Title: S Sometimes Stands For Sisters (Not Slayers)
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Faith+/Buffy (purely on Faith's end, as Buffy is in an established relationship with Spike in this)
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: It's the first Christmas after the end of Sunnydale.
Word Count: 2,392
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 463. Apart and 100Ships 25. Thistle
Warnings: Cannon Character Deaths, Slight AU (in the simple fact that it didn't take so long for Spuffy to reunite)
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.








"B?" Faith frowned, her arms instinctively folding across her ample chest. "What're you doin' here?"

Buffy was clearly taken aback by her reaction to her presence. She recoiled, a flash of hurt passing through her green eyes and over her pretty, little, blonde face. There had been time when Faith would have relished drawing that response from her, but not anymore. Not for a while now, as a matter of fact. It felt like years since she had last felt that way, since she had wanted to hurt the older Slayer, the first Slayer, as far as Faith was truly concerned. Neither of them were first or second Slayers or anywhere near the top of that long line, but it had always felt to Faith as though Buffy had done everything else first. Of course, she truly had, but that wasn't why she had had such a better life than Faith, why so many people had preferred her to the once-rogue Slayer. Why they still did. Why she still did.

But they weren't those people anymore. Not by a longshot. Hadn't been for years. Faith tried to soften her face as B snapped back, "I dunno, F. I thought -- maybe -- we could spend some time together?" She brandished a small, brown paper bag to which Faith almost snorted. Until she remembered again that they were not the children they had been back in Sunnyhell, and tonight wasn't the night, for Buffy of all people, to be getting wasted.

Now she was concerned. She moved back into her apartment, her brown eyes both widening with surprise and softening with concern. "Didn't mean it like that," she muttered. "You should know that. After all this time." After all this time, indeed. She had thought they had put their old lives behind them, and maybe they had, at least to some degree. Why else would B come here, to her, of all places and people, when she was clearly looking to drink away her pain?

B hesitated in her doorway, hand on the top of the wine bottle. Faith could have downed that baby glass in a single gulp, but she didn't tell B that. She didn't say anything, as a matter of fact, and only moved deeper inside and gestured with her dark head for Buffy to come in and shut the door behind her. She'd dreamed of moments like this, once upon a time, way back when she'd been new to their calling. She'd thought she'd been such a bad ass, but in truth, she'd been a kid, just a child hurting and trying so desperately to find a place where she fit in. When she'd found out there had been another Slayer, she'd hauled ass for California, thinking at last she'd find someone who would accept her.

She'd been wrong. At first. But she and B had come from such different worlds. For all they'd shared, B couldn't've possibly understood her back then, and Faith... Faith hadn't been able to see pass her own pain to not be jealous of everything B had had, all of which she'd seemed to be taking for granted. All of which, maybe, she still was taking for granted. Faith whirled on Buffy suddenly, her dark eyes demanding. "What're you doin' here?" she asked, and then tried again to gentle her tone. "Tonight, I mean."

She watched B's pretty, little green eyes darting uncertainly between her and the wine bottle. "Isn't it obvious?" she asked, her cheeks beginning to color. "Never mind." Shaking her head, she shoved the bottle back in the bag and turned to go. "This was a bad idea."

"Yeah, it was a bad idea," Faith said. She couldn't stop herself. But before Buffy could reach the door, she continued, "You're a damn fool, B. Don't do it again."

"Excuse me?" B snapped, turning back to face her. There was the old fire, the old anger that they had both used to get through those final battles in Sunnyhell. (Spike was right. That damn town, with its Hellmouth and all it had put them all through, didn't deserve to be called a dale.)

Buffy stopped suddenly. Her mouth hung slightly agape as she stared at Faith -- or rather at the neon lights illuminating her. Faith scoffed at the other Slayer's genuine surprise. "You decorated?"

"Hell yeah, I decorated. I've always done something for Christmas. Hell, even in my cell, I'd get little pieces of -- " She stopped herself, tossing her head as she reminded herself not to open up too much. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that it's Christmas Eve and you shouldn't be here if the world's not ending."

