A story in which Faith never goes dark and instead fights her way into the group of friends and family of one Buffy Summers. Though the two don't always get along great, a fight (luckily only verbal) erupts between the two and they actually are able to air some grievances with each other and make the attempt to bury the hatchet. It's not always easy to get along, but sisters don't always do that great to begin with. What matters in the end is they care about each other.

Chapter 1: What Does B Stand for Anyway?

"I realize this is going to sound funny, coming from someone who just spent a lot of time kicking your face, but you can trust me."

Faith felt the strongest urge to scoff, just wanting Buffy out of her hotel room. Her Spartan, small room, but still her place. Buffy was intruding on that, with her little innocent routine after what had gone down. Faith might not be the best person out there, far from it, but she didn't drag her crap into other people's homes while pretending to make peace.

"Is that right?" she asked.

"I know I kept secrets, but I didn't have a choice," Buffy reasoned. "I'm on your side."

"I'm on my side and that's enough," Faith bit out.

"Not always," the blonde replied in a soft tone.

"Is that it?" Faith demanded, watching Buffy deflate like a balloon.

"Yeah, I guess," she admitted.

"Well, then I guess I'll see ya," she stated flippantly. She watched the girl turn to the door before the words burst out of her lips. "Buffy!"

"Yeah?" she asked as she turned back to the dark-haired girl hopefully.

For a moment, Faith wrestled with herself if she should say something or not. Faith had tried to have the shared time with Buffy, had tried to bond with her, and she'd been pretty thoroughly shut down every time. Honestly, it would probably be better to just let her get on her way, out of Faith's room and out of her life. The blonde made it pretty clear she wasn't up for sharing. Maybe Faith should accept the border Buffy clearly wanted and just demand the same respect.

But there were good moments too. Fighting together was a rush and Buffy had shown to have her back when it came to the life or death stuff. It was even like they could get along at times. Maybe it was time to just be honest with the girl.

"You're a bitch, you know that?" she asked Buffy, taking great pleasure in watching her face fall.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I don't think I should excuse you," Faith said as she climbed off the bed and placed her hands on her hips. "This whole I didn't have a choice thing? You think I haven't heard that line of crap before? The ones who say that are just too into themselves to be willing to accept they messed up!"

"I didn't!" Buffy insisted.

"You did! You chose not to tell anyone! What, did he hold something over you? Did he threaten to bite your friends if you blabbed he was back in town?" Faith asked.

"He's not like that," Buffy hissed out.

"Then exactly how did you not have a choice? What possibly forced you to not to tell the truth about Angel?" Faith pressed.

"If I had told anyone… they might… they could have..."

"Tried to slay him?" Faith finished for her.

"He's a good man. The things he did as Angelus..."

Faith crossed her arms and waited for her to continue, Buffy biting her lip.

"I… Look, everyone is coming at me about this! I made a mistake, that's all! Now they've all forgiven Angel, so why can't you? You weren't even there when he turned evil," Buffy pointed out.

"No, B. I wasn't there. You know where else I wasn't at? This secret little friend club of yours where apparently you all had a pow-wow about your demonic ex!"

"Hey! That was not my fault! You want to be mad at me for you not knowing about that meeting? I didn't know about that meeting!" Buffy yelled at her.

"How did you not know about that? You were there," Faith pointed out.

"I wish I hadn't been," Buffy said. "They sprung it on me like some kind of AA intervention. Didn't know it was happening."

"Oh… Oh, yeah I guess I could see how I wasn't brought into that, being your friends and all," Faith admitted.

"Faith, don't… You are my friend," Buffy assured her.

The other slayer raised an eyebrow at that before shaking her head.

"I meant more not being the type to get people on the straight and narrow," she confessed. "Don't exactly encourage people to be good. In fact, I got about three bottles of jacked whiskey in the cabinet, a box of condoms and I think a pack of cigs I took off a guy I made out with a few nights ago."

"Eww," Buffy said, making a face. "Not to judge or anything but..."

