author: Lucinda
rated y-14, may contain violence, moderate heterosexual activity, and strong language.
part thirteen of the 'Through the Eyes' series.
Contains Willow/David, Faith/Oz, Buffy/Angel, and mentions of past tense Willow/Oz and Xander/Cordelia
Disclaimer: David and the idea of half-vampires are from the movie 'Lost Boys', which I hold no rights to, and I'm not certain who does own. Willow and anyone else from Sunnydale, as well as the Hellmouth and Slayers belong to Joss Whedon & his writers.
Distribution: with the previous parts.
Notes: set in season 3 BtVS, AU post "Lovers' Walk".
previous parts can be found or or http://lucinda.magical-worlds.us/viewstory.php?sid383
Faith rubbed at her shoulder, walking down the street towards her hotel. Tonight's slaying had been wild, and that last vampire had pulled a few martial arts moves of the sort that weren't supposed to work outside of funky dubbed Chinese action flicks. She still wasn't quite certain how he'd managed to launch her into the sign for that bar.
She did remember grabbing his ankle and yanking him onto the pile of broken crates. She remembered seeing the box shatter against his chest, the wood ripping into his skin, the way he'd screamed before his body had fallen into ashes.
Vampire ashes burned worse that salt in open scrapes. Thanks to several fights, a few walls, and that pile of crates, she had a lot of scrapes and bruises.
This had not been a good day for her. She'd had 'training' with Wesley earlier, where he'd sneered in his stuffy British way about her form, called her sloppy and disorganized, and muttered that it was a miracle she wasn't dead yet. Granted, Faith didn't think he'd intended her to hear that comment, but damn, it had stung. Then he'd complained about the way she didn't listen to him, comparing her to Miss Summers, the perfect Slayer who danced attention on Giles and his every word... Though that didn't seem to match the B that Faith had been watching. Maybe he just hadn't noticed the headphones and wire?
By the time that had finally been over with, she'd gone to hang with Oz. But Thursday meant practice with his band, and that meant Devon running his mouth about his various girlfriends, one night stands, and hot dates, as well as Devon's lame efforts to flirt with her when he didn't think Oz would hear him. Oz wasn't sure if Devon meant it or not, but he'd been finding it pretty aggravating, and Faith was getting annoyed herself. It made her regret the fact that a Slayer wasn't supposed to beat up over-sexed musicians. More frustrating Oz didn't have room for her to move in with him, or the funds to get an apartment. Not if they wanted anything that was an actual step up from where she was now, at least.
Sometimes Faith hated her life. Parts of it, at least.
Unlocking her hotel room, Faith let her stake and large knife fall onto the table, and shoved the chair under the doorknob before locking and dead-bolting the door. It was a pretty cheap door, something she'd be able to knock down with no trouble at all, but it would keep a human out. Or at least, it would make enough noise to let her know if someone tried to get in.
Faith took a quick shower, hoping that she could get clean before the hot water ran out, though the water here was never really hot. After swallowing a couple aspirin and a glass of water, Faith dabbed herself dry with the towel. The water was definitely not softened, and left a hint of sulfur in the air and on her skin. Of course, it also left orange stains around the drain, something that she felt almost better that she couldn't blame on her Slaying.
Hearing the sounds from the room to the left, Faith sighed. Molly had company again, noisy, demanding company. Of course, that did seem to be the way that Molly paid her rent. Hearing a loud 'oh yes! Oh Harder!' Faith shuddered. Maybe she could start knocking the vamps down and grabbing their wallets? She could hear the sound of leather on flesh and a startled yelp, before a deep voice demanded 'spank me, baby, spank me hard! I've been a bad, bad boy!'
Glaring at the wall, Faith grumbled, "At least the perverts are gettin' some. Me? No, I get beat up by vamps, and then I have to come back here, alone. Life just isn't fair. And they can't even keep it down to let people sleep."
Faith pulled on some clothing, and tucked a stake and her knife under the flat pillow. Not exactly comfortable, but she felt safer with a couple weapons nearby. Especially with sounds like that next door. As she tried to get some rest, Faith thought that about the only way things could be worse would be if she had to earn a living like Molly.
She could have sworn that she couldn't have gone to sleep. Blinking away the memory of a badly played guitar and rapid drums, she coughed at the stench of smoke. Waving her hand through the air, Faith grumbled "What the hell are they doing over there now?"
That was when the sprinkler system went off, sending little sprays of water towards the walls and down in the middle of the room in most of a circle. Yelping, Faith found herself sitting up, glaring at the sprinkler, stake in one hand and knife in the other.
"It's a fire. Can't slay a fire, got to calm down…" Faith shook her head, taking a deep breath before coughing at the smoke. It was nasty smoke that clung to the back of her throat, stinking like burning fabric and old curtains.
