Title: IN THE CAGE
Author: syrai
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Series: Envenom
Timeline: post Chosen
directly after 'outcast'
Characters: Faith, original characters
Prompt: #051 yes
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: occasional curse words
Word count: about 2545
Status: -fin as in finished
Summary: "Nice," a husky female voice said, "it's a beauty isn't it? Had one just like that. Loved it like a lover, too."

Author's Notes: I freakin HATE when my comp crashes when I'm having a wonderful writing spree! I lose the same stuff again and again cause I always forget to save every two minutes, damnit. It does it, cause it's overheating and well, duh, I always get my writing-mood when it's like 6am which means the comp's been open for hours and hours at a time... my poor little laptop, it's getting old. I'd kick it to a wall if it wasn't so precious to me, seriously.

Like usually, the thing hasn't been betaed - and it's been written around 6am (well it's 8 at the moment and I'm not even finished with it) so suffer through or offer to beta it, your call. I'll try and fix some typos when my eyes can actually focus on something, again, oki?

::SQUEE:: One more and I've written 10. w00t :D

IN THE CAGE

Faith wasn't sure why she'd said it, told the vampire something so personal about her pretty little self. She never did that, ever. Even when she'd been a tot and someone had asked her something as innocent as favorite color, she'd rather picked up a fist fight then answered the question. Yeah, Faith really wasn't one to share her crap with anyone, not even when it was something as insignificant as the fact she had once loved her beautiful, beautiful knife like a mother loved her kid. 'Cept her mother, of course, she noted bitterly, but that ugly bitch had been one sucky mother anyway, so... and it wasn't like she cared about that or even thought about her. Much. Just sometimes.

Okay, that was totally beside the point.

Whatever the reason was, she'd said it - that she liked the Jackal, 'cause damn, she did, it was a true beauty in every sense of the word - and now the girl was looking at her like she'd been a green alien with antennas sticking out of her forehead, three legs and seven arms or something, obviously not knowing what to think of it. Which, Faith supposed as rationally as she could, wasn't that unexpected at all. She didn't know what to think of it either, so, they were even.

For fuck's sake, she'd only been trying to build up some bridge between them, ok?

So enough with the damn stare, freak, it's creeping me out.

"I've been following ya..." Faith spoke up again, when the vampire didn't say anything, just stared at her all befogged. Woah, weird, she would've thought the vampire had attacked her already, but she hadn't even moved yet. Then again, she'd been following her around for two days now and seen a nice amount of evidence telling this girl wasn't your regular vampire with unstoppable lust for blood and shiny things.

Actually, if you thought it further, this one had a pretty good taste on several levels. The leather jacket for one spoke its own language; it was long, the kind Faith remembered B had worn sometimes and though B had her flaws, cool clothes had never been one of those. Then there was the knife, of course, the most beautiful thing Faith had ever seen. Plus, damn, what a kick-ass pair of brown cowboy boots! So hot. She had to get a pair, really.

Right, right, wasn't she in the middle of something here?

"I mean, not in that creepy stalkerish way," she went on rambling, "Ya know, like... well, anyway..." With that, she shut up, twisting her mouth and trying to find a way to kick herself without being all too obvious.

That went well, right?

Hell, why hadn't those Illuminati freaks given her some guidelines on how to deal with the kind of issue that involved a slayer meeting a turned vampire slayer, because it seriously wasn't a normal thing to happen. No, out of all the weird things she'd done in her life, this was like in the top three.

Watchers, they always had these annoying rules and guidelines, fat books and lots of old, dusty prophesies to throw at you, but the one time you actually did need them... nada. God, what a twisted bunch of assholes. Useless, all of them! Reminded her - pretty efficiently too - why she'd never liked them, watchers in general, that much. They hadn't been too keen on her either, though, so maybe it was only fair.

It really was a wonder why Willow had chosen to go with the freaky lot and abandon her friends like that, you know, for them. It didn't bother Faith that much, but B, she'd been devastated. It'd been months since the two had even talked - the day Willow had left, she'd left with a bang, screaming at B what a fucking hypocrite she was.

Now Willow was in South Africa with Kennedy, but there'd been no calls, no letters, no nothing whatsoever on B's part. Willow had tried, of course, but B wasn't really accepting any of it, so it was left on Dawn's shoulders to keep the witch updated on what happened in their lives.

