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Chapter 10:

Buffy laughed at the sound of her little sister's laughter, she readjusted her sister on her back when she started slipping, then continued her way out of the back door and into the yard, then made her way back inside the house. They had been playing and running around for the past two hours since she had gotten back from Angelus' house, she couldn't wait until Dawn went to bed because that meant that she could go to sleep! She didn't remember being this tired when Faith was living with them, they would often tag team when it came to playing with Dawn because the little girl had so much energy.

"So." Joyce Summers smiled at her daughters and twirled around in her black sleeveless dress that Buffy had picked out for her for the Art Showing. "What do you think?"

"You look really pretty, mommy." Dawn smiled from her place on her older sisters back.

Buffy nodded with a smile. "What she said."

"Thank you, girls." Joyce smiled at her daughters. "And thank you for watching your sister, Buffy. I really appreciate it. You don't know how much."

Buffy shrugged. "It's what I do."

"And you do it so well." Joyce laughed, then turned slightly more serious. "By the way, you never told me how your date went."

"It was good." Buffy nodded with a small smile.

Joyce eyed her daughter for a moment. "Will there be another date?"

Buffy laughed. "Definitely."

"But I don't get any more details?" Her mother questioned.

Buffy smiled but shook her head no.

"Who did you have a date with?" Dawn pouted, slightly confused.

Buffy turned her head to the side to see her sister the best she could. "Angelus."

"Really?" Dawn started to squirm with excitement. "Is he coming over tonight?"

"Ah, I'm not sure, Dawnie." Buffy paused for a second. "He didn't actually say."

Joyce shrugged with a smile. "Maybe you should call him. BUT…" She gave her daughter the best 'mother face' she could, she didn't give them very often, so it took some effort on her part. "…make sure you actually watch your sister if he comes over. I have heard horror stories about babysitters making out with their boyfriends and the child getting hurt."

"So NOT going to happen, mom." The blonde said with large eyes.

"Yeah!" Dawn nodded, agreeing with her older sister. "Angelus brings me stuff like… movies and plays with me. I wonder what he will bring me this time."

"Dawnie, you shouldn't expect him to bring you something every time you see him." Buffy told her. "Besides, he might be busy tonight. He's trying to get his new house organized still."

"Well, either way." Joyce smiled, turning around to grab her purse. "Have fun tonight and if you need anything call me." She quickly gave Buffy a kiss on the cheek and then moved to do the same to Dawn. "I love you girls."

0o0o0

"Buffy!" Dawn called as her sister got up to answer the door. "Is it my turn again?"

Buffy laughed, shaking her head, Dawn was famous for taking extra turns when they played board games, at least this time she was asking. "Don't you dare, little girl! It's my turn." Buffy answered the door and smiled even wider. "Well, hello there handsome."

Angelus smiled back at her, leaning down to give her a gentle kiss. "Hey. You said Dawn wanted me to come over, right?"

Buffy nodded, still smiling. "She was actually asking about you not too long ago."

"Buffy! Hurry up!" Dawn called out to her sister, leaning forward across the table to reach the other side of the board game to grab some extra money from where Buffy was keeping it. "Or I'm going to give you six kids."

"Excuse me?" Buffy whipped her head towards her sister with raised eyebrows. "Don't put that evil on me!" She turned back toward Angelus, stepping away from the door to let him in. "We are currently playing The Game of Life. Again. Extreme Reality version, this time." She told him as he walked into the house. "She's obsessed with the game, we have it in pretty much every version there is. I'm just happy we aren't playing the My Little Pony version."

Dawn gasped when she saw who had entered the house, she got up from her seat, running the short distance towards him. "Angelus! What did you bring me?"

"Dawn!" Buffy scolded her. "What did we talk about earlier?"

"Sorry." Dawn whispered.

Buffy bent down on her knees so that she was at Dawn's level. "Just because someone brought you something once, doesn't mean they will bring you something every time, Dawnie. It's not nice to just expect something."

The small brunette nodded her head as her sister stood back up.

"Except, I kind of did bring her something." Angelus whispered into the blonde's ear. "It's in my car."

"You are kidding me, right?" Buffy asked in a hushed voice, turning to look at him.

