Xander and Faith eyed each other with the utter shock that comes when you
run into someone you really didn't expect to, and totally unsure how to
react.
'Faith?" Xander spoke first. "Is that really you?"
The dark-haired Slayer just stared at him for a moment longer, before shaking herself out of it. "Uh.yeah. Hey."
Blinking and shaking his head, Xander straightened up and lowered the sharpened cross, but didn't put it away, which didn't go unnoticed by Faith. "I.I thought you were still in prison."
The rogue Slayer brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face and shrugged slightly. "Paroled," she stated. Before Xander could think of something else to say, Faith gave him a hard look. "You care to explain why you were making out with a vampire in a dark ally?"
Squaring his shoulders slightly, Xander glared at her. "I wasn't.I was just getting ready to stake her when you showed up."
"Right," Faith gave him another once over, obviously noticing his shirt being untucked and rumpled and the lipstick on Xander's face and neck. "Only staking it looked like you had planned was with your dick."
Letting out a breath and preparing to deny the accusation, Xander gave Faith a slightly sheepish grin. "I admit I got distracted for a second."
"Distracted!" Faith shouted at him, stepping forward and scowling at him. "You were about ten seconds away from being dead!"
Xander had stepped back automatically when the Slayer had yelled at him. "And just how far away am I now from being dead now?" he shot back, his hand tightening around his sharpened crucifix before he could think.
It was like someone had cut Faith's strings. She just stopped and her scowl melted into a neutral, almost guilty expression. "I'm sorry," she said softly, eyes dropping to look at the ground.
Still in fight or flight mode, it took a moment for Faith's reaction to his words to sink in. "What?"
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Faith answered, slightly louder now but still not looking Xander in the eye.
Never having heard Faith apologise for anything, surprised at seeing her at all, and still slightly dazed from smacking his head against the wall, Xander just stared dumbly at the Slayer, finally giving her a good look. The shirt she had on was bigger on her then he had first thought, as did the jeans. Faith seemed to have shrunk more then a bit since the last time he'd seen her. Her hair, tied back loosely in a ponytail, was dull and looked unwashed. Her hands, which were fidgeting with a stake, were dirty and shaking slightly. But it was her face that really shocked Xander. Dark circles under her eyes were proof of long nights and not enough sleep. On her lips there was no trace of the glossy lipstick he remembered she was so fond of, but instead were dry and chapped. Her eyes, which were still focused on the ground, looked tired, apprehensive and more then a little scared. 'She can't be scared of me.'Xander thought to himself, noticing a streak of dirt on the side of Faith's neck. "What.what are you doing in Sunnydale?"
"Long story," Faith answered, finally raising her eyes to look at Xander. "Where is everyone? I mean, where there's one of you guys, there's usually another."
The sounds of laughter echoed down the ally, coming from the direction of the Bronze. Glancing at his watch, Xander was surprised to see it was almost one in the morning. Motioning for Faith to follow him, he started walking further into the ally, toward where his car was parked. "Gone for the summer," he said as, after a moment of hesitation, Faith fell into step beside him. "Buffy and Dawn are in Florida sorting a few things out with their dad. The rest are in England.doing other things."
Faith didn't respond but simply walked silently beside Xander. Reaching his car, a replacement for the one that Willow had trashed, Xander unlocked the passenger side first, before moving around to the drivers' side. "Get in," he told the brunette Slayer, as he unlocked his own door and slid into the car. Watching through the window, Xander watched Faith wrestling with the apparent dilemma that his request had brought up. It actually took her almost a minute to make up her mind, before she slipped the stake she had into one of the huge pockets of her pants, and quietly slipped into the car. Fishing his keys out, Xander buckled his seat belt and stared at his companion until she fumbled to do the same.
The two rode in uncomfortable silence until Faith fidgeted in her seat. "Where are you taking me?"
Giving her a quick look before returning his eyes to the road, Xander cleared his throat. "It's late and you look beat. I figured I'd give you a ride to the motel, before heading home."
"I'm not staying at the motel," Faith said, her voice almost inaudible it was so quiet. She turned away and looked out the window, apparently unwilling to look at Xander.
"Okay," Xander drawled out after a moment, when it was apparent that the girl beside him wasn't going to continue. "Where are you staying?"
"Um, I found a place on Churchill."
