October 21, 2005
"Ohmigod!" Buffy exclaimed as she rushed into the living room and plopped into the seat beside Angel. "Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen!" Buffy asked excitedly as she held up a page from a magazine.
He looked at the page, raised an eyebrow. "You want to buy that?" He questioned.
"Why not? Katie would look so adorable in it!" She said, imagining her daughter dressed up in the little parrot costume she had showed Angel. "And we can be pirates!" she offered, "We'd all match!"
"Pirates?" He questioned.
"Are you going to turn into Mr. Grumpy pants again?" She accused.
"No" He sighed, "It's just…when did you get so enthused about Halloween?"
"Well…since I had someone to dress up it with…and now that I have a daughter to dress up and bring trick or treating…" She justified.
He shrugged, "Whatever you want." He relented.
"Thanks..." She said sarcastically.
"What?" he asked, knowing her tone indicated she was mad at him.
"You." She indicated.
"Me? Me what?" He asked confused.
"You make me make all the decisions!" She expressed, "You just say 'Whatever you want' and that's it! Marriage is a two way street you know…some feedback every once in awhile would be nice."
He opened his mouth to argue back, then closed it.
"My point exactly" she said rolling her eyes and heading back into the kitchen where Katie was smearing mashed carrots into her highchair table.
He sighed, 'Is she mad just because of pregnancy hormones? Or is me being agreeable an actual problem for her?' he wondered.
He put the book he had been reading on the coffee table and stood.
Following her into the kitchen he couldn't help but stop and smile at Katie rubbing the baby food into her hair.
"You have a camera?" he asked.
Buffy turned from the sink and laughed when she noticed what he was looking at.
"No, it's upstairs." She sighed, realizing she didn't have it nearly.
"That's ok, I'll draw it later." He said, removing the messy bowl from his daughters reaching fingers. "You can be pumpkin head for Halloween." He said picking the orange colored six month old.
In response, she stuck her sticky fingers into his mouth.
"Uhh…thanks." He mumbled, then play biting her fingers.
Buffy shook her head, smiling as she did.
"When I come back down with something more closely resembling our daughter, we're going shopping." He told Buffy.
She raised an eyebrow, not used to him tell her things so directly.
"Are we?" she countered.
"Yeah. Dressing Katie in cute little costumes sounds like fun." He said, smiling to the squirming baby in his arms.
"Will we buy pirate costumes?" She fished.
Katie squirmed more, and began protesting being carried when there was perfectly good floor to be crawling around and creating mischief on.
"We'll figure it out at the store, I don't put her down soon…we'll have a meltdown of Katie proportions." He said quickly.
She understood that well enough and he went to wash up the baby.
...
Thirty minutes, and a lot of angry baby yelling later, Angel reappeared, a little tousled.
Katie was spotlessly clean, dressed and happily crawling independently behind him.
"Meltdown?" she asked, seeing the different colored shirt he wore and disheveled appearance.
"Meltdown.' He agreed, ears still ringing from the vocal assault. "I think I still have water up my nose." He grumbled, reaching for a tissue to try and blow it out.
She nodded, knowing full well that if Katie didn't want to do something (like a bath)…she fought...and she fought hard.
She wasn't super-powered like her parents, but being their daughter gave her one hell of an advantage, especially over them.
"You still up for shopping." She asked.
"After all the work cleaning her up?" He questioned, "She's getting a costume." He stated.
Buffy grinned and dragged Angel down so she could kiss his cheek.
…
After spending what felt like hours and trying on what had to have been a hundred outfits…even Angel agreed the parrot was the cutest.
…
Of course then she dragged him to the adult costumes.
As Katie was content to chew her stuffed pig in the carriage, Angel took advantage of watching Buffy try on various outfits.
"How about this one?" He asked, handing her a package.
She looked down at it, "Naughty nurse?" She questioned with fake annoyance.
He looked back with pleading eyes.
"No." She stated, in a tone that said, not-happening, don't-even-argue.
Secretly she knew she was going to buy that one, just not for Halloween use.
She found a pirate outfit she liked and was thrilled when she tried it on, it would actually accommodate her nearly six month baby belly.
Her next trail would be getting Angel to pick out an outfit.
She found a few she liked, two out of three he downright refused to even try on.
After a brief bickering session, he tried on the third choice.
'I love how I can still threaten him with 'no sex' if he doesn't do what I say.' She thought giddily. 'Even though it would actually hurt me more…since being pregnant tends to drive my sex-drive up the wall…hopefully he never figures that out.'
She peeked inside the dressing room and had to laugh at him.
He obviously had no idea how to put the costume on.
After spending a few minutes untangling him, she stood back and looked over the finished product. "I think it's a keeper."
"Do you now?" He asked, coming closer.
"Oh yeah." She smirked.
He grabbed her butt, "Arr, surrender the bootie." He said in an awful pirate voice.
She playfully slapped his hand away.
"Or perhaps I'll plunder the chest." He said, grabbing at her breasts.
