Three Weeks Later. FPOV

“Buffy.” Oh, she knows I'm serious, she's just pretending not to notice. “This isn't right.” And it's not. This is cruel, and I can't believe she's making me do this. “We can't just leave him here. Look, he's so sad.” I know I sound desperate and probably a little crazy but I don't care. I look through the fence again and then back at Blondie. She seems fine, how can she be so damn calm about this? I'm a wreck and Buffy is acting like it's nothing, how? Isn't she supposed to be the one with all the girly emotions?

“Faith, he's fine.” She says like she knows I'm starting to panic, like it's no big deal and I'm overreacting. I so am not. If anything, she's under reacting. Is that even a word? “He's not sad. See, he's even waving goodbye. Bye Matthew, have fun!” She yells out to our boy and he waves at us, I wave back sadly and he turns back to his new friends and continues to play. First day of kindergarten and I feel like I'm dying inside. My best friend, partner in crime, co-conspirator in driving Buffy crazy…my son is just perfectly ok with us leaving him here.

He actually pushed us out the door to try and get a blubbering me out of the room so I wouldn't embarrass him. What kind of shit is that? Isn't he supposed to be crying and wanting to stay home with us? Sure he's played with other kids before and been babysat by Dawn and Willow and her girlfriend, but we've never left him with a stranger before, so why is he so calm, why does he look so happy? “Ok, you big softy, let's go. I have some shopping that I need to get done.” How is she ok with this?

We went to the mall. I'm grumbling and dragging my feet a little because I hate shopping, especially since that little `adventure' I had at that lingerie store, but we won't talk about that. Buffy's still fine. She even has me holding her purse, which is totally embarrassing and a rep killer. I hear her say something about swimsuits and she starts to drag me off in the direction of the bathing suits. Maybe this will be fun after all, if I can convince her to model them for me.

We weave in and out between some clothes racks. Apparently cutting through a different section is a short cut or somethin. She stops cold and I bump into her back. I'm about to say something but then I see what she's lookin at. It's this little suit, small enough for a boy around four or five. It's tan, with a little light blue button up shirt, and a little red with white striped tie. It's for Easter or church or a wedding or some occasion like that, and it's adorable, I'll admit. I watch as she reaches out and runs her fingertips over the little tie. I'm still touching her, and I can feel her muscles start to tense up. So maybe she isn't as ok with leaving him as I thought.

“Wouldn't Matthew look so handsome in this?” she asks, her voice is strained and I know she's fighting against a lump in her throat. Even though I want to dance a little victory dance because I'm not the only soft one, I know I can't, at least not now. So I wrap my arms around her waist and she leans against me. I feel a tear fall down and land on my arm. I slowly turn her around and she's doing the best she can to stay strong, she's my little fighter alright, but the tears and emotions are stronger then her stubbornness. At least something is. Ok, I shouldn't be sarcastic right now. My baby girl is hurting, and the only time I've ever been able to stand there and do nothing about it, even cause it, was when I was all crazy, and I'm not anymore. I reach up and slowly wipe away the tears with the back of my left hand. My other hand is busy rubbing her back softly. She whimpers a little and I pull her close to me.

“We just left him there. How could we just leave him there?” she asks, her words are almost incomprehensible, but I know what she's saying. Her bottom lip is quivering and she swallowing hard, probably to try and fight down the lump in her throat. She isn't breathing and she's starting to turn a little blue. I'm praying that she doesn't have a big melt down here in the middle of the store. I hug her tightly and she's softly crying, I can tell she's holding back. Her shoulder and back muscles are so tight I think they're gonna snap. Getting out of here right now would be good. I turn her around and lean her up against my side. She's clinging onto me how I imagined little Mattie would be this morning, and I lead her to the front of the store. We get many odd looks from the other shoppers and from a couple of employees. I fight down the urge to tell them to go fuck themselves because Buffy being upset is none of their business and if they wanna stare at something then they can watch my fist as it hits their face.

As soon as she sits down in the front seat of the car, well Buffy's car. She got a sedan `cause it's safe, and I got a Camaro along with a Ninja motorcycle for the speed. And chicks love the car. Anyway, as soon as she sat down in the seat she started bawling. I have no clue what to do. I've never really seen her this upset before. Well, after she gave birth she went through postpartum depression or whatever, but that was a hormone thing, there was nothin I could do to help. But I have to try because she's my girl and seeing her so upset is starting to freak me out a little. We've been going through the `when you hurt I hurt, when you're happy I'm happy' stage for about…let's see…six years now, maybe a little longer. Not only that but we can feel each other's emotions and physical condition when they're really strong because of our slayer connection. When she was squeezing that kid out of her I thought I was gonna die. I don't know how she survived.

“Shh, baby. He'll be alright. You saw him when we left, he was happy, and having fun. He made some friends and the teacher will take care of him.” She doesn't look convinced. I can't tell if it's because the sound of my voice, which is totally the opposite of what I'm saying. Or maybe it's just because she doesn't believe me. He was making friends. He seemed to be the popular one of the group, even had those other little kids laughing at some jokes, which I pray where appropriate `cause the last thing we need right now is a call from the teacher saying he's a gutter mouth. It's the part about the teacher that she doesn't believe, and neither do I. He's only ever been taken care of by our family, we've never trusted him with strangers. Hell, even leaving him with Kennedy worried me at first because I didn't now the girl very well at the time. She spoils him rotten though and he milks her for all she's worth.

“But what if he's not alright?” Again with the sobbing, it's making her really hard to understand. “What if the teacher is a demon or something? What if one of those kids is like a demon hybrid and they hurt him?” Oh, don't even go there, B. She's starting to freak me out now. But I need to stay calm. I know that she's just worried. He'll be fine. We checked out the school, had Willow hack into the school's records and teacher's personal files, and from what we found out none of them are demons. Can't tell about the kids though, there are a couple of single parents with kids in his class, maybe a demon raped them or something and then left them to raise its evil spawn? Ok Faith, Buffy's words are just fucking with your mind. Just breathe and everything will be ok.

“Buffy.” She's staring at the dashboard and running her fingers through her long hair. “Buffy look at me.” It takes her a minute but she finally composes herself and looks over at me. Her eyelashes are thick and wet, her nose is red along with her eyes, and I can't help but think she's the cutest woman alive. So I've gone soft, wanna make something of it? `Cause I'll whop your ass if you do. “Buffy, we checked out the school, it's a nice place. All of the teachers have a good record, nothing criminal, and they know how to handle kids. I'm not sure about the other little rugrats, but Mattie can hold his own. He doesn't have all that slayer strength and speed for nothin'.”

