Buffy ducked a swing from a massive white-furred hand and grumbled constantly to herself. "No, B, why would we want to buy a tree from a nice safe lot, when we can fight Bigfoot's extended family for one. . .'cause won't that make it more special," she griped in a terrible imitation of Faith's accent.

Faith was trading blows with the snow-spokesperson. "I can hear you, y'know, and anyway, I never asked you to come with." She advanced on her demon, putting all her strength into her punches and making him back-up. "And that sounded nothing like me!" she added loudly.

Buffy stopped fighting her snow-kid, he was only a little taller than her, and turned to Faith's scrap. "Yes you did! That's exactly what you asked. I should have known it would only end in dis . . . Ow! What the hell . . .?" She turned back to the smaller snow-demon, rubbing her shoulder.

He was shuffling his big, bare feet in the snow and looking sheepish. "Sorry, I thought we were fighting." He sniffed and ran a hand under his pointy orange nose.

"Ugh, use a tissue!" she snapped, and kicked him away from her.

"Yeah, well I won't bother next time." Faith was still speaking angrily while she fought. "You can just sit at home, peeling spuds and crocheting tea cozies for the rest of your sad, lonely little life."

"Don't be ridiculous, I don't even know how to crochet." Could she be more infuriating? Another snowman, or woman, was charging Buffy, who ducked, only to be swept along by the demon's momentum anyway.

She was bowled over into the snow, let herself roll with it with the plan of springing back to her feet when she stopped, but the demon was still with her, its weight keeping her pinned on her back.

"Aren't you cold?" She asked it as they wrestled across the snowy forest floor.

"Nah, not really," it replied, trying for a head-lock.

"Well I am!" Buffy grabbed fistfuls of the thing's thick hair and forced enough space to bring her knees up and boost it away from her. She lay panting for a second, while she listened to the sounds of Faith fighting.

"Take that, and that, and that . . . Hey, no fair getting all grabby like that. You're bigger than me, so back off and let me hit you."

Buffy jumped to her feet. They nearly went out from under her again, but some arm flailing kept her upright.

Faith was some way off, rolling around on the floor with the big, daddy snowman. She seemed to be enjoying herself so Buffy left her to it while she searched the darkening woods for the rest of the demons.

They were still there, she could feel them, she just couldn't see them. She twisted this way and that, eyes straining to make them out of the shadows.

"Oh God, that's disgusting," she heard Faith yell.

Turning so quick she nearly tripped in the thick snow, Buffy panicked, knowing not much could cause Faith that level of distress.

Faith was kneeling in the snow, spitting something up and coughing.

The Snowman she'd been tackling was crouched a little way off, one hand to his face. "You bit my nose!" He screamed at her accusingly. "You actually bit my nose off!"

"I'm no happier about it than you, dude." And from Faith's sick looking expression, Buffy believed her.

Buffy was trying to catch her breath, but every time she got herself under control, another gushing laugh bubbled up and out, and so when she tried to cry out a warning, it didn't come.

Faith was picked up by the outraged Snowman and she flew gracelessly through the air when he threw her. Surprised at being caught off guard, Faith gave a little yelp and made herself as un-aerodynamic as possible, flinging arms and legs out wide.

"No!" Buffy squealed as she realized what was about to happen. She backed up a step or two, her feet sinking into the deep snow, but it wasn't enough and "Oof!"

Buffy was knocked backwards with an armful of Faith, and she fell. A gentle slope, or a dune, had been to her back, which turned out to be a real problem when they both began to roll down it, head over ass over head.

At the bottom they stopped. Faith was on top of Buffy, laughing like it was the funnest thing ever.

Buffy's eyes remained scrunched tight and she clung to Faith's collar. "Are we a giant snowball?"

"Nah, B, we're safe."

Buffy risked opening her eyes to see Faith smiling down at her. "Well that was. . ." She wasn't sure what it was, so she left the sentence hanging. "I think you really pissed that guy off. Why did you bite his nose?"

