*****

Two weeks. That's how long I've been waiting for Faith to get here. It seems so much longer than that, especially since I still didn't know anyone in this town. Mom had opened an art gallery and found a great deal on this house as she so likes to point out from time to time. Apparently, it was a steal. She's not here right now. She's picking Faith up from LA and they're supposed to get here any minute. My stomach's been churning since this morning and sitting here waiting for them isn't helping my nerves. It's kind of strange to think of Faith as my sister but that's technically who she is now...in the eyes of the law anyway.

I clicked on the remote again and flipped through the channels of the TV. There wasn't really much to pick from in the weekday morning lineup but I wasn't really paying attention anyway. I was way too distracted, listening for mom's car to get into the driveway. Pretty soon, I started obsessively looking at the clock, wondering if the batteries were going dead or something. I was just starting to get up and see if that was the case when the faint sound of a car stopping outside made me hop up and run to the door.

Stepping outside, I waited on the doorstep as the car door opened and Faith stepped out. She looked around and then her eyes locked on mine. A large smile began spreading across her face as she walked around the car and right up to me, immediately pulling me into a smothering hug. In all the time I've imagined our reunion, I never even came close to imagining how good it would feel finding myself buried in Faith's arms again.

"Hey sis," she whispered in my ear. "Miss me?"

Her voice sent a shiver running through my body and instead of answering, I just held on tighter.

Mom's voice came from the side as she got out of the car. "How about we get inside first girls?"

Faith pulled away as she gave mom a crooked smile. "Sorry Mrs. S. Let me grab my bag." She went to the trunk of the car and took out a duffel bag before following us into the house.

"Why don't you show Faith her room while I get lunch started?" Mom asked with an indulgent smile as I grabbed Faith's hand and practically dragged her upstairs.

"So how have you been? What've you been doing? Was the ride over all right?" The questions just seemed to tumble and trip their way out of my mouth and when I looked back at Faith, she had a smirk on her face. "I'm babbling aren't I? You should stop me when I babble."

"Why?" She asked. "It's so unbelievably cute. And anyway, I've missed hearing your voice, B."

I'm sure my insides have already turned into the consistency of melted wax at those words. "You're not the only one that's been missing. I've missed your nickname for me."

She gave me another easy smile as I led her into her room. I carefully watched her face to gauge a reaction as she walked further into the room and slowly turned around, her eyes wandering over everything. The bed with its light blue comforter, the window looking down into the backyard, the large, antique dresser mom had brought a few years ago at an auction and the bookshelf that was just waiting for someone to fill it up. Her bag dropped out of her hand as she turned back to me again. She looked down briefly at the floor before bringing her eyes back to mine. "This is...Shit, B, I've never had all this before. I still can't believe this is happening to me."

"Do you like it?" I asked, slowly walking up to stand in front of her.

"B," she said, taking my hands in hers and staring intently at me. "I love it...Thank you." We continued looking at each other, neither one of us saying anything because nothing needed to be said. My hand reached up to brush her hair back, tucking the thick strands behind her ear.

"It healed beautifully," I said, referring to the gash she'd gotten at the party with Jack. "You can't even tell it was ever busted open."

"Time heals all wounds," she said drolly. "Especially the ones given by drunken pricks." Her eyebrow quirked up as we shared a chuckle over the incident. She turned around suddenly and belly flopped onto her bed. "So how's the vamp situation around here?" She asked, rolling lazily onto her back.

I rolled my eyes. "Do we have to talk about that now? It's the middle of the day, the sun is shining, the mood is happy, why do you want to ruin it by talking about undead demon blood suckers? Blood, blood, blood, suck, suck, suck. That's all they ever think about. Where's the fun? Where's the fun for *me*?"

