, her smirk growing soft and sultry as she looked at me through her lashes. "You going to watch me?"

My breath caught in my throat as we stared at each other. This was one of those flirty moments, the back of my brain was trying to say. The front of my brain was just saying 'Duh, of course it is."

Faith broke eye contact and stepped back, making me want to groan out loud. "So what do you say, B?" She asked, looking at me expectantly.

A grin spread across my own face. "Let's go," I said, gently nudging her again.

Faith wowed the coach of course. By the end of one lap, I think I saw coach Foster actually salivating. Faith ran a couple of more laps before talking briefly with the coach and then jogging back over to me. "Did I wow you or what?" She asked with a cocky expression.

"You have no idea," I grinned, standing up. We walked back to the parking lot. "So, I'm guessing you made the track team?"

"I'm guessing your guess is right," she said, slipping into the passenger's seat of my car. "You could join the team too, B," she continued, looking over at me specutively. "You're probably way better than me too since y'know, you *are* the Slayer."

"Not so much into the running," I said, shrugging. "I think I'll just relax during my free time. What there is of it anyway. Giles seems really gung-ho about me putting in the training time." I sighed just thinking about my soon to be total lack of a social life.

"You know I'll be right there with you, right?"

"You don't have to--" I started to say.

"No, but I want to," Faith stated as if to do otherwise would be unimaginable to her. And I absolutely adored her for that.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Mom quizzed us on our day at the dinner table after which we listened to her talk about how much there still was to do at the gallery. But it wasn't like she was complaining, I think she really liked what she was doing now. I've known my mom my whole life and I never even knew she was an art major in college until she decided to open a gallery here. I guess to me, she'll always be 'mom' --- not someone who has interests and passions. Just having my mom and passions in the same thought unnerved me so much that I put it out of my mind and thought instead about what I was going to wear tonight.

I had heard from Willow that everybody at school hung out at this club called The Bronze. Faith hadn't been too hard to convince on coming. Mom was a little more difficult but we promised we'd be back by our curfew so she finally relented. The hardest part was figuring out what to wear.

"Come on, B," Faith groaned again, her voice muffled by the pillow she'd thrown over her head. "Can we please go now? If you keep this up, by the time you find something to wear, it'll already be curfew."

"You don't understand," I said, walking over and ripping the pillow away. "I want to make an impression...a good one."

"How many times do I have to tell you?" She asked, rolling onto her side and pinning me with her eyes. "You. Are. Beautiful. So just throw something on so we can go and show you off already." She wriggled her eyebrows in a lecherous way and I laughed, throwing the pillow back at her.

I finally found something I was somewhat satisfied with and pretended not to see when Faith jumped up, shouting Hallelujah. We were walking to the Bronze when, all of a sudden, I started getting this really strong vibe that something wasn't right. It was kind of like how every time Spider Man sensed danger, his spidey senses would alert him. I guess these were my spidey senses and they usually went off when there was a bloodsucking vamp nearby. I took Faith's arm and squeezed slightly, giving her a look and hoping she knew what I was getting at.

I turned the both of us into an alley. Faith immediately went and hid behind a dumpster and I jumped, catching a bar high above the ground. I swung myself into a handstand waiting for whoever it was to come looking. It wasn't too long before someone turned into the alley. I waited for him to pass my position before I swung down and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling on the ground. I had my foot on his chest when Faith walked up next to me.

"Why are you following us?" I asked, taking out my stake.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to bite," he said, holding still. "I came to give you something."

"And what could that be?" Faith taunted by my side. "A bloody hickey?"

"If you'd just let me up--" He tried again, squirming beneath my foot. I pushed down harder, feeling him tense.

"I'd rather turn you into dust," I said.

"I told you," he said, getting agitated. "I'm not here to hurt you. And you might want to hear what I have to say."

"Haven't we heard that before?" I asked Faith with a smirk. "So start spilling vampire," I said, turning back to the demon under my foot.

He blew out a weary sigh before speaking. "This town is sitting on the Mouth of Hell and it's about to open. You have to be ready for that. You have to get ready for the Harvest."

I frowned as a mental image of the Children of the Corn came popping into my mind. Mr. Vampire carefully reached into his pocket and brought out a black velvet box. "This is for you," he said tossing it up to me. I grabbed it and he took the opportunity to get back up, brushing the dirt off of his black overcoat. He walked around us, going back out of the alley.

When he'd left Faith asked, "You think we should've just let him go like that?"

I opened up the box and nestled inside was a silver cross on a chain. "What sort of vampire gives a cross as a gift?" I asked, frowning.

"Maybe he's a 'special' vampire," Faith said, emphasizing the word special with her hands forming imaginary quotation marks. I burst out with a bark of laughter and pushed her out of the alley.

When we reached the Bronze, all thoughts of the mystery vampire were pushed to the back of my mind. Faith pushed her way through the crowd to the bar and I followed her, my hand holding onto the back of her tank top. For tonight, Faith had worn a tank top, leather pants, and boots --- all in black. I envied how confident she always seemed and how easily she can make me feel just as confident with a few choice words. And, of course, borrowing some Faith speak, she looked wicked hot in that get up too. She tossed me a bottle of water as she got herself another one. It was then that I spotted a familar face sitting at the bar.

I dragged Faith a few feet away to where Willow was sitting. "Hey," I said, smiling as I got her attention.

"Oh, hello," she said, her eyes flicking between Faith and me. "You guys made it."

We took seats at the table next to her. "You waiting for someone Red?" Faith asked. I quirked an eyebrow at her, wondering at how fast she'd christened Willow with a nickname already.

"Uh, well, not really," Willow stammered. "I was hoping that Xander would show up but..."

"But since he's not here," Faith continued as she trailed off. "You shouldn't be moping around this table, sitting by yourself. Go out there and snag yourself a honey. Find the fun," she finished, taking a drag from her bottle. I didn't get to hear Willow's response because Faith had set down her bottle and grabbed my hand, leading me onto the dance floor. I barely had time to set down my own bottle before I found myself dancing to a song some band was playing out on stage. I felt my body moving in time to the beat as my eyes wandered lazily in front of me to where Faith was putting on a one woman show.

Her eyes were closed, her lips, covered in that dark, red lipstick she likes so much were open slightly, and her hands were raised, running sensuously through her own hair. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in that club to become mesmerised by the display. Faith's eyes suddenly opened, capturing my unmitigated stare. A corner of her lips curled up as she wrapped her hand around mine, maneuvering our bodies closer together. We danced together, ignorant of all the guys that had surrounded us. And I felt wild and free, like I could do anything I wanted to do. Then I happened to look up and I saw Giles. Remember that wild and free feeling? Gone.

I left Faith still dancing in her own world and headed up to the second floor landing. As soon as I left, I noticed with a twinge of anger that there was another guy all ready to take my place. That was *my* place and I'd still be there if my Watcher hadn't chosen to show up at such an inopportune moment. I couldn't help showing some of that anger when I greeted him with a "What are you doing here?"

He was taken aback but recovered. "Oh, I *really* want to be here," he said sarcastically. "This display of teenage hormones gone awry and that noise you pass off as music..." He made a disgusted face.

"So tell me what you really think," I said drily, waiting for him tell me what he was really doing there.

