Five by Five
by Slayer Tash
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters they belong to Joss Whedon, I just like
to enjoy the occasionally.
Spoilers: Up to the premiere of Season 6 Buffy wise.
Author's Notes: Is the third part following Home Again. It is the dinner Buffy had been
talking about and it deals with the Scoobies reaction to her. It is from Buffy’s POV.
She was squirming in her chair, I could tell that Faith was uncomfortable. She looked around the table and caught my eye she smiled softly. I just melt when I see that smile. If you had told me when I first met Faith that I’d end up head over feet in love with her I would have laughed and have told you that you were a whack job.
Dinner had just started, a dinner that Faith wasn’t happy about but she told me when we were in the kitchen getting dinner ready that she wanted us to work and that she wouldn’t be stupid enough to let me down again. That she loved me and that she would do this for me.
“How was the movie Squirt?” Faith asks.
“Overrated, they hype films up then when you go and see them…big flop.”
“I liked it” Tara said.
“What was it about?” Willow asks.
“This girl who runs away from her abusive family and tries to make it on her own. Finds love and overcomes all her childhood trauma.”
“Can you relate much?” Xander says to Faith.
She ignores him and keeps eating.
“Who was in it?” Will asks.
“Some twig with ratty brown hair.”
“Angelina Jolie and Russell Crowe” Tara says.
“I can't stand those two” Faith says.
“I’d have thought Angelina would real big in a the penal system” Xander keeps looking for a bite.
“Not really, most of the inmates went for this little blonde chick who has some show about monsters. Then there was that movie with the cheerleaders that they went crazy for.”
“What was your type?” he asks.
She looks at me then back at him “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
I still hadn’t explained to Xander that Faith and I were involved. He is never as accepting as Willow or even as Dawn. He likes to get all high and mighty about it. That really pisses me off.
“I thought you were a strictly man type of girl.” He says.
“Well what can I say, I had this very bad experience once. I was all hot and bothered after fighting some type of super female demons and this nerd of a guy in daddy’s car picks me up. Haven’t been able to look at one since that night.” She says with a smirk on her face.
Xander is quiet for a minute, I can tell he is trying to think of a comeback.
“Giles called today” I say before he can.
“Does he want the store back?” Anya asks.
“No, he wanted to say hello to Faith and see how we were doing.”
“When do you go back to work Buff?” Willow asks.
“Next week.”
“Well now that you have this new job maybe Faith could have your old job, she just screams ‘Would you like more fries with that’ I mean you still have the uniform.”
“Xander grow up” I say.
Faith stands up “Excuse me I am full. I am going to go on patrol.” She walks into the kitchen.
“Way to go Xander, this is hard enough as it is for Faith the least you could do is put your mightier than thou attitude aside and just try for 5 fucking minutes.”
“Oh well excuse me if I don’t welcome a known murderer back into my life.”
I shake my head and walk into the kitchen.
“You okay?”
She just looks at me, she has tears in her eyes.
I go up to her “Please don’t cry” I put my hands on her hips.
She looks away from me.
Being this close to her is driving me crazy. I move my hands up under her top.
“B” she starts to protest.
“Shhhh” I lean up and we kiss. One of her hands is on my face and I slide my tongue into her mouth, she does the same and we kiss deeper.
“Get a room” I hear Dawn say.
Faith pulls away from me and I look at Dawn who is smiling at us. She closes the door between the kitchen and the dining room.
“God Xander can be a dick sometimes.” She says.
“Over that little crush?” I ask.
“Oh please that was ages ago. I like men.”
Faith lets out a laugh “All men are evil.”
I smile “She gave me the same advice.”
“Yeah well I’m not carpet muncher.”
I laugh and Faith says “Don’t knock it till you try it Squirt.”
She rolls her eyes. “I have mid terms, I am upstairs studying.”
“Okay.”
She walks out leaving us alone again.
My hands wander up her top further “Patrol can wait.”
“I don’t know B, I mean if we go upstairs now I don’t think we will come back down.”
“I could get Xander to do a sweep.”
“And get him killed.”
