Buffy Calling
Faith caught up with Dawn in a nightclub in Thailand. Buffy had sent Faith to find Dawn and bring her back to the fold but Faith could see right from the beginning that the assignment would be easy.
Dawn was dancing wildly in the middle of the floor, with dozens of girls surrounding her, cheering her on. Faith grimaced inwardly as she pushed her way past the young girls into the middle of the throng.
"Hey D." she said, warily.
Dawn flinched, shocked at hearing a familiar voice so far from home. She looked up into Faith's eyes and steeled her expression. "Don't call me that." She snapped.
"Look, Dawn," Faith tried a different tact, lightening her tone a little.
"Listen Faith, I know why you're here and I have not intention of doing whatever it is that she wants me to do, but if you really want to talk to me give me a minute and I'll meet you by the bar."
Realizing it was better than nothing, Faith left Dawn to her dance and went to the bar to order a drink.
It took a few minutes, but Dawn joined her. "Rum and coke." She ordered the bartender, who seemed to know her well, Faith noticed. "So," Faith said "You must come here often huh, Dawn."
Dawn glared at her, but remained silent. "Look," she finally said. "I know why you're here, so you can cut to the chase."
"Look Dawn," Faith said as diplomatically as she could. "I get it. I know why you wanted to leave England after Will got you all de-giant-izied-" "Centaur." Dawn supplied, helpfully.
"Whatever. " Faith continued. "And I know can be a bit... bitchy at times, but she and the others really want you there. Giles could really use your help translating some of his texts."
"Oh, I'd heard Buffy and Giles were all buddy-buddy again since he broke up your 'partnership.' How is he, by the way?" The insult stung but Faith let it roll off her.
"And does Buffy really want me around, or does she just want me to be her errand girl?" Dawn's ton betrayed a slight tinge of hurt.
"Dawn-"
"And speaking of which when are you going to stop being my sister's errand girl? Honestly Faith, don't you have any pride? Buffy stopped fucking you years ago." With this final pronouncement, Dawn pushed past Faith and out of the bar, leaving Faith staring at the watery remains in her beer mug and trying to get Dawn's painful yet truthful words out of her head.
The next night, Faith went back to the bar hoping to find Dawn there and she wasn't disappointed.
"What are you doing back here?" Dawn demanded upon seeing her.
Faith drew in a very long sigh. "Look Dawn," she said. "I know you don't want to come back with me but I was sent here to get you and that'd what I'm going to do."
"Why ? It's not fair!" Dawn exclaimed, reminding Faith very much of the little girl Dawn had been when she'd first met her. "I mean, " Dawn quickly clamped down on her outburst, not knowing what else to say .
"It's alright, Dawnie," Faith said and earned another glare from the younger woman. "Sorry, Dawn." Faith corrected herself. "Anyway, as I was saying, I know Buffy can be a bit hard to handle but she wants you wit her, she misses you."
"Yeah, well if she misses you so bad why didn't she come get me herself?'
"Dawn, you know why. She has all those new Slayers to help train, she couldn't get away."
"Yeah and she's got legions of other Slayers and Watchers to help her. You mean to tell me, she couldn't get Andrew or Giles to train some of those little newbies so she could and visit me?"
Dawn stormed off and once again, Faith didn't follow her.
The third night Faith went back to the bar and found Dawn waiting for her. "Hey, Faith." She said, actually sounding a little friendly. Faith took a seat at the bar. "I already ordered you a beer," Dawn said, taking a drink from her Singapore Sling.
"Thanks, Dawn." Faith said, a little bewildered.
"So, I wanted to say I'm sorry about the last two nights. I mean, it's not your fault Buffy sent you here to do her dirty work, right?" Dawn said, a little awkwardly.
"Yeah, I guess." Faith said just as awkwardly as Dawn, not wanting to push the issue that she was not B's errand girl.
After a few minute of companionable silence and drinking, Dawn leaned forward and looked at Faith expectantly. "No convincing me today?"
"Nah, I figure why bother, you're obviously not going to come back with me. You're an adult now, you know what you want."
"Than why are you here?" Dawn asked, actually sounding a little hurt that Faith wasn't going to try to persuade her.
Her mood lifted however, when a familiar song started to play in the background. "Do you wanna dance?" Dawn asked, holding out her hand.
Faith looked around the club and noticed that while there were a few heterosexual couples dancing together, most were of the all female persuasion. She grinned. It looked like Dawnie had finally figured out, what she wanted. "Sure, why not." She said and let Dawn pull her to the dance floor.
As the two women bumped and ground against each other, Faith found that she enjoyed the feel of the younger woman moving against her. Was she allowed to feel this way about B's kid sister? She wondered. Shaking herself out of her reverie, Faith looked up and realized that Dawn was grinning wider than Faith had ever seen her. What exactly was Dawn up too? Did she have some sort of crush on her?
Before she could do anything to investigate further, Dawn leaned forward, somewhat hesitantly, and kissed Faith firmly.
The kiss was hot and full of emotion and Faith found herself moaning into the kiss and adding her tongue, battling against Dawn for control.
When the kiss finally ended and the two women had a chance to catch their breath, Dawn asked somewhat shyly, "Well, did you like that?'
It took al that Faith had not to burst out laughing, but she managed to contain herself. "You bet I did, Dawn."
The other girl seemed to regain her confident façade as she said "I knew you would."
Faith couldn't hold it in any longer. "Dawn, what's going on? What is this all about?"
Dawn startled a little and looked embarrassed . "I've always liked you." Dawn said a little quietly.
"What?" Faith arched an eyebrow, she had heard the younger woman.
"I've always liked you," Dawn said, stronger now. "Okay well, maybe not always, but ever since I realized I was gay. In some ways, I think it took me sleeping with Kenny's best friend to realize I wasn't really into guys. Kenny was so sweet and understanding, so why did I sleep with his friend? I think it was the only way I could sabotage my relationship with Kenny, so that I could claim it didn't work. Then when I realized I was gay and looked back at my life growing up, I remembered how much I looked up to you and I wondered why I was so upset when you and Buffy started sleeping together. It wasn't that I though Buffy was making the wrong decision in sleeping partners, it was that I thought you were."
Faith stood there with her mouth hanging open, stunned. How could she have never known little D felt this way, she wondered? Dawn seemed to take Faith's silence as rejection and she turned away. "I shouldn't have said anything." She said, trying to cover her emotions and doing an admirable job. Dawn was harder than she seemed Faith noticed.
"Oh Dawn," she said, moving quickly to stand in front of the young girl and cup Dawn's face in her hands. "It's not that I'm not into you," Dawn coloured slightly at this admission, "If that kiss was any indication..." Faith trailed off, leaving her statement unfinished, but improvising a slow wink. "It's just that the only time I did this relationship thing was with your sister and we all know ho well that turned out. I just don't want to do anything to hurt you and I might need some time to figure out how not to do that. Do you understand?" Dawn nodded soberly than brightened.
"England." She said, quietly.
"What?" Faith asked.
"If I go to England, will you be there."
"Shit D," she paused wincing at her own slip of the tongue but Dawn only smiled wider, "You know I'm not going to miss out on any time I can get with you."
Dawn smiled and announced happily, "I'm going to England then. With you."