Title: Purple Rain (The Story Formerly Known As "That Night")
Author: lilyme
Summary: Set in BtVS Season 3. Can changing one pivotal event be the beginning of something entirely unexpected? Or will things still turn out the same?
Pairing: A slayer and a Witch (OR - two people much more similar than expected)
Rating: PG-13 to R
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". They were created by Joss Whedon and belong to him, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Television, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Television and the WB Network. No copyright infringement intended!
Dedication: To the Buffyverse-characters and the people behind them (actors and writers)
A/N: Hope I won't have you waiting that long for the next chapter. Thanks for your patience! ;)
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE --- IT'S NOT LIKE THE MOVIES. OR IS IT?
Faith observed curiously how Giles and Joyce behaved around each other. Well, actually she sat down at the table and pretended to be checking out her cool leathery gift while doing so. But she thought it better to not listen in to what they were talking about, since Joyce and Giles deliberately stood a little aside, near the entrance of Giles' office.
Thus she only peeked up occasionally, took in subsiding blushing and erratic gestures but entirely missed Joyce informing Giles of the plans she had for the rest of this afternoon. The plans involved an old, only seemingly abandoned mansion on Crawford Street and a vampire with a soul. It was something she had thought about when her daughter had mentioned him yesterday.
Though she knew Angel had probably helped her a lot in the difficult situation she had maneuvered herself into by making Faith responsible for Willow's getting hurt on patrol, the fact that the vampire still seemed to be such a big part of Buffy's life unsettled her.
What she would discuss with him in a few minutes would hurt her daughter, she was fairly certain of that. Buffy might even hate her for a while, if she found out that her mother was responsible. But eventually the younger blonde would hopefully get around and see that Joyce only wanted what's best for her only daughter.
But at the moment, Buffy didn't know anything about Joyce's plans. At the moment the blonde was getting up from behind her desk, picking up her books, getting ready to leave the classroom, in which she had just suffered through sixty minutes of Contemporary History. For her a subject almost worse than Chemistry. Or Algebra... Or any subject involving numbers and formulas, for that matter. But there was always one person who helped her with even the biggest problems she faced in those subjects. Willow.
Until now they hadn't talked much, had just smiled politely, sitting next to each other in a silence that didn't feel hostile in the least, but for Buffy still was hard to bear. Maybe her getting down on Faith yesterday had destroyed even more than she had feared. Buffy knew that Willow must be caught between two stools when it came to her and Faith, with being her best friend and living with Faith, thus naturally spending a lot of friendly time with the brunette as well.
When Willow had gotten up immediately after the bell had rung, had packed her stuff and had left the room, the feeling had overcome Buffy that Willow was still leaning more to Faith's side. She didn't blame her, though she had really wanted to talk to her some time today. Tough luck, she thought to herself with a sigh, starting her trip out of the room and to her locker alone.
But then, to her surprise, Willow was waiting for her just outside in the hallway. And when she saw the encouraging smile on the redhead's lips, she approached her relieved and with one little worry less.
They didn't talk for the first few seconds, both feeling that a simple 'hey' would be pretty redundant in this situation, since they had seen each either already today.
"So... how did you like that stuff Mrs. Myers was talking about? You know, what she said about... Is it a bad thing that I've already forgotten what we discussed, like, five minutes ago?" Buffy joked, referring to the class they had just attended. But part of her was frowning... Shouldn't her brain at least try to remember even bits and pieces of classes she had absolutely no interest in? Selective memory could be a blessing, but in cases like this is was a bad thing...
"Maybe," Willow smirked at her friend, of course knowing Buffy and her aversion to history all too well. And even if the blonde's light joke might have just been a way to break the already thinned ice between them, she knew there was a quantum of truth behind her words. But she'd make sure to make Buffy at least remember the most important facts discussed today. Leaving out dull and unimportant side notes. That's what she always did. Loved to do for her best friends. Best friends, rather – Xander included. And though she wouldn't share any classes with Faith next school year and possibly be thousands of miles away, she hoped she could help her too, if her honey needed it.
