The Courtship of Buffy Summers

“You know we probably shouldn’t be doing this,” Buffy whispers breathlessly and moans when Faith kisses her again. It’s been two days since the ‘tutoring session’. The blonde told her mother last night that although she learned a lot from Alicia she still needs some help. Now the two are parked in the same spot as they were before. Nobody else seems to know about this spot so Buffy feels relatively safe that no one will catch them. The only problem is the twenty minute drive back to her house.


This time the tutoring session has been moved to the bed of the truck. The cab is too cramped, and after Faith had to suddenly slam on the breaks this morning to stop from running over a dog that wander into the middle of her lane, her cup of Star Bucks coffee went flying forward spilling all over the place. The overwhelming smell still lingers on the upholstery and it was giving both of them a headache. Luckily the brunette just so happened to have a blanket behind the seat that they could lay on so their clothes wouldn’t get dirty.


“Why’s that?” Faith asks and takes a little breath before continuing the heated battle their tongues are currently having at the moment. She’s trying as hard as she can to control herself, but Buffy’s had to swat at her wandering hands a couple of times. Is it her fault that kissing the blonde turns her on so much? She wants to taste the blonde again, and this time hopefully get a little reciprocation. ‘Don’t wanna be a pig, but she’s got me so worked up I might spontaneously combust if I don’t get some release.’


“I feel bad about lying to my mom,” the blonde says and moans when Faith starts kissing the sweet spot right behind her ear. This is Buffy’s small attempt to try and make the brunette feel a little guilty so they’ll stop the grope fest and talk. Although they talk a lot at lunch and during their morning break, they don’t talk about anything important. Buffy still doesn’t feel like she knows Faith. She tenses up a little when she feels the brunette cup her breast.


This isn’t the first time in the last half hour that this has happened. Faith seems have to a severe case of ‘grabby hands’, and so far the blonde has swatted the hands away, but now she’s starting to change her mind. ‘Finally she’s getting into it,’ Faith thinks and gently presses her palm against the hardening nipple below it. Her other hand, which so far as been resting on Buffy’s side, slowly sneaks its way down to the blonde’s thigh. To distract the blonde a little better, she gives up her soft sucking on Buffy’s neck, and kisses her on the lips again.


Buffy moans at the feeling of Faith’s soft lips on hers, and she opens her mouth to deepen the kiss. She is a little distracted though, because she’s trying to come up with a better excuse as to why they should stop. If she felt bad about lying to her mom then things would not have gone as far as they went two days ago. When she feels Faith hand start to work its way up her thigh and under her skirt she comes up with the perfect excuse. She pulls back from the kiss with a small smile on her face and she grabs onto the hand that’s about an inch away from its destination.


“Oh no you don’t,” she says and lets out a little giggle at the confused look on Faith’s face. “The last time you took off a pair of my underwear I never got them back.” She grabs onto the other hand that’s still cupping her breast and she pushes it down to Faith’s side. She then scoots away from the brunette and sighs. She leans against the cab of the truck and can’t help but wonder a few things. “Faith, what happened to that pair of panties I forgot in your truck?” ‘Thank God she thinks she forgot them. She’d probably kill me if she found out I took them.’


“My brother found them and threw them away. First he said he was going to burn them, and I got a little creeped out and questioned him on it. But then he said that he was just joking, and he threw them in the dumpster. Sorry about that. I can buy you a new pair if you want,” she says with a sexy smile, and she wiggles her eyebrows a little. It makes Buffy giggle and shake her head.


“I don’t know. I really don’t think comfort would be at the top of your priority list.” She watches as Faith scoots towards her, but she doesn’t try to kiss her like Buffy thought she was going to. Instead, she leans against the cab of the truck so the two are sitting side by side. She reaches out and gently slips her hand into Buffy’s and laces their fingers together. They sit in silence for a few minutes, both just enjoying the company of the other. But then Buffy’s mind comes up with another question, and she can’t help but ask.


“Hey Faith?” she says with a little hesitance. ‘She probably won’t answer me. She never did before,’ she thinks. “How come you haven’t gone to LA? I know you went last month, but how come you haven’t gone there yet?” From what Willow and Xander have told her Faith goes to LA at least once, sometimes twice a month, and usually stays a couple days at a time. Buffy didn’t really believe them until she questioned the brunette on it at school and the information was confirmed.


“‘Cause I don’t need to go back anymore,” she says with a little sigh. ‘So, this is the real reason why she stopped what we were doing? If she wants to talk all she has to do is say so.’ Before the blonde can ask the question she decides to just give her the answer. “I was going there to see my brother, but he’s here now so I don’t have to go back anymore.” Buffy thinks about what Faith just told her, and something doesn’t add up.


“Why did it take him so long to move here? When he gave me that ride home he said he wasn’t around to see you grow up. How come he wasn’t around?” the blonde sounds curious, and not at all pushy, which is what she was afraid of sounding like. ‘I don’t want her to think I’ll get mad if she doesn’t tell me.’ She watches as Faith seems to struggle with what she should do. She gently strokes the back of Faith’s hand with her thumb to try and comfort her.