"This," he said, motioning to the floor below, "is a virtual hotbed for vampiric activity. As the Slayer, you should be alert enough to sense them, without looking, without thinking. Can you tell me how many vampires there are down there?"

I glanced down at the dancefloor, trying to will my senses to reach out. But it wasn't my Slayer senses that spotted the vamp. It was my eyes that caught the glaring anachronism. "There," I said pointing down to a guy who still dressed like it was the 80's. And he was talking to Willow. I rushed down, ignoring Giles shouting after me and waded through the crowd of dancers until I found Faith and pulled her out.

"Willow just took off with a vamp," I said in her ear.

****

I was following Buffy towards the back door, cursing myself for giving such fucked up advice. But it wasn't even the advice that was bad, cause in any other town, you wouldn't be worrying about getting picked up by a vamp. We were halfway to the door when skateboarder guy, I think his name was Xander, walks up to us.

"Xander," Buffy said. "Do you have any idea where Willow could have gone?"

"She's not here?" He asked, truly surprised.

"No, she took off with some guy."

"Wait, let me guess. Are you going to tell me he's a vampire?" He asked with a smirk. I saw Buffy freeze at the question. Shaking out of it, she dragged Xander out the back door.

Pushing Xander up against a wall as soon as we left the inside of the Bronze, she asked, "Okay, who sent out the memo?"

"I overheard you and the librarian talking today," he said, smoothing down his clothes. "Are you guys serious about that demon stuff?"

"I'm serious about finding Willow before she gets hurt," Buffy said, impatiently. "So if you know where she could be, tell me...now." It turned out that Xander didn't really know shit so we ended up just going around to the nearest cemeteries, hoping we'd run into Red and her vamp boytoy. Shit, if anything happens to her because of me and my stupid mouth, I'm going to *so* fucking kick that vamp's ass. I was still busy blaming myself and getting angrier the farther we walked when I felt Buffy's hand on my arm.

I turned at her, ready to shake her off but she just looked at me in that way she had as we kept walking and it was enough for the anger to fade away. Then, all of a sudden, her head whipped around and she took off through the cemetery we were walking through. I raced after her with Xander at my heels and pretty soon, I spotted what had set her off. Near some big tomb which was bigger than some bedrooms I've slept in, Willow and another guy I didn't know were being pushed around by two vampires. One girl and one guy. Buffy had already leaped into the middle of the get together and was already kicking some undead ass by the time we got there.

I pulled Willow away from the girl vamp and shoved Red back towards Xander. I got in a quick punch at the blonde before she came back sporting full game face and backhanded me in the jaw which hurt like hell but I ignored the pain and dropped down to sweep her legs out from under her. I got the stake out from the waistband of my pants --- still hadn't gotten that holster yet --- and climbed on top of her, trying to push the stake down into her heart. Now you gotta understand, a vampire's about as strong as ten men. So if they don't want you to stab them in the heart, you're not gonna stab them in the heart. But it never even came down to that cause something grabbed me from behind and threw me into the side of a grave like I was a rag doll. That something turned out to be this massive, ugly vamp who had appeared out of nowhere.

He went right after Buffy and started beating her around, not as bad as me but still... My shoulder was killing me where it'd hit against the stone and I couldn't get up fast enough to back her up. Luckily, Red distracted him enough so that Buffy started dishing out some pain of her own. The vamps disappeared as soon as it looked like they were gonna lose.

I walked over to the two of them as Xander made his own way over. "Hey Red, you okay?" I asked, quickly looking her over for any injuries.

"I'm fine," she said. Then, looking towards Buffy, she asked, "Did that guy you were fighting with turn into dust?"

Buffy tried bullshitting her way out of it but she wasn't a very good liar. So she ended up spilling the big Slayer secret which was another bad, added on top of not having been able to stop those vamps from taking off with that other guy.

"We have to tell Giles," Buffy said, her eyes falling to the ground. "I have to tell him how the secret isn't so secret anymore. Better he hear it from me."

We decided to tell him in the morning since it was really late already and we had no idea where the man lived. We didn't really have anything major to report anyway. The guy they'd taken was probably vamp chow by now and that thing about the Harvest didn't seem like it was going to happen tonight. So Xander ended up walking Willow home while Buffy and me walked them halfway before we split up to go our separate ways.

As we're walking down the street, Buffy wound her arm through mine and asked, "Are you all right? I saw that vamp toss you pretty hard."

"Don't remind me," I groaned, painfully rotating my right shoulder. And that was on top of the pain in my jaw from that wicked backhand. "I think I'm going to need some serious icing tonight."

And then I heard her say something that totally confused the hell out of me.

"I'm sorry."

I looked over at her but her head was down, staring at the ground. "What? B, what are you sorry about? If it weren't for you, we would've all been killed tonight." She was starting to shake her head but before she could beat herself up anymore, I stopped her right there in the middle of the street and tipped her chin up with my hand so I could look her in the eyes. "Is this because of that guy?" She bit her lip and then nodded ever so slightly. "You couldn't have done anything more--"

"But I'm the Slayer," she said, interrupting me. "I should've been on top of things, I should've been able to beat those vamps, I should've--"

"You should've been able to beat them back one handed and blindfolded too, right?" I asked, interrupting her this time. "Hell, you're the Slayer, you should've just shot laser beams from your eyes and scorched them to death."

"I'm being serious," she said, bumping me in the stomach.

"I'm being serious too y'know," I said, bumping her right back. "You can't save everybody, B. But I know you do your best every time you go out there. So if you ask me, you have nothing to beat yourself up about. We're going to find those vamps again and when we do, we're going to dust them." I smiled at her and then added as an afterthought, "But right now, I really do need that ice so d'ya think we can go?"

Buffy let out a soft laugh as she took my arm again. "You always know how to lift my sorry butt off the ground," she said, walking me down the street again. "How do you do that?"

"It's a gift I don't like to flaunt in front of others," I said with a smirk. Buffy laughed. I love the way she laughs. It always seems to make me happier just hearing it. Especially if it's just her and me like it is now. Nobody else but the two of us together.

When we got home, mom was kind of pissed cause we were a few minutes late but I told her I fell down the stairs so she was all worried and maternal after that and just thankful that I was all right. She went to sleep a little afterwards and I was up in my bedroom reading a gaming magazine when Buffy came in holding an ice pack.

"You're a goddess, B," I said, reaching for the pack. "Thanks." I plopped it onto my shoulder and let out a soft hiss of relief. Buffy crawled over me, lying down on her side next to me. She'd changed into her cute pajamas with the rabbits on them and I couldn't help checking out how nice she looked in the outfit.

"I hate that you get hurt like this," she said after a minute.

I smiled, turning my head to see her looking at me. "Hey, I chose to do this, didn't I? And anyway, I'd feel ten times worse than this if you're out there every night all by yourself without any backup. At least I know that I'm doing everything I can to keep you safe."

She placed a hand on top of my belly, drawing imaginary designs with her fingertips. "I just don't want anything to ever happen to you. Not ever Faith."

"Nothing will," I said with all the confidence I could muster up at twelve at night. "Cause you're there to watch my back, just like I'll be watching yours."

She pulled closer to me, a contented smile floating across her face. "Can I sleep with you tonight?" She asked. I was kinda surprised that she'd want to but even more so cause the question was being asked so shyly.

"Uh, yeah, sure B," I said grinning widely and trying to loosen her up. "You know you can use me as your cuddly pillow anytime you like."

