TITLE: The Tide Rocks

AUTHOR: Sunny D

DISCLAIMER: It's all Joss' and I wouldn't have it any other way.

SPOILERS: This is total AU so none'

SUMMARY: Millionaire teen Buffy Summers scours the world for dangerous archaeological adventures. When she meets the mysterious Liam 'Angel' O'Connor she discovers in him a challenger to her tomb raiding activities and a possible threat to her heart.

DISTRIBUTION: is fine and dandy, just drop me a line so I know where to visit it.

AUTHORS' NOTES: Written for the Whedonverse AU Ficathon (run by Isis and Stars). The request will come at the end of the fic.

Part 1

Contact, bent knees, push, fly, contact, bent knees, push, fly...Buffy closed her eyes and let the rhythm take her over. Contact – sun-baked rock beneath her fingertips – bent knees – absorbing the impact, taking in the kinetic energy, translating it into something new – push – fly – backward and downward, cutting a c-shaped arc in the air – contact...

"Having fun there?" Faith's voice was so clear she could have been beside the fair-haired abseiler instead of 80 feet below her. Buffy sent a silent thank you to Willow for kick-ass technology that actually worked this time.

"Yeah a little," Buffy tried not to giggle as she replied, it too k effort but it would be nothing short of cruel to show how truly great this felt when Faith had probably spent the last two hours pacing, bored out of her mind. But time was of the essence; when it came to aggressive driving, lock-picking and intimidation tactics Faith was a hands-down shoo-in every time. Rock-climbing, however, lay in Buffy's area of expertise and she'd scaled the ragged rock face in half the time it would have taken her friend.

"Well don't get too comfortable," Faith warned, "your boo just pulled up and I think he's starring at your ass."

"Angel?" Buffy's voice was a squeak as she hit the rock face and failed to bend her knees sufficiently, causing the jarring impact to painfully spiral through her body. 'Real slick,' she congratulated herself. Breaking her rhythm she turned to look down.

Far below her she could see the mid-morning sun bouncing off the dark roof of a four wheel drive. The vehicle was parked as close to the mountain as the dirt road would allow, which still meant a good 50 yard walk for the two occupants.

"Well let's see," Faith cheekily responded, "tall, dark and lustsome? Check. Broody cloud of disaffection? Check. Ever-present sun-bleached cousin in tow? Check. Yep it's your boo."

"He is not my boo," Buffy half-heartedly protested watching the determined approach of the two men. "Do you think they're really pissed off? They look really pissed off."

"Why cares, we'll just deny everything, and you totally owed Angel for – hey Angel, fancy meeting you here."

Buffy laughed at her friend's boldness and tried not to listen to the one sided conversation she could hear in her earpiece. It was suddenly hard not to treat her descent like a performance, every inch of her was aware of Angel's presence below and her limbs suddenly felt clumsy and awkward. She forced herself to focus, concentrate on taking neat even leaps; the rhythm came back easily until she was again taking huge graceful gulps out of the distance that remained between herself and the ground.

"I don't know jack about these relic-y things, but do ancient maps really appear out of thin air?" Buffy nearly missed her footing again as she caught Faith's teasing comment. What happened to 'deny everything?' She shook her head, that girl had no shame, thankfully.

Spike must have been less impressed with their little prank because Faith's next words, "Hey Blondie, save the sermon eh? You snooze, you lose, get over it," were clearly directed at him.

40 feet to go.

"Uh, is that code for 'damn, I can't believe they got it before me?" Faith asked in response to an unheard comment.

25 feet.

"Spike please, stop, you're gonna make me choke to death on my own bile."

Laughing silently Buffy made the final jump to Earth and had to disguise her chuckle as a cough as she turned to face their guests. Angel stood to Faith's left, hands pushed deeply into the pockets of loose, white cotton trousers, expression sour as ever. In any other man, such a determinedly and consistently unhappy demeanour would detract from their attractiveness, but Buffy couldn't help noting that the unusually light coloured clothing suited Angel just as much as his customary black, and the strong sunlight brought out flattering shades of brown in his eyes that made her want to look even closer.

"Find anything' interestin' up there Summers?" Spike asked, providing a welcome distraction.

