A Gift from Evan

Turns out when I got to my room that afternoon, Joanna'd already split. Fuckin' charming, huh? But I didn't lose sleep over her- on a scale of one to me, she was like a three (maybe four) in bed. I remember being all excited about seeing B later on that night, so I tried to get some sleep in- to calm the fuck down- but it felt like it was zero degrees in my room, with the bed being bare and all. I had to borrow some sheets from the guy in the room next to mine to do it, but I managed to get some sleep that day. I musta been more tired than I thought though, 'cause woke up around six- and I'm usually fine on four hours. I figured most people'd be eating about that time, so I booked it over to Xander's for an outfit and hopefully some grub. Though when I got there, he was not exactly happy to see me.

~ Still seven days earlier ~

"No, no, no, no, no!" Xander tells me, closing the door to his basement behind me. We're both in his basement trying to figure out what my next move with B is. Alls I asked is if he'd loan me something to wear and he flipped.

"So, you're standing firm on the 'no'?" I say, spotting some chips on his bed. I make myself at home and pop the pack open, grabbing a handful.

"Yep. Feet firmly planted in 'No' Land, Faith." He points at his feet to prove that they're not going anywhere.

Mouth full of cheetos, I say, "Aw c'mon, man."

"No. What you're doing is so wrong on so many levels. You're borderline Hilary Swank-ing it here for pete's sake."

"Huh?"

He shakes his head and breaks it down for me. "Faith pretending to be man equals world of bad."

"It's only a little fun, X-man." I'm giving him the ol' puppy dog eyes.

"With my best friend's feelings."

"It's not like I'm hurting her." I grin. "I think she really likes me."

"Exactly."

I don't get it. "Where's the bad here?"

"The bad is that Buffy thinks that you're someone else. What happens in a week when you're not, huh? What are you going to tell her?"

"The truth."

"The truth?"

I nod, lie back on his bed and empty the content of the chip bag into my mouth.

"Right, so you're going to tell her that you've been running around pretending to be your cousin to get her to fall in love with you?"

I near choke on the food and sit up. I dust crumbs off my shirt and look at him square in the eyes. "She's not in love with me and yeah, I'll tell her everything."

"And what exactly do you think she'll say?"

I think about it. "I guess she'll be mad. But then she'll come around and we can... We can be together for real, y'know. None of the bull; just her and me- the real me."

"The real you? You *really* don't get it do you?"

"No, Xander, I don't. I've completely been myself with her the whole time; the only difference is the window dressing. And B's not into people 'cause of their looks- not that I've ever been kicked outta bed anyhows- but she's deeper than that; I know she is. If she's falling for me then she's falling for *me* which just shows that she's really into me."

He shakes his head, probably 'cause that sentence was *really* confusing. "Faith, she's into the you shaped like a muscular adonis..." He looks me over. "Who FYI kinda looks a little bit like that guy from the Fast and the Furious."

I bolt up. "YES!" He sees it too. "Hey, what's his name?"

"I dunno... Paul something. We'll check it out on IMDB later. The point is, Faith, she's into the whole package. It's not as simple as you want it to be."

"Yeah, well I think it is." I head to the door. "Thanks for the grub, man but if that's all you've gotta say, then I got some clothes hunting to do. Later, man."

"I'll tell her," he says from behind me and that stops me in my tracks.

I turn around. "What? Why?"

"Because it isn't fair and I don't want Buffy to get hurt."

"And I do?!"

"I don't know."

"Man, c'mon I'm so close. And besides, if she finds out from you... and that I told you, she'll be crushed. Don't do it Xan, please?"

"On one condition, Faith."

"Name it."

"You stop seeing her. Lay low for a while or whatever, just stay away from Buffy."

"Alright, alright. I'll disappear for a week. Come back when this is all sorted out, yeah? Just don't say anything."

He doesn't answer 'cause there's a knock at the door. Without thinking, I fling it open. "Oh, hey Anya."

"Hello..." Anya says back looking at me strange. "Have we met?"

God WHY do I keep doing that?!

"Aun, this is Faith-"

"'s cousin. Evan." I add real quick, my eyes wide. I shake her hand. The less people that know about this, the better.

"Right," Xander says, giving me a look.

I take that as my cue to get the fuck outta dodge. "I was just about to leave. It was nice meeting you, Anya."

"I'm very nice to meet," she tells me.

"Right," I mutter and I leave.

--------------------------

So much for counting on Xander for help. I mean what he said kinda made sense. But when all's said and done or whatever, B was gonna get hurt either way, right? Plus we had a date that night and I couldn't just leave without saying goodbye. I thought it would be better if I did things the proper way and let her down easy before leaving, so I let nine thirty roll around and went to her dorm to talk. Figured we'd break up and then she could go to the party, have a good time and forget about me. I'd disappear just like I said and everything could get back to the way it was. So that was the plan. I was gonna be a man and break up with her.


