thanks all for your feedback... when i envisioned faith in pink flowers i didn't know it would be such an interesting image for the rest of the kittens. i promise individual responses later, but for now i'll skip that and go to the next installment.
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“Hey Giles,” called Willow as she entered the magick shop. Anya and Xander were seated at the round table in the back, surrounded by several musty books open to various pages. Giles was leaning over the table, his brow furrowed, his eyes squinting in the bare bulb light that Xander had rigged up. Giles, woefully ignorant of most electric devices, had never bothered to put in a proper generator, and a temporary one could be heard chugging in the training room.
“Hello Willow,” he said, not looking up. When Willow reached the table, Giles finally glanced at her and immediately removed his glasses.
“Tara,” he said, trying to sound light, but amazement crept into the edge of his voice.
“Hello Giles,” she said, calling him by only his last name for the first time. The younger Tara inside her wanted to step backwards, slump her shoulders, try to hide behind a curtain of hair and wait for Willow to rescue her from a gaze that plainly said
You came in with Willow? You were with Willow this morning?
But this Tara, this Tara who had been taught to love herself and believe in her own worth and who had practiced it on her own for the past three years, this Tara only hesitated for a moment, then said with a glance at the open books, “So what have you found?”
“Not much, actually,” he said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand and putting his glasses back on. “Unfortunately, electrical disturbances have many diverse sources, and we have very little to go on at this point.”
“For very little, we’ve sure been going through a lot of books,” grumbled Anya.
“Yeah, that’s where the ‘search’ of ‘research’ comes in,” said Xander. “At least we have donuts.”
“Where’re Buffy and Faith?” asked Willow, who immediately regretted grouping them together because of the half-dozen ways her question could be answered.
“Training in the back,” said Dawn, coming forward with an armload of five more books.
The look that Willow and Tara exchanged clearly said, Training?
“Someone call?” asked Buffy as she came in, taking a white towel from her shoulder and tossing it back to Faith who was a few feet behind her. The towel caught Faith in the face.
“Hey!” she yelled, grabbing it. As Buffy turned back to give her a sarcastically apologetic smile, Faith lunged at her.
Faith caught Buffy around the waist and tried to throw her down, but Buffy caught Faith at the hips and flipped backwards, throwing Faith over her head while keeping a tight grip on her as well. Faith turned, breaking Buffy’s grip in midair, and landed with her arms coming around Buffy’s shoulders to grip her from behind. Buffy ducked underneath and threw Faith to the floor, straddling her hip-to-hip.
Xander was staring slack-jawed, unsure if he should get extraordinarily excited about this display or if he should come to expect it as a “two Slayers trying out their fighting skills” sort of thing. Anya was munching on a chocolate glazed donut and smiling as if she was watching a good TV show.
Giles wasn’t even watching. He behaved as if this was completely normal.
Dawn was staring down at a book which was written in a language completely incomprehensible to her, with one hand over her face as if to support her head but really to block her view.
Willow was biting her lip to keep from laughing. She glanced at Tara, whose eyes were twinkling with mischief.
Buffy straddled Faith, her hands at her sides, looking extraordinarily pleased with herself. Faith had her hands above her head, not even struggling, not breathing hard, but looking at Buffy with a sizzling desire.
As Buffy leaned down to whisper in Faith’s ear, planting her hands on either side of Faith’s shoulders to support her weight, Faith swung one leg and knocked out Buffy’s arms, rolling her onto her back and pinning her, hip to hip, stomach to stomach, breast to breast, face to face.
Now they were breathing hard.
Dawn started whistling a mindless, innocent tune. Very loudly.
Faith stared into Buffy’s eyes, pinning her hands up above her head. She brought her lips dangerously close to Buffy’s mouth, then slowly leaned into Buffy’s ear. “Gotcha ‘gain,” whispered Faith as discreetly as she could. Then she rolled off of Buffy, swinging herself onto her feet before offering Buffy a hand.
Hm, thought Willow. She suddenly felt the heat of Tara’s body as Tara leaned into her, her breasts pushing almost-discreetly against Willow’s back, and hot breath tickled Willow’s neck as Tara whispered, “We’ve got to try that sometime.”
And this is me collapsing into a big puddle of wetness, thought Willow as her eyes went wide and her knees went weak.
Faith saw Willow’s face flush, and she chuckled as she came to stand next to Giles, looking over the book he was staring into.
“Found anything yet?” asked Buffy, secretly tickling Faith’s knuckles with the tips of her fingers and trying to look very interested in mystical thunderstorms, and at the same time realizing that there was very little chance that she could deny her attraction to Faith to anyone in that room. Not that I want to deny it, she thought. But, this is sort of a sensitive subject and I want to take my time telling the guys…though Willow has politely paved the way, as it were. But even so, I don’t exactly want to admit that I was so incredibly turned on by the last two minutes…
“A few vague references to storms, disasters, lightning fires…Nothing specific.” Giles shook his head slightly. Willow noticed that Buffy was really, really not listening.
