Deleted Scenes and Extras

Because this is totally a DVD.

Deleted Scenes

From Chapter 12: Promises

Lucy got a little too out of character (as a human anyway) for me to use this version of her threatening Jim after Devon beats him up. It was fun to write though.

She crouched down next to Jim, who was groaning quietly. He blinked a few times and his eyes focused on her face. His lips curled into a bloody snarl. "Bitch."

Lucy smiled. "You're gonna die."

Jim's mouth dropped open. "Are you...threatening me?"

"Stating a fact. Seeing as this is Sunnydale I'm betting you'll be in the ground sooner rather than later, and when you are I promise you I'll be around to spit on your grave." Lucy's smile grew wider as she leaned over to whisper in Jim's ear. "Or I could ask our blond friend from last night to bleed you dry. Whatever works."

Lucy stood up. "That was me threatening you."

From Chapter 13: Visitors and the Dark Age

This little exchange was cut because a) I didn't think that Joyce would be comfortable implying that her seventeen-year-old niece would have sex with a man she thinks is in his twenties and b) the way she's talking is way too flippant and out of character for the topic.

Aunt Joy patted her shoulder. "Sometimes is better than never. And if William makes you happy, well, he may be a little too old for you but you'll be an adult in a year and until then I think I can trust you to be responsible."

Lucy gave a small smile. "Not break the law, you mean?"

"Exactly. William's a nice young man who doesn't need a criminal record."

The irony of that statement was lost on Aunt Joy. Statutory rape would probably be just above robbery and jaywalking in terms of severity on William the Bloody's very long rap sheet, if one actually existed.

From Chapter 24 (originally Chapter 23): Unchained

I changed my mind about how Lucy was going to be turned into a vampire multiple times while writing this story. This section is from when I thought that Spike was going to sire her and take her back to the factory to wake up. And the line about Spike being real is because I had the idea that the First was going to be hanging around looking like Buffy and taunting Lucy while Angelus was torturing her, but I changed my mind about that too and decided it had better things to do than invest a lot of time in a minor player.

It took three days for Lucy to wake up. Spike had been with her the entire time. He'd laid her body on the bed in his and Dru's room after he got back from the mansion and cleaned the dirt and dried blood off her skin. The physical wounds that Angelus had given her healed right before his eyes. Cut skin sealed, bruises faded, and even broken bones knit back together. Spike watched her heal and paced around the room. Drusilla had come downstairs the night after Lucy had been rescued to ask Spike if he'd like to go hunting with her. Spike had refused.

"I want to be here when she wakes up," he'd said. "Like you were for me."

"My sweet knight." Drusilla had smiled and kissed him slowly. She wasn't angry. "I'll bring you a treat."

Lucy's eyes fluttered open a few hours after the sun set on the third day. Spike sat down next to her as she took a breath that she didn't need.

"Spike?" Lucy reached up and touched his face. "You're real. I can hear you."

"I'm real." Spike held her other hand. "How you feeling?"

Lucy slowly sat up. "I feel strong. I can hear everything. It's all so...clear." There was wonder in her voice. "Everything is clear."

The kiss was a surprise. Lucy kissed him and Spike felt like electricity was running down his spine.

"Well," Spike said when the kiss ended. "Why haven't we done that before?"

"Drusilla." Lucy trailed kisses along his jaw. "And me being all human and easily breakable." She pressed her lips against the place on his neck where there would have been a pulse if his heart beat. "Funny how being dead changes your perspective on things."

"Doesn't it just?" Spike wrapped his arms around Lucy and held her close, keenly aware of the bare skin of her back and shoulders. He breathed in her scent. It was the same as it had been when she was alive, still sweet, still good, but her blood had cooled. There was the faintest, nearly undetectable chill that marked her out as a vampire.

Lucy sighed and drew back. "Drusilla and Dalton brought breakfast. I guess we'd better go join them."

They didn't have to, but Drusilla would certainly be happier if they did.

Lucy kissed him one more time. "To be continued. Help me find something to wear."

