Chapter Five: Feelings Of Oddness

Tinkering in the kitchen the following morning woke Buffy from an interesting dream where she was on a beach in Hawaii, and there was a Faith on either side of her. One was rubbing suntan lotion into the skin of her back while the other fed her strawberries. As she wiped the sleep from her eyes and yawned loudly, she couldn't decide if it had been a good dream or something on the verge of a nightmare. She groaned, sitting up on the couch and pushing blonde strands of hair out of her face.

Carly stood at the stove dressed in lacy hipster undies and a matching camisole, her pretty black curls up in a perky ponytail. She appeared to be making breakfast, but it didn't smell like anything Buffy had ever had before. She watched as Faith sauntered out of the bathroom, dragging her fingers through her wet hair. She walked up behind the other girl and kissed the exposed skin of her neck, her hands sliding around her stomach and down towards her crotch.

Carly giggled and tried to wiggle to the side. "Faith...I'm cooking."

"Never stopped us before." Faith snickered, still nibbling. "Just spread ya legs and I'll do the rest..."

"Faith!"

"Carly!"

"Buffy!"

Both girls turned and glanced at the blonde, who cleared her throat. "Oh, I--I thought we were playing a game. My bad."

The brunette chuckled, slicking her tongue along her bottom lip. "Mornin', B. How'd ya sleep?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Pretty well. You?"

"Same." Her lips curled into a smirk. "Had a kick ass dream..."

Even though she didn't know this Faith that well, she totally picked up on the meaning that was hiding behind the simple sentence. It was all in the smirk--the I have a secret smirk that humans had perfected over the years. Sure Faith had a girlfriend who was standing no more than three feet away, but Carly didn't know about what had happened last night. The...incident...as she was going to start calling it. Or what she would call it if she thought about it anymore, which she so wasn't gonna do.

There was no reason to cause--cause there just wasn't. If they hadn't hid from the demons, there would have been serious pummeling. She could be all bruised and maybe even dismembered right now. Though whether she could be alive and dismembered, she was not sure. Yes. A lot of people survived without their members.

Wait...

Shaking her head, she folded her arms over her chest. "So um, I need to go to the magic shop. I guess I should be doing that then."

Carly smiled cheerily. "Aww don't you have time for breakfast?"

"I--I'll get a muffin on the way. I like muffins, they are muffiny." Buffy tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Thanks anyway." She then headed into the bathroom and closed the door, leaning against it.

Whenever something remotely wiggy happened to her, the wires connecting to her brain and her mouth always tended to short circuit. It really was a miracle that she had managed to stay alive this long, especially when she played up to the blonde stereotype. And yes there were days when she'd tripped while trying to chew gum and walk at the same time.

Wetting her lips, she turned on the shower and hoped there was some hot water left. She then stepped under the warm flow, letting it wash away her crazy and everything else that might be clinging to her skin. Try as she might, she couldn't get away from the feelings she'd had while stuck in that coffin. Those fluttery in the stomach feelings--if there had been a mirror around she wouldn't have been surprised if she'd discovered she'd been blushing.

From mortification of course...and nothing else.

Certainty not the sensation of that denim zipper rubbing against her private areas. Or how good she'd smelled, surprisingly more girlie than was to be expected.

"I take it back." She said to no one but the running water. "Being that close to Faith and not getting punched is way scarier."

Why it was scarier? Well that is what the Magic Box would help her find out.

~*~

Willow stood off to the side with a brow raised, her big eyes studying Buffy from where she stood, surveying the books. Her forehead was creased with lines as she read over the titles, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. It was obvious that she had no idea what she was looking for or looking at for that matter. Which made a little sense because the other Buffy had not been very good with Latin either.

"Um, need some help?" She asked after a moment.

The blonde itched at her cheek and nodded. "Uh, well, kinda. See I--I kinda have this...question."

"Wh--what kinda question?"

"Could--could say the portal have um, did somethin' to me?"

"Like what? You mean like psychically?"

"Uh...okay."

The Wicca chuckled lightly. "Well you seem to have all of your limbs and opposable thumbs. What's wrong?"

The Slayer glanced around slowly to make sure no one was listening. "Let's say hypothetically that, suddenly I were having feelings of oddness. And I'm pretty sure they weren't there before I took my giant leap. I--I mean I was never aware..." Trailing off, she shook her head. "I think I have a point. No I--I do. I guess I just wanna make sure I'm still normal."