She just looked at me until I finally threw up my hands in defeat. I plopped down next to her and went through what I knew about the Sunnydale vampire populace. Not that much different from the LA crowd but there seemed to be more of them, especially for such a small town like Sunnydale. "And another thing, there's tons of cemeteries around this place. It's like you can't go two blocks without running into another one. It's insane how many dead people they have."

"Hmmm. Wow. Sounds dead," she said looking at me with a straight face.

I punched her on the arm. "Stop with the mocking," I said, trying not to grin.

"Hey, if you keep hitting me like that, I probably will," she said, rubbing the spot on her arm where I'd punched her.

I scrunched up my brow. "Is that a promise or a threat?" I wasn't prepared at all when she suddenly jumped on top of me and began tickling my sides. "Stop, stop," I pleaded with her in between giggles. She gave no mercy, continuing to turn me into a laughing puddle of goo and only jumping off when mom's voice yelled from downstairs that lunch was ready.

"How did...how did you know I was ticklish?" I asked, trying to catch my breath.

"I didn't," she said simply, winking at me and disappearing out the door. When I'd finally gotten myself together enough to go downstairs, I found Faith and mom sitting at the dining room table talking about school. I groaned as I sat down across from Faith, wondering why they had to bring up something so distasteful while we were trying to eat. I still hadn't gotten over how I was so unceremoniously expelled from my last school. I don't think mom had either. I think she believed me when I told her that I didn't mean to blow up the gym but the fact was, I *had* blown it up. I wished I could tell her the real reason why but that would just freak her out and put her in danger. I can just imagine her reaction if I told her that I was a vampire Slayer and the reason why I burned the gym down was because it was full of vampires at the time. Yeah, she'd probably have me committed or worse, grounded for the rest of my life.

I watched in amusement as mom tried to sucker Faith into participating in some after school activities. I'd already gotten the speech a couple times already since we got to Sunnydale so I was glad there was someone else for mom to lay her hard sell on. Faith nodded and agreed in all the appropriate places and when she mentioned that she'd joined the track team at her last school, mom began to latch onto that like a pitbull with a bone. I think she thought that if we were too busy doing school sanctioned activities, we'd also be too busy to fall into the wrong crowd either.

After lunch, mom gave Faith and me some money to go shopping. I thanked her with a kiss on the cheek and Faith gave her a big grin. School, that hallowed institution of higher learning -- or was that college? -- was starting tomorrow....at least the second half of the semester. On a Thursday. I don't really know how they came up with the wacky scheduling for these things and it was short notice, especially for Faith. But she didn't seem to mind.

"I'm used to it," was all she'd said when I asked. There are some things that Faith is reluctant to talk about. It's almost like pulling teeth when certain subject matters come up. And one of those subjects is her history. All I know are the bare bones of it. I know that her mom and dad are dead. I know she's been alone in the world for most of her life and that she's been dumped from one foster family to another but aside from that, nothing. And that's a problem because, like I'd said before, I want to know everything there is to know about Faith. I want to know about all the things that have happened to her to make her the wonderful and complex person that I know now.

"All done," she said, holding an armful of clothes she'd picked up in less than twenty minutes. Yes, Faith is a complex girl but not in the fashion sense in any way, shape, or form. Tank tops, spaghetti string tops, tube tops, T-shirts all in one of three basic colors: black, white, and dark red. The pants she has picked out are even more straight forward. Leather and denim, all black of course.

"You can't be all done," I said looking over at her plaintively. "I haven't even begun to shop." At her exasperated expression, I forcefully added, "Go back and pick out some more stuff --- maybe something a little more colorful."

She shook her head and walked away but not before I heard her mutter that "Black *is* a color."

I went back to looking through a rack of clothes and was just deciding between getting the powder blue or the mauve skirt when Faith came back again. "What did you get?" I asked, frowning at her suspiciously.

She held up a pack of underwear. "Colorful isn't it?" She asked with a smirk.

I groaned in dismay. "Fine. If you don't want to shop the right way, why don't you just pay for that and wait for me in the food court."

