Title: Unravel (2/2)
Series: Surviving Sunnydale – Chapter 9
Author: Faithtastic (faithtastic@jturner93.fsnet.co.uk)
Summary: We are family?
Rating: NC-17 for f/f slash and sweary words.
Website: http://www.spiderplant.fsnet.co.uk
Distribution: List archives and Dolores’ Domain. Anywhere else, just ask me first.
Disclaimer: Joss owns the characters, I don’t. Hence, he’s rich and I’m not. *sob*
Notes/Acknowledgements: To Selena and Dolores for beta’ing and being ‘eeee! Fantaaaaastic,’ Roz for my birthday request fic and Chris because he asked for Lilah/Darla.

This is AU, Gunn isn't part of the Angel Investigations gang, Darla isn't human and Faith and Cordy have an on-again, off-again relationship type thingie.

****

Faith pressed her nose further into Cordelia’s skin, trying to take her fill of that slightly musky, end-of-the-day scent that she loved and that C was always self-conscious of. She could feel the other girl’s heartbeat vibrating under her lips as she rode the gentle rise and fall of C’s chest. Yeah, this was sanctuary, this warmth that surrounded her and she didn’t ever want to move from this spot. But she didn’t have that luxury ‘cause C was expecting a response to the ultimate mood-killer.

Reluctantly, Faith reared her head and chose to play dumb because it bought her some valuable time. "Say what?"

The room was mostly dark now, lit solely by the TV, illuminating one side of Cordelia’s face and casting the rest in shadow. One visible almost fearful eye peered back at Faith. "My mother’s coming to visit."

"Yeah, that’s what I thought you said," Faith said, blinking. She wondered if this was actually a test. Like in Cosmo - 101 Ways To Freak Out Your Lover. Yeah, C was obviously testing her. She smiled knowingly. "You’re shittin’ me, right?"

Cordelia shook her head. "She’s arriving tomorrow morning."

Silent, Faith slipped off of her girlfriend’s lap and onto the space beside her on the couch. She stared at the wall, watching the silhouettes created by the TV shift and reappear, and she could feel Cordelia’s eyes rooted upon her face. Guess that meant C wouldn’t want her around to make the wrong kind of lasting impression on ‘Mommy.’ Hey, it was no big deal, it wasn’t like this was her place, it was Cordelia’s apartment so… yeah. No biggie. She’d just hang with Angel and Wes for the weekend while C pretended to be het and talked about some guy called Frank she was seeing. Jesus, Faith almost laughed at that one. "Well, I can make myself scarce for a coupla days," she shrugged.

She was mildly surprised when C took her hand tightly. "No, I want you here." Faith turned her head to look at the actress.

"Moral support, huh?" Faith asked with a slight grin. C sure wasn’t alone in lacking that ideal relationship with her mother. Very few people had that, though most of them had the chance to make peace with it. Faith didn’t. It was too much, too late for her when dear old mom was buried six feet under God knows where in Boston…

"Something like that," Cordelia said ruefully, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. There was more there than C was letting on and Faith didn’t know how or what to ask. That was the real downside of a life of not giving a fuck about other people.

Faith ran a tongue over dry, crimson lips. "Does she, uh, know about us?"

"God, no. Are you kidding? She was, like, the chairwoman of the Republican wives club at my daddy’s firm. Talk about the personification of the moral majority."

The slayer withdrew her hand from Cordelia’s grip and stood, leather pants rustling as she moved. "Then she’s gonna freak." She walked over to the open window, listening out for the sound of cop cars and falling footsteps, gazing at the blanket of lights that made up the City of Angels. "Look, C, I don’t know, maybe I should lay low for a while…." Way to go for the easy way out, girlfriend.

"Is that what you want?" Cordelia said flatly, folding her arms.

Faith turned to look at her lover. Was that a trick question? She wanted to say the right thing here, she didn’t want to upset C. This love gig was all about putting someone else’s feelings before your own and that’s what she wanted to do. So, damn, if that meant putting herself through wicked discomfort then she’d do it. She shrugged. "If you want me to stay, I’ll stay. I can make smalltalk."

The actress gave a small smile, placated for now. "Yeah, just don’t mention the naked alligator rassling."

"Right," Faith drawled, taking her place on her girlfriend’s lap again, threading fingers through C’s silky long hair. "And I won’t gab about how great you are between the sheets either."

At this Cordelia giggled and Faith leaned down to kiss her with much more delicacy than the actress had come to expect. "You know I love you, right?" The slayer murmured against her lips, kissing her again long and sweet. And there it was, that all-important admission, said so casually like it was a commonplace. For the first time she felt like she *belonged*, she was Faith’s and screw what that said about her feminist politics. But, more importantly, Faith was *hers*, in as much that the other girl could belong to anyone.

It hardly seemed to matter that they were both so young because nothing could shake this concrete belief that they would always be in and out of each other’s lives. Hopefully more in than out, vampire slaying and occasional flings be damned. Oh yes, Cordelia knew all about those. She may have been self-absorbed for a large proportion of her life but she wasn’t blind to what went on.

Back in Sunnydale, Faith had slept around while they were secretly not-having-a-relationship. Xander was just the tip of the iceberg. It wasn’t necessarily malicious or deliberate on Faith’s part… she was just a girl who couldn’t say no. Much like Cordelia was incapable of saying no to the January sales. Besides, for the most part, it was physical infidelity rather than emotional. One night stands, no attachments, nothing more than anatomy slotting into place. If Faith couldn’t bring herself to care about these people then why should Cordelia?

