One More Time: My Pretty Valentine
by Sulks
Rating: PG-13

Author's Notes: Seventh in the "One More Time" series. Follows, "Once More Around the Block," "Truth or Dare," "Morning After," "Tis the Season," "Your Cavalier Attitude" and "Auld Lang Syne." And I decided to make Faith's birthday the same as Eliza Dushku's and this is, like, the epitome of sappiness, so avoid it if you're not in the mood for it.

"I'm still mad at you!" Buffy exclaimed, thwapping Faith on the shoulder.

"Ow! God, B! It's not even a big deal!"

"I still can't believe you did that!"

"I didn't really DO anything!"

"Yes, you did! You should have told me!"

The day before, Buffy had been rifling through Faith's the pockets of a pair of Faith's jeans before she did the wash just to make sure that the dark-haired Slayer didn't leave some bills or other scraps of paper like she so often did. She found Faith's driver's license and realised that Faith's birthday had already passed-- it was the 30th of December, which was the day that Buffy had picked Faith up from the train station from her trip to LA.

"There was nothing to tell! It was just another day!"

"It was your birthday! You're my girlfriend, how could you not have told me it was your birthday?"

"You weren't my girlfriend at that point," Faith pointed out lamely.

"You were my girlfriend two days after!"

"But it had already passed by then," Faith said in a reasonable tone. Oh, she knew she was dead, but oh boy, she was going to prolong it.

"I'm telling Cordelia!"

"No!"

Buffy grabbed the cordless phone and hurdled up the stairs, Faith running after her. Buffy ran into her room, and slammed it, and pressed herself against the door. She dialed the number to Angel Investigations.

"Angel Investigations," Cordelia greeted cheerfully. "Cordelia speaking."

"Cordelia!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Buffy?" Cordelia asked. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Faith?" Cordelia's voice took on a panicked edge.

"No, but something's GOING to happen once we're through with her!"

"What did she do?"

Faith banged on the door, shouting.

"Is that Faith I hear?" Cordelia asked.

"Yes. It was Faith's birthday on the 30th of December and she didn't tell anyone!"

"What?!" Outrage was evident in the Seer's voice.

"I know!!!"

"That hag! I saw her that day too!!"

"I know!"

"How could she do that?"

"I know!"

"Let me talk to her," Cordelia said.

"Of course," Buffy said. She opened the door and narrowly missed getting hit by Faith who was going to pound on the door again. "Cordelia wants to talk to you," she said sweetly, handing the phone over to Faith. Buffy had to laugh a little bit at the look of trepidation on Faith's face. Cordelia was the master of the vituperative diatribe. Faith refused the phone as Buffy continued to thrust the phone at her. She looked pleadingly at Buffy.

"Faith Frances Lohane! You get the phone right now!" Cordelia shouted through the phone.

Faith winced but hesitantly put the phone to her ear. "Hi honey," she said, immediately pulling the phone away from her ear. There was no sound. Faith frowned and put the phone against her ear.

"I KNOW YOU PUT THE PHONE AWAY!" Cordelia shouted.

Faith winced.

Cordelia laughed, she just yelled because she knew exactly what Faith would do. "So why didn't you mention it was your birthday?" Cordelia asked good-naturedly. She wasn't really angry with the Slayer, but she liked to put on the show.

"Well, I...I didn't think it was important."

"It *is* important, you're going to have to realise that."

"I just...I'm sorry you're mad about that."

"I'm not *mad*," Cordelia said. "Buffy isn't *mad* either, but things like that are things that you should mention to your girlfriend and your friends, all right? You think I let Angel get away with that shit? No! Why? Because we're a family now, you brain dead dork."

"Hey!"

"I refrained from calling you a twit."

"Oh, thank you so much for that," Faith said sarcastically.

"I'm serious though. You don't live for yourself anymore, you're *not* on your own, you have to start thinking about the rest of us, and you shouldn't keep that kind of stuff from us. We're *family* now, Faith. You tell us things like that, all right?"

"All right, all right," Faith said, glad to be spared from Cordelia's scathing wit. LA had really made Cordelia lose her edge in that department, which was sort of a shame and basically the opposite of what LA normally did to people. But then again, not everyone moves to LA to become an actress and then becomes a Seer with the drive to save people instead.

"Tell Buffy I said goodbye, okay? You guys have plans for Valentines?"

"Yeah. Tell Deadboy I say 'hey', yeah?"

"Yeah." Cordelia said, and Faith could almost hear the shy grin that entered Cordelia's voice when Faith said Angel's name. Those two had definitely become something more. But either they haven't gotten together yet, or Cordelia wasn't spilling.

Faith hung up the phone and faced Buffy who had her hands on her hips.

"Well?"

