Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Buffy/Faith

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine and I make no money off this.

Summary: Post-Chosen. An unlikely surprise at Faith's birthday party.

Faith desperately needed to get out of the party she was trapped in.

Most people wouldn't see a party that was being thrown in her honor as a trap but she sure felt that way. Everyone was looking at her, expecting her to be thankful and happy people remembered her birthday but that just wasn't the case. She didn't like to be the center of attention in this way.

"Faith, where are you going?" Dawn asked as Faith attempted to escape the main living area at the castle. "There's cake and you need to blow out your candles."

"Uh . . . yeah," she said, trying to think fast. "I, uh, I'm just going out for a smoke. Back in a minute, okay?"

She didn't wait for any response, just walked as fast as she could out of the castle. Once she was safely outside and looking out over the Scottish countryside, Faith took a deep breath and grabbed a cigarette from the pack in her pocket. She lit it quickly and inhaled, trying to calm herself and hoped she could think of an excuse as to why she wouldn't be able to go back in.

"I figured you would be out here."

Faith turned to see Buffy standing in the open doorway, a smirk on her face. "You can't make me go back in there, B."

"Come on," she said as she leaned against the doorway, "Dawn worked hard on getting this together. She thinks you don't spend enough time with the rest of us."

"I spend as much time with everyone as I need to." Faith looked back out of the castle grounds. "Besides, I make up for it by having all that one on one time with you."

"I do like our one on one time."

Faith looked back in time to see Buffy wink at her. She didn't say anything back right away, just looked into her eyes. It had taken some time but she was finally able to look into Buffy's eyes and really see her, the real her. Before all that she thought was there was a prudish, control freak who didn't like to share her slayer powers or anything else.

It was different now. When they looked at each other there were no walls and Faith could always tell what Buffy was thinking. Most of the time, she liked what she saw. Sometimes she really didn't but that was something else entirely.

"Are you still mad I didn't give you your birthday present?"

Faith raised an eyebrow. "I think you know."

Buffy took a couple steps toward her. "I already said I was sorry about last night. Patrol ran long and I couldn't get out of it."

"So instead you give me the night off, telling me you'd join me in an hour to give me something you said would be incredible and then not show up 'cause you were busy?"

"I'll make it up to you tonight . . ."

". . . if you can get out of patrol," Faith finished. "It's getting old, B."

Buffy closed the distance between them and smiled as Faith dropped her cigarette and carefully wrapped her arms around her. "So what do I have to do to make it up to you?"

"I can think of a few ideas but they involve a lot less clothes and I don't think you want me stripping you with everyone so close by. Especially since they don't know we've been screwing."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted directing the conversation to a place neither of them seemed to want to go. Not only was today her birthday but it was also technically their one year anniversary. The whole time they were only having some fun and Faith liked that but a part of her would've liked to be able to pull Buffy away from the group by saying "I'd like molest my girlfriend now".

"Can you believe we only hooked up because I didn't know what to get you for your birthday?" Buffy asked, seemingly trying to avoid Faith's comment.

"It was a damn good present," Faith responded, keeping her arms around Buffy. "Kind of thought I'd get something like that again. Maybe a certain blonde slayer wrapped in something black and lacey that I could take off with my teeth."

"That might happen."

The image filled Faith's head and that almost made up for the fact no one at the party Dawn so carefully put together knew that the best present she ever got for her birthday was Buffy.

Faith had always openly flirted with Buffy ever since they got to Scotland and it was no big secret that if Buffy ever wanted to change teams or even experiment Faith was more than happy to show her the ins and outs. Buffy had responded to the flirting with some of her own but it was never serious. They were just joking for the most part.

That is, until Faith's birthday. No one made a big deal about it and that was fine with Faith. She was intent on ending the night in her room with some TV and a six pack and that was how it started until Buffy showed up.

And stripped. Best. Present. Ever.

Faith's eyes darted around to make sure they were alone before leaning in and lightly kissing Buffy. She felt her stiffen for a second before responding, moving her lips against hers and wrapping her arms around her. The kiss became deeper in moments, both of them fighting for dominance until they needed to break away to breathe.

"You are so good at that," Buffy managed to gasp out.

"Not so bad yourself, baby," Faith said before beginning to kiss down her neck.

She never thought she'd be the type of person to give the person she was screwing pet names but she also never thought she'd never be someone she thought of as a girlfriend. No matter how much it threatened to mess with her head a part of her definitely thought of Buffy as her girlfriend.

"We're not being very stealthy, Faith."

"Don't care," Faith mumbled as she continued her assault on Buffy's neck.

Faith hadn't so much as looked at anyone else after Buffy had let her have the goods and she was sure Buffy hadn't either. Unless she'd severely changed, Faith knew she wasn't the type to carry on multiple relationships at the same time.

Buffy let out a quiet moan as Faith began to suck on her pulse point and it was music to Faith's ears. It had become her nightly mission to make Buffy moan and cry out her name and since she'd been robbed of that the night before she was trying to make up for it now.

She felt Buffy back away slightly, making her look up only to see her smirking at her. "You know, if we keep going like this it's gonna be hard to stop . . . we might end up having sex right out here."

Faith was pretty sure her grin could be seen from space. "That would be the best present ever." She ran her hands over Buffy before resting them on her ass, giving her a little squeeze for emphasis. "I could take you right over against that wall and make you see stars."

"It'll have to wait for tonight," Buffy said even though she made no move to separate herself from Faith. "Trust me, it'll be worth it."

"I think I'll need more than that." Faith only winked before kissing her again, hoping to convince her to give in.

Buffy seemed to forget about her objections as she gripped Faith tightly and responded immediately to the kiss. They became lost in each other as hands moved wherever they could reach and they fought each other for control. That was always how it was with them though: fighting for control, for dominance in whatever they did.

They were ignoring everything but each other when someone loudly cleared their throat. Buffy quickly broke away and turned just enough to see what Faith was seeing. Dawn was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.

"Dawn, I can . . ."

"Oh, save it. Everybody knows, Buffy," Dawn said as she rolled her eyes. "Whenever you stop with the kissing and the groping and the other stuff we all hear at night and don't want to come inside. We've been waiting for Faith to blow out her candles and open her presents."

They watched her walk back inside before turning back to each other. Faith looked into Buffy's eyes and wanted to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw that there was no regret at them being found out.

"Guess you can tell the truth to get out of patrol tonight now," Faith said, grinning and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Buffy smirked and gave her a light kiss. "I bet we have a good excuse to get out of this party a little early then, too."

"I love the way you think." Faith gave her a light kiss in return. "Knew I was with you for a reason."

"Because I showed up in your room and stripped?"

"That was the best reason," Faith commented before beginning to walk them back inside. "Everything after that was pretty fucking good though, too."

They only smiled at each other after that, Faith not wanting to say how grateful she was that Buffy was okay with everything and that she still had permission to see her naked.

As far as she was concerned, that was the best part.