Title: Devastating Past
Author: Valerie
E-mail: funbreath@msn.com
Disclaimer: they don't belong to me
Summary: AU Angel is new at Sunnydale High. He meets Buffy and the gang. They think he's just a regular kid. Not likely.
Timeline: during season 2 of BTVS...sorta. Let's just say that Buffy and the gang are in their Junior year in Sunnydale High.
Spoilers: as far as alternate universe goes...almost nothing. References on demons from BTVS and Angel from time to time, but that's about it
Rating: R
Distribution: You can take it but ask me first please.
Feedback: That's a big big big yes!!!!! It's my first fic, so please?
*********
16.
"Hi guys! Come on in!" Kristin greeted the Scooby gang the next evening.
"Hi!" Cordelia, Willow and Buffy exclaimed happily, entering the house. Oz nodded his greeting.
"What happened to good old Mary? Isn't she the one who answers the door usually?" Xander asked his new brunette friend.
"Usually, yeah. But I gave her the week-end off. She'd just get in the way."
"I have nothing against nice ladies getting in my way with a plate of cookies." He chuckled at his own joke, and the others merely rolled their eyes.
"Ok, we only have two guest rooms, so Will and Oz will go in one, Cordy and Xander in another, and Buffy, you don't mind sleeping in my room, right? The couch is a folding bed, so you'll be comfortable there." Kristin informed everyone as she led them upstairs.
"It's fine, don't worry." The slayer assured her.
As everyone was setting their stuff in their rooms, Willow grabbed Kristin by the arm and led her downstairs, away from the others. "What's up Will?"
"What do you mean what's up? Kristin, this is huge!" the red-head exclaimed happily.
"What are you talking about? What is huge?" Kristin asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Buffy and Angel!" Willow wanted to scream it, but she managed to stay calm.
"What happened?" The younger girl demanded, suddenly very interested.
"You mean you don't know?" Willow asked incredulously. She had assumed Angel would have told his sister about it.
"No! I know nothing, now spit it out!"
"They are together! I caught them in front of my house yesterday night after their date. And your big brother had his tongue down Buffy's throat!"
"Oh that is so great! I was starting to wonder when it would happen!" She was smiling brightly.
"Why didn't Angel tell you?"
Kristin frowned at that, the smile disappearing from her face. "I don't know. I tried calling him a few times this morning and this afternoon, but he wasn't answering. It's weird...he was all excited about the date, he wouldn't shut up about it yesterday. Why didn't he call me?" She asked herself more than Willow.
"We'll find out soon enough. Maybe he just thought it was too private or he didn't want to make a big deal out of it." Willow rationalized with a reassuring smile.
"Yeah. Maybe." Kristin replied as they joined the others in the living room to start their movie evening. *But he would have made a big deal out of it. What the hell happened?*
*****
Angel groaned when he finally reached Kristin's balcony. Usually he didn't have any problem climbing all the way to his sister's room, but tonight, with the three deep cuts in the stomach he had received from some demon with claws during hunting, climbing was a tricky business. Well...simply moving was a tricky business. He groaned one more time when he realized the bedroom was empty. *Of course, she HAS to be in the living room the ONLY time I visit and my guts are sliced* He took of his duster and dropped it on the bed as he made his way out of the room, around the corridor and finally to the evening. He suppressed a growl of frustration when he remembered the gang was staying over. With a sigh, he discreetly walked to the entrance of the living room, trying to hide the fact that his shirt was tattered. He didn't say a thing, as they were all watching the movie intently, and waited until Kristin realized he was there. She frowned when she saw him, stood up and walked out of the living room.
Surprised by Kristin's sudden urge to get out of the room, everyone looked at her leaving and saw Angel at the door. "Hey Angel! You decided to come over after all, that's great!" Willow exclaimed, smiling brightly at the perspective that this would be an interesting evening for her best friend.
Angel looked at them awkwardly, and his gaze eventually locked with Buffy's. She wasn't smiling at him, instead her face was showing worry. "I- I...I just needed to talk to you" He told his sister, his jaw straightening from the pain in his stomach.