She gave me a wide grin. "Thanks B. Try not to spend all day in here 'k?" She walked away before I could come up with a proper retort.

I really wasn't keeping track of the time but when I was finally satisfied with my new wardrobe, it was later in the day than I had anticipated. Hurrying over to the food court, I looked everywhere but couldn't find Faith so I found myself an empty table and dumped all the shopping bags on the chair next to me, hoping that Faith had just gotten bored waiting and would come back from where ever she'd gone...soon. In the meantime, I sipped from the soda I'd gotten and spent the time people watching.

I was so engrossed watching a group of little old ladies walking aimlessly around the floor that I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Faith walked up from behind me and smirked.

"Where's that famous Slayer sense?" She asked, straddling a chair.

"You mean the one where I can tell when a certain someone's going to appear out of nowhere and scare me for no good reason at all?" She stared innocently at me from across the table. "I don't know. It must be on the fritz. Where were you?" I asked a little peeved.

She folded her arms on the table and stared intently at me. "B, do I need to remind you which one of us has been shopping for three hours? Cause if I need to, I'll start naming names."

I could feel myself reddening slightly at her stare. "I guess I got a little carried away," I replied sheepishly.

She lazily glanced over at my bags. "I guess you did," she said with another smirk. "Please tell me you're done."

"I'm done," I said, watching as she looked heavenward and uttered a silent Thank you. "Come on you," I said, gathering up my bags. "I want to get back home so I can show you what I bought." I ignored her groan and shoved some of my bags into her hand as she got up.

She looked at me like I was crazy or something. "Why am I holding *your* bags, B?"

"Because," I patiently explained, "I know you wouldn't want me dragging all these bags by myself." She looked like she was actually mulling that over when I walked around her and forcefully nudged her out.

"Hey," she complained as I kept pushing her forward, "Stop with the man-handling. I'm still thinking."

"Okay," I said nonplussed. "You can think all the way to the car but you're still going to hold my bags."

I heard her laugh out loud but at least she didn't drop them. When we got back home, the first thing I did was drag her upstairs after yelling "We're home" at the top of my lungs. Pushing her onto my bed, I began rooting through the bags, trying to mix and match my outfits for that maximum mesh of classy coolness and hint of sexy aura to spice it up. Faith took out a comic book she'd gotten somewhere and began reading as I changed.

"How's this?" I asked, twirling around.

She glanced over at me for about one second and said, not too convincingly, "Fine."

I put my hands on my hips in the classic slightly pissed posture. "You think you can at least pretend to look?"

She sighed, throwing the comic off to the side as she got up and walked right up to me. "It doesn't matter what you have on, B. Cause to me, you're always going to be beautiful. And I think that's the only way I'll ever be able to see you whether you have on a potato sack or a polyester pants suit or whatever." She shrugged, walking past me and out the door. I just stood there for a few minutes, my mouth gaping open before a big grin started spreading across my face. That just totally made my day...week.

****

I had already finished eating breakfast by the time Buffy finally hauled her ass out of bed. Mrs. Summers, who insisted I call her mom from now on, had to bang on her door twice before she made an appearance --- kinda like a groundhog peaking around for its shadow. She looked wicked cute though, all sleepy and grouchy like that.

"Don't want to be late for your first day, B," I said, teasing her as she sat down at the counter with a plate of waffles in front of her.

"I am not going to be late," she said through a mouthful of half chewed waffle bits. "And if I am, then you're going to be too."

"Okay you two, I'm leaving for work," mom said, stopping briefly at the kitchen entrance as she put on her earring. "Faith, make sure Buffy isn't late. I'll see you tonight."

"Since when did you become the responsible one?" Buffy grumpily asked, staring at me from across the table.

