Chapter 4: Stater Brothers

After spending the whole day with her family and listening to a lot of nagging from her mom about surprise, surprise, her job Buffy was more than happy when it was time for everyone to go to bed. She had been the first one to jump up and run to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Now she was turning the bed down in her room, watching Angel walk around her room as he got things out of his bag. "You know, since we hardly know each other and… I'm not a big oh hoe I will take the couch." She pointed to the small couch on the other side of the room.

Angel looked behind him where she pointed. "You don't have to do that Buffy, this is your house."

"It's my parent's cabin." She stated. "Besides, you're the guest and you really don't have to be here… I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"You think being in bed with a beautiful girl makes me uncomfortable?" He smiled.

"Beautif…" Buffy whispered then shook her head. "I just mean you are here pretending to be Riley when you really didn't have to and I don't want to do anything to make you feel weird… or anymore weird about being here."

"It's fine Buffy." He laughed. "You can sleep where ever you want to… the couch, the bed. It's up to you."

Buffy nodded and grabbed a pillow and the extra blanket that was folded at the end of the bed. Angel watched her slightly disappointed as she walked around him to the couch. Yes, he had a girlfriend but it wasn't like they were serious, they had only been together for five months he wasn't serious about anything in that short of time let alone a girl. She was the one who wanted to get married, not him. It wasn't a crime to look at and enjoy other woman.

Angel turned around to watch Buffy make up the couch for her to sleep on, he sat down on the bed. "So why exactly am I here?"

"Didn't Willow tell you?" She asked laying the light blue blanket out on the couch.

"She told me that you and Riley broke up but you haven't told your parents yet."

Buffy nodded and sat down on the couch. "I'm a big ol' chicken that way."

Angel got up from the bed and made his way over to her, sitting next to her. "It doesn't make you a chicken, you don't want to disappoint your parents. It's kind of sweet." He said placing his large hand over her smaller one that was in her lap. "Why did you and Riley break up? I mean four years is a long time to be in a relationship."

Buffy looked up at Angel. "He broke up with me. Turned out he had been cheating on me."

"He cheated on you?" Angel asked slightly shocked. When she nodded he sighed. "Wow… is he crazy?"

"Why would…" Shaking her head she got up from the couch. "We better get some sleep." She laid down and closed her eyes. "Angel?"

"Yeah." He mumbled about to fall asleep.

"The light is on."

"I see that." He responded.

Buffy snuggled closer to her pillow. "Can you turn it off?"

Angel sighed, getting up he walked over to the light switch and turned it off. Making his way back to the bed he got comfortable again.

"Angel?" She whispered

What now? "Yeah."

"Do you snore?" She whispered again.

Angel smiled slightly. "Not that I know of…"

Buffy smiled into the darkness. "I'll let you know."

The sound of her high heels clicking against the tiles of the floor filled the bright deserted hall with the faint sound of men laughing. The hallway walls were decorated with Christmas themed decorations. She opened a glass door and the laughter got louder, she stopped in front of a desk when she saw three of the men checking her out, the fourth man was still looking down at his cards that were in his hand.

'Shouldn't they be working instead of playing cards, eating pizza and laughing? At least they aren't eating donuts!' She thought. "Hello!" She called irritated. They were still staring at her. "I need to talk to someone! My boyfriend has been kidnapped!"

The man who had been looking at his cards looked up with a concerned look on his face. He had dark hair, green eyes and was actually very good looking. "What?" He asked getting up and making his way over to the desk where the dark haired woman was standing.

She nodded. "He's like missing!"

"How long has he been missing for, Ma'am?"

She thought about it for a moment. "I don't know… like maybe 10 hours."

The Police Officer glanced down then back at her. "I'm sorry ma'am, he needs to be missing for at least 48 hours before you can file a missing persons. Unless you have proof that he has been taken against his will."

"I do!" She exclaimed reaching into her purse to pull out her cell phone. "Here, listen to this!" She went to her voicemail, putting it on speaker phone and pressed play waiting for her boyfriend's voice to fill the room. "Hey Cor, it's me. I'm just calling to let you know that I won't be able to make Christmas. I have to go out of town for a little while, I will call you…" there was a crashing sound along with the male voice shouting "oh, damn it!" and the line went dead.

