Warnings: Language and suggested nudity - no, it's not a lemon. Also, this is girlxgirl, so homophobes go away. No spoilers, though.
A/N: My first Buffy fanfiction. Yay? This story is very... vague. Especially the verbal parts. Sorry. My reasoning behind it is that Buffy and Faith understand each other enough that they don't have to be specific or make sense. It's set pre-Faith's betrayal and post-Angel leaving sunnydale.
We Lied
Buffy was not one for swimming, even during the daytime. It wasn't that she was insecure about how she would look in a bikini – in fact, she was pretty in shape, which could probably be attributed to all the vampire-slaying. It was just that it seemed like such a waste of time. Between staking vampires and the atrocious amounts of homework given to her, there was barely any room in her schedule to string together some semblance of a social life, and she had never even considered filling that space with swimming lessons while there was bronze-ing to be had. And if she didn't know how to swim, she sure as hell wasn't going to try it. Why purposely make herself vulnerable?
And yet there she was, climbing over the fence of the Sunnydale public swimming pool in the middle of the night.
"I can't believe you talked me into this." She said to Faith, whose feet were already touching the ground – this obviously wasn't her first time hopping a fence.
"Shut up and take off your clothes." Faith replied when Buffy reached the other side.
"Um, lewd much?"
"We're skinny-dipping, B, not having a tea party. Now strip." She was already turning around and pulling her shirt up over her head. Buffy blushed and whipped around quickly. She took off her shirt and pants but opted to leave her underwear on.
"I just don't get it. What's the point?" She touched the surface of the water with the tip of her toe.
"The point," said Faith, exasperated, "is to break the rules." Her long brown hair covered her unclothed front, and the moonlight illuminated her face.
"Yes, but why? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a good dosage of rule breaking. But, you know, there should be a reason. Like, breaking the no-bringing-weapons-to-school-rule by carrying a stake in your purse in case you happen across a vampire praying on some helpless, victim-y people? Totally okay for the Slayer. But breaking into the pool at night so you can swim naked in it? Not so much."
Faith didn't say anything at first; she just stood on side of the pool, staring at the words under her feet, which read: "NO DIVING" before throwing herself head-first into the water.
She resurfaced a few moments later, grinning.
"Okay, what the hell is wrong with you? Is there any part of 'NO DIVING' that confuses you? Is it the 'NO'? The 'DIVING'?"
"You need to stop talking before you turn into Giles."
"Hey!" Buffy said defensively. "I do not sound remotely Giles-y! I have said nothing about the importance of research!" and with that she slid herself into the water, holding onto the side of the pool for support. Faith continued to tread in silence.
"Okay," Buffy was shivering. "Bored now. Can we leave?" Faith flipped over and floated on her back, closing her eyes. "Hello? Earth to crazy girl?"
With a splash, Faith was over at the side of the pool, pulling herself out. Before Buffy could get to the latter, Faith was half-dressed – in Buffy's clothes.
"Toss me my underwear, would you? Oh, and if you ruin that shirt, I will hurt you."
"Whoa," Buffy said, "what's going on here? I don't know if you've noticed, but those are kind of my clothes."
"What? You afraid I'll look better in them than you do?"
"In your dreams." She put on Faith's shirt. The fabric felt odd against her skin.
"So, B? Is this like looking in a mirror, or what?" Faith asked after Buffy had pulled on the pants and turned around.
Buffy snorted. "More like looking at a clothes-thief. Of course you don't look anything like me, F. My hair is blonde. Yours is brown. And I have way better legs, thank-you-very-much."
Faith rolled her eyes. "It's not about the looks, B. It's about this." She tapped her fist gently against Buffy's head. "What goes on in there. You know, with the Slaying. With the… the being so close to death. That's where we're the same."
Buffy wasn't sure she understood. Or maybe she just understood much too well. Faith wasn't reliable like Willow or Xander or Giles. Faith was the only other person alive who had ever walked the thin line between hate and love, day and night, life and death; she was the only other Slayer. One in all the world to protect the world from the forces of darkness… did that make Buffy only half a person? Was Faith the other half? She shook her head quickly, telling herself that she was whole.
" -The clothes just make it that much more obvious. Thought you'd pick up on all that metaphorical crap – then again, your grades are almost as bad as mine."
"Shut up, bitch." But Buffy was grinning.
"Hey, B, let's dance."
"There's no music."
"Psh. And?" She started jumping up and down like she was at the Bronze, humming a rock-song, horridly off-key.
Buffy stared at her for a minute before starting to dance herself, humming an entirely different song and sounding even more tone-deaf than Faith.
Faith drew closer and closer to her, and the imaginary music got slower and slower, and then they were holding each other close.
"Do you ever get scared?" Buffy asked.
"No. I'm too kickass for that." Faith said, and they both knew she was lying at least a little bit.
"Me too."
"Do you ever enjoy killing them so much it makes your head race?"
"No. I'm not a dysfunctional violence addict like you." Buffy replied, and they both knew that this too was a little less than true.
"You do know that you're just like me, right?" Faith asked. "Not on the outside. On the outside you're all saint. But on the inside, you're like me. All sin."
"You're a little right." Buffy said after a long pause. "But you're also a lot wrong."
"Going all cryptic on me now?" Faith raised an eyebrow. Buffy laughed. "Oh, please. Don't even start with me on cryptic-ness. You totally started it, you hypocrite."
"B?"
"Yeah?"
And then Faith was kissing her, and she was kissing her back, and neither of them had to worry about holding each other too tight, because they both had Slayer strength, and Buffy was almost trusting this wild, cruel, other half, and-
-And suddenly she was very cold. Very cold and very wet.
She gasped for air as she resurfaced, her face bobbing above the water. She kicked desperately, propelling herself ungracefully to the side of the pool.
"Why would you do that?" She asked Faith, annoyed. "I'm wearing your shirt, remember? And we – we were –"
"I shouldn't trust you." Faith cut in. "You're too much like me. And you're too different. You'll – you'll try to 'fix' me, or some shit like that. I'm not broken, okay? "
"No. I won't. I don't even understand what you're talking about right now."
"Then you'll break me. You and me both, we love doling out the pain, don't we? You'll hurt me, you'll – you'll –" Faith stopped talking and folded her arms. "No, Faith, don't shut down," Buffy begged, "just have a normal conversation with me, and-"
"You should forget about this shit, B. Neither of us have the time or energy for it. Later."
Faith climbed over the fence and walked away in Buffy's clothes.
…
As Buffy drifted off to sleep that night, she conjured images of Angel chasing Faith out of Sunnydale. If Faith wanted her to forget that crazy, flawed, perfect, other-half, strong feeling, then fine. Buffy didn't need Faith, and Faith obviously didn't need Buffy.
Of course, it wasn't really true, but they were Slayers; they weren't allowed to need.
A/N: Reviewers will be worshipped as the second coming of Glorificus. :3. And I mean that in a totally non-creepy way. So review please?