Next Evening

314 Gallery

Angelus was genuinely surprised by the turnout of the gallery art show. People hung outside waiting to get inside to catch a glimpse of the popular high-end art gallery.

Never comfortable around this many people, Angelus quietly moved around the crowd standing around on the sidewalk until he finally entered the gallery.

Luckily, he was tall enough to see over people's heads.

To the right, he saw a young man, with spiky dirty-blonde hair wearing a black turtleneck with a Star Wars TIE-fighter t-shirt over it and tucked into a pair of black jeans. He held his hand under his chin trying to exude a snobbish air as he explained his art, but Angelus found him to be just another geek that had a talent for sculpting and a bit of graphic design.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Buffy approach him. His scowling frown curved upwards into a lazy dancing smile. It was a smile he always seemed to wear whenever she was around.

His eyes rolled over her petite figure. She wore a semi see-through sleeveless floral printed blouse and a long skirt with a pair of nude coloured stilettos. Her blonde hair was straight and fell long down her back and over her tanned shoulders. Angelus smirked with appreciation.

"You came," She beamed at him, taking his hand.

"Of course I came. I'd be a lousy man if I didn't show my… girlfriend the support she deserves."

She stepped up to him, pressing her front into his body. "You certainly know how to make your girlfriend all weak in the knees with talk like that."

"I only aim to weaken your knees, Miss Summers," he lowered his head, chastely kissing her mouth.

Breaking the brief kiss, Buffy looked down to his other hand and noticed a bouquet of flowers. "What's that?"

"For you," Angelus held up the bouquet of flower in his hand with a wolfish smirk. "I didn't know if this sort of thing involved flowers, so I bought them anyway." He watched as she took the flowers in her hand and smelled them. "In this case, if it did involve flowers, I didn't mess up and if it didn't, well, the pure joy that I get of watching you smell them and to see that smile on your face is enough to bring you flowers every time I see you."

"But we'll see each other a lot… That's gonna be a lot of flowers," Buffy looked up from the flowers.

Angelus' smirk widened, excited that she wanted to see him as much as he wanted to see her. "Then you're gonna need more vases."

"That reminds me…" she trailed off holding the bouquet and led them to the crowd and towards the back break room to locate a vase she knew was in a cabinet somewhere.

Hanging back for a moment, watching Buffy locate the vase and pour water into it, Angelus ran his eyes down her back and lingered on her bottom.

He pushed himself from the entrance doorless frame and stood close behind her. He held a hand to her hips and pushed her long hair off of her shoulder with the other. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, breathing in her perfume.

Buffy closed her eyes and released a breath falling into the trance of his experienced mouth manipulating her skin.

A small smile crossed her lips as she placed the vase steadily on the countertop. "Angel… not here… Most of Los Angeles is here and—and…" she released a breath and his hands slid up her body, under her breasts, "… you feel…" her body hummed when he touched her.

She wrapped a hand around the back of his head as he drew back slightly to find her mouth. He had gone a day in a half without kissing her or touching her and it was hard. Now that he knew he could kiss her—have her anytime he wanted and Angelus wanted her all of the time.

He didn't get a productive thing done in almost two days because this golden-haired woman took over his every thought. It amazed him how long he had gone without her in his life. He tried to analyse his rapid new emotions for her but he had zero ideas how to describe or define any of them.

Slipping his tongue into her welcoming mouth, Angelus smiled smugly as she moaned and gripped her fingers that were laced in his hair. At a teasing pace, he rubbed his front against her backside, wanting her to know how much he ached for her.

"Ahem,"

The couple kissing slowly broke apart interrupted by a tiny voice.

Angelus and Buffy turned their eyes to each other and met a pair of sceptical blue eyes.

"Are you guys really supposed to be doing that?" Dawn asked, holding her little arms across her chest, tilting her head slightly to the side looking a bit too mature for her young age.

"No," Buffy said coming back to her senses, "we're really not supposed doing that." She licked her lips and fixed the hem of her blouse.

Angelus took a step back to let Buffy free but he kept his eyes on Dawn. He tried hard not to smirk at her attire, assuming she dressed herself for the 'big event'.

She wore a pair of blue jeans, rolled up to her ankle and high enough to see her multicoloured striped socks. A blue striped shirt with a yellow raincoat over it. Her hair was tied back into a simple ponytail. A belt hung over the outside of her shirt and pants. Tucked under the belt was a black and white notebook and a magnifying glass stuck out from her front pocket.

"Why do you always wear black?" Dawn asked suddenly, keeping her gaze firmly on her mother's new boyfriend.

"Why are you wearing a raincoat inside?" Angelus smirked, knowing he outsmarted a six-year-old.

Dawn took out the notebook from her belt and opened it to a clean page. She grabbed a pen from her coat pocket and scribbled something down.

Angelus peered his eyes over to see what she was writing. She sensed his nosey gaze and frowned, holding the notebook tighter to her chest.

"On a new investigation, sweetie?" Buffy asked, not at all phased by Dawn's scrutinising curiosity over Angelus.

Dawn closed the notebook and tucked it back into place, "I have several open investigations," she squinted her eyes looking up at Angel.

"That's nice, honey," Buffy said not really paying attention as she finished trimming the ends of the flowers and placed them into the vase. "These look beautiful." She turned to Angel with a smile as she fixed the flowers in the vase.

"I'm glad you like them." He looked at her with adoration.

"Thank you, sweetie." Buffy leaned forward, tilting her chin upwards to meet his mouth in a tender kiss.

Dawn rolled her eyes and cleared her throat once more, "Kid in the room." She reminded the adults that would no doubt have each other then and there if weren't for a six-year-old also present in the room.

"Stop that," Buffy told her with a smile and ran her fingers lovingly through Dawn's ponytail. "C'mon, let's go back out there." She started to lead the way back out to the main area of the gallery.

Angelus and Dawn hung back with looks of disdain on their faces. Neither of them wanted to go back out there. They exchanged a similar look and followed the blonde haired woman.

Standing awkwardly side by side outside the crowd of the gallery enjoying the art and settling deals to purchase, Angelus and Dawn, tossed their eyes around in a panic, searching for Buffy.

She found her way back to them and couldn't help but smile at the overwhelmed look on their faces.

"Angel," Buffy got his attention, "could you stay with Dawn? I need to talk to a few people about… art things. And I can't find Willow anywhere and she was supposed to be watching her… So please?" She pouted and batted her eyes.

Not waiting for his reply, Buffy gave him a sweet smile and kissed his cheek in thanks and ignored his childish groan.

"I guess, it's just you and me, big guy." Dawn looked up at the tall man, not all that thrilled to be left alone with her mother's new boyfriend.

Angelus dropped his eyes down to her face and swallowed, for the first time in his life, he felt intimidated. How to the hell am I going to do this?

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