Disclaimer: I still don't own Buffy...damn.

Ch. 3: Shopping Spree

Faith:

BAM BAM BAM BAM!

"What! What's that!" I jump from my bed cuz of a loud ass noise. What the fuck is that!

BAM BAM BAM!

I hear it again coming from the front door and I storm out of the bedroom, pass the kitchen, and yank it open. Xander is standing there with his hand raised like he was about to knock again, eyes bugged out, mouth open, and skin pale.

"What!" I demand loudly and irritated.

"Uh...um..." If only looks could kill, he'd be a rotting corpse already. "Oh, um, just checking if you were up yet cuz we're gonna be leaving in a couple of minutes. Good thing too, cuz you were obviously still sleeping."

"Urg, what time is it?"

"Almost 11:00." 11:00? Damn.

"Thanks Xan." I'm about to close the door when Xander just has to say something else.

"And Faith, do you usually answer the door naked? Because if so..." I shut the door on him not even bothering to answer.

I walk back into my bedroom and collapse on the bed. That's strange, I overslept. I'm usually up by 7:00, 8:00 at the latest. And I didn't even do much the night before. I visited Wood to check how he's doing and we talked, but did nothing that would tire me out. I closed my eyes and relaxed before I had to get up and change when flashes of what felt like an old memory came to me.

Its pitch black in the room but I know its the old place the Boss got me. I'm standing in the middle of the darkness when I start hearing hissing sounds. I look around and still can't see anything but I feel cold scales brush against my ankles. The hissing gets louder and echoes throughout the room, there are probably hundreds of snakes around me now. I feel one of them wrap around my leg and squeeze, I try to get it off but I can't so I start to panic and get scared.

Then I see a sliver of light up ahead of me so I try my best to reach it. With every step I take it gets harder and harder to move, its like walking in quicksand. I'm almost at the light but I'm stuck, tears of frustration gather at the corner of my eyes. But the light widens open and blinds me. When I open my eyes again the room is bright with color and there are no snakes. I look in front of me and find Buffy in her red-leathered brilliance standing in the middle of the doorway.

"Thought I'd stop by." She walks over to me with a gleam in her eye. As she stands in front of me I think about how beautiful she is. The soft curves of her face, pouty lips, and those hazel-green eyes are one of the many reasons I fell in love with her in the first place. Her mouth now curves into the smile that I'll never get tired of seeing.

She leans into me and stares deep into my own eyes. "Give us a kiss." B whispers, using my words against me. I move my head down and capture her lips in a soft kiss that I imagine she'd be used to. Slowly, I trail my tongue against her sweet bottom lip and she slightly opens her mouth for me. I drive my tongue in, no longer restraining myself, and devour her. Soon she's pushing into me just as much as I'm pushing into her and the kiss becomes fierce and passionate.

The kiss is addicting and I don't want to stop but without any warning I start tasting a rustic tang. I pull back suddenly when I realize what it is. Its blood, and its mine. For the first time I notice a pain, like fire, in my gut and I look down to see my knife planted deep within me. B is gone when I fall to the floor wheezing and coughing up blood.

So that's why I didn't wake up. Whenever I have that dream, or nightmare, I tend to go into a deeper sleep. I get up with a sigh and look around the already messy room of mine for something to wear to the mall. I figure today I should use a bra and panties since I'll be trying on clothes, don't want to give anyone a heart attack...or do I?

After getting barely decent I strutted downstairs and met up with Xan-man and he handed me a couple hundred bucks. If I sweet talk G, do ya think he'd fork over more cash? Before I could act on my thoughts Red, Ken, and B came down and we head out to the dull, blue minivan G is waiting in outside.

Xan beats me to the passenger seat and I growl as I move to sit in the way back. He looks back at me with his stupid one eye and gives me the thumbs up. He's been testing my nerves since I woke up and I swear the first chance I get, he's going down.

"Hey, where's the kid?" I ask as Red and Ken get into the two-seated middle.

"Dawn went with the other girls and Cordelia in the black van." B answers as she's eyeing the seat next to me. Geez, she acts like she'll catch a disease or something. I wonder what the hell's she doing but when I look at her she turns away. Fine, let her sit on the stick stuck up her ass. When she finally sits down as far from me as possible we are ready to go.

The mall we get to is just like any other mall. There's shops, stands, and annoying teenagers. And don't forget the creepy, old men staring at those annoying teenagers. I didn't see my first store of choice, Fredrick's, so I decided to follow Red, Ken, and B when the guys split.

We walked into some store, didn't see what, but it had a leather miniskirt in the front so it couldn't be so bad. While I browsed around the racks looking for anything that caught my eye, B turned a corner and spotted me. Must have taken out that stick cuz she started talking to me again.

"Hey Faith, could you help me with something?"

"What with?" I asked still rummaging around. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that she held something behind her.

"I want your honest opinion now. Do you think this dress would look good on me?" Whatever she had behind her she took it out and placed it in front of her. I moved my gaze to look at her and couldn't help but flinch. Not that she wouldn't look good in it, she looks good in everything, but because of the unbidden memories it caused.

It was a pink dress that came up above the knee with flowers all across it. Flashbacks of me posing for the Boss in a hideous twin of the dress B held popped into my head. God, the embarrassment.

"Uh...its looks great, B" I carefully edged away from the "Dress of Fear."

"Faith! You're lying to me!" She whined before spinning around and stomping away. Thank God she took the dress with her.

After a while I found some clothes that I wanted to try on so I headed to the dressing rooms. There were five room all in a row but only the one at the way end near a large mirror was available. I was walking to it when the door to the stall next to it flew open and almost hit me.

"Hey, watch it when you open the door." I grumbled.

"Oh, sorry Faith." B's voice answered me so I looked up and lost my breathe. She was wearing a short red skirt and a black quarter-sleeve blouse that was off the shoulders. She has incredible legs and I have the urge to run my hands over the exposed skin of her shoulders. I see her lips moving and I think she's saying something to me.

I snap out of my Buffy-induced daze. "What'd ya say B?"

"I asked if this looks good. No lying this time." She huffs.

"You look gorgeous." I tell her simply looking in her eyes.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is she turning red? "Thanks." She says and goes back into her dressing room.

I finally make in into my own room and start trying on various pieces of clothing. I'm in that leather miniskirt I saw in the front with a deep red, V-neck top looking myself over in the mirror. My legs look long and sexy, especially cuz of the black boots, and the shirt reveals just enough cleavage. I smile when I hear a knock.

"Hey Faith, its Buffy."

"Yeah?" I ask as I open the door. The look on B's face is hilarious, it resembles what Xan-man looked like when I answered the door naked this morning. If B's this bad, I wonder what'd she look like if she opened my door this morning instead of Xan. A grin forms at the edge of my lips, I can't help it. "See something ya like?"

B starts rapidly blinking, "Uh just wanted to ask you if you wanted to meet the others, after paying for your stuff, and get something to eat."

"Sure, I'm starved."

"Ok." My grin turns into a full blown smile after she leaves and I close the door. B's been acting pretty weird around me lately. During the meeting I caught her staring at me, then she avoids any contact, and just now she couldn't tear her eyes away from me. Maybe my unrequited love for her isn't so unrequited after all.