Cordelia knocked on Wesley's door. She hadn't been to his new apartment before, but she knew the address. Of course, she didn't picture herself coming over with a giant black eye, and she didn't see herself checking on him to make sure that he hadn't figured out a way to push Faith in front of a bus, but here she was, doing it, just the same. How weird.
If she listened, she could hear him get up and slowly lumber his way toward the door. She knew that, even with her face still feeling like a truck had hit it, she had gotten off light in the Faith attack. "Who is it?" she heard him call out from the other side.
None of them ever just opened the door for anyone. Only an idiot would do a thing like that, especially in there line of work. "It's Cordelia, Wes." She listened as he removed and undid what sounded like three different locks. The door opened and there stood Wes, still looking like all out hell. Of course, what did she expect after only two days? Her own face was still covered with a giant, fat, ugly bruise.
Once he looked her over to his own benefit, he stepped aside, letting her in. None of them ever verbally invited someone in, either, even if they had known them their entire life, or even longer, in Angel's case. She walked inside, bag slung over her shoulder. She had planned on leaving town immediately after she had Angel sign those checks, but something kept holding her back. Now, a day later, she was packed up and ready to go, but she needed to do one more thing before she left.
She moved out of the way so that he could shut the door behind her, watching as he redid all of the locks. She could tell that the top one, a dead bolt (and oh boy she realized the irony of that name) looked like it had been installed recently. Maybe even after he got home from Faith's personal torture chamber? "So…we're going on vacation. Now go pack your bags." No way in hell was she going off without taking the guy that was quickly becoming her closest friend that didn't drink a cup of blood along with his coffee every morning.
Wesley blinked at her. "I'm sorry, but what?"
"I got Angel to sign me some checks for vacation pay yesterday. Didn't want to be in town with a crazy Slayer hanging around," Cordelia told him.
"Faith turned herself in to the authorities last night," Wesley told her.
"Okay, so we don't have the immediate threat of someone trying to kill us," Cordelia said. "However, we should get out of here for a little while before the next ugly thing rears its head to try and bite our faces off. Don't you think?" All that she really wanted was for him to come with her so that she would have someone to enjoy her vacation with, and she was really only friends with one guy who wouldn't explode into flames while getting a tan.
Wes looked like he could use a vacation as well. On top of the whole 'tortured' look, he looked haggard. Cordelia didn't look so great herself, lately. If she looked closely in the mirror, and she always did, she could see lines starting to gather around her eyes. If she let herself really go, she could age like her mom did in those last few months in Sunnydale. Well, before her and her dad went to jail.
"Come on, Wes. I want you to come with me," Cordelia told him. She could easily read his face, and she could see that he was starting to cave. "Please?" She looked up at him with her wide brown eyes. No man could ever say no to her when she gave him a pleading look.
"How do we let Angel know?" Wesley asked, smiling at her a little. She could tell that he wouldn't mind getting away from here for a little while, either.
"We'll call him when we get there," she said, beaming a smile back at him. "Now go pack." As he turned away, she added, "Oh, and pack a swimsuit. We're going to the beach."
She saw him pause in his bedroom doorway. "I don't own a swimsuit," he said, turning back to face her.
"How can you not own a swimsuit and live in California? Is that a British thing?" Cordelia asked, looking confused. Well, it would explain his lack of tan, but that was still utterly bizarre. "Don't worry, we'll just buy you one."
"I don't know how to swim," he admitted to her, looking down at his feet. "It's not exactly a British 'thing', but I never really had the opportunity to learn."
Cordelia arched an eyebrow at him. "Really?" That was…well, not really unexpected. He did come from a completely gloomy country. It rained their all the time, so it wasn't as if he had the opportunity to swim a lot. "Well, we'll stay in the shallow parts of the beach. Now, go pack." She reached over and pushed him back into his bedroom. "I'm ready to go and sit out in the sun for once. You could use some sun, too."
