SECOND CHANCES
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for those that I create.
CHAPTER 8-Choices, Surprises, and Unexpected Firsts
It was still hours before the party was to start but Fred had been at it even before the sun had slipped above the horizon, saying that there was so much to do that she feared that they'd run out of time. Because of that she'd dragged everyone out of bed with her, Angel joined in voluntarily mostly because he didn't have anything better to do but Lorne had to be bribed out of his slumber by promises that after the party he wouldn't have to help clean up. For the first few hours Gunn had fallen asleep numerous times with the latest time being on the circular couch in the middle of the lobby. Fred was about to rouse him when Angel laid a hand on her arm and offered the advice that it'd probably be best to let him sleep.
"Fine.but we're going to need his help later.now where are the streamers that I bought," Fred said with a sigh as she held the clipboard close and fearfully looked around the lobby. Angel and a reluctant Lorne were busy moving tables and at first neither said anything but then Lorne shook his head and smiled before he spoke up.
"I think they're down in the basement.," Lorne said as he dusted his hands off with a less than pleased look on his face as he noticed how dirty his hands were. Fred thanked him and then started to walk towards the stairs but was stopped short by Angel, who rushed by her with his hand up, as if he was a little kid and was volunteering for the job.
"Fine Angel.you can get the streamers.," Fred said with a small sigh and a smile before she turned back to stop Lorne from sneaking away while her back was turned.
While Fred and Lorne argued upstairs Angel took the small amount of time allotted him to do two things, find the streamers, something that only took a few seconds and then two to come up with some idea as to what he'd say to the Scooby's, and Buffy. Most of the Scooby's were easy enough to talk to and he wasn't worried about them, but with Buffy his emotions ran the gambit from love to shame to anger to even a little bit of Angelus wanting to drink her dry and prove to Spike that he could kill a slayer to. Although admitting that last part to himself had taken some time to realize as even though he was no longer Angelus he never liked to be second best at anything, especially not to Spike. He picked up the streamers and was about to head back upstairs when the though hit him of how exactly he was going to explain about Conner, and his feelings for Cordelia. He didn't have long to think however as because of his enhanced hearing he heard a voice from upstairs that would have made his heart skip a beat, if it could. He rushed back up the stairs to find Buffy flanked by Xander, Anya, Willow, and Dawn standing just inside the front doors. But what next caught his attention, as most of the visitors from Sunnydale walked into the lobby, was the fact that Buffy hadn't moved from her spot at the top of the stairs.
"Buffy," Angel said desperately trying to sound as if he was only greeting an old friend, but the look in her eye caused a blip on his danger meter. Buffy started to respond but all she could do was open her mouth and utter a few odd sounds before she bowed her head a bit and turned her head before stepping to the side to reveal a very haggard looking Spike. "Spike.Buffy.what.," Angel said trying to form words that could somehow explain the level of his confusion at the site of his grandchild coupled with the fact that he could smell faint traces of Buffy and Spike's scents intertwined, which only served to further fuel his confusion.
"Peaches.," Spike mumbled from still outside as Buffy looked pleadingly at Angel as if asking him to invite Spike in even if he wasn't happy about it. Finally Angel relented and, against his better judgment and the worried look that Fred was giving him, he invited Spike in.
"Buffy.we need to talk," Angel said slowly and calmly as he set the streamers down on the nearest table and then turned and headed into the office, with a reluctant Buffy following close behind; leaving the Scooby's to introduce themselves to an astonished Fred.
* * * * * * * * *
It hadn't taken her long to find an appropriate store to start buying some new clothes. The whole ride over had been spent mostly in silence as she was more than a little surprised to catch Wesley eyeing her out of the corner of his eye. He never looked directly at her until she had come out of the dressing room with an armful of clothes and handed them over to him to carry. He had been about to protest when she had flashed him a smile that he had never seen her wear before, sure he had seen her smile before, but all of those times it was as if she were hiding something behind her smile, but this time the smile was a true one. In turn he had quickly ducked out of that particular store as she was paying for the clothes, forcing her to carry the bags out, something that she wasn't to happy about but mostly kept it to herself and only lightly glared at him as she put the bags in the back and then hopped into her seat and ordered him to drive to the next store.
