Genesis

Disclaimer : See Chapter 1

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She woke the next morning with no feeling in her left arm something heavy was leaning on it. She slowly opened her eyes to see a petite blond snuggled closely to her with her head resting on her upprm. rm. A small smile spread across her face as she watched the older slayer as she slept. She wondered to herself how they could be lying there so peacefully when a few years ago this situation would never have been possible.
orniorning Faith.” A voice called from the end of the bed drawing Faith’s attention away from the blond.

“Morning Dawn, you sleep ok?” She replied quietly not wanting to wake Buffy.

“Better than on that bus, but I can’t wait to get a proper bed again.” Dawn answered rubbing her neck.

“Me to.” Buffy mumbled into Faith. “Oh sorry.” She said quickly when she realised her position.

“It’s ok B, you werepineping me warm.” Faith stated with a smile.

Buffy turned and stepped out of bed, she walked around and moved to the bathroom. She walked in and looked in the mirror ‘Shit I look rough’ she thought to herself. She could still feel the warmth from the brunettes body, she wondered to herself why she had moved so that she was practically hugging thher her girl in her sleep, ‘Cold I suppose’ she thought lamely to herself.

“So what we having for breakfast” Dawn asked Faith breaking the silence that had fallen on the bedroom after Buffy had stepped into the bathroom.

“I don’t know kiddo, what do you want?” Faith asked “And NO pancakes” she added quickly.

“No I was thinking more bacon, eggs, toast hash bro..”

“I’m in” Faith interrupted running to the bathroom door she started to bang on it.

“B come on, there’s a queue.” She called at the locked door.

“Shit Faith what’s the hurry.” Buffy said as she opened the door.

“I mentioned bacon and eggs.” Dawn said with a shrug and a smile.

“Oh.” Was all Buffy said when she realised.

“Come on guys get ready, we gotta eat.” Faith shouted from the bathroom.

“Come on Dawn, we can’t keep the hungry slayer waiting.” Buffy said with a grin.

Soon they were ready and they were walking towards the diner at the side of the motel, well Buffy and Dawn were walking while Faith was almost skipping.

“I can’t believe she gets this excited about food.” Dawn stated confused.

“I know it’s cute really.” Buffy replied with a huge smile.

“Hey I’m not cute, I’m a bad ass.” Faith turned pouting.

“Oh and she pouts.” Dawn said in a motherly tone.

“Hey fuck off D, I’m not cute and do NOT pout.” Faith said crossing her arms across her chest defiantly.

“Oh is she sulking again.” Willow called from behind laughing slightly.

“Red don’t you start.” Faith turned to the red head.

“Oh come on F, let’s feed you before you turn into a puddle of mush.” Buffy said while linking her arm through the brunettes and dragging her towards the diner, when they had passed the others Faith turned and mock scowled at them behind her.

“She is definitely weird.” Kennedy said to no one in particular.

“Yep.” Was the joint reply from Willow and Dawn.

Soon everyone had eaten breakfast and had started to pack to continue their journey. Giles and Wood had checked that everyone was holding up ok and made sure that everyone had a decent breakfast as they would not be stopping for Lunch.

At nine everyone was once again seated on the bus, it was Xander’s turn to drive so Giles did the head count to ensure they weren’t going to leave anyone behind.

“Ok Xander, we’re all here.” Giles called from the middle of the bus.

“Okey dokey.” Xander called back starting the bus.

Once agtheythey were heading east and towards the unknown.

The next few days went smoothly, they had slept on the bus and had stopped once more in a motel. They were about a day away from their destination.

Giles and Willow were discussing the budget for the property. Andrew was talking to Buffy and Xander about setting an allowance for each of the new SIT’s. Faith, Dawn and Kennedy were talking animatedly about comic books and cartoons.

“No way is Spiderman better than the X-men.” Kennedy said to Dawn.

“Spiderman’s cool, isn’t that right Faith.” Dawn turned to the once rogue slayer.

“Well kiddo I have to agree with K here, the X-men totally r” Sh” She replied high fiving Kennedy.

“No way, hey Buffy they’re ganging up on me.” Dawn pouted.

“Now, now girls no ganging up on the little ones.” Buffy said smiling.

“What do you mean LITTLE?" Dawn stood showing everyone how much taller than Buffy she was.

“Yeah B, if anyone little.” Faith started pointing up on down at Buffy’s petite form.

“Hey stop picking on me.” Buffy joined her sister in a pout.

“Ok, ok we give in, just don’t do the famous puppy dog eyes.” Kennedy held up her hand in mock surrender.

“What puppy dog eyes,on’ton’t do puppy dog eyes.” Buffy replied with a pout and the famous puppy dog eyes.