And as if Buffy knew who Willow was thinking about just now, "Hey, uh, do you think that Faith is mad at me? For yesterday, I mean," she started, before laughing nervously, still unsure how Willow would react, "you know... foot, mouth, stupid Buffy and all..."
At that Willow really became a little serious, making Buffy's heart sink slightly. Opening her locker to stack her books there, she replied "'Mad' is the wrong word... She was pretty upset, but it was more sadness than anything else..."
It was Willow herself who had been mad at her friend, until she had realized that...
"I'm really sorry, Will, I was only afraid that..."
"I know," Willow interrupted her friend quickly. She didn't need to hear this; not because she didn't want the blonde to apologize, she was happy that her friend tried. But she wasn't the person who deserved this apology, who needed it. Even though, yes, she had suffered as well, seeing her girlfriend's pain and building her up - again. "And I get it," she smiled at Buffy reassuringly.
The blonde took this in, not really relieved that Willow stopped her apology. Didn't she want this? Maybe not. Maybe Willow wanted her to save that speech for the person more hurt by this.
"Hey, listen, about Faith," the redhead started as on cue, "you should talk to her. I'm sure you'll both feel better afterwards. Maybe you could patrol after school? Have a talk then?" Willow asked hopeful.
"Think she'd want to? After how reacted? I pretty much bashed her slaying abilities, Will," the little slayer countered tensely; the more hopeful Willow got about an upcoming reconciliation, the more her own hope on that subject was dwindling. She had simply been too harsh to Faith, who – she was sure of that – really hadn't wanted to have anything happen to Willow. Or Xander, as a fact.
"I think it'll be fine." At least I hope so. Of course, there was the possibility that Faith would say 'no' to Buffy's suggestion of patrolling together, but it was... not that likely, since her girl wanted to make up with Buffy as well. "Maybe it'll make things easier if you tell her that you reacted like this because you were scared. Which... I kinda already told her," Will added quickly with a blush and a smile, making Buffy smile slightly in return.
"Okay," the blonde nodded, preparing to realize Will's well-thought-out plan.
"But, see," the redhead added, partly pulling back the bright red band-aid from her neck, revealing two punctures that now looked almost tiny and harmless, "No biggie. It'll be okay in no time".
Words that would hopefully also prove true for Buffy and Faith's relationship.
"So... Will talk you into this?" Buffy was asked by the brunette about six hours later when they walked through the depths of Restfield cemetery.
Faith had wondered this since Buffy had entered the library around noon, had asked her if she wanted to go on patrol with her later, which she had agreed to, had left for her next class two minutes later and almost literally ran into Willow who had come to pick her up for lunch, making brief eye contact with her, both grateful and apprehensive.
So maybe it had been a little obvious, though Willow had denied this when Faith had asked her during their lunch break – which this time had been spend with yummy pancakes at the Espresso Pump.
And even Buffy's hesitant-surprised "no" to her question couldn't argue her out of this thought. Faith didn't mind either way; as long as this patrol went as planned – successful, that is, without any incidences – she'd be happy to have made up with the blonde this way. If she failed again, she'd...
She didn't want to let her thoughts get that far. "Okay," she replied, as her eyes scanned the cemetery repeatedly, extra-attentively, determined to show Buffy that she could do it right.
The older slayer noticed this, thought about if it'd be wise to comment on this behavior or not. But when her brain couldn't come up with anything more casual-small-talky to begin a real conversation with the brunette, she took heart and delved into the topic at hand. "You didn't go patrolling last night, right?"
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary going on anywhere, she finally faced the blonde, letting out a "No" in return. She knew that Buffy's words were most likely neutral, but they sounded different. "Though it'd be better to stay in," she simply shrugged, stating pretty much the truth.
Buffy noticed the shrug and the rather helpless look accompanying it. The helpless look resulting from knowing you're responsible for someone getting hurt. "Look, Faith, I'm sorry. I didn't have the right to say something like this to you. Especially since something like could have happened to me too."
