Chapter 5: But If I Were Walking in Your Shoes (I wouldn't worry none) -
Wednesday September 16, 1998; Sunnydale High School, 8:15 A.M.
Yawning, Xander ambled up to where the gang was gathered together in a small clump leaning against the front walk railings. Ok, limped up in a kind of ambling way: his hip was a lot better than when he'd fallen into bed, but it still wasn't one hundred percent yet. His mood was worse: catching his dad up late, still drinking when he came in, had led to yet another querulous and belligerent 'discussion' over his out all day and all night habits before he could escape to his room. He plastered something that resembled his usual half grin on and continued ambling.
"Morning," Oz drawled, giving him a short nod.
"Something like," Xander agreed, sliding an arm around Cordelia's waist as she slid in next to him. He leaned down to nuzzle against her hair, closing his eyes as he drank in the aroma of her conditioner and the uniquely 'Cordyness' of her scent. Just the antidote for aroma de Harris residence.
"Hey," Cordelia tilted her head up at an angle for a kiss, blinking at him after they broke off. "What's with the limp, Hop Along?" Her eyes flickered to the purplish scrape on his forehead and back to his, her teeth worrying at her lower lip.
"Vamp," Xander stated, grimacing as Willow's eyes widened slightly in alarm.
"Oh my god," Cordelia pulled away from him to give him a thorough examination from arm's length. "Ok, you can't be too bad off - you're walking anyway."
"Not of the big," Xander grinned, holding his hands up in a reassuring gesture. "One vamp. Got a lucky kick in before I staked him." Both girls relaxed slightly.
"That's what you get, Buster, for heading off on your own from the Bronze last night," Willow stated in a chiding tone. Cordelia arched an eyebrow at the 'alone' part.
"Yeah yeah," Xander said in a distracted tone while returning Cordelia's thorough examination. Both of them looked and were acting a lot closer to their normal selves today, closer than yesterday, anyway. Willow was her normal, chipper self, and Cordy seemed to have lost the subdued air she'd been sporting almost all of yesterday.
"Yeah yeah yourself, Dweeb," Cordelia shot back, grinning. She dug her fingers into his ribs as she slid her arm back around his waist and molded herself against him again while he wriggled. "Best not get yourself killed and leave me all alone in outcastland. I'll get you resurrected just so I can kick your ass." Willow nodded enthusiastic agreement.
While laughing, a part of Xander's mind was processing impressions and checking anomalies against 'norms' for the girls. He met Oz's eyes over Cordelia's head and got a raised eyebrow and a microscopic shrug in answer to his inquiring look. Check: Oz wasn't one hundred percent reassured either.
"Just what I love about you, Cordy: your ability to make my death all about your issues," he joked.
"Damn straight," Cordelia said. "What's your pathetic life except in relation to the importance of your role in validating my existence, huh?"
Leaning into Oz, Willow shook her head with an eye roll. Xander grinned, throwing her a wink. "Looking good today, Willster," he said. "Don't sweat the C-stuff. That's just her way of saying 'gee, I'm glad you didn't get turned into vamp chow because I'd have missed you'. Gotta learn how to translate the Cordy-speak."
"Thanks," Willow said, blushing furiously.
No lie: apparently the Cordy magic had stuck somewhat. Willow had traded yesterday's russet and elegance for a more casual look involving a stonewashed looking green denim vest over a pale green, almost green-white, knitted looking cowled blouse and matching green jeans, but she still looked pretty sharp. And way stylish in comparison to her usual. The eternally seventeen year old in his brain went 'Wow! Willow's a girl!' in something akin to amazement. The Xander had grown up considering Willow his little sister and guy-type-friend-with-girl-parts, not to mention that was becoming more and more solidly attached to his Cordelia shaped friend, shook off the awareness while watching Willow beam at the compliment. 'Willow is not a girl, Xan,' he reminded himself, 'That way lay badness.'
"Yup. Gilding the Willow, definitely," he stated. 'Willow is not a girl, Xan,' he firmly reminded himself, 'That way lay badness.'
"Well, not so much gilding, 'cause that involves hot metal applying and- " Willow cut off abruptly, "Oh, and that's a compliment. Right," she grinned back at him. "Hey! Wouldn't be right to have Faith and Cordy go to all this trouble and not wear it, you know?" Oz gave her a squeeze, smiling indulgently.
