N/A: Trust, I just had to write this. Everything else will be updated, soon. Even "Trust" for Death Note. I'm going through everything. Summer will give me more time to update. I've gotten through my bit of depression, and I'm coming back with a force. In fact, I'm "Shanshu"ing. (Oh, dear.)
Oh Night
Chapter One
Seeing Rose
Angel and Wesley stumbled into the office, dripping goo, with their axes barely being held up and their feet barely hitting the ground in the right pattern. "Oh my goodness," Wesley said as he dropped to the floor, moving just to sit up against the heater.
Angel tore out a chair before flopping on it. The goo made a squelching sound beneath his ass, and he groaned loudly before tossing his head and childishly stamping his feet.
Meanwhile, Cordelia gaped, eyes wide, and a drop of polish splattered onto her toes. She had one leg tucked under her, while the other was propped up on her desk. Cotton balls were spread out over a white and black monthly calender, and the smell of ammonia was coming heavily from her open bottle of remover.
Wesley peeked. "What on Earth were you doing, Cordelia?"
She snapped out of it, before scowling at the ex-Watcher. "Never mind that. What have you guys been up to? I thought you were just going downtown to interrogate those peaceful race of Janash demons?"
"We were. The Kersleg was there. Wanted a bite out of the matriarch. We grabbed the just-in-case axes from my trunk and got rid of it there. Bit messy. And Lord, does that smell awful," Angel's nose crinkled. He almost tried to close it with his fingers, until he realized he still had goo on them.
"Oh," Cordy said, before she finished off her right foot. The other was done drying. "Let me just get this top coat on, and I'll leave."
"Uh huh," Angel said, getting up and going towards the elevator, "I'm going to shower. Wesley," he added as an after thought, "You're welcome to use it after me."
Wesley groaned in response.
Carefully, Cordy washed on the layer of clear, thick top coat on one foot, and then the other. After she finished, she wiggled her toes triumphantly, causing the green foam, smiling frogs that made up her toe separator to dance.
"Alright," she said, swinging her legs and getting up, shuffling around Wesley, "Now I'll just walk around a little to get them to dry faster-" before Cordy could move over to the fridge, intending to grab a cooled Milky Way, She grabbed her head and moaned in pain. "Not now, not now!" she yelped, before she tumbled towards the floor. Wesley got up and furiously wiped his hands on his pants, before propping her up on a stray chair pillow and repeating, "Cordy, what do you see?"
"A girl!" she shouted, "young, Hispanic! There's a vampire after her! Somewhere near Walgreen's, oh, come on, come on. . .uuuuughhhh. . .yes, there! The Walgreen's three blocks over by Danny's Pizza! Go!"
Angel came running up the stairs, shoving a sweater on although he wasn't quite clean yet.
Wesley and the vampire rushed out after putting Cordy comfortably in her chair, and giving her a glass of water. "She has on a brown leather jacket, hurry!" she shouted as they disappeared.
She huffed, rubbing her forehead. They were getting worse.
Rose sheepishly laughed at herself. It was already almost eleven, and she was making a run to Walgreen's.
In a way, she loved living alone. It was lonely, especially in a city like Los Angeles, but she'd gotten used to, and tired of living with her parents, and then with roommates. Being able to go to Walgreen's at eleven, and come home a little loud without disturbing anyone or getting anyone irritated was the greatest thing on Earth, at the moment.
She was happy enough that she ignored the leer of a blond man as she jogged through the glass doors of the well lit establishment.
Inside, she flipped up her hair and put it into a high bun, and had to take off her leather jacket because of the intensified heat.
She got what she wanted – a bag of mixed cheesy popular chips, a small thing of onion dip, and a large bottle of green tea with lemon. "Comfort food, and celebration food," she murmured to herself.
At the cashier's counter she danced a little to the popular song playing on the overhead speakers while a young man with slicked back black hair grinned at her and said, "Ten cuidado."
