Things were about to get interesting and Faith could just feel the evil surrounding the city when she woke up bright and early. She looked over at Buffy, who lay on her bed next to her, and smiled to herself as she watched Buffy sleep. After the last bottle of wine they had come up to her room for a little bit of privacy. Despite wanting to take things all the way, Faith had held herself back. She was glad she did. She wasn't about to have Buffy doing anything she'd end up regretting.
When did she become so careful with other people's feelings? It was one of those things she couldn't just pinpoint to one incident or specific time. It was something that was changing in her day by day. She carefully got off the bed as to not wake Buffy and she groaned softly as she stretched out her stiff muscles. She grabbed a change of clothes and her towel off the back of the door and slipped out of the room, looking back for a moment as she heard Buffy sigh out as she rolled over and pulled the pillow close to her chest. She opened the bathroom door, chuckling softly when she looked down and saw Kennedy curled up near the toilet.
"Rise and shine," she laughed as she knelt down next to Kennedy and waited for her to open her eyes.
"Fuck," Kennedy moaned as she pulled the towel she had rolled up for a pillow over her face. "Do you have to be so loud, Faith?"
"Of course I do," she grinned as she helped Kennedy sit up slowly. "I take it the wine didn't sit too good with you last night, huh?"
"I am never drinking wine again."
"Yeah, me neither," Faith replied as she rolled her eyes, the sarcasm just dripping off her tongue.
"You and Buffy..." Kennedy groaned as she took a deep breath. "Did you and Buffy, you know, fuck already?"
"Nah," Faith replied as she shook her head and sat next to her as she moved to lean against the bathtub.
"But you two took off up to your room. One would just naturally figure you'd be fucking all night long."
"Just made out on the bed like a couple of horny teenagers," Faith chuckled as she shook her head. "Buffy is really doing a fuckin' number on me."
"No kidding. So," Kennedy grinned as she nudged Faith with her shoulder. "You two are definitely hooking up, aren't you?"
"I don't know if you could call it that. We've only kissed a couple of times."
"A couple? Jesus," Kennedy laughed as she shook her head. "Well, I say it's a start to a beautiful relationship…or at least one night of fucking each other's brains out before you realize you'd be better off as friends."
"You really think that?"
"No, I was just saying...in general, you know? Don't listen to me. I've got a hangover the size of...of the whole fucking country. My thoughts are a little scattered."
"I don't do relationships," Faith muttered under her breath as she traced over the hole beginning to tear in her jeans. "I don't even know if I want a relationship with Buffy. Hell, I don't even know if she knows what the hell she's getting herself into with me."
"You and Robin almost had a thing. You wanted something with him, didn't you?"
"I don't even know anymore, Ken. Maybe I did at the time cos there was just nothing else out there for me and nobody else that was willing to give me a chance."
"Buffy seems willing," Kennedy pointed out, smiling at Faith as she shrugged. "You really think she'd want to kiss you if she wasn't willing?"
"I don't..."
"Just stop," Kennedy said as she tried to stand up. She gave up with a groan when her body didn't seem to want to cooperate, deciding to stay right where she was. "Look, you gotta stop saying 'I don't know' and you have got to stop questioning things when it comes to Buffy. Yes, I know you are doing nothing but asking yourself questions you'll never find the answers to."
"How the hell do you know what I'm thinking?"
"You are a lot more transparent than I think you realize you are, Faith. Sometimes all I have to do is look at you and I'll instantly know what you're thinking of. Lately it's all been about Buffy, about the Hellmouth, about Henry, and after last night...Julie."
"I hate that bitch."
"So do I. Willow sure has taken a quick liking to her though," Kennedy replied bitterly. "She just rubs me the wrong way, you know? Something about her bugs me."
"Yeah."
"What do you think the others would think about you and Buffy hooking up?"
"I don't know," Faith shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it."
In truth, she had and she was scared what the others would think. Xander might not have much of a problem with it; then again, she wasn't so sure about him. Kennedy was different. She hadn't been there before when everything happened with her and the rest of the Scoobs. She didn't know how Willow would feel, but she was sure she wouldn't be too happy about it. Same with Dawn. It made her head spin just to think of the fallout that could happen if they were all against her and Buffy and whatever relationship was actually unfolding between them.
She knew that she and Buffy would have to seriously talk about the nature of their relationship, find out just what was really happening between them before anything else happened. She wasn't so sure how much longer she'd be able to hold herself back with Buffy. Kissing her had become an addiction in just a few very short days. She knew Kennedy was right about Buffy being willing to have something with her. Why else would she have wanted to spend the hours before they fell asleep making out on Faith's bed? She let out a heavy sigh as she ran her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair.
