Fic: Another Chance: Enemy (1/1)

[inell@xxxxxxx]

Title: Enemy
Author: Inell
Email: Inell@xxxxxxx
Disclaimer: Joss owns them all
Distribution: Kiss or Kill. Permisson-take. Want-ask.
Rating: R
Pairing: Willow/Buffy and Willow/Faith
Follows Friend in Another Chance series


ENEMY (1/1)

"Why did I pick you?" Faith echoed Willow's question, not at all sure what 
she should say. If she were smart, she'd give some story of wanting to hurt 
her fellow slayer then she'd leave. Let Buffy console Willow and maybe the 
redhead would be happy. Of course, she was never accused of being that smart. 
"Why not?"

"Faith, drop the tough girl act," Buffy said in annoyance as she watched 
Willow's face. This was so not helping. Faith was being deliberately stubborn.

"She can't drop it, Buffy," Willow said quietly, her eyes staring into 
Faith's. "If she did, she'd have to deal with the fact that she's human. That 
she's scared and that she has no idea what tomorrow is going to bring."

"I know I'm human, Red," Faith said, annoyance flashing across her pretty 
face. "I spent several months in a coma, remember? Funny thing, I couldn't 
move but I could think. I dreamed a lot. The entire thing was like some 
never-ending dream in fact. Tons of flashes and images. Confusing as hell, 
but at the same time, so...." she struggled to find the right word.

"Clarifying?" Willow asked, slightly surprised that Faith could remember what 
had been going through her mind during those months.

"Yeah, that," Faith said. "Damn, this isn't going to work. I'm not some 
talking kind of girl. I don't know how to say what I want to say."

"It's not like you're going to be graded on this," Buffy said with a small 
smile.

"Oh, easy for you to say. You talk to her like you're quoting some book, all 
big words and easy emotions," Faith said crossly. "I don't like to talk about 
how I feel."

"Ahem," Willow cleared her throat, drawing their attention. "I'm still here 
and getting more confused with every passing minute. So, would you please 
stop talking around me?"

"Sorry," both slayers said with sheepish grins.

"Faith, I don't care if you speak with grunts and gestures," Willow said, "I 
just want to understand why you did this."

"Grunts?" Faith smiled a wicked smile. "Oh, honey, I could easily show you if 
you want some grunts."

"Faith!" Willow said, her face flaming. "Stop avoiding the question by using 
your defense mechanisms."

"Good one, Wills. You've been paying attention in Psych," Buffy said with a 
smile.

"Great, just what I need. Some freshman psych major analyzing me," Faith 
muttered as she watched the easy friendship flow between Willow and Buffy 
with a jealous eye.

"I'm undecided actually," Willow said, seeing Faith's confused look. "My 
major? Undecided."

"I'm beginning to wish I'd never woken up," Faith said, giving Willow what 
she was knew was a pout.

"So am I," Willow answered in return.

"I wanted you," Faith said roughly. "OK? That's why I chose you. Hell, I 
hadn't planned on coming here and fucking you. I mean, I was in B's body. I 
could have gone out and done the football team. I flirted with that vampire, 
considered doing him but figured he might kill me. Besides, he was just not 
doing anything to her body. You, though, well, like I said, all I had for 
months were dreams."

"You almost fucked Spike? In my body?" Buffy said in outrage. "Eew!"

"You wanted me?" Willow said softly. "To hurt Buffy? You knew that hurting me 
would hurt her more than if you had had sex with Spike."

"I didn't even think about it, honestly. I hadn't planned on giving her her 
body back," Faith admitted. "I was going to leave here. I just couldn't 
without seeing you. And when I did, well, I let my emotions and her hormones 
get away with me."

"You really wanted me?" Willow asked, wondering if she had somehow slipped 
into Xander's dream of having both slayers want him.

"Hell yeah," Faith said, smiling slightly. "Had for a little while. Bet you 
never knew that all I wanted to do that night at the Mayor's was kiss you 
senseless, did you?"

"This is..." Willow struggled, "You're kidding right? You hated me. You 
definitely didn't want me."