She gave him a hasty smile, and rolled her eyes as she walked out, balancing her bag to put her jacket back on. "And what if I didn't speak Spanish, idiot?" she murmured to herself. Los Angeles was cold as she walked out into it. Her breath came out in white puffs. She made her way quickly down the street, and started to walk towards her apartment building.
A man hopped off the side of Walgreen's and started to saunter towards her.
Rose heard footsteps. Quickly, she glanced in a rear-view mirror of a car parked on the side of the street. She nearly groaned when she realized that, despite the footsteps, she couldn't see anyone behind her in the reflection.
She decided to keep walking. Gradually, she kept to the left of the sidewalk and stayed far away from building shadows and even farther from any alley openings.
Just as she approached the last alley, the footsteps behind her quickened.
"Oh, come on," she shouted. One hand was at the ready in her jacket as she spun on her heel. The vampire was surprised, but recovered in an instant, grinning like the Cheshire cat as he started to walk in a circle. "What?" he asked innocently. He had a British accent.
Rose smiled – an old British accent.
"Oh, nothing," she said, shrugging. She was still annoyed. "Just an idiot vampire trying to get a meal out of an innocent. What d'ya mean, what? I don't need this, so why don't you just turn around, now."
Spike was taken aback this time, and didn't recover so quickly. "How do you know that? I wasn't even stalking you in the shadows. I was just stalking you like a rapist."
Rose turned her head in disbelief. "Oh, come on," she said, "No reflection? That one's obvious. All dark clothing, leather jacket? Alright, that one's a bit normal for these parts of LA, I guess. But that accent. I'm half-Irish, I lived in Ireland half of my life. I make fun of British accents for a living, and yours, is old."
Spike raised his bleached eyebrows, almost forgetting he was stalking prey. "Excuse me?" he said, "My accent is not old. I'm hip. I say, 'Ohright,' and 'That's well bad,' and all that."
Rose giggled. Almost forgetting she was being stalked. Almost – she was slowly wrapping her hand around her steak and fishing her second cross from the opposite pocket. "Those are even a bit old. All from the past five years. I'd try, 'Innit, though?' out for starters."
In a quick second, she darted. A cross in one hand and a steak in the other Rose dropped her groceries and sprung away faster than Spike had ever seen his prey run. Of course, in a moment she was again stopped by him. He towered over her, and moved to grab her arm.
Self defense kicked in, and Rose easily smashed the side of his face. "Ha!" she yelled, although she was sufficiently shook up. He was fast, but not careless, which meant he was old. She tried to think about how old his accent really sounded, and it chilled her. Research piled up in her mind, thinking about a guy with blond, bleached hair, and why he felt familiar.
He caught her on the shoulder. She stumbled, but turned and kicked him, again, on his face – right after she heard someone drop behind her.
Whoever it was, faltered for a moment. Two more people ran up. Oh, dear. "All we need is a crowd," Rose mumbled sarcastically. The vampire nursed his face. Once he let his hand drop from his cheek, though, he was glaring past her and not at her. Rose made a defensive move to go back and to her left. Now, she was facing two people. The tall dark man who came had on his vampire face, too.
In that moment, Rose felt true fear. One vampire, on the regular, was fine for her to take down. Not only was the first old and experienced, though, but now there was another one there.
She had to take deep breaths to steady herself. There were two humans on the side. They didn't look frightened, and probably didn't know what they were getting into. Maybe, Rose strategized, if these two are going to fight over prey, we have a chance of getting away.
"Get lost, Spike," the dark haired man said, "Why don't you get out of town? I thought you were gone with that ring."
"My ring," the blond named Spike spat, "and I'm just passing through. Guess I should have known that the Great Big Poof would interfere just before I snagged my meal."
Rose bristled. She fought the urge to yell, "You were not going to 'snag me'!"
