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It was past three when Xander poked his head around Faith's bedroom door. The Slayer was sitting on the carpet with a big, sharp knife in her hand.
"Um." Had he gulped?
As she looked around, the late afternoon sunlight coming through her window made the shiny blade glint at him.
"Troll under your bed or homicidal relapse? I wouldn't normally pry, but I have this phobia of being in the same room as a homicidal person… and trolls."
"Neither, just trying to actualise getting mauled." She squinted back at what she was doing.
"Oh, right." Xander watched as she slashed the knife down on her old denim jacket. "So I'm going to the store to… pick up more beer! Do you need anything? A work ethic, a beer ethic, I don't know, a scary mask?"
"Nah, I'm good," she said without looking up. "Although if you see something fake blood-like in that dinky little shop, that'd be useful. I thought you bought a case of beer already? How wasted you planning on getting tonight?"
"I did!" Xander grit his teeth, looking around her room for empty beer bottles. "But that one is now half gone."
Faith smirked his way, "Gee, you got a real thirst on today, huh?"
"I didn't drink them!" Xander had gone to the refrigerator to grab his first of the day ten minutes ago. That's when he'd discovered all the missing bottles.
"So who did?"
"Well, seeing as how every housemate who drinks beer on a regular basis is in this room, and I'm not the one with beer on my breath…?"
Faith laughed. "Dude, I had one bottle and I didn't finish it. Too jumpy to start down that road today. Picking Buffy up feeling like a zombie is kinda more realistic than the look I'm going for."
"But…" Xander leaned against the doorway, perplexed by Faith's answer. If she hadn't… then where did they go?
Faith was pulling the buttons on her jacket loose so that they hung down by just a thread or two. "Maybe you didn't buy as much as you thought or maybe Craig decided a little liquid refreshment would make writing his lines go easier… I dunno."
With a little shake of his head at the mystery, he turned to go. "I have to go get Dawn anyway; I'll pick up some more on the way."
"I'll make up my hours tomorrow, Xan, if that's okay."
He was surprised she was even going to bother; maybe she was scared he'd report her to the Parole Officer. It hurt a little that she would still think he'd do something like that, especially as her missing half a day wasn't a big deal.
When she put her mind to it, she worked at twice the speed of the average lackey anyway; and with leaving her to do the tedious jobs like tiling and painting, he'd had the time to make a good cut in his 'bigger project' to do list. With the way the two of them were getting through stuff, they might actually be caught up on Giles' renovation schedule by Christmas.
And, if the shower block took an extra day or two to get finished because of her date tonight, he'd just tell the girls it was all Faith's fault and let her take the heat.
With that in mind, he shrugged, "Okay," and left her to it, still not entirely convinced she hadn't had a hand in the case of the disappearing beer.
The shop was busy. It didn't happen often outside of the months from April to September, but Halloween was always the same. Children from Boudenver elementary school had already been released for the day and were swarming everywhere; their parents all but unable to control them on this most candy filled of holidays.
Owen gently swatted an eight year old down from climbing the counter as he smiled at the boy's mother and took her money.
"Happy Halloween," he inclined his head in a small polite farewell bow.
As soon as the woman and her boy were turning away, another young customer awkwardly unloaded an armload of rubber monster masks from one of the outside bargain bins onto the counter.
As Owen struggled to find a bag big enough to hold them all, the line grew longer and the noise in the small shop grew louder.
The Maples, Garth and Edna, were stood in the alcohol corner, almost behind the counter with him to stay out of the way; cheerfully watching the madness – and not, Owen couldn't help noticing, troubling themselves to help.
"I see why you never stay open past five on Halloween," Garth joked, sucking on one of the rhubarb and custard lollipop treats put out for the children.
Owen smiled at him, but briefly so that his old friend wouldn't see the roll of his eyes.
The door opened again and his eyes flicked that way as he counted gumballs into a paper bag for a little girl. It was one of the young men from the camp and he looked unpleasantly surprised to encounter so many children running amok in the close space. He carried a big meat hook, which he slipped with difficulty into his pocket at the sight of the children.
Owen smiled in greeting and the one-eyed man returned it with a quirky smile of his own before slipping deeper into the shop. The gumballs handed over; Owen took the money from the parent and dropped it into the cash register with a clatter. By the time the drawer had rattle-y thudded its way closed, there was a witch's hat, some fake cobwebbing and a family sized tin of tuna waiting for his attention.
He sighed inaudibly; it wasn't that he minded hard work, he'd done plenty in his life time, but these were supposed to be his autumn years and if he'd wanted to serve this many customers in a single hour, he would have applied for a job at a Wal-mart.
He lifted first one foot and then the other for a second's relief. Last night had given him blisters; he'd known he had left the boots on for too long when he'd barely been able to get them off again. He would have to give his feet a good soak and plaster them in band-aids when he got home if he didn't want to walk funny tonight. Same every year, he never remembered to get them out ahead of time to re-break them in.
"You're getting too old for this pandemonium, Owen," Edna told him with a chuckle in her voice.
"Aye, maybe you're right," Owen said with a wry smile.
"How you going to cope with Christmas week?" Garth asked, sucking noisily on the lollipop. "You'll have this lot offa school and all the vacationers too?"
"I manage all summer," Owen reminded them without turning around.
"Maybe, but you ain't getting any younger," Garth pointed out.
Garth and Edna had to step aside to let the man from the camp between them. He apologised politely as he picked up a case of Coors and squeezed back out of the corner to get in line. The elderly couple flowed back together like the wrinkly, grey sea.
"He's right," Edna said. "You should get some help in, just for the busy times. Plenty of women in this town would be happy for an hour or two away from the house and children. Just for a bit of pocket money, like."
Owen nodded as he served one such woman, so harried by her children today she was wearing a permanent frown.