"You really don't know what to do when it comes to Buffy, do you?" Kennedy asked softly. Faith shook her head no and they both let out a soft sigh. "I don't know Buffy that well, but just keep doing whatever it is you two have been doing and let it progress however it's going to progress. Maybe stay away from drinking together for awhile, you know?"
"Yeah, cos that's all we seem to do on our downtime."
"We're young," Kennedy chuckled. "We do deserve to act our age especially when we all have the weight of the world on our shoulders. Plus you know alcohol is like truth serum. Loosens the tongue and takes what could be a tense situation and makes it...less tense."
Faith chuckled as she raised an eyebrow at her. "This is why I like you, Ken. You're easy to talk to and you lay it out on the line how it is. You never hold anything back with me and I appreciate that."
"Just like I'm going to keep telling you that you and Buffy need to fuck already. The tension between you two is just..."
"Just what?"
"Has it always been like that for you two?"
"Like what?"
"Not knowing what you want yet knowing it, but too afraid to take what you want because you fear how the other will react if you do. And if that made no sense, blame it on the hangover," Kennedy said with a smile as she stood up slowly and began carefully making her way to the door. "I'm going to get some sleep in an actual bed for a couple hours."
"Later, Ken."
"Right," she nodded as she stumbled out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her rather loudly.
Faith sat there for a few minutes trying to absorb what they'd talked about. Any other time she would have laughed it off, but Kennedy was her friend. Things were still complicated at best between her and Buffy, but something was making things easier for them and it had started with that first kiss a few nights ago. Buffy had taken the initiative and made the first move. Despite her own sexual bravado, she would have never found the courage to make the first move on Buffy because it was Buffy, not some random stranger she picked up in a bar or a club and would very likely not see again. She knew she had a lot of thinking to do and a lot of things to figure out. She knew she had feelings—deep feelings—for Buffy, she just wasn't sure how deep they went or what they meant just yet.
Love was a scary emotion for her to feel, especially when it came to loving another. Rather than let those thoughts consume her so early in the morning, she had a quick shower and headed downstairs to make a pot of coffee. She stood at the sink staring blankly out the window as she let her previous thoughts run rampant through her mind. It had only been a couple of weeks and she was letting old feelings consume her yet again. However, they weren't just old feelings, there were new ones too, and ones she just didn't quite understand.
She snapped out of the daze she'd fallen into when she heard Dawn and Buffy talking quietly as they came down the stairs. She quickly filled up the coffeemaker and switched it on, managing to duck out the back door before Dawn and Buffy came into the kitchen. She needed time alone to think and time alone in the house was hard to come across. It bothered her she couldn't just find her own space there without someone always being around one way or another. It was in moments like this when she asked herself why she even bothered tagging along with all of them.
"Hey," Buffy said softly as she stepped outside. "You okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be okay?"
"You weren't there when I woke up and I heard you and Kennedy talking in the bathroom."
Faith shrugged as she walked across the grass towards the picnic table and sat down. "I just needed some time alone, B. Not a big deal."
"I'm going to ask you one more time, Faith. Are you okay with this?" Buffy asked as she sat down next to her. "I know neither of us probably expected anything like this to happen, but it's happening and it's real and I can't shake the feeling that you are about to run away from this."
"What's this anyway, B? What's making me so damn nervous is not knowing what the hell is happening between us."
"Things are changing," Buffy whispered as she fidgeted with the hem of her t-shirt. "I don't know why, but they are. I'm feeling things that I've never felt before and I know you are too."
"Still don't understand why," Faith muttered under her breath. "Guess it's just one of those things that happen, right? Fucked up thing is that things like this never happen to me. Ever."
"It doesn't mean that it never will happen," Buffy said as she smiled a little at her when she turned to look at her. "Faith, I know that you want to know all the answers. I want to know them too, but I think...for now we need to just let it happen."
"Tell me something, B," Faith said as she stared at her long and hard for a moment. "If the fight against the First never happened and I still came back, would it be like this?"
"I don't know."
"So why is it like this now?"
"Faith, can't we just..." Buffy sighed as she reached for her hand and intertwined their fingers as she moved to sit closer to her. "I know that the last thing either of us ever expected was for something more than friendship to happen between us. Maybe this is why we could never be friends before—because we have these feelings for each other?"