"Hey! What about me, Doof?" Cordelia tossed in with a mock sniff. She threw Willow a slight wink.
"You always look good, dear, even in tramp wear," Xander said. He grinned again, wriggling away from the expected poke in the ribs and outraged huff. Which she did, although the tramp-wear crack was probably uncalled for. Unlike her usual body flaunting outfits, today's ensemble consisted of a cream, white, brown, and red, Navajo patterned cowl-neck sweater with bloused wrap around pants in a dark chocolate color that matched her hair almost exactly. With soft leather slouch boots almost matching the cream sweater completing the look, it was both flattering, elegantly expensive - and a bit outside of Cordelia's usual style. And he was way too aware of female clothing styles, he reflected. He really needed some more guy friends...
"Mucho gorgeous," he added. "Kind of a different look though, isn't it?"
"What? We're allowed to spruce up the Willow but I can't change styles? Oh please," she threw back, laughing. Cordelia shrugged, "Just felt like pulling something different out of the closet for once, that's all."
Nodding, Xander glanced at Oz again while replying, "Sure. By the way - you two feeling better today?"
"Oh, sure," Cordelia said as Willow nodded against Oz's shoulder. "Tired, but back to normal." She frowned slightly, adding, "Must've been some weird one day bug or something."
"Return of the Hellmouth flu," Oz remarked, getting an 'eew' look from both girls. "Bell," he added, just about five seconds before it rang.
"Ok, that's spooky," Xander stated as they fell in step towards the school entrance. "Radar O'Reilly-ing around this school's gonna get you talked about."
"It's a knack," Oz admitted. "Didn't claim it was a healthy knack."
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Wednesday September 16, 1998; Sunnydale Motor Lodge, 8:30 A.M.
There was a horrible noise somewhere and it wouldn't go away. At first she thought it was coming from something Scott was doing on the dance floor, maybe from his pants, and then she realized he was looking just as puzzled as she felt. Besides, he wasn't wearing any pants. Then she thought maybe it was some bizarre prank Xander was pulling on her, but when she checked, he and Oz were still thoroughly immersed in their version of Soul man up on the Bronze's stage and sounding pretty good.
She was gonna have to have a serious word with the Xan, though. The mime paint just wasn't working with the Joliet Jake look. Not even with the Ray Bans...
The noise went away and she muttered something and went back to losing herself in dancing, only to get yanked out of the mood again a short while later when it started back up. This time it was annoying enough to stop her dead with a curse and yank her back around toward the stage, muttering. A solid impact jarred her and she opened her eyes, only to slam them shut again with a curse as a bright light lanced through her eyeballs.
Great. Half off the bed and the 'bright light' was the overhead room light in her motel room. Which meant that she wasn't at the Bronze, and the horrible noise was coming from her pants pocket on the floor next to her. Cell phone. Right. Why couldn't she have normal dreams about Cordy and Xander sandwiches? Sheesh...
Growling, Faith dug the pre-paid out of her pocket and checked the display. 8:30am - if this was Xan or one of the guys, they'd better have a damned good reason for calling at this time of the morning. Not a number she recognized, which didn't help her mood any. She hit the talk button and stuck the phone to her ear, snarling out, "What the fuck?"
"Slayer?"
The voice was vaguely familiar but not really recognizable, sounding almost as if the speaker had a mouthful of marbles. "Who the fuck is this?" Faith demanded. The only people who should have this number were in the gang...
"Huh? Whattaya mean? It's me - your favorite bartender and punching bag, jeeze."
Oh. The gang and Willy. Ok, that wasn't helping her mood. "It's eight thirty in the fucking morning, Rat-face. This better be real freaking good," Faith told him. She swung her legs off of the bed and got to her feet while waiting for the response.
"Uh... did I wake you up?"
The inarticulate noise Faith made in response to that must have sunk home somewhere as there was a note of definite panic in the voice when Willy started babbling in response.
"Ok! Ok! Sorry, jeeze. I just thought you might wanna know that a bunch of goons came and broke up my bar late late last night just after closing looking for information on you and your buddies, Christ. I'll hang up and let you get back to sleep, jeeze. Try and do a body a favor... "
"Don't. You. Fucking. Dare. Hang up," Faith grated out, sitting on the edge of the bed with a thump. She ran her free hand through her hair, pushing it back out of her face. "Ok, run that by me one more time? Slowly, and use small words."
