“Hey, worm boy, wake the fuck up.” Faith banged on the solid door to Spike’s so called home.

She had looked for him in the bar she was now familiar with, but he hadn’t been there with the rest of the Sunnydale lowlifes. Faith took the opportunity to quickly down some foul smelling alcohol before making her way back out into the unsafe streets of the hell hole she had found herself living in.

Her mind was numb enough now not to cause her to think too much. She’d had her fair share of thinking anyway. It was time to take back her life from the pain in her chest. She surmised that if she’d already lost the one thing worth keeping herself on the right side of the tracks for, then there really was no point in staying there.

“For fuck’s sakes, what the bloody hell is all the racket about?” Spike emerged from his crypt looking like he’d been beaten up by a bad assed slayer.

“Looking good there, blondie. You get into some kinda fight?” she mocked, and walked past him into his cold and cheerless home. She loved the fact that she had healed quicker than him.

“Yeah, some psycho bitch. Couldn’t get her off me.” He walked up behind Faith and placed his cold naked torso against her, his arms around her tiny waist.

Faith shivered as every muscle and bone in her body screamed in defiance of the action. Her body was telling her to kill, her mind was telling her to keep control. She pushed his arms away from her waist and turned to face him. He leaned down to kiss her, thinking it was the opportunity to do so.

“You wish,” Faith said, shaking her head. “Now get dressed. We’re gonna have some fun.” She moved away from Spike before his cold lips touched hers.

Throwing his hands up in the air and sighing breathlessly, Spike rummaged around in an old trunk at the bottom of his bed. The bed they had. . .Faith didn’t want to think about it. She turned away from the disarray of sheets as she noticed her blood darkening in patches upon them.

She could still smell herself in the stale and stagnant air clinging in ridicule around the gothic surroundings. Her blood, sweat, tears. Her scent as it soaked into the dirty old mattress. His. . .she shuddered at the memory.

“So, what kind of fun did you have in mind?” Spike asked. “You want a replay of last night? Because let me tell you, never in all my years as a vampire have I ever had such a good f. . .”

“Spike, shut the fuck up.” Faith sneered in warning, and Spike obviously got the message. He continued getting dressed in silence.

Once he was all decked out in denim and leather to match Faith, they left the dead, rotten air of the crypt and made their way out to find some way to feed the hungry craving for recklessness.

Faith had forgotten entirely that she hadn’t eaten anything and was in less than a great state physically. It didn’t matter to her that it was just another pain within her torn body. She was used to hunger anyway. It was a childhood memory going back earlier than any other. That, and cockroaches. She always remembered the cockroaches.

After half an hour wasting time consuming as many shots as they could possibly manage in the stinking bar Faith was used to stumbling out of, they decided to go and savour the delights of a place with more atmosphere than the average morgue. Faith knew just the location.

“Come on, barbie. Wanna go meet the kids?” She tugged at the sleeve of his long leather coat, and pulled him roughly from their stifling sanctuary.

The tension within Faith was building as they approached her intended destination. She wasn’t looking for a fight, but she was definitely looking to declare that she was unaffected by Buffy and her little gang of hangers on. The neon of the nametag to the club shone out into the street, as they made their way over to the queue busy jostling and murmuring to the right of the doorman.

She didn’t really feel like waiting around with the losers hoping they could squeeze into the club if they were lucky enough. She didn’t even know why The Bronze was so damn popular. But then she remembered where she was. Sunnydale was lacking in a healthy nightlife that didn’t involve unhealthy vampires.

Faith strode past the waiting clubbers, ignoring the sighs and obvious comments, and sidled up to the heavily built bouncer. Running her hand down his large suited chest, she winked and spoke in a husky, almost feral tone.

“You gonna let me and my dog in?” Faith asked. Leaning close to her captive audience, Faith whispered in his ear. “I could send him away with a bone later so you and me can play. I bet you’d look real good with me sat on top of you.” Her sexy grin was his undoing. He lifted the barrier and let them both in as the crowd protested loudly.

Faith gave the doorman a little wave and entered the club like she owned it. Like she owned every worthless piece of scum that dared to even look her way.

She felt like she was on fire. Maybe it was all bravado to cover up how vulnerable she really felt inside, but right now she didn’t care about the reasons. She just knew she loved feeling like she had it all, and nobody could mess with her.

“What are we doing here? It’s like a bloody kindergarten. And the music sucks.” Spike stopped beside the confident slayer as she surveyed the room.

“Stop pouting, you look like a fucking prom queen with a missing tiara.” She strode off towards the bar with him following like a lost pup.

Faith was glad she was feeling like she had the upper hand right now. The whole night with Spike had tested her and she felt dirty, but she also felt something else. Some kind of release from her self pity as he simpered after her, wondering if he would be entitled to even gaze upon her delicious body one more time.

They reached the bar and muscled their way easily past spotty adolescents too afraid of their own shadows to deny them access. Spike ordered them a round of drinks, as the bartender looked them both over curiously. Neither of them really fit in there amongst the high school and college mob. Spike looked too hard and too old and jaded to waste his time in such a place. And Faith, she looked like she could eat half the crowd alive if she so desired. They definitely stood out from the throng.

Faith leant against the space at the bar that had cleared for her, her head held high, hair sleek and straight. Her dark makeup accentuated her bad ass persona. With her confident shell protecting and concealing her delicateness and inner turmoil, Faith looked stunning.