“And where would be the bad part about that?”
“B!”
I close my mouth over hers again and we kiss passionately. My hands insisting that I continue towards her breasts. Hers however insist I stop. She pushes them away.
I pull away “Faith” I say breathlessly.
“Hungry and Horny” she says and walks out.
I lean on the kitchen counter…How does she do it? How does she get me so worked up? Angel and Riley didn’t even come close to getting me this worked up.
I join the others back in the dining room.
“I am going to say this only once so Xander don't interject or interrupt me. Faith is here because this is where she belongs, it takes guts for her to come back and face you. She isn’t proud of what she did to us and she suffers with the pain she caused you everyday. She served her time for what she did. She isn’t asking you for anything, I am. Willow, Tara and Dawn already know this but Xander Faith and I are together. And I am pretty much in love with her, blown out of the water, head over feet, can't fucking think straight in love with her. You guys mean the world to me but so does Faith so I ask please try.”
Xander just looks at me.
“I know I ask a lot of you guys and I love you for what you do for me.”
“You and Faith have the sex?” Anya asks.
“An please….Do you?”
“This isn’t really the point. Xan I love you please if you can't do it for Faith’s sake do it for mine.”
“If I can do it, I think you can” Willow says.
Xander looks defeated “I hope you know what this means for me to do this.”
“I do, and I thank you” I kiss the top of his head “Thanks Will.”
She smiles her Willow smile at me.
“I have to go patrol, I don’t want Faith out there by herself.”
“Scared she can’t handle it?” Tara asks.
“I know Faith can handle it…Do I have to really explain why I have to go?” I can feel my cheeks going red.
“Go” Willow says “I’ll clean up before I head upstairs to bed.”
“Thanks, Dawn is in mid term mode so she should be okay.”
“T-Thanks for dinner Buffy” Tara says.
“No thank you” I walk out to the front door get my jacket and leave.
I sweep Shady Hill and Restfield no Faith and no vamps either. I do the two cemeteries by the Bronze and still no Faith. Now I am worried, I know we have a lot of cemeteries here in Sunnydale but my slayer sense gets the better of me.
“Hello Cutie” Spike steps in front of me.
“What do you want?”
“Just saw your girlfriend, she seems like a lovely lass.” He says sarcastically.
“You saw Faith, where?”
“Bronzing it.” He takes a drag from his cigarette “Probably having a breather between murders.”
I punch him in the face “Just give me a reason Spike, just give me a reason.” For good measure I kick him square in the nuts. He collapses and I push him over as I walk past him.
I enter the Bronze and look around, I see her at a table she has a drink in front of her but she is just staring into it. I walk over.
“Hey B.” She says without looking up.
I sit next to her. I take her hand and kiss her arm. I rest my chin on her shoulder “I told Xander what was what after you left.”
“Yeah how did he take it?”
I smile and tell her what I said.
“So” she says looking at me “We do a sweep?”
“I did a sweep trying to find you, I only came across one sorry excuse for a vamp.”
“Spike?”
I nod.
“So I guess we head home then.”
“Not just yet, I think while we are here we have a dance or two, I remember the last time we danced together” I take my coat off.
“I remember that night too.”
I stand up “Come on” I lead her to the dance floor.
Faith who should be in her element looks uncomfortable.
I pull her into me “What?”
“Nothing.” She moves away.
Now I am confused, when I thought of Faith and I being together I always assumed that she would be the aggressor not me. I take a step back and look at her, I can tell she doesn’t want to be there.
“We should go” I head back to the table and get my coat and head outside. I wait for her to join me then we walk home in silence.
Xander, Anya and Tara are still there when we return. I head straight upstairs and get ready for bed. There is a knock on my door.
“Buff?” It was Willow.
“Come in Will.”
She does closing the door behind her and sits on my bed.
“What happened?”
I shrug “No idea.”
“Something seems to be funky between you and Faith.”
“She seems distant. Before I laid down the law to Xander she blew me off in the kitchen stating we needed to patrol then I find her at the Bronze. Maybe I forced her here and she doesn’t even want to be here, maybe she doesn’t love me the way I love her. God I haven’t even stopped once and asked Faith if this is where she wants to be.”
