Wow, another chapter already! Must be all those encouraging reviews I keep
getting. Keep them coming! A big thank you to everyone who is reading and a
massive thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing.
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Angel had just got back from a fairly fruitless meeting and had just irritably hurled his weapons into the cabinet when he heard the door snick open and felt a tingle of awareness even as he caught a whiff of a faint perfume he was fast coming to recognize. Buffy.
He stepped out from the shadow of the large wardrobe-like cabinet and moved into view. Just as she apparently assumed nobody was about and relaxed her hold on the top she had apparently been clutching to her. It slithered over the upper slopes of her breasts but her hand shot back up to catch it before it toppled off entirely. He wasn't sure if he was sorry or glad that he missed that peep show.
"Jeeze, silent much!" she exclaimed, "Where did you spring from?" she added smiling up at him.
He relaxed, she wasn't mad that he nearly caught a glimpse of her topless, not that he'd intended to but that wouldn't have mattered if it had been, oh say Cordelia he had accidentally sneaked up on.
"I just got back and was putting my, uh, gun back in the cabinet." Well it had been an axe and two knives, but gun was close enough. "What happened to you?"
"I went to a club to catch up with an old friend but I managed to nearly rip my top right off when I snagged it on something," like a vampire's hand, "so here I am home early. Are you going out again?"
Angel thought about Gunn and his old team, they were going to be out patrolling tonight, the last night of Gunn's absence from AI and although Gunn was at ease with Angel's vampirism now, he knew he made most of Gunn's friends very uneasy; uneasy to the point where they might stake him accidentally on purpose. He had promised Gunn last week that he'd be safely indoors for the night by nine, barring unexpected incidents that was; he glanced at his watch, he was only a little late.
Remembering that Buffy was waiting for an answer he quickly shook his head, "No, if tonight's meeting had come up with something I could work on I would but it was a bit of a pointless meeting really, the guy couldn't tell me much more than I already knew. Nothing I can act on until I talk to someone else tomorrow night anyway."
Angel just hoped tomorrow was soon enough for Doyle. He couldn't imagine having to tell Buffy her brother was dead.
Wesley was holed up in his own apartment upstairs, sleeping he claimed, but really Angel knew he was poring over books, seeking an answer. Hoping that the date for Doyle's execution was far enough in the future that they got together enough information in time to save him.
Angel was fairly sure Wes hadn't slept for a while as he ploughed through all the books that only he could read, written in obscure languages that gave Angel a headache just looking at them. He was okay with languages but Wes, over two hundred years his junior made him look dumb by comparison.
He had blitzed the old English, Latin and French works they possessed himself, but Wes was still going with everything else hoping something would yield a clue. He could probably recite by heart everything there was to know about the wretched Quaazberoon demons, all except the date of their big ritual and where they were holding Doyle.
He gazed down at Buffy still holding up her excuse for a top, " If you get changed into something more comfortable and more secure we could maybe watch a movie or something."
Buffy looked up at Angel, he was so sweet, and so naughty. He was practically smirking as he said 'secure' and how he managed to make 'more comfortable' sound sexy when Buffy usually viewed baggy tracksuit bottoms as more comfortable she could not fathom. But Angel probably wouldn't ask her to watch a movie with him every night so she bounded for the stairs shouting over her shoulder, "I'll be right back, if you wanna pick the movie go ahead."
Once in her room Buffy flew to straighten herself out in miracle time, she wanted to give the impression of looking wonderful in no time at all. What man could resist a woman who looked great with minimal effort? Angel most probably, knowing her luck!
Five minutes later her hair was in a neat ponytail, her lips were freshly glossed and she was skipping downstairs dressed in a cute baby blue twin set and faded blue jeans.
Angel who had been hooking up the video in the den caught sight of her through the open door and did a double take; she was ready in five minutes? He'd never known a woman who could be ready in five minutes ever in his whole very long life!"
He shook his head; there seemed to be a lot of firsts for him this week.
When she joined him he gestured at the shelves filled with Books, CD's and videos and said, "I didn't know what sort of thing you'd want to watch so I left it up to you, most of these belong to the company as a whole so I haven't seen a lot of them, I tend to read more I guess."
"That's cool, more choice now," said Buffy with a sunny smile as she stepped up to the shelves of videos. A few minutes later she had announced she had seen virtually all of the films and finally settled on a subtitled French one she hadn't seen.
