Author's Note: Thank you to  ForestA2000  for your comments on my last chapter.

Mmm, this is so good.

I shift in Faith's arms as we lie together on my couch. She shifts with me and we both get comfortable where we are.

Just being here in Faith's arms like this, I feel so safe and secure. We've been together for three months now, not including the couple days we were apart after I found out about the deal Faith and my sister made. It's been a month since that happened and ever since then we've spent as much time as we could together and every moment of that getting comfortable with each other. Being around each other like this does that for us. We haven't done anything either. We haven't even kissed. No kissing, no touching, no groping or rubbing unless I want it.

There have been more than a few moments where I've wanted to do more, where we've both wanted to, but we haven't. It has never felt quite right, and Faith hasn't pushed me at all. She just keeps saying that she'll wait until I'm ready. And I love her even more for every time she says it. I wish I could do something to help her through things until I am ready though. It can't be easy for her, having to wait for me. Sometimes when we're around each other, I'll hear a growl or a grunt or something from her and I just know she wants more than what I'm giving her.

I keep asking if there's something I could be doing to help her work out some of the tension that must be building up inside her after all this time, but she keeps turning me down. She says she won't make me do anything I'm not ready for, and if she has to, she has ways of relieving the tension at home. Tools, she calls them. Of course I know they're not actually tools, and she tells me about the different things she uses sometimes, but she likes to call them tools, so who am I to argue? She says it's all she really needs until I'm ready.

I think things might be changing though. I'm starting to feel like I'm ready for kissing and touching and groping and maybe more. All this time we've been spending together, talking and cuddling the way that we have, it's made me feel like I'm ready to take the next step and give myself to her. Not because I want to make her feel good and relieve her frustration, even though I do want to do that for her, but because I think that I'm ready for it. I think I'm finally ready to share with her an experience that I'll probably remember for the rest of my life.

I shift my head downward on her shoulder so I can look down at her body. Slowly, I move my free hand up over her left breast. My index finger starts to trace circles around her left nipple over her shirt. Instantly her body reacts to my touch, arching into my finger and forcing more contact. A gasp escapes her lips.

"What... what are you doing?"

That puts a smile on my face and I start to put a little more pressure on my tracing finger.

"Teasing you..."

She lets out another gasp.

"You... you don't have to do that."

My smile turns into a grin as I continue with what I'm doing.

"I know."

Yet another gasp from her.

"I... don't want to pressure you into anything you're not... ready..."

With that, I stop circling my finger over her nipple and press my hand flat against her breast. Turning my head up to look in her eyes as she lifts her head from the couch to look down at me, I smile at the desire in her voice as she stops mid sentence.

"You're not pressuring me. I want to. I'm ready."

Then I push myself up enough so I can slide half my body up half of hers and kiss her softly. The kiss is slow and soft, our lips melding together as the passion between us builds more and more while the seconds pass. She moans into the kiss and so do I as her arms wrap themselves around me, pressing our bodies together more. As we break the kiss, she keeps one arm around me and uses the other to reach up and brush the hair out of my face lovingly.

"Are you sure?"

All I do is nod gently to her question before sliding my left leg between hers and leaning in to kiss her again. My hand massages the breast it's cupping and our lips get about an inch from each others before the front door opens. When Faith hears that, she sits up straight in shock, making me fall off the edge of the couch and onto the floor between the couch and the coffee table.

Ow!

I land right on my butt.

Well that was a lot less fun then the other stuff.

"I'm home."

"Hey B..."

Faith looks down at me on the floor with just as much shock as when the door opened.

"Oh crap..."

She gets up between the couch and the coffee table and holds out her hands to help me up.

"Are you okay?"

I'd say so.

"I don't think anything major was bruised or broken. I think I'm good."

I take her hands and she helps me to my feet. Once we're both upright, we both look at my sister who is standing at the door with a curious yet disapproving look.

"Everything all right?"

Faith and I look at each other like we just got caught with our hands stuck in the cookie jar, which we kinda did, before smiling at Buffy.

"Yup, everything's fine."

"Five by five, B."

"What she said."

Buffy watches us suspiciously for a while and then continues to unwind from work.

"Okay then."

"So, did the girls all get home from class okay? They weren't too bruised from the work out we made them do were they?"

My sister shakes her head as she responds.

"Nope, they're all home safe. We may want to take it easier on them for at least one class though. Some of the girls were a little dehydrated. They were drinking a couple gallons of water each."

"Cool, we'll take them on a fun run tomorrow or something."

"That's what I was thinking."

