Don't worry charmedloverloes, I won't be separating them for a while now. :)
Thanks to all reviewers ESPECIALLY Blackie, charmedloverloes, Cliodhna, Hio, Hotcutii3, I'mAnOverachiever, Ryoko05 and Seventh Theory who I'm pretty sure have all reviewed more than once. :P
You guys are the reason I make time for this thing which seems to be getting longer and longer since I'm nowhere near the end.
A week had gone by since Buffy and Faith had dreamed about the slayers of old, and both had related their stories to each other more than once. To cheer Buffy up, Faith had told Buffy the plot of 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and explained that they were lucky vampires couldn't 'do a Freddy Kruger', but somehow talking about another scary thing, just made the original scary thing seem worse.
Buffy did appreciate Faith being there for her though. Every time Buffy tried to talk seriously about vampires to her mother, Joyce would immediately change the subject like she couldn't deal with having a daughter who seemed to think about them all the time. Joyce would race for the TV and turn it to cartoons, or grab Dawn insisting she was filthy and needed a bath. Faith however, would sit patiently and listen to Buffy's fears and what she thought it meant that they were both having these dreams at once.
"It's got to be a sign." Buffy would say seriously, quoting the spiritual section in her mother's women's life magazines.
Faith privately thought that she herself always had the nightmares because she was crazy and a bad girl who hadn't tried hard enough to save the little boy and was being punished for it, and figured Buffy was having them because she was spending too much time around her. As Faith saw it, she had a way of turning 'everything to shit', just like her mother would always tell her.
She hoped Buffy wouldn't figure this out, at least for a while.
On the other hand though, Buffy's nightmares WERE scary and Faith knew that unlike her own brain which was capable of some very dark thoughts, she knew Buffy's wasn't made that way, so she wasn't entirely ready to give up on Buffy's theory that the dreams were a 'sign' or at least an indication that the vampires had developed new powers of mind like dream invasion and if that was the case, Faith would do anything to protect her friend. She would even fight them herself if she had to.
Faith couldn't stand Buffy being scared, so she kept busy devising new weapons. She sharpened pointy sticks with a pair of sewing scissors and even took a walk to the local church and asked a bewildered priest to bless a couple of bottles of water that she stole from a store (which was okay because it was for an honorable cause). Tomorrow night, when she was ready she planned to go back to the bus station when Buffy was asleep and kill any vampires that looked like they might have some magic mind control tricks. Any vampires with pointy wizard hats and wands were dead meat as far as Faith was concerned.
Aware that she might not live through the experience, Faith wanted to spend her 'last' night having a sleepover with Buffy up in their tree-house.
Buffy didn't mind of course, anything to hang out with Faith. But she was a little scared. In the tree-house AT NIGHT? But still, Faith was there, and they had torches and besides Faith slept there all the time anyway so it must be safe.
The hardest part was convincing Buffy's mum to let Buffy stay at 'Faith's house' for the night. If Joyce had not had a fight with Hank infront of Buffy again this morning and was already feeling guilty, then Buffy's big pleading eyes may not have had the same effect. Joyce had reasoned with herself that her daughter was only next door, and even if Catherine started acting less than wholesome, Buffy only had to basically step outside to find her mother. Besides, Joyce wanted her to spend time with her little friend. Buffy was introducing Faith to real friendship and Faith was showing Buffy a world away from the boybands and superficial nonsense that her other friends constantly talked about.
Joyce considered both of the girls to be having a positive effect on each other and she had grown very fond of young Faith.
Faith arrived at Buffy's door at about 4pm and Buffy breathlessly ran down the stairs as Faith rang the door bell hesitantly. Joyce opened the door before Buffy could get there and smiled at the small girl warmly, handing her and her daughter a three course box of snacks each, just incase Faith's mom might 'forget' to make them dinner. Faith beamed like she always did at the sight of Joyce's offered cooking but Buffy just rolled her eyes, thinking her mother was totally overprotective, but secretly looking forward to her chocolate chip cookies.
Faith and Buffy waved to Joyce and walked to Faith's house. "Is she still watching us?" Faith asked Buffy standing on the doorstep to her own house, not wanting to take Buffy inside even for a moment to keep up the pretense that they were staying there.
