“Come on, baby. It will be fun,” Buffy tried for the third time.

“No!”

“Of all the mule-headed...,” Buffy muttered before continuing. “Look, I’m sorry I ate your donut. I’m. Sorry. I. Ate. Your. Donut. Happy now?”

“...”

“Fine. But so that you know, you won’t be getting any tonight.”

She had hardly finished her threat when the door to their room opened and a shocked-looking Faith stood in the opening.

“Come on, B,” the brunette Slayer almost whined. “It’s way too cold.”

“Cold?” Buffy asked incredulously. “The weather’s perfect. And what about that famous New England heritage you keep boasting about?”

“Why do you think I left Boston in the first place?”

“Kakistos?” Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.

Faith knew when she was defeated. She sighed deeply and let her shoulders slump. With a victorious smirk on her face, Buffy hooked her fingers around the belt loops of her girlfriend’s jeans and pulled her close.

“All the others are coming too,” Buffy said and gave Faith a light kiss. “Xander has ploughed the road to the lake and cleared a large patch of ice on the beach.” She kissed Faith again. “I’d really like to skate with you. You do have skates, right?”

“Yeah, but...”

“Thank you!” Buffy exclaimed with a mega-watt smile on her face. “You’re the best girlfriend in the whole world.”

With a final kiss, Buffy practically skipped down the stairway leaving Faith standing there in the doorway with her mouth still open in mid-sentence.

---===---

Cleveland had seen freezing temperatures for the past two weeks and Lake Erie now sported a solid ice cover, thick enough to drive a car on. The Council Headquarters in the US, or “Slayer Central” as the inhabitants liked to call it, was located on a large lake-side estate some 20 miles north-east of downtown Cleveland. Besides their 3-storey HQ, the estate included a stretch of private beach with a small summer cabin.

It was the first winter after the Fall of Sunnydale and they were still in the process of getting their lives back together. Most of the junior Slayers who had fought against the First with them had returned back home, but the core Scooby gang stayed together. During the few weeks they had stayed with Angel’s crew at the Hyperion, Giles and Willow had managed to unearth and get control of a massive amount of wealth previously owned by the destroyed Council – real estate, bank accounts, investment portfolios, etc. Their current HQ was one of the many properties they now owned all over the US and the World.

Those having permanent quarters on the 3rd floor of their HQ included Buffy, Faith, Dawn, Willow, Kennedy, Xander, Giles and Andrew. There was also enough room to accommodate up to 20 junior Slayers-in-training on the 2nd floor at any time, but currently only 9 were enrolled. Today, none of them were present as Robin Wood had taken them to Cleveland early in the morning for a tour to make them familiar with the patrol routes in and around the city. They would be staying at a downtown hotel for the night, giving the rest of the faculty a well-earned day off.

---===---

Still muttering to herself, Faith made her way to the stairs leading to the attic where most of her extra stuff was stored. After maybe five minutes of rummaging, she managed to locate a cardboard box labelled “skates”. Finally allowing herself a grin, she was already half-way down the stairs when she suddenly remembered. ‘Oh, yes.’

Back in their bedroom, she was just changing to her snow pants when a snowball hit the window. Opening it she saw Buffy in the yard, in full winter gear, waving up at her and almost bouncing in excitement.

“Hurry up, Captain Slow!”

Faith rolled her eyes at her usually chronically late girlfriend. Leaning a bit further out of the window, she could see that some of the others had already started making their way to the beach. Willow and Kennedy were walking hand-in-hand with their figure skates hanging around their necks with Dawn following them. Xander had taken their four-wheeler out of the shed and affixed a small trailer to it. Andrew was loading the trailer with several Styrofoam coolers and other boxes, apparently containing their outdoor lunch for the day.

“Go with Dawnie, Red and Ken. I’ll catch up!” Faith called Buffy. When the other Slayer looked sceptical, Faith put her right palm over her heart. “I promise I’ll be there in a quarter, ok?”

“Ok,” Buffy responded with a smile and blew her a kiss. “I love you.”

“Love you too, B. See you on ice.”