"I know," Faith replied quickly. She knew these things could happen to B; she knew similar things had happened to her in the past. There had most likely been patrols that hadn't left the Slayerettes entirely unharmed. Now Faith understood the blonde's unwillingness to let her friends tag along on patrol nights, whereas in former times, they'd done that regularly – that much she knew from Willow. It wasn't only because she herself had come to Sunnydale a few months ago, making it more logical for a slayer to team with an equally strong and little vulnerable partner in the fight against evil. Events that had taken place at the end of last school year also were an important factor. She had heard about comas and lots and lots of broken bones. Willow, Xander, Giles. She knew Buffy wouldn't want things to go that far again. And neither did she. "And trust me, it'll take some time before I'll take Willow and Xander on patrol again". In her mind, 'some time' probably equaled centuries right now.
Understanding and relief etched themselves into Buffy's features upon hearing Faith' reply, though there was also a tiny amount of doubt. "Making that clear to them won't be easy. You might not have noticed this, but they can be a teeny bit stubborn sometimes. Especially Will," the blonde tried a joke.
And really elicited a laugh from Faith who knew Red's stubbornness pretty well already. "It won't be easy," she admitted to a now fairly more relaxed Buffy – relaxed since things between them were starting to get back to normal apparently – before her voice took on a more serious tone again, "but I'm gonna try. If something had happened to Will... or Xan, for that matter... something worse, I don't know if I had been able to live with myself".
Buffy almost missed a step at those words. Brought forth with an intensity and emotion she hadn't expected from the formerly so tough and badass slayer. She knew Willow was the reason; the redhead seemed to affect Faith in ways Buffy never would have imagined. Yes, Xander getting hurt would have definitely freaked her fellow slayer out as well, but she felt that with Willow the intensity of the freaking had been much stronger than it would have been with Xander.
"You care for her a lot, do you?" Buffy replied, not really asking, rather just stating the obvious.
The question didn't shock Faith, she could see in Buffy's eyes that the little blonde wasn't implying anything else. "Come on, Buffy, she's... Willow. Show me one person in the world who wouldn't care for her," she still countered, not daring to state a simple 'yes'... Out of fear that she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut afterwards? Would be spluttering and pretending that it was really only 'in a friendship way, you know. Like you an Xan care for her and stuff, okay? Not anything more than that,' - possibly only making Buffy suspicions that way.
But since the spluttering hadn't happened, an unsuspecting Buffy just nodded with a smile, "Yeah, you're right," before an amusing thought concerning Faith caring for Will entered her mind. "Still, most people wouldn't buy her a stuffed animal," she nudged Faith with her elbow, "You still haven't explained to me how that happened".
As Faith got ready to tell Buffy about her toy store experience, Giles got ready to go home. Tomorrow, Friday, was a public holiday, and he was looking forward to this long weekend. He didn't really have plans, though. Maybe he'd reread one or two of his favorite books, or drive around the countryside a bit – in his almost three years of living here, he had seen barely more than Sunnydale and its many cemeteries.
Or maybe he'd be listening to his old classics and playing guitar, thinking about the evening he and Joyce had spent in his apartment, doing just this, and the night they'd spent out on the town, doing... other things. He hadn't really expected her to visit the library today. But after the initial shock, it had been a pleasant surprise.
Maybe one day, they'd be able to look at each other again without blushing and stuttering. They didn't want the children to catch on to their little indiscretion. Yes, they all, including the kids, were grown-ups now for the most part, but they still felt that Buffy, Willow and the others knowing about them might not be the best thing right now. Maybe in a year or so, when the kids would be off to college, they might have a go and see, if things between them could work in the long run. Because, yes, Joyce was still a charming woman and he found her quite attractive, knew that she returned his attraction, so the possibility for a relationship was given.
Briefly checking a small securely locked book cabinet in his office one last time and turning off the lights, Giles and his thoughts about Joyce left the library.
Not two minutes later, three figures clad in black emerged from the depths of the stacks. The place was unlit, but unlike human eyes, theirs didn't need time to adjust to the darkness. Spreading out quickly, they went to work looking through the books the library housed.
