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For Ann. She asked for Giles/Faith and I'm very glad she gave me the inspiration to write this story.
As the door to the bar opened, Willy looked up from polishing a glass. "Slayer," he announced to the populace of the dimly lit room. A few beings rose and slunk away; others stayed, sitting silently and watching carefully. The man in front of Willy sighed, drained his glass and plunked it down in front of the bartender in the universal gesture of 'filler up'.
Keeping one eye on the young woman making her way across the floor, Willy poured another glass of scotch.
Not looking anywhere but into the amber liquid, Giles took a sip, then said, "Go away, Buffy."
"It's not Buffy," Faith said, sitting on the barstool next to him.
He glanced over at her with bleary eyes, then returned to his drink. "Then, go away, Faith."
"Nah." She gestured to Willy, who reached for a bottle of tequila and a glass, pouring her a shot, then drawing a beer.
Giles sighed and set his glass down. "You're underage."
Faith threw back the tequila, following it with a gulp of beer. "I've been drinking nearly half my life, G."
Sighing again, Giles took another sip of his scotch, slumping farther over the glass.
"How long have you been putting those down?" Faith asked.
"...Not long enough."
"Never would have taken you for a solo drinker. Let me guess...you're trying to forget."
"Rather hard to do when you're sitting next to me."
Faith was visibly surprised. "You...you want to forget me?"
Finally, Giles turned slightly towards her, running a hand over his unshaven face. "Not you in particular. Slayers, Watchers, vampires, demons, the whole lot."
"I'm sure I haven't helped," Faith said softly, taking another big sip of her beer.
The bark of laughter that came from Giles made Faith cringe. "Not your recent actions, no."
"I suppose saying 'I'm sorry', won't really help either."
"Are you really, Faith?"
She didn't answer. Giles finished his scotch and dug into his jacket pocket for his wallet, pulling out several bills. He tossed them to Willy, indicating that he was paying for Faith's drinks as well, then rose to his feet, stumbling slightly as the alcohol hit him. It took four attempts before he managed to put on his jacket, then he began the slow, careful process of walking across the floor.
Faith jumped to her feet and hurried over to him. "I hope you aren't planning to drive."
He gave her a scathing look. "I walked here. I can bloody well walk home." He stumbled slightly and Faith grabbed his arm, keeping him upright.
"How about I walk you home?"
Giles cursed under his breath, but nodded slightly.
*****
Neither spoke on the six block walk to Giles' apartment. Once there, Giles opened the door and went inside, turning on the overhead lights, not paying any attention as to whether or not Faith followed him.
Which she did, quietly closing the door behind her. She watched as Giles peeled off his jacket, letting it drop negligently to the floor as he shuffled to the couch and collapsed, his head falling back, his eyes closed against the bright lights.
Faith hesitated for a moment, a part of her wanting to leave, but she was intrigued by Giles' condition. The dapper, sober, straight-laced watcher had been replaced by a pathetic drunk. She had seen the controlled violence in him before, but never this side. Carefully she sat down on the coffee table in front of him, leaning forward to watch him closely.
Slowly Giles blinked his eyes open and focused on her. "You're still here..."
"Yep."
"No where to go?" he asked perceptively.
Faith twitched slightly and her eyes slid past him. "No where special."
"So...what do you want Faith?"
Silence fell as the question swirled through Faith's mind. What did she want? She knew he meant what she wanted at that instant, but her mind whirled with her desires. What did she want?
Everything.
"Everything," she said softly. "I want everything I never had. A family, friends, a...life. It all gets taken away, you know, when you're different." Suddenly agitated, she rose to her feet and began to wander aimlessly around the room. "Does Buffy know how lucky she is?" She didn't wait for an answer. "They came for me when I was six. My mom didn't put up much of a fight, but then I hadn't actually been on her life plan, and she could always use the money for more booze and smack."
The surprised noise from Giles made her spin around. He was staring at her, his eyes wide.
"What?" she asked nastily. "You didn't know that the council pays off parents to take their kids?"
He shook his head, wincing at the dizziness that swept over him. "N...no...I didn't. I...never really thought about it."
"Yeah, well, I was probably better off...but...I was six. She was my mom, even when she hit me, and I missed her. So, I rebelled as often and as much as I could. I think my watcher was actually dismayed when I got the calling."
"You're...a very good fighter."
Faith snorted and flopped in a chair. "Oh, yeah, I can fight. I can kill we all know that," she added snidely. "I was always good at the brawling part of the duties. I ignored all the research crap and the rules. I really hated the rules."
