I walk down the hallway quickly and duck into Willow’s office, trying my best to look like everything’s normal.  It’s far from normal though which is why I can hear my best friend laughing as I turn around to face her.

“Real stealthy, Buff,” she says from behind her desk.  She closes her laptop and looks at me, a know-it-all smirk on her face.  “You know you don’t need to act like this, right?”

I slide into a chair and narrow my eyes at her.  “I’m not acting any different than normal.”

That’s probably the biggest lie I’ve ever told.  There is nothing normal about the sneaking around and avoidance I’ve been doing lately.  I mean, it’s a big castle but I still run into the one person I really don’t want to see.

“You are such a liar,” Will says as she laughs.  “Faith’s been here for over a month and you’ve been trying to not be anywhere near her that entire time.”

“Not entirely true.  We’re in meetings together . . .”

“With everyone else that Giles makes you attend,” Will finishes for me.  “I know you tried to convince him that our meetings should be optional.”

I sigh and try to think of why I don’t want to be around Faith.  It’s not that I don’t want her to live in the castle with all of us.  Both she and Giles had gone out on their own for a couple years but eventually we all agreed it made sense to have one unified force.  Giles moved back after a few months but it took longer to get Faith here.

Even though I didn’t think her presence would make anything weird, it does.  I don’t know why but it does which is why I try not to be around wherever she is.

“You know you could overrule him,” I offer.  “You are still the one in charge.”

She shrugs.  “I’m okay with sharing authority, especially when he’s right.”  She looks at me with a smirk that makes me scowl.  “You should try working with her.  Both of you have different things to teach.  Faith has more of a life experience aspect that you don’t.”

“Hey!”  I want to be offended but I’m not.  The way Faith teaches is different than mine but she gets her point across better than I can sometimes.

“It’s true.”  Willow sighs.  “Look, the two of you eventually have to get along and it would be beneficial for everyone if both of you work together, maybe even teach together.  Kennedy said the girls notice when the two of you don’t talk to each other.”

I was aware that some of the girls have been gossiping about whatever’s been going on with me and Faith.  A couple of the young slayers here really try to suck up to me, trying to get good patrols and the like, so they keep me in the loop.  Of course, a couple of them have huge crushes on me, too, and after what happened with Satsu they think they have a chance.

Satsu was a mistake.  Sure, it was a very fun mistake but not one I can make again so I keep a distance between myself and the couple of girls that think I’m available for a fling or even a relationship with another slayer.  There will be no flings with slayers again.

“Okay, I get it,” I respond finally.  “I’ll play nice with Faith.”

Will nods and it looks like she’s trying not to laugh.  “Maybe you can start by participating in the Halloween festivities we have planned.”

This is news to me.  “There’s festivities?  How come I wasn’t made aware of this?”

“You’d know if you would have bothered to stick around for the optional parts of our meetings or paid attention to your surroundings.”  Will shakes her head lightly.  “We’re having a huge party tomorrow night.  There are flyers up and Faith’s been having some of the girls help with decorating the gym.  You know, getting all spooky.”

“Faith’s helping with everything?”

Will nods again, still smiling.  “I guess she’s a big fan of Halloween.  Talked about a couple parties she’d been to the last couple of Halloweens and decided to try and recreate them a little.  Making them a little tame, of course.”

“So she’s helping and I’ve been doing nothing.”  Now I feel bad.  I’ve spent all my energy on being where Faith isn’t that I didn’t even realize the castle’s having some big event.  I guess when I put blinders on, I really put them on.

“You can help by showing up and having a good time.  Faith, Kennedy, Xander and a few others worked really hard on making sure everything looks amazing.”

“Have you seen it?”

“I share a room with Kennedy,” my best friend says easily.  “She told me it looks amazing.”

I nod and think about it for a few seconds.  It’s not like we do anything else on Halloween.  Since it’s downtime for things that are actually scary we’ve been using the night for our own downtime.  I think the most we’ve done for Halloween was the film fest we had in the media room last year.

Leave it to Faith to plan an all-out party on the only official day off we have.

“Okay, I think I have a class to teach,” I say as I get up from the chair.  “I’ll go to the party tomorrow night, make an appearance at least.”

“Great!”  Willow grins at me as she opens her laptop again.  “Oh, and it’s costume mandatory.”

I turn and walk out of the office, cursing under my breath.  Where the hell am I going to find a costume in a day?

