“Bloody hell,” Spike shouted from the office.  He stormed into the lobby, sucking his finger. Faith and Angel stared at him from the front door.  “What?” he asked, arching a brow.  “I got a sliver.”

 

Buffy followed on his heels.  “Exactly how long is it going to take you to stop being such a big baby about everything?”  She grabbed his hand and started picking at the splinter.

 

“Bloody hell, woman!  That hurts.”  He tried to pull his hand back, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with it.  

 

“Just stop.  It’ll only hurt for a second,” she said, now trying to pry the stubborn piece of wood out with her teeth.

 

“Same thing Dru used to say,” he mumbled under his breath.

 

“Um, Buffy,” Angel began.  “I’m trying to be the modern kind of boyfriend and everything, but would you mind taking Spike’s finger out of your mouth?”

 

“Hmm?” was all she managed to say.  She was now sucking on the tip of his index finger.  “Got it!” she declared, as the culprit now glistened from the tip of her finger.  “It was right there.  No way I was not going to get it out,” she said, wiping her finger on her jeans.

 

“It doesn’t bother you that Buffy was just sucking on his finger?” Angel asked Faith.

 

“It’s his finger… and her mouth.  Why should I care?”  She turned away from them and began to study the new door frame.

 

“Did that sound way dirtier than it should have?” Buffy asked. 

 

Faith chose to ignore Buffy’s last comment and looked at Spike.  “You have been human for three months now,” Faith said.  “It’s a fucking sliver.  Get over it.”

 

“I don’t care how long I’ve been a real boy, pet.  Slivers hurt and construction sucks.  I ‘spect those two things will never change.”

 

“My back is aching,” Angel said, tossing a two-by-four to the ground.  “I think I’m ready for a break.”

 

“Breaks?” Xander said, running down the stairs as if on cue.  “There will be no breaks.  We need to brace up these walls.  Tighten up those floorboards.  Stain and seal the new front door.  If you want Angel Investigations to get up and running again, this place has got to be in tip-top shape.  Professionalism and experience.  P & E breed income.  Income is of the good.”

 

“P & E?” Faith asked, crinkling her eyes.

 

“What’s happened to him?” Angel asked.

 

“Not sure, but I think he might be channeling Anya,” Buffy suggested, shrugging her shoulders.

 

“And that would be of the bad why?” Xander asked.  “Woman knew how to make money.”  He picked up the board Angel dropped and handed it back to him.  “Besides, I can’t stay here helping you guys out forever.  I got places to go and…”

 

“Virgin-slayers to do,” Spike finished for him.

 

“Glad to see the human-thing doesn’t dampen your crude-thing,” Xander said.

 

“He's all in a hurry,” Faith said to Angel, filling him in, “'cause he knows Emma'll hunt him down if he stays here too long."

 

Angel smirked and Xander gave Faith the evil eye.

 

“How’s that no demon thing working out for you anyway?” Xander asked Angel

 

He smiled one of his lop-sided smiles.  “Might want to ask Buffy about that one.”

 

“Yo, dude.  Like anybody needs to ask B.  She makes it loud and clear every night... and sometimes during the day,”  Faith said.

 

“Hey!” Buffy said.  “I’m right here.”

 

Angel blushed but kept quiet.

 

“And, damn, I don't know if I'll ever get used to this blushing thing you got going on,” Faith said to Angel.  She shrugged and then looked at Xander.  “I’m still not sure how you got out of Detroit without Emma.  Kid’s been dying to come to California.”

 

“It was Giles,” Buffy said, her glare switching between Faith and Xander.  “He told her how important having a Slayer on the Hellmouth was.  Her sense of duty kicked in.  She’s been trained well.  She’s got plenty of company, though.  Dawn and Andrew have been hanging out with her a lot and Willow’s been showing her some magic."

 

"Girl is definitely being entertained in our absence,” Faith said as she flopped on an old couch, shooting dust into the air.  “I'm hungry.  I can’t play construction-gal on an empty stomach.  This hot chick with super powers needs food.”

 

Buffy pulled on Angel’s arm.  “We’ll run out and get something.  Chinese work for everyone?”

 

“Don’t care, B.  Just make sure whatever you get, there’s lots of it.”  She jutted her head in Spike’s direction.  “He’s a bottomless pit.”

 

“You should talk.”  He sat down next to her.  “Beer would be good.” 

 

“Anything else?” Buffy asked.

