Hey everybody. Reviews are greatly appreciated - especially when they include constructive criticism. Thank you all! I have more to post, I'm just dragging it out a little. I thought I'd see what the general response to the first chapter would be before I continued.

Disclaimer: unfortunately, I own nothing.

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Buffy's Point of View

I sit at a table, drinking a low fat, spice chai latte. If I wanted, I could have ordered something with less dairy, but my slayer capabilities usually interfere with my lactose allergy, negating the effects. Usually. But now the dairy effects are kicking in like a ton of stakes wielded by yours truly.

So I might sound a little whiny, and a little self-centered. Who wouldn't be when you're in my position? I mean, when you've got the whole world in your hands all the time. Being a slayer sucks, pun intended. However, it's less awful with my new powered-up sidekick. That's right. I have a sidekick. Well, technically I have the 'slayerettes,' but this sidekick has a stronger kick. I've said kick too many times. Good Lord, I even babble in my head. Willow would be proud.

Kendra came to town. There isn't really any more to say about that. She traveled in a plane. Came in cargo, and left in coach. Came back, got dead. Like I said, not much to say. I kind of miss her. And yet, Giles' lamp has remained intact after her departure. No more crossbow bolts going awry. Poor lamp.

So Kendra came, left, came again, and then died at the hands of one extra-strength crazy vamp. Now there's Faith. She's sitting in a chair across from me, looking disgruntled. Well, disgruntled might be a bad choice of word. Pissed off would be more accurate. She's not big on the socializing. Neither am I really. The Espresso Pump in the afternoon doesn't fit our personalities. The Bronze at night is more our style. We're here for the company though. We were supposed to meet Willow here for a girl's day out, but she's an hour late and I don't think she's going to show up.

Faith readjusts her position so she's leaning against the wall. She crosses her arms a little tighter and glares at the patrons walking up to the counter. One of them feels her stare and glances over, but quickly turns back to the counter, and their own business. Faith has that intimidating quality about her.

Now I'm shaking. Buggering lactose. I guess the slayer immunity decided to take a day off. Faith glances at me and raises her eyebrows as my body continues to twitch.

"Can I get you some Ritalin for that?" she smirks.

I glare back. Oh… I think I might throw up. Right smack dab in the middle of her Red Eye. That'd be tragic. I think she might punch me if I did that. Not that I couldn't defend myself, it's just that my involuntary defense would probably be puking some more.

Her smirk soon turns to a look of concern as she watches me turn a light shade of green. There are some things that even my special foundation can't handle, sickness color being one of them. My previous foundation just didn't hold out against all the debris and face punching that came with the gig, so Willow had enhanced it scientifically. Well, she had said that it was scientifically. Personally, I think that there was more magic to it than science.

"Buffy?" She must be serious; she isn't calling me 'B.'

"Oh, I don't feel so good," I groaned. She was looking at me like I was dying. I tried to smile, but it just wasn't happening. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall. For a moment, a wave of peace passed over me. And then my stomach decided to house it's own tsunami.

"Oww." Finally, I couldn't handle it anymore. I hated throwing up, but this was going to have to come out of my system fast. I got up and aimed for the bathroom, and found myself immediately re-directed to a mauve-colored trashcan.

When most of the poison dairy had been painfully thrown from my system, I found myself with a napkin in hand, and in the arms of – someone; someone who had also been holding my hair back as I threw up.

"Feel better?" Funny, that voice was coming from behind me, like it belonged to the person holding me up – preventing me from collapsing on the floor – but that voice sounded like Faith. Faith wasn't comforting. Well, not that she showed outwardly. Hmm.

"Buffy?" the voice spoke again. I felt kind of bad, but all I could do was groan intelligibly. I wiped my mouth off with the offered napkin and tried to push myself out of my apparent savior's arms, but I couldn't. That's odd. I had pushed pretty hard. If it were anyone human or non-magically inclined that was holding me, they would have been forced to let me go.

"I have a lactose allergy," I muttered. Might as well let my captor know that it was something trivial and that my latte hadn't been poisoned. Hopefully.

"Jeez, B. I thought you were dying," that voice was definitely Faith. And the arms around me were definitely hers too, I could tell by the tattoo on her right arm. I turned around slowly, carefully evading pushing against her arms again. I looked into her anxious eyes as they stared back into mine. My word she had really gorgeous eyes. They were like the color of toffee. Toffee has milk in it. Milk made me sick. I turned quickly and retched into the trash again. Maybe her eyes were more like tree bark – hard on the outside because they were a protective gateway to the intricate life within. They were definitely more like tree bark. But in a soft way – more like a truffle. They were truffles. Not the fungus kind, the chocolate kind – the ones with dark chocolate powder on the outside, and with creamy milk chocolate on the inside. Truffles didn't have milk in them, right? Oh my word, I'm rambling again.

"I didn't think I was ugly enough to make you barf at the very looks of me," she grinned.

Since my second little episode, Faith had moved her arms away from my stomach. Now they were resting beneath my stomach on my hips. If I hadn't just thrown up, the feeling would have made my stomach flutter. As it was, it just made me want to curl up in a ball and have her hold me tighter.

I turned around in her arms again and rested my head on her shoulder. She laid her head against mine for a moment, and then spoke softly so only I could hear.

"Well, now that you've made a scene, and everyone is looking at us like we're from a different planet, why don't I take you home?" I muttered my gratitude. She took my arm and put it around her neck, and then put one hand on my hip, and the other bracing my other arm, so she was holding me up. I didn't have to do much except move my legs to make it look like I was walking so people wouldn't stare.

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To be continued.