"I'm no good for her, you know that," Angel said, leaning his head back and closed his eyes for a few moments to try and get his head on straight.
His voice sounded tired and defeated, reflecting how he felt quite well.
His whole body currently felt like it was throbbing in pain, making him all the more aware that it was past time to have taken his medication. He really wasn't hurt that bad compared to most of the things he had been through in his life... but still, getting roughed up in a free for all in which you are not able to even lift a finger to defend yourself was never really all that much fun.
His stab wound really wasn't that bad either, the bleeding had been the real issue, and some might say he was lucky that it was only what it was... but that still hadn't made it any walk in the park.
Then top it all of with some more damaging whacks to the back of his skull. Yep. Good times.
Pushing himself sure hadn't and wasn't going to help anything. He knew that he'd left the hospital way too early, even for what he considered close to nothing, but he was stubborn and went and done it anyway.
Ever since then he'd been pushing himself harder than he should, something he was also well aware of. But... that was just his nature. No matter the price.
He was also tired as hell. All these drugs, the pain, the everything going on... it was all wearing down on him. He had some trouble sleeping through the night after what had gone down, even with a large amount of drugs, but they'd done the job well enough.
And Angel was way over and done with whatever was going on with Ethan this morning that wasn't making his day any better. Ever since he'd hobbled down here, Ethan had begun and had not let up since. For once. And it was just not the day for it...
He had managed to keep his feelings out of this... for the most part, managed to never own up to anything, managed to always avoid Ethan when it came to this... came to her.
Now that was all going to hell.
They had fought, which had honestly been the best part of it and a bit entertaining. After all, who else got to ask their boss and someone they'd probably even consider a close friend "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you honestly want me to sit here and explained to you how badly I want to fuck your daughter?" and get away with it?
But Ethan just shook his head with a bit of a chuckle-slash-sigh and tried to steer the conversation away from the sex and into something deeper. Of course, that was the downside to it all, something that took him a moment to realize and then cursed himself out.
He'd only added fuel to the fire, giving Ethan that window and the man didn't want to drop it this time.
There had been the subtle remarks at first though, something that they always teased with. Angel was fine most of the time with that, and the snarky remarks that always came up after it went on for too long. Which, of course, it had. He knew Ethan knew. He knew Ethan knew he knew. He did not know why they couldn't just leave it at that.
There was a lot of things that he didn't know about when it came to this situation but he couldn't very well ask without having to answer a few things himself and he had tried for many years to not get put in that kind of position. And had done so perfectly until now, until he was actually around her and everything started to spin out of control.
Ethan opened his mouth to say something but closed it before any sound came out. He tilted his head slightly and stared over at Angel with an odd expression on his face. Their eyes held for a long pause, then Angel looked away with a sigh and the two sat in silence for what felt like a lifetime.
"Liam," Ethan's voice finally rang out, breaking the uncomfortable quiet, making Angel let out a rather audible sigh.
Another bout of silence came before Angel took another deep breath and then looked over at his boss. "I'm not, Rayne. I'm never going to be."
"If I thought that you weren't good enough for Buffy, do you really think we would be here now?"
"Ethan, she is your daughter."
"Yes, I am aware of that."
"She's your daughter. You're very young, very innocent daughter."
"And you're you?"
Angel nodded.
"I know who you are, Liam. I know who you are, what you've done, what you are more than capable of doing."
"And yet, here we are."
OoOoO
"You're in love with her."
It felt like an eternity before he spoke, but Angel had answered, his voice sounding completely foreign in that moment. "Yes, Rayne, I'm in love with her."
Buffy kept playing it over and over in her mind.
She hadn't heard what came next, Angelus had stood and started for the stairs slowly, which forced her to retreat from her hiding place as she listened in on the intense conversation they'd been having all morning.
She'd been worried about him all night after their run in with her father, unable to sleep, and unable to check up on him for fear of making it worse so this was the best she could do.
She had no idea this was to come. It did happen to make sense of a lot of the strange going on between the two men though.
What didn't make sense was why. A lot of why's at it. Like why her father didn't care this time, why not with him. Why he let him come here, why he was practically encouraging this.
What also didn't make sense was why Angel felt this way. How it came to be. Another thing left unclear was what, if anything, he was going to do about it. What she was going to do about it.
OoOoO
Over the next few days Buffy managed to avoid Angelus, and she was sure he was going out of his way to avoid her as well. She also managed to avoid her father, his goons, and any of Angel's men as well for the most part, something she was also quite happy for. She didn't need anything more to deal with or think about.
