Author:
For: lostgirlslair.
Setting: Post-"Chosen."
Pairing: Dawn/Faith.
Rating: PG13.
Words: 370.
Request: Faith/Dawn, Post-"Chosen," H/C.
Summary: The loss of Buffy brings them together.
Buffy died the night after Spike burnt and the Hellmouth closed. She died in her sleep of a heart attack. The new Slayers whispered that it was a broken heart. Dawn lost a sister and Faith lost the yang to her yin.
Her family had shrunken, and Dawn's tears fell onto her sister's grave. Again.
Faith stayed at the end of the funeral procession, on the frayed edges. She smoked one cigarette after another and wondered why it was Buffy, not her, in the ground.
Dawn had only been drunk once before with Janice. She'd almost thrown up on the way there with the cheap beer they'd stolen from Janice's father. But under Xander's watchful eye, she drank glass after glass of wine.
Staring at the ceiling, Faith couldn't sleep. She considered turning on the crappy cable TV, but instead continued to stare. She heard someone puking in the bathroom. Someone had drunk too much wine.
Dawn moaned into the toilet. She couldn't move and didn't want to think about the last time the toilet had actually been cleaned. Hiccupping, she laid down on the cold tile floor and wished she was dead instead of her sister.
Faith handed Dawn two Advil and a glass of water. "Drink," she said. The mystery of the vomiting person solved. The poor kid looked like she'd had an extra rough night.
"I'm not a kid," Dawn protested. Her head hurt, and she didn't need Faith treating her like they were back in the original Sunnydale High School library and giving Wesley a hard time.
"Not a kid," Faith agreed. No, Dawn wasn't a kid. Not the way her hips swung or the firmness of her breasts. But it was more than that. Giles even trusted Dawn with translations and books he wouldn't let anyone else ever touch.
Dawn had tried to be like Faith when Faith first came to Sunnydale. Later, she decided that it was her first heartbreak. She never actually wanted to be Faith; she wanted Faith. And here was Faith, curing her hangover and not talking about the dead. "Thanks."
Faith pulled up the seat next to hers. "No problem." She placed her hand over Dawn's, lingering perhaps a little too long.