Damned if I don't, damned if I do.

Thanks for the reviews. This is the last piece to this chapter - I hope you enjoy it.
__________________________

As Xander flopped belly first next to them on the blanket, Faith pulled her hand back fast and discreet. Buffy missed it immediately, but didn’t show it as she sat back; placing her hands in her lap, and turned her attention to her out-of-breath best friend.

“Hey, did you win?” she asked him, trying to sound like she cared about the answer and that her mind wasn’t really racing with all the things Faith hadn’t had a chance to say.

“No, dropped my egg on the starting line. Those things really go splat if you don’t get a chance to pre-boil them,” he griped cheerfully, staying on his stomach as he reached into the sandwich tub. “Melissa and me came in a close second in the wheel barrow race though; she can run really fast on her hands.”

“Uh huh,” Buffy nodded. “I’m pleased for you, Xan.”

Willow plopped down on the blanket next to Faith, looking hot, sweaty and happy, “Kennedy and I won the three-legged race!” Wincing, she pulled her dark green cord pants up her legs, showing off minor rope burns on her left ankle. “Or should I say, Kennedy won, and I just happened to be attached to her.”

“Where are your better halves anyway,” Faith drawled, looking about for them.

“Getting something to quench this fire in my chest hopefully,” Xander had trouble swallowing his sandwich and chewed disgustingly while he tried. “Ack, from now on I’m only running for life-threatening situations or topless supermodels – anything else, not worth the cardiac distress. What about your honey’s? Did they get so mad that they both spontaneously combusted?”

“Nah, they went for a walk to cool off, and get drinks also,” explained Buffy. “Sorry you guys had to sit through that; honestly, they’re normally the best of friends, right Faith?”

“Yeah, something musta crawled up Toni’s ass and taken a good bite, that’s for sure.” Faith shrugged.

Buffy felt like she ought to be defending Toni, and somehow blame it on Troy, but they’d all seen Toni start it so she kept quiet for once.

“It’s okay, it was kinda like watching the European version of Jerry Springer – except without the chair throwing or the naked pole-dancing or Toni confessing she’s really a man...” Willow babbled until she became aware of Buffy’s expression, shutting up she offered an apologetic smile.

Faith bust up laughing and Buffy dug her finger into Faith’s bare side, making her wriggle away from the blonde, still chuckling.

“I promise you Will, Toni is no man, even if she does have more stones than Troy could ever hope for,” Buffy grinned.

“That makes as much sense as your taste in women,” Faith retaliated, reaching her arm up to flick Buffy’s earlobe, making it sting enough to start her eyes watering.

“Youch, F!” Buffy rubbed her earlobe with one hand, and slapped at Faith’s flicking hand with the other. “Did I hit a sore spot?”

“No, but I’m gonna.” Faith tried to flick Buffy’s ear again, but Buffy kept her hand away with a series of playful slaps.

“What happened to you two this morning?” Willow asked, smiling, making Buffy freeze.

“Yeah, you two are all…What’s the word, Willow?” asked Xander.

“Friendly,” supplied Willow.

“Yeah, that’s it. So what gives?” Xander prodded them some more. “Did you re-bond over some serious slayage?”

Buffy, and Faith, slowly retracted their hands and nonchalantly moved further away from each other.

“Yeah, something like that,” said Buffy. “We found the demon’s lair, we think.”

“We were starting to get worried,” said Willow. “And then Troy and Toni showed up together and we couldn’t tell them we thought you were out slaying and so we just had to tell them you were out and, you know, they didn’t like that.” She finished with a grimace.

“Did you tell them we were out together?” Faith asked cagily.

“Well I started to,” said Xander, “but then Kennedy stepped in and said she was pretty sure that you – Faith – had gone to see someone in town about some work, and that you – Buffy – had gone to the gym early and had probably forgotten the time.”

Buffy looked at Faith, relief showing in her smile and it was reflected back by the other slayer. She realised now that Kennedy was the only one who would have known that she and Faith were together because Faith had told her as much the night before. Hours ago, Buffy had been pissed that the new Slayer hadn’t relayed the message given to her, but now she just wanted to kiss her.

By the look in Faith’s eyes, she felt exactly the same, “Little fish come good for once,” she muttered.

Buffy nodded.

“So was it there? Did you slay?” asked Xander.

Faith shook her head, “No it was out.”

“So what happened?” asked Willow. “And how come you two are all fuzzy-wuzzy again after weeks of Cold War-like tension?”

“We’re not fuzzy..!” began Faith haughtily.

“…wuzzy, that’s ridiculous!” finished Buffy, just as haughtily.

