Authors note: Nobody was worried about Angel? :) And you know it, authors
like to see feeback :)
*****
Angel walked in the room where Xander, Giles and Wesley were waiting.
"You're late!" Xander yelled.
Angel moaned lightly.
"50 push ups," Xander demanded.
"What?" Angel asked incredulously.
"Now!"
Angel threw himself to the ground and within 20 seconds he was finished.
#Hmm, I think I have to raise the punishments,# Xander thought.
Angel stood up and saluted to Xander.
"Good!" Xander quipped to the obvious mock salute of Angel.
"Now, the reason Giles and Wesley are here, is concerning the amounts of fertilizer we need . . ."
*****
Faith walked into the library and saw Buffy doing a series of exercises with a sword.
"Cool!" Faith responded to the sword movements.
Buffy looked up at Faith, grinned and threw her the sword. "Here, like a to try me out?" she asked, while picking one up for herself.
Faith responded in the only way she could by attacking Buffy. She moved her sword up to down in one fast movement. Buffy was barely able to dodge it and did a counter attack directed at Faith's stomach. She easily avoided the blow by moving her sword with an inhuman speed to parry the move. Faith instantly counter attacked with her foot which Buffy caught with the hand she had first used for the sword after switching it to the other hand. "Wow, pretty fast, Buf." Faith stated while Buffy moved her sword into the direction of her opponent's leg and shrugged at the same time.
"Pretty standard 'till now," she casually responded.
"Oh!" Faith responded and reacted almost instantly with a highspeed kick of her other foot and was able to hit Buffy's jaw. Faith kick was so fast that she needed to make the move complete with a back flip.
Buffy staggered at her blow and rubbed her jaw. "Wow. That was a great move Faith. You have become stronger since the last time. I wonder how you will react to this?" Buffy asked challenging while she threw her sword in the direction of Faith with an incredible force.
Faith didn't use her sword to stop it, but simply pushed the blade away out of its track in midair.
She grinned and shook her head. "Now, that was not nice, B!"
"I, uh, I acted on-on pure instinct. No conscience, uh, uh, predatory and, and aggressive,"
Faith grinned. "The definition of the Slayer." She bowed down and picked up the sword and tossed it back to Buffy. "I knew that you finally would admit it."
Buffy was in thoughts. "You showed me, Faith, you convinced me. I ignored it all this time."
Faith smiled. "It's not easy to admit Buffy, I know. I can become so furious, so easily all the time. If something doesn't go the way I want, then Whammo!, Crash!, Bang!" she said while making moves with her fists.
"Pow."
Faith looked at her incrediously.
Buffy's eyes widened. "Uh, like batman?"
"Huh? Uh, no, more like batwoman. And you were right. It's good that you, no *we*, have such good friends."
Buffy thought at that. "Friends like Xander, Willow and Angel?"
Faith nodded. "They are the best, Buffy! They keep us straight, watch out for us."
Buffy looked at her. "I wonder how Xander and Angel are doing now. They aren't exactly best buds."
Faith sighed. "They are not like us, Buffy. They aren't friends, but they are *gentlemen* compared to us. They *can* behave. They are always tolerant and, most of all, respect each other. Xander and Angel go along just fine. I'm sure of it."
Buffy nodded. "I guess you're right . . ."
*****
In the meantime Xander and Angel were loading Oz's black van with the necessary equipment, everybody doing the part they were good at. Angel was pushing the heavy bags into the truck while Xander was watching and insulting him and at the same time drawing a scheme for the creation of the bomb. Until Angel couldn't stand it anymore and protested.
"Shut up and load that van, now!" Xander ordered.
"What would you do if I just forced *you* to load the van?" Angel asked
"Nothing," Xander simply said.
"Nothing?"
"Can *you* design the bomb!?"
Embarrassed silence . . .
"I thought so. I will make the bomb, you will carry the bags. Then that vampire strength of yours is good for something."
