Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Buffy or Angel apart from a necklace, a handbag, some books and some videos.
Chapter 30
Angel stood silently in the graveyard, staring after Buffy’s retreating figure. He turned his head sharply at a soft scraping noise, making his neck crack painfully. Willow and Xander were glaring at him from their position in the shadows of one of the many mausoleums of the cemetery. Xander looked extremely angry while Willow sent him a look of such disappointment that he felt the shame rise up in him.
He opened his mouth to explain himself, to justify himself to his love’s two closest friends but Willow cut him off. ‘She’s right, you know,’ the redhead said gently. ‘Something like this… you should have told her.’
‘Damn right he should have,’ Xander agreed with a scornful look at Angel. ‘Deadboy’s done it again.’
Angel didn’t bother to fight back. He deserved everything the boy could dish out right now. He only hoped Buffy could somehow forgive him.
‘I do have one question though,’ Willow said thoughtfully. ‘Why was he here?’
‘Who,’ Angel asked. ‘Penn or Spike?’
‘Oh, uh, both actually,’ Willow blinked.
Angel contemplated what she said. Why had either vampire been doing here with Buffy? Why had Penn, especially, been here? Angel’s look alike hadn’t been seen for going on fifty years now so why come out of the woodwork now, just to end up a pile of dust? It didn’t make any sense.
Slayerfest? The thought entered his mind but left just as quickly. Slayerfest was directed at Buffy. Penn was not interested in the Slayer… right? He’d have to ask Spike for more details.
There was also the fact that Penn just simply could have heard on the grapevine that his sire had taken up with a Slayer and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. Whatever the reason, Angel needed to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.
That brought him to Spike. At first glance it had seemed the blonde vampire had been protecting the Slayer but that couldn’t be right, could it? Why would he do such a thing? The vampire had two Slayers under his belt already and had already targeted this Slayer by participating in Slayerfest. Why protect her? Why not just kill her and claim Slayerfest?
Sure, the vampire had entered into the pact with Buffy but why? Angel decided he and his childe needed to have a very long talk. First things first, however, he needed to explain things to an upset Slayer.
Without a spare glance at the two humans, Angel followed after Buffy, not wanting to waste much more time. As he left through the big steel gates of the graveyard, Angel clearly heard Xander say knowingly, ‘She is so gonna turn him into a dust bunny.’
A loud slap brought a brief smile to Angel’s face as he strode towards his beloved.
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Buffy buried her face in her pillow, trying to stem the flow of hot tears. She knew she shouldn’t be making such a big deal out of it but she couldn’t help it. How could they have a relationship when there were still so many things between them?
She turned over and fixed her gaze on the ceiling. Her hands crossed over her stomach and she took a deep breath. Maybe if she calmed down and thought rationally about it, it wouldn’t seem so big.
She scoffed disbelievingly. Even in her upset state she knew she never thought rationally. Angel had kept yet another secret from her and she honestly didn’t know what to do. She felt a slight sense of betrayal but mostly she felt hopeless. Angel knew pretty much everything about her but she knew almost nothing about him.
The vampire had told her all about Angelus but he was two hundred and change years old; they’d only scratched the surface. There was so much more he had to tell her.
She sat up slowly and brushed her hair from her face. Suddenly all anger and sadness left her. Angel HAD only scratched the surface of his life. Surely she couldn’t learn everything about him in the few months that she’d known him. There was time for that, lots of time. No doubt Penn would have come up eventually in conversation. She couldn’t be mad at him for keeping it from her because he obviously had never thought to tell her. How was he to know the vampire would show up here unexpectedly after so long?
Buffy ran a hand tiredly through her hair. A thought occurred to her; how had Angel known to be there? Was he visiting from L.A or had he been called? The night was getting weirder and weirder.
Standing suddenly, she left her room and entered the ensuite bathroom. She turned on the tap at the sink and washed her face with the warm water. It felt soothing against her tear stained skin.
Blotting dry, she lifted her eyes to the mirror above the basin and grimaced at the pale faced that peered back at her. A quick very hot shower would get rid of the puffy eyes. She returned to her room to collect some clothes and froze as she realised Angel was in the room.
The vampire sat on the edge of her bed; head hung low, the picture of misery. He looked up as she walked in. His eyes tore holes in her soul. The amount of pain and regret in them were enough to make her forgive him a thousand times over for any crime he could possibly commit.
He began to stand but she moved quickly and stopped him from rising. She stood in front of him and gazed warmly down at the vampire she loved. He frowned slightly at her actions.
Instead of speaking, Buffy reached out and rested a hand against his face. She stroked the pale skin tenderly. She thought idly of the millions of fight they were sure to have in the future. If she let them all get to her, they were never going to last.
Her hand slipped behind his head and she tugged him forward for a kiss. Her lips caught his and she poured everything that was Buffy into the contact. In the back of her mind, Jenny’s voice rang clear; ‘had you and Angel been together, he would have lost his soul and reverted to the demon he was, the demon that wreaked havoc for over a hundred years. Now, because of the spell I did, his soul and the rest of us, are safe.’
Buffy new that nothing would happen between them this night; too much had happened already and both of them were off balance. It was still nice to know that when the time came, she and Angel had no problems, nothing standing in their way. All thanks to a woman who didn’t even know them, just thought they’d been given a hard lot in life.