"Oh please, Buffy. All you do is judge," Faith pointed out angrily. "You think I don't notice your whole holier-than-thou attitude? I'm not stupid, you know? I've seen how you see me, how much you can resent me at times."

"Says the girl who called me a bitch not five minutes ago!" Buffy pointed out.

"Yeah, cause you are one," Faith said. "You know what, I've seen types like you before. The little miss goody toe shoes thing? It's an act. It's always an act."

"Shut up," Buffy hissed out.

"No. No, you want to hear what I think? I think you're spoiled," Faith pointed out. "I think you got everything and you're too busy bitching to appreciate it. I mean, come on, you act like you're some kind of good girl but let's check the facts! You lie to your friends, you lie to me and you lie to your watcher. The few details I do know about this Angel thing is what I hear from your friends despite constantly giving you chances to open up to me because I want to be your friend too! Any time I asked anything you shut me down, but I guess the whole I fucked a boy til he turned evil is something you wouldn't want to admit to."

Her face whipped to the side as she felt Buffy's fist collide with her face, but when she looked back at the blonde, she was smiling instead of getting angry.

"See that? That's what I mean," she stated coolly. "Nice right hook, and I'm sure when you're thinking about it later you'll tell yourself you had no choice but to hit me. And that's your issue. You got everything, B. Everything and you're so wrapped up in yourself that you'd rather prance around with the guy who apparently nearly ended the world and admit that maybe… just maybe, it was selfish to keep on with the guy. I mean, come on, how sure are you that he won't turn again? Really?"

"I'm more sure about him than you. You want to say I'm some kind of bad girl? You're the one bragging about all this stuff you do," Buffy accused.

"Yeah, but I admit it. That's the thing. I know I'm not sweet. I don't go out with my fluffy sweaters and valley girl accent and pretend like I'm some kind of good girl, and when I screw up I can at least own up to it. You? You're too busy pretending you're some innocent so that when anyone might call you out on how you actually act, you get all hostile mode. You think just because you go home to mommy with a nice, home-cooked meal and get your homework done barely on time you get some points for sainthood? Screw you," Faith bit out.

"This doesn't have anything to do with me being good or bad," Buffy bit out. "And I am good! I'm very good! You think I go out every night, fighting for my life because this is what I wanted?! I am constantly getting in trouble or getting scolded or getting beat up to help people who don't even know and if they do then they don't care! Okay, fine! I screwed up! I accidentally broke a curse on Angel and he wreaked havoc on my friends! I hesitated because I was in love with him and it got innocent people killed! I screwed up! Is that what you want to hear from me?! CAUSE I KNOW I SCREWED UP!"

Faith was actually taken aback by the screaming. She didn't know Buffy could blow up like that. Part of her considered maybe backing off would be a good idea, but on the other hand it seemed like maybe the chick needed to get this out of her system.

"So why you still with him, B?" she asked, hands on her hips.

"Because I don't want this," she breathed out. "I never wanted this. Before… Before, I was normal. I had friends, a life… And then this guy shows up and tells me I'm chosen and that I have to fight undead and… wouldn't stop pushing..."

"Giles? He seems kind of the lighter side of things," Faith said, confused. He didn't seem the type to not care about Buffy.

"No. Someone else," Buffy admitted as she rubbed at her face and sat down on the bed. "He… Well, you aren't the only one to have lost your first watcher."

"Oh… Oh, I didn't..."

Damn, she'd really stepped into that one. Yeah, she should probably comfort the girl a bit, but words were failing her. She really never had been good with the whole emotion thing. For a second her own mind flashed to her watcher, Diana, torn and tortured in ways that made even the hardened Slayer shiver in fear. She wanted to ask Buffy about her watcher, wanted to tell her own story of the vampire that had hunted her to Sunnydale, wanted to hug the blonde and tell her that she'd never allow that kind of sick thing to happen to the other girl and that Faith would gladly die first to keep her safe from such a fate. Yet all she could do was just stand there as Buffy kept talking softly.

