Big thanks to the people who left reviews for the teaser, it's always nice to know people are enjoying this series. I'm going to devide act 1 into three parts so that I can keep updating and writing regularly. So the next installment of act1 will be up in the next 10 days, I (tentatively) promise. Any and all feedback is welcome.
It was early in the morning, a lot earlier than Faith generally wanted to be up now she didn't have alarms going off and guards barging into her room without permission. It was so early the outside was in that in-between stage – not still dark, still not light.
It was a stupid time to be up, but Faith was wide awake, the size of her eyes proof enough. She was showered and dressed already and Xander was going to have a heart attack when she turned up for work without him having to yell at her a half dozen times first.
Not that work was first on her agenda. She had something more important to do first. Something that had seemed a lot easier when she first thought of it the night before.
She was standing in her bedroom – which still smelled of Willow's candles and Kennedy's muscle rub – staring hard into her mirror. One hand was either side of it, palms flat on the wall, her face just inches from her reflection. She used to do this in prison a lot, when she had to calm herself down or give herself a talking to. It worked… sometimes, and the familiarity was helping her some – God knew, nothing else about living here was familiar to her.
"You can do this," she was muttering to herself, low enough so that no one walking by would hear. "You can do this. It's not that damn hard. Everyone else in the freakin' world has done this a thousand times, so there's no reason I can't – and do it a damn sight better for sure."
She let go of the wall and straightened her back, but didn't take her eyes from her own.
"All I gotta do is go out there and ask. Just ask, simple right? Not like she's gonna say no."
Faith ran a shaky hand down her face, closing her eyes briefly. What if she did say no? What if she really did just wanna park her ass in front of the TV? She was gonna have a wicked long day as it was, maybe the thought of adding to it was the last thing she wanted.
"Maybe I should just wait until she mentions it," Faith thought aloud, dropping her self-staring match to examine her thumb nail. "After all, nothing in the rule book says I gotta be the one to make the first move."
Faith gave herself a little shake, frowning at the mirror.
She was trying to talk herself out of it, and why? Because she was scared of a little rejection? Please? If she wasn't used to that by now, what the hell was she used to? And she knew exactly why she had to make the first move, because Buffy was waiting for it. She'd dropped her hint the night before, and Faith had already lost points for not doing it before hints were dropped. The best thing she could do here was prove she'd caught it right away, because Buffy probably wasn't expecting that. So in a way, it was almost like she'd had the idea herself.
Deciding to quit her overanalysing while she was ahead, Faith took a deep breath and went looking for the blonde Slayer.
The alarm clock was blaring again and Kennedy couldn't ignore it any more, as much as she'd like to. Willow had already hit snooze three times in her sleep.
The Slayer sat up groggily, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. "Willow."
She mumbled something in her sleep and rolled Kennedy's way before snuggling her cheek back into her pillow.
"Will." Kennedy tried again, leaning over her girlfriend to smack the alarm on its head.
Blissful silence returned to the dark bedroom and Kennedy fought the urge to lie back down and sleep. The digital display on the clock already read 5:30, but that wasn't really her problem. She hadn't agreed to go on a day trip with her ex at stupid o clock in the morning. Maybe if she let Willow oversleep, Buffy and Osborne would have to go without her.
But then Willow would wake and be upset, not necessarily with her, but just in general, and Kennedy didn't want to be the cause of that.
Willow was really excited about this werewolf outreach program thing, over the moon at being able to participate in Council work that had nothing to do with magic for once.
Kennedy knew the witch was still reeling inside from the magical use and abuse of a couple of weeks ago; not wanting to do anything related just now except the control exercises Althenea was emailing to her.
Kennedy sighed deeply; she just didn't understand why Willow had to choose a project with her former boyfriend to be her extra-curricular activity.
"Willow!" She poked the woman in her shoulder, Slayer-hard.
"Ow, I'm up, I'm up!" Willow sat up instantly, her eyes still closed as she swayed back and forth a little. "Is it demons?"
Kennedy chuckled at Willow's sleepy reaction, but it died all too quickly.
"Actually, yeah. You're ex will be by to pick you up in…" Kennedy looked at the clock again. "Less than twenty minutes."