The two vampires circled each other. The dark one laughed, "Oh, please. You looked like you were getting your butt kicked, by a human." Rose chilled and stopped moving when the dark one shot her a look. His smile made her stomach turn, because it looked appreciative and impressed.
She back away even more quickly after he looked away. A worse fate than dying, was being brought back as a vampire.
Her dark hair almost fell out of it's hold when the fight between the vampires broke out, and Rose bolted towards the two humans. "Come on," she harshly told them trying to at least keep her voice low, "I know you're confused, but trust me – if we don't leave, now, when that fight ends we're all dead."
The two followed her a few feet, before the young, very attractive brunette girl stopped, asking, "Wait, you know what's going on?"
Rose rolled her eyes, slightly panicked, and said, "Yes! And if you do, too, you'll run with me!"
"It's alright, ma'am," the tall, lanky man with her said. He also had a British accent. "Yea!" the girl agreed, "Angel's our friend. He's good. And trust me, he always wins a fight against Spike."
Rose raised her eyebrows. The old ones must be smart, "What has he promised you he'll save the world or something? That his plans are godly? Whatever it is, I'm telling you, it's not true. Nothing good comes from doing bad things. We have to get away from here."
"Geez, you know a lot," said a horrible voice from behind her.
Rose spun around fast enough that she felt whiplash almost happening with her neck. She had to stop doing that so much. The blond named Spike was long gone, and the dark vampire was standing in front of her. "And, I'm not going to save the entire world. At least, not tonight. Sometimes, that happens," he looked off to the side, frowning. Then, he came back and gave her a steadying look, as if he was trying to calm her down.
"I'm just here on a mission from the Powers That Be," he said, making calming hand gestures, "I'm not evil."
Rose's mind was going into overdrive. She was trying to see an exit. Now, the humans next to her were dangers, too. They would be obstacles, at the very least.
In the midst of all that chaos, though, a sheet from a book came to the front of her mind. To the side was a black ink hand drawing of a man with Victorian clothes, fierce eyes, and dark hair pulled back into a pony tail. He was holding the head of a young woman.
He was Angelus, the vampire with the face of an angel. It was vague, because Rose couldn't remember everything, but she did remember the story of his about being cursed into a soul by vampires.
Last was heard, he was hanging out in Sunnydale, the Hellmouth of California. Rose looked up at the dark vampire, and connected the two instantly. The young woman had called him Angel, which meant he was his souled counterpart, still. And, he had saved her life.
After a moment of pure adrenaline washed away, Rose found herself sigh in relief and turning her head back. "Oh, good Lord. Wow, sorry about that."
Rose ripped her hair from its hold, before tossing it all over the place. She was cold, suddenly, after the adrenaline wore off. She put the steak and cross back in her pockets, and saw him watching her doing it. Then, she stuck out her hand. "I can't believe I'm meeting the famous Angel – vampire with a soul. I just connected that, by the way. I thought you were another crazy vampire earlier."
Angel was surprised. "You know who I am?"
Rose nearly blushed. "Yepp. You're in the Watcher's diaries, and lots of other books, too, you know. Oh," she made another realization, "that means that Spike is the Spike, too. William the Bloody, with a penchant for putting railroad spikes through people's heads."
At that, Rose shivered almost violently, and her stomach grumbled loud enough to make Wesley laugh, but give her a concerned look.
"Hey," Angel said, "our offices aren't far from here. Why don't you come in, and have something to eat. Rest, a little."
Rose knew her apartment must have been closer, but she didn't care. She felt disoriented to the max, and was vaguely curious about their "offices". "Yea," she agreed, "but, uh, let me get my groceries."
She walked away, going towards the brown bag that was thankfully untouched and still straight up and unbroken on the ground. It crunched as she grabbed the top of it and then walked back to the trio waiting for her.
For a moment, as they walked off down the street together, Rose smiled. She'd found people in the city who knew the same strange, horrible things as she did.
And, she was hoping they wouldn't mind if she stuck around for a bit.