---===---

The first sounds Faith heard when she got near the beach were very girly screams of absolute terror. Starting to run on instinct, she rounded the final bend in the road and stopped in her tracks. Dropping her bag... and the other thing she had been carrying, she leaned forward to take support from her knees as hysterical laughter threated to fell her to the snowy ground. There, on the cleared patch of ice Andrew was gliding forward with considerable speed on wobbly ankles, and flapping his arms around like a goose attempting to take flight. Apparently, Kennedy had given him a Slayer-strength push when he hesitantly stepped on ice. He hit the snow barrier around the rink head-first and was buried in it down to his shoulders.

Giving Kennedy a scowl, Dawn skated to where Andrew was trying to pull himself out of the packed snow. She circled her arms around his slim waist and pulled with all her might. There was a sound, almost like a wine bottle being uncorked and Dawn fell on her butt with Andrew on top of her.

“Oh, sweet oxygen,” Andrew moaned and took several deep breaths. He turned his head around to where Kennedy was grinning widely. “That was mean,” he pouted.

“Excuse me. Oxygen starting to become an issue here as well,” he heard a strained voice from behind and under him.

“What?” he asked, bewildered. “Oh, oh, sorry, sorry,” he said quickly and attempted to get back on his skates. He fell promptly on his ass again, this time mercifully next to the prone Dawn.

---===---

Willow took a few hesitant steps on the ice with her brand-new skates. This was her first time on skates, and though she had spent several hours researching figure skating and watching a few videos, the reality wasn’t all that simple as it had seemed. Next to her, Kennedy stood confidently on her own skates, ready to steady her girlfriend if needed. When Willow seemed to be rooted on the spot, she held out her hands to the redhead.

“Here, take my hands,” she said to the slightly trembling Witch. “I’ll start gliding slowly backwards and pull you with me. Just lean forward and keep your knees slightly bent.”

“I... I don’t think I can.”

“Yes, you can, sweetie. Look into my eyes and just relax. We’ll start slow.”

“Yes, slow is of the good. Definitely sloooowww!”

“Yeah! You’re doing it. Keep following me. I won’t let you go.”

“Promise?”

“I’ll never let you go, Willow.”

---===---

Giles had cleared the snow away from their beach-side campfire site and gotten a merry fire burning with the wood stored in a pile behind the summer cabin. He was sitting in a wooden deck chair with a steaming cup of tea in his hands. Looking surreptitiously around him, he took a silvery hip flask out of a pocket of his down jacket and poured a small measure of the mahogany liquid into his tea.

Sun was shining from a clear blue sky and the gentle wind from the icy lake was quite pleasant. Lowering the shades over his eyes, he threw another log into the fire and leaned back in his chair. He took a sip of the spiked tea and felt the welcome warmth spread inside him. It was a perfect day.

---===---

Buffy was already on ice when she spotted Faith coming around the cabin and sitting on the edge of its porch. She briefly noticed her girlfriend dropping her sports bag and a stick of wood on the snow before Faith bent over to take off her winter shoes.

Trying a few easy pirouettes, she felt her muscle memory slowly starting to hit in. It had been several years since her last time on ice, but slowly and surely, she was getting back into the groove. She threw occasional glances at Faith who seemed to have problems tying the laces of her skates... or maybe they tied them differently in Boston.

Finally, her girlfriend was done and Buffy got one of the biggest surprises in her life. When Faith got on ice, she was wearing hockey skates, gloves and was holding a hockey stick in her gloves.

“What’s the matter, B,” Faith grinned and dropped a puck on the ice. “Never seen a girl play hockey before?”

She could only shake her head in mute wonder as Faith kicked herself into speed and started playing with the puck. She skated past Willow and Ken, manoeuvring the puck between both girls’ skates. She flipped herself around to skate backwards with the puck attached perfectly to her stick.

Not to be outdone, Buffy picked up speed herself and followed Faith around the rink. Faith was smiling a full-dimpled smile as she continued skating backwards with Buffy gaining on her.

“How...?” Buffy almost gaped as Faith flicked the puck between her own skates and turned around again to continue skating forwards. Without any apparent effort the stick and puck made contact in front of Faith.