I smirked at her and just tapped my watch. When we got to the school fifteen minutes later, Buffy's car screeched into the parking lot, barely nicking the bumper of another car when it made the sudden turn. I nearly bit my own tongue off at the unexpectedly jerking stop. Sometimes, I wondered if Buffy knew exactly how bad of a driver she was and who she had to bribe to pass the driving test. But there's one thing I have to give her credit for. She hasn't hit anything...yet.

We were walking to the front of the school when I heard some panicked shouts, followed almost immediately by the crash and burn of some goofy Tony Hawk wannabe slamming into the metal handrail of the stairs.

"Nobody worry, I"m all right," he announced, quickly jumping back up with a noticeable wince.

I flipped his board, grabbing it by the wheelbase. "Then you might want to hold onto this," I said, holding it up to him.

"Uh, thanks," he said, staring at us with a glazed over expression. When he didn't take his board right away, I shoved it into his chest and Buffy and me walked past him and into the school.

We were supposed to see the Principal first so he could personally welcome us. When we got to his office, "Bob", who told us to call him that even though he said nobody actually called him that to his face, sat us down and gave us this speech about how fair he was and how starting at his school would be our opportunities for a clean slate. And he even went so far as to tear up our transcripts to show us how serious he was...that was, before he noticed that little asterisk next to Buffy's name that mentioned something about the burning down of a certain gym. After that, he was a lot less caring, new age guy and a lot more closed off, taping-the-transcripts-back-together-again guy.

"Not the dream start I'd envisioned," Buffy dejectedly said as I walked her to her first class.

"It could've gone worse," I said, trying to cheer her up. "At least now it's over, right?"

"Faith," she said, stopping me at the entrance of a classroom. "We still haven't even gotten through the rest of the day yet."

"But we will," I assured her with much more confidence than I felt. "See you at lunch?" I almost went to give her a hug but I stopped in time and just gave her a wink before walking towards my own class. When had I become this strange clingy, touchy feely person, anyway? I realized, it was only when I was with Buffy that I was like that. With everybody else, I'm always trying to keep them at arm's length, both with the physical and the emotional parts of me. But with Buffy, it's like we connected even before we talked. We were 'kindred spirits.' That's a term I got out of a Batman comic book. Who says comics aren't educational?

I walked into my first class which hadn't even started yet. At least that's what it looked like. Everybody was talking, some were walking around, and one or two other people looked like they were asleep. There was some old guy sitting behind the teacher's desk but since he didn't seem too interested in taking my name or anything, I just grabbed a seat in the back, put up my feet and went to sleep. Last night had been a total fucked up mess. I hadn't been able to get to sleep and when I did manage to doze off, I woke in a cold sweat every time. I must've been dreaming but the thing was, I couldn't remember what it'd been about. Only that I felt like shit the whole entire night. And even though the class room wasn't the most quiet place in the world, I found myself asleep as soon as my eyes closed.

The ringing of the bell woke me with a start and my feet fell from the desk onto the floor with a thump as everyone else started filing out of the room ahead of me. I let out a yawn and stretched, hoping the rest of my classes would be this relaxing.

They weren't.

They were the same old boring lectures that had always made me want to gauge my eyes out with a rusty spoon just so I'd have something to do with my hands. When lunch rolled around, I was more than ready for a break. I walked outside onto the school grounds where different groups were already beginning to gather. I spotted Buffy talking to some red headed chick and I was starting to head towards them when I felt someone bumping me from behind. Turning around, I came face to face with this tall, dark-haired hottie who was probably one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen in my life, and she would've been even more beautiful if she didn't have that frown on her face.

"Excuse me," she haughtily said. "But do you mind watching where I'm going?"

Letting my eyes run slowly up and down her frame, I said with a leer, "No, I don't mind. I'd actually *like* to watch you go."

She seemed startled by my naked assessment but to her credit, she quickly made a recovery. "You're obviously new around here so let me give you a clue. If you're looking for people more your style, the slutty, white trash don't get out of their trailers till half past one. Until then, please keep your Salvation Army self away from me."

