Love never ends
Pairing: Buffy/Angel (what else ;-))
Spoilers: Buffy Season 3, after the last episode
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters and I don't use them to make money. Nothing's mine but the idea to the story.
A.N: Please review! I hope you like it =)
It was close to midnight and the rain kept falling on Buffy's face as she was sitting on a gravestone once again. It had been a slow night vampire-wise and the Slayer was far from thinking about any vampires rising tonight. Actually, her thoughts were stuck, once again, on a certain vampire who wasn't around enough. And at the same time... too much.
"Hey", Angel suddenly said and Buffy was so startled she fell off her gravestone. "Sheesh, could you ever not sneak up on me when I'm hunting? I could have staked you!"
What was he doing here? It had been exactly a week since her graduation and his promise of leaving afterwards, though it had filled her with dread up until a week ago, would now be very welcome to her. She couldn't stand having him around all the time! He was everywhere. Whenever she was slaying or the Scooby gang were researching or Buffy was trying to take her mind off of him by pummeling a few demons, he was there, fighting alongside her and her friends as if nothing happened. But so much had happened between them. He had broken up with her and now he was always hovering over her. How was she supposed to be moving on?
"Sorry. I was just walking in the neighborhood and I saw you sitting here. I just thought you might need help with the slaying," he said, trying to help Buffy get up from the ground. However, she didn't take his offered hand and only murmured, "It's okay. I don't need your help!" Buffy wanted to get away from him as fast as possible so she took one last look around the graveyard and started to walk away.
"Wait. Where are you going?" Angel followed her. "Ahm, home. It's late and there are no new vampires tonight," Buffy answered over her shoulder while quickening her pace, praying he would take the hint and leave but he didn't. "Okay, I'll take you home. It's on my way, anyway." That did it. Buffy was tired of trying to spare his feelings and telling him to butt out in a nice way. This was too much, he was too near and she was too near breaking down and crying her heart out because he didn't want to be with her anymore. Also, she didn't understand anything anymore. Why was he still around?
She turned around and looked him straight in his dark brown eyes as she said, "No! I don't want you to take me home. I don't want you to go slaying with me. I don't want to have you hanging around all the time. It's painful, okay! Look, I appreciate that you're trying to help but I can't have you around me all the time. It hurts! It really hurts and I just... I really need space, Angel, please." Her tears started to spill over and Buffy turned around to hide them from him. Since she didn't hear any word from him, she just took off and ran home.
Angel was speechless. He could only stare after Buffy as she ran away crying. God, what had he done? He had really hurt her, maybe even more than she had let on just now. He knew, he had said that he would go, that he would leave Sunnydale after the Ascension but he couldn't. He somehow couldn't bring himself to leave her, his only love. He couldn't live without her. Maybe he had realized that too late. He had told her to move on. Wasn't that exactly what she was trying to do? What he had wanted her to do all along? What he was keeping her from? He couldn't give her up that easily. But, at the same time, they could never really be together. The curse and so many other things stood between them. The constant danger of losing his soul was making it impossible for them to even contemplate having a relationship with each other again. Angel was furious with the world, with himself, with everything. He would have liked to kick something but that wasn't going to help him. He needed.. a plan. And for that he needed... one of the most intelligent people he knew. And, since she was the only living human being who had ever experienced that kind of magic, he needed... a witch.