CHAPTER SIX: PRESENTABILITY
Neither of the Slayers realised how quickly time had passed. Before they knew it, they were being asked to leave the closing club, and Faith couldn't help but feel disappointment at the thought of going home. She knew that she wasn't going to get any sleep once again, although if Buffy was the subject of her thoughts, she didn't particularly mind.
They walked out of the club, their fingers brushing against each others. Faith usually would have just grabbed her hand and dragged her to the nearest hotel room, and even though she desperately wanted to, there was something holding her back. She didn't just want a one-night stand with this girl, and that thought scared Faith more than she would ever admit.
"So…you got plans for today?" Faith asked awkwardly.
"Beyond sleep? Nothing really. You?"
Faith knew that her plans consisted of the daily training session and afternoon nap that had become her normal routine over the last few months.
"Bout the same," she replied, even though she knew that her Watcher expected her to be awake and have started training by seven in the morning. She wanted desperately to ask Buffy to have lunch with her, but she couldn't find the words to say it. She'd never done anything like this before. Her usual motto of 'get some, get gone' had been thrown out the window the second she'd laid eyes on the blonde girl.
"Do you maybe wanna have lunch with me tomorrow?" Buffy asked.
Faith felt her entire world spin. She'd never been asked to lunch before. She'd never been asked out on a date, or a casual date before. Most people usually only wanted one thing from her, and it generally didn't include any form of food (well sometimes…) or conversation.
She opted for a casual answer so that Buffy wouldn't know how incredibly nervous she was at this point in time. "Yeah sure. Sounds good."
"Cool. Are there any good places to eat around here?" Buffy asked.
Faith could barely think of her own name, let alone the name of a decent restaurant. She tried to think of somewhere she could go that wouldn't make her look incredibly stupid, poor or tacky.
"Uh…there's this pretty good pizza place," she replied. "Zeferelli's."
"Sounds good. D'you wanna meet there at around 12?"
Faith just nodded, not wanting to say anything that could potentially jeopardise what was proving to be a perfect moment so far. She only hoped that Buffy wouldn't be able to hear the hammering of her heart in her chest.
They parted ways, Faith watching as Buffy walked down a darkened street. The dark-haired Slayer silently wished that Buffy would make it home without being attacked, eaten, turned or all of the above. Faith removed the stake from her boot and clutched it tightly, hoping it would offer her some sort of protection. For the first time in the seven months of being a Slayer, she was scared of the vampires that roamed the city.
Luck was on Faith's side that evening, and she managed to make it back to the apartment without incident, not even noticing that a certain blonde someone had followed her home to ensure her safety.
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Joanna couldn't help but notice Faith's edginess. Every few seconds, Faith would check the clock in the training room, sighing dramatically when she realised that it was no closer to twelve-thirty than it had been thirty seconds earlier. Joanna could only wonder what had got her Slayer so on edge. She was almost grateful for her Slayer's distracted state, knowing that Faith would have been full of questions about her sudden weakness.
Their training continued and Joanna smirked when Faith practically jumped for joy when the clock displayed that it was 12:15.
"You don't mind if I cut this short, right?" Faith asked, racing up the stairs, not even bothering to wait for an answer. There was no way that she was going to take no for an answer. Nothing was stopping her from going to lunch with Buffy, not even the only authority figure that Faith had ever truly respected.
"I doubt I could stop you," Joanna called after her.
Faith smirked and rummaged through her wardrobe, looking for the perfect outfit. She wanted something casual, but not too casual, something sexy without being slutty. She noticed how much leather she truly owned and was somehow worried about how many cows had been sacrificed towards her wardrobe.
She picked a simple outfit of tight denim hip-hugger jeans, a white singlet top and a half-length leather coat. She pulled her boots onto her feet, grabbed some money from her dresser drawer and raced down the stairs. She paused in front of Joanna and momentarily fought the urge to spin so that her Watcher could examine her outfit.
"What d'you think?"
Joanna laughed and shook her head. "What am I meant to think?"
Faith rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to hit her Watcher.
"Do I look okay?"
"You look fine Faith," she assured her. "Very…Faith-like."
Faith groaned and Joanna could only wonder what exactly had gotten into the girl. She wondered if it was some sort of side-effect from the compound that was making the Slayer act so unlike herself.
"That doesn't tell me jack," Faith complained. "Is it…y'know, decent?"
"Who are you meeting?" Joanna asked.
"Ugh, does it matter?" Faith asked. "I just wanna look nice. So…do I?"
Joanna nodded and Faith could only hope that her Watcher wasn't just saying that to get rid of her.
"Cool. Catch you later."
"Faith, wait!" Joanna called.
Faith turned, impatience etched on her face. "What?"
Joanna had never heard Faith whine before, and she could now officially say that Faith was basically the same as every other teenage girl. She could have sworn that the brunette Slayer was actually pouting.
Joanna pulled out a small box from her pocket and handed it to Faith.
"What's this?"
The Watcher sighed. "Why don't you open it and find out?"
Faith couldn't argue with that logic. She pulled the top off the box and removed a layer of cotton before finding a silver ring with three crosses engraved into it. She stared at it, shocked by the gesture.
"And this is for what?" Faith asked.
"Uh…your birthday," Joanna replied.
"Oh. Oh! Uh…wow. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Joanna cast a look to the clock and pointed towards it. "You're gonna be late."
Faith looked at the clock and panicked. She was already out the door when Joanna burst into a bout of giggles.
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Buffy sat at the table, sipping her water, trying to calm her nerves. She had no idea what had possessed her to ask Faith to lunch, and now that she'd done so, she wasn't sure of what to expect. She'd seen snippets of Faith's behaviour over the past two nights, and couldn't help but wonder if Faith truly felt some sort of a connection with her, or if the brown-haired Slayer was just setting her up to be another conquest.
That thought led to more disturbing thoughts. If Faith wasn't trying to make Buffy a notch on the head-board, what exactly would that then mean? Buffy was fairly certain that she wasn't gay. She'd never felt any sort of attraction towards girls before two nights ago, and it wasn't as though she was now looking at other girls the way that she'd been looking at Faith.
She fiddled nervously with the napkin at the table, ripping off tiny squares as she waited. She wasn't surprised that Faith was late. She would have been more shocked if the other Slayer had been on time, and Buffy was almost glad that she'd had a little more time to compose herself. It had been another almost sleepless night the evening before, and nearly every thought had been about Faith. It frightened her that someone she barely knew could have such an effect on her.
She was so lost with her inner monologue that she didn't even notice Faith pull out the chair opposite her and sit down, a nervous smile on her face. Buffy looked up, and flashed the other girl a grin.
"Hey, you made it."
"Sorry about the lateness," Faith said sheepishly, shrugging out of her jacket, and hanging it over the back of her chair.
"No big," Buffy replied. "You come here a lot?"
"Yeah sometimes," she said, grabbing the menu from the table and scanning the list of food. "You didn't order without me, did you?"
"Nope. Any recommendations?"
"Well, if you wanted to go halves on a pizza or something…"
"Sounds good. Are you more of a sweet, savoury or spicy girl?" Buffy asked.
By nature, Faith's mind lived in the gutter, and she bit her lip to keep herself from turning Buffy's perfectly innocent question into some sort of sexual innuendo.
"Spicy," she managed to answer, somehow keeping a straight face.
Buffy hadn't missed Faith's inner monologue, and grinned at the girl. "Why am I not surprised?"
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S&K.