Chosen Two
Jul. 5th, 2022 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apachefirecatTitle: Chosen Two
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Buffy/Faith, Robin/Faith, post-Angel/Buffy mentioned
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Two idiots in love, or maybe not, grow in years, acceptance, and more.
Word Count: 2636
Written For: FFFC Challenge r22.13: Fifty Fifty and FMS 22: Idiots in Love
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
"You're late," Buffy commented as Faith finally arrived. She was panting a little, Buffy realized, watching the other Slayer's chest rise and fall.
Faith quirked a dark eyebrow at the blonde and grinned. "Like what you see, B?"
Buffy quickly averted her gaze, but she couldn't stop the blush from rising in her cheeks. "I'm just observing," she mumbled. She grimaced, thinking of all the times Xander and other boys had used equally lame excuses for paying too close attention to her breasts. Faith's were much bigger, but it wasn't jealousy that drew her eyes to the other woman's scantily clad top. It also wasn't, no matter how much she would like to think otherwise, due to how the tight, red leather seemed to almost shimmer on her tanned skin. How did Faith manage to keep tanned most of the time, Buffy wondered, when they were always more active at night? "How do you do it?" she asked aloud before she could stop herself.
Faith rose her other brow and smiled at Buffy. She didn't look very much different, with that grin on her face, from several Vampires the older Slayer had dusted in previous battles. A shiver ran through Buffy as she imagined what it would be like to have Faith turned, to lose the one person in all the world who understood her the way she did (even when Buffy didn't want her to), to have to really fight her with the sake of the world laying in the balance... She shivered again.
"How do I do what?" Faith asked, eyeing her with a predatorial gaze that told Buffy that she was being summed up. For what reasons? she had to wonder. Was Faith thinking about fighting her, really fighting her? Or was she wondering what she could do to get her to turn more wicked, more like her, or to finally get her in the sack? Faith didn't bother to hide her sexuality. Buffy knew Faith wanted her, but she also knew way better than to go there. Angel had been bad enough; she couldn't imagine what would happen to the world if she dated a Slayer who had no regard for the law and very little regard for humanity in general.
Buffy blinked sharply as Faith ran her tongue over her top lip and then her teeth. She felt the other woman tasting her scent and shivered in a completely different manner. She kicked herself mentally for the heat that she felt covering not only her face but running down her throat as well. "Keep a tan," she muttered, looking away again.
"Are you all right, B?" Faith asked again, grinning. She reached out as though to touch her, and Buffy almost jumped away. Almost. She stopped herself just in time, making it seem as though she's turning instead to study the streets.
"It's late. I'm tired. I've got a big test in the morning, and with Mom out of town -- "
"You're free," Faith pushed.
Buffy whirled back around to meet her, blinking rapidly. Her mouth was wide open, but she didn't speak. She didn't make a sound. She couldn't. Was Faith really suggesting what she thought she was suggesting?
Faith stepped up to her, for the first time that night stepping into the glow of the street lights. "Don't play coy with me. You're a California girl. You were a cheerleader. You know what I'm talking about. Mommy's gone. You've got that whole big house to yourself. You could do anything you want tonight, even more so than usual. I don't know why you're so damn insistent on abiding to others' rules and laws when we're the ones always saving their asses. We risk everything, B, -- life, limb, our very souls --, and what do we get in exchange for it? We very rarely even get to have fun."
"Other than killing things, of course," she said. There's something in her tone and the way she spoke those words that other hunters might think so simple that makes Buffy truly shiver. The night's turned unseasonably cold, or was it just her? Was it her and her own fears of being found out? Did she really, truly want Faith like that? She'd never looked at another girl in such a fashion, but there was something about the borderline Slayer that made her hot and... Well, hot and horny, as Faith had often coined the term.
"You're doing that a lot tonight," Faith remarked, grinning triumphantly.
"I'm doing what a lot?!" Buffy almost cried. But she already knew what she was talking about. Faith was calling her out on the hot, bright crimson that was spreading rapidly down her body. It had already colored her face and neck completely, and right then, it felt like it was reaching for her breasts, that were smaller and, she was quite certain, considerably less perky than Faith's.