He'd thought about getting help in the past, if only to stay open later, but he was set in his ways and liked his shop run his way. Most of the women in this town were too meddlesome for their own good and would want to change things.
The man with one eye was the next in line.
"Kinda crazy in here today," he said, smiling openly. He set the case of beer on the counter and placed some other items on top.
Owen returned the smile with one just as open, "Halloween does get a little chaotic, I've found."
"Chaos I can handle, it's all the kids that are freaking me out."
"You're not keen on children?" Owen asked, ringing up a box of tube socks and a packet of thick black tape.
"Not the ones around here." The man suddenly seemed to think better of his muttered words and smiled again. Waving vaguely at his black eye-patch, he added, "Can't always see which way they're running at me from."
Owen nodded, ringing up a bottle of red food colouring. "They can be rather a nuisance. Any Halloween plans, sir?"
"Yep." The man grinned as his fingers made a rat-a-tat on the cardboard box of beers.
"Well, enjoy them, sir." Owen smiled as he placed everything but the beer into a paper bag and handed them over.
"Thanks, you too."
Owen watched him walk out. That young man was the biggest mystery of them all.
"What do you suppose he's up too, then?" Garth queried.
Owen rolled his eyes.
Only another hour and he could shut the shop, go home and get ready. His excitement was growing, even if he was dreading putting those boots back on his feet. It was going to be a wonderful night.
He had prepared most things that morning so he wouldn't have to rush when he arrived home. Between the broom, the duster and the mop the place was sparkling, breathing elegance out of its very walls.
He'd lit the chandeliers that morning, because that was always a time-consuming job and it wasn't like he had to worry about a fire. The guest bedrooms were prepared; someone always needed to stay over. The strings of monkey skulls were already hung. Personally he wasn't keen on the macabre decoration, but some of his friends appreciated the cultural touch he always offered.
The food was prepared and just needed laying out. It was a pity he couldn't bring in caterers – that would certainly save him a twelve hour stint in the kitchen every year – but that was, unfortunately, impossible to arrange.
An orchestra too would have been nice; the ballroom was designed for nothing less, but the sound system he'd installed back in the nineties would have to suffice. Perhaps if they were lucky, Iggy might be persuaded to do a few numbers on the piano.
Owen – ignoring the Maple's constant chatter behind him, and all but oblivious to the customers he was serving in front of him – daydreamed about the party.
The dormitory was awash with the happy chatter and chaos of several girls getting ready. For most of them it was their first night out since they'd been in Boudenver – not including slaying of course – and they were all uber-excited.
Makeup and makeup tips passed back and forth, clothes were tried on, discarded and then tried on by someone else in the effort to look their best for the social event of the year – their year anyway.
Even Dawn had decided to get ready in the dorm, not wanting to be upstairs by herself and miss all the pre-party fun.
"Uh, this is probably a stupid question, but how are we getting there?" Alison asked as she moisturised her face in front of the mirror.
"That's not a stupid question," Rona countered as she turned to the wall and dropped her towel ready to get dressed. "How are we getting there?"
"Xander said we could use the truck," Dawn said as she went through Cici's collection of eye-shadow. "And Reece offered to drive."
"In that case," Naomi said, switching off the hair dryer. "I suggest that the people who have spent the least amount of time on their hair should sit in the back."
"So, Miranda and Rona then?" Alison pushed back as Dawn tried to nudge her away from the mirror. "That still leaves five of us in the front."
"That's not gonna work." Miranda stated the obvious, pulling her hair into pigtails. "And I have another stupid question, but, why aren't we dressing up?"
"Speak for yourself." Cici was looking at her outfit in the full length mirror on the other side of the dorm. She shook her head at her reflection and started to strip again. "I plan on dressing to the nines, tonight."
"I meant, like, Halloween dressing up, like as witches or… or cowboys or something?" Miranda explained as she tried on one of Naomi's skirts.
Alison raised an eyebrow, "Cowboys?"
"Because dressing up is for kids." Dawn shrugged. "And this party is definitely not for kids."
"Knock knock."
All eyes swivelled to the door to see Reece poking his head around.
"Do you mind?" Rona grabbed up her towel again to cover her still half naked body.
"It's called knocking!" Alison held the t-shirt she'd been about to put on to her chest.
"I did knock." Reece grinned as he came further into the room. "After a fashion."
The skirt only halfway up her thighs, Miranda sat down on the closest bed, blushing hard and leaning forward so he couldn't see her panties. Cici, back down to her underwear, had dived behind the same bed with a thud as soon as she'd heard his voice.
"Perhaps you should learn to do it the same way the rest of civilisation does, Reece." Naomi turned a cool look on him. "Just to save you the embarrassment of barging in on a lady while she's changing again."
"I'll look into it," Reece nodded, not at all embarrassed. "I came to speak to Dawn."
"What is it?" Dawn loved how good he looked. She'd never seen him not looking good, but tonight he'd really made an effort in a light blue shirt that brought out his eyes and a brand new pair of jeans. He'd done his hair so that it looked tousled and sexy and, oh God, he smelled good too, she realised as she stepped closer to him. "Is everything okay? Monsters aren't breaking the rules are they, meaning we have to stay at home?"
Reece gave the room – or at least the girls in the room – a casual once over before he focused on Dawn. "No, everything's quiet on the home front. I just came to give you this…" he leaned closer and kissed her, thoroughly. As he pulled away, she stared at him, smiling woozily. "…And to tell you that me and the lads are ready when you are."
"Okay."
"Right." He nodded and gave her another quicker kiss before leaving and pulling the door shut after him again.
Cici looked over the edge of the bed to make sure he had really gone before she stood up and went to choose her next outfit. Rona hurriedly dressed the rest of herself in case he decided to make a return visit.
