Distance

Disclaimer: I own nothing; just borrowing a while.

Part two

Buffy found her eyes drifting back towards Faith subconsciously, even as her mind was occupied with fretful, indignant thoughts of her sister with the guy, a guy that she was probably too ashamed to introduce her sister- but not Andrew or anyone else in the world, apparently- to. As she eyed Faith and her wild movements on the dance floor, it crossed her mind that Robin Wood would have simply rolled his eyes at Faith's current display of aggressively flirtacious behavior. He had never been the jealous type, which a person would usually think would be a must for anyone seriously dating Faith for any length of time…but on second thought, maybe that was a liability. Maybe Faith wanted someone who was jealous for her, someone who wanted her to be all theirs instead of letting her do whatever she wanted with whoever she wanted without much caring, as long as they got some too.

Buffy had been surprised they'd stuck it out as long as they had- not only had she always figured that Faith was allergic to relationships lasting longer than two hours, but the two of them were both so cocky and stubborn that she would have thought a day together would have made them want to kill each other. And it had, countless times, many that she had personally witnessed with part irritation, part amusement. But they had regardless been together for nearly seven months, broke it off just over a week ago, under circumstances that Faith had not talked about and Buffy hadn't asked for an elaboration on. Maybe that was the reason behind Faith's show tonight- to prove to everyone that she was over Robin and no longer cared, that she was every bit as hot and wild as ever and willing to demonstrate it to anyone who came close.

Or maybe she was just being Faith and having a good time. Since when had Buffy turned into Dr. Phil anyway? Maybe Faith was right and she really did need to learn to find the fun more.

Buffy continued to slowly sip her soda- she hadn't been about to continue drinking her daiquiri after leaving it unattended for so long- and continued to keep a look-out for vampires or demons as she watched her friends, her eyebrows raising at the impressive amount of alcohol they were putting away. Yeah, tomorrow would definitely be a bad time for an apocalypse to decide to show itself…

Within a half hour, restless and more headachey than before, she decided to call it a night. The fact that Dawn and her apparently secret boyfriend/face-sucking partner had not yet arrived failed to escape her notice, so she headed over to the couch where Willow and Kennedy were sprawled out, beers scattered on the floor at their feet, limbs entwined as their mouths worked together enthusiastically, and cleared her throat loudly, making them jump and hurriedly pull back.

"I'm heading home, Will- whenever you see Dawn, make sure she's somewhat sober and that she gets home, okay? And tell Xander to look out for her too, because obviously me doing that is no longer an option in everyone's secretive collective guy-hiding mindset."

"What?" Willow asked in confusion, her brow scrunching as she looked up at Buffy, her face slightly flushed, her head still tilted close to Kennedy's, arms loosely around the younger Slayer's neck. Buffy could tell from the brightness of her eyes and the way her loose smile lingered, even as her eyebrows drew together, that she too was somewhat intoxicated and more than a little happy with her current whereabouts with her girlfriend. "But Buffy, it's your birthday! You can't be the first to leave- aren't you having fun?"

"Yeah, it was fun," Buffy said less than convincingly, giving her a quick and mostly forced smile, "but I think I've celebrated enough for one night. And hey, no spooky demons, murdering monsters, and multiple near death incidents makes this all a huge success compared to all my other birthdays, right?"

"I was hoping for that!" Willow said happily, sitting up further and leaning towards Buffy a little, beaming. "I said a little spell for good fortune and openness of spirit, and look, no closed spirits, which, which means everyone is having a good time, and plus, no demons! Because, because demons probably have closed spirits, so that's like…a double, a double spell banishing…thing…"

"You are so cute, babe," Kennedy laughed, cutting Willow off with a deep kiss that made Willow giggle and Buffy quickly look away.

"Great…uh, great, thanks, Will, good job," she said less than whole-heartedly. She scanned the crowd for Dawn quickly one more time, and not finding her, turned back to Willow.

"So, see you later…uh, thanks, Will…"

"Bye, Buffy! Don't let the vampires bite!" Willow giggled, and Kennedy smirked, nuzzling her girlfriend's neck as she pulled her down close beside her again, cutting her eyes up at Buffy.

"You can let other things bite though, might do you some good," the brunette grinned.

As Willow giggled, Buffy felt her jaw tense unconsciously as she turned, beginning to squeeze her way through the crowd in an attempt to make her way towards the front door. She instantly stiffened when a warm hand suddenly snagged her shoulder; even before the person attached to it spun her around, Buffy already knew and sensed that it would be Faith who had once again stopped her in her tracks.

"What's with you trying to take off all the time lately…you taking over my job here?"