"Do these feelings of oddness make you dizzy or have shortness of breathe?" Willow inquired, and the blonde shook her head. "Have you blacked out since coming here? O--or seen little green men trying to steal your underwear?"

Buffy blinked. "Um, no." She twiddled her thumbs. "I'm healthy and I have no boo boos. I wonder though if I'm still chocked full of sane like I was before."

The red head grinned. "Maybe if I knew exactly what you were talking about. Exactly."

A pause. "Erm. It's nothing. Just me being strange again. Haha strange Buffy."

Willow tilted her head to the side. "Okay. But if you ever wanna talk about stuff, lemme know."

The other girl nodded and watched as she descended the black staircase, back out onto the main floor. She sighed and mentally kicked herself for being such an idiot. She knew she could talk to this Willow about anything, just like the other one, but she wasn't sure how to even begin to brooch the subject. Gee, last night I had warm fuzzies for Faith just seemed hollow. That's why she had to prove it was some side effect of being thrown into another dimension. Yeah, that's it. Whose to say she wouldn't get the warm fuzzies for anyone that she was on top of?

Did that sound as wrong in reality as it did in her head?

Leaning over the railing, she gazed down at the few customers. At Anya frittering from person to person, telling them about the latest sales on chicken feet and different kinda herbs. Xander sat at the table with his feet on top, flipping idly through some magazine. Tara was being her usual helpful self, dusting off shelves and putting things in their rightful places, while Willow looked on lovingly. And Giles was behind the register, ringing people up and bagging their purchases.

'Sometimes it's hard to tell I'm not home'. She thought absently. 'Everything is just so...familiar."

That of course also made it slightly scary. Although she didn't want to think about what the others had said yesterday, she couldn't help herself. She was comfortable here, and the more comfortable she became, the less she would wanna go home. Why return when she had everything she needed here? She could be selfish and only have to worry about herself; not Dawn or anyone else for that matter with another Slayer already protecting the streets. Yes she loved her little sister with her whole heart, and would do anything for her, but temptation was not an easy vice to kick.

Especially when one day you just wake up with a sibling, and then another you wake up without one. It things feel like a dream.

It was horrible to think, but she couldn't stop the racing of her brain. As long as it didn't make her a bad person however, wanting that bit of something for herself. She figured it didn't since usually she was more or less alright with sacrificing for the greater good. That was just how the life of a Slayer was; the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

The bell jingled over the front door and she felt herself tense up. Speaking of temptation... Faith breezed in mid yawn, covering her mouth with her hand. She nodded to everyone inside and plopped down at the table across from Xander, commenting on what he was reading. Her expressive brown eyes glanced around as if she were searching for something, and as they lifted to the small balcony area, she grinned. Obviously she'd found it.

Buffy scowled before she could stop, but not because she was angry. Far from it actually. She scowled because that adorable grin made her wanna grin. Made her happy that Faith was happy to see her. Which was normal because shouldn't a person be happy when other people were happy they like, alive?

Tucking hair behind her ear, she turned and stared at the books. Books were good. They brought forth the knowledge and pushed away the dumb. They did not however, push away the other Slayer.

"Sup, B." Faith mused with an armful of said books. "Anya wants these back in the restricted section."

"Hi." The blonde nodded and began to put them away. Thank goodness for alphabetical order.

"Didja get what cha came here for?"

"Not really, but I decided not to worry about it for a while. It was just a fluke."

"Really? Cause...seems to me like you're a little amped."

"What? No. How did you get that from what I said?"

The brunette shrugged rather harmlessly. "You're a lil twitchy. Have been since last night."

She wasn't twitchy! She had never been twitchy. "I don't know what you are talkin' about."

And then something happened that she had never expected. Faith started to apologize. "Look, I'm sorry if I freaked ya out, aight? With the coffin and bein' close thing. I know not everyone is down with non opposite sex touchin', not that it was like that." She drug her full bottom lip from between her teeth. "I want ya to know, I wasn't like, comin' on to ya or anythin'."

"Oh." Was that disappoint in her voice? "I mean oh, I knew that. It was all about being safe and stuff."

Tilting her head to the side, she smirked. "Well, it wasn't all about bein' safe." Winking, she headed back down to join everyone else.

Ooh boy.

It was statements like that one that made Buffy a bit uncomfortable. And confused. It totally had a double meaning, which sucked because she didn't even know what the first meaning was. Also was she being serious or was it just a thing?

Curiosity kinda made her wanna find out. Common sense told her she should just leave it alone.

Yeah...like she was gonna listen to that kill joy.