"I'm wicked sorry, B. I *should* have told you it was my birthday, 'cause you're my girlfriend and you have the right to know these things, and I don't live for myself anymore, I have you and Dawnie and C and Deadboy and even Demon Girl and X-man to think about, and you guys have the right to know things like that about me."

Buffy stared at Faith in amazement. "Cordelia fed you your lines, huh?"

Faith snorted. "Sort of, but she's right, I guess."

"Yes, she is," Buffy said.

"I'm still going to get you back for getting her involved though."

Buffy snorted. "Whatever. Let's go to dinner now."

Faith shrugged. "Okay. Can you start the car? I need to go to my room real quick."

"Okay," Buffy agreed, heading out the door.

It was the first time Faith had *really* celebrated Valentine's Day, and although usually she hated the holiday thinking it was just an insidious Hallmark plan to capitalise on the fucking stupid or the fucking pathetic, she knew Buffy was into that romantic stuff. And if she were more honest with herself, she sort of wanted to do something romantic, not because she was suddenly a convert of the romantic, but because well, it was Buffy.

They had dinner plans at the new French restaurant that had opened on State Street, and then Faith had arranged to take a ballroom dance lesson at the Fisher Dance Studio. She wasn't in that kind of shit either, but she knew that Buffy had always wanted to take a class like that, and Buffy never had a chance to go to the class she'd signed up for at UC Sunnydale. The blonde had put her university plans on hold until her sister would graduate from highschool. Right now, it was just too much of a financial burden. Once Dawn graduated though, they were hoping some more things could be done with scholarships and grants.

The dinner went by smoothly, and Faith surprised Buffy by ordering from the menu in French.

"I lived in New Orleans for a few months and picked up a few things," Faith explained, "I'm not really fluent, but I can order in a French restaurant and ask where the shitter is."

Buffy coughed, she'd been drinking water at the time. Faith had cleaned up her language slightly for Dawn's sake, but sometimes she could still be a little crude. But it was just sort of endearing. Most of the time. Faith and Anya got along quite well for that reason, because the both of them could be a little crass and blunt.

The ballroom dancing lesson had gone on fairly well, there were some whispered glances and a few leers from the men (and some of the women) and a little bit of confusion about who would lead but Buffy had fun, which is all Faith really wanted. They were walking back to the car, hand in hand, when Faith stopped at a street vendor and bought Buffy a rose, a heart shaped balloon, and a heart shaped strawberry lollipop (with the kind of drinking-straw stick that Buffy seemed to favour), just on a whim.

Faith fumbled with the door lock, giggling as Buffy told a raunchy, very un-Buffy like dirty joke. Faith hoisted Buffy up into a piggy-back and charged up the stairs as Buffy laughed. "Wait here a sec, will ya? I need to pee," Faith said.

Buffy frowned, not really understanding why she'd have to wait outside of Faith's room for that. A few minutes later, Faith opened the door slightly and closed it again. She picked up Buffy and opened the door, carrying Buffy inside like she was a bride. Buffy was astonished to see the room full of tea light candles and Faith's bed covered in rose petals. "Wow!" Buffy exclaimed. "WOW!"

Faith set Buffy down on the floor and kicked the door shut. "Do you like it?" she asked shyly, "I'm no good with this shit, so we can--"

"I LOVE it."

"I wanna show you something," Faith muttered, grabbing Buffy's hand, "but it's in your room."

They walked to Buffy's room. Buffy opened the door and saw that Faith had hung a poster-like valentine on Buffy's wall. Clearly, Faith had done it while Buffy was warming up the car. It was a poster board that had been cut to a heart-shape, and dried red rose petals had been glued on top of it. Lace had been glued around its edges, and in the middle was "I LOVE YOU" written with tiny sticker pictures the two had taken.

"Oh my God," Buffy breathed. She'd never known Faith would be capable of something like that.

"I know you're kinda particular about your room, so you can take it down if you want," Faith said.

"Hell no," Buffy said, grabbing Faith's hand and going back to Faith's room. "I love it."

"You wait here," Buffy said. "I need to get something."

A few moments later, Buffy walked in balancing a cake and an envelope.

"Since we missed your birthday, I thought you should at least have a cake," Buffy said. "And here's your Valentine's present," Buffy said, handing Faith the envelope.

Faith opened the envelope and took out the contents. Pictures of Buffy in various states of undress and seduction, clearly taken by Buffy herself with a timer. "Wow!" Faith exclaimed at the unusually racy gift. "Shit! Wow!" She said happily, as she flipped through them.

"I guess you like?"

"Fuck, yeah, I like!"

"Let's eat," Buffy said, motioning to the cake.

"You forgot forks and plates, I'll go get them--"

Buffy stopped her. "No, I didn't," she said, grinning wickedly.

...continued in E Tu?...