Act1

Faith was strolling under the dirty lights of a small supermarket with a washed out yellow basket in her hand. It certainly wasn’t her favorite getup; and somewhere in her mind, she could imagine Xander swear that he would be ready to kill to see her doing something as commonplace as shopping. The Slayer cast a glance around her, as too be sure that Xander wasn’t indeed there, looking at her. Then her gaze came back to her basket and she made the list of what it contained: some veggies, a pack of rice, and two steaks. Faith looked up to the shelf in front of her. Boxes of cookies were lined up in front of her eyes: chocolate, pecan nuts, and hazelnut. Each colored packing made the Slayer’s mouth water. Faith stretched her hand to seize a box especially attractive marked ‘double chocolate and hazelnuts’ but she stopped when she noticed the price. She seemed to hesitate then laid her basket at her feet and got her money out of her blue jeans’ pocket. She counted the coins counted again and looked again at the price on the shelf. Faith sighed again as she looked at her basket hardly full, then at her open hand in front of her and again to the back and her palm. Her eyes traveled that way several other times before the Slayer finally made a decision.

“Fuck!” She grumbled as she resolutely took the pack of cookies and as she threw it in her basket.

She added a bottle of soda and a bottle of tomato sauce on her way to the cash register and thought it was enough.

When she arrived near the cashier’s treadmill, Faith put all her buying on the counter, looking each of them scrolling toward the cashier and she couldn’t help but look at the price appearing on the cash register. Mechanically, she tested the weight of the coins in her pocket. She looked around her with a bored look on her face and noticed for the first time the pile of day newspapers near the cash register. She craned her neck to see better then stretched her hand to seize one. Then she turned to the cashier and gave her the newspaper.

“Leave this” she said quite abruptly, pointing to the cookies as the cashier was about to count the biscuits. “I’m taking this instead” Faith added as she shook the newspaper in front of her.

“What?” was the reply she got as the cashier looked at her with a blank look.

“I’m taking this instead of the cookies” Faith clarified, still shaking the newspaper in front of the young woman.

No understanding light came in her eyes but the cashier removed the pack of cookies and counted the newspaper. She announced the total in a dreary voice and Faith gave her the money asked. Then she put all her items in a plastic bag. After a vague goodbye, she was in the street outside with her bag in hand. She started to walk resolutely in a little animated street.

***

Faith laid her bag of groceries at her feet and took a key out of her pocket. She was standing in front of motel room’s door; the kind of motel she was used to live in some years prior and that had become her home again now. Faith didn’t complain. What wasn’t really suitable for a sixteen years old teenager was far more acceptable now.

The key turned into the door lock and Faith opened the door. She caught the bag she had put on the ground previously and came in the room.

Nothing had moved since she had left. The blinds were still half-drawn, letting partially in the light of a bright sun. That room was bigger than the ones she was used to. When she had found out, Faith had guessed that between her charming smile and Tara’s disheveled and haggard look, the receptionist had took pity on them and given them a bigger room than the one they should get for the same price.

Beside a basic cupboard, the room’s furniture included a small table and two chairs which allowed two people to eat without any problem. Right now, the table was disappearing under a pile of clothes. Near the table were a kitchen sink and two hotplates under whom a tiny cupboard hid some kitchen wares. Just to the right of the door was a private bathroom. Finally an average bed stood in the center of the room. Faith noticed immediately Tara’s presence in the bed. The witch was wrapped in the sheets and didn’t move in the slightest to the Slayer’s entrance. Faith couldn’t help but let escape a highly annoyed sigh when she laid eyes on the sleeping form of the blonde.

“Still sleeping?” She grumbled and laid her groceries near the sink. “It’s noon Blondie, time to get up”

Tara not being used to answer to her, Faith started to unpack her shopping without paying attention to the blonde nor waiting for a reaction from her part. And Tara indeed had none. She didn’t make any move showing she had noticed the Slayer’s return.

Faith swept the pile of clothes from the table with the back of her hand to free it. Jeans, blouse and tee-shirt met the round, mixing with the blankets and pillow which served as Faith’s bed. The room looked even messier than previously.

