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They were on the road for four weeks before Faith admitted this might not have been her best idea. Sticking herself in the middle of a shitty truck with the two people for whom her feelings for could be summed up as complicated that is. Not the slaying part.
Getting out there and killing something that was hurting others? That felt really damn good.
Being Professor Faith Lehane had it's perks that she never dreamed possible. Turned out she was actually pretty good with the new slayers after the first year or two. But until they were out on the road again Faith hadn't realised how confined she felt. How her skin seemed to tighten like shrink wrap over her muscles. How an itch existed in the back of her head, precisely where she couldn't scratch it.
How much she tried to smile to make up for Buffy's grim determination.
How unnatural that smile felt.
But out here? In their shitty truck with Spike and a crappy camper with blacked out windows? Standing in front of vamps, demons, anything else that even dared hurt someone?
That felt right.
It felt like she was sixteen again in all the best ways. Up against the hordes of hell with nothing more than a stake and a push up bra. Well that and back up, and people who cared about her, and people to call home and check in on. Turned out everything she fantasize when she first heard there was a second slayer? Well two decades and change later she got it. And that felt so good.
Fucking off for a few hours in the middle of the day so she didn't have to hear Buffy and Spike wear off the energy from the previous nights slayage on the other hand....
Well lets just say Faith was getting creative with how she dealt with that.
Faith knew she was queer from the time she was thirteen and kissing Mandy Peters felt as good as good as kissing Mike Worhal.
She figured out she was especially queer for Buffy the first time she watched the Cali girl shove a stake through a vamp. She didn't think Buffy knew the feral look she got right before a kill but Faith was willing to bet she looked the same falling apart under a lover.
Lover, even in her own head she sounded like a godsdamned idiot. She'd been hanging out with the Scoobies and assorted geeks way to much over the last decade plus.
Faith didn't know when her fantasy's started to include Spike but she figured it happened sometime around their fifth year in Cleveland. Buffy finally pushed herself too far and was laid up in the infirmary with a nasty wound that was healing even faster than they expected for the First Slayer. Willow wanted to run tests. On both the Original Two.
It drove Faith nuts that she could hear the capital letters in the stupid godsdamn titles. Still Red wanted answers and bitch had a way of getting them one way or another without ever reaching for her powers. Although, Faith claimed that the sheer, honest, sincerity Red had counted as a power and should not be used.
Spike sat by her side at Buffy's bedside as the older slayer slept and healed and Faith let herself be poked over and over again. Turns out it's pretty damn boring waiting for someone to heal once you knew they were going to make it.
Turned out it left a lot of time for some deep talks.
And no Faith was not inclined to share thank you very much.
Still after that, Spike started to take a co-starring role in her fantasies. He was more than Blonde Barbie's play thing after that.
From the smug smirk he gave her he could smell exactly what she'd been doing in the campground shower they were currently holed up in. She flipped him the bird. If they could go at it like rabbits every couple of days she could rub one out in the shower. They didn't need to know she thought of Peroxide Barbie's hands ghosting over Buffy's nipples as Faith fucked her low and sweet. They didn't need to know how good Faith thought Buffy's sun tanned skin would look leaning against Spikes alabaster chest as Faith made her come apart over and over again.
They didn't need to know Faith thought about her face buried between Buffy's legs as Spike fucked Faith hard and fast behind her.
Some things were best kept to oneself, thank you very much.
Still the wry twists of Spike's face told her he knew exactly what she'd been doing in the campground shower- even if he didn't have the finer details.
The blush around Buffy's cheeks told Faith Spike clued the other slayer in. That is if Buffy hadn't smelled it herself. Slayer senses were a bitch sometimes.
And no the flush did nothing for Faith's fantasies thank you very much. Nothing at all.
So yeah, maybe an extended road trip wasn't her best idea but she hadn't seen Buffy this FREE in so long that all the blue balls and one night bar stands were worth it.
Because seeing the shadow off Buffy's face? Seeing her smile? Laugh? Slay?
Seeing Spike look like the world is finally right, tossing dirty jokes back and forth across the dash? Seeing him make fun of Angel whenever the other vamp called? See him enjoying warmed pigs blood with weetabix by the fire while they roast marshmallows just because Faith never had done that before?
Yeah, Faith was discovering just how far she'd go to keep those looks on her friends face.
~&~
Spike could smell Faith and it was driving him nuts.
When he came back from the damn necklace that trapped him after the battle with the First he thought about going back to the name William. After all his soul was back in his body, he more or less reconciled the man he was with the demon he became to the vampire he was. Maybe it was time to go back.
But that moniker didn't fit him any more.
He wasn't the terrible poet who could barely talk to a woman much less make her scream his name. He wasn't the man who the idea of kissing another man disgusted him as much as it intrigued him. Now, as a demon he hadn't been picky and as a souled vamp he still wasn't picky.
Before he came back to Buffy- because he'd always come back to her- he explored everything all over again. Adjusting to a soul when the world wasn't ending. Learning from Angel and didn't that bite it all to hell. At the end of the day Angel wasn't Liam any more, he wasn't Angelus. Spike wasn't William anymore either.
Sometimes creating something new meant connecting with the past. Sometimes it meant absorbing it.
Buffy saw every one of his cracks and flaws and loved him anyway. He didn't know how a monster like he'd been got this lucky but he wasn't about to fuck it up.
Even if he could smell exactly what Faith spent the last thirty minutes in the shower doing.
She smelled different than Buffy. Muskier, more feral, all rough edges and ready to fuck until someone broke.
