Whatever Lola Wants
Faith bolted from the church, stumbling a few times because she wasn't used to her own body, anymore. How about that, spend a few hours test-triving Little Miss Perfect and it's so good you don't want to leave? She slowed to a walk. Ended up in an alley. Kicked the side of a building a few times, dislodging a loose brick or two at first, then started tearing at the chain link fence at the other end.
"Hey you! Girl! What the fuck are you doing?" a voice came from the suddenly open doorway. The old lady couldn't be five feet tall but she sure had a mouth on her. Probably someone's grandmother. Good thing I never knew my grandmothers, Faith thought. Wouldn't take that kind of treatment. But then again, that would explain where I got the attitude. Faith burst out laughing.
"Shut up!" she blurted out, in hysterics. "I'll-- ha ha-- I'll kill you, seriously."
"Hey whatever, just leave my restaurant out of it. Get your head examined."
Faith watched her go back inside. Then she scaled the fence and went back to running. But where? How would she get out of town with the Slayer and her witch babes and the English muffins still on her tail? How did they find her out in the first place?
Magic. Probably. Never solves anything. Why can't people just keep it to old fashioned big sticks and sharp things?
Magic. She remembered. Maybe she had a new friend in town. One who wouldn't mind some attention and looked like she knew when to keep her mouth shut.
The UC Sunnydale campus was never one of the best haunts in town. Vampires avoided it; most of the kids wandering after dark were drunk, and there was much better picking at the bars and back alleys. For a Slayer, looking for a couple of witches, though, it was easy enough.
Mousy looking girl in the Wicca group? Probably a lesbian? At this hour? Library study hall, always.
People in this town were so nice. The living ones.
It took a couple hours to track down Tara, but she was where Faith expected-- and no Willow. "Fight with the wife?" she said where the few people in the basement study hall could hear.
"W-what?" Tara said, and looked up. Faith smiled at her and made a fist.
"Why don't you and me go somewhere and talk, away from all these people with their easy-break bones? Sound good?"
"I- I thought we-- okay, I'm coming," she said, and stood up. She looked behind her, but no one was paying attention.
Faith put her arm in Tara's and took her to the stairwell. You'd think no one gets in any trouble at college, no kind of security.
Maybe I should have made that whole high school thing happen.
"Y-you're not hurting me." Tara said, sounding a little surprised. Expected that to come out the other way. Faith just cocked her head to rest it on Tara's shoulder for a minute and let the door shut behind them. It echoed up the flights of stairs.
"I could be. But you and red seem like the long walks on the beach type, not really my scene."
"You'd be surprised-- I mean, w-what do you want from me?"
Tara tried to pull free from Faith's arm around hers but she was stronger. Much stronger. She sighed and decided not to be scared. The shivering didn't help.
"I'm not scared," she said, trying to be more effective. "I-I'm a really powerful witch. Willow says so."
"You want to show me some magic?" Faith said. She let Tara go for a minute, but then put her hands on either side of her head. Either way Tara turned, she was liable to get turned back. "You don't look like much of a witch to me," Faith said. She leaned in closer. Now her legs were on either side of Tara. "You don't look so bad at all."
Tara shut her eyes and turned her face away. She could feel Faith's breath on her neck, could sense her looking her up and down. She opened her eyes. "You're st-still here."
"Yeah. So which one is it gonna be?" Faith said, brushing her nose against the side of Tara's cheek.
"Which what?"
"The easy way," Faith said, planting a tiny kiss on Tara's cheek, "or the hard way?" She dropped her hand to Tara's shoulder and squeezed, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to let Tara know she meant it. I'm so good at this when I want to be.
"What do you want from me? Is this uh, about Buffy?" Tara felt her shoulder relax into Faith's grip. It wasn't so bad. She wasn't clear which one was the easy way and which was the hard way, yet. Or what Faith expected to get, either way.
"No," Faith said. Her eyes narrowed at Tara and she shook her head sharply. "It's not always about her. I'm the Slayer. This is just about you and me. And you getting me away from her without anyone finding out. You hear that? No one. I don't want anyone to find out where I am."
"Oh. So, why do you n-need me?" Tara was actually puzzled. The mixed signals weren't helping. They got even more mixed when Faith saw she was confused, and took the chance to pull her head forward and kiss Tara much harder than she thought she wanted to be kissed. But she found out she was more willing to play along than she thought.
"Duh, the magic? Got me into this, gonna get me out of here, too. Figured you could abracadabra something," Faith said, sliding her hand down the back of Tara's neck, "give me some cover from the Scooby gang while I skip town."
"Oh, they-they're not looking anymore, Willow's gone to bed. W-why don't you just go, now?" Tara said, half hoping Faith wouldn't just get up and leave. She was awfully warm. Hot.
"Come on, you know you want to," Faith said. "At least I know you want to."
Tara shut her eyes and stamped her foot. Not out of frustration, but because she knew what she was going to do and Faith knew it too. As long as she's not going to leave me alone unless I help, she thought, and she's leaving town... She kissed Faith back.
"Okay," she said. "C-come on, you have to help me break into the Wicca club's office."
"That's what I'm here for," Faith smiled. "Score. I get to commit another felony before I get out of here. Gotta love Sunnydale."
Tara smiled back.