Fanfiction: One More Sad Song

“What’s her problem, anyhow?”

Angel, perched near the fireplace, glanced up from the book he was holding. He directed a small look of confusion towards the girl who had come through the back entrance to the mansion.

“Who?” he asked, the light from the flames dancing up and down his dark clothes.

Buffy Summers gave the vampire one of her many exasperated glares.

“Faith,” she replied, setting her purse down on the couch and taking a seat opposite Angel. “You’ve seen how she acts, how defensive she is. Why do you think she’s like that?”

“I don’t know her well enough to say, Buffy.” Setting the book down, page dutifully marked for later, Angel got up and moved to sit with his blonde-haired companion. “If she’s defensive when you ask her questions, she’s either too embarrassed or too hurt to answer them. If she needs time to deal with her past, then pushing her is only going to make things worse.”

“But I want to know!” Buffy said loudly, her brown eyes reflecting the flames from the fireplace. Sighing, she made herself lower her voice as she smoothed out imaginary wrinkles on her pants. “Maybe she needs help or something, you know?”

A short silence ensued as Angel considered the situation. “All we can do for now is watch her,” he finally said. “Do you know anything about her? Background, anything?”

“Uh…she said she dropped out of high school. And she seems to distrust everyone…even me.”

“Have you given her reason to?”

Surprised that Angel would accuse her openly, Buffy sat up straighter.

“I seriously doubt that her mistrust of me has anything to do with actions of mine,” Buffy retorted. “I’ve been super nice to her so far.”

“That may be true,” Angel conceded, “but we can’t assume to know that your niceness has been taken at face value by Faith. She may feel that your openness is a trick, a way to get at her insecurities.”

The Sunnydale’s Slayer lowered her eyes, not wanting to meet Angel’s annoyingly intuitive gaze. “To tell you the truth, Angel, she irritates me. She barges in here like this is her town, like she’s supposed to be the only Slayer. It would be better if she were gone.”

“Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like such a ‘super nice’ opinion.”

One of the logs in the fireplace made a loud cracking sound, and the flames shot up a bit higher.

“You haven’t been around her, you don’t know how it feels,” Buffy replied, “so don’t accuse me of something that is her fault. Spend some time around her and tell me she’s not the most annoying Slayer in history.”

Angel stood up, preferring to continue his thoughts from a safe distance. “She probably feels scared, Buffy. Think about it: this whole town is new and hostile for her. And until you know what she’s been through, accusing her of ruining things is going to solve nothing.”

There was no immediate defense to this statement. Angel turned to stare into the fire as the mansion continued to plunge into the darkness that accompanied late twilight. He could imagine the stars just beginning to come out, shining amid the blackness of the night sky, the only company for the lonely moon. He felt bad for Faith’s position; he knew how hard it was to be the perpetual outsider, the one who could only look hopelessly in on what was ultimately unobtainable. Living for years and years on nothing but animal blood, scrambling through alleyways as humans openly stared with revulsion, Angel had learned a thing or two about how empty one could feel when everyone and everything only seemed to exist to give pain.

Buffy reentered the conversation, having had time to think of a suitable response. “It’s not just me, you know. Willow, Xander…they all feel the same.” She stood up, crossing her arms. “I just wish Faith were gone from Sunnydale.”

Angel said nothing, forcing Buffy to break the silence again.

“How can you not understand my opinion?” she asked, refusing to be defeated so easily. “Isn’t there anyone who just makes you want to scream?”

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