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The vampire gasped as the stake plunged into his heart and he burst into a shower of dust, as Buffy walked away from the scene, head bowed in thought. The image of Angel and Cordelia close by to each other kept flashing through her mind.

"Hey pretty - ack!" cried an arriving vampire.

"Not interested," Buffy replied, walking past the falling dust.

She continued on, lost in her thoughts and when she reached the end of the cemetery, she decided to head to the next one, hoping to find a few more vampires she could beat up to take her mind off the image of Angel and Cordelia.

"How could he have moved on like that? And with her!"

Reaching the next cemetery, Buffy heard the sounds of combat and quickened her pace, finding Faith fighting against three vampires. Drawing her stake, Buffy rushed in, staking one vampire from behind, then attacking another, as Faith noticed her and grinned, punching her vampire in the face, then staking him.

"Hey, B. Whatcha doing, girl?"

"Patrolling," Buffy replied, "And I'm going to keep doing just that."

"Hey, wait," Faith cried, grabbing hold of Buffy's arm, "That it? You're just gonna help me out, then leave me behind. What the hell is going on with you, B?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, ever since Christmas, you've been, how would I say it, blowing me off?"

"I don't want to think or know about what happened at that party."

"Why not? Scared you might have actually liked it?"

Buffy frowned and the next thing Faith knew, she was on the ground, nursing a bloodied lip, while Buffy was standing over her with a furious look on her face.

"Damn, B, what the hell?" Faith demanded, outraged.

"Nothing happened between us," Buffy gritted through her teeth.

"Why are you denying it? What are you trying to prove?" Faith asked, getting up.

"Don't go making something out of nothing," Buffy warned, "I'm asking you to let it go. Don't be chasing after me. Just forget about it."

"Kinda hard to 'just forget about it'. I mean-"

"Don't! I just said to not go there."

Faith grinned, "Oh I think I know what this is all about. Angel. You two break up and the best way you can comfort yourself is-"

Before she could even finish, she was back on the ground again. Spitting blood, she slowly got up and turned around to face Buffy, who was looking livid.

"Is that it, B?" Faith asked, "You're just gonna beat me into the ground because you're too damn afraid to confront-"

Buffy swung her fist again, but this time, Faith was ready and she smacked Buffy's fist aside, while spinning around and backhanding the blonde Slayer. Buffy retaliated with a kick to Faith's stomach, pushing her back towards a set of headstones. Faith caught herself from falling over and she parried Buffy's fist, but her other fist then crashed into Faith's jaw, knocking her over the headstones.

"Wow, guess you pretty are damn pissed about that night," Faith smirked.

"You just don't seem to know when to listen, do you?" Buffy said.

"Oh and you're gonna tell me what to do? Sorry, B, I ain't made like that. I don't take orders just because you feel like giving them. Just because you want to hide away from what happened doesn't mean I should."

She dodged Buffy's fist and kneed her in the stomach, before punching her in the face, but Buffy whirled around and landed a backhand. Faith aimed for a straight punch, as Buffy blocked, before swinging her other fist, but Faith caught it and grinned.

"Tell me, B, are you really that worried about hurting Angel's feelings by falling into bed with me? If anything, you've already hurt them real bad by dumping him."

"And you know all about Angel's feelings?" Buffy asked, "You wouldn't know a thing about love if it kicked you in the ass."

She shoved Faith back and punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground.

"You wouldn't understand."

Turning away, Buffy then left the cemetery, as Faith wiped the blood from her lips, watching her go, before getting up and also leaving the cemetery, though in the opposite direction from Buffy, as Angel stepped out of the darkness of a nearby bush. He had been out patrolling when he caught hold of Faith's scent and wanting to question her about Buffy, he followed it to the cemetery, where he witnessed the confrontation between the two Slayers. Now, it had been confirmed for him that something indeed had happened between the two girls and he wasn't sure what to make of it, as he set off towards home, head bowed deep in thought. Just as he reached the cemetery gate, a vampire leapt out in front of him, wielding a sword.

