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PART ELEVEN: 2nd to 5th October 2004
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Chapter Seven: An Education in the Classics

Buffy checked over her shoulder to make sure Toni was still in the living room as she excitedly took the items she'd bought that afternoon out of their plastic bag. They were from the same shop where Faith had purchased her sexy wedding night lingerie, which said it all really. Not that she had any reason to feel guilty about wanting to wear nice underwear; it wasn't as if the panties were crotchless or anything - although the white lacy material was kinda see-through she noticed - but they had been bought purely for Faith's eyes. She slipped the panties on and followed with the matching bra. They even felt expensively naughty!

The afternoon had gone smoothly once they'd left the beach. Buffy had tried to probe more into her uncle's death - she hadn't even been aware Faith had had any uncles - but Faith insisted she didn't know any more and didn't wanna talk about it anyway.

They had picked up the cake in all its three-tiered glory - it was beautiful in a way that made her jealous and if she got a chance at the wedding she was going to steal a layer to stomp on childishly, probably after comfort-eating most of it. They had met with the caterers to finalize the menu. That had mostly consisted of Faith giving it a quick look, seeing about thirty different dishes on it and going, "Yeah, that'll do," before asking if they had any samples lying around - they hadn't. They'd even sorted out the horse issue. Or rather, Troy had when he decided he was just going to steal as many of the unicorn-demon's horses as he wanted, and seeing as the demon was now dead, it was a flawless plan. They had done all that and managed to get in an early dinner at the Greek equivalent of a Denny's and Buffy had still made it back by five-fifteen.

The only thing they hadn't managed to do was get in any fooling around.

Toni had been fine about her being fifteen minutes late. And okay, it was only fifteen minutes, but after what had happened on the beach Buffy had expected a little frostiness. Instead she had been greeted at the door with a kiss and was then installed on the couch while Toni made her cups of coffee and snacks she wasn't really hungry for. After being told she was beautiful no less than three times in half an hour's worth of making out a more skeptical person might have wondered what Toni was after. As Faith's name didn't come up once, Buffy chose not to be skeptical.

Speaking of her attentive girlfriend, Toni came into the bedroom as Buffy was laying out her clothes for the evening. So much for keeping her underwear a secret. She smiled happily though, partly out of the simple pleasure of seeing her girlfriend and partly because she was thrumming with excitement for the night ahead.

"I am so glad that I am wearing a suit." Toni was smirking slightly as she looked at Buffy's wedding outfit hanging from the door of the wardrobe.

"You don't like the dress?" Buffy asked, surprised. "Believe me, compared to the last bridesmaid dress I wore, this one is positively gorgeous."

"I'm sure it will be once it is on you," Toni said, walking over.

Buffy was just bending down to pull up her short black skirt when Toni's hands slid over her shoulders. She let it drop back to her ankles as she straightened up and accepted the embrace. Toni's hand brushed her butt over her panties as they kissed. Buffy smiled against Toni's lips and reached around to pluck the hand away.

Toni kissed her for a moment or two longer and then rested her forehead against Buffy's. "You are not in the mood?"

"Actually, it's probably exactly what I need to calm me down," Buffy grinned, lightly touching her lips to Toni's knuckles before letting go of the hand and wrapping her arms around her neck instead. "But I don't have time. Faith's going to be here in about fifteen minutes, the donkey'll be here in twenty, and I'm not even dressed yet."

"Fifteen minutes is a long time." Toni kissed slowly along the side of her neck. "We can find much pleasure in that time."

"Yeah, if your idea of pleasure is Faith walking in on us." Buffy winced and closed her eyes, wishing she hadn't even thought that, let alone said it aloud.

"I am sure Faith will not mind if you are naked when she arrives."

Buffy couldn't tell if she was joking or not, and it was generally safer to assume not where Faith was concerned.

She tucked her fingers under Toni's chin lifted it. "Hey, what's going on here?"

Toni looked like she was going to ignore the question, but for all the lies and deceit that had been intertwined in their relationship from the get-go, neither of them had ever lied about how they felt.

"I suppose I am jealous," Toni said softly. "I know it is foolish."

"It's not foolish," Buffy sighed. "I get it, but it's just one more night. This time tomorrow they'll be married and we'll have each other all to ourselves."

"You really mean that?"

"Yes. I mean, I still have to take care of Dawn and I'm gonna have to look for a new job as soon as we get back to the States, but, otherwise..."

"I meant will there no longer be three people in our relationship?"

"There were four. Four people in our relationship," Buffy reminded her and found she couldn't quite meet Toni's eyes. "And yeah, sure; of course. Just you and me. From tomorrow."

"From tomorrow," Toni repeated softly, smiling sadly. "This is what makes me jealous."

