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)


CHAPTER FIFTY --- BY THE BOOK?

After Faith had consumed her delicious breakfast, consisting of a bowl full of cold spaghetti, which she again had offered to share with Willow – strangely the redhead still preferred cereal over that culinary experience – they had called up their friends to see if they wanted to do anything today.

A decision had been quickly made – since there weren't any good movies on at Sunnydale's Sun Cinema during day time anyway, they had agreed on mini golfing. One of the favorite activities of Willow, Xander and Buffy. Faith... had been a little doubtful at first, never having been golfing, let alone mini golfing before.

And her skepticism had proven to be appropriate: Xander had won the little Scooby-tournament, scoring a sensational six under par total, more or less closely beating Willow with three under par. Buffy had had a hard day and eventually had to put up with a two over par. But this was nothing compared to Faith's... fifteen over par. She would hate that damn windmill forever – that much was certain.

But her mild grumpiness hadn't lasted long. Not only had not just one, not two, but three Scooby buddies offered to practice with her for a possible next time – Xander also offering to manually stop the windmill vanes long enough for Faith to take her shot – no, afterwards they had also sat down to a little ice cream session.

Banana Split, After Eight-y mint goodness, strawberry and chocolate sundaes had been served and devoured, had cheered Faith up, had sated her and the others and had rounded up this day time part of the day.

After that, now it was getting dark, Xander and Willow had gone home, while Buffy and Faith had agreed on a quick cemetery sweep. The slayers were comfortable with each other again. Buffy's apology, even though it might have been a little poor to some, had been enough for Faith – she felt accepted again, and that was more than enough for her.


One dozen vamps later, five slain by her, seven by Buffy, Faith entered the Rosenberg house, waving a "See ya" to Buffy, who made her way home as well.

The house was quiet, the lights were out, and Faith wondered, if Willow had already gone to bed. It was only ten pm, so that was unlikely.

And, really, then she found the one room in the house that had the lights still on and had Willow in it. Their bedroom.

Briefly her eyes landed on her girlfriend, who was doing some studying, it seemed. Then she took in a little plate with sandwiches standing on the bedside table. She grinned. If that was supposed to be a diversion, distracting her from Willow and her books, then it wasn't working.

Yes, she was hungry – patrolling and all. She was also... well, not exactly horny… okay, maybe that too … but much more she was in need of some cuddling. And she wanted to live out this need now – spending time mini golfing with their... still... clueless friends today had minimized their couply time. But she wanted to end this day with a little bit of coupliness, at least.

Even if that was only lying together on the bed, doing nothing. And that 'nothing' included not having your nose in a boring textbook.

But first she walked around the bed to grab her dinner – after all, Willow wasn't the only thing she hungered for. Plus her girlfriend had put some effort into making sandwiches for her – a service which had to be fully appreciated.

Thus her moan came out extra loud as she bit into one of the yummy delicious salad and ham sandwiches, before plopping down on the bed next to Willow. Chewing pleasurably, she turned her head to look at the redhead.

Until now her girlfriend hadn't really acknowledged her presence, had been fully focused on the book, with her tongue sticking out, a pen in her hand and post-its lying next to her for note-taking. Faith smirked; she had to admit that Willow looked terribly cute studying. But there were a lot of other situations she also looked terribly cute in.

So she nudged the little wicca's leg lightly with her foot, wanting to draw her attention away from the book. But Willow just grinned, not letting Faith distract her from her mission. This one tried again, getting almost the same reaction, but this time with a slightly stronger grin.

Faith gave up – for now.

Continuing to eat her sandwiches, she let Willow do for a little while longer. But as soon as she was done chewing, smacking and moaning appreciatively, she leaned over to the redhead, "Okay, sweetie, that's enough," took the book out of her hands, "it's Friday night, for God's sake," and looked at the cover, just to see what could be so terribly important, "ergo: so not the time for study sess... Hey, wait, that's my book..."

"Reddie, what are you doing?" she soon asked, thumbing through the pages of the history book that clearly belonged to that heap of reading material she had recently brought home from the school library. What she found there, were post-its on the margins of several pages. Only then she noticed that the rest of her books had also mysteriously found their way into this room – one of them already adorned with the ominous note-papers as well, it seemed. The book was closed, but she could see these tiny yellow notes sticking out here and there.

