Date Night (7 page)

“No,” Buffy sniffled, wiping at her nose, “just Preston.”

“You're -.” Faith bit her tongue and shook her head.

She was about to reveal her alarm and disbelief that the blonde was still in a relationship with the unsuspecting man despite what had occurred between the two slayers just a few weeks prior. But it wasn't her place to tell the elder woman who she should be with - that was Buffy's decision. Faith just hoped she would make the right decision soon, however. The thought of her with someone else tugged at the edges of her sanity.

“Is D here?” the Boston girl asked, looking around the living room.

Buffy nodded, blinking away fresh tears. She had no idea why just the sight of the brunette at her doorstep had caused her to burst into tears. “Yeah, she got back from school a few days ago,” she noted. “She's sleeping in her room down the hallway.”

Faith's glance continued to flit around the generously sized living room. She'd never been to the blonde's Cleveland house before. “I've got a great idea,” she announced.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the taller slayer.

“Oh, don't give me that look,” Faith chuckled, shaking her head. “Not all of my ideas have to do with sex you know.”

Buffy snorted. “Coulda fooled me.”

“Just trust me,” the Boston girl laughed lightly. “Go get yourself s'more wine and find me a beer or something, will ya? Just no eggnog. Whoever thought of liquefied eggs and booze together was seriously smoking something.”

Buffy gave the brunette a lingering look. Faith shrugged out of her leather jacket and hung it up on a hook near the front door. She shook the snowflakes out of her long waves. The wet drops clung to her thick curls, refracting the light, making her hair literally sparkle in the overhead lighting.

“Scoot,” Faith ordered again, pulling off a heavy boot and a slightly damp sock. She'd taken a cab from the airport to Buffy's house, but with the snowstorm outside, she'd still managed to get a little soggy. She hopped on one foot comically while she removed her other shoe. “I ain't gonna do anything bad to your house or steal something, okay?”

Buffy made a disgruntled noise, but turned on her heels and obediently headed back into the kitchen.

Although Buffy had repeatedly invited Faith to Cleveland to spend the winter holiday with her and Dawn, she had never really expected the younger slayer to take her up on the offer. As Buffy opened a new bottle of red wine and refilled her glass, she silently mused about what was going to happen between them tonight. Moreover, what did she
want
to happen? With Dawn in the house, at least, it certainly couldn't be a loud something.

It had been a few weeks since Buffy had last seen Faith in the flesh. And there was certainly a lot of flesh on parade in Cincinnati. Buffy felt a warm flush creep onto her cheeks just at the memory of that night. Since then, the two had continued to chat religiously online or on the phone, but both had avoided dissecting what had happened between them that night and the following morning at the airport hotel. Neither was ready to discuss what exactly their intimacy meant. But that hadn't stopped their continual flirting, however.

From her location in the kitchen, the blonde heard some banging noises and muffled cursing coming from the living room. Buffy hastily grabbed a beer bottle from the refrigerator and made her way back to the front of the house. Her own wine glass was refilled and she held a Columbus microbrew in her other hand for Faith. She paused in the archway that separated the dining and living room when she discovered what Faith's `idea' was.

“There you go showing off your Boy Scout skills again,” Buffy openly admired.

The Boston girl had successfully built a fire in the stone fireplace along the south wall in the living room. The flames licked and crackled at the small stack of hardwood piled on the iron grating. Buffy had never used the fireplace in the house before; she hadn't even realized it was a
real
fireplace up until this point, in fact.

Faith chuckled and turned away from the gently popping fire. She rubbed her hands together, smearing the soot on her fingers. “Or my pyromaniac skills.”

Buffy gazed at the fire. “That's nice,” she said.

“Grab yourself a seat,” the brunette instructed, nodding towards the couch. “I've almost got everything set up.”

Buffy obediently padded over to the overstuffed couch. She set Faith's beer bottle on a coaster on the glass coffee table and curled her legs up into her body. She watched Faith turn off the overhead lights in the living room and dining room. Only the soft glow of the crackling fire and the LED lights on the Christmas tree illuminated the room.

“Very nice,” Buffy murmured, looking up at the Boston girl. Her beautiful features looked warmer than ever with this dim lighting. “I'm impressed.”

