DISCLAIMER: *sigh* Nope. Not Mine. Never mine. Borrowed only, I promise. But I can dream, can't I? In wakey wakey land, they belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Grr Argh..
Spoilers: None, really. Pure Fluff.
Summary: Pretty much the required story for any B/A fanfic writer - the reunion....
Authors Note: There were those who believed that I couldn't write a story LESS than 25k! So I did! So there! :-D
Angel stared out the window, looking down at the glittering LA nightline. In the two months since he'd moved here, the sight of the nightlights had never failed to amaze him. The advancement of man in the last quarter of a millennia had been world changing. And he'd seen it all. Considering his age, he'd adapted well to the fast paced 1900's. And the new Millennium was proving to be even faster. He moved his eyes from the city lights to the stars above. In the middle of the city, stars were very hard to see. Their dim, far away light finding it hard to shine through street lights and billboard spot lights. His eyes had no difficulty seeing them, however. He stared up at what he knew to be Jupiter, the brightest light in the night sky at this time of year. How often he'd stared at that star, remembering, wondering. He sighed heavily and turned away from the window.
His apartment, penthouse in a block of apartments, was large and airy. After spending two hundred and fifty years avoiding light and air, he found that he needed as much of it as he could get. The skylights above his head resembled a greenhouse more than a living room. They were open to the night air, letting in the distant sounds of traffic from far below. He rolled his neck, trying in vain to relieve tension there. He'd been tense for the last few hours, but couldn't narrow down the cause. Shrugging and rolling his shoulders, he went for the fridge. He padded barefoot across the naked wood floor. Bening down to open the fridge door, he reached in and pulled out a cold beer. As always, he opened it and sniffed appreciatively at the aroma of hops and malt bursting from the mouth of the bottle. Taking a gulp, he went back to the window, and hoped the beer would ease some of the unwanted tension.
She stood oustide the door, hesitating. She'd raised her had a dozen times to knock, only to chicken out at the last moment.
"God Damn it, Buffy! You're the Slayer! Surely a big tough slayer like you can knock on an innocent wooden door?" She psyched her self up again, drew in a deep breath and raised her hand again. Just as she was about to hit the door, her nerve failed, and she froze. "Shit! I can't do this." She turned on her heel, and walked quickly toward the elevator. "Shit!" She turned back and stopped. Breathing deeply, muttering to herself all the while, she walked slowly back to the door. "He's probably not even there. It's Friday night, for crying out loud. Just knock, then leave the damned note!" Finally convincing herself that he wasn't in at all, she knocked quickly on the door, then pulled out the note, ready to slide it under the door. As she bent down to push it under, the door opened. Buffy, on her knees, with her head down and looking at the floor, watched as the door slowly opened. Two bare feet came into her line of site. She looked quickly up.
"You're not supposed to be here!" She gasped, getting quickly to her feet. She watched as his face paled rapidly. "Angel?" She asked looking at him. He was gasping for breath.
"Buffy?" He whispered, thinking that his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe the beer was spiked? He had walked out on an 18 year old Buffy ten years ago, vowing never to come back. They both thought it was for the best. Well, he had. Buffy was hurt and mad, but he'd been adamant. Ten years ago. She'd changed. Gotten older. More mature. And though his mind told him it wasn't possible, more beautiful. Her face had softened, matured. Her eyes still had that haunted look behind them that had always called to him to protect her. And she'd changed her hair. It was a deeper blonde now. Deeper and shorter. Just under the shoulders. He frowned and looked closer at her neck. There was a scar on her neck. From him. He swore under his breath. She'd gotten that scar saving his life. He'd drunk from her to rid himself of poison. He sent a brief prayer up to heaven in thanks that he would never have to do that again.
"Angel? You okay? You're looking a little ....paler than you used to." Buffy put out a hand to hold him up, hesitated, then dropped it again without touching him.
"I'm .....fine." He frowned down at her. "What are you doing in LA? How did you find me?"
"Can I?" She asked, gesturing to come in.
"Oh, sure." He stepped back, allowing her into his apartment. Stepping over the threshold, she looked around at the light, spacious room. She looked up and gasped at the lack of roof.
"How?" She shot a look at her ex-lover. "How do you live here, with this much glass?" She stared at the wall of windows on the north side of the condo.
"Buffy-" He began.