"So, let me guess, you drank and smoked? Did drugs? Had indiscriminate sex?"
Faith's eyes narrowed, then widened slightly. "You're not really talking about me...are you?" she asked quietly.
Giles gave her a look and ran his fingers through his hair, sighing deeply. "There are only so many ways for a teenager to rebel. Slayers aren't the only ones who lose, Faith. Do you know how many Watchers with Slayers marry, have families? How many Watchers with active Slayers live even as long as their Slayers do?"
Her response was full of bitterness. "Yeah...I do know. Marian was about your age, single, never had a date in the dozen years I lived with her...And she died three months after I was activated." She swallowed hard as the memories of her Watcher's death threatened to overwhelm her, and looked up at Giles, trying to be glib. "But, you're out of it now. Not a Watcher anymore. You can have a normal life."
"A normal life? After everything I've seen and done. It scars you for life, Faith, being a Watcher or a Slayer. It digs into your soul and you can never be free." He took a deep breath and rose to walk unsteadily to the bar. As he poured more scotch, he continued, "I had hopes that Buffy could have a break, go to college, try to have some semblance of a normal life, but..."
"Yeah, I know, I blew that," Faith replied coldly. "You can't trust me anymore to take care of things here, even though I've been cleared by the council."
He turned to look at her calmly and raised the glass to his lips, draining it. "No, I don't trust you."
"I'm not your precious Buffy," Faith snarled angrily, rising to her feet, her hands clenching into fists.
"Why do you want to be? What's wrong with being Faith?"
The look she gave him was one of total bafflement, as if the answer should be so obvious. "Buffy has everything. She has a mom and a nice home and friends and even school; she has nice clothes and good food to eat and an allowance, for Christ's sake. She goes to the mall on Saturdays and reads trashy romance novels late at night, curled in her bed with her stuffed animals. Even after everything she's seen and done, she still has her innocence."
"You could have those things, Faith, some of them. No one forces you to remain in the hovel you live in. That was your choice, to be closer to the evil you fight. And Buffy's friends wanted to be your friends as well."
"Don't you get it?" she cried. "I don't know how to have friends. I've been alone my whole life. It was me and my Watcher. I never went to school, never met kids my own age. Oh, sure, I snuck out and found a bad crowd to run with. I let anyone who wanted me fuck me. I can't even remember the name of the guy who took my virginity and I was so high, I barely remember losing it. They weren't my friends. They were the people I got toasted with to forget that my life sucked."
Giles poured himself another shot, looking at her calmly as she stood in the middle of the room nearly shaking with anger. "To be a Slayer, to be a Watcher, is to have no life outside the slaying. I tried...and had it brutally taken from me." His eyes dropped to the contents of the glass and with a shuddering breath, he slammed the liquor back, trying to warm himself and disperse the image of Jenny lying on his bed, cold and still, her eyes staring, her neck broken by callous hands.
"So...our lives suck...Great." Faith crossed the room and grabbed the bottle, taking a large swig, before plopping down on the couch, the bottle cradled in her arms. Giles joined her, sighing heavily, his head swimming slightly. He had a high tolerance for alcohol, but he had been drinking for hours. "You don't like me, do you Giles."
Giles carefully responded, "It's not a matter of liking. I'm...afraid for you, Faith."
"Huh?"
"You are on a very dangerous path. A path I trod many years ago."
"You killed someone?" She was clearly surprised.
He shook his head slightly, then closed his eyes and slumped lower into the couch, resting his head on the high back. "Not outright, but I was responsible for the death of a friend. I...never meant..." He swallowed heavily.
"Yeah, we never mean," she echoed softly, taking another drink of the fiery liquor, trying to bring some warmth to her perpetually cold body. "Did it...did it...hurt inside?"
"It still does, Faith. It's something you have to live with."
Faith absorbed his quietly spoken words and felt her heart thump painfully in her chest. "I told Buffy I didn't care...I lied."
"I know. You wear a mask. It's a very familiar mask." He opened his eyes and looked blearily at her. He wasn't surprised to see the glint of moisture in her eyes. "Sometimes I forget how young you are," he murmured.
"I stopped being young when I was six."
"I was seven when my father told me of my destiny. He was a Watcher as well, as was his father before him, but neither of them had been given Slayers. They were researchers, so they believed themselves safe to marry and have children...and pass on the legacy."
"But it ends with you?"
He gave her a small, tight smile. "I have a younger brother who has a son of his own. The child was told last year and is already immersed in his studies, being educated at a very private Watchers' school in London." His eyes took on a far away look as he remembered his own days at that school. "I'm told he excels in obscure languages and judo."