From Chapter 27: Seventeen Forever

I was going to kill off Drusilla at one point, and then I decided not to because it just didn't fit. Here's the start of the last chapter when Drusilla was dead.

The feeling of leaving the Hellmouth behind was something that Lucy would never forget. There was an absence of something she'd never not felt since she became a vampire, a gaping hole in her chest, a lack of electricity in the air that made her want to cry. She made a sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper.

"Alright, kitten?" Spike asked from the driver's seat.

"I'm empty," Lucy said. "Is leaving a Hellmouth always like this?"

Spike shook his head. "No, it's not." His voice was strained. He was hurting worse than her. Lucy would have known that even if she couldn't hear the pain in his mind. Drusilla was gone. His sire, his one constant for more than a century. Leaving the Hellmouth was nothing compared to that.

Extras

A Family Thing

These are a few interactions between Lucy and Angel in this story that happened off-screen. I've written them in chronological order and, for a change of pace, from Angel's point-of-view.

Angel's entire apartment smelled of human blood. It was a smell that Angel was extremely familiar with, seeing as he was a vampire. This blood, though, had an undertone that Angel knew very well. It didn't bode well for Lucy, who'd only just woken up after having her blood taken by Drusilla.

"Buffy, could I talk to Lucy in private for a minute?" he asked when he entered the bedroom.

Buffy, the vampire Slayer and the girl Angel loved more than anything, looked from Angel to her cousin Lucy and back again. "Yeah, sure."

Angel waited until he heard Buffy move away from the closed door before he spoke. "When did Drusilla give you her blood?"

"A few weeks ago." Lucy slowly sat up on the bed and Angel helped her sip from the can of ginger ale he'd gotten her. "Can it go away?"

Angel assumed that "it" referred to the psychic link that Drusilla had forged between her and Lucy. He shook his head. "Not unless you...uh..."

"Die?" Lucy asked. "That's what Spike said."

Spike wasn't wrong. Either Lucy or Drusilla would have to die to break the link. And if it was Drusilla who died it probably wouldn't be good for Lucy.

Lucy's hands shook as she tried to put the soda can down on the bedside table. Angel took it from her before it could spill and handed her a chocolate chip cookie. Lucy nibbled on it with very little enthusiasm.

"Am I still human?" Lucy asked.

"Yes," Angel said at once. "You're still human. You still have a soul."

Lucy sighed. "There's nothing about this in Mr. Giles's books."

Angel had to search his memory for his response. It didn't happen often, but the Aurelius clan was an old bloodline and even with his distance from the Order, Angel had learned the right word for this situation. "It's called gratia."

"'Thankful'?" Lucy translated the Latin with a frown.

"More like 'favour'," Angel said. "Drusilla...made you a vampire without making you a vampire."

It was something that vampires did very rarely for humans they favoured but didn't want to sire right away. The practice had died out over the centuries except in the more traditional families. Angel didn't know exactly how it worked, but he did know that it was all about the blood. Wasn't it always?

"Meaning?" Lucy asked.

"Meaning..." Angel sighed. "Welcome to the family."

...

Being attacked by a member of his vampire family was something that Angel was used to. If he'd been without his soul he would have hit back. As it was, he was thankful that Lucy had pulled her punches enough that she only threw him into the wall instead of through it. He didn't feel like fixing a person-sized hole in the wall. Or explaining to his neighbour why her apartment now had a window into his bedroom, when Lucy threw him to the other side of the room.

"Are you done?" Angel asked. He stayed crouched on the floor until Lucy nodded. It was easier to stay down when she started swinging at him. Playing dead made her demon get bored. It wasn't like he couldn't take a short beating, and he sure felt like he deserved it.

Lucy sat down on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around her torso like she was trying to hold herself together. "I want Spike."

Angel had sent Spike away after Lucy had completed her transformation into a vampire. There had been yelling and a near brawl, but Angel stood firm. Spike was a bad influence. Angel wasn't going to let him anywhere near Lucy while he was trying to teach her to not be a monster. She could be one of the good guys, he was sure of it.