"Oh." Churchill was part of the industrial district of Sunnydale. Made up of old factories and abandoned warehouses. Spike and Dru had based their operations out of a factory in the area, before Giles burned it down after Jenny was killed. Spike had used the same burned out factory to hold Willow and him hostage, back during senior year. There were no apartment buildings, hotels, motels or any other normal living areas in that part of town. Vamps usually used the area to set up nests, but the district seemed a ghost town when Xander patrolled it. 'If Faith is staying in that area, then she's pretty much squatting.'
They drove in silence for awhile, neither of them able to come up with anything to say. Finally Xander simply pulled the car over and put it in park, and looked at the Slayer. "Faith, why are you squatting in the vamp central?"
Faith just stared forward through the windshield, her jaw clenching quickly to cut off a 'None of your business!' Taking a breath, the Slayer shrugged. "Seemed like as good a place as any. I ain't got the money to stay anywhere else, and the warehouse is close to prime slaying territory. Win-win stitch, ya know?"
Though the voice held the devil-may-care attitude of the old Faith, her body language was completely different. She didn't look at Xander once when she spoke, in fact making an effort to look at everything but him. She was all but pressed against the door, sitting as far away from Xander as she could. Her hands still trembled, and Xander wasn't sure if it was because she was afraid of something, exhausted or hungry. 'Probably all three,' he guessed silently while he observed her in the dimness inside the car.
With a grunt, Xander restarted the car and began driving again. Keeping his eyes focused on the road, and resisting the urge to cast glances at his passenger, he switched on the radio on in the hopes of filling the uncomfortable silence. With the volume turned low, the swinging piano cords and gentle voice of Sarah Vaughn was both soothing and distracting. So much so, that by the time they'd reached their destination and Xander parked the car, Faith had drifted off to sleep in her seat.
Xander just looked at her sleeping, her head leaning against the window, arms wrapped around herself protectively. Faith's expression while asleep was peaceful. Xander noted how much younger the Slayer seemed when she didn't have her usual mask on. 'Buffy kinda looks the same way when she's asleep,' the male Scooby mused as he quietly opened his car door and exited the car. 'I guess when they're asleep, they don't have to worry about looking strong.'
Circling around the car, Xander slowly opened the passenger side door, and smirked a little when Faith's head just tipped onto her shoulder as she continued to sleep. 'She's even more tired then I am,' he thought as he moved to unbuckled her seatbelt. Leaning across her, he stifled a chuckle as he noticed something else about her. 'She needs a shower more then I do too.'
Having freed her from the confines of the seatbelt, Xander shook her shoulder gently, deciding that she'd probably be a little freaked to wake up with Xander carrying her. "Faith," he said softly as he nudged her shoulder. "Wake up, Faith. We're here."
The Slayer jerked awake so suddenly that Xander stepped back in case she forgot who he was. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes quickly, Faith looked startled for a moment, before her mind caught up with her. "Xander?" she questioned as she got out of the car and looked around, noticing the distinct lack of anything resembling a factory or warehouse. "Where the hell are we?"
"My place," Xander answered as he locked the doors to the car and set the alarm. He started walking up walkway of his apartment building, but stopped when he realised that Faith was still standing beside his car.
"Why did you bring me to your place?" Faith's voice was hard, as was the gaze she levelled on her would-be chauffeur. "What? Hoping you'll get lucky with the slut ex-con? Think again, boytoy!"
Xander could almost feel the outrage and anger pouring off the Slayer. If he'd been a bit smarter, he probably would have just run into the apartment and hoped that Faith didn't follow and kill him. But between everything that happened that night, on top of a hard day at work, Xander was just about on his last nerve. "Look here," he growled as he stalked back towards her, his voice low. "I'm offering you a bed to sleep in, food and a shower. Three things that by the looks of you, you haven't had in awhile." Almost standing nose to nose with the Slayer, Xander just glared right back at her. "You don't want it? Fine! Go back to wherever hole you've been hiding in. I really don't care. As for hoping to get lucky, I gotta news flash for ya! I'm hardly the hard-up virgin you knew three years ago, and your not exactly looking like the seductive street urchin."
"Fuck you!" Faith all but spat in his face, not budging an inch. "I didn't ask for your fucking charity!"
"I'm not offering you charity!" Xander roared back! "I'm offering you help! And I wouldn't even be doing that if I thought I could pass it on to someone else! But there isn't! Angel's AWOL and Giles is in England! There's no one else around to keep an eye on you except me! And if you think spending the night with a girl who tried to kill me the last time I tried to help her is was tops on my list of things to do today, than your more out of you mind then the last time I saw you!"