She broke the kiss slowly and pulled back to look into his relieved face.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said quietly. He ran a large hand over her hair, seemingly fascinated by it. ‘I know there are a lot of things still between us and there are a lot of things you don’t know but Buffy, I would never keep something like that from you on purpose.’
‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘It’s not that big of a deal,’ she grinned. ‘Doesn’t every body have a psycho doppelganger out there somewhere?’
Angel chucked and tightened his hold on her. ‘I love you,’ he whispered, staring at her intently.
She returned his gaze. She couldn’t remember another time when he’d told her those words. She knew he felt them, just as he knew she felt it too but had they ever voiced it? She didn’t think so. ‘I love you too, more than anything,’ she said breathlessly.
Angel drew her into another kiss. One so soft and tender, she felt born again, revived. She returned the kiss with fervor but pulled back before it could go too far. Her chest heaved as she reigned in her passions. Angel was breathing just as heavily, she noticed with amusement.
‘I have something for you,’ he said after a few moments of silence.
He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small thin box. Placing it into one of her small hands, he waited silently for her to open it. She frowned at it in wonder. She was never given gifts. Her mother had always brought things for her when she’d been alive, after she’d… gone, well, things had been very different.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured as she stared at the box.
Angel laughed softly. ‘You haven’t even opened it yet,’ he pointed out. ‘You don’t even know what’s inside it.’
‘I don’t need to know,’ she countered in a small voice. ‘It’s the act itself.’
Angel’s arms came around her and he hugged her tightly, seemingly knowing what she needed. This simple action, his getting her a gift, meant more than he would ever understand.
Realising she couldn’t stare at it forever, she carefully began to open the box. Inside laid a beautiful antique looking silver cross on a delicate looking chain. The simple gift took her breath away. Her eyes met his and she almost passed out at the intense look in the chocolate depths.
‘Put it on for me?’ she held out the box to him.
He removed the cross from its holding and fastened it around her neck. His thumb brushed along her pulse point as he pulled back. She shivered. ‘Thank you.’
‘Anytime,’ he stood from the bed and extended a hand to her.
She clasped it and he pulled her up. He gazed at her for a moment or two and Buffy realized he seemed to be deciding something. He turned abruptly and walked out her bedroom door, pulling her along behind him.
‘You left your friends behind when you walked off tonight,’ he said as he walked down the hallway.
Buffy gasped. She’d completely forgotten about Willow and Xander. She hoped they’d been okay on their own.
‘They’re fine,’ Angel added as he all but dragged her down the stairs.
He pulled her into the kitchen and made her sit as the counter. He took a seat opposite her and clasped both her hands in his own. The large kitchen seemed filled by his presence and Buffy could see how this had once been his home. It was too big for just her and Giles but for the vampire, it would have been perfect. It had plenty of room and it was easy to block the sunlight so he could have roamed around al day in the huge structure.
‘I know things have been unsettled for a while now,’ Angel began tentatively. ‘I’m sorry for that. It was my intention that you and Giles would settle here, in my home, make it your home even but I can see this is not happening.’
Buffy agreed. ‘This place is too big for the two of us, Angel,’ she squeezed his hands reassuringly. ‘I love the place, it’s so beautiful but it’s just not me.’
‘I know,’ he nodded. ‘That’s why I’m here. I talked to a lady I know in the real-estate office in town and she informed me of a house that would be perfect for you.’
Buffy sat in stunned silence. ‘Angel you can’t… I mean-’
Angel shushed her. ‘I want you to be comfortable here in Sunnydale. Giles told me how you felt about this place and I knew I had to do something about it. Start packing your things because as of Saturday night, you will be living at 1630 Revello drive,’ he announced.
Buffy’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times. She was a t a loss for words. Why did he keep doing these things for her? Why was he so intent on helping her, on making things easier on her? No one had cared for her like this for a long time and she loved it.
Glossing over the residence issue, Buffy decided they needed to have a serious talk before anything else happened.
‘Angel, we need to talk,’ she started but stopped as his eyes clouded over.
His hands pulled back from her and fell into his lap. She watched him, puzzled. It hit her like lightening. What did all guys think when they heard “we need to talk?”
‘Oh, Angel, no. I just meant we need to talk,’ she said, not clearing it up any. ‘A lot of things have happened while you’ve been away and I think you really need to be brought up to speed.’
Angel seemed to sit a little straighter in his seat. ‘Tell me,’ he said simply.
She did. She told him everything. Everything about Oz and his interest in Willow, the visit from Jenny Calendar, Spike, everything. She did, however, omit one detail. The Watcher diaries. Angel knew she and Willow had read them, but she saw no reason for Angel to know why the two of them had taken them.
‘So I would have…’ Angel was staring at the counter top in confusion.
‘If we’d made love that night, Angel, you’d have turned back into not-so-nice-Angelus.
The vampire sank his head into his hands. ‘And now…’
‘She fixed things. I don’t even know why. She did say she thought it was unfair,’ Buffy mulled the conversation over in her head again. ‘Plus I think it was a stick it to her uncle thing. She seemed pissed at him. Whatever.’
‘So we can?’
‘Any time we want,’ Buffy confirmed with a nod of her head.
‘Good.’
Sorry for not updating yet again. I found myslef lacking in inspiration once i got home from my holiday. I've decided to get more into Angel and Buffy and Buffy's past before we move on.
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