One More Time: Morning After
by Sulks
Rating: PG-13

Author's Notes: Follows Once More Around the Block and Truth or Dare. So I suck at titles.

Faith woke up and the first thing she thought was that she desperately needed to pee and that she also was in dire need of a shower, because there was a definite scent of stale alcohol and something else in the room...She shrugged that off because the next thing she thought was, 'fuck my head hurts, must've pounded the liquor wicked hard last night.' She tried to move, but realised that...her arm was trapped beneath Buffy's body... and that Buffy had her arms wrapped around her. That promptly shook Faith out of her still drunk fog. "Shit!" she exclaimed, pulling her arm free. The cry of surprise and the sudden movement jarred Buffy from sleep. Her eyes widened when she saw Faith's very panicked face.

"Faith, what are you--" Buffy's eyes furrowed in confusion. "You're naked!"

"Yeah, well, so are you!" Faith retorted, as she stood up and grabbed the sheet which was on the floor and wrapped it around her body. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck," she muttered. "FUCK!"

Buffy quickly covered herself with her comforter. "What are you doing here?!"

"I wish I knew!" Faith snapped, groaning at the situation.

"Did we..."

"I don't know!"

Buffy glanced around at her room. Judging by the disarray, and the bedspread, she surmised that they did have sex.

"I gotta shower," Faith muttered, her eyes wild. She ran to her room to take a shower.

"Faith! Wait!" Buffy called out, but the brunette paid no attention. "Well, fuck," she muttered.

A few hours later, Faith peeked into the kitchen dying for a glass of water that didn't come from the damn tap in her bathroom. It was kind of elitist of her, but she hated water from the tap, even though she'd pretty much grown up drinking it that way. When she was little, she always thought that water from the tap was full of fish pee, and it was something that she could never quite shake off. She peeked into the kitchen, hoping that Buffy wasn't in there. She wasn't.

"Boo."

"Fuck!" Faith swiveled around to see Buffy standing directly behind her.

"You're avoiding me."

"What?"

"You're avoiding me, aren't you?" Buffy accused.

"No, I--"

Buffy grabbed Faith's hand. "Get your ass in here and get what you wanted," she muttered as she marched into the kitchen, dragging Faith behind her.

Faith wriggled out of Buffy's grasp and grabbed a bottle of Evian from the fridge. Buffy watched as Faith drank from the bottle and wondered how the brunette could turn something so simple as drinking water into an erotic act. Then again, maybe Buffy was just randy. 'I am *not* horny,' Buffy thought to herself.

"Why were you avoiding me?" Buffy asked softly. "We should talk about what happened..."

"I don't remember what happened, and it's obvious you didn't either, right? Right? So there's nothin' to talk about."

"But you were avoiding me. Again."

"What?"

Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation, thinking back to the days after Gwendolyn Post had come to Sunnydale and then had become very fried. That happened so many years before, and she could see that Faith *had* changed, but she still handled uncomfortable situations in the same way. Faith had avoided her after the Gwen Post incident, even so far as to cross the street when she met paths with Buffy, acting like she hadn't seen the blonde.

"Look, we had sex," Buffy said, "it's not a big deal for you, right? So it won't be a big deal for me, and we can just go on with our lives. We can pretend it never happened. Neither of us even remembers it. So there's no reason you should avoid me. So stop doing it, okay? Just stop it."

"Really?"

"Of course," Buffy said, giving Faith a falsely bright smile.

"Good," Faith breathed out in relief. "I thought this was going to be...you know, like a wicked big deal or something. But if you're willing to forget about it, I am too."

"Yeah," Buffy said, although it hurt her to say, because she *did* remember it. Faith had been amazingly drunk, while Buffy had just been drunk, so the brunette was naturally more inclined not to have an alcohol-induced blackout.

Dawn straggled into the kitchen just then, carrying a duffel bag and a sleeping bag. She saw the two Slayers and grunted a greeting, but headed towards the stairs. Buffy and Faith just watched her leave.

"You hungry?" Buffy asked.

"Starved."

"I think there's some leftover pizza in the fridge."

"Cool."

The night before, Buffy told Faith that she loved her, because she did. And Faith had told her that she loved her too, and the blonde really thought that it meant something. But the moment Buffy had looked into Faith's panicked eyes this morning, Buffy knew that Faith didn't remember what had happened, and even if she meant what she said, that she loved Buffy too, the blonde knew that Faith would probably never say it when she was sober. And she was increasingly sure that Faith had just said it, not really meant it, because Faith had looked almost sick at the thought of having had sex with Buffy.

"Are you still a little drunk?" Buffy asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

Faith laughed, and Buffy smiled, knowing she said the right thing. "A little," Faith admitted. "I drank, like, an entire *jug* of tequila." She winced and rubbed her head. 'God, I shouldn't have drank so much,' she thought, thinking back to the argument she'd had with Buffy, 'liquored-up fights are always the worst, fucking emotional and weepy and shit.' She was a little disgusted with herself over the argument the previous night, believing that she'd revealed too much.

They sat down munching on pizzas, when Dawn came down the stairs, bleary-eyed. "Well if it isn't the happy couple," she mumbled as she reached into the fridge and drank out of the carton of juice.

"Hey!" Buffy admonished. "Dawn, get a glass!" completely missing that Dawn had just called she and Faith a couple. But Faith hadn't. Faith watched as Dawn walked back towards the stairs.

'Couple?'

Buffy turned back to Faith and saw the brunette was seemingly lost in fog. She snapped her fingers in front of Faith's face. "Earth to Faith."

Faith blinked and flashed Buffy a crooked grin. "What?"

"What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

Buffy had to sigh, Faith was even more close-lipped than she had been four years before, when they'd been friends and the blonde was trying to get Faith to open up to her.

"What?" Faith asked.

"Nothing."

Faith snorted. "Deja vu."

Buffy laughed, "Since we both have the day off today, why don't we go see a movie and do some shopping?"

"Shopping with you?" Faith asked wincing.

"Of course! What's *wrong* with shopping with *me*."

"It's just that you take a freakin' eternity tryin' on clothes. I mean, most people are satisfied just lookin' in a 3-way mirror, but you, you gotta get into all sorts of weird-ass positions." The moment the words came from her lips, Faith realised what she said and burst out laughing and flashed Buffy a leering grin.

"They aren't 'weird-ass positions,'" Buffy said defensively, "I'm just looking at what I'd look like in sitting positions, various standing positions, kicks, and so on! They aren't weird ass!"

Faith just continued to laugh at her, and Buffy had to smile, glad that the tension that was present just a little while before had now dissipated.

"What about the lil' sis?" Faith asked.

"She'll probably sleep all day, let's just go. You and me. Okay?"

Faith shrugged. "Okay." She was just glad that there didn't seem to be any of that morning after awkwardness. Hell, there'd never really BEEN a reason for morning after awkwardness.

...continued in 'Tis the Season...