Now it was Faith who had to stop from cringing back from the anger and frustration that Xander was heaping on her. Part of her wanted to just walk away from the angry young man and his insults. 'Flip him the bird and just get the hell away from his judgmental ass,' part of her mind urged her. But another part of her, the one that brought her back to Sunnydale in the first place, stopped her.
First of all, Xander was the only familiar, if not friendly face that she'd seen since she'd gotten out of prison. He was also one of the people she'd come back to make amends to. His comment about the last time they were alone together struck her like a kick in the gut, making her realise that he hadn't forgotten or forgiven her. Not that she had expected him too, but having it thrown directly in her face stung. And yet here he was, offering her help, even though he all but admitted that he didn't trust her and had no back up if she decided to go bad again. 'If you slap his hand away for the second time, you can't expect another one.'
Xander on the other hand had just about enough for the night, and with snort, he turned his back on the Slayer and walked back up to the entrance of his building. Opening the first set of doors with a hard tug, he fished his keys out of his pocket of the locked security doors. Slipping the key into the lock, he looked into the glass saw the transparent reflection of Faith beside his own. He hadn't heard her follow him, and did his best to stifle his surprise to find her standing right next to him. Without a word he opened the door and held it open for her.
Faith opened her mouth to say something, 'Thanks' or 'I'm sorry', but the Xander studiously looked straight ahead into the lobby and refused to look at her. Swallowing her words, the Slayer dropped her eyes to look at the tiled lobby floor and walked through the door.
Xander followed her, giving Stu, the night security guard and nod as they passed, ignoring the older man's raised eyebrows and smirk. Neither Faith nor Xander looked at each other as they waited for the elevator, or spoke during the ride up to Xander's floor.
Xander stepped out first and walked down the hallway toward his apartment without looking back to see if Faith was following. When he stopped at his door and unlocked the door, Faith stood silently by, eyes still on the ground. Opening the door, Xander stepped in and held the door open from the inside, waiting for the Slayer to come in.
Hesitating for a moment, Faith looked up to see Xander waiting patiently. Their eyes locked for the first time since they met that night. They both saw the same emotions in each others' eyes. Worry, fear, weariness and more then a bit of excitement. Both of them realised that a step was about to be taken, and neither of them had any idea where it would take them.
Giving Xander a small smile, Faith stepped into the apartment.
'Faith?" Xander spoke first. "Is that really you?"
The dark-haired Slayer just stared at him for a moment longer, before shaking herself out of it. "Uh.yeah. Hey."
Blinking and shaking his head, Xander straightened up and lowered the sharpened cross, but didn't put it away, which didn't go unnoticed by Faith. "I.I thought you were still in prison."
The rogue Slayer brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face and shrugged slightly. "Paroled," she stated. Before Xander could think of something else to say, Faith gave him a hard look. "You care to explain why you were making out with a vampire in a dark ally?"
Squaring his shoulders slightly, Xander glared at her. "I wasn't.I was just getting ready to stake her when you showed up."
"Right," Faith gave him another once over, obviously noticing his shirt being untucked and rumpled and the lipstick on Xander's face and neck. "Only staking it looked like you had planned was with your dick."
Letting out a breath and preparing to deny the accusation, Xander gave Faith a slightly sheepish grin. "I admit I got distracted for a second."
"Distracted!" Faith shouted at him, stepping forward and scowling at him. "You were about ten seconds away from being dead!"
Xander had stepped back automatically when the Slayer had yelled at him. "And just how far away am I now from being dead now?" he shot back, his hand tightening around his sharpened crucifix before he could think.
It was like someone had cut Faith's strings. She just stopped and her scowl melted into a neutral, almost guilty expression. "I'm sorry," she said softly, eyes dropping to look at the ground.
Still in fight or flight mode, it took a moment for Faith's reaction to his words to sink in. "What?"
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Faith answered, slightly louder now but still not looking Xander in the eye.
Never having heard Faith apologise for anything, surprised at seeing her at all, and still slightly dazed from smacking his head against the wall, Xander just stared dumbly at the Slayer, finally giving her a good look. The shirt she had on was bigger on her then he had first thought, as did the jeans. Faith seemed to have shrunk more then a bit since the last time he'd seen her. Her hair, tied back loosely in a ponytail, was dull and looked unwashed. Her hands, which were fidgeting with a stake, were dirty and shaking slightly. But it was her face that really shocked Xander. Dark circles under her eyes were proof of long nights and not enough sleep. On her lips there was no trace of the glossy lipstick he remembered she was so fond of, but instead were dry and chapped. Her eyes, which were still focused on the ground, looked tired, apprehensive and more then a little scared. 'She can't be scared of me.'Xander thought to himself, noticing a streak of dirt on the side of Faith's neck. "What.what are you doing in Sunnydale?"
