This chapter should clear up the whole Angel issue, for those of you wondering about him. Also, I think I got really out of character with my two favorite slayers here, so let me know what you think. Thank you for the spectacular reviews so far!

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When we had gone inside, we didn't know what to do. We couldn't decide on a movie that we both wanted to watch, so we just sat on the couch and stared at our feet which were propped up on the coffee table.

"Well, this is quite the party," Faith stated sardonically. Shortly after she said this, there was a loud crash of thunder outside – I hadn't noticed that it was about to rain when we had been outside. I jumped off of the couch, and immediately felt quite silly for doing so, especially in front of Faith. As my face grew red, Faith did something that I really hadn't expected.

She stood up quickly, though not from fright. She didn't laugh at me or my embarrassment – instead, she looked at me as though she wanted to tell me something, and then she paused and looked at her feet.

"I was always scared of storms when I was a kid," she looked up at me, "Just like everyone else, I knew that they had a huge amount of power, and they could cause a lot of physical damage. I hated thunderstorms until I became a slayer, and then they weren't as scary." She looked back down at her feet when she was done with this confession.

"Oh. Well, that particular crash just startled me more than usual, but, the truth is, I've always been scared of storms. That's the lucky thing about good ol' Sunny-D. Not many scary lightening flashes and thunder crashes," I had said this very quietly, almost inaudibly. Thanks to slayer hearing, I knew she had heard me.

Faith was full of unexpected gestures today. We both saw another flash of lightening illuminate the room in a too-white light, but before the thunder could crash over the house and make the windows rattle, she had her arms around me. When the thunder finally rolled over us, my head was safely tucked into the crook of her neck for the second time today. After it had passed, we didn't move right away. I slowly leaned my head back to look at her face. Again, she mistook my gesture and dropped her arms from around me, thinking that I wanted to back away from her. She looked past me and then down at the floor.

"Well, B, you wanna go slay something when it's done storming? It's fun in the rain." I expressed my surprise at her change of mood by raising my eyebrows unnaturally high. Thankfully, a sharp knock at the door saved me from having to explain my unusual expression.

I walked over to the front door and opened it, but there was no one there. I turned back to go into the other room, and noticed that Faith was nowhere to be seen.

"Faith?" I called worriedly. She appeared by the stairs, coming out of the kitchen – she had something in her hand.

"Relax, Blondie. I thought it might have been the other door, so I went there." She stuffed a pristine envelope into my hands. "This was sitting out there," she explained.

I turned the envelope over. There was nothing written on it, but it was sealed with a puddle of wax with a scripted 'A' in the middle.

"Oh perfect. It's from – "

"Fang?"

"Uh, yeah." I carefully broke the seal on the envelope and took out the letter that was tucked inside. I scanned over it quickly, wanting to receive the bad news and get it over with as quickly as possible. Faith noticed my pained expression. She didn't read over my shoulder, but she did wrap her arms around me from behind and rest her chin on my shoulder.

I finished reading the letter, but continued to stare at it blindly. "Faith, he's leaving," I stated simply, with no emotion in my voice. She muttered something that sounded a lot like "buggering bastard" and then she let go of me briefly to walk around me so that she was looking me in the eyes.

"He already left, actually," I continued. I heard Faith swear again. "He's in LA. He's going to make a business or something there – something about helping the hopeless. Cordelia is working with him too, apparently. So that means that Xander –" I paused, startled. Cordy and Xander had been getting along ok lately; I wonder what happened.

"Buffy, I'm sorry," Faith said as she rested her forehead against mine.

"Spike's there too, apparently. Drusilla wanted to stick around Darla who's in LA, so that must mean that Angel and Darla are –" I stopped again. I couldn't say this out loud. Thankfully, I didn't have to because Faith knew what I meant.

"Buffy, it's not your fault. You said yourself that you thought he was leaving," suddenly, she realized that maybe I just said that to make myself feel better. Her eyes got very wide as she looked into mine. "I mean – you know, you can't – it's his fault!" she stuttered out.

Any other time, with any other subject, I would have laughed at her reaction – it was so unlike her – but not with this.

"Faith, he's already gone! He didn't even say goodbye, he just left!" I pushed the letter up against her; I didn't want it anymore. She looked at me questioningly. "You can read it," I muttered. She took the letter but kept looking at me, worry etched across her features. I leaned back against the doorframe. She put her arm around my waist and lifted me into her arms and carried me back into the living room. Gingerly, she set me down on the couch, and then sat down next to me and put her arms around me as she read. I was thankful for her touch; I don't think I would have handled this news as well had she not been present.

When she finished the letter, she put it down and wrapped her arms tighter around me.

"He wants you to be happy, Buffy. He said that he was doing it for your own good. I know it's painful, and obviously he's a jerk, but he does want you to be happy here. He's not wishing for your misery."

"Well then, it's a good thing I have you," I said sincerely. She laid her head gently against mine. I turned my head slightly so that she could see me smile. I turned a little in her arms so that I could lean back on her shoulder and nestle my head into her neck and hair. Once I was comfortable, she snuggled a little closer to me.

We dozed off like that for a while. When we woke up, had it been sunny, it would have been slightly past sunset. As it was, the rain still pounded against the window, but for now, the thunder was absent. Faith had woken up before I had, but she hadn't moved.

"Faith?" I said groggily.

"Right here, B. Do you need anything?"

"Can we go to The Bronze?" I asked. I wanted to get my mind off of Angel and anything that had to do with him or any other chaos that might be going on with my friends. I just wanted to go and dance and forget about everything else.

"Sure, B. Do you want to walk? It's still raining."

"Yeah, we can walk. It's not that far and it's not stormy anymore."

"Ok. Let me grab a jacket or somethin' first, alright?"

"The one you left here last time – the jean jacket – is in the coat closet," I said.

"Ok. Thanks."

Neither of us wanted to move. Finally, Faith moved her arms from around me and laid me back gently so that I was leaning on the back of the couch. She went to the closet and grabbed her coat and a waist-length black leather jacket that I had. She came back to the couch wearing her jacket, with mine in her hand.

"Come on, B. Let's go get our groove on," she smirked. I laughed. At least someone wanted to make me feel better.

We walked outside and paused on the porch for a moment. I made sure that I replaced the key under the mat. For a moment, we just stood there, looking out at the rain. Faith put her arm around me so that she had her hand on my opposite hip. She gave me a little half-hug and entwined our fingers before leading me out into the rain.

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To be continued.

What do you think? Reviews are adored! There's some Bronze action to come, so stay tuned! :] Also, for those of you wondering about Dawn's absence (since my "superb" summary said that she was to show up early), she is coming. At the current time, she's at Janice's house. I should have mentioned that earlier, but I just couldn't find a place to fit it in. There were too many great fuffy moments in this chapter that would have been ruined with the mention of annoying little sisters. :]