Finding out about that was a blast, yeah right. Mattie barely hit Dawn in the nose and it broke, he was only six months. Apparently if you get a child of two slayers, they're born a slayer, no training required. He watched me and B spar one day and mimicked the moves, had `em down perfect, but we don't encourage him to be violent or to use his powers `cause he's enough trouble now as it is. He will use his speed though, when he's running away from Buffy when it's bedtime, and she's trying to change him into his pjs. He runs around the house half nude and she's chasing after him, yelling out his name and he laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world. And it might be just that.

“Look.” Maybe I should try a different approach. “It's a half day today, so he gets out in….” I look down at my watch. Wow, is it really only nine in the morning? “Three hours. So why don't we go back into the store and head to the bathroom so you can wash your face `cause of the tears.” Wow, close call. She looked at me like she was gonna kill me. She's very sensitive about her looks nowadays. “And we do a little shopping.” I know what'll cheer her up. “And, I'll even model some swimsuits for you, if it'll make you feel better?” She doesn't look much better. She's smiling a little, like me modeling swimsuits is just so unbelievable. I've done it before, just not for her. But we don't need to go into that right now.

“God, I'm such a pansy. I felt like I was dying back at the school. I don't know how I managed. I guess seeing you so upset sort of helped me.” At least my pain is good for something. “Sorry, that sounds really bad, I know. Can we just go home? I don't' feel like having everyone stare at me if I go back in there.” Stupid fuckin gawkers. I should go in there and give them a piece of my mind. She sense that I'm pissed about that. “Faith, please, let's just go.” She sounds so small. I haven't heard her sound like that since the First was attacking and she was stressin like mad. After the little potentials kicked her out I followed her out to the porch. She told me to lead them and I went back inside. I knew I couldn't leave it like that so I tracked her down after making a plan with Giles.

When I found her she sounded so exhausted, so tiny. That was the first time I realized that Buffy isn't just the slayer, she was scared twenty-two-year-old, who was afraid that she would die, her family would die and everyone had turned their backs on her. I think it was right then that I swore to myself I would `pull an Angel'. Ya know, shadow her around to make sure she's ok. But then she took off before I woke up and we ended up dating so the whole shadowing her around thing wasn't really necessary since I was with her most of the time.

I start the car and pull out of the parking lot. She still has some tears running down her face and she's wiping them away. I can tell she's a little embarrassed. All these years together and she still doesn't like to cry in front of people. It isn't so bad with me because she knows she can trust me and count on me to do anything I can to make it better. I'm her girlfriend, her lover. We open up to each other a lot. Even me, shocking I know. The point, she's a little more comfortable crying in front of me then she is in front of her friends and Dawn. But just because she's comfortable doing it doesn't mean that she likes to. She doesn't like to show weakness so when she does she tries to cover it up. But there's no hiding from me, I know better.

I pull into the driveway and shut off the car. Neither of us makes a move to get out. That's weird, I'm usually the first one out of the car. I unbuckle my seatbelt and turn to face her. She's staring at the dashboard again, she has this far off look in her eyes, but she seems to be doing better, like she's remembering a happy memory. The corners of her mouth are starting to turn up a little bit, and I have to ask: “Whatcha thinking?” She's been on my ass to improve my grammar. Something about me being twenty-eight and I need to stop talking like I did when I was a teenager, but whatever.

“I know it never really happened because it was made by the monks, but I remember Dawn's first day of kindergarten. I was in sixth grade and we went to the same elementary school. I remember at recess I snuck into the playground that was just for the kindergarteners to make sure that she was ok. She was so shy and scared and she hadn't made any friends yet. She clung onto me and told me that I needed to stay with her because next year I would be going off to the middle school and I wouldn't be there to teach her how to take care of herself when she reaches first grade. We sat at the swings for a while until she finally calmed down. She cried a little when they told me to leave but I had to or else they would've called our mom.

“And everyday for two weeks I'd stand at the fence that separated the two playgrounds and watch her play and make friends. The first time I saw her fall and skin her knee I almost freaked but she stood up and brushed it off like it was nothing. By the end of the second week she said she was fine and she didn't need me to look out for her anymore.” At the beginning of the story her voice was light and almost happy, but now it's sad and I know that there's some type of deeper meaning to all of this and not just a memory that some monks cooked up a few years ago. “What happens when Mattie doesn't need us anymore? He was so fine with us leaving him there this morning, what if he doesn't need us at all anymore?” She doesn't cry again like I thought she was going to. I lean over and wrap my arms around her. She hugs me back, and it's getting a little hard to breathe her grip is so tight.

“Buffy, he's only five, he still needs us. So he likes going off to school? That's a good thing. It means that when he's older and needs to face the world by himself he'll be able to. Pushing us out the door was a little…harsh, but he's still a momma's boy. I bet when we pick him up from school he'll be so happy to see you he'll shed a couple a tears.” I make sure that my voice is light and a little playful at the end. She chuckles a little which was the desired effect. I'm glad that I can make her laugh when she's feeling bad like this. God, do all parents go through this when they send their kids off to school for the first time?

BPOV

Our little boy doesn't need us anymore. He pushed us out of the room because we, well Faith, were embarrassing him. We're an embarrassment now. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen until like, middle school or something? I'm starting to rethink this whole school thing. I mean, how much does a kid learn in kindergarten anyway? Ok, so it is important and I'm the one that had to convince Faith that it was a good idea, but I just can't help it. Maybe I would be doing better if he had cried a little, or begged us to stay. My little boy doesn't need his mommy, this is a sad day.

We get out of the car and Faith is being very considerate of my girly feelings. She's opening doors for me, showing me through her actions that she really does care. As soon as I get out of the car I can hear that stupid dog barking. It isn't his normal `this is my house so if you're a stranger stay away' type of bark. It's higher pitched, almost whiney. Tucker misses Matthew too. That's the bark that he uses when Matthew goes over to Willow and Kennedy's on Thursdays when Faith and I go grocery shopping. God, how did my mom do this twice? I was always the more independent out of Dawn and me so I sucked it up and took the pain in silence. But Dawn bawled her eyes out when my mom left her in that classroom. The tantrum didn't last more then five minutes after my mom left but I still had to make sure she was ok.

