A/N: Hello my dear readers! (or at least hope I still have readers) Updates are taking forever I know. I hope this chapter makes up for my painfully slow updates.

Enjoy!

Ch. 8 Big Bad

"I need you" the words lingered in the air as the two slayers searched each other's eyes.

Faith's thoughts flooded her. The painful restless nights she had spent trying to convince her self that her feelings for the blonde were wrong and impossible were starting to seem irrelevant. Yet the insecurity overcame her excitement evident in the heart rate monitor. "You don't need me B" Faith stated. "You've got hundreds of other slayers now and Soul boy to help you. You'll be okay."

Buffy's tears finally won over and silently fell down her cheeks. She was hurt by Faith's indifference to her confession yet was committed to make her understand why and how she needed her. "No Faith. I need you." Buffy looked straight into Faith's eyes and with determination spoke "It's not just about slayers and fighting evil . . . not anymore."

"It isn't?" Faith questioned

"No" Buffy replied and grabbed a hold of Faith's hand. "I need you because we are the chosen two for a reason. We have always been connected and always will be." You can't deny that."

Faith shook her head trying to get away from the blonde but only served to have Buffy place her other hand on Faith's face. Feelings were never her thing less confessions of love or whatever this appeared to be. She wanted to pull away but Buffy's intense look forced her in that moment to face her feelings.

"Faith I discovered something that scared me. I like you. I like you a lot. It took you dying to make me realize how important you are to me." Buffy finished and timidly kissed Faith's hand and waited for Faith's response. However after several minutes the blonde's patience faltered.

"Say something." She pleaded

Faith leaned in towards Buffy and as her face got closer to the blonde's she stopped inches away. "I like you too B." Faith's lips mimicked Buffy's and shaped into a small smile. The two slayers knew what the other wanted and they leaned in closer to each other.

"Buffy" A voice broke the two girls away from each other making them both look towards the owner of the voice.

Angel was standing in the doorway "Buffy Giles needs to have a word with you. There might be a slight problem."

Buffy looked at Angel and a thought about horrible timing passed through her mind. "I'll be there in a minute." She wanted more time to get through to Faith.

"It's okay B, we can continue this later." Faith winked and nodded her head towards the door. "Go see what G-man wants. I'm not going anywhere."

Buffy didn't want to leave but she trusted Faith to stay put. She shot Faith an apologetic look and walked past Angel making her way to the elevator. Angel followed behind.

"Buffy I'm afraid we have a problem." Giles stated as he cleaned his glasses.

The blonde had just stepped into the room before the watcher had started with the obvious statement. "What's the what Giles?"

"Remember Glory?" The older man had no need to ask that question he merely thought that would be the best way to introduce his slayer to the new potential threat.

Buffy's happy mood was short lived. Panic set in and the memories from the encounter with the Hell god came back. However much her mind was panicking, she tried not to show it. Years of being a leader had conditioned her to do so. Only her jaw was slightly clench when she replied. "Yes."

"According to my research, the First is working with a form of a hell god; we are still working on what . . ." Giles was cut off as Willow walked in.

"Seems like the First wants the Hell god to open its dimension and unleash demons to rebuild his army." The redhead went silent and skimmed through a book.

"Buffy no need to elaborate on the catastrophe this could be. We must stop this. I have already coordinated with Angel to continue our research."

The blonde was scared and frustrated. "When are these guys going to give us a break?" she exclaimed and sat down. "So what else can we do?"

"It's imperative that you start to train the girls more intensely. We have new girls coming in and we must prepare them."

Buffy nodded in agreement and suddenly remembered something very important.

"The key! Is there a key? Who is it? Is it Dawn?" Buffy's composure fell at the sudden though of her sister being in that kind of danger again.

Giles quickly jumped in to try and ease the slayer's sudden panic. "The chances of Dawn being the key are slim. In fact it's more feasible that if there is a key it be an artifact of some sort rather than human."

"Piece of cake Buff" Xander chimed in. "We find the key thing and we stop it." He walked towards Buffy and squeezed her shoulders to comfort his friend.

"Yes it would appear so Xander." Giles walked over to his stack of books and began to hand out the books. "We shall get some of the other slayers to help with the research and we can rotate between research and training."

"I will send some of my guys to help with the research as well as training." Angel said while he dialed his cell phone.

Buffy felt a bit relieved knowing for once she had resources to get ahead of the big bad. She nodded in appreciation and stood to leave.

"Keep me up dated. I have to go think." The blonde made her way to the elevator trying to come to terms with reality.

