Written by: Murray DeLee
Xander walked in carrying a box of donuts and coffee for the Scooby’s and their guests from L.A., the ever-present reformed red headed witch at his side. Since the night of her almost causing what could only be referred to as “The End of Days”, he kept her by his side almost constantly. For himself he had finally found the love of his love, for her she was finally able to admit her love for him.
The night Tara had died it seemed to her, at the time that her life was over. She had loved Tara in a way that she hadn’t known love could be. With Oz, he was reserved, gentle and caring. Tara was exciting, she always knew how to touch her and what to say to her, when they were alone. In public the blonde headed witch was reserved almost afraid of her own shadow. In private she did her best to please her red headed lover seeming to derive pleasure out of pleasing her.
The night she died, Willow felt a part of herself die as well, the best part. One moment she had Tara back after being apart for months and the next she held her blood covered dead lover in her arms, not even her dark powers could bring her back to life.
She had fled their bedroom in the Summer’s house to find a dying Slayer on the front lawn, held in the arms of her present lover and best friend. Without so much as a thought she saved her life and later went on to murder Warren for taking Tara, her world, from her.
Hours later she had been hell bent on destroying the world, to put an end to the pain of humanity. It was then that Xander appeared by her side and told her he loved her. She had tried to destroy him for interfering with what she, at the time, knew she had to do. If not for the love he held in his heart for her, she would have succeeded, but the small spark of humanity that resided within her, then, blackened soul recognized the love for what it was and her own love of her best friend brought her back.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as her thoughts returned to the present and wondered what her life would be like without him. Unlike Oz, he was far from reserved, in public or in the bedroom. Unlike Tara, he was not afraid of people or it seemed demons. He was not afraid to tell her he loved her in a crowd or take her and kiss her making her ache for more.
She thanked the Goddess once more for giving her a second chance at a soul mate. He was her anchor and she was the keeper of his heart.
Noticing the look he was getting from her and the smile that lit up her face he said softly, “What? Did I get powdered sugar on my face or something?”
She giggled a sound he would never grow tired of hearing as his heart swelled with love for her, his fiery witch. “No you duffus, I just…”
“Love you too, Wills.”
She stood up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek as he desperately tried to balance the coffee and the donuts.
Out of nowhere Spike, appeared grabbing the box out of his hands, “Here now mate, watch the jelly filled ones.” He opened the box making sure nothing was crushed. “Your lucky mate, if you had smashed em’ I would have had to teach you a lesson.”
“Hey, Buffy control your vampire will ya?” He yelled out.
The petite blonde moved away from the book she was looking in and moved to where they were standing. She proceeded to look in the box and took out a donut covered in powdered sugar. “You are so lucky you remembered my sugar fix, last time all you got was plain and jelly filled. Did you get me my _mocha?"
He gave her a pained look, that said, I knew I forgot something and then a pleading look at Spike when he noticed the glare in her eyes.
“Ah, hey evil dead, think you can control your Slayer?”
“Not me mate, you’re the one who forgot her _mocha and you know how cranky she gets without her morning _mocha.” He moved away from the group, as a hand shot out and stopped him. Turning him towards her, she presented him with her best pouty face.
“I do not get cranky. I just like my morning _mocha,” she whined.
“Then you better bleedin’ well go to The Expresso Pump and get yourself a _mocha, hadn’t you?”
“Baby!” She whined and pressed up against him, taking a seductive bite out of her donut.
He swallowed hard and handed her his jelly donut, taking the box of donuts out of the whelp’s hands along with the coffees he had gotten and thrusting them into Willows empty ones. “You’re coming with me junior!”
“I am not, I just got here and I haven’t even had my donut yet.”
The peroxide bleached souled Day Walker tapped his nose and said in a tone that would brook no argument, “Vampire senses, remember? You ate a powdered sugar donut before you got here. You’re the one who forgot her _mocha, so if I have to go get her one, you’re coming along. Isn’t that right whelp?”
“Wills…” He whined.
“Well you did forget her _mocha and I came here to research the big evil that is coming. So I am staying right here…” She looked at Buffy and winked. “To do research and somegirlbondingstuff.”
The two women linked their arms together heading off to sit and pig out on donuts.
Xander shook his head and said, “Huh?”
The newly souled vampire grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door, freezing as the sunlight hit him, purely out of reflex still amazed when he didn’t burst into flames. He then moved confidently out into the morning sunlight. “Come on you git, the sooner we get the Slayer her _mocha the sooner we get to help with the research.” He groaned as he said the word research he was becoming a bigger poof then his Sire.
“Think maybe we could get hit by a car on the way there?” Asked Harris hating the research part even more then his vampire friend did.
“One could only hope, mate. One could only hope,” muttered the vampire.