"I don't..." Buffy sighed again. "You shouldn't just assume something is going to happen. It's her bachelorette party; everyone's going to be there!"

"It is not just the thought of you sleeping with her," Toni murmured, her soft lips against Buffy's throat again. "Although that does fill my heart with the greenest fire I have ever known. It is that you are spending the whole evening eating, laughing, dancing and looking so beautiful and I will not be there to see it. And she will."

Slightly breathless from the way her neck was being slowly suckled in the first place, Toni's words robbed her of more and then the last was taken as Toni pressed her lips to hers in a fierce kiss. Buffy kissed back, pushing her mouth hard against Toni's, tongue pushing into her mouth as she sank her hands deep into Toni's hair.

Toni pulled away almost as roughly as she'd started the kiss in the first place and spoke in breath-ragged whisper. "You will be hers tonight, in spirit if not in body, and I accept that as how it is, but it is easier to deal with when I am there to hold your hand, taste your lips; to know that at least some part of you is still mine. To know that when you are drawn to her flame your heart is still aware of mine, still in some small way connected."

"That was beautiful." Buffy said with wide eyes and crushed her lips back to Toni's.

As their kiss became more passionate, the more their hands wandered over each others' bodies. Buffy figured she was getting the better end of the deal here, seeing as she was already in her underwear, but she didn't have time to strip Toni of her t-shirt and jeans.

"Very beautiful," Buffy pulled away, smiling as she felt her bra unclasped. "But just for the record, Antonella, I know it was a line."

Toni grinned as Buffy unbuttoned her fly with superhuman speed. "A very successful line."

"Yeah, where do you come up with them anyway?" Buffy let her bra fall to the stone floor and arched her back, pulling her closer as Toni bent to kiss her breasts.

"I had a classical education long before it ever became popular." Toni's voice was muffled by wet skin and a perky nipple.

"You're the embodiment of a classical education." Buffy let Toni push her backwards until the edge of the bed caught the backs of her knees and they fell on to the hard, thin mattress together. "Literally. How long do you think we have left?"

"Nine, maybe ten minutes."

"We can go a long way in ten minutes," Buffy decided. As Toni's hand slid into her panties, her breath caught and she added, "Maybe twice."

Toni, grinning down at her, pulled her t-shirt off with one hand while her other rubbed between Buffy's legs, causing her hips to tilt off of the bed with every stroke.

"Is the door at least locked?" Buffy mumbled, biting her lip in pleasure.

"Probably not." Toni's grin turned mischievous as she gently eased a finger inside of her. "Would you like me to stop and check?"

"Don't you dare! Come here." Buffy pulled Toni so that she was lying on top of her. "Faith's never on time anyway."

Buffy pushed her hand beneath Toni's jeans and cupped her. There was no denying how turned on she was right now; both of them, in fact, as the dampness of Toni's panties moistened her palm. It was a shame they hadn't started this earlier, but halfway to heaven was better than no heaven at all and if it made Toni feel better about having to sit the bachelorette party out... well, the charged heat massing around every intimate point Toni was touching her was a small price to pay.

Pushing under elastic and cotton, Buffy used her fingertips on Toni, easier than trying to enter her with the jeans narrowing her movements. Toni loved this anyway, pressing closer, breathing heavier, her own fingers going deeper as Buffy caressed a breast with her free hand.

The urgency, the thought of being caught out - and by who - heightened everything and Buffy was almost sorry when she felt her pleasure peak. "T...!"

The rest of the cry was cut off as Toni kissed her messily, dropping her lower half down onto to Buffy to grind harder against her fingers, her own release grunted into Buffy's mouth.

Still out of breath, Buffy laughed a little as she pushed her damp hair from her eyes. "Wow, that was quick."

"Si." Toni licked perspiration from her shoulder blade. "Do we have time for more?"

Buffy smiled. "Sure, if we can do it like that every time we could probably break a world record or two before Faith gets here."

Toni kissed her slowly, but started fucking her again with short, hard thrusts. Buffy had been joking, but was too horny to throw Toni off. Her heels dug into the bed as she arched upwards, breath coming in gasps as her fingers clawed at Toni's hips, the unexpected onslaught of stimulation making it impossible for the clear-thinking she would need to touch Toni back.

It was like in the hospital when they made you count back from ten before you went under, except this was better than hospital and Buffy was writhing around on the bed much too much to concentrate on her numbers and she was going over, not under. Way, way over. Five, four, three, two...

"Holy fuck, fuck, fuck... fuck!"

Buffy lay panting hard, her eyes on the bright white ceiling above her. Everything was white, except Toni who was all olive and bronze and dripping black hair over her as she rocked forward into Buffy's line of sight.

