Jenny used all of her willpower not to laugh at Angel Monday morning as they ate breakfast. He was trying to move Connor along, to get up, get dressed, get ready and come eat. In a hurry.
She was sure she had never seen him this happy or this excited about anything, let alone going to school on a Monday morning, in her life.
She'd been so shocked that he'd left Friday night, another one who hadn't sincerely expected him to go. But he did. And Connor took the liberty of filling her in on the details when they got back and when the elder Angelus was out of sight and hearing range.
Buffy Summers sure was the best thing to ever happen to this family, and quite possibly the town judging by the way things were going.
She couldn't have been any happier.
The weekend with them went fairly well, even though Angel was noticeably anxious the entire time. But he was in a much better mood, which would normally put them in one as well.
"You do realize she's not going to be there this early right?" Connor grumbled as he entered the room, interrupting her memories of the past few days. He was groggy and fell into his chair, clumsily grabbing for his breakfast.
Angel tried to hide his blushed and somehow managed to shoot daggers his brothers way.
Even with the nightmares having returned, Angel was in a great mood. He did feel a bit nervous too and anxious. And about everything else, all mixed into one great big mess of emotions.
OoOoO
Angel laid his stuff down and started helping Jenny get her stuff back up and running. Connor, on the other hand, wasn't quite as helpful. His head was laid down on the desk, on top of his folded arms, as he tried to get his extra sleep in.
When he finished with what Jenny asked him to do, he grabbed up his bag and dropped it on Connor's head before picking it back up and heading for the library.
"I've changed my mind," Connor said with a yawn as the door closed, "love doesn't suit him. In fact, it's quite irritating."
Jenny laughed and watched as he fell back asleep as soon as the words had left him.
OoOoO
Angel was walking through the halls when he noticed Riley Finn.
His first thought was to wonder why he was there this early and the next was why he was there at Buffy's locker.
And as if the kid had heard his thoughts, he turned his head, finding a not so happy Liam Angelus looking at him from the end of the hall.
Angel watched as he quickly shoved something into her locker then took off without another look his way. Angel casually strolled by her locker, noticing the white paper slightly sticking out of the vents.
'Why is Riley Finn sneaking notes into Buffy's locker?' Angel wondered, jealousy clawing at him.
He did what he could to push it aside and forget it. He continued on, doing what he could, but it wasn't easy.
OoOoO
Angel didn't spend too much time in the library, accounting to the fact that he'd spent most of the usual morning time in with her, not unlike most of his Mondays since he'd been driving Jenny and Connor here early. And he didn't really do much with that time besides sit and stare aimlessly at the books he'd seen time and time again.
When the first bell rang, he was more than ready for the day to begin.
OoOoO
Buffy had no idea how in the world she was going to make it through this day. It was now only lunch and she was far past ready to just go curl up and die somewhere. She was in so much pain that it hurt to even breathe. Standing, walking, sitting... they were all torturous tasks to do. And on top of that, she kept getting into trouble with teachers because of her lack of concentration.
All in all, this day was not her best.
At the moment, she was standing at her locker, holding onto it with a death grip, trying to make it seem as natural as possible.
A few minutes before she'd nearly fallen over in pain with a scream as someone brushed roughly into her, but she managed somehow. But this wasn't working.
She took a few deep breaths before realizing that wasn't the best idea so just tried to clear her mind the best she could.
She still had to go grab Angel, which was an even harder task. By now, she knew getting him to tag along wasn't any issue. But after all hell broke loose, walking from her locker to his then from his to join the others sure seemed like a death sentence.
But in the end she forced herself away from her locker and to get standing as straight as she possibly could, hiding the pain with a huge smile as she gathered her things and started towards him.
OoOoO
Buffy came up around Angel's side and wrapped the arm not covering her stomach around his slightly hunched shoulders then leaned her thumping head against him. "So tell me Angelus, did ya miss me this weekend?"
Angel looked down into her amused face before replying. "I think those were the two longest days of my entire life."
