Title: Hide and Go Seek...
Author: Tizzylish
Disclaimer: If I were Joss I would not be posting my stories here......
Premise: AU, Buffy and Angel are forced to go underground after they discover corruption in their tiny hometown town.....What will it take for them to be able to return? Also this is told in two timelines that will eventually converge....
Warning: NOT BETA'd
Rating: Could get up into the R area for violence and unpleasant content....But hose parts will be labeled for now we'll say PG-13... (I think there could be swearing in this chapter)....
It was the mocha smell that wafted through the window that woke him up, the familiar smell of cappuccinos and fresh brewed coffee brought him out of his peaceful dream and into his nightmarish world. In the few seconds before he opened his eyes he thought he was back home but reality invaded his world when a car alarm down the street began to sound.
He turned over on his bed, looking out the dirty window pane trying to decipher the forecast for the day; it looked like another sunny January morning in Boston. Sitting up he reached for the old TV turning it on so he could try and catch the news, the voice of the anchorwoman kept him company as he rose from his bed.
Dressed in a pair of sweatpants he reached for a T-shirt slipping it on and walking over to the kitchen area of his dingy apartment. It really was a crappy place, the beige wallpaper was peeling and most of the second hand furniture was broken mended scrappily with pieces of silver duct tape. The apartment it self was a studio with a great room where the bed was located along with the TV and an armchair that had stuffing sticking out of it. On the opposite wall was a small kitchenette where the dirty refrigerator and stove were left practically unused along with a small table and chair set. There was a bathroom too, a door next to the bed led to the tiny water closest where there was a just a toilet, shower stall and sink. It was a dirty disgusting place and he hated it there.
Going about his daily morning routine he opened a strawberry pop tart eating cold while he waited for the coffee to brew. It was while he was listening to the news that he noticed the other body in the bed start to move. He smiled she was the only thing that made him smile any more.
Her blonde hair fell carelessly around her shoulders messy from her nocturnal movements. The T-shirt she had worn to sleep on dwarfed her small body after all it belonged to him, she rose from the bed and walked over to the kitchen walking right past him to sit on one of the kitchen chairs. She pulled a pop tart out for herself and looked over at him menacingly.
"It's Friday." She spoke coldly curling her legs underneath her as she tried to warm herself up she hated the cold that seemed to be always persistent on the east coast. Granted they had only been there since November, missing the last traces of Indian summer that often lingered.
"Yeah it is, what does that have to do with anything?" He answered her statement nonchalantly.
"You know exactly what it means, rents due." She answered standing up and walking over to the bed pulling the duffel bag from under it where she kept her clothes. Pulling out her dirty jeans and a sweat shirt, she dressed quickly while keeping her t-shirt on fully aware that he was watching her.
"Oh yeah rent," He looked down at the dirty countertop, trying to figure out how he was going to pay rent. "Well if I get paid today we'll be fine. So I guess you'll just have to stay in all day," he looked at her, "And don't answer the door." He voice was stern if it wasn't for the fact that they hated each other she would have thought he sounded concerned.
"Fine I guess I'll stay in all day here, what time do you get off work?" She was pissed another day of captive duty stuck in the apartment making no noise and he could tell.
"I'll be back around 4:30." He answered her coolly, he didn't understand why she was still so angry at him they both gotten themselves into this mess it was her fault as much as it was his.
"Fine don't you have to leave soon anyway?" She walked over to the kitchen and picked up the mugs and began to watch them while she tried not to watch him get dressed into his work clothes which consisted of black jeans and a wife beater. Both were filthy, they really needed to head to the Laundromat soon. He then picked up his jacket and keys and nodded at here as he walked towards the door.
"Oh and Buffy remember, no noise, try to catch up on your reading." He smirked at her while he fixed the collar on his leather jacket; she gave him a dirty look and said, "Have a crummy day Angel." Then proceeding to watch him walk out the door.
