Yay, posts. All unedited. Please be kind and enjoy.

There weren't many things Buffy would admit she was good at, but aside from beating up demons, her only other, great skill she had, was she could run and she did, a lot. When fighting demons, running was a crucial part.

Also when she needed space or wanted to take a break she'd run. If she couldn't sleep she's sneak out and either go and hunt demons or take a run around town. It's not like she was afraid of coming up against something.

So that had started to become a go-to for her, if something bothered her, she'd run it out, because everyone needed a coping mechanism and it was much better then beating things, which Giles approved of, she didn't need to act out through violence all the time.

She would regularly find Giles waiting for her at the end of a run if something had happened that day, because he knew her route by now, even though he never joined her in these runs, she made sure to tell him when she was taking one, just in case something happened.

This time she didn't find Giles sitting in his car at the end of the forest path. Instead leaning against the last tree was Angel. "Heard you'd had a rough day." He pointed out and Buffy sucked in a breath. he'd been away for a couple of weeks and she'd come to think that he was never coming back. So she bolted up to him and wrapped her arms around him, and he returned the hug.

"Want to talk about it?" He asked after a couple of minutes of calm silence and Buffy shook her head into his chest. "Then, what about another run?" He asked and Buffy wondered if he knew that it was how she worked out everything in her head.

"Yeah okay." She agreed and Angel smiled down at her and waited for her to start the run, at her own pace, before they started off through the forest, sticking to the path, although they both knew it wasn't dangerous, not with both of them there.

"I've lost classmates before. I've lost quite a lot over the years." She admitted a couple of minutes in their run. "I don't know why this one hit me so hard. I didn't know her very well." Buffy admitted and Angel watched her for a couple of seconds.

"Maybe it's because you were there. You had the ability to stop it and couldn't and your inaction caused that young girl to die." Angel pointed out and Buffy turned to look at him a stormy look across her face. "There was nothing I could do to save her. I should have tried something though." She argued back and Angel shook his head as they got deeper into the forest. "I've heard the rundown of Giles. Nothing you did could have saved her. She was going to die whatever you did. The only thing which would have changed would be you getting killed." Angel explained but Buffy didn't look pleased with that answer.

"Maybe if I'd reached her sooner, maybe if we'd figured out what was going on quicker." Buffy queried and Angel just shook his head and pulled Buffy to a stop. "Listen to me. If you got there an hour earlier, that girl would still have been killed. If she was marked for sacrifice, with that race, you get sacrificed, the best thing you could have done, is what you did." Angel argued and Buffy sighed annoyed and Angel pushed her back to keep running.

"So I should be pleased with what I did?" She asked pushing herself a bit harder than she should. "No, but you defeated a dangerous demon and stopped their race from returning, for a long time at least. There's something good there." He explained and Buffy slowed a little, before coming to stop completely and then leant heavily against a tree.

"You can't save everyone, Buffy, you're not a superhero, you're one girl with a gift and a group of friends. Sometimes you'll lose people and it's awful, but losing one person, means you've saved hundreds, maybe thousands." Angel explained and Buffy shook her head. "Nobody should die, in place of protecting others. We don't want anyone to die, which is why I do this job." Buffy pushed, as she gathered her breath.

Angel stepped closer and placed his arms around her as she buried her head in his chest. "I know, but occasionally someone's going to get killed and you can't punish yourself for it every time," Angel said softly and Buffy clung to him and they stayed there for a couple of minutes until Buffy calmed herself down.

"If you react like this every time you lose someone then there's one thing I know," Angel says and Buffy looks up at him questioningly. "You'll be running marathons and I can't keep up with that." He replies and Buffy lets out a laugh at that. She wraps her arm around him and Angel puts his across her shoulders and they head back to the path, walking all the way back to the tree line.

"Thank you, for talking to me." Buffy murmured as they saw Giles pull up in his car. Neither of questioned how he knew where and when to arrive, but that was just Giles, he great like that. Angel wrapped his arms around Buffy and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. "Anytime. I know a thing or two about losing people." He admitted and Buffy nodded and smiled up at him. He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss to her lips.

"Let me know when you want to go for another run." He calls after her as she walks up to the car. Angel and Giles share a wave and then Buffy smiles over at him, before climbing in and before he could blink, Buffy waved at him and the car was pulling away and driving off, leaving Angel to stand in the shadows and watch them go, hoping that Buffy would come to him next time. Even if they didn't talk, Angel couldn't argue that he enjoyed running with her.

Comments much appreciated.

Also anyone wants to edit stuff, I'm open to taking help.