Angelus shook his head. "I don't have to give it to her if you don't want me to. It's completely up to you."

"No." Buffy sighed. "It's fine, but just so YOU know, you don't have to bring her something."

"I know." He shrugged, making his way back towards the door to get his gift for Dawn out of his car. "But I wanted to."

Buffy turned to look at her little sister, earning a shrug from the small girl before Angelus walked back in carrying a large box. Buffy's mouth dropped open when she saw that the box was taller than Dawn. "Angelus…"

"What?" He asked, setting the box down in front of him, propping it up with one hand. "I figured since tonight was the art showing for the gallery, Dawn might want something having to do with art too." He looked down at Dawn. "You don't already have an art easel, do you?"

Dawn shook her head excitedly as she jumped up and down. "Can we use it now?"

"As long as it's okay with your sister." He looked to Buffy with a small smile.

Angelus and Dawn waited with bated breath for her response. Buffy took a deep breath, nodding.

0o0o0

Angelus had set the easel up in the living room with the promise of moving it into Dawn's room when they were finished. Buffy watched the other two as they sat on each side of the easel, each painting their own picture as they waited for their Chinese food to be delivered. Dawn's back was towards Buffy, so she could see that she was painting a house with people outside in the yard, but Angelus was facing her, every once in a while, he would glance up at her and smile.

When the doorbell rang, letting them know the food was there, Buffy went to the door. She grabbed her purse to give the man a tip, but he told her it was already taken care of in their payment, she turned around towards the living room, eyeing Angelus before turning back towards the man. "Here, just take it."

"No thank you, ma'am." He shook his head. "It was more than enough."

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest, the money still in her hand. "How much did he tip you?"

Angelus got up from the stool he was sitting on, making his way over to the door, placing his hand on the small of Buffy's back. "Is there a problem?"

"Not at all, sir." The man handed the bags to Angelus before Angelus turned towards the living room, taking the food to the coffee table. The delivery man smiled at Buffy. "Have a nice night." Buffy tried to hand the money to the man again, but he shook his head. "Your husband took care of it."

"Husband?" Buffy asked, shocked. Did they really look old enough to be married? "Boyfriend."

The man apologized before leaving and heading back to his car. Buffy made her way back into the living room, she picked a few magazines off the coffee table so that Angelus could set out their food. She softly swatted her little sister on the bottom. "Come on, Dawnie. Let's take a break from painting to eat. Go wash up."

"Okay, okay." The small girl stood up with her shoulders dropped. "Can I paint some more after I eat?"

"Sure." Buffy smiled at her sister's retreading form. "Unless Angelus wants to play Barbie's again."

The dark-haired man paused as he was about to set Dawn's food down on the coffee table, with raised eyebrows, he looked towards the blonde.

Buffy laughed. "You seemed like you were having so much fun!"

Angelus' eyes got large. "Where does she get all of her energy from?"

The blonde laughed harder. "You seemed like you were keeping up with her just fine. Try giving her a piggyback ride for an hour, that was my life earlier."

"I feel like that would give even the spryest person some back pain." He offered her a half smile. "If you need a massage, I'm told that I'm pretty good at it."

"Oh, is that what Xander told you?" Buffy laughed.

Angelus laughed at her response. "It wasn't Xander, believe me."

"Then who was it?" Buffy joked as she continued to laugh.

Angelus was relieved when Dawn came back into the room, sitting herself on the floor in front of her food. He really didn't want to talk to Buffy about the person he used to give massages to. Buffy was currently the only woman in his life, and he didn't want to talk about his ex-girlfriend.

0o0o0

"Okay, Dawnie!" Buffy clapped her hands together, getting up from the couch. "It's almost time for bed, how about you tell me about your picture before you go to bed?"

"Okay!" Dawn smiled, excited to tell her sister all about it. She was a little sad that she didn't get to paint another picture, but she did get to play a lot of games with Buffy and Angelus. "This is our house." She pointed to the picture, then moved to the people she had painted. "This is me, mommy, you and Angelus." She then moved to the brown blob near the painting of Angelus. "And this is the puppy that Angelus got me."

Angelus laughed, while Buffy looked unimpressed. "Dawn, Angelus is not going to get you a puppy." She turned to look at her boyfriend. "Notice how I said NOT?"

