Story title: "Timing: Early"

Author: Taaroko

Summary: AU from the episode "Angel," after the reveal that Angel is a vampire. Buffy gets home early.

Rating: PG

Warnings: None.

"Are you sure you want to go home already?" said Willow, her I'm-very-concerned-for-your-academic-future-but-I'm-too-polite-to-say-so face firmly in place. "I thought you wanted to wait until something would sink in."

"As much as I want to pass the history test," said Buffy as she slipped her arms into the straps of her backpack, "I'm not sure it's a good idea to leave my house unguarded after dark."

"Do you really think Angel would…I dunno, be lying in wait for you or something?"

"Well, that's sorta what he did last night. I was kinda surprised to find him still in my room when I got home from school; his injury wouldn't have stopped him from leaving. Of course, it makes sense now. He couldn't go outside because of the sun, so he ended up sitting in my room all day."

"And you were too twitterpated to call him out on it?" said Willow slyly, beginning to gather up her own things.

Buffy blushed and ducked her head. "Yeah, kinda." She sighed. "But now, until I know what his deal is, I can't risk him showing up while Mom's the only one home."

"If he'd wanted to hurt you or your mom, couldn't he have done it while you were both sleeping?" said Willow. Buffy fought back a smile. It was so obvious that Willow was still hoping things would have a romantic ending. She couldn't deny that a large part of her hoped for that too. "A-and all those times he gave you information so you could stop the Master's plans, and taking a big blow to the ribs like that? Plus, your mom was at home when he was there yesterday, and he just stayed out of sight."

Buffy sighed again. "I can't tell if you're actually making sense or I just want you to be making sense. But I should still head home. If it looks like everything's quiet, I'll call you and we can study over the phone, and then maybe we can finish up tomorrow morning, post-sunrise, pre-first period?"

"Okay," said Willow.

†

"Oh hi, Buffy," Joyce called from the kitchen as soon as Buffy shut the front door behind her.

"Hey, Mom," said Buffy, hanging her house key on the hook and following the sound of her mom's voice. Her eyes widened at the sight of the papers spread across the entire kitchen island. "Whoa, did a tornado hit?"

Joyce rolled her eyes and smiled ruefully. "I've been working on bills ever since I got home from work." She frowned. "I thought you'd be studying with Willow for at least another hour."

"Change of plans," said Buffy. "The school is a fine place during the day, but it's hard to focus when you're the only two people there at night. I'll just study in my room, and then when I'm ready for Willow to quiz me, I'll call her."

"Oh, okay," said Joyce. She raised an eyebrow. "And no community college tutors will be coming over this evening?"

"Not as far as I know," said Buffy innocently.

"Well, before you head upstairs, any chance you could give me an excuse to take a break for at least an hour?"

"Can do," said Buffy. "What's for dinner?"

"You're a doll." Joyce got up from her stool and opened the fridge. "How does grilled cheese sound? I can put ham and tomatoes in it or make tomato soup to go with it."

"Ham and tomatoes, please," said Buffy. "Warm soup plus boring history textbook equals very sleepy Buffy."

"Go study," said Joyce, her tone stern but her eyes twinkling. "I'll call you down when it's ready."

Buffy headed towards the stairs with a spring in her step. She liked it when she and her mom got along so well. She knew she owed at least some of it to Angel's tact.

Her foot was on the bottom stair when someone knocked on the door. She whirled around, her heart suddenly hammering. Could it be Angel? If it was, knocking was a good sign, right? If he was evil, he would just break in or something.

Fingers shaking a little, she pulled the door open, then froze, the quivering lump of nerves in her stomach freezing into a block of ice. It wasn't Angel. It was the blonde vampire girl Buffy had encountered in that crypt on her very first night in Sunnydale. "What are you doing here?" she hissed.

Vamp girl raised an eyebrow and lifted her nose in disdain. "I just thought I'd pay your mother a little visit while you were studying at the library."