******

This plain sucks.  Over the last day I’ve had to do so many things that I didn’t have time to go into town and attempt to find a costume that isn’t terribly lame. 

I knew there was a very good chance that even if I did get to town and to the few shops there the odds of me finding anything decent was already slim.  Most of the costumes had to have been picked over, especially with the fact that everyone who lives here would have bought a costume somewhere.  But I at least wanted the opportunity to look.

It feels like there’s some conspiracy against me finding something to wear.  When I was about to go yesterday there was some big emergency meeting that really turned out to be a meeting about next week’s schedule.  After that Kennedy wanted some help with a class, or with a couple of the hotheads she was trying to teach, and then I had my own.

Sadly, there isn’t an all night costume shop near me and there wasn’t any time to order anything online so now I’m trying to piece together something.  My room looks like my closet exploded.

Now I have a lot of clothes.  It’s one thing I’ve indulged in since we chose Scotland as our permanent home.  Whenever I have a free day I don’t use it to train on my own like some of the slayers or with research, I take a trip into town and do some retail therapy.  If I don’t find what I want when I’m out and about I end up buying items online.

All of that is why there has to some combination in all this mess that will make it look like I’ve had a costume ready.  The problem is I have to think about what people are showing up dressed as downstairs.  Willow said her costume is a surprise and would only say that she wasn’t dressing as a witch because it would be too obvious.

There’s a knock on my door and I can’t help but panic a little.  The only person who knows I didn’t know about the party is Willow and I didn’t tell her that I wasn’t able to find a costume. 

“Buffy!” my sister yells from the other side of the door.  “The party’s starting.”

I sigh and open the door to see my little sister dressed in very little clothing.  “Dawn!”

She looks at me like I’m crazy.  “What?”

“What the hell are you wearing?  Or should I say, what are you not wearing?”

My sister looks over her outfit and then at me.  “I’m a nurse.”

“There is no way any nurse in any hospital in the entire world wears the outfit you have on right now,” I respond.  “Not unless they’re . . .”

“Gah!  Stop,” Dawn stops me, holding up a hand.  “I’m a naughty nurse, okay?  Don’t make a big deal about it.  I am an adult, you know.”

“If you go down there in that, everyone will definitely know you’re an adult,” I say quickly.  “You know, ‘cause they’ll see everything.”

She narrows her eyes at me then looks first at what I’m wearing, since I’m still in sweats, then looks into my room even though I’m trying hard to block her view.  “Buffy, did you even buy anything for the party?  It’s Halloween.  You have to be in costume.”

If I tell her I didn’t she is going to go down to the party and tell everyone that I didn’t.  For some reason that’s a scarier prospect than just skipping the thing entirely and that’s something that puzzles me.  There shouldn’t be any reason for the nervousness.

“I have it under control, okay?” is my lame response.  “Just go and have fun.”  I want to add not too much fun given what she’s wearing but I leave it alone. 

Dawn narrows her eyes at me but leaves me alone with my pile of clothes, wondering what the hell I’m going to wear.  I look at the clothes on the bed and then move to rummage through the drawers until I find something that might work.

******

A half hour isn’t too late for a party, right?

It took that long to convince myself what I picked out was good enough to pass as a costume and that I wouldn’t get picked on relentlessly by everyone because of it.  Then I had to get the look just right because when I wear a craptastic costume I at least want to go all out.

I hear the noise coming from the gym when I’m only halfway there and it gets louder the closer I get.  It sounds like they might have hired a DJ for the night but once I get there I see it’s one of the older slayers we have here.  She pretty good, too, since she distracted me from all the decorations.

My mouth drops open when I see how Faith and the rest of them have changed our dull and normal gym into the inside of a haunted house.  There are monsters and all sorts of things jumping out from the walls at odd times and from the ceiling, too.  No wonder I was directed to the training rooms for classes instead of using the gym over the last couple days.

Several slayers are dancing with their dates or each other and I try my best to avoid looking at my little sister dancing with someone.  If I do I’ll also have to fight the urge to throw a blanket over her or something.

I walk over to where the food and drinks are, noticing Xander hovering over the chips.  He’s dressed as a pirate and I bet he did it because he already had the patch.  “Hey, Xand.”

“Buff!” he exclaims as he turns to me then looks me over with a raised eyebrow.  “Where’s your costume?”

“I have a costume on.”

“No, no, no.”  He shakes his head at me.  “I may have picked something that included an eye patch that I can supply myself but I did go out and buy the rest of it.  I don’t see a costume here at all.”

