Readers Note: This is my first B\A story! I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Remember, first chapters are always slow (: Thank you if you leave reviews and I will for sure mention you in the next chapter and reply! I love the love (: and now, Buffy theme song*, main characters, and bang, "Here with me". Enjoy....

Here With Me

Chapter 1

"Vampires, Slayers and Angel"

Soft, misting rain cascaded down from the midnight sky. Buffy Summers paced through the Sunnydale graveyard. Each step forward, her black high heels would soak from the dampened earth. Her golden hair was long, and luscious, that hung down to her back. She twirled a wooden stake in her hand for some time ~ flipping it back and forth to make time fly by. Every thought that was crammed in her head was pushing to resurface. A certain vampire that had perfect, sexy features. A dark and mysterious man with beautiful bone structure and fair skin plagued her thoughts. Buffy captured his face with her photo graphic memory.

She tried to shake his face out of her every waking hour. School was her next choice to ponder about. The homework she failed to complete in Biology about the social connections between monkeys. Buffy was too busy exchanging notes with Willow about Xander and Cordelia's relationship. They haven't talked to each other since Xander cheated on her with Willow. Cordelia has been trying to pursue her spot in Harmony's group. Avoiding Xander was the first thing that came across her mind. Enough about her friends, Buffy has to focus on the running vampire ahead.

The black woman had high-lighted dread-locks and wore leather from head to toe. The vampire stopped advancing forward and looked at her opponent. Buffy had her average capris with a flower design at the very bottom. Her blue tang-top complemented her fluffy, black wool sweater-jacket. Buffy thought it was a very nice outfit for a nice, brisk walk around dead people.

"This is the slayer?" asked the vampire in a doubting tone. "I was expecting-" she examined Buffy once again."-a tall, muscular one." she taunted. Buffy pouted and tilted her head down to view her features.

"I thought this outfit looked really nice on me. I can't return a fifty dollar sweater jacket!" yelled Buffy. The vampire swung her fist at Buffy's face. She dodged the incoming bony fist, returning a knuckle to the vampires eye. The force behind the slayers punch was enough to push the creature back, creating the perfect amount of space to add a swinging kick to the chin. The vampire plummeted to the mucky, unsettling surface, grunting. With both arms, the creature lifted herself off the ground, regaining her balance.

"A cheerleader slayer! How appropriate." she commented, cartwheeling off a tiny gravestone, kicking Buffy off guarded. The slayer landed on her side, rolling swiftly out of the vampires pouncing range. As the demon approached Buffy, she stuck her right leg out and twirled effortlessly, knocking the opponent off her feet. Once again, the vampire was on the ground. Buffy was ready to finish this fight and went to grab her stake. To her surprise, the stake had landed a couple of inches away from her arms. What was she going to do? She had the vampire pinned, but no stake. There's the risk of going for the stake and breaking one of her new nails. It took Buffy a month to save her money for a complete nail re-due.

"No stake slayer?" hissed the creature. Buffy kept her elbow on the girls chest, holding her down.

"I guess its time to improvise." she said, digging her hand into her pocket. The vampire watched as the slayer dug deep for something to stab her with.

"There's nothing like watching your killer look for something to stab you with." she so sarcastically added. Buffy averted her eyes down to the pinned vampire.

"You suppose I let you loose?" challenged Buffy. "Anyways, I found something." she added, grabbing a small pencil and piercing it into the chest of her enemy. Suddenly, she had went poof into a pile of dust before Buffy's eyes. The pencil had snapped in two, leaving Buffy without a working tool for homework.

"Oh well, I guess there is no point in doing homework when you have no more things to write with." she said, leaving the graveyard. Buffy walked for a couple more minutes, approaching the boarded doors of the mansion. Flash-backs resurfaced Buffy's mind, remembering the events only five months ago. Angel was without his soul, looking for easy prey, starting with the vulnerable slayer. Angelus widened his focus and begun a scheme to awaken the demon Acathla and bring about the end of the world. Buffy was determined to stop him despite their history, and is able to overcome him in combat. Just as she prepared for the finishing blow, however, Willow Rosenberg was able to restore Angel's soul. Since Acathla can only be stopped by the blood of the individual who activated him, Buffy was forced to sacrifice Angel to save the world. Impaled on the Slayer's enchanted sword, Angel was sucked into Acathla's vortex, which suddenly snapped close. Buffy sent her boyfriend to hell, how romantic.