"Huh?" Willow yawned comfortably, but then her eyes shot open. "Oh shoot, I overslept?" She jumped out of the bed.
"Just a little. No need to panic; I'm pretty sure he'll wait for you."
'I'm pretty sure he's only going because of you,' she added in her head as she watched Willow race around the room grabbing clothes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so abrupt," Willow apologised as she pulled a pair of red cords from a drawer. "Please don't think snuggle time is being neglected easily here. It's just we have to be on the road just after six if we want to meet the woman this morning. She's going away this afternoon."
Kennedy had to smile at that, although it was a sad smile. The two of them hadn't had snuggle time in over two weeks now. "I know, its okay, go."
Willow gave her a grateful smile – making Kennedy's generosity feel almost worth it – and came over to give her a kiss goodbye. "I'll miss you."
"You're only going for a day, Will," Kennedy reminded her with a brighter smile. "But, just so you know, I'll miss you too."
"Really?" Willow bent down to grope for her shoes under the bed, but she kept her eyes above the edge so she could still see Kennedy.
"Yes."
Willow jumped up to give her one last kiss.
"Hey, I got you these last night." Kennedy threw Willow a big bag of Milk duds from the cinema. "Take them as travel snacks."
"Oh!" Willow beamed. "That's so sweet, thank you."
"You welcome." She watched Willow walk to the door.
On the threshold Willow looked back at her, she was still smiling, but her eyes were serious. "And just a thought, Sweetie, but if you stop referring to Oz as my 'Ex' all the time, you might get over it quicker."
Willow delivered the blow and then she was gone before Kennedy could offer a come back. Not that she knew what she'd say. Shaking her head irritably she flopped back down on the bed, hoping to go back to sleep
Buffy was asleep at the kitchen table with a miraculously unspilled mug of coffee held between the palms of her hands and her breasts.
Xander smiled at the sight as he came down the back stairs in search of breakfast. He'd gotten used to being up this early during his one-man-construction-crew-nervous-breakdown stage and it hadn't quite worn off yet now he had help. Buffy, though, wasn't usually up until well after the sun had started its day.
"Buffy?" he said her name gently as he leaned over the table towards her. "Buff, if cups were teddy-bears they'd be fluffier… plus they'd have, like, ears and stuff."
She took a deep breath through her nose as her eyes flickered open; her exhale came out as "Hmmm?"
"If cups were… never mind." By the looks of her doziness, it would be a while before she was ready for his high quality wi-partee. No point wasting the material. "You're gonna get coffee on your shirt if you're not careful."
"What?" Yawning she lifted a hand to rub her eye and dislodged the cup from its heavenly resting place. "Oops."
She caught it in time, but checked for spillages all the same. Chuckling, Xander went to the cupboard and started shaking cereal boxes to check their quantities.
"Does something not look right to you?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know," she mumbled through another yawn. "Something just doesn't look right."
Xander gave the kitchen a cursory look as he went for a spoon, before turning to Buffy for a clue. She was still inspecting her chest.
"I'm not gonna comment," he decided was the safest thing to say. He may have been an expert on the chest-ular area Buffy was sleepily glaring at, but he'd learnt years ago that his seminars on the subject weren't welcome. "So, what time's Oz swinging by?"
Buffy stretched as she looked up at the kitchen clock. "Another twenty minutes; but I don't mind if he wants to be tardy."
Pushing the mug away from her, she crossed her arms on the table top and settled her head on them.
Xander sat down opposite with his bowl of Honey Loops. "So are you ready for today?"
"What's to be ready for? This is Willow and Oz's thing. I'm just going to make sure their thing stays this thing and doesn't become another thing endangering Oz's thing to Kennedy's hunting knife."
"I didn't know the original crossbow queen even had a hunting knife."
"She's going to buy one especially." Buffy smiled at Xander's quiet laughter. "But I don't think she'll need to bother. Even if I wasn't going. Nothing's going on there. Will swears blind the kiss was tied into the spell-thing and I can't see Oz wanting to rekindle things after all this time…"
"He does."
"What does he?"
Xander finished another mouthful of cereal before he clarified. "Oz, not so much with the platonic feelings for our Will."