"Long story," Faith answered, finally raising her eyes to look at Xander. "Where is everyone? I mean, where there's one of you guys, there's usually another."
The sounds of laughter echoed down the ally, coming from the direction of the Bronze. Glancing at his watch, Xander was surprised to see it was almost one in the morning. Motioning for Faith to follow him, he started walking further into the ally, toward where his car was parked. "Gone for the summer," he said as, after a moment of hesitation, Faith fell into step beside him. "Buffy and Dawn are in Florida sorting a few things out with their dad. The rest are in England.doing other things."
Faith didn't respond but simply walked silently beside Xander. Reaching his car, a replacement for the one that Willow had trashed, Xander unlocked the passenger side first, before moving around to the drivers' side. "Get in," he told the brunette Slayer, as he unlocked his own door and slid into the car. Watching through the window, Xander watched Faith wrestling with the apparent dilemma that his request had brought up. It actually took her almost a minute to make up her mind, before she slipped the stake she had into one of the huge pockets of her pants, and quietly slipped into the car. Fishing his keys out, Xander buckled his seat belt and stared at his companion until she fumbled to do the same.
The two rode in uncomfortable silence until Faith fidgeted in her seat. "Where are you taking me?"
Giving her a quick look before returning his eyes to the road, Xander cleared his throat. "It's late and you look beat. I figured I'd give you a ride to the motel, before heading home."
"I'm not staying at the motel," Faith said, her voice almost inaudible it was so quiet. She turned away and looked out the window, apparently unwilling to look at Xander.
"Okay," Xander drawled out after a moment, when it was apparent that the girl beside him wasn't going to continue. "Where are you staying?"
"Um, I found a place on Churchill."
"Oh." Churchill was part of the industrial district of Sunnydale. Made up of old factories and abandoned warehouses. Spike and Dru had based their operations out of a factory in the area, before Giles burned it down after Jenny was killed. Spike had used the same burned out factory to hold Willow and him hostage, back during senior year. There were no apartment buildings, hotels, motels or any other normal living areas in that part of town. Vamps usually used the area to set up nests, but the district seemed a ghost town when Xander patrolled it. 'If Faith is staying in that area, then she's pretty much squatting.'
They drove in silence for awhile, neither of them able to come up with anything to say. Finally Xander simply pulled the car over and put it in park, and looked at the Slayer. "Faith, why are you squatting in the vamp central?"
Faith just stared forward through the windshield, her jaw clenching quickly to cut off a 'None of your business!' Taking a breath, the Slayer shrugged. "Seemed like as good a place as any. I ain't got the money to stay anywhere else, and the warehouse is close to prime slaying territory. Win-win stitch, ya know?"
Though the voice held the devil-may-care attitude of the old Faith, her body language was completely different. She didn't look at Xander once when she spoke, in fact making an effort to look at everything but him. She was all but pressed against the door, sitting as far away from Xander as she could. Her hands still trembled, and Xander wasn't sure if it was because she was afraid of something, exhausted or hungry. 'Probably all three,' he guessed silently while he observed her in the dimness inside the car.
With a grunt, Xander restarted the car and began driving again. Keeping his eyes focused on the road, and resisting the urge to cast glances at his passenger, he switched on the radio on in the hopes of filling the uncomfortable silence. With the volume turned low, the swinging piano cords and gentle voice of Sarah Vaughn was both soothing and distracting. So much so, that by the time they'd reached their destination and Xander parked the car, Faith had drifted off to sleep in her seat.
Xander just looked at her sleeping, her head leaning against the window, arms wrapped around herself protectively. Faith's expression while asleep was peaceful. Xander noted how much younger the Slayer seemed when she didn't have her usual mask on. 'Buffy kinda looks the same way when she's asleep,' the male Scooby mused as he quietly opened his car door and exited the car. 'I guess when they're asleep, they don't have to worry about looking strong.'
Circling around the car, Xander slowly opened the passenger side door, and smirked a little when Faith's head just tipped onto her shoulder as she continued to sleep. 'She's even more tired then I am,' he thought as he moved to unbuckled her seatbelt. Leaning across her, he stifled a chuckle as he noticed something else about her. 'She needs a shower more then I do too.'