She grinned back and pulled herself even closer until she was almost lying on top of me. I reached over and switched off the light, adjusting the icepack on my shoulder so I wouldn't have to keep holding onto it. Unlike the night before which seemed like it would never end, on this night, I went to sleep with no problems at all and the only time I woke up was when the alarm sounded the next morning. I reached out an arm and slapped it on the clock until the annoying ringing stopped.

I was just going to get up when I noticed that I couldn't. Buffy was wrapped around me like a blanket and I just laid there for a minute, enjoying how nice it was to be held like that. I finally let out a sigh and began trying to unwrap myself which never works cause Buffy just holds on tighter whenever I try. So eventually, I had to wake her up. I'd wanted to give her a few extra minutes but the bathroom was calling to me, especially the porcelain toilet god which everyone worships at at one time or another.

After we got through the whole routine of getting up, washing, changing, eating breakfast, and getting to school, the first thing we did was head towards the library. Xander and Red were already there, trying to grill the G-man into giving them some information and, by the looks of it, they weren't getting much out of the old guy.

"It's all right, Giles," Buffy said. "They know what's going on...They were sort of with me last night when I staked a vamp and Xander overheard us yesterday when we were talking about the Slayer thing so I don't think trying to hide it from them now is going to work too well." I swore I could see G-man break out into a sweat at those words but Buffy wasn't even done yet. "And the vamps took someone with them...before I could stop them."

"Did you see where they went?" Giles asked, looking around at everybody.

I shook my head, "No, they just kinda disappeared. One second they're there. And then, gone."

"I'm guessing they went underground," Buffy said. "They didn't run or we would've seen them. And I didn't hear a car."

Xander started frowning in confusion. "I thought vampires flew --- you know, in movies, they do this whole turning into a bat thing..."

"No," Giles answered shortly. But before he could launch into some long winded lecture on vampire misconceptions in popular culture, Buffy cut him off.

"Do you know anything about the Harvest?" When Giles just stared at her all confused, she impatiently explained what the 'special' vampire from last night had told her. "He said we had to prepare for the Harvest. Do you think the vamps I fought yesterday had anything to do with it? They were both really strong. Much stronger than your average newbie."

Before Buffy had even finished the last sentence, Giles was already pulling books out and laying them down in front of her. One after another after another. These weren't just ordinary books either, these things were books on steroids. I felt kinda sorry for Buffy cause her jaw was practically on the floor when Giles said she was supposed to look through them and try picking out the vamps from last night. Mug shots of a who's who going back hundreds of years.

"Faith, what are you doing?" She asks when I sit down and start leafing through the first book.

I smirk at the puzzled expression on her face. "B, you weren't the only one to see those vamps last night." She gave me that soft smile and I knew that it was going to be worth the pain of two blurred eyes. Red and Xander took their own cues and sat down too, each taking a book without a word. G-man went into his stacks, muttering something about finding out about the Harvest.

It was about an hour later while I was rubbing my eyes for the twentieth time that Buffy finally spotted one of the vamps from the run-in. Turns out that the girl's named Darla and, get this, she's a couple hundred years old. Now that's what I call well-preserved. So like Buffy suspected, these weren't lightweights we were messing around with.

When Buffy and me left the library with Xander, Willow and Giles were each in their own worlds. Giles was nose deep in his books and Red was on the computer, each trying to find out as much as they could about the Harvest. So far, not much. And they figured out fast enough that the three of us weren't made for sitting still and doing the research thing so we'd been sent off to class. The trade-off was pretty much even if you asked me.

"This is great y'know," Xander said with a grin. "In some small way, I'm helping to save people from demons and vampires and--"

"And you want to announce that to the whole school?" Buffy asked, smirking. We were walking down an empty hallway but you could never tell who was listening. Xander should know about that more than anybody.

"Sorry," he said with a sheepish grin. "But it's just so cool."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself so much." Buffy stopped and looked at him, a serious expression entering her face. "But Xander, remember what we're dealing with here. They're dangerous creatures and if you're even an inch off your game, you're going to die...And you don't deal with them, I deal with them. I'm the Slayer."

"Yeah but, I'm sure even Slayers need help." He glanced quickly over at me and I knew what he was thinking. How come I get to help and Buffy doesn't jump all over me about it. So before anybody could say anything, I wrapped an arm around Buffy's shoulders.

"Don't sweat it X. B knows that If she tried to leave me behind, I'd just go after her anyway." I smiled over at Buffy who had this exasperated look on her face. "Isn't that right, B?" She just pushed off of me, walking ahead and shaking her head.

"Are you sure you're sisters?" I heard Xander asking as I walked after Buffy.

****

"So let me just get this straight," I said, pulling up to sit on the edge of the table. I noticed the disapproval in Giles' face but it wasn't like I was the only one on the table. Faith was almost sprawled on the top of it with a towel covering her face. "This Harvest is supposed to happen tonight?" Giles and Willow had just given us a report on what their research had come up with. Apparently some really old vampire was planning to break out of his magical prison by sending one of his minions out to suck as much blood as he could. I didn't know the specifics but that wasn't my job. My job was to find the 'vessel' and take him out.

"Now, all we have to figure out is where they're going to attack," Giles continued.

"And I kill the vamp with the funky symbol on his head and the crisis is over." I brought up my legs, sitting Indian style on the table next to Faith's head.

"They'll be at the Bronze," Xander stated with absolute certainty. "You said the vessel will need to feed as much as he can, right? What decent vampire worth his salt could resist all that young, fresh meat crammed into one place?"

"All right," I said nodding slowly. "We'll go to the Bronze tonight. You guys are in charge of getting everybody out if it comes to that and Faith and me will stop the vampires." Once everybody had agreed, all we had to do for the rest of the day was wait. And Giles, being the tweed wearing Watcher he was, proposed the perfect way to the pass the time. He opened up the book cage and began pulling out this bag full of weapons and I groaned, knowing he'd expect me to train now. Glancing down next to me, I reached out one hand and lifted up a corner of the towel, uncovering part of Faith's face. "You alive under there?" I asked her with a frown.

Her hair had still been damp from the shower when she'd walked into the library and promptly walked over to the table, laying herself out. I think she grunted a hello to everyone before throwing that towel over her face and then spent the time Giles was explaining everything lying there like the dead.

"Twenty friggin laps," the voice under the towel said very slowly and very clearly. I replaced the edge of the towel, letting her get back to whatever it was she was doing.

Xander and Willow were standing over the weapon's bag commenting on how exactly some of the weapons were supposed to be used. Willow picked up a small mace, poking a finger at one of the sharp points sticking up around the head.

"This looks pretty simple," she said, turning it around in her hand. "You swing it back and forth and hope it hits something...it's kinda heavy."

"Blunt force object," I said, going over and taking the mace from her hand. "Has to be heavy to crush the head or the ribs or..." Looking over at her, there was a squeamish expression on her face. "Maybe we'd better lay off the weapons for awhile. Hey Will," I added. "Thanks for being research girl. You've been a big help especially since Giles refuses to step into the twentieth century." She smiled brightly and went back to doing her thing at the computer in the corner.

"I don't see any reason for me to have to use that blasted machine," Giles griped coming over, adjusting his pads as he talked. "Books have been more than adequate for centuries and there'll be more than adequate for centuries to come."

