Thank you SO much for the reviews I have gotten...seriously, they make me want to post more often and write more! And also, please let me know how you are feeling with where the story is going...I've already got chapters written, but I always want to know if you think it's going in the right direction..or if you think a character is just completely off or something. Thanks again! I will try and do regular posts for everyone...!
Buffy had somehow managed to put her meeting with Angelus out of her mind for the rest of the night. She spent the time with her friends and her mother. They sat silently for a while around the kitchen table, before Joyce had finally declared that she was going off to bed to give the kids and Giles some time to themselves. But even after she had left, the room stayed as quiet as ever. It seemed that no one had any words to really describe the situation or to even talk about it. They simply sat in each other's company, grieving together. Eventually, they all went their separate ways. Cordelia drove Xander and Willow home, and Giles left to return to his apartment, where the police had finally finished collecting evidence and had taken down the crime scene tape.
It was almost three in the morning when Buffy finally returned to her room, only to be reminded of her deal with Angelus.
So what if she didn't take down the cross? she asked herself as she looked at the two crosses that now hung in her room--one located beside the window, the other by the door, the two entrances into her bedroom. It wasn't like Angelus played by the rules, she thought.
Even if he did, it wasn't like there were any real warfare rules when concerning the dealings between vampire and Slayer. Buffy changed into an oversized, comfortable black t-shirt to sleep in, while she still considered her situation. Angelus was right, he wouldn't be able to enter any of the other rooms in her house, only the one where she took down the defenses, the crosses. Still, she couldn't bring herself to bear the thought of welcoming him back into her bedroom, even if he had been in there on his own account recently, watching her sleep and drawing pictures of her, leaving her creepy envelopes to wake to the next morning.
Finally, just before she turned out the light and crawled into bed, she removed the cross from the window, allowing him only slight access into her room. He wouldn't even be able to go too near to her bedroom door as long as the cross was still hanging beside it, protecting the rest of her house from him. She shook her head at the insanity of what she was doing. Atleast she knew that he wouldn't be killing her in her sleep or attacking her in the night. He had already been in her room while she was sleeping plenty of times, as scary as that thought was. He enjoyed a good fight too much to take advantage of the Slayer like that, Buffy knew. She would, however, sleep as lightly as she could. It really creeped her out to think of anyone watching her sleep, especially her ex-lover turned evil.
As wrong as it felt to have the cross gone, she knew that she had done the right thing for her part. She had made a deal with Angelus, and he had held up his part, letting her return to her friends and giving them time to grieve.
She had convinced herself that she would sleep lightly, that she would easily wake to the sound of her window opening or to the sound of someone climbing into her room. She didn't want to be taken by surprise by him in case he decided to show. She wouldn't put herself at risk like that...deal or no deal. However, her attempting to sleep lightly caused her to have a troubled sleep. She was plagued with dreams filled with random noises: creaking houses, squeaking doors, noises that made no sense to her at all and that seemed to come from nowhere. She could feel the sheets beneath her as she tossed and turned in her sleep, could feel her blankets tangle from her turning.
She didn't hear her window being quietly opened an hour or so before dawn, nor did she wake to the quiet, graceful sounds that were made by the man climbing through the window. She did feel the bed give beneath the weight of someone much larger than herself, someone much stronger. She felt it in her half sleep, and she subconsciously rolled toward the body that weighed down one side of her bed.
In her dream, her whole house tilted, causing her to roll to her other side and bump against something cool and hard. A hand came down and touched her face gently, and she opened her eyes to see her mother sitting beside her, telling her to sleep. She blinked once, and it was Giles, telling her that Jenny was okay, and she should get her rest. Finally, she blinked again, and the face that she saw this time caused her to put her hand over his on her cheek. She felt the familiar Claddaugh ring on his finger, and subconsciously recalled her own Claddaugh ring stored in one of her drawers. The man with his hand on her face let out a small laugh as Buffy's hand touched his, and with that laugh, everything came back to Buffy. She was supposed to be paying attention, waiting and watching for something...someone...she hoped wouldn't come. At that second she realized that the familiar face she was looking into wasn't really the familiar face she had thought she was looking at. Angrily, she grabbed his hand off her face and threw it back at him.
"Get out," she ordered calmly, opening her eyes wider so that she could fully wake up. Her dreams had tricked her. She had seen Angel, her Angel, but of course it couldn't be her Angel. Her Angel was gone, lost, and sitting in front of her was the monster she had been trying to arm herself against in her dreams.