"Sure. Let's go to my room." She told him with a warm smile, showing him that she understood he needed some patching up, and he didn't want the others to know. "We'll be back in 5 minutes guys."
They walked back to the bedroom and Kristin went to her bathroom to grab bandages and everything she'd need to help him. It wasn't the first time she did it, so she knew exactly what to do.
"You need help with your shirt?" She asked him as he was struggling to get it off. He nodded and she approached him, quickly putting away what was left of his shirt. She gasped when she saw how badly he was hurt. "Wow! What the hell happened?"
"Demon. Claws. Met him while I was hunting tonight." Angel answered as she tended his wound.
"Was it like a superdemon or something?"
"No, I killed it without much difficulty."
"While hunting."
"Yeah."
"He attacked you while you where hunting and hurt you right before you killed it?" She repeated, frowning.
"Yeah." He answered with a nod. "I just wasn't paying attention and he took me by surprise."
"YOU. You weren't paying attention during hunting." She repeated again. *He doesn't make sense!*
"Well...yeah."
"Are you kidding me? Angel, when you hunt, you're like all vampire senses out! No one could even sneak up on you when you're hunting." He simply shrugged, obviously not willing to tell her what really happened. So she decided to try something else. "Why didn't you tell me you and Buffy had gotten together yesterday?" He cast his eyes for a moment on the floor, and then he looked into her eyes.
"I was going to. I just had...a bad day." He replied lamely, knowing she'd understand anyway.
"You had another nightmare about Steven didn't you?" She had seen the hurt in his eyes as she mentioned Steven. He nodded with a sigh as she finished the bandage. "Angel, you-"
"Oh god Angel!" Kristin turned around and Angel looked up to see Buffy standing in the doorway, her hand in front of her mouth from the surprise. She hadn't expected to see her newly boyfriend's stomach completely covered with bandages. That meant something bad had happened.
"Buffy..." He tried to say something, but realized he didn't have anything to say, so he cast his eyes on the floor, not willing to have to explain exactly why he was wounded.
"What happened?" Buffy asked as she crossed the bedroom and stood next to him.
"I'll...go back with the others." Kristin murmured and left the room.
Buffy sat next to him, and took his hand in hers. "How bad is it?"
"I'm fine, don't worry. It's just a scratch, I didn't even need stitches." He answered while caressing the back of her hand.
"What happened?" He looked into her eyes, and smiled inwardly when he saw real concern there.
"Just a...fight. I was walking around and some guys were drunk, they jumped on me before I could do anything."
"Yeah, you do live in a bad neighborhood." She added, smiling sadly.
"Don't worry baby, I'm used to fight. I'm a good at it actually. Tonight I was just distracted."
"Is there something I can do?" She asked, trying not to smile at what she was actually thinking about. He grinned, knowing what she had in mind.
"Kiss me"
*****
Much later in the evening, the gang was hanging in Kristin's bedroom, Angel included. Buffy and Angel had not told the others that they were together, but it was kinda obvious since Buffy was sitting between Angel's legs on the bed, leaning her back on his chest, with his arms around her. Xander hadn't made nasty comments, but Buffy highly doubted that Willow had threatened him to shut up. Cordelia had seen it coming for days, and Oz...well Oz's Oz.
"Hey Kris! How about you show us the pictures you were talking about. We could know a little more about you two new people that way!" suggested Cordelia.
"Good idea!" Willow chirped in. Kristin nodded and went to the closet and looked around a moment for her photo albums. Buffy heard Angel's groan and turned her head around to face him with a smile.
"What? Afraid I'll see something compromising?"
"Nah. But you gotta know that Kristin takes pictures of...everything. She must have like 6 or 7 albums full of pictures of our friends and us." He replied, rolling his eyes. Kristin then put 3 albums on the bed. Buffy, Cordelia and Willow each took one. Every once in a while, someone would show a picture to Angel or his sister, asking who it was. Angel told them briefly about his friends on the photos. The bleached blonde was Spike, his most trusted friend in New York, the tattooed brunette was Faith, Spike's girlfriend and a good friend of Kristin's. The black tall guy and the shorter boy with glasses were Gunn and Penn, Angel's best friends in Los Angeles. There were dozens of other boys and girls from either Manhattan or LA.