 

“I’ll come with,” Xander said, grabbing his jacket.  “Think I’m in the mood for something different.  Maybe something will call out to me on the way.”

 

“A cross-dressing prostitute from a corner?”  Spike’s voice went up a couple notches, “Oh, Xander!”

 

Faith wasn’t surprised when Xander didn’t even acknowledge Spike’s remark.  A lot of things had changed, but the relationship between the two of them was not one of them.

 

As soon as the front door closed, Faith straddled Spike.  “Think we might have some time to kill.”

 

Spike wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.  “Thought construction-gal was tired and hungry.”

 

“Some wood is harder to work with than others,” she said grinding her center against the slowly growing bulge in his jeans.

 

He placed his hands on her hips and lifted her off.

 

“Hey!” she protested, as she found herself sitting next to him again.

 

“Not until you admit you love me for more than my body.”

 

“Not this again!  Do you know how lame that sounds?”  She got up off the couch and faced him squarely.  They hadn’t gotten down and dirty since Detroit, and the lack of action was making her more than a little crazy.  Extra time in the shower?  Not even close to cutting it anymore.  “Are you sure little Spikey even works anymore?  You haven’t even tried him out in, like, months.”

 

“There is no little, woman.”  He smirked at her.  “And who says I haven’t tried it out?”

 

“Angel’s so gonna kick your ass.”

 

He heaved a sigh and stood up.  “Not with Buffy.”

 

“Angel?  Then it's Buffy who's so gonna kick your ass.”

 

“Not with anybody.  Just memories of you, pet.”

 

“That doesn’t do me a hell of a lot of good.”  She stormed past him, grabbing the piece of lumber Angel had dropped.

 

“The ball’s in your court… more or less,” he said as he joined her.

 

“So you’re proving to me how much you love me by cutting me off?  Told you love blows.”  She looked around for the hammer and nails.

 

He took the board out of her hand and then guided her back to the couch.  She yanked her hand out of his and sat down, ignoring the fact that he flinched.  The sliver was the least of his problems.

 

He sat down next to her.  “Faith…”

 

“You’re not going to lecture me again, are you?”

 

“Told you I’d prove it to you.”  He leaned back and laced his fingers together behind his head.  “And this is the way I choose to do it.”

 

“You don’t make any sense.”

 

“Love, sex, hurt, and trust.  They’re all different.  You’ve got them all wrapped up into one.  It’s time for us to try to separate them.”  He leaned forward and looked at her.

 

“Us?  You got a mouse in your pocket?”  She rubbed his jeans just over the most-sensitive spot.  She felt a little movement and smiled.  “Or are you just happy to see me?”

 

He pushed her hand away.  “Do you trust me?”

 

He was making her wicked-crazy with this new game he was playing.  If it weren’t for Angel needing her help in getting A.I. going again, she would’ve bolted a long time ago.  A few slivers and sore muscles were the least she could do for him.

 

“Do you trust me?” he repeated.

 

She nodded her head.  That was pretty much an easy one to answer.  She trusted him… pretty much.

 

He smiled.  “See?  That wasn’t so hard.”

 

“And neither are you.  We could change that though.”

 

“Do you think I’d ever hurt you?”

 

“I was hoping for just a little bit,” she said moving so that her ample cleavage was a little more obvious to him.  Nothing.  She flopped back against the couch, causing yet another swirl of dust to hit the still air.  “Fine.  No.”

 

He’d been this way since they had found him and Angel in the basement.  Once she had known he was going to be okay, Faith started making the moves and Spike had started making new rules.  It was only a question of time who would fold first.

 

“What about sex?  You know there’s a difference between sex and making love, right?”

 

Now he was talking.  “Sex is what I live for.”  She shrugged.  “Sex and slaying.  Hmm?  Wonder if I could mix the two?  Sex while slaying?”  She creased her brow in concentration.  “Haven’t tried that yet.  Could be fun.”   She nuzzled up to him again, this time making sure she rubbed her chest across his arm.  “Up against a crypt.  Stake in one hand.  You in the other…”

 

He moved away from her.  “You pick up a guy.  One night stand territory.  That’s sex, Faith.  Making love is what we do.  Or what we used to do.”

 

“I don’t know where you were, but there was some down and dirty, grunting and groaning going on between us there.”

 

His expression cooled ten degrees.  “You’re not stupid, so stop acting like it.”