Angel inserted the cassette and they settled back comfortably onto the plush, cozy sofa. A few minutes into the film the sofa seemed far too cozy as the main storyline turned out to be mildly pornographic.
Buffy sat mere inches from Angel feeling very flushed, it was different to think about doing rude things with him, sitting watching stuff like it on video with him was an entirely different matter, she didn't even have the guts to give him sexy little glances out of the corner of her eye during the tenderly sexy bits.
They watched in uneasy silence until the credits finally rolled.
"Y' know, from the title I thought there'd be food in it." Piped Buffy nervously as she tried to break the slightly awkward silence.
"Yeah, well there was food, in parts." He trailed off uncomfortably.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
Suddenly Buffy started giggling, "That's something else for you to add to the list that starts 'Don't let Buffy.' Oh, I'm so sorry Angel I should've stuck with a film that I knew wouldn't turn out virtually pornographic!"
Angel turned to face her, much less embarrassed now she was so amused. "Check. Will also remember not to let your brother leave his dirty videos lying around!"
"Nah, Doyle wouldn't have anything that subtle! It would've had a title like 'Hot Chicks' or something if it belonged to Doyle!"
"Bet it was Wes!"
They sniggered and clutched each other, relieved that the embarrassment was over.
"Maybe we should listen to music instead?" Angel suggested with a grin as they finally stopped chuckling nervously, "It might be safer than films."
Buffy lightly smacked his arm and used him as a leaning post to stand up before sauntering towards the CD's.
Angel smiled as she studied the titles intently, loving that she was so comfortable with him.
Making up her mind she whisked out a CD and stuffed it into the machine before bounding back to sit beside him with the remote in her hand. Clicking for the second track on the disc she tucked her feet up underneath her and made herself comfortable leaning against him and pressed play.
He smiled down at her lovingly even as he braced himself for an obnoxious torrent of music he would hate. After all, he hated about seventy percent of the music on the shelf and only about ten out of the two-hundred odd CD's up there were actually his.
The haunting strains of Sarah Mclachlan filled the air and Buffy sighed in satisfaction, snuggling her golden head onto his shoulder. Incredible. Of all the CD's up there she had picked one of his. He cradled his arm around her a bit more and relaxed completely, suddenly incapable of brooding at all.
As he and Buffy listened to 'I will remember you' pour from the speakers, for the first time in his life Angel felt like he truly fit.
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Angel had just got back from a fairly fruitless meeting and had just irritably hurled his weapons into the cabinet when he heard the door snick open and felt a tingle of awareness even as he caught a whiff of a faint perfume he was fast coming to recognize. Buffy.
He stepped out from the shadow of the large wardrobe-like cabinet and moved into view. Just as she apparently assumed nobody was about and relaxed her hold on the top she had apparently been clutching to her. It slithered over the upper slopes of her breasts but her hand shot back up to catch it before it toppled off entirely. He wasn't sure if he was sorry or glad that he missed that peep show.
"Jeeze, silent much!" she exclaimed, "Where did you spring from?" she added smiling up at him.
He relaxed, she wasn't mad that he nearly caught a glimpse of her topless, not that he'd intended to but that wouldn't have mattered if it had been, oh say Cordelia he had accidentally sneaked up on.
"I just got back and was putting my, uh, gun back in the cabinet." Well it had been an axe and two knives, but gun was close enough. "What happened to you?"
"I went to a club to catch up with an old friend but I managed to nearly rip my top right off when I snagged it on something," like a vampire's hand, "so here I am home early. Are you going out again?"
Angel thought about Gunn and his old team, they were going to be out patrolling tonight, the last night of Gunn's absence from AI and although Gunn was at ease with Angel's vampirism now, he knew he made most of Gunn's friends very uneasy; uneasy to the point where they might stake him accidentally on purpose. He had promised Gunn last week that he'd be safely indoors for the night by nine, barring unexpected incidents that was; he glanced at his watch, he was only a little late.
Remembering that Buffy was waiting for an answer he quickly shook his head, "No, if tonight's meeting had come up with something I could work on I would but it was a bit of a pointless meeting really, the guy couldn't tell me much more than I already knew. Nothing I can act on until I talk to someone else tomorrow night anyway."
Angel just hoped tomorrow was soon enough for Doyle. He couldn't imagine having to tell Buffy her brother was dead.
Wesley was holed up in his own apartment upstairs, sleeping he claimed, but really Angel knew he was poring over books, seeking an answer. Hoping that the date for Doyle's execution was far enough in the future that they got together enough information in time to save him.