The icy feeling in Buffy's stomach began to spread at the thought of what might've happened if she hadn't come home when she did. "Well my mom isn't available right now, but I'm game if you're ready for round two." She slid her backpack off, pulled a stake out of the smallest pocket, and tossed it on the couch. "We'll have to take it outside, though, 'cause I'm not inviting you in."

Vamp girl's lip curled. "Sure, come outside and fight. Leave your mother inside, alone, in a house you've invited a vampire into."

Buffy stayed where she was. Was Angel really working with her? Vamp girl smirked.

"You think you can protect the people you love? Well, if it's not your mother and it's not tonight, then maybe tomorrow night I'll pay a visit to the redhead, or the boy with the goofy smile, or the librarian. Maybe I'll even bring Angel along."

Buffy's heart missed a beat. Vamp girl laughed. "Didn't you know? Angel and I go way back. I found that boy wasting his life in a little town in Ireland and turned him into something magnificent. We spent generations together, torturing, feeding on, and killing anyone we pleased. You weren't thinking he was on your side, were you? Not that I can blame you for your little crush. I'm four hundred years old and I've never had anyone better than him."

"Well, for someone on your side, he sure has a knack for spoiling your boss's plans," said Buffy. Her face felt hot, though whether from rage or mortification, she had no idea.

"It's called being a double agent, you stupid little girl. How do you think he found out about those plans in the first place?"

Before Buffy could think of a witty retort that would mask how worried she was that vamp girl was telling the truth, something very odd happened. At first, Buffy thought vamp girl was lunging forward, but then she realized that it was less of a lunge and more of a loss of balance, and when her face reached the actual threshold, it flattened out as if she'd smacked it against a solid pane of glass. Buffy had a split second to admire the sight of vamp girl's nose bent sideways and her lips and cheeks squashed against thin air, and then she fell in a heap at her feet, to reveal Angel standing behind her, looking much more awkward than it should be possible to look after pulling off a sneak attack like that.

He ran a hand over the back of his head. "Mostly I heard about the plans from minions who were too stupid to keep their mouths shut," he said in response to vamp girl's question.

"Well," said Buffy, whose emotions were in such a jumble that being glib seemed the only logical option, "I wish I'd known about the invitation rule sooner, because it has serious slapstick potential." She looked up at Angel. "Why did you come back?"

He kept his eyes on the unconscious vampire between them. "I wanted to talk to you. I don't know if I actually would've had the guts to do it, but then I saw that Darla was here, and I had to make sure you and your mom were okay."

"We're peachy," said Buffy. She glanced down at Darla too. "And I'd like to talk, but we probably shouldn't do it with your ex unconscious on my doormat." She raised her stake. "Doesn't seem very sporting to stake her while she's down, but since she was threatening the people I care about…"

"You should do it," said Angel. There was something like pain or bitterness in his voice. "She won't be down for long, and she will make good on those threats if you let her get away."

"You want me to stake her even though she's the vamp who turned you?" said Buffy.

He looked at her with those gorgeous brown eyes. She could definitely see pain there. "It's not about what I want," he said.

Buffy nodded, bent down, and plunged the stake through Darla's back, next to her left shoulder blade. Angel swallowed hard and turned away before Darla's body turned to dust.

"How much of what she said was true?" Buffy asked, standing up straight again.

"Everything about the past," said Angel. "But I came to Sunnydale to help you, not them."

"Buffy, is someone at the door?" Joyce called, making them both jump.

"No, Mom, it was just a salesman," Buffy called back over her shoulder. They had a blanket policy against letting door-to-door salesmen into the house, so she knew it was a lie her mom wouldn't question.

"Okay."

"Do you want to come up to my room to talk, or should I come outside?" said Buffy, keeping her voice low so her mom wouldn't hear anything.

"Maybe it'd be better if I stayed out here," said Angel.

"Why?" said Buffy. "Were you planning on doing something to make me regret inviting you in?"