"Are you trying to kill yourself? I thought we'd covered that ten years ago? My God, Angel! This must be hell for you during the day." She stormed over to the wall of windows and looked out at the city below. "Wow!" She said, temporarily distracted by the view.
"Buffy, if you'd just let me explain." He began again, walking towards her. She turned around, an eyebrow raised in question. Her expression clearly said, let's hear it, boyo, and it had better be good. He drew in a deep breath, feeling the little thrill that always accompanied conscious breathing. He sat down on the rich green sofa that sat in the middle of the lounge room. He nodded at the other sofa for Buffy to take a seat. She frowned briefly, then sat down on it, facing him.
"Two years ago I was ready to quit. I'd had enough of my.....un-life. For twenty years, I took life for granted. I lead the life of a spoiled little rich boy. All I cared about was drink, food and women. Then I met Darla. I became a spoiled vampire. For a hundred and fifty years, all I cared about was drinking, women and killing. Then I was cursed, and wanted to die. For eighty years I wanted to end my life. I did nothing. You could count the amount of good I had done on one finger. Then I met you." He looked up at Buffy, then back down at the floor. She'd sat back on the sofa, and was staring intently at him. "For the first time in God knows how long, I did something not for me, not because I felt sorry for myself, but because someone else needed me. Then all hell broke loose." He smiled sourly. So did she. "Literally. When I came back, I tried...I really did." He looked at Buffy again, intently. "The most unselfish thing I have ever done in my life was leave you ten years ago. It was also the hardest. Until two years ago."
"What-?" Buffy spoke softly.
"You knew that Cordelia was working with me here, didn't you?" He asked her. When she nodded, he continued. "Cordelia and I had gotten close in the years since we both left Sunnydale." He saw the sharpening of the slayer's gaze and knew he was seeing jealousy. He almost smiled. Ten years, and she still got jealous over him. "She married a guy named Luke. About five years ago now. Any way, it turned out he was a snik-demon. You ever come across a snik demon before?"
"No. What do they do? Steal snickers bars?"
"Not quite. A snik demon is actually a good guy. Well, as good as demon's can get. Cord didn't know about his....other side until about two months after the marriage. Neither did I for that matter. He was very good at concealing it." He smiled softly. "The fact that he didn't know I was a vampire, or that Cordelia knew about the otherworld made me feel better about not knowing about him."
"Ah....Angel?" Buffy prompted him.
"Huh? Oh, right. Well, anyway, the day we found out, Cord had just learned she was pregnant. Let's just say that Luke was a little stunned. A snik demon is not supposed to be compatible with a human. He'd given up all thoughts of family when he married Cord. She told him at a dinner that she had cooked. She'd invited me over. Told him she was pregnant. He went into a little bit of a rage. Accusing her of cheating on him and being a slut. Cord, being pregnant, was a little emotional, and burst into tears. That's when I figured it out. Not what he was, but what he wasn't. He was staring at her tears, and I could hear his heart shatter."
"Okay, my turn. Huh? Heart shatter?"
"A snik demon is a peace demon. He cannot stand to see pain and anger or rage. Which made his rage only minutes before all the more powerful. He saw her crying, remembered his own rage, and his heart shattered. He turned around to and leapt for the bottle of wine on the table." He looked at his own empty beer bottle on the kitchen sink. "Alcohol will kill a snik demon within seconds. I thought he was a tee-totaler. I was right, in the biggest way. I'd realised that he was a snik demon, and saw him heading for the wine. I lunged at him and grabbed him before he even got to the bottle." He smiled again, a little lighter of heart. "Luke looked at me, then at where I had been sitting, a good ten feet away, then at the bottle, not more than two feet from where he'd been standing. I could see him puzzling it out for a while, then the light struck. "You're not human!" He accused. As if it was my fault. "Nope, neither are you, snik." I said, pulling him further away from the bottle. Cord was still crying. I shoved Luke at her, and he went down without a fight. I left the apartment, grabbing the bottle with me, just in case." Buffy cleared her throat pointedly.
"Right, well. Three days later, Luke turns up at my basement. Says he's got a deal for me. But it won't be easy. I ask him what. He says he can help me get rid of the demon. Now, I don't exactly believe him straight up. Why would I? But he convinced me. He put me into a trance, and the next thing I know, I'm in this space. It's white and goes on forever." Angel paused for a moment. He stood up and went to get another beer from the fridge. He knew this next part was not going to be easy.