"You invited me," he said with a small, satisfied smile. He looked down at her body. She had tossed and turned in her sleep until the sheets were twisted underneath her. She wore a long black t-shirt that was, Angelus noticed with satisfaction, one of his own shirts. One that he had left at her house when he still had a soul. It had risen up on her in her troubled sleep, and he briefly caught a glance of her green underwear. When she noticed where his eyes had gone to, she pulled the shirt over her quickly and gathered the covers around her. She was fairly certain he hadn't come to fight, but once again, just as it had earlier in the night, it felt incredibly strange to sit next to her biggest enemy and not be in a fighting stance.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice a whisper. She most definitely did not want her mother coming in while Angelus was sitting in her bed. Buffy realized what the cold, hard thing she had bumped into in her dreams was, and she noticed where her side and her leg touched Angelus' side. She shifted away from him uncomfortably. "Why do you keep doing this?" she asked, angrily yet quietly, her teeth clenched in frustration.
"I like watching you," he said simply, with almost a boy-like shrug.
"You can't do this," Buffy said desperately, looking into his eyes as she did. She was certain that Angelus knew just how he was making her feel by being in her room with her. She couldn't look at him any longer. She couldn't stand to see someone she loved so much be someone completely different. She wanted it all over. She wanted it done. Without hesitation, she reached around the side of her bed and felt where her mattress met her bed frame. She had prepared for this. After Angelus had left her the first picture of her sleeping, Buffy had decided that she needed to be prepared.
She found the hard stake that stuck slightly out from the side of her mattress. She pulled it out swiftly, and with the strength and agility of a Slayer, she aimed directly for Angelus' heart. She let out a groan of exertion as he caught her wrist in midair and struggled with her arm and the stake, turning it so it wasn't pointed at him.
"I thought...we had...a truce," he grunted, while working to push her arm away from him. He gained the advantage over her and slammed her hand into her bed frame, knocking the wooden weapon out of her grasp. In a quick maneuver, he had both her hands pinned to her side. Buffy started to thrash around, working to get advantage over him.
Angelus let out a small, "Shhh." Buffy stopped for a slight second and looked at the position they were both in. He still wasn't attacking her, she noticed. He was simply taking the defensive.
"Get the hell off me," she said, her voice rising.
"Shh, Buff. Come on now, your mom's sleeping. How do you think she'd feel if she found me in your bedroom this late at night? How would you explain that?"
Buffy quieted. Unfortunately, he was completely right. Her mom couldn't know that he was in her room, especially not after Buffy had told her about them. Well, Buffy had half told her mom about Angel. Either way, it wouldn't be good if she woke Joyce up.
"Get your hands off of me then," Buffy said in a deadly whisper.
Angelus looked down at Buffy, an evil smile playing on his face. "I don't know, love. We're in kind of an interesting position." He looked up and down at her only half-dressed form.
"You are seriously, seriously sick!" she spat at him, still whispering.
"I know, and thanks," he replied. "Now, I'll let go, if you won't go nuts on me, got it Slayer? We're both civilized here. No need for fighting."
"Fine," Buffy consented. She relaxed her arms, and when she did so Angel's hold on her wrists disappeared.
"Since we're so freaking civilized, can you tell me what the hell you want? You want me dead; you can't just be coming in here to watch me sleep," she said.
Angelus considered her for a moment. Finally, he swung his legs up on the bed, relaxing back against the head rest and turning to look at the Slayer, who was staring at him with surprise in her eyes.
"I dunno," he said honestly. "I find it oddly interesting, though."
"Well, I don't," she said. "You got to watch me sleep for tonight, but you need to move your freaky obsession onto someone else. Next time we fight, I'm kicking your ass straight back to hell."
Angelus laughed, something that Buffy was beginning to find very annoying. He was just so freaking laid back, sitting comfortably on her bed talking to her, as if it were Buffy and Willow having a sleep over and talking about boys.
"I have a week by the way," he said nonchalantly.
"What the hell do you mean you have a week?" Buffy asked, scooting as far away from him as was possible in her bed. She didn't want him to get any ideas about how she was enjoying what he probably considered to be their little bonding moment.
"I told you I'd give you and your friends a week to grieve, mourn, cry, moan, whatever. That means that I have one week in which to make use of this open window policy we've got going."
Buffy snorted. "Ahh, no," she said sarcastically. "You have nothing."
"Fine," Angelus said, resting his head against one of his hands. "Then I start picking your friends off one by one. Maybe I'll go alphabetically...or backwards. Willow, Xander, Xander, Willow--shouldn't make much of a difference. Should be pretty easily actually, considering how easy that teacher was..."
Buffy brought back one elbow and slammed it hard into his ribs. Angel actually doubled over, one hand clutching his side, and let out a surprised cough.
"You won't lay a hand on them," Buffy said, enjoying the pained look that she had put on his face.
He looked up at her, one hand still clutching his bruising side and brought his free hand up and hit her hard across the face. Her hand instinctively reached up to where she could already feel a small bump forming under her eye. It took a lot to make the Slayer swell.
"Don't touch me again, Slayer, or we can have it out right here in your bed, and if I win in here...well, you won't like where that might lead." Angel stared at the effect his words had on her. "Mommy wouldn't want to walk in on that either would she...?"
