As Faith spun the bottle with a casual twist, almost sending it spinning off the coffee table, Buffy found that she was almost holding her breath as she waited for it to come to a stop. And it did… in front of Oz again.

"Well, aren't you the popular one," she remarked, arching an eyebrow as she strode over to him amiably. The kiss she gave Oz was much shorter than Willow's, more of a casual afterthought. For Faith, it seemed downright sisterly. As she settled herself back in her spot and Oz reached for the bottle, Xander muttered to himself, "Yeah, seems the bottle here is giving out preferential treatment for some…"

His words cut off abruptly when the bottle stopped in front of him. As Xander's jaw dropped and his eyes bulged rather comically, Faith guffawed.

"All right, X-Man, about time we saw some action on your part!"

Cordelia too looked more than pleased for once; her lips turned up in an expression that was half smirking, half beaming, and she raised her eyebrows at her temporarily speechless boyfriend.

"Yeah, Xander, isn't this fun? Aren't you having fun? I'm having fun. And you know what, I'm so not even jealous of you right now. Go ahead, kiss away!"

Even Buffy had to smile at this turn of events- who'd have thought Xander's game would turn against him?

Apparently someone had… for as Willow looked between Oz and Xander, half smiling, half frowning, Buffy heard Oz say to Willow in a low voice, "Like I said, it's all in the wrist."

That was enough for Willow; she joined the others more in their amusement as her smiled tipped and she laughed, her eyes sparkling with glee at Oz's admittance. Hearing yet another person deriving entertainment from his situation, Xander glared at her, starting to sputter his protests.

"But- hey, wait a minute, we can't do this. I mean, Oz, you're a cool guy and all- a lot cooler than me actually, not that that takes much-"

"Amen," Cordelia and Faith piped up at the exact same moment, and they looked at each other sharply, startled. Xander ignored them both, rambling on hurriedly.

"But, we, we can't do this. We just – look, people, we're both guys! Do you really want to see two guys kiss?! Do you really want to see me and Oz kiss?!" he asked hopefully.

"Yes," a chorus of female voices greeted him in answer, varying in tone. Xander's face reddened as Cordelia's face glowed, barely able to contain her vengeful delight at his discomfort.

"Remember, Xander, you totally can do that," Willow reminded him her voice all sweetness and innocence. "In fact, you have to do that. It's in the rules, remember, and when it comes to this game you are a meticulous rule follower."

"Yeah, Xander," Cordelia added, for once seeming to appreciate Willow's wit.

Chuckling again, Faith smirked. "Yeah, we call 'em as we see 'em, X-Man. Show us some lovin'."

Xander's eyes went to Buffy, clearly seeking her support, but she grinned back at him innocently.

"We gotcha covered, Xander."

And Oz got in his say last of all… with the same stoic, deadpan expression he usually displayed, he turned to Xander, crooking his finger at him in a clear imitation of what Faith had done to Willow. The others exploded with laughter, Faith loudest of all.

Going a deeper red than ever, Xander slowly got to his feet, shuffling his way over to Oz and bending over him with excruciating mortification. As he barely touched the other guy's lip with a contact that must have lasted less than a second, his female companions hooted and hollered, even Willow, applauding him as he broke away hurriedly and slumped red-faced into his seat.

"Oh god, my boyfriend is a swinger," Cordelia crowed. "And not even an entirely straight one." Then she shot up straighter, her face sharpening as a sudden thought occurred to her. "That better not get spread around, do you understand?! What happens stays here, you hear?"

"Thank you, Cordy," Xander mumbled gratefully, giving his girlfriend a weak smile. She just sneered at him.

"I wasn't thinking of you, lamebrain. How do you think it would look for me if everyone knew my boyfriend had kissed another guy?"

"Oh, just give me the bottle," Xander muttered, all too eager to have the others move on to someone else's kiss. He spun it quickly, and the others watched eagerly, still excited from its last landing. This time the bottle came to a rest pointing at Buffy.