"What feelings?" Faith asked, not meaning to sound so cold. She groaned as she looked at Buffy, trying to figure out what was going through her mind. "What I meant was, what kind of feelings are you having, B?"
"Feelings, I don't know...I just know I want to...you know, and that scares me because I've never wanted to...with another woman before," Buffy said quietly, her face flushing a deep red as she looked away from Faith. "I don't know when these feelings started, okay? I just...god, I feel so confused and yet at the same time I..."
"You know what ya want but you're afraid to take it?" Faith finished for her, smiling when Buffy just nodded her head a little.
She wanted to tell Buffy just to take whatever she wanted, but somehow she knew that Buffy already knew that and was waiting until she was ready to. She laughed to herself, still trying to figure out how this happened, how Buffy ended up wanting to be with her. Nothing made any sense, but she knew it didn't really have to—these things just happened when you least expected them to. The one thing that did keep bothering her was the fact that this was happening with Buffy. No matter how hard she tried to make herself accept it, she just couldn't. This was happening with Buffy—Buffy of all people—and it was nothing short of brain flaming crazy for her.
Buffy was right about everything changing. They were all changing even if they didn't quite see how. She knew she had no control over the changes that were happening in her life and to her. She knew she had to try to find a way to stop letting her thoughts consume her and to simply let those changes happen. She also knew she had to find a way just to talk to Buffy, as hard as it was for her. How were they ever supposed to figure things out if they couldn't talk about it?
"Say we do this," Faith said softly, not daring to look at her just yet, "are we going to tell everyone else or is this gonna be some kind of secret between us?"
"Can't we just figure out what this is first?"
"B..."
"This whole...gay thing...might not be new for you but it is for me. I don't know how to just tell everyone about...this."
"Who said I'm gay?" Faith asked, chuckling as Buffy shook her head and shrugged. "I swing both ways, B. Thought you figured that out by now. Now Willow and Ken is the pure definition of gay."
"Right," Buffy said with a short, sharp laugh as she let go of her hand and gave her thigh a gentle squeeze before she stood up. "We're going out on patrol tonight. What do you say about getting in a few hours of training after we have coffee and get some breakfast?"
"Is that gonna be code for 'I wanna make out with you in the basement for a couple hours', B?" Faith teased as she got up and followed Buffy back to the house, not even needing to see her face to know she was blushing furiously again. "So, is it?"
"No...well, maybe," Buffy said quickly as she turned to look at her for a split second and winked before she turned to walk into the house.
Faith chuckled as she followed Buffy into the house, her smile quickly fading when she found everyone was now awake and down in the kitchen. She grabbed herself a cup of coffee and stood by the counter next to Xander and Kennedy, all three of them watching as Willow and Andrew cooked up a stack of fresh pancakes. The three of them exchanged a look, one that said 'we're tired of eating the same thing for breakfast every morning'.
"You want to go grab something to eat at that little restaurant down the street?" Xander asked the two of them as he quickly finished off his coffee. "My treat?"
"Sure," Faith smiled as she sipped her coffee, it still too hot to drink it all down in one go. "Give me a few minutes, okay?"
"Ken, you coming?"
"Sure," she nodded, then flinched when Willow threatened to hit her with the spatula. "On second thought, I'll take up that offer another time."
"Looks like it's just you and me, Faith."
"Great," she laughed as she playfully punched him in the shoulder. "B, we'll get with the training when I get back."
"Okay," Buffy nodded, barely looking over at her as she engaged in a rather deep conversation with Giles and Dawn.
Before long she and Xander were walking to the small restaurant just a block away from the house. She'd seen the place before, but had never had the chance to go inside. They sat at a booth by the window and ordered a coffee while they waited for their breakfast to be made. Bacon, eggs, sausages, the works. Faith was practically salivating, dying for something more than just pancakes every morning. From the looks of it, so was Xander. The small restaurant was packed for a Friday morning and in some ways she was relieved with the amount of noise. She wasn't in the mood to talk about anything and she hoped that Xander would pick up on that fact.
She sat and watched as he fiddled with his patch and looked around the small restaurant, every once in a while emitting a soft, bored sigh. Their waitress served their breakfast about fifteen minutes after they'd sat down and they ate in utter silence, barely looking up at one another until their plates were cleared. Xander sat back and placed his hands over his stomach, smiling in satisfaction as the waitress came to clear their plates from the table.
"So," he said as he leaned forward a little, "I was going to ask you what happened to you and Buffy last night."
"We just went up to my room to...talk."
"Talk?" Xander asked as he raised an eyebrow at her, definitely not believing the lie that she'd told him. "Are you sure that's all that happened?"
