DISCLAIMER: Nope.
SUMMARY: Technically, part of Morning After & Other Fairytales 'verse - more about the MA&oF'verse at kitteninthedark (LJ comm). The basics? No clause. No 'Innocence'/'Surprise'. No Angelus. This should be somewhere in early S3, not that there's any connection to canon.
WORDCOUNT: 3567
FEEDBACK: Pleeeeeeeeeeease?
THANK YOU: to Sharon, for tempting me. I'm having fun!
note: If you scroll down at my profile, you'll find the drabbles of the alternate S2. Title is, of course 'Morning After and Other Fairytales'.
Written for 4purposes (LJ comm).
YET ANOTHER HAPPILY EVER AFTER
by Leni
i. the pavements are burning
There were blisters on her feet. Raw flesh hit against the rough pavement, once, twice, again and again as she raced forward.
It stung. (but she didn't notice).
The way from school to the mansion had never seemed this long, or this dark (it was blurred by tears; she didn't notice that either). It was night already, a part of her realised. The Hyun ritual was supposed to take place exactly at sundown. They'd been so smug. Save the world via remote, Xander had said. A strong protection spell should have stopped everything from the library...
Willow had been the first to fall unconcious and be carried away.
Finally she was running past doors, through the parlour and into Angel's room. He was awake already, pants unzipped and reaching for a clean shirt as she rushed in. He stared at her, about to ask why she'd come so early. Then he saw her. "What's wrong?"
Everything! Buffy wanted to cry out. She wanted even more to run to him and hide in this room forever. She couldn't. The story was started at its end: "There were too many. I had to... to run." (To leave them). By the time she'd explained what happened at the library, Angel was ready.
He stuck extra stakes in a pocket. When she held out her hand, he offered her the rest. They were standing face to face now. Angel took a second to look at her from head to toes. Her hair was a mess and teartracks ran down her cheeks. He didn't comment, though; he was learning. But he frowned when he reaches her feet. "You are missing a shoe?"
Buffy looked down, blinked. She'd worn two sandals to school today; she was sure. Why did she only have one now? She remembered: A vampire caught her kick... There was a struggle... So this was why her right foot hurt. "I lost it."
(Once, when she was seven, she ran along the beach for so long she cried when she realised she'd lost her parents. Then she ran more, bare feet and the burning sand below. Her father chided her while her mom applied some soothing ointment.
She wasn't the Slayer then. Her friends hadn't been kidnapped.
She wishes... It doesn't matter, does it?)
Angel bent and rescued a pair of tennis shoes from under the bed. Messy at home, messy at my boyfriend's, she thought. "Thank you, honey." She wished she had time for a shower, or at least to grab a change of clothes and burn these. They reeked of failure.
But that didn't matter, either.
"How many?" Angel asked while she sat to tie the shoelaces.
"Two dozen, at least." The knot was too tight. "I'm not even sure..." She broke off. She couldn't say it. She had to believe her friends were worth something for this bad guy. She changed tracks. "I'm not sure they'll be at the same place. Played us once, why not twice?"
He didn't say anything. Nothing would soothe her now, anyway. But she felt him take a place beside her; a hand came to rest on her shoulder.
She gave in. "I have no idea where they are." She wanted to cry. She wanted. Instead she tied the next shoelace.
The hand rubbed a circle, then another. "We will find them."
She nodded, stood. Began running again.
But this time Angel was running beside her. She bit her lip and thanked God that some routine had been spared tonight. Then added a quick prayer for everyone to survive the night (for her not to be too late. Again).
...the blisters were already healing.
ii. where the flames expire, where the spark fades
They stayed in the corner until the light at Cordelia's window went out. Angel took her hand as they rounded to walk down the street.
Both thought about the last hours. About the empty building they'd first gone to, the threats they'd made to Willy and the urgency propelling them across Sunnydale to save her friends. They could have talked about the strangeness of vampire wizards, weird even for the Hellmouth. "She let me drive," he said instead.
He sounded mystified. Buffy couldn't blame him. For once, Cordelia Chase had been too upset to drive herself home. But the weird didn't stop there... "She thanked me at her doorstep. I win."
"She always says thank you."
Buffy laughed, but not unkindly. It was simply Cordelia's way to complain first and think of her almost-death later.
Angel also smiled. "Okay. She always thanks me." He gave a little shrug when Buffy raised an eyebrow.
"Should I be jealous?"
He didn't dignify that with an answer.
Buffy seemed pensive for a moment. Then, "You could get yourself a car."
A chuckle. "I'm afraid to ask how that is related to our conversation."