“See, them, that’s them, she did it.” Faith called pointing at Buffy once again. “They’re like Red and her resolve face, ya just can’t say no.” fin finished.

“Hey you starting on me now.” Willow joined in, showing said resolve face.

Everyone turned to look at Willow and burst out laughing, even Giles joined in.

“Oh Will that’s the first time anyone’s ever laughed at that face.” Xander said between fits of laughter. “I don’t think I’ll ever take it seriously again.” He added.

Willow turned her gaze directly at Xander and once again used her resolve face. “Is that right Xander.” She stated as if a er oer of fact.

“No, no I’m serious, I’ll always bow down to you oh masterful one.” He replied quickly with a lop sided grin noticing once again how good his best friends resolve could actually be.

The bus slowed and came to a stop which brought them all back to reality, both Kennedy and Faith turned to look at the reason for the stop and both their stomachs’ growled loudly at the sight of the diner that had caught their attention. Once again the back of the bus erupted in laughter.

“What?” they both asked at the same time.

“Will, I think you got your hands full with that one.” Buffy stated to her best friend pointing at Kennedy.

“Yeah and that one.” Faith said pointing at Kennedy’s left breast as she ran down the front of the bus leaving a bemused Buffy and a very red witch.

“She doesn’t change.” Giles stated while he cleaned his glasses on his shirt.

“You got that right Giles.” Xander said in response.

They all stared at Faith’s retreating form then all stood and raced each other to the front of the bus.

Everyone had ordered their food and they were waiting for it to arrive.

“So have we any idea what kind of place we’re gonna get?” Dawn asked.

“Well it has to be big enough for all of us, and have room for expansion.” Giles started “I think we’ll take a look at a couple of disused mansions that are in the property guide that Willow printed.”

“Wow a mansion.” Dawn said dreamily.

“Well we already need room for 23 of us, there’s fourteen slayers and us lot. We have to have somewhere big enough e cae can train and start a library and do research as well as live.” Giles stated looking at the others on the table.

“Giles, always with the practical.” Buffy said smiling at him.

“Thank you Buffy.” Giles replied, “I think” he said to himself.

“Well how many do we have to choose from?” Faith asked.

“Well there are three that seem to meet our criteria.” Giles answered.

“Me and Giles are gonna check them out as soon as we get some rest.” Xander added.

“Why you two? I thought Giles and Wood were gonna do that.” Buffy asked he friend.

l lel let me ask you this, how much do our two book worms here actually know about construction?” log atg at the blank faces Xander continued. “Well we were talking and realised that whatever property we buy, it’s still gonna need some alterations to be able to fit everything we got planned, and me being construction worker guy I know a little about it so we decided that I would have a say in whether the place would be suitable or not.” He finished.

“Cool, so does this mean we can have like secret passages and like secret rooms and stuff where we do all our battle plans.” Andrew joined excitedly from the corner. Everyone looked at him as Xanturnturned to answer him.

“We’ll see.” He said smiling at his new friend. “It’s not a bad idea to have a war room though, I quite like that, so not anyone can see our plans until the last minute.” Xander started to drift into his own world.

“Earth to Xander.” Willow snapped her fingers in front of Xander’s face to bring him back to earth and to alert him that the food had arrived.

Once everyone had eaten and taken the opportunity to use the bathroom facilities they settled once again on the bus. This would hopefully be the last night they would have to sleep on this thing they were all tired and sore at being cramped up for so long.

They awoke in a similar position to the last few days, Faith was leaning against the window with Buffy positioned between her legs and resting her back against her, Faith had her arms placed protectively around the smaller slayer. Again neither of them knew at what point they had moved into this position, but once again they woke linked together in some way.

“Morning B.” Faith whispered to the blond.

“Mmm..” Buffy replied snuggling into the embrace.

“D’you sleep ok?” Faith asked while running her fingers through the long golden hair.

“Yeah, I did, what about you?” She answered but didn’t move from her position.

“Not bad.” Faith spoke as she turned slightly to look out of the window.
“Where are we?” Buffy questioned.

“Hell if I know.” The brunette replied honestly.

Buffy looked at the others still sleeping at the back, she noticed that Willow and Kennedy had settled in a similar position to herself and Faith.

“Don’t they look cute.” Buffy stated while subconsciously drawing light patterns on the young slayers hands.

“Yeah, they do. Red seems a lot more comfortable with them being together now.” Faith replied.

“Ya know it looks like she’s finally letting go of Tara, I know she’ll always love her, shit we all will, but I’m happy that she’s happy.” Buffy said while resting her head back on Faith’s shoulder.

h leh leaned her face against the older woman’s hair and breathed in the scent she had woken to every morning since they left Sunnydale.

“Are you scared?” Faith asked quietly.