With a roll of his eyes, Wes went back into the bedroom and, soon enough, he was packed. Of course, another nice thing about riding with Wes was that he had a mode of transportation. It was a motorcycle, but even that was better than taking the bus, which was how she had gotten to Los Angeles from Sunnydale in the first place. Cordelia was glad that she had only packed her beach clothes, for the most part. She figured that, if something else came up, she could always buy something to wear, since she made sure that Angel signed her over a large amount of money.
Twenty minutes later, she was practically dragging Wes out of the apartment with his little bag. He handed her the pink helmet that she had picked out once and, after making a small complaint of having helmet hair, she slipped it on and, soon enough, they were driving away from LA for a weeklong vacation.
She told him where they were going, a little beach town a little ways away from LA that, as far as she knew, had nothing supernatural about it. It wasn't really a tourist town, due to having LA so close, and no Hellmouth to speak of. Cordelia had researched it until she could barely keep her eyes open last night, making sure that it didn't have a high death rate or any other tell tale signs of supernatural activity. Cordelia wanted a real vacation, even if she had to come back. Hopefully, the Powers that Annoy would stay out of her head long enough for both her and Wes to enjoy a little peace.
When they hit the town, she registered them at the only hotel in town. Of course, they would only have one room left for the next week. The rest were randomly booked up, so she and Wes would be bunking together.
"We don't have to share a room, Cordelia," Wes protested. "I'm sure that there is something that we can do."
"What, you don't want to share a room with me?" Cordelia asked. "I'm totally a clean person. We're sharing a room, and you're going to like it, buster." Of course, now she was a clean person after the old apartment that she had. She wanted to make sure that bugs had no reason to hang around her place. "Am I that horrible of a person that you don't want to split a living space with me for a week, even though I am footing the bill for this vacation?"
"Technically, I believe Angel is footing the bill," Wes corrected. She glared at him as he continued. "And that's not it at all. Don't you think that other people will think that we're…together?"
"Duh! Of course we're together…oh." She hadn't realized what he meant at first. "Well, who cares? Like we'll ever see them again. Why, don't you want people to think that you're with a hottie like me?" Besides, it wasn't as if she'd ever get a date ever again, anyway, especially not with her luck with dates, which either abandon her to possible death or impregnate her with demon spawn. Cordelia had pretty much resigned herself to the dateless life.
She watched Wes blush a little and stutter something before heading to the room. He had kind of a weird look on his face. It was like the look that he used to get back when they were both flirting all the time in Sunnydale. Did he still feel that way about her? Even after that disastrous first kiss?
Of course, the second one in Angel's apartment when she was trying to get rid of the visions wasn't anything like the first one. She remembered actually moaning just a little during it. She could say that it was definitely the best one of that day, by a long shot.
He probably didn't still feel that way, though. Even if he did, it wasn't as if they could date or anything. Office romances never worked out. She didn't want to mess up the friendship that was growing between them. She had so few friends to choose from that she didn't want to lose one. (And the day that Cordelia Chase said that was a sad day indeed.)
But it would be really nice to have someone take her out occasionally! She really could do so much worse than Wes, too. Out of the two guys that she was closest to, he had a pulse, and she so wasn't into that dead thing that Buffy seemed to have, as nice as Angel could be. Also, he probably wouldn't cheat on her with his best friend who had been in love with him forever and probably did witchcraft to get him, mostly because she was pretty sure she was his best friend.
She shook the thoughts out of her head for now. She could be thinking over a look that probably meant nothing. Wes definitely didn't think of her like that, at least not anymore. He couldn't. When they got to the room, she tossed her little bag on the bed, opening it up so that she could put her clothes away. She didn't really pack much, mostly just beach wear. It wasn't like she had someone to take her out or anything, although maybe…
"So, want to head down to the beach, or grab something to eat first?" Cordelia asked Wes, who had sat down on the bed beside her bag, having placed his own bag on the bed as well, possibly to be unpacked later.
