-Chapter Four.
He had missed this. Being able to hold her again was the only thing that mattered to him in the world. He loved her, but he didn't know how she could love him. He was a demon, a vampire who fed on blood, who's world was lived in darkness. She was full of light, full of energy, she was perfect. But he realised that even though there were a million reasons why they shouldn't love each other, they didn't matter. All that mattered was that moment, the moments shared together. She was his opposite but that made them a whole. He never wanted to let her go and she prayed he wouldn't.
"The sun will be coming up soon." Angel knew long before the words escaped her mouth when the sun would rise.
"Will you go back?" She didn't want to, she never wanted to leave but where else was there to go?
She smiled. "The hotel?"
The corners of Angel's mouth curved into a smirk. "I was hoping you would say that."
They climbed the beach steps towards Angels car and both dark figures got in silently.
Angel knew the route by heart, he could drive there with his eyes closed. It was their place. Just a crummy hotel at the side of the highway, but it was theirs. Angel never took her back to the Hyperion, that would only complicate things. It would force them back to reality and ruin the dream world that they had created together. This place held an importance to them, it made their meeting far from over.
They pulled up and entered the reception. Angel paid for their room, took the key and led Buffy to the small darkened room. Once in there, Buffy removed her jeans along with her sweater, pulled back the covers on the bed and motioned for Angel to join. He removed his jacket and shirt and climbed underneath the covers alongside her. He then pulled her warm body towards his and she gasped as his cool skin collided with her warm body, but she loved the familiar feeling of his skin against hers.
"Thank you Angel." She watched as her fingers danced on his bare chest.
"For what?" He was mesmorised by her fingertips and the emotions they were stirring inside him.
"For being here, for taking me away from everything. Even if it is just for one night." She turned towards the window and saw that the sun had rose. "Or day." She was saying thank you to him, he couldn't understand.
"Buffy" he turned her face towards his. "I should have been there, you should never have sacrificed your life. If I'd have known, I would've been there in a second. You have nothing to thank me for, I should have done more." He truly hated himself for not being there with her, for not helping her fight Glory and more importantly for letting her die.
Buffy shook her head. "Angel it wasn't your fault. I had to do it, it was my fight. I needed to know that I had protected Dawn." She searched his chocolate eyes, trying to make him understand that she didn't blame him, it had nothing to do with him.
"I know Buffy, but I should have known that you were hurting. How did I not know?" Angel released her small body and paced the room. Buffy sat up, the bedsheets clinging to her bottom half.
"I was too involved with my own problems that I didn't even know that you were in pain." He turned towards her. "How could I not know?" He took a seat facing her tiny frame on the bed. "I feel you Buffy, I feel everything you do. If you're in trouble or hurting I can feel it. But I didn't even feel that you died." His hands motioned to his heart.
Buffy could see the pain written accross his face and knew that it must be deeper inside.
"Angel" she took his larger cold hands into her warming embrace. "You didn't feel it because I wasn't suffering. I chose to die, I jumped with a smile on my face knowing that it was the right thing to do." Tears filled his eyes.
"I knew that Glory was going to be tough to beat, but I did it. I stopped Glory and I saved my sister. I jumped knowing that she was going to be safe and looked after by everyone I was leaving behind." He could see the light in her eyes as she spoke.
"I'd been through so much in my life, so much pain that I just wanted it all gone. Death seemed like a pretty good escape." Angel moved closer to her.
"But you could've come to me Buffy. I would have wanted to be there with you." She nodded.
"I know and I'm sorry." He pulled her toward him and tightened his arms around her. He kissed her head and let his face linger, breathing in her scent.
"I thought of you as I jumped." She pulled away from him and avoided his gaze, choosing to look at her hands rather than him. "I prayed that my heaven would be with you." She finally looked into his drowning eyes. "It was. It was just you and me, together." A sad smile spread across her face.
"I dreamt it." Buffy's smile faded. "Most nights I would dream of you and we were there, doing everything we can't." Angel's gaze fell to the floor when he said those words to her.
"Then lets pretend that we're still there. In our heaven." She pulled him down with her under the bed covers. She was tired and more than anything she wanted to fall asleep in his arms. He wrapped her body in his embrace and both slayer and vampire fell asleep for the first time in years, with a smile on their faces.
'For a moment all the world was right.'
Lyrics by Westlife-'The Dance'