There was a slight pause, followed by an odd noise. If that was a snicker, Faith was going to kill the little weasel. Slowly.
"I said a bunch of thugs came by and shook me down looking for info on ya. Thought you might wanna know."
"Right. 'K," Faith sighed heavily. "All right. Gimme a bit, and I'll swing by the bar to get the low down. Crap. Thanks."
"Well, you can, but it'd work better if you swung by Sunnydale General," Willy stated. "'Cause you'd be more likely to find me here than at the bar."
"OK. You're dead. Don't go anywhere," Faith said. "What room number? I'm gonna bring flowers for your funeral."
"Uh... 213. Jeeze, Slayer, you wake up on the wrong side of bed or what?" Whatever else Willy had to say was cut off by Faith punching the cut-off button with her thumb and tossing the cell down in the general direction of her pants.
Ergh. Faith buried her face in her hands, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Ok, could be worse. She could have brought Scott back with her and kept him over rather than tossing him out after, going with this 'trying something new' kick she had. That would have been just perfect: wake up yelling about mimes and the Blues Brothers while falling out of bed. She'd never live that one down... she'd have to kill him and hide the body.
Yawning again, she dug a soda from the flat under her bed and took a long swig while padding to the bathroom to take a shower. Way too early for this crap, she decided, throwing a quick glance at her travel clock to double check. Yup: just after 8:40 in the AM. Grrf. Of course, she'd have gotten a lot more sleep if she hadn't had Scott drop her by the G's place from the Bronze, and then spent several hours doing tutoring stuff while talking over what she'd gathered from Oz and Tamara with him...
While it was on her mind, she decided that pretty soon, she was going to have to decide what to do with the Scott situation. This was getting to be the longest period of time in a long while she'd been involved with a guy without hauling him off to get her 'uhng' on, and it was starting to drive her nuts. Nuts in a kind of a good way, but after all of the near chaste time she'd spent sleeping with Cordy and Xan she was damned near ready to climb the walls.
Mulling the Scott thing over while showering was a good distraction from thinking about whatever Slayer weirdness was about to land on her. She'd find out the scoop on that soon enough when she talked to Willy - no point in worrying at it 'til then. She decided that smothering Willy with a pillow after was probably a bit extreme. It'd most likely get her talked about, anyway.
Part of the problem, she decided, was that unlike a lot of the guys she hauled off to have her way with, she kind of liked Scott. Not in a 'true love' way - Faith didn't believe in 'tru wuv', and especially not after only a week - but he was cute, they clicked, and he seemed to like her back. Throwing him down, screwing his brains out, and throwing him out immediately after just didn't seem right for some reason. A definite hazard to this whole 'dating thing'.
Killing the water just when it started running cold, she grabbed a towel off the rack while thinking on things. Other hazard to the dating thing was that if she didn't bang him and toss him out, she was giving him a perfect shot at dumping her right after getting his nut off. Just like all guys. And keeping him hanging while snagging some guy just to get off with would be giving him a perfect reason to, too.
Jeeze, she was so freaking screwed up in the relationship department, Faith decided. It'd help if they printed manuals for this crap. Tossing the towel in the direction of the rack, she padded to the sink to put her makeup on before getting dressed and arming up.
Screw it. Go see Willy and get the down low, then head up to Brit central and talk some strategy with Giles. Maybe get a chance to catch Xander and see if the weird factor with Will and Cordy or not had died off. And find out exactly what was up - something she still wasn't clear on.
Things used to be a hell of a lot simpler back when she didn't give a damn.
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Wednesday September 16, 1998; Sunnydale High School Library, 10:30 A.M.
"Thank god for Wednesdays," Xander remarked. Oz nodded as they headed in through the stack doors into the library, following him as Xander bounded down the stairs to the main level. One hour wasn't much, but the slightly shorter SHS Wednesday schedule meant it was an hour less time they had to spend around whatever bizarre effect might be going on.
"Ah. Good morning, gentlemen," Giles glanced up from the counter where he was stamping a checkout slip in the back of a student's book selection. Taking in the concerned looks on the two's faces - or at least on Xander's, as Oz had his usual expressionless mask in place - he added, "Be with you in a moment."
