Disclamer- Joss owns Buffy and Angel ::sigh:: and the rest of the characters. I'm just renting them..... though I think I might have to renew Angel. ::grin:: Anyways don't sue me becasue you won't get anything.

Rating- PG-13 for mild swearing, possable slight nudity, and general stuff that I don't feel like listing.

Summary- Early Season 2 (no soul loosing in my fic!). After a big fight with her mother, Buffy leaves the house on a cold winter evening- searching for someone who understands her. (B/A shippy)

Authors notes- First thing- this is a slight AU fic so IT CAN SNOW IN SUNNYDALE!!! Second- this is my first Buffy fic and I've only seen 18 episodes because sadly I don't get the WB, FX or UPN. So if if you find any errors that's why. Thirdly- Hugs and a huge box of homemade cookies to my beta boo-QueenGwenyvere. Homegirl, you rock so much. Thanks boo.

This story is dedicated to my 'Big little sister' Amy. You know who you are. Thanks for hooking me on Buffy my old friend.

Finding My Forever

Buffy Anne Summers kicked angrily at a chunk of loose ice that lay on the snow-covered ground. It skidded several feet down the sidewalk then slid to a stop. Buffy sighed, her breath forming a cloud of fog in the cold night air. Southern California was experiencing the coldest winter in over fifty years; nighttime temperatures were reaching a low of twenty-five, freezing by any standards. There were a good eight inches of snow covering the ground and the weatherman on Channel Seven-Teen predicted another two inches by tomorrow afternoon. While this unusual weather had naturally caused Sunnydale to cancel school for the last three days, it had also slowed the vampire activities. It was harder, though not impossible, for newborn vamps to dig themselves up from their graves with the ground frozen. Of course there was the regular trouble—a demon on Pine Street had tried to break into the grocery store (supposedly he had just wanted some fresh meat), and a vamp had been staked out side the Bronze after he nearly bit the doorman.

Buffy continued walking through the snow and kicked the ice block again, only this time she used her Slayer strength. The block whizzed down the sidewalk and tore completely through both sides of a trashcan that had gotten in its way, and then vanished into a large snow pile.

Buffy shoved her hands into her coat pockets and walked a little faster. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew she couldn't go home. She had had a huge fight earlier tonight with her mother, Joyce. After a long and heated argument, her mother told—no ordered—Buffy to her bedroom and told her she would stay there until school started again. Joyce would not have her daughter running around town at all hours of the night. Buffy had protested, though her excuse was weak—how was she supposed to bond with her fellow Sunnydaleians if she couldn't stay out late? There was no way she could tell her mother the truth—that she was the Chosen One, the Slayer, the one girl in all the world that could stop the evils that plagued the earth. She didn't spend her evenings hanging at the local hang out, the Bronze, flirting with the male species, but at the school library, searching through two hundred-year-old books with her British Watcher Giles, trying yet again to figure out what new evil was attempting to make the Hellmouth its new home.

Buffy was angry and hurt by her mother's words to her early tonight.

"Why can't you be a normal girl Buffy? What went wrong?"

Buffy jerked a hand out of her pocket to wipe at the tear that threatened to fall. Her mother thought she wanted this life. As if. There wasn't a day that Buffy didn't wish she was a normal girl, and not the Slayer. She longed to have a normal relationship with her mother. And it broke her heart because she couldn't.

Buffy sniffled, and jammed her hand back in her pocket, forcing herself not to cry. She stared straight ahead and didn't blink, the cold air stinging her moist eyes. After a few moments of walk and staring, she calmed down. "Maybe I can stay with Willow night." She thought to herself. Turning left at the next street, she cheered up. Willow would help her, listen to her and give her the understanding her mother couldn't. "Maybe we'll stay up all night and talk, or make brownies and watch movies." Buffy smiled slightly at the thought of warm brownies. "I'll go to Willow's."

But her smile faded as she neared the Rosenburg house. The windows were brightly lit, though not with Christmas lights like so many of the houses in Sunnydale were even though Christmas had been over for two weeks, but with Jewish Menorahs, the twelve candles shining. Several of the house lights were on, including the one in Willow's room. But it wasn't the lights that saddened Buffy. It was the sky blue van parked in the driveway. It meant that Oz, Willow's werewolf boyfriend and a fellow Scooby, was over. Buffy stopped just out of the light spilling from the house. She looked up at Willow's window and could make out two forms in the room. Her head dropped, and she turned back the way she came—she wasn't going to drop in on the couple.

"I guess I could go to Xander's." Buffy thought, glancing down the street towards the Harris home. The only light in the house came from two rooms upstairs on opposite sides of the house and the living room, presumably where Xander was parked in front of the TV. Buffy looked at the two upstairs windows and figured Xander's parents were having another fight.

Heaving a tired sigh, Buffy turned away from the Harris residence and walked back downtown. Out of habit she walked through Weatherly Park and Sunnydale cemetery. But all was quiet, for once. The only sounds Buffy heard was the slight breeze rattling through the bare tree branches, her footsteps crunching in the snow and the sound of her breathing. A sudden gust of wind caused Buffy to shiver and hunker down into her coat. "Brrrr. It's getting kinda cold. I wonder what time it is." She pulled her sleeve up, exposing the skin on her arm to the cold air. "Damn it!" Buffy muttered under her breath, "I forgot to wear a watch." She glanced up through the skeleton like trees, searching the sky for stars. The sky was clear and the darkest color of blue. Tiny pinpricks of light twinkled in the velvety darkness like fireflies.

Buffy walked over to a snow-covered bench and brushed off the powdery fluff before sitting down. She glanced around her. The bench was beside a grave and Buffy leaned over and wiped the thin layer of snow off the tombstone so she could read the engravings.

Edward C. Shelton

Birth: May 5th, 1902

Death: August 29th, 1993

'Remember forever beloved'

"Well at least I don't have to worry about you rising anytime soon Mr. Shelton." Buffy joked softly, patting the marker like she would a child. "I hope you found your forever." "Forever. Angel." Buffy gasped slightly. "Why didn't I think of him before? God, I am so brain dead!" "Angel will be home. I can talk to him. Maybe I can crash at his place tonight." Buffy got up and started towards the entrance, but then she paused and went back to the grave. Kneeling down in the snow, she spoke to the marker. "Thank you Mr. Shelton. I know where I can go now. I'm going to my forever, just like you." Buffy rose from her crouch and walked out of the still cemetery, turning right towards the bad part of town. "I'm going to Angel's."

Yes there is more, but I'm still writing it. A review is like a smile- it doesn't take much to make another persons day brighter. ::grin:: Please review! –LadyCallie