"You got any Tab?" Buffy yelled after the man whose house she'd just invaded. Hearing no response, Buffy shrugged her shoulders and continued her raiding of the fridge.
"Ridiculous. How did I end up here? Me? I'm the slayer. I'm the good slayer! How did this happen?" Buffy yelled to no one but herself as she threw half eaten leftovers and sliced lemons out of the fridge. She finally settled on a beer she found in the back.
"Might as well get drunk. Not like there's an apocalypse on the way." She cracked open the can roughly, spilling some of the frothy contents on the floor. "You only gotta be sober if you're in charge," she added bitterly before she took her first sip.
Buffy lazed her away through the abandoned house she was calling home. She spotted a poorly constructed Ikea coffee table and punched it forcefully. It broke into several pieces. "Wood is wood, even if its cheap," she mumbled as she collected some stake-like jagged pieces.
Buffy settled herself into an armchair she pointed toward the door with her beer in one hand, stake in the other. "Now, I get to wait to be attacked. Goody."
At the Summers' home, just Dawn Summers' now, Willow paced worriedly in the kitchen. Dawn, Faith, and Kennedy were her only audience at this point. The other potentials had all gone to bed, some still tipsy from the Bronze. Xander and Anya set up camp on the couch, and Andrew sleep at their feet, prattling on nonsensically about how Frodo also had to leave his home and companions to fulfill his destiny.
"Did we do the right thing? I mean, Buffy's just out there by herself now. She can handle herself just fine but-"
"She can't handle herself," Faith finished somewhat bitterly. "Buffy's worst enemy has always been herself."
"That must be why she hated you so much," Kennedy added. Faith rolled off the comment turning to Willow.
"We did the right thing, Red. We were honest with her. We are worried about her."
"We just wish she could've stayed so we could help her," Dawn supplied. She looked lost in concern for her sister. "I know we did the right thing. The better thing would have been if Buffy chose to stay, but she didn't. She couldn't handle being here with all of us alone. She'll come back. She always did when we were growing up." Willow hugged Dawn, squeezing her tight.
"You're right, Dawn. I'm going to give her some space, but then I'm going to find her, just to make sure she's not on her way to LA, and that she's safe."
"Willow should've never brought her back from LA. She should've said, 'Great that you have gone all repenty, but we don't need your help at all." Buffy was still fuming out loud to herself. She was on beer number three, and was trying to ration it with only two more left in the fridge. She took another sip, "She's always been a trader. Why does she want my life so bad?! It's terrible. No mom, no boyfriend, but she's still gunnin' for me? What is that about!"
"I think you know, Buffy."
Willow was standing in the doorway, staring at Buffy with knowing eyes.
"Seven sharp," Faith decided.
"You're doing just fine, Faith," Giles said just before he walked out the bedroom door. Faith turned into the room to see Mayor Wilkins staring at her.
"I'd say better than fine. I'd say you're doing a bang up job."
"Get out." Faith tried to remain calm, but seeing her old father-figure/boss for evil was anything but comforting.
"Well, gosh," the Mayor laughed, "I think a 'Hello' or a 'Nice to see you' might be a little more welcome. It's the end of humanity, Faith, not the end of courtesy."
Faith realized the Mayor wasn't the Mayor; it was the First. As if this night couldn't get better. "You're wasting your time. I know who you are. What you are." She said this fiercely, wanting to believe that the being in front of her was nothing close to the man turned demon she'd adopted as a parent. She couldn't listen any longer to it pretending to be him. "I know what you're doing and it's not going to work. But feel free to keep talkin' because, hell, I could listen to you yap all night."
"Hey, hey, language. What would Buffy say to you cursing in her house, even if you did kick her out."
"That's not-" Faith cut herself off before she could finish. She didn't care to go into the matter with The First.
"You think she cares about you? She nearly killed you, Faith."
"It's different now," she retorted defiantly.
The First laughed, "Because of your little night of debauchery?" He sobered, "She'll only ever see you as a killer. Not as a person. If you're not careful, she'll destroy you." Faith pointedly stared at the wall at this. "Deep down, you always wanted Buffy to accept you, to love you even, why do you think that is?"
"You a shrink now?"
"You keep looking for love and acceptance from her, but you're never going to find it. The truth is nobody will ever love you."
"Get out!" Faith yelled. She longed to hit this horrible being, but knew swinging her fist would do nothing. Ever if it was corporeal, she's not sure physical pain would help. The First left, slipping into nothingness before her eyes.
beginning to lose her nerve. She inhaled deeply. "I can't fucking do this."
"What do you mean 'I know'?" Buffy questioned angrily.
"Oh, come on, Buffy," Willow strode across the room to stand in front of her friend, "You have no idea why Faith is 'gunnin' for you' to use your words? There's been no new developments in the Buffy/Faith relationship saga to open your eyes?"
Buffy stared dumbfounded at Willow. "Now she gets it! It only took you four years and a million fights to the death or otherwise later."
"Oh, god," Buffy muttered lost in a world of her own thoughts. "What have we done? We never should've...it's just making everything so much worse."
Willow dragged a chair from the dining room to sit directly across from Buffy. "Okay, let's derail this denial train before it gets enough steam to leave the station." Willow pulled her chair a little closer to Buffy, resting her elbows on her knees to make eye contact with the slayer.
"Faith is in love with you and has been since before she met you." Willow took Buffy's silence as the go ahead to continue. "When we were in high school, we were all wrapped up in our own nonsense to really see it. We were all too young, and honestly a little stupid to want to see it."
"I was so terrible to her right from the start. I didn't even give her a chance."
"Which, hey, no one blames you for, still."
Buffy looked up disbelievingly. "Honest," Willow continued.