Faith didn’t care and put her stuff in the now free table. Then she opened the cupboard under the hotplates and took a frying pan and cutleries in it. Some seconds later, Faith was cutting with dexterity the veggies bought in the morning. When she was done, she looked at the result with a satisfied look on her face, her hands on her hips.

“I’m good” she complimented herself with a half-smile.

Faith slid then her work in the frying pan and opened the pack of steaks, which soon found their place on the hotplate. The simple sight of the meat made her stomach growl hungrily.

Faith cast a glance above her shoulder and noticed that Tara was still sleeping. She sighed again before turning to the blonde:

“I bought steaks Blondie” She said almost yelling as she sprinkled the aforementioned steaks with salt and pepper. “You should get up before I eat everything ‘cause we won’t get steaks everyday”

Again, Faith didn’t get anything more than silence. But strangely, she didn’t want to settle with that this time.

“Oh, come on Blondie, up. Will you ever stop doing as you don’t hear me? I’m pretty sure the top neighbor could hear me!” She exclaimed even more loudly.

She turned around and stood by the bed, rolling her eyes with annoyance. This time, Tara threw the sheets on her side and stood up against the wall.

“And will you ever stop yelling in the morning?” The witch grumbled.

Faith couldn’t totally hide her satisfied smirk.

“It’s noon, Blondie” She informed. “Not exactly ‘morning’ in my book”

Tara stood a little more and turned to the window and the half open-blinds, as too check the truth in Faith’s words. She slightly blinked and then looked at Faith again.

“I thought you patrolled late. You never get any sleep?”

Faith smiled wider.

“Slayer here” She said as she gestured to herself. “Don’t need too much sleep”

She took the room in a one glance and vaguely gestured to the bed and the blankets on the ground.

“And we can’t say that this palace’s comfort invites to sleep, right?”

Tara looked down to the blankets and pillow put at the bed’s feet and looked embarrassed for a moment.

“You can have the bed if you want, I…” She began.

But Faith didn’t let her finish and shrugged.

“Drop the matter Blondie. Told you: Slayer here. No problem”

Then, Faith turned again to her cooking and winced when she saw that her veggies were stuck in the bottom of the frying pan and slightly overdone. She mixed a little, first carefully then more forcefully and finally got the pan out of the hotplate and put it on the table without ceremony.

“Lunch served, Blondie” She announced, wincing. “Well, won’t be as good as mum’s cooking, or at least probably your mum’s cooking, but it’ll feed you”

Faith got two plates out and laid them on the table. Then she sat without waiting at the table. Tara seemed to hesitate for a moment between the bed’s comfort and the already served meal. She finally decided to join Faith after slipping on a sweater she found trailing on the ground. Faith had already started to eat and interrupted herself to serve Tara when the blonde finally sat in front of her. Tara considered the blackened veggies and the overdone steak and Faith thought she saw an amused look pass in Tara’s dreary gaze.

“Cooking’s not my best skill” Faith explained between two mouthfuls. “But at least, I’m cooking” She added quickly with an annoyed pout.

Tara didn’t answer and swallowed some veggies. When Faith had overcame her third veggies plate and as her steak was long forgotten, she leant in the back of her chair to look at Tara tormenting some veggies with the top of her fork.

“Okay, it’s not the best in the cooking department but you should eat” She said finally. “And those steaks were damn expensive”

“I…I’m not really hungry…”

Faith rolled her eyes and came closer to the table again.

“Is that a witch thing to eat nothing?” She asked. “You never eat?”

“Why do you care?” Tara replied shortly.

Faith shrugged and had an annoyed and dismissive snort.

“You’re right” She said finally, almost aggressively. “I don’t care anyway”

She punctuated her sentence by planting resolutely her fork in Tara’s steak that the witch hadn’t even started, and brought it in her own plate.

“I don’t care as you can see” she added between two new mouthfuls under the blonde’s indifferent gaze.