"I'm wounded," I said, stepping in front of her before she could huff past. "And here I thought that was a love tap you'd given me. Don't tell me that didn't mean as much to you as it did to me."

"You're a freak," she finally said, pushing past me, her composure cracking ever so slightly.

I watched her go, my eyes inevitably drawn down to her posterior. Even though I was checking out some girl's ass, I don't think I could label myself gay cause I checked out everybody. As long as they were hot, it didn't matter whether they were a guy or a girl, I'd get turned on. I hated labels anyway. They never really described a living, breathing person, only some one-size fits all cardboard cutout. I shook myself out of my inner rambling when I saw that the hottie was walking straight towards Buffy who had attracted herself a new guy while I was preoccupied. I thought I remembered him as the one who'd nearly ran into us this morning.

Walking towards them, I heard him call her Cordelia. At least now I had a name to put to the face and I now knew who I was pissing off. I walked around Cordelia, brushing against her way more than I needed to and moved next to Buffy. Cordelia wouldn't look at me cause she was spending too much time glaring at Buffy.

"Buffy, do you know this...person?" She asked, folding her arms up in a defensive posture.

"She should," I replied, putting an arm across Buffy's shoulder. "I'm her sister."

Cordelia's face clouded over in confusion as she looked back and forth between us. I could feel Buffy's arm snaking its way around my waist and squeezing painfully. I just kept smiling as Cordelia finally shook her head in disgust and walked away muttering something about family trees.

As soon as she moved away, the guy from this morning blurted out, "Wow, you're sisters?" He had that glazed over expression on his face again and I could just see the wheels starting to turn in his head.

The redheaded girl was the first to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Willow," she said, smiling shyly and giving a little wave. She poked her friend in the ribs.

"Xander," he blurted out. He was kind of cute, in a goofy, bumbling sorta way. But the guy looked like he'd dressed himself in the dark, what with the neon green hawaiin shirt he was sporting.

"Yeah, I'm Faith," I said, flashing them all a brilliant smile. Never hurt to put in a good first impression.

Buffy ducked out from under my arm, muttering that she had to go to the library. I jogged to catch up with her. "What's the hurry?" I asked, wondering at her cool attitude. "When did you start spending lunch at the library?"

She ran up the stairs to the school and suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned on me with a barely suppressed glare. "When did you start checking out Cordelia's ass?"

"Is that what you're pissed about?" I folded my arms and leaned back against the wall as I carefully looked at her. "I don't get it, B. Why would that bother you? The girl's hot. What's wrong with me checking her out? I never thought you'd be so...narrow-minded."

"I'm not...that's not what's bothering me." She shook her head, frustrated and started walking away again but I snagged her arm, holding her back.

"Then tell me what's the problem," I said, almost pleading with her.

But she shook my arm off and changed the subject instead. "Cordelia mentioned that they'd found a dead body in the girl's locker room," she said, all business now. "I'm going there first to see if it was a victim of a vampire attack. My new Watcher's also the school librarian so if it turns out the dead guy was killed by a vampire, I'm going to go there and see if he has any information." She turned to leave again and this time I didn't try to stop her. Instead, I followed, still wondering about what she could be so mad about. I honestly had no idea. And then the thought struck me. Maybe Buffy had actually wanted Cordelia as a friend and I, being a complete moron that I was, had ruined that for her. After all, Buffy was used to running with that kind of crowd. If that was it, I was all ready to apologize and go to Cordelia myself and tell her that Buffy wasn't really my sister, that we weren't even related. But, first things first.

Buffy had already walked into the locker room having removed the yellow police tape across the door. I followed her in as we searched for the body which wasn't too hard to find. She reached out a hand and turned the guy's head and there they were. Two little holes.

"I guess we have our answer," she said softly as we walked back out.

"Who's the new Watcher?" I asked, following her to the library.