"I thought it was a carrot." Buffy started giggling. "Hey, it looked like a carrot, how was I supposed to know?"

"You're such a dork, F." Buffy wriggled a little beneath the brunette, wondering why she hadn't gotten up yet, but strangely, too comfortable to mind. "Do you think they're still here?"

Faith lifted her head more and looked around them at the silent and still forest. "Doesn't seem like it." She looked back down, dimples forming as she seemed to finally realize the position they were in. "Looks like we're all alone."

Buffy recognized that look. The 'I've just had a fruitless fight and now I need another way to expend all of this pent up energy coursing through my veins' look. Not that that was probably what Faith was thinking, the brunette's thoughts were more likely to be along the lines of: 'That was fun, wanna fuck?'

Buffy figured it was time to move, before Faith actually said what was on her mind and things got embarrassing. Considering that Buffy was feeling the rush too, just made that all the more likely.

"So you gonna get up, ya big lunk?" She asked playfully.

"Wasn't planning on it, no. Why, am I squashing you?"

"No, I mean yeah. Big squashing, lots of squashing." Buffy tried to convince her while she reached up and brushed a strand of dark hair away from dangling in her own face and tucked it behind Faith's ear.

"You calling me fat, B?" Faith grinned down, letting even more of her weight settle on the blonde.

"Oh yeah, look at you. You're huge." Buffy joked as she snuck a hand under Faith's multitude of layers and pinched the non-existent inch at her waist.

"Buffy!" Faith cried out, squirming and laughing. "Your hands are freezing!"

"Lost my gloves." Buffy's eyes widened as her body reacted favorably to Faith's wriggling. "Can I warm them up?" She crept her other hand under the shirt, sweaters and coat feeling Faith flinch as her cold fingers contacted lightly with warmer skin.

"I guess." Faith stared down at her, resting on her elbows, and she looked back. "Weren't we arguing?"

"Oh yeah," Buffy remembered indignantly. "You called me sad and lonely."

Faith chuckled a little. "Well, aren't you?"

Buffy thought about it. "I'm not sad."

"Just lonely?"

"Aren't you?"

Faith laughed at that. "You have seen how many people I hook up with, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but is that enough?" Buffy asked seriously.

She knew Faith was always making new friends, so to speak. At least once a week some strange guy was shooed down the back stairs and out of the door before he had a chance to tie his laces. The first time a girl had been shooed down, Buffy had been the only person not involved with the plate dropping, open mouthed, bacon burning moment of silence that had followed.

Instead, Buffy had smirked at Faith with a raised eyebrow and taken her breakfast to another room to mull it over in private. Same as she did every time someone new came down those stairs, ever since . . .

She didn't let it get to her. No, she was saving that for when someone came down the stairs for a second time. That day hadn't come yet.

Faith had been lying quiet, obviously giving her question serious thought. Now, with a little shrug, she answered. "It has to be."

"Why?"

As it started to snow and Faith looked down into her eyes, Buffy knew the answer had something to do with her and it felt kinda nice.

Good to know that there was someone out there who didn't just think of her as a friend or a sister or a Slayer. Someone who wanted her for something more, maybe even needed her, not that Faith would ever admit to it.

Buffy knew that this was a sensitive situation. Faith's feelings weren't something she could play with. It was why she had backed off so fast after what had happened last time they'd gone out together. Buffy had thought about that night a lot, a hell of a lot if she was honest, but she was no closer to figuring out what came next.

If it had been anyone else, she'd have put the memory in the drawer labeled experience and moved on the next day, but it wasn't. It was Faith.

Faith!

Faith, who had driven her crazy one way or another since the first time they'd ever set eyes on each other. This new twist was fresh and intriguing and scary and would probably drive her insane, but none of that necessarily had to add up to bad. In fact it nicely summarized the beginning of all her serious relationships . . .