"He is such an ass," Alison complained, finally able to pull her t-shirt on.
"He is not." Dawn gave the young slayer a dirty look.
"Sorry, Dawn, but Alison is right." Naomi went back to fussing with her hair. "Reece really is an arse."
Dawn harrumphed. "Just because he didn't knock properly doesn't mean he was trying to perve on you all." 'You wish,' she thought. "Xander's walked in on me getting changed before, but I didn't automatically assume he did it on purpose."
There was a heavy silence for a minute, before Miranda sighed, "I wish Xander would walk in on me getting changed."
The tension broke as they all laughed at her and within moments the excited babble about the night ahead returned.
"So where is the party?" Miranda, deciding she didn't like Naomi's skirt, tried on one of Vi's instead.
"I'm not telling anyone until we actually leave," said Dawn, going back to her makeup. "It's not that I don't trust you all, but I know how persuasive Buffy can be when she wants Intel. But it is so cool its going to blow your minds."
She had pretty much repressed the strange happenings at Mage Manor that afternoon. Nothing else weird had happened, and they'd all had so much fun setting things up, it hadn't seemed important by the time Aaron had dropped her back at school just in time to catch her ride home with Xander.
"Will there be alcohol?" Naomi asked. She was the only one of legal drinking age, legal in her own country anyway.
"There had better be," said another voice from the door.
Everyone spun that way again, covering up on instinct, but it was just Kennedy standing there. She had a bottle of beer on the way to her mouth and an unopened bottle in her other hand.
"Hey girls." She grinned as they all stared at her. "Don't mind me," she added as she realised they were changing. "Only got eyes for one bitch, I mean witch."
She chuckled at her own joke, but when no one else joined in she rolled her eyes and drank some more beer. "So what time do we leave?"
"You're coming?" Dawn's eyes lit up. The rest of the slayers were cool enough, but she didn't really know any of them properly. Even Vi and Rona were still a bit of a mystery, whereas she'd spent most of the summer bonding with Kennedy. "That's great! but wait," her smile dropped a little. "What about Willow?"
"I dunno, I haven't asked her," Kennedy seemed to deliberately misunderstand. "Doubt it'll be her scene though."
"Are you sure it's yours?" Alison shot in a little sarcastically, but not too sarcastically because Kennedy already enjoying riding her hard and provocation had a habit of making her ride harder.
Dawn noticed other faces had dropped too. Understandable, she supposed. After all, Kennedy was her friend, but she was boss to most of these girls.
"It's a party, isn't it? Music, dancing, pretty girls…" Kennedy grinned at Alison. "With any luck a keg. Yeah, definitely sounds like a scene I can picture myself in."
Alison grumbled something and went back to getting ready. Kennedy raised an eyebrow at Miranda and Cici, inviting their comments, but they just smiled uneasily and followed suit. Nodding once, Kennedy finished her bottle and threw it into the waste basket by the door.
"Nice shot," said Naomi automatically. "And I really like your shirt."
"Thanks and thanks," Kennedy smiled as she opened her other bottle on the frame of Vi's bed. "You're looking pretty fine yourself."
Dawn coughed, "Willow," into her hand. Kennedy looked at her in amusement, so Dawn coughed, "Your girlfriend!" into her hand for good measure.
"I was returning a compliment, not looking to get laid," Kennedy pointed out, smirking as Dawn had a real coughing fit brought on by the fake-cough dryness in her throat.
Naomi blushed brightly and decided she was ready enough. "Okay, so I'll be waiting with the boys." She left the room.
"I think you embarrassed her," Rona said as she finished fastening the buckles on her boots.
"I'm sure she's used to people telling her she's hot."
"Yeah, probably not women, though."
"What's the difference?" Kennedy asked neutrally.
Rona looked like she was going to answer that, but then changed her mind. "Drinking already?" she asked instead.
"Just getting in the party mood." Kennedy gave a grin that didn't look altogether real and had another good mouthful of her beer.
Dawn concentrated on flicking her hair about a little in the mirror. Kennedy was acting strange and she wasn't altogether clued in on the reason why. It made her feel guilty.
Not that it was any secret that Kennedy and Willow were going through a little rough patch; in fact it was plainly obvious. That was kinda where the guilt was springing from though.
No matter how much they bonded, Dawn would never be as close to Kennedy as she had been to Tara… she wasn't as close to Buffy as she had been to Tara, but the thought of Kennedy and Willow breaking up still gave her that nasty feeling inside. She didn't want to think about it.
And if she was getting the nasty feeling, Kennedy had to be getting it worse, and maybe couldn't stop thinking about it. She knew Kennedy really loved Willow, even though she'd never actually said it. Kennedy was probably desperate to talk it out with someone, to try and figure out a solution, and Dawn was a lot closer in age to Kennedy than she had been with Tara, meaning she wasn't automatically disqualified from listening for not being mature enough.
Still though, she'd been reluctant to offer her services for the supportive talking thing. Not because she didn't want to be there for her, but because it was a sensitive subject…
Yes, she knew what that meant: Dawn Summers – Coward; Dawn Summers – Sucktastic friend!
Neither were nice things to even call yourself, she decided. It was time to ask Kennedy to wait outside with her; they could have a chat while everyone else finished up.
Before she could follow through on that thought the door opened again.
Everyone was pretty much dressed now, but still they all turned to the new interruption, except Kennedy, who chose to sit on the end of Vi's bed, staring at the wall.
Faith was in the doorway, looking like she'd gone ten rounds with a grizzly bear and was extremely freaked out by it. "Okay, so I'm gonna need all the green, blue and black makeup you have."
Dawn frowned. "Huh?"
A little later, Buffy and Willow walked through the front door giggling about the rude parrot.