"Staring at me. Blushing about me. About us." Her grin widened. "You know, with Mommy not home, like I was saying, you've got that whole, big house to yourself." She leaned in. Her hot breath washed over Buffy as she spoke in a husky not-quite-a-whisper, "You could run anywhere you want in there naked. With anyone. Be naked with anyone. Have anyone naked in your bed. Wake up, with your arms wrapped around each other -- "
"Stop it, Faith," Buffy almost growled. She turned pointedly away. "You know you're just a friend to me, a fellow Slayer."
"Yeah, right." Faith snorted. "I bet all your friends make your blush like that, make your nipples harden -- "
Suddenly self-conscious, Buffy folded her arms before her chest, blocking Faith's view of her crop top. She should have known better than to wear such a dainty, little shirt, but a girl always wanted to look her best. She always wanted to look her best, no matter what she was doing or what evil she was fighting. The fact that Faith was along for tonight's journey had absolutely nothing to do with that choice. It didn't matter that this particular shirt had hung in her closet for a long time because she figured the Vamps would make short work of it, if her mother even let her wear it out of the house.
"Sure, B. Whatever makes your night. Whatever you need to believe to be able to sleep at night." Her last words are surprisingly husky, but not in the same manner as her earlier whisper. They sound... emotional? Buffy wondered, caught by surprise. Almost... sad?
"But whatever you may think, whatever lies you've got to believe, just know this, sweetheart." She pressed her darkly painted lips together, blowing her a kiss. "We're always going to have something between us that nobody else can share, nobody else can even come close to. There's only ever going to be two us, two Slayers, two in all the world. I understand you way better than your little, sexy Vamp boyfriend will ever be able to do so, and don't even get me started on those silly friends of yours."
But as she turned away from her, Buffy caught sight of her cheek and the long, red marks that marred it. "Faith!" She whipped back around, eyeing her fellow Slayer's injury. "What -- What happened?" she asked softly. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fifty fifty," she answered with a one-shoulder shrug. Before B could ask why she didn't give her usual report of "five by five", she went on to add, "You should've seen the other bitch. What can I say? I didn't want to wait for a good, slug out before the sun set today."
"So you..."
"Picked a fight at a bar. It was a lot of fun." Her wide, tempting grin was back in full place. "You should try sometime. It's a great way to work out stress, tensed muscles, and, huh, you know -- " She raked her dark, beautiful eyes over Buffy's body. Buffy could clearly see her touch the tip of her tongue to the top of her mouth as she winked at her. " -- other tensions."
"I'll take your word for it," Buffy muttered. Pulling her bag further up on her shoulder, she settled down to business. "Come on. We've got a new bad to find."
"Oh, we'll find him, dust him, save the world again," Faith answered, although she did fall into easy step beside her. "But in the morning, what will get for it? I bet you'll wake up alone. I won't."
"Really? And who are you going to do?" Buffy demanded, her voice turning suddenly -- defensively, she knew -- icy. "Xander again?"
Faith shrugged. "Whoever I want. That's the difference, B. I'll have whoever I want in the morning, even if I have to wait 'til morning to pick him, or her, out. I'll take what I want."
Usually. But that was the thing, wasn't it? She wanted Buffy, but she wanted Buffy to come to her willingly. She'd never hurt the other girl. She admired her too much for that, and besides, she had told Buffy the truth earlier and each and every time she reminded her that they were two of a kind. No matter what else the world did to them, no matter what or who it gave or took away, they would always only be two of a kind.
Years later, as she and Buffy again stand side by side, looking down into the crater that had been Sunnydale, the dark-haired Slayer remembers that lamenting thought. She remembers how she had never wanted to hurt B, and how greatly she had ended up doing that very thing. When not being able to have Buffy the way she wanted her had eventually gotten the better of her, when watching everything she yearned to have for herself be apparently taken but at least had by the "better" Slayer, she had surrendered to the dark side in ways far greater and worse than she'd ever thought possible.
