It seemed far, far too early in the morning when Faith heard a faint knocking noise, pushing her very reluctantly out of her sleep. She ignored it at first, burrowing further beneath the scratchy blanket, but when the knocking continued, growing louder and harder in cadence, she let out a frustrated growl and pushed herself into a partially sitting position, rubbing at the sleep in her eyes.
As she grew aware once more of her surroundings, she realized with more than a little irritation that the noise she was hearing was someone knocking at the motel door. Scowling in its direction, she blinked her eyes enough to read the digital clock on the nightstand beside her. It was 9 am. Why the hell would someone be stupid enough to want her to wake up anywhere before noon, after everything that had gone down yesterday?
Beside her, Buffy made no move to push herself up to a waking position. Faith could tell from the change in the girl's breathing that Buffy too had been awakened by the knocking, but she was clearly trying to resist this, feigning continued sleep. Of course; she was leaving Faith, even more sleep deprived than she was, to deal with this insanity.
Another, much louder growl escaping her throat, Faith threw the blanket off of herself, pulling it partially off Buffy in the process and hearing the girl's squeak of protest, betraying her awakened state as the blonde snatched it back over herself and covered up her head. Feeling less than zero caring towards her mostly unclad state, Faith stalked to the door and threw it open, shielding her eyes and squinting into the far too bright sun at her unwelcome intruder.
"I don't care if there's another apocalypse outside the door right this very second, you're gonna deal with it on your own, because I am fucking sleeping!"
Xander's remaining eye immediately fixed, wide and stunned, on Faith's mostly exposed chest in her bra, his mouth slightly open. When Faith cleared her throat pointedly, he flushed, snapping his eye up to her face before giving his response with some occasional stuttering.
"Uh, sorry…right. Uh, Giles and Andrew and some of the girls with less, well, bloody, clothing are going to go get breakfast for everyone and pick up some supplies. Toothbrushes and combs, shoes, clothes, that kind of thing. Uh, is there anything you or Buffy want or need?"
"Yeah," Faith grunted, "sleep." She squinted her eyes, leaning slightly against the door frame, and took some mild, amused pleasure from Xander's involuntary tracking of her movements with his unpatched eye.
Relenting slightly, she eased her tone, but made no effort to cover herself.
"Just get whatever. Something wearable that isn't pink or a dress will do for me. We'll figure shit out like, six more hours of sleep later."
"Right…okay, I'll let them know," Xander nodded, the gesture somewhat awkward.
He took a step back, as though to make doubly sure that he wasn't going to be risking brushing against any part of Faith's skin. Faith remained at the doorway, continuing to get some amusement from watching him. She thought he would continue without further comment to report back to Giles, but Xander didn't seem able to help himself from turning back one last time and blurting out the question that had clearly been burning on his mind since she opened the door.
"Um…did you and Buffy…did you both sleep like that? Like that…together?"
Tired as she was, Faith couldn't stop from giving him a shit-eating grin in response as she stretched her arms in front of her, popping the joints. Mostly, though, she was popping out her breasts as far as the constraints of her bra would allow.
"Nah, of course not," she said coolly, and when Xander relaxed slightly, a somewhat disappointed look briefly settling over his features, she upped the ante deliberately. "We were naked. I figured I better be modest, put some clothes on before I answer the door."
Her grin widened at Xander's boggle-eyed response, but she didn't give him time for further questions or analysis. "If one of you guys comes banging on our door again before noon, someone better be dead. Got it?"
She eased herself back enough to shut the door, not letting him have enough time to give an answer. Chuckling aloud to herself as she continued to visualize his stricken expression, she shook her head as she turned to make her way back to the bed. Xander was all right, and still easy enough to wind up if you played it right. She'd noticed him acting less the part of the lame comedian, the helpless, clumsy tagalong from what she remembered of a few years back. He was quieter now, more noticeably adult in appearance and demeanor, and he seemed to have actually developed some degree of dignity that would have seemed impossible to her then. But that didn't mean being caught off guard by a mostly naked girl or the thought of two totally naked, hot Slayer girls sharing a bed wouldn't be enough to shake him up.
Faith sat on the edge of the bed, noticing that Buffy was showing no intention of moving, speaking, or responding in any way as though she were aware of the brief exchange between Xander and Faith in the doorway. Cool by her. The way she'd been acting last night, it was abundantly clear to Faith that sleep was definitely not going to hurt when it came to improving the girl's mental health.
She had intended to drop back to sleep along with her as soon as the sleep-interrupting inconvenience had been dealt with. But now that she had moved around somewhat, Faith's thoughts had started kicking up into high speed, and although she was tired, she wasn't sure she would be able to go back to sleep, at least immediately. She leaned back against the headboard, swinging her feet up on the bed to stretch in front of her, and turned her head towards Buffy's frame, buried beneath the blanket.
"Hey," she addressed the other girl in a loud whisper, reaching to lay a hand in an area that seemed to be approximately around Buffy's shoulder. "Xander woke me up. I'm gonna watch TV a while, see if it puts me back to sleep. That okay?"