Xander was in the living room setting the fireplace with wood scraps. Daytime in Boudenver were still warm enough that the Sunnydale ex-patriots weren't complaining yet, but the nights were unseasonably chilly, or perhaps seasonably chilly, Buffy had never spent much time outside of southern California until the move. He looked up with a smile as they entered.
"Hey, how'd it go? Was she a werewolf? Do I need to start building a bigger cage than the, uh, cage we don't actually have yet?"
They did have a cage, a weapons cage, that was secure, but a werewolf would only have to get angry-pouncy for a second before it knocked itself out on the bars or had a silver sword drop on its back.
"Yep, she's definitely lycanthopised." Willow grinned. "But she's gonna handle it herself."
"Is that wise?" Xander finished setting the fire and put a long match to the newspaper he was using as tinder. "What if her idea of handling it involves eating the good folk of Columbus?"
"Better the good folk of Columbus, than the weird folk of Boudenver." Buffy shrugged, and then thought about what she'd said. "Maybe we should get one of the Newbies out to Columbus, surely one of them must be ready for her own spot by now, and it not like Columbus has a Hellmouth."
"Plus it's not far away, if they got into any trouble we could all saddle up and be there in a couple of hours," Xander agreed. "And Rona and Vi are pretty experienced already, what with living in Sunnydale at its most hairiest."
"Added bonus, if we relocate Rona there, Reece would have to go with. Not that I wanna lose Rona, but…" Buffy grinned. "A dark cloud with one of the better class of silver linings."
Willow chuckled, "Giles said there would be no relocating until January, and I doubt Rona will be top of the list. As a new Watcher, he wants to keep Reece here for at least six months of supervision, probably longer if he can."
"Damn," Buffy muttered, but as she remembered she had better things to think about, tonight at least, she brightened. "Where's Faith?"
"Oh, she had to go out." Xander grinned to himself as he got up from his knees and moved away from the slowly crackling fire.
"What?!" Buffy looked around the room, hoping to refute his statement by finding Faith blending into the walls. Totally in vain, like Faith ever blended anywhere, she was the embodiment of foregroundness. "Don't lie! Is she upstairs?"
"Nope, she really had to go out."
"But we had plans!"
"Relax, Buff." Xander laughed. "She said she'd be back around seven to pick you up."
"Oh." Buffy did relax, until… "That only gives me an hour to get ready!"
She bolted up the stairs with her big bag from the costume place without another word.
Xander laughed again and Willow chuckled as she said, "She's been like a puppy in a basket of kittens all day."
"It's great Buffy's happy, but you're with me on the strange, right?"
"Because it's Faith making her this way? Totally."
"How did it go today, you know, with Oz?" Xander asked, pretending to busy himself with selecting the channel he wanted on the television.
"Fine." Willow shrugged, oblivious – or pretending to be – to the sly nature of the question. "It's great catching up. I didn't really realise how much I missed him, ya know, until he was here again. You guys should get together sometime, then you'd see what I mean."
Xander coughed, about to tell her his gay phase had been for one day only, but she carried on,
"Is Kennedy about? I wanna see if she wants to do something tonight."
Xander's face dropped, "Uh, Will, she's gone out. To that party with Dawn and the others. She didn't let you know?"
"Oh," Willow's face dropped too. "She didn't say anything."
"Well, it was probably a last minute decision," Xander said carefully. "All the girls have been way excited about it all day, she probably got caught up in it all and forgot to tell you."
"Yeah, maybe." Willow was not comforted. "I guess its okay, it's not like we'd actually planned anything, I just thought, ya know."
"Yeah. I'm sure if she'd known you wanted to do something, she wouldn't have gone."
Willow gave him a look that implied otherwise.
Xander shrugged in response. He didn't know what was going through Kennedy's head. He did know she'd been off with Willow for a while now, and she seemed unhappy every time he saw her, but it wasn't like he knew the young Slayer very well.
In fact, despite knowing what kind of breakfast cereal she liked best, what kind of weapons she preferred and that she favoured anime over home-grown cartoons – except X-men, but then who didn't love the X-men – she was still a complete mystery to him.
"Are all the Slayers out?" Willow suddenly changed the subject – to his great relief. "Because, I know with Halloween and all, this should be our trouble-free night, but with taking past adventures into account…"
"Vi's staying home. Much to her chagrin, I might add. She's with Giles in the training room. He just got back."
"I thought he and Robin were staying in Montana until tomorrow?"
Xander made finger quotes, "Pressing Council…"
"…Business." Willow finished for him, making the same signal with her fingers.
They shared a smile, that was Giles code these days for: I can't take anymore.
"I thought he liked Robin?"
Xander smirked. "From what he said, it was the new Slayer's parents he couldn't wait to get away from."
"So he left Robin to the wolves?"
"Well, he's getting an all expenses paid trip to the Treasure State, maybe he'll get lucky while he's there and find some actual treasure." Xander couldn't help a little bitterness creeping into his voice.
Robin had been on the scene, what, five minutes? And he was already getting Slayer retrieval missions. Xander knew he wasn't exactly Watcher material – his English accent was, according to some, offensive and his ability to retain facts from research was often limited by how hungry he was – but surely he could be trusted with the odd trip to make first contact with a potential Slayer.
Willow sensed his downward shift in mood, and wrongly assumed her own less than ecstatic state was to blame.
"Well, if Kennedy's gone, I guess I'll just go do my exercises and go to bed. Have a nice evening."
Xander watched her walk glumly up the front stairs, knowing there was nothing he could say to make her feel better.
Faith was hidden in the thick vegetation that bordered both sides of the camp lane when Oz's van trundled slowly down. She'd ducked behind a tree, but no one was looking into the shadows anyway.
She watched the van stop on the driveway, the engine continuing to rumble as Buffy and Willow got out, and then the sound of the door slamming as the two women called out cheerful goodbyes.
