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She knocked three times on the door and, after a shout from inside, lowered her arm only to awkwardly readjust her coat as she waited.
This, what she’d casually dubbed ‘phase one’ of her master plan, would be an in and out visit. She’d pop in, invite Faith to Christmas dinner back at Slayer HQ, and pop out again. Quick, easy, painless. There was no reason for her heart to speed up as her ears caught onto the sound of the other Slayer moving towards her from the other side of the door, no reason for her mouth to go dry when she opened it.
No, those were signs of nerves (or, perhaps, some other equally not-happening thing) and, as per usual, she chose to ignore them in favor of a smile that seemed too wide on her mouth. “Faith!” she greeted enthusiastically. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
The brunette blinked, eyebrow climbing as she took in her sister Slayer. “Uh, hi B. Somethin’ need doin’?”
“No!” she said quickly, too quickly, and even she winced at the strange pitch that accompanied the small word. She cleared her throat, “I mean, no, nothing like that. Do you mind if I come in for a minute?”
Faith shrugged and threw the door wide. “Help yerself,” she said, turning and walking further in, “Want somethin’ ta drink, since yer here?”
“No, that’s okay; this shouldn’t take long,” she frowned a little at her own dismissiveness but plowed diligently along. “I mean, I just wanted to ask you something,”
“Alright,” she said, heading into the small kitchen to grab a soda from the fridge. “Ask away,”
She opened her mouth to ask her question and then flee leave but a twinkle from the corner of her eye made her lose her concentration and, when she turned to look, she couldn’t help the quiet gasp that escaped her.
All dressed all up in its holiday best, it was hard to recognize the previously blank-slate apartment and, honestly, she couldn’t have contained how impressed she was at the improvements, which took the form of Christmas decorations and the simple (but prudent) addition of furniture, if she’d tried. “Wow. This place looks great,”
Faith, for her part, shrugged modestly and dropped gracelessly onto the couch. “Step up from my old digs, yeah?”
“…yeah,” she cleared her throat, not wanting to linger on the feelings she associated with any of Faith’s ‘old digs’. “The tree’s nice. Target?”
She blinked up at her, clearly surprised. “How’d ya know?” she asked, vague curiosity lacing her tone.
Buffy smiled. “I recognized the logo on the box,” she said, nodding toward the cardboard container leaning against the opposite wall, “It’s the same one Dawn picked out for the house. I think I like your decorations better though. Ours is very…whimsical, I guess?” she shook her head, “Honestly, it kind of looks like Dr. Seuss threw up on it,”
Faith barked out a laugh, taking a long drink of soda. “Sounds…uh, nice?” she ventured, unsure.
“She likes it,” she said with a shrug, as if that was enough. “Yours though…gorgeous. Very traditional. All red and green and gold,” her eyes lingered on the ornaments, obviously hung with forethought and consideration. She was a little embarrassed to admit, even if it was just to herself, that she’d previously doubted the brunettes ability to so diligently apply herself to a task. From the look of things, she shouldn’t have.
Faith, unaware of her inner dialogue, shrugged. “What can I say, B? I’m a sucker for the classics,” she took another drink, fixing the blonde Slayer with an inscrutable look as her eyes continued to take in the apartment. “So, uh, ya had a question for me?”
“Oh! Right,” she felt a blush rising on her cheeks and cursed herself internally, “I just, uhm, wanted to ask you to dinner tomorrow night. Christmas dinner! With everyone, not just me,” she laughed and cleared her throat. God, what was wrong with her? Was Will’s babbling contagious? “If you’re free. And want too, obviously,”
“Sure,” she said, offering her a simple nod, “Sounds good. What time?”
“Uh,” that was easy, “Six?”
She nodded again. “Ya need help settin’ up?”
“No, I’m making Dawn do everything to pay me back for the tree,”
She frowned slightly, looking up at her in confusion. “Thought she decorated the tree,”
“She did,” she deadpanned and Faith laughed.
“Riiight. So, I guess I’ll see ya at six,”
“Yeah,” she said, smiling a little too wide to be casual. Whatever, she could rationalize her happiness about Faith’s promised attendance later. “See you,” she offered, turning to leave.
Once there was a door safely between the two of them, Buffy could feel her already face-splitting grin widen even further. Well, now that that was over, it was on to phase two: picking out a wow-worthy outfit for Faith everyone to compliment her on.
She sighed and started for the stairs.
A Slayers work was never done.