“But you think that the power outage is Hellmouth-related,” said Faith, almost a question. Buffy snapped back to reality now, and glanced from Giles to a concerned Faith. A smile flickered between them.
Xander spoke up with a small gesture. “Well everything at the electrical plant has been checked, and all the busted wires and connectors have been replaced.”
“But nothing’s working,” added Anya with typical straightforwardness.
“Every store’s out of batteries, and not just because of the shortage of good men,” added Dawn with a childlike cheer that really didn’t fit the sentence.
Buffy and Willow stared at her in horror. Tara covered her mouth to prevent a fit of laughter, though a muffled giggle slipped around her fingertips. Xander stared at Dawn as if she’d just appeared out of thin air. Giles glanced at her over the top of his glasses, trying not to make any expression at all. Faith glanced sideways at Buffy and thought with a smirk, Who the hell needs a man?
“Um, I think there are a few more books upstairs,” said Dawn quickly, leaving the table without making any eye contact.
Buffy gave Willow a look. “Did you do this?”
“Oh yes Buffy, you know that number twenty-seven on my Things To Do Before I Die is corrupting your sister.”
Faith asked loudly, “You’re only on twenty-seven?” while Tara whispered for Willow’s ear only, “I can guess numbers one through twenty-six…”
“So, Giles, please tell me there’s lots of research for us all to go do very quietly in our separate corners,” said Xander, looking uneasy.
“Well I’m really at a dead end at this point. There’s very little documentation of electrical failures simply because electricity hasn’t been around for very long.”
“Try twenty-eight through three million,” Willow whispered back to Tara, paying no attention whatsoever to Giles.
“What about two Slayers being together?” asked Anya with her I made a clever deduction voice.
Dawn had been returning to the table, but at Anya’s question she turned on her heel and headed into the far back of the store. And Willow was definitely paying attention now.
It was quite clear that the “What?” looks on Xander’s and Giles’ faces were of a far different nature from the ”What?” looks from Willow, Tara, Faith and Buffy.
“You told her?” Buffy mouthed at Faith, who gave Buffy a wide-eyed clueless stare.
Anya decided to elucidate, since she was getting very odd looks, except from Willow who was treating her to the usual exasperated glare. “I mean, that doesn’t happen very often, right? Two Slayers existing, hanging out together, right above a Hellmouth…”
Oh, together like that together, thought the four others girls simultaneously.
“Have there ever been two Slayers before?” asked Buffy, glancing at Giles. “It wouldn’t happen very often, would it?”
“Well no,” he said, “the circumstances surrounding – well, you know how unusual your situation is.”
Faith and Buffy exchanged a look that said, Oh yeah, we know.
Giles suddenly got a faraway look in his eyes and headed toward the back of the store, where Dawn was hiding.
Buffy watched him go with curiousity. “Okay, did anyone else miss that transition?”
“Something I read…” He was scanning the shelves, looking over Dawn’s head as she stared fiercely into a large volume, refusing to look up.
Buffy followed him, and Faith and the rest of the Scoobies stood and glanced into the back of the store.
Giles pulled a small leatherbound journal from the shelf and leafed through it. “The daughters of Venus,” he murmured.
“Tell me this is a cute Greek myth and not a couple of electrical demon girls,” said Buffy as he came back to the table.
“Neither actually,” he said, “it’s the only other documented occurrence of two Slayers.”
Everyone crowded around, straining over shoulders to see the small book.
“It’s in English,” said Buffy, surprised.
“It’s a translation from Greek,” said Giles. “The original documents were lost a long time ago.”
“How long ago?”
“Near about a thousand years, I’d guess,” he answered.
“Oh,” said Buffy, trying to sound nonchalant.
“They fought in what today we know as Turkey…‘two young women of exceptional power and strength who are the greatest weapons against the darkness we fight,’” he read.
“That sounds right,” said Dawn, willing to rejoin the conversation now that no one was paying attention to her. She put her hand on Xander’s shoulder and stretched higher, trying to see the book. “What else?”
“The circumstances surrounding the appearance of two Slayers isn’t fully explained…it seems that the former Slayer experienced what is called a ‘double death…’ She was sucked by a vampire which nearly drained her, and in ‘a delusion resulting from blood loss’ she attempted to stake herself.”
“Oh,” said Buffy again, in a very small voice.
“So two Slayers were called,” said Faith, half a question, half a conclusion.
“And they were called the daughters of Venus? Why?” added Dawn.