Faith put the weapons down, and grabbed her duffel, shoving her clothing inside. The two books on demons went in as well, and then her dirty clothing from last night and the larger knife. Grabbing her jacket, she tucked the stake and her small knife out of sight, and tossed the chair away from the door. Sirens wailed as she grabbed at the locks, and the smoke was making her eyes water.
Staggering outside, Faith blinked at the approaching fire-truck. Flames roared to the side, and she could see more people staggering out of the hotel. Some of them were dressed, many were in some kind of pyjamas, and there were more than a couple that were completely naked.
While the firefighters tried to contain the blaze, Faith staked four vampires that thought the people watching the fire would be easy pickings. Only one managed any sort of decent fight, but that one got in a solid hit on her eyes that was sure to leave a bruise.
Staring at the smoke rising from the remains of the hotel, Faith sighed. The room that she'd been staying in still had four walls, though parts of the roof had collapsed, and the windows had shattered. All that and the sun hadn't even made it up yet. "I guess things could get worse than last night… earlier tonight."
"You okay?" Molly's voice sounded different when she wasn't shouting on the other side of a wall. "What happened to your eye?"
Faith almost touched the bruise at the mention, but stopped her hand in time. "Don't worry about that. I'll be fine. I got my clothes, I got out without breathing too much of that smoke…"
"Did you loose anything important?" Molly's words were soft.
"Not here," Faith shook her head. "My other shoes. A couple romance novels. No big."
"Those novels? In the end, they have lots of great sex, and go off to live happily ever after in a big mansion." Molly had a thin smile, "Entirely unlike what happens in real life."
That called a smile from Faith, and she chuckled, "Yeah. I'll be okay though. There's a friend of mine… sort of friend. I'm gonna go crash on her couch for a while."
"You do that. I'm going to go find me one of those firemen," Molly purred.
Faith wasn't certain how she found Willow's house. The entire distance from the now-burned hotel was a blur in her mind. She dropped her bag under the coffee table, kicked off the shoes, and collapsed on the couch.
End part 1.
"Why is there a Slayer on the couch?"
Faith's eyes snapped open as she heard a male voice drawl those words. Her senses were screaming that there was danger, a vampire, be careful, grab a weapon… Looking around, she spotted him leaning in the doorway, with bleach blond hair and a shirt with a faded album cover from the Doors. A vampire, in Willow's house? "Are you David?"
"And you must be Faith," he smiled, though without fangs. "Why are you on Willow's couch?"
"Right…" Faith took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. She didn't want to get into a fight with Red's vampire boyfriend. "There was a problem with my hotel."
He frowned, took a step closer, and sniffed. "Smoke? What, someone burned it to the ground?"
"Close enough," Faith admitted.
"Damn," he shook his head. "You can't stay on the couch forever. Willow and I had a talk about you, but this isn't what either one of us had in mind."
"Do I make your nerves twitch like you're doing to mine?" Faith asked, slowly lowering the knife.
"It's not as strong when you're asleep as it is now," he replied, still on the other side of the room. "I'll make you a deal. I won't bite you, you won't stake me, and we don't fight in Willow's house. I don't think we need to fight elsewhere. I'm not turning anybody, not out to end the world or bag a Slayer…"
"Except for turning Willow, and how are you feeding?" Faith spoke before she could stop herself.
"Willow needs someone, and I was there for her," the words were a low growl. "As for feeding, it's been mostly bags from that miserable bar, except for a few bastards who attacked me first."
Faith frowned as she considered his words. Willow… yeah, Willow could make her own choices, and as long as she wasn't unhappy or killing people, that was her right. And if people were jumping the vampire… "I learned a long time ago that there were nasty people out there. It wasn't until later that I learned they weren't all human."
"Now there are a few less," David smiled again, this time with teeth.
Faith just nodded. She managed to relax her muscles a little, enough that she was no longer ready to jump up and attack or run in a heartbeat.
"If her parents show up, you'll need to be out of sight. Would you rather be in the basement, or up in the attic?" David asked, his eyes resting on her duffel.
"It doesn't matter," Faith replied, a yawn interrupting her words. "Anything's an improvement on that dump."
"I don't think either one of us will want this to be long term," he cautioned. "But there's no reason you can't stay for a while."
Faith relaxed, finally letting go of the knife. "Thanks. And that goes for you too, Red. I can feel you over there."
"You're welcome. Do you want fruit to go with your waffles?" Willow called.
"Got strawberries? Or maybe peaches," Faith asked, turning halfway around to glance at the kitchen.
"Both, though they'll need sliced," Willow commented as she poured batter into the waffle iron. "I called Oz earlier, when I saw you conked out on the couch, he was pretty worried. The fire was on the news earlier, and apparently not everybody made it out."
"Damn," Faith winced. "Do they know how it started?"
"The current theory was that somebody was smoking, and fell asleep with a cigarette and that started the fire. I think that'll probably stay the official version."