Willow and Xander shared a look of surprise at either their denial-y outburst or the way she had just finished Faith’s sentence for her in a spookily natural way.

Buffy cringed inside. Please let a distraction swoop down and save them from further questions on this very sensitive topic. Anything would do, a big bird, a tornado, a vampire, a …

“Fai, my dear, I have brought you a beer. Is that what you wished for?”

Buffy saw Faith jump at her boyfriend’s voice right behind her and she looked up to see Troy and Toni standing there, each with two plastic glasses of frothy golden beer.

‘I’d have preferred the big bird or the vampire,’ she thought, smiling as she took a glass from Toni and made room for her to sit next to her on the blanket.

“Sorry we were so long,” Toni apologised.

“No worries, you two all friends again?” Buffy asked.

“Si,” Toni smiled sheepishly. “We are sorry if we ruined your afternoon with our disagreement; it was silly of us to fight.”

Kennedy and Melissa had rejoined them now with their own handfuls of drinks.

“So what was it about, the fight?” Buffy asked Toni as Willow and Xander greeted their partners.

“Nothing worth bringing up all over again, I promise,” said Toni.

“Well it must have been important to make you lose it like that,” said Faith.

Toni smiled dismissively, shaking her head, “Not really.”

“So you’re just, what …crazy?” Faith asked casually.

Toni gave Faith a hard smile, her stylish eye-brows dipping low over her eyes. She licked her lips as if she was about to unleash another Italian tirade, but said nothing, merely nodding a few times before looking up as Dawn, Christian and Andrew wandered over.

Buffy cuffed Faith hard on the back of the head as soon as Toni’s attention was off of them for a second. Troy saw her, but as Faith only chuckled at the blow he obviously decided not to make a thing out of it.

“That was the exhausting kind of fun.” Dawn, out of breath, sat down on the blanket, pulling Christian down after her. “Do we have any water?”

Andrew collapsed between Buffy and Faith, making them both have to scoot away from each other to give him room. Buffy glared at the idiot, but he didn’t notice as he clutched his tummy and complained about bouncing-sickness. As she looked up again, she was sure she caught Troy smirking at her, but he turned his head and it could have been a trick of the fading light.

“Buffy,” Toni caught her attention, “I was thinking, as our time together last night was short, perhaps we could spend this night together instead.”

“Um,” She saw Faith glance over, making her hesitate a little before answering, “I don’t know, it’s a nice idea, but I have work tomorrow. Staying in Cleveland wouldn’t really be practical.”

This was a out and out lie seeing as she worked in Cleveland and having to go from Toni’s dorm room to work would take about forty-five minutes less bus travelling time than going from home to work, but Buffy wasn’t too sure whether she wanted company for the night.

She had a hell of a lot to think about, stuff she really shouldn’t be thinking about while lying next to her unsuspecting girlfriend. To add to that, she felt too guilty to be having sex with Toni and that was what she would be expected to do if she went home with her. Not that Toni wouldn’t respect her wishes if she said she wasn’t in the mood, but so far Buffy had never said those words to Toni and she didn’t want the discussion that would probably follow if she said them tonight.

It was better for everyone if Buffy just blamed her unwillingness on work and made it up to Toni some time in the week when she had her head together again.

“I was actually thinking that it might be nice if I stayed with you tonight,” Toni grinned. “I have never even seen the inside of your bedroom before. I am starting to think you have something you are trying to hide from me.”

‘Only a weapons chest, a big, shiny red scythe on the wall and my Faith-shrine.’ Buffy thought in alarm.

Not that she really had a shrine to Faith. Just a photo taken of them together at Buffy’s birthday party and another of just Faith, sitting on the front steps, smoking as she sat alone, in her leather jacket, brooding on something, completely unaware that Buffy was sneaking around the side of the house to get the photo. Two photos didn’t make a shrine, not even two photos and a giant vibrator made a shrine. It was more of a private collection hidden in her bedside cabinet.

“Trust me, Tone, I’ve been inside her bedroom hundreds of times and it ain’t anything special, right B?” Faith smirked. Buffy coughed. Toni looked less than amused. “Bed’s nice and big,” Faith continued, winking at the Italian, “but other than that it’s just your average girly den of hairspray and N-Sync posters.”

Troy was shooting daggers at Buffy, why she didn’t know, considering it was his girlfriend that was winding Toni up and not her, but he was nevertheless. She tried to focus on Toni, who was probably trying to kill them all with the power of her mind.

