I'll do what I always do...

"Shannon, duck!" I shout noticing that Ariel is releasing a sharp left cross her partner wasn't ready for, "Always remember to keep your guard up and watch out for south paws."

"Yes Ma'am." Shannon nods at me, "I didn't see it coming." She timidly explains.

"And if you were Xander I'd understand. All the more reason to open your eyes during training." Crossing my arms I nod at her to start the exercise again.

"Sorry Shan, I have to push with everything I got. Don't wanna die out there." Ariel shrugs with a focused gaze knowing all too well what fates are waiting for them out in the field. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I just gotta open my eyes, right." Shannon lifts up her battle axe, the thing is twice her size and three times the weight.

I circle around the girls watching them continue to clang heavy medieval weaponry. Ariel swings her spiked mace as they repeat and perfect their hand-to-hand and armed combat skills.

"Buff, you don't think the softer weapons would be better for this exercise?" Willow asks as she observes the class. I think a room full of twenty fresh Slayers all charging, yelling, kicking and punching with artillery has got her a little more than anxious. "I mean, they could put an eye out."

"Will, these girls need to know the weight of something stiff in their hands." I roll my head in Willow's direction and catch myself on what I just said. You'd be right to think I'm a little thrown by that statement, but the worst thing is I'm standing next to Faith. "Get that thought out of your brain, Smutty McSmut."

"What thought? I might not've been thinking anything smutty." Faith smirks at me and I know she was thinking thoughts of the non pure variety.

"Really? I just trundled into innuendo valley and you don't wanna ride me a little?" Ok, now how can I be doing this?

‘My mouth... so not connected to my brain.'

"You want me to ride you a little? Shit B, say the word and I'll ride you a lot." The dangerous brunette continues to smirk and I see that playful glint in her eyes. The one that tells me she's not joking. Given the opportunity she would bend me over that vaulting horse and give it to me hard and fast.

"Dream on." I state before walking off pretending to check on the girls at the back of the class. Being near Faith has got harder recently, I don't know why. We've been getting on great like I was Rodgers and she was Hammerstein and we're off on a beautiful beach in the South Pacific, not fighting just hanging out and... it's nice.

I am fully aware (however) that Some Enchanted Evening we will not be together contrary to what she keeps alluding to. My dark side loves to play with the idea from time to time. Case in point - the vaulting horse thing, but it won't happen. I won't let it. Even though People Say We're in Love.

"Keep you're heads up, you can't slay looking down... well you can, but it'll be your last mission." I let the girls distract me. They never let me down when I need a reason to get away from my thoughts or Faith or both.

"Am I doing this right, Ma'am? Tiffany asks as she rubs her shoulder. Her sword now held loosely in her arms is an obvious sign that she wasn't holding it correctly. "I don't wanna die out there either."

I take the sword from her and make sure she's stepped back, "You've gotta keep your back straight, bend with your knees and lunge toward your opponent only when you have the opportunity." I state looking at the poor girl. She only arrived with us yesterday from Paris and this is a full on session. "Watch."

"En Garde." Faith purrs in front of me. I notice Lina (Tiffany's partner) moving to the benches for a break to study from us at a safe distance.

‘Why is this happening to me?'

I stare at Faith before taking her up on the challenge, purely as a demonstration for the girls. I hold the cross-guard up to my eyes before moving in and tapping the blade of Faith's Lance with my Excalibur.

"To the death?" The Bostonian questions with her trademark smirk and I wanna show her up in front of the class. Knock her down a couple of pegs, just for kicks.

"As if you could." I give back moving my front foot first, "Beginning by lifting my toes. The advance pushes you out into the fight area." Straightening my leg at the knee, I keep my eyes on my opponent as I push my advance. I never know what Little Miss Wicked Cool will do next.

‘I do know she's impulsive.'

As if on cue, Faith lunges at me with a spring like action and I counter-attack with a Cut, "In the event of an irrational foe, use the Cut. It's a chopping motion of the blade that lands with the edge or point of your sword."

"Ok, Little Miss Miagi." Faith recovers quickly and repositions herself behind me. Turning quickly I retreat slightly to give her room to pass forward. She's got a look of playful determination on her face and I know I'm in for it.

‘Where's the harm in winding her up a little?'

