Things that go bump in the night

Raya rolled over when she heard Faiths snoring stop. The only dead give-away if the girl was awake or not. Turning toward her pulled her close and kissed her temple.



“Mornin babe.” Faith snuggled closer, inhaling the scent that was Raya. It was rare these days that they weren’t woken up at the crack of dawn to help train or cook. So it was definitely worth savoring.



“Morning Faithy” Raya smiled when Faith scrunched up her nose at the pet-name. What the hell, she called Raya ‘Wolfy’ so why not.



“Think we should start talking about baby names?” Faith turned up to see Raya’s reaction. Greeted with a gentle smile Raya gave a nod.



“I think that would be a good idea. What do you like for a boy?” Faith thought a moment and suggested ‘Garret’ and ‘Jack’ while Raya liked ‘Theseus’ and ‘Marcus’



“Why do you think its going to be a boy?” Faith asked curiously. Raya shrugged and explained that that seemed to be what she produced, what with two sons and a grandson.



“Naw I don’t know about that. My mom is the only girl in a family of four boys.” Raya frowned. They had never really talked about Faiths family. She preferred not to press until Faith volunteered the information.



“Do you want to tell me about them?” Raya hoped she would. She was so curious by all that she had heard and the slipped comments by Faith.



“I’m an only child; my mom got pregnant at fifth teen and ran away from home. I didn’t know I had any other family until my Watcher found me when I was called, I found out that I have four uncles and that two are in the military and one has his own bar in Monterey and the other is a cop in south Boston. Grandparents are dead; the one with a bar is gay and has a lover and two kids. The cop has a wife, four kids and the other two have both been divorced, no kids.”



“So you’ve never met them?”



“No, tracked down the cop and sat outside his house for two days trying to work up the courage to go in but I couldn’t. So I left and came to Sunnydale.” For the first time Faith didn’t feel scared or on edge about talking about her family. Raya had made all those things about her that she didn’t like or felt like she had no control over fade away.



“When this is over…would you want to go meet them?” Raya asked and as Faith was about to answer there bedroom door opened quietly, Horus stepped in.



Undisturbed by the fact that his mother and her mate were obviously naked under the sheets he stood there trying to find the words to tell his mother what he was about to tell her.

Faith was well aware of the loose clothing stigmas that Skin-Walkers had. But it didn’t mean she was anymore okay with Horus eyeing the goods. Pulling the sheet up to cover her completely she looked over at her lover, trying to gauge if this was a private conversation that she would fill her in on later. When Raya gave her no indication to leave she got up anyway. After all being two months pregnant with a baby that was already developed to a six month fetus guaranteed round the clock VIP rights to the bathroom or head would roll.



As Faith closed the door, Raya rolled out of bed pulling on her jeans and picking out a shirt to wear, settling on a white tank-top she turned to her son.



“What is it Horus?” Raya was pulling on her socks when she stopped and smelled it…fear. What was her son afraid of?



“Asher and I are leaving mother.”



At the look of pained shock on her face he continued. “The vampire, Spike came here last night while you and Faith were asleep and he told us Yakumut is here and out for blood. I know you can handle her; I have no doubts of that. But he said she was talking about needing the blood of a newly ascended Skin-Walker. The only Skin-Walker that is about to ascend that would make any sense for her to look for is Asher.” He sat down next to her. Folding his hands he looked over to her. Not missing the rigid set to her shoulders or how her jaw was clenched so tightly.



“You risked everything to save me mother. And I love you for it, and I wish there was another way. If it were anyone else I would stay and fight. But I watched Trayja die that night, and I cannot do it again. I have seen the light that went out of your eyes when he died. I see what losing a child can do. Please give me your blessing, this is the only way mother. This way he at least has a chance to survive Yakumut’s vengeance and if he’s out of the way maybe she can’t do whatever it is she is planning to do.”



Raya turned to her son. She didn’t see the man sitting there. She saw her little boy. Smiling even has tears ran down her cheeks when she saw him finger the ends of his hair, it had been a sign that he was at a loss for words, or he had done something bad. The last time she had seen him do that had been a moon before there village had been ravaged and he had taken her best spear and broken it on accident.



“I will not give you my blessing.” Holding up her hand when he was about to say something she continued. “I will not give you my blessing because I agree with what you want to do. A pack, a family sticks together no matter what. And if I had my way I would keep you both here where I can watch over you. But I know I can’t watch over you all the time. So I will give you my blessing because I understand. I understand the love you have for you son. It is the same that I have for you. All I ask is that you stay here until Faith bears the child. Stay for one more month and unless something happens that brings concern for his safety stay, if she doesn’t be give birth by then you have my full blessing to leave.” Raya knew that Yakumut wouldn’t make a move on the child until he was closer to his ascension. So whatever she had planned, it would be better to do it closer to his ascension date instead of riling up everyone into a frenzy to hunt her down before she had a proper chance to execute whatever it was she was going to do. Yakumut had been a brilliant tactician before she was turned; Raya guessed that quality hadn’t changed at all.