***

Faith pushed her plate aside with a satisfied sigh.

“Well, I’d have enjoyed some cookies” She said out loud for nobody in particular.

But she turned to Tara, who laid again on the bed and looked like she was ready to resume her sleep. Faith rolled her eyes for what seemed to be the thousandth time of the day. Then she grabbed the newspaper she had bought in the morning and hadn’t took time to read yet.

She got up and came to the bed where she let herself heavily fall by the head board. Tara jumped to the sudden disturbance and turned sharply to her.

“You make some room for me Blondie?” The Slayer asked as she was already settled. “Just time for me to read”

Tara didn’t answer but nevertheless made room for Faith to sit and lean against the wall behind her. She then arched a questioning eyebrow and pointed to the newspaper.

Faith noticed and shrugged as she opened the daily newspaper.

“Not that reading was my thing” she explained. “But I’ve gotta know what’s happening out there. Who knows, maybe corpses with strange wounds on their neck can be found even in that dump”

Tara shrugged and resumed her position in the bed.

“Well, you’re hoping to find some action for tonight” She concluded.

“Yeah” Faith confirmed distractedly. “But I’ll find action anyway” She added then with a half-smile.

Tara had a vague grimace Faith couldn’t quite understand as she skimmed through the pages. The Slayer had turned several pages when a short item caught her attention at the bottom of a page. After reading it several times, Faith jumped from the bed and got the room’s closet. She grabbed her bag and looked for a map. Her first impulse was to spread it out on the table but she interrupted her move when she noticed that the table was still encumbered by the meal’s plates.

Faith knelt and spread the map out on the ground and searched for something for some seconds. Her finger traced then a line before she folded the map and put it back in place.

“Up Blondie” She said as she got to her feet. “We’re leaving”

“What?”

“You heard me. We’re leaving.” Faith repeated and gathered the blankets.

She then threw the pillow on the bed, half on Tara.

“Duty calls”

Tara half growled as she received the pillow behind her head and turned again to the Slayer.

“Corpses bitten on their neck?” She asked.

Faith shook her head.

“No, corpse badly torn and mangled”

“I thought you worked into the supernatural department? What…what makes you think there’s… there’s something demo-demonic there?”

“Slayer instinct” Faith immediately answered. “I can feel demons kilometers around”

Tara rolled her eyes when she saw the almost pride on the brunette’s face.

“So, get out of that damn bed so that we can clean that room, leave and find you another motel’s room with another bed where you will sleep AGAIN while I’ll be slaying monsters”

Again, Tara just rolled her eyes and didn’t move.

“Getting up. Cleaning. Leaving.” Faith said. “Is that any clearer that way? You think you can do it or do I have to make you leave that bed myself?”

Tara stared at her without moving for some more seconds then finally gave in under the Slayer’s severe glare and moved the sheets aside before getting to her feet.

“Good” Faith approved. “It’s better that way”

***

The night was already falling when Faith opened their new housing’s door several hours later. They had again decided for a cheap motel and a bare room with only a bed and a closet. It didn’t bother Faith who hadn’t planned to spend too much time there anyway.

She laid their two bags on the bed, opened one and got out several weapons from it.

Behind her, she heard the door closing and casting a glance above her shoulder, she saw Tara gazing at the room.

“All right Blondie?” She asked as she compared two stakes she held in each hand.

Tara didn’t answer and came closer to the bed where she let herself fall, as far from Faith as possible. Faith’s attention came back to her stakes and put one in her belt while the other found a new home in her jacket. Then she took a small crossbow and some bolts from the bag. Finally a long thin dagger joined her weaponry at her belt and Faith sighed with contentment.

“Good” she said, maybe for Tara, maybe for no one in particular. “I’ve got anything I need. Ready to flush that monster out”

Faith grabbed the crossbow she had laid on the bed and turned to Tara.

“Wish me luck Blondie” She grinned.

Tara looked up from her hands and laid her empty gaze on the Slayer. Faith sighed and shrugged.

“Or not” She finished as she headed for the door.