Seriously, though. When the hell had Willow ever supported humans co-existing with demons to begin with, huh? Okay, there was the thing with Oz, her former lover, being a werewolf and her being a witch and so on, but... still. Faith and B, they rarely agreed on, well, anything - even the question of what kinds of cereals they were to have for breakfast was a topic unsolved - but that was actually the one thing on which they did agree. Willow had gone fucking insane.

Well, if that's the case, then what are you doing here, stupid, playing their little messenger, huh? Yeah, hadn't she just joined the Illuminati - temporarily, of course - to track down this vampire girl? To, you know, bring her in, train her better and all that?

Although, who the fuck would want her to train anyone? Hello? Hadn't they read her big, fat file? The one filled with red underliner, bad marks, failed tests and insulting reviews about her attitude towards authorities? Or was it the fact they didn't have anyone else fucked up enough to try and get in contact with this vampire girl? Figures, bunch of losers, as said.

Moving on!

The girl, vampire, slayer... hell, whatever, she still hadn't said a word, but Faith could tell her grip on the knife had suddenly gotten a lot, lot stronger. Faith wasn't sure if she should've been worried by now, but strangely, she wasn't. Worrying was usually waste of time, anyways.

Though, you know, maybe this was the kind of moment you were allowed to worry a little. It was the first vamp vampire slayer she'd met, for one, and she had no damn clue what kind of power source the little fox was. Did this slayer also have a slayer's powers? Or since she was a vampire, maybe vampire's then? She couldn't have combined mix of slayer and vampire strength, could she? That would suck so bad, because it would mean Faith could easily get her ass kicked by a freakin' vampire! Oh man. Not an ideal situation to be in, no.

Why hadn't she asked about these things, huh?

Seemed there was a lot of things she should've asked before taking off, but staying in their headquarters hadn't been her ideal of fun and therefore she'd done her best to keep it as short as possible. She'd gone there with the whole in-and-out policy... Sure, there'd been a few good-looking guys worth staying there, but come on, they were watchers and Faith had already decided many years ago not to go physical, little less personal, with the type. It'd been nice visiting London, especially since it was rather vampire-free area due the fact it was the headquarters of many, many Councils (like the whole England, really), but to Faith, it'd still been a little too boring there. She'd missed the action.

But it didn't change the fact she felt a little ignorant now, standing there in the middle of the night with a vampire staring at down her like a piece of meat. Maybe this was why Giles always consulted his books before doing anything at all? Faith'd always thought it was boring as hell - being slayer was funnier when you had the chance to be impulsive and spontaneous, but... during moments like these, she was finally starting to see the error of her way.

Shit!

"What do you want?" The vampire piped up - finally -, eyeing the other suspiciously. "I don't have any money if that's what you're after. And I don't do girls."

Faith blinked in surprise. Hola, hola, hola! Had the vamp just... God, no. "Hey, wow, let's back a bit there, 'kay?" She started, bringing her hands up into a defensive pose, "I ain't trying to find no hooker here, ok? Dun want your money, either."

Holy hell... Faith had experienced a thing or two during her years, sure, but it honestly was the first time a female vampire thought she was there to find a bed mate, alright. That was weird. Not really insulting, but definitely weird.

"Then what?" The vampire questioned incredulously, "Can't have the knife either, it's mine."

The fuck was wrong with this thing?!

"Yeah, whatever," Faith met, shaking her head slightly. She'd imagined their meeting to be many things, but this was nowhere near the visions her mind had played out. Blood, curse words, fighting... those were the kind of things she had expected to see and you know, compared to this, she almost missed all that stuff. At least she knew how to handle herself in a fight, and her partner too, but this kind of social occurrence...

Faith was starting to get a little nervous now. Or more like impatient. She wasn't used to this, this... chit-chatting with her opponent or whatever it was, not when they could've been fighting. Then again, with B in the same house, she'd been pop quizzed on that area more than enough...

"Look, I don't want anything from you," the brunette slayer tried explaining, growing bored, "and I'm not gonna try and hurt you, ok?"

"As if you could," the vampire served back bitingly. She didn't look so nervous anymore, not with the contemptuous expression shining all over her face.

Bitch!

"... If the situation wasn't the kind it was, I'd argue," Faith spoke, clearing her throat. Really, if the situation wasn't the kind it was, she'd have bitchslapped her to some exotic country, for sure, "but for your sake, I'll leave it at that."

The vampire snorted, but Faith chose to ignore it for now. If she'd picked on every word and sound the annoying slayer let out, they'd never get anywhere with the topic.