“Boston... Bruins. ‘Nuff said,” Faith winked over her shoulder.

---===---

Xander had found another deck chair and was now lounging in it next to the fire. His initial entertainment had been cut short when Andrew came off the ice muttering to himself and started pottering about with their lunch.

“Pssst,” he tried to get Giles’ attention.

“Not by a long shot,” Giles dead-panned and took another sip of his hard tea.

“Har, har. How about treating a fellow faculty member to a hot toddy?”

Giles raised his shades briefly and gave Xander a speculative look. He was feeling far too relaxed to argue so he handed the tartan-patterned thermos and the hip flask over. With a wide grin, Xander poured himself one, a very hard one, from what Giles could see.

“Thanks, G-Man,” Xander said gratefully and handed the items back to the Watcher.

“I have told you never to call me that.”

“But, Faith...”

“You’re not her, now, are you?”

Deciding to drop it, Xander returned to his favourite pastime – watching the Chosen Two move and interact.

Faith was teasing Buffy with fluid and graceful moves and Buffy was almost breathless with laughter as she time and again almost caught her girlfriend before the brunette kicked up speed and slid out of reach again. They were skating circles around Willow and Ken who were now skating arm-in-arm with Kennedy keeping their speed up while Willow was just concentrating on keeping her balance. Dawn was moving to the tune of some inner music with her eyes half-closed and a constant smile on her lips.

This was his family around him.

---===---

When Andrew finally announced that their late lunch was served, everyone gathered around the fire to sit on insulated sitting pads. Giles and Xander had offered their seats to the girls but they had just waved them off.

Andrew had prepared almost two gallons of creamy chicken soup and enough of his famous spinach and feta pies to make them all burst. There were also several sausages grilling on the fire for hot dogs. Hot cocoa and blackcurrant drink were the beverages of choice.

Buffy was sitting next to Faith, leaning lightly against her girlfriend’s shoulder. She was feeling totally relaxed next to the warm fire with two large bowls of soup and five pies in her belly. She turned her head a little to whisper in Faith’s ear.

“You’re gonna get so lucky tonight.”

“Yeah?” Faith asked quietly with a wide grin on her face.

“I’m gonna let you...,” Buffy continued whispering in Faith’s ear. It took all of Faith’s self-restraint not to immediately toss Buffy onto the trailer and speed back to their quarters.

---===---

After a further hour or so of relaxed skating, and this time Faith let Buffy catch her, they started slowly packing their things and leaving in twos and threes back home.

“Dibs on the jacuzzi,” Dawn shouted as she sprinted ahead of everyone else.

“No way, brat,” Kennedy growled and ran after Dawn in pursuit. The younger Summers squealed at the quickly approaching Slayer and tried to speed up. Unfortunately, she slipped on a smooth patch of snow and could only watch helplessly as Kennedy ran past her, laughing all the way.

“No fair,” Dawn sniffled as Andrew helped her back to her feet.

“Never despair, maiden fair,” Andrew rhymed. “Mr Giles said there will be an all-girls’ spa evening starting immediately, so no-one will be left out. I’ll turn the sauna on and bring in some wood for the fireplace.”

“Thank you, Andy!” Dawn almost screamed and, on impulse, threw her arms around Andrew’s neck.

After Dawn had disengaged herself and run after Kennedy, Andrew stood transfixed on the spot. “Andy?” he whispered to himself.

---===---

Buffy was relaxing in the hot water of the jacuzzi with Dawn and Willow. Faith and Kennedy were in the adjacent sauna apparently having a heated discussion on the merits of their respective hockey teams. Occasional “Bruins” and “Rangers” comments made their way to Buffy’s ear as she sipped idly from the sweating bottle of beer in her hand.

“So, good day?” Willow asked her from the other side of the hot tub.

“Best day,” Buffy almost purred as she stretched in the warm water. “And it’s not over yet,” she winked at her best friend.

Willow blushed slightly but smiled. “We are very lucky,” she said and indicated the sauna door with her eyes.

“Yes, we really are.”

THE END.