Just a Photograph

CHAPTER THREE
“Meet the Parent(s)”

I stroll into the library after Buffy and a middle age man looked up. "Oh Buffy, I have something I need you to take a look at. Is this the kind of sword-" He then noticed me. "-Fish that you uh, need for your project?"

Buffy laughed at his lame cover up, "Its okay Giles, this is Faith. She's the new slayer."

He fiddled with his glasses, "Oh. Well nice to meet you, Faith."

"Likewise," I say distractedly as I look around the library. I guess I can see why he chose librarian. He can have all his little boring demon books in here and no one would even notice cause no high-schooler likes the library. Pretty damn good set up, actually.

"So Faith, where are you from?"

I look up at him and sit on a table, "Boston."

"Really? You didn’t tell me that." Buffy says and pouts.

I shrug, "Ya never asked."

"So what brings you out here, if I may ask?" Giles asks as he puts down the book he was holding.

"Buffy. I wanted to meet her."

Buffy smiles a little and sits next to me, although on a seat, not on the table.

"Where is your watcher?"

I look down, "Uh… on some watcher retreat thingie."

Buffy looks up at me, she knows I'm lying. I thought I was a pretty fuckin' good liar, till she came along. But whatever, just cause I got caught doesn’t mean I have to admit the truth.

Giles eyes go all far away looking and he smiles, "Ah, the watchers retreat. I've always wanted to attend…"

"Giles!" Buffy interrupts before he can go into la la land or some shit like that. "What were you talking about before? About the swords?"

"Oh, yes." He picks up a book and shows it to Buffy. "Are these the kinds of swords that the demon was holding?"

Buffy looks it over. "Yeah, though I don’t see why it matters, I already killed it."

"Buffy, we need to keep a record of what your kills are. Honestly, I've told you this before." He sighs.

I turn my head as the library doors open and a boy with brownish-ratted hair and a red headed girl comes in.

"Hey guys!" Buffy says as she stands up.

"Hey Bu--" His sentence goes unfinished because he finally notices me, and his jaw drops. Damn, do you see what I have to deal with on a daily basis?

Buffy looks at me and smirks a little then puts her hand under his jaw and picks it up, "Faith, this is Xander." She takes her hand away from him mouth and motions to the girl, "And this is Willow."

The girl, Willow, looks intimidated by me and gives a shaky smile and a short wave. Xander still looks like his dick is paying more attention than his brain.

I smirk a little, "Hey guys."

"Faith is the new slayer. She's gonna be staying with me for awhile."

"She's staying in your house?" Willow asked.

"Well yeah, long as Mom approves, which she probably will."

"Will you guys be sleeping together?" Xander asked like his best fantasy was coming to life.

"Depending on what mom says we might be sharing the same bed, yes. Otherwise, get your head out of the gutter, Xan." Buffy gives him a look.

He puts up his hands, "Hey now, I didn’t say anything bad. You just took it in the wrong way. You get YOUR mind out of the gutter, Buff."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we probably should be heading home so I can have a chat with Mom." She looked at Giles, "We'll go patrolling tonight and talk to you in the morning."

She took my hand softy and waved shortly, "Bye."

I give them a nod, "Later."

We got to Buffy's house a half-hour later. She didn’t let go of my hand the entire time and I was wondering if this was one of those weird friend things. I've never actually had a friend in my entire life, so I'm not sure how they should act. But if it's not, I'd be beginning to wonder what kind of friendship B was looking for.

She opened the door and let me in, and I stood in the doorway and looked around. Her house was kinda how I'd expect to be, basically perfect. Damn, and I'm gonna be living here? I smile a little at how lucky I've gotten just from the couple hours I've been here.

"Mom?" Buffy yelled as she shooed me in further to close the door behind me.

"Buffy?" Buffy's Mom came in through the dining room and stopped as she looked at me. I fidgeted a little and closed my jacket nervously so she wouldn’t see any cleavage. I know its stupid, because I usually don’t give a shit about what people think of me. But for some reason this was important that she see me right, and not as everyone else does. I look down and start playing with my hands.