"Careful. You could poke someone's eye out with that," Angel warned.

"By the El Eliminati, you shall die!"

"You even know how to use that thing?"

The vampire snarled and swung his sword, but Angel dodged the swing, but the vampire was apparently gifted in swordplay, the blade slicing through the air and Angel's shirt. He growled, catching hold of the vampire's wrist and punching him in the face. Kicking his legs out from underneath him, Angel flipped the vampire onto his back, before disarming him of the sword and slicing downwards. The vampire burst into dust, as Angel noticed the etchings on the blade.

††††††††††

"How was patrol?" Willow asked.

"Got a few vamps, ran into Faith, nothing special," Buffy replied.

"The small bruise from vamps or Faith?" Xander asked.

"Uh, vampires. Hey, Giles…and Faith."

"Morning, Buffy," Giles greeted, "Xander, Willow, how are you?"

"Hey, B and friends," Faith smiled.

"Faith, you're in the library," Xander said, "Feeling out of your comfort zone?"

"I could drag you into my comfort zone if you like. Whether you'd be a punching bag or something else is up to you."

"Can I be the something else?"

"Punching bag it is."

"Alright, enough," Giles said, "Buffy, how was patrol?"

She shrugged, "Nothing too major. Pretty standard. If that."

She ignored the glare that she knew Faith was sending her and instead focused on what Giles was telling her. Apparently, he wanted her to investigate a group of sword wielding vampires that had recently arrived in town and had been discovered by Angel. Upon hearing Angel's name, Buffy perked up, causing Faith to frown.

"Angel was here?"

"Yes, he was," Giles replied, "He gave me the sword and told me about the group. He'll help investigate tonight."

"No, I'll do it by myself," Buffy said, "I can handle it alone."

"Well, you don't have to do it alone," Xander said, "We're here to help as well."

"I know, but I really don't want to be picking up pieces of you, Xander."

"Take Faith with you," Giles said.

Before Buffy could reply, Faith grinned, "Yeah, sure, I can help her. We'll have it done before you know it, Giles."

"Good to know. Now, off to class the lot of you. And watch out for Principal Snyder. He seems to be on a bit of a warpath today."

"Got it," Buffy said, "Warpath equals expulsion, so we'll get going now."

††††††††††

Angel struck the punching bag, so lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear Cordelia enter.

"Ahem. Is this a private catharsis or can anyone join?"

"Cordelia, you're here," Angel said upon turning around.

"Well, yeah. Training session. Unless you're too broody and don't want to."

She turned to leave, but Angel was suddenly before her.

"No, stay. We can do some training today."

Cordelia beamed a smile and left the training room to get changed, as Angel waited for her to return. Once she did, they started their lesson, with Angel impressed on how much Cordelia had improved. She was starting to become a skilled fighter and even showed it by managing to hit Angel square on the nose.

"Oh damn, are you alright?" Cordelia asked, "I think I hit a little too hard there."

"No, it's fine," Angel said, "Didn't hurt that much."

"Okay, good. I'm gonna take a break now."

As she walked over to her water bottle, Angel held his nose in pain and winced, but quickly hid his pain when Cordelia returned. They continued their session, until Angel managed to get Cordelia into a lock by pinning her arms, then took her legs out and softly dropped her to the floor. He gave her a small smile, before helping her to her feet, noticing how close she was standing to him now…and how close her lips was to his when she looked up at him. Cordelia was about to say something, but had also noticed how close Angel was and how close his lips were. She felt an urge to lean in and claim those lips as her own, as Angel felt a spark and he wanted to close the gap, just take her in his arms and claim her as his. Unknowingly, Cordelia and Angel started to close the gap, when Cordelia's phone rang and she drew away from him to answer it. As she spoke on the phone, Angel turned his back, running a hand through his hair. Did he just nearly kiss her? Did he really wanted to?

"I've gotta go," Cordelia said, "Thanks for today, Angel."

He nodded numbly as she left, leaving him in his thoughts of her.

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