"Willow, Willow, Willow," Faith shook her head and smiled softly. "I always 
wanted you. You just didn't want me. You'd already cast me as the villain 
when I started to patrol with Buffy. You never really gave me much of a 
chance, ya know? I was taking your friend away so you hated me."

"That's not true!" Willow denied. "I gave you a chance. You always pushed us 
so much. You didn't want to be friends with any of us. You never gave us a 
chance."

"Will, I hate to say it, but Faith is kind of right," Buffy said quietly. She 
flinched as green eyes narrowed on her. "What? It's the truth. You were 
almost rude to her from the start. I never really knew why, but I can see it 
now. You didn't want to lose me."

"I...No...I..." Willow frowned as she looked between the two slayers. She 
finally sighed, running a hand through her red hair, "I'm sorry. I didn't 
realize...I never..."

"It's OK," Faith said with a shrug. "You know what I did. That would have 
happened with or without a welcome from ya. You had Wolfie at the time. Not 
interested in switching teams and playing with me. You don't know how 
frustrating it was to see you and him together, all kissy and cuddly cute. I 
wanted to skin him so many times." She laughed sharply, "Mayor told me I 
could in fact, when I joined him. He gave me permission to kill the wolf. 
But, I knew how that would make you feel so I let him put his paws on you."

"Wish you'd have skinned him," Buffy said crossly, thinking of Oz and what he 
had put Willow through. "I'd have helped."

"OK, enough with skinning my ex-boyfriend," Willow said, knowing she should 
be upset at what they had been saying but knowing they didn't mean it in a 
negative way. She frowned, thinking that skinning was pretty negative.

"If it means anything, I didn't mean to hurt you," Faith said hurriedly. She 
wasn't used to apologizing for anything.

"You didn't?" Willow asked.

"No. I lov...I mean, I...no, I didn't," Faith said, stumbling over her words.

"It meant a lot to me," Willow whispered, watching Faith start to smile. "It 
was...I don't know, I can't even describe what you made me feel. I'd never 
thought that I was that way until that night. And afterwards, just talking to 
you, it was nice too. I wish you hadn't been in the wrong body though."

"You'd never have let me in," Faith said quietly, her eyes caught by Willow's 
sad green ones.

"Guess we'll never know that for sure, will we?" Willow asked, not expecting 
an answer. She sighed again, not sure what to say. She had wanted answers and 
boy had she got them. Not one, but two beautiful women that both seemed to 
want her. Buffy spoke of love and friendship. Faith spoke of lust and hinted 
at love. She knew they expected her to decide, to choose one of them with the 
other leaving. But, she couldn't. She was still reeling from the shock of 
finding out that it was emotions and not retribution that had sent Faith to 
her bed, that had made Buffy bring the brunette slayer back. She couldn't be 
expected to decide who she loved or wanted to be with in such a short time. 
Hell, she didn't even know. She loved Buffy, the blonde being her best 
friend. But, did she love her enough to risk losing what she might have with 
Faith? And she had started to fall for Faith that night, realized that she 
had acted badly back when they had first met. Did she dare risk losing Buffy 
for what may or may not happen with her former enemy? It was too much, too 
soon. How could she choose? "I need some air."

"Wills?" Buffy asked, seeing her friend's confused face. "We can go, if you 
need to think. I'm sure you never expected all this."

"Yeah, I could use a good patrol," Faith said, wanting to beat some vampire 
into the ground. She was scared to death that she was going to lose Willow 
before she even had her to lose. For that, some unlucky vampire would pay.

"She's right. I didn't patrol last night," Buffy said. She smiled softly at 
Willow, "Why don't you stay in and deal with all this. We'll go patrol then 
crash at Mom's tonight. You can call us tomorrow?"

"Thanks, Buffy," Willow said, smiling at the blonde. She glanced at both 
girls as they stood and moved towards the girl, still wondering how on Earth 
she was supposed to deal with all of this, "Be careful."

"Always, Red," Faith said with a wink as her confidence came back. She was 
going to patrol. Kicking demon ass was something she was good at.

Willow watched them leave, wondering what Giles would think if he knew they 
were patrolling together again after so much had happened between them. Her 
friend and her enemy. And now she had to choose one and lose the other. She 
closed her eyes, thinking suddenly that life was not fair.