Something Beautiful
Chapter Ten: Your Place or Mine?

Angel was glowering as he gave his intercom a vigorous shake. There was a knock at his office door, but he didn't hear it, he was too busy punching all the buttons on the machine.

"Um, Boss?"

He looked up to see Harmony hesitating in the doorway of his office, looking at him like he had gone demented.

"Yes?" he snapped in reply.

"Need any help?" she asked, indicating the intercom as she ventured a few more steps further into the room.

"It's broken," he replied sullenly as she took it from him.

"No, it's fine," she said, following the lead and plugging it back in. "There you go. But, uh, don't worry, could've happened to anyone. I guess it came unplugged when you had that fight with the Lancer demon in here, huh?"

"I guess," Angel replied, glaring at the machine as she placed gingerly back on his desk.

"So I'll be going now," she said gently. "I'm going out with –" she stopped, cast him a look and lowered her gaze. "I'm going out. You want a mug of blood before I go? 'Cause I could do that…"

"It's fine," Angel answered shortly.

"Harmony, you ready?" Wes peered around the door of Angel's office clutching his bike helmet.

"Yeah, I'll be with you in a minute, Wes," she answered.

"Ok," he glanced at Angel and smiled, though his forehead creased slightly in a frown. "See you tomorrow, Angel."

Angel grunted a reply, Wes sighed and retreated. Harmony hesitated, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. When Angel next looked up, she had gone.

He shuffled papers about on his desk moodily, trying to find his pen when a mug of warm blood was placed on his desk, with a glass of water, a bottle of painkillers and a pen. He looked up.

"Figured you had a headache," Harmony said matter-of-factly, oddly reminiscent of Cordelia. "So there's some painkillers, you never know, they might work. There's a spare pen in case you can't find yours and a mug of blood to keep you going," she wavered slightly under his heavy stare. "I'll, uh, see you tomorrow, Boss."

He continued to glower, though not so much in her direction. Harmony gave him a half hearted smile and turned to leave, shaking her head.

It wasn't that she gave a damn about Angel's attitude any more than she had before; it was just that it was the only indication of how he felt towards her being with Wesley. And since Angel was the one subject Wesley went out of his way to avoid lately, Harmony had the uncomfortable feeling that Angel's attitude towards her was similar to his behaviour to Wesley. Which sucked, because she knew how much they cared about each other in that manly we've-been-saving-each-others'-asses-forever kind of way.

"Harmony?"

She stopped, her fingers clenched, her eyes closed and she suppressed a hopeful squeal as she turned slowly, rearranging her expression into one of here-to-help-boss!

"Yes?" she replied, trying to keep her voice even.

"Get going," he grunted, scrawling his signature across something. She didn't move and he looked up to clarify. "You have a date and Wesley doesn't like to be kept waiting."

She continued to stare at him, her mouth falling open as he returned his gaze to the paperwork. Although this was what she had been hoping for, it wasn't exactly like she had been expecting it. He glanced up, smiled at her and she grinned and turned sharply to leave.

"Harmony?" Angel called.

"Yes?" she glanced back over her shoulder at him, hesitating slightly in case he changed his mind.

"Thanks," Angel replied, lifting his mug of blood. "Have, uh, have fun."

"You too, Boss."

Harmony heaved a contented sigh and rolled back onto the cool grass, closing her eyes. She heard Wesley kick out the stand of his bike and remove his helmet, then the creak of leather as he sat beside her.

"I bring you out here to show you the night sky and you fall asleep. I thought you liked me for my charm?" he groused, leaning back.

"I'm not asleep. And I do like your charm. But we're in LA, it's not exactly known for its dramatic night sky views," Harmony replied, eyes still stubbornly closed.

"Oh, I don't know," Wes glanced at Harmony, eyeing her up and down in a way that would have made her role her eyes had they been open. "I think I can see Orion's Belt."

"I spoke to Angel today," Harmony said, opening her eyes and looking over at Wes.

"Really?" he answered, turning his head away to look up at the sky. "Oh, yes, I see now. That's not Orion's Belt, it's -"

"Why won't you talk about him?" Harmony asked, rolling towards him and leaning on her arm. "Whenever I mention how he acts with me, you change the subject."

"I don't… I don't want you to feel guilty."

"About what?"

"If Angel behaves a little more… brusquely than normal. I don't want you to think it's your fault."

"It is. If he treats you differently because you and I are together, it's because of me."

"It's because of us. Not just you," he reassured her. "Besides, I had a few sharp words with him this afternoon. I had enough of his glaring and snide comments. I told him to move on. In fact, I think I forced him to think about his life. He went and asked someone out after we argued. Nina, do you remember? The werewolf? She's been after him for a while. Hopefully he can be happy now."

"Well, he was certainly perkier. Even told me to hurry up for our date and told me to have fun. Which I have. I am happy with you, you know," she said quietly, reaching to twine her fingers through his.

He smiled and squeezed her hand.

"Me too."

The young woman was looking at Angel curiously, making Angel fidget, the spaghetti sliding once again from his fork.

"Why is it that I have a feeling you're not that great in social situations?" she asked finally.

"Why?" Angel asked, a little quickly. "Am I using the wrong fork? Because that would explain a lot…" he grimaced at the sauce on his black shirt.

"Well, you're a vampire, so I suppose I can let you off."

"Look, Nina," Angel started. "I'm sorry, I've been out of the dating game for a while, so I'm not sure how things are supposed to, well, go."

"A date," Nina raised her eyebrows. "We've know each other a couple of months now, since you helped me out with the whole werewolf thing and you've finally got the hint that I like you? After all those times I found excuses to come to Wolfram and Hart and wore the best clothes money could buy and you've only just got it?"

"Like I said, I've been out of the dating game a while," Angel said, sighing and reaching for a spoon.

"So why'd you ask me out?" Nina asked.

Angel paused, remembering Wes's sharp words. It involved a lot about going home to an empty bed and working hard and how he hadn't even noticed the most obvious come-ons from the woman currently sitting across from him.

He smiled at Nina, she really was quite pretty. And funny. And dextrous enough to be happily to twist spaghetti around a fork with something like panache.

"A friend pointed a few things out," he told her.

She ran her eyes over him, smiled coquettishly and lowered her gaze to her plate.

"Eat your spaghetti," she muttered with a little smile.

The End.