Tuesday 2:37 P.M (27 hours until ascension).
Buffy Summers was walking down the Hall with Willow Rosenberg, talking about the strange lack of explosion during having, "The talk" with her mother last night. Narrator's note: I do not personally claim any kind of experience with this personal "Problem" But, I have to imagine that walking into your house and telling your mother, particularly a mother who has, "Waved the slayer pride flag" as Joyce Summer's once said, that due to unforeseen magical circumstances, you are now a lesbian, and also soul mates with someone you once described as, "A raving psychotic 5 by 5 mass murdering psycho!" is probably not the best way to break the news. As I said, no prior experience, but to those who have, we'll have to defer to your expertise. That being said, narrator's code, keep it real!
Inside the Sumer's home, Buffy sat on the couch and tried to think up small talk. Joyce stared off into space as if thinking something. She then nodded to herself as if deciding something and went into the kitchen, stopping only to ask Buffy if she would like anything to drink. Buffy immediately started panicking seeing as how her mother had not answered the bombshell of information Buffy had just dropped in her lap. "Oh my GOD," Buffy thought to herself. "She's going to kill me! No but she can't kill me. Not because I came out of the closet! I'm sure I read that somewhere! Oh! On my birth certificate. I think there was an amendment about how it's not legal to murder your child just because they go gay due to a mystical dual murder induced destiny infused on two beings who are accidently thrown in together during their travels! No, wait. That's too long. Maybe there was an coddle added? Is that the right word? Coddle, codley? Those amendments to wills, but you know birth certificates. (Yes, she was rambling). Maybe an amendment to the constitution, on outwardly gay kids being offed by their parents? No, wait. I think I just read somewhere recently that gay marriage is just now going before the Supreme Court. No state wants to be the first to legalize it, so there's probably no amendment yet. OH! But she knows I'm a slayer. She knows about magic. What if she uses magic to kill me? She's probably going to use magic to kill me, and blame it on a demon attack because I'm the slayer! With the watcher's counsel having killed them the last time this happened, they won't look twice at it! I should call Faith, and warn her!"
Thankfully, Joyce took this moment to silence Buffy's near heart attack. "Buffy? I said would you like anything to drink?"" "Um… Something without Belladonna in it?" What was that?" "Um, I said, ice water please?" Buffy was finally starting to calm down, Joyce then spoke. "I'm okay, really Buffy." Her mother held her hand as Buffy drained the ice water with record breaking speed. "The thing is, at my work, when all the ladies are talking about their kids being doctors or secretaries, I can't really brag to them that my daughter's the slayer. But throw out that my daughter recently came out as gay, and she's dating someone of questionable morals? Now that's something I can complain about to my girlfriends. By which I mean my co-workers." She added quickly. She gave Buffy a wink, and Buffy finally calmed down. At least enough to laugh at her mother's bad joke. "It's just was there any way to prevent this Buffy?" Her mother asked she knew, not out of scorn, but rather concern. "Not really. It was literally balanced on a knife's edge. Either one of us kills the other, or we make love." Buffy shrugged, then froze, realizing, she'd just confessed to sex. Her mother fixed her a stare. "Hmm." Was all she said for a moment. Then, "Just tell me this, are you sure you're safe with her Buffy? You told me some awful things about Faith." Buffy nodded. "Yes mom. I'm safe with her. It's the mayor, he's the evil one. He's also like the only decent father figure Faith's ever had, so yes, there will be some emotional things coming up. But I believe Faith is ready to face them with me."