"Hey!" Both smiled. She looked down at their linked hands and squeezed, just a little. "I mean it." She did. She'd wanted to bring up the topic for weeks, but had never found a chance. "Oz's van is cool, especially when we need to carry lots of weapons - or a rocket launcher."
Angel nodded.
"But the Dingoes need it when they have a gig outside Sunnydale," she continued. "And Cordelia's car. Well." Buffy remembered the last time they'd needed Cordelia's convertible. Cringed. "Leather and blood don't mix, and she won't let us forget."
Angel made a face. Apparently he also remembered that night. There was silence as Buffy let her boyfriend mull over her idea. "I also like leather seats," he sighed.
Buffy wasn't sure whether that was a yes or a no. However, before she could ask, her back straightened instinctivelly and she moved her hand to a stake under her jacket-
"We have company." Angel's voice was too low for the vampire to catch it.
Buffy responded in kind. "We forgot our Don't Disturb sign."
One minute passed, then another.
"You know, we saved the world tonight. That's the part where the Hellmouth takes a break. Bye-bye, hellish flames. Take a clue?"
They kept walking. The vampire kept his distance.
"I appreciate some spark. I am sparky. But sparky undead is not my idea of fun."
"You're babbling."
She threw her boyfriend an incredulous glare. "Of course. I always babble when I'm bored. Sparky here is bo-o-oring me."
"Please don't name him," he pleaded.
She pouted. "Spoilsport." Yet another minute went by and still nothing happened. Finally she sighed impatiently. "Does he want an invitation card?"
Angel seemed to take that into consideration. He turned suddenly, but instead of calling out a challenge as Buffy half-expected him to, he bent towards her and kissed her demandingly. She tried to protest, for a second, then she heard the steps rushing in on them. She took another two seconds to enjoy the kiss before it broke so they'd face their stalker.
As they walked away from the ashes, Buffy rolled her eyes. "I hate voyeurs." Then, to Angel. "You could have warned me." A smug smirk was all the answer she got. "Pig." But she was smiling. She suddenly came to a halt when he led her into Revello Drive. Her house was only three blocks ahead. Oops!
"Buffy?" Angel stood beside her, confused.
"Um. I kinda forgot. Rescuing my buddies, fighting darkness. You know how it is." He lifted an eyebrow, signalling he was waiting patiently for an actual explanation. "Well, yeah." She cleared her throat. "I'mstayingwithyoutonight."
Both eyebrows shot up. "Buffy."
"Could we talk about this-" She looked around nervously. As if a neighbour would walk by them at two in the morning. "-somewhere else?"
Angel let himself be led back to the street they'd come from. "We've discussed this."
He sounded serious; he always did. Buffy sighed. She couldn't believe she always had to talk him into spending a night together. "So we did. But this time I'm not trying to lie to mom."
He looked unconvinced.
"Keyword: trying," she admitted. "I told her I was staying at Will's. Which I was!" she added quickly when she saw his expression. "History quiz tomorrow and we thought we could make with the studying after the spell. Now, though..."
Now, though, after being kidnapped and brutally zapped out of her powers, Willow hadn't been in shape for anything but to sit distractedly in the van's shotgun seat and let Oz drive her home. She took a second to hope there would be no aftereffects for her friend. "Obviously, that plan was shot."
Angel thought it over. "I suppose..."
Buffy pulled her hand from his abruptly. "Gee, don't sound so ecstatic," she began, feeling cross. "You are making me blush!" Once she'd seen that going with Willow wouldn't help, Buffy had begun looking forward to a night at Angel's. And this was his response? Her arms folded over her chest sulkily. She knew she was acting immaturely, but she really didn't understand why Angel made such a big deal out of her staying at the mansion from time to time. It made her feel... unwanted. Hello, teenage insecurity! It was easier to stand between hungry monsters and her best friends than to stand here, knowing that Angel was taking her in under duress.
Most days, she understood him. It wasn't like she liked lying to her mother. She just liked more being with him.
He seemed to catch on to some of her thoughts, because his expression changed as he reached for her. "Hey, you know I'm happy." He brought his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in until her head was resting on his chest. He smirked again. "I'm making you blush?" His hand travelled from her arm to her hip, then snuck under her shirt. It stopped at her waistline, and a finger hooked between the denim and her skin, rubbed softly. "Really?"
Buffy put her hand over his, but only to hold it in place. "Sarcasm." But when she looked up, there indeed was a soft pink spreading over her cheeks. Her smirk was slower, but maybe more mischievious than his. "This could be a lot more interesting if we were in a car."
Angel glanced heavenwards and shook his head.
"Just saying!"
He grumbled something, but she still wasn't sure if it was a yes or a no.
iii. at morning in the dark I rise
An abandoned warehouse.