Buffy's been a lot less mean to Faith lately, which is nice. At first it was all dagger stares and the occasional mean comment from her. But the more time Faith and I spend together and with Buffy, the less she's done to make Faith feel unwelcome. It makes me feel good to know that there's less fighting between them. I want them to get along so Faith and I can keep seeing each other. If they were fighting, it would probably make things harder on us.

"Well, I should probably get going."

Faith leaves my side in front of the couch and heads for the door.

Already?

"Okay..."

I follow her towards the door.

"You can stay for dinner if you like."

What?

We both look at my sister, a little confused.

She hasn't invited Faith for dinner since that first time after Sunnydale. It's usually me who has to insist that Faith stick around for dinner when she comes over after I get off school. And it doesn't always work either.

"I appreciate the offer B, but I think I'll take a rain check on dinner."

Buffy smiles at Faith and then Faith smiles back.

"No problem."

Okay that was weird.

I don't have time to think about it though because Faith opens the door to leave.

"I'll see ya later Dawn."

She walks out the door.

All right, I can't leave things the way they were on the couch before Buffy walked in.

"Faith, wait up."

I leave with Faith, shutting the door behind me. She turns to me with a smile.

"What's up?"

Can Buffy still hear us outside the door?

"Umm..."

Putting my hands on her shoulders, I push her to walk backwards about halfway to the elevator.

I think this is far enough.

"I just... wanted to talk to you about what I was saying earlier."

She stands still and waits for me to continue.

"I meant what I said earlier... about, you know, being ready."

The smile on her face gets bigger.

"Yeah?"

"Mhmm, that's why I was... with the touching, and the kissing. I want to. Sometime soon if we can."

Faith reaches out and takes my hands in hers.

"All right, well if you're really serious about this, then we should find some time to talk. Soon."

Talk?

"About what?"

She squeezes my hands gently.

"Nothing bad, all good things. I just want us to take the time to really talk about some stuff so we both know what's happening when it happens."

Oh...

"Okay..."

"I want to be sure that you're sure you're ready for it. You know?"

Well, I made her wait all this time, the least I can do for her is wait until we talk everything out. I want her to want this for the same reason I do.

"Yeah..."

"All right then..."

She leans into me and we share a short kiss.

"Call me and we'll talk."

"I will."

We share another short kiss.

"See ya."

"Bye."

Then she turns and heads for the elevator. I walk backwards to my door and watch as she gets on the elevator, waving to me with a smile.

It's finally going to happen. I'm finally ready to give my purity to someone. And it's going to be to Faith.

* * *

Mmm, chicken.

Buffy puts a plate of chicken down in front of me with rice and steamed vegetables too. She then makes her way to her seat, sitting down with her food.

I love chicken. People always say that so many things taste like chicken. But chicken is the only thing that actually tastes good when it tastes like chicken. It has a different, juicier taste to it than other things that taste like chicken. I like it. Especially with dark meat. I prefer dark meat to white meat. Dark meat is so much better than white. That's why Buffy always gives me both legs while she takes the white meat. She likes it better, which is fine by me.

The meat on the legs are always more tender and chewy. I like the legs. The same way I like Faith's legs. She's got very nice legs. Her legs are very long and slender and muscled. I like the way they look, and the few times that I have touched them, I remember them being very soft and strong at the same time. I wish she was here right now so I could feel them. Her legs and other things. That would be great. The only thing is that I don't think my sister would like it very much.

Me and Faith making out at the kitchen table. I'm almost positive that would be against the house rules. But at least every second of us breaking the rules before Buffy would kick the crap out of Faith would be heavenly. With every second of the kissing and touching and rubbing against each other. Mmm... we really didn't get to do enough of that when she was here earlier. Which was kinda my fault. In fact, the reason we haven't been doing it at all has been my fault. But that's going to change now.

We're going to do all the things that we haven't been doing for a month, and more. It's going to be so great. I just hope that I can make her happy. I hope that I can do all the things that she needs to enjoy herself. I assume that she's gonna want me to go down on her. The idea of doing that kinda scares me. I didn't like the idea of doing that to guys, and now I'm probably going to have to do it to Faith. There's no way for me to know if I'll be any good at it. I guess I could talk to Faith about it when we talk next. That's probably what we're going to be talking about anyway. I hope I don't let her down.

"Are you okay Dawn?"

What? Oh, right... my sister is here.

"Yeah, why?"

Buffy points with her fork down at my plate.

"You haven't touched your food."

Right, chicken... somehow I completely forgot about it.

Picking up my fork, I slowly start to eat it.

"Things are good. I'm just letting it cool down a little first."

"Oh... all right."

"Yeah..."

"So, how are things with Faith?"

Faith?

"Umm, they're good."

"Is she still treating you properly?"