"So I'm standing there, looking around at this whiteness. When suddenly, up I pop. Me, except it's not me. It's Liam. The snotty nosed shit who wanted to be something. Then up I pop again, but this time, it's Angelus the vampire, all game-faced and everything. Then to cap it all off, up I come again, me this time, but BBS."
"BBS?" Buffy repeated.
"Before Buffy Summers. I'm a sniveling wreck who fed off rats and other....things in sewers. So there we were, all four of us. And I'm supposed to do something with them. Luke gave me no instructions. Just said, come back in one piece. It took a while to get what he meant." He looked up at her, pain etched across his features. "Do you have any idea what it was like facing them? I mean.-. No, I faced them before, they're a part of me now."
"What do you mean?"
"To get out in one piece I had to accept the other three parts of me, completely. The first me, Liam the selfish shit, the second, demonic me and the third self-pitying prat. They are all me. One by one I accepted them back as part of me, and only when I had finally accepted the last one did I return. He was the hardest."
"Was it the vampire?" Buffy leaned forward.
"Curiously, no. Demonic me was just my aggression. Okay, so I was a little more aggressive than usual when I was him, but it was just a hell of a lot of testosterone, basically. It was the last me, the self-pitying prat that I had the most trouble with. I looked at him, and felt nothing but contempt for so long. Then I spoke to him. He was my conscious. An over developed, self involved conscience, but a conscience none the less. Once I accepted him, the room, which was still white by the way, turn a brilliant blue, then disappeared." He stopped, taking a swig of the untouched beer.
"Well? Don't stop there! What happened?" Buffy stood up and crossed to sit next to him. His heart cried out at her being so near. He ignored it for the moment.
"I was lying down, staring up at this brilliant blue. I thought I'd just been knocked over in the room, and the colour had changed. Until I noticed a slight breeze on my face, and the sound of birds." He looked at her sadly. "It had been so long that I didn't recognise the sky when I was looking at it. I was in an open field about twenty minutes from here. I was lying down in the open grass, underneath direct sunlight. I was petrified with fear. I thought if I move, the suns' going to figure out I shouldn't be here and fry me. I lay there for almost half an hour, without moving a muscle, until logic dictated that I wasn't going to go up in flames. Buffy, Luke made me human again. I sat up, grinning. I'm sure I looked like someone who'd just escaped from a luny bin or something." He grinned at her, a shadow of the grin two years ago. Then he noticed her absent expression.
"Buffy?" He nudged her gently with his knee.
"H-...human?" She managed to get out around her constricted throat. "You're human?" Then her eyes widened slightly, and before he knew it, her fist shot out and connected with his jaw. He head whipped around with the punch. He turned back, massaging his jaw.
"What the hell was that for?" He demanded.
"You've been human for two years, you piece of shit!" She shot at him, getting up and glaring at him. "Two years! You never thought to let me know?"
"Buffy, you were 28! As far as I knew, you had a husband and children in Sunnydale. What was I supposed to do? Just jump on a plane and turn up at your door, saying, "Hey, Buffy, I'm home. Let's go out and patrol the cemetary"?"
"Yes!" She drew in a deep breath, trying to stem back tears of pain and regret. Two years lost!
"I'd left you for good, Buffy! I didn't want to give you false hope." She growled, consumed with anger.
"When you left, I vowed that you would be the only one I could ever love. The Powers that Be obviously heard that, because you have been the only to get even remotely close! How the hell do you think you have the right to decide for me? I may have been 18 ten years ago, and you may have thought you were doing the right thing, but I'm older now! I won't have anyone make decisions for me. If I want to love you forever, then I will, and nobody, not you, not Giles, and certainly not Cordelia can make me change my mind! You got that, mister I-know-what's-best?" She started pacing. "She sends me up here on some fool mission. I'm the bloody Slayer! I'm not a messenger service. Says she wants to stay in Sunnydale, close to her mother! Huh! Well, I've got news for that little -." She screamed in fury. Angel, from past experience, knew to let her rant. He watched as she pulled the note she had been sliding under his door from her back jeans pocket. She opened the envelope and quickly scanned the letter. He watched as her anger melted away, and tears formed in her eyes as she went back to the top of the page, and read the letter again, slowly. He wondered what was in the letter. His still sensitive ears heard her sniff softly. He watched a tear drop from the corner of her eye, and decided he'd had enough.