“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I won’t get mad if you don’t want to talk about it.” That makes Faith feel a little guilty. ‘She just wants to know more about you. She said in the beginning she wants a real relationship and all you’ve done is try to get down her pants.’ She sighs a very deep sigh as she struggles to keep the pain from her past under control. The last thing she wants to do is break down in front of the blonde. She turns towards Buffy with a very serious expression on her face.


“If I tell you this you have to swear to me you won’t tell anyone.” She looks deeply into Buffy’s eyes. “Don’t tell Willow or Xander, or your mom, or write it down in your diary if you have one. This doesn’t leave here, ok?” Buffy nods her head, but she somehow knows a simple nod isn’t going to be enough. She gently cups Faith’s cheek and softly strokes the soft skin.


“I swear on my life I won’t tell anyone, or write it down. It’ll stay between us.” She feels Faith lean into her touch, but then she pulls away. She sits with her back against the cab and she stares at her knees. She hasn’t let go of Buffy’s hand, but her grip has loosened quite a bit. She sighs again, and forces herself to open up. This is something that she’s never told anyone, not even Anna. She’s taking a very large gamble by opening up, and hopefully this will end in her favor.


“He wasn’t around because he was in prison,” she says and Buffy tenses a little bit. Before she can even ask why Faith keeps talking. “It’s my fault he got locked up.” The blonde gets the feeling that she should just be quiet. From the pensive look on Faith’s face Buffy just knows that she’s going to get the whole story so she shouldn’t interrupt. “Our dad died in a car accident when I was real little. Like a year old or something like that. Mom never really got over it ‘cause he was the love of her life.


“She started drinking when I was five, probably before that she just wasn’t as concerned about hiding the bottles. That’s when she started dating these loser guys. They never really paid any attention to my brother or me. All they wanted to do was get drunk and have sex with my mom. There as no other reason for them to stick around.” She pauses, and takes in a deep breath, hoping that it will calm her down a little bit. She notices that Buffy is softly caressing the back of her hand again and it makes her smile. It goes away when she continues the story.


“But then she started dating this real dick named Jeremy. Mom’s boyfriends never stuck around for more then a couple weeks, but he wouldn’t go away. He got kicked out of his apartment after he lost his job so Mom let him move in with us. He was always bossing her around, and when he wasn’t fucking her or hitting her he was sitting in his ugly recliner watching TV and drinking.” She pauses again, and Buffy uses her other hand to caress Faith’s arm, and not just the back of her hand.


“One night she worked a double shift to cover for a girl that called in sick. When she got home Jeremy started screaming at her because she wasn’t home in time to make dinner. She told him to back off so he slapped her. Noah jumped up and pushed him back and told him to leave my mom alone. Jeremy punched him in the face, and took off his belt and beat him with it. When he was done he put his belt back on and said ‘nice try, son, better luck next time’.” She pauses again and Buffy leans a little closer hoping that being close with bring Faith a little comfort.


“Noah never left me alone with him after that. He was afraid that he’d beat me too. But then Mom lost one of her jobs, and Jeremy wasn’t working so Noah had to get a job so we wouldn’t get evicted. I just turned eight, and my mom got me this toy for my birthday. Ya know those little dogs that bark a couple times then do a flip?” She stops, and smiles a little bit at the memory of the birthday gift. Her mom had saved up for weeks so she could afford it. She takes another deep sigh as she thinks about the next part.


“And one night, when my mom and brother were both working, I was playing with it in the living room and Jeremy was watching TV like he always did. He told me to stop but I didn’t. I told him that he wasn’t my dad so I didn’t have to listen to him. He jumped up and grabbed it out of my hand and slammed it against the wall. It shattered into a bunch of pieces and I started crying. Then I got scared and I ran into my bedroom. He chased after me and pushed me onto my bed. He held me on my stomach and lifted my nightshirt up. Then he took off his belt and he started spanking me with it.” Buffy gets tears in her eyes as she imagines what that must’ve been like.


“I remember screaming for him to stop, but he said I had to learn my lesson for not listening. I remember it hurt so bad, and he wasn’t just hitting me on the ass, he was hitting my back and my thighs, and I couldn’t stop screaming. I remember hearing this loud smack, and he fell on top of me. Then he got up and I moved back to the corner of my bed, and I saw Noah and he was hitting him with a baseball bat. I was screaming at him to stop, but he wouldn’t. He just kept hitting him, and hitting him, even after Jeremy stopped moving.


“I guess one of the neighbors heard me screaming and called 9-1-1 ‘cause the cops showed up and they handcuffed Noah and took him into the living room and made him sit down on the couch. They took me out to one of the cars and had me sit in the backseat. I remember looking out the window and seeing the EMTs taking Jeremy out in a body bag, and they put him in the back of the ambulance and when they left they didn’t turn the siren on. I watched a cop take Noah to a different car and put him in the back, and they took him away.”