"What? What the fuck do you want me to say?"
"You didn't..."
"We didn't fuck, no, if that's what you're so worried about," Faith replied bitterly. "What does it matter what we did anyway?"
"You better not hurt her, Faith."
"I don't plan to."
"You think that none of us can see what is happening between you two? We all see it and I know we've all come to our own conclusions about what's going on between you and Buffy."
"And what's your conclusion?"
"You're falling for her. Hard."
"Is it that obvious?" Faith asked. Xander just nodded his head as he smiled a little at her. "Shit."
"Then there's the moon eyes she makes at you when you aren't looking, so you're not the only one being obvious about the something more going on between you two. So what exactly is going on?"
"Beats the hell outta me, man. I keep trying to figure that out myself."
"Have you and Buffy talked about this?"
"A little bit, yeah."
"And?"
"Still have no idea," she laughed softly as she motioned to the waitress for a coffee refill. "You know that things with me and B are complicated at best. Why should whatever this is be any different?"
"Now you're making me confused," Xander laughed as he picked at the napkin in front of him on the table. "So, spill."
"Spill? There's nothing to fuckin' spill."
"Liar," Xander said, flinching as Faith clenched her fist tight. She winked at him, turning to smile up at the waitress as she poured them each a fresh cup of coffee. As soon as they were alone again, Xander leaned forward, smiling at her. "Spill it."
"Or what?"
"Or...I don't know, come on. Just tell me, Faith. Something happened, didn't it? You and Buffy didn't...you know?"
"Already told ya we didn't."
"Sorry, I'm just...curious."
"Right. Isn't everyone? Besides, a lady don't kiss and tell."
"Yeah, but you're no lady," Xander laughed. Faith kicked him under the table. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"
"We're not talking about this anymore, okay?"
"Fine," he groaned as he rubbed his shin. "I meant what I said before about not hurting her, Faith. You hurt her and I don't know what I'll do, maybe try to kick your ass and die trying. You know, I don't want to see you get hurt either. We're buds now and the last thing I want is for two of my friends to end up hurting each other because it doesn't work out in the end."
"Told ya already, Xander. I don't plan to hurt her. I've hurt her and everyone else enough in the past. I'm over that. And yeah, I know what you mean this time around too," she said softly and sincerely.
"Good talk," he laughed as he leaned back in the booth and sipped his coffee. "We should head back to the house soon."
Faith just nodded and finished her coffee, slipping outside to light a cigarette while Xander paid the bill. This whole situation with Buffy was making her tense and it was building in her like a ticking time bomb. She needed some kind of release and she needed it soon. Night was still far off and training never gave her the same kind of release that patrol did—or, say, rolling around in a bed with someone for a couple of hours, for that matter. Xander joined her outside a few minutes later, smiling at her as he motioned for her to start walking with him, this friendly silence lasting for the duration of the walk back to the house. She stayed outside to finish her cigarette and to find a few rare moments to be alone with her thoughts.
She headed straight downstairs as soon as she went inside and found only Buffy down there punching the bag half-heartedly while the music blared from the small radio. She stood there and watched for a couple of minutes, knowing Buffy was lost in a rhythmic trance and hadn't noticed that she'd come down quietly. Their connection was strong, but subtle; she knew it could only be felt if she singled it out. She leaned against the workbench and smiled as she tilted her head to the side, waiting, as she knew it wouldn't be much longer until Buffy turned around to look at her.
With a smug smile firmly in place, she grabbed the tape and began wrapping her hands slowly, never once taking her eyes off of Buffy. When she did stop and turn around, Faith was just standing there, deliberately looking uninterested despite the many lascivious thoughts that were going through her mind right then.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch or..."
"Was waiting for you to finish up," Faith replied before Buffy could catch her breath and continue.
"Are you sure that's all you were doing?"
"What else would I be doing?" Faith chuckled softly as she ripped off the roll of tape and walked over to the bag, stepping past Buffy as she moved away. Knowing what she was playing at was making Buffy slightly flustered, she raised an eyebrow as she motioned to the radio. "Ya wanna turn that up, B?"
She gave her a little wink before she turned her back and began to throw random punches at the bag to loosen up her muscles. She could feel Buffy's eyes burning into her. When she could feel Buffy standing right behind her, she slowly turned around while fighting to keep a smirk from slipping out.
"Is there something' ya wanted, B?"
"How is it that you always do this?"
"Do what?"