Faith stepped out of the glare of the headlights again as the van came back. Buffy sounded in a good mood, which was a good start and gave Faith a little confidence.
She switched back on the flashlight she'd borrowed from the basement and carried on searching for a flower. So far she was coming up seven shades of weed, and not even the good smokable kind.
She wished she'd worn a watch too, or she wished she owned a watch to wear. She'd said 7:00pm, but she had no idea if it was close to that or not yet. Buffy would want a little time to get ready, but Faith didn't want to start the evening by turning up late.
She'd have to go around the other side of the house. That way she could sneak a look at the kitchen clock and see when Buffy's bedroom light went out.
Jumping back out of the unruly undergrowth, Faith wiped her dew-wet hands on her slashed up pants and pulled a cigarette from a packet wedged into the breast pocket of her old tattered denim jacket – the only item of clothing she'd arrived in that she hadn't burned as soon as possible – with shaky fingers. The lighter flame she touched to the tip was just as fluttery as her stomach.
Xander had laughed at her expression when she'd left the house, making fun of her first Buffy-date butterflies. She hadn't told him it was worse than that, that it was first date ever Tiger moths dog-fighting in her gut.
Kennedy stood up in the back of the truck as Reece started down a dirt track much like their one at home. She stood perfectly steady, despite the near empty beer bottle in her hand and the bumps that were making everyone else grip onto the metal side.
"Hey, I remember this place!" The only outward sign of the beer she'd drunk was that her voice was louder than usual. "It's your castle, Andrew!"
She nudged the boy with her foot and he looked up. From where he sat only the turrets were visible, rising spookily into the dark sky.
"Oh boy," he muttered, sub-consciously squeezing Craig's hand tighter.
"You scared?" Craig asked, slightly teasing.
"No," Andrew replied too quickly. "I just figured it would be in a house."
As they pulled onto the circular driveway, Rona looked up at Mage Manor, seeing it for the first time. "It is a house."
"Yeah, the House on Haunted Hill!"
"Well, none of us died the last time we went in, so…" Kennedy jumped over the side before Reece had fully stopped and staggered a step. Chuckling at herself, she tipped her head back to finish her beer as she twisted on the spot to check the place out.
Cars were parked haphazardly around the large driveway and groups of kids milled about between them and the house. Plenty of them stared at Kennedy, looking at her like she was an exotic creature to be wary of among the fluffy barnyard animals. At least, that's what she felt like under the weight of so many unwelcoming gazes.
Dismissing them all with a sneer, she looked over her shoulder to the truck to see the others finally climbing out.
"At least it looks more welcoming this time," Miranda was saying, gesturing to the wide open door way.
On either side of the steps sat pumpkins, a dozen of them at least. Flickering candles lit up their grotesquely carved faces. More candles in bowls of green or orange glass were set along the front wall of the house, adding to the spooky glow.
There was even greeter out front; a plastic skeleton wearing a top hat, with a pipe sticking from between his grinning jaw. He, or she, was sitting on the steps propped up against the door frame. On its lap was a big card that read in black marker: 'Beware all ye who enter the house of horror.' and underneath that: "Pick your designated driver NOW or the REAPER will get you!'
"Sweet," Kennedy muttered as she read it. "Bet that means they've got a keg."
Dawn had been standing next to her, staring at the house, feeling a certain amount of pride that she'd helped make it look this good. She was excited for everyone to see how fantastic it looked inside, but hearing Kennedy's less-than-excited mutter reminded her that she was going to say something.
"Ken, are you okay?" she asked softly enough that Reece on her other side, holding her hand, wouldn't hear her.
"Sure," Kennedy shrugged.
"Because if you weren't," Dawn pressed on. "And there was something, maybe, bothering you, that, maybe, talking might, I don't know, help, then… I can do that, I mean, I can listen, if… if that's what you want."
"You don't sound too keen on the idea," Kennedy pointed out, her eyes on the wall of the house as she fiddled with her beer bottle.
"It's not that," Dawn promised with an uneasy smile. "It's just the porcupine-sized prickles you're bristling with right now are advising caution."
Kennedy finally turned her head to look at Dawn, trying to turn her lips up into a smile that wouldn't quite catch. She didn't want to dump on Dawn at the party; she knew how much the younger girl had been looking forward to it. The idea of pouring her heart out in front of Reece wasn't appealing either.
Dawn's compassionate eyes were doing some kind of snake charm on her fears though, she could feel them coiling their way up from the place she was trying to hide them. She'd been not talking about it for so long, the pressure was building, and if Dawn didn't back off any second it was all gonna come pouring out and most of it was gonna consist of language not appropriate for the age-range of this party.
"I'm fine," she said, feeling like her throat was blocked.
"You're…"
She cut Dawn's disagreement off with a hard look. "The only problem I have right now is that I can still touch the tip of my nose while walking in a straight line. So I'm gonna go in there and try to find a solution to that. Are you coming or not?"
Kennedy stormed up the steps and into the house. Dawn looked at Reece with a worried frown. "Should I go after her?"
He held her hand tighter, "We'll go after her, but I don't think you should push any more tonight. She's a Slayer and she's been drinking all afternoon, there's no telling who she might lash out at if they aggravate her enough."
"Kennedy's not going to hurt me, she's my friend."
"Trust me, sweetheart; with that amount of booze inside her, she's volatile. I'm not saying she wouldn't wake up regretting it tomorrow, but for tonight, let's just keep an eye on her without winding her up."
Prepared to accept Reece's judgement, because – even though she really didn't think Kennedy would ever turn on her, not even drunk, and she wasn't that drunk, just hurting and too stubborn to show it – if Reece was right and she was wrong, Kennedy could turn her face inside out with one punch.