Buffy threads lightly outside, keeping to the darkest shadows. The vampires inside don't know that she's found them. That is her only advantage. The enemy has four advantages over her and she's trying to convince herself that she's fought under worse prospects.
Willow screams.
Buffy moves to leap inside.
A hand on her shoulder stops her.
She turns, aware that there's misery in her eyes. Angel's have only one word in them: Wait.
A part of her knew that she was dreaming. Another knew that she was remembering. But most of her had gone through this scene only six hours ago, and she couldn't let go. She couldn't.
Willow screams again.
Oz is shouting. So is Xander.
By now they've staked the lone guards in the perimeter and they're moving slowly into the warehouse. Buffy pushes another vampire into Angel's stake as Oz calls out his girlfriend's name.
"Angel!" she hisses. A look. A plea.
He nods.
She sprints towards the main room, hears an arrow fly past her and in another second the vampire holding Willow is dusted.
Cordelia shrieks, pulled aside even as Xander lungs for her.
Buffy has no time for them, too busy holding off five enemies at the same time. She has a glimpse of Angel under similar odds and wonders – Is this it?
She whimpered in her sleep, folding her legs into herself in a protective motion.
The arm around her waist tightened. "Buffy?"
"Buffy!"I'm alive, she wants to ay, but she can't save that much breath.
She stakes a vampire and another takes his place. Two dozen, she'd told Angel earlier, and she'd thought it was bad. This is worse. It's endless. It's useless. It's the only thing she knows: Keep Moving. "Here!" she cries back.
She yelps as her arm is twisted backwards, but a well-aimed kick rids her off that threat. Sweat is running down her face, thicker and faster now. When the vampires recoil in a sudden wave away from her, Buffy understands this heat isn't natural.
Fire!
Oz stands close to the burning crates, Willow leans heavily against him, faint in his arms. Her hands have a diffuse aura around them, and Buffy thanks God she's okay. She must be okay to do spells, right? Meanwhile Cordelia and Xander protect the other couple a best as they can and, when Buffy sees the blood running down Cordelia's neck, she knows that this time they've come too close.
"Buffy!"
The voice isn't Angel's. She whirls around. "Giles!" It's a whisper, really. She makes him out at the other end of the warehouse, too far from her to arrive in his help in time, too far from the fire that protects the others.
"GILES!"
"No!"
It was dark in the room and Buffy tried to breathe through her panic.
No fire. No screams. No danger.
"Again?"
Without a thought, se turned to Angel, brought her arms around his shoulders and clung hard. She knew she should dismiss the dream, be sensible. She should rise and greet the morning – as much as it could be greeted behind Angel's curtains. But a shaky nod was all she could bring herself to do, and she shivered when she felt his hand run soothingly through her hair. "I should be used to them by now."
Nightmares. Once, she'd believed that her troubling Slayer dreams – dire warning with vague specifics – were her curse. Now she knew better: Memories were worse. "It's last night. Willow. And Cordy." A sigh. "Xander has so many scars already." She pictured Xander's arms, covered in pink lines and healing gashes. For all his jokes, he'd taken to long-sleeved shirts.
"It's not your fault."
Buffy fingered the collar of his shirt. She was wearing a similar one, even if she felt her own collar brush the swell of her breasts. She lowered the cloth a little, exposing more of his skin. Last night she'd spied a cut where his neck met his shoulder, a failed attempt to slice his chest open. Bringing her finger to the exact spot, she traced the ghost of the line she'd seen before. Now there wasn't even a mark. Blank slate.
How she wished her life could be like Angel's skin. She shook her head. One wasted wish. And here came another: "I only wish the nightmares would stop."
"They will," he murmured.
"You mean, in another century, take a gypsy's curse or two?"
He stilled.
Buffy closed her eyes, burrowed even closer to him. "I'm sorry." She tasted the words, found that she meant them. Again, with more feeling. "I'm sorry, Angel. I'm being a bitch for nothing."
He didn't answer, but at least he kept holding her, caressing her back reassuringly.
A child being comforted after a nightmare. That, Buffy supposed, was an image just too close to the truth.
iv. the world's in love
The second time she woke up, Angel was shaking her arm lightly.
She stared up at him, unsure why he was in her room so early. (("You need something to sleep in."
She grabbed the offered item, unfolded it. "Aren't you afraid I'll steal your entire wardrobe?"
"Every single day.")) Right. Not her bedroom.
"Buffy. School," he reminded her. Another gentle shake accompanied his words.