Faith took a seat next to the elder slayer. “I'm not without skills,” she said with a laugh.

The two slayers sat together on the couch in silence, both staring into the fire. The Boston girl sat with one arm draped around Buffy's shoulder and the blonde leaned into the touch. It was a comfortable, familiar position as if cuddling together like this on Christmas Eve was the most natural thing in the world.

“So, do you wanna talk about what happened?” Faith asked, breaking the quiet.

Buffy's heart raced in her chest. She knew eventually they would have to talk about what had happened a few weeks ago, but she didn't think she was ready to face all the emotions the Boston girl had stirred up lately. The slayer took a large drink from her glass as though the alcohol would provide her with much needed courage and clarity.

“`Cause it's not everyday someone pissed you off so much you get violent,” the brunette continued slowly. She gave the golden-haired slayer a small smile. “I thought only
I
made you that mad.”

Buffy blinked once. Faith didn't want to talk about Cincinnati - she wanted to know what had happened between she and
Preston.
The blonde audibly sighed, and she released the tension she had unknowingly been holding in her shoulders. Her body slumped slightly forward.

“I screwed up,” she admitted. “I was supposed to spend the evening with Preston and his family, but I went slaying instead.”

Faith sat up with interest. “Anything I should know about? Did some Chaos demon start makin' the Christmas decorations come alive or something?”

Buffy shook her head and sipped from her glass. “No, nothing exciting like that,” she noted. “Just your every day vampires eating the Christmas carolers.”

“Were they at least singin' off-key?” the brunette joked.

Buffy giggled and gently nudged the younger girl in the ribs. “You're horrible,” she protested.

“Hey, I'm not the one killing innocent remote controls,” Faith pointed out cheekily.

The Californian wrinkled her nose. “I just got mad at him. At me. At the whole situation.”

The younger slayer nodded somberly. She didn't quite know what else to say. With all of the talking they'd been doing the past few months, Buffy had never really opened up about her relationship with the Cleveland boy. Now that she was, however, Faith didn't know how to respond. What was her role in all of this? Friend? Confidante? Mistress?

The fire crackled noisily and an ember popped out of the fire, onto the stone hearth. Faith hopped up from her seat and quickly ushered the burning coal back into the flames before it did any damage.

Buffy cocked her head to one side. “Are you
sure
you're not trying to seduce me with your niceness and this sexy lighting?”

Faith wiggled her eyebrows and returned to her seat next to the blonde. “I dunno. Is it working?”

“I'll get back to you on that one,” Buffy smirked.

Faith took a long pull from her beer bottle. “Naw, B. You took good care of me when I was drunk,” she observed. “It's only fair I do the same for you.”

Buffy wiped at her leaking nose with the back of her sleeve. “Hey. I'm not drunk,” she stated feebly. “This is still my first glass of wine.”

The Boston girl chuckled and kissed the blonde's temple affectionately. “I know,” she murmured into her hair. “Buffy Summers never gets drunk.”

Buffy's heart quickened with the simple, but affectionate action. She expected Faith to go further, to make another move, but for now the brunette appeared content to just sit beside the Chosen One.

“You know…” Buffy started slowly, “you're not at all what I expected,” she whispered into the fire.

“You should let me surprise you more often,” the brunette responded.

Feeling bold, feeling as though she should for once take the initiative, Buffy grabbed the Boston girl's hand and entwined their fingers. The two women looked together at their enjoined hands. Buffy marveled at how well they
fit
together.

She had always assumed that only the larger hand of a man and the more petite fingers of a woman could connect so well. Her own hands had often felt smothered by the lumbering hold of bulkier men like Angel, Riley, or Preston. But now, with her fingers nestled among the slender, feminine fingers of her sister-Slayer, that suffocation was replaced by a feeling of ease.

Faith flashed the blonde a dimpled grin and gently squeezed the other girl's hand. Feeling the younger slayer's warm skin against her own brought back flashed of their time spent together in Cincinnati. Buffy hadn't been surprised by the command and prowess of the brunette slayer that night; what had surprised her, however, was her own eagerness to touch, kiss, and taste the other girl. Buffy had never believed she held any same-sex tendencies, but something about being with Faith made the gender of her partner unimportant. They were connected - they'd always been two parts of a whole.