"Buffy? What is it?" He asked. She looked up at him, then pounced. He tensed for a moment, then opened his arms and caught her. She burried her face in his neck, muttering "I love you" over and over again. He reached behind and grabbed at the note, but missed and watched it fall to the ground. Buffy pulled back, stared into his all to lovely, human eyes, and kissed him. He didn't hesitate. God had given him two gifts. His humanity and now Buffy. The door to the bedroom closed behind them, causing the letter that had dropped face down on the floor to turn over. Anyone looking in through the roof could read what Buffy had.
Dear Cordelia, Luke and Angelica.
Well, it's now year two of my mortal life. I've come a long way. I'm still in the detective business. Doing really well, too! Wesley has moved on, saying that he doesn't want to hang around and become complacent - actually I think he just likes riding his motorcycle, it gives him a reason to wear leather and sunglasses. I found Luke's brother. Leij said he'll try to get in contact next full moon. I was going to ask, but somehow, I got the feeling I'd better not. I've moved, finally. It's a penthouse up near where you and Luke met. It's got almost no walls, but lots of windows and fresh air. I'm loving it. Food it still as wonderful, new and exciting as it was 18 months ago.
How's Angelica going? Growing like a rocket, if the pictures are anything to go by. Tell her that her Uncle Angel is going to be sending her one big birthday present! Oh, and congratulations on becoming store manager, Cord. Almost own that store soon!
Oh, I forgot. Kate and her beau finally married. Took them long enough. Kate asked me at the reception why we'd never gotten together. I finally told her about Buffy. I miss her, Cord! More than anything else in my entire life, I miss her. I thought it would get easier in time, but it's not. It's so much harder now, than when we left Sunnydale almost ten years ago. Do you see her much? Talk to her? How is she? Is she doing well? Married with some little blond girls just like their mother? I try so hard not to think of that day we had. I know she can't remember it, and I know it hurts to think of it. But sometimes, sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing. And then, losing Doyle the next day....
I'm sorry. Look, I'll see you when you come up in August. Until then, keep well. And write back.
Angel.
Spoilers: None, really. Pure Fluff.
Summary: Pretty much the required story for any B/A fanfic writer - the reunion....
Authors Note: There were those who believed that I couldn't write a story LESS than 25k! So I did! So there! :-D
Angel stared out the window, looking down at the glittering LA nightline. In the two months since he'd moved here, the sight of the nightlights had never failed to amaze him. The advancement of man in the last quarter of a millennia had been world changing. And he'd seen it all. Considering his age, he'd adapted well to the fast paced 1900's. And the new Millennium was proving to be even faster. He moved his eyes from the city lights to the stars above. In the middle of the city, stars were very hard to see. Their dim, far away light finding it hard to shine through street lights and billboard spot lights. His eyes had no difficulty seeing them, however. He stared up at what he knew to be Jupiter, the brightest light in the night sky at this time of year. How often he'd stared at that star, remembering, wondering. He sighed heavily and turned away from the window.
His apartment, penthouse in a block of apartments, was large and airy. After spending two hundred and fifty years avoiding light and air, he found that he needed as much of it as he could get. The skylights above his head resembled a greenhouse more than a living room. They were open to the night air, letting in the distant sounds of traffic from far below. He rolled his neck, trying in vain to relieve tension there. He'd been tense for the last few hours, but couldn't narrow down the cause. Shrugging and rolling his shoulders, he went for the fridge. He padded barefoot across the naked wood floor. Bening down to open the fridge door, he reached in and pulled out a cold beer. As always, he opened it and sniffed appreciatively at the aroma of hops and malt bursting from the mouth of the bottle. Taking a gulp, he went back to the window, and hoped the beer would ease some of the unwanted tension.
She stood oustide the door, hesitating. She'd raised her had a dozen times to knock, only to chicken out at the last moment.