They weren't just put here on this Earth, Faith had since come to understand and even accept, to be each other's two. Perhaps they were two parts of the same whole. She had thought that for so long, had kept that belief to herself when she'd finally accepted that B would never want to hear her. They were far more, and less, than just two fools in love. B didn't love her -- not in that way --, but she did still love her. She had still saved her ass so many times, way more than Faith could count.
She had saved her, and Faith would still kill the whole world for the remarkable girl standing beside her. She'd never known another girl like her. She never would. Only... Buffy was no longer a girl. They were no longer children. Faith's arms suddenly drooped, the sword her hand suddenly feeling very heavy, as she realized that she felt so very much older than her actual years.
"We did it," Buffy whispers beside her.
Lost in her own thoughts, Faith barely hears her, but she nods finally nonetheless. "Yeah," she whispers. Slowly she raises her head to look up at Buffy. There are so many lines in her face now, so many lines of exhaustion and far more than she should have ever had to endure. Not for the first time, Faith thinks of Buffy's precious, little friends who raised her from the dead. They were so selfish to not let this poor woman sleep. Yet she herself is selfish, Faith knows, because she's glad to be standing here again with B after all this time, to still be beside her, to still have her in her life in any manner. She wished she could love her, but that's a dream, Faith's finally accepted, that will never freaking happen.
In that moment, she finally realizes that what her father, surly, lousy drunk that he was, had always said was true. She is much more than a slugger, much more than a fighter. She is a dreamer, still dreaming, still longing of things that will never happen, of loves she'll never have. She spots Buffy's tear that the other Slayer quickly wipes away and moves to gently rub the dirt and blood from her cheek, hiding the fact that she had shed a tear from anyone else who might be watching them. Although if she catches the little brats watching, she'll kick their asses later. The thought pains her, though, as she realizes that that dream, too, has slipped away from her.
Her own words are struggling with barely contained emotions as she whispered brusquely, "I guess we're no longer just two of a kind."
Buffy raises her head, and her lips gingerly brush against Faith's wrist. She doesn't try to stop herself, but Faith still knows there'll not be any more gentle touches like that coming from her. She understands that that brief moment of tenderness is a silent gift from the other Slayer, the older, more tamed Slayer who, in the end, has proven that she is better than Faith will ever be and, in her own way, stronger too.
"No," B whispers, and her green eyes defiantly meet Faith's dark orbs shining with tears, "we will always be two of a kind, F."
Faith grins. But for the first time in a long time, she refrains herself from an act of passion that cannot hurt anyone except... she supposes, in a way, it would. If she reaches out to B, if she tries to kiss her or even embrace her, the other girl will pull away again. She's a wild one, that Buffy, a wild one too contained by others' rules but a wild one nonetheless. Like a wild bronco, she'll always buck any attempt Faith makes to contain her. She has to take from what she is given, nothing more or less.
"Next adventure?" Buffy asks, moving her head away from Faith's gentle fingers.
"Long as you're leading, B." Faith grins through her unshed tears.
"Glad to have you, F, by my side."
"Always." But as Buffy walks back toward the bus and Faith turns behind her to follow, she lets out a long, low wolf whistle. "And oh, what a view!"
She's rewarded by an instantaneous, bright red blush quickly sweeping across Buffy's exposed skin. Some things never change, she thinks, grinning, but other things always do. She shakes off her sorrow. She's got a man now, and a whole new adventure just waiting. She follows B, but kisses Robin when they're back on the bus.
He shakes his head. His eyes are full of questions to which he knows he'll never be given answers. He has to love Faith as he can get her, and be glad for anything and everything she does give him. "Girl, you're full of surprises." He flashes her a bright grin that hides the pangs of jealousy and sorrow he felt while watching her with the other girl. He's not one of those men who wants two women together. The woman next to him is so strong and beautiful, far more of a woman than he'd ever hoped to have before, and she makes him feel so good as she snuggles in beside him.
"We Slayers always are," Faith speaks ominously. A whisper runs through the bus amongst the girls, the newest Slayers. There's no longer only one, or two. They have all been called now, and they all fight together for a world, Faith knows even as she allows her tired eyes to close and her head to rest on Robin's strong, reassuring shoulder, that will never deserve them, just like she will never deserve B or the strong, handsome man beside her who actually is willing to take her just the fucking way she was.