Buffy beamed then snug into him a little closer before pushing off of him to go rest of a surrounding locker. "Just as I thought," she smirked. "Pretty soon, you're just not going to be able to get enough of me."
Angel walked with her outside, down to where their little group had set up a picnic setting under one of the larger trees. She carefully laid down before tugging on his leg to follow, which he happily did, even if it was driving him insane.
He remember the way she felt, the way she fit perfectly against him and in his arms. He craved that feeling back. It was taking all of his willpower to not to reach out and touch her. To not roll her over and have his way with the perfect little body beside him that he did nothing but fantasize about.
He took a deep breath and did his best to try and concentrate on whatever in the world they were talking about.
But that turned out to be a bust. He could only focus on her. And soon he began to realize a few things... like how she kept one arm always wrapped around her, even as she lied down on it, as if protecting herself or something. Every once in awhile, when she moved too much, a flash of pain would cross her face, so fast though that he thought he'd imagined it the first few times. But worst of all, he started to notice how no matter how hard she laughed or how big and bright she smiled, it just... wasn't real, like something was missing. The little spark behind it and the little twinkle in her eyes, gone. And he had no idea why.
OoOoO
Buffy knew he was watching her, a little too closely for her liking today. Any other day she'd bask in it, flirt and make fun of him all the while her heart pounded and happiness would pierce through her.
But not today.
Somehow she knew that if anybody could see through her well practiced act, it would be him. And she had a feeling that it was already starting to happen.
She also knew that with everything that'd gone on, she really shouldn't feel as comfortable around someone with Angel's reputation. Yet she did. And it was far more than he knowledge that he was much more than what everyone else thought or saw in him.
He just felt safe.
Whether he was or not was a different story, but that didn't matter.
"So, besides the obvious fact that you missed me, what else did you do this weekend?"
"Nothing much really. I watched some movies and hung around. Nothing exciting. What about you? Did Willow leave anything out?" He asked with a smile.
Willow had been going on for most of the lunch about her and Buffy's weekend. But he didn't really care for the answer to that, unless it had to do why she was somehow in pain.
Buffy thought for a minute before smiling and shaking her head. "Nope, I think she covered all of our adventures." But she knew he wasn't asking about that. He'd noticed. And now when he asked, she was going to have to lie.
And that hurt her a lot worse than it ever had before with anyone else. Lying to him seemed like such a bigger crime then it'd ever been.
OoOoO
"Are you okay?" Angel whispered as they headed back inside, towards Jenny's classroom.
Buffy smiled, as big and reassuring as any one she'd give any other day besides the missing factors he'd come to realize, and shook her head.
Angel wanted to, but didn't push it. At least he wasn't going to right now. But something was wrong. He could feel it.
"Hi Ms Calender," Buffy happily greeted. "How was your weekend?"
"Hello Buffy, it was fine. Yours?"
"Great! Oh and I don't know if you had anything to do with a certain someone showing up Friday, but if you did, I just wanted to thank you."
Jenny smiled, "Thanks, but that had nothing to do with me. I hear you two had fun though."
"Absolutely. Though, he may not admit it," Buffy chuckled then headed for her desk. She leaned toward Angel, who was already in his, "I forgot to mention, I was kind of hoping those leather pants you wore were some kind of phase you'd decided to enter."
"Sorry to disappoint," he said wryly.
"Oh, no, it's fine. I got memories," she smirked and started gathering her things, thankful he wasn't asking any questions. Yet. "Any plans for this weekend?" she asked after a few minutes.
"Don't even start with me," he growled, making her laugh.
"I hope you remember you gotta take me to Disneyland!"
OoOoO
"Angel? Angel?" Buffy was whispering at him, trying to grab his attention. "Angel?"
Finally he looked over, just for her to hold up her index finger and mouth "hold on" at him, making him groan. The girl had the most annoying habits.
