By Gem
"Please, tell me you're kidding!" Cordelia pleaded and gave The Host a small smile in hope.
"Sorry, toots. I just told you all I know. If that's not enough then he's gonna have to sing."
She made a face, "what about me, huh? I know I'm not great, but I'm better than him! – And I mean, since this is about me too you should get the same info from both of us, right? What's the difference if I sing instead, - except you wont lose nearly as many customers!"
"Ah, see when I said he'd have to sing, I kinda forgot to mention the part where you sing too."
"What!? Why!?"
"If I just hear Angel sing, I'll only get the plan for him, and your asking to know about the baby, right?"
Angel nodded, "well the baby's apart of each of you."
"So… what'd we sing?" Angel asked nervously.
"Whatever you want, Angelcakes. You can sing together or both pick a song, it doesn't really matter."
"Angel wants to go first!" Cordy said immediately.
"What? No I don't!" He was just as quick to protest.
"Oh, go on, Angel! After YOU belting out a song whatever I chose and no matter how badly I do it they'll LOVE me!"
"Cordy, there is no way I'm singing at ALL."
'It's a good job I'm better at guilting Angel than I am acting, 'cause this is a bit of both!' She thought as she quickly set a plan up into action. She cocked her head to the side and gave him a sad look, desperately wanting to cheer out as he did exactly what she wanted him to do… his eyes watched as her hand rested on her belly, "please, Angel. For the baby? We need to know what's going to happen to it."
The vampire sighed, "I'll compromise with you, Cordy."
Her eyebrows raised hopefully, "go on…"
"We'll sing together."
"I guess that's better than nothing," she shrugged. "What you wanna sing?" She asked, taking his arm and leading him towards the stage.
Wesley felt someone tap his arm as he watched them go, and he turned around to see that Gunn had arrived.
"English, please tell me Angel isn't –"
"- Oh it's worse than that. They're going to sing TOGETHER."
Gunn made a face, "I need a drink. Fast."
The Host wondered over to the Warrior and Seer to see if they had actually picked a song yet.
"No way am I singing that!" He heard Cordelia whine.
"I take it you two haven't agreed on one yet?"
"As if." He laughed as Cordelia gave the vampire an evil look, and he practically growled back at her. They weren't really having a fall out, Lorne could tell, they were just bantering with each other because for some reason they liked to get each other all fired up. Their auras said it all.
The Host shrugged, "then why don't you just sing two different songs."
"Because we made a compromise. Both together or just Cordelia, and apparently, we both have to sing." Angel reminded him, with a death glare.
"Why don't you just get both your cute little butts on the stage and sing something I choose?" He reasoned, and got two glares.
Angel was just shaking his head no.
"Nuh-uh. I don't think so. Anything YOU choose either I won't know or Angel won't – that's why we're having a hard time finding a song. What I know, he doesn't. And what he DOES know – it's really, really old."
"You don't really need to KNOW it – the words come up on screen you fools!" He KNEW that was a growl, and Cordelia didn't look pleased, "… But if I can guarantee you'll both know it?"
"What is it?" They chorused together.
The Host just smiled, "get up on the stage and you'll find out."
Angel looked to see what Cordelia thought of the idea, she shrugged back at him, "I'm game if you are?"
He couldn't back down from something that a young human girl wasn't afraid of doing now, could he? "I'm game."
Wesley and Gunn looked up in interest once they saw their two friends get on the stage.
"Maybe they'll drown each other out," Wes said flatly.
"You wish." Cordy and Angel both had grabbed mics as the song started.
It was the strangest sensation Cordy had ever felt. The whole room of people seemed to swallow up and then she just opened her mouth to ask what was going on as Angel's bedroom appeared in front of her. The vampire himself sitting on the bed looking at something past her. None of the questions that she wanted to ask came out. But she found herself singing.
She had heard the song before, but somehow the words just slipped out of her mouth like she knew it by heart.
Cordy: Tonight I celebrate my love for you.
Her voice didn't sound like her own, - not the one everyone hated to hear anyway. She sounded like a GOOD singer.
She watched as another version of herself came in the room and walked to Angel, who took her hand.
And then Cordelia realised, she was watching one of her dreams.
Cordy: It seems the natural thing to do.
Another voice started to sing, a deeper, male's voice. It sounded nothing like the normal way her best friend could sing, but she knew it was him.
Wesley nearly spit out his drink as Cordelia opened her mouth and began to sing.
He turned to Gunn – "do I need new glasses, or is that Cordelia singing?" He asked, mesmerised by her voice.
"It looks like Cordy, but it can't be her… can it?"
Then Angel started to sing.
"What do they put in the beer here?" Gunn asked, looking down at his drink.