"God Damn it, Buffy! You're the Slayer! Surely a big tough slayer like you can knock on an innocent wooden door?" She psyched her self up again, drew in a deep breath and raised her hand again. Just as she was about to hit the door, her nerve failed, and she froze. "Shit! I can't do this." She turned on her heel, and walked quickly toward the elevator. "Shit!" She turned back and stopped. Breathing deeply, muttering to herself all the while, she walked slowly back to the door. "He's probably not even there. It's Friday night, for crying out loud. Just knock, then leave the damned note!" Finally convincing herself that he wasn't in at all, she knocked quickly on the door, then pulled out the note, ready to slide it under the door. As she bent down to push it under, the door opened. Buffy, on her knees, with her head down and looking at the floor, watched as the door slowly opened. Two bare feet came into her line of site. She looked quickly up.
"You're not supposed to be here!" She gasped, getting quickly to her feet. She watched as his face paled rapidly. "Angel?" She asked looking at him. He was gasping for breath.
"Buffy?" He whispered, thinking that his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe the beer was spiked? He had walked out on an 18 year old Buffy ten years ago, vowing never to come back. They both thought it was for the best. Well, he had. Buffy was hurt and mad, but he'd been adamant. Ten years ago. She'd changed. Gotten older. More mature. And though his mind told him it wasn't possible, more beautiful. Her face had softened, matured. Her eyes still had that haunted look behind them that had always called to him to protect her. And she'd changed her hair. It was a deeper blonde now. Deeper and shorter. Just under the shoulders. He frowned and looked closer at her neck. There was a scar on her neck. From him. He swore under his breath. She'd gotten that scar saving his life. He'd drunk from her to rid himself of poison. He sent a brief prayer up to heaven in thanks that he would never have to do that again.
"Angel? You okay? You're looking a little ....paler than you used to." Buffy put out a hand to hold him up, hesitated, then dropped it again without touching him.
"I'm .....fine." He frowned down at her. "What are you doing in LA? How did you find me?"
"Can I?" She asked, gesturing to come in.
"Oh, sure." He stepped back, allowing her into his apartment. Stepping over the threshold, she looked around at the light, spacious room. She looked up and gasped at the lack of roof.
"How?" She shot a look at her ex-lover. "How do you live here, with this much glass?" She stared at the wall of windows on the north side of the condo.
"Buffy-" He began.
"Are you trying to kill yourself? I thought we'd covered that ten years ago? My God, Angel! This must be hell for you during the day." She stormed over to the wall of windows and looked out at the city below. "Wow!" She said, temporarily distracted by the view.
"Buffy, if you'd just let me explain." He began again, walking towards her. She turned around, an eyebrow raised in question. Her expression clearly said, let's hear it, boyo, and it had better be good. He drew in a deep breath, feeling the little thrill that always accompanied conscious breathing. He sat down on the rich green sofa that sat in the middle of the lounge room. He nodded at the other sofa for Buffy to take a seat. She frowned briefly, then sat down on it, facing him.
"Two years ago I was ready to quit. I'd had enough of my.....un-life. For twenty years, I took life for granted. I lead the life of a spoiled little rich boy. All I cared about was drink, food and women. Then I met Darla. I became a spoiled vampire. For a hundred and fifty years, all I cared about was drinking, women and killing. Then I was cursed, and wanted to die. For eighty years I wanted to end my life. I did nothing. You could count the amount of good I had done on one finger. Then I met you." He looked up at Buffy, then back down at the floor. She'd sat back on the sofa, and was staring intently at him. "For the first time in God knows how long, I did something not for me, not because I felt sorry for myself, but because someone else needed me. Then all hell broke loose." He smiled sourly. So did she. "Literally. When I came back, I tried...I really did." He looked at Buffy again, intently. "The most unselfish thing I have ever done in my life was leave you ten years ago. It was also the hardest. Until two years ago."
"What-?" Buffy spoke softly.
"You knew that Cordelia was working with me here, didn't you?" He asked her. When she nodded, he continued. "Cordelia and I had gotten close in the years since we both left Sunnydale." He saw the sharpening of the slayer's gaze and knew he was seeing jealousy. He almost smiled. Ten years, and she still got jealous over him. "She married a guy named Luke. About five years ago now. Any way, it turned out he was a snik-demon. You ever come across a snik demon before?"
"No. What do they do? Steal snickers bars?"
"Not quite. A snik demon is actually a good guy. Well, as good as demon's can get. Cord didn't know about his....other side until about two months after the marriage. Neither did I for that matter. He was very good at concealing it." He smiled softly. "The fact that he didn't know I was a vampire, or that Cordelia knew about the otherworld made me feel better about not knowing about him."
