Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy.
When she woke the next morning, Willow instantly flew into a panic on noticing the time.
"Oh crap, this is bad, this is very bad!" the redhead leapt to her feet, running over and grabbing her schoolbag from where she had dropped it by the door the previous afternoon.
"I'm s-sorry" Tara stuttered, woken by Willow's panicked voice, and immediately getting the wrong idea. "You fell asleep, and you w-wouldn't let me m-move.."
"Oh no Tara, not you, that wasn't bad" said Willow quickly, checking that she had everything she needed, before slipping the bag over her shoulder. "That wasn't bad at all. But if I don't hurry I'm gonna be late for school."
"Oh" said Tara blushing a little. "S-See you l-later then."
"Yeah. I lo.. I'll see you" said Willow, catching herself just in time before rushing out the door, sparing no time for practical considerations such as maybe changing her clothes, her face turning as red as her hair. She had almost said 'I love you'. Now that would have been awkward.
Unknown to Willow, Tara had caught on to what she had almost maybe been about to say, but, like the events of the previous night, she thought it must have been an accident, a slip of the tongue. Afterall, she stopped herself before it had fully come out. It couldn't possibly have held any truth. Still, daring to dream for just a moment as she watched her friend head off down the front path, Tara whispered, so softly that she barely even heard it herself,
"I love you too."
Meanwhile, already at school, Buffy was facing a rather awkward situation of her own. A situation which, she grudgingly had to admit, she had brought completely upon herself. See, the blonde had been thinking about what Willow had said the day before, and had decided that maybe her friend was right, that she had been to quick to judge Faith when she didn't really know her very well at all. So, she had also decided, rather reluctantly mind you, that she needed to apologise. This was the reason why Buffy currently stood watching the brunette rummaging around in her locker, wondering how the hell she was going to approach her without getting herself smacked in the face. But would Faith smack her in the face? Probably, it was just like her to..
"There I go, making assumptions again" Buffy grumbled to herself. She would have to work on that. What reason did she have for thinking that of Faith anyway? Sure, she wasn't exactly famous for not beating people up, but in hindsight, Buffy realised that a lot of those people had kind of deserved it. She also realised that, despite the countless number of arguments they had managed to get into, quite a few of which had gotten pretty heated, Faith had never laid a hand on Buffy. She had never even come close. So, she took a deep breath, walked up behind the other girl, and gently tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey Faith, I.."
"Piss off, B" said Faith, not bothering to turn around.
"But I.."
"I said piss off" Faith frowned, grabbing her books and closing her locker, before turning to glare at Buffy. "And you know, 'Screw you' doesn't exactly mean 'Hey, come over and have a nice little chat next time you see me'."
"I know" said Buffy, "But I wanted to apologise, for yesterday.."
"Great!" said Faith in a mock cheerful voice before turning around, still frowning. "Apology not accepted."
"Why not?" asked Buffy, trying to keep control. Faith had a special way of pushing her buttons, but she could not lose her temper, not this time.
"Because apologies aren't worth a thing if you don't mean it."
"And why do you think I don't mean it?" Buffy frowned.
"Well, you're not apologisin' 'cause you know you were wrong, you're only apologisin' 'cause you think you might be wrong" said Faith.
"What does that have to do with it?" Buffy snapped.
"It has everythin' to do with it, B" said Faith. "It shows that you're just too damn stubborn to admit that you screwed up. So, until you're ready to say sorry properly, you can stay the hell away from me." As Faith marched off down the hall, Buffy cracked, all good intentions forgotten.
"Hey! You have no right to.."
"No, B" Faith hissed, spinning around once again. "You have no right! No right to make assumptions, about me, or that chick who ran away from her abusive asshole of a Dad, without knowin' either of us! No right to assume that I know nothin' about what she probably went through, when I know more than you ever will! And you have no right to judge me, even though you've been doing it since the day you met me! You want to apologise? Well it's a little too late for that!" Suddenly, eyes widening for a second, Faith roughly jerked Buffy by the arm, but just as the blonde was about to mentally withdraw her earlier realisation that the brunette had never laid a hand on her, she realised that Faith had only been pulling her out of the path of destruction being caused by a pair of jocks wrestling their way down the hall. Unfortunately, before Buffy could thank the other girl, she was gone.
"Well, that went well" said Xander, who had been watching from nearby.
"Shut up, Xand" Buffy grumbled.