The End
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Buffy/Faith, Robin/Faith, post-Angel/Buffy mentioned
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Two idiots in love, or maybe not, grow in years, acceptance, and more.
Word Count: 2636
Written For: FFFC Challenge r22.13: Fifty Fifty and FMS 22: Idiots in Love
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
"You're late," Buffy commented as Faith finally arrived. She was panting a little, Buffy realized, watching the other Slayer's chest rise and fall.
Faith quirked a dark eyebrow at the blonde and grinned. "Like what you see, B?"
Buffy quickly averted her gaze, but she couldn't stop the blush from rising in her cheeks. "I'm just observing," she mumbled. She grimaced, thinking of all the times Xander and other boys had used equally lame excuses for paying too close attention to her breasts. Faith's were much bigger, but it wasn't jealousy that drew her eyes to the other woman's scantily clad top. It also wasn't, no matter how much she would like to think otherwise, due to how the tight, red leather seemed to almost shimmer on her tanned skin. How did Faith manage to keep tanned most of the time, Buffy wondered, when they were always more active at night? "How do you do it?" she asked aloud before she could stop herself.
Faith rose her other brow and smiled at Buffy. She didn't look very much different, with that grin on her face, from several Vampires the older Slayer had dusted in previous battles. A shiver ran through Buffy as she imagined what it would be like to have Faith turned, to lose the one person in all the world who understood her the way she did (even when Buffy didn't want her to), to have to really fight her with the sake of the world laying in the balance... She shivered again.
"How do I do what?" Faith asked, eyeing her with a predatorial gaze that told Buffy that she was being summed up. For what reasons? she had to wonder. Was Faith thinking about fighting her, really fighting her? Or was she wondering what she could do to get her to turn more wicked, more like her, or to finally get her in the sack? Faith didn't bother to hide her sexuality. Buffy knew Faith wanted her, but she also knew way better than to go there. Angel had been bad enough; she couldn't imagine what would happen to the world if she dated a Slayer who had no regard for the law and very little regard for humanity in general.
Buffy blinked sharply as Faith ran her tongue over her top lip and then her teeth. She felt the other woman tasting her scent and shivered in a completely different manner. She kicked herself mentally for the heat that she felt covering not only her face but running down her throat as well. "Keep a tan," she muttered, looking away again.
"Are you all right, B?" Faith asked again, grinning. She reached out as though to touch her, and Buffy almost jumped away. Almost. She stopped herself just in time, making it seem as though she's turning instead to study the streets.
"It's late. I'm tired. I've got a big test in the morning, and with Mom out of town -- "
"You're free," Faith pushed.
Buffy whirled back around to meet her, blinking rapidly. Her mouth was wide open, but she didn't speak. She didn't make a sound. She couldn't. Was Faith really suggesting what she thought she was suggesting?
Faith stepped up to her, for the first time that night stepping into the glow of the street lights. "Don't play coy with me. You're a California girl. You were a cheerleader. You know what I'm talking about. Mommy's gone. You've got that whole big house to yourself. You could do anything you want tonight, even more so than usual. I don't know why you're so damn insistent on abiding to others' rules and laws when we're the ones always saving their asses. We risk everything, B, -- life, limb, our very souls --, and what do we get in exchange for it? We very rarely even get to have fun."
"Other than killing things, of course," she said. There's something in her tone and the way she spoke those words that other hunters might think so simple that makes Buffy truly shiver. The night's turned unseasonably cold, or was it just her? Was it her and her own fears of being found out? Did she really, truly want Faith like that? She'd never looked at another girl in such a fashion, but there was something about the borderline Slayer that made her hot and... Well, hot and horny, as Faith had often coined the term.
"You're doing that a lot tonight," Faith remarked, grinning triumphantly.
"I'm doing what a lot?!" Buffy almost cried. But she already knew what she was talking about. Faith was calling her out on the hot, bright crimson that was spreading rapidly down her body. It had already colored her face and neck completely, and right then, it felt like it was reaching for her breasts, that were smaller and, she was quite certain, considerably less perky than Faith's.