"Oh it's 'Summers' now is it?" she asked, willingly turning to face the scowling blonde. A red blush quickly suffused his cheeks as he immediately picked up on her allusion to the months he'd spent ruthlessly trying to court her affection. His scowl deepened. Buffy held her lips in a straight line in an effort not to give into the smile that threatened but it was always so satisfying to tease Spike. Usually she'd balk at the thought of manipulating another person's feelings so callously, but there were two very good reasons to keep doing it.

Firstly, Spike was an obnoxious dick which mitigated any possible feelings of guilt. His only redeeming features were his loyalty to his family and the fact that he was great at sex; the latter of which Buffy had only discovered because they'd happened to meet at a particularly low point in both their lives. The night they met Spike had been uncharacteristically uncommunicative, while Buffy had been unusually open, and for a few hours they'd done an excellent job of alleviating each other's pain. Yet while Buffy would easily admit - to Willow and Faith at least - that Spike could do things that made her forget her own name, his subsequent behaviour had convinced her there was nothing that would induce her to the repeat performance he so desired.

The second and highly questionable reason was that her relationship with Spike or lack there of had so far proved to be the only way of provoking a reaction out of his taller, darker and ridiculously quieter cousin. Like now, she stole a look at him and sure enough his relaxed posture had stiffened and his eyes, now averted, were darker. She wasn't sure if she was trying to piss him off or get him interested, she just wanted to know that she affected him, because he affected her in ways that made her fear for her sanity.

"Didn't stumble across any unusual rocks then?" Angel asked indifferently allowing his eyes to travel back to her.

Buffy shrugged, unclipped the safety harness from her waist and calmly pulled a cloth wrapped package out of her backpack. Removing the covering she turned slightly so that the sunlight bounced off the multiple angles of the fist-sized igneous rock that sat in her palm. "This old thing?" she asked.

Faith whistled, impressed at their find, "books weren't kidding were they? It looks like there's actually water in there." The rock boasted a smooth, thick outer-layer, yet somehow, beneath the grey exterior, the interior seemed fluid, as though the original molten material had cooled so quickly part of it had remained liquid.

Buffy watched as Angel eyed the rock appreciatively, a tiny smile softening his features. "Can I touch it?" He asked quietly.

Buffy smiled back wryly and raised an eyebrow, "like you 'touched' my pre-historic Romanian ceremonial dish at Christmas?"

Angel looked up and into her eyes, the smile disappearing; "hey, no sooner did I look then I loved, no sooner did I love then I had to have."

Buffy tried to convince herself that there was no special meaning in his words, but she suddenly became aware of her heart thumping out a staccato beat. "I told you what I was after and you deliberately out-bid me!" She reminded him, recalling the Sotheby's auction house in London. Driving rain, Christmas crowds, the excitement of the festive season and a tall, handsome man with a New York accent she'd met for the first time.

"You're welcome to visit," he told her seriously.

She rolled her eyes at him, "take a good look from where you stand Mister cos this is as close as you're getting."

"Well while you guys get up close and personal with a rock I'm gonna make myself useful," Faith announced heading over to sort out the trailing rock climbing equipment. Spike grunted in agreement and stalked off towards the car.

"Nice map," Angel stated, looking again at the rock but referring to the 'ancient' map a local guide had produced the evening before, taking he and Spike off in completely the wrong direction from where the Tide Rock actually lay. They had travelled nine hours south before Angel realised the map was a fake.

Buffy smiled nervously, trying to read his expression, "I figured I owed you." He nodded, then took a step back, before conversationally noting, "you do realise there are another two right?"

Buffy frowned, "of these?" she asked holding the rock up.

"Funny thing; the Armenians didn't differentiate between singular and plural in their writing."

"Are we going or what?" Spike called impatiently from the car, "I'm bloody dying of sunstroke here."

Angel stared at her silently for a few moments, and she wondered if he was going to say more. He didn't, turning instead to stalk off to the car. She watched his retreating back, confused, 'since when were there three Tide rocks?' Suddenly Angel turned back, stared at her, paused unsure, then called "I'll race you to Venice," before spinning to stride off once more.