Angelus nodded, trying to hold back his smile.

Shaking her head, Buffy turned back to her little sister. "Who is going to take care of the puppy?"

"You and mommy?" Dawn gave her a hopeful smile.

"Oh, no!" Buffy laughed, shaking her head. "I killed my goldfish! We got lucky with you!"

Dawn frowned at her older sister, she knew that Buffy could take care of her puppy, if she really tried. "You took care of that egg."

Buffy looked at her sister, confused. She had no idea what she was talking about at first, until she realized that Dawn must have been talking about when they had the school assignment to take care of the egg for a week in Health Class. "Eggbert? All I had to do was make sure he didn't get smashed. I didn't even feed, burp or diaper him like I was supposed to, I just wrote down that I did for the assignment."

Angelus looked at Buffy teasingly. "Eggbert?"

"That's cheating, Buffy." The small child huffed.

Buffy let out a small laugh. "Yeah, you're one to talk."

Dawn crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine, I will just get a puppy when I grow up." She then turned to Angelus. "Let's see what Angelus painted."

"Yeah." Buffy smiled, crossing her arms just as her sister had. "Let's see yours."

The three walked around the easel to the side that Angelus was on. Dawn stepped in front of the easel first. "Hey, you did Buffy too. But you didn't paint."

Buffy gasped when she saw a very realistic drawing of her face on the paper clipped to the easel. She had no idea that Angelus had that kind of talent. "Angelus…" The blonde shook her head. "That's amazing!"

"You didn't paint it though." Dawn pointed out again.

"I never have." Angelus told the small girl, bending down to her level.

Dawn looked confused, shaking her head. "What do you mean?"

Angelus let out a sigh, looking at his drawings, still kneeling down beside the small brunette. "Well, all the times that I have drawn your sister, I never paint them. I tried. I just couldn't seem to get the right shade for her eyes. Or the right hue for her hair."

"Maybe next time you come over we can try to do it together." The girl suggested.

Angelus smiled and nodded. "I would like that."

"Alright, kiddo." Buffy smiled down at her sister, lightly tapping her back. "Let's get ready for bed."

Dawn turned towards the doorway before pausing. "Are you going to read to me?" Buffy gave her sister a pointed look. "Oh, come on! We were just getting to the good part!"

Buffy smiled and shook her head. "It's getting pretty late and you still need to take a bath. Harry Potter will still be there tomorrow night."

"How about I take a really fast bath and we only read one chapter?" The girl tried to reason with her older sister.

Angelus looked to Buffy with a hopeful expression. "Come on, Buffy. It's Harry Potter!"

"Fine!" Buffy finally exclaimed, then pointed at her sister. "But you better be fast."

"Like The Flash!" Dawn shouted before taking off up the stairs.

Buffy turned back towards the drawing that Angelus had done of her then looked up towards him. "Why didn't you tell me that you could draw like that?"

Angelus shrugged. "It didn't come up."

Buffy smiled at him, looking back towards the picture. "You make me look so pretty."

"I don't make you look pretty." He whispered, hooking his pointer finger under her chin, tilting her head towards him. "You are beautiful, and my drawings don't do you justice."

"You are so sweet." She blushed as he kissed her softly. He smiled as he pulled away from her, and she smiled teasingly. "You know, since you and Dawn pretty much double teamed me with this reading a bedtime story thing, I'm going to put you to work."

"Okay." He playfully winced. "What's my punishment?"

The blonde turned toward the art easel Angelus had bought for Dawn. "Take this up to Dawn's room and you have to read to her while I spend entirely way too much time brushing her hair because she refuses to cut it."

"You call that punishment?" He laughed as he started the clean up the easel.

0o0o0

Angelus pulled Buffy closer to him on the couch, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. Angelus had read Dawn a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone while Buffy brushed the small girls hair out and then they had tucked her into bed and said goodnight.

"There's something really important that I have been wanting to talk to you about all night." Angelus spoke into Buffy's hair.

"Really?" She asked, turning her head to look at him. "There is something I have been wanting to talk to you about too. What's yours?"

"Well." Angelus paused, wondering what it was that she wanted to talk to him about. "Oz told me that he likes Willow."

"Seriously?" Buffy smiled, pushing away from him slightly to sit up straighter.

