Angelus stepped out into the morning sunshine for the first time since the day he'd been turned. It was a perfect cliché; birds chirped as they fluttered around, no wind to rustle them out of their nests in the palm trees all down Temptwood Crescent. Mailmen and paperboys went about their business in the residential neighborhood. Husbands kissed wives and children goodbye, off for another day of work at the office with a coffee in one hand and briefcase in the other. He'd broken into Xander's house the night before to find an ugly hag and a fat slob sleeping off hangovers among bottles of assorted alcohol. It reminded him of the Pub in Galway where he'd found himself in the mornings before school, his friends staggering out the front without pants or shirts. He slapped himself before he went off on a flashback; if he didn't know better, he could swear having a soul for 100 years was rubbing off on his bad side.
In Xander's body, dressed in an appallingly gaudy T-shirt which was the only one that didn't make him feel like killing himself and a pair of black jeans, Angelus made his way to the high school with his bag of unfinished homework in hand. He made a note, glancing down once on school grounds, to sneak into the factory and get his leather pants and a shirt that didn't make him look like a clown, or at least his duster so he could wrap the tiny frame up from view. Pulling his head up from his apparel, his eyes instantly fell on the radiant little blonde who'd brought him back. She and her happy little pack of friends sat on a stone bench, laughing away about some inane subject. Giles and the Gypsy walked over to them from somewhere else in the school, as if he were supposed to care. Angelus heard the giggling of the hens behind him and turned around. The little blonde friend of Cordelia and her other little pack of airheads sauntered up in their minis and tossed their hair like the bimbos they were.
"Wow, Xander, I thought you were afraid of clowns. I guess you had to get over your phobia if you wanted to join them," Blondie clucked. The others all laughed so badly it nearly made his eardrums bleed. Angelus could think of a million things better to say to them but shrugged off the mindless attack and headed towards the little Scooby Gang. "Excuse me Harris, I was talking to you. For once. Don't you walk away when I'm dissing you!"
"Gee, Harmony, I hear Macy's has an opening in the Thanksgiving Day parade. You'd be able to pass yourself, or at least your head, off as a pretty good balloon. If you want me to pick up a form for you, just ask." Weak, but he didn't have the time or care to insult the snob. Harmony fumed and marched after him with Cordettes in tow. Even though their main leader was nowhere to be seen, the second in command would not stand back and allow her ego be deflated by some dumb geek who broke the Fashion Code in half over his thick head. She went to tap him on the shoulder when he caught her wrist neatly and twisted, almost to the point of breaking. "Look, you little airhead, I'm not in the mood. Now move or I'll deflate your head with a red-hot railroad spike."
Harmony stood, shock and pain mixing on her ugly, plastic face. He finally let go and stood watching her, eyes smoldering. If Angelus were able to vamp out in this body-after trying several hundred times to do so, in the process ignoring the age-old Wife's Tale that his face would get stuck, he'd made the conclusion that it just was not possible-he'd have done so and gotten the bitch running. But then that would alert li'l Buff to his identity, which wouldn't be the best thing to happen this early in the game.
"Did you just threaten me, Harris?" Harmony stammered, rubbing her wrist. The rest of the Cordettes had run except for two, and he could hear the Scooby Gang coming up behind him. "I'd get off campus if I were you. 'Cause the cops are going to hear about this." She turned on her ten dollar plastic heels and stormed off. Angelus laughed softly and turned to face one more angry mob. Willow and Cordelia flanked Buffy, shock registering on their pretty, pale faces. Buffy's expression was of disgust and shock. Giles and Jenny were both hiding their own emotions but let their confusion shine through like a light through tissue paper, and Oz, the poor little wolf-boy, his face was marred by no emotion or expression. Bright lad, Angelus thought as his eyes connected with Buffy's. Vampire who becomes a dog three nights a month…could happen.
"Hey, what's up?"
"What was that about, Xander?" the brave little Slayer asked in her grownup voice, the look he'd given her when he first let her know that Lover Boy wasn't at home any more back on the outside.
"Nothing, just shaking the Silicon Addicts club off my back."
"But you threatened to shove a railroad spike through Harmony's head…a red-hot one," Willow added. "No matter what she's ever said or done to you, you've never done that."
"What's she gonna do, huh Will? Like any of the slayerettes are afraid of a police officer," Angelus snickered. "Cordy can just pretend to like him and he then he's gone." Cordelia, along with everyone else, became very, very ticked off.
"That is it!" Cordy walked up to him and slapped him across the face. "Xander, I don't know what's gotten in to you, but you're being an ass…if I see you at any time before my Me Time appointment on Saturday, I'm calling the cops!" Then she about-faced and stalked off. Angelus broke into a grin and watched after her.
"Is she always like that?" he jutted his thumb in her direction, turning to Buffy and Willow.
