Characters: Connor (Stephen) and Angel
Rating/Warnings: Rated K+ for teenage wank.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own this, not me. I'm not making any $ from this story either.
Summary: Angel knew the teenage years were going to be difficult, but he never imagined how difficult they'd be.
Word Count: 140 words, give or take. Unbeta'd.
More Buffyverse! This one's from Angel, Season Three, after Connor returns from Quortoth, the hell dimension where Angelus' old enemy Holtz took him after kidnapping him with Wesley's unwitting help.
Something was off about Connor when he returned from Quortoth.
It wasn't just that he had been a baby when he left and in the space of a few short months had grown into an alienated teen. Angel knew from personal experience that time moved at a different pace in a hell dimension than it did on Earth. It wasn't just that Holtz had brainwashed him into thinking that his father was evil because all vampires were evil, without exception, or that he insisted on being called Stephen, not Connor.
He wasn't prepared for the hardness, the reflexive violence, the lack of trust.
This wasn't his son anymore. This was a stranger. And how could he reach out and relate to some snot-nosed teenager with a chip on his shoulder?
But he had to try.