The Clause
Angel shifted nervously as he stood before the new oracles.
"Warrior, why do you come before us?" the male asked, his skin was a deeper blue then his predecessor's had been, but other than that he appeared very much the same, as did his sister.
"I would respectfully request your advise in learning how to remove the clause from the curse which gives me my soul," Before they could reply Angel hurried on. "I think it's in your best interest if I'm not switching sides and I know I can take precautions against loosing my soul, but worrying all the time about how happy is too happy is going to drive me nuts. I won't be much use to anyone if I go insane. Besides, I'd be a stronger warrior for your side if I didn't always have to be fighting myself as well as my opponents. I know that the guy who told me that wasn't the real swami, actually he was more of a hit man, but that doesn't necessarily mean what he said was wrong. And I'm only asking you for a hint…"
The female oracle held up her hand to silence Angel. "It is done," she said.
"Really?" Angel asked.
He was certain he caught a glint of humor in the woman's eyes as she nodded an affirmative.
"That's all it took?" he had to asked. "Why couldn't you have done that years ago?"
"You never asked," the man said.
"But if you'd told me," Angel began.
"Why did you never asked before?" the woman replied.
"I didn't know," Angel said.
"Did you know today?" the man asked.
"You asked when you were ready to ask," the woman added. "It is as it should be. Fare-thee-well Warrior of the Power that Be."
"Wait," Angel exclaimed suddenly. "Would it be a problem for you to make Spike's soul permanent as well?"
"It is done," the male replied and with that Angel found himself back in the entryway below the post office.
"And Buffy thought I was cryptic," Angel muttered shaking his head.
"What'd they say?" Fred asked.
"They did it, just like that, no more happiness clause. That and a bunch of Zen stuff about not my being ready to ask," Angel said.
"Wow, why didn't you ask them before we turned insomnia into a life style choice?" Fred asked.
Angel grinned and shook his head in bemusement, "We really haven't slept much in the last few months, have we."
"Because we can't sleep apart," Fred began.
"And when we're together, sleeping is the last thing on our minds," Angel finished ruefully.
A sudden, radiant, smile lit Fred's face. "Oh… the curse is fixed, that means we can do some of the not-sleeping things now… or all of them. I think that will be really… oh drat… what is that word? Nice to the exponential power."
"Wonderful," Angel said. "Being with you would be wonderful."
"I could say belle, belle, even say vonderbar, each language only helps me tell you how great you are…" Fred sang suddenly.
Angel laughed. "Where did you learn that Fred? I haven't that song since the forties."
"So kiss me and say that you understand!" Fred continued, loudly and off-key.
Angel's eyes darkened with passion as he complied.
Author's note: The song is by the Andrews Sisters, I don't know the title and I was spelling the other than English parts phonetically so my apologies in advance.
Author's note II: I should have spent more time dealing with the curse, I know, I'm bad, but I wasn't in the mood. As far as this story's concerned Angel and Spike are free to be as happy as they like from here on out.