A/N: Thanks for the two who have reviewed this story so far.
Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing, Joss Whedon is an evil genius who takes over our world with his storytelling goodness.
CHAPTER TWO
As the two Slayers walked, or in Faith's case stumbled down the road Buffy couldn't help but think how weird this situation was. Since Faith had returned they had managed to spend as little time alone together as possible. Yet here she was helping the inebriated younger Slayer down the street who was starting to sing, what was that, Britney Spears, Buffy thought incredulously.
"Never picked you for a Britney girl," Buffy said trying to hold in her laughter.
"Shhhh, don't tell no one, I gotta rep ya know," Faith replied.
"Alcohol does strange things to Slayer's doesn't it," Buffy thought out loud, more to herself then to her companion. Faith ignored her and proceeded to break into another verse of Gimme More, this time Buffy couldn't contain her laughter.
As they finally rounded the corner into Revello Drive, Buffy hoped that all the Potentials had gone to bed. She didn't want them to see Faith in her current condition. Why was Faith in her current condition? Buffy knew that herself and alcohol lead to all sorts of nastiness, but she knew the younger Slayer was used to partying hard. She must have had a hell of a lot to get her this drunk.
"Damn," Buffy swore quietly to herself realising that all the lights were still on in Slayer Central. Readjusting her hold around Faith's waist as the younger girl stumbled again on the sidewalk, Faith was giggling quietly to herself at for reasons only she knew.
"Okay Faithy," the nickname slipping from her lips before she knew what she was saying. Shaking her head, surprised at her own compassion for the woman who had caused her so much pain, Buffy stopped them both, still supporting Faith, in front of the Summer's house.
"Faith," she said again trying to catch the other girl's attention. Faith, who had stopped her laughing was currently studying a crack in the sidewalk below her very intently.
"Faith, look at me," Buffy said again this time using her free hand to turn Faith's head so she was looking at her.
"When we get in there, you have to be really quiet okay. Don't say anything just let me do all the talking; we don't want them to know about this," Buffy said. She knew it hadn't been easy for Faith to return to the place where it had all gone wrong, and she knew she and the others hadn't really been making it all that easy for her either, but realising her shortcomings the last time she was now determined for this time to be different and didn't want the other's to use this as any more ammunition against Faith.
"Can you do that for me?" she asked her slurring sister Slayer.
"Yeah Beeeeee," Faith giggled at her drawn out word and then shushed herself by putting a finger to her lips. Buffy once again had to hold in her laughter, she wasn't used to seeing this side of Faith, she was enjoying this side of Faith.
Not quite sure how she was going to pull this off, Buffy once again tightened her hold around Faith's waist and led them towards the front door. Stopping in front of the door she put her hand on the door knob and turned it slowly, wishing with all her might that by some miracle everyone was already asleep and had just forgotten to turn out the lights.
Cringing a little as the front door squeaked, Buffy helped Faith into the house, slightly relieved that there actually did appear to be no one around. They had nearly made it all the way to the stairs, their progress seriously hindered by Faith's drunken steps when a voice behind them startled Buffy causing her to loose her grip on Faith who proceeded to fall rather clumsily to the floor.
"Giles, they're home," the voice who Buffy recognized as belonging to her younger sister said from behind them, squeaking as she jumped out of the way of the falling dark Slayer.
"Ahhh good, Buffy, Faith you're both back we were starting to get worried," Giles said coming into the room behind Dawn, followed by Xander and Willow.
"Hey Buff, Faith," Xander said greeting the two Slayers.
"Ahh Faith whatcha doing down there on the floor?" he asked, "are we playing some sort of game, or maybe some sort of new dance move, I'm unaware how they dance in prison, but if it involves girls gettin' low then I'm all for it," Xander continued breaking into his own version of getting low, only stopping when Giles cleared his throat.
From her position on the floor Faith started to giggle causing the five other sets of eyes to stare at her, completely dumbstruck at the action that was so un-Faithlike.
"Faith, did you just giggle?" Willow asked disbelievingly.
"No that wasn't a giggle, we've just been out slaying some vampires, because that is what we are, slayers of the vampires, we slay those that are of vampire form, because that is what we do," Buffy rambled reaching down to help the younger Slayer stand, seemingly to only just register that the other girl was still on the floor.
"Sure, if your vampires go by the names of Jack and Daniels then you've definitely been out slaying," Anya's voice startled the rest of them from the other direction causing Buffy to whirl around quickly nearing loosing her grip on Faith in the process.
"She's drunk," Xander exclaimed his gaze wondering over Faith who was still swaying slightly in her place at Buffy's side.
"I'm surprised you couldn't smell it. I could smell it from the other room and I was coming to see who had the whiskey so that maybe I could confiscate it and drink some to remind of some of that time Xander and I got a little drunk and role played the big bad demon hunter and the very naughty demon," Anya was cut off the Gile's embarrassed grunt and the squeaking sound of him furiously cleaning his glasses to contain his obvious discomfort.
"So she went out and got drunk at a time like this. What was she thinking, uhh hello First Evil running around trying to kill us all, we need all the Slayer power we can get. Not to mention the fact that there are numerous teeny Pre-Slayer's running around here looking up to her and expecting her to be all levelheady and to look after them, which could be a stretch considering she currently can't even stand up on her own," Xander said breathless after his rant. Faith had hurt him deeply in the past, using him to get her kicks and he still hadn't completely forgiven her.
He had been wary when she first returned, but the dark Slayer had appeared to have changed so he was gradually lowering his guard around her, but the seemingly carelessness of her action's tonight made him forget the girl she was becoming and simply reminded him of the reckless and selfish girl she used to be.
"Look Xander, I know what you're thinking, that she hasn't changed, that she's still the same old Faith looking out for the one and only, but she has changed, I can see it in her eyes, she made a mistake, we all have, that doesn't mean we should jump down her throat like we did before. We have to do things differently this time," Buffy said the last part quietly.
"Buffy's right," Giles soft reply came causing all the occupants of the room to look at him.
"We all need to recognise the part we played in Faith's uh, indiscretions if we are going to have any chance of fighting this evil together," he continued giving hard looks to both Willow and Xander, who lowered their eyes slightly under his glare.
"Well for someone who was there, but in reality really wasn't there, I for one am all for forgiving Faith," Dawn said. Even though the memories implanted in all of them suggested that Faith had held Dawn and her mother hostage, for Dawn the memories of the times her and Faith hung out together before Finch's death were some of the best she had. Faith had treated the younger girl like an equal, sharing stories of her slaying escapades, stories which her older sister would never had shared.
Even though all involved knew that these memories were not real, Dawn still thought Faith was pretty cool and was eager for things to return to how they had been before the Mayor.
Buffy shared grateful glances at her sister and Watcher, hoping that their words had had some sort of effect on the attitudes of the rest of the Scoobies. All in the room where seemingly lost in their own thoughts, reminiscing about times long past, and considering all that had just been said.
They were all pulled from their thoughts however when a small voice from beside Buffy said,
"Buffy, I think I'm going to be sick."
A/N: How was that for a quick update huh….a quick update should earn some reviews, I see how many have read and only two reviews so far, that makes for a grumpy author. In other news prepare for Buffy and Faith fluff in the next chapter.