XV. Irreversible Error
Faith spent the rest of the morning hours simply watching Buffy sleep. A faint ghost of a smile breaking out over her lips when the blonde snuffled in her dreams or made one of those really cute grunting noises, that sounds like it isn’t a grunt at all.
She watched the play of the sun’s first rays as it bounced of her pale, porcelain like skin, the way her hair seemed to absorb the light as if that’s exactly what it was made out of. She looked on as those emerald green eyes flickered underneath their lids and, not for the first time, felt a longing to actually look into their depths and get lost within their endless, shifting color.
And she’d also spent a great deal of time thinking about what she could say to the small blonde about her blood debt, how to explain it without seeming as if she was saying good bye. How to tell her without lying to her.
“Hey.” Buffy’s sleepy voice broke through her thoughts, snapping her attention back to the figure curled up next to her, and focusing those sleep ridden eyes up at her face. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she brushed a strand of that silken like, sunlit hair behind Buffy’s ear.
“Hey back.”
“How long’ve you been up for?” the smaller woman grinned up at Faith knowingly, as if she’d felt even through her sleep, that her darker counterpart were watching her.
“A while.” The brunette shrugged, leaning down and laying the softest of kisses against Buffy’s forehead, her fingertips softly teasing the hair just behind her ear. The smooth palm of her hand slid, almost without touching, against Buffy’s cheek, causing a white hot flame of longing erupt within the blonde. It burst out over her skin, sending invisible shocks of electricity in waves down her arms and torso and the air seemed to crackle with the very power of it.
Above her, Faith released a soft breath, the burning ball of white hot need cresting the airwaves between them and small shocks of almost unbearable heat shocked the brunettes skin slightly wherever she was touching the blonde.
As she looked down at the girl she’d long since known had loved her, she fell into those green eyes, a far off part of her realizing that she should be slightly curious, or even scared, at the deep throbbing emerald color those eyes had changed too. But the rest of her didn’t even seem to notice, or if it did it didn’t care. Her own eyes ignored the shining light that seemed to be coming out of the blonde’s eyes, the shadows those lights were creating on the walls around them, didn’t care about how her porcelain white skin darkened and deepened into a sun kissed bronze.
And she didn’t notice the changes that seem to rush through her like wild fire; soft multicolored lights dancing underneath her skin, answering the call from Buffy’s own, her eyes no longer the chocolate brown of everyday, but a deep brown that was so dark in color that the pupil became lost within their ink. And her hair. Where dark brown once framed her beautiful face, deep black with rich tones of red streaking through it now lay.
Their breathing had become harsh, gasping within the room and going by unnoticed as they starred at each other’s beauty. They didn’t know what was happening; they didn’t care. All they recognized was that the person that lay next to them was the most beautiful creature they’d ever seen in their entire lives.
Without a word they kissed, pressing their lips together with a brutal force that, had they been human, would have bruised and possibly broken the tender flesh beneath.
Faith hauled herself on top of Buffy, pressing her lower body down into Buffy’s and releasing a soft groan as she opened her legs, letting the brunette sink further down into her body, pressing slightly perspiring skin against the heat that radiated from the body below.
Faith ground down into Buffy, pulling her hips further up the blondes body as she did so and watched with flashing eyes as the woman below her arched her back at an impossible angle, her head thrown back, and moaned long and loud into the silence of the room.
The blonde lay her hand against Faith’s hip, squeezing the soft skin there before sliding it downwards and between them, sinking those fingers deep in between her legs and watching with a smile of satisfaction as the brunette squirmed above her, desperately trying to hold on to her moan, but it being ripped from her throat anyway.
The power that was currently cresting Buffy’s skin like the tide underneath the ocean’s waves thrummed down her arm, curling into her palm for a second before pushing its way through her fingers and up inside of Faith. It started a game of jumping from her fingertips to the walls they were buried within, sending shock wave after shock wave up through Faith’s body. Causing her to thrust down into Buffy at a steady, rhythmic pace.
The silence of the room had grown thick with their heavy breathing, impregnated by the release it knew was coming. And it wasn’t disappointed.
With a synchronicity that was both beautiful and frightening in its completeness, the two writhing forms on the bed arched their backs, almost feral screams being ripped from their throats as they both joined and followed each other in release. Their skin sticking together slightly and the colors and power that washed both of their skins seeming to calm itself and settle over themselves as they collapsed in a heap of quivering and satisfied flesh.