Tears ran down Lucy's cheeks. Angel sat down next to her. He was pleasantly surprised when she accepted his offer of comfort and let him hold her while she cried. If he'd tried that the week before she would have been sure to push him away.

"I'm such a mess." Lucy dried her eyes on her sleeve. "Why don't you give up on me?"

"I'm your sire," Angel said. "And I'm your friend. I'll never give up on you."

Lucy rested her head on his shoulder. She probably didn't realize that she was purring. "You're a good friend." She didn't say anything more, and without cues from her breathing or heartbeat it took Angel a while to realize that she'd fallen asleep. Chuckling softly, he tucked her into bed and slipped out of the room.

...

Angel and Lucy were having a staring contest when there was a knock on the door. Part of Angel—the demonic, Angelus part—wanted to make her back down and then punish her for daring to challenge his authority. He was grateful that answering the door gave him an excuse to avert his eyes first.

"Buffy, hi." Angel stepped to the side to let Buffy in and saw that Lucy had moved from where they'd been standing in the middle of the room to flip through a book on the couch. "What's up?"

"We've got a ghost problem," Buffy said. "I was hoping you two would be able to help out with this spell Giles found."

Angel didn't have to look at Lucy to know that she was attempting puppy eyes. "What kind of spell?"

"An exorcism thingy," Buffy said. "Totally safe, no blood involved."

Angel did look at Lucy then. She'd been doing well. Really, there wasn't any reason not to let her leave the apartment aside from an abundance of caution. If he was with her the whole time, if they went to help with the exorcism and came straight back home, it could be a good test outing. "Sure, we can help. At the library?"

Buffy nodded.

Lucy was so excited to go outside. Angel felt slightly guilty that he'd kept her cooped up for so long. She practically skipped through the streets as they made their way to Sunnydale High. When they got to the school, Angel made it halfway into the library before he realized that Lucy wasn't right behind him. He turned around and saw her standing frozen in the middle of the hallway several feet away.

"Give us a second," he told Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, and Jenny Calendar. He went back out into the hall. "What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't be here," Lucy said in a small voice. "I'm a monster. They'll hate me."

The same thoughts had crossed Angel's mind a time or a hundred. He told Lucy almost exactly what he'd learned to tell himself. "Then that's their problem. You're still you."

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut.

"We won't tell them, if you're not ready," Angel said.

"Okay," Lucy said. She opened her eyes and met Angel's gaze for a second before her gaze skittered off to the side. Whether she was trying not to get into a fight for dominance right outside the library or if it was a side effect of nervousness, Angel wasn't entirely sure. He gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"It'll be fine," he said.

Lucy nodded. Angel opened the door and she followed him into the library.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Everyone thank JayeMaru for this missing scene. Because Spike has a lot of feelings and while they're waiting on Lucy to rise is a great time for mulling them over, even if this does have less mulling than I planned.

Lucy was dying when Spike found her. He'd seen the results of Angelus's torture sessions many times before and he knew when a human was beyond saving, alive anyway.

The chains holding Lucy up were easy for Spike to rip out of the wall. He ignored the brief rain of dust from the broken stone and tried to lower Lucy to the ground without causing her too much more pain. She made a whining sound but otherwise didn't react. Dried blood flaked off of her skin, joining the puddle of blood that had formed around her feet. Spike set her down on a patch of floor that was free of major bloodstains. Then he asked and she answered.

"Do you want me to let you die?"

"No. I'm not done yet."

He cut his wrist open with his teeth and fed her as much of his blood as she could swallow. She wouldn't be a minion. He'd give her more blood after she woke up to be sure.

"I'll stay with you the whole time," he said. "I'll be there when you wake up, I promise."

Then he heard Angelus scream. The faint smell of ozone filled the air for a moment. Magic, in all likelihood. That was confirmed when the Slayer and Angel came into the cellar. Angelus would never have conceded anything to Spike.

