The Brink Of Your Mind

Impulse

“Giles, do you know Faith’s last name?” he blinked, lifting his head out of the book he was currently browsing through, to look at Buffy with curiosity. Hadn’t she told him not to bother getting Faith’s file? He was sure that she knew something he didn’t, but, as requested, hadn’t ordered the girls records from the council. He had, instead, decided to trust Buffy’s judgement on certain things, and the infliction in her voice when she’d mentioned Faith’s file, had shown him that this was one of those occasions. He opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the blonde, who waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Forget it. Never mind.”

“Buffy, why are you so interested in Faith all of a sudden? Ever since she disappeared you seem to have been more scattered than usual.” He raised a questioning eyebrow in her direction, trying to suppress a chuckle as she carefully avoided his gaze, and looked at anywhere but his face. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“There’s lots of stuff I don’t tell you Giles.” She pointed out to him, deciding that looking around wasn’t helping her avoid looking at him, so she reached into her bag a pulled out a notebook, choosing to doodle instead of concentrate on him.

“Really?” he sounded deeply shocked. As if every single aspect of her life was up for grabs, so he could record it in his watcher journals. Which, honestly, ticked her off. Just because she was the slayer, didn’t mean she was *just* the slayer. She had a life too. She was just about to point that out to him, even getting as far as opening her mouth, before something in the back of her head clicked, almost audibly.

She was Buffy, and she was the slayer. She had two separate lives. One of them attended school, had a mother and homework and friends to deal with. Had a parent figure that didn’t have a clue about her second life. And her second life? Her second life was darker, more shadowed. She was a hunter, evil was the prey. She tried, desperately to keep those lives separate, but try as she might she couldn’t fully bury the deep need inside of her to eradicate evil, wherever she found it.

She snapped her mouth shut.

And Faith? Faith was the slayer and she was.. the slayer. She didn’t have school, family, a home. No homework or friends to worry about, she didn’t have to even wake up in the day if she didn’t want too. Because all she was, was in the darkness. Technically where Buffy should rightly be, most of the time.

Without saying a word to Giles, she shoved her stuff back into her bag, and made a run for the exit. She didn’t hear Giles as he called out to her, nor Cordelia as she was slammed into a row of lockers from Buffy’s speed. She didn’t even look at the clock, as she burst out of the front doors.

It was only half past ten in the morning.

~ ~ ~

“Oi! Wake up!” Faith grumbled something that sounded a lot like an expletive before shuffling around in her sleeping bag and burying herself deeper in the padding. “I’m not joking Faith, wake your ass *up* already!”

“What?!” she sat up quickly, shoving her hair out of her face and glaring at the ghost of Buffy past. Or present. Or.. who gave a fuck? “You’re like a fucking *gnat* that doesn’t know when to quit!” the blonde just grinned at her lopsidedly and shifted herself, slipping silently out of the tent. A flash of brilliant daylight smacked Faith right in the face. “Arrrggg! Natural light!”

“Will you get up already?” Buffy’s muffled voice drifted through the fabric of the tent, causing Faith to shake her head and desperately try to suppress a smile as she clamoured out of the tent. She was wearing a pair of boxers and a small t-shirt, and in spite of the heat she wriggled about in her sleeping bag until she could hop over to where Buffy was sitting, and plop down next to her.

“I only went to sleep like a half hour ago, you realise this don’t you?” Buffy shrugged, grinned softly as she took in the haggard appearance of a sleep deprived Faith. “Which brings me to my point..”

“You have one?” Faith growled softly at her before continuing.

“What in the name of holy fuck, are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at school or something?” once again, Buffy shrugged, leaning her head back on the tree and seemingly enjoying the warmth of the sun, which she couldn’t feel anyway. But it was nice to have a dream.

“Hey, I figured if you get to cut school, what kind of friend would I be, if I let you cut all alone?”

“Er, unless you missed the memo twinkie, I don’t go to school. Therefore: I can’t be cutting.”

“You realise that Giles is gonna make you, right?” Faith sighed, rubbing the palm of her hand over her face before taking a deep breath and contemplating her answer.

“I doubt they’d accept the application.” Buffy looked at her as if she’d grown a third eye.

“Why? Did you set your last school on fire?” The brunette raised her eyebrow and shot Buffy the ‘third eye’ look right back. “I did that once. They let me back to school.” She shrugged, looking at Faith for the answers to her questions.

Mean while, Faith was very busy thinking about what she should say. Should she lie? Pretend? What? But as she looked into the green eyes of her friend, she realised that lying wasn’t an option now. Because friends didn’t really do that unless it was a dire emergency. She figured this wasn’t such an occasion and sighed.

“Pretty hard for them to accept an application from a high school graduate B.”

“What?!” Faith grinned, looking away from her friend and feeling a little well of pride burst up from within her.

“I had a 4.2 GPA and skipped two grades. I graduated two years ago.”

“Oh my god! Why didn’t you ever tell me this?!” Faith shrugged, finding it increasingly hard to stop the grin from plastering itself over her face. She’d never really had pride in herself before. She was mercilessly bullied by all the older kids in her classes, for being so smart. She’d been shown what it meant to be that intelligent, and didn’t much like the out come. But now, looking at Buffy, who was staring in open mouthed awe at her, and little bit of shock too, she realised it wasn’t a bad thing, but a good thing.

“Didn’t think it was that important.”

“Oh my god, Faith? You’re smarter than Willow! She’s never skipped a grade!” Buffy seemed to be getting too excited over the prospect of Faith and red having intelligent conversations. Better put a veto on that idea right away.

“See, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t say anything. You’d be all ‘Faith’s smarter than Willow’, she’d freak and decide to dislike me more than she already does, and I’ll end up being about as welcome as a roaring fire in the middle of a heat wave.” Buffy chuckled, leaning her shoulder against hers.

“So how do you pay for the motel?”

“I get stipend from the council. Cheap assed bastards. Just about manage the rent and my food.”

“Wait! They pay you?”

“They pay me because I don’t have parents to pay for me.”

“That is so unfair.” Faith shrugged smirking at Buffy and snuggling down further into her sleeping bag. She still couldn’t get over the fact that Buffy had woken her up. Again. What was it with this woman and her need for less sleep than the body should naturally be able to handle? Oh, wait.. Faith shook her head and closed her eyes.

“If you’re planning to pop off back to your body anytime soon, don’t leave me snoring against a tree, ok?”

“Ok.” Buffy laughed, standing up and jolting Faith from her position. “I’m going now. I need to… be there to explain to my mom why I’m at home on a school day.”

Faith smirked, throwing herself forward onto her hands and knees, and slowly crawling towards her tent.

“You are so lazy, it’s not even funny anymore..”

“Well stop laughing then.” Faith turned as she spoke, sitting down in the mouth of the tent, and shaking her head.

The blonde was gone before she’d even finished her sentence.


To Be Continued..