"Ma'am, that just sounds like he had to go out of town…" The dark haired office said while the three officers behind him started to laugh.

"But the crashing sound and the line going dead!" She shouted. "He was kidnapped! This is our first Christmas together, there is NO way he would miss it!"

The young officer offered her a small smile. "That really isn't much to go on… I will tell you what…" he walked back over to a desk and picked a small card up. "I will give you my card and if anything new happens don't hesitate to call Ms…."

"Chase. Cordelia Chase."

The next morning Angel woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking. Pancakes, bacon and sausage filled the whole cabin. He hadn't woken up to those smells in a long time. He looked over to the couch at Buffy but noticed she wasn't sleeping. Her blanket had been folded neatly and set on the back of the couch. He slowly got up and opened the bedroom door, as soon as he did more delicious smells attacked his nose. He was getting hungry just smelling it. He swiftly walked down the hall to the bathroom, he had to at least brush his teeth before he went to greet his fake girlfriend and her family.

When he came out of the bathroom he went into the living room, he could see everyone in the kitchen to the left. His younger brother was helping his girlfriend flip French toast on a small griddle placed on the counter, Willow and Anya were cracking some eggs and putting them in a large bowl. Joyce was standing with her back towards everyone cooking bacon on the stove with her husband beside her cooking the sausage, Oz was mixing up some kind of batter standing next to Buffy who was flipping pancakes. Xander was slicing fruit and putting it into a large bowl, reaching over once in a while to grab a freshly made pancake off the plate next to Buffy.

Buffy was the first one to look up and notice him. She smiled. "Hey! Good morning."

When Buffy spoke everyone looked up at Angel and greeted him as well. He gave them all a small smile. "Morning." He leaning against the bar counter that separated the kitchen and the living room to get a better look at what Buffy was making. "Do you need any help?"

Looking around at everyone behind her doing the jobs to make breakfast she shook her head with a smile. "Nah, I think we have the cooking part down… but if you want to set the table that would be helpful."

Joyce turned around and saw her daughter's boyfriend nod, she went over to the cupboard and grabbed enough plates for everyone and walked them over to him.

Angel leaned back on the couch with the other guys, he was so full from that breakfast he didn't know if he wanted to move. He didn't know much about this Family but what he was curtain of was that the 'kids' of this family were slightly insane and the whole family definitely knew how to cook!

"Buffy, Sweetie. It looks like I am missing the fresh parsley that I need for dinner tonight, could you go pick some up since you were the last one to get here? Your car is blocking everyone else in." Her mother called from the kitchen. "I really thought we grabbed everything this year."

"Huh?" Buffy asked as she cleared the table. "I wasn't the last one here this year, he was!" She pointed at Angel who raised his eyebrows at her.

"Yes but he was sick and you just left him home alone by the way." Buffy rolled her eyes at her mother. "Also Riley doesn't know where everything is here."

"Why don't you two just go together." Xander shrugged as he changed the channel. "That way Riley will know for next year."

"You know what? Why don't I just go and pick you up some from my house." Buffy said sarcastically.

Xander smiled. "Or you could just go to Lake Arrowhead" he reached his hand over his head and pointed to his left. "Or to make it really easy, you could just go to Stater Brothers, it's only like 25 minutes." He offered pointing to his right. "Both are much shorter trips than going back to LA."

"You know, you really don't have to come." Buffy told Angel as he followed her out towards the cars.

Angel let out a small laugh. "but then how will I know where it is for next year?"

"You won't be here next year." Buffy reminded him. "Besides, I have decided to man up, I am going to tell them we broke up… or me and Riley broke up."

"I'll drive." He said pointing to his car black convertible next to Buffy's jeep. He unlocked the car door and opened it for Buffy. "Could you wait until I am gone to tell your family? It could get a little awkward."

"Yeah." She laughed as she sat in the passenger seat. "It's the least I can do for you."

