Title: The Best Revenge Author: The Insomnitic E-mail: Insomnitic@aol.com Rating: NC-17 Summary: After the events of This Year's Girl, Faith pays Riley a visit to exact payback on Buffy, but ends up getting more than she bargained for. Faith/Riley, Faith/Buffy, Buffy/Riley. Spoiler: This Year's Girl (plus some general 4th season) Archiving: UCSL, all others please ask. Feedback: C'mon, does anyone *not* want feedback? :-) Disclaimer: Buffy, Faith and Riley are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I just need to borrow them for a wee bit. . . My life has been all about corners. I've been sent to some, turned others, and even found myself backed up into a few. You know what your life's been? One long stroll down an endless fucking Easy Street. No fun, no alleys to hide in, no choices to make. No way not to look back. Just a straight line to walk and everything stretch out in front of you, plain to see. Until now, of course. I'm telling you this so you understand that right now, standing in this doorway, smiling coyly as he invites me in, it doesn't feel like a corner. I don't have to work for it, don't have to debate it. You think you can threaten me about payback? You don't know payback. You live a life without consequences. And the one guy, the only guy in the world who could teach you consequence -- you drop him like a hot poker you never meant to pick up in the first place. Abracadabra, Buffy, the door just opens. Riley. You can thank your blabbermouth little friend for giving me that and all the other information I needed to pull this off. Don't know how you room with her, but she sure was helpful. Were you with Riley? How's Riley? What did Riley say? What did you say to Riley? If I were you, I might keep an eye on her. But, then again, I guess you don't think you have much to worry about. You get guys damned and impaled (haven't figured out how that happened yet) and they keep coming back like addicts. So this is Riley, up close, in the flesh. In a T-shirt and boxers, no less. Not bad. Not Angel, but not bad. You see, Riley's the kind of guy that I wouldn't normally even notice. You know I don't go for bashful. But, then again, I don't think he's gonna be bashful when I'm done with him. "You're back." Now I see what it is. The voice. I bet you dig it. You're back, and he's -- what? Oh so happy, but (and this is the part that kills me) concerned too. I bet it makes you think he has layers. "Yeah." See, two can play this game. Your voice is so great, B. So enticing, always like you're just a little breathless. Never mind that it's an act. Takes a lot to really make you breathless. I remember. His arm is around me and we shut the door and sit on his bed. "Did you find Faith?" He says it like you left to look for a runaway puppy. Is that how you explained it to him? Did you tell him I was a bad, bad girl, not at all like you? Did you lie to him, like you lied to everyone else about us? Eight months and you fooled yourself into believing I'm like a mosquito, something pesky and inconsequential that can be swatted away. I'm not your opposite, Buffy. I'm your shadow, something that's part of you. Something that never goes away. You forgot what it was like, forgot the feel of moving together, being so close that it felt like skin was an obstacle, pressing your lips to mine, breathing each other. You put it out of your mind. If you hadn't, you would have waited for me. It takes me a second to answer him. A second of confusion, of remembering, but then I'm in you again, and I feel it. It's this body. I give in to it, and smile pretty. "Found and dealt. We called in the short, badge-carrying arm of the law. I'm, uh, sorry it's so late." Riley smiles wider. "No problem. That's good. About Faith, I mean." He looks like a grinning idiot. Suddenly, if only not to see his face, I lean in and kiss him. And he kisses back, very, very gently. It's annoying. It's a change of plans. How easy it would be, to just push him down and fuck him senseless. That's what you think I'll do, that's what you feared. It's what I planned. But I'm full of surprises. The mayor, in the end, left me. Same old, right? Your days are just plain numbered without me. That's what he said, and it pissed me off. But he's right. Thing is, now all bets are off. So I'm not going to fuck your little plaything. I'm not even going to kill him. It's all too easy. I'm going to let him make love to me. The thought makes me gag, but it's the best revenge. First time for everything, right? And I could never pull it off in my body. I could have taken Riley, but it wouldn't be the same as being able to tell you that he never suspected it wasn't you. No one has ever kissed me like this. Even you came to me hungry, angry, aching for it. People see me, they pounce. But he's so hesitant and careful. So slow. He runs a finger over my collarbone, holds my chin lightly, touches me like I'm glass. And it's because he thinks I'm you, thinks you're something precious. Why shouldn't he? I thought so once. His hands are at my back now, edging just under my shirt. I help him pull it off, then his. He winces slightly from pain when he raises his arms and it makes me want to laugh. He runs his hands over my breasts, my stomach, your stomach, this body that I know so well, like it was my own. You have a draw full of simple white bras, and I wonder if your tastes have changed for him. It seems