"Faith!" Willow stood in the kitchen staring at the counter of the island.
"What's up Red?" Faith bounced into the kitchen holding a PB&J sandwich in one hand. The brunette slayer took one look up at her friend, looked at the messy counter, then back at Willow. "You know I was just gonna clean that up." Faith stuck the sandwich in her mouth and went about cleaning up. Willow sighed and sat down across from her.
"You know, part of you living here is cleaning up."
"I know. I just got caught up in a show, and wanted to hurry." Faith gave Willow a guilty look, but the red head just smiled.
"I hope Mark knows what he's getting himself into." As Willow mentioned her boyfriend, Faith grinned.
"Oh he does. Last weekend when I slept over, I woke up early to make him breakfast and made a big, and I mean big mess." Mark Corvalis was Faith's boyfriend of eight months and counting. They had met, briefly, at the Fish Tank, the seedy bar in Sunnydale, back when Faith and Buffy had first met. Mark and Faith had danced during the phenomenon that was the battle of the Book of Fours. Mark was a firefighter and had been hurt by one of the weird mummy things. After he had recovered, he had worked to find out about the supernatural, and Faith. He heard she was back in town during the summer and caught up with her. Faith had finally let down her guard, and the two hit it off.
"You two are way too perfect for each other." Willow grinned. The two women turned as the back door opened and the man of the hour walked in.
"Who?" Mark was tall and muscle-y with dirty blonde hair, and a smooth lined face. Perfect ten and perfect hottie.
"Hey Baby." Faith giggled as Mark wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her softly. Faith's view on men had changed, along with her tastes, sort of. "We were talking about us."
"Figures." Mark grinned and passed a bag to Willow. "I picked up your mugroot for you. You know Madame Kekios is really weird. All fluttery and blowing incense around."
Willow smiled. Although Mark understood, accepted and participated in the supernatural business with the scoobies, he still was a little freaked out by it sometimes. But that was normal. "Thanks. But I know what you mean, I wished Giles would hurry up and re open the new magic box."
"Speaking of the G-man, I have training." Faith untangled herself from Mark and grabbed her bag. "Come on you two, the crazy messed up world of evil awaits.
The three headed out of 1630 Revello drive and towards the newly remodeled Magic Box, and their friends.
*****
When the three reached the Magic Box, they looked around to find some of the group missing. Willow hurried down the steps and over to her best friend Xander who was talking with his newly re instated girlfriend Anya.
"Hey, where's Oz?" Willow and Oz had been back together taking it slow, she was still recovering from Tara's death. Before either of the couple could reply, Giles came out of the back room, accompanied by his own girlfriend, Michaela Tomasi.
"He left about twenty minutes ago. He said he was picking something up."
"Anything for me? Like slayer wise?" Faith grinned as she and Mark sat down at the table.
"Didn't mention what." Xander kissed Anya and smiled. "You never know with Oz, he's one crazy dude." They all laughed, Oz was quiet regularly, but when he brought out his wolf side, he was a crazy man.