“Well you won’t know if you don’t ask.”
“Yeah and I am tired of hearing five by fucking five.”
“As your best friend my advice is talk to her.” She got up.
“Thanks Will.” We hug.
I go downstairs with her and say good night to our other guests, then Willow head upstairs to bed. I find Faith in the kitchen doing the dishes. I sit at the breakfast bar.
“Okay, I am going to ask what is up your ass, and I am going to expect an answer other than nothing.”
She continues to wash up.
“I also want to ask how you are feeling but I don’t want to hear five by five.”
“What do you want from me Buffy?”
“Nothing Faith. I just want honest answers to my questions.”
“You don’t want to know what is going on in my head.”
I sigh “I see Faith from two years ago is back, I better give up now” I get up and walk out. I wait by the door to she if she responds. All I hear is the sound of her crying. As much as I want to go in and hold her I think she needs me to just leave her alone.
I reach my room and the last thing I want to do is sleep so I get dressed again and go out on patrol. I sweep the cemeteries I missed before, then on the way home went through Shady Hill, I could hear yelling as I neared Spike’s crypt. I made my way over and saw he was fighting…with Faith.
“You are sick” she says inflicting a roundhouse kick to the side of his head.
“What can’t handle the truth huh? Slayer number two doesn’t like to be in the shadow of slayer number one now does she.”
“God you suck at trash talk.”
They are facing off, circling each other. Spike is smiling at her.
“So they let you out and you come back here, don’t think those bloody friends of hers will welcome you into the fold. Night by night I stood by them and helped and look where it got me.”
“Think about it you are a vamp and if you could I am sure that you’d kill ‘em without a second thought.”
“And you wouldn’t? I heard all about you dear from slayer number one.”
I walk over “You two done with your pissing contest?”
“What makes you think this is over you?” Spike says.
I don’t answer, I just look at them both.
“Oh little Miss Priss is pissed of now” he smirks looking at me.
Faith punches him in the face while he is distracted.
He steps back “Woah steady on Slayer 2 I know you are new in these parts but the rules here are if I behave myself I get left well alone.”
“Yeah well they ain’t my rules. I am a vampire slayer, I kill vampires and here in front of me is a vampire. And I know you can’t fight back because of that lovely little chip in your head it just makes my job easier.”
“It only works on humans Faith, people who have no darkness in them.”
“Come on then hit me, prove me wrong.” She baits him.
He looks at me and I raise an eyebrow as if to say don’t get me involved.
They spar and he doesn’t connect Faith easily avoids him until he fakes left and comes in with the right connecting with her cheek. She spins away and Spike screams out and falls to his knees.
“Huh, looks like I’m pure.” She drops her stake and walks away “Fucking pathetic excuse for a vampire” I hear her mutter.
I follow her, I am about a metre or so behind her.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“My face kills, I can't believe I volunteered for that.”
I smile “Can I do anything? Or should I just give up?”
She stops walking “I need time B, I can't just expect it to be all okay in one night after one dinner. I can’t go happy families right away. I need to be able to adjust find my feet.”
“I haven’t helped much with that have I?”
“B, you have been great…it’s just sometimes you don’t know when to step back.”
This hurts more than I thought it would “Oh” I look at the ground.
She comes up to me and lifts my head up, she is smiling.
“I am here today because of you B, I am here because you believed in me. It helped me believe in me.”
Her lip is split and bleeding and her cheek has already bruised.
“This is new to me and I need time to process, need time to figure out how to react. Instead of being the Faith from two years ago. I want to do it right this time, I want to do you right this time.”
“Faith you do, do me right” I smile.
“Fuck B you are a horny little rabbit aren’t you.”
“Well look at what I have in front of me.”
“I never expected this from you, you are a surprise and half you know that.”
“I do” I smile and we walk home hand in hand.
The rhythm is as if we are one as we make love, she is leaning over me looking into my eyes her mouth open slightly, I moan gently.
“You okay?” she breathes.
“Five by Five” I smile.