Disclaimer: Buffy. Angel. I own neither show. Even if I did, this probably wouldn't have been canon. Some things should just stay in the realm of fanfic.

As I said before, this is point in Faith's life is not Faith at her best. This is still a bit before she acknowledges - to herself - her self-loathing and suicidal impulses, but she still has a pretty bent perspective on the situation. Hopefully I captured her mindset accurately and fairly.

Thanks to Oxnate for beta-reading

This Year Boy

By Kylia

Chapter 4: It Might Be Fun

February 23, 2000

Outside Giles' Apartment

Faith had not planned to end up in Xander's body, and she was not happy about having it. Oh, sure, it was interesting havin' a dick, and if she had more time, she might even stop and play with it. But it was hard to walk right in it - she kept wanting to walk one way, and the boytoy's body kept wanting to do it the other way.

And interesting or not, the dick was more than a bit distracting, and she'd only had it for an hour. She'd have liked to run straight to wherever B was, switch bodies and go, but Faith wasn't an idiot, whatever Buff and Red and Xander and English - all of them - thought. She knew she had to stop and make sure she got Xander right, at least enough to pass for a couple minutes, maybe a bit more if she ran into Red or someone else first.

Kind of surprised the loser stayed in town though, especially with High School over. Was he still crushing on Buff? Still hanging around because he wanted in her pants? Which was obviously why he'd ever stuck around.

When this is over, B will be in his pants. Ironic, or some shit like that, probably.

But after working on her expressions and her Xander-isms for an hour, she was sure she had it.

The question was - where was Buffy? She could be at her dorm room, or she could be with her boyfriend; that cornfed-looking muscular guy, all blandly handsome and boring. She really dropped Angel for him?

Because it had to be Buffy that did the dropping. Xan might have said Angel did the breaking up, but Faith didn't believe that for a second. Fang had that big forever yearning, like in that stupid movie about the princess and the guy who kept screaming his name and saying 'you killed my father'. Whatever it was called.

But Buffy could be out and about, looking for her, or anything else. Good places to start with be Mrs. Summer's house, or Giles's place. Get them to call Buffy, get her there, boom, switch bodies and go.

Once she had super-strength back, it didn't really matter who B told. Faith's original body was with the Council and gonna get killed sooner or later, by the cops if not the Council. And once she was stuck in Xander's weak-ass body, Buff would be no danger at all.

Of course, what she did then was a good question. She'd been hoping to borrow B's life for a few days, a week, before she figured out just what country she could run to. Somewhere warm and tropical. B's body looked good in a swimsuit, even if she didn't have real boobs to speak of.

That wasn't gonna work now.

Finally, after a few minutes, she decided to head to Giles's place first, figure out where Buffy was and get it all done. Maybe do the switch somewhere away from everyone else, leave B unconscious in this body. She'd threatened to nick Xander's throat and leave him out for the vamps. Maybe she should do that to Buffy, once she was in this body.

Would serve that self-righteous bitch right, after trying to feed her to Angel.

Faith tried to flip her knife, and only managed to drop the damn thing. Fucking shit. Useless fucking body. Clumsy as shit too.

But still, Faith managed to get to Giles's place. The lights were on inside, and she headed for the door, then paused as she saw something through the window.

Something familiar.

Hesitating, Faith stepped away from the door, back to the window, and peered in through it.

And saw herself.

Shit.

There she was - Xander was, in her body - looking uncomfortable and shit, with Buffy and Red and Giles and some other chick she didn't recognize. Brown hair, kinda pretty, makeup. Some new member of the pathetic scooby gang. She was standing closest to Xander, and looked even more unhappy than he did.

Have time for everyone but me. Sounded just like that. None of them had really even pretended to like having her around but B, and look how that fuckin' turned out.

How the fuck did Xander escsape the Council goons so quick? Didn't they chain him up or something? Or did B rescue him - and he convinced her who he was? Like out of those stupid space shows she'd sometimes watched on re-run at 2 in the morning. Star Walk or something like that. She refused to actually remember the name on principle.

She wasn't a fuckin' nerd.

Xander was, though.

The how didn't fucking matter, not now. She had to move, now, before they saw her. Faith pulled the gadget the Mayor had left to her out of her pocket, considering breaking it, so they couldn't force her back.

She wasn't going to prison, that was for sure.

But after a moment, she decided not to. No, she didn't want to stay stuck in Xander's body forever. She liked being a chick, liked being able to get men to do whatever she wanted. They were all just animals driven by their dicks.