While pondering before entering, she had gotten the sense that someone was watching her. Buffy cocked her head to her left, then all the way to the right. No one was there and before she could investigate the mansions perimeter, Angel appeared in front of her. He was shaken from her arrival, sweating non-stop in fact.

"Angel...." she was able to say. His muscles glistened from his sweat. She admired his fashionable no shirt policy. He fell into his slayers arms, in need of someone by his side. Buffy didn't know what to else to say, only that she was happy that her lover was here with her. She held him tight, in a loving embrace. He panted, like he'd just came back from a long midnight jog.

"What's wrong?" asked Buffy, guiding him to the side entrance of the mansion. She used her shoulders to keep up his weight.

"Let's just get inside and rest. I will tell you then." Angel said, limping into the mansion with Buffy with him. She remembered his place clearly. The marble interior, stone floors and statues, and the dark, blood red curtains. How could she forget? Angel always had taste in decorating, mostly from the sixteen hundreds. She helped Angel lye own on stiff couch, resting near the fire. He was shaking all over, freezing cold.

"Wait here. I'm going to get you some blankets." Buffy glided over to his bedroom and pulled off some warm sheets from his queen size bed. She looked around his room, for a shirt for Angel to wear. As much as she enjoyed him shirtless, he was in need of some serious warming. Buffy grabbed a black shirt from him linen basket and walked back into the seating area. Angel curled in a ball, sliding closer to the open fire. Buffy spread the blankets on top, tucking him in nice and warm. She attended the fire as well, adding new logs every couple of minutes.

"Buffy! Can you just come here, stay with me?" he asked, shivering. Buffy smiled and walked over to him, making room for herself to lye beside. It wasn't everyday she got to be with her vampire boyfriend, so, she thought she would embrace every second she could.

"Now, can you tell me why you're sick? It seems to me that you are coming down with something. I figured I could go grab some stuff from my house, make sure my mother doesn't see me and I can play nurse Buffy!" she said. "Nurse Buffy? You know, tight skirt and needles. Well, actually, no needles, I have fear for pointy objects. Kind of ironic, seeing as though I poke others with pointy things-" she laughed and her eyes widened. "Oh wait, lets totally back track here, that sounded a little wrong."

Angel gently placed his index finger on her soft, warm lips. She closed her eyes and felt shock waves entering and leaving her body. A lovers touch was the spark you needed to live another day. She begun to kiss his finger and slowly make her way down to his arm. Angel pushed Buffy away and looked deep into her eyes.

"Just lay with me?" he asked. Buffy frowned and dropped his arm.

"Only until you tell me what's wrong with you." she challenged, waiting for his answer. Angel used all his energy to sit up and block the incoming body aches. Chills ran down his spine and he stopped moving, finding his comfortable position. Buffy adjusted herself, making room for Angel to move. She relaxed her arms on his chest.

"I've haven't been eating lately. I started to feel ill last week, and I haven't the appetite to go drinking blood. Buffy, I don't want you telling anyone about this, I can handle this. I believe its just a little bug that will go away." he said. "Besides, I kind of like the nurse Buffy thought."

"Hold it tiger, that hope died when I thought about needles. I will go pick you up some blood from the store, just stay here. I will be back in awhile." she promised. He grabbed her arm before she could leave, pulling her back onto the couch.