Buffy confirmed that she was, and Faith sighed, putting a shaking hand on her doorknob, hoping Buffy wouldn't tread on any of the broken glass on the floor.
The girls were about to step inside when suddenly they heard a shrill Dawn-sounding screech and Joyce's head instantly disappeared from the window where she had been watching.
Faith grinned. The pint-sized summers rocked. "Come on Tigerlily." She said grabbing Buffy's hand and her overnight bag with the other. "We are so out of here."
As they ran into the woods hand in hand, Buffy had to laugh at Faith's over-excited expression which made her look the age she really was, instead of way beyond her years like usual. She herself was nervous but excited, aware she was breaking the rules but too much in the moment to care.
The girls reached the tree-house and had a friendly argument over what 'sleepovers' meant. Buffy was convinced that it meant she had an open invitation to do Faith's wild tangled hair and paint her nails like she did with Kimberly and Cassandra.
Faith, basing the info on a few sketchy accounts from boyish adventure books thought it meant fancy shadow puppet torch light shows and scary stories. Eventually, they compromised.
After Buffy learned that this was Faith's first sleepover she had asked her 'why' and couldn't understand why Faith said she didn't have any friends and she had never been invited to one. Buffy had been certain that Faith would have been the most popular girl in her class, because she was 'so cool'.
Faith agreed to let Buffy style her hair, but no makeup which was an offer Buffy accepted seeing as it was Faith's very first sleepover, and one had to get used to these things.
Faith also agreed to leave out the ghost stories that she had stayed up late making up the other night. Buffy had enough horrors in her mind right now. Hell, Faith did too but that was different, according to her.
An hour later, Faith's hair had been tamed and brushed by a persistent Buffy and within another hour, it was braided into 'zillions' of little braids and Buffy was now sitting back admiring her handiwork pulling a mirror out of her bag so Faith could see too.
Faith had to admit, she did feel different looking all neat and princess-y after her 'Buffy makeover'. She tried not to smile too much about it in attempt to keep her rep intact. But the fact was though, that for a moment here right now she felt like a completely different person. Someone more normal like Buffy was. She looked over at her friend. Buffy was piling makeup on her face, completely overdoing the blush.
"What?" Buffy asked when Faith looked at her strangely. "If you won't let me 'make-up you' I can at least 'make-up me'."
Faith suppressed a grin. Buffy might be good at hair, but she sure sucked at make-up. Buffy added the final touches of glitter on her cheeks and Faith turned their torches on because it was getting dark and made butterfly shadow puppets. Buffy laughed and tried to mimic them with her own hands, but found she wasn't quite as coordinated with them as Faith was who had spent many nights making them on her walls to distract herself from Catherine and Ed's screaming.
Faith attempted Mr Gordo to please her which came out as more of a mangled version, and Buffy made a fist, insisting it was one of Joyce's chocolate chip cookies which was as far as Buffy knew, one of Faith's favourite things.
That reminded the girls of their snack boxes, so they had a 'midnight feast' as Buffy insisted on calling it, even though it was nowhere near midnight.
They were just finishing off the last couple and Buffy had cheekily thrown a few at Faith hitting her square in the nose, although Faith wouldn't retaliate because that would mean she would have to sacrifice some as artillery. Besides, every time Buffy threw one at her it meant she had an extra cookie so why would she fight that?
Both girls stopped still when they heard a scuffle. It sounded as though something heavy was coming towards them, crunching down leaves not caring who knew it was there. The girls stiffened and Faith switched off a couple of the torches so their presence would not be so obvious to the stranger. "This has never happened before." Faith was whispering. "Nobody comes here, it's always been safe."
Buffy just looked terrified and Faith felt horrible for putting her in danger. Bravely she peered out the window. The roof of the tree-house stopped the moonlight from coming in, so without torches it was quite dark inside. With her head out of the window, Faith could see things much clearer. There was a lone vampire in the distance coming their way, slowing but menacingly. He didn't appear to have seen them yet, but he surely would if he got much closer. Faith pulled her head back inside and crouched beside Buffy taking her hand.