Having freed her from the confines of the seatbelt, Xander shook her shoulder gently, deciding that she'd probably be a little freaked to wake up with Xander carrying her. "Faith," he said softly as he nudged her shoulder. "Wake up, Faith. We're here."
The Slayer jerked awake so suddenly that Xander stepped back in case she forgot who he was. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes quickly, Faith looked startled for a moment, before her mind caught up with her. "Xander?" she questioned as she got out of the car and looked around, noticing the distinct lack of anything resembling a factory or warehouse. "Where the hell are we?"
"My place," Xander answered as he locked the doors to the car and set the alarm. He started walking up walkway of his apartment building, but stopped when he realised that Faith was still standing beside his car.
"Why did you bring me to your place?" Faith's voice was hard, as was the gaze she levelled on her would-be chauffeur. "What? Hoping you'll get lucky with the slut ex-con? Think again, boytoy!"
Xander could almost feel the outrage and anger pouring off the Slayer. If he'd been a bit smarter, he probably would have just run into the apartment and hoped that Faith didn't follow and kill him. But between everything that happened that night, on top of a hard day at work, Xander was just about on his last nerve. "Look here," he growled as he stalked back towards her, his voice low. "I'm offering you a bed to sleep in, food and a shower. Three things that by the looks of you, you haven't had in awhile." Almost standing nose to nose with the Slayer, Xander just glared right back at her. "You don't want it? Fine! Go back to wherever hole you've been hiding in. I really don't care. As for hoping to get lucky, I gotta news flash for ya! I'm hardly the hard-up virgin you knew three years ago, and your not exactly looking like the seductive street urchin."
"Fuck you!" Faith all but spat in his face, not budging an inch. "I didn't ask for your fucking charity!"
"I'm not offering you charity!" Xander roared back! "I'm offering you help! And I wouldn't even be doing that if I thought I could pass it on to someone else! But there isn't! Angel's AWOL and Giles is in England! There's no one else around to keep an eye on you except me! And if you think spending the night with a girl who tried to kill me the last time I tried to help her is was tops on my list of things to do today, than your more out of you mind then the last time I saw you!"
Now it was Faith who had to stop from cringing back from the anger and frustration that Xander was heaping on her. Part of her wanted to just walk away from the angry young man and his insults. 'Flip him the bird and just get the hell away from his judgmental ass,' part of her mind urged her. But another part of her, the one that brought her back to Sunnydale in the first place, stopped her.
First of all, Xander was the only familiar, if not friendly face that she'd seen since she'd gotten out of prison. He was also one of the people she'd come back to make amends to. His comment about the last time they were alone together struck her like a kick in the gut, making her realise that he hadn't forgotten or forgiven her. Not that she had expected him too, but having it thrown directly in her face stung. And yet here he was, offering her help, even though he all but admitted that he didn't trust her and had no back up if she decided to go bad again. 'If you slap his hand away for the second time, you can't expect another one.'
Xander on the other hand had just about enough for the night, and with snort, he turned his back on the Slayer and walked back up to the entrance of his building. Opening the first set of doors with a hard tug, he fished his keys out of his pocket of the locked security doors. Slipping the key into the lock, he looked into the glass saw the transparent reflection of Faith beside his own. He hadn't heard her follow him, and did his best to stifle his surprise to find her standing right next to him. Without a word he opened the door and held it open for her.
Faith opened her mouth to say something, 'Thanks' or 'I'm sorry', but the Xander studiously looked straight ahead into the lobby and refused to look at her. Swallowing her words, the Slayer dropped her eyes to look at the tiled lobby floor and walked through the door.
Xander followed her, giving Stu, the night security guard and nod as they passed, ignoring the older man's raised eyebrows and smirk. Neither Faith nor Xander looked at each other as they waited for the elevator, or spoke during the ride up to Xander's floor.
Xander stepped out first and walked down the hallway toward his apartment without looking back to see if Faith was following. When he stopped at his door and unlocked the door, Faith stood silently by, eyes still on the ground. Opening the door, Xander stepped in and held the door open from the inside, waiting for the Slayer to come in.
Hesitating for a moment, Faith looked up to see Xander waiting patiently. Their eyes locked for the first time since they met that night. They both saw the same emotions in each others' eyes. Worry, fear, weariness and more then a bit of excitement. Both of them realised that a step was about to be taken, and neither of them had any idea where it would take them.
Giving Xander a small smile, Faith stepped into the apartment.