They went up the steps after Kennedy, hand in hand.
The rest had been hanging back admiring the pumpkins and the spooky candles, smiling politely at the locals who walked close enough for a gawp at the interlopers. They shared fleeting smiles between them; no one prepared to admit they were nervous about attending the party.
Alison shuffled her feet on the gravel, "Well the house is definitely less forbidding than last time… providing you don't look up at all those dark windows."
Everyone slowly felt their eyes rising to do just that.
"Dammit, Alison!" Miranda grumbled. "Now I'm gonna be wondering what's up there all night."
"It's just high school kids, dunno why everyone's so freaked about it," Rona said, but she didn't make any move to lead the group in.
"It's just high school kids who seem to have a grudge against us being at their party," Cici said, doing her best not to look around anymore. "And I used to be so good at this."
"You do all realise you could take this lot out between you in a nano-second, yes?" Naomi looked around at them all. When she received shocked stares from the Slayers and Andrew, she hastened to add. "I'm not suggesting you should, I was just hoping a reminder of you superior strength and grace would inspire some courage."
"I think I just saw a face in one of the tower windows," Andrew suddenly blurted fearfully. "And it didn't look like a kid. I have a bad feeling about this place, guys. Perhaps we should forget about the party and just go home."
"Andy, mate, calm down. There's gotta be hundreds of kids in there, even if it is a mad axe man in the tower, there's no saying he's gonna pick you as his victim."
Andrew's lips twisted themselves this way and that as he tried to decide if Craig's soothingly spoken words were of any help at all.
Everyone else just glared at him.
"Hundreds?" Miranda asked in a small voice.
Willow took a second out of moping through her magick exercises to smile when she heard Buffy singly loudly from the shower on the other side of the house. She didn't sing in the shower usually, in fact she didn't sing at all usually, so she must have been really happy.
That was all it took for Willow to lose her smile, and then she felt bad for not being happier for her friend. It wasn't that she wasn't, but normally if Buffy was going on a first date, Willow would have been all excited and bubbly with her. Sitting in Buffy's room while she got ready, helping to sooth any butterflies she might be feeling and giggling over the prospects of what might come at the end of the date.
She wasn't in the mood for that tonight, she wasn't in the mood for anything tonight she realised, giving up on her spiritual workout altogether. She couldn't concentrate anyway and the whole point of them was to hone her concentration so that she could feel and separate the shifts of energy within her.
Blowing out the candles around her, she got up from the floor and flicked off the bright overhead light. Feeling her way to the bed, she turned on the softer bedside lamp and lay down on top of the covers.
Sighing, she wondered what Kennedy was doing and how much fun she was having.
The party was kicking. Rona and the rest of the Slayers and pals had finally made it through the front door, deciding if they were going to feel uncomfortable anyway they might as well do it in the warm where they could hear the music properly.
The first floor of the mansion was huge and each room was filled with kids doing what parties were made for: drinking, smoking weed, fooling around with members of the opposite sex.
The biggest crowd, where there really had to be over a hundred people, was the ballroom. The music was at its loudest here and so was everything else. It was so noisy Rona could hardly hear what Kennedy was saying to her; she couldn't help wishing it was noisier.
"He's a werewolf! I mean, he's a savage beast! Like a beast, dude!"
"Yeah, I know." Rona agreed, nodding her head in the hopes that Kennedy would get the point that she was getting the point.
Kennedy nodded too, letting out a deep sigh that Rona saw more than heard, and seemed ready to let it go. She was holding a plastic glass of too frothy beer and she wrinkled her nose at it before taking a big gulp.
Rona had a glass of the beer too, but it was her first and only a sip or two was gone. She didn't think it tasted as bad Kennedy seemed to, but she had an expensive camera in her pocket – secretly on loan from Andrew's bedroom – and she didn't want to risk getting drunk and accidentally breaking it.
Their group had found a safe spot to convene along the back edge of the wall; closer to the raised stage that would have once been used for a band or an orchestra, than the main doors at the other end. Near them, large patio doors had been opened to the night and people were constantly going out there to cool down from dancing and coming back in shivering when their sweat-soaked bodies got too cold.
Rona could see Dawn and Reece dancing in the crowd. Naomi had persuaded Cici and Alison to join her in the middle of the floor too, but she couldn't see them right now. Miranda, Andrew and Craig remained not quite huddled with her in their not quite corner.
Miranda was nursing a coke, Rona didn't know if it was virgin or not. "This is fun! Right? I mean, we're at a party, like a proper party, not just a melted marshmallows in front of the living room fire party."
Rona was sceptical, but she nodded encouragingly anyway. "Beats walking around a deserted cemetery in the cold."
"I mean it's sick!" Kennedy suddenly blurted out of nowhere.
"What is?" Rona looked around, frowning, not seeing anything particularly revolting outside of the usual High School mash up.
"It's like bestiality or something. She's screwing a werewolf! You can't tell me that's normal! It's a sin!"
Rona groaned, and then her irritation spoke before she had time to think it through, "Some people don't think two women screwing is normal, but you're fine with that sin."
Kennedy blinked at her, her shock loosening the control she was using to stay sober-ish and she swayed a little. "Do you think that?"
"That's not what I said."
"And that's not answering my question." Kennedy's eyes were drunk-bright, if she wasn't a Slayer, the amount of alcohol she'd consumed today would have seen her passed out by now. But even though she swayed a little more she looked perfectly in control of her fists and feet.
Rona found herself watching them out of the corner of her eye even as she matched her stare. She spoke evenly and loud enough that Kennedy wouldn't miss a word.
"My point is everyone has a problem with something. You think its bestiality; she probably sees it as being in love with a man who just happens to be a beast now and again." Rona had never been so diplomatic in her life, but she still tensed, ready, when she saw Kennedy's fists ball.