Buffy's still trying to be protective of me. It's nice when she's doing it by talking and not invading my privacy.

"Yes, she is. We're taking things slow and she's not pushing me into anything I don't want to do."

"Good..."

My sister looks down at her dinner while she asks the next question.

"So then the making out you were doing before I came home, that was your idea?"

What? Making out?

"How did..."

I stop mid question so as not to give her confirmation of her question.

"What makes you think we were making out?"

She smiles this little devious smile of hers.

"Oh come on Dawnie... it wasn't that long ago I was young and in love. In fact, the young part still technically applies. But I know what it's like to be caught making out on the living room couch. It's not that hard to figure out."

Oh...

"Uh, well then, uh, yes, it was my idea. I was the one to make the first move and..."

Okay, I'm talking with my big sister about making out with my girlfriend. That's completely creepy.

"You know what, never mind."

"No, what?"

"It's not important."

I try and go back to my dinner but Buffy doesn't let up.

"You can talk to me Dawn. I'm young and hip. Whatever it is, I'm sure I could help."

Maybe it would be good to talk to someone about it.

"Well... I was thinking lately that... we might, you know..."

Buffy stares at me blankly for a minute.

"Oh..."

That's probably the sign that I've gone too far.

"It's weird, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, Dawn... I'm glad that you think you can talk to me about this and I'd like to help in any way I can. Maybe we could just keep most of the details on a need to know basis. What is it that you're worried about exactly?"

"Well..."

This is too uncomfortable a conversation. I'm trying to talk to my own sister about doing things with Faith that she's probably done herself.

"You know what? I think maybe I'll just call Willow and ask her about it. She has a little more experience with this stuff."

"Please Dawn, I know it's weird, but I really would like to try and help somehow. Just try."

All right, take a deep breath and try not to feel so uncomfortable about this.

With my eyes closed, I take a deep breath.

"Well, I'm worried about... pleasing her."

Again my sister gives me a blank look for a while.

"I see."

"I mean... I don't have any, experience with anything like this. I'm not sure whether I can, do, what needs to be done to make her, happy."

Buffy takes a deep breath, waiting a few moments before responding.

"Well... I'm not sure what to tell you exactly. I don't exactly have loads of experience with women. What I can tell you though, is that you should only do what you feel comfortable doing. If you don't want to, don't do it. And don't let Faith talk you into it."

I don't think that's the best way to look at it.

"I don't think Faith is going to make me do anything I don't want to."

"Dawn, sex changes things. And I'm not talking about Faith now. Sex changes the way people think and feel about each other. It happened with me in every relationship I've had. It happened with me, and Willow, and Xander, and it very well might happen to you."

That doesn't sound very helpful.

"I'm not telling you this to scare you. I just want you to be aware of what might happen whenever you decide to do this. Go into this with your eyes open and be sure it's what you want. I love you and I want to make sure you make the right decision for you."

I can't help but smile at her for being so concerned.

"I will. Thank you."

"Of course... anytime..."

We sit in silence together for a while with smiles on our faces.

"And as for making Faith, happy. The best advice I can give you, is to talk things over with her before you decide when and where. Figure out what you're both expecting and then take things from there."

Maybe that's what Faith wants to talk about when she said she wanted to talk things over.

"Well, Faith did want to talk some time soon when she left."

"That's good. You should bring it up and really talk."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

She's right, I have to figure out what we both want before we do anything.

We go back to eating our dinners without talking. For a while, I eat the vegetables and they taste good.

"This is really good Buffy."

"Thanks, I try."

Buffy's gotten a lot better at the whole cooking thing since Sunnydale. She took some cooking classes at the local learning centre and learned how not to burn things. It was a strange experience having her actually being able to make something worth eating. I had to call up Willow and Xander and ask them if the apocalypse was coming. Now she's a regular Martha Stewart in the cooking department, without the evil witchcraft part.

"On a completely freaky, suddenly related topic, I'm going to be going out of town soon."

What? Really?

"Why?"

"Giles is getting a new batch of slayers looking for Watchers. It's your standard drill, he wants me to meet all of them, and give them a little demonstration of what they could be if they apply themselves. I'll only be gone for the weekend, maybe a couple days more."

"Oh... yeah you should do that."

She doesn't say anything for a second but the smile on her face makes me think there's something more.

"I was thinking of asking Faith to come along to help with the demonstration."

Oh she wouldn't...

"Is that so?"

"Mhmm, I don't think I like the idea of my little sister staying home with her girlfriend when I'm away."

"Well, I bet I can get her to stay."

My sister looks at me with a slightly mocking glare.

"I'm sure."

I should really talk to Faith soon.