[Disclaimer: I don't own Joss or his works or characters.. But I do love him and I DO like coming up with little plots using elements of the Whedonverse.]
[Author's Note: This is AU. It takes place in Season 3 of BtVS. Angel is in Hell for good. Faith is there and because of her odd connection with Buffy, she has started to back off from the group and is starting to turn bad. It's Buffy's faith in Faith that can bring her back... Fuffy slash.]
Chapter 1
"Faith is like a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark."
It was Friday night and Buffy and Willow were sitting on Buffy's bed, eating pretzels and watching "The Sound of Music".
"I wish I could sing," Buffy said, "If I could sing I'd be a nun and spin around in fields for hours."
"The singing part sounds cool," Willow agreed, as she crunched on a pretzel, "And maybe the field part. But the nun part? That sounds kinda lonely."
"Well eventually Maria meets Mr. VonTrapp and is happy forever raising his 50 million children. Ya know. In Switzerland." The blonde shrugged. "Ya know, I could do that. Swear off men until I meet a nice Naval Officer. Maybe be a Nazi slayer. It would work pretty well, I think."
"Except it's the 90's," Willow pointed out. "And we're in high school."
"Good point."
There was a knock at the door and the girls looked up at Joyce, who was standing in the doorway in her fuzzy pink robe, looking totally tired. "I think I'm going to head to bed, Girls," she said. "Willow are you staying over?"
The redhead criss-crossed her legs in front of her. "Is that okay Ms. Summers?"
Joyce nodded. "Of course. And will you two be... Slaying?"
"I will be," Buffy quipped. "Not Will. She's not a slayer, remember? That's just my cross to bear."
"Sometimes I do back-up," Will replied. "And I'm research girl. I research like nobody's business."
Buffy's mom sighed. "Well I do hope that you two are careful. I can barely sleep knowing that Buffy's out there with those...things."
"If I don't do it," Buffy said, sort of bitterly, "Then there will be a whole lot of other mothers way more worried than you are." Then she took a deep breath. "Anyways we'll be fine. I'm more than capable of handling a few vampires." Then under her breath, she added, "They're the least of our worries anyways."
But Joyce didn't hear her aside, and she looked a little better. "Well I'm off to bed anyways. Promise me you two will.. slay with caution?" It sounded silly, but there really wasn't anything that would sound better. She was just a concerned mother. Buffy couldn't blame her. If she knew the full extend of what the slayer went through, she wouldn't be able to sleep at all.
So Buffy just said, "We promise."
The two friends waited until they were alone again and then Buffy said, "I'm actually supposed to meet Faith at ten. So you might wanna stay here. I think we're going to end up fighting it out."
"What's been UP with her lately?" Willow asked, rolling down the pretzel bag and knocking the crumbs off the bed. "I mean she'd kinda been a.."
"Bitch?" Buffy offered. "I know. I think she's going rougue or something. I can't understand her. Sometimes she's so eager to go out there and slay bad guys that I'm sure she's on our team. But then I get this vibe from her.. Like she doesn't want to just slay vamps... Like maybe she wants to kick my ass. I don't know." She shook her head, and got up. She opened her closet and got out her coat and pulled it over her arms. It was chilly outside and she didn't want the cold air to distract her from slaying.
"Maybe she's possessed," Willow offered and pulled one of Buffy's plush blankets up around her shoulders. "Or maybe she's secretly a vampire. And she's just been hanging out with us trying to infiltrate our group."
"Except we see her all the time in the day light. And she already HAS inflitrated our group. She's as much a member as the rest of us. There's nothing we don't know right now that she doesn't know."
"That's disheartening," the aspiring witch responded, "Especially if she IS possessed."
The slayer checked the clock on her nightstand. 9:50. "I'm going to go now," she said, pulling up her window so she could slide down the roof. "You stay here and don't invite anyone inside."
Willow shrugged. "Okay. But why are you going out of the window? Your mom knows. Can't you use the door? I mean it involves less hopping and stuff."
Buffy paused, one leg out of the window, one still on her window seat. She hadn't really thought about it. "I guess it's just habit," she explained. "See you soon!" Then she slipped out in to the night.
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