She can’t stop the tears from running down her face. She tries to wipe them away, but they just keep coming. She feels Buffy’s arms wrap around her, and pull her close. She rests her head on Buffy’s shoulder but she doesn’t allow herself to openly sob. She’s quiet for a few minutes while she calms herself down. The blonde starts gently rubbing her back, and stroking her hair, and she doesn’t stop for a second. When the throbbing in her head stops, and her tears come to an end, she sits up and wipes the moisture off her face. She sniffles very loudly and she smiles a little when Buffy keeps rubbing her back.


“Noah was charged with manslaughter. His defense attorney said that he was too overcome with anger at the sight of seeing our mom’s boyfriend attacking me to really control what he was doing. And he was. He told me that he saw Jeremy hitting me and he lost it. He only got eight years, but it’s still eight years. I lived with my mom for a while but she couldn’t quit drinking and eventually social services caught on to it, and they took me away. That’s when I moved in with my foster parents. After a couple years we moved to Sunnydale to get away from the big city.” She goes quiet after that and Buffy has a feeling that share time is over.


“God Faith,” she says with tears still in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.” The brunette looks over at her for the first time since she started telling Buffy about her past, and she can’t help but get a little smile on her face. “I can’t even imagine what that must have been like. Is that why your brother is so protective of you? Is that why he doesn’t like me?” Faith’s smile gets a little bigger and she reaches out and wipes Buffy’s tears away as they fall.


“Sort of. In LA the rich and the poor don’t mix well. Where we’re from a girl like you wanting a girl like me wouldn’t end well at all. He’s afraid you’re going to use me then dump me, and he doesn’t want me to get hurt. When I saw him I told him he needs to back off a little and he said he’d tone it down, so we’ll see.” Something else that Faith said doesn’t sit right with the blonde. She hesitates but then decides she should go ahead and ask.


“I’m from LA and none of the kids at my school are like that,” she says trying not to sound like she’s accusing Faith of anything. The brunette looks at her for a few seconds and gets a little smile on her face.


“You went to Hemery, right?” she asks and Buffy nods her head. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ “Hemery doesn’t have poor kids, Buffy. It has rich kids and even richer kids.” Buffy’s about to protest but then she thinks about it. ‘Dammit, she’s right.’ “It’s ok, B, don’t stress about it. You’re not like that so it doesn’t matter.” ‘No, I guess it doesn’t. God, she’s been through so much. I wish I could make it better.’ She starts thinking of some different way she could make Faith feel better, when the brunette looks down at her watch. “We better go or you’re gonna be late.”


Faith puts the blanket back behind the seat, and they both hop in. The drive back to Buffy’s house is silent except for the radio. Buffy really doesn’t know what to say. ‘What do you say to that? Oh I’m sorry your mom’s boyfriend beat you and you had to watch your brother kill him and your mom couldn’t stop being a drunk so the state took you away. Yeah I really don’t think that’s going to cut it.’ She shifts around in the seat and is glad the radio actually works in this piece of junk.


Again the brunette stops a block away just in case Dawn and/or Mrs. Summers are already home. She turns off the radio, and looks over at the blonde. Buffy has a far away expression on her face and Faith wonders what she’s thinking about. She’s about to say something when Buffy finally looks up at her. The blonde looks deeply into Faith’s eyes for what feels like forever. Then she leans forward and kisses her. It starts out deep, and only gets deeper. Buffy’s never kissed Faith this passionately before, and the brunette is having a little trouble keeping up. Then they finally pull back for air and Faith has a small smile on her face.


“What was that for?” she breathes out more then she says. Her question isn’t answer, but she is silenced with another mind numbing kiss. Their breathing is coming out very strongly through their noses and the only sound is the heavy smacking of their lips as their tongues battle for dominance. They can both feel the heat rising as the world seems to fade away, leaving just the two of them. Both of them have completely turned their brains off and are thinking with their feelings, and their bodies.


“Ok, I need air,” Faith says as she breaks the kiss. She rests her forehead against Buffy’s and they pant against each other. “You know I wanna keep doing this, but you gotta get home before your mom comes looking for you. She’ll have to drive passed us to get to the school and if she sees us we’re dead.” Buffy nods her head a little, but then presses her lips to Faith’s. The kiss is soft, and tender unlike the others that happened just moments before. Then she pulls back and looks deeply into Faith’s eyes again.


“Pick me up tomorrow?” she asks and Faith nods her head. She leaves one last kiss on the brunette’s lips before she grabs her backpack and gets out of the truck. She waves goodbye when Faith starts to drive off, and the brunette waves back. She slowly walks home and tries not to think about the things that Faith told her. ‘Her brother is out of prison now, and they’re building a relationship so that’s good. I think she would have told me if her foster family was abusing her. So I guess things are getting better. And hey, I’m going home from the ‘tutoring session’ and I still have my underwear so things could definitely be worst.’