"Staring at me. Blushing about me. About us." Her grin widened. "You know, with Mommy not home, like I was saying, you've got that whole, big house to yourself." She leaned in. Her hot breath washed over Buffy as she spoke in a husky not-quite-a-whisper, "You could run anywhere you want in there naked. With anyone. Be naked with anyone. Have anyone naked in your bed. Wake up, with your arms wrapped around each other -- "
"Stop it, Faith," Buffy almost growled. She turned pointedly away. "You know you're just a friend to me, a fellow Slayer."
"Yeah, right." Faith snorted. "I bet all your friends make your blush like that, make your nipples harden -- "
Suddenly self-conscious, Buffy folded her arms before her chest, blocking Faith's view of her crop top. She should have known better than to wear such a dainty, little shirt, but a girl always wanted to look her best. She always wanted to look her best, no matter what she was doing or what evil she was fighting. The fact that Faith was along for tonight's journey had absolutely nothing to do with that choice. It didn't matter that this particular shirt had hung in her closet for a long time because she figured the Vamps would make short work of it, if her mother even let her wear it out of the house.
"Sure, B. Whatever makes your night. Whatever you need to believe to be able to sleep at night." Her last words are surprisingly husky, but not in the same manner as her earlier whisper. They sound... emotional? Buffy wondered, caught by surprise. Almost... sad?
"But whatever you may think, whatever lies you've got to believe, just know this, sweetheart." She pressed her darkly painted lips together, blowing her a kiss. "We're always going to have something between us that nobody else can share, nobody else can even come close to. There's only ever going to be two us, two Slayers, two in all the world. I understand you way better than your little, sexy Vamp boyfriend will ever be able to do so, and don't even get me started on those silly friends of yours."
But as she turned away from her, Buffy caught sight of her cheek and the long, red marks that marred it. "Faith!" She whipped back around, eyeing her fellow Slayer's injury. "What -- What happened?" she asked softly. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fifty fifty," she answered with a one-shoulder shrug. Before B could ask why she didn't give her usual report of "five by five", she went on to add, "You should've seen the other bitch. What can I say? I didn't want to wait for a good, slug out before the sun set today."
"So you..."
"Picked a fight at a bar. It was a lot of fun." Her wide, tempting grin was back in full place. "You should try sometime. It's a great way to work out stress, tensed muscles, and, huh, you know -- " She raked her dark, beautiful eyes over Buffy's body. Buffy could clearly see her touch the tip of her tongue to the top of her mouth as she winked at her. " -- other tensions."
"I'll take your word for it," Buffy muttered. Pulling her bag further up on her shoulder, she settled down to business. "Come on. We've got a new bad to find."
"Oh, we'll find him, dust him, save the world again," Faith answered, although she did fall into easy step beside her. "But in the morning, what will get for it? I bet you'll wake up alone. I won't."
"Really? And who are you going to do?" Buffy demanded, her voice turning suddenly -- defensively, she knew -- icy. "Xander again?"
Faith shrugged. "Whoever I want. That's the difference, B. I'll have whoever I want in the morning, even if I have to wait 'til morning to pick him, or her, out. I'll take what I want."
Usually. But that was the thing, wasn't it? She wanted Buffy, but she wanted Buffy to come to her willingly. She'd never hurt the other girl. She admired her too much for that, and besides, she had told Buffy the truth earlier and each and every time she reminded her that they were two of a kind. No matter what else the world did to them, no matter what or who it gave or took away, they would always only be two of a kind.
Years later, as she and Buffy again stand side by side, looking down into the crater that had been Sunnydale, the dark-haired Slayer remembers that lamenting thought. She remembers how she had never wanted to hurt B, and how greatly she had ended up doing that very thing. When not being able to have Buffy the way she wanted her had eventually gotten the better of her, when watching everything she yearned to have for herself be apparently taken but at least had by the "better" Slayer, she had surrendered to the dark side in ways far greater and worse than she'd ever thought possible.
They weren't just put here on this Earth, Faith had since come to understand and even accept, to be each other's two. Perhaps they were two parts of the same whole. She had thought that for so long, had kept that belief to herself when she'd finally accepted that B would never want to hear her. They were far more, and less, than just two fools in love. B didn't love her -- not in that way --, but she did still love her. She had still saved her ass so many times, way more than Faith could count.
