AN – For any readers who pick up on things as quickly as my beta does *smooches Always_jbj*, let me say right now that I am not following canon timelines very closely. I’d like to do so as much as possible, but since everything after Buffy dusts Angelus and Dru is off-canon anyway, I’ve taken the liberties that I think I need to in order to tell the rest of the story. You can either assume Buffy’s birthday came much earlier than we know it does, or that the year 1999 contained a few extra months. (Hey, it’s Sunnydale – it could happen!)



Chapter Three

“I didn’t say you were wrong. I said I wouldn’t have done it that way.” Buffy’s voice held an impatient note that caused the other girl to bristle.

“Same thing, isn’t it? If you wouldn’t do it that way, then it must be wrong. Cause, god forbid anyone else might have an idea.”

“You know what? Fine! Do it your way. And when Wesley yells at you, don’t come whining to me about it.”

“That moron? He’s too busy making goo-goo eyes at her royal highness to pay any attention to what we’re doing.”

“Wesley-I’m-too-proper-to-fart- Wyndham-Price and Cordelia? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“Good one, B. I’ll make a bad girl out of you yet.” Buffy’s crude description of their new watcher brought a smile to Faith’s face and renewed her good mood.

Buffy shook her head, trying to hide the smile that threatened to ruin her lofty tone. “I don’t know where that came from. It must be the company I keep.”

“What I said. We’ll get that stick out of your ass one of these days and then you and I are going to rock this town.”

“After we kill this stupid demon that thinks he is going to live in Sunnydale and eat people’s pets while he takes over the hellmouth.”

“After that.”

Tranquility restored, the two slayers continued their interrupted walk through Sunnydale’s cemeteries, their shoulders brushing occasionally as they trusted their slayer senses to alert them to danger.

“So. Wesley and Cordy, huh? I didn’t see that one coming.”

“Oh, I don’t think anyone’s coming, B. They’re just thinking about it and making moon-eyes at each other.”

“Wha-? Oh! You are disgusting!”

“And there’s that stick again. Damn! I thought sure it was working its way out.”

“Shut up, Faith.”

“Hey, don’t get all tight-jawed on me again. I just—“

“No. Shut up. And listen.”

The brunette slayer joined her sister in using their enhanced senses to pick up on the sound of chanting. Moving silently, the two suddenly intent predators drifted through the night in the direction of the sound. In a small clearing in the midst of several toppled gravestones, they found the demon they had been sent out after. Tall and slender, with delicate horns curling out of his head, the creature did not appear particularly intimidating as he stood next to a small fire and continued his chant.

Only when a portal began to open over the fire and the two slayers glimpsed the eagerly waiting monsters crowding towards it did they understand how the harmless looking demon mage intended to conquer the helllmouth.

“Holy shit! He’s going to bring those ugly suckers through!”

“Uh, yeah. And then we’ll have to fight them. I’m thinking this might be a good time for us to take him out. Like now – before that doorway gets any bigger?”

“I’m on it.”

Faith flew out of the shadows and knocked the still-chanting demon to the ground. To Buffy’s dismay, the portal continued to grow as the demon struggled to maintain his chanting in the face of Faith’s vigorous pummeling of his body.

“Shut him up!” Buffy screamed as she began kicking the fire and trying to scatter the wood. As the fire sputtered into small individual pieces of flaming wood, the portal stopped growing, but remained poised over the charred spot on the ground, the demons on the other side howling and pushing against the small opening. The chanting choked off with a gurgle and Buffy looked up from her stamping on flames long enough to see that Faith had her hands around the demon mage’s throat and was squeezing it shut, her teeth bared and her eyes alight with a joy that gave the other slayer a momentary chill.

As an arm bearing a sword pushed through the shrinking portal, Buffy grabbed the creature’s wrist, twisting until the sword fell to the ground. Snatching it up, she quickly hacked off the offending limb just as the portal closed with a slight popping sound. She stared at the bleeding body part for a second, noting the claws that were still twitching as well as the armor-like scales covering the muscular forearm. With a shiver, she chopped it into small pieces, which she then scattered much as she had the fire.

