The characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog are owned by Joss Whedon. I'm not using most of them, but he owns them anyway.
Xander was sitting uncomfortably in the driver's seat as his car cruised along the darkened streets of Sunnydale. He was feeling uncomfortable due to the stunning, yet foul-mouthed brunette riding shotgun who seemed to think that innuendo was as essential as breathing. Normally, Xander would rally to such a challenge, having traded barbs with the best of them, but in this case, he was out of his depth. Insults and jokes were his strength, not flirting, and he felt more than a little out of place, as though Faith was going to suddenly lose her temper and throw him through the windshield. Her unsettling combination of directness and distrust wasn't helping either.
After her dramatic introduction to the group, everyone went inside the Bronze for introductions and small talk. It turned out that Faith had quite the repertoire of risqué stories, which resulted in Xander getting slapped by Cordelia several times, and led to him squirming uncomfortably in the car now. As conversation moved on, Faith was asked what she was doing in town, and where she was staying. She answered that she stopped by to meet Buffy while her Watcher was at a retreat in merry old, and that she was camped out at the Sunnydale motor lodge. There was a quiet pause of indrawn breath at that point, and from Xander's point of view, this was where the trouble started.
"Um, Faith? Did you say the Motor Lodge? In the south end?" Willow's question was tentative, as she was obviously trying to avoid upsetting the possibly volatile brunette. Faith turned and looked at the red head, anger clearly building.
"Yeah, what of it? It's not like my travel budget can afford the Ritz, y'know."
Willow turned a helpless look to Oz and then Xander, which only served to fuel Faith's anger.
"So what? Does it not meet your suburban, yuppie, standards, huh? I came here to Sunnydale to meet Buffy, the only girl in the world like me, not to have her friends look at me like I'm trash. So if you don't like it, then I'm…"
"FAITH!" Xander shouted, breaking through her rant and stopping her as she was half out of her seat. She re-directed her glare at him and was about to speak when he continued.
"Willow wasn't trying to insult you. But it's not safe to stay at the Motor Lodge."
"Hey, X, in case you didn't notice? I'm the Slayer, like your girl B here, not some helpless kid. I can handle myself against drug dealers and scum, y'know?"
"Again, not what I'm trying to say. Any hotel isn't safe, because it doesn't have threshold protection to keep out Vampires."
"Seriously? When did you find that out, Xander?" the senior Slayer spoke up, curious as to how her research-avoiding friend managed to pick up something as subtle as that.
"Well, um, Buffy, when we were setting up the safe-house, Giles told us that someone had to move it, or it would be useless as protection, because you have to live somewhere in order to give a place a threshold. A-and since you only rent hotel rooms, they, um, never get that." Willow responded, reassuring Buffy that all was right in the world, since it was Willow who had the answers.
"Oh. Well. Um. Shit. I feel kind of stupid now. Sorry 'bout that, y'know? I just get a little sensitive about a few things." Faith looked around at the Scoobies, clearly embarrassed. Cordelia opened her mouth to respond, but stopped when Xander put his hand on her arm, though she did shoot him a dirty look.
"So, if I can't stay at the hotel, anyone got a couch I can borrow for a few? Have to admit, I'm not looking to become some Vamp's pre-morning snack when I crash out and all."
"We have a safe house for this very reason. Xander will drive you over to your…room to grab your stuff, and then let you in, since he's the caretaker there, as well as the only resident, so far. It's an old boarding house that we bought for a song and re-furnished." Cordelia looked a little sour as she relayed the news, but no-one objected.
That led to now. Xander had driven Faith over to her room and waited as she got her stuff, trying not to look when the obvious prostitute took a guy back to her room, only two over from Faith. He was blushing bright red when the brunette slayer opened her door to leave, but managed to get it under control by the time she got back to the car.
"So, X, you gonna take me over to your pad and get pelvic?" Xander jammed the ignition as Faith slid into the car, taking a few more seconds to calm down and start it back up as Faith laughed at him. Xander considered tossing Faith a dirty look, but the last time he did that, she pushed her cleavage out, and he nearly crashed the car, so he contented himself with muttering darkly and getting into second gear.
Xander was glad ten minutes later when he slid into the driveway of the old boarding house that he, Giles and Mrs. Summers had picked out as the safe house. He'd turned one of the larger bedrooms into a den with a TV, the living room had been converted into a gym, and the basement held weapons storage and the workroom where he did maintenance for the tools of their trade, including the laborious task of removing paint from paintballs and replacing it with holy water, a job aided by a large-gauge hypodermic. The roomy kitchen was vintage 1950's but everything was in good repair and worked well, and there were five rooms with beds, with the master bedroom having been converted into a backup library. The house would have been well outside of their price range in any sane city, but the fact that there had been almost a dozen brutal murders in the house since the Korean War really drove down the price. Giles, Willow and Cordelia had spent a very boring, but productive week during the summer exorcizing the spirit that had been trapped, and Xander moved in for good after he was finished training at Pendleton. All five of the rooms had been furnished with a bed, desk, chair and lamp, but the rest of the furniture was somewhat eclectic. Xander's room had metal shelving for his clothes that wouldn't have looked out of place in a garage, while one of the other rooms had a restored mahogany dresser they'd found in the basement.
Xander was well aware that he was about to invite a very desirable woman into his home, if not his bed, and the thought made him more than a little nervous. This was made worse by the fact that Faith had not only been flirting the entire car ride both to her hotel room and back, but that as she walked towards the door, she had put a deliberate roll into her step that made it impossible for Xander to look anywhere aside from her frankly magnificent posterior. He knew that if a legion of screaming vampires jumped out at him that second, he'd stand there staring as they tore him to pieces, and he wasn't sure if he'd even notice.
Of course, the one thing that really made him nervous was that before they'd headed out, Cordy had grabbed him and pulled him aside. She'd given him a furious look and said, "Listen, geek. I know we're broken up, but I swear to all that's holy, if you come into school tomorrow with a sly smile on your face, or give me even a hint that you slept with her, and I will make you wish that Angelus finished what he started when he broke your arm! Do you hear me, mister?"
Xander had nodded frantically, and swore that only he could get trapped between two beautiful brunettes and still be a luckless fool. He shook his head and shouldered two duffels, one full of weapons, and the other of Faith's things, and headed to where an amused Faith was waiting by the door. His hands trembled slightly when he opened the door, but he managed, and struggled inside with his burden.
"So, X, gonna give me the tour? Show me around? I'm sure there's lots of interesting things here. Workbenches, showers, bedrooms…"
Faith left her statement hanging, an obvious invitation, and Xander summoned all his willpower with his response.
"Actually, I have to dump the weapons out, so we're heading to the basement first, I'll give you the nickel tour, and then I'm beat. Patrol wasn't too hard tonight, but wearing armor in this heat wears me out. If you'd give me a hand with the bag? Normally I'd be chivalrous, but I'm tired, and you're the Slayer, and therefore much stronger than me."
Looking a little surprised at Xander's brush-off, Faith shrugged and helped him carry the weapons to the basement and store them, before he showed her around, dropping her bags off in her room before giving her the run of the freezer to deal with at least one of her two H's. He dragged himself up to his room, pulled off and hung up the armor, tossed the undergarments in the wash and almost fell into the shower. The ritual and meditations he went through to control the Primal spirit were great, but there was definitely a crash at then end.
After his (cold) shower, he staggered to his bed and immediately fell asleep.
AN: I admit I'm uncertain about Faith's characterization, but I figured she'd be off-balance, and would have tried to re-establish familiar patterns.
As always, please review, say what you like, love and hate. Flames are useful, since I'm trying to reduce my heating bills