A/N: Okay, I'm weak, I couldn't leave it there for long. Here you go, it's fixed. I think the chapter title says it all. Only one more chapter left after this.
Disclaimer: BtVS isn't mine and I make no claims otherwise. Need I say more?
Chapter Six: We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Fluff
Prom Night
Buffy twirled the shiny pink umbrella idly between her fingers and smoothed down her prized rose sheath dress as she surveyed the crowd. Hellhounds? Big check in the 'Slayed' column. Friends? Having the time of their lives. The evening? Gone off without a hitch.
And herself? Suffering major pangs of self-pity as she found herself once more on the outside looking in at those who were supposed to be her peers. There goes my one perfect high school moment. And she felt even worse for being all self-pitying at a time like this, but she was way tired of always watching what she couldn't have. She slapped on her Happy Buffy face, but it was seriously slipping.
"You did good work tonight, Buffy." She turned at the voice behind her, to see Giles approach.
She smiled at the compliment, and held up the umbrella. "And I got a little toy surprise," she replied with forced cheerfulness.
Giles chuckled. "I had no idea children en masse could be gracious," he observed.
"Every now and then people surprise you," she noted.
"Every now and then," Giles echoed softly, amazedly. He was looking past her, and Buffy followed his gaze to see what was so impressive.
And there was Angel, standing in the doorway and starting through the crowd towards her. She was hardly even aware of Giles taking her umbrella prize from her hands and taking his leave, only of making her way across the room to meet her lover.
"I never thought you'd come," she breathed incredulously.
"It's a big night. I didn't want to miss it," he replied.
"You're here. You're really here," she murmured, still not quite able to believe it.
"Well," Angel said, "I realized you had some pretty good points. And I realized I couldn't leave you."
"Good, because I don't know what I'd do without you." She stretched a bittersweet smile over her face.
"I don't think I'd be much of anything without you either," he admitted. "I just… I wanted better things for you."
"I know," Buffy replied. "But I have I want. Don't you see, Angel, normalcy is overrated. I need my freaky love to go with my freaky life."
"I think I'm starting to get that," he acknowledged. "As long as you're happy…."
"I am now," she assured him. Then she laughed ruefully. "And the gang will probably be a bit relieved too. I, uh, kinda went all drill sergeant on them." After a moment she added softly, her voice barely above a whisper, "Hey, any way to cope…." It was, as much a pained reflection, a reminder that all was not forgiven.
Awkward silence fell for a moment. Then he held out a hand to her. "Dance with me?"
Right. Dance. That thing you do at Prom. Which she'd completely forgotten she was at, what with her lover's unexpected return and the sorting out of their life. Okay bearing regained. Dancing now.
She gladly cleaved herself to him, molded herself against his large body. Now this was the sense of home, of completion, that she'd been missing. Nothing ever felt so incredibly right as being enfolded in his strong arms. The crowd around them on the dance floor, the whole setting, seemed to fade away, until she was only aware of the two of them, dancing close, to the music that seemed almost ironically appropriate.
Wild, wild horses couldn't drag me away….
They immediately returned to routine. Just like normal – only with a shiny new pervasive awkwardness that she didn't like one bit. They hadn't been this uncomfortable in months. She couldn't shake the slight fear that he would pull something idiotic like that again, couldn't quite seem to trust fully.
That is, until he presented a truly impressive peace offering. It was a few days later, and, after patrol, the end of the evening found them back at the mansion.
"The other night," Angel began tentatively, "you were talking about what you were going to do next year."
"Mmhm," Buffy acknowledged, settling herself on top of him on the couch as she waited for him to continue.
"You were talking about whether to stay at home or live in the dorms."
"Yeah," she said slowly, wondering where he was going with this."
"Well, I was wondering if… maybe, instead of that…." He was getting all nervous and flustered. Now she was even more curious: cryptic she was used to, flustered she was not.
"I was wondering if you might like to move in with me," he finally finished.
Ohmygod! Whatever she'd been expecting, that definitely wasn't it. She wanted to squeal in delight, but that didn't seem very mature. She always felt self-conscious about appearing immature in front of Angel. Instead, she asked incredulously, "Really?"
"Of course," he said. "If you want to, I mean."
"Of course I want to!" she exclaimed.
She sighed as a sudden thought occurred to her. "My mom isn't gonna like this." After a minute, however, her face took on a resolute set. "Well, she's just going to have to deal with it. Legally I'm an adult now, and she doesn't get to make my decisions for me anymore," she declared.
Despite the happiness of the moment, neither of them was quite sure what to say next. The playful part of her wanted to tease him about overcoming fear of commitment – come on, he'd looked so nervous not so long ago when she simply mentioned having a drawer – but the more sensible side of her mind knew that could be a very bad idea. In light of recent events, even a joking mention of the subject would be likely to strike a nerve. And she was firmly against nerve-striking. Nerve-striking bad. And so not the way to create a comfortable atmosphere. …Now she was babbling in her head. Must stop that. Babble-age also bad.
"Actually, probably be more convenient this way. No more sneaking in so Mom doesn't know when I've been out all night. And less need to keep regular hours on top of staying up late for patrol. …And, ya know, I obviously like the idea of being around you all the time. I figured that was pretty much a given. You knew that was meant to be obvious, ri- Mmph! …Mmm." Now she was babbling out loud, too. Or at least she was until he flipped her over so she was facing him, and shut her up on the most expedient and pleasant way – by capturing her lips in a kiss.
"Now, what were you saying?" Angel asked teasingly, echoing an earlier day when she'd been babbling in a similar way.
Remembering the same incident, Buffy replied the same as she had then. "I'm sorry, we were talking?"
He just gave her a half-smirk and kissed her again.
She melted into the kiss. Beats talking any day, she decided.
