FIC: The Four Loves (1/4)
Title: The Four Loves (1/4)
Contact Information: skydragon@att.net
Characters: Rupert Giles, Faith Lehane, Jenny Calendar, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Buffy Summers, Spike
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Various - including S8 Comics
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its concepts, and its characters © Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy Productions
Warnings: Mild swearing, a little violence, discussion of a (canon) character death
Notes: I was skipping about on TVTropes the other day when I stumbled across this page, and it gave me this fic idea. It is a four-parter, though the four parts are more like vignettes than actual ficlets. Enjoy! This piece takes place during the S8 comics, set sometime after the "No Future For You" arc.
Phileo - Friendship
“Faith - duck!”
The Slayer obliged, making sure to toss an extra kick toward her foe as she dodged the first clumsy swipe at her head. The next instant, she was facing her opponent again, blocking its bows as quickly as she fired her own back at him.
“Gotta tell you, G,” grumbled Faith as she grabbed her assailant’s arm and snapped the elbow back in on itself. Thankfully, her victim’s agonized wail was cut short when she slammed a clenched fist into its chin, knocking it onto its back. “When you said that we should ‘spend the night relaxing,’ this really wasn’t what I had in mind.” She finished off her ex-attacker with a swift twist of the neck, breaking it.
“How was I supposed to know that the hotel residents were all Gromakk demons?” Giles snapped right back. “I swear they looked human from a distance!”
“Yeah.” Faith caught the next demon’s fist mid-blow and seized the opportunity to slug it a good one, right on its ugly mug. “Sure they did.”
“Oh bloody - they did!” Giles wasn’t quite sure why he was arguing the point so fiercely, except perhaps that it kept his mind off the ensuing combat. Still, he had to admit that he really hadn’t expected them to last more than five minutes against a dozen-or-so very large, very pissed off Gromakk demons - who were known for their wiry strength and fierce obstinacy in a fight.
Perhaps the fact that he had a just-as-pissed-off Slayer at his side tipped the scales in their favor.
Said Slayer was currently finishing off her seventh - eighth? - demon rather brutally, by breaking a chair to pieces and seizing one of the pointy bits to drive into the demon’s open mouth. Giles knew he wouldn’t have to worry about her (well, much) and turned back to the duo of Gromakks he was facing down on his own. Unlike Faith, he didn’t have any Slayer strength to help him against these two. He didn’t even bring a stake like he usually did.
But, being a Watcher, he hadn’t come completely unprepared (“Preparation, preparation, preparation” indeed, Giles thought wryly), though he doubted the knife he had on hand would be of much use against two furious, much-bigger-than-him demons. All the same, he brandished it and readied himself for the inevitable beatdown.
“Behind you, G!”
Giles didn’t think. He didn’t have to.
He sidestepped Faith just as she hurtled past him, flying at one of the Gromakks. Her vicious onslaught distracted the second one long enough for Giles to lunge at it and slam his knife hilt-deep into the side of its neck. He barely registered its dying gurgle, concentrating instead on the flurry of blows Faith was laying down on their last opponent. She was holding her own, but until she got her hands on a weapon of some sort, this fight could last a while. Giles cast desperately around for something of use, but his knife was still embedded in the throat of the thrashing, dying Gromakk, and the chair Faith had smashed earlier was lying in useless splinters.
A sickening crack interrupted Giles’ line of thought as Faith smashed her foot into the demon’s ribcage. It staggered backwards, and Giles took advantage of the window to leap at the Gromakk and twist its neck ferociously, snapping it.
The two stood panting in the hotel reception room, surveying the carnage splashed artistically on the walls and floor. Faith turned to the Watcher.
“So, was that relaxing enough for you?”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you,” Giles protested as he began searching his pockets for a handkerchief to clean the demon blood off his glasses. “I thought they were human. I really was hoping for a quiet night.”
“Our line of work, I don’t think such a thing exists.” Faith sounded remarkably cheery at the prospect. She reached down at one of the demon bodies and wrenched Giles’ knife from its neck, flipping it in the air as she did so and presenting it back to him, hilt first.
“Thank you.”
Faith grinned. “Seriously? You thank me for the knife but not for saving your ass, like, fifty times tonight?”
“It was only three times, and I was about to thank you for that as well, if you hadn’t rudely interrupted me before I could.”
“Liar.”
They faced each other, Giles glaring and Faith smirking, for a moment. Then Giles’ scowl dissolved into a grudging sigh.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Faith tossed over her shoulder as she turned to scoop up her meager luggage. “What are friends for?” She threw Giles his own duffel, and he caught it. “So...should we pay for the room, or d’ya think the owner will give us a discount for fixing his demon problem?”