Angel had been very surprised when he heard his seers voice and he looked to her to see if she actually was the one singing, but she wasn't there, well, not the one singing at least, though he somehow knew it was her voice, he watched as 'she' moved toward –the bed? Which he was on?
He watched as he held out a hand to her.
Angel frowned, and wondered what the hell was going on. He opened his mouth to ask, and found himself singing, automatically knowing the right words.
Angel: Tonight, no one's gonna find us.
He watched intently as himself pulled Cordelia close to him, and began to kiss her tenderly.
Angel: We'll leave the world behind us.
And then it hit him, as he watched Cordelia break the kiss and touch 'his' face gently, this was one of his dreams.
Cordy & Angel: When I make love to you.
They both carried on singing their respective parts, watching as their dream versions gently made love.
Cordy: Tonight, I celebrate my love for you.
For no particular reason as she sang, Cordelia found her cheeks wet with her tears, she wasn't at all sure why. But that this was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. She and the man she loved were together… this was different from the dreams, it was more real because the words she was singing fitted it completely, and Angel's voice sang along with her, echoing her love.
Cordy: And hope, that deep inside you feel it too.
Angel: Tonight, our spirits will be climbing, 'til the sky lights up with diamonds.
Angel had never felt something like this before – although it was exactly like the dreams, never had it been so clear, to see all the emotion – all the love – that he was sharing with his best friend.
The words too, added, as they WERE his feeling's exactly, and hearing Cordelia's voice singing out what she felt too from the heart was so much emotion that out of nowhere he felt tears slide down his face.
Cordy & Angel: When I make love to you, tonight.
Cordy & Angel: Tonight, I celebrate my love for you, And that midnight sun, is gonna come shining through.
Angel: Tonight, there'll be no distance between us.
Cordy: What I want most to do, is to get close to you. Tonight.
Cordy: Tonight, I celebrate my love for you, And soon, this whole world will seem brand new.
Angel: Tonight, we will both discover, how friends turn into lovers.
Cordy & Angel: When I make love to you, Tonight, I celebrate my love for you, And that midnight sun, is gonna come shining through.
Angel: Tonight, there'll be no distance between us.
Cordy: What I want most to do, is to get close to you.
Cordy & Angel: Tonight, I celebrate my love for you, Tonight.
The music slowly came to a halt, and Cordelia had to blink twice when the cheering audience seemed to just fade back in.
She quickly reached up to wipe away her tears, and as she did so she looked to her right – where Angel was. He too was quickly trying to hide the fact he had been crying.
Then he looked at her, and she knew he had seen it all too.
She pulled herself out of his eyes when The Host tugged the mic off her, "weren't they brilliant?" He asked, and in response the crowd cheered even louder.
"Now can everyone see what happens when you TRULY sing from the heart, huh? No matter WHAT you usually sound like, if it comes from the heart you become the best singer in the world!" He paused for a second, looking at the two very embarrassed people that were still on stage behind him, "next up is Brittany Spears' look-a-like singing Hit Me Baby One More Time!" He handed the mic to a female yellow-greenish colored demon with black eyes and reddish tinted hair as he ushered Angel and Cordy off the stage.
"You two follow me around the back," He ordered, and surprisingly Angel came without asking any questions. "Take a seat…." They did, "so you wanna know about your baby? Well, it's gonna be born, loved and with you two around no harm will come to it."
Cordelia frowned, pushing all questions she had about what just happened to the side for the moment, "but then why'd the Powers give us a kid if it's not for some greater purpose?"
The Host looked to Angel, "you didn't tell her?"
"Well you weren't very clear!" Angel complained, "I didn't know by what you said whether it was just me as you put it, and that Cordy's side of things WAS the Powers!"
"It's the both of you," The Host confirmed with a smile.
"HUH?" Was all the very confused Cordy could manage.
"You sure?" Angel asked The Host, a smile toying with his lips.
Lorne nodded. Angel turned to his seer, "Cordy, about the whole PTB business before with the dreams?"
She nodded, encouraging him to get on with it. He grinned, the biggest, toothy, completely genuine smile she had ever seen on him, "Angel?" She asked, nervously.
His hand reached out and cupped her face, shaking his head, "they've got nothing to do with 'em." He so desperately wanted to kiss her, but before he could he had to make sure she understood what he was saying.
"You mean…?"
"I mean I've had the dreams because I've completely fallen for you, the Powers That Be had nothing to do with them… And they didn't for you either. – Whether you realise it or not, Cordy, those dreams were all you. You may not have been conscious of the fact it was YOU and only you who brought me into them and did what we did in them… You may not realise how you feel for me but –"
Her finger stopped him saying anymore, she grinned, "Would you shut up and kiss me?"
He cocked his head to the side, "sooo you realise how you feel about me?"
"Which bit did you not understand? Shut up or kiss me?"
"I just – " he started, but he didn't get to finish, because SHE kissed HIM.