"Maybe we should get something to eat first?" he offered. He probably wasn't looking forward to the beach, although now, with all these bad thoughts swirling in her head, Cordelia was now very curious as to what he looked like in a swim suit. Which reminded her of something.
"We need to get you a swim suit, don't we?" That was always a good ogling excuse.
"Um…yes, I don't have one, if that's what you mean," he said, looking away for a moment.
"We'll stop by a shop and get you something to wear on the beach and then we'll eat. Suits are not exactly beach material," Cordelia said, picking up a swim suit and a sundress to go over it. Maybe by the time they picked one out for him, they could go swimming. She wanted to be prepared. "Sand is terrible on nice clothing."
After she changed clothes, she grabbed Wes and pulled him out of the room. After asking the desk clerk where they can get a non-ugly swimsuit for him, they hopped on the motorcycle and rode to a little store that dealt in men's and women's swimsuits. With her extra money and all the cute swimsuits around, Cordelia was thinking of grabbing one or twelve for herself. Couldn't hurt, and she might as well enjoy the money while she had it, right?
She grabbed a couple of men's swimming trunks and handed them over to Wes. "Here, go try these on in the dressing room and come out and show me when you've got them on. I can't have you on the beach with me looking tragic or anything like that." Wes looked like he was about to protest, but she just waved him off. "Just go and try a pair on, please?" She batted her eyes at him, and he went without another protest.
Wes trudged into the dressing room and, after listening to him mumble for five minutes, she knocked on the door. "What are you doing in there?" She checked the door, but it was locked, of course.
"I think that these are a little tight," Wes said from the other side.
Cordelia sighed. "It's a swimsuit, Wes. It's supposed to show off your body. Open the door and let me see. If it's the wrong size, I'll know."
She heard the lock slide over and the door opened a crack. Once it was open, she grabbed the door and swung it open, not paying attention as Wes yelped in surprise. He was wearing the marine blue swim trunks that she had picked out. She thought that they might be nice with his skin tone and eyes, and she was right. Her eyes slid up to his chest and she couldn't help but notice the muscle tone that he had (he probably developed it while working with Angel or maybe during his 'rouge demon hunter' days). He was a little pale, but it wasn't like they could exactly work on their tans with their jobs.
Of course, right now, he was turning a bright red. "Cordelia, you didn't have to swing the door wide open," he snapped, reaching for the door but she moved in his way.
"Everyone is going to see you on the beach, so it's not like you need to hide in here," she explained to him. "And the suit fits just fine." She took another look down at the suit. It looked very good on him. "It's supposed to fit like that."
If he said something in reply, Cordelia didn't hear it. She could feel a tingling at the back of her head, and that only meant one thing. The Powers that Be weren't going to let them enjoy one whole week without sending them off on some wild and wacky adventure.
"Wes, vision," she said before she felt herself falling, and then the world outside of her head shut down while the world in her head blared in full 3-D. She felt arms around her as she started to describe what she was seeing. "It's a girl….blond hair and a green swimsuit, and these two guys have lured her out to some cave or something…they're vampires…I think that this happens tonight." As suddenly as it started, it stopped. She looked up to see Wes looking at her with concern in his blue eyes. She looked over to see that he'd had the decency to shut the door again, so that she wouldn't be having a seizure in front of other people. "We need to figure out where a cave near the beach is. It might be a vampire lair or something."
"Do you think we should call Angel?" Wes asked, helping her stand up straighter. They were both whispering so that the other people in the store wouldn't hear them talking about vampires. She didn't want them to think that they were nuts.
Cordelia shook her head. "No, it was just two guys. I mean, yeah, vampires, but we can take two of them, right?" She had remembered to pack a stake, and she knew that Watcher-Boy came prepared for everything. Wes didn't exactly look convinced, but he nodded anyway. "And we are so buying that swimsuit. It looks great on you."