"What Miss Lehane is doing is called a Passe Avant - The rear foot moves in front of the leading foot on the body's inside." The brunette is looking at me hard annoyed that I called her by her last name. For some reason (that I can't begin to imagine) she hates it.

"Seriously, B? You're in for it now." Faith lunges again with a tight combination of attacks and advances that I didn't think she was capable of. She's got me counter-attacking all over the place, not to mention that now all the girls have stopped training to watch us sword fight.

Our blades clang together with a noisy metal crunch and we push against each other. The sharp edges frame our faces in a tight "V" as we invade each other personal space, trying to out-do one another to gain the upper hand.

Faith's got this dark primal look in her eyes and I know I've got it too. There's always something about us that brings out the animalistic side whenever we spar. We both reach into a place that's rich in passion and heat every single time without fail.

We both lock eyes and feel the surge of adrenaline charging through every pour. I can't tare my stupid eyes away locked inside the brunette's piercing gaze.

‘This is way too surreally intense for a normal day's training session. How do I always get myself in these positions?'

And like every time before I'm the first to break, to get my mouth to function in some lame attempt to rationalise myself.

"When did you learn that?" I say as I recover pushing harder on Faith's strong structure putting a little distance between us. I can see a little of the untamed, threatening, cunning Slayer lurking behind all her reflexes. And I can't stop panting. I feel the familiar hum of our Slayer Connection and it makes my knees weak.

‘Darn your sinister attraction.'

"Been taking extra lessons, B." She looks so totally and completely bad-ass with that light sheen of sweat coating her skin. Gripping that large phallic weapon she winks at me, "Give us a kiss."

I remember the footwork Giles had taught me all those years ago and attack-lunge at my opponent then false attack to provoke a reaction from Faith. She takes the bait and strikes out at me leaving her left side unguarded, so I swipe at it slicing into her form-fitting t-shirt

Faith pauses to check out her ripped shirt. Placing a finger inside the slit her lips curl when she registers she's not bleeding, "Didn't see that coming."

"I'm pretty spry for a corpse." I shrug. Oh yeah, you better believe I'm that good. To strike with enough force to shred clothing, but not disturb the skin underneath... its poetry. Some of the fresh Slayers gasp and others coo in awe of the point I just won.

"Corpse, right. I forgot about that." Faith mimics my shoulder shrug and I think she's done with this mini-major sword fight, so I let my guard down. BIG MISTAKE! Faith takes that opportunity to swipe her pointed blade across my stomach, ripping my shirt. "Now that's a view I'd like to see more often."

My abs are exposed and I feel like we both just got to first base. It's dumb I know, but sometimes Faith makes me feel like a stupid school girl.

I regain my composure quickly and turn away from Faith to focus on the girls, knowing that now she's had her revenge she's got it out of her system. I'm safe from attack. "So moral of the story is? Never let your guard down..."

"And bring an extra shirt on patrol." The husky brunette behind me adds and I can just tell she's got a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Tiffany, Shannon. Work on your exercises." I say seeking out the two Slayers that really needed to have this lesson today. Both girls nod at me and I know they'll continue to try harder with their studies from now on. "Everyone else, remember rule number one."

"Don't die!" All the Slayers tell me having had that particular rule drummed into them since they arrived.

I casually throw Tiffany back her sword, which she fumbles but catches before it hits the ground and walk out of the gymnasium.

"Ok girls, off to lunch." I hear Willow call out to get their attention. "You've got two hours free-time now instead of one, so use it wisely. I'm gonna teach some of you how to make a pencil float at 3pm in the Grand Hall so don't be late."

"Yeah, and the rest of you will be with me at 3 and my kick-ass weapons in the Armoury." Faith adds and I hear the pupils roar with excitement.

I'm already in my office looking for my spare shirt when Willow comes in after dismissing the girls. There's so much commotion coming from the grounds now it sounds like we've got 55,000 girls here instead of just 35.

If you're wondering where the other 15 Slayers are have no fear, they're with Giles and Dawn learning about research. I know it sounds uber boring, but Dawn's got a way about her when she teaches that's really engaging. Not to mention all the sweets you get when you answer correctly.

"You're gonna run out of shirts if you don't do something about your competitive streak when it comes to Faith."