"All right Giles. You've made your point. Books have the staying power," I said with a smirk. "We won't try to corrupt you anymore." He gave me a long suffering look and then we started with the training which was basically me taking shots at Giles and him saying I was opening up too soon. After about half an hour of this, he backed up, rubbing his arms and wherever else I'd been hitting him and said that maybe it was time for me to practice with the crossbow.

He walked stiffly towards his office. I looked over at the table and saw Xander grinning at me. I wonder if he'd been watching the whole time. Faith was still laid out on the table, her breaths coming in a slow and even rhythm.

"You need any help?" Xander quickly asked, getting up.

"Uh, yeah, could you set the targets up for me?" He almost stumbled on his way to the book cage as I walked back to the table.

Lowering my head until I was right next to Faith's toweled head, I whispered her name. She didn't respond or move an inch so after a couple of seconds, I carefully lifted the towel off her face. Her eyes were closed, her expression totally peaceful. I pushed the towel to the side, letting my fingers trail a soft pattern down one soft, smooth cheek. What am I doing I vaguely wondered. My thumb grazed, barely touching full lips that parted a little wider, feeling the soft exhalation of breath warm on my skin.

"Buffy?" I looked up and saw Xander looking strangely over at me.

"Yeah," I said moving away reluctantly and walking towards where he'd set up the target. "Thanks Xander." I took the crossbow out of his hands and loaded it with an arrow as he walked back to sit at the table. Things remained quiet like that until it was time for us to take off for the Bronze. Giles packed some weapons. I took the crossbow and a few extra arrows. Faith woke up, seeming more refreshed than she'd looked when she first walked into the library. We were as ready as we'd ever be to take down some major bad guys.

We piled into Giles' poor excuse of a car and waited while he tried to start it up. Xander was sitting shotgun. "Do they really pay librarians that little?" He asked when the car still wouldn't start.

"This is a perfectly serviceable vehicle," he stated as he turned the key again. This time, there was a loud booming sound as the car backfired and the engine finally turned over.

"When exactly would that have been true?" Xander joked again. "Back in the '50's?"

Next to me, Willow stifled a giggle as Faith, not being much for diplomacy, snorted out loud. Giles ignored us all as he pulled out of the parking lot. I really hoped the drive over wouldn't be as traumatic as what was about to go down tonight. Although, it was a close call, we made it to the club just when the vampires were muscling the bouncer around out front. Faith hopped out of the car and threw herself against one of them while I shot a crossbow bolt in another one's heart, turning him to dust.

I saw the big vamp from yesterday who had been tossing me and Faith around coming right at me. He also had a symbol painted on his forehead which meant that he was my target. So much the better. I tossed the crossbow at him which he knocked away but that slowed him down just enough so I could move into him and throw him onto the ground. Taking the stake from inside my jacket, I rammed it down but he caught it in his hand just before it entered his chest. So we were deadlocked in that position, me on top and him on the bottom when someone threw some liquid at in his face which made him screech like a baby. I took that as my cue to jam the stake down as hard as I could, turning him into a cloud of dust.

I looked up and saw Willow standing with an empty bottle of holy water in her hands. She had an excited expression on her face as she helped me up. "Thanks Will," I said, giving her a brief smile before going to help Xander and Giles who were finishing off the last of the vamps who weren't smart enough to run yet. It didn't take too long for us to finish the rest of them off. They were mostly newbies anyway, thinking they were invincible and all that. When we were done, I looked around and saw that Faith was still busy...busy pounding on someone struggling beneath her. They were partially under the light thrown off from the bulb on top of the club's door but I couldn't see who she was pounding on until I stepped closer and saw that it was Darla, the blonde from yesterday.

She just kept hitting and hitting, her fists coming down again and again. "Faith," I said, trying to get her attention. She didn't stop. If anything, she just hit harder. "Faith!" I shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and falling back when she turned around and lashed out at me. She seemed to suddenly realize what she'd done and she froze. Darla was still pinned underneath her but she bucked her hips, throwing Faith off. She would've run away if I hadn't thrown the stake in her back, reducing her to dust.

I crouched down to where Faith was still sitting on the ground, a look of absolute revulsion in her eyes. "Faith?" I reached out slowly to cup her face in my hand.

"I'm sorry," she began to say, her voice thick with whatever emotions she was feeling.

"Shhhh...it's all right," I said, going down on my knees in front of her and pulling her into a hug. She held on tight and I could feel her entire body trembling before she suddenly pushed me away and stood up.

I watched, confused by her actions as she walked towards Giles and I heard her ask "So, are we done here?" When Giles said the situation was neutralized for the moment, Faith walked into the Bronze without saying anything else.

"Is she going to be all right?" Willow asked, looking to me. I didn't know what to say to her because I didn't know. It was like Faith hadn't even known where she was when she was hitting Darla. It was almost like she was lashing out for the sake of lashing out at something. Whatever it was, I was going to find out.

"I'll let you know as soon as I do," I said, following Faith into the club. Everybody inside was clueless as to how close they'd come to being vampire chow. They danced and they laughed and they talked and I envied them that innocence that I could no longer afford. It took a few moments for my eyes to find Faith at the bar. I was just going over to her when I felt those spidey senses kicking in and turning back around, I spotted the 'special' vamp from yesterday coming in through the door. I couldn't get that label out of my head and he wasn't really helping me out since he still hadn't told me his name yet. His eyes darted all over the club and I tensed, half expecting him to change into game face and go crazy in here. But he didn't. He only motioned me over to a quiet corner.

"You're tougher than I expected," he said as soon as I followed.

"I guess you saw me waste your buddies outside," I said, still tense. Why am I talking to a vampire anyway? Even if he didn't seem so bad, he was still a vampire and I haven't met one yet who didn't want to kill me.

"They're not my buddies," he said, almost growling it out. "I'd kill them all if I could."

"Why don't you?" I asked, squinting at him through the dim light. He had a black duster on and everything else on him, that I could see at least, was also black. I think he and Faith would get on real well, what with their simple yet bold fashion statements. Thinking of Faith, I looked back to the bar but she wasn't there anymore. He was saying something else but I only caught the tail end of it.

"...watch out. The Master won't be pleased." What? He began to walk away.

"Wait," I said. "I don't even know your name."

Without stopping, he turned his head slightly and said, "Angel." Whoa. That was probably about the worse name you could have if you were a vampire...well, besides Jesus anyway.

Shaking the encounter off, I looked around once again for Faith. When I finally spotted her, I felt my eyes practically popping out of their sockets. She was dancing but that wasn't what was freaking me out. The person she was dancing with was...Cordelia? Since that first day when I'd seen Faith checking out Cordelia's ass, I hadn't even seen the two of them in the same room together. And now they were dancing together? This wasn't even hands off, with a foot in between them dancing. This was every body part coming into contact at least once dancing. I just stood there watching them and thinking that I shouldn't be so angry. But I was. It was the same feeling I'd gotten the last time I'd seen them together, only a lot worse.

I'd told myself that I shouldn't feel like this. Faith can talk to anyone she wants, flirt with anyone she wants, and dance with anyone she wants because she has no reason not to. Why should she care if I'm standing here feeling like I'm about to blow up when *I* didn't even know why I'm feeling this way? I should've just turned around but I couldn't move, I couldn't take my eyes off them even though I wanted to shut it out, burn the whole thing from my brain. I finally broke from my trance when some guy bumped me from the side, spilling half his drink on my clothes.