“You’re right, a visit to Buffyville is long overdue,” she agreed. “But I don’t know if tonight would be the best night. Giles gets a little funny about us having guests over, because of the students all over the place.” Buffy had told Toni weeks ago that they were running a private school for gifted children so this was a perfect excuse. “Giles doesn’t think it looks very professional.”

“What do I not think looks professional?” Giles finally rejoined them.

“Uh, having people stay over night on short notice,” she told him, knowing he would probably go on a carefully worded rant about how they couldn’t have just anyone traipsing through at all hours of the night when girls were returning from slaying. It was something all of the residents had heard more than once. This would get her completely off the hook with Toni.

“Well you’re right of course,” Giles smiled at her and then turned to Toni. “But I think we can make an exception just the once. After all, all of the girls have gone home for a short Easter break.”

Damn, she’d forgotten about that.

“Although, there are some things I must speak with you about in private before you retire for the evening,” he continued. “If it’s not too inconvenient?”

“No, that’s fine,” she told him, running a hand back through her hair. As she turned to look at Toni, her eyes met Faith’s again but she didn’t let them linger. Forcing a big smile, she announced, “Looks like you’re going to get a night-pass to Buffyville after all.”

“I am very much looking forward to it,” Toni grinned and leaned in to kiss her lightly on the lips.

Buffy met the kiss with one of her own before leaning back with a much more natural smile. This wouldn’t be so bad and actually being with Toni would probably make her forget about thoughts of Faith that would only drive her crazy for no reason anyway.

There was a long drawn out squeaking noise at the back of the common where it was bordered by the woods. Buffy turned fast to look, half expecting to see a giant mutant mouse there. There wasn’t but there were three or four men standing by a gap in the fence.

One of them held a megaphone to his mouth, “Attention people of Wendigo Hollow,” he shouted through the device. “I think we’re about to have a very special visitor.”

A ripple of excited kid-chatter flowed through the crowded common, followed by a wave of adult-shushes. Buffy didn’t like it. The expectant looks on everyone’s faces made her think of films such as Independence Day – the scene where all the morons were eagerly waiting to welcome the aliens...

There was a crash of something big in the woods; Buffy rose slowly to her feet.

…Only to get blasted by the alien gun ships and blown to smithereens, whatever the hell a smithereen was, before they could even say hi. These people tonight were more likely to be squashed to smithereens than blown to them, but Buffy was pretty sure that however you got there, once you were smithereens – you were toast.

The sky overhead was now a deepening blue, with less than hour of daylight left to go. Not a good time to be outdoors with who knew how many demons and vampires living in and around the town. The commuter belt for the Midwestern Hellmouth was a growing goldmine for amoral real estate companies ever since Sunnydale had collapsed under the weight of its own evil.

“Do you we think we have a problem?” Buffy hadn’t even noticed Faith was standing next to her until she spoke.

“I hope not,” she muttered back. “But I don’t like the way that guy with the megaphone looks like Snyder.” She could see something white coming through the trees towards the gap in the fence and Buffy didn’t know whether to shout RUN or not.

“Here he is, kids!” The guy shouted through his megaphone just as a six foot white rabbit jumped from the trees. All of the children squealed with excitement and several of the parents cheered or clapped.

“No fuckin’ way,” Faith looked from the demon to Buffy and back again. “No fuckin’ way!”

“It can’t be…” Buffy took a step forward.

The demon was bouncing slightly up and down on long furry feet, a big basket of brightly coloured eggs hung over one arm and he waved the other back and forth over his head in greeting.

“Is it..?” Buffy asked Faith.

“No fuckin’ way,” Faith didn’t seem to hear her as she stared transfixed on the giant rabbit.

“I can almost hear Anya’s ghost freaking out,” said Xander as he watched the rabbit too. “Speaking of which, when did you two develop bunny-fear?”

“Its not what it looks like,” Buffy hissed to him as they watched the rabbit hop amongst the blankets, letting the children take eggs from his overflowing basket.

“So it’s not a guy dressed up in a big bunny costume then?” he checked.

“No, I can’t explain how I know, at least not right now,” Buffy spared Toni a quick glance. “But that… thing is the demon we’ve been tracking.”

“Are you sure? Because it looks like a guy in a costume,” said Xander as the demonic bunny hopped closer to their blanket. “You can see the guy’s shirt sticking out between the body and the head, look.”

Buffy looked closer as the demon hopped in a full circle to make sure he’d gotten all the kids over there. Xander was right, she couldn’t tell if it was a shirt, but there was definitely red material where there should have just been continuous white fur. Maybe the demon was wearing a red neck tie for the occasion?

“Uh, Faith?” she asked.

“Damn,” Faith relaxed next to her. “Can we just go and hit it a few times anyway – for therapy?”