She watched her body hug the new chick, and Xander's dick proved to be a perfect example of that problem.

Christ, how do men get anything done with-

Oh right, they didn't.

Faith chuckled at her own joke and hurried away as quickly and quietly as she could in this useless-as-shit body. She didn't want to stay Xander forever - guy's loserness might rub off on her - and she wanted a chick's body back. But after being a Slayer for a year, then losing it for an hour, Faith had no interest in being some weak-ass bitch again either.

Gotta find someone strong to switch with. Athlete, maybe, or just some woman who spent too much time at the gym. Gotta be hot too. That was important.

And if she's rich, even better.

Not that that wasn't a tall order.

She looked down at the device again once she slowed down a couple blocks from Giles's place, before sticking it back into her pocket.

Of course, even someone strong wouldn't be as good as being a slayer. Not when slayers were tough enough to go up against...

Vampires.

Faith smiled to herself as that thought occurred. She could always find a vampire to swap with, right? Strength, speed, hard to kill - no more getting stabbed in the gut. And sure, a stake in the heart would kill her.

But humans went down to that too.

Would suck to have to avoid the sun, but then, I've always been kind of a night person anyway...

The thought of a liquid diet, all blood, didn't really appeal to her, but she figured, once she was in a vampire body, she'd have vampire taste buds, right? So she'd probably love the taste of it when the time came, right?

Better than being... normal. Never normal again. Never gonna be weak enough to let people take advantage of her. Not again.

But where would she find a vampire she could switch with safely? Especially in this...

Angel.

It was perfect. He was in L.A., which she could get to by bus easy. Then she had to find him, but once she did. Well, Fang didn't like Xan - the way he'd punched him when he pretended to be... when he pretended to be interesting, made that clear - but being all good guy and shit meant he wouldn't attack Xander either.

Tell him B's dead, let him suffer a bit, grab his hand while he's distracted... switch...

Wouldn't that be a great way to stick it to B? And to Angel - leave him stuck in Xander's body. Hell, she'd be doing him a favor - dumbass always wanted to be a real boy.

Now that she had the idea, she knew she had to do it. It would be too perfect. She could steal Angel's body, find herself the right lady vamp to switch into, and then she'd dust the body behind her - and there's no way that anyone would ever find her after that.

And then, someday, I'll come back. I'll show B. I'll give them all what they deserve, in the end.

But only after she'd had her fun.

And, if I get to be a vampire... no aging. Living forever. Faith liked the sound of that too.

That settled it. Take a bus to L.A. Find Angel. Switch bodies. Then switch again, once she'd found the right vamp to be.

Faith checked Xander's wallet. Not a lot of cash, but he did have a card. Enough to get to L.A.

As she moved as quickly as she could to the bus stop - not realizing just how dead the local nightlife was - Faith came to a few other decisions. It would take her a bit of time to find Angel. Time she could spend having a bit of fun.

Sure, she hadn't wanted to be a guy, didn't want to stay that way, but she had been curious what a blowjob felt like on the other end. And now she had a chance. Boytoy wasn't all that bad to look at, when he shut up. He could do with different clothes though. Dumbass looked stupid in this outfit.

That, and he had no fuckin' game. Xander couldn't talk a girl into sleeping with him to save his life. But Faith- well, Faith knew she had game. The best game. Be different, maybe, but she could totally do it. Have a bit of fun.

Not like Xander was ever getting his body back anyway.

If the Council had just done their fucking job and killed me- him. Grumbling mentally, Faith went back to figuring out what fun she was gonna have on the way to Angel.

February 24, 2000

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale

Xander's dreams had been... weird.

Unsurprisingly, more than a few of them had been sex-related. What he could remember of them, anyway. But most of them had featured sex while he was not... he.

I mean, I did just... yeah, last night. Still. Weird. And super-weird, Cordy had featured in them. Which was doubly of the weird. Sure, he occasionally thought about his ex, but he hadn't had any... well, sex dreams about her since Anya and him had started getting serious. Which was probably for the best.

Anya was pretty much the jealous type.

Regardless, Xander had woken up, a bit of a spring in his step. He was going to get his body back today - fingers crossed, knock on wood - and everything would be back to normal. Willow would buy the ingredients for the tracking spell, they'd find Faith, do the body switching magic and he'd be himself again.

Assuming all the magic worked like it was supposed to.