But now her father was leaving and everyone who wasn't meant to be hidden away was gathered together to see them off. Including her.
Entering the room, all eyes fell upon her, all except the pair she wanted. He was acting as though she didn't exist at the moment.
Smiling, she chatted up with her father, promised to behave and to call, said their goodbyes and so forth.
And before too long, he was gone. They were all gone.
And she was back alone with him.
"You decided to stay?" she finally spoke, surprised her voice remained calm as she was anything but.
Angel finally turned to her, "What can I say? You were pretty convincing," he said with a smirk and chuckle.
Buffy gave an easy smile but felt like her body was on fire. She remembered that night, remembered the morning that came next. Which he had no idea she knew about. And she still had no clue how she felt about it or what to do with it.
Angel was sure he should probably say something about that night. Try and figure out if she was okay with what he pulled, with what happened. He knew that was a move more up her father's alley, treating her like a delicate flower, but he couldn't help it.
He also knew she was probably wonder why he was still here. She knew her father and how he was, he'd remembered her reaction and the fear she had for him when Ethan broke up their naughty adventure and had to be confused about all of that as well.
But he didn't want to go there. Instead, he sighed, popped a few pills, then excused himself, heading back for his room.
OoOoO
"I take it you've officially come out of the shadows?"
Spike threw down his cigarette and smiled Buffy's way. "Ah, what can I say? My cover has been blown."
"This is true."
"Plus, Angelus isn't exactly at one hundred percent so I'm helping to run the show."
Buffy smiled. She liked the Brit. He was fun. "Well, I guess complaining wouldn't do much good?"
He laughed. "No, probably not. Not that one such as yourself would even want to complain about yours truly," he smirked. "So where are you headed off to?"
Buffy rolled her eyes.
"What, I can't ask?"
"Fine, sure, I'm running over to Willow's for awhile. Happy?"
Spike smiled again. "Is that so? Well, you have fun. And be sure to tell her I said hi, would you?" he wigged his eyebrows.
"Oh, well now, isn't this interesting..."
"Maybe, but that's all you're getting for now. So go on, have fun."
OoOoO
"I think you have a not-so-secret admirer."
Willow turned to look at her friend, her face a mixture of surprise, hopefulness and terror. "Wh... What? Who?"
Buffy smiled, "One Mister William Pratt, I believe you may know him as Spike."
Willow turned a brighter shade of red than her hair. "I... What makes you say that?"
"Oh, just the way in which he told me to make sure I said hello to you when I came over. In fact, the rare sightings of him over the past few days, as he's pretty much the only person I spoke to since 'The Talk', he's always managed to bring up your name come to think of it."
"Oh. Well. Um..."
Buffy couldn't help but laugh at her friend. "You know, I'm the one supposed to be acting that way and freaking out as I have zero experience in these types of things, not you!"
"Are you trying to tell me that you aren't freaking out?" Willow asked, hoping this would be a way out of talking about her, about Spike, and dealing with Buffy and Angel for awhile again.
"No, I don't know. Not in that way at least, well, maybe a small part of me is, but the bigger part of me... just is a mess. And... wants this. Wants him to do something about it, to take away everything else, including my frazzled nerves."
"You just want him to get you naked," Willow joked and the girls laughed.
"I can't deny I haven't thought about it. A lot."
"Well, maybe instead of waiting on him to come to you... you'll have to go to him?"
Buffy sighed. "Maybe."
OoOoO
After her long heart-to-heart with Willow, Buffy returned home, desperately hoping to avoid seeing Angel right now. She had one too many dirty images floating around in her head thanks to Willow's brilliant idea that she should practically seduce him and all. Which that alone was enough to surprise her as well, who knew Willow had such a naughty streak in her?
Ever since this man entered her life, Buffy had found hers, that she was sure of.
Luck, however, was not on her side. At least not when it came to her plan to sneak in and not see him for awhile.
"Hey," Angelus called out from the down the hall just as she reached her door.
Pausing, Buffy did her best to calm herself down, stop her heart from beating right out of her chest, her nerves from rattling her body.
"Angelus," she finally answered, turning around, an uneasy smile on her face but the best she could manage at the time.
And he looked just as, if not more uncomfortable than she as he walked toward her. When he was only about a foot away, he stopped, put one hand in his pocket and the other went to his head, rubbing the back of his head nervously as he looked anywhere but at her.
"It has been pointed out to me that I haven't exactly thanked you yet for, you know, probably saving my life with that call and getting me to a hospital and everything... So... I... just... Thank you, Buffy," he strangled out.