Angel rolled his eyes and continued his part of the job.
"And don't forget *I* am Key-guy. I'm the Captain and you're my commander!" Xander reminded him.
"What fun," Angel quipped mockingly.
"Hey! Your Captain is still talking! "
*****
For a while Buffy and Faith trained all kind of movements and hand to hand combat. Between the training they were discussing the details of the plan and Angel . . .
"You'll find a nice guy, B. I'm sure of it!" Faith finally said gently, sympathetically, comforting her when Buffy had a hard time again.
When they were finished Buffy walked over towards Faith and looked with a very serious face at her. "Why are you so nice to me all of the sudden?" Buffy asked.
Faith smiled, she had expected that question sooner of later and had asked it herself many times since their talk at the prom. She sighed. "You're not much different then I am, B. You know that, I know that. We have discussed that now. And no matter how much we could hate each other, we still are Slayer sisters. The world needs us and frankly Xander needs us that way."
Buffy blinked. "Xander?"
Faith grinned and nodded. "It's his stubborn White Knight complex that drives me crazy. He sees goodness in *everybody*. Xander looks up to us and wants us to be his Slayer gals. So basically he wants us to be pals . . . Bickering won't do that, huh?"
Buffy stared at her and thought about her words. Then she nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like Xan."
Faith nodded back. "So here we are? Are we gonna be friends?"
Buffy thought for a moment and then nodded.
"Good!" Faith responded.
Buffy retrieved the dagger and handed it over to her. "Please, accept it as our friendship. I can't have it anymore. Just keep it out of the Mayor's sight."
Faith eyes flashed fear when she saw the dagger. It reminded her too much of the Mayor, of the father she had lost and had gained back in the politician. He was very kind and sweet to her, and making her feel protected. The lure to him was still very strong and accepting the dagger wasn't making it easier. But seeing Buffy's sincerity, she shook the not welcomed warm feelings away and regained quick enough for Buffy not to notice. She smiled a worried smile, but felt forced to accept it. "Thanks, I think," she said.
"Great! I think that Angel and Xander are back by now. Let's train the students," Buffy said happy while Faith nodded, still a bit shaky.
They walked out of the library and before leaving it, Buffy turned around and smiled wickedly at her. "Turns you on, huh? Xanman getting a hardon while thinking about us training, slaying and sweating together?"
Faith blinked. "You don't??"
*****
Oz and Willow are taking sacks of fertilizer out of Oz's black van and putting them into a shopping cart. Xander stops them. "Broody guy can do that when it's dark."
"You left the . . . d-door open, and . . . and I-I thought . . . I want to help," Willow pouted.
Xander smiled, slamming the door of the van close. "You can, Wills."
Willow smiled widely. "Great, what can I do?"
"We have to train now, you can help the kids teaching how to kill a vamp," he said pointing in the direction where Cordelia, changed into an exercising outfit, was instructing some of her former friends. Willow looked up from all those bags, making her nervous, to Oz who smiled supportively at her as he understood her fear, to the direction in which Xander was pointing and squealed lightly when she noticed Cordelia.
Oz, oblivious, pressed his hand in her's, supporting her nervousness for this mission. But Xander recognized that sound better. "Isn't that the sound of being speechless with geeker joy?" Xander asked.
"Huh? Uh, n . . . yes, it is," Willow hastily corrected.
Xander looked at her worried. "Faith didn't promise you to steal that 'top of the bill' computer upgrade for you, did she? The one you were drooling over for the past few weeks?"
Willow eyes widened and shook her head firmly. "No . . . no, it isn't. I saved enough money and my mother was so kind to give me the rest for my graduation . . ."
Xander smiled wide. "Great, otherwise I would have to have a word with her. What did she tell you, anyway?"
Willow hesitated, her gaze went from the bags to Oz again, nervous. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when a worried Oz leaned forward and kissed her softly."Don't worry. Things will be cool, you'll see."
