Sweetness Follows

Title: Sweet Follows
Author: Shona aka Mara
Series: Sweetness Follows Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Buffyverse, Supernatural Spoilers/Timeline: Post-Chosen (BtVS), mid-season 1 pre-Home (SPN)
Prompt/Claim: Written for the >fic_variations May prompt of 'Sweet'
Claim: Faith/Dean
Warnings: Nada
Mille grazie: _amy_star, emeraldswam and monkey_matt are responsible for everything good here!

As far as Dean was concerned there was no such thing as a comfortable silence. Definitely not while sitting opposite some strange girl – who somehow managed to make him think she could kick his ass even though she would be lucky if she weighed 100 pounds soaking wet – and trying to piece together exactly what was going on and how he'd ended up here.

Faith was watching him over the top of her coffee cup, eyes tracking over his face like she could see right into his head. He knew he wasn't giving anything away this time, but he had the uncanny feeling she somehow could tell exactly what he was thinking.

Eventually she seemed to get bored waiting and spoke up, "Let's cut to the chase okay? I know who you are; I know you definitely take after your daddy. Which pretty much means you've already worked out what you think is the easiest way to take me out and make it out of here before anyone official shows up asking questions. Right?" Dean let his head drop to one side, an acknowledgement that she might just be able to read him, not an admission.

She continued, "There's two doors round the back, the delivery door and the fire exit. Or there's always the front door if you're… y'know going for the traditional approach, and I won't try to stop you so there's no need to try to take me out." The wicked grin came back over her face and her voice took on the sultry honey tone again, "Course, if you were to ask nicely I might just let you tie me up."

He smiled at that despite himself, oh yeah he'd read her right after all. Playing up to a reputation that she maybe only partly deserved to make the target think they had the upper hand. He knew her game because up until now it was one he played well himself. 'Course he'd never had it played on him before and it definitely gave him a whole new perspective on things.

"So," he leaned forward. "Who exactly are you then?"

Her elbows rested on the table between them as she leaned in conspiratorially, "Told you. I'm Faith."

"Yeah, well – Faith – if you really think you know something about me, then you should probably know I don't really have a sense of humor when people make veiled threats. So I'm going to need a little bit more than that." Dean was still finding it tough to reconcile the feeling that she really posed no danger with the fact that she seemed to know a hell of a lot about him.

"Oh this aint me threatening you, this is just flirting." Her eyes sparkled with barely concealed amusement, but again he felt like this was a joke that he was in on rather than the butt of. That she was saying it was the two of them against the world. The fact that, to anyone watching, they must have looked like nothing short of a newlywed couple what with the way they were leaning in close to each other with eyes locked didn't escape Dean and from the smile that played over Faith's face he figured she knew it too.

Dean lifted an eyebrow. "Still waiting on an answer."

She sighed a little, "Okay, so you have your dad's journal. Why don't you look up 'Slayer comma the'. I'll wait." She took a drink from her cup and winced a little. "Nothing worse than cold coffee. You're not looking it up."

"Don't need to, you're telling me you're the Slayer? Please. I've seen a whole lot of freaky things, but even I know there's no such thing as the Slayer."

Her sigh was heavier this time. "Not 'the'. 'A' - long story which is actually kinda dull and is totally besides the point right now. I don't really care if you don't believe me – I believe in me and that's pretty much all that matters in my book. Thing is though, I came here to do my job because your daddy told a good friend of mine that something was up. And you know what happened when I got here? Turns out that there's no job to do because someone else took care of it before we could."

If she was looking for a reaction, Dean was determined not to give her one. Instead he kept staring at her, trying to maintain the slightly bored expression, but getting drawn deeper into her eyes. They were almost hypnotic and it was taking a whole lot of willpower not to get lost there.

"Not that I have a problem with that, but the thing is, I saw that wince when you got out of the car earlier. I'm thinking maybe a cracked rib? You got yourself into something bigger than you didn't you? And from what I've heard, it's not the first time."

He sat back finally and crossed his arms over his chest, pointedly ignoring the pain in his side as he did so. "You seem to have heard a lot." He managed to say.

She smiled, and this time it was a genuine smile. "Yeah, well let's just say I was interested in the subject matter."

He was rescued from having to come up with an answer by movement at his back, "Everything okay?" Sam somehow managed to loom apologetically. Dean wouldn't have thought that was possible, but his brother was constantly coming up with new ways to surprise him.

Dean didn't shift his gaze from Faith's as he nodded slowly. "Yeah, why don't you see if you can't get a room? There's some things I want to work out here."

He didn't miss the derisive snort as Sam turned away, nor could he fail to hear the "I bet there are," muttered comment, but he blanked it.

This girl – Faith – not only claimed to be a Slayer, but she said she knew John Winchester. He wanted to talk some more to her. Find out what she knew, who she was.

And he hadn't forgotten the comment about asking nicely.