Despite Angelus living in the factory for more than a month, Angel's apartment was still filled with his scent. Spike didn't want to be there. He wanted to take Lucy back to Drusilla for Dru to fuss over. He wanted to wait for Lucy to wake up and take her on her first hunt. But he couldn't because of Angel and the Slayer.

The Slayer locked Spike and Angel out of the washroom while she cleaned the blood off Lucy's body and dressed her in something that wasn't falling apart. Then there wasn't anything to do but wait.

Wait, and glare at Angel when he was in the apartment. All of this was Angel's fault. Spike had plenty of reasons to hate him.

But.

Spike wasn't stupid. He knew that if she hadn't been on the verge of dying from Angelus's torture Lucy would never have agreed to be turned into a vampire. Angel was the only reason that Spike had a chance to keep her.

Wrestling with hate and anger and happiness kept Spike occupied and mostly distracted from worrying that Lucy wouldn't want to stay with him. When the thought did intrude, he pushed it aside. Don't think about that. Don't think about how becoming a vampire changed people. Don't think about how he tried to save his mother. Don't think about the things his mother said before he staked her. Don't think about that.

Hate Angel. Wait for Lucy to wake up.

Don't think about that.

Vampires Only Sparkle in Dreams

This is the beginning of a Twilight crossover that I was going to write with Spike and Lucy in Forks taking place after "Lovers Walk" (Season 3, Episode 8), but I changed my mind. Maybe. I might use the idea for a Spuffy fic.

The only reason that Lucy hadn't knocked out Spike was that she was driving. There was only a small piece of the windshield that she could see through since the rest of it was painted and papered over to keep the sun out and if she took her eyes off of it for even a second she was likely to crash. Even vampires would have trouble getting out of a car crash unscathed, especially if the car caught fire.

"Spike, you've been complaining since you woke up," Lucy said when Spike paused his tirade for a brief moment. "Why don't you tell me how you really feel?"

She had her mind wide open for incoming thoughts directed at her, but sorting through Spike's undirected mind was way too tiring to do so early in the night. He had a lot of thoughts.

Spike sighed. "Sorry pet, I just don't understand why we're helping the Slayer."

"Maybe because we owe her for not killing us the last time we were in Sunnydale?" Lucy suggested. "And, you know, she's family."

Spike pointed at Lucy with the cigarette he was about to light. "Your family, not mine."

"When you sire a girl, you join her family," Lucy said, "but if it makes you feel better, it was Giles who asked. And no smoking while I'm driving."

Spike grumbled but he put the cigarette away and started messing around with the radio instead. He found a rock station that they could both agree on and sang along to every song, making Lucy laugh when he made up all the lyrics he didn't know.

They drove straight through the night, only pulling over for lunch so that they could have the usual fight over who got one of the rationed bags of O-negative blood without crashing the car. Spike thought that he had won, but Lucy pouted until he gave in and split with her. Maybe they would get lucky and run into a serial killer or someone else whose thoughts were painful for Lucy who had O-negative blood next time they stopped for a stretch.

The entire drive took two days. They had been in New York City when Giles had sent the email to the account Lucy had set up asking for her to call him. When she did he dumped a Watcher-typical account of demonic activity on her and asked if she and Spike could please go have a look at it because Sunnydale was in the process of going all to hell again and they really needed Buffy there.

A Watcher working with a vampire without a soul—a normal vampire—was something that just wasn't done, but working with Buffy had turned Giles into a very not normal Watcher. He didn't trust them, especially not after what had happened with Willow and Xander, but he would take the lesser of two evils if it came down to that. And if not lesser then at least more predictable.

Spike was driving when they entered the town. He took a brief look at the welcome sign before driving past it. Lucy didn't have to read his mind to know that he would have run it over if it didn't look like it would total the car. That didn't matter. There would be plenty of other things for them to destroy in Forks.