FIC:
Contact Information: skydragon@att.net
Characters: Rupert Giles, Faith Lehane, Jenny Calendar, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Buffy Summers, Spike
Rating: PG-13
Setting: Various - including S8 Comics
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its concepts, and its characters © Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy Productions
Warnings: Mild swearing, a little violence, discussion of a (canon) character death
Notes: I was skipping about on TVTropes the other day when I stumbled across this page, and it gave me this fic idea. It is a four-parter, though the four parts are more like vignettes than actual ficlets. Enjoy! This piece takes place during the S8 comics, set sometime after the "No Future For You" arc.
Phileo - Friendship
“Faith - duck!”
The Slayer obliged, making sure to toss an extra kick toward her foe as she dodged the first clumsy swipe at her head. The next instant, she was facing her opponent again, blocking its bows as quickly as she fired her own back at him.
“Gotta tell you, G,” grumbled Faith as she grabbed her assailant’s arm and snapped the elbow back in on itself. Thankfully, her victim’s agonized wail was cut short when she slammed a clenched fist into its chin, knocking it onto its back. “When you said that we should ‘spend the night relaxing,’ this really wasn’t what I had in mind.” She finished off her ex-attacker with a swift twist of the neck, breaking it.
“How was I supposed to know that the hotel residents were all Gromakk demons?” Giles snapped right back. “I swear they looked human from a distance!”
“Yeah.” Faith caught the next demon’s fist mid-blow and seized the opportunity to slug it a good one, right on its ugly mug. “Sure they did.”
“Oh bloody - they did!” Giles wasn’t quite sure why he was arguing the point so fiercely, except perhaps that it kept his mind off the ensuing combat. Still, he had to admit that he really hadn’t expected them to last more than five minutes against a dozen-or-so very large, very pissed off Gromakk demons - who were known for their wiry strength and fierce obstinacy in a fight.
Perhaps the fact that he had a just-as-pissed-off Slayer at his side tipped the scales in their favor.
Said Slayer was currently finishing off her seventh - eighth? - demon rather brutally, by breaking a chair to pieces and seizing one of the pointy bits to drive into the demon’s open mouth. Giles knew he wouldn’t have to worry about her (well, much) and turned back to the duo of Gromakks he was facing down on his own. Unlike Faith, he didn’t have any Slayer strength to help him against these two. He didn’t even bring a stake like he usually did.
But, being a Watcher, he hadn’t come completely unprepared (“Preparation, preparation, preparation” indeed, Giles thought wryly), though he doubted the knife he had on hand would be of much use against two furious, much-bigger-than-him demons. All the same, he brandished it and readied himself for the inevitable beatdown.
“Behind you, G!”
Giles didn’t think. He didn’t have to.
He sidestepped Faith just as she hurtled past him, flying at one of the Gromakks. Her vicious onslaught distracted the second one long enough for Giles to lunge at it and slam his knife hilt-deep into the side of its neck. He barely registered its dying gurgle, concentrating instead on the flurry of blows Faith was laying down on their last opponent. She was holding her own, but until she got her hands on a weapon of some sort, this fight could last a while. Giles cast desperately around for something of use, but his knife was still embedded in the throat of the thrashing, dying Gromakk, and the chair Faith had smashed earlier was lying in useless splinters.
A sickening crack interrupted Giles’ line of thought as Faith smashed her foot into the demon’s ribcage. It staggered backwards, and Giles took advantage of the window to leap at the Gromakk and twist its neck ferociously, snapping it.
The two stood panting in the hotel reception room, surveying the carnage splashed artistically on the walls and floor. Faith turned to the Watcher.
“So, was that relaxing enough for you?”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you,” Giles protested as he began searching his pockets for a handkerchief to clean the demon blood off his glasses. “I thought they were human. I really was hoping for a quiet night.”
“Our line of work, I don’t think such a thing exists.” Faith sounded remarkably cheery at the prospect. She reached down at one of the demon bodies and wrenched Giles’ knife from its neck, flipping it in the air as she did so and presenting it back to him, hilt first.
“Thank you.”
Faith grinned. “Seriously? You thank me for the knife but not for saving your ass, like, fifty times tonight?”
“It was only three times, and I was about to thank you for that as well, if you hadn’t rudely interrupted me before I could.”
“Liar.”
They faced each other, Giles glaring and Faith smirking, for a moment. Then Giles’ scowl dissolved into a grudging sigh.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Faith tossed over her shoulder as she turned to scoop up her meager luggage. “What are friends for?” She threw Giles his own duffel, and he caught it. “So...should we pay for the room, or d’ya think the owner will give us a discount for fixing his demon problem?”
FIC: