Notes: I love *ShadyKat*, my beta. Wow, does she crack that whip. *cowers* I'd recommend her to anyone who needs a beta, except for if she worked for someone else I'd have less of her time to monopolise, so if anyone asks Kat (aka BBß) to beta for them, I will have to hit them with Rach's famous Spikey Stick. Yes.
Part 2
Springwood, Ohio
Faith yawned loudly and stretched, accidentally digging Buffy in the ribs.
Buffy glared. "You're taking up most of the back seat and still you're able to poke me."
"Well, you look as if you could do with a good poking." Faith replied with an evil grin.
Buffy's glare intensified. "Well, it's not my fault you're double dosing on the Slayer Pokage allowance."
Faith snorted loudly. "Well, you could always join in next time I find a hottie."
"Oooh! Pencil me in." Buffy deadpanned.
"I think I'm having a bad influence on you." Faith commented.
"Ladies!" Wes coughed nervously from the driver's seat.
Buffy and Faith exchanged a look. Wes had freaked out ever single time Buffy responded Faith's innuendoes.
"Right, we're here." Wes announced, pulling up in front of a motel, that was in Faith's opinion, possibly the most disgusting building in the entire United States.
"Yuck, this place looks worse than my motel back home." Faith commented.
"Yeah, you can tell that the Council are paying for this." Buffy agreed.
"The Council has limited monetary means." Wes said stiffly.
"And yet those retreats they have seem to kick ass." Faith pointed out.
"Yeah, but only if you're English and boring." Buffy grinned.
Wesley glared. "I enjoyed those retreats, thank you very much."
"Case closed." Faith winked and Buffy grinned even wider. Wesley hopped out of the car and slammed the door in reply.
"Something I said?" Faith wondered.
"He's so sensitive." Buffy climbed out of the car and stretched.
"Urgh, I hate travelling." Faith fished out a packet of cigarettes and quickly lit up. "Too many 'No Smoking' signs."
"Those things will kill you."
"Yeah, heard the same about demons and yet we still go looking for them."
"I can't argue with that." Buffy said, leaning on the car. "In fact, good logic, give me one."
"Give you one?" Faith responded with a smutty smile, moving closer to her. "One, what?"
Buffy rolled her eyes at the blatant innuendo. Surprisingly, she was finding it amusing to be around Faith, not irritating. Not only that, it was more fun responding. She smiled back at the younger girl and slid her hand across her stomach and into Faith's pocket.
"Cigarette, Faith. What did you think I meant?" She purred in sugary tones.
"Cigarette, naturally." Faith grinned, and moved even closer. "But while your hand is down there…"
"Buffy, Faith?" Wes walked towards the car with a nervous look on his face.
The Slayers jumped apart, both somewhere between relieved and highly irritable.
"We have a slight problem." He continued, then noticing the cigarette in Faith's hand he glared. "You are not supposed to smoke."
"Yeah, that'll work, now say pretty please." Faith sneered, taking a pointed drag on her cigarette.
"So, what's the problem?" Buffy interrupted. "Aside from Faith's disgusting little addiction." She realised she was still holding Faith's cigarettes and quickly jammed them in her pocket.
"Well, the manager is very reluctant to rent rooms to two teenagers. In fact, this is the only place in Springwood that would even consider it."
"Balls, the Council is just tighter than a dophin's butt." Faith commented in a low tone to Buffy.
"And…?" Buffy prodded, trying to fight the smile from Faith's quirky analogy.
"He's only willing to rent out one room to the both of you… and it's not a very nice room." Wes replied.
"What's his problem? Does he think we're gonna trash it? We'd never…" Buffy tailed off as she remembered the amount of damage two slayers could do to a place. And spending a week sharing a room would not be the most harmonious idea imaginable.
Wes looked rather upset. "No, not that at all. As you know, a lot of teenagers have died 'in their sleep' recently. He doesn't want his motel to be a crime scene."
Faith exchanged a look with B. "Did he say what it might be, the killer?"
"Not at all. He refused to be drawn on it."
"So what are we doing?" Buffy asked, wrinkling her nose a little at the crumbling exterior of the motel. "Please tell me we're going elsewhere."
"I've had to put down a sizable deposit so we can stay here."
"Nice." Faith grinned. "Quite the little entrepreneur, isn't he? Well, let's go settle in." She grabbed her bag and hoisted it onto her shoulder, playfully slapping Buffy's ass. "C'mon roomie!"
Buffy reluctantly followed.
*~*~*~*
"I hate to agree with you, B, but this room is disgusting. It makes my room back in Sunnydale look like the Ritz." Faith said, frowning at the mould on the walls.
"I am not staying here." Buffy stated firmly.
"Could be worse." Faith said cheerfully. She slung her bag on the bed. It wobbled alarmingly, then with a crunch of metal and a boing of old springs, the bed collapsed.
"I'll swap rooms with you." Wes offered.
Buffy's face lit up, while Wes's room wasn't much better, it was marginally less mouldy than this place.
"No, it's fine. I'll just drag the mattress on the floor." Faith replied, a little surprised by Wes's offer. She made a mental note to be nice – or at least, not so blatantly horrible – to him for at least an hour.
*~*~*~*
"Has everyone got their cell phones?" Wes asked for the fortieth time in seven minutes. His nervousness was severely testing Faith's new vow to be nice.
"Yes, Wes. We do. All two of us." B replied sarcastically.
"Then I'll see you both in a couple of hours. Call me if you need anything." He said.
"Urgh, look at this place." Buffy commented as the Slayers set off towards the town. "Why do towns with bad things in them have to look so pretty?"
"That's a bad thing?" Faith asked. "The scenery is good. And it makes a change from Sunny D."
"But if you could be anywhere but here, where would you be?"
"The land of eternal Christmas."
Buffy raised her eyebrows. "There's an answer I wasn't expecting."
"Well, I've noticed that people get all sappy and nuts around Christmas, but I don't really get it. I figured if there was a place where it was always Christmas I could hang around until I got it." Faith replied.
"I don't think such a place exists. But there is a place in Disney World where it's always New Year's Eve. Maybe we could head down there some time, you know, a Slayer trip that doesn't involve killing." Buffy offered, surprising herself. For someone who normally didn't seek out Faith's friendship, she had been enjoying every second of her company since the meeting in the library yesterday.
"New Year's Eve is another thing I don't get. I mean, I love the 'drinking yourself senseless' part of it, but the actual concept… it doesn't make any sense. Why are we celebrating a new year? For almost everyone on the planet, present company excluded, they have made no effort to avoid an apocalypse, so why congratulate themselves on a job well done?"
"Cynical much?" Buffy grinned at her.
"Better than being optimistic. Optimists are a bad thing, they let us pessimists know exactly how much fun we aren't having."
Buffy snorted. "You're really chirpy today."
Faith grinned. "Yep, hours cooped up with Wes will do that to a person. So, anyway, where do you think we should go for this recon stuff?"
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know, I've never been good at this undercover stuff. What are we supposed to do, just walk up to the first teenagers we see and say, 'hey, any of your buddies die? They did? Tell me how?'."
"Yeah, not only subtle, but sensitive too. Great approach." Faith suddenly got a burst of inspiration. "But I got a better one. We go to the local funeral home and attend every funeral, on the way out we interrogate every single teen we see."
"Or, we could get on the phone to Willow, see if she knows how to raise the dead, we could just ask them how they died." Buffy suggested.
"Holy fuck, we're morbid."
"It's part of the job. Did you get a Slayer's handbook? I bet it's in there."
Faith laughed. "Slayer's handbook?"
"Kendra had one. I feel jipped."
"Me too. Only I'd never say 'jipped'."
Buffy flipped her hair, and strutted forward, sticking her tits out. "I'm big bad Faith, I feel fucked over."
Faith grinned, "Suddenly, I'm almost pleased that you're here."
"Easy tiger. Don't go overboard on that enthusiasm."
Faith snorted, then grinned sweetly at an old couple who are glaring daggers at them. "You know, the people of this town seem as anti-teen as the motel manager."
Buffy turned to look at them, walking backwards she gave them a smile and a cheery wave.
Which was when someone bumped into her and knocked her on her face.
"Elegant, B." Faith commented offering her a hand up, but her eyes never left the girls that had knocked Buffy down.
"Rude much?" Buffy muttered, more annoyed that her best jeans had dirt over the knees than the actual pain of hitting the asphalt.
Faith continued to stare after the girl. Buffy turned to look, and realised why Faith was staring. One girl's hair was a toxic shade of purple, the other was a brunette with orange streaks in her hair.
Faith snapped her fingers very quickly as if trying to think of something. "Shaz? Naz? Caz?"
"Baz?" Buffy suggested having no idea what Faith was doing, but noting that 'az' sounds seem to be the theme. "Raz? Daz?"
Faith shook her head, and pushed some hair out of her eyes. That's when they noticed the blood on her arm.
"Faith, you're bleeding." Buffy pointed out.
She stared down at her arm, then touched the blood. "No, I'm not." Then her face lit up. "TAZ!" She bellowed.
Buffy considered yelling "Wylie Coyote", but decided she could be off with this, the theme might not be cartoon characters.
Purple Girl stopped walking and turned to face them. "Who the fèic are you?" She asked in a thick Irish accent.
"You don't remember me?" Faith asked. "Guess not." She added before Purple Girl could answer. "I'm Faith Winter. We were at…"
'Taz' walked towards the Slayers, her brunette friend following closely. "That freaky summer camp about four years ago."
Buffy turned to Faith incredulously. "You went to summer camp?"
Faith shrugged, a little embarrassed.
"It was an art camp, for your information. I was in the painting and drawing bit, Faith was doing the performing art bit." Taz supplied.
From what little Faith had told Buffy about her family, she wouldn't have thought they would have been able to afford (or care enough) to send her to summer camp. Her parents didn't seem the nurturing type.
Faith read Buffy's surprise correctly. "Won the place. Competition at school. Mom let me go, one less mouth to feed for two months." She turned to face Taz again. "This is Buffy, by the way. Buffy, meet Taz. I have no idea who the other one is."
Buffy grinned at them both. "She's great with the tact, isn't she? Hi."
"I'm Maya." The brunette supplied.
Faith cut in exasperatedly. "Well, now that we've got through the touching reunion and the cheerful introductions, you two wanna tell me why I'm wearing Taz's blood?"
Taz and her friend exchanged furtive looks. "Cut my arm." She said shortly. "Accident." As she spoke she rolled down her shirt sleeve, not before Buffy noticed the small circular cigarette burns all over her forearms.
"Hey, maybe you two could help us out." Buffy said. "We've heard some spooky tales about this town, don't suppose you guys know the truth behind the legend?"
Yet again Taz and Maya exchanged looks. Maya finally replied. "Do yourself a favour. Get the fuck out of town. Believe me, you don't want to know about the truth behind the legend."
"Look, we know something bad is happening in this town, that's why we're here. We want to stop it." Faith said.
"Stop it?" Taz snorted. "Are you God? "Because nothing less than God can stop this."
"And if some of the rumours are true, even he might have his work cut out." Maya added. "Besides, you'll think it's nuts."
"Try us."
"I need coffee." Maya said finally. "There's a diner not far from here."
Taz tucked her arm through Maya's and they began to walk.
As the Slayers followed Buffy was convinced she heard Taz say, "They'll think we're fèicing nuts," in a low voice to Maya.