"Hey, who wants to see Angel wearing nothing but a towel?" Cordelia asked, grinning. Buffy grabbed the picture and smiled at the sight. Angel looked at it from his place behind her and smiled too.
"Please, I was like 6 years old! You've got some much more nasty ones."
"Aaww, you were such a cute kid! Look at this one, with your little cap and that basketball!" Buffy told her boyfriend, pointing at a picture. Buffy continued flipping through the pages of Angel's childhood, until she noticed one girl who was fairly often on the pictures of Angel when he was a little kid, holding him in her arms as a baby or holding him by the hand when he was older. "Who's that girl? She's on plenty of pictures. Is she your cousin...or a neighbor or something?" She pointed to a picture where Angel was 3, in the arms of a 16 year old brunette. Everyone looked at it.
"No, that's my mum." Angel answered simply, and everyone but Kristin looked at him like he was crazy.
"Angel, that girl must be like 16 here, and you've got to be about 3!" Willow pointed out, and Angel merely shrugged. Seeing that the dark-haired boy wouldn't explain, they turned towards Kristin.
"Yeah, that's our mother." She flipped two more pages and showed them a picture of a 17 year old dark-haired boy that looked extremely like Angel. "And that's our dad. They had Angel at 13 and me at 16."
"You mean she was pregnant at 13?" Cordelia raised an eyebrow.
"Huh, huh. When he was 8, Angel asked them why they were so young when his friends' parents were more than 35. They just said that they were in love and wanted to have sex when they were 13."
"That's cool. I wonder how it would be if my parents where 30 at the moment." Xander said, as he was looking over at Angel.
"I wonder too." Angel whispered, not loud enough for the others to hear him, but Buffy did hear him and she squeezed his hand reassuringly. As everyone else got back to the albums, Angel buried his head in Buffy's shoulder, discreetly but sensually licking her neck and shoulder. She bit back a moan at the sensation of Angel's lips and tongue on her skin.
"Stop it!" She whispered urgently, embarrassed that the others would notice.
"I can't. You just taste so good." Angel whispered back in her ear, making her shiver.
"Angel?" Willow called after a moment. The older boy stopped his actions on Buffy's neck and looked at Willow. "Who is the guy who's always next to you ever since you're a kid? He's in half the pictures of every album." She handed him a photo, and he looked at it with Buffy. It was a picture of a 16 year old Angel with his arms around a brown-haired boy, who was smaller built but just as tall as Angel. Suddenly, the slayer felt her boyfriend tense.
"Angel?" Buffy called him again, frowning.
"T-T-That's...Steven." He answered with a deep sigh.
"Family or friend?" Cordelia asked, curious.
Angel hesitated for a moment, then answered casting his eyes on his hands and not on the picture. "Both"
"I thought you said you two were the only family you had." Buffy added with a frown.
"Steven's not really family. He's been Angel's best friend ever since kindergarten. They saw the other more like a brother than just a friend. They were inseparable." Kristin explained, while looking at Angel with worry.
Buffy knew it wouldn't be wise to ask, but she was just too curious towards Angel's past. "They're not any more? What happened?"
"He got killed." Angel mumbled as he let go of Buffy's waist and stoop up. He crossed the room and went out on the balcony, in the night, where the others couldn't see him.
"His best friend was murdered?" Buffy turned towards Angel's sister, shocked.
Kristin nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Last summer. He got shot by Angel's girlfriend. In front of Angel." There was a very heavy silence before Kristin continued telling them what happened. "Angel had dumped that slut that night. They had been going out for about 3 or 4 months. Darla got very drunk, she took her father's gun, and she ran into Steven on her way to see Angel. She wanted to have sex with him, but Steven was totally not interested. They started arguing violently and then Angel saw them. He went over to see what was going on, just when Darla shot Steven. She ran away as quickly as she had pulled the trigger. Steven died in Angel's arms."