When Horus agreed he stood.



Standing she followed Horus down the stairs and into the kitchen where Asher sat on the counter and was arguing with Andrew about the finer points of some action show, arguing and stating that many of the moves were impossible while Andrew seem to take it as a personal attack and was openly arguing with a boy more than ten years younger than him.



Smiling she ruffled the boys hair and followed Horus outside to the potentials. Standing off to the side for a moment, they waited for Buffy to call on them to assist in one on one sparring.





*******



Dawn sat with her sister and Willow pouring over books doing research, she was so damn tired. She wouldn’t be so tired if her room wasn’t next to Faiths and Raya’s and they didn’t have sex so damn loud. Taking another sip of her mocha she forced herself to focus on what it was she was reading. It was some babble in Babylonian that was making some vague references to Skin-Walkers, she found there obscure species intriguing and no it had nothing to do with her infatuation with one tall dark and handsome wolf man that was probably strolling around her backyard topless.



What she managed to make out surprised her. “Hey Will, listen to this ‘and the youngest child of the eldest son will be sent form the land of Sun, and thy will protect those that protect the world.’…it says it’s a prophecy written by an old Skin-Walker. Also has some interesting things on the mating laws between mates and true mates.”



“This wouldn’t happen to do with you going all loveys over Horus now would it?” Willow teased. Laughing at Dawns blush she pulled the book over to her. “That is interesting though. What do you think it means?” Dawn shrugged.



“I don’t know it just grabbed my eye.” Dawn took back the book and went back to reading.



“What’s it say about the mating laws or whatever?” Willow felt kind of bad about teasing Dawnie, it was just she was so cute how she would clam up whenever Horus was in the room. She had to admit if she wasn’t loving the ladies shed be conjuring up nice little fantasies about the guy.



“Nothing really. Ummm…just says that with true-mates one cannot live without the other that should one die the other will surely perish, depressing stuff.” Dawn closed the book and stretched deciding another coffee run was needed.



Frowning Willow took the book back and read it. She had been engrossed in trying to find anything indicating a weakness in the First but she remembered Horus referring to Faith and Raya as true mates once or twice. Reading it more thoroughly she grew more and more troubled.



********



When Raya had called Anya to ask her to help her with some shopping she had no idea it would be without worse than walking through the fires of hell as the small blonde drug her from store to store, exclaiming over every little thing and haggling over something that she felt was to expensive.



“Hey Anya, I kind of had a reason for asking you to shop with me. I want to ask you about that mating ceremony you and Xander almost had.” Studying the smaller woman carefully noting how her features tightened momentarily before relaxing.



“Okay what do you want to know?” Anya sipped her smoothie and looked at her old friend.



“Well why do people get married?”



“Lots of reasons, I mean ideally because you love each other and want to stand up in front of whatever God you worship and your family and profess it. Other reasons are money or pregnancy, or you’re just stupid and bored.” Sucking harder when she hit an air pocket Anya waited patiently, already knowing where this was going.



“Will you help me buy a ring for Faith? We are already mated, so by my laws we are married but by hers we are not.” Pleased when Anya nodded and pulled her up and led her to a jewelry store at the other end of the mall.



~ An Hour Later~



After being drug to more jewelry stores than she knew existed, including a few she had robbed earlier that year that had seemed to improve there security Raya was at the end of her rope and unsure whether or not she would make it through the day without beating the crap out of someone.



That was when she saw it. THE ring, it was simple, a small white-gold band inlaid with small rubies that were strategically placed to give the impression of them being roses. Pointing to it the clerk brought it out, deciding her initial decision was right, she pulled out a ring that belonged to Faith and asked for one in that size. Nodding the clerk when to the back to retrieve the correct size.

Pulling out the wads of bills in her pocket, she saw Anya’s eyes look about to bug out of her head.



“Where did you get that?” She hissed. Raya raised her eyebrow and in Egyptian told her how she had sold her Egyptian arm braces on the black market shortly after arriving in this time and learning how important money was. So now she estimated that she had enough to live comfortably for a number of years.



Thankfully whatever Anya was going to say was cut off when the clerk came back with the ring in the correct size and already in the small black box. Paying for the ring she followed Anya out of the store.



“How do you ask someone to marry you?” Anya was still a little shell-shocked that her friend that was more than not clueless about this time period had managed to acquire more money than her.



“It’s different for everyone. Just look for a good moment and ask. Shed be stupid to say ‘no’” Anya looked at the wolf that had suddenly paled. “And no she won’t say no Raya, the crazy woman loves you.”



TBC



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