"What gives the council the right to do that to kids?" Faith asked bitterly.
Giles' response was flat and empty. "In the case of Watchers, it's a hereditary position, so the parents do it to their own children as it was done to them. It's the way it has been done for centuries, a core of fifty or so families intermarrying and interbreeding. My father broke the tradition. He married outside the families...and he always blamed my rebellious streak on my mother."
"Are they still alive?"
He shook his head slowly and swallowed hard at the memories. "The families are known to the demon population. Even those Watchers without Slayers live in danger. My parents died in a vampire uprising fifteen years ago in Prague."
"...Prague? That name sounds familiar."
"It's the capital of the former Czechoslovakia. It's also the place where Angel's childe, Drusilla, nearly died. I believe she may have been responsible for my mother's death. Kendra died the same way, her throat slashed by razor sharp fingernails." His voice was so empty, a shudder ran through Faith and she took another sip of the scotch.
"So...it's some kind of vicious cycle, huh?"
"The most vicious."
"So, what do we do, Giles?"
He thought about her question for a moment, then sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, tired and beaten. "We live moment to moment until something big and scary kills us."
Her lips twitched and she gave an ugly laugh. "That's a rosy future you paint there, G."
"Neither you nor I have any illusions, Faith."
"Got that right. Live hard, leave an ugly corpse," she quipped, then set the bottle down on the coffee table and rose to kneel sideways on the couch. "So, do you want to push that future away for a few more hours and really live in the moment?"
He looked at her, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Faith?"
"Wanna fuck?"
Giles knew he shouldn't have been surprised at her boldly asked question, but he was, mostly because he knew what kind of wreck he was at the moment. Why would she want him? "Why me? Why not some guy, any guy?"
"Because I've had some guy, any guy," she said softly, her eyes focusing on his firm lips. A twinge of desire surged through her and her fingers ran over her thighs. "Maybe I want someone who understands."
"Who is damaged as well?" he asked perceptively.
She nodded, blinking her eyes rapidly to drive back the tears she didn't understand or want. Holding her breath, she waited.
Giles reached for her arms and pulled her across his lap. "Do you understand the ramifications of doing this, Faith?" he asked, his mouth mere inches from hers.
"We both get to forget how sucky our lives are for a few hours?"
One hand caressed her back gently and their foreheads touched as Giles sighed. "It is forbidden for Watchers and Slayers to have sex with each other."
"Why?"
"Some thousand year old rule which I believe was instigated to prevent pregnancy."
Faith grinned and slid her arms around his neck. "You know, there are better ways to do that these days."
"I've broken so many rules..."
Her smile fade and she pulled her head back so that their eyes could meet. "Me, too. But you're not a Watcher anymore."
"I was born a Watcher. Relieving me of my active duty didn't relieve me of my calling."
"Like a priest?"
"Bound even tighter."
"Fuck the council and fuck the thousand year old rules. If we're gonna die soon, let's die having had some happiness."
Giles chuckled, feeling a bit of his depression lift, and feeling his penis surging in response to the squirming female on his lap. While the staid Watcher part of him yelled at him to stop, to obey the rules, to keep the traditions, the rebellious part, told him to listen to Faith. Since his body was also on Faith's side, he gave in and covered her mouth with his. Surprisingly, Faith didn't latch onto him like a vacuum cleaner. Her lips were soft, her tongue hesitant as it caressed his. He was the one who deepened the kiss, twisting their lips together as his hands tightened around her back, sliding under crop top and her sports bra.
Moaning slightly, Faith ran her fingers into Giles' soft hair, the oak taste of Scotch filling her mouth as his tongue clashed with hers. Straddling his lap, she rubbed her breasts against his chest, feeling her nipples harden as her desire grew.
It had been too long...a year...and Giles knew it was going to end too soon if they didn't slow down. Taking a deep breath, he pulled back from Faith and lifted her off his lap. Rising unsteadily to his feet, he watched as Faith quickly peeled off every stitch of her clothing.
Her body was beautifully formed breasts high and firm, waist small, stomach flat, legs long and shapely. The mark of the Slayer was covered by a tattoo of an ankh, and she had another, more exotic tattoo of a dragon on her hip.
"Well?" she asked impatiently.
"...Beautiful." He watched as the skin on her chest flushed slightly and she clenched her hands into fists, waiting. "Go upstairs, first door on the left. I'll join you in a moment."
Eagerly, she hurried up the stairs. Giles walked slowly after her, stopping to look into the mirror over the phone stand in the entryway. "Are you insane, old man?" After a moment, he shook his head and walked up the steps. The earlier dizziness had faded, the hangover he expected had yet to arrive; he felt amazingly well...and eager.