"That's horrible!" Willow mumbled, feeling extremely sad for Angel.
"What happened with Angel?" Buffy continued with a lump in her throat. She had figured her new boyfriend had had a rough childhood, but she had never imagined it was like that terrible.
"It was nasty. When the cops arrived they thought Angel was the one who had killed Steven. He got locked up for the night, until Darla's father, who was the cop in charge of the case, found his daughter completely insane at home with his gun. She's in jail from what Gunn and Penn found out. Angel had completely disconnected from his former self. He blames himself for everything. I mean...he has always been the brooding type, but now...it's worst than ever." Kristin stopped talking there, because she was pretty sure Angel would mind a lot if she also told his girlfriend and her friends that after Steven's murder he had tried to kill himself and had ended up spending 3 months in an institution.
"I'll be back in a moment guys." Buffy murmured, receiving supporting smiles and nods, and she went to see Angel. She closed the door of the balcony, careful to make noise so that he would realize he wasn't alone. She saw him standing at the far end of the balcony, watching around the garden, nowhere in particular.
"I'm sorry, Angel. We didn't know about Steven, but we shouldn't have asked so much questions." She told him softly, standing next to him.
He remained silent for a long moment. "It's not your fault."
"I wouldn't know, but it must be hard. Losing such a close friend, it"
"Buffy!" He looked at her suddenly, a look of fear on his face. Buffy didn't expect to see that he had tears on his cheeks, and his eyes were red and puffy. "Please stop." He pleaded, looking like a scared little boy. "I can't talk about it. It's too painful." Buffy reached out and wiped off his tears with her thumb.
"Sorry, I'll let you deal with this the way you want. Just remember that I'm here for you." He nodded, and she pulled him into a hug. He rested his head on her shoulder, keeping her close to him. They stayed like this for a long time.
*********
Author: Valerie
E-mail: funbreath@msn.com
Disclaimer: they don't belong to me
Summary: AU Angel is new at Sunnydale High. He meets Buffy and the gang. They think he's just a regular kid. Not likely.
Timeline: during season 2 of BTVS...sorta. Let's just say that Buffy and the gang are in their Junior year in Sunnydale High.
Spoilers: as far as alternate universe goes...almost nothing. References on demons from BTVS and Angel from time to time, but that's about it
Rating: R
Distribution: You can take it but ask me first please.
Feedback: That's a big big big yes!!!!! It's my first fic, so please?
*********
16.
"Hi guys! Come on in!" Kristin greeted the Scooby gang the next evening.
"Hi!" Cordelia, Willow and Buffy exclaimed happily, entering the house. Oz nodded his greeting.
"What happened to good old Mary? Isn't she the one who answers the door usually?" Xander asked his new brunette friend.
"Usually, yeah. But I gave her the week-end off. She'd just get in the way."
"I have nothing against nice ladies getting in my way with a plate of cookies." He chuckled at his own joke, and the others merely rolled their eyes.
"Ok, we only have two guest rooms, so Will and Oz will go in one, Cordy and Xander in another, and Buffy, you don't mind sleeping in my room, right? The couch is a folding bed, so you'll be comfortable there." Kristin informed everyone as she led them upstairs.
"It's fine, don't worry." The slayer assured her.
As everyone was setting their stuff in their rooms, Willow grabbed Kristin by the arm and led her downstairs, away from the others. "What's up Will?"
"What do you mean what's up? Kristin, this is huge!" the red-head exclaimed happily.
"What are you talking about? What is huge?" Kristin asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Buffy and Angel!" Willow wanted to scream it, but she managed to stay calm.
"What happened?" The younger girl demanded, suddenly very interested.
"You mean you don't know?" Willow asked incredulously. She had assumed Angel would have told his sister about it.
"No! I know nothing, now spit it out!"