Angel was fairly sure Wes hadn't slept for a while as he ploughed through all the books that only he could read, written in obscure languages that gave Angel a headache just looking at them. He was okay with languages but Wes, over two hundred years his junior made him look dumb by comparison.
He had blitzed the old English, Latin and French works they possessed himself, but Wes was still going with everything else hoping something would yield a clue. He could probably recite by heart everything there was to know about the wretched Quaazberoon demons, all except the date of their big ritual and where they were holding Doyle.
He gazed down at Buffy still holding up her excuse for a top, " If you get changed into something more comfortable and more secure we could maybe watch a movie or something."
Buffy looked up at Angel, he was so sweet, and so naughty. He was practically smirking as he said 'secure' and how he managed to make 'more comfortable' sound sexy when Buffy usually viewed baggy tracksuit bottoms as more comfortable she could not fathom. But Angel probably wouldn't ask her to watch a movie with him every night so she bounded for the stairs shouting over her shoulder, "I'll be right back, if you wanna pick the movie go ahead."
Once in her room Buffy flew to straighten herself out in miracle time, she wanted to give the impression of looking wonderful in no time at all. What man could resist a woman who looked great with minimal effort? Angel most probably, knowing her luck!
Five minutes later her hair was in a neat ponytail, her lips were freshly glossed and she was skipping downstairs dressed in a cute baby blue twin set and faded blue jeans.
Angel who had been hooking up the video in the den caught sight of her through the open door and did a double take; she was ready in five minutes? He'd never known a woman who could be ready in five minutes ever in his whole very long life!"
He shook his head; there seemed to be a lot of firsts for him this week.
When she joined him he gestured at the shelves filled with Books, CD's and videos and said, "I didn't know what sort of thing you'd want to watch so I left it up to you, most of these belong to the company as a whole so I haven't seen a lot of them, I tend to read more I guess."
"That's cool, more choice now," said Buffy with a sunny smile as she stepped up to the shelves of videos. A few minutes later she had announced she had seen virtually all of the films and finally settled on a subtitled French one she hadn't seen.
Angel inserted the cassette and they settled back comfortably onto the plush, cozy sofa. A few minutes into the film the sofa seemed far too cozy as the main storyline turned out to be mildly pornographic.
Buffy sat mere inches from Angel feeling very flushed, it was different to think about doing rude things with him, sitting watching stuff like it on video with him was an entirely different matter, she didn't even have the guts to give him sexy little glances out of the corner of her eye during the tenderly sexy bits.
They watched in uneasy silence until the credits finally rolled.
"Y' know, from the title I thought there'd be food in it." Piped Buffy nervously as she tried to break the slightly awkward silence.
"Yeah, well there was food, in parts." He trailed off uncomfortably.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
Suddenly Buffy started giggling, "That's something else for you to add to the list that starts 'Don't let Buffy.' Oh, I'm so sorry Angel I should've stuck with a film that I knew wouldn't turn out virtually pornographic!"
Angel turned to face her, much less embarrassed now she was so amused. "Check. Will also remember not to let your brother leave his dirty videos lying around!"
"Nah, Doyle wouldn't have anything that subtle! It would've had a title like 'Hot Chicks' or something if it belonged to Doyle!"
"Bet it was Wes!"
They sniggered and clutched each other, relieved that the embarrassment was over.
"Maybe we should listen to music instead?" Angel suggested with a grin as they finally stopped chuckling nervously, "It might be safer than films."
Buffy lightly smacked his arm and used him as a leaning post to stand up before sauntering towards the CD's.
Angel smiled as she studied the titles intently, loving that she was so comfortable with him.
Making up her mind she whisked out a CD and stuffed it into the machine before bounding back to sit beside him with the remote in her hand. Clicking for the second track on the disc she tucked her feet up underneath her and made herself comfortable leaning against him and pressed play.
He smiled down at her lovingly even as he braced himself for an obnoxious torrent of music he would hate. After all, he hated about seventy percent of the music on the shelf and only about ten out of the two-hundred odd CD's up there were actually his.
The haunting strains of Sarah Mclachlan filled the air and Buffy sighed in satisfaction, snuggling her golden head onto his shoulder. Incredible. Of all the CD's up there she had picked one of his. He cradled his arm around her a bit more and relaxed completely, suddenly incapable of brooding at all.
As he and Buffy listened to 'I will remember you' pour from the speakers, for the first time in his life Angel felt like he truly fit.