*****
Larry was exercising with Jonathon when Faith approached them with stakes in her hands. Until a couple of jock friends knocked a bunch of them out of her hands and laughed. Larry stopped his fighting and rushed over immediately to help her. Faith head turned away from the floor and an unknown fear ran along his spine when looking at her face. "Hey . . . let . . . me . . . get those," he barely managed to say. She tried to calm herself down as she faced the boys, who were gulping in fear, ignoring Larry.
In one swipe she knocked them all down. She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down, again. It was so hard . . . #Xander . . . Xander . . . Xander . . .Xander,# she counted, trying to get her anger away. #Xander . . . Xander . . .#
"Xander," Larry said.
#Xander . . . Xander . . . Xander . . .#
"Xander."
#Xander . . . Xander, huh?# she thought while turning her head around to face Larry.
"Uh . . . Xander?" Larry asked, nervously.
"What do you mean, Xander!?" Faith snapped.
"Uh, he's gonna kick your ass if you try to harm them."
"Huh?"
"He's gonna hurt you so bad if you harm a single hair . . . And you know it," he said confidently, but more to himself.
"Oh, what makes you so sure?" she asked intrigued now, but still very mad.
Larry watched her and looked at Xander, who was instructing some of the kids, searching for the right words about what he felt. When he finally found them he said softly, more and more to himself than to Faith. "Everybody thinks he is a geek, but that nosey little nose of his can scan right through your soul like a laser beam. He can crawl into your mind . . . know your strengths. . . know your weaknesses . . . your deepest secrets. It's a mystery. He simply *knows* you . . . And he's patient, you know . . . Damn patient . . . It's ironic. I mean, all those times I wanted to beat the crap out of him and when I finally decided to do it, he just spoke one line and you're changed, changed forever . . . 'We will never talk about it again,' he then said to me. But every time you almost fail again, to let yourself slip into what you swore you didn't want to be anymore, he is right there. On the right time, on the right moment. He gives you that warning look from his deep dark brown eyes that *bores* into your inner self and you simply know that he will be always there . . . that there is no escape anymore from the right path . . . into that dark, dirty alley that once was your hiding place . . ."
Faith's fury had faded away and stared at his blank gaze, stunned, thinking about his words that came from his heart and had reached her's. She checked this big guy out, watched his trail to Xander and then to Larry again. "You're gay," she finally stated.
He nodded softly, a tear rolled over his cheek when he finally was able to admit it in front of his friends.
Faith smiled widely at his face and slapped him on the shoulder. "You're absolutely right, uh . . ."
"Larry. The name is Larry, but Lar is fine," he said smiling back at her, proud of himself.
Both turned their heads to Xander, who was fighting a big guy to prove a point. Xander turned his head towards her for a short moment and flashed a lopsided smile before facing his opponent again. Both sighed. ". . . He really has deep dark brown eyes," Faith commented softly.
*****
Evening, the sun had just gone under
Highschool
Xander stood back from the black van. A group of students where surrounding it. This was there final lesson, an important one.
"Okay, Jonathan. Open it, but be careful. This is horrific."
Jonathan slowly moved forward. It was all silent, but somehow he wasn't comfortable. Slowly he opened the door of the van.
Nothing . . .
Jonathan stepped unconsciously back, but when nothing happened he leaned forward checking the van out. A flash blurred in front of his eyes and before he knew he was thrown back a few yards. While lying on the ground, hurt and scared as hell, he looked straight into the face of a morphed out vamp: the released Angel, who had been locked up there all this time . . .
"So, dead boy. Time for brooding is over, its time for you to make yourself useful . . . oh, you just did," Xander quipped.
Angel realized that this was a setup stood up, morphed back and stretched himself, there wasn't much room left in the van. "You fucking piece of shit, you left me in the van all this time. Parking it in full sunlight. I'm gonna rip your . . . ."
Xander turned himself around and stared at him. "You're gonna do what?"