So was she open to the idea of a relationship with Faith? Did Faith want a relationship with her?

Buffy knew there was no danger of Faith just wanting her as another notch on the belt. She'd already been notched. In the smoky back room of a crowded club. So that couldn't be the reason for Faith getting all seductive-y when normally they avoided all contact, eye kind included.

Buffy dragged her eyes away from Faith's and looked up into the dark sky over the brunette's shoulder. Big, fat white flakes were falling fast and Faith's back already had a light dusting, like the cake Buffy had watched her and Dawn icing the week before.

Maybe if Faith was prepared to take things slow, Buffy could try this . . . thing, with her. It wasn't like she had boys lining up around the block to be with her and she was lonely, and every time she heard Faith take a new friend into her bedroom it got worse. So why was she fighting it? Why not just try it and see? If it didn't work out, well then it didn't work out, at least then she'd know.

Faith was staring out into the forest, seemingly content just laying on top of Buffy in silence, but she jumped and looked back down when small hands began rubbing up and down her sides.

Buffy smiled and gathered every ounce of courage she had to lean up and kiss Faith gently, timidly, on the lips. Faith didn't move at all, in fact she could have been carved from ice, but Buffy wasn't deterred. She tilted her head slightly and pressed her lips more fully to Faith's and that was when gentle ended.

Faith took control, forcing Buffy's head back into the snow as she brought both hands up to cup the blonde's cheeks and tilt her to the angle she wanted. Buffy opened her mouth to a probing tongue and groaned in appreciation as it instantly sought out her own.

Every thought that wasn't centered around Faith's lips quietly slunk out the back door of her brain as one of Buffy's hands left the warmth of her clothing to weave into long, dark hair, while the other rubbed circles on the warmth of Faith's back.

This wasn't as hard as she'd thought it would be. Her lips pretty much did all the work instinctively, leaving the rest of her to lay back and soak up the experience. Maybe things would work out.

Faith pulled away and Buffy mumbled in protest. "No, no it's working."

Faith hadn't moved far. She kissed Buffy's chin, the side of her mouth, her cheek. "What are we doing?" She asked breathlessly.

"Probably acting as a come-get-us sign to the apocalypse," Buffy admitted, as she rolled them over. "You okay with that?"

Faith's answer was to crane her neck up and capture Buffy's lips in another fierce kiss, and Buffy could live with that answer. After all, she was a master at apocalypses, apocali, whatever; Faith's tongue was more important than grammar.

Buffy lost herself in the kiss. Time didn't matter and the cold had evaporated completely under the heat of them. In fact Buffy expected to be lying in a puddle any minute. If she could still remember what a minute was. Minute, minute . . . The word lost all meaning; her brain lost all meaning, what was meaning again.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd been kissed like this. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been kissed, period, but she was pretty sure it hadn't been as yummy as the way she was being kissed right now. First kisses were always good if you were kissing someone you really wanted to, but Faith was kissing her like she'd been wanting to forever, and Buffy couldn't understand why she hadn't. If she'd known there were kisses like this to be had . . .

Faith rolled them over again and Buffy gave in to a weird urge to make a snow angel while Faith was kissing her. She giggled into Faith's mouth as she flapped her arms and legs about. A little bit of her felt embarrassed to be this giddy in front of Faith, because of Faith, but the rest of her was just too giddy to care.

Faith chuckled deep in her throat as Buffy waved her arms and legs in the snow, but didn't let up on her lips for a second, she did use the movement to settle herself further between the blonde's legs which caused Buffy to giggle some more.

"Getting comfy?" She asked, as they both finally let the other have some air.

"Couldn't get much comfier," Faith murmured against her mouth, before kissing her again.

Buffy wrapped her arms around the brunette and let her mind dissolve. Probably permanently she thought, when Faith's hand stopped resting on her stomach and moved up to caress her breast through her heavy coat.