Taking in the unexpected scattering of students at various tables at the front of the library, Oz inclined his head towards the corner table at the back rear, leading the way to a seat. Giles wandered back after a few moments to join them, pulling a chair around and leaning casually on the back while adjusting his glasses.
"Hey, Giles," Xander ran a hand through his hair while gathering his thoughts. "Oz said Faith said she was gonna drop by after the Bronze and date you up?" Running the wording through his mind afterwards, he winced slightly, making a vague 'you know' gesture with one hand.
Giles hand froze on his glasses as he processed and deciphered that. "If I'm correctly translating that sentence, then yes, I believe so," he said. He removed his glasses to dangle them from the fingers of one hand, absently. "I'm given to understand that you fear something may be amiss with your female compatriots?"
Spreading his hands, Oz said, "Got it in one." Xander nodded agreement.
"Hrrm." Nodding Giles stated, "She did relay to me her observations and recollection of yours and err, Tamara's commentary to her about the aberrant behaviors you'd noticed, yes." On noticing Xander's blank expression, he added, "Yes, she did 'date me up' as it were, Xander."
"Oh. Good," Xander said. "Uh... "
"Have the odd behaviors you'd noted continued?" Giles asked. "Or have they gone into abeyance today?"
"Abeyance, kind of," Oz supplied, cutting off another round of incomprehension and translation. He cut his eyes sideways to Xander with an amused look, getting a smirk. "More or less back to normal, mostly."
"Still kinda off, but yeah - mostly normal," Xander confirmed. "Cordy's a little bit drabber than usual, and was complaining about being tired and draggy, but that could be nothing odd."
"Hmm." Giles replaced his glasses. "Well, having been severely chastised once by Buffy for writing off a similar situation as being mere 'normal teenaged maleness' - and having been proven in error - I'm loathe to repeat the same error again." He gave a slight smile, "Even if that does run us the risk of being proven paranoid to no good--"
The sound of both of the main doors slamming open jerked all three's heads around in startlement, cutting off Giles' exposition. Faith strode through the wide swinging doors like a gunfighter through a saloon's batwings.
"Hey, G - we gots problems," she called out, then noticed the array of startled looks from the various students scattered around the front of the library. Her jaw clenched and she jerked her chin up, sending a molten glare around the room as she breezed past. Spotting the three of them, she altered course in their direction as students hastily looked anywhere but in her direction.
"And Hurricane Faith makes landfall early," Xander observed, drawing a bemused look from Oz.
"'Ware the storm surge," Oz stated, a very slight smile crossing his lips.
Yanking a chair out from a nearby table and spinning it around to plant one foot on the seat, Faith leaned forward, crossing her arms on her upright knee. "Willy got put in the hospital last night by a bunch of hitters shaking him down for info on us," she stated, her voice lowered to avoid attracting any more attention than she already had. "One of 'em being one of Dacascos' goons."
"And the day gets better," Oz observed.
"Quite," Giles said in a dry voice. Removing a cloth from his inside jacket pocket, he pulled off his glasses and began polishing them with a sigh. "Do continue, Faith," he said.
"Yeah, well," Faith pushed her hair back one handed, then rubbed at her eyes. "He woke me up early on my cell to pass me the news. I just now left Sunny-D General and hoofed it up here." She began outlining what she'd gotten out of Willy before cutting out to head to the school.
The pre-third period bell rang, interrupting the rest of her tale. Oz looked at Xander as the two them rose from their seats and the other students scattered around the library began gathering books together.
"And that's our cue for third period biology," Xander said, rolling his eyes. "Oh joy."
"We both have free period after lunch," Oz said. "We can drop back in then and catch up?"
"Please do," Giles said. "And do keep your eyes open for any further oddities. Faith and I shall fill you in on events on your return."
"Yeah yeah," Faith smirked tiredly. "Willy's not dead and this'll probably keep til then while G and I play match the demons here."
Xander nodded. "With luck, our issue's just a flash in the pan that's done flashed and we can move on to 'normal' Hellmouthiness."
"Think you just jinxed us," Oz remarked as they headed towards the doors.
Xander winced, missing his stride before recovering, "I did that thing, didn't I?" Shaking his head, he said, "Crap."
"Succinctly put."
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