"What's it look I'm doing here?" Willow smirked, finding the very confused expression on Faith's face funny and endearing at the same time.

"Like… you're… satisfying your need to cram my books with post-its full of smileys, hearts and stars…," the brunette replied, temporarily distracted by this sweet little show of affection, before, "…oh, wait…" she noticed the remarks and notes accompanying the symbols Willow had doodled so lovingly.

They consisted of Will's thoughts about topics discussed on the respective pages. Some summarized the most important facts, others contained little sketches and diagrams, and a few even provided mnemonic-like notes for her.

Some of the ones to remember the names of the American presidents, for instance, were unique, for sure. Who else but Faith might from now on remember Woodrow Wilson, one of the lesser known presidents, as 'think tiny yellow Peanuts birdie aka. me, plus… uh, me :)' or might guess her way through 'cartoon cats' names' before remembering that one president was 'Tom… no, wait, Sylvester, nah, Garfield!'.

She laughed and looked at Willow with amusement shining in her eyes. "Wow, Will, that's really… I don't know what to say. Maybe a bit crazy…? I mean, are you planning on doing that with all my books?"

But it was pretty remarkable. Two volumes, about 150 pages each, read and commented within, like, two or three hours?!

It was of course possible that Willow had known these books already, had studied their content once before. Plus, she probably knew enough about the various subjects to write cute, little post-its with learning aids on them without having to read or reread every paragraph the books had to offer.

The little human encyclopedia tilted her head, pretending to think Faith's question over. "Hm, well, I was going to. But apparently you don't really want me to…," she pouted, pointing at Faith, who had deliberately taken the book from her, had stopped her…

Nah, of course she was planning on writing more notes. It was all part of her mission to get Faith ready for high school… high school, volume two, that is. And it wasn't that she doubted Faith's ability to comprehend the topics covered, but she thought… hoped Faith would appreciate a little support, something that would save her study time. Xander and Buffy certainly did.

"Oh!" Faith exclaimed, quickly shoving the book back to Will, clearly wanting her to continue, now that she started to understand the redhead's exact plan. "Please, by all means, go on…"

Willow smiled – so it really was appreciated. "Tomorrow, okay?" she replied, earning a nod and a smile.

Yeah, that certainly made Faith twice happy. One, she'd soon have even more Willow-y learning aids with smileys and whatnot; two, she was about to get a touch of her desired couply-cuddly-time now.

Right…?

"I just thought we… well, you should start studying for your high school assessment test now," Willow continued and Faith already saw her hope fading. Now as in… now??? she wondered and feared that Will would hand her back that history book she had just abandoned, like, ten seconds ago.

That one or the already 'edited' chemistry book.

And Willow really did hand her back her history book – with an all-encouraging smile and a "Your test is in a few weeks."

"Yeah," Faith replied, not believing what was about to happen here. Was Willow really going to make her study on a Friday night? "Too bad Giles doesn't know the exact date yet," she tried to stall.

"So all the more wise to be prepared". It didn't seem like Willow was letting her off the hook.

Faith was all for studying; she wanted to go back to high school and make everyone who cared proud of her. But… Friday night was just so damn wrong…

"Can we start preparing tomorrow?" she put on her sweetest smile, hoping they could reach a compromise.

And to her surprise, Willow accepted. "Of course. If you promise me you're really starting then," she added with a mild admonishing gesture.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Faith quickly bent forth and kissed Willow, sealing their agreement. Tomorrow was fine. Well, at least finer than tonight. Because she didn't have any concrete cuddle plans for tomorrow yet.

Depositing the book next to her, lying down and position her head in a still sitting Willow's lap, she quickly worked on executing her tonight's plans, however.

Willow shook her head with a smile, looking down on the happily grinning face. Drawing her hand to Faith's soft hair and twirling it around her finger, she just hoped that her girlfriend would really start sticking her nose into the books tomorrow and not find a way to weasel her way out of it.

Xander was one of those types who were pretty good at that; Buffy came at a close second. Hopefully Faith wouldn't be as weasely.

For now, the brunette and she herself, as she had to admit, were pretty content with just being here on the bed together – not studying.

But apparently talking about studying was still okay; at least Faith started, "So, do you do this with your books too? The doodling and note-sticking?"

"Not so much. And if I do, the post-its don't usually have smileys and hearts on them," she pouted, earning a 'poor-you' look from Faith.