“Probably not a nice idea in front of the kids,” Buffy reasoned. “We could always follow it back into the woods though.”

Faith laughed, and said quietly so only Buffy could hear, “No offence, but I think if we go back into the woods tonight, I’m just gonna need more therapy.” Giving Buffy a wink, she lost interest in the fake bunny and dropped down astride Troy’s middle to give him some attention.

Buffy knew she should probably give Toni the same thing, after her little weird spell, but Faith’s words had had an effect on her that she couldn’t shake off immediately; and so she stayed standing, willing her body to think about totally unsexy things while she stared at the damn rabbit.

It looked so much like the demon that had chased her through the trees and then jumped high over the top of her that morning, except that now it was so close she could easily see that the nose and mouth were made from stitches and the eyes were just holes, incapable of winking.

The real demon was still out there somewhere; maybe it was down in the mysteriously disappearing cavern right now, watching a little girl-on-girl action captured by the caves secretly hidden cc-tv cameras. ‘Don’t think about girl-on-girl action!’ Or maybe it had already moved on and was out squashing cows and confusing horny Slayers in another place entirely.

The rabbit-guy had reached their blue and white blanket now, Buffy expected him to keep going as there were no children with them, but he stopped, hopped a couple of times in place before chucking four eggs out of his basket in quick succession.

Buffy caught hers first and held the smooth pink egg in both hands, gazing at it with worry. ‘What the hell?’ She looked up to see Faith, Troy and Toni also holding the exquisite Easter eggs and then looked up further to see that the bunny-guy had already hopped on to another family teeming with kids.

Troy and Toni looked comically confused by the eggs in their hands as they studied them, everyone else wore similar expressions. Xander looked a little put out that he hadn’t received an egg.

Faith… looked as wary as Buffy.

“Is it chocolate?” Toni asked.

“Yes, I mean I think so,” Buffy corrected herself.

Toni smiled, obviously feeling lucky to get an egg, and bit the top of the egg off. “Mmm, it is very delicious.” she purred.

Buffy gave her a half smile, the egg still resting in her hands, and watched Troy take a bite of his next.

“Ah yes, it is very fine chocolate,” he agreed. “Far better than what is made in this country.”

“What’s wrong with our chocolate?” Buffy asked indignantly, watching Faith nibble the tip of her egg.

“Sir.” Troy broke off a chunk of the egg and handed it to Giles.

Giles looked at the offering for a beat before taking it and popping it in his mouth, “I’m afraid Buffy I must agree with Troy, uh, may I try some more?”

“Of course,” Troy broke off another chunk and as he handed it to Giles, a piece of parchment fell to the blanket.

Buffy’s eyes followed it and then met Faith’s; silently they agreed not to draw attention to it.

“What was that?” asked Willow. “Something fell.”

Buffy groaned to herself as Troy looked down to see what she meant and found the parchment immediately. As he was unrolling it, Toni spat a similar piece out of her mouth. Apologising for her manners, she picked it up for a closer look.

Buffy locked eyes with Faith and as one they broke into their eggs, both knowing what they were going to find. Something spookily creepy was going on here.

Buffy unrolled her message, ‘Love slips away into the night, if you do not reach out and catch it.’ She frowned, more of the cryptic.

Raising an eyebrow at Faith, the other slayer motioned for them to subtly exchange notes while Troy and Toni were still reading theirs.

She read Faith’s, ‘True love is for the courageous; if you do not jump, you can not be caught.”

Her friends were starting to ask what was going on now, but Buffy was too busy staring at Faith again, who was staring back at her. They shared freaked-out expressions. What did this mean? How was this happening? What in the hell was going on?

Buffy’s heart was hammering inside her chest as they turned to look at their partners.

“What does this mean?” asked Troy, still staring at the small parchment with a look of complete bewilderment.

“I do not understand the joke,” said Toni, looking up at Buffy, as puzzled as her best friend.

“Um, what…” Buffy discreetly pushed Faith’s cryptic mumbo-jumbo into her sock, out of sight, as she looked at her girlfriend with as much innocence as she could muster. “What does it, uh, say?” she asked, nerves screaming.

“Yeah, babe, what’s on yours?” Faith sounded a little shaky as she turned to her boyfriend for an answer. Buffy couldn’t see her note anywhere meaning Faith had hidden that too.

Toni and Troy looked at each other for a beat, appearing completely confused and then at their respective partners.

As one, they read, “Do not eat yellow snow!”

“Huh,” Buffy and Faith said in unison, before they both came down with a serious case of the giggles.

_______________________

Thanks for reading, chapter 6 coming soon.