Five Peeps, Three Guitars, and a Whole Lot of Coffee

Just a little bit of Lucy and Dingoes Ate My Baby in the continuity of the new BOOM! Studios comics. I've only read Volume 1 so far and I'm trying not to get spoiled, so I don't know if Dingoes Ate My Baby actually shows up and I could be getting the band totally wrong if they do. Also, no massive spoilers here, promise.

The five teenagers squeezed onto an old leather couch smiled for the camera. A girl with curly green hair and warm brown skin was front and centre between a tall, dark-haired boy in a leather jacket and a pale, redheaded boy who had one arm around the tattooed boy sitting on his other side. The last boy's neon pink hair was making up for his muted smile.

"Hi guys," the green-haired girl said. "That was me and Dingoes Ate My Baby performing our cover of "Bad Girls Club" by Falling In Reverse. If you liked it, leave a like for the YouTube algorithm, comment, subscribe and go check out these guys. We did another video on their channel that you can watch by clicking here. All their links are in the card and in the description. Lucy out!"

All five of them waved to the camera. Lucy got up to stop the recording.

Lucy played back her outro and nodded. "That's good for me. Your turn, Devon."

They shuffled around on the couch. There was a brief scuffle when Soul, the redhead, elbowed Devon and Lucy ended up sitting in Soul's boyfriend's lap while Devon gave Soul a noogie. Oz managed to stay out of the way by going to set up their camera. Finally, they got organized with Devon in the centre of the line.

"Hello, internet! We are Dingoes Ate My Baby with special guest," Devon pointed to Lucy. "Lucy Moore."

"Hello." Lucy waved.

"We hope you liked our rock cover of "Demons" by Imagine Dragons. If you did, give this video a like so we know that you want more stuff like this. Go check out the video we did on Lucy's channel, that link is in the description, and subscribe to her and to us if you're new here. Follow us on Instagram so you can see Oz's hair colour and Sam's tattoos, because that's all we post. Peace!" Devon grinned and held up a peace sign.

They filmed the Dingoes' outro three more times before Sam put his foot down. "That's it. We have enough takes, Dev. We're going out for a coffee break, we're each going to order whatever weird mocha-latte-foam-whip thing we like, and we're going to sit at a table in the Espresso Pump until everyone is done drinking. No arguments."

Devon closed his mouth and nodded.

They ended up at the Espresso Pump in a corner booth with seven drinks between the five of them. Soul couldn't choose between caramel and chocolate, and Sam wanted a hot drink and a cold one. It totally wasn't a scheme they'd hatched on the way there to make Devon take a longer break.

They talked as they sipped their drinks. Lucy was new to town; she and her mom had moved to Sunnydale when her mom got a job teaching at the local University of California campus. Sam was starting classes at UC Sunnydale that Monday; he wanted to know if Lucy's mom would be one of his teachers.

"She's teaching math," Lucy said. "Calculus."

Sam sighed. "I have to take stats, not calc."

"You're probably lucky. My mom's pretty hard-core." Lucy laughed. "She's more than a little disappointed that I want to be a rock star."

"Same here," Devon said. "My dad's trying to convince himself it's a phase."

Sam raised his half-empty mug. "To disappointing our parents."

The five of them clinked their mugs together.

Lucy swallowed a mouthful of her hot chocolate. She and the Dingoes had gotten connected over YouTube when they'd released their covers of Ruelle's "Monsters" on the same day and the small number of viewers they had in common all freaked out. They hadn't met in person until the week before. All of them had been glad to find out that their online friends weren't horrible people in real life. Sure, Devon could be a little intense when it came to music, but Oz's twenty-four seven laid back chill balanced him out.

"So, how long is it before school starts for the rest of us?" Lucy asked.

"Another week," Devon said. "We need to get more videos filmed before then. I was thinking—"

"We're taking a break, Dev," Sam said.

Devon frowned. "But I had an idea."

"Write it down and save it for later," Soul said.