Shaking off his apologies, I took off for the bathroom, still shaken up from what had just happened. The only good thing about the night turned out to be that the drink I'd been spilled with was only water and not fruit juice or something. After I dried that up some with a paper towel, I looked at myself in the mirror, trying to see if I looked any different, trying to see if what I was feeling was stamped across my face. It wasn't...not really. I looked the same as I always did. It was the same face staring back at me that I'd seen every morning for the last seventeen years or however long it'd been since I'd learned how to use a mirror. But the more I stared, the more I kept flashing back to the two of them outside. Faith and Cordelia. Dancing.

The bathroom door opened and I watched in the mirror as three girls walked in. I was just about to leave because I vaguely remembered them as being part of Cordelia's group and I really didn't need to be around that right then. But what they said caught my attention.

"What is Cordy thinking?" The blonde one almost squealed, disbelieving. "She's dancing...with a girl! And, hello, she's *so* skanky." The other two nodded and agreed like she was some kind of prophet spouting pearls of wisdom. "You think someone slipped something in her drink? You know, I heard this kind of thing happens all..." I slipped out of the room before I had to listen to anything else they had to say because, honestly, if I stayed any longer, I think I would have done something physically violent to them all.

****

There was a soft knock on the door and I heard Buffy's voice asking if she could come in. I wanted to say no. I wanted to so badly that I thought about barring the door with a chair so she couldn't come in here and ask the questions I was sure she was going to ask. It was why I'd slipped out of the Bronze without her earlier and come home without her. Mom was so pissed off that we didn't come home for dinner or even bothered to call her that she'd grounded me. The thing was though, the punishment wasn't what bugged me, it was the disappointment in her eyes when she said she expected more from me. Why? Why would she expect any more from me than all those other people who've come in and out of my life all those times before?

It was almost as bad as the look Buffy had given me when I flipped out back there.

I'd almost hit her.

Shit, that thought scares me so much. That I could just lose it like that and hurt someone close to me...closer to me than anyone's ever been. But, at the same time, it felt so good to let go and wail all out on someone. She was evil anyway, she was going to be staked no matter what so why couldn't I take out some of my anger on her? Buffy had just come at me at the wrong time. I was spaced out. I didn't know who the hell she was and the last thing I wanted to do was talk to her about what had happened. I'd done everything to avoid her. I'd gone into the Bronze, I'd danced, and I'd left before she saw me going.

She came home fifteen minutes after I did and probably gotten grounded like I did which meant she was supposed to be in her room, not outside of mine, wanting to check up on me.

"Please, Faith. I need to talk to you." I could just picture her. The look on her face as she's talking to my door. That look that said she understood me, that she forgave me, that she's there for me. So what did I do? I buried my face into the pillow, hoping she'd give up and leave me alone. But instead, I heard the door turning and I felt a weight getting on the bed next to me. She didn't talk immediately and I wondered what she could be thinking about. Her hand started running through my hair, her fingertips massaging the back of my neck and I felt like just curling up and dying cause she shouldn't have to make me feel better. I'm the one that messed up. But I couldn't make myself shake her hand off.

"You can talk to me about anything." Her voice was soft, gentle. "I won't judge you, Faith. Whatever happened back there, we can just pretend like it never did. It doesn't matter cause we won, right?" There was a forced chuckle and when I turned my face to look up at her, that sadness in her eyes which had always been there for as long as I had known her just seemed so much more magnified, so much deeper. Did I do that to her? Oh, fuck me if I did.

I sat up and pulled her into my arms, feeling her sink into me and I felt like everything would be all right if we just stayed like that and forgot all that other shit. "Can you tell how sorry I am?" I asked, hoping she really did. I felt her chuckling again but it was for real this time. I pulled back and I knew it was about time I gave something of myself up to someone who'd already done so much for me but it was just so hard to open up. Wanting to was one thing, actually doing it was another. "I, uhm...sometimes," I started over again, feeling like the words just wouldn't come out of my mouth. "Sometimes, I lose myself and it's like I'm watching myself but from a distance, y'know? And it's like there's something inside that makes me want to lash out, hurt whoever's in my face at the time and I can't stop." I wasn't looking at her. I was focusing on the pattern on the bedspread cause I didn't want to see what she must be thinking of me. Of how fucked up I was.

"Stop thinking that," she said, making me look up at her. How the hell? Was she reading my mind or something? "I know what you're thinking cause it's written all over your face." Oh. "I'm not going to pretend that I know everything that's going on inside of you right now but I just want you to know that I'm here, okay? I'll always be here for you because...because we're family now."

I think about that word. Family. I had a family once. And now I realize more than ever, staring as I was at Buffy, that I have a family again. She left my room after giving me another hug and I spent the rest of the night lying in bed, wondering how I could ever live up to this image she has of me. That night, I dreamed about her. My mom, I mean. I don't really ever dream about her...anymore. I wondered why I was dreaming about her now.

When I woke up the next morning, the clock on the desk said it was noon. I couldn't believe I'd slept so late and nobody bothered waking me until I remembered today was Saturday. I would've just rolled over and gone back to sleep but I heard laughter and loud voices from downstairs and that made me curious enough to get up.

When I got downstairs, Xander, Willow and Buffy were all on the couch acting like old buds. Xander grinned that goofy, cute grin when he saw me walking in. "Look who's coming in to join us," he said, his eyes looking a little too long at my chest. Typical guy behavior but at least he was one of the good guys.

"Hi Faith." Willow was in one of those two sizes too big sweaters she seems to like so much. Something's gotta be done about that girl and her confidence cause I know there's a body in there somewhere.

I sat on the armrest next to Buffy who placed her hand on my knee, giving me a grin. "Good sleep?" She asked.

"One of you guys shoulda woken me up," I said, running a hand through my hair. "Did I miss anything good?"

"Only the whole entire Saturday morning lineup of cartoons," Xander said, gesturing towards the TV. "But you're in time for Soul Train."

"Think I'll pass." I got up and walked into the kitchen about to get something to eat when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," I said, detouring towards the front door. The person I saw on the doorstep was about the last person I expected to see standing there. Cordelia, little Miss Cheerleader herself was standing there, looking like she wanted to bolt.

We stood there, staring at each other for a minute before she looked at me pointedly and asked, "Don't you have any manners? Aren't you going to invite me in?"

I smirked, moving aside so she could brush past me like a diva. I shut the door and turned around and she was all up in my face, asking me what I thought I was doing yesterday, that I'd probably single-handedly ruined her reputation, that I'd ruined her image and a lot of other bullshit like that. I was rubbing a hand over my face, wishing she'd just shut up for a second when Buffy walked out of the living room with Xander and Willow not too far behind her. Cordelia turned around with this horrified expression on her face and we were all just standing around staring at each other when she suddenly turned to me and hissed that she needed to talk to me alone. Emphasis on the alone.

Yeah, like I needed to spend any more time letting her walk all over me. I was just about to kick her ass --- and a really nice ass she has --- out the door when she friggin dragged me upstairs and into Buffy's room. She slammed the door shut and turned to me. I was all ready for another bitch session but she just went over to the bed and sat down, putting her face in her hands.