We go into the house and I sit down on the living room couch. I kick off my shoes and put my feet up on the coffee table. Call me a hypocrite, I don't care. I hear her put the car keys in the little dish that's on the little end table by the door. That's also where we put our mail and stuff and now that I'm thinking about it maybe we should put our mail right next to the door. Oh well. I can't just sit here, I need to do something, to keep my mind busy. The thought of my baby alone, well not alone, but with strangers in a new place and wanting his mommies to come and get him, is starting to drive me insane. Let's see, what's something that needs to be done around the house that I've been putting off? I don't know.

It's not like I have a job to go to, the Council's never-ending funds have been supporting us since the fall of Sunnydale. Once Giles got the new Council set up in Cleveland and pulled out all the money he would need for a while he gave the Scoobies controlling interest of the money. At first we wanted to be a little greedy, go big, buy huge apartments in expensive cities, but we couldn't do that. Giles might need more money for the Council and little slayers in training. We take what we need, and sure there's the occasional shopping spree but we keep it under control. Willow and Kennedy aren't taking any at all because Kennedy's parents are fucking loaded and even though Willow would rather not, they're living off of Kennedy's dad's money.

So the only ones really using it is Xander, Faith and myself. Xander has a nice house not far from here. He met this nice woman named Katie. They've been married for about three years now, and have a kid on the way. I couldn't happier for him. We see him at least once a week. I try to have a Sunday night dinner where all of the scoobies, excluding Giles `cause he lives a couple states over, get together and share what's been going on. It doesn't happen every week, more like every other. I understand that we have our own lives now and we don't need to be in contact every single day because of all the slayers running around to take care of things. But it's still nice to see them.

I know that Willow has a job. Nothing much, just something for her to do to keep her restless mind busy. After she did that spell to activate the little slayers, it's sort of hard to explain. It's almost like she became a demigod or something, at least in the way of magic. She has this white streak of hair kind of like the Rouge character from X-men, and yes we do tease her about it, especially Dawn. Anyway, she got the magic completely under control, and when I say control I don't mean that she's no longer addicted or she no longer has problems with spells. I mean she has all of the magic on earth right at her fingertips to command whenever she wants. She doesn't get power hungry, like she did when Tara left. She's above all that now, it's like it doesn't even affect her, like it's just some tool that she uses whenever she needs. And she doesn't need to cast a spell, it's like there's this permanent `will be done spell' going on with her, only without the disgusting consequences.

Dawn has a boyfriend, she's been living with him for the last two years. His name is Kyle. I don't like Kyle. I really, really don't like Kyle. Ok, so maybe it's a big sister thing, but I don't think I'm ever going to really like the boy that's fucking my sister. Color me crazy, but I just don't think the boy and me will ever be on good terms. Whenever they come over I make sure he damn well knows who's in charge, even if he does feel a little uncomfortable. Dawn gets mad, says that I'm an overprotective freak and I need to learn how to control my territorial slayer side. But this has nothing to do with the slayer. This is all sisterly.

Let's see, who else haven't I talked about? Well, Andrew I guess, although he isn't really a part of the scooby gang. He stops by every once in a while and Matthew has fun teasing him and picking on him. It's like they're both little kids, even though one of them is pushing thirty. But it's good that Matthew has a guy that he can hang out with sometimes. There are too many girls around and I'm afraid that it's going to damage him psychologically or something. That he isn't going to learn how to be a boy and act like a boy. Sure Xander comes around a lot, but Matthew doesn't really like Xander that much. I don't know why. They just don't get along very well. I think it's because Matthew takes too much after Faith, but Faith and Xander get along great. I don't know.

Even though I don't like Kyle he and Matthew get along great, and I hate it. Matthew gets really excited whenever Kyle comes over, and they hang out and play with Matthew's toys. Kyle is a good influence. He has a good job, he's gone to college and graduated at the top of his class. He treats Dawn with respect, that girl couldn't be any more in charge if she were a prison guard, at least that's what Faith said. He likes spending time with Matthew and puts up with him whenever he comes over. Having a five-year-old shadow you around and not leave you alone for three hours can get really irritating. So even though I don't like Kyle, I still have some respect for him because he's great to my son.

“Thinkin about Kyle again?” Faith asks as she sits down on the couch next to me. I have a tell so whenever I think about him people know. I guess I always- “You get this look on your face like you're gonna puke whenever you think about him. Look, I know you don't like the fact that he and Dawn are….” She trails off. Oh you better put it nicely. I think that's why she's pausing, so she can say something that won't come out vulgar and make me want to hit her. Because my emotions are so fried right now I think I just might. “Sexually active.” Going for the textbook terms, she only does that when she knows she has to be good. “But he's good for her. He kept her in check when her drinkin was gettin a little outta control and he loves her to death. Just be happy that she didn't end up with some loser who's using her for her body.” I hate it when she makes a good point. As the `girl' of this relationship I like to always be right.

I shift my weight on the couch. I really need to do something or I think I might go crazy. I look over at the clock on the wall above the television. It's almost ten o' clock. This is when Faith and I would normally take Matthew to the park to play with the other preschool kids who have housewife mothers. It was nice, Faith and I met a lot of nice people that way and Matthew gained some social skill so he wouldn't be completely blindsided when he started school.

I wonder how he's doing. He's an only child, obviously, so he isn't used to sharing toys and stuff like that. What if he gets into a fight with another little kid and gets a bad reputation as the selfish kid? He does take after Faith and a lot of her actions are misinterpreted, and she had a bad rep. Ok, well mostly because when we first met and she was telling her stories she made herself sound like a whore, but whatever. I need to calm down before I go insane.

I look over at Faith when I see her move. She's scooting a little closer to me and I take a glance at her body, checking her out. We have never been able to keep our eyes off each other's body. Well, at least not most of the time. What I see in her hand though makes my blood boil in one of the worst ways. I'm not going to start yelling even though I should. I'm going to stay calm because I don't think I could handle a fight right now. I'm not going to just sit here and say nothing. And I know that isn't soda in that glass, I can smell it from here. I look away from her because I know that if I look into her eyes I'll start screaming. I know what the look on her face is going to be. A look of mock-innocence and a `what did I do?' sort of look. So instead of screaming at her I look up at the clock again and star at the thin clicking hand counting down the seconds.

“It's not even noon Faith.” Oh there's anger and venom in my voice. You better believe it. “And you promised me you were going to quit, remember?” She did, she promised me. Matthew was only four months old at the time. We were still trying to adjust to the baby and moving into our new house. My baby had a fever and was crying non-stop for six hours. I did everything I could think of to calm him down. I got cool rags and dabbed his forehead to make sure he wasn't overheating. I walked around with him, I sung to him, I fed him, but he just wouldn't stop. And I was all alone because Faith had gone out that night. She didn't tell me where she was going, just that she'd be back in a little while, but I knew.