XVI. Raise Me Up
It felt like hours before either one of the slayers had relearnt how to once again pull breath into their bodies and release it again. They still lay on the bed, both wrapped around and in each other, enjoying the silken feel of the soft and slightly damp skin of their lover against their own as they heaved oxygen into their starved lungs.
“Guys, the next time you invoke enough power to raise a small island out of the ocean, a warning would be nice.” The sound of Willow’s voice broke through their small bubble of sated happiness, only to realize that their bubble was in fact a small sphere of magic, a protection spell, which the red head was currently holding up with the palms of her hands.
“What power?” Buffy’s voice was croaky as she spoke, but didn’t move. She was naked, Faith was naked, but the brunette currently laying full bodily on top of her seemed to be in a state of sleep. And for some reason, it didn’t occur to the blonde slayer to care whether Willow saw her naked or not.
“You didn’t feel that? Jesus, I think half of California felt that one Buffy. I’d be surprised if an earthquake doesn’t hit.” The blonde replied simply with a raised eyebrow that let her best friend know that while she understood the single words that came out of her mouth, she didn’t understand what they meant all rolled into a sentence together, and in that particular order. “I tell you what, when that power’s dimmed a little bit, I’ll leave you two alone to get dressed and stuff, and then we’ll talk.”
“Speaking of which, what’re you doing here anyway?”
“Dawn needed a ride home. She was over at Jaq’s last night.” The blonde nodded, knowing in some distant part of her who Jaq was and why Dawn had stayed over there, but not having enough energy to actually try and formulate the answers to the seemingly long list of questions that crested her mind in tidal waves across her already bruised cranium.
“Look B, I have to ok?” Faith reached down and slammed the lid of her weapon’s trunk, throwing her quiver of arrows over the head and picking up her bow with the other. “I have a blood debt with him, and if I don’t do him this favor, he’s gonna take it out of me, in my flesh. And I like my ass, I don’t want any chunks missing.”
The blonde yanked on her socks as she sat on Faith’s bed, her soft features scrunched up in a frown as she tried to understand what her girlfriend was telling her.
She’d made a blood debt in hell so she could get out. Now she needed to pay off that debt by going back there. And she had to go tonight.
All she really understood that this morning when they’d had sex again, they’d invoked some form of power, or awoken one or something a long those lines, even if she found it very hard to believe herself. All she knew was that less than 24 hours after they’d gotten together, Faith was bailing.
It suddenly struck her that this was a hell of a lot like her ‘get some, get gone’ motto of years past. She felt the jolt of fear as it wormed its way up her spine and seemed to launch itself into the air around her. If she had some magical ability, she would have seem small tendrils of what seemed like black smoke, weaving their way across the room to Faith and wrapping her up in their steely grip.
But she didn’t have any magical ability, but she had her slayer ones. She could feel that power as it traveled over to her lover, as it weaved its way around her arms and legs, her chest and her head. Could sense as it wriggled its way down the brunettes spine and knew that while she was scared for what Faith’s trip into hell might mean, she was down right terrified of Faith leaving her. Again.
The second that fear wrapped around Faith she froze, feeling it as it crawled over her skin and knowing instantly that it wasn’t her own fear, but that of her girlfriend. Some how she could feel it, like a snake, as if it was all the way over here with her. If she took a moment to focus, she would have seen that black smoke like emotion as it danced through the air towards her.
“Oh baby.” The words Faith spoke were very, very soft, breaking the soft hold that fear had on her and releasing her to go to her blonde counterpart, to drop to her knees at her feet and curl her fingers around the smaller woman’s calves. “I’m not leaving you. I’ll be back, before you even know it. But I am *not* leaving you.”
“Promise?” the dark slayer’s answer was to rise up on her knees and softly press her lips to her girlfriend’s, putting all of her emotions, all of her love and want and longing into that single kiss.
“I promise.”
XVII. Wake Me Up Inside
As the couple walked out of the bedroom, they found Willow and Dawn comfortably sitting on the sofa, sharing coffee and they chatted. There was noise coming from the kitchen, and without even having to think about it, Buffy knew that it was Jaq’s scouring the fridge for some form of food.
“Hey guys.” With the announcement of their arrival, they received a cheeky, knowing grin from Dawn and a puzzled look from Willow. Dawn’s look came from knowing exactly how both of the slayers felt towards each other, and that finally they’d gotten into gear and told each other.