Both girls looked up as the bell above the door jingled. The two had returned baring gifts. Both women got up and attacked them almost as they cleared the doorway. “Did you remember to get me extra chocolate in it, did ya, did ya?” The blonde Slayer asked like an excited schoolgirl.
Her only reply was a smirk; she took the cup out of his hands and kissed him quickly, then sniffed the aroma coming out of the hole in the lid and took a sip. “Yummy!”
Spike’s smirk turned into a look of pure love as he watched his mate. She was in fact the strongest human being on the planet, she had stood up to a Goddess and won and yet she could be such a child.
As he watched her lost in his own world, Willow looked at her own lover as he handed her over the cup he was holding and whispered, “I had them put in extra whipped cream for you.” The look of love she gave him made him go weak in the knees. She gave him a quick kiss and joined her girl friend as she sipped at her own _mocha.
“I got extra cream in mine what did you get?”
The Slayer’s eyes went wide in mock shock as she said teasingly, “Why Willow Rosenberg, you little minx you. Extra Cream?”
She blushed and said softly, “Hush you or I’ll tell Xander about what you usually do with all that extra chocolate Spike brings you.”
A red blush instantly crept up the Slayers neck; as her eyes went big as saucers and she squeaked out, “Deal!”
The peroxide blonde vampire looked at his friend carefully saying, “Extra cream, huh? I don’t think I’ve been giving you enough credit mate. There appears to be more to you then meets the eye.” With that said he arched his scarred eyebrow and went to join his own mate at the table. Leaving a slightly embarrassed Xander behind.
One Hour Later:
Giles followed by Wesley and Lorne came out of the office in the back of the shop.
“So what your saying is all the signs point to it happening tomorrow night?” Asked Lorne.
“You read the same book as us, do you really need to ask that question?”
He arched an eyebrow at Wesley and said, “You didn’t get any last night did you? Faith finally see the light and throw you out on your stuffy British arse?”
The ex-watcher just shook his head and sighed.
Buffy’s slayer hearing kicked in and she almost choked on her diet coke. When she calmed enough to speak she said, “Oh my god, your with Faith? I knew it.” Thinking to herself, No wonder she seemed all excited and calm at the same time. “So why did she throw you out?”
Spike grabbed her hand and squeezed it in an effort to make her keep quiet.
“Ow, don’t do that.” She snarled at him. “I was just wondering...”
“Pet!” He said in that tone of voice she had come to know as meaning, Shut up!
“Fine! I will just needle it out of Faith when we go on patrol tonight,” she said smugly.
Three British voices said in unison, “Oh bloody hell!”
Faith and Buffy sat side by side on a grave marker waiting
by a fresh grave to see if it’s occupant was going to rise. He had been dead
for 3 days now according to what Willow was able to get when she hacked into the
medical examiners records.
Sometimes it helped to have a hacker as a best friend
thought the blonde Slayer. Faith not able to stand the silence finally asked the
question that had been on the tip of her tongue since she got back to Sunnydale.
“So, tell me B, you and Spike, wow.”
She smiled at that and giggled, “Yeah, who would have
thunk? I mean three years ago he was trying to kill me and I was trying to kill
him."
Faith got a guilty look on her face and said softly in an uncharacteristic voice filled with the guilt she felt, “Three years ago, I also tried to kill you. What with the mayor and all.”
The blonde Slayer looked at the dark haired girl and considered her for a bit before she spoke. “Faith, that was then and that time is past, I think perhaps we can just go forward from this day and put it behind us. I wasn’t exactly fair to you back then either, ya know? You needed us and I pushed you away. Maybe if I hadn’t of done that, things would have turned out differently for you.”
“I’m sorry B, I really am sorry. I tried to kill you!” She thought for a moment before she continued. “I wish I could take it back. All of it, but I can’t. It happened and I have to live with that fact. I went a little insane back then. But you know you can trust me now right. I’m really not what you called me last night, ya know?”
Buffy dropped her eyes and then inhaled deeply and looked into her sister Slayer’s dark eyes, “I am sorry too, F. I know your not psycho Slayer. I was just still angry with you. Can we just agree to put it all behind us?”
“Yes, please, I would like that, B. I really would like that.” She thought again for just a second and said, “So your wicked happy then? With Spike I mean?”
“As you like to say everything is five by five.” She looked at her sister Slayer and asked softly.
“Do you love him?”
The dark Slayer gave her a confused look and then her face softened.
“He can be so stuffy sometimes and so overprotective that he pisses me off. Sometimes I just want to kick his ass and tell him to let me do my job.”
“And?” The Blonde coaxed her friend. Her spidey sense kicked in right then and she held up her hand for silence as she stood and walked over to the fresh grave as a hand shot up out of the fresh earth.
The dark Slayer followed her, as they both stood side by side waiting for the newly born vamp to rise.
