Memories Recalled: Part 10
by Jessi
Buffy and Daniel reluctantly but quickly broke the kiss and scooted to their original places. Buffy blushed deep scarlet and Daniel found interest in his shoes, again. Xander had a wide, annoying grin plastered on his face and Willow was biting her lip with a slight smile.

"Oh-kay, who wants to explain that little display. Buffy, what if Cora finds out? You can bet she'll be starting a revolution."

"No she won't, because she's gone," Daniel spoke up, hiding his face with his hand.

"Was I talking to you? Oh, wait…rich guy, we're on his grounds…I'm sorry. Please don't send the dogs out, I take it back Mr. Cooper, really!"

"No need to get formal with me Cordelia, I worked with you for nearly a year, I'm used to you," he laughed behind his shield.

"Huh?" Buffy was just as puzzled with the comment as Mrs. Harris. Daniel lowered his hand and she saw the deepened look of her old boyfriend's eyes. *Did it…could it have…* "How do you know my name? You don't even know who we are, except for Buffy! With whom, might I add, you were getting pretty hot and heavy with. Thank God there's a party going on still, or your ass would have been kicked across the border!"

"Cordelia, shut up," Buffy watched the man she couldn't identify as a fellow parent and the would-be husband of her best friend, or a former lover who had had his memory wiped away on the night his mortality had been restored.

"Well, okay, but either he's screwing with our minds as much as you're screwing with his, or…"

"Dead Boy's back?"

"Dead Boy's back."

"Damn straight," Angel smiled at Buffy. Buffy matched it and squealed, throwing her arms around him.

"You're a loophole magnet, aren't you Angel?" Oz rubbed his goatee and wrapped his arm around his befuddled wife. Angel nodded, his mouth rejoined with Buffy's.

"Did I miss something else in that book? Because I have it back at home in my private collection, and…"

'You missed something, yeah Willow," Angel spoke against Buffy's lips. "At the bottom of the page, that scrawled Latin mess Giles probably spilled tea on." He held the kiss for another few beats. "I translated it out just randomly…What I got was 'first embrace bestowed upon by ancient love where after humanity should be granted, thy life story be placed within thy walls of white mist nothing'. Made no sense, so," he paused to kiss Buffy again, "I didn't think I'd mention it. Now I know what it meant." He broke the kiss off finally and smiled again.

"I don't know whether to kill you Angel, or kiss you until the sun comes up," Buffy giggled like a schoolgirl.

"I choose the latter, thank you." They leaned in for another when something hard clunked Angel right in the head. "Ow, what the-!"

The three children laughed as they ran around down the stone path from the house. Sage and Summer were teasing Tia by having stolen her satin shoes, and throwing them around above her. That's what had hit Angel.

"Sorry Daddy," Summer called sheepishly, stepping to the side to avoid her sister's lunge.

"Give it back!"

"Gotta reach Tia," Sage went for a long pass and caught the other shoe before it slammed into the back of Cordelia's head.

"I'm warning you Sage Summers!"

"I'm scared," he hopped up onto the bench between his parents and held the slipper above Tia's head. She glared anger only a seven year old knew and lunged for his feet. Both children went down hard on the other side and Buffy and Angel reached in to stop them. Sage still clutched the shoe and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Sage!" Buffy scolded, pulling the shoe away from him. Tia wrestled to get away from her father, thrashing and scratching with her nails.

"Tia, stop!" Angel told her. She calmed down slightly, still glaring at the teasing boy. He took the other shoe from Buffy and slipped them, the one that had smacked him and the other, both over her feet. Tia calmed right down and pecked Angel on the cheek then hopped down and sauntered to her identical sister. She huffed in Summer's face and walked back. Xander raised an eyebrow at her snooty attitude and turned to Angel, who shrugged. Sage slid out of his mother's lap, took a long glance at the ex-vampire, and along with Summer, followed the girl. They heard a loud shriek and the wood gate to the pool deck swing shut, Tia yelling that they were going to die. The adults laughed and Buffy and Angel stood up from the bench. It had definitely been a long night.

"So, this is it?" Xander heaved a sigh. "You guys kiss, Daniel Cooper turns back into Dead Boy, we all get drunk and you two end up wandering off leaving us with Sage? Hey, what's going to happen to the girls? Where is Cora?"

"She left a note," Angel stated as they began a slow walk to his estate. "She said she was going on a trip and told me to watch the girls for as long as it took for her to regain her sanity. She took…what happened at the wedding hard. I just hope she's not so blinded as to…end the pain."

"She probably isn't that weak Angel," Buffy rested her head against his left shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her like Oz. "We've known each other since sophomore in college, Cora's a strong woman. She just needs time."

"Which we have plenty of?"

"Plenty. All the time in the world, even."

As they entered the house and the wild party Lance had made it out to be, Angel was reminded of one particular Xanderism he'd heard muttered by the slayerette once upon his return to Sunnydale after his trip to LA. That life wasn't complicated. And that was true. Life was not complicated, even for a complicated individual like himself. Not at all.

The End

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