She'd turned to write something in her notebook, which after a moment she ripped the page out slowly, then handed it to him. Under the words "You look grumpy, I thought I'd cheer you up," she had drawn a little was of her and him, sitting as they were at their tables. Buffy had a caption over her head that read "Angel?" while his had "#!&" over it. Her face was marked with pure amusement as the picture of herself was of her flashing his way, while his was stuck in between the anger and shock as he'd apparently half turned towards her.
As soon as he looked at it, he buried his head in his arms on the table, trying his hardest not to laugh. When he lifted his head, he turned towards her, who was smiling brightly. He raised his eyebrow and she gave him a pointed look before reaching down, pretedning to act like she was about to make this little drawing come to life.
But then the bell rang and she snapped her fingers.
"Darn," and they both laughed.
"You know, I'd be more than willing to wait here longer..." he offered.
"Get up, ya pig," she chuckled.
"You know, now I'm going to expect this one day."
"Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it."
"Don't tease me, Miss Summers."
OoOoO
Not until the middle of the next class did Buffy realize that she had Gym next period and how she'd forgotten to get a note from her mother.
She quickly went through her options until she found the right one, which brought a smile to her face as it came to her. And so when the bell rang she happily got up, despite the pain that overtook her, and hurried to Angel and grabbed his hand and started dragging him out the door.
"Buffy? You do know I have a different class than you right? And that it's in the complete other direction?"
"Yeah, so? We're not going to class."
"We're not?"
"Nope."
OoOoO
Angel had skipped school before, even skipped a class or two here and there, but the excuse for these had never been for a girl. And never had they been to sneak off to the school basement with one.
Not until Buffy.
And just because he hadn't, didn't exactly mean he didn't know what that typically meant. But with her, you really just never knew.
He sure had his hopes, and his nerves, up though.
"Uh, Buffy?" he asked as she opened the door and took a few steps down the stairs.
Buffy smiled and looked back at him. "If you really want to go to class Angel, be my guest," she told him happily, "But me personally, I don't feel like going to Gym today and I thought I'd drag you along with me for company." And with that, she turned back around and headed deeper into the basement.
Angel watched her get to the bottom of the stairs, then he sighed, closed the door behind him and followed.
Buffy smiled as she heard the door click softly, followed by his footsteps and breathy mutters.
"So, this is the school basement," he said, looking around.
"What? You've never been down here before?"
"I don't exactly make it a habit to come down here, no."
A smile took over Buffy face, the first real one she'd made since before leaving Willow's. She liked Angel's answer very much. "Guess we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" she said slyly, then grabbed him to start digging around the dusty and damp area.
"So, why exactly did you not want to go to Gym again?" Angel asked after a few minutes as they found somewhere clean and safe enough to sit down.
Buffy shrugged. "Wasn't feeling like it. Besides, it's the only class I seem to have with a certain someone I'm trying to avoid."
"Oh? And who might this lucky person be?"
Buffy slapped at him. "Why? Want some pointers?"
Angel laughed. "Couldn't hurt."
"Funny. But honestly, I don't really see you and Riley Finn having a conversation."
And Angel suddenly remembered the boy hanging out at Buffy's locker earlier. "Oh... uh, why are you avoiding him?"
"He asked me out," Buffy said and shrugged again. "Apparently he didn't get the point Friday that I wasn't interested."
Angel felt relief overflooding him. But, he also knew that it was only so long before someone else asked and before she would say yes. It made his skin crawl, the very thought of her with... anyone that wasn't him.
"Wanna play hide and seek?"
Angel broke out of his thoughts and laughed. "What?"
Buffy smiled, "Well we gotta pass the time, don't we? Hide and seek... or truth or dare? Pick one. Or think of something else."
Angel chuckled as he thought it over. He honestly had a better idea in mind of how to waste the hour, but decided to not voice that opinion.
Instead, he eventually agreed to truth or dare, knowing he was going to end up regretting it.
Buffy just smirked, she had no plans to regret anything. 'Come whatever may. This is gonna be fun.'