Once again Buffy woke up alone in her bed. It was one of the things she could never get used to. It had become second nature to wake up cuddled in next to Riley and even though it was a good few many years ago, she never lost the feeling that there should be someone beside you when you wake up. It was especially hard to wake up alone after a night of nightmares.
"I wish I was cookie already," she grumbled to herself as she pushed back the covers and clambered out of her bed. She gave herself a shake, "No time to feel sorry for yourself, Buffy. You have work to get to! … why am I talking to myself?" She shrugged and crossed the hallway to the bathroom. Not having to wait for the bathroom was about the only good thing of not having Dawn around anymore. Buffy had kept good on the promise she had made to herself years before to show Dawn the beauty of the world. The unfortunate downside to that was that Dawn had loved the world so much, she wasn't content to stay in one place anymore. Whenever Buffy had settled in England, Dawn had stayed with her just long enough to finish her schooling before leaving to work her way around the world, complete with a small entourage of volunteer slayers.
Buffy had discovered that although Dawn no longer lived with her, she still depended on her for food, clothing, a place to stay (Dawn hadn't quite grasped the work part of work). Buffy had expected it but it did mean she had to turn up to work. Every day. It got to be boring after a while. At least she had a decent boss.
Xander had had the marvelous idea of starting his own construction company. The joke from years before about opening Slayer Housekeeping had played on his mind enough that eventually it felt like a good idea to open Slayer Constructions. It was a brilliant idea (and yes everyone was scared that Xander came up with a brilliant idea) and it was an instant success for slayers who still had to earn a living even though they were often called away for active slayer duties. This way they didn't need to keep track of how many relatives they had killed off for excuses.
Buffy clambered out of the shower and shuffled across to her room feeling lousy as she always did after thinking of Dawn. Her little sister occasionally phoned home but since she had had her phone stolen as they toured Brazil they hadn't had much contact at all. A postcard had arrived three days ago and a pay phone call a few days before that. Truthfully she was happy that Dawn was getting a chance to do the things she couldn't but she missed having someone around.
Willow had moved to Paris after she had said good bye to Tara again. The heart had just seemed to go out of the little witch. To lose your lover once was bad enough but twice was a killer. 'We both know far too much about that,' she thought to herself. Willow had had to say goodbye to both Oz and Tara twice and I've had to kill both Spike and Angel and deal with both of them coming back and not staying with me.
"We have to have the worst luck with partners, I mean how did Xander get to be the best at relationships?" She laughed to herself and then sighed. "I really wish I was a cookie… I really have to stop talking to myself."
Thinking about Angel, Spike, Dawn and Willow all in one morning had left her feeling … like she needed to go back to bed and wake up and have it be tomorrow already. "If this is how the morning's started the rest of the day can only get worse … I really really have to stop doing that." She slammed the door on the way out.
"Well that went about as well as I had expected," realizing she was still speaking out loud she added, "DAMMIT!"
"That bad, huh?" Buffy jumped before realizing she recognized the voice coming from her bedroom.
"Will!" Willow appeared in the doorway, grinning.
"So what happened today that was so bad?" she asked. Willow was looking better than she had in a long while. Her eyes were still quite shadowed and she was a little thinner than usual but she had a gleam in her eyes that had been missing for a long time.
"Well if you really want to know," she looked round at her friend who had dropped into the sofa, " you do really want to know don't you?" Willow nodded happily, patting the seat beside her. Buffy collapsed happily into the seat and started," Well, I was late for work this morning because I slept in and then when I did arrive at the site it started to rain. By the time we got the shelter up over the roof it stopped raining which was mean. Then Kirsty fell through a broken tile which led to her and Rebecca, the slayer who had tiled it badly, getting into a huge fight and by the time I got over there to break it up Rebecca had shoved Kirsty through a wall for insulting her tiling. It wasn't fun, Xander was mad and I spent the entire day trying to rebuild the wall because Rebecca was made to take Kirsty to the hospital and Xander was called away to another site." She shut her mouth for two seconds. "And I can't stop talking to myself." she shut up for another few seconds. "And I want to be a cookie … now please. … can I have a hug?" Willow reached over and hugged her. "I really missed you Will,"
"I missed you two. I mean who else am I going to share my nursing home with?" Willow replied, making both of them smile. "Oh-oh-oh. I almost forgot. I got you something!"