"Now, we have this nifty thing called 'hindsight' to view our choices through. I myself was a super bitch to Faith when you finally started getting along with her. We all made mistakes." Buffy took another sip of beer.
"Here's the deal, Buffy. Old Faith, young Faith, obviously didn't know how to process her feelings for you. We both know that if either one of you dum dums even actually your relationship enough to act on something physically, you both would've crashed and burned." Buffy's eyes bugged out of her head imaging that disaster.
"New Faith, mature Faith, has tried to talk to you about, I'm assuming her feelings regarding the sexathon the two of you had, and you've been avoiding her. You've been avoiding everyone, Buffy. And now, here we are, in this abandoned house, and I'm ranting about how you should just go for it!"
Buffy choked on the sip of beer she just took. Spitting some of it out, she stammered, "Wha-what? Go for what?"
"Oh for Hekate's sake! Buffy! You and Faith belong together! It's so obvious. She loves you, she's in love with you. I know I'm speaking for her, but come on. Everything she's ever done is to try and impress you, to make you happy, or even just notice her."
"If she's so in love with me, why can't she just say it to me? Why did she have to be Miss Macho all the time?" Buffy did not want to believe Willow.
"Buffy, that's how Faith used to be. Speaking as a fellow Sapphic Sister, high school was a disaster. That was hardly the place to experience anything even remotely normal. You had such a hard time with being a slayer, but being queer and in love with another slayer was just too much. For both of you. Me too."
"But why can't she say it now? We're not in high school any-"
"Hello! Buffy she's been trying to talk to you one-on-one for days! Hence the aforementioned avoiding." Willow got up and sat on the arm of the armchair Buffy was sitting in. "Buffy, you need to hear this right from her, but it's, again, obvious how she feels about you. She's been all over the country for years, and done a lot of stupid things, and you're the only theme in her life. You're the only thing, I think, she's ever been sure of, sure of how she feels about you; that you're important to her. Quite possibly everything to her."
Buffy bowed her head crying.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Easton said as he closed the door behind him. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry," Faith was still reeling from her brief encounter with the First.
"You sure? You seem a little shakey."
"Yeah, fuck it, no, I'm not. The First just showed up playing dress up." Faith was feeling electric. She shook her hands to release some energy.
"Shit, Faith, sit," Easton motioned to the bed. Both of them sat down. Easton turned to Faith. "What happened?"
Faith told Easton about the Mayor, giving enough backstory so he would understand what Faith was feeling.
"He was like a dad to me. Stupid, I know," Faith shook her head. "A dad that ordered you to kill people, people you lo-" Faith stopped herself, realizing she was talking out loud. Easton caught her eye and didn't budge. He knew what she was about to say, but she needed to say it.
"That's why you and Buffy, uh, have your issues? This dude?"
"I was lost. He seemed like the only thing that cared about me. I knew Buffy didn't care about me then, but things are different now. Boss doesn't think so. I mean the First."
"Did it say something about Buffy?"
"Said she's dangerous. She'll destroy me, because," she exhaled deeply. "Because she'll never love me." Faith turned to Easton again, her eyes filled with angry tears. "She's the One, man. She's the only thing I've ever been sure of in my life. I can't lose her again, if you can call what we had before 'having' her." She wiped her eyes. "What the hell am I going to do?" she whispered to herself.
Easton put an arm around Faith. He understood what she was feeling. It was obvious the two had a deep connection.
"You go fucking get her. After this mission in the morning, you need tell her everything you just told me. Everything."
Willow woke up on the bed she and Buffy had found upstairs. They had stayed up talking for hours. Mostly about Buffy's feelings for Faith and vice versus, but a little about what's going on with the First. Willow had told her about the results of Spike and Andrew's little recon adventure. Willow didn't want to mention the morning's mission. She didn't want Buffy rushing off acting rash.
Willow opened her eyes and found she was alone. She checked the rooms upstairs for Buffy, but came up empty. Willow sighed, "She went after that idiot priest." She checked her watch. It was 7:35 AM. "And Faith is on her way to her little mission."
Willow ran down the stairs and out of the house. She knew she needed to get near one of the slayers before they did something to get themselves killed.
"Heard you have something of mine."
Buffy felt exhilarated. She knew there was something that belonged to the slayer down at the vineyard. That wasn't the only reason for her runner's high. She told Willow about everything she'd ever felt about Faith last night. It made it all real, which used to be scary, but now, really knowing what it feels like for hers and Faith's connection to be real, it felt like she was invincible.
She ran from Caleb cursing after her. She knew she had to go deeper. Treasure is always buried. She saw an open trap door and slid down seconds after the preacher dove for her.
"You whore!"
"Yo, Faith," Kennedy called in the cramped tunnel the Bringer had lead them to, "Check this out." Faith followed to her to a locked trunk. She kicked off the lock and pulled the trunk open to find a timed explosive with seconds left to detonation.
"Everyone get down!" Faith screamed as she tackled a group of potentials to push them farther from the bomb.
Buffy saw a work of beauty before her, wrought from metal she'd never even heard of before. She picked up the scythe from the mythical rock, and felt magic and power shoot through her.
"So, you found it." Caleb said bluntly as he crashed down the stairs after the slayer. "So, before you go hurting yourself with that thing, why don't you do yourself a courtesy and hand it over now." Caleb stretched out his hand expectantly. The First, in Buffy's form, appeared next to him.
"Let her go, Caleb." He did not move an inch.
"I said, 'let her go.'"
"I let her go, she slices me open with that thing."
"No, she doesn't. She hasn't go time. She has loved ones, and someone she loves is in trouble."
Buffy looked confused and afraid, expecting the worst. Giles? Dawn? Not...
"Faith go boom."
Buffy tore out of the cellar, reaching her connection with Faith as far as she could will it.