They were looking for specific volumes. Volumes that could decide the fate of the world.
Willow was in the kitchen when she heard the front door of the Rosenberg home open. And Faith's "I'm here!" only confirmed what she already knew – her girlfriend was home. Who else would have a key to let themselves in here? Well, there were two other people, but she didn't want to think about them now.
She rather concentrated on, "That's a happy face," the slayer entering with the kitchen with the biggest smile she had seen on her face in the last two days.
Dimples deepening even more, Faith replied with a, "It's looking at you."
"Baby?" Although flattered, Willow pulled a face, earning a questioning look from Faith still grinning one, "you're getting schmaltzy".
"Oh", the grin disappeared from Faith's face, "I am so, so...," for about five seconds, before it returned, "not sorry!" with a big hug for Red and an even bigger, smacking kiss on the redhead's cheek.
"I guess patrol went okay," Willow concluded, fighting the urge to wipe the remains of Faith's rather wet kiss from her cheek.
"Hm, yup," Faith replied with her arms still tightly around Willow's waist, "three vamps for Faith, two vamps for Buffy; much talk and no injuries or accidents whatsoever," the brunette quickly summarized the successful slaying event. "And I wanted to thank you."
"What for?" Willow asked.
"Well, I'm pretty sure it was your idea that we'd go patrolling together."
When Willow opened her mouth to object that, no, she hadn't – which she had already tried to make the brunette believe earlier - Faith raised her eyebrows with an amused smile that showed that there was no one denying it, she simply replied, "Yeah, okay."
"See? I knew it. And for that, again, thank you," she said softly and kissed her girlfriend gently, repeatedly. After a few moments, she released. "Okay, gonna go shower now."
"Yeah, you better," the redhead chuckled. She hadn't wanted to mention it, but a dusty and sweaty slayer wasn't necessarily her favorite. Though in certain, more bedroom-y situations, she didn't mind sweaty Faithie.
"Hey!" Faith protested, already making her way into the bathroom. At least her current condition proved that it had been a good patrol.
*****
Ten minutes later she was back, helping Willow preparing dinner. Spaghetti were the meal of choice and Faith took delight in spicing the tomato sauce going with them. She didn't let Willow see what exactly she was doing there or let her have a small taste; she wanted to surprise her with her, well, cooking talent... if such a creature existed.
"So, what do you wanna do this weekend? Maybe we could go somewhere," Willow asked, looking after the spaghetti.
"Hm, don't know," Faith replied, "maybe the movies or something? Or get out of town a bit. Anything interesting to see near Sunnydale? Except for the highway going to L.A.?"
Willow chuckled, "Not that I know of. But I'll hop online later. Maybe we'll find something after all".
"Sounds good. Wonder what the others will be doing".
"Don't know," Willow replied. "We could ask them to tag along to... whatever we'll be doing. Maybe even Joyce and Giles, though he'll probably end up with his nose in a book, no matter where we'd take him," the redhead teased.
Faith laughed, "You probably got that right." And though she liked the idea of taking along with them, right now her mind was occupied by another... interesting... thought. One concerning Giles and, well, Joyce! One that had come to her mind earlier today, when she had observed some weird behavior going on between them. "Um, Reddie...," she began innocently, "have you noticed... something going on with Giles and Joyce? You know, like, glances and stuttering and stuff?"
Willow's eyes immediately turned away from the almost done spaghetti, staring at Faith, thoughts about the rest of the Scoobs and the upcoming weekend forgotten. Because, she had noticed glances and stuttering. Very shy glances and very pronounced stuttering. Rounded up with a body language that had to make everyone who wasn't completely blind or deaf suspicions.
She herself had noticed this behavior at the end of last year. Back then when her typically absentee mother had put her two week's holiday at home to good use and had tried to burn her one and only daughter at the stake.
Because of her use of evil, evil witchcraft and all. Or maybe just because of the fact that she was actually friends with a girl named 'Bunny'...
