Buffy POV
When Giles told me about my next mission, I was shocked, although I didn't look it. I just smiled and nodded, and took a sip of coffee. Then I went off to the bathroom, locked myself in a stall, and thought about the implications.
Angel. Liam whoever he was, had given me his business card, with the name Liam O'Conner on it. My next mission, as Giles assigned it to me, was to attend Liam O'Conner's ball and steal new technology that O'Conner's company C-Tech had created.
Which meant I would be able to see Angel again for the first time since the jail brake, two whole months earlier? Buffy I chastised myself, seeing him is not the point he's just a guy, it's the mission that mattered. Didn't it?
Angel Pov
I hated my alter ego, he was so shallow, so boring, and without him I would never had to learn the waltz.
I looked down at my dance partner, a brown eyed, orange haired Irish beauty, After this song should I waste more time on her, or move on to my other hosting duties?
Then the decision was made for me, a hand touched my back, and a tingling sensation flew up my side. I turned towards the hand's owner; it was Buffy, hair swept up in a bun, a little glitter under her eyes. She wore a beautiful blue ball gown that hugged her body as if it was sown on.
"Hello," I said as my eyes met Buffy's the other women, was forgotten, In fact for a brief second everything was forgotten, as Buffy slipped her hand into mine. Her touch on my back had been electric, but when her hand met mine it was like Russian stacking dolls, they fit perfectly within each other.
And then we danced. The music had changed; it was no longer a waltz but a tango. Our bodies moved closer with each step. I could hear her heartbeat over the orchestra; it kept time like a metronome.
I dipped her, as the song's pace sped up, she didn't know the steps at first, but she learned quickly. I had the distinct felling that if the song continued for a minute more she would be teaching me. But the final notes ended and our bodies parted.
The minute my body lost touch with hers, my mind felt cleared, almost as if a spell had been lifted, or a curse.
I took Buffy's hand but this time it won't to dance, instead I led her upstairs Daniel monitoring from a distance.
I led her into my apartment, with its tapestries and Persians carpet. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for the party" Buffy said still captured by the magic downstairs. Then she caught herself and answered the question truthfully "The CIA sent me for the weapon's prototype your company made. "
"I knew they were going to send someone, I am just glad it's you" that came out wrong I don't know why it did but it did.
I went over to my desk and pulled out the plan's looked at them one last time, and handed them to Buffy. "Here, I have copies"
"But, they'll be able to use them against you"
"Yes but if you don't retrieve them, they will become suspicious. Besides these schematics are outdated, by our newer models "I looked into her eyes as I said it. They reminded me of the dance downstairs, of the violins, the candles, the glittering streamers, her hand on the small of my back, of love so long forgotten.
The last words brought me back to the present, to the facts of my rather long life.
"Angel, you said you were the same as me. You said that we were different what did you mean?"
That sentence took the romance out of everything. It even took the possibility of romance out of the future. But she asked and now that we were on the same side I had to tell her the truth.
"Were not quite the same you and I. But we are similar."
Buffy nod's and the light from the desk lamp gives her a halo in this room of darkness "I don't know when I was born, or created, it could have been a millennia ago or a century, you see my memories start about 75 years ago, but I was already 26 then. I had no memory I woke up one day naked in the forest with no memories, and a tattoo. At first I tried to find out who I was. Then I gave up. I didn't know that I had powers then, and there didn't seem to be any other options."
"You just thought you were normal" Buffy's mouth said, but I could tell that she was thinking about my age. How I was probably the oldest person she had ever met. Hell I was almost as old as this castle, I might even be older.
"So I married a beautiful woman, named Stella. We even had a child: Samantha. But slowly it became evident that I wasn't quite right. I was shot through the heart, and I healed. I was stronger then anyone else, all sorts of things. Stella just ignored these hint's, others barley noticed them at all. Until they grew older, and I stayed the same."
"What happened?" Buffy's tone was breathless her eyes curios to her this was just a fairytale.
"Once the rumors started, we moved. To Stella's credit she dealt with it, at first, but then on her sixtieth birthday it became too much, and I woke up in an empty bed"
Buffy's Pov
"And Stephanie?" I asked
Angel smiled a new smile that twisted all the skin around his mouth. It was a smile of devotion. There was no doubt that he loved his daughter. I admired that "Beth grew up; married a man named Daniel, and had her own child. Beth always stayed with me she was my conscious"
"Is she dead?" I whispered my life felt as if it depended on the answer
"Yes" the way he said it reflected the time he had lived.
"How"
"A ma.." a knock on the door stopped his sentence short. Then the door opened and a grey haired man burst through.
"Leonard's downstairs "The man said his tone calm, and measured. My Partner was here? Checking up on me?
"We have to go" I said and pulled Liam out of the room by the hand. Hours seemed to have passed in the room. Daniel stayed there, as angel and I started down the stairs.
"What will you tell your superiors?" Angel asked, only his eyes were lit, everything else was a shadow.
I kept walking; we were half way down the stairs when I answered his question, not with words but with a kiss.