Let's just hope and pray with that, 'kay? Xander put his money where his mouth was and even offered a prayer to baby jesus about it. He really wasn't much for it, but he'd take every little advantage he could get today.

It was still early though - Faith's body hadn't needed much sleep, even with how late he'd actually fallen asleep and how exhausted he'd felt. Lacking anything else to do, Xander sat in front of the TV, munching on some toast - he was starving - with the TV on. Some stupid re-run or something. He wasn't really paying close attention.

He was halfway through reaching for the remote when the show cut out all of a sudden, with a breaking news logo, switching to the anchor behind the desk.

"We interrupt this program to bring you this special report - three unknown individuals, believed to be gang members, have attacked a church and taken the parishioners hostage. We now go live to our reporter on the scene."

The moment the words 'gang members' came out of the guy's mouth, Xander was jumping and reaching for the phone. He pulled up short before he grabbed it, hesitating, not wanting to break the thing. He'd left visible indentations in the coffee table when he'd knocked on wood; small, but totally there.

"...barricaded themselves inside the church, with over twenty parishioners. All three have been described as frighteningly disfigured, almost inhuman."

"Hello?" Willow's voice on the other end of the line said, sounding chipper. Willow the morning person struck again.

"Will, is Buffy there?"

"Fa- Xander," Willow stumbled for a moment, forgetting who she was talking to. "Yeah, she's here."

"We've got vampires with hostages - or at least 'deformed gang members', according to the local news," Xander scoffed. Did the local news actually believe that, or did they just hope everyone else did? Given that the Mayor had been trying to become a giant demon, Xander was pretty sure at least some of the cops in town knew and had just been covering things up when they blamed PCP and BBQ forks.

"In broad daylight?!" Willow raised her voice a little.

"Broad daylight," Xander nodded. "They went for a church," he looked back at the news report, trying to place which church - out of Sunnydale's forty-three - it was. "Graceful Restoration Church," he added. "Twenty hostages, at least three vampires. Police are already outside, trying to 'negotiate' with them, or something." he could only guess, anyway, by all the cops around the place.

"A church in broad daylight?" Buffy said from the other side, after Willow relayed that information, the slayer speaking loud enough for Xander to easily hear. "What kind of idiots are these vampires?"

"Buffy," Xander said loudly, "these are vamps. Most of them aren't really that good at the thinking - case in point, they always think they can beat you."

"Right. I'm on my way. Xander, can you meet me there?" Buffy said, apparently having grabbed the phone.

"Me, Buffy, you're the slay-" Oh, right. "Okay, look, I'd love to have the chance to beat up a vamp or two before-"

"I can handle three vampires," Buffy said confidently, "but handling three and keeping twenty hostages safe? You've got slayer strength, and it's not the same, but staking a vamp in the heart is the same no matter what, Xander!"

Xander took a breath. He was so used to having to stay back, away from the fighting - he'd killed a few vamps here and there, yeah, and he was always willing to if he had to, but -

His first instinct had been to stay back, and now - now he didn't need to. "Right, sorry. Just... not used to thinking of myself as able to get into the middle of the fight." Then he cursed, as another thought occurred "But the cops-"

"I'll do something to distract them, a spell or something," Willow suggested.

"Alright. I'm on my way," Xander hung up the phone and hurried into the kitchen, where Mrs. Summers was making herself some breakfast. "Mrs. Summers, tell me you have a stake and some holy water in the house?"

"Of course - I keep it by the door." Mrs. Summers said, showing him where both items were in the small table next to the door. "What's going on?"

"Vampires at Graceful Restoration." At Mrs. S's surprised expression, Xander nodded. "Yeah, vamps in a church in broad daylight. Go figure. Buffy's on her way, but she wants me there, to help get the hostages out. Since I've got Faith's strength while I'm in her body."

"Stay safe." Mrs. Summers said after a moment, handing him the stake and the holy water.

"I am not dying in this body," Xander said, feeling a bit less confident than he sounded. But with Slayer strength - he could handle one vamp, at least, right? Besides, Buffy needed his help. He was going to give it.

February 24, 2000

Graceful Restoration Church, Sunnydale

Xander reached the church, having a much easier time of walking and running today, after a single stumble early on, and ducked behind a tree, avoiding the notice of any of the cops who had parked their cars in a half-circle around the entrance, in case the 'gang members' tried to leave through the front door.

Yeah, fat chance of that. Xander wondered how they'd gotten inside. Sewer connection in the basement, or had they just gotten in during the night and waited?