* * *

Her poise wavered a little as she noticed the entrance of the scoobies, with Buffy following almost meekly behind. Faith felt the tingle, but Buffy didn’t look up even though she would have felt it too. It surprised Faith. The other slayer should be on major slayer alert. Not only was Faith in the club, but there was a vampire too, but Buffy wasn’t reacting. She looked lost in her own world, eyes cast down as she followed the rest of the gang blindly towards a table near the back of the small and busy room.

“Hey, Slayer. What you staring at?” Spike asked Faith.

Faith took the drink from Spike’s hand and turned away from the girl that she refused to allow back under her barriers. “Nothing at all. Come on,” she replied.

She kept hidden behind the swell of the teenage crowd and made her way over to a low sofa just far enough away to stay out of view, but positioned just at the right angle so Faith could keep her eye on Buffy and her little pals.

“This stuff is bloody watered down. We should have stayed at the. . .” Spike wasn’t allowed to finish either his sentence or his drink as Faith took it from him and downed it.

“Tastes fine to me.” Smirking, she handed him the empty glass and continued watching Buffy, ignoring his complaints.

Faith watched as Xander and Willow spoke excitedly and Buffy just sat there, nodding occasionally but never saying anything. There was a look in Buffy’s usually shimmering eyes that the younger slayer had never seen before. She couldn’t quite place what it was. It was a sadness that held something deeper, something she would have to get closer to in order to work out.

Shaking her head slightly to stop from sliding back into longing for Buffy, Faith gestured for Spike to make another drinks run. She wasn’t in the mood to be sober right now. It would do her so much better to be able to ignore the feelings welling up inside her at how sullen Buffy looked.

“Ya know, I thought I had a problem with this stuff, but you,” Spike scoffed. “. . .she’s really under your skin isn’t she, beautiful?” Spike continued, noticing where Faith was staring as he handed her a drink. He caught the deadly look in her eye for saying anything about it.

“Don’t say another fucking word about her,” Faith warned, her tone dripping in danger signs.

Looking deep into the piercing blue eyes of the blonde vampire, she could see he knew not to bring up the subject of Buffy again. She could have staked him right there. If there was one thing she hated, it was people knowing how she felt. It made all her walls look weak and pointless. She wasn’t going to let him know any more than he did about how far under her skin and how deep in her heart Buffy was.

“Wanna dance, dead guy?” She didn’t give him time to answer as she once more swallowed the thick contents of her glass then pulled him out onto the semi busy dance floor.

The music was loud and hard. Dance beats booming out of the nearby speakers, shaking the floor and reverberating through the young bodies twisting and turning to the rhythm. The stunning brunette fell right into the resounding trance of the music, wrapping Spike up along with her. She knew it was risky to show herself, but Buffy wasn’t going to stop her from being who she was. And she loved to dance. She loved to feel the beat snaking its way around her and filtering in through her skin, sweeping her up in its energy and pulsing vibrations. It was letting go without leaving herself exposed, because she commanded the music as much as it commanded her.

The other dancers had no choice but to part for the out of place pair. They were in a world of their own, and from a world of their own. Faith wished it were Buffy she was sliding up against; the slender blonde girl’s arms wrapped around her, as she seductively rolled her hips and ground her crotch into her partner.

It was always pretty spectacular when the two slayers let rip on the dance floor, and Spike was no substitute, but she used him to show to the world that she was back. To show Buffy that whatever happened, she was untouchable. She was free, and fine without her. She was hot and worth a thousand of her. And the major point. . .that she didn’t care about Buffy and what she had accused her of. If it were some cheesy movie she was in, Faith would probably have expected Gloria Gaynor to come belting out of the speakers, singing to the world about surviving.

Twisting her hands up into her luxurious hair, Faith stole a look Buffy’s way. Buffy had her eyes locked on her, but her expression was unreadable. The scooby gang was also watching her as her hips rolled to the music and Spike’s hands touched more intimately than she really wanted him to. She noticed a flicker in Buffy’s eyes as she stared at Faith, so she encouraged Spike by pulling his leg between her thighs and grinding into him.

She didn’t have a clue what was going through Buffy’s head, but she was going to make sure she left some kind of impression. The problem was, Faith wasn’t sure of what kind of impression she was going for.

Faith didn’t know if it was jealousy she wanted to instil in the older girl, or rage, because she was kind of confirming how much of a user and a slut she was with the way she was acting. She was just running on empty as far as knowing what the hell she was doing, but the beat and the heat of the dance floor stole any conscious thought from her as Spike made sure they became more of a floor-show.

Turning her back to Spike, Faith slithered against him, pushing into his crotch with her backside, her dark eyes daring Buffy to show some interest. Gliding her hands down over her breasts and toned stomach, Faith licked her parted lips. She was certainly getting everybody else’s attention, and she could feel Spike becoming aroused behind her. She wanted to push him away, but she was noticing a change in the Buffy’s body language.

Buffy was getting angry; her body stiffening as her muscles strained against her soft, delicately tanned skin. She was no longer looking at Faith though, her eyes were slicing into the vampire behind Faith, who had his hands possessing her, telling the world that they were definitely on an intimate level with one another.

Before Faith realised what was happening, Buffy was almost on top of her, pulling her away from Spike. She turned to witness Buffy kick Spike right between his legs, probably causing a lot more pain than she even intended due to his obvious arousal.

Faith stifled a chuckle, watching as the two blondes in her life set about trying to tear each other apart. She didn’t know why Buffy was kicking his ass instead of hers, but things were really starting to get out of hand. Xander and Willow had somehow became involved and all hell broke loose. She had to do something other than stand and watch. Somebody could get hurt.