Willow’s look was because Faith was decked out in her brown leather and had enough weapons to keep the American army in stock for a good few years. Everyone knew that Faith had paid a high price to claw her way out of hell, but no one knew what it was, the brunette refusing the talk about it at all, and quickly changing the subject whenever it was brought up.
She’d been using a child’s way of thinking; if you didn’t talk about it, or think about it at all, then it wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, Faith was no longer a child, and somewhere inside of her, she knew this day was coming and what it could mean for her.
“Long story red.” Faith threw her weapons down as she dropped into her favorite armchair and leaned her elbows on her knees, sitting forward and giving Willow a deeply enquiring look. “So you wanna fill us in that the light show from this morning?”
The redhead grinned, “well you already know most of it..”
“Willow!” Buffy blushed and flickered her eyes over towards Faith, who was no help at all, because she was also grinning mischievously.
“Ok, so here’s the deal. When I invoked the power of the slayer, so I could help find Faith? I felt a lingering residue of power. Not from Faith but from the slayerness. Way in the back, covered in shadows.” She leaned forward and put her mug on the table and frowned as she thought about it. “It was kind of like a forgotten power, or as near to it as I can guess. But as for that, I have no idea what the hell that was. Maybe you both invoked it or something? I dunno. I’ll have to start researching it and, you know, do some tests and stuff.”
The slayers looked at each other, Buffy sending Faith an enquiring look as her lover shrugged and sat back in the chair, her eyes focusing on a photo on the mantle, or Buffy Dawn and herself messing around on the beach.
“What? What is it?” Dawns voice cut through the sudden tension that had formed in the room as she looked from slayer to slayer and back again, occasionally sending Willow a glance too.
“Don’t ask me Dawnie, I have no idea.” Willow shrugged, picking up her mug again and taking a sip.
“Look guys, the thing is, Faith isn’t gonna be here for a while. You know? She has.. stuff.. to take care of.” Buffy squirmed inside as her sister and best friend starred at her with hard glances.
“Buffy, this is really important. This power could fade or disappear, so now would be the best time to start trying to figure out what it is.”
The room filled with silence, Buffy’s mind suddenly focusing solidly on Faith, her eyes staring at her as if she were someone she’d never seen before; constant and interested in what she was seeing. Small slivers of red dancing light as they passed underneath the surface of her skin, her hair’s color darkening again as she watched those same red streaks of fire shiver their way through out her raven tresses.
What she was seeing, the witch couldn’t even guess, but she figured it was something extremely interesting.
“This won’t fade.” Faith voice came out in such a low pitch, she startled the redhead, her eyes instantly focusing on her friend. “You can’t lose what you always had.”
“Always?”
The brunette turned her eyes towards Willow and for the first time she saw something dancing through the deep, chocolate brown of their depths, something new and powerful, but right all at the same time.
“Always.”
If either Dawn or Willow had taken the time to look, they would have seen a white gray light, shining softly underneath Buffy’s skin, a call to her lover, the only other person in the world that shared the power that had always been there, always been waiting, always wanting to be free.
The only other person in the room who noticed, was Faith. Whose skin had once again darkened to its bronzed, sun kissed color. The flashes of red that traveled through her veins and reflected themselves under the surface of her skin finally becoming known to Willow as she watched, her magical eye finally twigging onto something deep and resounding happening in the room.
She sat and watched as Faith slowly stood, walked around the coffee table and stood in front of the blonde. It was only then that she noticed the color of her best friend’s skin, of the swirling light that filled her eyes.
Without another word, faith held out her hand towards her lover, clasping her fingers within her own and pulled her to her feet. A small smile danced around the corner of her lips as she looked at the small blonde, before she turned and led her back towards the bedroom, closing the door solidly behind them.
“I’m guessing you might need to put up another protective bubble, will..”
XVIII. Hear My Call
“So where is she?” the huge red demon made Willow jump perhaps ten feet in the air, spinning around to see who the hell had scared the crap out of her. She was currently standing in front of Faith’s bedroom door, her palms massaging the protective bubble that she’d created around the area that the slayers were currently within. She had no idea what the hell they were doing, but figured the spell to contain the bursts of magic energy that were erupting from the room at frequent levels was a good idea.
Of course, skip’s arrival next to her shattered her concentration, causing her to drop the bubble and look at him, just as a rather huge pulse of power exploded from the room, throwing the witch into skip, and skip into the back of the sofa.