"All right, that's more like it," he said just a little too loudly, his all-too-evident relief and returning enthusiasm loosening his face. The others looked alternately disappointed or slightly uncomfortable, for some knew the not-too-long-at-rest crush Xander had carried for Buffy. This could be awkward to observe.

Faith, however, seemed neither, Buffy realized; the other girl was watching with her lips still turned up slightly, but not in a way or manner than could be described as a true smile. Nor did she make any wry or sarcastic comments, as she had with most of the others; if anything, she too quiet, too still as her dark eyes focused on the two of them intently. Buffy wondered what she was thinking. But no, she didn't want to know, didn't want to go there. And besides, it was probably nothing.

Exhaling, almost amused, yet almost reticent upon seeing the hope in Xander's eyes, the anticipation, Buffy got to her feet slowly.

"I guess I couldn't avoid the bottle's wrath forever," she remarked. "This is such a stupid game, you guys. How much longer are we gonna do this, honestly?"

Still, she made her way over to Xander, resting her hands on his shoulders as she gave him a short, rather sisterly kiss, ending it quickly before he could turn it into something more. Still as she returned to her seat he was smiling with enough pleasure that Cordelia shoved at him again, and Willow was watching him with worry. Buffy did not look at Faith, but she swore she could feel the younger Slayer still watching her.

"All right, my turn," Buffy muttered. "Oh yay yay yay."

She spun the bottle with a half-hearted gesture, already dreading its outcome even as she tried to keep her face casual. The earlier knots in her stomach had pulled tighter, so that she felt physically ill. When were they all going to get tired of this game? Willow had a point- when did you know the game was over?

The bottle slowed, then settled to a stop… pointing directly at the still-silent Faith. As the Slayers' eyes met, a stunned, silent moment passing between them, Buffy felt her heart rise up to her throat, nearly choking her, and her stomach dropped down low enough to nauseate her further.

Faith… the bottle had landed on Faith. She was supposed to kiss Faith on the mouth…

(again…)

"All right!" Xander whooped, seeming completely oblivious to the tension that had befallen the two girls. "Buffy and Faith, Fuffy and Baith! This game rocks!"

"Xander, you are this close to being on the receiving end of the full blown wrath of Cordelia Chase, and it is not a pretty thing," Cordelia snapped, giving him a warning stare.

Willow looked between the two Slayers a bit apprehensively, as though expecting one of them to explode… but also with a bit of fascination, even anticipation. Even Oz seemed interested in their reactions- but for several moments neither girl seemed able to give on. Buffy could see how the blustering confidence had fled from Faith's eyes, leaving them dark and nearly overflowing in their dread and fear. Sentiments that Buffy knew must be echoing in her own gaze.

At last, several beats too late to be convincing, or to hide that anything had passed between them, Faith's eyes quickly cleared, and she gave Buffy and the others a slightly crooked version of her arrogant smirk, straightening and then relaxing her formerly stiff shoulders.

"Well, the hand of fate has spoken, B. You gonna heed its call, or what?"

Buffy's eyes jerked away from Faith, darting about the room almost frantically as she looked at each of the others, trying to find a way- any way- to get out of the situation. She could feel her heart beating so fast she felt light-headed, dizzy. She couldn't do this…

"Yeah, yeah, okay, guys, this has all been very funny, tons of fun, but time out, game over, okay?" she burst out with, looking anywhere but at the still-watchful girl beside her. "Enough's enough. I'm not doing this- I'm not kissing her."

"What?!" Xander exclaimed, looking as stricken as if someone had told him that Christmas was cancelled. "You have to play, Buffy! You have to kiss her! It's the rules! The rules say!"

"Well I don't play by the rules," Buffy said shortly, trying very hard to keep her voice from shaking.

"But you have to!" Xander cried helplessly, spreading out his arms so passionately they almost hit Cordelia. "You haven't even played at all yet- you haven't spun the bottle yet even once! That's not fair!"

"What, are we six, Xander?" Buffy snapped, "the only reason you can come up with to stop me is 'that's not fair'?"