"My life is so dangerous, you know? I just… I just have so little and I wanted this one thing..."

"Oh, come on. You have so little?" Faith asked, trying in her own lame way to comfort her. "Have you looked around lately?"

"I'm pouring my heart out to you and you're playing the who's suffered more game?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"No. No, I don't know your past as a Slayer. I get it's tough though, and I can see what you do still have on the side of it," Faith said before sitting down on the bed next to her. "Look… I'm not saying what happened doesn't suck. It totally sucks but you're really going to say you don't have anything except for Angel? Your mom is probably home right now and would bake you an apple pie if you wanted. Me, I gotta figure out day to day how to pay for this crappy room. Mostly when I eat it's what I can get drunk guys to buy me or when I remember to mug the vamp before I stake him. My parents? Heck, my mom was a drunk who'd be too busy blowing guys for booze money to make me breakfast. I'm not even legal and you know how many people have reported me missing? Zero. Hell, don't even know where my dad is. Mom said he was dead but I wouldn't believe her if she said the sky was blue on a sunny day. You got friends that care about you, more than they do me that's for damn sure. When I left home I didn't even have someone who cared about me enough to tell me to go screw myself for leaving them behind. You got a lot I don't, B."

"Is that why you want to take them all?" Buffy asked, looking at her with big, watery eyes.

Faith found herself sighing as she rubbed her hands on her knees.

"I never wanted to take your life, Buffy. I wanted to share it," Faith breathed. "Really. I don't want to shove you out of the picture. Hell, you're the coolest girl I ever met… you know, when you're being genuine. I don't want to take your friends, just be in the group too. I guess… Okay, you know what, I'm a big girl who can say when I screw up so it's time I faced that. I flew off the handle with Angel. There was only so much that I knew and you offered to talk things out. I didn't think you were trustworthy cause I saw what I thought was my watcher getting a beat down from a very ugly-faced vamp, who I would like to point out said nothing to clarify himself and just started to threaten me… probably because he thought I was with the skank who had tried to take the McGuffin… ah, crap. Do I owe him an I'm sorry?"

"I think kicking the crap out on an innocent person could constitute an I'm sorry," Buffy sighed. "Along with… refusing to tell my friends that the person who tortured and killed some of them was still around… threat or not."

"Is he?" Faith asked honestly.

"Is he what?" Buffy asked.

"A threat?"

"No! No, no… no," she replied softly, twiddling with her hands. "Not as long as I don't sleep with him again… which I've been doing… mostly."

"Whoa, what?"

"We… we've kissed a bit," she sighed out before groaning. "I should stop. I know I have to but… I mean, how? I want to help him, want to just be his friend but he's so… Angel-ish."

"Wow, but you got it bad," Faith chuckled before she rubbed at her face. "Must be great if he's worth kicking someone in the face for. Then again, I'd kick a guy in the face for a sundae and a coke."

"Remind me never to take you to the ice cream social," Buffy joked before sobering up. "Do… do you really think I'm a bitch?"

"Ehh… No," Faith admitted. "I don't think you're as nice as you want to pretend to be, but when it comes down to it, I guess I am the worst out of the two of us. You seem to want to do the whole wholesome Sunday schoolgirl sweetness thing. I never even had the option. I just don't think you appreciate what you have is all, which is weird, since you seem so determined I'm going to steal it."

"Well, it's not like I don't have a reason to. Everyone loved you the second you got into town, Xander drooling all over you and Mr. Stick in the Mud Giles thought you were zesty. Meanwhile, I do anything fun and he's all, Buffy think about the world, Buffy you need to try harder, Buffy stuffy talk about stiffer upper lip."

Faith found herself laughing at the mocking impression, especially since Buffy's British accent could really use some work. She laughed a good long while, right from her gut and it took more than a few minutes to calm down.

"Christ, I needed that," she said as she wiped at her eyes when she calmed down. "He really thinks I'm zesty?"