As he pulled out of the parking lot she crawled into the back seat and started grabbing some of the clothes she had just bought and ripped the tags off of them, causing him to eye her in the rearview mirror with a confused look on his face. He was about to say something when she interrupted him.
"Just watch the road Wes, wouldn't want you to be ogling me and then crash into somebody," she said with a playful smirk as she then pointed back towards the road and pulled her arm out of her sleeve.
"I wasn't ogling you Faith.I was just.just.," Wesley said with a flustered look on his face as he searched for the right words that wouldn't betray his true feelings at that moment, all the while looking back and forth between Faith in the back seat and the road.
"Eyes.road.," she said now with a small hint of anger in her voice as she pointed towards the road and finally slipped the shirt off as she hunkered down in the seat, thankful for the tinted windows. Wesley snapped his attention back to the road and held it there, summoning up all of his strength to keep from looking in the rearview mirror. He was pulling into the next parking lot before she jumped back into the seat next to him, wearing a comfortable looking pair of blue jeans topped off with a rugged looking belt and a long sleeved button up jean shirt with the top few buttons undone and a tight white top underneath that left little to the imagination. All this was followed by a pair of snakeskin boots that she pulled on while she glared politely at him.
"That's a new look.," Wesley forced out through numb lips as he parked the SUV and then shut the engine off.
"Can't dress like a whore all my life," she shot back with at first a very serious look on her face but then it softened to a smile as she noticed the look of concern and worry on his face.
"I didn't mean.I just meant that you look.this look suits you," he exclaimed nervously as he quickly did a mental check to see if he was sweating before he then took the keys out of the engine and slammed them into his pocket. She snorted softly with a smile on her face and then replied.
"I know what you meant.it's just that I more.grown up now and there are more important things than who I'm going to sleep with next and where my next kill is going to come from.you know.," Faith said as she ran a nervous hands through her now middle of the back length hair and pulled it back into a ponytail as meanwhile her mind went into warp speed trying to come up with a reason why she found it so easy to tell the truth when being around him. She finally decided that if must have something to do with since she hurt him the most she had the most to prove with him, but in the back of her mind her human part had come up with another reason that she struggled to keep back there even though she liked that reason.
"I do, when I arrived in Sunnydale I thought that I was a grown up, and adult.a man," Wesley uttered without looking over at Faith, instead keeping his eyes locked onto the center column of the steering wheel. "But since then I've found out just how much of a spoiled and pampered child I was and truly how much growing up I had to do.just never thought that I'd be doing it all alone," he said in a slow and methodical way that left little doubt in Faith's mind that he was speaking directly from the heart and meant every word. To both of their surprise Faith slowly and cautiously lifted a hand up and put in on his shoulder in a show of solidarity.
"Looks like we're both in the same boat then, finally doing some growing up that everyone else did way before us.but there's one thing that you're wrong about," she said as she stifled a small sigh and leaned back in her seat with her eyes now locked with his.
"Oh and pray tell what's that," Wesley said back with a wondering look on his face as he dropped an elbow to rest on the center console, all the while pondering her words.
"That we're only alone if we truly want to be.by keeping everyone out.sheltering our feelings.our joys.our sorrows.our triumphs.our tragedies.our hatred.," Faith said with a look on her face and posture that made her look at first like she were a small child. As she neared the end of her small speech she seemed to be hesitant to utter the last word but was surprised that when she finally drummed up enough courage to say it she wasn't the only one who said it. "Our love.," they both said simultaneously as with their eyes still locked and unbeknownst to them they slowly began to inch closer to each other until their noses almost touched and they could feel each other's breath on their faces.