“She’s a princess.”

Both of us turn to see Faith walking toward us.  Her costume is a full black body suit that is as skintight as can be and is also cut low enough to show off some major cleavage.  She grins as she stops in front of us and readjusts the tiara on my head, looking me up and down in the process.

“I guess I can see that,” Xander says as he looks at me for a second then walks off to join Willow at one of the tables in the corner.

Once he leaves it’s just me and Faith and the music gets a little louder, causing her to lean in.  “Did you forget about all this?”

“Why would you say that?” I ask, trying not to look like she’s just found me out.  I’m trying not to look at her cleavage either, which is hard ‘cause it’s like right in front of me.

“’Cause you’re wearing the little black dress from the last time you went out with your friends and the tiara Dawn had you wear at your last birthday party.”

I narrow my eyes at her.  She’s right.  I wore my favorite little black dress that always seems to fit perfectly then put by hair up and added the tiara.  “How do you know all of that?  You weren’t even here.”

Faith shrugs.  “I saw some of the pictures.  Tell me I’m wrong.”

For a second I think about lying to her but it would only end up biting me in the ass.  “Fine, you got me.  I didn’t realize we were having a party until yesterday.  No time to get a costume.”

“You really don’t pay attention to your surroundings, do you?” Faith laughs.  “At least you tried, I guess.”

“And what are you?”

“Hot as hell,” Faith answers, a dimpled grin showing up on her face.  “I’m Catwoman, B.”

I raise an eyebrow at that.  “Where are your cat ears?”

“They looked stupid so I didn’t wear them.  Besides, all I really needed was the suit and you have to admit I look damn good in it.”

She does and as I laugh at the look on her face I realize this is probably the longest we’ve talked since she moved into the castle.  I think the music and everything has caught me off guard enough that I’m not getting nervous.

“Was all this your idea?” I ask as I look around the gym.

“I wanted to do the party and helped put it all together but some of the monsters came out of Andy’s twisted little head.  Over the last couple days all I did was hang things and dangle from the ceiling for a little bit while we hung the ghosts and vamps.”

I watch as all the decorations on the walls and ceiling move.  “Are they controlled by someone?”

Faith shakes her head.  “Nah, they move to the music.  Cool, right?”

“Yeah,” I say as I nod and try to think of something to say.  It feels like we’ve run out of topics though and now I’m not sure what to say.  She’s looking at me like she wants to say something and I realize part of me is scared of what might come out of her mouth.

She opens her mouth then stops, looks away then back at me.  “I’m gonna go . . . over there.”

That was a little weird but I don’t stop Faith as she walks away.  It saves me from trying to think of something else to say.  I do watch her walk away and she does look very hot in her costume.  She knows it, too.  It’s easy to see with how she walks and looks at people as she passes them.

I shake my head to clear all the Faith thoughts that are threatening to form and walk over to where Willow and Xander are sitting with Giles.  My best friend is dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz but Giles is in a tux so I’m guessing he’s . . .

“Bond.  James Bond,” he says as I look at him before sitting down then giggles.  Yes, Giles giggles.  “I must say this idea of Faith’s was a good one.”

“Yes, she is full of ideas.”

Willow leans in toward me and smirks.  “Didn’t find a costume, huh?”

Honesty is the best policy here.  “One day was not enough time, especially when people kept distracting me from actually trying to buy one.”

“Should’ve just paid attention,” she laughs.

The only thing I can do is shake my head and take a look around.  Everyone seems to be having a great time and that puts a smile on my face.  What we do is so dangerous that all the girls need a night like this every once and awhile.

Xander brings me a beer and I just sit and watch.  My eyes keep drifting to Faith the entire time.  She’s on the dance floor for most of it, letting loose with the rest of the slayers there.  I don’t know what’s going on with me tonight but I keep thinking about how amazing she looks.  I mean, her outfit is real put together and I’d be blind not to notice.

Before I realize it, she’s walking over to our table, a drink in her hand.  “You know this is a dance, right?  You’re not supposed to sit around and watch.”

“I’m fine right here,” I say.

Faith shakes her head and takes hold of my hand, setting her drink on the table in the process.  “No, you’re not.  Come on, let’s show the juniors how it’s done.”

I look at her hand for a couple seconds before taking it, letting her pull me up and lead me to the dance floor.