"No!" he said, his eyes darting back to hers. "It's just…when you invited me in, you thought I was some human guy you had to protect. Now you know what I really am, and you deserve to be able to keep me out if you want to."

"Maybe I don't want to," said Buffy. Angel gaped at her, but still made no move to step inside, so she stepped outside instead, closing the door quietly behind her. She walked over to the swing on the porch and sat down, then patted the space next to her. Angel took the offered seat without speaking.

"So," said Buffy after the silence dragged for an uncomfortably long moment, "I spent most of the day listening to Giles tell me that vampires are always evil monsters no matter what. He even found some stuff about you in his books. Angelus, 'the one with the angelic face,' who wreaked havoc in Europe for over a century until he mysteriously dropped off everyone's radar. Care to fill in some blanks? Because the vampire who did all that doesn't sound anything like the guy who gave me this." She tugged at the chain of her cross necklace.

"In 1898, I was in Romania. I killed a girl—probably about your age. Her clan was of the Roma people."

"Clan?" said Buffy, confused.

"Gypsies," he clarified. "Killing me wasn't good enough, so they came up with the perfect revenge. Giles was right about vampires. Humans can be good or evil or anything in between, because they have souls, which give them free will. They can rise above selfish inclinations and overcome temptation if they try to. But as soon as the body dies, the soul leaves it, and for vampires, a demon takes its place. The demon is pure evil. A creature like that is incapable of remorse, mercy, love. The Gypsies wanted me to suffer for what I did, so they restored my human soul. Ever since then, I've been living with the guilt of everything I've done."

"And that's why you stopped feeding on people," said Buffy, remembering what Giles had said about there being no record of him hunting for at least eighty years. She frowned. "How do you survive, then? You haven't been ripping off the Red Cross, have you?"

He chuckled. "No. I drink animal blood, mostly. There's plenty of it at butcher shops."

Buffy grinned. "What do they think you do with it, make black pudding all day?"

Angel shrugged, a smile tugging at his lips. "I give them big enough tips that they don't ask. But now I know what I'll say if they ever do."

Buffy grinned. "So, how does a vampire with a soul find his way to Sunnydale, California, just when the Slayer and her mom move into town?"

"A demon—a good demon—found me and sent me to be your ally. Seemed to think you'd need one."

"There are good demons?" said Buffy.

"Oh, yeah," said Angel. "It mostly depends on species. Certain species are totally benign, but I doubt you'll find many good demons around the Hellmouth."

"Well," said Buffy, heat rising in her cheeks. "I did find one." She reached out placed her hand on his where it rested on the cushion between them. The cool temperature of his skin fascinated her. He turned his hand over and intertwined their fingers.

"I thought you'd hate me if you found out what I was," he said. "And that was the best-case scenario."

"You're harder to hate than you think," said Buffy. He turned his body to face her better and reached up his free hand to gently cup the side of her face. Butterflies fluttered madly in her stomach, and she suddenly felt like giggling. Angel was good! "If we kiss again, are you gonna vamp out on me like last night?"

He smiled. "I think I can keep it under control."

"Good," said Buffy, "'cause if my mom walked out here, that would be really hard to explain."

His smile widened, and he leaned in to kiss her. It was somehow even better than the night before. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she now knew she was kissing someone who should be her mortal enemy. He used both arms to pull her closer and she wrapped hers around his neck. He smelled like leather and some kind of woody spice, and he felt amazing.

After what had to be at least a minute, but still not nearly long enough in Buffy's opinion, he broke away. "Your mom's calling you. Dinner's ready."

"I'd better go," said Buffy reluctantly. "But if you want to show up again before you have more information for me, I'd be okay with that."

"I'll think about it," he said.

She leaned forward and gave him a last brief kiss before darting back over to the door and slipping inside the house.

I will never stop being disappointed that nobody ever smacked a vampire against the invisible barrier. Maybe it'll happen on The Vampire Diaries one of these days. Anyway, I'll post the second alternative in a few days, once it goes up on the IWRY site.