Another little chapter! Go me!

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Faith stepped back from the balcony rail she had been leaning on and cocked her head slightly, "Did you hear that?"

"What pet?"

The creak that had attracted Faith's attention in the hush of the morning sounded again accompanied by a moan.

Spike's mouth dropped open, "Oh please, bloody hell no!" he groused. "Don't tell me we're stuck on the balcony while Angel diddles Buffy!"

He rushed to the doorway and then slowly bobbled about trying to stick his head around the door without seeing anything.

Faith watched the procedure with amusement. "You know, the longer you give them in peace the more likely they are to be actually doing the nasty when you do look."

Spike shot her a horrified look and leapt into the room with a bellow of "Banzaii!" He kept his eyes closed and tripped on a rug but stayed on his feet with an effort.

Faith followed more sedately, "Sorry to interrupt guys." She said with a smirk as Angel rolled off Buffy's prone form and half hid under the covers looking hideously embarrassed.

Buffy however was snug against him with a smirk even bigger than Faith's.

Spike was still teetering in the middle of the room with his eyes shut, "Is it safe to look?" he asked nervously as Faith grabbed him to haul him towards the door. She had her suspicions about this alleged caught-in-the- act bit; it was all a bit too neat and convenient for removing howling Spikes. But she wasn't going to clue Spike in, another few hours in bed with him would suit her down to the ground.

Spike finally chanced a peek by accident when Faith walked him into the corner of the desk. "Aagh! I didn't see anything!" he howled and with that he bolted out of the room.

Faith followed at a more leisurely swagger, "I'll send you guys his therapy bill, since you set that up."

Buffy pulled a mock innocent face. "Huh?"

Faith paused in the doorway, checking that Spike had indeed fled, though why seeing Buffy and Angel in the sack bothered him so much heaven only knew. "C'mon guys, even you two surely know that Angel doesn't need his sweatpants as a contraceptive measure!"

She paused and watched the blushes with a kindly amusement before catching up the packet of 'Trojans' on the desk and winging the box at them to plop onto the bed between them, "Those work better, trust me, I'm a sexpert!" with that she winked and exited the room with a decisive snap of the door. She wasn't going to stick around to see what they made of that, though judging by the smirk on Buffy's face it would be interesting.

Angel let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as Faith exited the room with her final cheeky dig. "That sounds as if it was a bit of a waste of time if she knew what was going on all along," he mumbled combing his fingers through Buffy's now dishevelled mane of hair.

Buffy looked at him with a puzzled expression, "Not even! We got rid of Spike, which was the aim of the exercise. I wasn't sure we would fool Faith anyway; she's too sharp for that. Besides it was Spike that wanted to be here, I got the impression that she would have preferred to be in bed herself so I doubt she's gone to tell him we were just fooling them."

Angel nodded slowly, as always Buffy's seeming craziness did make sense when fully explained. It was just sad that she would probably cover herself up again now Spike had been vanquished. He heaved himself upright, might as well be a gentleman and fetch her a t-shirt to wear before she requested it.

Then to his surprise he found himself with a lapful of squirming Buffy who was clinging limpet-like around his neck.

"Where are you going?" she pouted adorably. "You leaving me? Why?"

Angel froze, if he didn't offer her a shirt now he probably wouldn't find the decency to do so in a minute. "Uhh." He began lamely in strangled tones. Great, his voice was shutting down along with his brain. Nothing north of the border seemed to be functioning properly at the moment. Though everything in the south was predictably just great.

Meanwhile Buffy was internally berating herself for hurling herself naked into his arms as the ultimate advert for wanton availability/desperation then compounding that stupidity by being cute and demanding to know where he was going. It would serve her right if he announced he was making a trip to the bathroom to use the facilities. Then she could stay here and die quietly in a corner for the stupidity of demanding to know why he was abandoning her to answer a call of nature.

"I, uh was going to grab you a shirt, I thought you might like to get a bit more dressed now."

Buffy swallowed hard, "Oh, okay." Then she made herself move and slithered off his lap burying herself under the covers until only her nose peeked out. Oh the irony, the one guy she decides is the one to trust with her naked body is the one that would rather get a nice big shirt to cover it up. Blah!

Angel sat there feeling confused, he'd offered her a shirt and she'd gone from quite visibly naked and in his lap to right under the covers almost dangling off the other side of the bed. Surely he should've got brownie points for the offer not a seeming cold shoulder?

Without speaking he scrambled out of bed and went to his wardrobe selecting another shirt for Buffy to wear. He laid it on the bed beside her, "I'm just going to brush my teeth and stuff, I'll be back in a minute." He told her before disappearing into the bathroom to mull over Buffy's sudden bizarre attitude shift.

Buffy slowly emerged from under the covers carefully stacking the little box on the bedside table, it was a nice if rude thought of Faith's to throw them over and try to kick start things but it didn't look as if it would be necessary now. She slowly dragged on the fresh shirt Angel had given her. This was becoming a habit, two shirts and one jacket of his already in one weekend.

Then not knowing what else to do she perched on the edge of the bed and waited for Angel to return. She ran several scenarios through her head for what she'd say or do when he re-emerged but settled for scuttling crablike past him into the bathroom muttering, "Can I borrow your toothbrush?"

"Yeah, sure."

The door shut and Angel stood staring at it in puzzlement. Women. Would men ever work them out?

For want of anything better to do he crawled back into bed and prodded the power switch on his stereo, nodding in satisfaction as soft, soothing music poured from the speakers.

Buffy dithered in the bathroom. She'd done everything but climb into the enormous bathtub for a soak to avoid facing Angel. Finally she was forced to admit that her teeth could not possibly get any cleaner and his toothbrush was reaching the consistency of worn carpet she had scrubbed with it so hard for so long.

She replaced his toothbrush in the holder and strictly ignored the soap.

Now or never.

She cracked open the door and peeked out, immediately feeling silly. This was Angel for heavens sake! Just because he was so gorgeous he addled her brains she shouldn't act like a dip around him because he preferred giving her a shirt to wear rather than himself.

She walked across the room with a new confidence and crawled into bed next to him, spooning against him and stretching up to twine her arms around his neck. She sighed contentedly. It wasn't like what was on offer wasn't great.

Angel sighed with relief as Buffy cozied against him, clearly whatever he had said or done, or not said or done wasn't an issue now. He folded his fingers around hers, smiling at the disparity in sizes and at the little lucky stars on her thumbs. He was so damn lucky. Still puzzled, but lucky.