"Sometimes it seems like he likes you more than me," Buffy admitted. "He's actually mentioned a few times about you taking over more… and my mom, a lot actually. She wants me to stop and you to do it on your own."

"Do you want that?" Faith asked. "You were mentioning before how normal you were before this."

"I… I tried to quit before. It makes me feel worse. Slaying is something important… even if I don't always like it. And… well..."

"You like it sometimes at least?" Faith asked. "Come on, B. Real big girl talk time here. Deep down, if you could go back, none of this ever happened, you and I never crossed paths and you stuck to your old life, old friends, and old school… would you?"

She noticed the girl hesitate for a long time before shaking her head.

"No."

"And why is that?" Faith pressed. "You think that maybe, just maybe you might get off on it a bit."

"Okay, again, eww. But… okay, yeah. It feels good to have the power… just not so much the responsibility that keeps me from everything else," Buffy said. "I had things figured out before. Now? Now I'm not sure where it all lands being some kind of chosen one. It's easy for you. It seems like you don't have anything holding you back."

"No. All I got is the slaying," Faith admitted. "The room? It's temporary. No one here really tying me down. I could book if I had to. But… you want to know something, and if you ever tell anyone I said this then I'll break your arm?"

"Like you could," Buffy taunted before smiling, showing she was joking. "What?"

"I think I wouldn't mind, the whole tying down thing," Faith confessed. "I look at you and everything you got and all I can think about is how cool it all is. So, I dunno. It's why I trusted Mrs. British Bitch. For a second it seemed like she actually gave a damn about me. My first watcher… she… she took me into her home. Fed me, clothed me, and I… I couldn't even save her in time so I bailed. I… I haven't had a lot of that so I guess I thought it would be another Watcher having my back. Fat lot of good that did me. Look, maybe you're looking to have a little less, but I'm looking to have a little more. Makes us both kind of messed up, huh?"

"Not messed up. Maybe just… figuring things out?" Buffy said. "If anything I guess I suddenly see just how not together people are age really are."

"Yeah, but we have more fun," Faith replied with a grin. "Immature and full of life ain't a bad way to be."

"Unless several baby lives are on the line," Buffy replied causing Faith to look at her in confusion. "Oh yeah. You were out of town or something, weren't you?"

"Yeah, there was a lot of vamp activity out of town. Lots coming in from other places lately. Giles wanted me to look into it. Why, did something happen while I was out?"

"Oh yeah. A lot. Long story short? Evil candy bars made all adults act like teenagers and nearly got a bunch of babies eaten. It was a whole evil demon eating babies thing," Buffy explained. "Stopped it but I had to deal with my mom and Giles acting like… well, us. Kind of made the whole job harder."

"Us like arguing with each other us?" Faith asked.

"No. Ugh, more like make moon eyes at each other and looking like they wanted to start a garage band with the way they were dressed," Buffy explained. "I actually found them making out when trying to figure out what was going on."

"Whoa. Kind of sorry I missed that," the brunette snickered. She could only imagine how uncomfortable that had made the poor blonde. She seemed reserved as it was about sex in general. Seeing her mom like that had probably really freaked her out. "Everything worked out though?"

"Yeah, the babies got back to the hospital, all safe and sound. Thank god," she said. "Huh, and then here we are getting all hormonal and nearly end up killing each other."

"Don't think our little brawl got that bad," Faith replied with a smirk. "But I see your point. There was definitely some going off half-cocked all around. Just, when Xander told me about Angel it sounded all kinds of bad."

"I can't believe he did that," Buffy whispered, her tone soft but with a twinge of anger. "I mean, why would he? Besides being a massive, jealous jerk."

"To be fair, he just told me Angel was alive, and he mentioned you thought he was clean. I think he was just blowing off steam. I was the one who suggested the slaying thing, and when we found Giles he was actually the one going all 'Oh, maybe Angel didn't do this. Maybe we should figure this out.' I hate when guys are right, but you should probably know he wasn't just going all kill kill murder happy on your ex," Faith admitted. "But… on the other hand, he seemed pretty pissed when we talked so... Might want to think about clearing the air with him too."

