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PART TWO: 31st December 2003
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Chapter Two: Turns Out Silence Was Golden

Thundering down the back stairs, Buffy found her dark counterpart immediately. She was sitting alone at the kitchen table sipping from a beer and munching on a bag of chips. She looked up obviously startled by her entrance.

"What, you’re talking to me again?" How dare she sit there all innocent? "What did I do to deserve this?"

"You got me a fucking vibrator for Christmas!" Buffy shouted, leaning over the table to get her face close to Faith’s.

Something smashed behind her making her jump. She could hear Xander choking from back there too. There was a thud from the living room that could have been something being dropped or someone fainting.

Buffy looked around sheepishly and saw a very red Xander and a shocked and amused Willow. A mug lay broken at their feet. "I didn’t notice you guys there." She apologised.

"I kinda figured." Willow told her, obviously still trying to keep a smile in. "We’ll just go and get...something from...somewhere that’s else." She started pulling Xander by the sleeve to the back door.

"We will?" Asked the one-eyed young man. "I don’t think we need that something right now, let’s just get it later." Grinning, he leaned a shoulder against the wall, ready to watch the rest of the show.

"Now Xander." Willow tugged him out the door more forcibly.

Before they were all the way out, Giles came through from living room, cleaning his glasses furiously with a paper napkin, and overtook them. "I-uh-thought you-um-might need some help with that-ah-thing that needs getting. Come along, the sooner we fetch it the sooner I can pour acid into my ears in the hope of erasing the memory of the last two minutes."

The door closed behind them and Buffy rounded angrily on the brunette again who was laughing her ass off.

"That was so funny." She looked at the blonde. "You mean you only just opened it? Well at least that explains the lack of gratitude until now."

"I’m not thanking you now, you moron, I’m about to kick your ass." Buffy started to move around the kitchen table, fully intending on handing out that ass-kicking.

Faith seeing her serious expression jumped up, watching her carefully for the first move. "What’s your problem now? I thought you’d be pleased. That’s not some cheap-ass toy. I got you the best there is, no expense spared." She backed up as Buffy advanced on her. "Surprise, surprise - little miss wonderful still ain’t fuckin’ happy!"

Buffy was in her face now, having backed her into the cabinets. "Happy? You are screwing me around and you expect me to be happy about it? You are un-fucking-believable. Why are you being such a bitch to me? Is it because I didn’t wave around my 'Faith just had her tongue up my pussy’ placard when we got caught last week? 'Cause if so, you’ve already paid me back for that one. Or did you forget the little show you put on for me?"

Buffy took a deep breath to gather more steam, but Faith interrupted. "Whoa, whoa and whoa. What show and who said I’m trying to fuck with you? All I did was give you a present. One that’s useful and enjoyable, and shit B, hearing you go off like this I think you need it more that I thought. You really need to calm down before you become the first Slayer to ever die from a heart attack."

Buffy threw her fist at Faith’s face and just got angrier when the brunette caught it in her own hand and held it there. "Let go of me."

"What so you can take another shot? I don’t think so."

"You’re just loving this, aren’t you?"

Faith sneered at her. "Yeah this is my idea of a bundle of fun, Blondie." Buffy fell back against the table as the brunette let go of her hand and pushed her hard. She was straight back up, but Faith didn’t follow through. She remained by the cabinets. "You wanna hand me a fuckin’ script any time soon, so I know what the fuck we’re arguing about?"

"Don’t play stupid Faith. You think it’s funny to rub my face in it with..., what was his name? Bud. No." Buffy waved her hand in the air irritably until it came to her. "Brad, that’s it. You flaunt Brad in front of me and then just casually hand me a...a...sex toy, and I’m supposed to think it’s not about you wanting to hurt me? Yeah right. I know you Faith. You’ve always liked being cruel, I just thought we’d left that behind us in the rubble that was Sunnydale. I guess it doesn’t take much to revert back to form with you, huh?" Feeling dejected and worn-out now that she’d finished her speech, she sank down into one of the chairs. Faith’s bottle of beer was still on the table and she took a long swallow.

Faith remained where she was, but slid down the cabinets to sit on the floor. "All it takes is you." She said quietly. "To revert, I mean. It just takes you."

"So this is all my fault again?" Buffy asked. Her hackles were still up and she just wanted Faith to stop talking so she could.

"I bought you that present a week after you let me finger you in Matrix and then told me you weren’t interested. Maybe I was a little bit..." Buffy watched as she searched for a word that wouldn’t give too much away. "...disappointed, but-but I wasn’t tryin’ to be cruel. It was mostly a joke and I figured what with you determined to stay all single, it would be practical too. It had nothing to do with that idiot I brought home Christmas."

"So why give it to me then? I don’t believe you. I think you wanted me to open it knowing you were screwing him just down the hall. Did you think I’d be so overcome with seeing you naked that I’d be unable to resist its plasticy-phallus shaped allure?"

"It’s not plasticy - if you’d held it, you’d know that." Faith retorted. "And if my rather vague, drunken memory of you barging into my room without permission in the middle of the night is right - you were pretty damn overcome. And I’m thinking if Bud hadn’t been there, your legs would have been open quick as blinking and you’d a been begging me to use it on you just right."

"I really don’t think so." Buffy huffed. "And his name was Brad!"

Faith smirked. "You don’t? You’re going for the 'I’m so sweet and innocent’ act again. It doesn’t work anymore B. In fact it never really worked, but if you think I’m gonna fall for it after Christmas Eve, no chance. We coulda been in a bed keeping every thing nice and quiet, but you wanted me to tongue-fuck you in the middle of the frickin’ living room. Telling me: 'Just kissing, Faith.’ When you were riding my face so hard my lips were bruised? Sweet you may be..." She licked her lips with another smirk and a shake of her head. "...but innocent..."

Buffy was up and the chair was flying before Faith had finished speaking and she barely had time to duck and cover her head before it smashed into pieces against the cabinets.

Sitting back up as wood rained down on her, Faith stared at the blonde in shock. "You threw a fucking chair at me?"

Buffy was even more shocked then Faith. She had one hand to her mouth and throwing up was definitely an option. She didn’t answer the brunette’s outraged shriek.

Slowly the other Slayer stood up; splinters fell from her hair and clothes. Buffy took a step back. Shaking the last of the wood off, Faith looked at her. "Andrew was freaking we wouldn’t have enough chairs for the party. I ain’t gonna be the one to tell him there’s one less now."

Buffy backed up some more as Faith walked towards her, but the brunette didn’t stop until she was at the bottom of the stairs.

"I don’t want to do this anymore Buffy." She said softly without turning around.

Buffy was biting her lip and staring at the floor until she heard Faith speak. Looking up, she asked: "What?"

"Fight. Argue. Cry." Faith had cried? Over her? "Did we really bother to save the world just to live like this?" She started up the stairs. "I’m gonna go get ready. People will be arriving soon."

Buffy watched her go with tears in her eyes. Why did she keep doing the wrong thing where Faith was concerned? Why couldn’t she just find the perfect thing to say that would make everything okay between them once and for all?

Faith had said she’d been attracted to her in silence for five long years and Buffy had managed to destroy that in one week of knowing about it. That had to be some kind of record-breaking achievement, even for her.