“Faith, are they this rude in LA as well. I mean you get in a heart to heart and they just sort of show up.”
“Yeah B, that is what they do, they are rude evil
things.”
As if that was a queue, the vamp rose to his fool height of
6’1” and moved towards the two women, growling.
“Oooo, I am so scared,” exclaimed Faith, sarcastically.
The blonde Slayer held her hands out in front of her and said, “Please don’t hurt me!” A wooden stake shot out of the spring loader hidden under her shirtsleeve as it found its way into the vamp’s chest piercing his heart.
Exploding into a cloud of dust, the dark haired Slayer exclaimed, “B, he was mine. You know this is what part of the problem was before, you never let me have any fun.”
“I so let you have fun.” She pouted.
“Oh please, save that for Spike, it doesn’t work on me.”
She shrugged and said well naturedly, “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
As they walked deeper into the cemetery to make one last sweep, Faith asked, “So what did you want to know before you killed off my vamp?”
The blonde rolled her eyes and asked with an impish grin, “What is up with you and the Wes man? Are you like an item now?”
She took a deep breath before she answered, “He loves me.”
“And this is a problem, because?”
“I care about him, B.” She looked away slightly embarrassed and said in a small voice, “I don’t want to hurt him.”
“Well if he loves you and you care about him, how would that hurt him.”
“What if I turn…” Her voice trailed off and tears filled her eyes as she stopped and looked at her friend. “What if I turn evil again, Buffy? He deserves better then that.”
“Faith,” She said in a serious tone. “What if you don’t? I mean yeah, you made some mistakes in the past, but you paid for them. I can hear it in your voice and see it in your eyes; you’re crazy about the man. As someone once said to me, we can’t always control whom we care about or love. Sometimes we just have to take a chance. None of us knows how long we have. My god, F, I died twice now.”
“B, I’m not like you, I don’t have that many friends. I just don’t want to hurt him.”
“And what about you Faith, don’t you deserve to be loved and to be happy. Don’t you think Wesley deserves that? If you could have seen him this morning you would know how much that man loves you and he needs you in his life.”
She snorted at that.
“I mean it Faith, without you he’s lost and I think without him, you would be lost too. You two look good together.”
The dark Slayer nodded and started walking again.
“And what about Spike, what is up with the Day Walker thing?”
“As we understand it, he is a hybrid of man and vampire. He still has all their strengths but none of their weaknesses, except the blood thing.”
“Does that bother you at all, the blood thing?”
“No,” she said softly. “I love him Faith all of him, the man and the demon. He is whom I want. He is my other half and without him, I would be lost. We balance each other out.”
She looked at her sister slayer’s neck for the first time since they had been reunited, “He marked you didn’t he. I mean I seem to remember you as having more scars on your neck, from the Master and Angel, but I don’t see any bite marks other then Spike’s.”
She shrugged. “It’s a side effect from being
resurrected. Somehow when I was brought back, none of the scars I had sustained
in fights or whatever came back with me, it’s like this body was brand new.”
“Oh.” Was all the
dark Slayer said her voice echoing her sadness.
“Faith, what’s wrong? You can tell me anything you know
that don’t you? Regardless of our past I am your friend. I may tease you but I
want to help.”
The dark haired young woman turned to her blonde haired
friend and said in a scared voice, “B, what if he wakes up one day and decides
being with me is a mistake. If I give him my heart, I don’t know if I could
handle that.”
She regarded her friend and pulled her into her arms and
said softly stroking her hair, “Faithy, what if you don’t say anything to
him and he wakes up one day thinking you don’t really care about him and he
leaves you? Thinking you just don’t care.”
She hugged Buffy tightly, blinking back tears, her body
shuddering as she fought against them.
“I don’t know what happened last night between you and Wes, and it probably isn’t any of my business but I’m going to tell you this. When I saw him this morning he was devastated over what happened between you two. If you do care about him, Faith, he needs to know that, because honestly the guy loves you.”
The internal battle she had been having with herself over her boyfriend finally came to a halt at her sister slayer’s words; she disengaged herself from Buffy and said as she dried her eyes. “Guess I need to grow up sometime, huh?”
The blonde just smiled and thought about her mate. “We need to get out of here. The guys are going to worry about us.”
Before either girl could move towards the exit of the cemetery, the stars seemed to vanish from the sky as the sound of thunder almost deafened them. Lightning lit up the sky as a jagged hole appeared overhead, demons started to drop down towards them.
“Oh shit, Giles said we had till tomorrow night. I hate prophecies! I really do,” said the blonde. Both Slayers looked at one another and took off running as fast as they could to warn the others as the demons that had landed looked around at their surroundings, not bothering to follow the figures of the two women.
“Fuck B, I think the shit just hit the proverbial fan.”
“C’mon we need to warn the others.”