"Ah....Angel?" Buffy prompted him.
"Huh? Oh, right. Well, anyway, the day we found out, Cord had just learned she was pregnant. Let's just say that Luke was a little stunned. A snik demon is not supposed to be compatible with a human. He'd given up all thoughts of family when he married Cord. She told him at a dinner that she had cooked. She'd invited me over. Told him she was pregnant. He went into a little bit of a rage. Accusing her of cheating on him and being a slut. Cord, being pregnant, was a little emotional, and burst into tears. That's when I figured it out. Not what he was, but what he wasn't. He was staring at her tears, and I could hear his heart shatter."
"Okay, my turn. Huh? Heart shatter?"
"A snik demon is a peace demon. He cannot stand to see pain and anger or rage. Which made his rage only minutes before all the more powerful. He saw her crying, remembered his own rage, and his heart shattered. He turned around to and leapt for the bottle of wine on the table." He looked at his own empty beer bottle on the kitchen sink. "Alcohol will kill a snik demon within seconds. I thought he was a tee-totaler. I was right, in the biggest way. I'd realised that he was a snik demon, and saw him heading for the wine. I lunged at him and grabbed him before he even got to the bottle." He smiled again, a little lighter of heart. "Luke looked at me, then at where I had been sitting, a good ten feet away, then at the bottle, not more than two feet from where he'd been standing. I could see him puzzling it out for a while, then the light struck. "You're not human!" He accused. As if it was my fault. "Nope, neither are you, snik." I said, pulling him further away from the bottle. Cord was still crying. I shoved Luke at her, and he went down without a fight. I left the apartment, grabbing the bottle with me, just in case." Buffy cleared her throat pointedly.
"Right, well. Three days later, Luke turns up at my basement. Says he's got a deal for me. But it won't be easy. I ask him what. He says he can help me get rid of the demon. Now, I don't exactly believe him straight up. Why would I? But he convinced me. He put me into a trance, and the next thing I know, I'm in this space. It's white and goes on forever." Angel paused for a moment. He stood up and went to get another beer from the fridge. He knew this next part was not going to be easy.
"So I'm standing there, looking around at this whiteness. When suddenly, up I pop. Me, except it's not me. It's Liam. The snotty nosed shit who wanted to be something. Then up I pop again, but this time, it's Angelus the vampire, all game-faced and everything. Then to cap it all off, up I come again, me this time, but BBS."
"BBS?" Buffy repeated.
"Before Buffy Summers. I'm a sniveling wreck who fed off rats and other....things in sewers. So there we were, all four of us. And I'm supposed to do something with them. Luke gave me no instructions. Just said, come back in one piece. It took a while to get what he meant." He looked up at her, pain etched across his features. "Do you have any idea what it was like facing them? I mean.-. No, I faced them before, they're a part of me now."
"What do you mean?"
"To get out in one piece I had to accept the other three parts of me, completely. The first me, Liam the selfish shit, the second, demonic me and the third self-pitying prat. They are all me. One by one I accepted them back as part of me, and only when I had finally accepted the last one did I return. He was the hardest."
"Was it the vampire?" Buffy leaned forward.
"Curiously, no. Demonic me was just my aggression. Okay, so I was a little more aggressive than usual when I was him, but it was just a hell of a lot of testosterone, basically. It was the last me, the self-pitying prat that I had the most trouble with. I looked at him, and felt nothing but contempt for so long. Then I spoke to him. He was my conscious. An over developed, self involved conscience, but a conscience none the less. Once I accepted him, the room, which was still white by the way, turn a brilliant blue, then disappeared." He stopped, taking a swig of the untouched beer.
"Well? Don't stop there! What happened?" Buffy stood up and crossed to sit next to him. His heart cried out at her being so near. He ignored it for the moment.
"I was lying down, staring up at this brilliant blue. I thought I'd just been knocked over in the room, and the colour had changed. Until I noticed a slight breeze on my face, and the sound of birds." He looked at her sadly. "It had been so long that I didn't recognise the sky when I was looking at it. I was in an open field about twenty minutes from here. I was lying down in the open grass, underneath direct sunlight. I was petrified with fear. I thought if I move, the suns' going to figure out I shouldn't be here and fry me. I lay there for almost half an hour, without moving a muscle, until logic dictated that I wasn't going to go up in flames. Buffy, Luke made me human again. I sat up, grinning. I'm sure I looked like someone who'd just escaped from a luny bin or something." He grinned at her, a shadow of the grin two years ago. Then he noticed her absent expression.
