“Car’s mine and I didn’t ask for help,” Faith blurted.

He just smiled at her.  “Glad to see not much has changed.”  She watched as he took a step toward her.  “But I hear a little different about needin’ the help.”

“Giles called Angel, not you.  And if I remember right, it was for info, not help.”

He took another step.  “Not exactly the warm reception I was expectin’.”

Faith stepped back.  “Doubt my memory is going, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t ask you to come here.  For help or anything else.”

Spike only smiled wider, making her even more uncomfortable.  How did he manage it to do that with just a grin?  She couldn't have felt more vulnerable if his pointy pearlies were clamped on her neck.  “Why are you really here?” she finally asked. 

Spike shrugged.  “Didn’t like the idea of you being in trouble is all.  Besides, I prefer the company out this way.  Angel’s been a broody bastard lately, needed a break.” 

“Another one?  You seem to take a lot of breaks.”

Their gazes shifted when the back door opened. 

Xander.

“Faith…” he began, the shock registering on his face almost immediately, “is…um, busy.  Really, really busy.”  Xander backpedaled, the aluminum door smacking shut like a discarded beer can. 

“Wonderful,” Faith said, exasperated.  She stormed past Spike and back inside, only stopping when she realized he hadn’t followed her.

He was just outside the door, a slight smirk on his face, arms crossed in front of him.

“That whole ‘invite’ thing is a bitch sometime, isn’t it?”  Faith smiled.

Spike didn’t have a chance to respond.  Emma came crashing into the kitchen.  “Let go!  I want to see him.  Come on, Xander.  Don’t make me hurt you!”

“I tried to stop her.  She’s a stubborn little thing.”  He rubbed his bicep.  “Strong too.  And now...she’s all yours.”

Faith really didn't care for an eager audience at the moment. “Emma, follow Xander right back into the other room.”

“Why is he standing outside?”  Emma asked, ignoring her.  “You didn’t invite him in did you?  Come on in, Spike” she said, smiling brightly.  “I’ve heard so much about you!  I can’t believe I actually get to meet you.”

“Stupid!” Faith said, louder then she really wanted to.  “You just don’t go and invite vampires in.  Especially ones you don’t know.  Sometimes I think I’m surrounded by idiots.”

Faith caught the stricken look on Emma’s face and felt like total shit before Emma even cleared the kitchen.

“Nice, Faith.  Glad to see you can still charm with the best of ‘em,” Spike said.  “That, I take it, is the newest addition to the slayer line?”

Faith put her hand up in a warding-off gesture.  “Just… shut-up,” she said, following after Emma.

“Spike,” Willow said, standing so fast Faith would’ve swore something had poked her in the ass.  “What brings you here?  Um, what difference does it make, right?  Glad you’re here!” she said tentatively, sitting back down and glancing at Buffy, an imploring look on her face.

“Long day today, huh?” Buffy asked, walking over to the DVD player and switching both it and the TV off.  “I say we call it a night.  Will, we can bunk together.  Emma can have my room for the night.  Okay, Emma?” 

Emma nodded her head slowly, her gaze never meeting Faith's once.  Faith wasn't sure what Emma was looking at, but she knew it wouldn't be her anytime soon. 

Oh, and what a surprise.  B didn’t follow anyone up the stairs.  She had to stop and talk to Spike first.  Faith rolled her eyes.

“Hey,” Buffy said, smiling and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Slayer,” Spike said.

Slayer?  Faith would be damned.  They were flirting.  And if anyone knew anything about being all flirty-like, it would be Faith.

"Spike," Buffy said, the smile still encompassing her entire face.

And then they hugged.  Hugged?  Faith, her arms dangling at her sides, unconsciously clenched and unclenched her fists.  If they didn’t break it up soon, she was going to break it up for them.

“Not sure why you’re here, Spike,” Buffy said.  “But it's good to see you.”  Teasingly adding, “It’s been kinda boring around here lately.” Then she squeezed his arm gently.  “Guess I should be going to bed myself.”

“See you in the morning,” Buffy said.

Then Buffy turned her attention to Faith.  “And you,” she shook her finger, “be nice.”

Faith didn’t say a word, but inside she was fuming.  Who was B to tell her what to do?  Instead, she just stood there, watching Buffy retreat up the stairs.  And once she was out of sight, Faith turned her full attention to Spike.  “You’ve had your fun.  You can go now.”

“Me?  Go?  Did you see that?”  Spike laughed sarcastically.

Faith couldn’t find anything worth laughing about, sarcastic or not.

“Did you see Buffy?"  Spike pointed at the stairs.  "That’s how one welcomes a friend they haven’t seen in awhile.  Might want to take notes.”

“Don’t you dare,” Faith said, pointing her finger.  “Don’t you dare compare me to B.  That is the quickest way for me to kick your ass and you know it.”

“Can’t help it.  Thought you were in trouble.  Come all this way and I get greeted by a bloody iceberg.”

"I didn't ask you to come here.  Remember?"  Faith knew he was impatient and she refused to feel guilty about it.  She was just pissed.  “Which part of ‘I’m not ready, I need some time’ did you not get?” she asked flatly, her heart beating so hard inside her chest she knew the dickhead wouldn't even need to strain to hear it.

“Didn’t come here to make your life difficult.  Thought you could be in trouble, just wanted to lend a helping hand.  Help out if I could.”

Part of her was glad he was here, bouncing off the walls glad, but the other part of her, the deepest part of her, didn’t want him close.