Angelus nodded. "I wasn't going to have another repeat with what happened to us, so I asked him what color hair the girl had, and he said red. He definitely likes Willow."

"In other words, you're not Xander." She teased, then smiled brighter. "Willow likes Oz too! That's why I was trying to get them to spend time together today. Do you think Oz would be willing to stay a little longer for Willow?"

Angelus shrugged. "Something tells me that he would. I would love it if Oz decided to move here, I'm still working on him with that one."

"They would be so cute together!" Buffy gushed happily.

Angelus pouted playfully. "No cuter than us, right?"

"I don't know." The blonde dramatically sucked in a large breath of air. "I mean, they have the same hair color."

Angelus laughed. "That's what makes them cute?"

Buffy shrugged with a smile. "They would be cute regardless."

"Good." Angelus pulled her closer to him again. "Because he changes his hair color sometimes. Now, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Umm… well." She looked up at his face. "What you said earlier… about me living at your house."

Angelus nodded, understanding what it was that she wanted to talk to him about. When he had suggested it, he wasn't thinking about what it may sound like he was suggesting. They were in a new relationship and he didn't want to make her feel like he was rushing or pressuring her in any way. "I'm sorry about that, Buffy. I wasn't thinking."

"So, you don't want me to move in?" She questioned.

"It's not that." He answered quickly. "I don't want you to think that I'm insinuating something. It was just another option. You would be pretty much in the middle, closer to campus than here and closer to your mom and Dawn than campus." He paused before adding. "You would have your own room, of course!"

Buffy looked down at the coffee table in front of her for a moment then back towards Angelus. "I'll think about it."

"Don't let it be another option to stress about though." He tilted his head down to look into her eyes. "If it's not something that you want to do, that's perfectly fine."

"It would be nice to see each other more." She smiled.

"Yeah, it would." Angelus whispered with a smile before kissing her.

0o0o0

When Joyce silently walked through the front door she was greeted with her oldest daughter in a hot and heavy make out session on the living room couch. She raised her eyebrows at the couple's wandering hands, she waited a moment but when she didn't think they were going to come up for air anytime soon, she set her purse down on the desk just inside the living room. "I hope the making out didn't start until after Dawn went to bed."

The young couple broke apart at the sound of her mother's voice. "Mom." Buffy gasped, trying to catch her breath.

Angelus took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair, trying to gather himself. He wasn't even sure how long they had been kissing, he glanced at the clock on the wall before doing a double take. It was after eleven! "Mrs. Summers." He nervously wiped his hands on his blue jeans as he stood up. "I'm sorry, this really isn't the first impression that I wanted to make."

"She was so in bed first!" Buffy exclaimed, quickly getting up from the couch.

Joyce nodded trying to hide a smile before looking towards Angelus. "Well, Dawn is sleeping, and the house isn't trashed or burnt to the ground. It's a better first impression than some parents get, I guess. As much as I was looking forward to meeting you, it's late." Joyce nodded slightly. "I look forward to getting to know you on a level that doesn't involve my daughter having her tongue in your mouth or your hand up her shirt." Buffy bit her lip as she watched her mother make her way to the staircase, the older woman paused before turning to look at the couple. "You two haven't… started book club, have you?"

"What?" Buffy asked with large eyes before responding quickly. "No! I told you that you would meet him before that, and this is WAY before that."

"Book club?" Angelus whispered to himself.

"I do want to say thank you, Angelus, for many things." She glanced at her daughter with a small smile. It had been a while since she saw her daughter so happy. "Specifically, for tonight. I know you were the reason why we had a band for the showing. It was very generous of you to make that happen."

"Your welcome." He smiled.

"How did tonight go?" Buffy wondered.

"It was good, great actually. I will tell you more about it tomorrow." Joyce nodded. "Okay then, I'm going to go to bed and Buffy…"

"I'll say goodnight and do that same." Buffy nodded back to her mother.

Joyce looked towards Angelus. "It was nice to finally meet you, we will have to do dinner sometime."

"Yes, ma'am." Angelus nodded as the older woman started back up the stairs. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Joyce called back softly as she neared the top of the stairs.

Buffy turned to Angelus, closing her eyes as she let out a sigh. "Well, that went well."