Angel clenched his fists. "Nothing," he said.
*****
Angel walked in the room where Xander, Giles and Wesley were waiting.
"You're late!" Xander yelled.
Angel moaned lightly.
"50 push ups," Xander demanded.
"What?" Angel asked incredulously.
"Now!"
Angel threw himself to the ground and within 20 seconds he was finished.
#Hmm, I think I have to raise the punishments,# Xander thought.
Angel stood up and saluted to Xander.
"Good!" Xander quipped to the obvious mock salute of Angel.
"Now, the reason Giles and Wesley are here, is concerning the amounts of fertilizer we need . . ."
*****
Faith walked into the library and saw Buffy doing a series of exercises with a sword.
"Cool!" Faith responded to the sword movements.
Buffy looked up at Faith, grinned and threw her the sword. "Here, like a to try me out?" she asked, while picking one up for herself.
Faith responded in the only way she could by attacking Buffy. She moved her sword up to down in one fast movement. Buffy was barely able to dodge it and did a counter attack directed at Faith's stomach. She easily avoided the blow by moving her sword with an inhuman speed to parry the move. Faith instantly counter attacked with her foot which Buffy caught with the hand she had first used for the sword after switching it to the other hand. "Wow, pretty fast, Buf." Faith stated while Buffy moved her sword into the direction of her opponent's leg and shrugged at the same time.
"Pretty standard 'till now," she casually responded.
"Oh!" Faith responded and reacted almost instantly with a highspeed kick of her other foot and was able to hit Buffy's jaw. Faith kick was so fast that she needed to make the move complete with a back flip.
Buffy staggered at her blow and rubbed her jaw. "Wow. That was a great move Faith. You have become stronger since the last time. I wonder how you will react to this?" Buffy asked challenging while she threw her sword in the direction of Faith with an incredible force.
Faith didn't use her sword to stop it, but simply pushed the blade away out of its track in midair.
She grinned and shook her head. "Now, that was not nice, B!"
"I, uh, I acted on-on pure instinct. No conscience, uh, uh, predatory and, and aggressive,"
Faith grinned. "The definition of the Slayer." She bowed down and picked up the sword and tossed it back to Buffy. "I knew that you finally would admit it."
Buffy was in thoughts. "You showed me, Faith, you convinced me. I ignored it all this time."
Faith smiled. "It's not easy to admit Buffy, I know. I can become so furious, so easily all the time. If something doesn't go the way I want, then Whammo!, Crash!, Bang!" she said while making moves with her fists.
"Pow."
Faith looked at her incrediously.
Buffy's eyes widened. "Uh, like batman?"
"Huh? Uh, no, more like batwoman. And you were right. It's good that you, no *we*, have such good friends."
Buffy thought at that. "Friends like Xander, Willow and Angel?"
Faith nodded. "They are the best, Buffy! They keep us straight, watch out for us."
Buffy looked at her. "I wonder how Xander and Angel are doing now. They aren't exactly best buds."
Faith sighed. "They are not like us, Buffy. They aren't friends, but they are *gentlemen* compared to us. They *can* behave. They are always tolerant and, most of all, respect each other. Xander and Angel go along just fine. I'm sure of it."
Buffy nodded. "I guess you're right . . ."
*****
In the meantime Xander and Angel were loading Oz's black van with the necessary equipment, everybody doing the part they were good at. Angel was pushing the heavy bags into the truck while Xander was watching and insulting him and at the same time drawing a scheme for the creation of the bomb. Until Angel couldn't stand it anymore and protested.
"Shut up and load that van, now!" Xander ordered.
"What would you do if I just forced *you* to load the van?" Angel asked
"Nothing," Xander simply said.
"Nothing?"
"Can *you* design the bomb!?"
Embarrassed silence . . .
"I thought so. I will make the bomb, you will carry the bags. Then that vampire strength of yours is good for something."
Angel rolled his eyes and continued his part of the job.
