A Jump to the Left 6
"We are going to have to invest in sturdier bedframes," one of the Anyas noted, as the four lay on the completely destroyed bed.
"A titanium coated, steel bedframe would be costly, but save us money in the long run," the other Anya agreed.
"Nah, what you do is buy a waterbed," Faith said.
"Aren't those bad for the back?" Xander asked.
"That's probably something the orthopedic mattress people made up," Faith replied. "Anyway, I'm not saying we sleep on waterbeds, I'm saying we buy them for the bedframes and stick normal mattress' on them."
"Aren't they expensive?" one of the Anyas asked.
"Everyone thinks they're bad for the back, so they went out of style," Faith explained, "makes them dirt cheap. Plus, not only are they made solid enough for a hundred gallons of water to slosh around in, they usually come with built in dressers, lights, and power plugs for alarm clocks and shit."
The Anya nearest Faith leaned over and started sucking on her neck, while the other one said, "That's brilliant!"
"In the mood again already?" Faith asked surprised.
Anya released Faith's neck. "Nope, just making sure you are marked. You are far too valuable to lose or let someone steal you from us."
Faith found herself blushing and forcing down a smile that would make her cheeks hurt.
"We should get matching tattoos," the other Anya said.
Xander gave Faith a squeeze and changed the subject, knowing Faith still wasn't fully comfortable with tender moments, "We should move into a beach house already." The table across the motel room chose that moment to collapse. "We spend far too much on room deposits we never get back."
"It's cheaper than replacing our own furniture," Anya said.
"But you have a good point," the other one agreed. "While looking at boats the realtor did try and interest us in several properties, one of which we found very hard to turn down and fits perfectly what you were saying we need, the Cranston place. It's right on the beach, built halfway into the cliff face, and has a private dock."
"We can have the keys in hand and have the utilities turned on before sunset," Anya agreed. "Six bedrooms and a full basement, right on the beach. All new appliances too."
"The couch in my basement is a bit lumpy, count me in," Xander said. "Besides, I know the place you're talking about."
"Sounds good," Faith agreed.
"We should go pack and meet you guys there," Anya said giving Faith a kiss while her other self, kissed Xander.
"The house needs a good cleaning from what we saw," one of the Anyas said, as she slipped out of bed and climbed to her feet.
"Which is why it is so cheap," the other agreed. "We'll pack up and meet you there in four hours, that'll give us enough time to get the keys and sign the papers."
The pair laid there for another five minutes after the two had left before Faith stretched and said, "I can probably fit all my stuff in a duffel bag, how about you?"
"A bit more, but not much," he replied, watching her stretch with a smile. "My lab is another matter though."
"Would it fit in a cab?" Faith asked as she got dressed, ignoring the fact that she was sticky and smelled of sex, as neither of them were desperate enough to use the bathroom here.
"I'll probably need to rent a U-haul or borrow a truck," Xander said. "No big rush to move the lab, I just don't enjoy sleeping in it and my other self and his Willow have moved into my room."
"I thought they were just 'courting'," Faith said as Xander got dressed.
"Part of that is sleeping in the same bed without having sex," Xander explained. "It's weird, but then they come from a weird culture."
"Our way's better," Faith said with a grin.
"Much," Xander agreed happily.
"Pack and meet you at your place?" she asked.
"Sounds like a plan," Xander replied. "I got something I was working on when you girls came by that I want to finish up anyway."
"Cool, meet you there," she said slipping out the door.
Faith's mood plummeted after they'd gone their separate ways and she had time to worry about how things could go wrong. The last time she'd been this happy, Diana had told Faith she was going to adopt her and then Kakistos had...
The dark haired slayer took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. The four of them had resources to call on that her watcher had never dreamed of, she just had to figure out a way to use them to keep the others safe!
Xander's Lab an hour later…
"Could you find an empty world?" Faith asked curiously as Xander carefully soldered a final connection on a toe ring with a large fake ruby on it.