“Don’t worry,” she says in my ear as we walk.  “We’ll stay away from Dawn and the dude she’s dancing with.”  When I turn to look into her eyes she laughs.  “You’ve been trying had to avoid looking at them the entire night and when you do it looks like you wanna kill something.”

“You noticed all that?”

“Easy to notice,” Faith says simply.

Then we’re on the dance floor and it feels like a flashback right out of high school.  Faith looks like a carefree teenager as she starts to dance and all I can do is move with her.  It’s easy to relax and let go once we move and soon there’s a genuine grin on my face, one that Faith is responsible for.

It’s all very casual and we’re not exactly dancing together.  Instead, we end up in the middle of a huge group dancing to whatever song plays.  All of them are fast with a great beat so it’s easy to just let go and get rid of any energy that we’d normally use patrolling.  I know that’s what I’m doing.

I’m not sure how long I’m on the dance floor with Faith but whatever our eyes meet I can’t help but smile.  It’s always returned, too, and I’m surprised at how happy it makes me.  It is definitely a good surprise though, something that I realized I’ve been missing out on since she moved here.

The music slows and I take that as my cue to go back to the tables and maybe get another drink.  When I turn to go though, there’s a hand on my arm.  I turn back and look right into Faith’s eyes.

“Come with me for a second.”

I almost shake my head and turn toward the table again but I don’t.  Instead, I go with her, ignoring the looks on a few of the girls’ faces.  With all the talk of Faith and I not working together I’m sure seeing us leave the gym together will cause some of them to gossip.

Once we’re outside of the gym and away from the music Faith looks at me as she leans against the wall.  “Not avoiding me anymore, huh?”

I lean against the opposite wall and raise an eyebrow.  “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You’re not a good liar,” Faith says as she moves away from the wall and takes a couple steps toward me.  “You know I kinda came here to work with you.”

That’s news to me.  “You did?”

Faith nods.  “I could’ve kept on doing what I had been since Sunnydale but Willow kinda sold it as us working together.  Thought we’d start over or whatever.”

Why doesn’t Willow ever just tell me these things?  I was there when we first made the offer to both Faith and Giles to move to the castle but I didn’t realize Willow kept talking to Faith after that.  “I didn’t realize you needed more convincing to come here.”

“Didn’t wanna step on any toes by coming here.  I figured you just wanted Giles.”

“That’s not true.”  It’s really not.  I wanted Faith to come here.  I just didn’t realize her presence would make me so nervous.  “I want you here.”

She smiles and takes a couple more steps forward so she’s right in front of me.  “Good ‘cause I want to be here.”

What happens next makes me forget how to breathe because Faith leans in and gives me a soft kiss on the lips.  I didn’t even realize someone who has as tough of an exterior as Faith does would be capable of such softness.  Hell, I didn’t even know she wanted to do . . . that.

“Been wanting to do that for awhile,” she whispers as she moves away.

I look into her eyes and all I see is happiness.  It makes me smile before kissing her back, trying to keep it as light as she did.  She responds slowly, probably because she wasn’t expecting anything back, but once she does she presses against me, practically trapping me against the wall.

I move my arms around her as we continue to kiss lightly.  Nothing is rushed and it feels natural to kiss Faith, like I was made to do it.  Just have her pressed against me is getting me all warm and tingly, something that stays with me even when we stop to catch our breath.

“That was . . . wicked,” Faith says against my lips.

“Not gonna disagree with you there.”

She grins and moves to kiss me again when the door to the gym opens and we hear a couple voices as the people walk out.

“We just have to avoid my sister,” I hear Dawn say to someone.  “She’ll definitely not approve.”

“I didn’t see her in there,” some guy says and I recognize the voice as her off again, on again boyfriend, Kevin.  “Maybe she already left.”

“Yeah, she’s been no fun.  I figured she’d be a buzzkill tonight.”  That’s when they round the corner and immediately run into Faith and me.  “Buffy!  We were just going for a walk.”

I narrow my eyes at her.  “Uh-huh.”

We stare each other down for a minute before Dawn just groans.  “We’ll talk later.  Come on, Kevin.”

The only thing keeping me from making her stay is that Faith is keeping hold of my arm.  Oh, and that my sister’s an adult, of course.

“For the record, I don’t think you’re a buzzkill.”  She puts her arms around me once Dawn’s gone and kisses me lightly.  “And I love your costume, princess.”

I want to say something back but then we’re kissing again and I’m otherwise occupied.  Her hands start to wander and I realize I want her to keep going.

The rest of the night will be very interesting.

The End