"What did you do to me?" She asked. Her voice was muffled but I could still hear the confusion and fear in there.

"What did I do to you?" I asked, just as confused. "Shit, I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. I didn't do anything to you. Hell, I'd remember if I did." I think.

She looked up at me like I was the worst kind of scum and she slapped me before I knew what was coming. I grabbed her arm when she tried to just up and leave. I almost wanted to hit her back but, instead, I asked, "You can't just leave without telling me why you slapped me, not after laying all that shit on me." I let go of her arm when she started wincing. "I want to know what you think I did, okay?"

She looked like she was going to slap me again and I tensed, preparing myself. "You danced with me," she finally said, gritting her teeth as she folded her arms across her chest.

I had to let that thought sink in first. Yeah, she was right. We'd danced. But so what? I'd seen her on the dance floor when I was at the Bronze and she hadn't been dancing with anyone, just swaying to the music. "If you didn't want to dance with me, you could've just walked away," I said, watching her for her reaction.

"You...I...I couldn't..." She kept stuttering, trying to come up with something. Trying to come up with some reason she didn't, I guess.

If I waited around for her to come up with a reason, I'd probably be up here all day so I stepped right into her, smirking slightly when I heard her inhale a sudden breath. I put a hand on her arm and said, "Why don't you come and tell me when you've thought about it a little?" I gave her my most winning grin and let my hand reach around her to the doorknob. "See ya." I winked at her and went downstairs into the kitchen. I heard her walk down a couple minutes later, followed by the sound of the front door opening and closing.

Taking a bowl of cereal into the living room, I sat down, squeezing next to Red and Buffy. I could see they really wanted to ask but I wasn't sure who exactly would be the first to speak.

"Was that Cordelia who breezed in and out of here without insulting me once or was that just some hormonally charged teenage fantasy?" Xander. I should've known he'd be the first to put in his two cents.

"You have fantasies about her?" I asked, looking over at him and quirking my eyebrow. He ducked his head and shrugged. He was just too damn easy. I grinned and looked over at Buffy whose eyes were zeroed in on the TV screen.

"'Sup B?" I asked, shoveling another spoonful of cereal into my mouth. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," she said, almost cutting off my sentence before I'd gotten it out. Her eyes were still glued to the screen. For someone who insisted she was fine, she didn't really look it but I wasn't going to push her if she didn't want to talk.

Xander and Willow spent the rest of the day at the house even though, technically they weren't supposed to be there since Buffy and me were still grounded but I saw it this way. Whatever mom didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Buffy was still kinda out of it but she kept insisting that she was fine and nothing was the matter. I started thinking that maybe it was cause of Cordy since it was only after she came over that Buffy started acting all weird. Maybe she didn't like her or some other shit like that. I didn't know cause she wouldn't tell me.

The weekend passed way too quickly and, pretty soon, it was Monday again. Back to the same old grind. Same old classes. Same old boring teachers. But at least Buffy seemed to be back to her normal self again. Of course, that was before I walked into the library and found her in a cheerleader's uniform. I'd just walked in on Giles' lecture on how much of a waste of time cheerleading was.

"Maybe you can talk some sense into her," he muttered, walking back into his beloved stacks.

"So what do you think?" She asked, running both hands down her uniform and smiling expectantly at me.

I was just gonna open my mouth and tell her exactly how sexy she looked when Xander and Willow walked in.

"Holy shi--uhm, wow!" Xander's mouth was gulping air like a fish.

I looked back to Buffy and grinned. "I guess that pretty much sums up what I'm thinking too," I said, watching as her face lit up. The three of us walked her over to the gym where the cheerleading tryouts were taking place.

"How could you not get in?" Willow asked. "You're you know, the big S plus you've got cheerleading experience. They'd be nuts not to pick you."

"I guess you're right," Buffy said with a nervous grin. "But I still have butterflies in my stomach."

When we got inside the gym, there were a bunch of girls already standing around, some were going over their routines, some were just standing still, some looked totally confident but they were all there trying out for a spots on the team.

"Um, Buffy?" Xander was looking about as nervous as some of those girls. "I got you something. Kinda like a good luck charm." He handed her a bracelet with the inscription 'Yours Always' and then blushed when Buffy thanked him. If I didn't know better, I'd think someone had crushy feelings. He and Willow moved off to get seats.

"Are you sure you can stay and watch me?" Buffy asked, turning me around to face her. "Don't you have practice today?"

"Don't worry about it. I have practice every day but I'm only going to get to see you wow these people once." I gave her a wink. "So go wow 'em." She gave me a wide smile before I went over to the bleachers and sat down next to Xander and Willow and let my eyes roam around the room. I wasn't too surprised seeing Cordelia in the middle of a group of her cronies. I caught her eye for a minute and gave her a grin which seemed to really freak her out cause she turned away so fast, I think she almost gave herself whiplash. I had been wondering what her problem was ever since she'd come to my house and slapped me. It couldn't have been just me dancing with her cause it wasn't like I forced her to dance with me. Then again, maybe she was just a psycho but it was something interesting to gnaw on.

Then my attention turned back to the gym floor where some girl was starting her performance. "Damn, she's good," I muttered as she did some flips and splits that were absolutely phenomenal.

"That's Amber," Willow said. "I heard she turned down an offer of being a Laker girl." I couldn't say I didn't believe her cause this girl was really *that* good. But then she started smoking --- I mean really smoking and then she caught on fire. Damn, couldn't this weird stuff lay off for just one day?

****

Amber had gone down in a ball of flames and that's not really stretching the truth too much. To top it all off, I didn't even have a chance to try out before the fire department came roaring in although there wasn't much of a fire to put out by then. There wasn't much we could do besides research and I left that for Willow who was going to hack into Amber's files and see if she had had episodes of spontaneously combusting in the past. That had all been yesterday. Today was another day and I was determined to have my try out and make the squad.

The idea had burrowed into my head sometime during the weekend...some time after Cordelia's unexpected, unwelcome visit. She'd just barged into my house like some blue blood royal and dragged Faith upstairs to do god knows what. If their dance had bothered me, this incident was literally eating me alive inside. I couldn't deal. I just couldn't. Just thinking about them being together made me want to go out, find a vampire and stake him over and over again. And that was probably when the idea of trying out for the squad started forming in my mind. Not only was it something extracurricular, i.e. non-Slayer related activity, but I figured Cordelia would probably be trying out as well. And seeing as I couldn't exactly stake her, the next best thing was to beat her during the course of competition. Not as bloody but it would feel just as good. It wasn't very rational but then again, I wasn't really feeling too rational.

When they called my name, I went out there and did an old routine I'd learned from my old school, only I added a couple more gymnastic moves to spice it up. I looked for Faith after I finished but I didn't see her anywhere and my mood just fell. Xander came up to me though. He'd been there every minute of the competition rooting me on and I told him exactly how sweet I thought that was.

"You're w-welcome," he said. "By the way...I was wondering...if you weren't too busy..."

I was listening to him talking. I really was but when I caught sight of Faith coming into the gym, I just couldn't concentrate anymore. "Xander, I'll talk to you later, okay?" I left him and hurried towards Faith who smiled as soon as she saw me.

"Sorry, B," she said, running a hand through her hair. That was her signature gesture which meant she was agitated about something. "Coach was really riding my ass for yesterday so she made me stay longer. Did I miss your routine?" I nodded. "Shit! I'm sorry. I really wanted to be here to cheer for you."

