Faith LeHane was a firecracker. Dean had worded it as a statement, because it was just as much of a fact as if he had said that she was a vampire slayer. She was trouble. She was a pain in the arse. She was the kind of girl that mother's disliked and father's leered at and yet, she was the closest thing that equated to home these days.

"Babe," she said as she flung herself into his arms, unceremoniously straddling him in front of his brother. "I'm slayed out. Let's go home?"

He chuckled, "well, I'm pretty beat so I could easily catch forty winks." Faith frowned adorably, causing Dean to smirk. He loved winding her up and whilst she may claim to be 'slayed out', he knew exactly the effect that slaying had on her. It had certainly never resulted in him getting much sleep before! Dropping her to the ground, he turned to face Sam, who had conveniently been busy cleaning his weaponry. "Sam, you good for home?"

Sam nodded, happy to acquiesce to anything that meant that he got to go home and clean the grim off his clothes and out of his hair.

Dean grabbed Faith around the waist, dragging her roughly against himself one last time as he pillaged her lips for the succulent treasures that dwelt there. Their lips fought an endless battle for dominance for a few moments too long, but, determined that Sam should see no more than the strictly 12A rating reserved for family, Dean broke the kiss before it deepened further. He knew Faith very well and that girl had no shame, so he had to be the one to put the brakes on and keep Sam's innocent eyes reasonably intact.

"See you back at the bunker," Faith called as she sprinted down the path towards the place that she had parked her bike. Dean chuckled, whenever she sprinted, he knew that he was going to get in trouble for being late and keeping her waiting. However, being in trouble with Faith was more like a perk than a punishment.

As the brothers languidly headed back to the impala, Sam interrupted his thoughts, by asking, "things going well with Faith then?"

Dean smiled, "yeah, I guess so."

"It seems pretty serious to me."

"She just knows the deal, Sam. It makes a nice change." Dean replied, a cold, threatening edge emerging in his voice that warned Sam to steer clear of the topic.

"I don't know, it seems a little bit more than that to me."

"Don't turn this into something that it's not Sam," Dean muttered. "It's nice. We enjoy each other's company. We both know where we stand. We don't need you picking out a white picket fence and a nice, family sedan."

"I wasn't try-"

"Yes you were," Dean spun and turned to face Sam. "Look, life expectancies for slayers and Winchesters are short. Faith and I are just enjoying the time we have together. I don't expect her to crawl into my bed every night and she doesn't expect me to call in the morning."

Refusing to be thwarted by his brother's foul mood, Sam persevered. "But she does and you do."

Dean sighed, exasperated by his wilful brother and his baleful refusal to just let the matter drop. "If I ever decide to pop the question, you'll be the first to know…" He snapped, turning from Sam and heading to the impala, without a thought other than the lingerie Faith would undoubtedly be wearing when he returned.

SUPERNATURAL & BTVS

Three months after that night in Oklahoma, Faith declared that a friend of hers was coming to stay. Unsure of what to say, both brothers nodded and simply asked when her friend was arriving and whether they needed to make any special arrangements. In a way that only Faith could ever get away with, she simply replied that she would be here in two hours and that they need not do anything special, because if Buffy didn't like the bunker she could go and find a motel.

"What's up with her?" Sam asked Dean, after Faith had retreated to the basement to take her anger out on a punching bag.

"Damned if I know," Dean muttered, returning to the work in front of him. He would check on his girl after she had chance to release some of the anger, because Dean Winchester valued his ribs and going a round or five with a pissed off Faith was bad for his health.

Sam smiled, he knew Faith well but he knew his brother better. If he was not mistaken, Dean was scared and despite his love for his brother, it was amusing to see him petrified of a little thing like Faith LeHane.

"You can wipe that smile off your face Sammy-boy," Dean retorted, his eyes never wavering from the page in front of him. "Don't even pretend that you'd set foot in that basement with her in this mood." The colour drained from Sam's face, no way in hell would he go anywhere near her until she had calmed down. He would rather face Crowley after the demon had been arguing with his mother than face a furious Faith LeHane. "Makes me wonder who this Buffy is and why she's so pissed at her."

Sam swallowed uneasily, "do you think it's safe to invite her into the bunker?"

"If Faith says it is then it is," Dean muttered, his eyes still trained on the passage he had been reading. "Just watch your back."

Unable to focus on the work in front of him, Sam starred into the distance, desperately trying to decipher the quandary Faith had left them in. He was so absorbed by his thoughts, he failed to notice the smirk that teased Dean's mouth. Of course, he knew who Buffy was, but he saw little reason in informing his brother after he had been such a pain in the arse recently. Let him sweat, Dean thought. After all, how much turmoil can he really get in with just two hours until Buffy's arrival?

SUPERNATURAL & BTVS

Dean regretted that thought when he saw his brother two hours later. The man was a mess. If Dean was not mistaken he was also armed to the gills with weaponry, ready to fight anything the forces of darkness threw at him. He was so distraught that Dean was surprised that the hunter had not placed a call to Cas or Crowley in order to discover the identity of their mysterious house guest. Dean almost regretted winding him up.

"What's up with him?" Faith asked, noticing Sam's blatant distress.

"Scared of blondes," Dean whispered. "Bad incident involving pitchforks in Idaho a couple of years back." He winked, causing Faith to scoff.

"Really?"

"May have teased him a little and insinuated that Buffy was a demon," his words were so quiet that they were almost inaudible and Faith had to strain to hear them.