"I didn't know you had plans."

"I don't." She shrugged. "'Cept getting drunk and watchin' some old movies." She didn't need to know that they were the same, old Rankin Bass specials she'd used to watch as a child with her grandmother. Faith didn't have very many happy memories, but she'd always cherish the few she did. And most of those, especially from her childhood, involved her grandmother. Those very early Christmases had been the only good ones she'd ever had, which was why she was so angry with B now. She was wasting her time, and all those who loved her dumb ass, again!

"I... didn't know..." Buffy's voice had fallen to a soft whisper as she looked around them. There was a sprig of mistletoe that looked like it might actually be genuine in a window -- odd place, she thought, if you wanted to kiss someone, but maybe it was Faith's way of making sure she didn't risk having to kiss anyone who she might not want -- and strings of lights, thistle, and garland strung from Faith's living space all the way to her little bedroom.

Looking at the dark-haired Slayer in the glowing lights, she remembered another time Christmas lights had illuminated that same, tough and wary face. Realization dawned. Of course, Faith liked Christmas. She didn't know much about the other Slayer's family life before she'd been called. She didn't open like that -- Buffy knew she was more likely to get the truth out of Spike even. But looking around at Faith's holiday decor and remembering that one string of lights she'd strung in that tiny apartment in tiny fleabag hotel room in Sunnydale, it suddenly became very obvious to Buffy that Faith had a deep love for Christmas.

"Don't look at me like that." It was a warning, a near growl, and Buffy quickly dropped her gaze.

"I'm sorry," she said. Faith knew she meant it, but she wasn't going to soft. She refused to go soft, even if they did usually have others to fight their battles for them now. It was the first Christmas after they'd brought down the Hellmouth, but the potentials -- they really did need to find a different name for them for although more girls kept coming every day, many of them had definitely earned their stripes and calling -- had come a long ways. It was rare she or B had to actually delve into the fighting these nights, unless, of course, they wanted to. Which Faith did most nights, and Buffy did too, but for different reasons.

And tonight wasn't a night they had to fight. In more than one way. Once more reminding herself to go easy, Faith put out the truth between them, "You shouldn't be here, B. Not with me. Not tonight. You should be at home with Dawnie and Spike and the others."

Buffy's eyebrows arched when she heard Faith call her sister by her nickname. She had been unaware just how much the other woman had come to like Dawn, but if she was truthful with herself, the mystical energy turned girl turned woman was the closest thing either of them would ever have to a little sister, to a daughter, or to a niece. "I smell popcorn," Buffy said, speaking soft, low, and easy. "You wanna bring that and come along?"

Faith's dark eyes snapped up to her. She was beginning to remind Buffy of how a wild animal might look, spooked because it had been seen and uncertain if it should hide where it stands or break tail and run. Not that she'd ever known Faith to run from a battle, or could even imagine Faith turning down a chance at a good fight.

"You don't have to do that." Faith shook her head and forced her feelings down. "You don't have to take pity on me. Go home to your family, to your friends -- "

"You're one of them," Buffy interrupted her, meeting her gaze. "Like it or not, we're two of a kind. Isn't that one of the things you used to tell me back in Sunnydale?"

"You never acted like you liked it then."

"Yeah, I did. Up until -- "

Faith's face fell. At the reminder, she suddenly looked as old as they both felt, which was far, far more than their actual age. "I know. But not most of the time. You didn't exactly make it easy, B."

"I wasn't used to sharing, F. Not back then. For what it's worth, in my part of all that, I'm sorry."

