InsaneJournal

Fic: THE PROPER SLAYER (pt 11 of ?)
Buffy's back home in Sunnydale after her AWOL summer with an accidentally-souled Spike.

And now they're together again, struggling with a mutual love that isn't making anything better for either of them.

Fic set in an AU early season 3. A coda, more than a sequel, to Let's Get Lost.



Previously ....

The only time he'd been happy since Angelus came back, was with the slayer in New York. A happiness he hadn't recognized as such, until they'd achieved that moment of perfection that whisked the soul out of him and supposedly set him free. Free, all right, free to be anxious, lonely, angry, stuffed full of longing for a girl who was far far far too good and strange for him, far too above him.

He hadn't known when he was well off.

"So, I know something."

Buffy jumped; the looseleaf binder full of French slid off her lap. Faith climbed in through her open window and plopped down beside her on the bed. Outside, the birds were just starting to twitter ahead of the sunrise.

"What are you doing?"

"Lost my key, and my room is too hard to climb into."

"Your room."

"Your Mom said so."

"At least she's still my Mom."

"Your Mom, right. Is yours." Faith dropped back onto her elbows, which made her breasts stand up between her pert saucy face and Buffy's eyes. Reminding her that she'd kind of liked Faith's breasts, which was pretty much a surprise. And even though that was before Spike turned up, they were still pretty interesting. "You're not like everybody thinks you are, are you, B?"

"I guess not. I ... had kind of an intense summer."

"Riiiiight. That big out-of-town adventure you don't talk about."

"You brag about your escapades enough for both of us."

"Escapades, yeah. We both seem to have 'em. We're regular scamps."

"I guess." Buffy yawned, stretching her mouth and arms open extra wide for emphasis. "Think I want to get an hour's sleep before school."

"You're tired, sure. Just had a busy night. With your hot new squeeze. Who, oh surprise, turns out to be a vampire. Another vampire."

Buffy goggled. No. No way. No way was this happening. To cover, she leaned over to grab up the notebook. When she came back up, Faith gave her a cool smile, and pointed to the back of the neck. "You know how I know. Feel 'em here, yeah? That little ripple that let's you know there's demon makin' the scene. So. Blond hair, black leather ... must be Spike, right? Your pals told me about Spike. What I hadn't heard was that you were screwing him too."

"I ... am ... not ...."

Faith blinked slowly, her face all sultry and impressed. "Nah, don't bother. Saw you, couple hours ago. He had you pinned up against a tree. You were grunting. It was really somethin'—got me all excited. Maybe I was a little jealous, too."

"Oh." Buffy turned a few pages in her notebook.

"So what is it with vampires? Love staking 'em myself, gets me all horny as we've already discussed, but never occurred to me to do one." Faith flopped forward then, chin propped on hands, eyes open wide in mocking attention. "School me, B. What am I missing?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about."

"Drop the bullshit. You're Buffy the vampire layer. You don't get to do that and not share the gory details."

"So what is this? You're going to tell on me if I don't put out for you again?"

"Whoa! Rush to judgment much?"

"I thought you didn't care about a rematch."

"And I think you do. My my, aren't you a greedy little so-and-so. Two hours after you fucked your undead hottie and you want more. Impressive."

"I said no such thing. Could you maybe get out of my room?"

"What if I did rat on you?"

"I don't know. What if you did? I'm not gonna quake because you want to blackmail me. But if you hurt me or Spike, I will hurt you."

Faith rolled off the bed onto her feet. "You got me wrong, B."

"I do? Because it sure feels like you're threatening me."

"I'm not your enemy. We should look out for each other. I just want to know what you're up to. We're both slayers, but you—you're into some different kind of shit."

"What I'm into is none of your business. Isn't it enough that you're living in my house and bogarting my Mom and my friends, without ...." She knew this wasn't fair. If anything, Faith was providing welcome cover, taking up their attention in ways she no longer had the energy or inclination for. Not that logic made that any less irritating.

Faith paced up and back, her arms crossed, shoulders hunched. When she spoke next, she was facing the wall. "I don't ... I'm not used to ...."

Watching her, it came to Buffy suddenly, with a jolt. Faith wanted to be friendly, but she didn't know how to relate to her without being competitive and over the top.

She probably had never had any friends before. Except maybe her watcher, who Kakistos murdered.

"It's okay," Buffy said. "Let it go."

Faith turned, her eyes widening for a moment that divulged her eagerness, before the mask slipped back into place. "So what's the what, B? I heard Angel was supposed to have a soul, 'til he lost it, I know you haven't gone rogue or anything, but what with everything your pals told me about Spike—"

"Spike's my problem, okay! Just let me deal with him! He's not going to harm anything here, and ... he's not going to be around long."

"Why?"

"Because he's going to go. I'm going to make him get out of here."

"Nah, I mean ... why are you fucking him? Why are you ... you're not just fucking him. You wouldn't be all teary-eyed if that was all."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"I'm not gonna squeal on you. Slayer's honor."

"You don't want to know! You shouldn't ... you shouldn't think about it, okay? You're good. You're still good."

"Good?"

"You haven't messed up, you have the mission, you're ... straight. Okay? Can you just go on being that, and—"

"You think I'm good? Are you sure you're okay, B?"

"I can handle it."

"Because if this Spike has something on you, if he's on your back—I can slay him."

"I told you, leave him alone. He's not ...." She couldn't bring herself to say he's not evil. She couldn't even tell herself, let alone Faith, that she trusted him. But the idea of him as a target for Faith's stake filled her with a sense of outrage and injustice, and the same panicky fear she'd experienced when Spike had put Angel in peril of his existence.

Which gave her the biggest whanger of a headache ever.

"Right, like you keep sayin', he's not gonna do anything, and he's about to leave town. I got it."

"I know it's weird, but ... I appreciate you trusting me."

Faith's lip curled. "I've never really trusted anybody, which is kind of a hoot since my name's, you know. But yeah, like I said, slayers should stick together, as long as there's two of us to stick. I won't rat you out."

"Thanks. I'd better hit the shower now, it's almost time for school."

Faith gave her another long look, that Buffy forced herself to endure, smiling a little, trying to appear altogether less desperate and confused and overwhelmed than she felt.

At the door, Faith paused. "If I was you, I wouldn't see him anymore out in the boneyards like you did—your friends might get wise. They were out looking for you tonight too. They keep talking about how you're never around anymore."

Oh God. Before Buffy could come up with another excuse, plea, expression of gratitude, her mother's alarm clock was going off, its noise muffled through the closed door, and Faith was gone into her own room with a click of the latch.

Next>>>>