willow works at a homeless shelter or a safe house or sth and they're 25 at most and with her first paycheck, she buys a camera, insisting they need to make memories, ok, bc life is fleeting and if anyone knows that, it's the two of them

and faith goes along with it and one morning, after her regular slayage, she pops by the shelter to pick willow up from her night shift and they're short handed so willow can't leave before breakfast but faith should sit down and relax

and yeah, willow brought the camera to work, it's the only semi-expensive thing they have, so fait fiddles with it at first. mostly, she's just bored

she picks it up and snaps a few photos. starts talking to the people, taking their pictures. she takes a few of willow, working, while she's not looking. pretty quickly, she starts getting into it. soon, she's completely wrapped in taking pictures of smiling children and people enjoying the food and-

and then willow comes, in her regular clothes, puts a soft, warm hand on the nape of faith's neck. speaks in a soft, gentle voice

"we should stop by the store, get some more film. maybe develop that one?"

and, eventually, faith takes a few photography classes at the local community college

she saves a gallery owner, completely accidentally, the same week she turns 30. they become friends bc that's something she does now, she makes friends, like a grownup. she doesn't even consider showning her photographs to her friend bc, yeah, it's her passion but, it's not really something she feels is brag worthy

willow does brag, though. a lot of faith's photographs are already hanging around their apartment but willow pulls out boxes on boxes of them, as soon as she gets a moment alone with the gallery owner

pretty soon, faith has exhibitions. with different themes and topics.

the community college professor keeps bringing her students to faith's shows, buying a print at every show. the gallery owner always brews her a cup of coffee, sets asside faith's best work. they both feel like faith's parents and protectors, and they like willow quite a bit, too

pretty soon, the four of them are having family lunches every saturday and then some of willow's coworkers join in. and then the professor convinces faith to start mentoring some of the photography students. in less then a year, they manage to amass a family, here, on a hellmouth in a strange city

the sunnydale gang calls, too. buffy visits for every gallery opening. dawn spends every summer with them, modeling for faith (she's a highschool teacher now, she has time). anya sends faith different sex props to photograph. xander calls willow in the middle of the night, asking for whatever anya sent last back in a whisper. angel and cordy send lost souls to them, for faith to photograph and willow to put back on the right track

before they realise, they're real, actual adults. and then in a blink of an eye they're 50 year olds. and faith takes pictures of willow's fiery red hair turning white. pictures of her mentees slowly creating their own families. pictures of her two pseudo moms turning 70, then 80. pictures of their family growing. pictures of dawn's beautiful children. pictures of buffy, slayer extraordinaire even at 53. pictures of their family growing. they grace the walls of their tiny house

eventually, faith takes over the gallery. finds artists to put her confidence into. becomes a passionate and protective mother figure to her protegees. it still baffles her how much trust people put in her. but she finally feels like she deserves it