Wes smiled at her, and she smiled back at him, and then turned and walked out. After she shut the door behind her, she turned to see the entire store looking at her, most of them smiling. What were they thinking? Why were they smiling at her? She turned and caught her reflection in a mirror. Her hair was mussed, her cheeks were flushed, and she was sweating a little. Oh god, they thought that she and Wes had sex!
"Wes," she said through the door when she turned and knocked on it again. "Hurry up. We need to go."
"Just a second, Cordy," Wes said through the door. She could hear his clothes rustle around as he changed. "We made kind of a mess in here when you almost slipped. I'll be out in just a second."
Cordelia heard someone giggle. What Wes just said probably only confirmed what they thought they did in everyone's heads. A thought occurred to her. Why did she care if people thought that she and Wes had a quickie in the dressing room? She could certainly have had it with a much worse person. Besides, after this week, there was no reason why she would have ever of seen any of these people again.
Wes passed her the swimsuit under the door. "Pay for this while I finished getting dressed, would you please?" he asked through the door.
"I am not the personal shopper," Cordelia grumbled, but took the suit to the counter anyway. While the salesclerk gave her a knowing smile, she didn't say anything to her. Even though she told herself that she didn't care what these people thought, it still made her squirm just a little bit.
She finished purchasing the suit just as Wes came out of the dressing room. "Come on, let's get out of here and figure out where that stupid cave is," Cordelia said, grabbing Wes by the arm and pulling him out of the store.
"Why was everyone staring at us?" Wes asked her when they got outside.
"There's no telling," Cordelia lied. Now she probably wouldn't get anything to eat, either. That made her feel even more grumpy. "So, where do you think we'd figure out where a cave is? All I know is that it was near the beach. I think that the vampires got the girl from a bonfire party or something like that."
"Well, we can either try to find a tourist place or maybe we can just look around on the beach," Wes offered.
"Maybe we should try that or maybe a library first," Cordelia said. "Just looking around on the beach could take forever, and I'm almost positive that this is happening tonight."
It took some researching at both the library and the tourist place, but they finally figured out where a series of caves were. After a quick stop back at the hotel for stakes, they headed to the beach. By this time they figured out where the caves were, it was already dark.
They rushed to the beach and started searching through the caves. Cordelia hoped that they weren't going to be too late to save the girl. However, after the third cave, she was willing to give up. Cordelia was about to proclaim out loud that this was hopeless when she heard voices around the corner in the cave.
Wes turned around and looked at her, indicating that he had heard it, too. The two of them, as quietly as possible, crept closer to where the voices were coming from. From the sound of it, it was two guys and a girl, just like in her vision. Cordelia just hoped that they weren't interrupting some people getting their freak on or something like that.
A pained squeal let Cordelia know that the girl wasn't there for the fun of it. Forgetting stealth, both Cordelia and Wes sprinted, interrupting two males vampires, both who looked like surfers from the eighties, just started to chow down on some little high school aged girl.
"Aw, bummer, someone's crashing our party," one of the vampires, a blond haired one who looked like he hadn't bathed since he was sired, said.
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Oh please," she replied. "Get some new lines, buster." The first vampire charged at her, allowing the poor girl to scramble away from the other guy and bolt down the cave out to freedom.
Cordelia moved out of the way of the first vampire, letting him run head first into the cave wall. He fell to the ground and, while he was dazed, she shoved a stake through his chest, letting him turn to ash.
"Dude, lame," the other vampire, another greasy looking guy, said. While he was distracted by his friend turning to dust, Wes had gotten behind him and shoved the stake through his back, causing him to die as well.
"At least these guys weren't rocket scientists," Cordelia muttered, kicking at the pile of ash with her foot.
"Yes, we're very lucky," Wes said to her. "If they had been smarter, we would have needed Angel's help."
"We handled ourselves pretty well, didn't we?" Cordelia asked him as they headed out, turning to him and smiling.