"Siete giusti?"

"That was good." Buffy's eyes were still unfocused enough to prove it. "Not that it's not always," she hastened to add, but Toni was already looking pretty smug right now. "But that... that was your best game right there."

"My powers are almost fully returned." Toni smiled and kissed her briefly, Buffy barely had the strength to pucker her lips. "And being allowed to feel true lust again; it is something of an inspiration."

"Very inspiring," Buffy agreed.

She still couldn't quite believe how severe, not to mention bizarre, Toni's punishment had been for something as human as wanting your dead lover back. Okay, so it was the very fact that Toni wasn't altogether human and had actually been in a position to do something about getting her dead lover back that had angered the gods, but still, to not be able to feel two of the strongest human emotions again for all eternity was pretty harsh.

"I think once this wedding is out of the way, there's gonna be a lot of experimenting with these powers of yours in our near future." Buffy ran her hands over Toni's shoulders and into her hair, pulling her down for a long, lavish kiss.

"Knock, knock. You ready, B? Whoa...!"

Buffy turned her head to the doorway to see a slightly shocked Faith standing there, staring. "Hi. And as you can see, no."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to barge in," Faith said, but wasn't sorry enough to look away and give them any privacy. "I knocked at the main door, but nobody heard me."

Toni unhurriedly pulled her hand out of Buffy's panties and slipped off of her. "We were busy."

"So I'm seeing." Faith's dark eyes burned a jealous path over Buffy's bare flesh, taking in her flushed skin and dancing eyes.

Buffy basked in it, feeling her arousal intensify again, until her bra hit her in the face. Faith wasn't the only one in the room who was jealous.

"You know, I've had fantasies like this," she grinned, as she finally sat up and put her bra back on. "Except you were less dressed," she said to Faith. Her skirt landed on top of her head, hanging down to cover her face. "And you were less with the clothes-slinging," she said to her girlfriend as she pulled the garment from her head and stood up. "I should probably shower again."

"We don't have time," Faith insisted impatiently. "The donkey's already here. You did say six."

"Okay." Buffy bent down and started to put one leg in her skirt. "If you don't mind me smelling like..."

Faith snatched the skirt away. "Go shower, and be fucking quick."

Buffy hot-footed it into the tiny bathroom, grinning over her shoulder when she realized Toni had followed her and was shutting the door. "I really don't have time for thirds."

"I am not staying out there with Faith," Toni said simply and shucked off her jeans and underwear.

They went under the spray at the same time and it was freezing. The water hadn't had time to heat up after Buffy's last shower half an hour before. Buffy thought that would keep their ablutions perfunctory; she was wrong. As she massaged the conditioner through her hair, Toni was on her knees, eyes closed against the suds raining down on her, bringing her to another orgasm with her tongue.

"Oh God," Buffy panted, sliding down the tiled wall of the small cubicle. "My legs are going to be too shaky to go out tonight."

"That is my plan." Toni grinned as she pulled Buffy back to her feet and quickly soaped them both all over.

The water rinsed them clean as Buffy buried her fingers in Toni and got her off fast; no one was going to accuse her of being a selfish lover.

"Go," Toni pushed her from the stall as she flopped back against the tiles. "Before Faith follows us in here and I am forced to kill you both."

Buffy gave her one last kiss with a smile of deep satisfaction before she did as she was told.

Faith was sitting on the bed, cracking her knuckles, when Buffy came out wrapped in a towel.

"Sorry." She picked her underwear back up from the floor. "Toni was a little pissed about me going tonight, and I got kinda caught up in reassuring her."

"No worries. I'm just sorry I had to walk in on it."

"You didn't look all that sorry when you were staring," Buffy pointed out as she pulled her panties on under her towel.

"You were topless, B. What did you expect me to do?"

"Come in earlier," Buffy whispered honestly as she leaned over the bed to give Faith's cheek a kiss.

Faith laughed, "That case? I really gotta start working on my punctuality."

Toni came back into the room in her towel just as Buffy was pulling on her sparkly, hot-pink tank top and she noticed her give the scene a once over to comfort herself that nothing had been going on. She had nothing to worry about; for once Toni had satisfied her to complete fullness, so much so that Buffy hadn't even been tempted to drop the towel in front of Faith instead of behind her. Besides, that would have ruined the surprise she had planned for later.

"So, Tone," Faith began, and Buffy held her breath, wondering if another argument with her as the main topic was about to commence. "You going to Troy's bachelor thing tonight?"

"No."

"But I thought you were his Best Man?"

"I am, but tonight is all about 'the boys'." Toni said with a grimace. "I have no interest in spending an evening listening to old gods talk about their glory days."