Buffy mused on that for a second, "Nu-uh, I think you're barking up the wrong tree there, Xan. If Oz were interested, I think there would have been a sign by now, don't you? Maybe a very stoic sign, but still something in the signage family."
"Like him telling me, you mean?" Xander slurped some milk from his spoon. "Not particularly stoic, but still pretty signy."
Buffy sat up again, blinking at him. "He told you?"
Xander nodded. Buffy's face fell as she digested that. When it had fully sunk in, she looked annoyed.
"Well, why didn't you tell me?"
"Because for one: we're not in high school anymore. Meaning, I can keep a secret without feeling guilty about it. And for two: we're not in high school anymore. Meaning, I was really hoping not to be a part of another Willow and Oz love triangle. Not even indirectly."
"But, Xander, if Oz really does want… what you say he said," Buffy whispered, casting an eye to the stairs to make sure they were alone. "That is so far from good, its not even funny bad."
"I agree, but that still doesn't make me wanna get involved." Xander finished his cereal and got up to make some fresh coffee. "Besides, I wouldn't know what side to get involved on. I think Kennedy's cool, really, but… I also think Oz is cool, and anyway, how many lesbians do we really need in the family? We're already over our sitcom quota now Faith's back."
Buffy looked at him sharply, "You have a problem with lesbians now, Mister I-kissed-lots-of-guys-just-a-couple-of-weeks-ago?"
"It was only two guys!" Xander felt himself blush at the reminder. "And, for the record, I'm all over the lesbian commune aspect of our new life." He gave her a hyena grin but it dropped as he added, "But I think maybe I'm feeling a little left-over high school guilt."
"Say again?"
"The aforementioned love triangle. I'm rooting for Oz because maybe if I hadn't kissed Willow one time…"
"One time?"
"One time we got caught," Xander mumbled as he dumped coffee grounds into the filter. "Oz wouldn't have got frisky with the sexy werewolf and maybe they wouldn't have split up in the first place, and then Willow never would have been available to hook up with Tara, she wouldn't have discovered her Sapphic-ness and Kennedy wouldn't now be in the picture, meaning this situation wouldn't be happening. It's all my fault!"
Both of Buffy's eyebrows lifted, "You really believe all that?"
"I don't know." Xander fetched the milk while he waited for the coffee to percolate. "It's kinda hard to imagine a past that doesn't have Tara in it."
Buffy nodded, "And it's kinda hard to imagine a present that doesn't have Kennedy in it."
It was Xander's turn to nod, "And yet, Oz is our friend too. So you see why I'm determined to stay out of it?"
"Yep, you've made a good argument for staying uninvolved. I think I'll copy you."
"Except I get the feeling Oz might have been waiting for a nice away day to make his move, and guess who's designated chaperone?"
"Crap." Buffy groaned, letting her head fall back to her arms.
"What's up?" Faith asked, as she breezed into the kitchen through the swing door.
"Well you for one," Xander looked at her in surprise. Did the clocks go back without him realising? Faith was usually up after Buffy, despite having to start work at 8am. And that had been heavily negotiated down from 7am. "Did someone set fire to your bed or something?"
"Well, if they did, I'd know how to fix it now, right?" She gave him a strange, nervous grin. She nodded at the glass coffee pot he'd just picked up. "Black, three sugars."
"Well, you'd know how to paint the room," he conceded. "And I think I know how you like you're coffee by now. You've had me acting like your tea-boy for a week and a half!"
"You have to put your Boss-like foot down, Xan," Buffy grinned. Her head had shot back up the moment she'd heard Faith's voice. "Don't give her an inch or she'll take the whole nine yards."
"You all love it," Faith said as she leaned down to give Buffy a chaste good-morning kiss.
Xander watched the two of them greet each other as he set three mugs of coffee on the table, and knew he'd never get tired of his all-time favourite fantasy coming true.
"So what's crap?" Faith asked, taking a seat next to Buffy.
"Oh, uh, nothing much," Buffy hedged. "Just, um, stuff."
Xander saw Faith's face drop at the apparent rebuff.
She looked down into the blackness of her coffee. "Okay, that's cool."
