Smash Into You
Rating: M (Not in the early chapters but it will come later on)
Pairing: Willow and Faith. As much as I am a Willow and Tara girl if I have to accept the fact Tara is forever gone then I really like this pairing as a season 7 or post season 7 pairing. Was never much impressed with Willow and Kennedy, Joss should have well gone down the Willow and Faith joint redemption route!
Disclaimer: If Buffy was mine then Tara would never have died and Faith would have been in every episode! Amber and Eliza are good eye candy!
Summary: Nearly a year after the defeat of the first Willow organises Faith's early release from prison and asks her to join the gang in Cleveland. Ignores the comics and presumes that Faith would have actually gone back to prison to complete her sentence.
Chapter 21
Buffy felt surprisingly relieved to see Willow and Faith enter together, animatingly discussing something like nothing had happened that afternoon. Although she was very weary of the two's 'friendship' she also didn't want Willow to be any more upset than she usually was. Even though they had grown apart and Buffy could never fathom out what was going on in Willow's head she still cared about her friend as much as she ever had. Faith's unexpected arrival had reminded Buffy of that more than ever.
"Chloe has cooked us a high carbohydrate demon ass kicking meal" Xander informed them as they entered.
"Let's just hope no-one or nothing has served up our demon something similar!" Faith broke her conversation to remark.
Buffy noticed that everyone seemed to be looking at Willow and Faith now that they had entered. Even though she hadn't told the rest of them about Willow's hasty exit from the gym that afternoon clearly someone else, i.e. Dawn, had obviously spilt the beans.
"You've cheered up Willow" Dawn stated, causing everyone's gaze to intensify on the two.
"Dawn!" Buffy chastised. Sometimes there were things you don't bother bringing up and this was one of them, especially not in front of lots of other people.
Willow didn't respond and shifted uncomfortably as everyone continued to gaze at her except from Giles who had looked away. Suddenly Xander cleared his throat very loudly which brought everyone's attention to him and away from the nervous looking Willow.
"I'm starving!" he exclaimed, "I think we should probably help Chloe carry the food through from the kitchen."
Buffy flashed him a quick smile as they all filed out to the kitchen to get their own plate of food. She smiled again when he grasped Dawn's hand to get her attention and gave her a reproachful look. He was silently chastising her for putting Willow on the spot without making a big deal of it. He was like the big goofy older brother to Dawn and he really was good with her. Willow used to be good with Dawn too but after Tara and Willow split up that had began to change and after Tara's death their relationship fell apart. Sometimes they seemed to get quite friendly again but Willow never seemed like a big sister to her now and Buffy suspected that Dawn had never quite forgiven her for threatening to kill her. In fact, Buffy doubted that Willow had ever really forgiven herself for it either.
Chloe's high carbohydrate meal consisted of some pasta with a tomato based Italian sauce, washed down with plenty of coffee. There were several conversations going on around the table and Buffy didn't really get involved in any of them, choosing instead to be the silent observer. Giles and Chloe were discussing something to do with the shop, Willow and Faith were discussing films they both liked and Dawn was talking at Xander and Andrew about the hotel's armoury she'd spent the afternoon cleaning.
After the food was finished they remained sat around the table so they could discuss how they were going to tackle the demon that night. All heads seemed to turn to her suddenly and Buffy realised that everyone expected her to take lead in the conversation. She's expected Giles to take charge or even possibly Faith after this morning so she hadn't given it much thought yet. She wasn't even sure if there was much thought she could give it as they were going into the warehouse pretty much blind.
"We need to have some sort of contingency plan" she announced to the waiting group.
"I'm thinking we stick together, I'd rather we didn't split up as we don't know what's down there" she continued.
Everyone seemed to be in agreement and Buffy wondered if there was actually anything more they could discuss. Obviously Chloe would be staying behind at the hotel and the others would have to go in two cars to the warehouse. They would go down to the basement, kick some demon ass and drive home again. Sorted!
"What weapons do we take?" Dawn spoke up, "obviously stakes aren't that necessary."
That was actually quite a good question and trust Dawn to be the one who asked. Buffy was busy mulling the question over in her head when Faith spoke up.
"I suppose we just take a range of things" she suggested, "crossbows, swords, axes blah blah blah!"
"Sounds sensible" Giles chirped in.
Everyone around the table became quiet again and Buffy cringed at the lack of fine detail in their plan. They really were going in blind but at least they were going in blind with two slayers rather than one. As awkward as Faith's arrival had been at least the brunette slayer seriously kicked ass in a fight!
Willow had felt a little awkward over diner after all the looks she'd got when she'd entered the dining room but Faith had put her at ease with her daft conversation about Scooby Doo and Charlie Brown. Once diner was over they had briefly discussed their lack of plan for the night's demon slaying before everyone split up to get ready.
All Willow had needed was the toilet because she had already showered, changed and had her coat with her already. So after making her toilet stop she headed to the armoury where they were all to meet. She wasn't the first there because Faith was sat on the floor with her back against the wall.
"I wasn't the only one already dressed for the fight then?" Willow remarked as she plonked herself down on the floor next to Faith.