A soft sigh had her looking quickly to where Faith was standing up from the seemingly dead demon. The sigh had apparently been the sound of trapped air escaping from his no longer working lungs when Faith had finally released her hold on his neck. The two girls stared down at the completed night’s work with satisfaction. When Faith silently held out her hand, Buffy passed her the sword, stepping back to allow the other slayer room to cut off the demon’s head.

“No sense taking any chances,” Faith commented as she wiped the blade on a clump of grass before joining Buffy in stamping out the remaining embers of the magical fire.

“Nope. That’s us. All take-no-chances and do-everything-by-the-book Buffy and Faith.”

Faith nodded solemnly, steeling her face into straight lines until she saw Buffy’s shoulders quivering; at which time she began to snicker. As her snickers grew louder, Buffy quit trying to hide her laughter and the two girls began walking towards Giles’ apartment, their giggles preceding them.

Once the laughter trailed off to the occasional broad smile, a comfortable silence fell as the two Chosen Ones strolled through the streets of Sunnydale. With two slayers in town, the vampire population was practically non-existent, the occasional visitor to the hellmouth the rare exception, so the gang of four, apparently older vampires, that surrounded them came as a welcome surprise.

“Look here, bros. Dinner,” a grinning vamp in clothes from the 1980’s announced to his companions.

“Look, Faith. Funny-looking people!” was Buffy’s perky response.

“Must be our lucky night,” Faith agreed cheerfully. “You take the ugly ones, and I’ll take the butt-ugly ones.”

Neither slayer had yet produced a visible stake, and the vamps were clearly taken aback by their lack of fear. When the two girls moved slightly apart to allow each other more fighting room, a frown appeared on the leader’s face.

“A mouthy blonde, and a mouthier brunette. I think we might have found ourselves our paychecks, boys.”

“Paychecks? Vamps are paying each other to eat people now?”

“Nah, we do that for fun,” he responded to Buffy’s question. “But the mayor of this town has a bit of a slayer problem and he’s willing to pay big bucks to the vamp who removes it - or them, as the case might be.” He gave the two frowning girls a toothy grin and gestured to his minions to move closer. “It’s payday, boys,” he growled swinging his fist at Buffy’s head.

Buffy’s head, of course, was no longer there as she ducked his punch and buried her fist in his stomach. His quick recovery confirmed that he was not a fledgling and she pulled out her stake, determined not to underestimate the now-snarling vampire. She could hear Faith’s happy squeal as she staked the vamp that had been unfortunate enough to try to get behind her while she was pulling the stake from her waistband.

With Faith now having only one vamp to worry about, she shoved the stake back into her waistband and began to play with her remaining opponent, letting out whoops of delight whenever a punch or kick took an obvious toll on the vampire. She took her own share of punches as she drew the vamp away from Buffy to give the other slayer room to maneuver, but it was clear that only a mistake on her part could change the eventual outcome.

Buffy was able to get a good solid kick into the leader’s face, knocking him away long enough for her to stake his somewhat less-experienced companion, and freeing her to concentrate on the strongest of the four bounty hunters. The slayer and the remaining vampire faced off warily, neither wanting to underestimate the other.

“Kinda running out of buddies, there, aren’t you?” Buffy quipped as the dust of Faith’s last opponent drifted between her and the angry vamp facing her.

“More money for me,” he snarled, charging the small slayer and using his size to carry her to the ground. However, his attempt to sink his teeth into her throat failed when the force of Spike’s claim knocked him back temporarily. His “What the fu-“ was cut off when Buffy sat up and thrust her stake into his chest. She glared at his dust, daring it to drift into her face as she stood up and shook herself.

“Neat trick you’ve got there, B.” Faith’s voice barely concealed her curiosity, but she tried to appear uninterested in how Buffy had managed to throw the large vampire off without moving.

“Yeah. I know.”

There was no explanation from the blond slayer and Faith’s face settled into the indifferent mask that she used as her shield against the world. She refused to ask Buffy to explain what had happened, knowing there was more to it than luck.

(She’s pretty fuckin’ snotty for somebody who's banged two vampires. Wonder how she’d like it if I staked her honey when he comes back? At least one of us needs to remember what our job is.)