"Lure me in," Buffy whispered so quietly Faith could barely hear her over the music that blared from the radio. "Why?"
Faith shrugged, smiling as she took a step closer to her. She said nothing as she gently slid her hands over Buffy's hips and pulled her in closer. Her heart was racing, not knowing just how Buffy would react. She was waiting on Buffy to make the next move, to see just what she would do. If she was going to do this, she was going to let Buffy take the lead even if it meant they'd be moving forward at a snail's pace.
Buffy took in a shaky breath as she ran her fingers over Faith's arms lightly, hazel eyes rising up slowly to meet brown, and both of them quickly becoming lost within each other. Faith felt almost numb all over, though she certainly felt the goose bumps form over her skin under Buffy's fingertips. She could feel the heat coming from Buffy's body as she held her close and it made her senses, her hormones, the Slayer within her grow a little wild with need, with lust, with whatever else was there just under the surface. Buffy was feeling it too, it was ever so clear with the way she was just looking at her and the way she licked over her lips slowly before she sucked in a deep breath.
Faith had the feeling that no matter how many times a kiss between them would happen, or hours of making out like a pair of hormonal teenagers, it would always feel surreal and always feel like it was the first kiss all over again. She mentally had her fingers crossed in hope that this time Kennedy or one of the others wouldn't come down and ruin this moment between them. It was intoxicating with Buffy's lips mere inches from hers, just close enough to feel the hot bursts of air with every breath she let out.
"You're doing it again."
"What am I doing?" She asked softly as she slowly began to back her up against the nearest wall. She could feel Buffy's heart beating hard beneath her chest. She came to a stop when Buffy walked back into the wall and she manoeuvred herself so one leg firmly was placed in between Buffy's. "B? What am I doing?"
Buffy said nothing as she moved her hands from her shoulders and around to the back of her neck, both of them moaning softly as Buffy pulled her in for a deep kiss. It was the move she'd been waiting for Buffy to make and she knew she still had to fight to hold herself back. It was hard to think clearly with the way Buffy kissed her, nibbling her bottom lip every so often to give them a chance to catch their breath. It was hard to think clearly with the way Buffy ran her fingers over the back of her neck, the touch so tender it sent shivers down her spine.
"You know exactly what you are doing," Buffy breathed out as she looked up at her, stopping her from kissing her again.
"Do I?"
"I know you do because I don't."
"Last night was a whole different story," Faith whispered as she lifted her thigh slightly and pulled Buffy down. "I think you do know exactly what you're doing."
The moan Buffy tried to hold back made Faith's eyes open a little wider as she pulled her down a little harder onto her thigh, feeling the heat through the layers of clothing they both wore. Faith's muscles were straining, her fingers itching to roam, to touch Buffy, to make her come screaming her name. It was getting to be too much since she knew, she just knew things were already going a little too fast for Buffy. She stepped back, dropping her hands from Buffy's hips as she shook her head.
"What's wrong?"
"We should just...train for a little while."
"Faith?" Buffy looked confused, a little flushed and out of breath as she stayed there leaning against the cool cement wall.
"What? I came down here to train. Y'know, trying to be the good Slayer and do what I've been chosen to do. Can't do it without properly training day in and day out."
"Faith," Buffy said again, walking up to her as Faith began to tear off the tape on her hands. She reached out as soon as Faith had the tape off her hands, grabbing both of her hands and pulling her close. "We really should talk about this and try to figure out just what is going on, but..."
"But?"
"Is it so wrong that all I seem to want to do is kiss you? Especially after last night, it's all I can think about today. I know that a few days ago things were different, really drastically different, and I get how scary this probably is for you too," Buffy said. She paused and took a deep breath, looking up into Faith's eyes, and all Faith could see was a storm of emotion in them. "Maybe it's because I'm lonely and I have been for so long now that I've fallen for the first one to really look at me. Or maybe it's because this—whatever this really is between us—should have happened a long time ago."
"You sure been spending a lotta time reading into this, haven't ya?"
"You haven't?"
"I have. Don't get me wrong. Fuck, B," Faith chuckled softly as she let go of her hands and ran her fingers through her tangled hair, "the first night you kissed me I thought it mighta been a mistake cos you'd been drinking and maybe you were just starting to feel a little too lonely for your own good. All I've been able to think about since then has been you and what all of this means for us."
"Maybe I was feeling a little lonely that night, but it's more than that. I look at you and I see something. What I see, I'm not so sure. I'd like to find out, have a second chance with you. Even after everything we'd gone through before…call me crazy, but I want us to forgive and forget and move on from that."
