Part Four.
Buffy walked from the Palace Theatre, clutching her souvenir program tightly to her chest, and sighed deeply as a shock of cold wind swept over her warm body bringing her back to reality. The whole evening had been the most magical experience and for the first time in a very long while, her birthday had been something to enjoy, and not endure.
"So, I take it that you enjoyed the show?" Giles asked as they wove their way to the crowded exit and headed for the darkened street. Buffy looked up and smiled her face a mixture of emotions.
"It was beautiful, so sad and tragic but yet...." her voice faded as the haunting aria replayed in her memory.
**The struggle, the hopelessness, the sacrifice and the undying love**
"Not too sad, I hope?" Giles seemed a little alarmed, he had hoped the night out would give Buffy a lift of spirits, knowing what a difficult time of year her birthday was.
The trip to London had been a last minute idea and the tickets to Les Miserables had seemed a perfect night out.
Returning to England was something Rupert Giles always looked forward to and when Wesley had informed him that a new Watchers council was being formed, intrigue had got the better of him.
In the same conversation Wesley had let slip that Angel was safely out of the county, visiting Egypt. Taking this information into careful consideration, Rupert Giles decided to kill two birds with one stone. Buffy's birthday would be the perfect time to see his homeland.
Walking arm in arm along the crowed London Street, Giles stopped to hail a black cab.
"I'll drop you off at the hotel first if that's all right, I have.."
"A red hot date" Buffy finished as her dear friend blushed three different shades of pink in the cool night's air.
Giles nodded feeling slightly guilty, he hated leaving Buffy alone in a strange city, even one as lovely as London.
Buffy just laughed and assured him she was a big girl now and quite capable of amusing herself for a few hours, without getting into too much mischief.
"Dating is always good, its about time you saw some action" she squeezed his arm tighter and when he looked into her eyes, they were smiling.
"Its not a date, oh who am I fooling, of course it's a date" he grinned back excitedly and in that moment he looked years younger.
As the taxi pulled into the rank Giles started to move Buffy forward. After a few footsteps she stopped and politely refused the offer of a lift
"I think I'll walk if you don't mind, I need a little air and the sights at night time are spectacular" Buffy smiled and after reassuring her friend that she was perfectly safe, she waved him off and wished him luck. Turning up the collar of her lightweight mac to protect her ears against the frosty night breeze, Buffy headed off down Shaftesbury Avenue.
***
Angel couldn't breath.
One moment he was happily running down the Shaftesbury Avenue, dodging the Theatre goers while his head experimented with a dozen different excuses for why he was so late and the next, it was as if a vacuum had sucked all the oxygen from his lungs.
He knew he had to look ridiculous, standing in the middle of the crowded street gaping like a goldfish that had jumped its bowl but, once his mouth had fallen open he simply couldn't move.
On the other side of the street stood the girl of his dreams...literally.
Standing with a man old enough to be her father, Angel found his body burning up with irrational jealousy. He watched as the small blonde woman clung to the other man's arm as they waited for a taxi and then found himself almost ecstatic with joy when she waved the cab goodbye and moved off down the street alone.
All thoughts of meeting Wesley were forgotten as Angel found himself following the object of his dream down the street. The rational part of his brain knew how stupid he was being, the girl was a complete stranger and he was almost stalking her, but no matter how he argued he couldn't pull away.
A nagging fear deep in his subconscious kept repeating that if he didn't find out who she was, he would regret if for the rest of his life.
Angel knew without a doubt that they had never crossed paths before, he wouldn't have forgotten a body as wonderful as that in a hurry but even knowing that, everything about her felt so familiar. There was something about the way she moved, how her hips swayed and her hair bobbed around her shoulders. Angel found himself fantasising that if he ran his tongue over her skin he was certain it would taste of sunshine and vanilla.
**Oh, God. What a thought** he mused feeling even more ridiculous.
That thought alone should have been enough to kick sense into the normally rational man, but Angel was way beyond being rational.