"Like I said a million times before, I can handle Faith." I look up at my best friend from the top draw of my cabinet. "Look, she only slit me a little this time, Will." I point at the hole in my top.

"Buff, I can see all the tone'age you got going on under there. She cut you to ogle the goodies."

"After I cut her favourite shirt. You gotta admit, Will. It was fancy swordsmanship on my part." I beam as I happily lift my blue cashmere sweater from the draw and rest it over the back of my chair as I now look for my gym bag.

‘I sooo need a shower right now. Preferably a cold one.'

"You do have Mad Skills as Faith puts it." Willow smiles then steps further into my office to help me look for my bag over by the two plush leather arm chairs. "You two were pretty much on fire in there."

"We were just demonstrating to the girls how to survive in the field." Really trying to push aside all the sexual tension that was going on in there, I run my hand over my ponytail in an attempt to release the tightness of my hair.

"Well it looked like a Buffy lesson in Distraction and Denial." The red-head smiles knowingly as she locates the lost item hidden underneath my desk. Tossing it to me she rests against the desk.

I catch the half full object with one hand then set it down on the other side of the desk and place my sweater in it, "Thanks."

"Buffy, you can't keep doing this." Willow states smiling sympathetically at me.

"Packing? It's really simple, Will. I put stuff inside the bigger thing that opens with handles."

"Not that. You know what I'm talking about."

"I'm getting better, honest. In fact, from here on, you're going to see a drastic distraction reduction. Drastic distraction reduction... try saying that ten times fast." I dazzle the red-head with one of my winning smiles, but she shakes her head.

"Seriously, you suck at this B."

I glare at her. She really sounded like Faith right then.

"-Uffy." Willow quickly adds. "All I'm saying is you might find yourself in a position where it's just you and her, with no distractions. What are you gonna do then?"

"I'll do what I always do... Feign disapproval and walk away." Placing a towel in with my perfume and a few other beauty products I zip the bag up.

"You can't walk away forever."

"Try me." I reply as I throw the bag over my shoulder and head out of my office and up to Willow's room to use her shower, like I always do.

It's not far, but I can't be bothered to drive home right now. Besides, Giles wants to catch-up with us at 2pm so I may as well hang around until then.

"Watch it, B. I don't think you've brought that many wardrobe changes with you today." Faith tells me as we bump into each other in the corridor. She's got that classic smirk on her face.

"Like you could take me. Are you forgetting that I cut you first?" I yank the elastic bun from my hair and let the sun kissed locks fall freely around my shoulders. I rake my fingers through my hair separating the strands a little more. "Ego much?"

"Sorry, Herbal Essences." She taunts me and I wanna laugh. I guess that was a pretty shampoo commercial move I just pulled there. "You can take the girl outta California, but you'd be fucked to think you can take the California outta the girl."

I playfully scowl at the brunette, "Hater."

"Maybe." She looks away from me momentarily then focuses, "So, you staying for that meeting we all got with G later?"

"Yeah. Gonna shower, wardrobe change then come back down."

"If you finish with at least 30 minutes to spare before the snore session, you wanna swing by the canteen for desert?" The brunette asks me with a mischievously placed expression.

Willow steps out of my office, getting closer to Faith and I as we seem to be loitering in the corridor she asks, "What happened to actual lunch? Y'know, that well rounded meal situation in the middle of the day?"

"Red, what's the point of not having hot butterscotch pudding with custard and cream because all the ‘well rounded meal with vegetables' crap got in the way." Faith points out. "Hell, we could all die tomorrow. Shit, B's already down to her seventh life."

"Gee, that's a sobering thought." I pout at Faith, but smile when she winks at me.

"I guess you have a backwards nonsensical point." Willow gives in, "But don't make a habit of it. You're supposed to be setting a good example for these girls."

"I am. How else they gonna learn they can eat whatever they want and still have a rockin' bod?" The Bostonian starts to walk backwards down the corridor, pointing both index fingers at us she smiles again. "See you guys in 30 minutes."

I watch our colleague disappear amongst a group of highly excitable new Slayers and a sigh escapes my lips.

"So... how's that walking away plan working out for you?" Willow taps me on my shoulder to get me to focus.

"Great. Just great."