"They are together! I caught them in front of my house yesterday night after their date. And your big brother had his tongue down Buffy's throat!"
"Oh that is so great! I was starting to wonder when it would happen!" She was smiling brightly.
"Why didn't Angel tell you?"
Kristin frowned at that, the smile disappearing from her face. "I don't know. I tried calling him a few times this morning and this afternoon, but he wasn't answering. It's weird...he was all excited about the date, he wouldn't shut up about it yesterday. Why didn't he call me?" She asked herself more than Willow.
"We'll find out soon enough. Maybe he just thought it was too private or he didn't want to make a big deal out of it." Willow rationalized with a reassuring smile.
"Yeah. Maybe." Kristin replied as they joined the others in the living room to start their movie evening. *But he would have made a big deal out of it. What the hell happened?*
*****
Angel groaned when he finally reached Kristin's balcony. Usually he didn't have any problem climbing all the way to his sister's room, but tonight, with the three deep cuts in the stomach he had received from some demon with claws during hunting, climbing was a tricky business. Well...simply moving was a tricky business. He groaned one more time when he realized the bedroom was empty. *Of course, she HAS to be in the living room the ONLY time I visit and my guts are sliced* He took of his duster and dropped it on the bed as he made his way out of the room, around the corridor and finally to the evening. He suppressed a growl of frustration when he remembered the gang was staying over. With a sigh, he discreetly walked to the entrance of the living room, trying to hide the fact that his shirt was tattered. He didn't say a thing, as they were all watching the movie intently, and waited until Kristin realized he was there. She frowned when she saw him, stood up and walked out of the living room.
Surprised by Kristin's sudden urge to get out of the room, everyone looked at her leaving and saw Angel at the door. "Hey Angel! You decided to come over after all, that's great!" Willow exclaimed, smiling brightly at the perspective that this would be an interesting evening for her best friend.
Angel looked at them awkwardly, and his gaze eventually locked with Buffy's. She wasn't smiling at him, instead her face was showing worry. "I- I...I just needed to talk to you" He told his sister, his jaw straightening from the pain in his stomach.
"Sure. Let's go to my room." She told him with a warm smile, showing him that she understood he needed some patching up, and he didn't want the others to know. "We'll be back in 5 minutes guys."
They walked back to the bedroom and Kristin went to her bathroom to grab bandages and everything she'd need to help him. It wasn't the first time she did it, so she knew exactly what to do.
"You need help with your shirt?" She asked him as he was struggling to get it off. He nodded and she approached him, quickly putting away what was left of his shirt. She gasped when she saw how badly he was hurt. "Wow! What the hell happened?"
"Demon. Claws. Met him while I was hunting tonight." Angel answered as she tended his wound.
"Was it like a superdemon or something?"
"No, I killed it without much difficulty."
"While hunting."
"Yeah."
"He attacked you while you where hunting and hurt you right before you killed it?" She repeated, frowning.
"Yeah." He answered with a nod. "I just wasn't paying attention and he took me by surprise."
"YOU. You weren't paying attention during hunting." She repeated again. *He doesn't make sense!*
"Well...yeah."
"Are you kidding me? Angel, when you hunt, you're like all vampire senses out! No one could even sneak up on you when you're hunting." He simply shrugged, obviously not willing to tell her what really happened. So she decided to try something else. "Why didn't you tell me you and Buffy had gotten together yesterday?" He cast his eyes for a moment on the floor, and then he looked into her eyes.
"I was going to. I just had...a bad day." He replied lamely, knowing she'd understand anyway.
"You had another nightmare about Steven didn't you?" She had seen the hurt in his eyes as she mentioned Steven. He nodded with a sigh as she finished the bandage. "Angel, you-"
"Oh god Angel!" Kristin turned around and Angel looked up to see Buffy standing in the doorway, her hand in front of her mouth from the surprise. She hadn't expected to see her newly boyfriend's stomach completely covered with bandages. That meant something bad had happened.