She came home at around two thirty in the morning, not completely wasted but a little tipsy. I was stressed and my nerves were completely fried and I really needed her help, ya know, her moral support to let me know that I'm not the only one who's raising the baby. But because she had been drinking all she wanted to do was go to bed to get away from the noise. We got into a huge fight. And when I say huge, I mean huge. We were screaming at the top of our lungs, things were thrown, and a glass was broken. She was the one who broke the glass. It had been sitting on the end table next to the couch and threw it against the wall. When it shattered a piece came flying back and cut Matthew on the arm. It wasn't a serious cut or anything, just a little scratch, but she was the one who did it.

Matthew starting screaming again at the top of his lungs, it must have stung really bad or something. I picked him up out of the little swing and tried to calm him down. I wiped the blood off of his arm, not a whole lot just enough to leave a very thin cover over the fingertips of my three middle fingers. I held it up for Faith to see and she just stared at it. Her face paled and her eyes went wide, like she's never seen blood before. I've seen that look before, but we won't go into that right now. I said something to her, something like: “see what you did? If you weren't drunk you wouldn't have done this. He's our baby now grow the fuck up and act like a mother”, but I can't be sure exactly what I said. I concentrated on the boy while she went off somewhere in the house. I fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up the next morning she was making breakfast. After I fed the baby I sat down at the kitchen table with her and she promised me she'd never drink again. I knew she wasn't lying because she was looking me straight in the eyes and she had some tears in hers. So the fact that she's now holding a glass full of…some type of alcohol is really pissing me off right now.

“That's true, but it's not for me. It's for you. You look like you could really use a drink.” Oh my God! She just doesn't know when to back off does she? Ok, I love that she's concerned and she's trying to help but she knows that I don't drink anymore and that she shouldn't drink anymore if she knows what's good for her. When she promised me that she'd stop I told her that if she ever drank again, even just one little sip I'd kick her ass all the way back to the crater that's Sunnydale. And I know she doesn't doubt that. I didn't mind her drinking before I got pregnant because she had it under control. She'd go out and only have three beers, or two really hard drinks, but never anymore then that and never a combination of the two. But we had agreed that for the sake of the baby we'd swear off alcohol and she broke that.

“I don't want one, you know I don't drink. And how long have you been drinking again? Where's the bottle?” Yep, I'm really pissed off now. It's like all of that energy that was being used to worry has now shifted and is used for being super pissed off. I chance a glance over at Faith and I can see that she looks a little hurt. She'd only look like that if I had accused her of something she didn't do. Ok, so she hasn't been drinking but where did the bottle come from, and how long has it been in my house?

“It's on the top shelf in the garage behind the cans of paint.” At least she's being honest with me. At least I think she is. Yeah, the guilty look on her face means she's being honest. “It's been there for a while. I haven't had any of it, cracked the seal just for you. I bought it just in case.” Great, not this again. We went through some troubles about a year ago. We were fighting a lot, and not just little arguments I mean full out screaming matches. She slept on the couch most of that year. I finally reached a breaking point and kicked her out. She was gone for three months, she moved in with Xander and his wife. She saw Matthew on the weekends, Xander would pick him up on Friday and bring him back Sunday afternoon. Apparently she was hitting the booze really hard during the week but sobered up for the weekends. What she meant when she said `just in case' is: “just in case you kick me out, this way I don't have to go to the store to buy a bottle.”

“Faith, honey.” Did I just call her honey? That's a first. Don't get me wrong, we have little pet names for each other, but honey? Way too cliché. “We went through a rough patch, that's all. No relationship is perfect. We learned and grew from that bad time and if we ever do hit another rough patch we'll work through it together.” My voice is soft because I know thinking about that really awful year always gets her depressed.

I reach over and take the glass from her and set it down on the coffee table and then wrap by arms around her and pull her close. She snuggles into me and I lean back against the arm of the couch so that we're half sitting up, sort of. She's a little tense. I can feel her muscles tighten a little more. I leave a small kiss on those red lips of hers. We sit there in silence as I rub her back and side. I'm keeping my eye on the clock, and I know that she's glancing at it every once in a while, because when she sees that it still isn't time to get ready to leave she'll sigh heavily and nuzzle my neck with her nose.

FPOV

Finally eleven thirty rolls around. It takes a good twenty minutes to get to the school, so we're leaving a little early in case we hit traffic. But we're probably going to be late because miss girly has to get ready. I was ready five minutes ago. I gave myself a once over in the mirror, touched up my make-up, tossed on my jacket, grabbed the car keys and now I'm standing by the front door impatiently shifting my weight from one foot to the other. I love Buffy, really I do, I die protecting her any day, but sometimes she can be such a…girl. It can get very frustrating. She takes half an hour to get ready and that's if she already has her shoes picked out. Don't even get me started with the shoes.

I know why she wants to look nice though. She wants to make a good impression and I don't blame her. We didn't get to meet any of the other parents this morning when we dropped Mattie off because I was blubbering like an idiot so we had to leave early. We know that the school has a good reputation, good teachers, the students aren't violent except for the occasional fight, kids will be kids, but we don't know what the parents are like. And we don't know if there are any parents that are like us. We really don't want Mattie to be given a hard time by the other little rugrats just because he has two mommies. Well, a mommy and a mama. He's the one who decided to call us by different names, not us. But I guess it works out better, this way there's no confusing when he's calling out for one of us.

“Buffy would ya hurry up, we're going to be late!” I yell and run my hand through my hair. I've been thinking about getting it cut, spice things up a little. Its gotten long, really long, like almost down to my hips long. Buffy loves it because when she couldn't find the silk scarves one time she just used my hair to tie me up. So I like to be dominated every once in a while? Don't fucking judge me. Anyway, she tied the knots too tight and they were a bitch to get untangled and she's been teasing me about it ever since. So I have a sensitive scalp and my eyes watered when she accidentally pulled too hard, so what? That doesn't make me a sissy. Finally miss royalty walks out of the bathroom. She's carrying her purse, I really hate that thing, and she looks a little exited. I am too, I can't help it. We're getting our boy back.

Ok, I know I shouldn't be thinking like that. He's going to school, which is good. He's going to learn and make friends and all of that other shit, but I can't help it that I miss having him around. I mean, you spend five years being around him, spending almost every day with him you kind of get used to it. More then kind of. Like right now, for example, we'd be at the park watching him play with the other kids and when he gets bored we always take a little stroll down the jogging trail together, just the three of us because the joggers don't come out until a little later.