"His name's Giles." She scrunched up her brows and I wondered if she was thinking about Merrick again. I know she still blamed herself for her ex-Watcher's death. She'd put herself through hell, trying to shoulder all the guilt and it still surfaced now and again even though she'd gotten a better handle on the pain over time. "Real stuffy guy," she continued walking through the library doors.

As soon as she walked in, she was demanding to know what the situation was. The guy, who I'm guessing is the new Watcher, looked up from sorting his books or whatever and stuttered, "Sorry?" He was all decked out in a tweed suit and an English accent which was kind of sexy, if you liked that sort of thing. He kept looking nervously over at me as Buffy explained what she'd seen.

"I don't believe we've met," he finally said to me.

"Faith," I told him.

His face immediately cleared up. "Oh, yes, of course." My name seemed to mean something to him but I know I've never met the guy before.

"Okay, how about getting back to the vampire situation," Buffy said impatiently.

"Do you know anything about this town?" He asked, ignoring her 'tude.

"No, but I'm sure you're going to give me a history lesson." Giles went on to explain how Sunnydale was perfectly located to be this magnet of demonic activity and that the vampire chew toy we'd found was just the beginning of this weirdness. He ended his speech by stating that the only way we could prepare for what was about to come, which is pretty much anyone's guess, was to train hard.

Buffy had listened through his version of the 'state of the union' speech with a pretty neutral expression on her face and when he'd finished, she just asked, "Is that it?"

Giles wearily took off his glasses and started fiddling with them. "Yes, that about covers the generalities." As soon as he said that, Buffy turned and walked out the door. The G-man looked to me with a confused expression on his face. "Was it something I said?"

I shook my head and took off after Buffy. We seriously had to talk.

****

Faith had come after me when I blew out of the library but I couldn't deal with her asking all those questions which all basically boiled down to why I was acting like this. She actually thought I was mad at her because she'd made me look bad in front of Cordelia. God, I can't believe she thinks I'm that shallow. I finally forced her to go to class when the bell rang. We'd both missed lunch but I wasn't feeling all that hungry anyway. Before she left, she gave me this last look that almost made me want to tell her everything.

That is, if I knew how to voice what I was feeling inside but I wasn't even too sure of that myself. Why had I gotten so mad in the first place? I sat down in an empty chair of my next class, totally unaware of anything else around me as I thought about it some more. And I kept thinking about it throughout the rest of the day until finally, I came to some conclusions. I wasn't mad that Faith had checked out Cordelia although it kinda wigged me out at first. I'd never really seen Faith flirt with anyone so overtly before. Mostly because, usually, she was flirting with me. This was an epiphany that had smacked me on the back of the head at the end of my last class. I was used to Faith flirting with *me*. I just never consciously thought of it as flirting before. It was almost like I was --- jealous. Honestly, I think I missed the attention.

And then I wanted to slap myself because here I was pulling this mini-tantrum the first time I didn't get *all* of Faith's attention and I just let her believe that somehow it was all her fault and that she's the one who's done something wrong. When I met her outside after school, the first thing out of my mouth was, "I'm an idiot." When I saw her frown in confusion, I smiled self-deprecatingly and took her hand. "I'm sorry about today. I think it might have been all the mystical energy in this place like Giles was talking about. Made me act all not me..."

Her eyes narrowed slightly but she didn't question my lame explanation. If I'd told her the truth, she would've thought I was this selfish, needy brat --- which I'm not.

"So you're back to the normal loveable B I know and worship like a TV idol?" She asked with a grin.

"Completely," I said with all earnestness. "Now shouldn't you be doing something?" She looked at me with a blank stare. "Shouldn't you be trying out for the track team?" I prompted, nudging her as she got that smirk on her face.

She stepped into me, her smirk growing soft and sultry as she looked at me through her lashes. "You going to watch me?"

My breath caught in my throat as we stared at each other. This was one of those flirty moments, the back of my brain was trying to say. The front of my brain was just saying 'Duh, of course it is."