~ Still seven days earlier ~

I knock on B's dorm room door and look at my watch. It's nine thirty exactly.

"Just a minute!" Buffy calls from the other side.

I wonder if it was a bad idea to leave it this late, but then all thought flies out of the window when B opens the door.
"Hey. I'm almost done, I swear," She tells me, walking back inside. "Come in."

She's got her hair up and she's dressed in this open back, black halter top and black pants and she looks... She looks stop-breathing hot.

"You look amazing," I tell her.

She whips around and gives me a smile. "Thank you," she replies. "You do too," she adds as an awkward after thought. I look down at my clothes. Tight ripped jeans that I'd worn the night before and a faded blue-ish, Cheeto stained, T-shirt from the Xander-Harris-reject pile. I laugh. "No I don't. I'm sorry, I didn't have anything better to wear."

"It's just a party. Besides, I do think you look great."

I smile. "Ok," I agree. "Thanks."

She grabs her purse from her nightstand and turns to me, "Will and Oz said they'd meet us there."

I stop her from leaving. "Actually, B... Something came up." And just like that, her expression changes to one that looks like I'd just told her that her bestest favourite puppy of ten years just got hit by a fire truck. I don't care what Xander says, I cannot be the cause of *this* face. "Uh, on the way here, I got jumped by some vamps. Could we check that out first?"

She mellows. PHEW! Crisis averted.
"Sure. Where?" she asks.

"Uh, outside. Near, this old abandoned building." Hey, I might get lucky and those vamps may still be there.

She takes a couple of stakes from her weapons chest and puts them in her purse. "Show me."

"Ok. It's not too far."

"How many vampires?"

"About five, six. I got one, but the rest split."

"That's too many to just be a coincidence. They must have a nest nearby; probably the building itself. What kind of building was it?"

"I don't know, an old restaurant or something? Why?"

"We need to do some research on it, find out about its entrances, exits, sewer access; that sort of thing." She looks at the time then gets an idea. "I'll call Xander-"

"No!" I have to interrupt. "Not a good idea. Doesn't he have plans?"

She seems surprised. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah. The Xan-man and I go way back. He has plans with Anya. We shouldn't bother them; they have sexcapades of sorts planned. Us two can handle a nest blind, B... C'mon, it'll be just like the good old days."

"How's that?"

"Y'know... The good old days when we used to... Whoa look at the time; we've got a nest to clear and a party to get to." I hurry her out. We walk through the campus and I take her the building from two nights ago and for the first time ever, I'm praying for vamps to be there.

"This is it," I tell her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I recognise the fork and plate sign on the wall."

"Those are Greek letters. I think it's fraternity house," She says.

Oh...

She looks up and points to the top of the building. "It looks like there's a skylight on the roof."

"How do we get up there?"

"We can go around the back; look for a fire escape."

I agree. B leads me around the back of the building and we scale it. There's a huge window at the top and we can see the vamps inside. I spot some of the ones from the nights before and a few newbies... fuckin' Eddie's in there too!

"I count seven." I say, leaning on the glass to get a closer look. "What you got?"

"Eight. There's one in the corner; out of the light."

She's right; we've got ourselves a fucking party. "I say we take them all; hard and fast," I tell her. "There's a door on the left and one on the right. We can bust in and surprise them; you take four, I take four."

"Sounds like a plan," She says wearing her sexy ‘resolved’ face.

"Let's do it." I’m re-adjusting and getting ready to get off the window, when I lose my footing and crash straight through the skylight onto the ground, right at the feet of that really hot blonde vampire I'd met that night.

That HURT like a MOTHERFUCKER!! FUCK!!!

"We meet again," The vamp says, looking at me rolling around on the floor. "I must say, this is a diabolical plan. Throw yourself at my feet, half conscious and with no weapons of any kind. How am I going to get out of this one?" She laughs and another vamp interrupts her.

"Err, Sunday, that's the guy that killed Rookie the other night."

"Is that so?" hot-vamp says. She crouches down and pulls me up by my hair. "You some kind of demon fighter?"

"I'm the slayer," I spit out at her, near blacking out.

"The slayer?" she says, laughing at me. "The slayer?"

The door behind me busts open and wood goes flying everywhere
"You rang?" Buffy says.

I smile and let myself black out.