"Hey, it's not fair and you know it," Xander said defensively. "Everybody else kissed whoever the bottle landed on! You don't get to have redos! Don't you think I would have done a redo if I could have when the bottle landed on Oz? But no, I sucked it up! Not literally, there was no sucking involved. None whatsoever," he said hurriedly, looking from Oz to Cordelia to Willow. "Right, Oz?"

"Right," Oz said dryly.

"But I kissed Oz, and he's a guy, if that's what you're wigging out over, Faith being a girl and all. So how's that different? You can't wiggle out of this, Buff!" Xander said, trying to sound stern, but only succeeding in sounding pleading.

"But this is different, Xander!" Buffy argued. "This is…"

This is Faith, she wanted to say, this is me and Faith… and with Faith, it's totally different. With you and Oz, even with Faith and Willow, you guys will look back on it later, and you'll laugh. You might have been repulsed in that moment, reluctant, uncomfortable… but when it comes down to it, that's all it was to both of you. A moment's discomfort. It didn't change anything between you… It didn't change you. It was nothing but part of a game, and you knew it- both of you knew it. You both knew where you stood, both during and after it happened.

But with us, with me and Faith, it's different, Xander. You haven't hugged Oz, haven't held his hand and danced with him. You haven't slept in the same bed with him and woke up to him cuddled up to your side… and you haven't looked at him and felt a desire to never look away again.

You could walk away from kissing Oz and be okay… you could walk away, without fearing you'd want to turn back and kiss him again.

Like you did before.

But she couldn't say that! She couldn't say any of that!

"It's just different, Xander," she said lamely instead, knowing how weak and stupid both her words and her tone sounded. "We can't do this. We just can't, okay?"

"What?! Why?!" Xander cried out indignantly, like a petulant child being told that he couldn't have a candy bar at the grocery store. "What's the big deal, Buffy? All you gotta do is put your lips to Faith's, not stick your tongue down her digestive tract!"

"Xander, you are about to experience my wrath!" Cordelia yelped a split second before sucker-punching him in the side, causing him to double over grunting in pain. Willow too looked horrified… if a bit intrigued.

"Oh ewww, scary visual place, pictures in the head, go away!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Xander gasped, still holding his side. "But Buffy, you can't back out, these are rules!"

"Hey, if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to," Faith spoke up suddenly, and all the others turned to look at her in surprise. She had been so quiet that, other than mentioning the prospect of her kissing Buffy, they had nearly forgotten she was there. She looked back at them with some defiance, her posture and expression closed, defensive.

"She's right, this is stupid. She doesn't have to kiss me if she doesn't want to," she repeated… and for a moment Buffy could have sworn she heard her voice drop down even huskier than usual, as though it were fading. Buffy looked at her, reluctant, but unable to keep herself from doing so. Faith's eyes showed nothing, or at least they would to the casual observer… but Buffy had spent a great deal of time trying to read Faith's eyes over the past several weeks, and she thought she was getting fairly skilled at reading their complicated depths. Either that, or she had an overly vivid imagination.

What Buffy thought she saw faintly in Faith's eyes was hurt… even as the girl's mouth twisted into yet another of her sly little smiles, Buffy was almost certain that she was masking her negative emotions. Buffy was rejecting her in more than one way- and publically, in front of all her friends. No matter what Faith really thought or felt about Buffy, how she viewed or wanted to change or keep their relationship, this had to hurt her… and her eyes told Buffy that it did.

Of course, Faith was doing all she could to hide this. She was at this moment cocking her head at Buffy, her smile widening, and she said playfully, "I understand, B, I'm just too hot to handle for some people. You're just afraid to take me on, afraid you might be burned. Gotta admit, that's a pretty good possibility."

Buffy just looked back at her with confliction; she knew what Faith really meant, or at least she thought she did. She thought she knew what the brunette was saying, what she really wanted…

She thought she did, anyway. But god, she couldn't give it to her. She just couldn't.

Author notes: So I know that's a horrible way to end it for now... more soon though, promise. And yeah I know Buffy is being... not satisfying and nice, for lack of a better word, lol.