"Buffy..." He tried to say something, but realized he didn't have anything to say, so he cast his eyes on the floor, not willing to have to explain exactly why he was wounded.
"What happened?" Buffy asked as she crossed the bedroom and stood next to him.
"I'll...go back with the others." Kristin murmured and left the room.
Buffy sat next to him, and took his hand in hers. "How bad is it?"
"I'm fine, don't worry. It's just a scratch, I didn't even need stitches." He answered while caressing the back of her hand.
"What happened?" He looked into her eyes, and smiled inwardly when he saw real concern there.
"Just a...fight. I was walking around and some guys were drunk, they jumped on me before I could do anything."
"Yeah, you do live in a bad neighborhood." She added, smiling sadly.
"Don't worry baby, I'm used to fight. I'm a good at it actually. Tonight I was just distracted."
"Is there something I can do?" She asked, trying not to smile at what she was actually thinking about. He grinned, knowing what she had in mind.
"Kiss me"
*****
Much later in the evening, the gang was hanging in Kristin's bedroom, Angel included. Buffy and Angel had not told the others that they were together, but it was kinda obvious since Buffy was sitting between Angel's legs on the bed, leaning her back on his chest, with his arms around her. Xander hadn't made nasty comments, but Buffy highly doubted that Willow had threatened him to shut up. Cordelia had seen it coming for days, and Oz...well Oz's Oz.
"Hey Kris! How about you show us the pictures you were talking about. We could know a little more about you two new people that way!" suggested Cordelia.
"Good idea!" Willow chirped in. Kristin nodded and went to the closet and looked around a moment for her photo albums. Buffy heard Angel's groan and turned her head around to face him with a smile.
"What? Afraid I'll see something compromising?"
"Nah. But you gotta know that Kristin takes pictures of...everything. She must have like 6 or 7 albums full of pictures of our friends and us." He replied, rolling his eyes. Kristin then put 3 albums on the bed. Buffy, Cordelia and Willow each took one. Every once in a while, someone would show a picture to Angel or his sister, asking who it was. Angel told them briefly about his friends on the photos. The bleached blonde was Spike, his most trusted friend in New York, the tattooed brunette was Faith, Spike's girlfriend and a good friend of Kristin's. The black tall guy and the shorter boy with glasses were Gunn and Penn, Angel's best friends in Los Angeles. There were dozens of other boys and girls from either Manhattan or LA.
"Hey, who wants to see Angel wearing nothing but a towel?" Cordelia asked, grinning. Buffy grabbed the picture and smiled at the sight. Angel looked at it from his place behind her and smiled too.
"Please, I was like 6 years old! You've got some much more nasty ones."
"Aaww, you were such a cute kid! Look at this one, with your little cap and that basketball!" Buffy told her boyfriend, pointing at a picture. Buffy continued flipping through the pages of Angel's childhood, until she noticed one girl who was fairly often on the pictures of Angel when he was a little kid, holding him in her arms as a baby or holding him by the hand when he was older. "Who's that girl? She's on plenty of pictures. Is she your cousin...or a neighbor or something?" She pointed to a picture where Angel was 3, in the arms of a 16 year old brunette. Everyone looked at it.
"No, that's my mum." Angel answered simply, and everyone but Kristin looked at him like he was crazy.
"Angel, that girl must be like 16 here, and you've got to be about 3!" Willow pointed out, and Angel merely shrugged. Seeing that the dark-haired boy wouldn't explain, they turned towards Kristin.
"Yeah, that's our mother." She flipped two more pages and showed them a picture of a 17 year old dark-haired boy that looked extremely like Angel. "And that's our dad. They had Angel at 13 and me at 16."
"You mean she was pregnant at 13?" Cordelia raised an eyebrow.
"Huh, huh. When he was 8, Angel asked them why they were so young when his friends' parents were more than 35. They just said that they were in love and wanted to have sex when they were 13."
"That's cool. I wonder how it would be if my parents where 30 at the moment." Xander said, as he was looking over at Angel.