"Just stay here, with me." he said, holding her in his arms. She lay beside him, tracing on his chest with her index finger. Angel closed his eyes and Buffy waited until he fell asleep. Every minute that passed by, she thought how lucky she was that he was here with her this night. Those months that went by when she carried the guilt of his death were never ending it seemed. The pain was excruciating to bare, harmful to a girls heart. When she made the choice to leave, Buffy didn't plan to come back at all. Joyce wasn't to keen on the whole slaying thing, and definitely not favoring that her daughter lost her virginity to a vampire that tried to kill everyone of her friends. Not only was it hard to stomach that he suffered in hell for that time, Buffy's friends just didn't understand what she was feeling for him. He was the same person he was before, not Angelus. Giles was the hardest one to convince, Jenny was killed by Angel; of course he wasn't easily forgiving. How could you?

Once Buffy noticed that Angel had fallen asleep, she slowly got off of the couch and grabbed her coat. She turned to face him one last time, watching him peacefully rest. Whatever bug was attacking from beneath his beautifully tanned skin was really waring him thin. Talking about thin, it seemed as though he lost a lot of weight. Buffy knew he didn't want her to tell everyone about his weakness, but she had to. It was eating away at his being. Before you know it, he's going to be six feet under again. That's the beauty of not promising when asked. As she walked out of the mansion, using the side door, someone revealed themselves to be watching the whole conversation. The figure walked over to Angel and touched his forehead gently. Who was this mysteriously dressed foe? The person walked away from Angel and sunk back into the shadows.

Buffy walked down the side of the road, exiting the graveyard. She looked at her watch that Xander had given her during the coming home party, and it was broken again. For some reason, lately the big hand had been freezing at three and the small at thirty. Why was the watch always pausing at three thirty in the morning? During her thought process, Faith came from behind Buffy. She was wearing tight leather pants and a white tang top, the usual trashy-self. In surprise, Buffy turned around and slammed her fist into Faith's face. Realization reared its ugly head and she noticed that the other slayer was down.

"Oh, sorry about that. When walking at the dead of night, always be prepared." Buffy said, helping her companion up from the ground. Faith pushed her jaw back into place and felt the swelling begin.

"Jesus B, that's some first class punching you got there. I can tell from personal experience that you've been practicing!" Faith said, laughing. Buffy clapped her hands together.

"Oh good, because I was starting to think that my punches were lagging that certain, pow." she said.

"I'm jealous, I'm up against a powerful slayer. So tell me, B, why out so late. Vamps don't usually hit the graveyards at this time of night, or should I say, morning." she said, walking with Buffy down Winchester Blvd. This was the time to say something. If Buffy wanted to honor Angel's trust, she wouldn't tell anyone that he was sick, but if it involved death as a possibility, she had too. Suffering that loss again would be the final straw for her sanity.

"I thought about this and in order to keep me from going nutty, I need to shoot. I was with Angel this early morning and I wanted to help him. He told me that just recently he got sick and hasn't been eating anything-" she was explaining until Faith interrupted.

"Which is a good thing, right? We don't want to go feeding him some humans. Although, I had someone in mind-"

"Faith! He doesn't drink human blood, he has his soul again." she snapped, looking at the other slayer. "Besides, he's on a diet."

"Well it must be more than a little old cold if its got you worrying this much. B, look at yourself, you've been shaking this whole time talking about him. I'm imagining that you think something supernatural is involved." she stated.

"Would that be over-thinking it? I mean, everyone gets a cold. Do vampires get sick? Okay, never mind, I'm on question overload. I think I might run it past the rest of the gang to see what they have to say." Buffy said. Faith jolted in front of her walking path.

"Not so fast Buffy, we need to have some fun!" she said. "One last kill before bed, I promise that will be it." she insisted. Buffy opened both of her hands and revealed empty palms.

"I have no weapon of any sorts." Buffy said, frowning.

"Nice try, we're slayers, we can improvise!" she yelled, running with Buffy to the graveyard. Meanwhile, the same person watched from the shadows, waiting.

End of Chapter! I thought that I might write a story about Angel and Buffy's struggles. Although, there will be returned foes and new ones! This story was inspired by another writer here on Fanfiction! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will have another one up very soon I hope. Bare with me folks, first chapters are always the slowest! Character building and plots structure! Reviews would be nice (: Thanks