the day after // an excerpt from ‘oh the bliss’ which… may just be split up into things like this

takes place directly after “another year”

for backstory: alice and faith have an established something, but they haven’t defined anything yet, and are kinda just meeting up and talking a lot

the day after she comes home from jacob, faith comes to visit alice.

---

“How many rules are you breaking by being here?” Alice stared at the ghostly figure standing at the end of her bed. “Like, won’t John…”

“John doesn’t have to know.” Faith smiled, and Alice raised her eyebrow. “He doesn’t understand how I use the Bliss. As long as nobody tells him…” Yep, she got that. The threat was just barely hidden beneath Faith’s smile, barely noticeable with how tired she still was.

This was so weird. Her cats had only given Faith sleepy glances before going back to sleep – the useless things, she really needed to get Boomer back from Grace, not that he ever noticed Faith either…

Alice never thought that Faith would be in the Holland Valley after the Reaping began, let alone standing in her bedroom. She was suddenly aware of how much (or how little) she was wearing: Jess had managed to help her slip into a thin camisole and a clean pair of sorts, but that was it.

She didn’t know why it mattered – she wore this much around Mary May, and Grace, and fuck, even one time around Staci (he had been noticeably flustered, but it didn’t bother her), but it just felt so strange around Faith. Pulling her blanket up to her chin, she squinted her eyes at Faith. “…Why are you here?”

“I was worried.” Faith sounded so matter-of-fact, like it was natural for her to be worried about the de-facto leader of the resistance. “Jacob has a tendency to be a little… Rough.”

“I think you’re under-exaggerating that.”

“And I’d like to think we were friends.” Faith walked closer, along the side of her bed. “May I?”

Alice nodded. Maybe more, a voice in her head whispered. Maybe more.

“How are you?” Faith sat next to Alice, tucking her legs under her. “I.. I can get you food or something to drink -”

“Faith.” She gave the other woman a small, sad smile. “I feel like shit. But Jess – fuck, she fawned over me as much as she could. Uh,” A deep breath. “Do… you wanna watch a movie? Or something? My dvd player, I think it’s hooked up.”

Slowly, Faith stood up, smiling. “You don’t want me to leave?”

She paused. Yeah, Alice was tired of the constant attention – she hadn’t been alone while she was awake since she had gotten home (since she had woken up at the Wolf’s Den?), and she suspected Jess hadn’t been gone long before Faith woke her up. But… Faith was different.

She didn’t know why.

“No. Stay.” She could almost see the tension in Faith’s body release as she picked a movie off the shelf – Volcano, not one that she would have expected from her – and started the movie. She looked over at her bed, then up at Faith. “Do you wanna… sit? Or something? I mean, there’s, uh, plenty of room and, uh, my blankets –”

“We’re supposed to be enemies, you know.”

Alice sighed. “Not now. Are you going to sit?”

Faith nodded, nervously, curling up next to Alice. As the opening credits rolled, Alice slowly (painfully) tried to cover Faith with the blanket, smiling at her when the other woman scooted closer to her, and then she realised –

She was actually here. Faith – she wasn’t an apparition.

Oh.

That meant a lot, a lot more than Alice expected it to – they’d been meeting up whenever she was in the Henbane since that first time, by the Convent – but Faith had always been a bliss apparition. She’d never physically been there. Not even when Alice was hunting by Faith’s bunker, uneasily eyeing the clouds of bliss streaming out of the doors, not when she had fallen, and Faith stayed by her side till someone could help her up (and give her a lecture for tripping), not when she was just there, silently accompanying her wherever she was in the region.

But she was worried enough to break John’s – no, the Father’s rule – and physically come to see her in the heart of the Holland Valley.

Quietly, she rested her head on Faith’s shoulder. She could feel her flinch, then slowly, slowly, relax, putting her arm around Alice.

They sat like that for a while, Faith being careful not to touch any of Alice’s bruises or bandages, Alice soaking in Faith’s touch, before Alice broke the silence.

“I love you.”

Faith looked as startled as she did. That – she didn’t mean to say that out loud. She knew it was true, but – she shouldn’t. This shouldn’t be happening. Alice was too tired to care, though, too tired, too in pain…

“I – I mean it.”

Faith smiled – a tinge of fear flashing in her eyes, a look that Alice missed – and gently kissed the top of Alice’s head. “I love you too.”

Silence, again, until the titular volcano exploded from the tar pits.

“Why do you even like this?”

“Faith!” Alice gasped in faux-shock. “This is a cinematic masterpiece! It’s the pinnacle of shitty volcano movies!” Faith gave her an exasperated look, and she smiled up at her. “It’s fun. So, so, impossible, but so fun.”

“This is…”

“Horrible?”

Faith snorted. “You took the words out of my mouth.”

“I mean, it’s a disaster movie. It’s not… yeah.” She shrugged. “God, like – the doorway thing? Nope. That’s… Yeah. Don’t. If you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t.”

Alice smiled, snuggling closer. “Who knows, you might need to, if we go visit my uncle – I’m not saying there’s going to be one, but –”

Faith looked startled.

…What did she – oh.

Oh.

“You… Want me to meet your family?”

“Uh.” She needed to sleep. She really did. “If… You wanted? I mean, I can promise there’s not going to be a volcano.”

Faith smiled at Alice, pulling the deputy closer to her.

///

The bed was empty when Alice woke up. She didn’t remember falling asleep – the movie had been playing, she knew that – but between the medicine she had been giving, her general exhaustion, and how warm Faith was… No idea.

It felt strange – waking up alone.

She didn’t like it.