"And don't forget *I* am Key-guy. I'm the Captain and you're my commander!" Xander reminded him.
"What fun," Angel quipped mockingly.
"Hey! Your Captain is still talking! "
*****
For a while Buffy and Faith trained all kind of movements and hand to hand combat. Between the training they were discussing the details of the plan and Angel . . .
"You'll find a nice guy, B. I'm sure of it!" Faith finally said gently, sympathetically, comforting her when Buffy had a hard time again.
When they were finished Buffy walked over towards Faith and looked with a very serious face at her. "Why are you so nice to me all of the sudden?" Buffy asked.
Faith smiled, she had expected that question sooner of later and had asked it herself many times since their talk at the prom. She sighed. "You're not much different then I am, B. You know that, I know that. We have discussed that now. And no matter how much we could hate each other, we still are Slayer sisters. The world needs us and frankly Xander needs us that way."
Buffy blinked. "Xander?"
Faith grinned and nodded. "It's his stubborn White Knight complex that drives me crazy. He sees goodness in *everybody*. Xander looks up to us and wants us to be his Slayer gals. So basically he wants us to be pals . . . Bickering won't do that, huh?"
Buffy stared at her and thought about her words. Then she nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like Xan."
Faith nodded back. "So here we are? Are we gonna be friends?"
Buffy thought for a moment and then nodded.
"Good!" Faith responded.
Buffy retrieved the dagger and handed it over to her. "Please, accept it as our friendship. I can't have it anymore. Just keep it out of the Mayor's sight."
Faith eyes flashed fear when she saw the dagger. It reminded her too much of the Mayor, of the father she had lost and had gained back in the politician. He was very kind and sweet to her, and making her feel protected. The lure to him was still very strong and accepting the dagger wasn't making it easier. But seeing Buffy's sincerity, she shook the not welcomed warm feelings away and regained quick enough for Buffy not to notice. She smiled a worried smile, but felt forced to accept it. "Thanks, I think," she said.
"Great! I think that Angel and Xander are back by now. Let's train the students," Buffy said happy while Faith nodded, still a bit shaky.
They walked out of the library and before leaving it, Buffy turned around and smiled wickedly at her. "Turns you on, huh? Xanman getting a hardon while thinking about us training, slaying and sweating together?"
Faith blinked. "You don't??"
*****
Oz and Willow are taking sacks of fertilizer out of Oz's black van and putting them into a shopping cart. Xander stops them. "Broody guy can do that when it's dark."
"You left the . . . d-door open, and . . . and I-I thought . . . I want to help," Willow pouted.
Xander smiled, slamming the door of the van close. "You can, Wills."
Willow smiled widely. "Great, what can I do?"
"We have to train now, you can help the kids teaching how to kill a vamp," he said pointing in the direction where Cordelia, changed into an exercising outfit, was instructing some of her former friends. Willow looked up from all those bags, making her nervous, to Oz who smiled supportively at her as he understood her fear, to the direction in which Xander was pointing and squealed lightly when she noticed Cordelia.
Oz, oblivious, pressed his hand in her's, supporting her nervousness for this mission. But Xander recognized that sound better. "Isn't that the sound of being speechless with geeker joy?" Xander asked.
"Huh? Uh, n . . . yes, it is," Willow hastily corrected.
Xander looked at her worried. "Faith didn't promise you to steal that 'top of the bill' computer upgrade for you, did she? The one you were drooling over for the past few weeks?"
Willow eyes widened and shook her head firmly. "No . . . no, it isn't. I saved enough money and my mother was so kind to give me the rest for my graduation . . ."
Xander smiled wide. "Great, otherwise I would have to have a word with her. What did she tell you, anyway?"
Willow hesitated, her gaze went from the bags to Oz again, nervous. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when a worried Oz leaned forward and kissed her softly."Don't worry. Things will be cool, you'll see."