Devon grumbled a bit, but he took a notebook and pen out of his jacket pocket and scribbled down his video idea. While he was muttering to himself, a pretty brunette girl dressed in flattering jeans and a pink halter top walked up to their table and introduced herself as Cordelia Chase.

"You're new here, aren't you?" Cordelia asked Lucy.

Lucy nodded. "Just moved in last week. Do you go to Sunnydale High?"

Cordelia smiled. "Yup, starting my junior year. You?"

"Senior," Lucy said.

Cordelia's smile widened. "Well, if you need girl talk or just someone to show you around, I'm always happy to help." She gave the boys a little wave and headed over to the counter.

Lucy swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "Is she for real?"

"Yup," Soul said. "Sunnydale High's real life Marry Poppins. Practically perfect in every way. Devon dated her for like a second."

"Huh?" Devon asked, looking up from his notebook.

"Cordelia just dropped by," Sam said. "Lucy thinks she's cute."

Lucy nearly spat out the hot chocolate she'd just sipped. "I didn't...I don't..."

Devon patted her on the shoulder. "Cordelia is pretty. No shame in speaking the truth. Beautiful and full of life, that's Cordy."

"So why'd you break up?" Lucy asked.

Devon shrugged. "We wanted different things. I mean, sometimes I don't even like kissing and Cordelia is very...physical. We're still friends though."

"Dude, Cordelia is everyone's friend," Sam said. He smirked at Lucy. "And, last I heard, she's single." Lucy kicked him under the table.

They left the Espresso Pump fifteen minutes later. While they were walking down the street back to Oz's house, a man covered in fire ran past. He was followed by a blonde blur dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Lucy yelped. The boys weren't fazed.

"Should we do something? Call someone?" Lucy asked.

Sam shrugged. "This is Sunnydale."

"It gets weird here," Oz explained.

Lucy blinked. "That girl looked like my cousin."

Kind of Like a Love Song

I was reading the Alpha Harris soulmark AU (the Xander/Steve Rogers one on AO3, where the soulmarks are the first words said to each other) and I had questions. This little AU is my attempt at an answer. It's not to be taken too seriously.

Liam's words are in English. They're strange words. "Yeah, there's a problem." The first word isn't even a word. He reads them backwards in the mirror, craning his neck so he can see them curving around the back of his shoulder. They feel like a promise, these strange words in their strange handwriting that loops and curls without the letters ever joining together. His soulmate is something different from all the people he knows. When they finally meet, everything is going to change.

He dies before he meets her.

...

Drusilla's words aren't in English. They're more proof that she's a devil-child. No respectable young lady would have a soulmate who doesn't speak English. She feels lucky that she can keep the Chinese symbols that appear to have been painted down her side with a brush and ink safely hidden under her layers of clothing. One of her sisters has her words following the curve at the base of her throat. She thinks herself lucky that "Do you like roses?" is neither overly mundane nor extremely embarrassing.

Drusilla is in China. The stars have been whispering to her, naughty things. They have such ideas. She quite likes what they're saying. That man is looking at her oddly, yelling (the first thing he says is "What are you doing?", but she doesn't understand any Chinese language). He comes closer to her or she goes closer to him, it doesn't matter which. All that matters is her fangs in his neck and the pretty sound he makes when he hits the ground.

She doesn't need words. She has her sweet William.

...

William knows that Cecily isn't his soulmate, but that doesn't stop him from trying to woo her. She said his words. "No, thank you." That has to mean something, even if his words are written in a hand that looks more like that of a child learning their letters than a refined lady like Cecily. He finds himself falling for her more and more each day. When he rejects him, something inside him breaks.

Drusilla isn't his soulmate, but William doesn't have a soul. He has love. For them, that's enough.

...

Rupert should have known that he wouldn't meet his soulmate among the Watchers Council. His first night after leaving home, a boy comes up to him at a party and says his soulwords. "You look like fun." He asks Rupert if he wants to go somewhere more interesting. Rupert smiles a razor-sharp smile. "Let's."