"Well, if you want some, just ask and I'll see what I can do. I'm not the most expert doodler in the world, though, so I don't know if they'll be any good".

"Hey, most girls have that doodle power," Willow encouraged vehemently. "You should see Buffy's class notes. And Joyce isn't much better – I once saw something she had drawn while talking to someone on the phone".

"Joyce doodles?" Faith asked surprised. Of course she could see Buffy doodling and could imagine that the little blonde had inherited this habit from her mother, that Joyce had done some scribbling too in younger years. But that she still did this now…?

"Yeah, I guess," Willow smirked. "But, uh…," trying to remember what they had been talking about before the doodle dialogue, she then continued, "oh! You know what? Right now I'm working on something new for studying in college. Nothing precise yet, but it'll be all about color coding…," she said obscurely, waiting for a reaction.

"Color coding, huh?" Faith took the bait. "Sounds interesting. Let me know when you're finished with planning and all. If that system works, I might adopt it," she grinned.

"Okay," Willow smiled back.

They both were happy that they finally could talk to each other about college and college-related topics. It was still unclear, where Willow would end up eventually, and so every now and then they spent time looking at brochures and internet pages. Even of colleges Willow was little likely to attend. No doubt Faith was thinking about that, when she now asked, "Hey, what's the name of that German thingie again?"

"You wanna kill me?!" the redhead replied laughing. She knew exactly which German thingie Faith was talking about. But the name was just impossible to pronounce – hell, it was hard to remember even!

'Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'. Five much too long words with letter combinations worthy getting a nervous meltdown over. Thankfully, a lot of people seemed to be familiar with the simplified and abbreviated international name of the school, 'RWTH Aachen University', which made things a lot easier for non-Germans.

"Well, no, that would be baaad. Especially since you still gotta post-it-summarize my textbooks for me," the slayer countered, patting Will's leg from where she was still lying with her head in this one's lap.

"Great, so that's what I am for you," Willow replied mock-offended, "your study guide…".

"Yes, you're my personal study guide with girlfriend modus," Faith put on a saccharine smile, getting up on her knees, facing Willow. Red pouted, clearly unhappy with this statement. "Or simply my snugly, funny, cute one and only girlfriend… the study guide being just a tiny part of the package," the brunette pacified inching closer to pouty Will, puppy dog eyes full on.

"That's better," Willow readily agreed to this; plus…she couldn't possibly resist that look on Faith's face. She leaned in to capture the brunette's lips in what was supposed to be a short little conciliatory kiss. But Faith had other plans apparently.

Not letting go off Red's lips, she snuck one of her strong arms around Willow's waist and drew her into a lying position. Now side by side on the bed, the kissing went on for a good long while, had Willow already thinking that Faith would start stripping her naked any second now – with the slayer's hand having snuck under her shirt and all.

Just lying here, cuddling and smooching or sex - she was fine either way.

Or maybe some more talking? Because suddenly Faith broke their kiss, looked at her gently, hand still tucked away under Willow's shirt, before she spoke again, "But thank you, you know. I guess not everybody would be that willing to help another person with the big bad academics. Girlfriend or not."

Willow smiled, "Anytime. And maybe it's not necessarily the big bad academics, but rather the big boring one. Hard to imagine, but there are books that even bore me to death." Not really subconsciously, her eyes landed on Faith's pile of books. At least one of them was apparently among them.

Faith laughed at the funny expression that had appeared on Willow's face, replying, "Oh, I know something that makes those look as exciting as thrillers. Ever heard of the slayer handbook?" she wiggled her eyebrows expectantly.

Willow halted for a moment, before she asked astonished "You actually read it?", knowing a certain blonde who…

"So B didn't, huh?"

"No. When Kendra – you know, the slayer called before you – first came here," Willow explained and Faith nodded, having heard about her, "she told us that it actually existed. Giles hadn't mentioned it to Buffy. But when Kendra brought it up, he muttered something about thinking it wouldn't be of use in Buffy's case. Maybe you can imagine how offended she was after that."

And Faith could! A sound somewhere between a snicker and a snort escaped her mouth, before she started laughing fully, soon being joined by Willow. "But she's still lucky," the brunette added, when she finally managed to get her laughing somewhat under control.