Buffy opened her mouth, but choked on her words. She stopped to clear her throat and try again. “This is nice,” she said aloud.

The corners of Faith's mouth curved towards the sky. “Mmhm,” she agreed.

The brunette's behavior had surprised Buffy from the moment she had showed up at her front door. Gone was the brash, over the top, wild youth of their Sunnydale past. Not once, Buffy realized, had Faith made an overly sexual move on her that night. She'd been sweet. She'd been thoughtful and nurturing, but she'd hardly been flirtatious.

The thought caused Buffy to mentally bristle. Maybe now that they'd had sex, the brunette slayer was no longer interested in her like that. Maybe Buffy had just been another notch on Faith's bedpost. Or worse, the Chosen One worried, maybe she'd been
so horrible
in bed, Faith didn't want to do it again!

There was only one way to find out.

Buffy stuck out her tongue slightly and wet her lips. She hoped she hadn't had so much wine that her teeth were tinted purple. Faith continued to stare into the fire, unaware of the girl slowly creeping closer.

“Fai,” the blonde murmured quietly.

“Yeah?” Faith turned her face slightly and was startled to find the golden-haired girl's face was so close to her own. Before she had time to comment on the smaller slayer's proximity, the brunette was startled by the sensation of Buffy's soft mouth pressing against her own.

Faith pulled back after a brief moment. “What was that for, B?” Her dark eyes were wide with surprise.

Buffy sat back slightly and chewed on the inside of her bottom lip. “Didn't you like it?”

“Well of course I
liked
it,” the Boston slayer said quickly. “In fact, the word, `duh' comes to mind.”

Buffy's eyebrows furrowed together. “Then how come you…you haven't tried anything with me tonight?”

Faith laughed lightly. Her broad smile warmed her beautiful features. “Well, it
is
Christmas Eve, B,” she pointed out. “I'm just trying to stay good long enough that Santa will bring me some schwag in the morning.”

The golden-haired woman stuck out her bottom lip. “Oh.”

“Why?” Faith readjusted her position on the couch so she was more fully facing the blonde slayer. Her voice dropped impossibly low and her dark eyes seemed to twinkle in the dim lighting. “Do you
want
me to be bad?”

Buffy made an uncomfortable noise.
Did
she?

“I, uh, I don't know,” she admitted. As much as she wanted to be physically intimate with her beautiful colleague, Buffy knew it would be wrong to cheat on Preston. Again. Even just
sitting
with the Boston girl felt a little like cheating.

Faith's features radiated relief. “Good,” she laughed. “Cause as much as I'd love to get down and dirty with ya, cutie, I'm wicked tired right now.” She winked playfully. “Wouldn't wanna disappoint ya, you know.”

The two women grinned at each other and fell back into a comfortable silence.

The warmth radiating from the fire, coupled with the howling wind outside slowly lulled the Californian into a state of calm. It had been a long, emotional holiday between slaying, Preston, and Faith's unexpected visit. Buffy's eyes became heavier and heavier until she could no longer hold them open.

As much as she wanted to stay awake and enjoy her time with Faith, the elder slayer felt overcome with exhaustion. With the flames in the fireplace beginning to flicker away, so too did Buffy. The blonde fell asleep on the couch, still holding hands with her former enemy.

+++++++++++++++++++

A slight rustling beside her woke up the Californian a few hours later.

Buffy sat up groggily and wiped at her mouth, thankful to find she hadn't drooled in her sleep. The former raging fire was now just grey, smoldering coals. The room smelled like a mixture of Christmas tree and campfire smoke. Outside, it was still dark.

Faith sighed audibly. “I should get going…”

Buffy pulled away from the Boston girl. Her loose hair was slightly disheveled on one side from where she'd been sleeping against the younger slayer. “What?” she questioned. “You're leaving? Already?”

Faith gave the smaller slayer a sheepish look. “Yeah. I, uh, actually was on some slayer business. I was able to get a long lay-over between connecting flights so I could pop by for a few hours.”

Buffy's face fell slightly. “Oh.” She paused. “Are you
sure
you won't stay just for a little while longer? I know Dawnie would love to see you.”