"Mom, this is Faith. She's another slayer." Buffy put her hand on my back and I could feel the connection again and it warmed me a little, or at least enough to make me look up at her mom.

"Um, hey…"

She smiled at me, a genuine smile, "Hi Faith." She motioned for us to sit down at the kitchen table and I plopped down on the seat and started tapping my foot out of nervous habit. I've never done the whole meeting the parents thing and I've decided I don’t like it.

Buffy sat down next to me and put a hand on my knee to stop my tapping and smiled at me softly. She then turned to her mother. "Mom, can Faith stay here with us for awhile? She's here by herself and she doesn’t have that much money. She can stay in my room with me, if you want…"

Buffy's mom chose not to answer her question at first and instead turned to me, "Where are you from, Faith?"

"Boston…" I shifted in my seat a little.

"Really? I've heard it's nice there, do you like it?"

"Uh…" Why is she being so nice to me? It's kinda creepy. Well okay, not so much. Kinda nice, but I'm still as uncomfortable as hell. "Its okay. I guess." I shrug a little and look down. God, I've never been this shy in my life.

"If I may ask, your such a young girl to be out on her own… where are your parents?" The fear stricken look on my face at the mention of my parents must've clicked something in her head because she put a hand on my arm that was resting on the table and said, "Its okay, its okay, you don’t have to tell me."

I noticeably relaxed and looked at Buffy. She was looking at me concerned and her hand, which had never left my knee, started caressing it softly, trying to comfort me. "I'm sorry… I just… I just don’t like to talk about it, if that’s okay?"

Buffy's mom nodded, "I understand. If you ever do feel ready you can always come to me though, alright?" I nod a little and she continues, "And I would love to have you stay with us, Faith. You can sleep in Buffy's room with her until I clear out my office so you can have your own bedroom."

My own bedroom? Really?

"My own room? Are you serious?"

She nodded, "Of course. You deserve to have your own home, Faith."

I smile, "Thanks Mrs. S."

"Call me Joyce. And you're welcome."

I grin, "Thanks Joyce."

Buffy smiled and got up, coaxing me up next to her. "Come on, I'll show you my room." She took my hand again and I smiled one last time to Joyce and followed Buffy who was bounding up the stairs.

I followed her into what I guess what was her room and looked around. GOD was it girlie. Pink and oh my god is that a stuffed pig?! I let out a short little laugh.

She looked at me nervously, "What? What is it? You don’t like my room? Its okay I mean you can stay on the couch or something if its too--"

"Chill B, its not your room. Well it is but its not in a bad way. Its just kinda… cute." I give her a lopsided grin.

She blushed, "Oh."

I cross the room and pick up the stuffed pig and look at her teasingly, "Does Mr. Piggy have a name?"

She grabbed it from me and glared a little, "Yes, and its Mr. Gordo. Stop teasing me."

"But its just so easy," I smirk at her.

She slapped my shoulder, "Shut up."

I laugh, "Okay okay. You win."

She looked outside, "Its getting dark, do you want to go slaying?"

I raise an eyebrow, "B, its JUST getting dark. No good kills are gonna be out right now. I say we relax a little before we go out slaying."

"You wanna watch some TV?"

I shake my head, "Your not getting my meaning by relax are you? I saw a club while I was coming in, why don’t we go there?"

"The Bronze? Yeah I guess we could. Want me to call the guys?"

"Nah, lets go out, just you and me. Plus, I need to pick up my stuff I left at the bus station before we head out. Let's go grab that and then we'll come back here, get all sexed up and head out. Maybe pick up some guys…?" I wiggle my eyebrows on the last part trying to get her to see my meaning. I would say girls since that’s what I've been preferring lately, but I don’t think she swings that way.

"Uh… Faith I don’t do the whole one-nighter thing. It's not me." She put the stuffed pig back on the bed and looked at me.

I shrug, "Whatever, we can still get all hot, and make a couple guys cream their pants."

"Faith! Ew!"

I laugh at the completely disgusted look on her face. I just had to, you would too if you saw it. "Its okay B, they probably wont anyway." Yeah right. "But I still wanna make you over, that cool?"

She shrugged a little, "Yeah I guess."

I smile. This is gonna be FUN.

TBC…