Chapter Text
As they dance, there’s a sudden break in the tension between Faith and Buffy. A quick moment to stare the other down; almost like asking for permission to proceed into uncharted territory. Faith’s hands are inching underneath Buffy’s loose top. She’s ice cold feeling warm, supple flesh. In that moment she could feel herself melting.
On the other end, Buffy’s nervous to even keep her hand on Faith’s hip, just barely gripping her to keep her close. She didn’t have to try very hard, with the way initially Faith came onto her. Confusing, but flattering nonetheless. Something inside of her tingles when she’s close to Faith. Was it attraction? Curiosity? Jealousy? Pinpointing the exact feeling is a hard enough task. Buffy didn’t even have the mental capacity to ponder her own sexuality at the moment. She only wants Faith.
Faith had it all together; While it only takes a little bit of alcohol in the slayer’s system to get her going, she isn’t as confident as Buffy believes. It takes all of her own energy to make the other girl believe she’d done this before. ‘Yeah, I’ve touched boobs that weren’t my own. Sure, I know how to kiss a girl. I’ve kissed girls…multiple girls in fact. I’m totally not freaking out!’ Faith repeats to herself in her mind. But lord she cannot keep her hands off Buffy. A little bit of groping and squeezing in all the right spots never hurt anyone. At least in her experience. They had only danced for a few minutes before they made the mutual, and wordless, decision to go somewhere more private.
“What are we doing?” Buffy finally speaks up after they made their way to a secluded corner.
“Bumping, grinding, a little bit of the good stuff that happens before the main bang.” Faith snipes. “You not down for a little girl-on-girl?” Once again she puts up that tough gal front. She’s actually pretending like the thought of Buffy not wanting her isn’t shooting pain down her chest.
“I don’t know how to process any of this.” She puts her hands up in defence, in a way rejecting Faith…or at least slowing her down before this progresses. “You know I’ve never…” She pauses for emphasis. “You know.” She waves her hand around. “Kissed a girl. I like guys. I’m only into guys.” She raises her brows. Defence mode. Correction: Denial mode.
“Shit, B, I’m sorry.” Faith trying to make a full recovery from that blast. No crushed egos, No crushed egos. “Got carried away there.” She puts her hands in her pockets, avoiding real eye contact.
“Oh…no I mean…it’s fine. Really. I’m just…not a lesbian .” Buffy puts a quiet emphasis on the last word. She’s not insulting Faith, more just separating herself from what she doesn’t know or understand. Faith gives her an intense look in response, her brows furrowed and her mouth turned neutral. “It’s okay if you are!”
Pause.
“You wouldn’t even think twice about kissing me if I was Angel .” Faith can’t hide her disappointment now, it’s written all over her face.
“Why are you so offended?” Buffy can barely keep herself together. Both women are not in the mindset to be having this conversation. She crosses her arms over her chest, as though she was creating a barrier between the situation and what her heart is telling her to do; which happens to be the exact opposite of all the words falling out of her mouth. All she can do right now is argue with Faith. “You get so territorial every time men enter my personal bubble. I don’t belong to you!”
Faith rolls her eyes. “You have no idea how I feel. You don’t know me.” She trails off. “Maybe I have a jealousy problem.” She shrugs. She doesn’t want to expose her darkest secrets. Her clear attraction to the other slayer.
“I can see that. I just don’t get why.”
“Barely understand it myself.”
Buffy stops and just focuses her attention to Faith. She inches closer to her. “Are you in love with me?” She’s not sure what answer she wants to hear.
Faith’s eyes gloss over. Woops. Trigger word. “No. No, I’m not.” She shakes her head as a distraction and a method to rid herself of the tears. “I’m horny and emotionally unavailable, thanks.”
“Then, why ? Why the jealousy? The longing looks. Lingering touches. I notice things about you, Faith. You think I don’t know but I do. I know you. I want to know you.”
“You’re not gonna get a confession out of me, B. If you’re so not into chicks, it wouldn’t matter even if I was in love with you.” Faith points certain words out in her speech. She’s vulnerable in a way that she cannot control.
Buffy’s pushing her luck by pressing Faith’s buttons trying to feed her own ego. Unlike her, but seeing Faith slink back in what appears to be shame gives her that confidence to push. “...and what would you do if I was?”
“I think you know what I’d do.” Faith stands her ground, shedding some of the previous nerves. “...But you’re scared to admit that you want it.” That playful smirk returns to her expression. Buffy’s clearly toying with her emotions but Faith’s willing to entertain it if it pays off in her favour. Here comes that tension again, rolling in after some of the negative energy clears from the air. A wave of heat comes over both of them. Everything Faith says is correct but Buffy’s pride prevents her from being more honest.
