Buffy was walking towards the old mansion, it was unlike her to skip class unless there was a slaying problem, but Angel fascinated her, not to mention that he was kind of hot. With a new player in the game though, he might make her fight a bit easier.

"Looking for me?" a voice asked from behind her. Buffy turned quickly and sighed when she saw Angel

"Seriously how did you just do that, I'm the slayer you're not supposed to be able to sneak up on me like that," Buffy complained.

"You were daydreaming. So why are you looking for me?" Angel asked.

"Oh I wanted to know where you wanted to go," Buffy said smiling. Angel stared at Buffy with a slightly confused look.

"Our date," Buffy replied in a tone that indicated be should remember what she was talking about.

"No."

Buffy crossed her arms "Is that any way to treat a lady?" she asked raising one eyebrow.

Angel started to walk past her when she reached out to grab him. Angel turned around and easily caught her arm "Stop" he said glaring at her.

"Look I like you ok, I do, but you need to back off. I deal with shit that I don't even know where the hell it came from, like that goddamn panther, I had to fight that damn thing to kill the people who had summoned it," Angel shouted.

Buffy stepped back looking at Angel with surprise. "You, you get to deal with all the stuff that is known, but me I have to go up against stuff that would destroy you, so pardon me if I don't want to play house," Angel yelled angrily.

"Look," Angel said tiredly "you still deserve a break every now and then, but I didn't take you out because of that," he said "I took you out because I still want a normal life, my shop, taking a girl out, I want to feel like I have a normal life but not at the cost of putting other people in danger" Angel finished tiredly.

"Plus everyone will get old and die around me" Angel added giving a hollow laugh.

"Well," Buffy said quietly "How 'bout this, we work together and make both our lives easier and hopefully a little happier," Buffy suggesting a small giving a small grin.

"Hey I like the effort ok, but I don't want anyone else getting hurt because of me," Angel said mournfully.

Buffy put her hand up to her face and shook her head "Look I can," she started, but when she looked up Angel was gone.

ssssssss

Angel stared down at Buffy from on top of a roof as she stomped away. His real work didn't actually come up all that often but when it did he wanted everyone he knew as far away as possible from what he was doing.

Angel continued to stalk Buffy around town for the rest of the day, before getting ready to go back to his old mansion. As he went to get in his car he heard someone behind him "So Angelus, the scourge of Europe, given a soul and called Angel, killed and then you disappear," Buffy said from behind him.

"Yeah basically covers my entire life" Angel replied quietly.

"So there wasn't much on you past that, and now you're just hunting," she said crossing her arms.

"Yeah basically."

"Anyways I want to make you a deal, but this time if you refuse I'll leave you alone," Buffy said.

"Fine what," Angel asked in an annoyed tone.

"We will hunt together, but if there's something way too hard for me to beat, then I'll back off and let you handle it" Buffy offered hoping he would take the deal.

Angel sighed "Fine, we'll work together," he said finally giving in.

Buffy gave a grin "Well it's about time, so wanna go back to Los Angeles and go shopping?" she asked.

"I gotta ask, why you are so insistent?" Angel asked. "You are perhaps the most persistent person I've met," he added with a small almost unnoticeable smile.

"Well I like you and I want to get to know you better, you seem like an interesting person, oh and it's so much more fun to fight with you around," Buffy replied "cause you know, I'm not fighting so desperately just to stay alive" she added, though the smile on her was quite noticeable.

Angel sighed "As long as you live with your mother ask her if you wanna come with me, and I do have a finite amount of money so don't expect too much stuff," he said, mumbling something about stupid blondes.

"Hey I heard that," Buffy exclaimed loudly putting on a pout.

"Well it's not my fault," Angel replied with a shrug and a grin.

"Well we're still going on a date tonight."

Angel gave up and just went with her, she was pretty, interesting and fun to be around; he couldn't ask for all that much more.

"Oh, also you have to meet my friends soon" Buffy saiding pausing for a second as she thought about it "You don't mind, like, weird people do you?"

"Hey I'm dating you aren't you"

The remark earned him a smack in the shoulder.