"It's all right, you couldn't help it," I said. "Xander was here so I still had a cheering section -- person. So, don't worry about it." She glanced behind me at Xander.

"Yeah," she said with a thoughtful expression on her face. I wonder what she was thinking? "Oh, by the way," she said, looking at me again. "Did Cordelia go yet?" Okay, now I really wished I didn't know what she was thinking.

"Uh, no, not yet." I followed her to the bleachers as we sat down to look at the rest of my competition. When Cordelia went on to perform, I glanced over at Faith and saw that she had this intense look in her eyes and a grin on her face. As soon as Cordelia finished her routine, Faith got up and excused herself as she walked up to the cheerleader and whispered something in her ear which made Cordelia drag her outside the gym.

"What's up with them?" I'd forgotten that Xander was even sitting next to me when he spoke up. "I've never seen anyone get to Cordy like Faith does. It's kinda neat to see."

I didn't say anything. I just continued to mopily look at the rest of the cheerleaders. But I didn't see them. What I saw was the mental image of Cordelia and Faith --- Faith and Cordelia. And when everyone had done their routine and all there was left to do was post the names of the people who had made the team, Faith and Cordelia still hadn't come back. Willow came by just as they were putting up the results. It turned out that I didn't make the team, not the first string anyway. But, of course, Cordelia did. I was so wrapped up in my failure that I almost didn't notice when Amy, another one of the try-outs, ran away, crying.

"What happened?" I asked. Willow turned to me and told me that Amy hadn't made first team either. "But that's still kind of over reacting a bit, don't you think? Or am I missing something fundamental?"

"Amy's mother was a cheerleader too. But she was like this perfect cheerleader and she won all these awards. We even have a trophy from her displayed in the case in the hallway. So, Amy's got a lot to live up to."

My mind started working again as I processed this new information. Since the Amber lead pretty much went nowhere, Amy was now moving way up in my list of suspects. We walked to the library to see if Giles had dug up anymore information. When I walked in, my eyes immediately found the two people I'd been looking for. Cordelia was seated on a chair as Giles and Faith hovered over her with concern on their faces.

"What's going on?" I asked, going over to the three of them.

Giles answered. "It seems there's been some type of witchcraft performed. A binding spell is my guess. Cordelia's vision has been impaired."

"I'm blind," Cordelia corrected with a hint of anger and fear. Xander went up and waved a hand across her face. "Whatever you're doing, stop it! I can smell your cheap cologne, Xander. Do you bathe in that stuff?" Xander backed off sheepishly. Since we didn't have any other suspects on my extremely short list, we all went over to Amy's house to confront her. Cordelia was in a good mood when we left because Willow had told her she'd made first string. When Faith had asked me if I'd made it, I'd muttered something about being an alternate and walking out of there before she could say anything else.

The rest of the afternoon passed by in a blur as we were all caught up in the Nancy Drew routine. It ended with Amy's mom getting herself zapped into that trophy of hers in the school hallway and Amy getting her hijacked body back from her mom who had wanted to relive her youth a little too much. All in all, I'd say it was a productive afternoon, although no actual slaying was involved and Cordelia hadn't even said so much as a thanks when she'd left. I walked through the cemetery, having sneaked out to do my nightly patrol of the town. Faith had wanted to come but I'd given her some excuse about needing to have some time alone. I thought I saw a flash of hurt in her eyes when I'd said that but I might've just imagined it because it was gone just as fast as it had appeared.

Everything was getting too confusing. And it was true. I needed some time alone to get my head together because, right now, everything was muddled up, especially my emotions. They were all over the place and I didn't know why. A soft rustling behind me made me turn around, a stake already in my hand. No matter how preoccupied I was, this was still a cemetery and this was Sunnydale so my instincts and senses were still very much tuned in even if my brain wasn't. "I don't have time for the stalking routine so just come out like a good little vampire." There was another rustling and then Angel walked out of the shadows. I lowered the stake but didn't put it away. "What do you want?"

"Why do you think I want anything?" He asked, coming closer. "I could've just been walking through and spotted you."

"Were you?"

"No," he admitted. "But I could have been." Great, a joker. I turned, putting the stake back in my pocket and continuing my patrol. I heard his footsteps following behind me and eventually, after a few moments of silence, he spoke again.

"That was very impressive what you did to Luke and Darla."

"Didn't you tell me that already?" I asked as he walked up next to me.

"I'm trying to start some conversation...I'm not too good at it yet." We lapsed into silence again and I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. For a vampire, he was still pretty hot looking.

"You're not really like other vampires, are you?" I asked, sneaking another glimpse at him.

"What gave it away?"

"You're not trying to kill me," I said bluntly. "That's pretty different." I wasn't sure I heard it right but I think I heard a chuckle coming from him.

"You were thinking about something before I turned up," he said. I guess he wasn't kidding about the lack of conversational skills because that had been a pretty abrupt change of topic.

"Yeah, but not like I don't want to share it with you --- wait, that's right. I really don't want to share it with you."

"Fair enough." The conversation, what there was of it, pretty much stalled there but he still ended up walking me back to my house.

"Okay," I said, turning to him. "This has been...pleasant but you'll understand if I don't invite you in." He nodded and stood there as I climbed the tree up to my window. When I looked down again, he was gone which capped off a perfectly weird day to begin with. I crawled through the window and plopped down on the bed as soon as I got in. I laid there for a few more minutes before changing into my pajamas and, on the spur of the moment, I went across the hall to Faith's room and knocked on her door.

"Come in, B."

"How'd you know it was me?" I asked, walking over and sitting on the bed next to her. She was lying on her belly, leafing through a book.

She quirked her eyebrow as she looked up at me. "Who else wants to come into my room in the middle of the night besides you B?" She turned towards her book again and then just as quickly looked back at me. "What was with the vamp escort downstairs?"

"Oh, Angel?"

"You've gotta be kidding me," she said with a big grin as she sat up. "That's his name?"

"Yeah, pretty ironic, isn't it?"

"Pretty pathetic. So what's up with the two of you?"

"I don't know, he just decided to show up for patrol tonight and then he walked me home."

She gave me a skeptical look. "Are you sure he's not dangerous, B?"

I frowned as I thought about it. "I can't be a hundred percent sure but all he's done is help us so far."

Faith still looked unconvinced but she let it drop. I watched as she turned back to her book again, a hank of her hair falling forwards from where she'd tucked it behind one ear. I almost reached out to tuck it back for her but instead, I asked, "What are you reading?"

"The Odyssey. I've gotta get the crip notes in the morning cause this shit's boring." She tossed the book across the room where it landed on top of her bookbag which I've never actually seen her use. She turned over so that she was lying on her back. "So are you going to sit there all night or are you going to get in bed already?" She asked with a smirk, looking at me.

I grinned and crawled over her, slipping under the covers beside her. She stifled a yawn and turned off the lamp before getting under the covers herself. The first thing she did was wrap an arm around my waist and pull me close as she rested her head on my shoulder. I think I forgot to breathe for a second. She let out another yawn and then snuggled closer. "I hate books that make me want to go to sleep," she muttered, under her breath. I didn't say anything at the comment. I just enjoyed the feeling of being close to her like that. After a few minutes, I thought she'd gone to sleep but then she rolled onto her back again. I missed the contact immediately.