She had saved her, and Faith would still kill the whole world for the remarkable girl standing beside her. She'd never known another girl like her. She never would. Only... Buffy was no longer a girl. They were no longer children. Faith's arms suddenly drooped, the sword her hand suddenly feeling very heavy, as she realized that she felt so very much older than her actual years.
"We did it," Buffy whispers beside her.
Lost in her own thoughts, Faith barely hears her, but she nods finally nonetheless. "Yeah," she whispers. Slowly she raises her head to look up at Buffy. There are so many lines in her face now, so many lines of exhaustion and far more than she should have ever had to endure. Not for the first time, Faith thinks of Buffy's precious, little friends who raised her from the dead. They were so selfish to not let this poor woman sleep. Yet she herself is selfish, Faith knows, because she's glad to be standing here again with B after all this time, to still be beside her, to still have her in her life in any manner. She wished she could love her, but that's a dream, Faith's finally accepted, that will never freaking happen.
In that moment, she finally realizes that what her father, surly, lousy drunk that he was, had always said was true. She is much more than a slugger, much more than a fighter. She is a dreamer, still dreaming, still longing of things that will never happen, of loves she'll never have. She spots Buffy's tear that the other Slayer quickly wipes away and moves to gently rub the dirt and blood from her cheek, hiding the fact that she had shed a tear from anyone else who might be watching them. Although if she catches the little brats watching, she'll kick their asses later. The thought pains her, though, as she realizes that that dream, too, has slipped away from her.
Her own words are struggling with barely contained emotions as she whispered brusquely, "I guess we're no longer just two of a kind."
Buffy raises her head, and her lips gingerly brush against Faith's wrist. She doesn't try to stop herself, but Faith still knows there'll not be any more gentle touches like that coming from her. She understands that that brief moment of tenderness is a silent gift from the other Slayer, the older, more tamed Slayer who, in the end, has proven that she is better than Faith will ever be and, in her own way, stronger too.
"No," B whispers, and her green eyes defiantly meet Faith's dark orbs shining with tears, "we will always be two of a kind, F."
Faith grins. But for the first time in a long time, she refrains herself from an act of passion that cannot hurt anyone except... she supposes, in a way, it would. If she reaches out to B, if she tries to kiss her or even embrace her, the other girl will pull away again. She's a wild one, that Buffy, a wild one too contained by others' rules but a wild one nonetheless. Like a wild bronco, she'll always buck any attempt Faith makes to contain her. She has to take from what she is given, nothing more or less.
"Next adventure?" Buffy asks, moving her head away from Faith's gentle fingers.
"Long as you're leading, B." Faith grins through her unshed tears.
"Glad to have you, F, by my side."
"Always." But as Buffy walks back toward the bus and Faith turns behind her to follow, she lets out a long, low wolf whistle. "And oh, what a view!"
She's rewarded by an instantaneous, bright red blush quickly sweeping across Buffy's exposed skin. Some things never change, she thinks, grinning, but other things always do. She shakes off her sorrow. She's got a man now, and a whole new adventure just waiting. She follows B, but kisses Robin when they're back on the bus.
He shakes his head. His eyes are full of questions to which he knows he'll never be given answers. He has to love Faith as he can get her, and be glad for anything and everything she does give him. "Girl, you're full of surprises." He flashes her a bright grin that hides the pangs of jealousy and sorrow he felt while watching her with the other girl. He's not one of those men who wants two women together. The woman next to him is so strong and beautiful, far more of a woman than he'd ever hoped to have before, and she makes him feel so good as she snuggles in beside him.
"We Slayers always are," Faith speaks ominously. A whisper runs through the bus amongst the girls, the newest Slayers. There's no longer only one, or two. They have all been called now, and they all fight together for a world, Faith knows even as she allows her tired eyes to close and her head to rest on Robin's strong, reassuring shoulder, that will never deserve them, just like she will never deserve B or the strong, handsome man beside her who actually is willing to take her just the fucking way she was.
The End