"Oh, this is going to be good…." Faith smiled, her eyes glistening at the prospect of Sam meeting the perky, Californian blonde that he considered a demon. Mirth filled her body and she had to fight the urge to stop herself from laughing at the mere image of the fate that was about to befall poor Sammy.

Dean's eyes glistened with please, "y'know, this is why I love you." He murmured intimately, unaware of the magnanimous nature of his words.

"Because I can take the piss out of your brother?"

"And you'd kill any bastard that tried to hurt him," Dean replied, pulling Faith to his side as they awaited Buffy's arrival. Distractedly, he nibbled her neck eliciting moans of pleasure from her. Before Dean could suggest leaving Sam to welcome their house guest alone, a pounding on the heavy, reinforced door rudely interrupted them.

"That'll be B," Faith muttered resentfully.

"Maybe one of us should go with you?" Sam enquired tentatively.

"Nah, I'll be fine. B hasn't tried to kill me in at least five years." Faith smirked, shooting Dean a knowing look as Sam descended further into his panicked state.

As Faith retreated up the stairs to open the door for Buffy, Sam turned worriedly to Dean. "How can you be so calm about this? One of us should really go with her even if it is only a few yards."

"Calm down, if Faith says Buffy's okay, she's okay." He slapped his brother reassuringly on the back as he reached for his beer. Taking a cool sip from the bottle, Dean couldn't help but smile. It was nice when life was calm enough that he could spend time with his girl and wind his brother up. If only life was like this all the time….

SUPERNATURAL & BTVS

"They said, what?" Buffy screeched, reducing Sam to tears of laughter a weak after he had been lead to believe that the petite blonde he was currently sat next to was the devil incarnate. God, how things change!

"Technically, we didn't say anything mate," Dean replied, springing from his seat. "You just assumed…."

"You definitely encouraged me to believe certain things….which explains why I passed out when I saw you," Sam snorted through uncontrollable peals of laughter. "Here's me expecting this great big brute and instead I get-"

Buffy coughed, "get what?"

"A cute little power-puff girl!"

"Cute, huh?" Buffy smiled affectionately, as Sam took a sip of his beer, unable to meet her eyes. "I might just forgive you for thinking I'm evil with comments like that."

Over his head, Dean exchanged a knowing look with Faith, who mouthed the words 'you owe me five bucks'. Sighing Dean rolled his eyes as he inched close to his girl, wrapping his arm around her waist and leaving the love birds to their fancy word play while he whispered dirty things in Faith's ear. Due to his preoccupation with Faith's ear and her numerous other body parts, he failed to recognise the scheming look that passed between Sam and Buffy. If he had seen it, he would have realised that he was in for a world of trouble….

SUPERNATURAL & BTVS

A week later, Dean found himself powering down the interstate, heading South on what was surely a wild goose chase. He hadn't slept in three days, he hadn't seen Faith in two and he was in an absolutely foul mood. He didn't know if it was the seemingly-impossible demon he was chasing, the blood in his clothes or the lack of a warm body and a sparklingly wit in his bed at night, but Dean was ready to decapitate the monster he was chasing with a toothbrush if that's what it took to let him go home.

The problem was that this demon made no sense. The more he thought about it, the more fictitious the thing seemed. It was almost as though the stupid thing had been made of people's dreams. This was an angle that he would have insisted that Sam and he research, if his bloody brother had not bailed on him when this monster had showed up. Whilst Sam went off gallivanting with Buffy, Dean has been lumbered with the demon from hell. Who is the world created a demon that caused endless mischief in the pursuit of chocolate bars?

Slamming the brakes hard, Dean could not believe his stupidity. "Gabriel! Get your ass down here now you son-of-a-bitch!"

"You called o-wise-one," Gabriel smirked, appearing in the passenger seat of the impala eating a Cadbury's chocolate bar.

"Give me one reason why I don't kill you this very instant," Dean muttered, withdrawing the angel blade from his leather jacket.

"Whoa! Somebody woke up on the grouchy side of the bed today bucko," Gabriel retorted, bemused by Dean's fury.

"I haven't slept in days Gabriel, as well you know."

"Never mattered to you before though did it?" Gabriel stated. "When you were on a hunt, you were alive. There was nowhere else you'd rather be. What's changed this time time Deano?"

Dean sighed. This was leading down an all too familiar path, "Sam put you up to this, didn't he?"

"Bingo!" Gabriel declared as he popped out of existence.

SUPERNATURAL & BTVS

"Sam!" Dean bellowed as he slammed his way through the bunker in search of his brother. "You can run, you can hide, but I am not calming down." Furiously, he made his way to his brother's room, which was right next to his own, deep in the bowels of the bunker. Pounding on his door, he screamed breathlessly. "Sam! Get your ass out here!"

Without warning, Sam's bedroom door was flung open. However, it was not Sam who greeted Dean, but Buffy, who was wrapped in Sam's bedsheet. "Dean, if you wouldn't mind keeping it down some of us are busy."

"I would like to speak to my brother please," Dean snarled through gritted teeth.

"Dean," Sam greeted him, as he appeared behind Buffy, shirtless and in boxers. "What's the matter?"

"Why did you enlist Gabriel and send me on a wild goose chase across America for three days?"

"You know why, Dean." Sam smirked, eyeing his brother curiously.

"You're a bastard, you know that? Three fucking days, mate."

"I really thought you would have figured it out quicker," Sam replied, smirking. Dean balled his fists up to prevent himself from punching his brother. Instead he turned away and began to walk down the corridor. "When are you popping the question, Dean?"

"As soon as I've bought a ring," he conceded. "Bitch."

"Jerk."

THE END