Faith and Paige
Faith sat in the shower under the spray for what seemed like hours. How long she'd actually been in there, she didn't know. All she knew was that she'd stopped feeling anything awhile ago. It didn't matter what she did to make herself forget, she never could. The past just kept coming back to haunt her, over and over again. Maybe that was her punishment, to never be truly happy.
Faith knew for sure that she had probably never actually been happy. Not truly happy anyway. Her childhood sucked, her teen years pretty much sucked, up until she found out she was a Slayer. Then she had a purpose in her life. She wasn't the 'bad seed' like everyone had been telling her for years, she was a good person and she was doing good things.
But she hadn't done that many good things, had she? Hadn't it always been Buffy? Buffy had always been there, knowing what to do, what to say, how to act... and then, there was Faith. And when she couldn't hack being in Buffy's shadow, she turned to the evil side. She killed, felt like a God, then came back down to Earth. Did she even deserve a chance?
Outside the shower she could hear Lorne singing and the TV was on. No doubt Paige and Phoebe were watching cartoons or something. Faith wished she could be more carefree. Truly, deep down, instead of just acting like that on the surface.
Faith stood up and turned the water off. Numbly, she reached for her towel, dried herself off and changed into her street clothes. She brushed her hair back fiercely and left the bathroom. She shoved her shoes on her feet, grabbed her knife and a stake and ran downstairs.
"Gonna patrol."
"Want some help?" Paige looked up from the TV.
"Nah, it's cool. I got it covered."
"You sure you have to? You could just stay here." Paige looked hopeful, but Faith shook her head and gave a weak smile.
"No shortage of scum you gotta watch in Tulsa, right?" Faith flipped the stake into her back pocket.
"So they say. Have fun." Paige waved and Faith gave a short laugh.
"Yeah, fun. See ya." Faith opened the door and left, angry and tired and just wanting to fight.
As she patrolled the streets, she glanced at her watch. "Lookin' to be real slow tonight. One more sweep, then I'm gone."
After a final look around, it was clear that she wasn't going to fight tonight. She groaned, angry, and went back to the Manor to train with Xander. She needed to hit something, and if it couldn't be a demon or a vampire, it was going to have to be a punching bag.