"So you're saying its better she's in love with a beast who's a man than a woman who's a lesbian?"
Rona frowned, trying to follow a path of logic from what she'd said to Kennedy's conclusion. It wasn't possible. She tried a different path.
"Buffy was in love with Spike, who was a Vampire! Do you think she's sick?"
"For being in love with Spike, hell yeah, but she's with Faith now…So I guess it's your turn to think she's sick."
"I don't…" Kennedy's scornful glare cut Rona off. She wasn't going to explain herself to someone who obviously wasn't going to listen. "Forget it, we're going to dance."
Grabbing Miranda's arm in one hand and Craig's in the other she dragged them through the crowd towards Dawn.
Andrew stayed with Kennedy long enough to ask, "Are you okay?" but the fierce look she turned on him had him scuttling after the others.
Owen smiled broadly and held out his hands to the short man with the slicked back dark hair and ill-fitting brown suit, trotting up the entrance steps.
"Good of you to come, Victor." Owen shook his hand firmly with both of his. "How was the journey?"
"Gets easier every year." The man had a clipped Swiss accent. "We were able to get a direct flight this time, and with discrimination such a sore point these days…" At this, he turned to the looming monster of a man behind him. "You remember my friend, yes?"
"Of course." Owen smiled politely and shook hands, trying not to do anything so impolite as stare at his stitching. "Who have… I mean, how have you been?"
The broad forehead and slightly bulging eyes made the impassive stare he received especially impressive. "Can't complain," was the slow, disinterested answer.
"Well, that's nice." Owen moved aside to let them enter the foyer. "Is by any chance Ig…?"
"Don't even mention his name!" Victor held up his hands to stress this.
"Ah, no progress on rekindling that friendship then." Owen smiled secretly to himself as he started the lead the way into the drawing room. "Perhaps tonight?"
Victor made a disagreeable noise as he followed his old friend through the house. A few times he looked around, as if sensing something he couldn't put his finger on.
"Is something different to usual?"
Owen sighed, not a happy man at present. "It would seem so yes."
Buffy had showered in record time, and dried herself off in record time, but the getting dressed part of her preparation was proving slower, much to her frustration.
The star-spangled hot pants went on easy enough and fit perfectly, which was good because if they'd been as tight as the boots it could have been embarrassing. The red and gold bodice was a little constricting though, and had cardboard-y implants that made her boobs all perky but was stiff and kinda uncomfortable. The head band was made of soft plastic, but the grip was tight. After she'd nearly given herself a lobotomy, she got it positioned just right and then realised she shouldn't have done her hair first – it was now trapped to the sides of her head and in no way flattering.
After correcting that, she only had about twenty minutes to re-do her hair and do her makeup.
"Why couldn't one of my super-powers be spinning around really fast until I looked perfect," she moaned to herself. "Would have been way more useful than, say, the ability to feel Faith walking around in the garden getting impatient."
Faith was walking around the back garden getting impatient. Not with Buffy – whose light was still on – but with the clock, that said she still had fifteen minutes to wait. And weren't girls notoriously slow at getting ready for dates. Faith could be ready in five and still look damn fine, but for a girl like Buffy, just another fifteen minutes might be expecting too much.
Faith had been beaten, forgotten and almost starved occasionally when she was growing up, all three at once a couple of times. She'd seen first hand the worst thing a Vampire could do to someone. For a few days she'd lived with the guilt of Finch's death clawing away inside of her and now she lived with the guilt of knowing she was capable of way worse than accidental manslaughter.
Right this second, none of that seemed as torturous as this waiting was.
All of that had brought her nothing but misery, pain and fear and it seemed a lot easier to deal with than the current excitement, anticipation and, okay, she was still shit scared here.
"Come on, B, you're pretty enough now get your ass down here," she muttered to herself all but hopping from foot to foot as she awkwardly juggled the 'flower' in her hands.
She couldn't remember ever being this nervous in her entire life, except maybe the night before her appeal, and the night she'd shown up in B's bedroom a week later than she was should have been there, and the night she'd first arrived in Sunnydale and had been thinking up ways to draw the other slayer outside so they could meet.
Okay, so maybe Buffy was always making her nervous when she wasn't making her mad… or horny. Although being horny around Buffy at the moment was starting to make her nervous. And not the kind of nervous she'd felt back in the 'dale when Buffy had first made her interest very clear.
Her worry then was that she would fall too hard for the blonde, let her get to close, and change her mind about going back to jail just to have Buffy realise the mistake she was making and dump her a week or three later.
That was all moot now, she'd fallen hard and done the remainder of her time, and she was where she wanted to be and who she wanted to be with. And, despite most of her inner-voices yelling at her that it wasn't so, she was slowly getting comfortable believing Buffy really did feel the same way.
So why the nerves when she got horny?
Simple. Faith was ready. Past friggin' ready to get the physical-side of their relationship up and running again. She'd never approved of the idea of stopping it in the first place! Faith had never waited to be 'ready' for sex; she never had to, she'd always been ready. And if she didn't want to have sex with someone, she didn't dick them about, getting them all hot and heavy with the kissing and the moaning and shit, she just told them to take a hike and pretty much forgot about them in the same breath. She couldn't remember if she'd always felt this way, but it had been her M.O. since her mid-teens for sure.
And it wasn't like they were kids neither; they'd both had sex before, with each other even – twice! Faith was tired of being tagged out before she could ever get near second base. It was frustrating as hell, but if Buffy wanted to wait, they were waiting.
It was why the hell for that Faith didn't know. 'Until she was ready.' was kinda ambiguous and she was starting to worry that Buffy was never gonna be ready, that she'd somehow put Buffy off the last time so bad the blonde was never gonna wanna do it again. Every time Buffy said no that little bit quicker, Faith couldn't help wondering what she'd done wrong this time – not sarcastically, but really – and she was usually too horny by that point to think before speaking.