"There were a couple vamps lurking by the time the fire truck got there," Faith offered. "I know down south there were a few packs that used to do things like that once in a while; torch a hotel and grab some of the people when they stumbled out in the dark. I don't know if these guys started it or just thought it'd be a free meal."
"You traveled before ending up here?" David's voice was low, more curious than anything else.
"Yeah," Faith whispered, trying to push away some of the memories of why she'd started traveling. "I traveled along the coast and west along the border. Some things really are bigger in Texas."
"Huh," David grinned, "Nice to hear. I haven't been that way since the thirties."
"Waffles. David, do you want one?" Willow called.
"Nah," he slipped past Faith and into the kitchen, pausing to give Willow a quick kiss. He opened the refrigerator, grabbing a box of strawberries and a brown paper bag. "I'll just steal a bite of yours."
Faith sighed as he opened the bag, pulling out what looked an awful lot like Red Cross bags. "Do I want to ask?"
"There's a bar that sells more than just beer," Willow waved one hand towards he wall before pouring more batter into the waffle iron. "We haven't asked how he gets it, but we've been buying blood from him."
"Good ol' Willie's, they've also got a dartboard and a pool table," Faith sighed, reaching around David to grab the strawberries. "I guess it makes sense, since he does get a few people in there that I'm sure aren't quite human."
"What do you do about it, Slayer?" David was looking at her, and he picked up the one strawberry that he'd removed from the box, teeth biting into the fruit as he watched her.
"Shoot a little pool, bum a few cigarettes, and listen up for the latest rumors about dangerous stuff moving through," Faith shrugged. "Most of them are pretty harmless, and the rest haven't tried anything when I've been there. Other than this guy who tried to cheat at pool. And that's hardly something to Slay about."
David chuckled, and Willow grinned. "Well, one guy tried to cop a feel on me, but… I sort of… umm… dropped him to the ground holding his shoulder and making vowel sounds."
"That's why you're learning how to fight. To be prepared for the next guy who tries to grab you." David gave Willow a look, and sighed, "You do know that you're the only person who could talk me into living with a Slayer, even if it is only temporary."
"And I'm only agreeing to this because… well, partly for Red, and partly because I'm out of options," Faith took the plate of waffles with a smile, "Thanks, Red."
David chuckled, and took a drink from hi mug, which did not have coffee. "Tell me that the wolf isn't moving in too?"
Willow snickered, though her smile had faded a little. "No, Oz isn't invited to move in. But he will probably be visiting a lot more often."
"Because…?" There was a growl to David's voice as he left the question hanging in the air.
"Stop being jealous, it's unnecessary." Willow pointed at him. "Oz won't be here to visit me. He's started seeing Faith, and if Faith's here, Oz will still want to see her, so he'll have to be here."
"Oh," David looked at his mug, and took another sip. "Sorry."
Faith giggled, and tried to smother her laughter. It wasn't a good idea to laugh at strong vampires, especially when she didn't have a stake, but the expression on his face… "This isn't the sort of problem I'd expected. But I'd rather have to deal with overprotective boyfriends of the ex of the… Damn, this sounds like it should be on Jerry Springer. I'm living with my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend…"
"And her current boyfriend," David added, grinning over his mug at her.
"And my current boyfriend," Willow agreed. "But we aren't going on Jerry Springer with this, or anything else like that. It would be much too weird."
"I guess the only other problem that I have is a shortage of clothing," Faith said, stabbing the last bite of her waffle with a fork. "And I'm still hungry."
"Have another waffle, we can go shopping later," Willow grinned. "Both of those problems are easily solved. If only all our problems could be solved that easily…"
"That would be nice," Faith agreed.
"But things aren't that simple," David grumbled. "And once you graduate, we're out of this hellhole."
"Hellmouth, not hellhole," Willow countered.
"Close enough. As soon as you're done with school, we get out of here. It just doesn't feel right," David shook his head.
"You feel it?" Faith asked, curious about how the Hellmouth felt to a vampire. She'd always felt it as something sort of like the feeling you got just after the top of a hill on a roller coaster, like the ground had just fallen away and taken your stomach with it.
"Yeah, like a hot fog smothering the area," David frowned, his eyes unfocusing and going pale golden. "And it makes me hungrier than I was before I got into town. Hungrier and grumpier. The only reason I'm still here is for Willow."
Faith shivered, reminded yet again of the danger of vampires. "Nobody's really happy about this place."
"Maybe Oz and the Dingoes could go to LA, and try for a record contract," Willow offered. "I'm sure you'd want to go with him, and there's bound to be things needing Slayed there as well, and I know Buffy's already started working on enrolling at UC Sunnydale…"
"Let's hope so," Faith whispered. "Because that could work out for all of us."
End part 2.
End Eye for the Problems.