"I should be able to find an empty world," Xander agreed as he turned off his soldering iron and set the ring aside to cool. "The problem is finding a safe one, or as safe as a world with no humans alive can be. What killed them could come after us, or if it's a world that never had humans, is it close enough to our Earth that we can survive there?"
"I was thinking a world with all the plants and animals and shit, just didn't evolve any people or like that empty Sunnydale where all the people died out in a onetime event," Faith explained.
"Right now, I'm finding safe worlds to jump to by looking at their TV broadcasts, something an empty world is unlikely to have. I'll see if I can't figure out a safe way to locate one for you. Why do you want an empty world anyway?" he asked.
"Anya's idea about using a boat got me thinking," Faith explained. "We could have a floating base in an empty world. It'd be as safe as you can get, no demons or humans."
"Why not have a base on land?" Xander asked.
"No people means no plumbing and I am a big fan of plumbing," Faith assured him. "Plus you get big predators on land. Boats have everything already built in and you don't have to make roads to drive around on if you want a change of scenery."
"A good sized boat out in the water with a dock so we can use a smaller boat to reach it, since we'd be using it as our home base," Xander said thoughtfully, "but that is a great idea. Let everyone think the beach house is our home, when our real home is on another world."
"Seriously?" Faith asked hopefully.
"Seriously," Xander agreed. "I'll keep an eye out for a way to safely find us an empty world, preferably one with docks already built."
"Boat's going to cost," Faith pointed out.
"As long as we can jump worlds we can make money hand over fist," Xander replied, "besides, if we jack a ship off an empty world, it's free."
Faith smiled broadly, thinking about having a home that no vampire or villain could ever break into.
"The really big boats require at least a handful of people to crew them. Be a bit hard to find people we could trust for that," Xander said thoughtfully.
"I thought yachts were like cars," Faith admitted.
"A lot of them are," Xander agreed, "but I was thinking of using an aircraft carrier for a permanent base." He rubbed his chin. "But then again most personal yachts are more like small houses on the water, which should suit us just fine, for a couple of years at least."
"You think big," Faith said, shaking her head.
"Of course, or I'd never have gotten the balls to ask you out," he told her.
Faith grinned and put her feet up on the coffee table. "At least you got good taste."
Xander smirked but before he could reply, Jessica came down the stairs.
"Xander could you please find your brother and his fiancé?" she asked nervously. "It's only an hour until sunset and they should have been home already."
"I'll take care of it," Xander promised her.
"We'll take care of it," Faith added quickly.
"Thank you," Jessica said relieved. "I know I'm probably worrying for nothing, but this is Sunnydale and they've only been here a few days."
"Better safe than sorry," Xander agreed, giving his mom a hug.
"So how we going to do this?" Faith asked once Jessica had left.
"I've got a tracker built into my gauntlet," Xander replied. "I can locate them anywhere in a ten mile radius."
"You low-jacked your clone?" Faith asked, trying not to laugh.
"I low-jacked everyone." Xander replied. "Remember when I passed out the jewelry with the chips in them?"
"I thought that was just in case we got separated off world, so we could find the portal," she replied, a hand going to her crotch.
"Yeah, but since they operate on the same wavelength, I can use my gauntlet to ping them. It's not the reason I made them, just a useful bug I can exploit."
"Cool," Faith replied. "Well, let's go find them so we can finish moving."
"Should be easy," Xander said as he put on his gauntlet, "I mean, how much trouble can they get into during the day?"
Sunnydale Park earlier that day…
Willow leaned into her Alexander's side. As hard as it was to believe, they were free, gloriously free! No longer did they have to fear the sound of boots in the night, no longer did they have to hide who and what they were!
A very different version of her love had saved them, for no other reason than it being the right thing to do. He appeared to be a sexual degenerate, but one with his heart in the right place at least. He hadn't asked what they wished to do, but instead had simply made some assumptions and some rather broad preparations to insure they were taken care of. While rude, it was not unwelcome. Now all she had to do was convince Alex to convert and her life would be complete.
Alex suddenly pushed Willow behind him and drew a knife from his belt, as he saw a nightmare come to life. The leader of the local purity bureau had come for them!
Typing by: Abyssal Angel