"So, wait, you asked your mother for something without a porn star in it?" Willow asked her, as she finished her recount. Buffy Slid to a halt so fast, she almost fell right over. "Willow, how in the hell do you know Belladonna is a porn star?" Buffy asked very sweetly. Willow froze now too. ? "How the hell do I know that?" She almost screamed. Buffy looked into Willow's eyes and, should almost see, the gears turning. But nothing was connecting, or maybe the gears had been stripped of all the teeth, and right now only two metal rings were spinning very fast. Buffy was sure for a moment she could see steam coming out of the young red head's ears. Then after a moment, "STEVE!" She shouted triumphantly. Buffy tapped her chin, waiting for anything that made sense. "Uh, I mean, Steve. He's this drummer replacement that Oz hired when one of their band mates got sick last month. He spent the whole after party time back stage, and bragging about watching porn. Especially this one like Latino chick, or was she Mexican? Possibly African. Anyway, her name was Belladonna. Oz said she was really dirty because she did like multiple guys at once, which is disgusting! Not the guys, the multiple. Not that Oz watches porn. Or at least that I know of. Though if he did, it would probably be like a nature documentary, because of his wolf. Some of that stuff gets pretty hairy." Willow said all of this in her usual ramble, which Buffy could now see, was very cute. No wonder Oz liked when she rambled. Buffy was just thinking about the need to keep her emotions more in check, when Willow asked, " How did you know she was a porn star Buffy?" Buffy smiled mischievously. "Oh that's easy, last night, I watched porn." As Buffy started to walk away, Willow's mind really did explode now. Her body twitched, her eyes bulged, and (probably because of the magic), her hair just suddenly popped straight up as if the hallway had experienced a case of flash Zero G! "WHAT THE HELL! BUFFY! YOU WATCHED, mgrummhh." Buffy had covered her mouth before she finished that sentence at the top of her lungs. People were already staring. Willow's eyes followed Buffy as she looked around for an empty classroom, wanting desperately for an answer. In a second, Buffy opened, grabbed Willow, shoved Willow through and closed behind her, the door to a nearby room. Ironically, this was the AV room, where Buffy had been watching porn last night. Once inside, "Okay Buffy, what do you mean you watched, you know!" "Okay, okay. First, just cool it will you?" Buffy tried to calm Willow down. "It started with Giles last night. (Giles? Shush..) He was telling me that those who suffer the twin Flame scenario can sometimes develop a dangerous co-dependency. I know, it means you need each other so bad, you can't function alone anymore." Buffy explained quickly. "So I ask him, how do I avoid that, and he says, "You need to focus on the facts of why you're in love with Faith, not just that you are." And yes Willow, there are a few reasons." "Like what?" Willow asks, clearly unable to think of any? "Like the fact that we have similar experience with the slaying. Or the fact that she can be sweet, when she wants to be. Or the fact, that I can be a be a bit of a prude sometimes, I admit it. So the fact that she can let go and have fun, shake me out of my comfort zone a little, well that's pretty alright, if it's with the right person." "Oh, I see. I guess that makes sense." Willow said thoughtfully. "So anyway, I tell Giles I might like to do some research on the computer to help me deal with this whole female intimacy thing, and he agrees without any fuss and gives me his administrators pass code, because after all, he doesn't use computers. So I was on last night learning things." Buffy finishes solemnly. "So what did you learn?" Willow asks after a moment. Buffy looks back and forth, through the window in the door to make sure no one's nearby. Willow leans in, expecting Buffy to whisper something. Instead, Buffy makes some vague, yet oddly specific hand motions in mid- air involving curved fingers and some tongue motions. "Oh." Willow says simply, getting the full ramifications, after a few seconds. "Yea," Buffy replies shyly. "It's about intimacy, remember?" Willow starts to ask something else, but Buffy cuts her off. "Willow?" "Um yes, Buffy?" "This is one of those moments where you have to make a decision. If the next words out of your mouth, involve any sort of question as to what I enjoy, or what's Faith like in bed, I need you to decide how good of friends we reeeallly are. How much do you want me to share?" Willow stops, thinks for several minutes actually. Then finally responds, "Maybe not everything. (Sheepish grin) But just tell me this, I've been thinking about Oz, sex you know? We could die tomorrow! But there are things to consider, like his wolf and stuff. So, sex. Is it really worth it?" Buffy uses her very same hand she just previously used to make certain gestures with, making Willow vaguely uncomfortable as she strokes her face and says, "Oh, HELL yes it is."
Tuesday 3:22 P.M (26 hours until ascension).
Faith was packing things up in her apartment in a hurry, and didn't even notice the knock on the door. "How're you doing sport?" Faith stood back up from being bent over her bed, and spun around. It was Mayor Wilkins. "Hey, boss. You know me, five by five." She said nervously, her arms were shaking and she tried crossing them over breast, then brushed her hair back and let them fall to her side instead. The mayor walked on in and examined a spot on the carpet where, not twenty-four hours ago, Buffy and Faith had dusted two vamps that had walked in on them. "Well Faith, I see you packing, so I'll assume you're planning a trip after the ascension?" "Oh yea," Faith said, getting into her grove now, with the lying. "I thought, I don't know, maybe cross country or something? I always wanted to see England. I imagine all the little shops would be fantastic!" "Ah, Yes. Good old Europa. I was originally from there. Did you know? (Faith shook her head) Oh yes! Fabulous