Faith could hear Wesley's heart beating rapidly and bet and hoped that it was racing for the same reason that hers was. She had never been this nervous around anyone let alone her former watcher, a man that she had at one time thought would be the last person on Earth that she'd be having these certain types of thoughts about. But ever since she had first seen him that night at the bar he had been almost the only thing that she could think about. She was about to pull away when she felt his hand brush across her cheek, sending a pleasurable chill through her body. She began to tremble as his hand slowly and cautiously, as if it were asking for permission, moved around to the back of her head.
To her surprise Faith discovered that her free hand was now softly gliding across his rough cheek. A smile slowly began to curl up the sides of her lips as her hand then pushed itself around to the back of his head, her fingers as entwined in his thick hair as his fingers were in hers. What happened next came as a welcome shock to the both of them as they nervously pulled each other even closer, with their lips begging furiously until they met, his rough against hers which were trembling slightly, finally igniting the fire that they had at first ignored.
* * * * * * * * *
"What's going on with you and Spike," Angel said with a definitively angry tone to his voice as he shut the door behind Buffy, who nervously took a seat in front of the desk and averted her eyes before she replied.
"After I died.and then came back.I.couldn't feel.anything.so he.and I.we.," Buffy stammered out before she bit her bottom lip to keep herself together as she could only guess at the look on Angel's face.
"You what.had sex.," Angel growled angrily as he forced himself to sit down in the chair behind the desk, one that had he been calmer he would have noticed the familiar scent there. But now all of his concentration was centered on Buffy and what exactly she was saying. To his shock and slight horror all Buffy could do, after nervously glancing around the room for a few seconds, was to reluctantly nod her head and stare at a pen that was lying on the desk. As she did it Angel had to hang on for dear life to every shred of his humanity that he had as he could feel Angelus laughing at him and telling him that he knew that something like this was bound to have happened. "Were you.are you crazy.he's a vampire.," he said firmly as he dug his fingernails into the armrests of the chair.
"So are you.that didn't stop us.," Buffy stammered out without picking her gaze up off of the pen.
"But it was different with us.I had a soul," Angel shot back with a determined and angry look on his face as he sat up in the chair.
"But you weren't there and he was.he helped me to feel again.but.but then it just all went horribly wrong.with both of us doing things that we'll regret for the rest of our lives," Buffy stated sadly as she fought back the tears that threatened to gush from her eyes.
"Like what.tell me Buffy.I need.I have to know.," Angel said almost in a yell before he softened his temper and ran a nervous and scared hand through his hair.
"I broke it off when I realized.that I was just using him and it wasn't fair to him.but he didn't take it to well.and one night he.he.confronted me in the bathroom.and tried to.rape me.but I fought him off and he fled," Buffy said almost in a daze as she looked up and locked gazes with Angel, all the while she kept her body tense as she was unsure of what his reaction would be, outside of rage. "Bastard.I'm going to.," Angel shouted with an extremely angry look on his face as he slipped into his game face for a brief second as he jumped to his feet and bolted for the door, intent on ripping Spike's still heart from his chest. But Buffy had foreseen this action and beat him to the door, refusing to budge. Angel was about to voice his anger and frustration when Buffy cleared her throat and laid down the law as only she could.
"You're not going to do anything to him except help him," Buffy stated firmly and slowly so as to make sure that Angel heard and understood every word.
"What.why should I.," Angel said almost in a yell as he tried to force his way past Buffy, who after some effort managed to shove him back into the room and set herself up so that she'd be ready if he tried to get past her again.
"Because you're the only one that truly knows what he's going through.now that he has a soul.," Buffy exclaimed as she fought back a tear and almost whispered the last part as the expression on Angel's face went from one of anger to one of complete astonishment and confusion. His mouth opened as he tried to form the words to ask both why and how but no sound came out and all he could do is stumble back to his seat behind the desk and slide into it. "Before you have an aneurysm after what happened in the bathroom Spike left and went to Africa.and he got his soul.for me," Buffy said strongly at first but as she neared the end she felt a lone solitary tear slide down her cheek.