She would have laughed at this new side of him shining through if not for the tone in his voice, and that look in his eyes as he finally looked her way. "You're most welcome, Angelus," she answered him. "I'm glad you're going to be okay. And also, I should thank you for staying as well. You don't know how much this whole thing means to me." 'In more ways than one!'
Angel looked away again. "Not a problem," he said softly. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to say so I'm going to... go."
Buffy turned and grabbed for her door before pausing once more and swallowing down the large lump gathering in her throat before turning around once more. "Um, so are you doing alright with everything? Like, the whole, um, changing thing and all," she asked, unable to stop the blush along with it no matter how hard she'd been trying.
Angelus turned around. "I'll manage."
"Well, if you need me..."
That dark, lusty cloud settled around him once again. He looked as though he was going to take a step toward her but instead ended up turning around and walking in the opposite direction, calling out, "As tempting as that is... it's probably not the best ideas given what happened the last time, but thanks," over his shoulder.
OoOoO
"Why not?" Buffy demanded as soon as his door creaked open.
Angel rubbed his eyes and stifled and yawn as he took her in through his half-open eyes. "What?" he rumbled.
"Why wouldn't this be a good idea?"
"This?" he questioned, eyebrow raised, looking much more awake.
Buffy blushed. "This as in me, you know, helping you or whatever," she hurried out.
He sighed, "I think the answer to that is quite obvious, Buf."
Buffy was silent for a long moment, then quietly spoke, "And this... this as in us."
It was his turn to leave them in silence, meeting her eyes as they raised and just holding them until a sadness washed through his dark orbs.
"Buffy..." he whispered, but said nothing more.
Instead, his hand reached out to stroke her hair, then her face, before reaching behind to cup her head, pulling her to him. He kissed her forehead softly, let his hand slide down to the small of her back, the gently leaned her back against the door frame. Once more, he took his time to drink her in before bringing his head down to hers and capturing her lips with his own.
It was a completely different take from the last time they were in this situation but it was still as passion filled as it had been.
Circling her arms around his neck and giving herself space for a small push-off jump, Buffy wrapped her legs around his waist and completely molded her body against his. Her hips moved against his, feeling a hot, sticky pool of need forming, as well as a hardening manhood, as she moved.
"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," he growled, nipping along her neck.
She didn't even care, as long as this didn't stop. As long as this progressed into what they both clearly wanted.
"I can tell you what I want to get into me," she said, playing off of his words.
He couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Is that so?"
She nodded and bit her lip as he studied her face.
"Well then, do tell," he challenged.
Buffy figured she was always much better at show than tell so instead of answering him with words, she reached a hand down between them, unzipped the fly of his jeans, and reached inside.
Angel groaned and bucked his hips as she stroked him, all but losing it right then and there.
When he couldn't take anymore, he grabbed her hand away and pinned it against the wall above her head. With his other hand, he quickly made an exploration of her covered breasts, stomach, then reached down to her own zipper and unfastened her jeans slowly.
He kissed her as his hand slipped inside, his tongue entering her mouth just as his fingers slipped inside her dripping sex and began pumping away...
Buffy didn't know what caused her to wake up, but she was ready to hurt, kill, destroy whatever it was. She groaned unhappily into the darkness, feeling her body covered in sweat. She also felt her hand... apparently filling in for Angelus' and blushed despite herself and quickly pulled it away.
Something seriously needed to be done about this.
OoOoO
It was around noon the next morning when Buffy finally decided to brave this stupid idea. She was hoping to get him alone but could hear a distinct British accent conversing with him from the dining room.
Going ahead with her plan, Buffy came downstairs and joined them, smiling and greeting them.
"You hungry?" Angel asked.
She shook her head, walking past him to grab up an apple. "I'm good. Actually, I was thinking about going out to try that pool of ours finally."
Angel stilled for a moment then forced a smile. "Well, have fun."
Walking back to the edge of the room Buffy took a deep breath and looked over her shoulder at him. "I will," she said before dropping her robe to reveal her bathing suit... which would actually be a crime to call it such in her opinion. Upon seeing it she'd wondered why she didn't just go completely nude as it seemed like there wasn't much of a difference.
But she braved it, thanks to a lot of serious convincing.
Not looking back, Buffy continued walking to the back doors, opened them and headed for the pool, smiling to herself as she heard the sound of the drink spitting from Angel's mouth and Spike's hysterical laughter following behind her.
"Oh, this just got interesting," Spike quipped as Angel's chair went flying to the ground and his friend stood and then winced in pain from the sudden movements.