"I wonder too." Angel whispered, not loud enough for the others to hear him, but Buffy did hear him and she squeezed his hand reassuringly. As everyone else got back to the albums, Angel buried his head in Buffy's shoulder, discreetly but sensually licking her neck and shoulder. She bit back a moan at the sensation of Angel's lips and tongue on her skin.
"Stop it!" She whispered urgently, embarrassed that the others would notice.
"I can't. You just taste so good." Angel whispered back in her ear, making her shiver.
"Angel?" Willow called after a moment. The older boy stopped his actions on Buffy's neck and looked at Willow. "Who is the guy who's always next to you ever since you're a kid? He's in half the pictures of every album." She handed him a photo, and he looked at it with Buffy. It was a picture of a 16 year old Angel with his arms around a brown-haired boy, who was smaller built but just as tall as Angel. Suddenly, the slayer felt her boyfriend tense.
"Angel?" Buffy called him again, frowning.
"T-T-That's...Steven." He answered with a deep sigh.
"Family or friend?" Cordelia asked, curious.
Angel hesitated for a moment, then answered casting his eyes on his hands and not on the picture. "Both"
"I thought you said you two were the only family you had." Buffy added with a frown.
"Steven's not really family. He's been Angel's best friend ever since kindergarten. They saw the other more like a brother than just a friend. They were inseparable." Kristin explained, while looking at Angel with worry.
Buffy knew it wouldn't be wise to ask, but she was just too curious towards Angel's past. "They're not any more? What happened?"
"He got killed." Angel mumbled as he let go of Buffy's waist and stoop up. He crossed the room and went out on the balcony, in the night, where the others couldn't see him.
"His best friend was murdered?" Buffy turned towards Angel's sister, shocked.
Kristin nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Last summer. He got shot by Angel's girlfriend. In front of Angel." There was a very heavy silence before Kristin continued telling them what happened. "Angel had dumped that slut that night. They had been going out for about 3 or 4 months. Darla got very drunk, she took her father's gun, and she ran into Steven on her way to see Angel. She wanted to have sex with him, but Steven was totally not interested. They started arguing violently and then Angel saw them. He went over to see what was going on, just when Darla shot Steven. She ran away as quickly as she had pulled the trigger. Steven died in Angel's arms."
"That's horrible!" Willow mumbled, feeling extremely sad for Angel.
"What happened with Angel?" Buffy continued with a lump in her throat. She had figured her new boyfriend had had a rough childhood, but she had never imagined it was like that terrible.
"It was nasty. When the cops arrived they thought Angel was the one who had killed Steven. He got locked up for the night, until Darla's father, who was the cop in charge of the case, found his daughter completely insane at home with his gun. She's in jail from what Gunn and Penn found out. Angel had completely disconnected from his former self. He blames himself for everything. I mean...he has always been the brooding type, but now...it's worst than ever." Kristin stopped talking there, because she was pretty sure Angel would mind a lot if she also told his girlfriend and her friends that after Steven's murder he had tried to kill himself and had ended up spending 3 months in an institution.
"I'll be back in a moment guys." Buffy murmured, receiving supporting smiles and nods, and she went to see Angel. She closed the door of the balcony, careful to make noise so that he would realize he wasn't alone. She saw him standing at the far end of the balcony, watching around the garden, nowhere in particular.
"I'm sorry, Angel. We didn't know about Steven, but we shouldn't have asked so much questions." She told him softly, standing next to him.
He remained silent for a long moment. "It's not your fault."
"I wouldn't know, but it must be hard. Losing such a close friend, it"
"Buffy!" He looked at her suddenly, a look of fear on his face. Buffy didn't expect to see that he had tears on his cheeks, and his eyes were red and puffy. "Please stop." He pleaded, looking like a scared little boy. "I can't talk about it. It's too painful." Buffy reached out and wiped off his tears with her thumb.
"Sorry, I'll let you deal with this the way you want. Just remember that I'm here for you." He nodded, and she pulled him into a hug. He rested his head on her shoulder, keeping her close to him. They stayed like this for a long time.
*********