---------------------------------------------

I've no clue what exactly happened after that. Next thing I knew, I woke up in my campus dorm room bed all covered up. I later found out that B had dusted all the vamps on her own and then carried my ass all the way back to my room. She'd taken off my shirt, tucked me in and sat with me while I slept off the pain. I was out for about an hour before I eventually woke up.

~ Still seven days earlier ~


"Hey," B says, handing me some water.

I sit up and look around. I take the water and down it in one. "Thanks. How long have I been out?"

"Not long. About an hour."

"How'd we get here?"

"Well, after you passed out,” she says, taking the glass from me and setting it down. “I dusted the vampires and carried you."

"Whoa, thanks. You saved my ass; I owe you big for that."

She smiles and stands up. "I should go. Early start in the morning and all. I'll check in before class tomorrow. Will you be okay tonight?"

I shake my head. "I dunno, I may be concussed and like die in my sleep or something. D'you think you could spend the night here; keep an eye on me?"

She thinks about it. "Hmmm… I guess Faith'd kick my ass if her cousin died on my watch…"

I nod and smile. "Yeah."

"Ok," she says.

I get all excited, (not sexually, get your head out of the gutter!) shift around on the bed and pat the space next to me. She lays down and 'cause it's a single bed, she has to hold onto me, so we're both on it together. She puts her left arm behind me and lays her head on my (bare!!!) chest. I feel her close her eyes and I rest my head on the top of hers. She gently strokes the back of my arm with the hand that's free and I close my eyes and listen to the sound of her breathing. In and out... In... and out... It's amazing and so damn soothing. I move my head slightly and just watch her lay in my arms and I get the urge to kiss her. Our lips meet and her eyes flicker open and she looks at me surprised.

"Faith?"

WHAT?!!

"Huh?" I ask.

She shifts back a little. "Faith. You're back."

Now it's my turn to be surprised. I shift back and put my hand to my face. No stubble. I feel the top of my head, I have my hair back. "I'm back!" I shout. I feel my chest and cup the girls. Oh yeah, baby, Faith is back in the building. I look back to Buffy, who's looking at me like I'm nuts. "What's going on? I went to sleep with Evan-"

"Oh... Right... Buffy, I'm sorry." I start. I get up and leap off the bed. I take a few steps back, just in case what I'm about to say endangers my life. Here goes nothing. "B, I am.. Well, I was Evan. Basically, that night that we kissed... An angel... Or a demon, depending on who you wanna believe... Well, he told me that he would help me get you to fall for me.. And well, see that night, I went to sleep and I woke up and I was Evan. I wanted to tell you but then I freaked and then I thought that maybe... I dunno... Maybe it might be fun to try out the body.. and..." I trail off.

She looks confused, "Faith, you're not making any sense."

I pace. "I know. I'm sorry, I'm just so sorry." Then I get an idea; I start to cry. I blub like a fuckin baby and B falls for it hook line and sinker. She gets up and holds onto me.

"Shh, It's ok." She says, stroking my hair. "Faith, I get it. I get why you did what you did."

"You do?"

She nods. "I probably would have done the same thing. You don't need to worry about it."

I wipe my eyes. God, I feel like such a fuckin' tool, crying in front of her- even if they are fake tears. I laugh off my nerves and wipe at my eyes some more.

"Hey, you're shivering," she says. She takes my hand and leads me back to the bed. She sits down and I sit beside her and let her hold me. She gently strokes my hair, like she'd done the night before and says that she has to be honest with me. "I have a confession to make too," she tells me. "That night... I wasn't entirely being honest when I said I just wanted to be friends. I just wasn't ready to accept that I had feelings for you. But these past few days with Evan.. With you... I realise that I... love you, Faith."

I look up at her and into her eyes. "Really?" I have to ask.

She cups my chin and whispers, "Really." She places a small kiss on my lips and I can open my mouth and latch onto her bottom lip. I suck on it and she whimpers this real tiny whimper.

I slowly loosen the straps on the back of her top, pull it over her head and toss it on the floor. She's completely exposed to me and with the moonlight is streaming in from the window my room, she looks so beautiful. I lean forwards, which makes her lean back onto the pillow behind her and I place light kisses on her collarbone.

"Oh, God," She moans.

"Buffy," I whisper.

"Evan," she says back.

I giggle. "I prefer, Faith," I tell her.

"Evan," she says again and again and again. "Evan. Evan."

I open my eyes and Buffy's shaking me awake. "Are you ok?" She asks me. "You were calling out in your sleep."

Huh? What?

I don't say anything, I just jump out of bed and run to the bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror and sigh. I wash my face with some cool water and punch my reflection. The glass cuts me, but right now I don't care. I'm still stuck in this fucking man-body and now more than anything else, I just want my old one back.


TBC...