We talk and laugh and B and me will end up swapping a little spit and he'll make a gross face and say something about it, and I chase after him, and since we're in a large open area he can use some of that good ol' slayer speed. He gives me a good run for my money, but since I have way longer legs it isn't hard to catch him. And when I do I'll twirl around and he laughs and laughs and suddenly I really hate the idea of him going to school five days out of the week for six hours. I mean, how much is he going to learn in kindergarten anyway?

“I'm ready. God you're so impatient.” Did I prove that she's the impatient one a couple weeks ago? Oh well, no use bringing that up or else she'll just bring up the whole hair pulling incident and no need for that. My pride is way too sensitive today, what with crying like a baby and everything. I open the door for her and she smiles and nods a little thank you. I'm very polite that way, and she loves it. She's in the car by the time I get the door locked or else I woulda opened the car door for her too. She thinks I can be a little too suffocating that way, says she needs her space and she can do things on her own, that she isn't just some damsel in distress, but I catch her smiling whenever I act like the gentleman.

We take Buffy's car even though I protested a little. I really don't like driving the sedan, but I just can't be a passenger in a car. If I'm going to die in a car accident I want it to be at my own hand. Very morbid I know, but whatever. I drive like a fuckin maniac when it's just me but I'm always paranoid as hell whenever I have other people in the car, especially B and Mattie. If I caused an accident, even if it was nothing more then an accident and nothing could have been done to stop it, and one of `em got really hurt I don't know how I'd live with myself. But when it's just me I'm petal to the fucking metal. I've calmed down a little then what I used to be because I really don't want B to be a single mom. I don't know if she'd be able to learn how to live without me and adjust to all of the responsibility. And I don't even want to think about little Mattie growing up and not knowing who is `daddy' was. Just the thought is starting to freak me out a lot.

I sigh very heavily and Buffy looks over at me. I guess she thinks I'm worried about meeting the other parents or something. She reaches over and starts to stroke my hair and I calm down. Like I said I have a very sensitive scalp and a gentle touch can calm me down within seconds. Oh great, I'm nothing more then a big pussycat. I roll my eyes at the thought and stop at the red light. I really can't take this silence thing that we have going on. Normally we talk whenever I drive us somewhere or we carry on a conversation with Mattie from his booster seat in the back, but for some reason we're both quiet. We're both nervous I guess. Which is even weirder, Buffy talks almost non-fucking-stop when she's nervous. Her babbling could put Willow to shame and I've seen that woman turn blue from talking so much in one damn breath.

“Don't worry. I'm sure he'll come running up to you and jump into your arms. He always runs to you first whenever we pick him up from somewhere. Although I can't imagine why,” she says and smiles a little. I shake my head and try to see around the car in front of us. What is taking so damn long? We've been here for like three minutes already. Is that a long time to be a red light? How long does a person normally spend at a red light anyway? Is there an average I can look up somewhere so I know if we've been here for too long? Hmm. I take this opportunity to flip through the CD wallet I have in the car and put in my Godsmack CD. We both like the band and that's why I picked them because almost nothing is more annoying then trying to listen to music and having someone complain the entire time that they hate it. I start tapping my fingers along to the beat of `Sick of Life' and Buffy starts singing along, very horribly I might add. But I don't say anything because I don't want to start a fight.

She reaches over and takes my right hand off of the steering wheel and entwines our fingers together. I look over at her wondering what the hell she's doing. She hates it when I drive one handed, says it isn't safe, so why is she doing this? Oh well, I guess I'll just roll with it `cause she has this look in her eyes like maybe later on we could get up to some mischief. The last time she looked at me like that we ended up having sex in  Willow's bathroom while she and Kennedy checked the house out. They hadn't bought it yet they were still looking. But still, whenever she gets that look in her eyes it means she's thinking of a place we could get into a little trouble. I like the way she thinks, I really do. At least when it's something I agree with, her taste in movies I can live without.

Finally the light turns green and we start moving. She starts skipping forward to reach her favorite song on this CD. I don't really like it a whole lot. It reminds me too much of Sunnydale when I accidentally killed that guy. But she loves it and is singing along to it right now. I've told her how I feel about this song but she says that it's all in the past and we need to move forward. I don't mean to be a bitch, but she still hasn't gotten over her hospital fear, doesn't that count as living in the past? I take in a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I really don't like this song.

“'I don't know how to love. I just know how to live. All I feel is hate. Will you forgive me? I don't know how to breathe, with you too far away. Don't know how to love. Will you forgive me?' Faith look out!” she yells and I swerve. Almost drove up on the fucking sidewalk. God, I really, really, really hate that song. She seems to pick up on that and puts in a different CD. Now why didn't I think of putting in Seether instead of having to sit through that horrid song? The school comes into view and all of the bad thoughts ago away because in a couple of minutes we'll have our boy back.

When we pull into the school parking lot she's practically bouncing in her seat, and if I didn't know any better I'd think she'd need ta pee. I feel just like her on the inside but I'm keeping my cool about it. I already made a jackass out of myself this morning in that classroom, now it's time to redeem myself. Even though I was upset I saw a couple of the single, newly divorced fathers checkin B out, and I'm going to tell them now that she's damn well taken. We don't really act like a couple out in public, and many people think that we're just friends so whenever I feel like my territory is being threatened I have to make sure that I mark it. Great, now I sound like some jealous dog. Oh-fucking-well.

“Come on Faith, hurry up.” She's mocking me now because I was rushing her before we left. I just know she is mocking me. She's standing by her door waiting for me to hurry my ass up. I guess I zoned out there for a few seconds. I shut the car off and get out. She waits for me to round the car and then she starts walking next to me. As we get closer to the playground I entwine our fingers together. She gives my hand a gentle squeeze and we walk through the gate. We can hear the little rugrats all the way from out here, and the classroom is like thirty feet away. Either they're that loud or our hearing is that good. Probably a mix of both. The door is open and we see the other parents before the kids. Apparently all the little ones are in the sitting area or something like that, and the grown ups are waiting in the little cubby area. I never thought in a million years that me - Faith the badass slayer, I do what I want fuck you if you don't like it - would ever use the word `cubby'.

We walk through the door and the first thing I do is take a survey of it. I look over and spot Mattie sitting at a little table with four other kids, paying attention to something the teacher is talking about. Ms. Honey, swear to God that's her real last name, is telling them about the proper way they leave the room at the end of the day. Apparently they've been split into six separate groups, and from the little name tags on the six little tables the groups are named after barnyard animals. I squint a little and see that he's in the `cow' group. Oookay. I think that teacher might be a little nutty.