"Listen, maybe you've heard of me," Faith continued, "I'm Faith?" It was a question, rather than announcement, and the vampire frowned.

"You know, Lehane?" Faith added carefully, hoping to add some fuel to her memory "Known as the bad-ass rogue slayer? From Sunnydale? Buffy's friend? The one who went cockoo for awhile? Ringing any bells?" Man, what was it gonna take?! "The hot and sexy one?"

The vampire's eyes lit up out pure curiosity, telling the slayer the black hole had now been filled. She sighed.

"The one who broke out of jail?" The vampire questioned, excited.

"Yeah, well," Faith shrugged, "had a friend to help."

Yeah, figures, that was the one thing they remembered about her. That and what she knew would be a follow-up question next...

"Angel?" And there it was. Angel. "Is it true then?"

Faith felt like snorting out her frustration. Funny how it was always Angel or Buffy Summers. Or if not them, then it was about William the Bloody! God forbid anyone asking about someone else but the trio there. For real, when had someone stopped Buffy just to ask her about the infamous Faith, huh? Probably never, she figured. Not that she was bitter about it, you know, it was just that... she'd been there too, standing on the Hellmouth, killing the fuckers, just like B. The Sunnydale's slayer hadn't saved the world all by herself and it was annoying everyone seemed to forget that tiny lil piece of fact. There'd been a bunch of girls there by her side, of which many had lost their lives, but did anyone remember those young heroines? NO. All they ever cared about was the famous Summers.

Faith had learnt to care about the slayer, but still she hadn't figured out what it was that made Buffy Anne Summers so goddamn special. What was it about that scraggy girl? She had fought her destiny, refused to be a slayer and yet she was everyone's idol. Where was the sense in that?

A sound of cat meowing a warning somewhere near, brought Faith back to the moment. "Yeah, listen, I'd love to stay here and chat with ya, but these creeps out here really dun fancy me. So, could we like go find some place where we could talk?"

The other slayer just kept gawking, which was really starting to get on Faith's nerves. It was one thing to stand there out in the open if they were expecting a fight, but right now, she wasn't in the mood. No, strike that, she was in the mood - anyone would be after talking to her, but it wasn't the right time nor the place for that.

"Why would a slayer want to talk to me? You want to dust me, don't you?"

Fine, Faith couldn't blame her. If she'd been in the vampire's shoes, she was so sure she wouldn't have believed herself either, so.

"If I'd wanted that, you'd be dust."

"Don't count on it," the vampire snorted back and suddenly, Faith grinned. Couldn't accuse the girl for not having self-confidence, that was for sure.

Familiar attitude, much?

She smiled.

Could be.

Well, at least it was finally opening to her why they'd sent her there instead of some book-worm watcher. Maybe they did have something in common after all, besides the slayer blood, that was.

"Obviously you're familiar with my rep," Faith replied, letting the biting remark go unnoticed, "but not with my ego. One way or another, we should talk. I really dun wanna hurt you. Illuminati, they sent me."

"Why?"

Wish I knew.

The truth was, even Faith wasn't sure - but it wasn't like she could've told the girl that. She'd been wondering it too, though. Ah, one more thing to add to the list of 'should've asked, didn't ask' - it was starting to be one long list, alright. Too bad her usual work philosophy didn't support the massive back ground studying.

So, instead of the plain truth, she had no other choice, but to tell her the conclusion she'd come to.

"Because," she started heavily, "no matter how fucked up things are or how fucked up you are, you're still a slayer, Fielding. And well, seems you've been slaying lately. I guess they figure you'd be more useful under their wing than randomly killing stuff on the streets." Faith paused to observe her face and when it seemed she was actually listening, she continued sighing, "Seriously, can we go somewhere and just talk? I swear, cross my heart and hope to die and all that mambojambo, I won't hurt you."

"Not likely," the vampire grinned back.

"... So not gonna get into that," Faith snorted back, but with a smile tugging her lips.

The vampire was grinning. A real, genuine grin. That was a good sign, Faith noted with much pleasure. Looked like they were actually heading towards something else than a royal bitch-fight... at least that was what the contemplating look on her face told, which was why Faith chose not to say anything more, but to simply wait and see how it would turn out. Sometimes silence was the best way to go, she'd learnt that too.

"Ok, fine," the vampire gave in finally, after several moments of self-reflecting and random pondering, "I know a place. Come on."