"Hey, B. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," I said, rolling onto my side and resting my chin on her shoulder. I could make out her expression just fine --- one of those cool Slayer powers --- and she looked thoughtful.

"Do you hate Cordy or something?" The question blind sided me from out of nowhere. Why was she asking about Cordelia of all people? "B?" She prompted when I still hadn't answered.

"Um, no, why would you think that?"

"Cause, every time she's around, you act weird and spazzed out." I turned my head so I wouldn't have to see her face.

"Just because I don't hate her doesn't mean I like her either...but if you want to be friends with her...it's fine with me." I think I actually choked over those last few words.

Faith took a deep breath as she moved her arm to wrap it around me. "Do you know what I was thinking the first time I saw Cordy? I was basically thinking the same thing the first time I saw you too. You're both different from that bunch of sheep you hang out with. There's actually someone in there worth knowing and I wanted to crack Cordy's act so I could get to know that person. But she's turning out to be a real hard case."

"Oh." That was the only thing I could think of saying. She thought we were alike?

"But if you don't like her, then I can just forget the whole thing."

"No...it's not that..." I was starting to feel guilty about hating Cordelia and I hated that. "Look, Faith. Why does it matter if I like her or not? She's your friend. If you want to hang with her then you should just do it."

"It matters cause you're the most important person in my life, B. Don't you know that? And if something upsets you, it upsets me as well." I was shocked at what she'd just said and, at the same time, warmed over completely by it. For the rest of the night, I laid there, listening to Faith's heartbeat under my ear until I fell asleep.

****

I jogged off the track, my lungs feeling like they were burning, fighting for every breath. The sweat was just rolling off of my face and I shut my eyes to stop the stinging saltiness.

"Faith," Coach's voice boomed out my name as she came up behind me and slapped me on the back. Sometimes, I don't think that woman knows her own strength. "Great practice today. You're going to knock their socks off on Sunday. I know this is your first meet but don't be nervous. I haven't seen anyone as good as you...well, just don't be nervous." She punched me this time on the arm and walked off to yell at someone on the other side of the track. I think that's her way of encouraging me. At least I hope that's what that awkward attempt at closeness was.

I looked around as my breath started coming in easier. Sunnydale.

God, what a fucked up town. How long have I been here? Three, four months? And in that time, I'd seen more weird shit than some people do in their whole entire lifetime, even if they lived to be a hundred and fifty. In that one month, one cheerleader was blinded, one was set on fire, Xander had dated a suped up praying mantis, Xander had turned into a pig eating hyena demon, the Principal had died under 'mysterious' circumstances, the Master Vampire was still trying to break out of his prison to wreak havoc on the world and that was on top of the daily dosage of vamps I saw when patrolling with Buffy.

But if someone were to come up to me and ask if I'd trade in this life for another, I would've said a quick and firm no before I grabbed that person and kicked their ass all over this field. Cause, for the first time in a really, really long time, I was happy. Totally and completely happy. And I'll be damned if anyone was going to try and mess with that.

Willow and Xander were two of the coolest people I'd ever met and I was proud that they called me their friend. Mrs. Summers, mom, was nothing but good to me and never treated me like I was anyone but her daughter. Sometimes, when I looked at her, I wondered what she could possibly have seen in me to want to adopt me. But whatever it was, I am so glad she saw it. Giles...Giles was Giles, a tweedy, stuffy Watcher. But I knew he cared about all of us in his own stuffy, English way. Maybe more than he's supposed to.

And then, of course, there's Buffy. I can feel the grin spreading across my face just thinking about her. I remembered back to that night when I'd told her she was the most important person in my life and I could feel her smile against my skin. That hadn't changed. In fact, I think she means even more to me now, if that's at all possible. She's not just my friend, she's not just my adopted sister, she's the only person I think I could ever open up to...if I ever decided to open up that is. She's someone who makes me want to wake up in the morning just so I can see her face and talk to her. Usually, I don't even have to get up for that cause she's in my bed already.

I walked over to my duffel bag which I'd dumped off to the side and took out a towel, wiping the sweat from my face and neck. It was pretty sweet having something outside of demons, witchcraft, and vampires to spend my time on, not that it wasn't fun and all but spending 24/7 on that stuff would make me go crazy. I don't know how Buffy does it. That's also another thing I love about the girl. She's as tough as they come and she handles anything this freaking town can throw at her. I seriously don't know how a dinky town like Sunnydale even survived for as long as it did without her.

After I showered and changed into something a little less soaked with sweat, I wandered over to the library where the gang always hung out. It was like our unofficial, official headquarters. Kinda like the batcave, only without the cave or the bats or the super cool equipment. They were all in there. Xander, Red, Giles, and Buffy, all hunkered down researching about another demon who'd threatened to end the world. I'd lost track of which one it was this time but it didn't matter cause whatever it was, Buffy was gonna kick its ass. I had absolutely no doubt about that at all.

"Hey Faith." Xander was the first one to look up. "Pull up a chair and join the party." He patted the one next to him, giving me an inviting grin.

"Thanks a lot, Chuckles," I said, sitting down and pulling a heavy, musty book towards me. If they're not heavy then they're musty and if they're not musty then they're heavy. I honestly don't think this library has any books of the thin and new category. After about fifteen minutes, which was pretty much average for me, my eyelids started feeling heavy and I felt myself nodding off. Before I knew it, someone was shaking me and waking me up. I opened my eyes and saw Buffy standing over me with a smirk on her face.

"Have a good sleep?" She asked, resting her elbows on the table and her head in her hands.

"The goodest," I said, making sure I wasn't drooling on myself again. That happened *one* time and nobody would let me hear the end of it. "Where is everybody?" The library was empty except for the two of us. Even Giles, who I was beginning to think lived here, was gone.

"Xander and Willow dragged Giles out of here, kicking and screaming to get some pizza," she said with a crooked grin.

"Okay," I said, leaning back in my chair and looking at her in confusion. "So why aren't we with them?"

"Because," she said, straightening up and pulling me with her. "We promised mom that we'd be back for dinner. Don't you remember?"

I followed her out of the library. "Y'know, I think I've been researching too hard. My brain's melting or something." She looked back at me like I was shitting her but I just put on my innocent face until she walked back to me and punched me on the arm. "You keep that up, B and I might just stop researching all together." She gave a little groan and dragged me out of there. I don't think she's taking my threat too seriously.

"Guess what?" She asked excitedly as we walked down the empty hallway.

"Um, they found Snyder dressed like a transvestite and soliciting himself to some truckers?" I guessed, referring to our new Principal who looked like a troll and acted like one too.

"No, be serious," Buffy said but I saw that smile creeping onto her face. "We're going to be spending summer vacation with my dad in LA. Isn't that great?"

I looked over at her and she had this big, happy grin lighting up her face. "We?"

"Yeah," she said, her smile faltering a bit. "Don't you want to go?"

"It's not that, B. You know I'd love to go with you. I mean, can you imagine me spending vacation here without you? I think I'd go crazy by the first day." She shot me another bright smile. "But...I don't know. Does your dad want me there? I haven't even really met the guy."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. He really wants to meet you and anyway, you two will love each other. He's just as goofy as you are."

"I'm not goofy."

"Uh huh."