She thought she'd feel nervous talking about this, seeing how she'd never been in a situation quite like this before with anyone. But she wasn't. Buffy was making this easy for her, easy for her to let down some of her walls and just talk to her. She couldn't even hear the music coming from the radio anymore. She couldn't see the room around her. All she could hear was the sound of Buffy's heart beating just as rapidly as her own and all she could see was the way Buffy kept looking up at her.
She was lost within the depths of Buffy's intense gaze and the almost-numb feeling in her body increased. All of her other senses seemed hyper-aware, but all of her awareness had focused so tightly that she wasn't hearing or seeing anything other than the woman standing so close in front of her.
"If you were anyone else, B, it would be different," she said softly. "I wouldn't care how you'd feel in the morning. I woulda taken what I wanted, fucked you all night long, let you whisper sweet nothings into my ear, and I woulda been gone from your bed 'fore you woke up. But...I can't do that with you. I don't want it to be that way with you."
"You see, this is one thing I've never seen in you before," Buffy smiled as she reached up and tenderly ran her fingers over Faith's jaw and lips. "You can't really blame me for wanting this either, can you? I remember the way you'd look at me before and to be honest it scared me and it still does, just not so much anymore."
"What changed?"
"I did. You did too."
Faith held back the words she wanted to say, not wanting to have the conversation turn around into something else than what it was. She'd never been so guarded of the things she said, nor had she ever been so careful about the effect the words she said would have on the one listening to her. Something in her had changed since she'd left LA to help them all in the fight against the First and she was only now beginning to really see all the changes she was going through. She felt this compassion inside of her she'd never quite felt so strongly before. She felt warmth that came from finally being a part of the only thing she knew she'd have as a family. She felt love, as crazy and farfetched as it was, when she looked at Buffy.
"You make me feel," she whispered softly, her lips brushing lightly against Buffy's as she closed her eyes. "You make me feel things I've never been able to feel before. Before, I thought Robin would be the one to surprise me, but I was wrong. You are."
Just when her lips finally pressed against Buffy's gently, she found herself being swept to the floor with Buffy on top of her, grinning down at her as she pinned her arms at her sides. She let out a laugh when she realized what Buffy had done, and before she could speak Buffy's lips captured her own in a soft yet passionate and deep kiss. She tried to break free from Buffy's tight hold and found it nearly impossible, but she wasn't really trying that hard. She felt Buffy smile just a little into the kiss before she pulled back just enough to look down at her.
At the sound of the basement door opening, heard even over the blaring radio, they both got to their feet. Faith did nothing but lick over her kiss swollen lips as Kennedy and Giles came down the stairs. She knew from the first look that the newest Slayer shot her way that they'd almost been caught and that Kennedy, at least, knew exactly what they'd been doing. Giles paid no attention to the awkward way Buffy stood near the workbench and sipped on the bottle of water she'd had down there. He barely looked at either of them as he walked to the back room, emerging a minute later with four long swords.
"Weapons training?" Faith asked, smiling as Giles handed her one of the swords and nodded his head. "Wicked. Where'd ya get these?"
"Henry," Giles replied as he handed Buffy and Kennedy their swords. "Now, it occurred to me the other day that Kennedy does not have proper training with various weapon types we use and I would appreciate it if the two of you, as the more experienced Slayers, would assist me in teaching her the proper way to fight while using them."
Faith nodded, running her finger over the sharp blade of the sword slowly. She had to clear her head of the thoughts still running rampant through her mind. She had to stop thinking about Buffy, about how good it felt to kiss her. She had to stop wondering just how far things would have gone if they hadn't been interrupted when they were.
In the end she was paired with Giles, fully knowing he didn't trust her enough to use the sharp pointy things when going against Buffy or Kennedy. Rather than try to convince him she wasn't still the reckless wild child of old, she just went through the paces with him, stopping every couple of minutes so he could try to explain to Kennedy how to counter-attack. She was bored out of her mind and that only brought back the thoughts she'd tried so hard to get rid of. Even through all the training, the gazes that she shared with Buffy didn't go unnoticed by Kennedy and Giles. Yet she didn't care.
Whatever really was happening between her and Buffy put a smile upon her face. If this was what happiness felt like, she didn't want it to ever change. She shook that feeling away that whenever something good happened in her life a world of bad would come crashing down. She wasn't going to let that happen. Not when she had something she'd never had before. Not when she had whatever really was unfolding between her and Buffy. It wasn't love, at least not yet, but she knew it could be. One day.
