In the Arms of a Goddess
by onyxwaterfall
Rating: R
Disclaimer: You know the score, it's all just a bit of fun.
Author's Notes: This may be the first part of a series of little ficlets. I was inspired to write this by general wandering thoughts and a conversation I had with a friend, and after a while I brainstormed some ideas about different POV's and things. I've never done a collection of fics, so I'm gonna try, with this being the first in the series. I'm not entirely sure what I want out of these fics, but I'll get there, or at least I'll try. Thanks for reading.
She peered round the stone archway as she listened to her own footsteps echoing through the spacious foyer. A cautious hand rested on her lower back, and a warm breath exhaled against her neck. She tightened her grip on the man holding her, and clamped her eyes shut, hoping the moment would pass. But seconds later a screech came from across the room and she found herself gripping tightly to the large metal axe and swerving into the path of the oncoming supernatural creature that alerted her to its presence. All at once she was throwing the weapon towards it, knowing her tactics, her aim, her skill would ensure this creature dust. And mere seconds proved her to be right.
Then she could release a sigh, and calm down. He appeared from behind the arch, having been hiding, just as she was, until she sprung the element of surprise upon her enemy. She stole a glance his way and lifted her hand to slap it into his. ‘We make a good team, eh,’ she told him, her breath heavy and overloaded, needing a moment to still itself, even though she’d not been deprived of breath. The panic always made her this way.
Wood released a chuckle and looked across at the remaining axe and pile of residue laying in the centre of the abandoned foyer. ‘No actually, I think you and the axe, make an excellent team, I make an excellent voyeur, but that’s all,’ he quipped, to which she smiled widely.
She reached out to touch his shoulder before heading to collect her axe, though once bending down to grab it, she found herself jumping at the sound of a loud cry telling her to move out of the way. She grabbed her axe and hurried to the side, narrowly missing another creature’s mouth.
This one had wings.
She released a sigh, seeing the creature fly past her at an absurd speed; followed by a strident decision to kill this thing. But before she could make a move to do so, a figure, so gracious and quick in movement hurried through the large opening, following after the being yelling abuse and swinging weapons towards it.
Faith frowned, and brushed herself off before hurrying after the woman and the supernatural being. Her heavy breathing now was drowned out by the screeching and roaring of this large thing, and once where she needed to be, she saw that getting panicked was the least of her troubles. Now it was saving someone that she was worried about. ‘Wood; get the rocket launcher!’ she yelled to the large masculine figure in the adjacent room. ‘Now!’ Once again, she found herself throwing her axe in the direction of the large demon-dragon thing, and hitting, though as she guessed, it didn’t do much. Seconds later, Wood appeared with the large metal feature in his hand. Faith hesitated none in taking it from him, and pushing him back slightly. ‘Get behind the partition,’ she told him, and he did so, craning his head round to watch her rid of this thing.
The rocket made a loud crackling sound as it fired from the launcher, and straight into the dragon. And zing poof were a couple of words that came to mind when she watched it explode. She dropped the metal weapon and in a hurry was across the room and beside remaining figure, knocked out, motionless on the floor.
‘B…’ she muttered, and knelt beside her.
The distinct sound of the crackling fireplace was the first thing she noticed. Coming to had made her senses seem a thousand times what they were. Every sound, was louder, more distinct, and sharper. Every smell…was just as the sound. And everything looked blurry, then sharp…
She peered at the candle on the table beside her, and then the fireplace that she could hear. Her eyes continued to scan around the room, examining each object until she recognised where she was. No such luck.
She pulled herself up into a sitting position, and it wasn’t until then that she realised she’d been injured. ‘Ahh.’ She released a gentle whimper, and clutched the area of pain. Her eyes followed her hand, and she frowned when she saw the bruising upon her arm.
Faith entered the room with a small mug in her hand, her feet padding solemnly on the carpet of the lounge. Her gaze drifted to Buffy immediately, and her eyes lit up when she saw she was awake.
Buffy imagined Faith would be full of words, questions. But as her eyes followed her, finding a suitable surface for her mug, then a suitable place for herself, she wondered why she hadn’t said a word.
Faith released a sigh as she sunk into the armchair. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tucked her feet underneath her, and pulled down the sleeves of her jumper. Then she rested her elbow upon the arm of the chair, and rested her chin in her upturned palm. And then her eyes were on Buffy. Her expression was all rested. Her eyes were the explanation.
Buffy glanced down at herself, wondering why Faith had come to look upon her in this way. She still hadn’t said anything. And this was worrying Buffy. In fact, it was starting to scare her. she shuffled on the couch a little, and let go of her arm. ‘Well…’ she began, hoping that the conversation would not become tense. ‘You sure showed that demon.’