Faith broke eye contact and stepped back, making me want to groan out loud. "So what do you say, B?" She asked, looking at me expectantly.

A grin spread across my own face. "Let's go," I said, gently nudging her again.

Faith wowed the coach of course. By the end of one lap, I think I saw coach Foster actually salivating. Faith ran a couple of more laps before talking briefly with the coach and then jogging back over to me. "Did I wow you or what?" She asked with a cocky expression.

"You have no idea," I grinned, standing up. We walked back to the parking lot. "So, I'm guessing you made the track team?"

"I'm guessing your guess is right," she said, slipping into the passenger's seat of my car. "You could join the team too, B," she continued, looking over at me specutively. "You're probably way better than me too since y'know, you *are* the Slayer."

"Not so much into the running," I said, shrugging. "I think I'll just relax during my free time. What there is of it anyway. Giles seems really gung-ho about me putting in the training time." I sighed just thinking about my soon to be total lack of a social life.

"You know I'll be right there with you, right?"

"You don't have to--" I started to say.

"No, but I want to," Faith stated as if to do otherwise would be unimaginable to her. And I absolutely adored her for that.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Mom quizzed us on our day at the dinner table after which we listened to her talk about how much there still was to do at the gallery. But it wasn't like she was complaining, I think she really liked what she was doing now. I've known my mom my whole life and I never even knew she was an art major in college until she decided to open a gallery here. I guess to me, she'll always be 'mom' --- not someone who has interests and passions. Just having my mom and passions in the same thought unnerved me so much that I put it out of my mind and thought instead about what I was going to wear tonight.

I had heard from Willow that everybody at school hung out at this club called The Bronze. Faith hadn't been too hard to convince on coming. Mom was a little more difficult but we promised we'd be back by our curfew so she finally relented. The hardest part was figuring out what to wear.

"Come on, B," Faith groaned again, her voice muffled by the pillow she'd thrown over her head. "Can we please go now? If you keep this up, by the time you find something to wear, it'll already be curfew."

"You don't understand," I said, walking over and ripping the pillow away. "I want to make an impression...a good one."

"How many times do I have to tell you?" She asked, rolling onto her side and pinning me with her eyes. "You. Are. Beautiful. So just throw something on so we can go and show you off already." She wriggled her eyebrows in a lecherous way and I laughed, throwing the pillow back at her.

I finally found something I was somewhat satisfied with and pretended not to see when Faith jumped up, shouting Hallelujah. We were walking to the Bronze when, all of a sudden, I started getting this really strong vibe that something wasn't right. It was kind of like how every time Spider Man sensed danger, his spidey senses would alert him. I guess these were my spidey senses and they usually went off when there was a bloodsucking vamp nearby. I took Faith's arm and squeezed slightly, giving her a look and hoping she knew what I was getting at.

I turned the both of us into an alley. Faith immediately went and hid behind a dumpster and I jumped, catching a bar high above the ground. I swung myself into a handstand waiting for whoever it was to come looking. It wasn't too long before someone turned into the alley. I waited for him to pass my position before I swung down and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling on the ground. I had my foot on his chest when Faith walked up next to me.

"Why are you following us?" I asked, taking out my stake.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to bite," he said, holding still. "I came to give you something."

"And what could that be?" Faith taunted by my side. "A bloody hickey?"

"If you'd just let me up--" He tried again, squirming beneath my foot. I pushed down harder, feeling him tense.

"I'd rather turn you into dust," I said.

"I told you," he said, getting agitated. "I'm not here to hurt you. And you might want to hear what I have to say."

"Haven't we heard that before?" I asked Faith with a smirk. "So start spilling vampire," I said, turning back to the demon under my foot.

He blew out a weary sigh before speaking. "This town is sitting on the Mouth of Hell and it's about to open. You have to be ready for that. You have to get ready for the Harvest."