"I know. You made it clear before -- "

Buffy nodded. "Those last few months in Sunnydale." Quiet stretched between them. It was neither unfriendly nor comforting. It was Buffy who broke it at last with another, softly uttered admission, "I get now why Mom used to say the holidays are hard. She never said that to my face. She always made every Christmas worth remembering. But I'd hear her sometimes, especially the year she started thinking of divorcing Dad. I thought she didn't know, but I did. I hear her some nights when she talked to her friends on the phone." Buffy looked down at the wine bottle in her hands, its top wrapped in her squeezing fingers. She looked ready to cry as she whispered, "I don't even have a grave to visit for her now."

"Geez, B, you ain't gotta guilt trip me."

Buffy's teary eyes flashed back up to Faith. "I'm not -- "

Faith shook her head, cutting her off. "I know," she admitted, "but it got you to stop yammering, didn't it? Look. I know holidays suck. I know it hurts. We've both lost people. But you have people, Buffy. You have Dawn, and Spike, and a whole shitload of friends who love you. Who don't really want to see me, and you don't really want me there with you. That's okay. But what's not okay is being apart from the people you love when you don't have to be, especially on a holiday night like Christmas."

"It's not okay for you to spend it alone either!"

"I'm not alone. I've got my popcorn." Her eyes danced with sudden mischief, and she grinned lecherously at B. "I've got my fingers."

"EUUW!" Buffy's face turned as bright red as her sweater.

Faith grinned triumphantly. "See? I told you you don't really want me with you! What would happen if I let poor, little Dawnie here my wicked mouth?" She flashed bright, white teeth at the blonde, who surprised again as she once more levelly met her gaze.

"She's heard worse. From Spike and Xander. You should hear her cuss sometime."

Faith quirked a black eyebrow at that. "Li'l bit's learned to cuss?"

"Yeah, and I think she'd like to see you. She did like you, Faith. We all did."

Faith snorted. "I doubt that."

"Please?"

Faith shut her mouth and twitched her black lips this way and that. It was getting surprisingly harder to argue with B, at least about that, about spending another Christmas truly alone. She had her memories, but that was the very thing B had been clinging to when she'd come here. She'd been wasting her time being apart from the people who loved her and being selfish, drowning herself in the past. Maybe it was time they both started trying to look toward the future again. After all, they might just have one now that they had so many other people to help them in the endless fight, which also no longer seemed quite so endless.

"One condition," she said suddenly, surprising even herself.

Buffy looked at her curiously, tilting her head slightly to one side with an expression Faith had always secretly found quite adorable. She watched her pretty, pink lips begin to move in a question, and then stop abruptly. Instead, she said only, "Okay."

"You don't wanna know what it is?"

Buffy shook her head. "No. Name it. Whatever it is, it's yours." Her eyes shot wide as Faith grinned and opened her mouth. "Within reason!"

Faith grinned, surrendering the idea of finally getting her tongue between B's legs. "Nobody says a fuckin' word about my movie, or I get to cut 'em."

Wide-eyed, Buffy watched as Faith strode across her flat and picked up a DVD. The cover was worn, the plastic casing ripped, but she recognized its cover, or what there was left of it at least, immediately. She almost busted out laughing, but caught herself just in time, biting her bottom lip hard instead. "Dawn likes that one too."

"Huh, she does? Maybe we can watch it together."

Buffy moved across the room and gently placed a hand on Faith's hand that held the movie. Her eyes again met hers. "Maybe we can all watch it together. As a family."

This time, it was Faith's face that reddened. She lowered her gaze, and mumbled with deep, uncharacteristic bashfulness, "I think I'd like that."

For just a moment, Buffy saw a hurt, little girl standing there in the glow of the Christmas lights. "Get your popcorn and jacket, and come on."

Faith nodded and didn't speak again until they were almost at Buffy's place. Then, her voice was so low Buffy barely heard her, but she faced her with a warm and loving smile. "Thanks, B."

"Two of a kind, F," she reminded her gently, reaching out and squeezing Faith's hand. "It's what sisters are for." Purposefully breaking the moment, she grabbed a couple of the remaining kernals of Faith's popcorn, popped a few in her mouth, and then tossed the rest at Faith's face.

"Oh, it's on!"



The End