Faith continued to watch her sister slayer, expression the same, her eyes still focussed upon her. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were here?’
She couldn’t admit she wasn’t expecting for her to answer that question. They’d all moved on to their own private and comfortably and relatively normal lives…she couldn’t say she did expect for them to keep in touch. But then again…she couldn’t say she didn’t expect for them to keep in touch either.
The fire crackled as silence and distance spirited between them. They exchanged looks for quite some time, their forms of communication always having been much more than just words. Buffy searched Faith for something, a different look in her eye perhaps. But she maintained that same comfortable, contented look.
After contemplating Faith’s words a moment, she found herself losing sight of why exactly she hadn’t. She hesitated in replying, and scratched her forehead, and furrowed her eyebrows. ‘Huh?’
Faith removed her gaze from Buffy for a second to roll her eyes. ‘Wow, that demon really knocked ya out good,’ she mumbled, then looked back to the confused Buffy, studying her reaction for a moment.
Buffy didn’t realise that Faith could see so much. Her confusion, her frustration. As her brown pools focused upon that of her own green pools, she shifted nervously.
‘Why are you here, Buffy?’ Faith asked firmly, though her voice was swallowed by the harsh crackling of the fireplace.
Again, she was hesitant. She wasn’t ready to answer this question, to actually be here, in her presence. She hadn’t planned for it to be this way.
She exhaled nervously and moved in her seat, bringing her legs down from the couch to the floor, then sighed. ‘Well. Thanks for your hospitality; I’m gonna leave now,’ she told her all in one rushed breath.
She found herself making rushed steps out of the lounge and down the hallway towards what she could only assume was the front door, leaving Faith in her chair, shaking her head slowly at this shambled, possibly concussed, woman.
She followed her towards the front door, and called her name.
‘You didn’t answer my question, Buffy,’ she called to her as she trod the floorboards of the hallway.
Buffy clutched at the door handle, being sure not to look back at her sister slayer. She had to leave. Now. But there was just one problem. If she left, she wouldn’t get what she came for.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked her again, this time, reaching out a hand to her shoulder, and turning her round to look into her eyes.
It seemed like forever since she’d seen such depth in someone she thought she was so distant from, but as Buffy gazed deep into her eyes, she knew it wouldn’t be difficult to tell her. Everything.
‘I…’ Buffy found herself stumbling over her words once again and tearing her gaze from the taller, darker, more solemn slayer. Now confronted, the taller slayer’s every deliberation a positive, though anxious note in the blonde slayer’s mind. She was doing this for both of their sakes. ‘I need to tell you something,’ she finally said, in one anxious breath. She exhaled after having spoken, hoping that Faith would let her go and allow her back into the comfort of her lounge.
She nodded tentatively, her eyes full of worry and paralysed panic. What could it be? The darker slayer questioned in her mind. Her eyes focussed upon the smaller slayer as she slipped round her and followed the hallway back towards the lounge. And as Faith followed her, she realised that this could be an avenue that she wasn’t ready to step down.
The small, yet comfortable and well furnished apartment hugged the surroundings and the furniture; two couches and an armchair were positioned suitably around the fireplace; there was no television, which surprised Buffy, but she suspected that there would be one elsewhere in the apartment. There were enough personal items dotted around the room for her to assume Faith had been living here for quite some time. There was even a photograph or two sitting on the mantelpiece.
She moved slowly across the room, planning to sit, but then she gravitated towards the fireplace, where she stood for a moment, sensing Faith wandering into the lounge after her. she looked over her shoulder, then down into the palm of her hands, her stomach tightening at the words she was about to say to her.
She sensed rather than saw Faith stopping behind the armchair, and glanced over her shoulder again, only to keep her gaze on the brunette. She turned to face her, all of her actions slow and dulled.
Faith already could see the disturb deep behind Buffy’s eyes. She knew that speaking before her, rushing her, or coaxing her in any way could throw her thoughts off-track, and so she stayed well back, didn’t even stand near to her. she just gazed at her, and tried to remain expressionless.
The blonde opened her mouth to speak, intending to rush ahead with what she needed to say; that way, it would be all over before she’d even have time to think about it. But it didn’t happen that way for her. In fact, showing up this way, stumbling across her in this fashion; these were not her intentions.
She inhaled slowly through her mouth, beginning to fiddle with her hands. And when she exhaled through that same passage, she began to speak. ‘I was gonna come over,’ she said, Faith instantly being reminded of that meek, vulnerable tone that was Buffy’s.
She remained still, and silent, open to whatever the older slayer was going to tell her.