So yeah, just recently, when she was rolling around with Buffy on the bed, feeling that low down tickle getting stronger and doing her damnedest to keep her hands away from any places that might make Buffy breathlessly whimper out a: "Stop!" Faith got nervous. Scared that one day she'd be so into it, she wouldn't listen, or frustrated enough a cold shower wasn't gonna cut it and the resulting tantrum would involve a screaming match so ugly they'd never recover from it.
Faith didn't even feel like she could say anything to Buffy about all this, without the other Slayer thinking she was trying to push the subject and get mad.
All in all, a lot was riding on tonight going perfect. It wasn't like she was expecting Buffy to jump in the sack with her the moment they got home – although she wouldn't turn it down – but just spending the evening alone, learning how to be relaxed around each other in a way they'd never managed before, would hopefully nudge Buffy a lot closer to 'ready'.
Above her head, Buffy's bedroom suddenly went dark. Faith eased herself closer to the kitchen window again. It was a couple of minutes to seven. Melting back into the shadows, Faith was still close enough to check her outfit in the light pouring from the kitchen. Yep, she still looked a mess, good to know she hadn't accidentally gotten tidy with all this waiting around.
She counted to fifty – starting off slowly, she was soon skipping the Mississippi to get to the end faster – and walked around the side of the house.
"This is it, Chica," she murmured as she paused at the bottom of the porch steps. "Time to fuckin' shine."
Looking more confident than she felt, she bounded up the two steps and rang the door bell. She held her breath as she waited, and her lungs weren't even close to burning when the door was wrenched open to reveal a nervously eager Buffy in full costume, her cape billowed dramatically as a stiff breeze rushed into the house to warm up.
Faith's breath burst back out on a laugh, "Wonderful choice, Woman."
"Oh my God, Faith, what happened to you?" Buffy stepped on to the porch, concern making her eyes big.
"That would be…" Faith looked down at her slashed shirt. "Werewolf attack, I think; and then bitten to death by a jealous ex…" Faith lifted her hair to show the red food colouring she'd spread around and down from the old bite scar on her neck. "And then the bastards cut my head off, see?" Grinning now, she lifted her chin to show the black cross stitch she'd pencilled over the angry looking thin red line of lipstick that was supposed to be the result of decapitation. "After that, its just a little voodoo here, some voodoo there."
"Huh?" Buffy's nose scrunched up.
"I'm a zombie!"
"Oh!" Buffy laughed. "Thank God for that; I thought for a minute there your dress sense… and personal hygiene… had taken a serious downward turn since this morning."
Faith's cocked her head to one side, not sure how to take that.
"But, you're lacking a little realism." Buffy smiled, stepping in closer to Faith. "I've never met a zombie who smelled this good." She kissed Faith's cheek softly before stepping back.
"I, uh…" Faith blinked, feeling a little thrown by the insult-compliment-insult-compliment Buffy had just given her. "… had more words to say when I planned knocking on the door earlier."
"What were they?"
"Damned if I know." Faith admitted.
"My eyes are up here, Faith." Buffy reminded her, sounding amused as much as embarrassed.
Faith didn't look up, partly because she was getting Buffy back for the insults, but mostly because she just couldn't. "Yeah I know, but I've seen your eyes before. This is the first time I've had the pleasure of seeing you in tight-ass hot pants. Never seen anything hotter, B." she winked.
"You've seen me naked," Buffy said. "Are you saying the hot pants are hotter than me naked?"
"You do realise the front door is still wide open and we can hear every word you are saying?" Giles suddenly called through from the living room. "Please be so kind as to shut it before you continue."
As Buffy blushed hard and Faith tried to stifle her laughter, Xander added,
"Or come in here so we can all ogle the hot pants and discuss them in a fair and democratic…"
Faith walked around Buffy and pulled the door shut without acknowledging anyone inside.
"You okay?"
"Yep." Buffy nodded. "Haven't died of embarrassment yet, despite all the times I've dabbled with it."
"For the record, I meant I haven't seen anything hotter in the past two weeks," Faith covered her earlier slip. "And I, ah, got you these, uh, this."
Buffy took the offered object with a surprised smile. "You got me a pot plant?"
Faith stared at it with a little embarrassed frown. "I wanted to give you some flowers, but it was dark," she explained, feeling a shyness she'd never encountered before.
"Well it does have flowers, and they're very pretty." Buffy grinned. "So, thank you."
"I snatched it from Red's magick patch." Faith admitted.
"Oh," Buffy looked at the pot plant in her hands warily now. "In that case, I'm just gonna put it down here, very carefully, for safe-keeping." She set it down in a corner of the porch.
"So… You ready?" Faith's arms swung at her sides. "For the date, I mean."
"Uh huh," Buffy nodded, and now she was looking shy too.
"Right." They stared at each other for a moment, both just smiling slightly. "Right," Faith said again and walked down the porch steps.
Buffy followed right behind her. "So are you gonna tell me where we're going yet?"
"Uh, no. You'll see when we get there." Faith was still feeling awkward over her lame choice of venues, wishing she hadn't let Xander talk her into thinking this was a good idea.
"Okay, can you at least tell me how we're getting there?" Buffy asked next.
Faith stopped on the driveway. "Damn! I keep forgetting we're in the middle of nowhere out here."
Buffy laughed. "Tell me about it."
"I guess I better go call us a cab."
"Wait, ask Giles. It'll be quicker."
"Great. Now it's like I'm asking your dad to give us a ride to our first date; shoulda just stuck with the Chuck E. Cheese idea after all."
Buffy's giggles followed her back up the porch steps.