During mornings like this where she wasn't allowed to leave the apartment Buffy resented Angel the most, where she longed for the life she had lived before. The life where she was just another 17 year old girl in a regular public high school not a wanted fugitive, she wished she could go back to that and get out of this hellish existence. She walked over to the TV shutting it off and walking over to the bed which she promptly made and then went back to the kitchen to gather some cleaning supplies.
It was her mission to get the tiny disgusting apartment clean; it was her mission with all the other apartments too. In the two months they had been on Boston she had scrubbed the apartment down five times and it still didn't look any better. They never did, not the places in Philadelphia, New York, or D.C those scum holes hadn't been any better. But still she needed something to do all day she was never allowed to go anywhere.
She pulled the generic window cleaner out and spayed the elixir over the window by the bed the ammonia smell reminded her of how her mother had always tried to make the windows so clean you couldn't tell that they were there. She used to laugh and say that if a bird ever flew into one she would no her job was done but then she would have to wash the window over again.
Buffy began to tear up, not just at the distant memory of her mother but because of the life she had lived when her mother was still alive. She had been decently popular dating the captain of the basketball team; she had her circle of friends that had worshipped her. She was the epitome of the average high school girl, until he entered back into the picture. Sometimes she couldn't believe they had only been on the run for seven months and sometimes she felt like they had left the day before. It was a hard life to live being on the run, but she had made her bed and now she had to lie in it. As much she liked blaming her downfall on Angel she knew she was just as responsible as he was.
Angel made the quick walk to the T in the cold thinking about Buffy. He would often find himself musing about the little blonde haired ex-cheerleader, thinking about her made his life almost bearable hell if he was honest with himself being with her made his life exponentially better. Even though she hated him, he still found himself in love with her. He was sorry that this was her life now that this was their lives now but he wasn't sure if he would trade this life it meant he would no longer be around her.
He stepped onto his train and rode to the construction site. He couldn't believe this is what he did now; he used to be a college freshman. He had been studying history at UC Sunnydale, he had wanted to be teacher but now he was just another guy who worked construction a nameless faceless nobody.
He was lucky that day, his boss decided to pay him, Angel looked at the check, the typed out numbers made out to Liam Devlin, was just going to be enough to cover the rent. Good Buffy would be not really happy but less annoyed than usual if she knew she could go out but it didn't look they were going to have enough for food. Well they could go food shopping tomorrow. Angel was always surprised at how adept a little thief Buffy had become. She could steal anything, it seemed she was always pulling interesting things out of her pockets, sometimes he wondered were she put it all.
He arrived at his door around 4:30 just as he said he would and found his door ajar. He rushed into the apartment to see there landlord pounding on the bathroom door where he now assumed Buffy was hiding. Boy did he look pissed.
"Mr. Suarez, what are you doing here?" Angel asked getting the short man's attention away from the door.
"Mr. Devlin, the rent is due and I was trying to get it from your little wife here but she just wouldn't cooperate with me and then locked herself in the bathroom." His tone made him sound innocent but Angel had a strong feeling that he was far from it. Besides the alcohol fumes coming off his body made him all the more less trustful.
"I have your rent right here, in fact I was just in your office but you weren't there." Angel smoothly lied as he handed the money he had cashed in order to pay rent.
"Thank you," Mr. Suarez took the envelope and headed out of the apartment while Angel rushed to the bathroom door.
"Buffy it's OK, he's gone, you can come out now." He spoke in a soft voice trying to comfort her. He knew she was on the other side of the door scared out of her mind and trying not to think about past events.
"Buffy let me in OK, I promise he's gone now, and I'm here nobody can hurt you when I'm here remember?" Still using his soft tone he heard the lock on the bathroom door click open. Angel gently pushed the door open and found Buffy sitting on the floor in a ball against the sink. She looked up at him, her eyes containing all the hurt she had lived through, Angel sat down on the floor and pulled her into his arms, rubbing her back as she relaxed into his hold listening to her tears as he whispered words of comfort to her. It was the same almost every night, she would break down he would comfort her, put her to bed, and in the morning she would hate him all over again. But every night they lived through it over all over again.