* * * * * * * * * *
The length of the kiss was as unexpected as the kiss itself, only ending when they separated to take a breath and noticed people staring at them. Reluctantly, and a little sheepishly they slipped out of the vehicle and entered the mall before Faith started to walk quickly away from Wesley, forcing him to speed up his gait just to keep up and not be left behind.
"Where are you going in such a bloody hurry," he said with a cross between and angry and confused look on his face as he caught up and matched her speed.
"Just getting a few.special...items.and I have to get them by myself," she shot back with an unbecoming worried and nervous look on her face as she quickly looked away. For a few seconds he debated whether or not to force her to allow him to accompany her but then he took a leap of faith and made up his mind.
"Fine.but don't get any ideas about taking off.we still need to come up with a plan to counteract Wolfram and Heart's because even though we're not working together anymore I'll be damned if I let anything happen to them or the hotel," he said forcefully as he looked over at Faith, who unexpectedly turned back to face him with a merry smile plastered on her face.
"Don't worry Wes.I'll come back.besides," she said with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders before she continued. "With what those damn lawyers have planned you won't be able to save the Hyperion without me," Faith said with a serious look on her face as she patted him on the shoulder.
"That's good to hear.at least now I won't have to do it alone," Wesley said after a small cough as he began to notice a few people staring at the scar on his neck.
"Don't worry Wes.now that I'm back you'll never be alone again.I promise," Faith said softly with a tone to her voice that made him think that her words had far more meaning to them than the two of them being just the slayer and her watcher. His thoughts were further enforced when he noticed the sincere look in her eyes before she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and disappeared around a corner.
"This is going to be one interesting night," he said under his breath before he looked up to see if anyone had heard. Luckily no one seemed to have heard as he spun on his heel and started the trek of picking up a few items that he'd need later that night.
END OF CHAPTER 8 P.S.-Still open to costume ideas, I already have picked out what Faith and Wesley will be wearing, but all the others are still open to suggestion. Thanks.....
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for those that I create.
CHAPTER 8-Choices, Surprises, and Unexpected Firsts
It was still hours before the party was to start but Fred had been at it even before the sun had slipped above the horizon, saying that there was so much to do that she feared that they'd run out of time. Because of that she'd dragged everyone out of bed with her, Angel joined in voluntarily mostly because he didn't have anything better to do but Lorne had to be bribed out of his slumber by promises that after the party he wouldn't have to help clean up. For the first few hours Gunn had fallen asleep numerous times with the latest time being on the circular couch in the middle of the lobby. Fred was about to rouse him when Angel laid a hand on her arm and offered the advice that it'd probably be best to let him sleep.
"Fine.but we're going to need his help later.now where are the streamers that I bought," Fred said with a sigh as she held the clipboard close and fearfully looked around the lobby. Angel and a reluctant Lorne were busy moving tables and at first neither said anything but then Lorne shook his head and smiled before he spoke up.
"I think they're down in the basement.," Lorne said as he dusted his hands off with a less than pleased look on his face as he noticed how dirty his hands were. Fred thanked him and then started to walk towards the stairs but was stopped short by Angel, who rushed by her with his hand up, as if he was a little kid and was volunteering for the job.
"Fine Angel.you can get the streamers.," Fred said with a small sigh and a smile before she turned back to stop Lorne from sneaking away while her back was turned.
While Fred and Lorne argued upstairs Angel took the small amount of time allotted him to do two things, find the streamers, something that only took a few seconds and then two to come up with some idea as to what he'd say to the Scooby's, and Buffy. Most of the Scooby's were easy enough to talk to and he wasn't worried about them, but with Buffy his emotions ran the gambit from love to shame to anger to even a little bit of Angelus wanting to drink her dry and prove to Spike that he could kill a slayer to. Although admitting that last part to himself had taken some time to realize as even though he was no longer Angelus he never liked to be second best at anything, especially not to Spike. He picked up the streamers and was about to head back upstairs when the though hit him of how exactly he was going to explain about Conner, and his feelings for Cordelia. He didn't have long to think however as because of his enhanced hearing he heard a voice from upstairs that would have made his heart skip a beat, if it could. He rushed back up the stairs to find Buffy flanked by Xander, Anya, Willow, and Dawn standing just inside the front doors. But what next caught his attention, as most of the visitors from Sunnydale walked into the lobby, was the fact that Buffy hadn't moved from her spot at the top of the stairs.