She had almost forgotten about the stake incident by now – the only remainder of this fateful night was Amy. Amy, who, back when she had been a human girl, used to have much more power than her. Amy, who was now a rat and was living in a cage in her bedroom. And now Faith reminded her of 'Bunny's' mother and watcher, behaving weirdly...well, weird.
Faith took Willow's wide-eyed silence as a sign that she hadn't imagined things earlier today. "So you did?" she asked, just to make sure.
"Kinda," Willow agreed. "Wait... you don't think they..."
She didn't finish her sentence – Faith knew perfectly well what she was implying.
"No!" they both exclaimed simultaneously. No... they didn't do anything. Neither kissing nor, god forbid, anything more than that.
That's what they tried to make themselves believe. To keep unwanted images away. But secretly they seemed to agree that either there was something going on still or that something had happened sometime late last year.
Whatever it was – Giles and Joyce obviously tried to keep it a secret. And Willow and Faith respected and understood this very well – being as they were in a similar situation. At least, for now.
*****
"Ugh... that was too much," Willow groaned in discomfort half an hour later, one arm thrown over her eyes, the hand of the other one holding her stomach.
Dinner had been fun. Maybe too much fun for her poor tummy, but otherwise...
The tomato sauce had been a little bit... no, a little bit more... on the garlic-y side. That was apparently how Faith liked it. If she had put too much garlic in there even for her liking, she hadn't admitted it. "Good thing I only have to kiss you," Willow had joked, when a funny thought had sprung to mind. One involving kissing, spaghetti and two cute cartoon dogs.
"Am I the Tramp in your scenario?" Faith had pouted, after a grinning Willow had explained what was going on in her head right now.
"Come on, he was way cute," Willow had laughed, but when Faith had continued to look at her disgruntedly, she had caved, "Okay, you can be the Lady," which had earned her a less pouty and disgruntled, but much more skeptical look. Apparently she didn't fancy that title either. "Eh... or we simply keep our Peanuts names," Willow, aka Woodstock, had proposed, though knowing that Faith hadn't really liked her name either. But she herself still had to laugh when she thought about the similarities between Faith and Peppermint Patty.
Faith had perked up. Weirdly enough, Peppermint Patty was more preferable to her than the Lady and the Tramp combined, though she had never liked that comparison that much either. "Yeah, okay. But that means your spaghetti kissing thing won't work," she had winked.
"Hmm... guess we have to live with that," Willow had bent forth and put a spaghetti-less kiss on Faith's mouth, before they both had continued eating.
That had been the fun part; and now...
"Awww...really? Poor baby...," Faith, though also slightly amused, pulled a sympathetic face and put down her fork and plate to go to Willow. Very carefully, as not to disturb the redhead's upset stomach any further, she got in beside her, situating herself between Willow and the backrest.
Almost automatically her hand found the birdy's aching belly, nudging little Woodstock's away in doing so. For a while, Faith held it still, only putting minimal pressure on the area. Then she started moving her hand in small circles, neither too light nor too strong. Simple, soothing motions.
A groan was soon followed by a sigh, and after a few moments, Willow moved her arm, uncovering her eyes, but she didn't open them yet. "I like that," she mumbled, a little less pained now.
"I know," Faith smirked audibly. She really did know. There had been enough tummy rubbing in the past weeks, not only of the soothing kind. And actually it had been Willow doing most of the rubbing, having simply fallen in love with the little swell of Faith's belly. But she never said no whenever Faith wanted to return the gesture – especially in a situation like this.
Willow finally opened her eyes again, her hand finding the slayer-y one on her stomach, not stopping its movements, only covering it and holding on. "You don't feel ache-y?"
"Nah," Faith grinned, "slayer metabolism, you know? Guess it works a little different with us."
"Huh," Willow nodded. This was one of the situations when she envied the slayers. She had never heard Buffy complain about a too full belly, even after fairly excessive food orgies. Xander neither, she realized, pouting inwardly. Maybe this was a Willow-problem. A problem people with Willow-sized stomachs have. 'Luckily' also Joyce seemed to belong to this group – at least she had once feigned vicarious discomfort upon even only seeing the amount of snacks, candy and junk food on the coffee table of her living room at one of Willow, Xander and Buffy's sleepovers.