"I'm always dressed for the fight" Faith quipped, "You should know that!"
Willow smiled warmly at the brunette and rested her head against Faith's shoulder. The brunette slayer didn't even flinch which made a warm smile creep onto Willow's face. Only a couple of days ago Faith would have been as uncomfortable as hell in this situation but whether it be because of friendship or attraction the pretty slayer was getting quite cuddly now.
"We'll be okay tonight" Faith muttered, although Willow couldn't quite make out if it was a question or a statement of fact.
"Sure" Willow agreed or responded, "We've faced all sorts of demons, goddesses and other crazies but we're still standing."
They had been lucky that so few of their group had died considering all the evil they had faced and Willow always saw a horrible irony in the fact that one of the few losses, Tara, was killed by a human rather than anything more unsavoury. Warren had come so close to ending Buffy's life too, holy water and stakes did very little against guns.
"I've never gone into a fight feeling like this before" Faith stated, "usually I'm like yay fight but tonight I'm just worried that someone will get hurt."
Willow lifted her head away from Faith's shoulder so she could look at the slayer. The brunette had her eyes downcast towards the floor and looked deep in thought. Willow couldn't help feeling guilty for causing emotional turmoil in Faith, especially as she was so unsure of what she was feeling herself.
"Faith" Willow had meant to sound comforting but it came out kind of breathless and raspy. So much so that Faith's face suddenly swung towards her and the brunette had a mixture of confusion and desire written all over her face.
"I don't know what to do about this red" Faith stated quietly, "I'm not good with feelings ... I've never really had many of them before."
"I don't know what to do either" Willow admitted, "I have the opposite problem though... I've had a hell of a lot of feelings before and I don't know what to do about them."
She couldn't believe they'd got that out in the open between the two of them. It had started to become apparent that they had feelings for the other but she hadn't expected it to be verbalised quite so openly just yet. Faith had begun to tap the ground with the fingernails of her right hand and actually seemed quite nervous. Willow found her nervous expression quite cute and it brought a smile to her face. She was trying to formulate something to say to calm the situation down but she then she could hear somebody talking at the top of the stairs to the basement and realised they were about to have company. Faith's gaze turned in the direction of the noise too and she sighed loudly.
"If something bad happens tonight I'll regret not doing this so..." Faith broke her speech and grasped Willow's cheeks, placing a quick kiss on her lips before pulling away and letting go again.
It had been so brief that Willow had no time to react or respond to the peck and within seconds of the brunette pulling away Buffy and Dawn appeared around the corner. Faith was sat very still with her head leant back against the wall and her eyes closed.
"You okay Faith?" Buffy asked as she reached them.
Faith opened her eyes and glanced towards Willow. Willow flashed her a warm smile so the brunette knew that everything was okay between them and the pretty slayer smiled back.
"I'm good B" Faith turned her gaze back to Buffy, "Five by five!"
Dropping her old saying into the conversation brought a warm smile from Buffy and the blonde slayer plonked herself on the floor next to Faith. Dawn followed suite and the four waited in comfortable silence for the others to appear.
I kissed Willow and she didn't freak!
That was about the only thing going through Faith's head as she sat and waited for the guys to appear. She could hear some sort of conversation around her involving Willow, Buffy and Dawn but she had no idea what they were actually saying. She just had the quick kiss and Willow's cute little smile on replay, running over and over again in her mind.
"Faith?" Buffy's voice tugged her back out of her thoughts and back to the real world.
She looked to the side where she expected Buffy to be sat and found that the blonde was now on her feet as was Willow and Dawn. Giles, Xander and Andrew where stood there too and Faith couldn't believe she'd zoned out enough not to notice their arrival.
"You coming?" Buffy asked with obvious amusement in her tone of voice.
"Yes... weapons... monsters...slaying! I'm coming!" Faith launched to her feet and tried to hide any of the embarrassment she was feeling over looking like a total dope.
A couple of people snickered as they turned towards the weapons Dawn had set out but Willow lingered facing Faith. Faith ducked her eyes down to the floor in embarrassment before looking back at the pretty red head. When she did finally make eye contact it warmed her to see that Willow was smiling very warmly at her, even her pretty eyes seemed to hold some of that smile.
"Mind somewhere else?" Willow asked coyly, still smiling broadly.
"Not exactly...on something else rather than somewhere else!" Faith replied, matching Willow's grin with one of her own.
"Have a sword that should wake you up!" Xander cut into the conversation by thrusting a large sword into Faith's hand. Obviously he wasn't impressed by hers and Willow's mutual smiling session and had decided to break it up for himself. Faith briefly considered hitting him with the sharp end of the sword but then thought better of it. In his own annoying way he was probably to get their minds focussed back on the job at hand because smiling like a loved up teenager wasn't going to defeat any of these bad guys.
"You have a sword" Faith grumbled irritably before turning away from Xander and following an axe clasping Giles up the stairs.
"Grump!" Xander called after her, humour lacing his voice. Faith tried to hold back her laughter but she ended up sniggering when everyone else did.