"What? No, no, air is clear. Air is totally clear," the blonde replied. "He sees Angel is good now."

"And the jealous thing? What's that about?" Faith prodded. She noticed Buffy looked hesitant, the look she got when asked something personal that she didn't want to share, pulling back from Faith again. "You know what, none of my business. Just… this whole not talking to anyone didn't help anyone. Might want to make sure things are really five by five with you two. Not that I got space to talk, but anyone that eager to see someone else dead even for a little bit might have some issues to resolve. Just saying."

"You think?" Buffy asked in a worried voice. "I mean, the last thing I want is anything else to go wrong."

"Up to you, B. Look, I promise I'll try to stop prying so much but you gotta be less putting on airs and we'll be cool. For what it's worth, I am sorry this all blew up so bad."

"Thank you. I am too," she replied with a soft smile before looking around a bit. "Hey uh… What are you doing for dinner?"

"Well, I had plans to score up some money on pool but that went out the window with the whole revelation about Angel, so… drunk guy looking to score buying me hot wings, I guess," Faith said.

"You want to come over? For dinner, I mean," Buffy asked. "No drunk guys. Mom wouldn't like that but… I mean, I bet she'd make you a pie if you asked."

Faith laughed again and playfully shoved Buffy before rolling her eyes. Despite the tense moments, she felt a lot better, like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Maybe things weren't totally cleared between her and Buffy, but it seemed on the road to getting to be that way. She had a feeling the two of them were going to clash a bit more, or well… a lot more. Buffy did have a whole wanting to be in charge to make the important decisions attitude and Faith herself got off on bucking authority. Might be why she felt so comfortable getting the flirt thing on with her. Deep down, girl could make you tingly.

Probably why Angel got all heavy on her. Eh, maybe she couldn't judge. Her dates looked better in comparison but only on the level all the guys who'd dicked her never tried to end the world after. Which meant Angel seriously needed to update his pillow talk or he really was a sweet guy despite everything.

"Sure. I can come to dinner," she said. "What time do you want me there?"

"Why don't you just come over now? We can talk… without all the name-calling and hitting involved this time."

"Ohh, kitten. You're taking all the fun out of it," she teased before getting up to grab some pants and a jacket. "Give me a second to dressed and we can go."

"Sure," Buffy agreed, looking away while Faith changed out of her shorts and into some actual clothes. "Hey… Faith?"

"Yeah?"

"B does stand for Buffy, doesn't it?"

Faith looked at her for a second before winking.

"Most of the time," she replied sweetly.

"Hey!"

End of Chapter 1

Short chapter, though this is more character study driven than anything. Reading it over, I think it came off as a little anti-Buffy, but this was in Faith's POV. Also, some of the things Buffy did, while understandable as a decision of the heart, were sort of screwed up. All of season 3 does paint a light on why Buffy and Angel just can't work and how they're being naive to think they could handle such a temptation in their lives. While it didn't get to the levels of Season 6 and 7 (Seriously, having Buffy mock a girl who just offed herself due to pressure despite always going on how much if sucked to be chosen and I don't remember any time Giles treated her like that) she can still come off a bit self-centered in her life.

On the other hand, I think she's got her reasons. Definitely fulfills the whole "being good can suck" trope to a T at times. When you're having your whole life dictated by fate, it's only natural to rebel some, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Faith is judging a bit harshly, but she's not a girl who's got any tact and I think at times Buffy needs a hard fact tossed to her at times, like when Giles coldly informs her about the torture and her lack of respect for him, or Xander pointing out the deaths Angelus has caused and going around making out with a guy who sex can make evil isn't maybe a good idea. (Not that Xander wasn't doing his own bull at the time.) I'm hoping to give a nuanced approach but characters are going to see it certain ways.

I do want to bring Faith and Buffy closer, but considering they had issues brewing since Faith's first episode, they needed to get that stuff off their chest first before anything else.