You make me feel brand new
Summary: Angel gives Buffy a special present after she saves him on the third season.
Timeline: The beginning takes place after Amends. The end takes place after The Prom and before Graduation Day the first and the second.
Distribution: Fanfiction.net, Enchanting Place.
Angel was doing his laundry, near his place, when he heard a soft pop song from a band he used to like at eighties, the Simply Red. He half-smiled and paid attention to the lyrics of the song, when it hit him.
The song matched perfectly the way he felt about Buffy from the very beginning.
Smiling, he left the laundry and went to the mall, in order to buy the album of Simply Red, Home, so he could give it to Buffy.
Buffy smiled when she got into her bedroom and saw a paper with Angel's letter on her bed.
Listen to the fourth track. I wrote the lyrics down to you.
Love, your Angel.
Buffy went to her stereo, introduced the CD on the place to it and searched for the fourth track. The soft accords of the song filled her quiet bedroom:
My love
I'll never find the words, my love
To tell you how I feel, my love
Mere words could not explain
Buffy felt tears burning in her eyelids, as the full meaning of the words sang by the rock-band hit her. She had saved Angel nearly twenty-four hours ago, and he was already thanking her for something her heart had impulsively told her to do. Both had earned something with her saving him.
Precious love,
You held my life within your hands
Created everything I am
Taught me how to live again
Angel half-smiled while he heard the soft-pop song's accords flowing around her petite body. Her movements were swift and sweet, as she sang along with the vocal-leader of the band.
God, how much he loved this woman.
Only you…
Cared when I needed a friend;
Believed in me through thick and thin
This song is for you
Filled with gratitude and love
Buffy murmured softly the lyrics of the song. She knew her voice wasn't melodic and sweet, but she needed to tell herself she wasn't dreaming, that Angel was alive and okay, and that they were together, once more.
God bless you
You make me feel brand new
For God blessed me with you
You make me feel brand new
I sing this song 'cause you
Make me feel brand new
Angel left his spot under the tree in front of Buffy's home. He needed to go home, feed and sleep. The life of a slayer's lover wasn't easy.
But he was willing to go on with it.
My love
Whenever I was insecure
You built me up and made me sure
You gave my pride back to me
Precious friend
With you I'll always have a friend
You're someone who I can depend
To walk a path that never ends
Without you
My life has no meaning or rhyme
Like notes to a song out of time
How can I repay
You for having faith in me
God bless you
You make me feel brand new
For God blessed me with you
You make me feel brand new
I sing this song 'cause you
Make me feel brand new
Six months later…
Angel was packing to leave Sunny-dale, when the melodic accords of a song he knew very well reached his sensitive ears. Tears filled his eyes as he heard the soft 'You make me feel brand new'.
Buffy watched him carefully from her spot on the shadows. She saw the tears running down his cheeks, and tears rolled down her own. Her tears were of happiness. She knew the song still touched him. They had chosen the song as their song, and Simply Red as their favorite band.
"You can't leave me" She softly spoke "Not now, Angel. Not after all the fight we had to face, not after all the pain we had to suffer. You make me feel brand new, Angel. I told you once; you're the freaky thing in my freaky world that makes sense. And, if you leave" Her voice broke; tears thickened it "Then everything I know as my world, as my life, they go with you"
"Oh, God, Buffy" He spoke softly "No… You have your mother, your friends, your former watcher…"
"I don't care for them. I ran away once and left them. I can do this again".
"Buffy…"
"Angel" She said leaving the shadows, standing beside him "I love you. I love YOU. I LOVE YOU!" The slayer shouted the last words, and tears were wetting her cheeks.
In a flash, his lips were on hers, his large hands on her back. God, she missed his touch. She missed him. It was only two days they were apart from each other, but to her, it was centuries.
"Hush, my love" Angel said softly inside her ear "I love you too. I love you so much it hurts when I'm not around, when I don't touch you".
"Don't leave me, Angel" Buffy pleaded, her voice still thick with tears. "I need you. God, I need you so much"
"Hush… I'm here. I won't leave" Angel whispered. And it was true. He couldn't leave. He wouldn't leave. His body would go with him, but his un-beating heart, his unstable soul and his strong mind would stay in Sunny-dale, with the beautiful young and petite blond in his arms.
Buffy sighed in relief. Her soul-mate, the man she loved more than life itself, wasn't leaving her. Tears cascaded down her cheeks, now tears of happiness, because the light of her life was staying.
Epilogue
Angel fought beside Buffy, against Adam, Glory and the First. Gradually, he reached his redemption.
Against Adam, he won breath and a permanent soul. Buffy and Angel stayed two days inside the bedroom, making up for the lost time. The almost-former vampire, however, thanked the Powers he couldn't get his beloved pregnant.
Against Glory, the Powers gave him warmth and he was able to stay under sunlight. Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Anya, Wesley and Cordelia took him to the beach and a picnic.
And, finally, against the First, when he finally saw Angelus as someone apart from him, he got his heartbeat. Two weeks later, Buffy and Angel got married, and nine months after that, they had a baby, a little girl baptized as Angela Elizabeth.