“Can we start over?” Buffy says. “I liked it better when we were just dancing…together.” Her cheeks flush a pretty pink. A clear but still mixed signal. She’s curious, and wants Faith to keep touching her without the expectation of getting something further than that. Faith nods in acknowledgement. “Less talking, more grinding, got it, B.” Her arms slink around Buffy’s midsection, leading her back to the music and dance floor. Buffy leans into her touch more than she did before.
Back to square one, and a somewhat scandalous song plays over the speaker. The other patrons of ‘ The Bronze ’ have left the consciousness of both slayers. To them, they’re busy on a patrol of the other’s body. Pure exploration with zero expectations. Buffy goes bold and moves her hand from Faith’s hip to her ass. A shockwave of drunken giggles are exchanged between them. They grind against each other during the heat of the song, keeping a rhythm while still focused on touching. Anyone keeping an eye on the two, who didn’t know better, would say there’s an essence of pure sexual attraction and energy brewing from their connection. On some level it's accurate. However, with Buffy’s hesitance to even kiss Faith’s gentle, yearning lips, it’s hardly the truth. It’s a game of chicken. Faith pants heavily, the animal inside of her not exactly satiated with simple groping. God, she wants more of Buffy. She wants all of her. On every level.
Buffy stops what she’s doing, and looks Faith in the eye. “You okay?”
“Five by five.” She replies on a heavy breath.
Buffy won’t give in to what she knows Faith wants. She’s not entirely past the point of drunken return. That would be letting her win. It’s a delicate dance of, ‘Will she? Won’t she?’ until Buffy decides she’s ready to take on Faith’s sexual appetite. She’s not sure if she even wants to but alas, they continue to dance and drink the night away.
They stumble out of ‘ The Bronze ’ with their arms linked together, swaying from one side of the alley to the other. Giggles and almost falling into a dumpster ensues.
“For women with superpowers we seem to be pretty clumsy.”
“It’s the alcohol. But I’m on guard. I’ll take on any vamp that wants to challenge me!” Faith snickers and laughs joyously. They receive a few strange looks from passers-by, and she receives a different one from Buffy. “What?”
“You have a pretty laugh.”
“Don’t get all mushy on me, B.” Her face is bright red.
Buffy mirrors her energy. “You do. It makes my heart feel all mushy .”
“Uh-huh. Yeah, okay.” She leans her head on Buffy’s shoulder. “Tonight was fun.”
“Yeah. It was.”
Their walk home was peaceful for once. It’s quite rare in a town like Sunnydale where monsters run rampant, for there to be nothing out prowling for human blood…and/or flesh.
Buffy held Faith’s arm the whole way home, like a security blanket. For someone who claims to not be very touchy, Faith is more than accepting of the other girl’s affection. They’re protecting each other. The Buddy System. Slayers can still get kidnapped, you know.
Buffy stops them in front of her house. “Do you want to stay the night?” Without even saying a word, Faith is taken aback by this comment. She lets go of B’s arm.
“I mean…” She stares up at the house. “I would but I miss my own bed.” Faith’s done playing chicken. If she gets in bed with Buffy, she’s never gonna call out. Now she plans to play hard to get. “A lady needs her private time.” She could just give in and stay but after their little ‘patrol’ session, Faith has business to take care of.
“Oh.” Buffy blinks, she’s not entirely convinced. She laughs with a sense of nervousness coming out through her tone of voice. “Figured it would be better than walking home by yourself.” She’s disappointed now that Faith is the one rejecting her invitation to play. Why is she so disappointed? She won’t vocally admit to wanting more time with the girl.
“I’ll be fine. Five by five, B.” Faith winks and turns around in the other direction, but not without giving Buffy a gentle smack on her ass.
“Oh!” She exclaims, not expecting it. “See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, baby .” Faith smirks as she starts to go her own way. Not Buffy, or B. Baby . Far too affectionate for the tough, stoic, Faith. Either way, they’re both too drunk to really act as themselves.
“Wait!”
Faith stops in her tracks.
“Aren’t you gonna kiss me goodnight?” An almost desperate sounding cry from a drunken Buffy Summers. She didn’t mean for it to come out as pathetic as it did.
Faith’s eyebrow raises. It was taking the power of the gods for her to resist. “You rethink that and come back to me when we’re both off the funny juice. You wanna play games, B? I’ll be the ref and call the shots.”