Story for Ficathon

[sroni]

 
This is for “It’s the Writers, Stupid!” Ficathon that nwhepcat is running.

See if you can spot the quote.

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She was covered in demon blood, and he just looked at her. “Yes?”

She glared at him. “Are you going to invite me in?”

“Dunno.” He shrugged. “You know as well as I do that I don’t invite people in. Tends to lead to death and dismemberment.” Her glare intensified. “If you are able to come in without an invitation, you can come in.”

She breezed past him. “Nice place you got here, Cyclops.”

“Uh, thanks. Now, not that it’s not nice to see you, but what the hell are you doing here? It’s been a few years since we saw each other. And I would have been okay with going a few years more.”

She drew in a breath with a hiss. “Jeez, Harris, you still don’t pull your punches with girls that aren’t yours.”

He jerked a shoulder up in a shrug. “Is there a reason I should? ’Cause it seems to me, you’ve never given me any reason to pull those punches.”

She closed her eyes briefly, and then fixed her stare on him. “I came to apologize.”

He leaned against the wall. “Any particular reason you’re choosing now? You had, how many chances to do it before?”

Faith shrugged. “I didn’t know how to go about it. You know, I wrote you a bunch of letters while I was in prison.”

That shocked him. “I never got them. Sorry. I probably would have answered them.”

She shook her head. “I know you didn’t get them. No reason for you to. I never sent them. Because they never came out right. I mean, jeez, how do you find the perfect way to say, ‘Sorry for trying to kill you. Sorry for screwing you and then treating you like shit.’ Last I checked, Hallmark don’t exactly have a card like that. And I was in good ole SunnyD for a bit before destroying the town, but I never got up the guts to say it. I still didn’t know how to say it.”

“Figure out a way to say it now?” He was softening and he knew it.

She walked into his living room and sat on the back of his couch. “Nope. Just decided that maybe the best way to do it was the most direct. So. Sorry for trying to kill you. Sorry for screwing you and then treating you like shit. Sorry for trying to kill your friends. Sorry for crossing sides. Sorry for spying on you for the Mayor. Sorry for all that stuff.”

He followed her into the living room. “Anything else?” He was about ready to just accept her apology, but he still needed to know why she had chosen this time. And how far she was willing to go to do it.

She nodded. “I also wanted to thank you for trying.”

His head snapped up. “What?”

“Thank you for trying to help me,” she repeated.

“But I didn’t.” He shook his head. “I mean, yeah, I tried. A little. But I could have, should have done more. I mean, Jesus, Faith, I knew where you were staying. That was the cruddiest motel in the entire damn town. The kind where the night manager never lasts more than two shifts, and you pay by the hour. I should have gotten you out of there, maybe by telling Giles or something.”

“Xander, you were a seventeen-year-old-boy. Hindsight is a bitch. You’re gonna see everything perfectly in hindsight. You did the best you can. And I want to thank you for that.”

He nodded. “Okay, so you’ve apologized. And I accept it. I’m sorry, too. For not doing more. I should have at least tried.”

She shook her head. “I just told you. You did the best you could.”

He looked her up and down. “Still haven’t answered the ‘why now?’ question.”

She shrugged. “Needed to be done. Better late than never, right?”

“Where are you staying?”

She shrugged again. “Dunno. Figured I’d go to a motel or something after stopping by your place.”

He sighed. “No, you’re not. You’re staying here.”

She looked around. “You sure? I wasn’t trying to get a freebie.”

“I know. Yeah, I’m sure. What kind of demon did you tangle with?”

“Gelnath. I took care of them, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Do you have spare clothes, or was this totally spur of the moment?”

“It was kind of spur of the moment,” she admitted.

“I’ll loan you some clothes and you can take a shower.” He turned around to go get the clothes, then turned back to her. “Anything else you want to say?”

“Yeah.” She gestured at her hands. “I’m totally covered in demon goo."

Faith just used the word goo. "DId you just say 'goo?"

She rolled her eyes. "I've been babysitting the brand new ones since SunnyD went kaboom. Had to watch my language and all that shit." Xander resisted the urge to smile. "ANyway, do you want to know what I have to say, or not?"

He shrugged. "Go ahead. Get whatever it is off your chest."

"So, like I was saying, I'm covered in demon crap, and this is probably the worst possible time for something like this, but …” She swaggered up to him. “Give me a kiss or I’ll sock you.”

It took him about two seconds to decide what to do. For whatever reason, and it was probably crazy as hell, he obeyed.

Eh, what the hell. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

And at the very least, it would be fun in the meantime.