And this most recent disappearance, well, Cordelia knew when she was being fed a lie. At the best of times Faith was a mediocre liar and there was only room for one actress in this relationship. Because you didn’t spend this length of time breaking and making up with someone without knowing them inside out. Of course, a healthy dose of paranoia helped… The point was, she knew that there was another woman involved, that was the reason Faith had come home with her tail between her legs. And with flowers, no less.

So while she didn’t understand why Faith felt compelled to do these things, she could tolerate it. At the end of the day, it was Cordelia that Faith came back to not these dime a dozen sluts that the slayer picked up in bars. As long as she didn’t see or meet the fodder for Faith’s libido then it was something she could healthily repress all knowledge of.

Living in denial was surprisingly easy, actually, because if she refused to think of Faith with anyone else then she could refuse to believe that someday Faith might meet someone prettier, sexier, funnier, and richer. If it was just sex, there was no danger, no threat to what Cordelia had with Faith. But she was hopeful that those three little words meant that Faith wouldn’t feel the need for any of that anymore. She wouldn’t hold her breath, but she would hope.

****

From the comfort of the couch, Faith watched Cordelia rushing around the apartment like a butterfly on crack. She smirked, pleased at her analogy, and turned her attention back to the TV. C had been cleaning frantically since dawn, with the help of Dennis who seemed quite excited at the prospect of another Chase woman coming to stay. So excited that he’d knocked an ornament off the mantlepiece with his frenzied dusting. For her part, Faith had been watching cartoons – Road Runner, X-men, the Powerpuff Girls – her way of keeping cool in the face of impending disaster. She’d lifted her legs once, to allow Cordelia to vacuum the carpet under her feet and that was it.

"Can’t you try and panic a little?" Cordelia said at one point, nibbling on her fingernails and stopping herself because her mother would comment on the state of her manicure.

"Would it make you feel better?" Faith had replied.

"Yes!"

"Okay," Faith had said, flipping the channel to baseball, to the Red Sox having their asses whipped, and adopting an expression of mock terror. C just muttered and threw a damp dishtowel at her before retrieving it from where it landed on the slayer’s shoulder and shoving it in the washing machine. Well, watching her home team always put Faith a little on edge and, to be honest, she *was* wicked nervous about meeting her girlfriend’s mom. She just didn’t want C to see *how* nervous.

Then again, of the few friends she’d had, their parentals had always taken a shine to her. ‘Cause she was always real respectful to her elders, on the surface at least. She remembered B’s mom had loved her, right up until she found out about Faith trying to kill her daughter. Things got a bit frosty from then on out.

Just then the doorbell rang and this crazed looked came over C.

"Ohmygod! She’s early," Cordelia shrieked and rushed over to the door, smoothing down her skirt before taking the chain off the latch. Taking a deep breath, Cordelia opened the door, pasting her best and brightest smile over her face, the one she normally reserved for the bank manager.

"Mommy!" she exclaimed, rather too cheerfully, and gave her mother the prerequisite hug of greeting.

"You’re all skin and bones, honey," Mrs Chase said in a disapproving tone as she held Cordelia at arms length. She turned her attention to the apartment, raising one immaculately plucked eyebrow. She hesitated slightly. "How very… bohemian."

"Well, I *am* an actress, it’s part of the job description," Cordelia replied with a nervous laugh.

"Yes…" her mother responded in an ambiguous tone.

Faith rose from the couch and found her palms were sweating. Quickly wiping them on her jeans, she approached mother and daughter. Mrs Chase looked like an older, plumper version of her daughter but with platinum blonde hair and her roots were showing a little.

"Um, let me get your case," Faith offered, intruding upon the reunion.

"Oh, mommy, this is Faith," C said, suddenly remembering her manners.

"Oh, hello, dear," her mother said with a wan smile, and offered her hand to the slayer. Faith glanced briefly at her girlfriend and shook Mrs C’s hand. "My, that’s quite a grip you have there, Farrah. Are you an actress too?"

The slayer chewed on the inside of her cheek to keep from making a smart-ass comment. "It’s Faith, and no, I’m… kinda between jobs."

"I see," Cordelia’s mom said and Faith knew that the woman had already formed a negative opinion of her. Just meant she’d have to be charming as hell now. Gritting her teeth, Faith carried Mrs C’s suitcase into the apartment. Fuck, she was only staying for the weekend and she’d packed a small mansion into that case.

After giving Mrs C the grand tour of the apartment, all three sat down together on the couch. Faith cleared her throat. "So, can I get you tea, coffee, or…?"

"Something stronger? A scotch, neat. I hate driving on the freeway, so little courtesy." Mrs C smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt and turned to her daughter while Faith went to pour a drink. "Honey…I feel so bad about taking Frances’ room. I mean, it can’t be all that comfortable on this couch."

Heh, you’d be surprised, Faith thought, then realised where the conversation was going. She looked up from pouring the glass of scotch. "Um, well, Faith doesn’t mind. Really. I guess she could sleep in my room if she prefers," Cordelia said, avoiding the slayer’s gaze.

Her mothered giggled girlishly. "Like a pyjama party? How fun."

Cordelia seemed real focused on her lap as Faith brought over the tumbler of whiskey, handing it to Mrs C. "Yup, a whole heap of perfectly innocent fun…." the actress agreed far too quickly and it was wicked obvious that if anyone was gonna blow the cover on this scam, it was C.

Cordelia’s mother smiled at them both, taking a sip from her glass and nodding approvingly. Oh, sure, this was gonna be fun with a capital ‘F.’

****

To be continued…