She furrowed her nose a little even as she yawned. "I've been told better good mornings." But she sat up, swung her legs to a side of the bed. "What time is it?" A rethorical question. She was already turning her head to the alarm clock at his bedside, the same he'd bought after the fourth time she'd fallen asleep on his bed after training together. Her eyes widened when she made sense of the red numbers, rushed to her feet and into the bathroom. "Oh my god, Angel. Did you put me out after I freaked on you?" ((She wouldn't let go of him. If only it was so simple to keep her friends safe. "I can lose them so easily."
"They are more resistant than that."
She giggled. She didn't realise she was crying until he dabbed her cheeks with his thumb.))
"You needed your rest," she heard through the door. Sure, and now she'd need to race to school. Face clean, teeth brushed and hair in a high ponytail, she returned to the bedroom and yanked a drawer open.
Note to self: Bring clothes! She bit her lip. There wasn't much to choose from: Two skirts, a pair of jeans and three tops. With tennis shoes as her only shoeware, the actual options dwindled dramatically. She took the jeans and laid them on the bed. Then she looked between the tops and brought out one in each hand. "Which one says 'I'm too cute for an E'?"
"Both."
Buffy turned, a bit surprised. Angel's expression said he meant it. She smiled to herself, suddenly in a better mood. ("Great." She held the ruined shirt before her and shook her head sadly. It hadn't been a favourite, but now only two words could define it: Beyond Salvation. She laid it aside, mumbled to herself. "I must have looked like a scarecrow all the way here." She waited. Then she raised her head and glared at Angel. "That's the part where you say I didn't!") He was learning. Slowly, but surely.
Finally she folded the white top back into the drawer and put the green one beside the jeans. Angel had once said that shade matched her eyes. She nodded to herself, satisfied with her choices. Then she looked at her boyfriend and gave a pointed look at her clothes. "What? You staying for the show?"
He didn't move.
She raised an eyebrow as she reached for the hem of the oversized shirt she was wearing. Angel's eyes narrowed, almost imperceptibly. Buffy felt herself blush, hesitated.
Their gaze broke away. "I wish." Angel gave her a once-over. Suddenly, he was standing in front of her, his lips on hers, his hands at her waist. She returned the kiss eagerly, and was about to put her arms around him when he stepped back. "You do have to go to school." He looked as convinced about that as Buffy herself felt. But he shook his head and loosened his grasp. Buffy pouted, tried to think of something. But he was already walking out.
(He leaned away from the kiss and she made to follow him. The kiss broke, though, and she was left licking her lips for traces of him.
"Sleep." If he'd told her to start dancing a polka, she wouldn't have been more surprised. Her surprise showed through, obviously. It always did. He softened his expression, caressed her hair away from her face. "Sleep now, love. You had a bad night."
"Well, yeah. But..."
He drew the covers aside, rose without another word.
She stared. "Angel?"
"I'll be back soon."
She wanted to go after him, to wait for him and tell him that she knew when she was too tired. But she fell asleep before he'd come back.)
She stepped into the parlour, finally ready for a new day. She'd gone through her To Do list as she dressed, and she'd made it as far as 'rush into class when the bell rings'. First, she needed to get to school as soon as the door opened, avoid Snyder until she'd recovered her schoolbag - In the confusion, she'd abandoned it in the library office - and, somehow, she needed enough time for a read-through of the History text she'd be quizzed on.
Angel was already there, and he smiled lightly. An invitation for a goodbye kiss if Buffy had ever seen one. It was too short for her liking, but she didn't complain.
"Here."
She looked down at the small bag he was offering, took it. A flash of green inside made her smile. Her sense of smell wasn't as keen as his, but she knew what she'd find. Apples, maybe a couple sadnwiches and - hopefully - coffee. These days he always had some food around for her, and this was better than asking Xander for some of his snacks for breakfast. "I feel so pampered," she confessed. That, of course, deserved a reward.
This kiss was slower, somehow deeper. More than goodbye, it said thank you, and I don't want to go, I want you to stay, here, with me, in this kiss, in more than this kiss. Finally, a murmur, almost a groan. "Stay?"
She gave him one last kiss, looked into his eyes as she caressed his cheek. "Hold that thought until I'm back."
Angel chuckled. "Tease."
She walked backwards towards the door. Turning around was impossible for now. "And yet you love me."
"And yet I love you," he answered, giving a long resigned sigh. His eyes betrayed him.
She grinned, then remembered a detail. "I'll have to go home first. Prove to mom that I'm alive, and that I had a great time at Will's!" He looked at little guilty and Buffy really didn't care for that sight. She ran back to him, threw her arms around him. Both had to tame this kiss so that she could go and he could let her. It was okay; she'd come back soon. "Wait for me?"
"Always."
The End
16/11/06