so . . . utilitarian -- not at all what you wore when you were with me. But he raises no objections, stroking through the fabric. My nipples harden, and I remember this, how quick your body reacts, even for a slayer, only now it's different. Now I'm feeling it from the inside out. I can feel the heat between my thighs, the dim throb in my stomach. I catch his lower lip between my teeth, resisting the urge to bite down. I arch into his palms, which must be too much, because he pulls away. "You're sure?" he asks. "You don't need to talk about tonight or anything?" Right then, I almost blow the whole thing. He wants to talk. He wants to know if I'm sure, like he was made out of sugar. "I told you," I whisper into his ear, "found and dealt." Riley must be just a tad wound-up keeping the perfect gentleman stuff up around you, because my breath on his ear seems to set something off. He wraps a leg over me and eases us down onto the mattress. He reaches under me, unhooking the bra and sliding it off. I can't help but smile, knowing what you look like, blood rushing, so ready and beautiful. And he smiles back, before leaning over to lave his tongue across my left nipple. I weave my hands through his hair. He has potential, at least, a talented mouth, but that's hardly surprising. Why would you bother with anything less? Still, I would be bored, if it weren't for this body. A hand slides under the waistband of my jeans, and it makes me wish he'd leave my breasts alone, makes me lift my hips, makes me almost say your name, because you're the one making me feel this, the one fueling the lava beneath my skin. His erection is against my stomach and I reach down to fumble with the fly of my jeans, making sure he feels the movement. He jerks involuntarily, and I know I've gotten his attention. I kick off the slides I'm wearing and he peels off the pants and the sheer panties. He stops for a moment, admiring, and I see myself in him. I did the same thing. This is what I came here for. It's you and me all over again, but now I see myself clearly, see you clearly. I never had it out for Riley, though it made my blood boil when I saw you all cozy, arm wrapped possessively around him. Riley, Angel, and me, we're all moths drawn to the same damn flame. We like the burn. Now I'm the one who's been set off, tensing and reaching for him, desperate for the feel of something between my legs. His hand travels down my stomach and it makes that little flutter, that tiny spasm that I used to watch for, that told me you were ready. Maybe he reads the same signal, because he doesn't fool around, circling my clit with his thumb and then entering me with one finger. Long, long fingers. He's got the most intense look and I know the only time I ever took sex that seriously was with you, and I'm clenching around him, around his fingers moving in and out, flexing to hit just the right spot, and I'm thinking I had the right idea in doing this, I'm running my fingers around his bandage and thinking of wounds, I'm rubbing against his calves with my feet and when I come . . . it's his name I'm calling out, no hesitation. He's planting kisses down my stomach, wet warm mouth, and I know where he's headed and this time I laugh aloud, not at him but at myself. At myself for thinking that what we had was special, for thinking that I was the only one who knew how to please you and went to such lengths. And he looks up, and he's surprised but he's smiling. I take his face in my hands. "Riley. . ." I pause for a long time. It's what you would say, not what I would say, something I've never said, not ever. "I - I need you." And it's all an act, right? Guess you'll never really know. I'm straining, wrapped around him, using hands and feet to push down his boxers and I no longer care if he knows this isn't you, or if he thinks it is you, because he deserves to think you'd respond to him like this, that you'd let it all go, he deserves to think, just once, he drove you really wild. He's inside me and I'm in you and he's just like me and it's a slow burn, steady, needy, and I never need. I just want. I let him stay on top, let him be over me and over you. Another first, and it's gonna drive you nuts, I know. It was always a power play with us, a fight you always lost in the end, a fight you're losing now. I respond like you did, letting my moans pour out like a mantra, meeting each thrust. I lock my legs around his back and he's in deep, so deep, and it's not what I expected but it's right, it's building. He's moving faster, looking into my eyes, your eyes, and I hope he sees right through me. He's holding off and I want to tell him to just go with it, but instead, I think of you and I feel it all and I bet you do too, wherever you are, and I'm tensing around him and it's your body, it's so tight and alive, and we come together, like a gunshot, like jumping off a cliff, like a candle being blown out. Payback. He's shaking slightly as my muscles keep spasming from aftershocks. Deep breaths, both of us, in synch. Do you remember breathing each other? Do you remember collapsing next to each other, sticking to each other from sweat? I reach up to turn off the light beside his bed, and we both pull up the blanket. And I'm smiling in the dark when Riley falls asleep. The best revenge, it wasn't that Riley enjoyed it. It was that I did. I'm on Easy Street now, Buffy, and you're nowhere in sight.