It wasn't like he was unsatisfied. One thing him and Buffy knew how to do was tear the sheets up together. Once they got their mess out of the way. Once Spike got his soul and could be more than the selfish demon suffocated the man he'd been, once the world wasn't ending and Buffy worked through her own shit- yeah then they were good.
But he could smell Faith and when he whispered to Buffy he could smell their friend and what she'd been doing and then he could smell Buffy get wet all over again. And fuck didn't that do things to him.
The man who died in an alley could never think of this idea, could never dream of what life could be.
The demon who ruled him for over a century would have taken first and asked questions later.
The vamp he was now whispered all the dirty nasty things he could smell into Buffy's ear and groaned as he could smell her get wetter and wetter. He could see Faith watch Buffy in battle (watch him in battle) and smell her too. It drove him wild to think aobut what those two would look like dancing naked together. Still Faith may have taken prison therapy to heart and Giles might have forced them all into truama theory after Sunnydale but Spike knew that without a nudge the others would never pull their heads out of their collective asses.
Still Spike had to smirk, he wasn't above giving a nudge or two to get what he wanted.
~&~
Buffy finally felt free for the first time since she was fifteen and told she'd been born to die. For the first time since she was a child sent into a never ending war she felt free. Their camper had a slightly weird musty smell they'd never quite managed to get rid of but it was theirs. The truck ate gas like global warming was a joke to be laughed at but it was theirs. Sometimes they drove during the day, Faith in the driver's seat, Buffy with her feet on the dash and Spike asleep in the camper.
Sometimes they camped for a week plus when Willow had a particularly tricky job for them, or Giles, or Andrew. Andrew had turned out to be a surprisingly adept Watcher. His knack for sniffing out when and where the next apocalypse would hit was down right impressive.
Still her friends were growing older and she just was, still looking twenty when she was past thirty.
Xander and Dawn had a kid on the way now.
One they planned and tried for.
Dawnie was an adult, part of the New Council, and was going to be a mom.
And Buffy still looked twenty. Faith still looked twenty. Spike still looked twenty. Unless something tried very hard and was very lucky the Powers That Be only knew how long they'd be like this.
Willow had some of their cells, her and Faith's, in a petri dish back in Cleveland. She mumbled some sciencey words about testing cell decay and longevity and all Buffy heard was nothing was killing her anytime soon. Age included.
For years she thought this was Heaven's final fuck you. She left and now she had even less of a chance of getting back. Now? She didn't know what she felt but on the road she knew she felt free.
Something was missing though.
Spike whispered in her ear, putting words to the smells that rolled off Faith's body and she fucking ached with want. Sometimes she'd wake up and see Faith's dark hair spread over her pillow, the light from the nightlight none of them talked about but always plugged in seemed to sink into the dark locks and make them shine. She wanted to touch and run her hands through those locks before pulling the other woman in for a kiss. And she wanted Spike to watch. She wanted Spike to touch her, touch Faith. She wanted Faith to touch her back.
Buffy wasn't sure if she was bi or just really into things she shouldn't have. Vampires, military boys with secret underground complexes, the Second Slayer.
If Spike kept whispering idea's in her head and Faith kept smelling like that she was going to do something about it.
Buffy had a pretty good idea that's what Spike was waiting for. For all Buffy had preached in her younger days- she'd never been one to wait, she'd always been one to rush in head first just as fast as Faith.
She didn't think that had to change now.
They were in some club in L.A. looking for a demon that liked to eat the hearts of virgins. What was it with demons and virgins and hearts? Buffy didn't know but it was predictable to the point of boring. Still most of the women had disappeared from this club. They figured the women wandered into the alley, drunk and separated from their friends and the demon took advantage.
Buffy and Faith were on the dance floor scouting and Spike was creeping in the alley waiting.
Buffy couldn't keep her damn eyes off Faith's tight, white tank top and black boots. She damn near couldn't help herself before she threw caution to the wind and grabbed Faith's hips to dance. For a moment the other slayer jolted in surprise before relaxing back against Buffy's chest.
Buff was just about to lower her lips to Faith's when their slayer senses pricked up. The demon was here and they had work to do.
"Don't worry B, let's kill something and pick this up." Faith whispered in her ear before her hand went to the back of her pants where a slim knife was hidden.
Buffy wondered if her own grin was just as feral before pushing the thought to the back of her head.
They had a demon to slay and a whole night waiting for them.
After all what couldn't a souled vamp and the two oldest slayers take on?
~&~
Faith started to chrochet and don't fucking laugh at her. The rhythm of counting stitches and following a pattern and using her hands for something other than violence. Yeah she liked it and if you want to judge her you can kiss her ass.
Plus she decided after awhile to pick up knitting because suddenly she's part of the scoobies and she actually enjoys learning things, shut the fuck up, and wooden knitting needles? they make absolutely killer stakes in a pinch. Or because she felt like it.
Either way Buffy and Spike both now boasted a collection of handmade sweaters, scarves and hats and if you felt like laughing at her Faith would gladly impale you too.
Still she got to make something with her hands and for a girl who never had a family? That meant something.
She was more than the death that followed slayer. She was more than the demon old men shoved inside of her.
She hoped they rolled in their graves when they saw what the new generation created. She hoped the afterlife never gave them a moment's rest. She hoped all the demons they slayed held those old men accountable for thinking a girl was a sacrifice.
She hoped they saw the two most powerful slayers as they fucked a vampire and each other. She hoped they watched and they knew what they created would never live again.
She hoped they saw what it meant when a sacrifice choose to live.