As the girl quickened her pace he found himself falling further behind, on turning the street corner Angel was horrified to discover he'd lost her completely.
Standing in a busy street surrounded by people, Angel had never felt so alone in all his life. And then she was there again, moving through the tide of faces like a mirage in the desert. He watched as she turned off the main street looking almost lost, and instead of turning right, she headed down a side alleyway. Angel ran, remembering only too well the events of the previous night. Girls and dark alleys were trouble in the asking.
Buffy knew she was being followed without even looking back, she had felt presence of her stalker the moment Giles' taxi had pulled away and the strange tingling continued as she made her way back to her hotel. She wasn't that worried; the vibrations she was picking up were definitely human
** Some lonely chancer on the make** Buffy surmised as she slipped into a shop doorway and waited for the guy to lose interest.
In normal circumstances she would have just told the guy to get lost, but in a strange city Buffy cringed at the thought of making a scene.
Emerging from the doorway, Buffy thought for a second that she had lost him, but when he had the audacity to follow her into the alleyway Buffy decided that the game of cat and mouse was over. **The stalker was about to meet his match**
Angel felt a hard blow to his back; the force knocked him clean off his feet and flipped him over. He hit the ground with a dull thud as all the breath was knocked from his lungs.
**Well at least its dark and nobody saw my spectacular fall** Angel laughed finding himself lying flat on his back and feeling more than a little foolish. As he attempted to move he realised that he wasn't alone after all when a small but very strong foot pressed his chest back to the floor. Adjusting his eyes to the fading light, Angel found himself staring into the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, beautiful but extremely angry eyes.
"Why are you following me?" the owner of the beautiful eyes demanded, the confidence in her strong voice informing him immediately that she could take care of herself
As he struggled to catch his breath, he watched as the amazing face in front of him changed from anger to what appeared to be disbelief.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. I promise I won't hurt you" Angel tried to smile but he felt ridiculous saying such stupid words with the woman's foot pressing powerfully against his sternum.
Buffy removed the pressure and lifted her foot, her eyes never once leaving his face.
"This is going to sound like the oldest pick up line in the world but, have we met?" Angel found himself whispering sincerely, he could feel his heart pounding in his ears and his mouth suddenly became very dry.
**There was something about this woman that was so familiar and yet.**
Buffy stood trembling in shock, this wasn't real, this couldn't possibly be real.
**Have we met? ** The simple question felt as if somebody had put their hand inside her chest and ripped out her bleeding heart.
She moved her lips to reply but found speech impossible, hell at that moment in time, she was having trouble just breathing in and out.
When she had dropped the so called stalker on his ass, the last thing she expected to be confronted with, were the eyes of her ex-lover blazing back at her.
She eventually clawed back a fragment of common sense and found enough movement to shake her head no.
Angel's eyes moved slightly, drinking in every detail he could find. He could honestly say that in all his years nobody had ever affected him this way.
Slowly holding out his hand he smiled
"My names Liam and you are" **besides being incredibly beautiful**
Buffy looked at the hand and found that her limbs were paralysed.
**And you are?... you are?... you are? **
"Angel?" the word was spoken before her head had a chance to finish screaming it's warning to run.
Five years of loneliness, five long bitter years of denying herself even the luxury of thinking about this man suddenly got the better of her as her body reacted to his pull even against her will.
"Angel, pretty name" Angel replied mistakenly taking the question as an answer.
** Pretty name** Secretly his heart was singing, it wasn't just a pretty name, it fitted her perfectly. Up this close, the golden beauty standing in front of him would have put most of God's heavenly angels to shame.
Somewhere in the back of her sanity, Buffy knew that the logical part of brain had closed down. If it hadn't she would have run, for the sake of both their lives, the second her eyes recognised the man at her feet. But, at that moment, rational thinking was impossible as she slowly accepted the hand on offer. When Buffy felt the texture of his rough skin she almost gasped aloud at the warmth beneath her fingers.
Angel slowly rose from the ground, still holding onto her tiny fingers, he had never touched anything so soft in all of his life.