The second thing I do is take a look at the other parents. Those single dads are looking at both B and me, but mostly B, which isn't surprising. We've both aged well and while I'm still sexy and hot in that wild way, she's different, like always, she's beautiful, radiant. When someone looks at me they think I'm a total fuck an' run, how I used to be. Use `em and loose `em. But with B, she's the kind of girl you wanna take home to mom. Ok, I'm fucking rambling. And I think I need to go out to a club and have a wild night `cause I really think I've gotten tame. Looks like Dawn lost that little bet after all. Yeah I know about that, I've known for a while now. I heard Buffy talking about it with Willow. I can't believe it was only twenty bucks, I would have bet fifty minimum.

Anyway, just to show those guys who's boss I wrap my arm around Buffy's waist and casually slip my thumb through the front left belt loop of her jeans. She looks at me a little funny but then looks over at the other parents and sees the stares she's getting and she accepts what I'm doin. I start to send off glares at the single guys staring at my girl, I can't stress enough that she's mine, and most of the guys look away. Even if she teases me for getting jealous she likes that I get protective because five bucks says one of those dads is going to ask her out in the near future, and if it weren't for my little acts of jealousy and possessiveness it'd be a lot more then just one.

Even with me all wrapped around her like this and her leaning against me there's still this one guy who's eyeing her. He's not even trying to hide it. What a fucking asshole. If we weren't in front of like twenty little kids I'd punch him in his fucking head. I get a little tense and tighten my grip on her. This bastard has no fucking respect at all. And I'm judging this solely on the fact that he just fucking looked me dead in the eyes gave me this little smirk and now he's eyein my girl again. This guy isn't coming anywhere near her without me being there and he's going to know it right fucking now. I resist the very strong urge to lean over and start kissing her exposed neck. When we go out, very rare but it happens, to this one really bumpin club that's what I usually end up doin to warn all of those twenty somethin year old guys that I'm the only one goin home with her. Ok, I've gotten almost completely off topic. I think I might have A.D.D.

So anyway, there're more then just single dads and moms in the room. They're couples, just none of them are same sexed. I really hope that we're not the only ones in here who are involved in a `non-conventional' relationship. I may say that I don't care what people think about me, that I'm gonna do what I want and fuck everyone who has a problem with it, but I really don't want all of these other little kids to pick on Mattie just because he's the only boy in the class who doesn't have a mom and a dad. Kids can be very mean, and I know this first hand.

And of course there's always the incident at the park that happened about three maybe four months ago. He was playing in the sand box and was talking to this little girl. She was a new comer and he likes meeting new people so he was talking with her, trying to make her feel welcome, being a good little boy. According to them, she asked where is mommy and daddy where and he said that he doesn't have a daddy that he has another mommy and she started to make fun of him, calling him a sissy because he lives with only girls. He got upset, and because my kid isn't a sissy he threatened her. I don't encourage that kind of thing at all but at least he was sticking up for himself.

Anyway, this little girl kept telling him all of these mean things and he got so angry that he kicked over her sand castle. Doesn't sound like much but it's a big fucking deal when you're a little kid. Making a sand castle is like finding the cure for cancer and then having someone come along and destroy it. Anyway, the point is that I don't want my kid looked down upon just because he was created a little differently. The girl's mom didn't even apologize for anything that came out of that little brat's mouth, so hmm, I wonder where she got all of that from? Whatever, they can judge us all they want but the second they treat my kid different the gloves come off and I don't care if I come out looking like a bitch. I'll knock any motherfucker, that's an adult, out if they treat him badly.

I don't want him to come home upset because the others were picking on him for drawing a picture of his family standing in front of the house and it shows two women holding hands with a little boy, just like I got picked on because I drew the same picture only minus the second woman, and replace the little boy with a little girl. Getting picked on for your family situation sucks, I know first hand. The kids are starting to get up, that means it's time to mingle. Oh the joy.

BPOV

I feel Faith's arm sneak its way around my back and she puts her thumb in my belt loop. What the fuck? I give her a weird look and I see that she's looking at the other parents. I follow her eyes and three of the guys are looking at us, mostly me. Why did I have to wear this shirt? I suppress a smile. My baby girl's getting jealous. I think it's cute that she's afraid some guy in my son's kindergarten class is going to try and whisk me away. She knows that if anyone were to hit on me some of the first words out of my mouth would be `Oh hi (insert name here) my name's Buffy, and this is my lover Faith.' Yeah, when introducing ourselves we say `lover', not girlfriend because some people still use it to describe two girls who are just friends. There's nothing wrong with that, but we don't want any mixed signals. Especially for the one guy that I know is going to hit on me. I'm not cocky or anything but he keeps looking at me like a wolf looking at a sheep, and it's a little unnerving. But I got my girl here, and we're about to get our boy back so everything is right with the world. Well now that I'm thinking about it we could use a new dishwasher, but I think that was supposed to be a generalization so whatever.

I look over at our boy, dressed in jeans and his navy blue t-shirt with the picture of a fire truck on it. Faith insisted on buying him Vanz shoes, and even if they are overpriced I have to admit that they do look good on him. His hair is still nice which is shocking. His hair is just as unruly as his mothers. I feel a little bad for him because he has horrible `hair genes' as Faith calls them. Some of his hair wants to be straight like mine while some of it wants to be curly like hers so it's just like a big mane. So we keep it cut short but it still gets pretty crazy. Good thing he's not a girl because once she'd hit the teen years we'd hear nothing but complaints about her uncontrollable hair.

Oh he's standing up now. I'm smiling wide but remaining calm. I don't want to make a big deal about picking him up like Faith made a big deal about us leaving. I love her, but that was embarrassing. I'm being as relaxed as I can and as long as she has her arm around me and is acting all coupley I might as well lean against her, `cause nothing says relaxed quite like leaning up against someone or something. She knows I'm faking though, but that's ok, it's everyone else that I'm trying to fool.

Ok, he's standing up and walking but it's not towards us. I know he knows we're here because we made eye contact when he walked into the door. But instead of running happily to his mothers and tell them all about his first day of school he's going off and talking to a little boy in an Oakland Raiders shirt. What kind of crap is that? Is he that independent now? Faith said that he's still a momma's boy, but from what he's doing he's obviously fine. I think she's thinking the same thing because I can feel her tense up a little. I look over at her and see that her gaze isn't in his direction but over where the other parents are standing.