Buffy felt her heartbeat quicken, and she wanted the coat gone the way of things that weren't on her anymore, but she knew she should probably rein this in soon. As much as she wanted to revel in the forgotten art of making out, they were still in the midst of a demon-infested forest, and it was dark now, which meant more demons, and boy, wouldn't she be red in the face if she got killed because she was making out with Faith, but . . . but . . . but . . .

Faith's hand had burrowed its way under her clothes and Buffy smiled into the kiss as she felt the wool of Faith's gloves tickle her tummy lightly, snow fell on her skin but melted and warmed instantly, and then the hand was cupping her bra firmly.

"Shoulda left this off," Faith whispered against her lips.

Buffy's tongue snaked out all of its own and licked Faith's lips with its tip. "I would have if you hadn't teased me."

"You should know better than to listen to me, B."

"Uh huh." Buffy arched her back, breath shaky, pushing more of her into Faith's palm. "You'll just have to work around it."

Faith nodded, and resumed kissing position, much to Buffy's pleasure, but then the hand on her breast went away. No, but she was enjoying that, where'd it go.

Oh look, there it was, playing with the button of her jeans. At least she hadn't lost it.

It took Buffy's brain a few seconds to catch up with the fact that Faith wasn't playing with the button; she was trying to get it undone. This wasn't going slow at all. That was actually going pretty fast. Buffy knew that this was kinda irrational thinking, considering they'd already sorta done it once, but that didn't count. They'd been drunk, and it had just happened. Buffy hadn't meant for it to happen, and now she wished it hadn't, because it was just gonna make it harder to say no now.

Hoping she could convey it with actions instead of words, Buffy gently took hold of Faith's wandering hand and moved it up to her stomach, hoping it would find its own way back to her boob from there.

For a minute it looked like Faith had got the message and Buffy relaxed back into the smoochies, but then she felt her button being tugged on again. She was just about to repeat her earlier maneuver when Faith succeeded in her task and her jeans opened up to let an eager hand inside.

The frigid air on her newly bared skin was a shock to the system until Faith's glove covered it back up. And then Buffy had to pull away to gasp as woolly fingers worked their way down under her panties.

"Uh, Faith . . ." Buffy panted, wriggling a little and trying to find the resolve to push Faith away. If she didn't do it soon, she wouldn't. Scratch that, if she didn't do it now, she probably couldn't.

"Yeah?" Faith's voice was muffled as her lips trailed up and down Buffy's neck, laying tiny kisses up and down her hypersensitive skin.

Buffy let her head roll a little to one side. "We shou . . . oh god!" She pushed her hand roughly beneath Faith's clothing and up until she had warm, soft, full flesh in her palm, needing to touch the other Slayer as her hips thrust upwards to meet fingers she'd been trying not to fantasize about for months.

Faith had herself propped up on one elbow so she could lift up just enough to fit her hand between them, but Buffy's frenetic buck pressed them together just right and Faith let her hips settle tightly against the blonde, as she rocked slightly in place, her fingers doing the job for both of them.

"Fai-!" Buffy tried to catch her breath to tell Faith to stop and listen for a minute, but every sway of Faith's hips, pressed harder into her clit and drove fuzzy fingers further down between her legs; making breathing a non-issue.

Faith ground against her harder, groaning low in her throat, and Buffy wondered if her fingers were hurting her. They must have been getting pretty squashed, but maybe the gloves helped to protect them.

Buffy giggled into Faith's hair. This might have all been way to fast for her tastes, but at least they couldn't be accused of having un-protected sex.

"What?" Faith's voice was low, raspy almost. It drove the blonde crazy.

"Ung . . ." She squeezed Faith's ass, unaware until then that she'd even been touching it. "Nothing." Faith didn't need to know how screwy her brain got at these moments.

Faith finally found her way back to Buffy's lips, which caused another shower of sparks to cascade through her mind. Her eyes fell closed. She didn't need sight right now. Touch was overwhelming enough.