"Oooh. Presents!" Buffy lunged forward but was stopped by a knocking at the door. "Is this present at the door?"
"Nope, I'm pretty sure that's Xander."
"Xander's my present?" said Buffy looking confused.
"Just open the door Buffy." Buffy sighed and tugged the door open. Xander walked past her looking … well grumpy as hell would be an understatement. The reason for the grumpiness was evident as he left standing at the door behind him … "Angel," Buffy breathed. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard someone was finally a warm, gooey … cookie. Y'know I still don't see why I have to use the metaphor," Willow glared, "Ok, sorry." He looked back at Buffy, "Can we not have this discussion in the hallway?"
Buffy blinked. "I'm sorry, were you speaking? I forgot to listen."
"Can I come in?"
"Huh? Oh yeah? Sorry. Come in." he walked past her and she shut the door behind him. She turned back to her friends. "Explanation?"
"I always said whenever you were … cooked …. I'm come back for you."
"Yeah, I knew that but are you forgetting the reason we don't do this. Killing you again is not high on my list of things to do before I'm thirty." said Buffy beginning to look pissed not that the libido attack was … maybe not over but receding.
"That's where my present comes in. Xander and I thought it up a while ago." said Willow.
"I call it the morning after spell," Xander added.
"I don't," said Willow. "Do you know the way I made Xander the spell sphere for his trip into the desert? I made something similar for you two. You just activate it after … you know and everything's soul filled!"
"Hence the name," put in Xander.
"That is not the name," insisted Willow.
"Oh .. Oh!" the possibilities seemed to be dawning on Buffy, either that or the burning heat of Angel's eyes had finally short circuited her brain. "This definitely ranks high on the best present ever list." she said looking up at Angel.
"What else is on that list?"
"With you this close to me I can't think straight." she took a step closer to him. "I forgot how that felt."
"Me to." he said, heat making his eyes burn like a flame.
"Ok," said Xander, clearly becoming uncomfortable. "Well we're going to go now."
"I've left the spell sphere's pretty much everywhere around your flat, I have the rest at Xander's but we can discuss that when you're more … I mean less … later."
"How do I make it work?" said Buffy, somehow drawing part of her mind away from Angel.
"Just touch it and say "Heart to heart, soul to soul". That will start the spell." Buffy grabbed Angel and pulled him down to meet her kiss. "And we're going to go." she grabbed Xander's arm. "Bye!" She turned to open the door.
"Thanks. I love you guys. You can always make me feel better." Xander and Willow chanced a look back and found Buffy standing in Angel's arms looking much happier than she had in a long time.
"That's cuz we love you Buff," said Xander. He looked from Buffy to Angel. "Hurt her and you will have to face a long and painful death."
"I would kill myself before I'd see her hurt,"
"Well at least we're agreed then. Have fun kiddies!"
Willow and Xander walked out and closed the door gently behind them. They walked in silence down the hallway and out of Buffy's building, and were halfway done the road before one of them spoke.
"We did the right thing, right? I mean you don't think it'll all go ker plooey do you?"
"It would be wrong to keep them apart. I mean did you see them without each other? You remember Parker right?" asked Xander in disbelief.
"I suppose," grumbled Willow. "But this means Buffy's going to leave doesn't it. She's going to go where ever Angel goes now."
"I suppose, but she hasn't really been here in a long time. And she definitely hasn't been happy."
"Does giving someone their heart's desire really make them happy?" asked Willow.
Xander just looked at her out of his one remaining eye.
"I know I'd do anything to get Anya back and I know it would make me happy. I can only hope the same thing of them."
Willow nodded her agreement, then added "And failing the happiness thing, they can always just have a chuckle at the name, the morning after spell, that just cracks me up."
-t-h-e- -e-n-d-
Hey everyone take it easy this ois my first buffy story and prob isn't htat good but the idea arrived in my head and i couldn't get rid of it till i wrote this. anyway i haven't watched angel in like forever so this doesn't actually follow any of its story line it does however count in "Queen of the Slayers" and "Dark enclave" so apologies buy any confusion there.
anyways thanks for reading
hope u enjoyed it
coletterby xx