*****
Larry was exercising with Jonathon when Faith approached them with stakes in her hands. Until a couple of jock friends knocked a bunch of them out of her hands and laughed. Larry stopped his fighting and rushed over immediately to help her. Faith head turned away from the floor and an unknown fear ran along his spine when looking at her face. "Hey . . . let . . . me . . . get those," he barely managed to say. She tried to calm herself down as she faced the boys, who were gulping in fear, ignoring Larry.
In one swipe she knocked them all down. She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down, again. It was so hard . . . #Xander . . . Xander . . . Xander . . .Xander,# she counted, trying to get her anger away. #Xander . . . Xander . . .#
"Xander," Larry said.
#Xander . . . Xander . . . Xander . . .#
"Xander."
#Xander . . . Xander, huh?# she thought while turning her head around to face Larry.
"Uh . . . Xander?" Larry asked, nervously.
"What do you mean, Xander!?" Faith snapped.
"Uh, he's gonna kick your ass if you try to harm them."
"Huh?"
"He's gonna hurt you so bad if you harm a single hair . . . And you know it," he said confidently, but more to himself.
"Oh, what makes you so sure?" she asked intrigued now, but still very mad.
Larry watched her and looked at Xander, who was instructing some of the kids, searching for the right words about what he felt. When he finally found them he said softly, more and more to himself than to Faith. "Everybody thinks he is a geek, but that nosey little nose of his can scan right through your soul like a laser beam. He can crawl into your mind . . . know your strengths. . . know your weaknesses . . . your deepest secrets. It's a mystery. He simply *knows* you . . . And he's patient, you know . . . Damn patient . . . It's ironic. I mean, all those times I wanted to beat the crap out of him and when I finally decided to do it, he just spoke one line and you're changed, changed forever . . . 'We will never talk about it again,' he then said to me. But every time you almost fail again, to let yourself slip into what you swore you didn't want to be anymore, he is right there. On the right time, on the right moment. He gives you that warning look from his deep dark brown eyes that *bores* into your inner self and you simply know that he will be always there . . . that there is no escape anymore from the right path . . . into that dark, dirty alley that once was your hiding place . . ."
Faith's fury had faded away and stared at his blank gaze, stunned, thinking about his words that came from his heart and had reached her's. She checked this big guy out, watched his trail to Xander and then to Larry again. "You're gay," she finally stated.
He nodded softly, a tear rolled over his cheek when he finally was able to admit it in front of his friends.
Faith smiled widely at his face and slapped him on the shoulder. "You're absolutely right, uh . . ."
"Larry. The name is Larry, but Lar is fine," he said smiling back at her, proud of himself.
Both turned their heads to Xander, who was fighting a big guy to prove a point. Xander turned his head towards her for a short moment and flashed a lopsided smile before facing his opponent again. Both sighed. ". . . He really has deep dark brown eyes," Faith commented softly.
*****
Evening, the sun had just gone under
Highschool
Xander stood back from the black van. A group of students where surrounding it. This was there final lesson, an important one.
"Okay, Jonathan. Open it, but be careful. This is horrific."
Jonathan slowly moved forward. It was all silent, but somehow he wasn't comfortable. Slowly he opened the door of the van.
Nothing . . .
Jonathan stepped unconsciously back, but when nothing happened he leaned forward checking the van out. A flash blurred in front of his eyes and before he knew he was thrown back a few yards. While lying on the ground, hurt and scared as hell, he looked straight into the face of a morphed out vamp: the released Angel, who had been locked up there all this time . . .
"So, dead boy. Time for brooding is over, its time for you to make yourself useful . . . oh, you just did," Xander quipped.
Angel realized that this was a setup stood up, morphed back and stretched himself, there wasn't much room left in the van. "You fucking piece of shit, you left me in the van all this time. Parking it in full sunlight. I'm gonna rip your . . . ."
Xander turned himself around and stared at him. "You're gonna do what?"
Angel clenched his fists. "Nothing," he said.