place." The mayor said as he waved his hand around. "This was before everyone wanted to start settling in the "New World" back in the, what was it? Um, nineteen hundreds I'd say." Mayor Wilkins picked up a snow globe off of one of Faith's shelves, and tossing it up and catching it repeatedly, sat down on the corner of Faith's bed. All of the sudden, he pointed right at Faith. "Say, have I ever told you about my father, Frank?" She shook her head again, not daring to speak. "He was a street peddler. I know! I know!" (Laughs) "Human by the way. Oh yea," He breathes out a sigh. "Used to push his little cart, selling all sorts of odds and ends up one street and down another. Clothes in tatters, he used to have this cap he always wore. His "Lucky cap" he used to call it. It was like a baseball cap these days, but simpler in design. Oh man, I wish I'd kept it after I killed him. Such fond memories. Anywhoo!" The mayor got up, putting down the snow globe and clapped his hands together. "You don't need to listen to an old fossil like me ramble on about the good days." He said laughing with that smile of his. For just a moment, Faith felt like her old self again. Just sitting back and listening to her boss go on about simpler times. He walked back over to the spot. "I tell ya Faith, once you sell your soul and start down that path to power, that's what my father always used to call it. Once you start down that shiny wide road, you get all kinds of cool things." He said with a smile. "Like enhanced sense of smell for one thing. I can smell disintegrated carbons right here. Huge pile too. Must have been, what? Two vampires? Or one fat one?" He asked with the same smile. "Um. Two." Faith answered. She was so screwed. "Aww shoot!" He said with another hand wave. "Don't worry about it. But I did want to ask one thing though. Did these guys walk in on you unannounced Faith? I won't have my staff bothering you or making you unconformable Faith. Sit down. I only ask, because the same senses that let me detect dusted vamps, also tells me there was a fight here. A big mother of a fight. Are you okay?" He walks over and puts a hand to her face, to check her for cuts and bruises. "Yea fine boss. You know me, nothing I can't handle." Faith says, as he walks over to the window. "Aww Shoot! The lamp that was here. It broke in the fight, didn't it? Man I loved that thing, picked it out special for you on the internet." "I'm sorry," Faith apologized. "It was really ugly. I might have smashed into my opponent's face." "Well that's okay. I only got it cause it reminded me of one I bought from this fellow, Nickola Tessla. Back in nineteen thirty five. He told me if I flipped it on and off in the right sequence, I could summon meteors down from the sky." He laughed sadly. "Crazy bastard." The mayor turned around. "I tell you Faith, the first time you hear a truly insane person try to sell you a nonexistent doomsday device, hear him start ranting about how the world will soon be his. Oh sure, I coulda killed so fast, but I tell you Faith, there was something so, pure, about his lunacy. I just didn't have the heart. The world's worse off without more dreamers like him. I tell ya." He walked closer. "And speaking of delusional speech givers how's Buffy?" Faith stiffened, and stopped breathing. The mayor made a face of disgust and waved his hand as if to smack her across the face.
"Oh God! Seriously Faith? I'm not threatening you and her, well not you anyway. Haven't you realized you're the closest thing I have to a daughter?" Faith couldn't help it. Despite what she promised Buffy, her eyes started welling up at the thought of killing this man. "I'm not gonna hurt ya. Come here." Faith walked over and Mayor Wilkins wrapped his arms around her. She cried into his shoulder. But only for a minute. Then she was alright. "You okay now sport?" Mayor Wilkins asked, showing genuine concern. "No matter what they say, there's nothing wrong with a little emotion Faith. Never be afraid to let it out. Just promise me one thing. Don't let this Twin Flame scenario change you, okay?" He asked with fatherly concern all over his face. She looked up surprised. He sat down on her bed again and patted a spot next to him. She sat. "Didn't think I knew about it, did you?" He said with his old smile. "Well shoot. I always aim to learn the dark truths about any organization I might go up against Faith. I assume you've heard about what happened to the last group of lovers?" She nodded. "Giles told us all. He made sure they weren't informed about me and Buffy." He smiled and shook his head. "Good man that Rupert. If he wasn't my enemy, I'd almost like him. Still woulda killed him of course when the time came for it, but I might of felt bad inside, you know?" Faith smiled. "Yea, he's pretty cool for an old guy. Like you." "Did Giles tell you about the co-dependency problem?" "Yes sir" "Aww call me Mayor! Ha ha ha ha" "Yes mayor. He said I just have to remember why I love Buffy, not just the fact that I do." "Okay then. You do that Faith and remember, just because I may not have this crocodile grin anymore, doesn't mean I don't love you any less. Okay? In fact," He slapped his hands together, startling Faith. "Tell you what. When I ascend, I'll eat the students and faculty, but I'll leave Buffy alone, oh alright! I'll add in that Xander and Willow chick too. That way, when this is all over, you'll still have a human family to fall back on." "Throw in Buffy's mom too, and you have a deal. She's tough, but fair." Faith said, putting her head on the mayor's shoulder. "Done." He said after only a moment. "Just remember Faith, I know you'll probably be trying to kill me, but whether you succeed or not, I'll still be proud of you." "Thanks mayor." Faith smiled sadly. No matter what happened tomorrow, she'd side with Buffy. But it was a shame the mayor had to be so evil. "Why don't you leave now Faith? I'll pack things up for you sport. I'm sure your girlfriend needs a little TLC too, ya know?" He smiled that smile again as she left. Yes sir tomorrow was going to be interesting.