"Way better than I thought it was going to." He said with raised eyebrows. The moment he saw Joyce standing in the living room he was sure that he would never be able to see Buffy again. He wanted to make a good impression the first time that he met his new girlfriends' mother but making out with her daughter on her couch wasn't good at all.

Buffy nodded as she stepped closer to Angelus, threading her fingers through his. "I guess this means you have to go."

Angelus nodded before kissing her. "I guess."

Buffy kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his neck, Angelus slowly backed her up until her back was against the front door. "God. You feel…"

Angelus felt himself getting closer to a line that he didn't want to cross, not tonight and definitely not when her mother was under the same roof. "I should…"

"Go…" She whispered, before kissing him again.

0o0o0

It was after midnight when Angelus actually got home, he was almost expecting everyone to be asleep, especially since the guys had played all night at the showing, he wasn't entirely sure what Xander had been doing all night though, but when he walked in he could hear his friends talking and laughing, it sounded like it was coming from the kitchen. He tossed his car keys on the coffee table, he didn't even plan on going into the kitchen to see what everyone was up to. He just wanted to go to bed, the faster he went to bed, the faster he would be able to see Buffy again tomorrow. He really didn't want to leave her tonight, but he knew he had to go home. Luckily the gallery wasn't going to be open tomorrow and they could spend the day together.

Just as Angelus was about to make his way up the stairs, he heard Xander call out to him. "Hey man, they are in there drinking all your beer."

Angelus nodded before taking another step up the stairs. "Good to know."

"Hey, when Riley goes back home to visit his mom, who is going to buy your beer?" Xander asked seriously. Riley was a couple years older than the rest of them and the only one of their friends that was old enough to buy alcohol so Angelus would give him the money to buy it whenever they wanted it.

Angelus paused again, shrugging as he turned around. "I don't know, maybe we could stock up before he leaves to last until he gets back, or people could just stop drinking so much of it."

"Or you could just buy a whole beer company." Xander shrugged with a smile. "Hey, could Doyle just ship us a bunch?"

"I don't want to own a beer company." He told his friend. "So that leaves Riley or Doyle."

Xander nodded, he didn't care either way, as long as they had some. There was nothing like drinking some beer, eating snacks and playing video games. "How did tonight go?"

"Good." Angelus answered, not wanting to give away too much information. He was about to turn around to go to bed again when he stopped. "You know, Buffy said something weird during our date and then tonight her mom mentioned it…"

"You have met Buffy, right?" Xander laughed. "Buffy saying something weird is of the norm."

Angelus raised his eyebrows at his friend. "What is the big deal with them and this book club?"

"Book club?" Xander asked, shocked. "Buffy brought up a book club?"

Angelus nodded. "Yeah, she wants me to join a book club. I have been part of one before and it's not all that exciting."

"Book..." Xander let out a sigh, looking around the room quickly before turning back towards his friend. "Okay, when Buffy and Willow didn't want people to know what they were talking about they would come up with code names for stuff, it happened a lot in high school because Cordelia and her goons would gossip about everything, especially when it came to Buffy and Willow."

Angelus narrowed his eyes at Xander, waiting for him to continue but instead, he didn't. "Okay, so book club is a code name? For what?"

"Book club is for sex." Xander explained.

Angelus raised his eyebrows in shock. "Sex?"

"Yeah, you know, the funky chicken, the hippity dippitty." Xander broke it down for him. "When she asked about the book club, she didn't actually want you to join a book club. Buffy wants to know if you are interested in having sex with her. Which, now that those words just left my mouth, I feel kind of gross about it. I mean, she's Buffy."

"You said yourself that you had feelings for Buffy in the past." Angelus pointed out. "You must have had those kinds of thoughts about her." Angelus paused, shaking his head. "Your right, now that those words just left my mouth, I feel kind of pissed about it."

"That was a long time ago, man." Xander laughed nervously. "Don't punch me or anything."

Angelus narrowed his eyes at his friend. "As long as you don't have those thoughts now."

Xander shook his head quickly. "I don't! Believe me!"

Angelus shook his head as he headed up to bed. He laid in bed for a long time thinking about what Xander had told him. Was Buffy really ready to take the next step in their relationship already?