Stopping at the door to his room, he said a soft apology to Jenny, then, knowing she'd understand as she had always understood him better than he had himself, he entered the room.
Faith lay on the bed, her hair spread out on the pillows, one knee arched, her hands on her stomach. She smiled, relieved that he had followed her, and watched as Giles removed his clothes and set his glasses on the night stand.
She had trained with him--she knew he was in shape but she was surprised at how muscular he was, how firm his middle- aged body was. It was also marred by scars, some very old, some much more recent.
He had the body of a warrior.
Tingles of lust ran through her as he walked towards her and she slid her eyes down his body to his erection. It was long and thick, surrounded by a thick mat of dark brown hair. Her eyes widened as it jerked under her gaze, and she swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.
Giles sat down on the bed facing Faith and looked down into her shining eyes. "Are you certain you wish to continue?" he asked, his voice husky with desire.
She nodded wordlessly and reached for him. Giles leaned down, closing his eyes as her hands wrapped around his upper arms, and kissed her gently, then slid his mouth over her face and down to her throat, feeling the rapid pulse beneath her glistening skin. As she rose to meet him, her breasts brushed his chest and they both moaned.
Faith clutched him to her, his mouth on her throat, his thick chest hair teasing her hardening nipples, making her grow damp with longing. One hard knee slid between her parted thighs and Faith gasped as it rubbed her wet cleft.
Giles moved his mouth lower, capturing one of her erect nipples, sucking and licking the tender flesh. Faith slid her hands into his hair, pressing his head to her breast, as pleasure flowed through her. Rolling her onto her side, he slid his hand down over her back to caress her bottom and bring her against him. Faith wrapped one leg around hips and undulated against him, feeling his cock thrust against her mound.
Gasping for breath, Giles lifted his head and looked into her pleasure glazed eyes. "Faith...it's been...I can't wait much longer," he finished, slightly embarrassed.
Faith just smiled and stroked her hand over his head. "It's okay, Giles. I'm ready."
He gave her a grateful smile and reached into his night stand drawer, pulling out a condom. Propped on his side, he handed it to Faith. "Will you do the honor?"
Opening the package, Faith slid down the bed and took a hold of his throbbing cock, smiling as he hissed in painful pleasure. Carefully she slid the condom on, rolling it down with her teasing fingers. Pushing him over onto his back, she straddled his hips and rubbed her clit against his cock.
Reaching up, Giles caught her breasts in his hands and massaged her nipples with his thumbs, as she splayed her hands on his chest and raised her hips. With a moan of pleasure, she lowered herself onto his cock, smiling as he filled her to the hilt. Leaning forward, she rolled her hips, driving him deeper and pressing her clit against the hairy base of his cock.
Taking a deep breath, she rose and fell, impaling herself, clenching her inner muscles around him. Giles groaned and squeezed her breasts, his hips thrusting up to meet her each time she drove down on him. Pulling her torso down, he lifted his head and sucked at her nipples, making her cry out and bounce harder.
Faith squirmed, rubbing her clit against the coarse hair, loving the feel of him deep inside her. As he sucked and nibbled on one nipple, his hands moved down to her hips, cupping her ass, moving her faster. Feeling her orgasm approaching, Faith slammed herself down on him and keened in agonized pleasure. Her body exploded and, shuddering, she sank forward onto him, her hips still churning as he thrust faster.
Giles grunted harshly and yanked her down onto his cock as his own climax hit, sending his hips bucking wildly.
"Wow," Faith moaned, dazed. Slowly she slid off him, curling her slippery body next to him, as she came down from her orgasm.
Giles opened his eyes and blinked several times, then sighed in pleasure and slid one arm under her shoulders. They lay there in companionable silence for a few minutes, then Giles sat up and removed the used condom before going into the bathroom.
When he emerged, Faith was under the blankets, curled on her stomach, her eyes closed. He turned off the bedside lamp and slipped in beside her, listening to her even breathing. She was asleep and there was a well-pleasured smile on her face.
Feeling younger than he had in over a year, Giles sighed again, relaxing next to the girl young enough to be his daughter and older than time. As he closed his eyes, his mind turned towards the morning. He couldn't help but wonder what would happen then.
Faith's leg slid across his and her arm wrapped around his chest, as she murmured his name, and he smiled again, not quite sure why he was so content.
Shutting down his mind with all its questions and possible futures, he focused on Faith's breathing and sank into sleep.
End