Buffy's eyes slightly widened as she thought about how much this thing with Angelus was affecting her life, her family, her friends.
"See, that's the thing, Buff," he told her. "You still aren't completely sure if you can take me or not. For the first time, you might not be able to win. You're good, yeah, but you know that I might just be better." Angel shook his head, impressed with himself for a finding a way to get into the Slayer's head.
"So here's the deal," he continued. "I don't know why I enjoy these nightly rendezvous we have here, but I do, and thankfully when you live forever, you have the time to explore whatever passions you may develop. Right now, Slayer, you're on the top of my list. So you keep the window open, and I don't kill your friends...for now. Giving you a little more time to figure out how to kill me, and giving me a little more time to...explore my passions. As long as we work with each other, you won't have to bury anyone else anytime soon. The second I become uninvited, I start killing people." Angelus smiled, pleased with his idea.
"I don't let vampires call the shots," Buffy said.
"Not even to keep your precious loved ones safe?" he countered, crossing his arms and staring at her more intently. Then he leaned closer to her. He put one hand against her hair, pushing her closer to him so he could whisper in her ear. She flinched slightly, but moved with him.
"Come on, Slayer. I won't bite...yet," he whispered.
Buffy pushed him away from her and pulled the covers around her even more tightly. She couldn't believe what she was about to do. How had she gone from fighting vampires to making deals with them? And yet, Angelus' deal made so much more sense. She could possibly deal with him, maybe she could even deal with her feelings toward him, despite the fact that her Angel was gone, but she couldn't deal with her own problems while trying to protect her friends from him. That was what exhausted her. She couldn't protect everyone all the time. It was impossible, and Angelus' deal made sense. This way, he would stay away from her mother and her friends, giving her the ability to deal with him on her own time.
"Fine," she agreed simply. She glared dangerously at him. "But the second you lay a hand or threaten any of them, I don't even care if it's Harmony, I take you down. You got that?"
Angel nodded. "Done."
"That includes Spike and Dru, or any of your other vampires," Buffy added quickly as an afterthought.
"Hey, I don't control what anyone else does," Angelus said, his hands rising in the air in defense.
"Bull," Buffy argued. "You tell them to leave everyone alone or the deal's off."
Angelus smiled again. The Slayer was learning to compromise. "Okay," he agreed. "I'll tell them."
Buffy nodded, pleased that she had remembered to throw that part in their deal.
"Now, can you get the hell off my bed and out of my room?" Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him.
"I still have a little bit until the sun comes up, Slayer," Angelus said, smiling at her again. "Why don't you sleep and I'll stay for a while. Keep an eye out, you know. Keep the things that go bump in the night away for a while?"
Buffy rolled her eyes at him. She couldn't go back to sleep with a vampire sitting next to her. Well, she thought, she could...or she could have with one vampire, but he was gone. The man sitting beside her was someone completely different.
"How do you expect me to sleep with you sitting there?" Buffy asked, annoyed. She really was tired. Two hours of sleep did nobody any favors, not even the Slayer.
"Close your eyes and think of happy thoughts," Angelus said with a smirk.
"How do I know you're not just waiting to kill me in my sleep?" Buffy asked, although she was pretty sure she already knew he wouldn't.
"I just don't roll that way, lover. I like my big conquests to go down with a fight. You should feel pretty lucky, actually. There are some people whose necks I'd just snap in their sleep, people who are inconveniences."
"And me?" Buffy asked, her eyebrows raised.
"You deserve a little more than that, Buff. When we're ready to fight, you'll see, but right now, I think we both know that we're just not quite ready."
Buffy nodded, actually understanding what he was saying. They were both fighters, even Angel had been a fighter, and fighters--true champions like themselves, whether they were champions of good or evil--played by rules. They respected their opponents, even if it was in a twisted way.
Buffy allowed herself to slide back down until she was lying back on her pillows, her head resting on them. She didn't trust him enough to turn away from him, and yet it felt so strange to close your eyes and fall asleep while the enemy watched you. She closed her eyes for a moment and listened. She wanted to hear every little sound that Angelus may make. She wanted to know what he was up to, what he was doing. After a few moments, she opened her eyes slowly, cautiously. He was still staring down at her, and when he saw her eyes open he gave her a small crooked smile, something that, with a pain in her heart, reminded her achingly of Angel, her Angel.
"Sleep, Slayer," he said quietly, as one hand moved down to gently trace her face.
Buffy shivered slightly, although she wasn't sure if it was from revulsion or something else that she just couldn't place. Then she closed her eyes again, allowing herself to drift into a real, deep sleep this time, instead of the half sleep she had been in earlier. Buffy shivered again as she drifted off, this time from her cold bedroom. She could feel the cool breeze that was coming in through the open window. She felt a slight shifting on the bed, and suddenly her covers were wrapped up around her, pulled up around her chin and tucked in at her sides, warming her. Then she was asleep.