"What are you talking about, Xander? You're dating her."
"What the hell's gotten into you?" The hacker and the Slayer both said their statements, at the same time. Angelus just shrugged.. Buff wouldn't be a fun play-toy with all these witnesses around. He'd have to do something about them. And that was what lifted his spirits as they walked away as a clique. Only young Janna, the gypsy he narrowly avoided killing thanks to his body's previous inhabitant, remained. She just stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, like she were protecting her heart, the sun glittering off her dark locks that he imagined staining with blood and gray-matter. She looked right into his eyes and dug down deep to his non-existent soul. And as if sensing his hostility and hate for her, she followed like the innocent puppy she was after Ripper.
Angelus rolled his eyes and clucked his tongue several times, looking over the daylit campus. Everything looked so different, so alive, so fresh with the new day, blood mixing with the three A's commonly associated with teenagers; anxiety, adrenaline and arousal. He, of course, couldn't really smell it like he could before last evening, but he knew that at least one was coursing through the entire alumni. *Time to quench and kill one of 'em.*
***
Cordelia huffed along through the halls after first period, still steaming from what had happened that morning. Xander hadn't been in English-as if she cared. *Probably got held back by the Buffinator or called upon to kill some Ick Thing while she was in the bathroom primping her hair…or something like that.* As if she cared.
She rushed along around the school to get to French class-which she'd signed up for only to be able to understand the new nurse her daddy had hired to help her illness-riddled mother. Her eyes were cast on the 200 dollar, brand new Gucci pumps she'd purchased for her mom in the insane hope that she'd be well enough to walk. That's why she was wearing them. And in admiring the shoes and thinking of the past, she slammed right into another student.
"Hey!" she yelled, instantly blaming the accident on the other person. "Watch where you're going, you klutz-"
"Cordy," Xander said. Cordelia looked at her boyfriend, her eyes turning to steel. "Look, what I-"
"You heard what I said," she huffed, and moved to get past him. Xander reached out and gripped her wrist tightly. Cordy twisted around to get out of his grasp but only succeeded in causing herself more pain than he intended.
"-Said," he continued as if she hadn't interrupted him, "this morning, I didn't mean. I had a really bad night after what happened with Dead Boy, and a worse morning. Okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel so threatened. Promise not to run if I let you go?"
"Sure," was all that Cordelia had to offer. Xander relaxed his grip on her. They looked at one another again and sighed in unison. "Okay, I forgive you. Now, I have to get-"
Xander grabbed her arm again and, this time, pulled her off of the balcony towards the student lounge. "Hold on a sec," he told her.
"Xander, really, I have to get to class, let me go or you'll regret it, I swear."
"Just a minute, Cordy, can we talk in the closet?"
"Talk? In there? Please, for all I can guess, you just want to grope before Trigonometry." Xander didn't offer a reply to this, he just pulled open the janitorial closet and shoved her in. Cordy fell over the water bucket and tipped it, soaking her dress and pumps. Xander slipped in and shut the door, rendering the closet pitch black.
"You stupid, clumsy idiot! I'm gonna send you the bill for dry cleaning my outfit, your mom won't be able-" he cut her off again. Not with words, but with his lips. It wasn't the really sloppy kisses she was used to, it was a talented ballet of both their flesh. Whatever Angel had done to Xander the night before, she had to make sure to thank him for it…over the phone while she was in San Francisco. The kisses and touches intensified with each fleeting moment. Cordelia's stomach clenched hard as Xander's lips found their way to her jugular and his teeth nicked the skin over it. She pulled away and tried to see into his eyes in the dark. "That's not funny, Xander."
"Sorry, honey…." he was quiet for a few beats and then kissed her softly again. "How did you ever get to be such a better kisser than me?" he asked against her mouth.
She scoffed and put one hand on his chest to push him away, which she couldn't do. On top of becoming Casanova, he'd also become the Incredible Hulk, or one of those other super-strong freaks from his comic books.
"Oh please," she sent back, savoring the feel of his lips on hers once more. Then she pulled away again. "I'd be a better kisser than you, even if I were dead." Xander found something funny about that as his hands felt their way to her face, cupping it. "What's so funny?"
He chuckled for a little while longer, before replaying, "We'll see who's the better groper when their dead, dear Miss Chase." The voice he used sent a shiver through her body, and it was as if she could feel him sneering through his hands before they twisted her head sharply to one side, her chin resting on the other side of her shoulder.
Angelus continued laughing to himself as he dropped Cordelia's corpse to the watery cement. He straightened his clothes and appearance as best he could, unable to see anything through Harris' obviously human eyes in the dark, and fumbled for the door handle. He put an ear to the door and listened for the bell to announce that second period was starting, and as soon as he was sure that everyone was away, he opened the door and went out, not looking back.