"Wait until be buy it." She laughed, secretly loving it when his rare playful streak comes out to play.
…
When they finished picking out accessories, they headed for the checkout.
"Why don't you take Katie to the toy store, she's getting restless and there's a line." Buffy suggested, mostly so Angel wouldn't see her buy the nurse outfit he'd wanted her to try on.
None the wiser he wheeled the baby carriage off towards the toy store.
…
October 31, 2005
When Halloween rolled around they went trick or treating for the first time. Pirate Angel held a parrot dressed Katie perched up on his shoulder for a good chunk of the night, the six month old really enjoying the bird's eye view of the world.
Buffy really enjoyed holding the candy bag.
…
Since Katie was too little for the treats they had acquired, Buffy and Angel felt no guilt in finishing off any and all chocolate before the night was up.
...
December 4, 2005 – One Year Anniversary
Buffy felt Angel's finger glide over her shoulder, heard the slight rumble in his chest as he chuckled.
"What's so funny?" She yawned, slowly waking.
"You're drooling worse than Katie right now." He said to her, still laughing.
She opened her eyes and reached for her mouth, sure enough it was wet.
"Oops" she said embarrassed, wiping the saliva with a corner of the sheet she was wrapped in.
He simply chuckled again.
She leaned back down, running her fingers over his muscular torso, "Not my fault you're so sexy and drool worthy." She told him, admiring what he had to offer.
He leaned down and kissed her brow, "You're chest is pretty drool worthy too." He said sneaking a finger under the sheet and caressing a nipple.
She looked up and found a bouquet of red roses in his other hand.
"Happy Anniversary." He whispered.
After a second she realized the roses looked funny. She took one and saw they were made of paper.
"Paper?" she asked confused, "They run out of real ones at the store?"
He chuckled, "The traditional gift for the first anniversary is paper." He told her.
"Paper? Really? Oh, I umm…I knew that." She covered.
"Sure you did." He said kissing her again.
She smiled into the kiss, "One year today." She said softly back to him, running her fingers along his well defined cheeks.
"Seems like only yesterday." He replied.
She leaned heavily against him, snuggling back into his arms. "At our wedding, I had this crazy idea that I would be skinny by now." She said, running her hand over her nearly seven month baby belly, their second child taking over her body at an alarming rate.
"You're perfect." He told her, running his fingers over her belly.
"Are you just saying that so we'll make love now?" She half-joked.
"No." He said honestly, brushing a stray blond hair behind her ear, "Although I was kinda hoping that would be a given…it is our anniversary." He suggested.
She shrugged, "I don't know…depends." She taunted him.
"On what?" he asked humored.
"On what you got me." She teased.
"I got you roses." He defended, pointing to the flowers laying on the sheet beside them.
"And?" she probed.
"Does there have to be more?" he questioned.
"Maybe." She teased again, reading him like an open book.
"Ok, ok" he relented, leaning over he opened his nightstand drawer and pulled out a piece of paper rolled up and wrapped with a little red ribbon.
"A diploma?" She questioned when he handed it to her.
"Just open it." He grinned.
She pulled the ribbon and the paper unfolded, revealing a hand drawn portrait of them on their wedding day, her favorite shot.
"Oh Angel, it's beautiful." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.
He accepted the kiss eagerly.
A moment later Buffy pulled back, "Ok, now my gift to you."
"I thought I was getting my gift." he said, pulling her back towards him.
"Sex isn't a present; you get that all the time." She expressed.
"I'm not fussy." he said huskily into her ear.
She grinned but pulled away, "Two seconds." She told him as she rolled out of bed and went into her closet to fish out the present.
He watched her with a hungry grin, she wore a nearly see though pair of panties and nothing else.
When she returned to the bed, she slipped under the covers and he pulled her closer again, placing a kiss on her neck…and not stopping.
"Hey, gift first!" She laughed and thrust a small wrapped box into his hand.
He took the box and opened it quickly so he could resume his last task.
He pulled out a nice watch, actually liking the sleek black and silver design.
"The modern first year anniversary gift is a clock," She explained, "but I figured this was more appropriate. I know your last watch kinda got smashed when that demon tossed you threw that wall…so it's no too fancy…since really nice things tend to be wasted on us…you know, with the trend of them getting ruined by fighting demons…"
"It's perfect beloved, thank you." He said, honestly loving it.
She picked up the drawing he'd given her a few minutes earlier, "I want to hang this over the fireplace, get a really nice silver frame…"
She was distracted by him kissing her shoulder blade from behind.
"Later." He mumbled.
She pushed the picture and the paper roses onto her nightstand, getting them out of the way and to keep them from being crushed.
"Don't forget, we need to pull the cake out of the freezer this morning if we want it thawed enough to eat tonight."
"Later" he repeated, continuing to kiss around her neck.
She grinned, knowing she had such power over him was pumping her full of excitement.
She turned and captured his lips, easily pushing him down and straddling his waist.
He offered no resistance.
...
Finally, an actual story will be posted next.