"Buffy," Angel said desperately trying to sound as if he was only greeting an old friend, but the look in her eye caused a blip on his danger meter. Buffy started to respond but all she could do was open her mouth and utter a few odd sounds before she bowed her head a bit and turned her head before stepping to the side to reveal a very haggard looking Spike. "Spike.Buffy.what.," Angel said trying to form words that could somehow explain the level of his confusion at the site of his grandchild coupled with the fact that he could smell faint traces of Buffy and Spike's scents intertwined, which only served to further fuel his confusion.
"Peaches.," Spike mumbled from still outside as Buffy looked pleadingly at Angel as if asking him to invite Spike in even if he wasn't happy about it. Finally Angel relented and, against his better judgment and the worried look that Fred was giving him, he invited Spike in.
"Buffy.we need to talk," Angel said slowly and calmly as he set the streamers down on the nearest table and then turned and headed into the office, with a reluctant Buffy following close behind; leaving the Scooby's to introduce themselves to an astonished Fred.
* * * * * * * * *
It hadn't taken her long to find an appropriate store to start buying some new clothes. The whole ride over had been spent mostly in silence as she was more than a little surprised to catch Wesley eyeing her out of the corner of his eye. He never looked directly at her until she had come out of the dressing room with an armful of clothes and handed them over to him to carry. He had been about to protest when she had flashed him a smile that he had never seen her wear before, sure he had seen her smile before, but all of those times it was as if she were hiding something behind her smile, but this time the smile was a true one. In turn he had quickly ducked out of that particular store as she was paying for the clothes, forcing her to carry the bags out, something that she wasn't to happy about but mostly kept it to herself and only lightly glared at him as she put the bags in the back and then hopped into her seat and ordered him to drive to the next store.
As he pulled out of the parking lot she crawled into the back seat and started grabbing some of the clothes she had just bought and ripped the tags off of them, causing him to eye her in the rearview mirror with a confused look on his face. He was about to say something when she interrupted him.
"Just watch the road Wes, wouldn't want you to be ogling me and then crash into somebody," she said with a playful smirk as she then pointed back towards the road and pulled her arm out of her sleeve.
"I wasn't ogling you Faith.I was just.just.," Wesley said with a flustered look on his face as he searched for the right words that wouldn't betray his true feelings at that moment, all the while looking back and forth between Faith in the back seat and the road.
"Eyes.road.," she said now with a small hint of anger in her voice as she pointed towards the road and finally slipped the shirt off as she hunkered down in the seat, thankful for the tinted windows. Wesley snapped his attention back to the road and held it there, summoning up all of his strength to keep from looking in the rearview mirror. He was pulling into the next parking lot before she jumped back into the seat next to him, wearing a comfortable looking pair of blue jeans topped off with a rugged looking belt and a long sleeved button up jean shirt with the top few buttons undone and a tight white top underneath that left little to the imagination. All this was followed by a pair of snakeskin boots that she pulled on while she glared politely at him.
"That's a new look.," Wesley forced out through numb lips as he parked the SUV and then shut the engine off.
"Can't dress like a whore all my life," she shot back with at first a very serious look on her face but then it softened to a smile as she noticed the look of concern and worry on his face.
"I didn't mean.I just meant that you look.this look suits you," he exclaimed nervously as he quickly did a mental check to see if he was sweating before he then took the keys out of the engine and slammed them into his pocket. She snorted softly with a smile on her face and then replied.