“Jesus Christ!” the demon exclaimed as Willow scrambled to her feet and set about very quickly erecting the barrier that held the slayer’s magic within it. “What the fuck was that?!”
“That, would be Buffy and Faith.”
“They’re doing that?”
“Yup. And I’d much appreciate it if you didn’t, you know, startle me out of dropping my spell again. They’re generating enough power in there to knock California into the ocean.” Skip scratched his head as he looked at the bedroom door, something he’d been told almost four millennia ago tickling the back of his brain, but wouldn’t actually come into full focus. Well, when you’d lived for as long as he had, you tend to let most memories that don’t seem prudent to your life slip through your fingers like sand.
“Well I’d hate to break up the party but, I need Faith. It’s time for her to go.”
“Yeah, well you try going in there when this much power’s banging around. I dare you to try. Hell, I’ll even open a doorway in my spell to let you get through. But, you know, you’ve already been knocked to your ass by it once today. Do you really think being trapped in there with them is gonna give you a clear head?”
“..Fair enough. Any coffee about?”
“In the kitchen.”
~ ~ ~
Within the room, unknown to the two entities outside of their door, the slayers were softly curled up around each other. They’d removed their clothing until they were down to their underwear, and had spent the last four hours softly kissing, hands roaming and studying each other’s bodies, tongues carefully licking small beads of perspiration from collar bones and stomachs. They gently explored each other, getting to know every single mark on each others bodies, memorizing the sweet sent of each other’s heated skin, staring into each other’s eyes for long periods of time.
And every time either one of them placed the palm of their hand upon the other, a spark of light would shoot between them, causing both to gasp. And while it was a spark of what looked like electricity, it brought with it a shock of startling emotion, of self-awareness that neither of them had ever felt before.
While they had both equally know a lot about their surrounds, of most being near them, neither of them had been so self aware as they were at that very moment. Of knowing every single inch of themselves as if they were always meant to know themselves so startlingly clear.
Faith reached up, pulling her attention and lips away from the smooth expanse of dancing light, that swelled and shimmered beneath Buffy’s stomach, to rise up and press their lips together. The blonde leaned upwards slightly, taking Faith’s bottom lip between her teeth and gently nipping it, running her tongue over the warm and inviting flesh she felt there, before releasing her and kissing her. Loving the feel of the brunette's tongue as it softly brushed and played with her own.
“I need to go.” Faith’s voice cut through the thick air, causing the ghost of the protection spell to shiver against her words.
“I know.” And while a part of Buffy was crying out for her not to release the darker girl, the rest of her, the new parts of her, knew she had to go. But with that was like a soft whisper, running through her blood stream that she knew her lover would return to her.
In one way or another.
“Finally dude!” skip shot up from the sofa, throwing the remote to the coffee table and turning around to look at me. I don’t think he was ready to see me like I was. Because although that new and forgotten power had receded back into it’s shadows cave inside of me, my skin had yet to return to it’s normal paleness, my hair loosing it’s streaks of deep red fire, and my eyes shaking off the ring of pulsating blood red, that ringed my iris. Small slivers of red still shimmered and danced underneath my skin, and shadows still danced around the room with mine and Buffy’s appearance. “Jesus, what the fuck is up with you?”
“I didn’t know you swore so much big guy.” I smiled at him softly, before turning my attention to the blonde in my bedroom doorway, who had stolen one of my big and baggy shirts and pulled it on, fastening only two buttons down the front. She was leaning against the doorframe, her arms folded loosely over her chest as she smiled at me.
I leaned forward, taking hold of her arm and pulling her towards me, wrapping both of her arms around my neck and circling her waist with my own. I pulled her tightly into me, memorizing the press of her body against mine and breathed in deeply the vanilla scent of her hair.
“I love you.” I whispered softly into her silken tresses, feeling her squeeze me tighter against her as she breathed out in a sigh.
“Ditto.” I smiled at her choice of words, remembering that she said to me that she’d tell me she loved me when I came back to her. I couldn’t wait to finish this debt and return.
I released her gently, kissing her softly as she played with the hair at the back of my neck, before releasing her and going to pick up my weapons.
“Come on then skip, lets get this show on the road.”
“Ok, but before we do, let me just tell you what’s gonna happen..” I put my hand on his arm and grinned up at him.
“No one’s gonna expect me, are they?”
“Not even close.”
And then we were gone.
