Faith Can Keep You Warm
faith can keep you warm, but i can teach you how to shake
- Ryan Adams, "Gonna Make You Love Me"
Lilah does not believe in property laws. Sure, she took a class in it back when Wolfram and Hart was paying for Mortensen, but she didn't pay attention to what she was supposed to be reading. Lilah firmly believes that no one owns anything - even if they paid for their object, be it a book, a car, or a whore - and she believes that if she wants something, it is hers to take.
Property laws are for losers. There's no such thing as ownership. If you want it - you should take it.
That's what Lilah does, and she likes people who fight her for the things she wants.
She's utterly fascinated by this Faith, this kid, this stupid Slayer running from the cops, the law, the Watchers' Council. Faith takes what she wants - up to and including human lives - and she runs with it, and she doesn't look back. Everyone on her tail seems to think that they own her, that they have the final say on what she does and she owes them, but Lilah knows better.
She's got Lilah written all over her. She's a mystery and she's a thief, and Lilah'll be damned if Angel beats her to the Slayer.
Lilah's always wanted to steal a Slayer, after all.
Faith can't say no to a limo, even if she's saying yes to a thousand other things she might not want in the end. She's lived a life of watching other people get what she wanted, and sometimes get what she deserved. (She can't think about things she wants without thinking about Buffy, taking every chance Faith had ever had to get something good, just because Buffy didn't like her. It wasn't about the material things - it was about the fact that Faith is dark to Buffy's like, and Buffy fucking hates that.)
She's lived this life where she's had to take anything that she wanted, because she wouldn't get it otherwise, and so she'll take this rich bitch lawyer's limo, and yeah, sure, she can't keep it - but it's a reprieve.
It's a very brief reprieve, as it turns out.
"Lilah Morgan," says the rich bitch lawyer, and her voice is dripping with the sort of entitlement that Buffy's drips with, this is mine and I'll share but you can't have it in the end, and Faith wonders if she could get the jump on her the way she could never get the jump on Buffy.
Kill the rich bitch and take her credit cards and her limo and her driver and start the kind of nice new life that running from the Council and the cops can't give her.
Then the rich bitch smiles, a secret sort of smile that Faith understands completely, and says, "I think you and I could be very good friends."
Faith doesn't necessarily agree, but there's that smile again - and if the rich bitch can't help her, Faith will at least have the satisfaction of surprising someone who doesn't think she can be surprised at all.
She smiles at Lilah, the same secret, twisted smile, and says, "Make me an offer."
"Wolfram and Hart has a little problem that seems right up your alley," Lilah says. She isn't sure she's comfortable with the way Faith is looking at her - rather as though she'd like to eat Lilah alive, and not in a good way - but she's older and smarter than Faith, and there's no way that a Slayer will get the best of her.
Lilah's been breaking girls like Faith since she was old enough to know that women could be broken. Men can, too, but Lilah thinks it's much more fun to break women. Women never expect an attack from their own sex, and the devastation and betrayal is far more interesting than men begging for mercy at her feet.
Not that she doesn't break men anymore; she'd like to find a way to shatter Angel into a thousand tiny pieces, if she could, and that's where Faith comes in.
Lilah will just break Faith first, and get to Angel later.
"Your smartass, old money law firm's got a problem you need me for?" Faith says. "Honey, you sure you got the right girl? Because I'm strictly a low level sort of problem solving girl. If it isn't messy violence, I'm not real interested in whatever you have to say."
"Angel," Lilah says, leaning in towards Faith. When she breathes the name out, nothing more than a sigh laced with vengeance and blood on her lips, Faith matches her movement. They're nose to nose across the seats from one another, and Lilah can feel Faith's body tensing, ready for a fight.
It's exactly where she needs the girl, but Faith hasn't said yes. If she does, Lilah can certainly sweeten the deal with a very person sort of touch.
"Angel," Faith says, her own voice hardly above a whisper. "You need me to ... take care ... of Angel."
"He's a thorn in the otherwise perfect side of the firm," Lilah says, her eyes locked directly with Faith's. She licks her bottom lip after she says it; it's showy, but she can see it working on Faith. Lilah is not above playing to her adversary's weakness. It's the only way to get what you want.
"What's in it for me?" Faith asks. Her lips are inches from Lilah's now, and her warm breath is ghosting across Lilah's face.
"This," Lilah says, and pulls Faith into her lap, sinking her teeth into Faith's bottom lip. She draws blood and Faith shudders against her, her dark hair falling around Lilah's face, her tongue slipping into Lilah's mouth. Faith is what would happen if you could trap the energy of lightning bolts inside one body, and she's electric against Lilah.
Faith pulls back, one hand still at the back of Lilah's neck, and says, "Fair trade."
Lilah happens to agree.
Faith thinks that defining who you are by who you sleep with is stupid - unless you only sleep with the prettiest people, and then you're not a slut or bisexual, you're just opportunistic.
Faith is opportunistic.
And she's got standards, is all - sex is for fun and for getting what you want and never for anything about love, because sex is about nothing more than animalistic instincts and leaving when it's over. So if you look at it that way, you might as well sleep with the pretty ones because when you leave, at least there's a nice-looking memory burned on your skin.
Lilah Morgan, Miss Rich Bitch Lawyer, is one of the pretty ones, and Faith is opportunistic. She takes what she wants and what she can get, and with Lilah's head between her thighs, her fingers hot and slick in Faith's cunt and her tongue a fucking miracle, Faith thinks that she's got it.
She comes, gasping and shuddering, and says, "I'll kill whoever you want."
Lilah wipes the back of her mouth with her hand, straightens her hair, and says, "Good."
In the end, Angel wins, Faith goes to prison and Lilah sends her a postcard that says, "I bet he wasn't as good as me."
She doesn't get an answer, which is answer enough.
Faith tacks Lilah's postcard to the wall of her cell.
It's a nice reminder that sometimes you win by losing.