"I know what you meant.it's just that I more.grown up now and there are more important things than who I'm going to sleep with next and where my next kill is going to come from.you know.," Faith said as she ran a nervous hands through her now middle of the back length hair and pulled it back into a ponytail as meanwhile her mind went into warp speed trying to come up with a reason why she found it so easy to tell the truth when being around him. She finally decided that if must have something to do with since she hurt him the most she had the most to prove with him, but in the back of her mind her human part had come up with another reason that she struggled to keep back there even though she liked that reason.
"I do, when I arrived in Sunnydale I thought that I was a grown up, and adult.a man," Wesley uttered without looking over at Faith, instead keeping his eyes locked onto the center column of the steering wheel. "But since then I've found out just how much of a spoiled and pampered child I was and truly how much growing up I had to do.just never thought that I'd be doing it all alone," he said in a slow and methodical way that left little doubt in Faith's mind that he was speaking directly from the heart and meant every word. To both of their surprise Faith slowly and cautiously lifted a hand up and put in on his shoulder in a show of solidarity.
"Looks like we're both in the same boat then, finally doing some growing up that everyone else did way before us.but there's one thing that you're wrong about," she said as she stifled a small sigh and leaned back in her seat with her eyes now locked with his.
"Oh and pray tell what's that," Wesley said back with a wondering look on his face as he dropped an elbow to rest on the center console, all the while pondering her words.
"That we're only alone if we truly want to be.by keeping everyone out.sheltering our feelings.our joys.our sorrows.our triumphs.our tragedies.our hatred.," Faith said with a look on her face and posture that made her look at first like she were a small child. As she neared the end of her small speech she seemed to be hesitant to utter the last word but was surprised that when she finally drummed up enough courage to say it she wasn't the only one who said it. "Our love.," they both said simultaneously as with their eyes still locked and unbeknownst to them they slowly began to inch closer to each other until their noses almost touched and they could feel each other's breath on their faces.
Faith could hear Wesley's heart beating rapidly and bet and hoped that it was racing for the same reason that hers was. She had never been this nervous around anyone let alone her former watcher, a man that she had at one time thought would be the last person on Earth that she'd be having these certain types of thoughts about. But ever since she had first seen him that night at the bar he had been almost the only thing that she could think about. She was about to pull away when she felt his hand brush across her cheek, sending a pleasurable chill through her body. She began to tremble as his hand slowly and cautiously, as if it were asking for permission, moved around to the back of her head.
To her surprise Faith discovered that her free hand was now softly gliding across his rough cheek. A smile slowly began to curl up the sides of her lips as her hand then pushed itself around to the back of his head, her fingers as entwined in his thick hair as his fingers were in hers. What happened next came as a welcome shock to the both of them as they nervously pulled each other even closer, with their lips begging furiously until they met, his rough against hers which were trembling slightly, finally igniting the fire that they had at first ignored.
* * * * * * * * *
"What's going on with you and Spike," Angel said with a definitively angry tone to his voice as he shut the door behind Buffy, who nervously took a seat in front of the desk and averted her eyes before she replied.
"After I died.and then came back.I.couldn't feel.anything.so he.and I.we.," Buffy stammered out before she bit her bottom lip to keep herself together as she could only guess at the look on Angel's face.
"You what.had sex.," Angel growled angrily as he forced himself to sit down in the chair behind the desk, one that had he been calmer he would have noticed the familiar scent there. But now all of his concentration was centered on Buffy and what exactly she was saying. To his shock and slight horror all Buffy could do, after nervously glancing around the room for a few seconds, was to reluctantly nod her head and stare at a pen that was lying on the desk. As she did it Angel had to hang on for dear life to every shred of his humanity that he had as he could feel Angelus laughing at him and telling him that he knew that something like this was bound to have happened. "Were you.are you crazy.he's a vampire.," he said firmly as he dug his fingernails into the armrests of the chair.
"So are you.that didn't stop us.," Buffy stammered out without picking her gaze up off of the pen.