‘I didn’t plan for things to go this way. I ended up swinging by this abandoned building, and these monsters were lurking so, you know how it is, couldn’t resist the urge to get in a good slay…’ she smiled, and she noticed the brunette nodding with a tug of a smile in the corner of her mouth. ‘So I ended up here, unconscious and…’ she raised her arm. ‘Bruised.’ She chuckled a little, and upon seeing Faith’s response, became serious once again. This time she herself was solemn. ‘I erm…I had to come over here to tell you something…’ Her voice faded as she begun her sentence, realising she still found it difficult to talk about this.
Faith swallowed in the image of woman before her. Her hair now half way down her back, her form slender perfection; a white pair of trousers and a gorgeous black top covered by a red leather jacket upon her; they all suited her so well. Her hair had loose curls, some falling in front of her face, not that it mattered but Faith still thought each one was beautiful. Yes, she was in awe of the sight of Buffy. She had in fact been ever since the First escapade. She returned to Sunnydale thinking all those feelings of hate would resurface when in fact, they melted away when she uttered those few words to her. ‘Good to have you back.’ In fact, being around Buffy ever since then had been quite a task for young Faith. She was in complete awe of her. She watched every move, every gorgeous move; she even once pretended that they were partners once again, when out on the porch of Revello Drive, they’d been having a midnight chat, and she said some things that comforted her inside. Things about the past, about the way things could have been had Faith not turned.
Just for a moment Buffy removed her gaze from Faith, and she clamped her eyes shut, thinking about how events might go if she told her everything. She hated keeping things from people. Most of all the one person she didn’t want to keep things from, but things hadn’t gone so fantastically for them ever since Faith’s downfall. Buffy felt herself drifting further and further from her, even now, that she had returned, and things were back to normal – relatively speaking.
She licked over her lips and sucked in a quick breath, inwardly telling herself to deal with her nervousness and get it out. And when she turned to see Faith, that determination seemed to dissipate and nervousness refilled her veins.
‘I’m gonna get a Chinese, I’ll be back in a few,’ came a rather baritone, masculine voice, and soon the figure was beside Faith, hugging her from behind, and kissing her hair. ‘Buffy, you’re up,’ he said cheerily as he held a hand towards her, that same hand that she so noted had held Faith seconds prior to his statement.
She nodded simply. ‘Wood,’ she said straight. ‘It’s er…it’s…’ She glanced at Faith, hoping she wouldn’t latch on at her surprise of seeing him there, in the same apartment as her. ‘It’s…good to see you again.’
He nodded. ‘Good to see you.’ He examined her casually a moment, smiling as he slipped on his jacket. He nudged Faith from behind alerting her to him, and winked, to which she smiled. ‘Catch you girls later.’
Through her mind she imagined him leaving, as the synchronised sounds told her a story that ensured he was in fact exiting the building. She licked over her lips a brief moment, and gestured towards the door. ‘So you guys are…engaged?’
Faith’s eyes widened. ‘What? Whoa, no, not any time soon…’
That was all Buffy needed to know. But her words implied there was some sort of a relationship. In which case she shouldn’t proceed to tell Faith what she wanted to tell her.
‘So…there could be?’
Faith shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she thought about what Buffy had said. ‘I dunno.’ Her hand drifted to her hair in which she ran her fingers through, then let her hand fall to rest upon the back of the chair. ‘I erm…’ she raised her hand to Buffy, and moved her head a little. ‘What were you gonna say?’
Buffy had been caught off guard. She was still thinking of the intense closeness between Wood and her. They had a relationship. She didn’t want to interfere. Sure, there were things she wanted to say, but that was before she’d seen what she’d seen. She shook her head a little, coming out of her slight daze. ‘I…oh…erm…it’s, it’s nothing…’ she tried to tell her, though her words broke and once again she was retreating to the comfort of her palms.
And at that point, Faith saw a glimmer of something in her that she thought could possibly be what she had been waiting for; for a very long time. But no…no it couldn’t be. Chances upon chances; it couldn’t be this time she came back into her life to tell her that she…had feelings for her... But then again, why else would Buffy show up, Faith thought to herself.
She let her doubting emotions slip through her and found herself approaching Buffy, standing mere centimetres from her, and moving a tender index finger to just below her chin, and lifting it, ever…so…gently.
‘Hey…’ she uttered, her voice swallowed by the noise of her heartbeat jamming against her chest. If she could hear it, she was sure Buffy could too. Unless…if she felt the same, if her heart was doing the same. If she wanted as much to just, kiss her, touch her, the way Faith wanted to.