Buffy chuckled, "Why not? I think it'd be interesting if nothing else."

"The 'glory days' are something I have spent many ages trying to forget."

"So you're, what, just planning on sitting in this room alone all night?" Faith asked, surprised.

"I have a book to read and a speech to work on." Toni shrugged. "It will not be so bad."

Faith stood up and put her hands in her pockets. Buffy thought she was about to walk out of the room without saying anything else, but she turned in the doorway, running a hand through her hair as she looked at Toni and thought... something. Buffy turned away from the mirror to watch her warily.

"Can you be ready in ten minutes?"

"Why?" Toni asked, confused.

"Because if so, why don't you come with us tonight?" Faith said it like she was asking to have her teeth pulled without anesthetic.

"To your bachelorette party?" Now Toni sounded even more confused.

"Why not?" Faith shrugged, not looking at her now. "You're a girl, B's girl in fact, and you're Troy's best friend. If it wasn't for this shitty triangle thing we have going on, you'da probably been second on the guest list anyway."

Buffy smiled, but it was lost on the other women as they stared at each other, neither really sure what they were getting into here.

"So?" Faith asked when Toni didn't say anything.

"Yes. I would like very much to come," Toni said hesitantly. "Thank you."

"No probs." Faith turned on her heel and walked out of the room, calling over her shoulder. "I'll be waiting by the donkey. Hurry up!"

Toni turned to Buffy once they were alone. "Is this okay with you?"

Buffy's smile grew wider as she put her makeup away and walked over to Toni. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't been looking forward to having Faith to herself for the evening, or rather, not to herself but without a pesky girlfriend in tow, but she was even more pleased that Faith had been big enough to sacrifice the same to make Toni feel better.

"Of course it is okay." Buffy gave her a kiss. "Tonight is gonna be pretty Faith-heavy though, seeing as it's her shindig and all. Are you going to be okay with that?"

"Si," Toni nodded. "As long as I get two dances for every one that she gets."

"Done." Buffy gave her another kiss to seal it and then stepped back. "Now I better go wait outside with the donkey, 'cause if you take that towel off while I'm here, we'll never leave."

Toni automatically dropped it, grinning.

"Behave." Buffy insisted, putting her hand over her eyes and backing away towards the door.

Once safely out of the room, she uncovered her eyes and walked out across the small living room to the main door, smiling uncertainly. Tonight was certainly going to be interesting now, but interesting could be fun. As long as no one came to blows, it was all good.

Dusk had come outside, but the temperature hadn't dropped. Buffy walked through the muggy heat to where everyone waited by the donkey.

"We're not all gonna fit on him," she quipped in greeting.

"There's a cart. A very old, rickety cart." Willow sounded nervous, and one look at the cart explained why.

"It's only a mile." Faith shrugged it off.

"Yeah, only a mile up a very steep mountain," said Dawn.

"What kept you?" Kennedy complained. "We've been out here twenty minutes and I'm getting eaten alive!" She slapped at a bug on her arm.

"Oh, here." Serena reached into her handbag and produced a small can of bug spray.

Buffy walked over to where Faith was fussing the donkey behind its ears while the others passed the can around gratefully.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Inviting Toni. I know you don't really want her there. It means a lot that you included her."

"S'no big." Faith muttered. "Troy actually mentioned it to me a few days ago, but I was like 'No way in hell." But then I saw the two of you together, you know, just now, and I felt something... other than the insane jealousy of course; I mean it, she's damn lucky to still have a head on her shoulders... but yeah, felt something funny, like..."

"Like?"

"Like something I don't really understand. Selfish, guilty maybe? I felt the same when she caught us at Matrix. Like she could be the one for you and I'm screwing it up because I'm such a loser."

"You're not a loser."

"I'm still screwing it up. If I wasn't around you could really fall for her."

"Okay, Miss Head as big as Pluto, I fell for her just fine with you around."

Faith chuckled. "You know what I mean. I've seen enough evidence of how good you are together, but I've always been in the picture causing trouble, even when I wasn't trying. Then seeing the two of you together like that... post... fucking..."

The donkey suddenly brayed in pain and turned its head to snap at Faith, who jumped back just in the nick of time to not lose her hand.

"Shit, sorry," she said to it quickly, reaching out to pat it in apology. It snapped again and she changed her mind.

Buffy pulled her away, trying not to laugh. "So seeing me and Toni changed something for you?"

Faith sighed heavily. "I want you to be happy, B, really happy, and I can't give you that, but maybe she can. So I guess I'm prepared to be generous and all self-sacrificing and shit if it'll make you happy."

"Well, thank you. Like I said, it means a lot."

"Yeah, well my generosity only goes so far. This is my night after all and for every dance she gets, I want two."