Be Seeing You
Rating: PG13
[thump, thwack, poof]
Number four down and gone. Buffy stood up straight again and lifted her eyes to scan the surrounding misty darkness. She could barely make out the words on the tombstones a few paces away. Didn't matter though, she could hear pretty well. Slayer and all that.
"Nice job." A voice spoke out into the night, soft and melodic, matching the surroundings of the graveyard.
She spun around, searching for the source of the voice, and finding it in a silhouette of a person. Almost like her shadow instead of her, herself. Leaning back against a tombstone, her hands grasping the mortar underneath her palms.
"Thanks." A wary answer from the mighty slayer.
"I swung through on my way. Thought maybe you and me could have a chat, of sorts." The shadow shrugged, head looking off to the side and then back in the direction of Buffy.
"It would help if I knew who you were." She shoved her stake into the back of her jeans, gently tugging her jacket over the top of it, to hide it. Her eyes followed the shadow as she pulled herself from the headstone and walked over.
The mist seemed to part before her verguregure, as if under her spell, weaved by her own hands. She moved until she was only a few footsteps away from Buffy, her hands now fitting snugly in her pockets, and her hair gently speckled with droplets of the mists moisture.
"Faith."
"Good call."
"What are you doing here?"
"Like I said, thought we needed to have a few things out before I got on my way."
"Way?" Buffy suddenly felt so very tired. As if someone had pulled the cork out of her bottle and she was slowly leaking out of it, dripping away into nothingness. She leaded back against a mausoleum, propping her hands behind her and looking at the other slayer from under her eyelashes.
"Just.. away, B."
"So what did you wanna say then?" Faith gave Buffy a soft, haunted smile before speaking.
"Are you gonna beat me to death?"
"No."
"I'm sorry." Her words hung like lead in the air between them. Buffy refusing to reach out and take the offered weight they presented her. A weight which Faith had, no doubt, been waiting to off load for quite some time.
"Why did you do it Faith?"
She looked off to the side again, cocking her head slightly as if to think, her eyes fixated on some object or point that Buffy just couldn't see. She nodded her head softly and then drew her eyes back to her lighter counter part. As if agreeing with someone about something.
"Because, I figured that any emotion off you, was better than nothing." She held up her hand quickly, before Buffy could say anything. "It doesn't matter if that was the case Buffy. What matters is that at the time I was feeling it." Looking directly into Buffy's eyes, and cocking her head to the side, she smiled softly. A look that warmed up her entire face. "But then, they always say that you hurt the one you love most."
The words were like a punch in the gut to Buffy. Her chest seemed to contract slightly and her breathing started to become more shallow as she stared at the figure in front of her.
For her part, Faith just stood there. Hands in pockets, head tilted to the side slightly, eyes locked firmly on Buffy's face. There was no other motive for sharing her secret with the other slayer, there was nothing left to gain from the words that filtered through Buffy's mind at an alarming pace.
"Faith.." the dark slayer again held up her hand, stopping the progress of Buffy's words before she'd even fully formed them inside her head.
"It doesn't matter B. You don't have to say, or do anything. Scar tissue remember? It all fades." She shrugged and looked off at that unseeable point again, listening intently. "I didn't come here to make you love me back. I realise now, that you never could."
"What are you here for Faith? What could I possibly give you, that you haven't taken from me already?" the words weren't spoken harshly, nor with any trace of bitterness in them. It was just a tired question.
"Can you ever forgive me Buffy?" Faith whispered the words, and they carried gently across the mist to Buffy's ears. Sounding like soft, melodic bells ringing in the distance.
She pulled herself up to standing again and walked over to Faith. Reaching up with her hand, she cupped the side of the dark slayers neck and smiled softly up at her.
"I can always forgive you Faith," leaning forward, she pressed her lips softly to the other girls, before hugging her close to her and whispering in her ear. "But I will never forget."
Faith's arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer into the hug, and pressing her lips to the shorter girls shoulder. She felt a whisper of a tear slowly running down her cheek and watched as it landed on Buffy's jacket and soaked into the mate. .
"Please, don't ever forget Buffy." She pulled back, running her knuckles over Buffy's cheek softly and smiling down at her. "Don't forget me."
"I never will." She leaned into Faith's touch, her eyes still firmly locked on the dark pools of swirling emotion, and finally feeling grateful that she'd gotten that chance to see the other girl again.
Faith's head suddenly snapped off to look at that point again, her eyes narrowing slightly, as if straining to hear something. "I gotta go B." She turned back to the smaller slayer and smiled again, running her hand down her arm and pulling her into another gentle hug. "Places to go."
"Counting down from 7-3-0?" Faith chuckled softly as she pulled away again, and pressed a light kiss against Buffy's cheek.
"Something like that." A sudden wind ruffled Faith's hair, whipping it around her face before it died away again. She stepped backwards, letting her arms drop from around the smaller slayer and that gentle smile graced her face again, but with a slight tinge of sadness lying just below the surface. "That's my call B."
Buffy nodded, and watched with harrowed sadness as the girl walked backwards a few more steps.
"Be seeing you B." she turned around, the mist seemingly surrounding her before she heard the last words from her sister slayer. "Real soon."
Buffy stood there in the shrouded silence, looking at the point where Faith had disappeared into. The mist had swirled around her back, almost as if it were a door closing behind her. Making Buffy wonder when closure became such a real metaphor.
She sighed softly, breaking eye contact with the space of nothing, and turning around, she made her way back home slowly.
[A telephone call]
"Hi Angel, it's Buffy."
Hey Buffy. Is something up?
"Well yeah. No. kind of. I was just wondering, have you seen Faith lately?"
{silence}
"Angel? You still there?"
Yeah, I'm still here Buffy. It's just.. why do you want to know about Faith?
"Just curious I guess."
I haven't been to the prison for a week now Buffy. I'm not likely to see her ever again actually.
"How come?"
Because...Buffy she died last night...
....Be seeing you B. Real soon.