I follow her eyes and I see that wolf man is walking towards us. Just fucking great. Talking to a newly divorced guy is just what I need right now. And how do I know he's newly divorced you might ask? He still has a tan line where his wedding ring used to be. So he's newly divorced and thinks that he has a chance in hell with me? I don't mean to sound conceited but I mean come on, if I had to choose between that guy and Faith I'd pick Faith in quicker than a heartbeat. I'm sure he has a great personality, but he's just not my type. What's my type besides Faith you may ask? Well…not him I can tell you that much. He smiles at me and glances over at Faith. She plays it calm and straightens up a little, tries to make herself look taller. If I weren't so worried about getting hit on by this guy I'd think it were cute.

“Hi, I'm Derrick Alberts. Looks like yours and mine are getting along great,” he says and looks over at the boys. So the little Raiders fan is his huh? I really hope Matthew doesn't become best friends with that kid because the last thing I want to do is attend a play date with Derrick. But I suck it up and decide that I need to be nice. If I'm going to set a good example for Matthew then I need to get along with all of the parents. Faith on the other hand is another story.

“Hey Derrick, my name's Buffy Summers, and this is my lover Faith Lehane.” He seems unfazed by the fact that I called her my lover, if anything he seems a little more full of himself. Oh boy, here we go. Ok, I really want off of this subject and like right now. Faith plays the part perfectly though. She holds out her hand and says hi, he says hi back and shakes her hand. She uses just enough of her slayer strength to make him feel very intimidated. I can see it in the way his body sort of tensed up, like he's actually going to accept her silent challenge. I think I'd actually pay to see that. Anyway, changing the subject before the two get into a pissing contest. “So, what's your son's name?” He looks back at me and he relaxes a little bit. If he could be any more obvious I'd give him a good eye roll.

“Parker.” You've got to be kidding me. Parker Alberts? Ok, so it isn't very close to Parker Abrams, but it's still a little close. And that little boy does sort of look like him. Please don't tell me Parker died and got reincarnated and is about to become the best friend of my little boy. God, I need to stop obsessing about stuff, it's starting to give me a really bad headache. “What's your son's name?” Ok, I guess I've been quiet a little too long. He looks like he's getting uncomfortable.

“Matthew. Yep, Matthew James, our little pride and joy.” Faith nods her head in silent agreement. I look back over at the boys and see that they're busy talking to each other. There's too much noise in the room for me to hear exactly what they're talking about and it's starting to bother me a little bit. What the hell is so important that can't wait until tomorrow?

“Nice name.” I smile a silent thank you. I really just want to get out of here. “He looks a lot like you.” He says to Faith and I can see her puff out her chest a little bit. Oh yeah buddy, boost her ego up just a little more, why don't ya? He continues to talk before she can say anything. “I don't mean to pry or sound intrusive but was he artificially inseminated?” Holy fuck who does this guy think he is? He sounds a little fearful and the last two words were said lower then the rest. How are we supposed to explain this? No one has ever asked this question before. Our friends and family know how Matthew was created so it's never been a big deal or a big explanation, but what are we supposed to say to a stranger? We didn't even think about this, maybe kindergarten is a bad idea after all.

“I'd rather not talk about it, Derrick.” She puts emphasis on his name, as if to say `keep pushing and your face'll be in the fucking around faster then a blink of your fuckin eye'. She cusses a lot, what can I say? He seems to take the hint and he backs off both physically and verbally. He backs up a little bit and then bids his goodbyes before calling over his kid. Matthew follows and finally runs over to us. Faith lets go of me and picks him up. Didn't I tell her he always goes to her first? I wasn't just saying that to make her feel better. He gives her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Oh great, he wants something. He only gives her a kiss on the cheek under two circumstances, the first is he wants something and is trying to butter her up to get it. Or it's bedtime and he's giving her the `bedtime kiss'.

“Did ya miss me?” he asks her and I can tell she's fighting not laugh. Of course we missed him. You should know you're reading about it. Faith tells him that she missed him a whole lot and then he reaches out for me. I take my little boy into my arms and give him a big hug. Any other little kid would've been crushed, but since he's a slayer baby he can take it. “Mommy, I drawed you a picture.” I smile and look over at Faith. I can tell she's feeling a little left out because he didn't say anything about a picture to her.

“That's great, sweetie, where is it?” I ask and his expression turns completely serious. My brow crinkles and he leans in so only the two of us, well and Faith because of the slayer hearing, can hear what he's going to say. Out of all the things to ever come out of my baby's mouth this is certainly not what I imaged he would say. At least not until he's older, like maybe in the third grade or something, maybe even a little older then that. I'm not sure. How old was I when I got embarrassed by my mom calling me pet names in front of other people? I can't even remember.

“Mommy, don't call me that. I'mma big boy now, remember?” I want to laugh because he's being so damn serious. I hear Faith snicker and she's biting her lips to keep from laughing. He sends a very nasty glare her way and she shrugs and then covers her mouth a little with her hand so he can't see her smile. “Mama it not funny. Don't laugh.” He's getting angry now. He definitely has Faith's impatience. I set him down on the ground before she has a chance to comment and they start arguing. Ever see a five-year-old argue with a twenty-eight-year-old and both of them are completely serious about what they're talking about? Well if you haven't I suggest you seek it out because it is hilarious. But not in front of total strangers, then it's just embarrassing because they always look at you strange for letting them argue and you get embarrassed.

“So, what did you draw me?” I ask and he takes me by the hand and leads me over to the table he was sitting at. Faith follows and I can tell by her demeanor that she's a little upset because he didn't draw her a picture. I would be too so I'm not about to make fun of her for it. So, Matthew shows me this drawing and it's pretty nice, for a drawing by a five-year-old. In crayon he drew him and Tucker in the backyard digging a hole. So he actually encourages that dumb dog to dig? “That's really good. I think we'll hang it up when we get home. What do you think Faith?” I try to make her feel a little included.

“It's great. Definitely fridge worthy.” She says that about all of his artwork. He grabs her by the hand and starts to drag her off towards the back of room. He doesn't really say much but we follow him because he seems really excited about whatever he's going to show us. I see a cage with some small animal inside and I pray that he's not taking us over there. Demons and vampire I can handle, but after Amy turned me into a rat that one time I can't stand to be around rodents. I only put up with rat Amy because Willow felt like she had to look after her.