"Buffy?" He nudged her gently with his knee.
"H-...human?" She managed to get out around her constricted throat. "You're human?" Then her eyes widened slightly, and before he knew it, her fist shot out and connected with his jaw. He head whipped around with the punch. He turned back, massaging his jaw.
"What the hell was that for?" He demanded.
"You've been human for two years, you piece of shit!" She shot at him, getting up and glaring at him. "Two years! You never thought to let me know?"
"Buffy, you were 28! As far as I knew, you had a husband and children in Sunnydale. What was I supposed to do? Just jump on a plane and turn up at your door, saying, "Hey, Buffy, I'm home. Let's go out and patrol the cemetary"?"
"Yes!" She drew in a deep breath, trying to stem back tears of pain and regret. Two years lost!
"I'd left you for good, Buffy! I didn't want to give you false hope." She growled, consumed with anger.
"When you left, I vowed that you would be the only one I could ever love. The Powers that Be obviously heard that, because you have been the only to get even remotely close! How the hell do you think you have the right to decide for me? I may have been 18 ten years ago, and you may have thought you were doing the right thing, but I'm older now! I won't have anyone make decisions for me. If I want to love you forever, then I will, and nobody, not you, not Giles, and certainly not Cordelia can make me change my mind! You got that, mister I-know-what's-best?" She started pacing. "She sends me up here on some fool mission. I'm the bloody Slayer! I'm not a messenger service. Says she wants to stay in Sunnydale, close to her mother! Huh! Well, I've got news for that little -." She screamed in fury. Angel, from past experience, knew to let her rant. He watched as she pulled the note she had been sliding under his door from her back jeans pocket. She opened the envelope and quickly scanned the letter. He watched as her anger melted away, and tears formed in her eyes as she went back to the top of the page, and read the letter again, slowly. He wondered what was in the letter. His still sensitive ears heard her sniff softly. He watched a tear drop from the corner of her eye, and decided he'd had enough.
"Buffy? What is it?" He asked. She looked up at him, then pounced. He tensed for a moment, then opened his arms and caught her. She burried her face in his neck, muttering "I love you" over and over again. He reached behind and grabbed at the note, but missed and watched it fall to the ground. Buffy pulled back, stared into his all to lovely, human eyes, and kissed him. He didn't hesitate. God had given him two gifts. His humanity and now Buffy. The door to the bedroom closed behind them, causing the letter that had dropped face down on the floor to turn over. Anyone looking in through the roof could read what Buffy had.
Dear Cordelia, Luke and Angelica.
Well, it's now year two of my mortal life. I've come a long way. I'm still in the detective business. Doing really well, too! Wesley has moved on, saying that he doesn't want to hang around and become complacent - actually I think he just likes riding his motorcycle, it gives him a reason to wear leather and sunglasses. I found Luke's brother. Leij said he'll try to get in contact next full moon. I was going to ask, but somehow, I got the feeling I'd better not. I've moved, finally. It's a penthouse up near where you and Luke met. It's got almost no walls, but lots of windows and fresh air. I'm loving it. Food it still as wonderful, new and exciting as it was 18 months ago.
How's Angelica going? Growing like a rocket, if the pictures are anything to go by. Tell her that her Uncle Angel is going to be sending her one big birthday present! Oh, and congratulations on becoming store manager, Cord. Almost own that store soon!
Oh, I forgot. Kate and her beau finally married. Took them long enough. Kate asked me at the reception why we'd never gotten together. I finally told her about Buffy. I miss her, Cord! More than anything else in my entire life, I miss her. I thought it would get easier in time, but it's not. It's so much harder now, than when we left Sunnydale almost ten years ago. Do you see her much? Talk to her? How is she? Is she doing well? Married with some little blond girls just like their mother? I try so hard not to think of that day we had. I know she can't remember it, and I know it hurts to think of it. But sometimes, sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing. And then, losing Doyle the next day....
I'm sorry. Look, I'll see you when you come up in August. Until then, keep well. And write back.
Angel.