Author's Note: That kind-of canonical couple I mentioned.
Love was one of those things that Faith was pretty sure someone made up because they wanted to feel better about the world. They were making out with this guy or this girl and they thought, "Hey, what if there's a deeper meaning to everything? What if I love this person because they're good and sweet and they make me smile? What if I want to make the world better for this person?" And they called it love because they didn't know what lust was back then.
That was Faith's theory, and she stuck by it until she showed up in Sunnydale, and there was this teensy little blonde girl who wore a lot of pink. The first time she looked into Buffy Summers's eyes, she thought, oh shit. She covered it up, like always. You'd have to be looking pretty hard to figure out who Faith thought was hot. She'd made an art out of being a mystery.
B was drop-dead gorgeous, but she was straight as an arrow. You'd have to be blind to not catch the way she mooned over Angel. Today she was giggling over how sweet Angel was and how much she was looking forward to Valentine's Day with him, and it was just so fucking annoying that Faith wanted to punch her in the face.
There was this other part of Faith that wanted to kiss her until the only name on Buffy's lips was hers, but she'd written it off as a new kind of lust. B was the first (and most likely the only) Slayer she'd ever met; it was obvious that Faith was just attracted to the kind of power they'd have together.
But being attracted to power wouldn't make Faith notice Buffy's hair, which shone in the morning sunlight. The sun was streaming through the windows of the library (that was the thing about California, it was sunny even in February) and it made Buffy's hair even more bright, golden-yellowy and ethereal. She had it up in a twist, tendrils falling and framing her face. She looked like a princess, something Faith knew she could never pull off.
It was amazing how innocent Buffy still was. Her boyfriend had lost his soul and gone crazy on the town, but she still had the most beautiful smile that Faith had ever seen. Giles made some offhanded comment to Buffy as he passed with a book in hand, and Buffy retorted with a grin. Faith didn't catch the words because she was listening to the cadence of Buffy's voice, the curve of her lips.
She'd perfected a bored expression to adopt for times like these, and when Buffy turned to look at her, Faith was given a sympathetic smile and some cheerful remark about everyone else getting here in a few minutes. Then Buffy turned away and Faith remembered that love was stupid and crushes were even worse.
She was extra hard on Buffy during sparring that day.