“Scared? Of what, ow aow and Kennedy.” Buffy asked a little confused at the question.

“No, I meant are you scared of never finding someone to share those things with, ya know that special someone.” The brunette explained.

“All the time.” Buffy replied in a whisper.

“Me to.” Added Faith. Buffy turned her head slightly to look into the deep brown eyes in front of her, she was a little taken aback by Faith’s statement.

“Not still the ‘get some, get gone’ girl anymore then huh.” Buffy smiled.

“I don’t know, my head tells me to, but my heart seems to be saying something different. I never thought I’d want anything more, but I used to dream when I was inside that I would some-day have the house and the kids, it sort of helped me through the day, gave me something to believe in.” She answered not once breaking eye contact hoping to show in her eyes that she had changed and that she wasn’t going to screw up again.

“Well ya never know, maybe we’ll both have your dream.” Buffy smiled and once again lowered her head onto the brunette’s shoulder, she was stunned at the revelation from her dark counterpart, she smiled to herself realising she was no longer completely alone and that the woman who was holding her was also feeling like she was.

Slowly the other occupants had woken but Buffy and Faith made no effort to move from their warm embrace, both relishing in the feel of the contact. Giles had gone to find out where they were and how much longer they would have to be travelling.

“Robin says we should be at the hotel in Cleveland in about an hour.” He relayed the message from Wood who was driving the last part of the journey.

“Cool, I can’t wait to take a shower.” Dawn stated.

“Me to.” Said Willow looking seductively at the brunette in front of her. Kennedy blushed a little before lowering her face hoping that her hair would hide it.

“When are you and Xander going to check out the properties?” Andrew asked Giles.

“Well, I think we should rest a little in the hotel and then maybe we could start looking this afternoon.” Giles replied.

“I’ll book the viewing appointments for you, it’ll sound more professional if you have your ‘secretary’ call for you.” Willow added to a bemused watcher.

“Um .. yes of course, we can’t just turn up and buy one of these properties for cash and not have the proper protocols in place.” Giles stated in a much too English accent.

“I was thinking of saying you were an Earl or something, ya know with the British accent an everything, I think it should work and Xander can be your nephew or something, cos he doesn’t look like you and….”

“Yes, yes ok Willow you do that.” Giles interrupted the red head’s babble.

“Ok I’ll make the calls as soon as we get to the hotel.” Willow finished.

It was another hour and a half before the bus finally pulled into the car park at the hotel. Everyone cheered as they knew now that they had made the journey in good time and everyone was still in good spirits.

Ww anw and Andrew went to organise the rooms while the others started to unpack the necessary items off the bus. This time they had chosen a very good hotel the SIT’s were paired up and shown to their rooms, they were all shocked at the size of them. All the rooms had a huge bathroom with a Jacuzzi style bath, the bedrooms themselves were huge and had two double beds in them they had a mini bar, TV and a Hi-fi system.

The original Scoobies once again paired off, Willow and Kennedy were quick to make it to their room. Giles and Wood walked slowly to the elevator followed by Xander and Andrew, Buffy and Faith.

“D come on.” Faith called at the young girl.

Dawn quickly caught up with them just in time as the elevator doors were closing.

Everyone exited the elevator on the same floor, Giles and Xander made the arrangements of what time to meet in the lobby for their property search.

Soon everyone was inside the rooms, Buffy, Faith and Dawn had a suite, which contained two bedrooms. Dawn was quick and took the one room with one huge bed and left the two slayers the room with two beds. When they entered the room they both looked perplexed, it would be the first time either of them had slept alone since leaving Sunnydale.

Buffy quickly unpacked her clothes and decided to put some of her things in the bathroom, she stood in awe at the size of the bathroom, huge, was an understatement.

‘You could fit five people in that bath’ she thought to herself, she turned and looked at the shower which had about seven heads all at different levels and all round so which ever way you turned you would have jets of water hitting you.

“Wow.” Faith said opened mouthed as she entered the bathroom.

“Uh huh.” Was all the Buffy could say while she still stared at the magnificent sight, the floor and vanity unit were both marble and the sink was carved out of it.

“Fuck, this is bigger than the last motel room we had.” Faith stated.

“Shit, imagine what you could do in that bath.” Buffy said aloud.

This time all Faith could say was “Uh huh.”

“Hey, what are you two doi..WOW!” Dawn called as she walked in behind the slayers. “Oh wow, oh my god look at that shower, right out you two I’m first.” She stated as she started to push the slayers out of the room.

They both stood stunned for a moment, Buffy shook her head slightly to try to clear it and looked over at Faith.

“That’s the first time she’s ever been so keen to show She She laughed.

“I think I’ll use the bath, with loads of bubbles.” Faith smiled in response.