"It's nothing, honestly," Buffy added. "We were just talking about…"
"High School," Xander filled in for her. "Just stupid school crap that we, even in our mature years, can't seem to get over. No big."
"Okay," Faith said again. She didn't look any more relaxed, but she did smile. "Shoulda done what I did. Dropping out at sixteen cuts all that crap dead." Her smile dropped again. "At least until ya hit twenty-one and have Parole hounding your ass to get your GED."
Buffy pressed her hand over Faith's. "You're gonna ace it."
"Yeah, maybe," Faith shrugged. Looking even more tense than before, she rushed out, "So B, there was kinda something I was wanting to ask you? Are you busy tonight?"
Buffy looked surprised. "I thought we covered this already. You, me, Charlie Brown and a big bowl of candy."
"It's just I was kinda thinking we could do something."
"Well, we will be, with the sitting and the watching and the pigging out."
Xander watched in amusement as Faith gave a quick, impatient sigh.
"What if we did something other than sit in front of the tube all night?"
Buffy shot an embarrassed glance at Xander before whispering, "Faith, you know my answer to that already. Not yet, okay. Now can you please just drop it for, I don't know, a day at least?"
"Jeez, B, I can think of something else occasionally, ya know?" Shaking her head in annoyance, Faith pulled her hand away from Buffy's.
"You can?" Xander grinned.
"Hey, private conversation, Bucko! So if ya gonna watch me crash and burn at least have the decency to do it quietly."
Xander made a zipping his lips motion and turned eagerly towards Buffy for her response.
"Why, if that isn't the question, will there be crashing and burning?"
"Hell, I don't know, Buffy. Maybe because if you don't wise up in the next minute I'm gonna deliberately fly into the side of a mountain. Or maybe because obviously this was a really bad idea, or else you woulda cottoned on by now, and I'm flying in circles not knowing what the hell to do n…"
Buffy raised her hands, cutting Faith off. "Okay, this here," she waved her hands around herself. "Is a no fly zone, okay, 'cause you're making me really dizzy with all the me not understanding a thing you're talking about."
Faith slumped and blew out a noisy breath. She rolled her eyes to Xander.
He grinned, "I know what you're thinking. How can someone usually so quick suddenly become so slow? We think it's a condition of some kind."
"Are you talking about me?" The blonde's eyes narrowed.
"If it's any consolation, the density of the Buff generally relates to how into someone she is," Xander continued.
"What are you talking about?" Buffy demanded, her tiredness making her irritable.
"B, I'm trying to ask you on a freakin' date. Tonight. Now do you wanna go or not?"
"Oh." Buffy just blinked at her.
"B!" Faith said exasperated. Xander laughed.
"Oh, sorry. Yes. Yes, I'd love to go on a date with you tonight." Buffy beamed, grabbing her hand again. "Why didn't you just say so?"
Faith shook her head again with a little relieved smile. Buffy grinned at her, obviously happy with this turn of events.
Xander felt a little more of his Faith-hate slip away.
She'd been chipping away at his resistance to liking her ever since she'd been back. It was kinda hard not to be drawn to her when she was one of the good guys. He still had a few deep-seated issues that he was clinging to, but, seeing how she could make Buffy's face light up like that, it was getting easier to let the small stuff go.
"So where are we going?" Buffy asked, all excited.
"I don't, uh, know yet." Faith frowned. "I mean, I haven't finalised anything; still got a few ideas I'm kicking around to see which bounces best, ya know? Wanna surprise you."
"Okay. Well, I'm sure whatever your final decision is, it'll be awesome."
"Yeah, for sure; you know me, B. Do I ever do anything less than awesome?" Faith stood up, seeming as tense again as she had five minutes ago. "Anyway, I gotta go finish tiling a shower block, so I'll see you later, yeah, when you get back from Columbus."
"I can't wait," Buffy promised her, tilting her head back for a goodbye kiss.
"Yeah, it's gonna be great," Faith muttered, leaning down to give her a quick peck on the lips. As she was heading for the back door, she threw over her shoulder, "By the way, babe, your top's on inside out."
Xander started laughing as Buffy looked down at her chest again, exclaiming, "I knew something didn't look right!"
Tbc...