Tonight she hadn't even eaten that much, but still... "What are we gonna do with the rest?" Groaning once more, she quickly averted her eyes from the food, rather focusing on Faith and her hand.
"Hm...," the brunette looked over at the big bowl on the table, which was still almost half full, "I'll just eat that for breakfast tomorrow."
Willow frowned, "Breakfast? Not lunch, maybe?"
"Well... maybe. But, actually, I really meant breakfast. And cold, of course," she grinned down at her girlfriend... who didn't do more than throw her a disgusted look. "What? You never tried that? Whoa, you're missing out, babe. But you know what's even better? Cold pizza. One of these days we're gonna order one and leave it over night. Trust me, it'll be the best breakfast you ever had." This particular eating habit of Faith's had developed a while ago, mostly due to lack of means to reheat her takeouts back when she had still been in motel rooms and had not been wanting to throw out the leftovers. But at some point she had realized that eating pizza and pasta that way was indeed yummy.
A fact Willow obviously couldn't understand yet. And she probably had other problems right now. "Mmm... food talk, please... stop," she pulled a face indicating that the discomfort Faith had 'rubbed' away expertly might be returning soon, if the slayer kept on talking about cold Italian food for breakfast.
"Okay, sorry," Faith placated quickly. "How about tea talk? Want me to make you some? To help your tummy? Chamomile? Fennel? Peppermint... strawberry... cherry-vanilla...?" she frowned, "Huh, kinda still sounds like food talk," she ventured and Willow's pained look only confirmed that. "Mmmm... tea of a flavor yet-to-be-specified, yeah?" she smiled down at the redhead, her hand leaving her tummy and moving to rest around her waist.
Willow's eyes wandered over Faith's face, the mixture of love, care and still faint amusement on it warming her heart. She loved this side of her girlfriend, so much that not only sometimes she wished she could share it with someone.
She couldn't possibly tell Joyce or Oz – the only two people who knew about them... as far as she knew. Both options would feel awkward. Ex-boyfriend and unsuspecting best friend's mom. She knew she could trust them both with this. But one of them – regardless of the support he'd shown and apparent happiness for her – would hurt once again when being confronted with more details. The other one – transmitting equal support and happiness – would be burdened with more details she'd came to keep from her daughter... best friend and slaying partner for her and Faith.
And there was still one little problem... one tiny little problem ... that hindered her from talking to Xander or Buffy about those cuddly-sweet relationship details she shared with Faith – the tiny little problem of them not knowing that the relationship was even existent.
There had been moments in the past days where she had felt ready to tell them. Moments which had soon been followed by others in which she had felt relieve about not having told them already.
Fear was the main reason behind her recurring decision to put that revelation a little while longer – she knew that. She also knew that her fear only increased the longer she... they... waited.
Maybe the two of them just waited for the big big bang to reveal the big big secret. Something that would make it impossible for them to deny that they were dating. Have been involved for weeks, almost a month.
But until the big bang... or until one of them or both of them decided to drop the bomb themselves after all... they would be alone. And Willow wouldn't get to share relationshippy moments.
Which wasn't a bad thing per se; until the big day, she'd simply collect more and more of them – that way she had even more to tell when they were finally ready.
This moment here was definitely worth finding a mention later. Simply because it were those seemingly little things Faith did – tummy rubbing, while producing a mix of funny, barf-worthy and compassionate comments – that had made her realize several times during the last few weeks that "I love you, Faith".
Faith's face brightened upon hearing this; she loved to hear those words, especially since Will had made it more than clear that she meant it. Almost about to reply with 'I know', stating her knowledge of that fact, her mouth reconsidered and formed an "I love you too," instead.
A soft kiss on the temple and a little bit more cuddling, and then she'd get up and make the promised tea. Whatever flavor that one would have.
to be continued...