"Yes, yes we did," Wes replied, smiling back at her. She couldn't help but notice how his blue eyes lit up when he smiled, even behind his glasses. "How are you feeling now?"
"Much better," Cordelia said, and she meant it, too. The lingering headache that she always had after a vision until they completed whatever they had to do was gone, alerting her to the fact that they had accomplished the mission for the day or whatever. "We should get something to eat now. I'm starving."
Wes nodded, and they headed off to a nearby boardwalk where the town had situated several restaurants near the beach so that the customers would have a nice view of the beach. Cordelia really hadn't eaten all day, and she figured that Wes hadn't, either, so she was more than ready to sit down and get something to eat.
They decided upon a little seafood café, where Cordelia ordered some oysters on the half-shell. Wesley ordered them a bottle of wine, since, even though she (Angel) was paying, she wasn't legally old enough to order it. After dinner, and ordered another bottle of wine to go, they decided to take a walk out on the beach.
Even with the food in her stomach, Cordelia could feel the wine going to her head. Still, with good conversation with good company, she just couldn't say no. When they got down to the beach, Cordelia plopped down close to the ocean itself, bringing down the bottle with her.
"But, won't I get sand on my clothes? I thought that this was why we bought the swimsuit," Wesley complained, obviously not wanting to sit in the sand. "We can go back to the hotel and change."
Cordelia took a sip of the wine. "I don't want to go back." She reached up with her free hand and grabbed Wes's, pulling him down. He easily came down, due to the alcohol causing a lack of coordination. However, with her own coordination lacking as well, Cordelia managed to pull him on top of her.
Cordelia squealed as Wes came toppling down on her, laughing at the same time. "There, now you're all sandy, just like me," she said, still laughing. "No point in getting up now."
With a sigh but an indulgent smile, Wes untangled himself from Cordelia, took the bottle from her, and took a sip of it as he settled himself in the sand. "You do realize that you're paying for my dry cleaning bill now, right?"
"I'll wash your clothes myself in a little French Maid's outfit," Cordelia promised. "Don't worry about your clothes, Wes. Enjoy the beach."
"I might enjoy it more if you were in a French Maid's outfit," Wes joked, or, she thought that it was a joke.
"Wesley!" she squealed, reaching over to swat at his arm. After swatting him, she took the bottle back from him. She took a swig from the bottle. "You dirty minded British person, you."
"I see that alcohol doesn't exactly sharpen the wit," he retorted, taking the bottle back from her. "And you're the one who said it, not me."
"That's true," she replied. Maybe it was the alcohol and close proximity, or maybe she was just remembering why she had liked him back in Sunnydale in the first place, but she wanted to kiss him. While their first kiss had been a disaster, when she tried to pass off the visions to him, that one had been much better. Apparently, he had a little practice at some point. Not that she was complaining any.
With the extra courage that alcohol gave her, she leaned over and planted her lips on his. She heard the bottle slip from his hand as he started to kiss her back. Yup, he had definitely improved since that first disastrous kiss. She deepened the kiss a little, discovering that the wine seemed to have caused Wesley to taste a lot like blueberries. Not really that shocking, but it was a nice extra.
Cordelia moved a little so that she could scoot closer to Wes, only to suddenly feel a sharp, stabbing pain in her butt. She pulled away quickly, motioning for Wes to give her just a minute, and dug in the sand behind her until she discovered what was causing the stabbing pain: a seashell.
She made a face at the shell and tossed it aside. "You know, maybe we should move this indoors. I'm not sure if I want sand getting in too many places."
She looked at Wes and giggled a little as his eyes widened. She stood up and brushed some of the sand off of her legs. "By the way, if you impregnate me with demon spawn, I will so kick your ass." Only in her world would she have to put that out there during a date.
Before Wes could stutter and blush too much, she pulled him up and started to lead him back to their hotel room.