Buffy pressed her lips together tightly, her eyes shifting with frustration towards the door even as Faith turned her to face her. When she looked back at the other Slayer, it was immediately clear that Faith's previous state of being perhaps slightly drunk had shifted in the past half hour to being very, obviously, no-doubt-about-it drunk. Even standing still, holding onto Buffy's shoulder in what Buffy suspected was as much to keep herself balanced as to keep Buffy from leaving, Faith was swaying slightly on her feet, and not exactly in time with the rapid beat of the music surrounding them either. She was grinning, dimples in view in her cheeks, her face slightly flushed, eyes glinting brightly, and as she leaned in close to Buffy, her hand tightening on her shoulder, Buffy almost choked at the strong scent of alcohol emanating from her breath. God, did she drink an entire liquor store or somewhat?

Figures. There was no such thing as a fast and easy escape in the case of Buffy Summers and her life, was there?

"Let go, Faith," Buffy said, scrunching up her nose and turning her head away from Faith in a slightly exaggerated cough in response to her booze-laden breath, her voice holding more than a slight edge of tension and irritation, and she peeled Faith's fingers off her shoulder, gritting her teeth when Faith merely clamped it right back on again. "I'm going home."

"Hoooome? But party's barely started…you're not leaving yet…party barely started," Faith exclaimed, much more loudly than necessary. She gave Buffy a little shake for emphasis, still speaking with her face entirely too close for Buffy's comfort- close enough that to Buffy's repulsion, she felt a few specks of Faith's spittle spray her cheek.

Making an indignant sound of disgust, Buffy wiped at her cheek, pulling away again.

"Well it's over for me, Faith…and honestly, it probably should be for you too. You're probably not going to be able to even move in the morning," Buffy warned her with a raised eyebrow.

She thought to herself partly with annoyance, partly with begrudging concern, that she had never seen Faith so wasted before- and this was the girl that could stoically toss back an amount of alcohol that would have pickled Buffy's brain and inner intestines like a…well, pickle. Buffy suspected if she had seen before her eyes and counted everything the woman had consumed that evening in the past few hours she would have been either very awed that she was still alive or else very scared…or maybe both.

"Aw, you're no fun, B," Faith almost whined, and the tone of her voice made Buffy's eyebrows raise up even further, surprise temporarily overriding her frustration. She had never heard Faith speak in any tone anywhere approaching that before. Complaining, sometimes, bitching, yes, sarcasms and put downs, definitely, but whining? Whining was Dawn's department- and very, very, very occasionally, so rare as to be hardly worth mentioning, of course, and by no means as often as her sister's, Buffy's.

But that had definitely just been a whine, and now Faith was somewhat clumsily flinging her arm around Buffy's neck and leaning her head close, attempting to turn and steer her towards the still-crowded dance floor.

"You're no fun…here, lemme help you find it…"

"FAITH, I said I wasn't dancing, and I SAID I was leaving!" Buffy ground out, twisting away from her, or rather attempting to, but although Faith would have likely found it impossible to walk in a straight line if asked, she held onto Buffy doggedly, her arm around Buffy's neck practically choking her, fingernails cutting into Buffy's arm as she yelled back at her.

"Hey…hey, stop! You're gonna come have some fun…it's your birthday, gotta find the fun, B!"

"FAITH!" Buffy yelped, but Faith, having managed to drag her along by pure force to the edge of the dance floor, now immediately locked her arms around Buffy's back in a full bodily embrace, swaying rapidly and grinding herself against Buffy so that Buffy had no choice but to unwillingly sway along with her, to feel every inch of Faith's body rubbing against her own, whether or not she wanted to. Which, she told herself indignantly, she very, very much did NOT want to.

"FAITH!" she nearly screeched, twisting her body forcefully in an attempt to break this hold, but Faith, apparently interpreting this as Buffy returning her full on freak dancing in kind, merely laughed in seeming enjoyment, rocking their bodies back and forth even more rapidly, only laughing harder when she nearly lost balance and toppled them both over onto the ground.

"Damn…getting the hang of it, B…knew you'd find the fun…"

"Faith, get OFF me," Buffy hissed, her muscles tensed, heartbeat speeding, flushing with anger, embarrassment, and growing agitation at her position. God, Faith was INFURIATING!

All she wanted was to go home, and now she was at the mercy of a very drunk, very strong, and very stubborn Slayer who seemed immune to understanding yelled protests, attempts to violently release herself, and resistance of all forms…if anything, Faith seemed to take it as signals that she was doing a good job of showing Buffy a good time.

She would.

You would think that in prison, Faith would have developed a need for privacy and personal space, seeing as she had probably been given so little of it, but clearly this was not the case, as Buffy could now practically count the woman's ribs just by feeling each of them pressed so closely against hers. Pairing this with the grinding, the twisting, the almost stifling warmth of her skin against Buffy's, her rapid breaths frequently landing against Buffy's neck, the excited pounding of her heart against Buffy's…and the fact that it had been quite a while since Buffy had been so close to anyone, for any reason…all that, despite her extreme frustration was enough to make Buffy just the tiniest bit aroused.

And that was bad. That was very, very bad.