One of the cops was talking to a guy in a suit that looked familiar, then the guy turned a little. Riley! Right. The Initiative would be on it, coming to capture the vamps if they could. At the very least stop the cops from getting killed.

But as much as Xander liked Riley, he didn't see any of the soldier boys coming, which meant they were still on their way. She saw Buffy and Willow arrive, another woman in tow, long blonde hair, wearing a tan sweater and a long brown skirt or something. Who is that?

Riley saw them as well and hurried over to Buffy. Willow looked around, and Xander quickly stepped out from behind the tree, catching her attention before ducking back, so no cops saw him. She nodded, then quickly stepped back herself. She moved her hands around a bit, saying something quietly and then tossed some sort of powder in the air.

There was a sound of a loud crack, like thunder in the middle of a storm, and a big light show, like fireworks or something - it was hard to tell in broad daylight - behind her and off to the side, drawing the attention of everyone, including the cops.

Well, as distractions go...

Xander moved as quickly as he could, crossing the distance and slipping between two cars to reach Riley and Buffy.

"...if they're still mobilizing, how did you get here so fast?"

"I was already on my way - I was just late for church."

"Picked the right day to oversleep," Xander chimed in, unable to help himself. Riley and Buffy both turned towards him.

"Xander! Good. You have a -" Xander held up the stake and holy water.

"Borrowed from your mom. I'll give them back."

"Xander!? What are you - wait, this is Faith, that other evil-"

"No, it's not Faith. She just stole my body because she's wanted for murder, and hunted by the Watchers' Council," Xander interrupted.

"Trust me, it's Xander. He convinced us all last night. We were going to go try and find Faith in Xander's body when this happened," Buffy assured Riley. "But right now, Xander's got all the slayer strength Faith had."

"Right..." Riley nodded slowly, still taking it in. "Body switching. That's a thing?"

"Apparently it is. I didn't know it was a thing until Faith held me at knifepoint then I suddenly was looking at myself and had boobs," Xander gestured to the offending body parts momentarily. "So yeah, it's a thing. We can worry about this after the vamps, right?"

"Right," Riley shook his head. "And to think it all used to be just simple Hostile Sub Terrestrials," he added, muttering, then shook his head. "Look, the troops are still mobilizing-"

"We don't need to wait for them. But we'll be sending the hostages out. Help everyone that doesn't have fangs," Buffy said, cutting Riley off. She headed for the Church, Xander right behind her. He saw a familiar look on Riley's face - one he'd had more than a few times. No one liked being relegated to the back, and Riley at least was a badass soldier-type.

But he didn't have much time to feel sympathetic, as Buffy reached the door. Xander moved quickly to be right there when she opened the door and stepped inside, her own stake at the ready.

When they walked in, one of the vampires was holding onto an old man, about to lean in and bite his throat, but he dropped the guy back on the pew bench and growled.

"I told the cops: they send anyone in, I start the whole massacre thing."

"Good thing I'm not the cops then," Buffy quipped.

"No, you're just an appetizer," the same vampire said. He had to be the leader of this little trio of geniuses.

"Let's think about this," Buffy said, walking towards him. "Blonde hair, stake in hand, walks into a room with three vampires, not afraid at all. Can you do that math without resorting to using your fingers?"

Apparently he could. "Slayer," the vampire growled.

"Right. So you know how this probably goes, right?" Buffy said.

"It goes with my buddy killing your friend, first," the vampire said, and then one of the other vampires ran quickly from his place by door towards Xander. Reacting faster than he'd ever been able to before, Xander turned around towards the guy and punched out - and missed the guy entirely, since he dodged the blow at the last second, and grabbed onto his neck.

Xander felt his breath catch as the grip tightened. He hesitated for a moment, but just a moment - he thumbed the top off the holy water bottle off in his left hand and then threw some into the vampire's face, making him let go and stagger back. Before he could recover, Xander punched again, getting him in the face and making him stagger back. There was the sound of fighting as Buffy and the other two vamps started going at each other, but Xander was a little busy as the vamp came at him again.

This time it was a punch from the vampire to his head, almost connecting, but Xander ducked. He punched the vampire's kneecap, hearing him cry out in pain. Oops. He hadn't meant to do more than make him stumble, but from the way he staggered back - and the way his own hand hurt, he might have done a lot more than that.

Slayer strength. Gotta get used to it. Well, or not, but still.