“Well, the Greek version probably said Aphrodite, but in the century when this was last translated, Venus was more…” Giles realized that he had gone off on a familiar Greek/Roman myth tangent and quickly brought himself back.
“The few sources that we have – very few if you count the ones that contain any shred of accuracy – describe the girls as exceptionally beautiful.”
“Got that right,” murmured Faith to Willow, who grinned at her.
“One source calls them ‘daughters of Venus, daughters of Mars,’ where Venus is a reference to their beauty and Mars is a reference to their fighting prowess. They were both incredibly strong and intelligent.”
“Were they related at all?” asked Dawn.
Giles flipped through a few pages, then cleared his throat and refused to look at any of the people surrounding him.
“They were lovers.”
Everyone was quiet for a few moments. Willow and Tara glanced at each other, then looked at Buffy and Faith. Buffy was staring at Giles, her mouth slightly open and cheeks flushing a brilliant red. Faith was glancing from Giles to Buffy, and her face was streaked with concern.
Faith’s mind was a whirlwind. She knew she was in love with Buffy; had been for a long time, in fact. And Buffy was in love with her, and attracted to her, and they’d spent the night together, and Dawn and Tara and Willow all knew. And Buffy certainly hadn’t minded the girl-on-girl “fight” just a few minutes before. But Faith also sensed that Buffy wanted to lay low in the relationship – that, at the same time that she wanted to share her excitement and happiness with everyone in the world, plus half the demon population, Buffy was also uncertain, afraid.
Ashamed? Faith felt a twist in her stomach. What if Buffy didn’t really want this – not to be with her, or perhaps just as worse, to be with her and never tell anyone?
We told Red and Blondie and Dawn, Faith told herself quietly. Buffy’s just taking her time. It’s big – she can’t just spring it on everyone at once.
But the little unsure voice continued to nag at the back of her mind. She glanced at Buffy, who was looking at her. Buffy was still quite red in the face, and Faith flushed too.
“Lovers?” Buffy finally asked, turning back to Giles.
Giles slipped back into informational mode, completely missing the exchange between the two Slayers before him. “It wasn’t that uncommon during the times, actually. Homosexuality, especially committed monogamous relationships, was more accepted then than it is now.”
“Huh,” said Dawn as noncommittally as possible.
“How did they die?” asked Anya, typically straightforward. “Why aren’t there two Slayers today?”
Buffy’s eyes met Faith’s. They sensed what the answer might be. A surge of fear went through both of them.
“One died trying to save the other,” said Giles quietly, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with a handkerchief.
“What happened,” asked Buffy, though terror had struck her so deeply that she could not muster the energy for an inflection.
“The details are vague, but the sources concur that they were attacked by a large group of vampires. When Maretta – one of the Slayers – when she was struck down, Gibrella ran to save her.”
Giles slowly put his glasses back on, and his eyes softened. He must have been remembering the day he’d seen Buffy fall from the sky, the day that he’d stared blindly at her broken, cold body lying atop a wrecked pile of wood. The paralyzing fear – the heart-stopping pain.
Willow, sensing that Giles was not going to go on, had picked up the notebook. She read carefully, “‘The second was bathed in the blood of the first, and both breathed their last.’”
“She died of a broken heart?” asked Faith, and her voice broke at the end.
“She was too stunned to fight,” said Giles quietly.
“The death wish,” said Buffy, her face full of shock.
Xander looked at her, puzzled.
“Spike told me about it,” she said, one single frown line appearing between her eyebrows. “A Slayer can really only be killed when she wants to die. When she gives up the fight.”
“She gave up because there was nothing left to live for,” said Faith. She and Buffy looked at each other. Terror overrode every other feeling.
Will I die like that?
Will I have to watch her die?
Will I be bathed in her blood?
Willow set the notebook down, and her hand sought Tara’s. Her mind bucked and ran away with extensive internal angst. Could I do that? she wondered. Could I give up and let someone kill me, take my life, or even make me a demon?
But without Tara, what is there to live for?
She looked at Tara. Tara was gazing at her tenderly.
She’d want me to, thought Willow suddenly. She’d want me to live. To go on. And that’s what I’d want her to do. Because there is a lot worth living for, even when there’s a lot worth dying for.
Don’t ever die for me, Willow, thought Tara, and although fear gripped her, she held on to Willow’s hand and was comforted. The world is too dark to lose your light so soon.
Willow felt love coursing through Tara’s palm into hers, filling her soul with peace. It was as intimate as an embrace, as passionate as a kiss, as true as their hearts: I love you.
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"If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: 'Hi, can't work today, still queer.'"
- The New York Times
by Arwen276 » Sun Jun 20, 2004 2:05 pm 
BWR 
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so happy!! beautiful, really. All of it. Just... *sniffs* beautiful! Love is in the air... big time. 
Can't wait for the next update!
more.