Angel got in the front seat and smiled at Buffy. "So, where is this place?"

As they were walking into Stater Brothers Buffy got the list that her mother had given her out of her purse. 'Just parsley, my butt!' "Okay… now I just have to remember where everything is." She mumbled. "You would think I would remember because I get sent to the store every year for whatever it is that my mom forgot."

Angel leaned in to look at the list and glanced up at the signs above the isles. "Here we go." He pointed to the far left side of the store that said Fresh Produce.

Twenty minutes later their arms were full of groceries, Angel looked towards the front of the store. "Do you think I should run up and get a cart?"

Buffy bit her lip for a second and nodded and Angel headed towards the direction of the carts.

When he came back with a cart Buffy put the items she had been holding into the cart where he had already unloaded what he had been holding. "If I am going to get through this trip I am going to need lots of comfort food." She said walking down another isle.

Angel smiled when he saw her picking up pre-popped bags of popcorn of multiple flavors, chips and a few boxes of Little Debbie snacks. "Long live the Twinkie." She mumbled with a pout.

"Such a shame." Angel sighed, leaning his arms on the handle of the cart. "Twinkies will be missed terribly."

Buffy turned to look at him with a frown. "Are you making fun of me?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm really not. Only a month without Twinkies and I think I might go off the deep end." No matter what big news happened this year it will forever be the year Twinkies stopped being made.

Eyeing him closely for a second she smiled and walked over to him, putting her arm around his shoulder she laughed. "I knew I liked you!"

Angel smiled as he watched Buffy walk in front of him down the isle of the store randomly putting anything in the cart that looked good. She glanced up at him when she put a store made cheesecake in the bottom basket. "What? I got big tips this week."

Laughing, he shook his head. "I didn't say anything."

"But you look like you want to." She shook her finger at him.

"I was just wondering if you were going to share." Angel shrugged.

Buffy smiled at him. "That is up for debate. You better be really nice to me, Mister!"

Angel narrowed his eyes at her and smiled playfully taking a few steps closer to her. "Have I not been nice to you?"

Placing her hands on the metal cart she watched him for a second. "Actually, you have been really nice to me. I'm not used to it… other than from the guys in my family. You might just be a new breed of male, Angel O'Brien."

Leaning in closely to her, he smiled. "I just know how a woman like you should be treated."

"And what kind of woman am I?"

"I'm still feeling you out."

Buffy bit her lip. "Well, let me know when you're done."

Angel nodded but leaned in a little further. Buffy shivered with anticipation wondering if he was going to kiss her.

"Excuse me?" They heard a voice say. They both broke the trance and looked towards the voice, an older woman was standing beside their cart. "I need to get in there." She pointed to the shelf the couple was blocking.

Buffy looked down to the floor, tucked her hair behind her ear and whispered. "Sorry." Before moving out of her way.

They packed the groceries into Angel's trunk and started the ride back to the cabin. "So, are you going to help me feel you out?"

Buffy laughed. "And here I thought that was one of the main things men DIDN'T need help with."

Shaking his head Angel laughed. "If you are referring to feeling a girl up, then I don't need help in that department. Word is I'm fairly good at foreplay."

Buffy shook her head, she set herself up for that one. "Okay, what do you mean then… like my name, age, occupation because you already know that stuff."

"Sure." Angel shrugged keeping his eyes on the road. "We can start with that."

Buffy sighed. "Buffy Anne Summers, 25, waitress."

"Well see, I learned something new. I didn't know your middle name was Anne or that you are 25."

"Fine. What about you?" She really didn't know anything about him either, other than he's hot, rich and seems like a nice guy. 'What else does a girl need to know?'

"Angel O'Brien, 30, President and founder of Oracle Inc… all though I prefer the title Top Dog." He smiled.

"What? I don't get a middle name?" She smiled. "Is it something really embarrassing like… Ernest or… or Marion? It's probably Marion!"

Angel couldn't hold his laughter in. "No. I just don't have a middle name."

"What? Who doesn't have a middle name? Everyone has a middle name. It's like the law."

Angel shook his head. "I don't. Connor doesn't either."

"Weird."