I frowned as a mental image of the Children of the Corn came popping into my mind. Mr. Vampire carefully reached into his pocket and brought out a black velvet box. "This is for you," he said tossing it up to me. I grabbed it and he took the opportunity to get back up, brushing the dirt off of his black overcoat. He walked around us, going back out of the alley.

When he'd left Faith asked, "You think we should've just let him go like that?"

I opened up the box and nestled inside was a silver cross on a chain. "What sort of vampire gives a cross as a gift?" I asked, frowning.

"Maybe he's a 'special' vampire," Faith said, emphasizing the word special with her hands forming imaginary quotation marks. I burst out with a bark of laughter and pushed her out of the alley.

When we reached the Bronze, all thoughts of the mystery vampire were pushed to the back of my mind. Faith pushed her way through the crowd to the bar and I followed her, my hand holding onto the back of her tank top. For tonight, Faith had worn a tank top, leather pants, and boots --- all in black. I envied how confident she always seemed and how easily she can make me feel just as confident with a few choice words. And, of course, borrowing some Faith speak, she looked wicked hot in that get up too. She tossed me a bottle of water as she got herself another one. It was then that I spotted a familar face sitting at the bar.

I dragged Faith a few feet away to where Willow was sitting. "Hey," I said, smiling as I got her attention.

"Oh, hello," she said, her eyes flicking between Faith and me. "You guys made it."

We took seats at the table next to her. "You waiting for someone Red?" Faith asked. I quirked an eyebrow at her, wondering at how fast she'd christened Willow with a nickname already.

"Uh, well, not really," Willow stammered. "I was hoping that Xander would show up but..."

"But since he's not here," Faith continued as she trailed off. "You shouldn't be moping around this table, sitting by yourself. Go out there and snag yourself a honey. Find the fun," she finished, taking a drag from her bottle. I didn't get to hear Willow's response because Faith had set down her bottle and grabbed my hand, leading me onto the dance floor. I barely had time to set down my own bottle before I found myself dancing to a song some band was playing out on stage. I felt my body moving in time to the beat as my eyes wandered lazily in front of me to where Faith was putting on a one woman show.

Her eyes were closed, her lips, covered in that dark, red lipstick she likes so much were open slightly, and her hands were raised, running sensuously through her own hair. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in that club to become mesmerised by the display. Faith's eyes suddenly opened, capturing my unmitigated stare. A corner of her lips curled up as she wrapped her hand around mine, maneuvering our bodies closer together. We danced together, ignorant of all the guys that had surrounded us. And I felt wild and free, like I could do anything I wanted to do. Then I happened to look up and I saw Giles. Remember that wild and free feeling? Gone.

I left Faith still dancing in her own world and headed up to the second floor landing. As soon as I left, I noticed with a twinge of anger that there was another guy all ready to take my place. That was *my* place and I'd still be there if my Watcher hadn't chosen to show up at such an inopportune moment. I couldn't help showing some of that anger when I greeted him with a "What are you doing here?"

He was taken aback but recovered. "Oh, I *really* want to be here," he said sarcastically. "This display of teenage hormones gone awry and that noise you pass off as music..." He made a disgusted face.

"So tell me what you really think," I said drily, waiting for him tell me what he was really doing there.

"This," he said, motioning to the floor below, "is a virtual hotbed for vampiric activity. As the Slayer, you should be alert enough to sense them, without looking, without thinking. Can you tell me how many vampires there are down there?"

I glanced down at the dancefloor, trying to will my senses to reach out. But it wasn't my Slayer senses that spotted the vamp. It was my eyes that caught the glaring anachronism. "There," I said pointing down to a guy who still dressed like it was the 80's. And he was talking to Willow. I rushed down, ignoring Giles shouting after me and waded through the crowd of dancers until I found Faith and pulled her out.

"Willow just took off with a vamp," I said in her ear.

*****