A large playful grin crossed his devastatingly handsome face.
"You're a tiny little thing but you're very spry" he teased as he rubbed his neck with his free hand. Buffy's eyes widened in horror. It was as if she had slipped through a hole in the fabric of time and had found herself back in Sunnydale all those years ago, only this time Angel wasn't a vampire.
**He was alive, warm flesh and blood and she found herself wanting him with every particle of her being**
A million different questions spun around her head as her eyes devoured every inch of him, **How could the fates have been so careless or so cruel? **
Buffy was positive that he hadn't recognised her and yet that look in his eyes, the way he touched her fingers.
It was impossible to know who moved first, it was almost animalistic as the two souls touched in the dark. As Buffy's mouth opened to Angel's tongue he groaned and pushed her small body hard against the alley wall. Every instinct in Buffy knew that what they were doing was wrong, but as Angel's hands found her skin she felt alive for the first time in almost forever.
Her body responded to the call of her mate and it rejoiced at the reunion.
"Angel, oh dear God, Angel" she moaned as his lips moved from her bruised mouth down to her neck. Buffy gripped his thick hair between her fingers and arched her body up against his mouth. She was lost and at that moment she never wanted to be found.
"You taste so good" Angel moaned as he slipped his hands down her back and pulled her body closer into his.
"Who are you? " his mouth once again returned to her lips in a frantic attempt to get closer. No matter how hard he kissed her it wasn't enough, he wanted more, he desperately needed more.
Angel had long stopped questioning what was happening between the two of them as his body responded to every movement she made. She filled his arms and his lonely heart like nothing on earth had every touched him before.
Buffy drank from his mouth like a woman dying of thirst; she swallowed his moans with a satisfied pride that her body still had the ability to enchant him.
** Who are you? **
The words broke through the mists of passion like a bucket of ice water, washing the dream world she'd happily created away and dropping reality on her head with its entire wrath.
Buffy pushed with all her might in an attempt to get escape.
"No, no, no, no"
Angel didn't understand what was happening, he looked surprised and than hurt as Buffy backed further away.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry please don't..." he reached out a hand begging her not to leave him. Angel couldn't bear the thought of her leaving his world so soon after finding her.
**Who ever she was**
"This is wrong, I can't do this again." Buffy watched the confusion grow in his beautiful dark eyes. She was dying, a slow agonising death was creeping over her soul as every part of her being begged her to stay, it screamed at her that this was her only chance to find love again.
**He doesn't know I'm the Slayer, we could be happy this time.** her empty arms ached with the need to hold him again.
**And how long would that last? ** The bitter voice of reason asked just as her resolve started to crumble.
Angel took a step forward; he was completely disgusted with himself.
**What in God's name had possessed him to act like that with a total stranger?** he asked as he watched the fear rise in the woman's eyes.
**But she was kissing you back** came the defence. It was true; she had kissed him back as if he meant something. Angel found himself desperately wanting to mean something to the beautiful blonde woman, for some insane reason he found himself wanting to mean everything to her. He knew it was madness, love at first sight was something you only found in cheap romantic novels.
**Liam Pryce didn't believe in such nonsense**
But as crazy as that thought sounded, that was just what he felt, just looking into her large troubled eyes Angel knew he could love this woman for the rest of his life without question.
By now Buffy was totally freaking out, all she could think about was putting as much distance between them as possible, turning on her heel she ran as fast as her trembling legs would carry her.
"WAIT!" Angel shouted as a flash of golden hair flew passed his face and disappeared into the dark, he turned and ran after her as fast as humanly possible but on reaching the end of the alley the angelic beauty that had touched his heart had faded into the night. Angel bent over with his hands resting on his knees panting for breath. As his eyes frantically searched the faceless crowd the words of the gypsy girl sung loudly in his ears.
**Her world is empty without you**
**There is something missing from both your worlds**
**Believe in your heart even when your head refuses to accept the inconceivable**
With one last pant he closed his eyes as a new voice called out to him, an inner voice that sounded very much like his own.
**BUFFY**
TBC....