 

She knew she was smirking, but she couldn’t help it.  “See all this going on?”  She moved her hand back and forth between them.  “It’s sexual frustration.  You do me right here and now and you won’t be all tense.  You trust me, right?”  Her smirk changed to an all out smile.

 

“I have never met a more infuriating woman in my entire life!”

 

“I wouldn’t say that.”

 

His shoulders slumped.  “Fine.  You are the second most infuriating woman I’ve ever met in my life.”

 

“Damn B!  She beats me to everything.”  She fell against the back of the couch.  “Good thing Angel and I never did the deed.  Although I think Angelus might’ve been interesting.”

 

“Are you insane?  Angelus would’ve killed you… or you would’ve begged him to do it.”

 

The playfulness rolled off of her as quickly as rain could wash away blood in an alley.  “Kinda already been there.”

 

“Not what I meant and you know it.”

 

“I know.”

 

Spike stared into the distance.  “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

 

“Look,” she said.  “I have never been or never will be the ‘I love you’ type.  If you’re waiting for me to say that, you’ll be waiting a hell of a long time.  And time, in case you haven’t noticed, is ticking away for you as fast as it is ticking away for me nowadays.”

 

He studied her face, but said nothing.

 

“You’re cool.  I like hanging with you.  I don’t think about hanging with anybody else when I’m with you.”  She pursed her lips.  “And as long as we’re going for honest, I guess I’ll admit I didn’t think about hanging with anybody else, even when I wasn’t with you.”  She wasn’t about to give him a detailed account of what was going on in her head.  Not like she could if she tried.  “That’s as good as it’s going to get with me.  If you can’t deal… well, sorry.”   She let out a long breath. 

 

He took her face in his hands.  “That’ll do.”

 

“That’ll do?”  She relaxed a little bit.  “That’ll do for now?  Or that’ll do?”

 

His lips softly pressed against hers and then he pulled away.  Her heart about dropped to her toes.  She licked where his lips had been.

 

“That’ll do.”

 

He hadn’t exactly given in to her and she hadn’t exactly given in to him.

 

“This is one of those compromise things, isn’t it?” she asked.

 

He stroked her jaw.  “You can call it that.  It’s you and me now, Faith.  You agree to that and it’s the end of this discussion.  You understand that?”

 

Shit, she actually did understand it.  And her mouth was agreeing to it before she had the chance to think it through all the way.  “I think I do.”

 

He pointed toward the stairs.  “Then we have things to do…”

 

“Sure hope everyone likes Moo Goo Gai Pan,” Buffy said, rushing in the front door.  “We got like six orders of it.”

 

“What exactly is Kung Pao Chicken?” Xander asked, coming in behind her, a case of beer in his hand.  “It sounds more like a move Jackie Chan would make... minus the chicken.”

 

Could their timing be any worse?  Faith let out another long breath.

 

“Just don’t be giving me any of those lettuce wrap things,” Angel said, dropping a bunch of bags on a makeshift table.  “I came back as a human, not as a rabbit.”

 

Faith tried not to look at Spike, but her eyes kept slipping back to his face.  She didn’t want Chinese, she wanted him.  And by the look on his face, he was as ready to go as she was.

 

“You two going to sit there and ogle each other or are you going to eat?” Angel asked as he bit into an egg roll.

 

“It’s been confirmed,” Spike said, standing.  “You are more annoying this way.”

 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Buffy said, “there are way more perky-perks with him like this.”

 

“TMI, B,” Faith said, joining them at the table.

 

“No!”  Buffy blushed.  “Perky as in perk-like, not perky as in…”

 

“Since I am the only one not all couply at the moment,” Xander pleaded.  “Can we stop with the sexual-innuendo, please?”

 

“Innuendo?  There is no innuendo,” Buffy said.

 

Faith grabbed a bag of egg rolls and one of the containers of Moo Goo Gai Pan.  “You three can sit down here and do whatever you want to do.  Spike and me?  Leaving.”

 

She looked at Spike, willing him to follow.  He smiled, grabbed another container of Moo Goo Gai Pan and followed her up the stairs.

 

“They better not be as loud as you two are,” Xander said, a crimson blush spread up from under his collar.  “What am I saying?  It’s Faith.”  He coughed out a nervous laugh.  “I need to go back to Detroit.”

 

Buffy smiled and squeezed his arm.  “We’ll book you a flight after dinner.”

 

“Bless you.”

 

“That’s what friends are for.”

 

“Can we just stop talking and start eating?” Angel asked.  “I’m starving.”

 

- The End -