Angel reached the roof and leant over to give Buffy a hand up, not that she needed it but still, any excuse to be near her.

She accepted his help with a sweet smile and allowed him to lift her over the edge of the building. She weighed next to nothing Angel marvelled, how could she possibly be a great warrior when she was like thistledown? She made the few other slayers he had ever encountered look like hulking brutes, which they kind of had been.

Buffy smiled at him as he lowered her to the roof and reluctantly let go, "Guess it'll be show time soon Angel, and we get to see how good a team we make and hope my brother doesn't die of heart failure when we charge in to rescue him together."

Angel returned the smile, "Yeah and hope Willow's science experiment does what it says on the label, nothing more nothing less."

Buffy smothered a giggle, "That was so funny, us politely trying to explain our doubts and Anya just plumps out her x-rated explanation. Ugh, I am so not looking forward to this though. I think I'd rather just go in and beat them up."

Angel grinned widely, "It was pretty funny and the way she shut Xander up was entertaining too. All your friends seem really nice even if they do help come up with plans I could probably live without."

Buffy beamed, "They're all one of a kind that's for sure. Same as your friends really."

"Gunn seemed to know you," Angel commented neutrally, trying to ignore the faint squirming of jealousy as he wondered what Buffy and Gunn had been or worse, were to each other.

"Oh, yeah. That's a long story that we can tell later, basically I introduced him to vampire hunting."

Angel frowned, "I thought that was a girl called Anne." Then his brain belatedly made the connections, "Oh, you're Anne?"

Buffy nodded and Angel was relieved, he knew the story of Anne and what she had been to Gunn. Not a lover that was for sure.

Buffy edged towards the skylight they planned to enter through and peeked in to see a few demons walking about below. "Ung, they look like the really nasty dinosaurs in Jurassic park, only smaller."

Angel looked at her blankly.

"When do we go in?" she whispered.

Angel knelt beside her and tested the skylight; it wasn't locked. He glanced at his watch, "little over eight minutes." He replied softly, "Wes decided to give us a good margin to make sure we were in place and could get in okay."

"Smart man," Buffy murmured taking a step back out of sight from anything below and leaning against the low wall that ran around the rooftop. Angel followed suit and leant against the wall beside her, not quite touching her, but close.

Buffy's heart sped up and began hammering wildly. She still couldn't get a handle on herself even with all the time she spent with him. Should she just blurt her feelings out right now? Hesitating hadn't won her the guy before and they had no secrets between them now except precisely how they felt about each other and from what little she had overheard of Cordelia's conversation to Fred on the way Angel felt the same way about her as she did about him.

Angel shifted uncomfortably beside her; then he turned to her, "Look, Buffy if I make you that nervous I can go and stand somewhere else."

Interrupted from her daze the only thing Buffy could persuade to come out of her mouth was "Huh?"

Angel sighed heavily, "Your heart is acting as if it's going to jump out of your chest; clearly I make you nervous because I'm a vampire, which is understandable." He shuffled away, "I'll just stand over here."

Buffy flushed scarlet, he could hear her heart slamming away? How embarrassing. Wait a minute! He was running away because he thought she couldn't deal with him being a vampire. Idiot!

Buffy stalked Angel across the roof to where he stood with his back to her, "I suppose it doesn't occur to you I might be nervous around you for other reasons." she growled.

He stubbornly kept his back to her, "what other reasons could there possibly be?" he said bitterly.

Buffy shuffled closer to him and got a firm grip on his elbow so she could spin him round to face her, it wasn't easy but she managed it. When Angel finally faced her she looked up at him. "Angel, I am not scared of you okay?"

Angel snorted, "Yeah, sure."

"But I was scared because I wanted to do this," she declared as she stood on her toes, reached up and softly pressed her lips to his.

For a moment Angel froze but then he placed a steadying hand on the small of her back, burrowed his other hand into her golden tresses and returned her kiss with all the pent-up longing he had gathered over the past few days.

Buffy moaned against his mouth and wound her arms around his neck, dragging him closer. She pressed her breasts against his chest and sucked on his sensuous lower lip. Moments later she found herself pressed backwards and ended up perched on the wall with Angel standing between her thighs, her face cupped in his large, capable hands as her kissed her with a more intense passion than she could ever have imagined.

Angel had started kissing her as gently as he could but when she moved so eagerly against him he had backed her up against the wall to kiss her more deeply. He kissed her again and again, unable to touch her enough. He stroked his fingers over the contours of her beautiful face, revelling in the beauty before him, the beauty that unbelievably wanted to kiss him. Buffy couldn't get Angel close enough and frantically grabbed his hips to pull him nearer, before letting her exploring fingers wander up his back, her fingers rubbing over smooth muscle as their mouths clung together.

When they finally broke their explosive kiss Buffy was panting, her lips swollen and Angel looked far from calm, his hair even more ruffled than usual from where Buffy had raked her fingers through it.

They gazed at each other in awe for a few moments before Buffy recovered sufficiently to gasp out, "When this is over, you and I so need to talk about this."

"Agreed." Angel managed as he helped her down from the wall. "I'm sorry. About the wall part I mean if I came on a bit um, heavy."

Buffy grinned, "Hey, I jumped on you!"

"True," Angel admitted before shooting her a cheeky glance, "and I look forward to the next time you do it," He paused worriedly, "You will do it again right?"

Buffy moved towards the skylight and drew her sword, "Try and stop me!" she said with a saucy smile.

Angel drew his own sword and grinned at her, "We've got twenty seconds, how about one for luck?"

Buffy briefly pressed her still kiss-swollen lips to his before they opened the skylight together.