Buffy walked from the Palace Theatre, clutching her souvenir program tightly to her chest, and sighed deeply as a shock of cold wind swept over her warm body bringing her back to reality. The whole evening had been the most magical experience and for the first time in a very long while, her birthday had been something to enjoy, and not endure.
"So, I take it that you enjoyed the show?" Giles asked as they wove their way to the crowded exit and headed for the darkened street. Buffy looked up and smiled her face a mixture of emotions.
"It was beautiful, so sad and tragic but yet...." her voice faded as the haunting aria replayed in her memory.
**The struggle, the hopelessness, the sacrifice and the undying love**
"Not too sad, I hope?" Giles seemed a little alarmed, he had hoped the night out would give Buffy a lift of spirits, knowing what a difficult time of year her birthday was.
The trip to London had been a last minute idea and the tickets to Les Miserables had seemed a perfect night out.
Returning to England was something Rupert Giles always looked forward to and when Wesley had informed him that a new Watchers council was being formed, intrigue had got the better of him.
In the same conversation Wesley had let slip that Angel was safely out of the county, visiting Egypt. Taking this information into careful consideration, Rupert Giles decided to kill two birds with one stone. Buffy's birthday would be the perfect time to see his homeland.
Walking arm in arm along the crowed London Street, Giles stopped to hail a black cab.
"I'll drop you off at the hotel first if that's all right, I have.."
"A red hot date" Buffy finished as her dear friend blushed three different shades of pink in the cool night's air.
Giles nodded feeling slightly guilty, he hated leaving Buffy alone in a strange city, even one as lovely as London.
Buffy just laughed and assured him she was a big girl now and quite capable of amusing herself for a few hours, without getting into too much mischief.
"Dating is always good, its about time you saw some action" she squeezed his arm tighter and when he looked into her eyes, they were smiling.
"Its not a date, oh who am I fooling, of course it's a date" he grinned back excitedly and in that moment he looked years younger.
As the taxi pulled into the rank Giles started to move Buffy forward. After a few footsteps she stopped and politely refused the offer of a lift
"I think I'll walk if you don't mind, I need a little air and the sights at night time are spectacular" Buffy smiled and after reassuring her friend that she was perfectly safe, she waved him off and wished him luck. Turning up the collar of her lightweight mac to protect her ears against the frosty night breeze, Buffy headed off down Shaftesbury Avenue.
***
Angel couldn't breath.
One moment he was happily running down the Shaftesbury Avenue, dodging the Theatre goers while his head experimented with a dozen different excuses for why he was so late and the next, it was as if a vacuum had sucked all the oxygen from his lungs.
He knew he had to look ridiculous, standing in the middle of the crowded street gaping like a goldfish that had jumped its bowl but, once his mouth had fallen open he simply couldn't move.
On the other side of the street stood the girl of his dreams...literally.
Standing with a man old enough to be her father, Angel found his body burning up with irrational jealousy. He watched as the small blonde woman clung to the other man's arm as they waited for a taxi and then found himself almost ecstatic with joy when she waved the cab goodbye and moved off down the street alone.
All thoughts of meeting Wesley were forgotten as Angel found himself following the object of his dream down the street. The rational part of his brain knew how stupid he was being, the girl was a complete stranger and he was almost stalking her, but no matter how he argued he couldn't pull away.
A nagging fear deep in his subconscious kept repeating that if he didn't find out who she was, he would regret if for the rest of his life.
Angel knew without a doubt that they had never crossed paths before, he wouldn't have forgotten a body as wonderful as that in a hurry but even knowing that, everything about her felt so familiar. There was something about the way she moved, how her hips swayed and her hair bobbed around her shoulders. Angel found himself fantasising that if he ran his tongue over her skin he was certain it would taste of sunshine and vanilla.
**Oh, God. What a thought** he mused feeling even more ridiculous.
That thought alone should have been enough to kick sense into the normally rational man, but Angel was way beyond being rational.
As the girl quickened her pace he found himself falling further behind, on turning the street corner Angel was horrified to discover he'd lost her completely.
