Part Three: The Angelic Face

Buffy entered the courtyard of the mansion, breaking off a piece of jasmine as she went. She held it up and breathed in the scent, and then tucked it behind her ear.

"Hey, Angel...you here?" She walked into the house, where she noticed Angel sitting by the fire, brooding over a book in French.

"Buffy," he said, looking up in concern, "What are you doing here at this hour?"

"Oh, just wanted to stop by, "she answered him breezily. Buffy walked towards him, swaying her hips as she did. "You know how I like a good chat."

"Well, I was just about to go to bed..." Angel said, looking a little more blank than usual, caught up in the sexy looks Buffy was throwing at him.

"How's about I go to bed with you?" Buffy asked in a husky voice. She sat sideways across his lap, and began kissing him.

"Hmmm," Angel pushed her away gently with his hands. "What do you mean by 'go to bed' with me? You know we can't..."

"Shh, Angel," she said, "Something's changed...it's all right, we can have sex." She kissed him again, deep and hungry.

He stopped her again. "What do you mean 'something's changed'? Buffy what's going on?"

"Come on," she said, her voice beginning to race, "Fuck me, Angel, you know once wasn't enough, fuck me so I'll never forget it," she reached her hand down and cupped him.

The blow landed so quickly Buffy was thrown across the room.

"You're a vampire," Angel stated, the pain evident in his voice.

Buffy looked at him in her game face. "Well duh." She got to her feet, brushing the dust off her dress. "What's the prob?"

"You're not Buffy."

"No," she stated plainly, "I am Buffy, just like last year you were really Angel." She shook out her vampiric face and looked the sweet-tempered little girl again. "I really don't see what the problem here is, I mean, I know you have more fun without a soul, and you don't have to be good for little old me." She brought a finger to her mouth and pretended to suck on it like the lollipop she was eating the day she was called as the slayer, the day Angel said he first saw her. "We can be together forever, Angel. I mean--that's the whole point!"

At this point Angel had risen, a scowl on his face. Buffy raised her eyebrows, moved her shoulders around a bit. Suddenly she ran towards him, tackling him to the ground.

"Please, Angel," she whispered, "just let go, be mine."

Angel was suddenly still. "I'll always be yours, Buffy." Sadness rippled in his voice. "But not like this." He grabbed her by the waist and pushed her off him. Scrambling to his feet he added, "We'll have Willow curse you, or get your soul back some other..."

She giggled. "Willow can't curse me, I destroyed the translation of the spell." Giggling again, she raised her arms in the air and spun around gleefully, as if she were taking in the world with her arms.

Angel just stared at her, so many emotions battling in him. "Angel, I love you," Buffy said, having stopped spinning. She pouted and began to get closer to him. "Why don't you love me? Why can't you accept me the way I am?" Another step, another sweet calculated gesture—batting her eyelashes, looking up in her clear green eyes. "You think anyone was jumping for joy when I started dating a vampire? They weren't, but I loved you and that was enough..." Angel tried to punch her again, but this time Buffy was quick enough and she caught his arm, giving him a blow across the face that sent him flying.

"You seem to have forgotten who's the better fighter here, Angel!" she taunted.

Buffy knew Angel had a soul. That soul would make him try to do "the right thing", and she respected that. But when she had hit him, she had expected him to turn to her, in game face, she had expected Angel to come at her swinging, and they would fight a heated battle, that battle would turn to sex, and all would be right with the world.

But he just sat there. He lay right where he had dropped and didn't move. Why wasn't he attacking her? When he finally did turn to look at her, he looked human. He looked like he had been crying.

"Face of an angel," Buffy muttered, then started at her own words.

Angel's eyes had looked dead, as if his famous souls had frozen cold. They flickered briefly with her words, it had sounded so like her...

"Angel," she said softly, all the pretense and mischief of the night gone from her voice. She walked to him, and knelt beside him. Laying a hand on his cheek, Buffy leaned down and kissed Angel tenderly.

He was so lost in that tenderness he forgot the reason Buffy had come to him. That is until he realized that somehow she had nudged him so he was on his back, and she was now straddling him.

With his hands on her delicate shoulders, Angel pushed her away.

"Just go," he said simply.

They stared at each other, his dark eyes calmly meeting her green ones.

"I'll come back for you," she replied. She was gone faster than the eye could trace.

"I know." He lay on the cold floor of the mansion, very near the spot where he had returned from hell. Part of him wished he had never left.

A/N: Okay, she speechified a little, but she's Buffy, you know? And hey you, all Bangel shippers--Suckers! This the last you'll see in a while! Unfortunately, it's not the last we'll see of Angel (damn).