Home, Again

By White Rain

Disclaimer: I do not own Angel.

-

"Fred or Angel?"

"Huh?"

Harmony sighed in a put upon way. "Duh." She held up a clipboard and tapped it with her pen. "There is a pool going on. Do you think Wesley has a crush on Angel or Fred?"

Connor thought for a minute. "Fred."

"Ha!" Harmony said and scribbled down something on the clipboard. "I'll give you your share of the money when we win. It will be a lot, because everyone is blind."

Connor chose not to tell her he didn't put any money down and he was lucky; Angel bided him to his office before she had the chance to remember.

-

"Sorry about that," Angel said, ushering Connor in his office while being careful not to touch him. "Harmony got the times mixed up."

"Were you meeting with evil demons who disappeared through the floor?" Connor asked.

"Ceiling," Angel said as he closed the door.

Connor watched him walk over towards his desk without moving.

"They don't like to be called evil anymore," Angel told Connor as he sat down on his desk and silently offered for Connor to sit down in the chairs in front of his desk with his hand. "They're looking to reinvent themselves. They want to be more hip. That's why they came to us."

Connor didn't sit down, but he took a few steps towards Angel. "I can't tell if you're being honest or not."

Before Angel could answer, Fred rushed into the office. "There's an emergency." She flashed Connor her sweet smile. "Hi, Connor."

"Hey," Connor said and very carefully didn't look at her in the eyes by choosing to shift his attention to Angel.

Angel folded his arms. "Will it lead to an apocalypse?"

"Probably not," Fred said. "But Charles thinks it'll be worse than an apocalypse if this clan can't appoint a new leader. And they refuse to choose a new leader without the head of Wolfram and Hart there."

"So pretend Wes is the boss," Angel said. "We've done it before."

"Wesley already introduced himself," Fred said, hint of an apology in her voice.

"Tell him he's fired," Angel said.

"You can tell him yourself," Fred said, "iAfter/i the meeting. Charles says they have very strict views about how clans work and we have to put on out best face. And he's already about to kill you because you didn't show up even though he sent you a memo, and that's made a bad impression already. The only way we can work this is by appearing as if we were the type of clan they would respect - "

Angel motioned for her to stop with his hand as he stood up and turned to face Connor. "Connor - "

"Can I watch?" Connor asked. "I've never seen a meeting between demon clans. I'm sure it'll broaden my horizons, not unlike what my teachers are urging me to do."

"You can pretend to be his son," Fred said and turned her head to give him another smile. "They like strong family relations."

From the corner of his eyes, Connor saw Angel's eyes briefly flicker with something he couldn't quite read.

-

"The only good part of that," Gunn said after They - the clan insisted they call themselves They and Connor was only surprised because he wasn't surprised - left, "was that we won't have to do it again for another few decades."

"I vote we never do this again," Angel said. "And I'm the boss so only my vote counts."

"Perhaps we could compromise by protecting the new leader more properly than the last," Wesley said, not even looking up from the paper he was scribbling on.

"Wesley's right," Fred said and Connor was pleased to note Wesley smiled a bit at that. He'd tell Harmony that next time he saw her. Then she turned around in her chair to face Connor, "Can you clear your schedule some next week? Beta testing for your new weapon would work best if you were the one beta testing." She lifted her head back to look at Angel, "We'll be careful, I promise."

"I know," Angel said, "I'll be watching."

"If you put as half as much effort into our other clients," Gunn said, though his tone was less scolding than it had been a moment ago, as he gathered his things.

"Most of our clients are evil," Angel pointed out.

"Charles," Wesley said before Gunn could say a word, "we're on in," Wesley looked down at his watch as he stood up, "ten minutes."

"I catch your drift," Gunn said as he followed Wesley out of the room, "and don't think we won't be using those extra ten minutes."

Wesley paused and Gunn gave him a questioning look.

"The irony of this situation just gives me pause," Wesley explained.

"Don't think I still can't kick your ass," Gunn told him with a grin Connor wish he saw more. It reminded him of something, though he couldn't put his finger on what, much less attempt to figure it out.

"Don't hold him up for too long," Fred said as she gathered her things and followed them out of the room, "Wesley and I have things to go over before we can put Connor's weapon into beta testing."

When Fred closed the door behind her, Connor turned to look at Angel, who was looking at them with what looked like a wishful expression.

"It's late," Connor said suddenly, jolting Angel out of whatever he was thinking. "Probably too late for you to train me. We could do something else." He held up his hand before Angel could say a word, "so long as you don't utter the world 'hang' or any other words you think are 'hip'."

"What would you like to do?" Angel asked.