Standing in a busy street surrounded by people, Angel had never felt so alone in all his life. And then she was there again, moving through the tide of faces like a mirage in the desert. He watched as she turned off the main street looking almost lost, and instead of turning right, she headed down a side alleyway. Angel ran, remembering only too well the events of the previous night. Girls and dark alleys were trouble in the asking.
Buffy knew she was being followed without even looking back, she had felt presence of her stalker the moment Giles' taxi had pulled away and the strange tingling continued as she made her way back to her hotel. She wasn't that worried; the vibrations she was picking up were definitely human
** Some lonely chancer on the make** Buffy surmised as she slipped into a shop doorway and waited for the guy to lose interest.
In normal circumstances she would have just told the guy to get lost, but in a strange city Buffy cringed at the thought of making a scene.
Emerging from the doorway, Buffy thought for a second that she had lost him, but when he had the audacity to follow her into the alleyway Buffy decided that the game of cat and mouse was over. **The stalker was about to meet his match**
Angel felt a hard blow to his back; the force knocked him clean off his feet and flipped him over. He hit the ground with a dull thud as all the breath was knocked from his lungs.
**Well at least its dark and nobody saw my spectacular fall** Angel laughed finding himself lying flat on his back and feeling more than a little foolish. As he attempted to move he realised that he wasn't alone after all when a small but very strong foot pressed his chest back to the floor. Adjusting his eyes to the fading light, Angel found himself staring into the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, beautiful but extremely angry eyes.
"Why are you following me?" the owner of the beautiful eyes demanded, the confidence in her strong voice informing him immediately that she could take care of herself
As he struggled to catch his breath, he watched as the amazing face in front of him changed from anger to what appeared to be disbelief.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. I promise I won't hurt you" Angel tried to smile but he felt ridiculous saying such stupid words with the woman's foot pressing powerfully against his sternum.
Buffy removed the pressure and lifted her foot, her eyes never once leaving his face.
"This is going to sound like the oldest pick up line in the world but, have we met?" Angel found himself whispering sincerely, he could feel his heart pounding in his ears and his mouth suddenly became very dry.
**There was something about this woman that was so familiar and yet.**
Buffy stood trembling in shock, this wasn't real, this couldn't possibly be real.
**Have we met? ** The simple question felt as if somebody had put their hand inside her chest and ripped out her bleeding heart.
She moved her lips to reply but found speech impossible, hell at that moment in time, she was having trouble just breathing in and out.
When she had dropped the so called stalker on his ass, the last thing she expected to be confronted with, were the eyes of her ex-lover blazing back at her.
She eventually clawed back a fragment of common sense and found enough movement to shake her head no.
Angel's eyes moved slightly, drinking in every detail he could find. He could honestly say that in all his years nobody had ever affected him this way.
Slowly holding out his hand he smiled
"My names Liam and you are" **besides being incredibly beautiful**
Buffy looked at the hand and found that her limbs were paralysed.
**And you are?... you are?... you are? **
"Angel?" the word was spoken before her head had a chance to finish screaming it's warning to run.
Five years of loneliness, five long bitter years of denying herself even the luxury of thinking about this man suddenly got the better of her as her body reacted to his pull even against her will.
"Angel, pretty name" Angel replied mistakenly taking the question as an answer.
** Pretty name** Secretly his heart was singing, it wasn't just a pretty name, it fitted her perfectly. Up this close, the golden beauty standing in front of him would have put most of God's heavenly angels to shame.
Somewhere in the back of her sanity, Buffy knew that the logical part of brain had closed down. If it hadn't she would have run, for the sake of both their lives, the second her eyes recognised the man at her feet. But, at that moment, rational thinking was impossible as she slowly accepted the hand on offer. When Buffy felt the texture of his rough skin she almost gasped aloud at the warmth beneath her fingers.
Angel slowly rose from the ground, still holding onto her tiny fingers, he had never touched anything so soft in all of his life.
A large playful grin crossed his devastatingly handsome face.