“Ms. Honey said we had to make something for our daddies too. I told her that I don't have a daddy so I made this for you.” He seems a little bashful about it and I think it's cute. He always wants to impress Faith and I think it's adorable. He does stuff to make me happy too but he only gets really shy about it when it's in regards to miss tight jeans over there. He opens up a little drawer that has his name written on it and pulls something out from inside. Now it's my turn to be a little jealous. All I got was a picture, Faith gets a fucking crown. She's beaming with pride right now and I think it's cute. I got over the jealousy like three seconds ago.

“Thanks Mattie, this is great.” He blushes and it's just the cutest thing. She picks him up and gives him a hug before situating him on her hip. We walk back towards the front of the room and all of the other little kids are starting to take their daddies, if they have one, back to the huge plastic dresser looking thing to get what they made for the men. We go over to Matthew's little cubbyhole, why does that word sound so dirty? And we get his lunch box out of it, and some papers that are supposed to go home to us. The one thing that my mom always hated about Dawn and me going to school was all of the paperwork that she had to fill out. I glance at the top sheet of paper and it's a very bright color with dark writing informing the parents that the very first parent-teacher meeting is next Thursday. How wonderful, I wonder what excuse Faith is going to use to get out of this one.

“There's no way I'm going to that meeting, so just forget it now,” she whispers into my ear while Matthew puts on his jacket. Apparently no excuse, which I have to admire, at least she isn't trying to lie her way out of it. I'll get her to go with me one way or another, even if I have to threaten to go a `sex strike'. I've done it before, it only lasted a week because our libidos have not taken the hint to calm down. That week sucked, but the sex on that Saturday night was awesome. Ok, I'm pretty sure it's totally wrong to be thinking about sex when there are a bunch of little kids in the room. Changing the subject now.

“Can we go to the park?” Matthew asks looking from Faith to me and back again. We look over at each other and shrug. Why not? We used to go to the park almost every day. Sure we would have to go a little later then normal but we can still go after he gets out of school. So we pack up his stuff, he says goodbye to some of the little friends that he's made and we're off. It only takes us fifteen minutes to get to the park and he talked the entire time. He told us about the carpet that the kids sit on in the mornings while the teacher goes over some stuff. Apparently they're not supposed to talk while they're on the carpet and if they do they have to sit at their table by themselves with their heads down for five minutes.

Then he talked about recess and how he played in the sand box, and about the little boy named Parker. Apparently Parker's mommy and daddy just broke up because they were fighting a lot so his mommy went away. I chance a glance over at Faith and I can tell by her tight jaw that she's thinking about the time she went away. I really wish we could just forget about that time, but it's always going to be lingering over our heads. I hated being away from her like that, but I just needed some time to breathe, and we weren't getting along and I thought it would be better for Matthew if she just moved out, that way he wouldn't be around the constant yelling. She understands, but she still hates it, so do I.

We make it to the park and we get out of the car. Faith helps Matthew out and he says that he wants to skip the playground and just walk around the jogging path. So we do as he requests because that me and Faith's favorite thing about coming to the park. It's nice to walk holding hands on a really nice pathway with a lovely little river to the left of us, and a really grassy area to the right. The park is pretty big and there're lots and lots of grass along with a few trees to make it nice and shady. Sometimes we come here for picnics but that's only when Faith is in a really good mood. She doesn't like the whole picnic thing, thinks it's too cliché.

So we're walking down the path, I have my right hand in one of Faith's back pockets and the same goes for her. Well, it's in my back pocket. My head is resting on her shoulder and her cheek is rubbing against the top of my head. I love it when we go for walks like this. I can’t explain it very well, but just walking with her like this, being wrapped up in each other, I don't know, there's just something very intimate about it. But then Mattie sits down in the middle of the path and starts talking off his shoes and socks.

We stop and watch him, Faith asks what he's doing and he says that he wants to walk in the grass now. Doesn't sound like a bad idea. I take off my sandals and wiggle my toes a little bit, Matthew laughs and then steps onto the cool grass and wiggles his toes against the blades. Faith takes off her shoes and puts her shocks inside of them so they don't get lost. We set our shoes down a little ways off the path and start to walk around on the grass. I gotta admit this does feel better.

Faith and me are having another little contest now. It's just some dumb thing that we do when we're feeling a little playful. I swear we act like teenagers sometimes. We're standing about five inches away from each other, I'm trying to pinch her ass and she's trying to pinch mine. The object of the game is to either block the other person from pinching yours and then move in quickly and pinch theirs. She gets distracted by something that Matthew says and I take full advantage of the opportunity. But instead of just leaving a little flirtatious pinch I slap her across the ass, not too hard, but just enough to get that satisfying smack sound. She looks over at me, a little surprised and she rubs her butt a little. Yeah, `cause I really hit her that hard, there isn't even a mark I'll bet.

“Oh you're so gonna get it now, B,” she threatens. I smile oh so innocently and bat my eyelashes. If it's one thing I'm good at it's acting like a naïve girl. I walk ahead of her a little bit and turn around to face her and keep walking backwards. I'm slowly getting more ahead of her, which is good because I'm going to need the distance when I take off running in about twenty seconds.

“Oh really. Well, catch me if you can!” I take off and she follows. I make sure to run mostly in a large circle so we don't get too far away from Matthew but he's keeping up all right. He's mostly laughing at the way we're acting and I can't help but let out a couple of giggles. My escape is only halfheartedly and I totally let her catch me. I spin around before she reaches me though, and run backwards. When she grabs onto me she grabs me by my waist and I can tell that she's going to lift me up and twirl us around, which is a total girly thing to do and I'll let her know it when she's done.

But she never gets the chance to because I slip on something and start to fall. I grab onto her because if I go down then someone's going with me. I land on my back with her on top and we just stare at each other. “Well, ya caught me, now what are you gonna do? What's your big payback?” I smile a huge grin and she smiles back. She leans down and kisses me. It's innocent at first, but it deepens as we forget where we are. She gently nibbles at my bottom lip before slowly sliding her tongue into my mouth. I eagerly take it and twirl it with mine before I softly suck on the tip. My hands are in her hair, holding her there in case she decides to pull back.

“Eww! That's gross!” We pull back and see Matthew staring at us, smiling widely. I look up at Faith and she has this smile in her eyes and I nod my head in agreement. She gets off of me and stands up and then holds out her hands and I take them and she pulls me up off of the ground. We look at each other one more time before turning to face the giggling boy who knows that something is coming. We take a couple of steps towards him and he squeals in laughter before turning around and taking off running. We chase after him, laughing the entire time, in completely bliss. There's nowhere we'd rather be right now then spending this time with him.

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