When Buffy gave no response, either not hearing or wanting to convey the message to her that she was pretending she couldn't hear, Faith removed her hand, resisting, then giving in to a temptation to give Buffy's shoulder an awkward pat.
"I'll keep the volume down."
Maybe two episodes of mind numbing sitcoms later, Faith's thoughts had slowed down enough for her to wiggle back under the blanket beside Buffy, having to briefly wrestle her for enough of it to be able to fully cover her body. When her hip brushed up against what was clearly Buffy's barely covered, ass, Faith froze, anticipating Buffy' squawk of indignation or rage, maybe even accompanied by a punch. But Buffy gave no reaction. When Faith inched herself away, she was still close enough to Buffy's body to feel the warmth it gave off against her own skin.
She thought after that mishap of sorts it would take her some time to fall back to sleep, but in what seemed moments, she was stirred into consciousness again by someone's knock at the motel door. This time, she was pretty sure even in her grogginess that it wasn't Xander. The knocks were softer, more measured in beat, and there was ample pause between the two rounds of knocking before she heard Giles's voice call out.
"Buffy? Faith? I have some clothing and other supplies, and a matter to some importance to discuss."
Giles, huh? Maybe Xander was too scared of what Faith might be wearing this time to venture forth for round two. Or maybe he was so amused at the thought of Giles's reaction to her or Buffy's near nudity that he had sent him in his place, just to be able to imagine the older man's overly flustered and British reaction.
Smiling to herself at the thought, Faith briefly debated a repeat of her earlier door-opening attire, but then decided that maybe it wouldn't be all that awesome if the man ended up having a heart attack or a stroke at the sight of her breasts. It had probably been like, a decade since he saw boobs that weren't digital or at the very least as old as he was.
"Give us a minute," she called back to Giles, not in the mood to hear any repeat of knocking. "We're getting up, hold the cavalry."
Heaving herself up, she stretched, suppressing a yawn, and reached out for the second time to jostle the approximate area of Buffy's blanket-covered shoulder. This time she ended up grasping onto the top of Buffy's head, and Faith chuckled, deciding to hold onto it as she playfully gave it the best hair ruffling she could manage with a blanket in between Buffy's head and her hand.
"B, wake up. Not gonna ask you to do any shining, but I think you gotta do some rising, at least. It's Giles, and it sounds like he's not leaving until we go see what's up."
She heard Buffy's faint answering groan, muffled enough that Faith assumed she was pressing her face into her pillow. Giving her head another jostle, Faith stood, popping the vertebrae of her spine, and ambled into the bathroom, using the toilet quickly and then wrapping herself in the two remaining clean- or more accurately, unused- towels. One was definitely not enough coverage to be able to prevent heart attacks.
Thus attired, she finally made her way to the door and opened it for Giles, standing a step back from the doorway. Arching an eyebrow, she commented, "Pretty sure I told Xander not to come knocking before noon. It's 11:53. Is someone dead?"
Giles's face seemed haggard, the circles beneath his eyes magnified and even darker than Faith would have thought possible beneath his glasses. The lines of age in his forehead seemed deeper than usual this morning, and Faith noticed his hand tightening on the shopping bags they held. Faith noted as well that his normally very straight posture was slumped, his shoulders almost bowed, though the bags he carried didn't appear heavy enough to cause any strain.
But most disturbing of all, Giles didn't seem to react to, or hell, even notice Faith's makeshift towel dress. For Giles, that was a pretty bad sign.
"Oh, shit," Faith said softly, understanding before he had given a response to her flippant remark. "Who was it? What happened?"
His eyes were fixed solely on her face, and his voice was as heavy as the set of his shoulders when he responded.
"It was Robin Wood, Faith. He succumbed to his injuries around ten o'clock this morning. If you and Buffy could please get dressed and ready for the day, we will be needed to claim his body at the hospital and make arrangements for him. I have some clothing and hygienic supplies here you will need. If there is anything that has been left out, Willow and Dawn are distributing the rest among the others. Come and let them know what you need. We will be leaving in around an hour, but until everything has been decided for him, plan to stay here at least another night or two."
Faith was barely aware of Buffy's presence lingering just behind her, finally arisen from the bed as she drew close, assumedly in reaction to Giles's solemn news. She didn't register whether the other girl had bothered to assume some kind of dress or had just drifted as she was to the door, uncaring of or perhaps simply not thinking of her lack of attire. Buffy stopped just behind her, close enough that Faith could feel her breath stir her hair and gave an unconscious shiver in response. Still, she felt nothing but a gradually encompassing numbness take over her body as she nodded her understanding to Giles and slowly shut the door.
So the death toll had not stopped, with Sunnydale's collapse. The question of whether the battle's resolution had indeed been a victory seemed even more ambivalent now in Faith's mind. How could it be, when grief and suffering was still ongoing, even mounting, in its wake?