Sweet Ride

Title: Sweet Ride
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!

Fifty-eight hours. Three thousand, four hundred and eighty minutes. More seconds than Faith really wanted to think about but which she was damn sure Willow would be able to tell her if she asked. All that time, cooped up in a freaking mini-van with three others who wouldn't let her drive in case she got them a speeding ticket. After all, explaining away an escaped convict who was presumed dead in the aftermath of the Sunnyhell crater driving at a hundred miles an hour down the freeway would probably not be all that easy. Of course, they seriously underestimated her persuasive abilities and it wasn't like this piece of crap minivan would make it over 65 without shaking itself apart anyway. In the end it had been for nothing. Seemed like *something* had gone down, but without any Council involvement. So there was nothing they could do but turn around and head home again.

"Hey, Red." She nudged the seat in front of her with her knee and Willow jerked as if she'd been sleeping.

"What?"

"Tell me again how come you couldn't just have twitched your nose or whatever and got us here three days ago?"

Willow's sigh was not quite as long-suffering as she obviously wanted it to sound and Faith grinned to herself as she realized the witch had probably been wondering that exact thing herself. "Because Giles thought that would be an inappropriate use of magic."

"And who died and made him Cornelius Fudge?"

Xander laughed from the driver's seat, "Wouldn't have taken you for a Harry Potter fan, Faith."

"Yeah, well..." She shifted uncomfortably. "Must've picked it up from somewhere. What happens when a girl finds herself surrounded by geeks – some of it seeps through."

"And that's why I heard you threaten Vi with torture if she tells you what happens in book seven before you get to read it?" Xander shook his head as Willow turned to grin at Faith. "Face it, you've been assimilated."

"You even think about mentioning the Borg and I'll tell Andrew you wanna go to Comic-Con with him but are too afraid to ask," Faith shot back.

"Ooh – score one for Team Slayer!" came Buffy's sleepy voice. "And I agree, next time we tell Giles that Willow's going to Apparate us no matter what he says."

"You're just annoyed that we won't let either of you drive," Xander teased.

"Ever think maybe I like getting chauffeured around?" Buffy retorted.

"Yeah, now you mention it, we did get the better end of the deal here. Maybe next time we should get him a uniform. You know what they say about girls falling for guys in uniform. Never been one for that myself, now *out* of the uniform, well, that's a whole 'nother story..." Faith leaned forward between the two front seats and dropped her voice into a husky whisper, "'Course you could always leave the hat on..."

Xander's ears were turning red and he kept his gaze firmly on the road, not acknowledging her at all. Faith laughed as she sat back and mimed herself chalking up a point on some imaginary score board.

After a couple of minutes (during which his ears almost glowed red with embarrassment) Xander finally spoke, "Who's up for a break? I could do with some fresh air, y'know, stretch the old legs. Anyone with me? Good, thought so. Right..." Before anyone had a chance to actually answer him, Xander had pulled into a parking space in front of a run-down diner with faded red vinyl seats shining dully under the strip lighting. A single-level motel stretched out into the dark behind it and Faith kinda guessed they might be calling it a night soon.

"Ooh. A diner. I've always wanted to visit one of these." Faith bounced forward in her seat. "Can there be a bored waitress in a polyester dress? Can there?" She was finding it easier to relax around the guys these days but something about the glare Buffy shot her reminded her that there were still a lot of things she still didn't quite get, making it clear that she was still an outsider. Then again, it wasn't like everything in her own past was out there for inspection, so as long as it was just the occasional glare she could deal.

Xander had barely had time to slam on the parking brake before Faith practically leapt from the car, followed quickly by Buffy. Keeping two Slayers cooped up for any length of time was never a good idea, especially not in the kind of car no one in their right minds would have been seen dead with. As she stretched out tired muscles she called over to their newly minted chauffeur. "Hey, Xander, next time we go on one of these gigs how 'bout you let me pick the wheels?"

"Um, how about, because you can't fit four people on a Harley?"

"Who says?" She smirked.

"You didn't... did you?"

"Nah, but anything's possible if you're... flexible enough." She leaned back from the waist as if demonstrating, but in actuality it was simply to work out a niggling kink in her spine. 'Course, the fact that she could make Xander's face turn the same colour as his ears was an added bonus.

"You have to admit Xander, it's not the... most impressive car you could have picked," Buffy added. Faith knew the show of solidarity was in part an apology for the earlier glare, but mostly it was about driving Xander up the wall. It had, after all, been their favourite in-car entertainment for the past 58 hours.

"Fine." He threw his hands up in surrender. "Next time, you get to pick. Hell, I'll even let you drive. So long as you let me make the chauffeur jokes."

"It would be chauffeuse, surely?" Willow asked in a somewhat distracted tone of voice.

"Ladies and Ladies, may I present Willow Rosenberg. Most powerful witch in the world and master of the linguistic nuance." Xander was grinning as he threw his arm around Willow's shoulders. Faith was again a little amazed at how at times like this it seemed like nothing had changed. It gave her hope. "So what atrocity of automobile engineering would you inflict on us if you had the choice Faith? let me guess - a monster truck?"

Her answer stalled in her mouth as a low rumble filled the parking lot and they all turned to see a gleaming black Chevy pull up a few spaces along from where they were parked.

"Now *that* is a sweet ride," Faith all but whispered. Even Willow let out an appreciative whistle and Faith suddenly recalled the powder blue Chevy Bel Air she'd seen Xander driving around Sunnydale for a while. Maybe she was being a little judgemental placing him in the 'Giles' school of vehicular appreciation. Still, a Bel Air might get some appreciative looks but an Impala like this one would get people locking their doors and making U-turns to get out of the way. In other words, it was her kind of car.

She watched the driver get out and glance over at his appreciative audience. She had to fight the smirk as Buffy murmured, "You taking about the car or the guy?"

Faith saw his eyes track appreciatively over first Willow, then Buffy before reaching her. When his eyes finally met hers she was a little startled at how clear they were, and more than a little surprised that he met her stare head on, with no sign of embarrassment at having been caught blatantly checking her out. Well, turnabout was fair play she supposed, and after a moment's appraisal she answered Buffy. "How about I let you know in the morning?"

Faith didn't wait for an answer before walking over to the new arrival.