When Faith pulled away Buffy tried to follow her lips, but couldn't quite manage it.

"You ready?" That voice, like hot cocoa from a coal fire.

"Ready?" She panted, eyes not opening as she blindly sought out the softness of those lips, still moving to the rhythm Faith had began, both grinding into her hand.

Faith took the question as an answer and shifted just enough to push a finger into Buffy.

"Faith! Don't . . ." Buffy tried to protest even as her hips jerked out of control. The kitted glove was making the one finger inside her, oh so much bigger, and kinda scratchy, but in a good way. Which was bad.

Faith kissed her on the mouth, ending any more objections with her tongue and fingered her as well as she could within the tight confines of her panties and jeans, and their bodies. It was pretty well.

Shamelessly, because shame was another word that made no sense when she was kissing Faith, Buffy's hips bucked and swiveled erratically. Faith had stopped pressing against her quite so intimately, but the blonde still had one leg wrapped around Faith's thighs while the other made a deep print in the snow, as bending at the knee, she used it to push up harder, faster, closer, just a little more . . . Then it was too late.

Northern lights shooting in zigzags across the dark night sky, snow flakes turning iridescent as they fell and Buffy exploding, imploding, falling, melting.

Oh God! Oh God! Oh fucking, fucking, fucking . . . fuck.

She grunted into Faith's open mouth, needing air so desperately, but needing Faith's tongue more as she rode out the beautiful spin-cycle going on deep inside her. Faith grunted back, her finger finally slowing, but not fully stopping. Buffy felt her insides quiver with every touch deep inside, and it sent pleasant shivers through the rest of her body, ending up where Faith was now sucking lightly on her bottom lip.

Buffy came back from her happy place and tore her lips from Faith, disentangling her hands from the brunette's clothing at the same time, and flopped bonelessly into her angel imprint while her brain caught up with recent events. It didn't take very long.

"I can't believe you did that!" Voice stormy, eyes more grey than green right now. Disappointed in herself more than anything else.

Faith nuzzled her neck, oblivious to the change in the blonde's mood. "You'd be amazed at the shit I can do," she responded playfully and perhaps a little boastfully.

Trying to push her away was impossible, her heavily gloved hand was wedged in Buffy's underwear and until Faith wanted to remove it herself, Buffy had to feel it rub against her slick, sensitive flesh and the fact that with every breath it was turning her on all over again just wound her up even more.

"I said no, Faith."

Faith pulled away from the supple skin of her throat to look at her incredulously. "No you didn't."

Buffy bit her bottom lip. Hadn't she? She'd meant to, tried to. "Yeah I did, maybe not in so many words, as such . . ."

"You mean like with no words."

"I told you to wait, to hang on, to slow the fuck down." Buffy knew she'd said something like that; it was right before everything went fuzzy.

Faith wiggled her fingers and Buffy gasped and tried to get away, but she was still pinned to the snow by the brunette. "I thought you'd changed your mind, seeing as how you weren't exactly pushing me off." She shrugged, her breasts pushing into Buffy's own and causing her to squirm some more.

"Well you know what thought did." She pushed at Faith's shoulders. "Get up."

Faith didn't get up, but she did pull her hand out of Buffy's clothing, she was getting annoyed too now. "In case you forgot B, you started this. You kissed me, remember?"

"Yeah, I kissed you." Buffy's voice was rising. "Kissed! Nothing else! It wasn't supposed to be permission to . . . to . . . get some. It was just a kiss."

Faith looked at her blankly. "I don't get it. You came on to me, I gave you what you wanted, and I'm the one getting yelled at." She shook her head from side to side. "It should be me doing the yelling. Twice I've given you my best and what have you given me?" She rose to her knees astride Buffy's legs. "A fucking headache!" She finished, almost shouting.

Buffy jack-knifed into a sitting position between Faith's thighs. "And I didn't ask for it or expect it either time Faith. Both times you've just gone ahead and done what you wanted, regardless."

"Oh well forgive me for not interpreting the sighing and grabbing and writhing and screaming of 'harder, Faith, harder' as a red light. I shoulda known you'd have your own fucked up set of rules for sex just like everything else."

"I have never said that!" Buffy retaliated.

Faith waved an index finger back and forth between them. "Slayer connection, B, I could feel you thinking it."

"Oh my God, you're just impossible." It was Buffy's turn to shake her head from left to right. "Get up!"

"No. Not until you admit you wanted it." Faith didn't move back at all, neither did Buffy; they were nearly nose to nose. "I'm not having you going around telling people I forced you to do something you were practically begging for."

"Oh believe me, you have no need to worry that I'm ever going to tell another living soul about this. Or anything dead and soulless, even if I'm just about to dust them."

"You're a real bitch, Buffy, anyone but me ever tell you that?"

"I wouldn't be being a bitch if you could think with anything more than this!" Angrily she grabbed Faith's pussy through her tight jeans and squeezed hard.

Faith sucked in a ragged breath and closed her eyes.

Buffy watched her face as she pressed the heel of her hand firmly over where she assumed the brunette's clit would be. She musta hit something good for Faith stifled a moan, teeth gritted and lips closed.

Caught between desire and anger, Buffy snorted and shoved Faith away from her hard enough to move her off her lap.

Faith's eyes snapped open as she fell back on her ass in the snow. "Why'd ya stop? I wasn't saying no."

"That's why I stopped." Faith had the blank look down pat. "For crying out loud, do you never think about anything else?!"

Blank went to shuttered as Buffy stared at Faith. The brunette was back on her feet and striding away before she could add anything else. She got slowly to her own feet, legs still a little wobbly, and dusted snow off her ass, which was wet through, but whether it was coming from the inside or the outside, she didn't know.

"Faith!"

The other Slayer was fifteen, twenty feet up the slope in front of her now and about to be swallowed up by the black and white forest.

"Faith!" Buffy ran through the deep foot clogging snow until she was almost caught up with the other woman. "Oh so this is how you handling things again. Someone says something you don't like and you storm off and leave them stranded in a spooky forest." Faith didn't acknowledge she was listening. "What the hell made me think this could work?" Buffy muttered to herself as she trudged along a few feet behind.

Hearing the muttered words, Faith acknowledged and spun back to the blonde making her stop abruptly. "What could work?" She spat.

"This. You and me." Buffy laughed. "What a joke right? Go on; feel free to laugh your socks off over the dumb blonde's romantic crap."

Faith avoided eye contact as she scouted around for the axe she dropped when fighting the snow monsters. "That isn't what you wanted."

"Right now I don't know what I want," Buffy admitted. She cast her own gaze around for the axe but didn't make much of an effort.

"So you just thought you'd fuck with my head a little. Thanks for that B."

"I was not trying to fuck with your head. You were the one doing all the fucking. I just wanted to start the ball rolling, see where it would end up. Really wishing I hadn't bothered now."

Faith found the axe. "Well next time you wanna roll balls, just do me a favor and stay the fuck away from me."

Buffy's mouth opened, but she was just too angry to get the words out right away. After a couple of seconds of watching Faith inspect her weapon as she gaped, Buffy got it together enough to yell.

"You're the one that brought all this up. I was doing totally fine until I found out you liked me. This is your entire fault in the first place, so maybe you should keep away from me."

"Fine." Faith shot her a deadly smirk. "Happy to." The sound of wood splitting echoed through the still forest as she brought her axe around in a powerful arc to bite into a tree trunk. She pulled it free and chopped again.

Buffy stepped back and looked up at the tree. "It's too big," she said with a smirk of her own.

"No it's not, it's perfect."

Buffy stepped back again as wood chips started flying all around.

"We won't get it in the house, Faith. Pick a smaller one."