The First and a Hell god teamed up to go after her and the slayer line. She had barely been able to defeat them individually and died defeating Glory. The blonde walked into the training room glad to see no one was around. She walked up to the punching bag and allowed all her fears to transfer into kicks and punches.

"I like you. I like you a lot"

Buffy's voice kept replaying over and over in his head. He made his way into his office.

"So your slayer has betrayed you," A voice said coming from the corner of his office.

"Angelus join us and you can have her." The voice in the room hissed out.

Angel looked towards the presence in the room and it was the same girl that he had seen in Faith's room.

"No." He simply stated and stared down the apparition.

"Think about it." The girl disappeared through the wall and left Angel alone.

The vampire looked out his window to the city before him. All he could think about were Buffy's words to Faith. He remembered standing by the door hearing the conversation between the two slayers. He had felt Buffy pulling away before Faith showed up again. He still had the hopes that he would end up with Buffy. He remembered the jealously that bolted through him when Buffy spoke those words. He decided to interrupt for his own sake before Buffy could continue with her confession. He knew it was wrong of him to feel like Buffy belonged to him. The vampire knew he had to let her go and let her make her own choices. However he felt the demon inside him stir from its prison. Angel grabbed a book off his desk and tried to drown his thoughts by reading.

Buffy made her way out of her shower. The workout had exhausted her and the warm water had helped her relax her body after the stressful news. She slipped into some sweats and a t-shirt and headed for Faith's room.

"Hey" Buffy said announcing her self to Faith.

"Hey B." the dark slayer replied, "What's up?"

"Oh you know, another Apocalypse." Buffy said nonchalantly and took a seat next to Faith on the bed.

"Look at you all worried." Faith joked. By the looks of it Buffy was stress free, yet Faith could sense the blonde's panic underneath her brave face.

"Well after saving the world a few times, its no biggie." Buffy reached for Faith's hand and for a second marveled at how good it felt to intertwined her hand with the other slayer. "But I really don't want to talk about that. I want to continue where we left off earlier."

Faith smiled "and where exactly was that?"

Buffy leaned in closer to the dark-haired slayer. "If I remember correctly, you were about to tell me how much you like me."

Faith nervously swallowed. There was nobody else in the world that could make her feel nervous. She had hooked up with just as many girls as guys but her usual rule of 'get some get gone' couldn't be applied to Buffy. That thought alone made her as insecure as a sixteen-year-old girl. Faith looked up into Buffy's eyes and took a chance "I do like you."

Buffy smiled "Good. So we are on the same page?"

Faith nodded and squeezed the blonde's hand that had taken possession of her own. "Yeah I think we are."

"Faith, I know this is not easy for you, for the both of us."

The younger slayer chuckled "you got that right B. I'm not the relationship type or the . . ." she lifted their intertwined hands "holding hands type either. I don't know what I can give you B"

Buffy felt Faith pulling away from her and she refused to let their insecurities get in the way. "I know you are not the relationship type, but please if you feel anything close to what I'm feeling, you can give it a try."

"You sure you want that B? Remember we don't have a very good track record."

Buffy slipped her hand out from Faith's hand immediately regretting the loss of contact with Faith. "I know that." Buffy leaned in closer and let her forehead rest upon Faith's own. "Do you trust me?"

The dark-haired slayer was taken aback by Buffy's shift in positions. Not really needing to think about the question she nodded her response. What transpired after that solidified what the two slayers had been feeling for a very long time, longer than either would care to admit.

Buffy, upon seeing the other slayer nod, decided to stop talking and analyzing. Faith's lips had hypnotized her and all she wanted to do was to touch them with her own.

Buffy closed the distance between them and gently let her lips cover Faith's. She was amazed at how perfect they felt. As she closed her eyes she saw Faith's eyes close as well and a hand caress her face.

The two slayers finally started to understand each other. The contact they had shared up until this point was nothing compared to what was running through them in that moment. Buffy delicately moved in sync with Faith's lips as the other slayer expertly teased her lips with her tongue.

Buffy was the first to pull away her lungs forcing her to do so. She remained close to the other slayer and inhaled deeply. As she opened her eyes she saw that Faith still had her eyes closed.

Faith didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't want the feeling of Buffy's lips to go away. She feared this was another dream and she certainly didn't want to wake up. Upon feeling Buffy's breath on her, she slowly opened her eyes to an astonishing scene. Right in front of her was the most beautiful blonde, green-eyed woman with a huge grin looking at her.

"Wow B," Faith managed to whisper out.

A/N: What did you guys think? Our girls are finally getting somewhere! Reviews are almost begged for. Yes I said it. Not afraid to admit reviews get addicting (especially the positive ones). I hope I still have some readers out there.