Chapter 1

The sun shone in brightly through the window and blinds, which the figure the light fell on had forgotten to close the night before. With an annoyed grunt she rolled over and pressed the pillow firmly down over her face, almost to the point of smothering. The attempt to block the blinding sunlight out would have actually worked, however there came a new intrusion to the girl's sleep in the form of angry pounding on the door. She could hear muffled curses making their way through the cheap wood and rough, flat pillow, and she figured the entire neighbourhood could hear the offensive yells. Throwing the pillow away, and jumping out of bed as quickly as a person can at- Darien glanced at the clock- 10:30am?! Good Lord, what the hell is wrong with this town? It's the fecking weekend! Honestly, she knew weird thing happened in Sunnydale, but this was the fifth time she'd been woken by someone in the past hour. Although, this was the first time it had been intentional. This was one of those times she really wished everyone had the teenaged ability to sleep well into the afternoon like normal people.

Darien straightened her makeshift pyjamas (a tank top and sweats) and clumsily slid the chain of the door and reached to undo the bolt, but found it was already unlocked. A quick look told her that the lock on the doorknob was also open. Before he brain could make the connection and react the door flew open, knocking her to the floor. She fixed a furious glare at the unwelcome visitor while pushing herself of the grungy carpet. "Hey what hell is your problem?" Her words came out icy, but once she was at her full height and realized that it didn't measure up to the young woman standing in the doorway, she regretted her outburst.

The other girl, whose dark hair was pulled back into a lazy pony tail marched into the room, past Darien, and slammed the door shut. "Okay, what are doing in my room?" She placed her hands on her hips and fixed Darien with a withering look.

Darien swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. Oh, crap. She avoided the dark eyes while taking a couple of steps back. "I… don't know what you're talking about," she said, though she knew that the other girl could see right through her.

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes, pushed roughly past Darien, grabbing a couple articles of clothing that were sitting in a pile on the dresser. "I think you do, kid. See his," she hefted the bag, "it's mine. So is this, this and this, "she went around collecting various objects and waving them in Darien's face. "Hmm… let's see, what else? Oh yea," she gestured wildly around the room and stared hard at the shorter girl, "and the room. Or maybe you didn't notice that it's full of someone else's stuff. I don't what you're doing in here, or how you get in, but you better get yourself out. Fast."

By the time she had finished her rant Darien's eyes were wide with fear, although she wore a resolved expression. She grabbed a key ring off the nearby dresser and held it up to show the other. "According to these, this room is mine."

"Well the fact that it's filled with my things and decorated much better than a motel room should be should have clued you in that it's taken. Where'd you get those keys anyway?"

"Uh…" Darien paused. Okay, so she was in a tight spot. Lacking the money to actually rent the room, she'd stolen the keys for the one she's stayed the night in. True, it had been full of someone else's possessions, but since the keys had been available, she figured the room was just abandoned, and hadn't been cleaned out yet. Hey, it was a bonus for her. She needed everything she could get. She searched her brain for a reply of any kind, but the silence had lasted to long for her to create any believable story. So she just stared at the ground defiantly and played with the little key ring in her hands.

The elapsed silence explained everything to the dark haired girl, and she shrugged, though the other girl wasn't looking. Strangely, she felt her anger drain away. "Hey, no problem. I understand. Hell, I'm almost proud of you, kid. Though I really wish you hadn't used all my clean towels"

Darien glanced guiltily at the soggy towels that lay beside the bed, near bathroom. "Sorry about that. And I'm seventeen, y'know." She paused, not really sure what to say, so she held her had out . "My name's Darien Ros- uh, Darien." She decided last minute against giving out her full name, just in case.

The other girl shook her hand firmly and offered a quick smile. "Faith."

The two girls stood in awkward silence for a few moments before Darien went to collect her backpack. "Well, I guess I outta be going then. Here, you should take this set of keys too."

Faith nodded, "Yea, I guess…" she trailed off, watching the younger girl grab her coat and shoulder the pack, before pulling the door open. It was obvious that she didn't have much, considering she had stolen keys to a room in the cheapest motel in Sunnydale. Not mention all she carried was the backpack on her shoulder. For some reason, against her character, she felt sorry for the kid and wanted to help her out a bit. Must be from hanging out with Buffy for so long, she decided. "Uh, look, if you need a place to stay tonight or somethin', you could stay here. I'm guessing you're pretty low on cash and all…"

Darien paused in the middle of pulling the other strap to her pack into her shoulder and looked up at Faith. She considered the offer; it would be nice to have a place to stay that night. She really didn't have anywhere else to go so far, and would need a somewhere if she lost her nerve and didn't actually go to her family. Or they turn me away at the doorstep. Something inside of her truly believed that that was going to happen, even against all logic. They were family after all, it didn't matter what had happened.

She smiled at Faith and said, "Y'know I think I'll take you up on that." She figured even if she did track them down, and they did want her back, she'd come and stay with this Faith. It seemed like the other girl needed the company. Besides she looked quite strong, and it wouldn't hurt to have someone who'd be able to give her some protection on her side.

Smiling back, Faith gestured to the floor, "You'll have to sleep there though. I'll get some extra blankets and pillows later on." She paused, studying Darien for a moment. She looked oddly familiar, with her bright red hair, that was cut and layered at her shoulders, and the cheerfully innocent personality she radiated. The latter was almost sickening to her actually. That sort of damned naivety is what gets people killed. But on the other hand there was something in the kid's bright green eyes that Faith couldn't read and that, mixed with the fierce determination, might have been what compelled her to extend another offer. "Hey, I don't know if you have anywhere to be today, but maybe we could go get some breakfast, and I'll give you a tour of the town before I have to go to work."

"Sure!" Faith had to grin at the sudden enthusiasm in the redhead. "Just let me get changed and freshen up a bit," Darien said and headed into the bathroom at Faith's nod. Faith took the opportunity to flop down onto the bed and relax for a few minutes. It had been a late night out on patrol, and rather than make the trek across town Buffy had offered the floor of her and Willow's dorm for the rest of night. Being a Friday night the three had vouched for movies, popcorn, and a few entertaining magic tricks donated by Willow. After hours of corny horror movies, cheesy Kung-Fu flicks (which Faith and Buffy had picked to pieces), and many burns on the carpet they'd caught a small amount of sleep before the Slayers had to be at the Magic Shop for training. They had been lucky that it was more reading and learning than putting anything into practice; at least that way they could snooze while Giles was away helping a customer. When that was all said and done Buffy had headed back to the dorms (probably to go back to bed) and Faith and made her way home. It'd been a fun night. It was a treat for them to just kick back and hang out like that. Between the three there was too much Slaying, training, schoolwork, and jobs to really have time to have a good time. Well, for Faith there was less schoolwork and more work work. Unable to afford University just yet, she was working her butt off to be able to pay for tuition next year so she'd only be a year behind the rest of the gang. It was tough, but she was definitely a lot happier than she'd been a year ago. Even in her dingy little motel room, which she had actually grown quite fond of, life was good.

Maybe that was why she was drawn to helping the girl she'd found in her home. She reminded Faith a lot of when she had first arrived in Sunnydale. Well, she thought, minus the skanky evil Slayer attitude, of course. But the kid was alone and seemed pretty lost as far as she could tell, and Faith remembered hating that feeling, so why not try to alleviate it from someone else? Besides, maybe she could train up a new slaying assistant. The more the merrier, right?