Buffy’s gaze moved up to meet Faith’s, her large green eyes innocent and dear as they always had been. Except they possessed a deepened sadness that Faith longed to explore. She understood it; she knew that her own eyes were similar. It was the fighting that did it to them. But at the same time, she knew that the sadness behind her own eyes was because of that empty space. That once electric buzz in her soul had vanished…when Buffy had vanished from her life.
But now she was standing before her, and the buzz was back. Fuzzy, warm, comforting. It wasn’t the heat in the room, it was Buffy. And just lifting her chin, just running her hand along her arm brought it all back to her.
Buffy had to feel the same, Faith thought to herself, searching deep into her eyes, hoping that her following actions would not be something Buffy would call a true mistake.
She exhaled carefully, and took a step in closer to Buffy, bringing both hands to rest on her upper arms, all the while gazing into her eyes, beginning to lose herself in them, they were so large, so amazing.
She had no recollection of how long they’d stood there, Buffy taking hold of Faith’s arms as she held Buffy’s. But they stood for so long, just looking into each other’s eyes. And then it happened. She could feel it. The space inside of her, it was warm, it was fuzzy. There was no empty space anymore.
It was her.
And in a rushed desperation, she muttered words that would change her life forever, for better or for worse, she didn’t care. ‘Faith, please, just kiss me.’
She needed no confirmation, the kiss was enough of that. And as she pillowed her lips upon Buffy’s, moaned at the contact, clamped her eyes shut at the rush of inebriation, gripped tighter at her shoulders, allowed the tears to fall from her eyes, so many things became a clear epitome for her. Faith wanted her and she now saw that, with perfect clarity. She needed Buffy. All the looks, the touches, the words…the buzzing.
The years.
Each year reminded her of how much further from her she could get. But she hung on, just hung, on every word, every breath, every motion. They’d departed twice. They’d met twice before. If Buffy came back…they’d meet a third time, and in Faith’s story, they never departed again.
In Buffy’s story, they’d never met, they’d never departed, and meeting was all they’d do. They’d never depart. Even now, as she kissed her back, passion building quickly behind the kiss, her hands beginning to roam to places she forbade herself to touch before.
The tears wouldn’t stop. Faith cried behind the kiss. Her throat burned, her cheeks dampened, her eyes became sore. And Buffy allowed her to shed those tears, allowed her to cry them out as their kiss deepened, and she pressed her body against Faith’s, hugged her in closer towards her own body. She moved a hand up to Faith’s face, and lightly brushed her fingers over it, allowing that electric buzz to shiver through her, through every vein, through every limb, finger, toe, movement.
The kiss began to calm down, the slayers slowly recoiling, eventually departing and resting foreheads upon one another. Faith hummed, letting her eyes remain closed, whilst Buffy watched her basking, and ran a finger delicately along her chin. ‘Damn…’ Buffy whispered. ‘I wish I was your lover.’
Faith opened her eyes to Buffy’s gaze, and smiled. ‘Is that what you wanted to tell me?’
Buffy looked down momentarily, before leaning in to kiss Faith once again. And Faith could feel it all again. That buzz; and this slow build up only resulting in what she imagined would be a climax. The best ever. She had to know. She couldn’t wait.
She moved back a little, letting her hands linger at Faith’s shoulders. As she gazed up into the younger slayer’s eyes, all she could do was wait. For Faith’s decision. And good at making decisions Faith was. She tugged a little on her arm, beginning to pull her towards her bedroom.
The lights remained switched off. And though it was dark inside her closed bedroom, the moonlight shone a pastel blue in through the window. She could just about make out the expressions upon Faith’s face. She thought perhaps one was happiness. Another perhaps relief.
She pulled her tentatively until they were in the centre of her room, and now, she tried to drink in this image of her. Matured, different. Beautiful. And then as her dreams began to come true before her, as Faith grabbed hold of the hem of her shirt, and pulled it slowly above her head, she felt her heart begin to race. She moved her hands to cover Faith’s. ‘Let me,’ she told her so gently, her words were practically inaudible. Even so, Faith understood, and let go of her shirt, and raised her arms, outstretched them towards the ceiling. And as her eyes searched deep within Buffy’s, she knew now that she was in the arms of a goddess.
Buffy tugged ever so softly on the shirt, revealing Faith inch by inch. She dropped the shirt beside her once it was free of her, and Faith moved her hands to Buffy’s jacket, slipped it from her shoulders, and Buffy did the same. Outstretched her arms to the ceiling, and waited patiently for Faith to reveal her body, to drop her clothing beside her own shirt.
Faith found her world becoming a blur as the rest was a rush of kisses, emotions, struggles in the dark, until ultimately, they found the place. The place that they would make love. From here on out, it was about them, right now. Faith didn’t care about their past. Buffy didn’t care about Faith’s dark secrets. They both just wanted one thing. Each other.