“You as in ‘us’, right?  Me and the Scooby Gang?  Which no matter what it looks like, I have not joined.”  Faith eyed him warily.  “And before you start asking all sorts of questions, I didn’t have anything else better to do, so I decided to hang awhile.”  She shrugged.  “Nothing’s changed when it comes to that,” she said, making sure he knew where she was coming from.  “Besides, I thought I was getting a free trip to Italy.  Be stupid to turn that down.”

Spike laughed quietly.   “So I heard.  Little detour and all. Guess you can say that’s why I’m here.  I’m…” Spike spread his arms in a welcoming gesture, “just going to hang for awhile.”

Faith realized that a beer was sounding even better now then it had less than an hour ago.  Sighing hard, she spun on her heels and headed back to the kitchen.

Needless to say, she wasn’t surprised to find that it was warm.  And if Faith hated anything, it was warm beer.  So she dumped it down the drain, and watched as the foam dissipated, knowing that Spike had followed her yet again.
 
A night that started with Wesley Snipes killing vampires had turned into Faith hanging in the kitchen, watching a warm beer go down the drain, with a real-life vampire that just happened to have a soul.

And what bothered her the most?  Part of her wanted to shove him back on the kitchen table and do him right then and there.  

So why wasn’t she?

XXXXX

Emma just wanted to be alone.  She was hurt and embarrassed and maybe a little bit shocked.  She couldn’t believe Faith had treated her that way.  Yeah, so Faith kept telling her they weren’t friends.  Friends.  Just a word.  And if Emma knew anything, she knew actions spoke way louder.

So much for being alone.

“Are you okay?” Buffy asked knocking quietly and then coming into the room, Willow right behind her.  “Don’t take any of that stuff Faith said personally.  Really, that had absolutely nothing to do with you.  You get that, right?”

“She’s right,” Willow added.  “Faith gets kinda cranky sometimes and if you’re within point-blank range, you’re an automatic target.”

“I know,” Emma began.  “It’s just that…”  She really didn’t know any of these people very well.  Yeah, so she’s living with them and all, but still.  Emma wasn’t sure how honest she could be with them.  They’d all known each other way longer and she had seen on more then one occasion all the ‘inside joke’ stuff going on that she wasn’t privy to.

No guts, no glory, right?  Emma forged ahead.  “I know I shouldn’t have burst into the kitchen.  I’m not stupid.  But when Xander said Spike was here and I had heard so much about him and it was Spike.  He was here and I wanted to meet him.  It’s almost like someone you’ve heard so much about and they sound really cool.  And you think you’ll never meet them, and then, whammo, they’re so close and you just gotta.  I just stopped thinking and just kinda reacted.”

Buffy smiled.  “I think Spike has that effect on a lot of people.”

Emma watched as Buffy and Willow shared a brief moment.  And there it was again, that ‘inside’ thing.

Whatever it meant made Buffy amend her previous statement.  “The not thinking thing and reacting thing was what I meant.”

“Sounds like you got kind of star struck,” Willow added, “for lack of a better term.”

“How come no one told me how cute he was?”  Emma asked, and then quickly added, “Not as cute as Xander, but still cute.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Buffy asked.

Well, since no one can actually die from embarrassment, Emma knew she’d be okay.  She might be avoiding a certain slayer and vampire for awhile, but in the long run, worse things have happened.  Right?  “Yep, I think I will.  Been through worse, you know?”

“And knowing Faith, it’ll blow over and she’ll act like nothing even happened,” Willow supplied.  “It’s just how she is.”

“I’m not an expert on friendship,” Emma said.  “Haven’t had many.  But I just didn’t think someone could be so mean to a person they considered a friend.  I think that’s what surprised me the most.  What hurt the most.  She just yelled at me.  Right in front of Spike and God and everyone.”

“I know you’ve been on your own for awhile.  But when you do what we do, with all the stress -- you know, life and death decisions on a daily basis, not leading normal lives, and now add moving around a lot -- sometimes it gets overwhelming and one little thing can make you blow,” Buffy said.  "Automatic bitch mode."

“Like the straw and the camel’s back,” Willow added.

“I’m not trying to make excuses for Faith, but like Willow said, Faith is Faith, that’s just how she is.  Try not to take it personally.”

“Water off a duck’s back,” Willow said.  “Just let it roll off.”

XXXXX

Faith wasn’t sure how she had gotten away from Spike, but she didn’t care.  Once she made her way back to her bedroom, and after she jammed a chair under the doorknob, just in case, Faith fell onto the bed.  Not like she would sleep, knowing that he was so close.

When Faith had been halfway up the stairs, she heard him call out, “Don't worry about me.  I’ll be just fine. The couch looks comfy."

Ass.

And if he wasn’t enough to worry about, she had treated Emma like shit.

Faith couldn’t blame Squeak for being so excited about meeting Spike.  Faith suspected that Emma had placed some kind of idol status on him.  Spike was probably right up there with that Anne Rice vampire she was always babbling about.  What was his name?  Lestat?  That was it.  Girl had heard so much about Spike, who could blame her?  But Faith had been surprised and she didn’t like being surprised, so she lashed out.  Fight of Flight, you know?  Emma had the misfortune of being the closest target when Faith had gone into über-bitch mode.

Faith rolled over, dragging the pillow with her.  She just wanted to sleep.  She just wanted to forget the day ever happened.

Thinking that she might prefer boredom, she finally drifted off to sleep.

XXXXX