Not letting the vamp have a moment to get his footing, Xander punched again, getting the guy square in the chest, and then another punch - this one sent him staggering back flying into the wall.

"Holy crap, did you see that!" Xander exclaimed, feeling a rush as the vampire struggled to get back up. Out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw Buffy dealing with the other two vamps, so no, she probably hadn't.

Still, that was cool!

Xander held up the stake and grabbed the vamp by the front of his shirt, yanking him into a standing position even easier than he'd thought it would be and drove the stake into his heart - which was also so much easier. He barely was able to pull the stake back and stop it from disintegrating along with the vampire.

He felt a real rush as the vampire dusted, almost a high, like he was buzzed or something, though it only lasted a few moments. Still, it distracted him for that time, and he stood the, probably looking like an idiot before shaking his head and...

Okay, hostages, hostages. Xander turned to the parishioners, who were all sort of still seated, frozen in fear and confusion as they watched Buffy fight the two remaining vampires.

"Come on, let's go," Xander said, grabbing an older woman by the hand and pulling her to her feet, trying to be as gentle as he could. "Go, go," he hurried to the doors and kicked them open. That seemed to be enough to jostle the parishioners into action and they got up, hurrying out, a few screaming or crying out in fear as things registered for them, but they were all getting out.

Xander turned back to the fighting to see Buffy take out one vampire, then spin and kick the other into the wall. She dealt with that one moments later.

She turned and saw the last of the hostages leaving.

"You got the other one?"

"Yeah," Xander said, unable to help smiling a little. "It was - it was kinda cool. And so much easier than normal."

"Normal for you, maybe."

"No, I mean just the whole getting the stake in the heart in the first place - so much easier with slayer strength." Xander clarified. "And all the rest too, but... is that what it's like for you every night?" He asked quickly, just about bouncing on his feet - the rush was still sorta there, even if it wasn't quite as distracting.

"It's not always as easy - some vampires actually know how to put up a fight," Buffy cautioned.

"Oh, go and ruin my fun why don't you?" Xander said. Then he looked back at the inside of the church. "What the hell was up with these vamps? Why would they do this?" he tried to think. "I mean, I wasn't always paying attention, but I don't think I ever heard about 'gangs on PCP' doing anything in churches."

"What do you think it was, then?" Buffy asked as they stepped outside. The cops were distracted by the rescued hostages for the moment, but that would only take so long, and it wasn't enough for him to get out. They were probably watching for any sign of the culprits leaving. Which meant his best bet was out through the sewers and electrical tunnels. Ick. If he was lucky, it would be an old and unused one. But this was Sunnydale - there'd be a way into the sewers from the basement.

The second the cops saw his face - which they hadn't yet, and he wasn't really that far from the church - they were going to see him if he moved any further, or if he didn't go back inside and out another way soon.

"Well, in Sunnyhell, when something is abnormal, what do we normally do? Blame the big bad for the year," Xander suggested, shrugging.

"Which would be ADAM."

"He of the cyborg demon parts, yep," Xander nodded. "Not that I have any clue why he would have vamps do this, but..." he shrugged helplessly.

"Well, we can figure it out. In the meantime, you should get out of here, and Willow and Tara can go get the stuff they need to find Faith." Buffy said, as the cops started to finish up with the former hostages. Xander quickly stepped around Buffy and back inside the Church.

"Tara? Is that who that other girl was?"

Buffy nodded, "Apparently she's a witch, and a new friend of Willow's. Willow thinks she can help with the tracking and making a Katro spell to switch your body back, once we find Faith."

"Huh. Cool." His oldest and bestest friend didn't make new friends easily, but if she'd found a friend who shared her enthusiasm for magic, Xander was happy for her. " Well, I'm all for anything that gets me my body back faster and easier," though even as he said it, Xander wondered if he could delay things for a bit. Have another chance to slay some more vampires.

He sighed, "Well, I need to leave a different way, so... meet you at Giles's place." And hope to God he didn't get lost down there.

And... well... maybe a bit more time with the whole... fun time stuff. Now that he'd had the chance to get a bit familiar with Faith's body like that, the idea of maybe having a bit of fun with Anya while in this body sounded more appealing than it had last night. After all, he still had a tongue.

Not that he wanted to mention that notion to anyone but Anya. definitely not to Buffy. Or really the idea of delaying for a couple days. While it might be fun, it probably wasn't worth being stuck as Faith, wanted criminal.

Though it really had been fun, being able to really just knock that vamp around so easily.