Fleeting

A/N: Bit of a slow start, i know. but these are pretty much the set up chapters. review me i'li'll post more often.

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My back was pressed into the hard surface of her door, my head lolling against the wall as she gently thrust herself up into my heat. A slow, lapping rhythm that caused my legs to wrap around her waist impossibly tighter.

I could feel my lips starting to crack slightly, as I breathed heavily through my mouth, and it took almost inhuman effort for me to close my mouth and lick them to get them half way moist again.

Her lips blazed a trail of utter molten lava down my throat, latching on to my pulse point and making me keen into her thick hair, as I lazily ran my finger tips over the back of her neck. If I had it in me, I would have been smiling at the sensation of gooseflesh appearing in their wake. Positively grinned at the vibrations of shudders that were rambling through my body, from her.

My mind sudden took stock of the fact that our entire torsos were pressed together. Breast against breast, stomach againstmachmach. Heat against heat. The thought made me moan, low and deep into the room. And I knew, if she kept this up, no matter the pace of her gentle thrusting, she wouldn’t even have to take the rest of my clothes off.

My shirt lay in a heap on the floor, her tank top throw carelessly next to it. I frowned slightly, as her top was shed, to reveal the black bra beneath. The one time she chooses to wear a bra, and it just has to be tonight?

I ran my fingers slowly down her back from under her hair, feeling her arch like a cat into me, as I pressed into her flesh with my nails. I figured her bra clasp for a few moments, before quickly flicking it open and pressing my palm to the newly exposed skin beneath.

I knew, without ever having to see into the future, that I would spend countless hours memorizing every single inch of her skin. Smooth expanses of darkened flesh. Goosebumps arising where ever I breathed out onto her. The soft downy hair on the back of her neck, trailing down from her hairline. I wanted to know it all. I wanted it all.

I pulled her head back up towards me and almost brutally slammed my lips to hers, shocking her enough to make her stop the movement of her lower body, giving me enough time to at least be naked before I blew into ecstasy.

Dropping back down to the floor, I stayed close, but slowly pulled off her bra, letting the garment fallen, forgotten, between us to the floor as I looked at her. A small smile playing over my lips as I rounded her body, running my hands over her shoulders, and down her back.

A grin spread across my face as I looked at her. The very center of her back was covered, almost completely, in a delicate, very detailed tattoo. Raven’s wings spreading out as if to take flight, seemingly coming out from her body, ready to take her with them. Blacks, grays and whites flashing across her skin, filling in the details that would have been missed without them.

Running my fingertips gently over her skin, I started to trace the lines and curves of that tattoo. Memorizing it, taking a mental and physical snap shot of its beauty.

My raven.

She slowly turned around to face me, her hands running up my arms and back down again. Linking her fingers with mine as she looked into my eyes.

“Just for you B.” she whispered, before slowly walking me backwards towards the bed. My heart was thundering in my chest, both from the way she was looking at me, and the memory of that day, years ago.

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“Faith, you’ll die! You *can’t*!” I screamed at her over the sounds of burning wood and rusted metal. The cries of pain from below where we stood.

“Buffy, I have to.” I could see Dawn leaning heavily against one of the poorly constructed pillars, over Faith’s shoulder, ignoring the shaking she was putting me through as I pleaded with Dawn to help me save her.

“Buffy listen to me, listen. I love you. I will *always* love you.” She looked over my shoulder at that point, the blazing blue shimmers of the vortex reflecting in her eyes. “This is what I have to do. Tell Nisis.. Tell Nisis that I figured it out. And.. and I’m ok. And give my love to our friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be *strong*. Buffy.. the hardest thing is this world.. is to live in it. be brave. Live. For me.”

She leaned forward and kissed me softly on the forehead. I could feel her lips quivering against my skin as she gulped down the tears I knew she wouldn’t let fall. Then she pulled away from me, smiling one last time before she turned around and pulled Dawn into a quick, fierce hug.

She quickly ran around me, after dropping Dawn from the hug, and jumped off the end of the platform. I felt myself stumbling behind her and dropping to my hands and my knees at the edge, my breath all flying out of my body as I blinked, hoping the tears would fall so I could see her just one last time.

My vision cleared to see her entangled in ropes of electricity. The blue bolts running up and down her beautifully flawless skin, as she wreathed about in pain. Her arms were spread out to either side of her body, and her fingers kept clasping and unclasping in the obvious pain she was going through. And her hair was flying about her head in the wind what was whipping against my face.

And a second before she took her last breath, she opened her eyes, and looked straight up at me.

My last thought, on seeing into those eyes, for what I felt was the last time, was how beautiful she looked. Despite the pain, despite how she wasn’t going to be left standing after this, despite the throbbing of agony welling up inside my chest, and threatening to pull me down into that dark place. That quite place. Despite all those things, her beauty was still radiating out of her very being, and the thought suddenly cross my mind that she looked like a raven.

Beautifully formed in the pre-Dawn light, arm spread as if the wings of a raven, her dark tresses wildly rushing around her head.

“My Raven.” I whispered, knowing she wouldn’t hear me even if I shouted, but knowing if she was still alive, she’d know what I had said.

Her mouth opened in a soundless cry, before her head lolled back and her eyes rolled up into her head. And then she was falling.

[I’ll remember]

A whisper of her voice across the wind, the last time I thought I would ever hear that sweet, melodic sound, ever again.

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My knees hit the bed, causing me to waver on my feet, my balance lost for a moment, before I finally gave up the fight with gravity, and sat down. My eyes were levels with her stomach, and it took only a moment for me to register this fact before I leaned forward and laid a gentle kiss just above her belly button.

I could feel fresh tears stinging the backs of my eyes, a lump had risen in my throat and I fought desperately to swallow it. to blink back the tears that memory wanted to fall. I refused to cry. I refused because she was right here, stood in between my legs, her fingers running soothingly through my hair.

And I refused because most of my entire being would rather not wait another hour or two to make love with the woman who stood in front of me. The woman who went through hell to get back to me.


Continued Next in: Hell And Back Again