Chapter Eight

Faith quickly caught up to Xander’s extremely stiff back; but instead of saying anything, she dropped into step with him. She had to take an occasional hop and skip to keep up with the much taller, rapidly-striding boy; who, after his first angry glance, ignored her presence as best he could. Although Faith’s slayer stamina meant that she was still easily keeping up with him, his own anger was no longer enough to sustain the pace and he slowed until he was finally standing still, hands on hips and struggling for breath.

“What are you doing here, Faith?” he was finally able to gasp out. “Shouldn’t you be back there fraternizing with the demons? Isn’t that what slayers do?”

The dark-haired slayer was taken aback by the venom in the normally good-natured boy’s voice, and she frowned as she answered lightly, “There was only one demon hottie back there and he’s taken. I figured I’d have better luck out here with the human hottie.”

The fact that Xander was able to ignore her obvious flirting was proof of his agitated state and she frowned again when her comment got no response. When he turned and began walking again, slower, but with purpose, she gave it one more try.

“Hey! Flirting here! You don’t get to walk away from that. What’s wrong with you?”

He whirled, his face contorted and red.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me is that I’ve been nothing but loyal to Buffy since she moved here. Willow and I were the first people to welcome her to Sunnydale. I showed her the ropes. Even when I found out she was the slayer, I didn’t back off. I was there. I’m her friend. I’ve been her friend for three years. I’ve had her back-- “ He stopped to gasp for more air, then, before Faith could open her mouth far enough to respond, he was speaking again. “And this is the thanks I get? She goes from one undead boyfriend to another?”

He trudged off again and Faith trailed behind him, chewing her lip as she wondered what to say. She remained behind, staying near enough that she could prevent any harm from befalling him, but far enough out of his space to not be a further irritant. When two obvious fledglings stepped out of the shadows and approached, she moved closer, then halted when she saw Xander pull out a stake. His quietly confident “Bring it on, boys” had her smiling in admiration, even as she made sure to be within stake-throwing distance if needed.

The bolder of the two vamps ran at him, impaling himself on the stake that Xander brought up at the last moment and exploding into a surprised dust cloud. The second, and more cautious, vamp remained out of reach of the stake, instead kicking out in an attempt to sweep the boy’s legs from under him. Xander’s quick side-step and subsequent kick of his own brought the vamp to his knees where he was quickly staked. Xander stood staring at the dust as it drifted away and said sullenly, “That’s what should happen to vamps. Maybe I need to remind Buffy of her job by staking that bleached monster before she gets too attached to him.”

Faith rolled her eyes at his deliberate refusal to have seen what was before his eyes. “That’s probably not a good idea, Xan,” she said quietly. “For a lot of reasons.”

“Name one,” he said stubbornly.

“For starters, I watched him fight tonight and – no offense, cause you just did a helluva job here -- there’s no way you’re staking that particular vamp unless he’s unconscious.”

“I’m not proud. Unconscious works for me.” He kicked at the remaining dust, then put the stake back in his waistband. “But something tells me you’ve got more to say…” He sighed and sat down on the curb.

She settled herself beside him, using her stake to draw random designs in the dirt at the edge of the street. She thought carefully about what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it, then shrugged and began talking.

“First off – I want to say that I am right there with you when it comes to being freaked about a slayer getting it on with a vamp. The thought makes my skin crawl. But I’m not Buffy, and she’s had a more…interesting…life than I have these past few years. And, I’m not gonna tell you about the parts you don’t know, ‘cause that’s not my story to tell and if B doesn’t want the world to know – I’m cool with that. It’s her decision. All we need to know is that she’s been through some stuff, and this vamp means a lot to her. A lot lot. And she means a lot to him. That mark on her neck, the one that saved her from a bad bite tonight, means something big in the vamp world. You’ll have to get Giles or Wes to explain the whole thing, but from what I know, they’re as good as married.”

She could feel Xander’s shudder before he even spoke.

“That’s…that’s just WRONG. My Buffy would never let a vampire bite her.”

“She’s not ‘your Buffy’, Xander.” Faith’s voice was gentle, but firm. “And I’m guessing that she never was. She’s a slayer. Our lives are short and our deaths are ugly. I say, if you care about her, if you are really her friend, you wouldn’t want to do anything to stop her from grabbing a few minutes of happiness while the grabbin’ is good.”

“Faith! He’s a vampire! Evil, soulless, undead…is any of this ringing your slayer bells?”

“I already told you it does. I’m not happy that William the Bloody is living in my town either. But as long as B is willing to vouch for him, and as long as I don’t find out he’s snacking on the locals or planning to add me to the slayers he’s killed, I’m just gonna watch him. And, I gotta admit, he’s very watchable…”

“You too?” He groaned. “What the hell does that bloodsucker have that I don’t?”

She waited for a few seconds, mentally examining everything Xander had said so far and then asked quietly, “What, exactly, is it that has your pants in such a twist? Is it that he’s a vampire; or is it that he’s Buffy’s vampire?”

“I don’t understand this thing she has for vamps,” he muttered, avoiding the point of the question.

“So, if he was just a hottie of the human persuasion, you’d be okay with it? Buffy would have your blessing to do the deed with him as much as she wanted? No problemo? Cause you’re all about the keeping her safe from evil, but you’d never criticize her taste in men. Is that about right?”

Xander’s head dropped into his hands. “I’d like to think so,” he muttered to the trash in the gutter.

“But…?”

“But, I’m probably kidding myself,” he admitted.

Faith nodded silently and waited to see if he would continue.

“I’m behaving like an ass, aren’t I?”

“You’re behaving like somebody who just learned that his good friend has been keeping a pretty big secret from him and he’s pissed off. Seems normal to me.”

He snorted and raised his head to look at her. “Somehow I never pictured you standing up for Buffy like this. I would have thought you’d be glad to rattle her cage.”

“Oh, I plan to rattle it pretty good.” She grinned at him, and winked. “But not tonight. I’m gonna give her some time with her honey before I start stalking him.”

Xander stood up and stretched. “Okay, Faith, you’ve done your good deed for the day. I’ll apologize to Buffy tomorrow. You can go home now.”

“Promised the witch I’d see that you got yourself home without getting killed, so I guess I’ll just walk with you for a while.”

“I’m not sure I’m going home – staking those vamps kinda hyped me up for some reason. I still have some steam to blow off.”

“Waddaya know? It’s not just slayers that it happens to, huh?”

“Huh? Not just slayers that what?”

“Are you hungry?“ she asked with a sly grin.

“Yeah, I could eat. Why?”

Faith took his arm and began walking in the direction of her seedy hotel room. “Let me explain something about slaying…”