"She'll be happy to hear that," Willow still snickered on lightly. "So did you read it because you wanted to or…"

"No… Apparently my watcher didn't think my case was worthy of not being forced to read it," the younger girl started. "So she made me sit through all six hundred something pages and even quizzed me about what I read later."

From Faith's look and her stating that the book was probably one of the most boring ones ever, Willow felt that this must have been a very painful event. "So, what's actually in it? I mean, six hundred pages? That's got to be a lot of info there."

"You'd think that, right?" Faith replied with raised eyebrows. "Well, okay, some stuff was in Latin and Greek and whatnot, so luckily there were some pages I could skip without feeling guilty about it. The rest… most of it was pretty outdated; you really notice that it was written a long time ago. But there were parts about fighting techniques and weapons and stuff; that was pretty cool. Hm, oh, and the qualities a slayer should possess". Adopting a strange British accent, the accent of choice for watchers, she told Willow exactly what these qualities were, "agility, clarity, strength, and…," she grinned, "stamina".

"Right…," Willow stated amused; leave it to Faith to make it sound all sexual.

But then the brunette became a little more serious, "Well, the newer passages, I guess, deal with the slayer and the Watcher's Council. How she's basically their instrument and all that. Not the funnest chapters, for sure."

Willow shook her head, her mood quickly adjusting to Faith's. This only solidified her view of those guys. Who else would come up with something as sick as the Cruciamentum for when… if a slayer turns eighteen. Not that they'd mention that event in their handbook, of course – it wouldn't be a surprise for the slayer anymore.

As far as she was concerned, those guys probably also had ways to get rid of slayers, and watchers even, who didn't follow their rules. They probably preferred slayers like Kendra and watchers like Wesley. Faith and Buffy sometimes being too rebellious for their liking, Giles already having seen the consequences of disobeying the Council. Comparatively mild consequences, however. After all, he had only lost his job. She just hoped that neither slayer would ever fall out of the Council's good graces. Because then the outcome might be less unpleasant

Looking at Faith, she saw the too grim expression on this one's face – not an unusual reaction when thinking about the Council. She felt that she probably didn't look much different right now.

No… this wasn't the right topic for a Friday night that could be all snugly.

Maybe they'd discuss the details of what the book said about the Council and other things later someday, maybe not. Maybe she'd simply ask Faith for the book … if Faith still had it somewhere, that is. Thus far, she hadn't seen anything in Faith's belongings that looked like it could be the aforementioned book.

Well, she could always ask Giles for Buffy's copy. After all, it probably still lay untouched in a dark and dusty corner.

But for now it was better to get their minds away from that topic. "Baby? What do you say… enough talking for now?" she started with an encouraging tone.

"Okay," Faith agreed with a smile, feeling that Willow was doing this on purpose, wanted her to stop thinking about all this. "Got something else planned instead?" She certainly could think of some things. Her hand had made a nice move earlier, had reminded her of just how good Willow's silky-soft skin felt under her fingers. Her mind had definitely switched from maybe-just-cuddling-mode to more-than-that-mode then.

But, "Well, sleeping sounds like fun…," Will replied instead, immediately earning an incredulous look from Faith. "Joking," she corrected. And then, finally, "Hm… well, you could always show me just how much stamina you got in ya, Slayer," she smirked seductively, referring to one of the few fun parts the handbook had to offer – at least it had made Faith grin before.

And again right now – Red's answer was playing into her hands. "Oh, really?" Quickly, her hand made a move to explore the area hidden beneath Will's shirt further, massaging her back softly.

"Uh-huh," the redhead smiled, loving the warm hand that now wandered over to her front.

But before she continued, Faith's eyes casually went to the curtains of the panorama window. Closed. Guess she knew that studying wouldn't be in order tonight. Then concentrating on the wall clock, "Let's see… it's half past ten. So, I guess your precious sleep will have to wait until about five to six in the morning…" Hey, Will had brought this whole stamina thing up again…

"Now I think you're exaggerating a little," Willow laughed, already being straddled by Faith, shirt being pulled off.

"We'll see".

to be continued...


A/N: Sorry, guys, not much going on in this comparatively short chapter. I just didn't want you to have to wait too long for an update. And I know most of you are wondering, when the rest of the Scoobies will finally find out about Reddie and Faithie… I promise you – it won't be long anymore :)