As he packs his bags to leave for America, Rupert misses Ethan even more than he has since he went back to the Watchers. He doesn't know if he'll ever see his soulmate again. He knows they aren't good for each other, but that doesn't stop him from loving Ethan.

...

Lucy thinks she's met her soulmate when a boy offers her a candy in a hospital waiting room. She only accepts she's wrong when she finally sees his soulmark and it isn't a thank you, but by then they're in love, or something like. (It says, "I should wish you'd made me wait longer, but I'm too happy to finally meet you.") If one of them does meet their soulmate, they'll figure out what to do together. (Lucy and Quinn think they can all be together, if it's not a platonic bond. He dies before they have to test it.)

When Lucy does meet her soulmate, she spends months doubting it. The words of her soulmark are so common. But then she sees his soulmark and it's her handwriting ("No, thank you."). It's even in the same place on his body as his words ("You want one?") are on her's, following the curve of his right hip. She spends more months wondering how she and Spike can be soulmates when his soul is long gone.

That question is answered when Angel loses his soul.

...

Willow and Oz have the same soulmark. It's a question, "Do you know where this room is?" It makes a circle around their belly buttons. Willow thinks that the writing looks like a girl's. Oz thinks it looks like a boy's, to be contrary and because there's a least a fifty percent chance that the words don't belong to a girl. Whoever their soulmate is, Willow and Oz can't wait to meet them.

...

Buffy is convinced that her soulmate is either old or a solider. Probably both. "Is there a problem, ma'am?" is such an old solider thing to say, at least she thinks so. She doesn't mind that they'll probably have a platonic bond. Her mom's soulmate was her Art History professor in college with eighty years between them, and they were perfectly happy until Aunt Peggy died. What she doesn't like is that her old solider will probably die long before she does. She's seen how badly Aunt Peggy's death hurt Mom, is still hurting her. Buffy doesn't want to be that lonely.

Buffy's soulmate is old and he's a solider just like she is, but their bond is far from platonic. She thinks that things might be easier if it was.

Angel shows up on her doorstep three nights after they make love on her birthday, two nights after they blow up the Judge, one night after Ms. Calendar's uncle storms out of the library and gets himself killed by fledges after telling them how Angel's curse could be broken. He stands outside on the porch even though he could easily come inside. He tells her that his soul is gone, Angel is gone, but she's still his soulmate and he still loves her. Angelus wants to be with her. He wants to know if they can make it work. It's bizarre and Buffy should stake him because he doesn't have a soul, but she doesn't. She invites him in and they make a plan.

They call a family meeting in the old mansion that Angelus was hiding in while he was figuring out if he wanted to kill Buffy or not. There are a lot of weird things about it. Sure, Buffy should probably have figured out that Spike and Lucy are soulmates. There were a lot of clues, if she thinks back, but it's still kind of weird. Getting hugged by Drusilla is definite weirdness. Giles sitting down with Angelus under the light of a truth spell with neither of them attempting to kill each other is a good weird. Giles listens and nods. Now they have to figure out how to tell the others that Angelus, Drusilla and Spike are on their side.

Buffy's soulmate doesn't have a soul, but that's okay. Her's is enough for both of them.

...

Xander doesn't learn that his soulmark is a demon language until senior year, when he opens one of Giles' books and immediately recognizes the letters it's written in. He's had to look at them every day of his life, after all. If he didn't wear long sleeves almost all the time he's sure Giles would have told him what his soulmark says long before now. He closes the book twice as fast as he opened it. He doesn't need to know what language that is because he refuses to be soulmates with a demon.

He learns what his soulmark says two days later. If Buffy and Angelus can make things work, well...At least his soulmate won't be a vampire.

A/n: And that's all, folks! I've written two out of twenty-seven chapters for the sequel to this story, which will probably be posted in like a year considering that it took me a little more than a year to write this one. I'm going to start posting another fic that's an AU of this AU starting in chapter eight. I changed one thing and ended up with a Xander-centric Bones crossover, so if you're interested in that it'll probably be up soon.

All the best,

Cynder2013