It’s just another lazy Sunday afternoon and Buffy and Faith are the only ones in the gloriously quiet house, thanks to an impromptu picnic lunch Andrew and Dawn threw together a couple of hours ago. They’re lying on Buffy’s bed watching TV and just relaxing. The warm summer breeze blows in from the opened window and Buffy sighs happily.

It’s pretty much the most perfect day ever.

Faith is laying across the width of the bed on her back with her head in Buffy’s lap, and Buffy plays with her hair as they laugh at the TV. It’s completely peaceful until Faith sits up after a few minutes and looks at Buffy.

“Wait here, ‘kay?”

Buffy nods and Faith gives her a quick kiss on the lips before walking out of the room in a hurry. She returns a few minutes later with a big white envelope in her hands and crawls back onto the bed, sitting across from Buffy with her legs crossed Indian-style. Buffy looks a little bit puzzled so Faith takes that as her cue to speak.

“Kinda wanted to get you something but I didn’t know what. I’m pretty crappy with gifts but then I thought of something I think ya might dig.”

Buffy can’t help but smile. She’d never imagined months ago that Faith had such a sweet and giving side to her, but now that she knows, it makes her swoon just a little bit more every day.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” she says softly.

“Well for what it’s worth, I didn’t actually have to spend anything but time. So, uh . . . go on and open it.”

Faith looks nervous but excited at the same time and Buffy can’t wait to see what’s inside. She reaches into the envelope and smiles. If Faith drew her a picture, she’s going to . . . Buffy’s breath suddenly catches in her throat. She pulls out the small four-by-six inch picture, her free hand coming up to cover her mouth as her eyes fill with tears.

“Faith . . .” she whispers, at a loss for words.

Faith scrambles around on the bed and moves to sit next to Buffy so that she can look down at the picture with her.

“You have no idea how hard it was to get that back. Imagine asking for something from a prison that doesn’t realize you even exist or were ever there.”

“This was . . . ?”

“Yeah, it was mine. Not exactly the best picture in the world but it always managed to make me smile even when I was having a shitty day being locked up.”

And Faith is right; it’s really not the best picture, technically speaking. It’s from back in Sunnydale when Faith had been invited over for Christmas and Buffy isn’t anywhere to be seen in the picture; she’d been out playing Save Angel. Dawn must have arranged it, secretly wanting a picture with her idol, Faith. They’d obviously tried using the self-timer but hadn’t figured it out quite right. Dawn was mostly a blur; half in the frame and half out, trying to run back beside Joyce and Faith before the timer went off. Joyce was reaching out to her, mouth open like she’d been telling Dawn to hurry. Faith pretty much just looked puzzled, her brow furrowed and mouth pursed like she couldn’t understand why they’d wanted her in their family picture to begin with.

None of them looked great. It’s probably one of those pictures that they would have thrown out back in the day had they seen it in the mix of other, better pictures. But as it stands, this is the only picture that remains from Sunnydale, and it just so happens that the three most important people in Buffy’s world are in it.

It’s the best thing she’s ever seen.

“I don’t even know how . . .” Buffy begins but then shakes her head, letting a few tears slip from her eyes as she stares at the picture. “This is the most amazing thing you ever could have . . .” she turns and looks at Faith, trying to smile. “You’re amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

She leans in and gives Faith the softest, sweetest kiss that Faith’s ever experienced.