"But it was different with us.I had a soul," Angel shot back with a determined and angry look on his face as he sat up in the chair.
"But you weren't there and he was.he helped me to feel again.but.but then it just all went horribly wrong.with both of us doing things that we'll regret for the rest of our lives," Buffy stated sadly as she fought back the tears that threatened to gush from her eyes.
"Like what.tell me Buffy.I need.I have to know.," Angel said almost in a yell before he softened his temper and ran a nervous and scared hand through his hair.
"I broke it off when I realized.that I was just using him and it wasn't fair to him.but he didn't take it to well.and one night he.he.confronted me in the bathroom.and tried to.rape me.but I fought him off and he fled," Buffy said almost in a daze as she looked up and locked gazes with Angel, all the while she kept her body tense as she was unsure of what his reaction would be, outside of rage. "Bastard.I'm going to.," Angel shouted with an extremely angry look on his face as he slipped into his game face for a brief second as he jumped to his feet and bolted for the door, intent on ripping Spike's still heart from his chest. But Buffy had foreseen this action and beat him to the door, refusing to budge. Angel was about to voice his anger and frustration when Buffy cleared her throat and laid down the law as only she could.
"You're not going to do anything to him except help him," Buffy stated firmly and slowly so as to make sure that Angel heard and understood every word.
"What.why should I.," Angel said almost in a yell as he tried to force his way past Buffy, who after some effort managed to shove him back into the room and set herself up so that she'd be ready if he tried to get past her again.
"Because you're the only one that truly knows what he's going through.now that he has a soul.," Buffy exclaimed as she fought back a tear and almost whispered the last part as the expression on Angel's face went from one of anger to one of complete astonishment and confusion. His mouth opened as he tried to form the words to ask both why and how but no sound came out and all he could do is stumble back to his seat behind the desk and slide into it. "Before you have an aneurysm after what happened in the bathroom Spike left and went to Africa.and he got his soul.for me," Buffy said strongly at first but as she neared the end she felt a lone solitary tear slide down her cheek.
* * * * * * * * * *
The length of the kiss was as unexpected as the kiss itself, only ending when they separated to take a breath and noticed people staring at them. Reluctantly, and a little sheepishly they slipped out of the vehicle and entered the mall before Faith started to walk quickly away from Wesley, forcing him to speed up his gait just to keep up and not be left behind.
"Where are you going in such a bloody hurry," he said with a cross between and angry and confused look on his face as he caught up and matched her speed.
"Just getting a few.special...items.and I have to get them by myself," she shot back with an unbecoming worried and nervous look on her face as she quickly looked away. For a few seconds he debated whether or not to force her to allow him to accompany her but then he took a leap of faith and made up his mind.
"Fine.but don't get any ideas about taking off.we still need to come up with a plan to counteract Wolfram and Heart's because even though we're not working together anymore I'll be damned if I let anything happen to them or the hotel," he said forcefully as he looked over at Faith, who unexpectedly turned back to face him with a merry smile plastered on her face.
"Don't worry Wes.I'll come back.besides," she said with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders before she continued. "With what those damn lawyers have planned you won't be able to save the Hyperion without me," Faith said with a serious look on her face as she patted him on the shoulder.
"That's good to hear.at least now I won't have to do it alone," Wesley said after a small cough as he began to notice a few people staring at the scar on his neck.
"Don't worry Wes.now that I'm back you'll never be alone again.I promise," Faith said softly with a tone to her voice that made him think that her words had far more meaning to them than the two of them being just the slayer and her watcher. His thoughts were further enforced when he noticed the sincere look in her eyes before she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and disappeared around a corner.
"This is going to be one interesting night," he said under his breath before he looked up to see if anyone had heard. Luckily no one seemed to have heard as he spun on his heel and started the trek of picking up a few items that he'd need later that night.
END OF CHAPTER 8 P.S.-Still open to costume ideas, I already have picked out what Faith and Wesley will be wearing, but all the others are still open to suggestion. Thanks.....