"You're a tiny little thing but you're very spry" he teased as he rubbed his neck with his free hand. Buffy's eyes widened in horror. It was as if she had slipped through a hole in the fabric of time and had found herself back in Sunnydale all those years ago, only this time Angel wasn't a vampire.
**He was alive, warm flesh and blood and she found herself wanting him with every particle of her being**
A million different questions spun around her head as her eyes devoured every inch of him, **How could the fates have been so careless or so cruel? **
Buffy was positive that he hadn't recognised her and yet that look in his eyes, the way he touched her fingers.
It was impossible to know who moved first, it was almost animalistic as the two souls touched in the dark. As Buffy's mouth opened to Angel's tongue he groaned and pushed her small body hard against the alley wall. Every instinct in Buffy knew that what they were doing was wrong, but as Angel's hands found her skin she felt alive for the first time in almost forever.
Her body responded to the call of her mate and it rejoiced at the reunion.
"Angel, oh dear God, Angel" she moaned as his lips moved from her bruised mouth down to her neck. Buffy gripped his thick hair between her fingers and arched her body up against his mouth. She was lost and at that moment she never wanted to be found.
"You taste so good" Angel moaned as he slipped his hands down her back and pulled her body closer into his.
"Who are you? " his mouth once again returned to her lips in a frantic attempt to get closer. No matter how hard he kissed her it wasn't enough, he wanted more, he desperately needed more.
Angel had long stopped questioning what was happening between the two of them as his body responded to every movement she made. She filled his arms and his lonely heart like nothing on earth had every touched him before.
Buffy drank from his mouth like a woman dying of thirst; she swallowed his moans with a satisfied pride that her body still had the ability to enchant him.
** Who are you? **
The words broke through the mists of passion like a bucket of ice water, washing the dream world she'd happily created away and dropping reality on her head with its entire wrath.
Buffy pushed with all her might in an attempt to get escape.
"No, no, no, no"
Angel didn't understand what was happening, he looked surprised and than hurt as Buffy backed further away.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry please don't..." he reached out a hand begging her not to leave him. Angel couldn't bear the thought of her leaving his world so soon after finding her.
**Who ever she was**
"This is wrong, I can't do this again." Buffy watched the confusion grow in his beautiful dark eyes. She was dying, a slow agonising death was creeping over her soul as every part of her being begged her to stay, it screamed at her that this was her only chance to find love again.
**He doesn't know I'm the Slayer, we could be happy this time.** her empty arms ached with the need to hold him again.
**And how long would that last? ** The bitter voice of reason asked just as her resolve started to crumble.
Angel took a step forward; he was completely disgusted with himself.
**What in God's name had possessed him to act like that with a total stranger?** he asked as he watched the fear rise in the woman's eyes.
**But she was kissing you back** came the defence. It was true; she had kissed him back as if he meant something. Angel found himself desperately wanting to mean something to the beautiful blonde woman, for some insane reason he found himself wanting to mean everything to her. He knew it was madness, love at first sight was something you only found in cheap romantic novels.
**Liam Pryce didn't believe in such nonsense**
But as crazy as that thought sounded, that was just what he felt, just looking into her large troubled eyes Angel knew he could love this woman for the rest of his life without question.
By now Buffy was totally freaking out, all she could think about was putting as much distance between them as possible, turning on her heel she ran as fast as her trembling legs would carry her.
"WAIT!" Angel shouted as a flash of golden hair flew passed his face and disappeared into the dark, he turned and ran after her as fast as humanly possible but on reaching the end of the alley the angelic beauty that had touched his heart had faded into the night. Angel bent over with his hands resting on his knees panting for breath. As his eyes frantically searched the faceless crowd the words of the gypsy girl sung loudly in his ears.
**Her world is empty without you**
**There is something missing from both your worlds**
**Believe in your heart even when your head refuses to accept the inconceivable**
With one last pant he closed his eyes as a new voice called out to him, an inner voice that sounded very much like his own.
**BUFFY**
TBC....