Disclaimer: Still not mine in any way, shape, or form. They still belong to others with far more genius and money than me.
AN: Um, so this took a while and I'm not completely happy with it, but it gets me to where I need to be. And thanks to people who reviewed. I encourage everyone (including myself) to review. We should all do that more often. So once again, my thanks.
-Chapter 4-
"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you wanted to be more than just friends?" Angel teased Buffy as she pushed herself up from where she'd fallen on top of him.
"Ha ha ha." Buffy muttered as she brushed herself off. She knew that he couldn't see her blush in the dark but still turned her head away and looked around for the demon that had attacked them. "You wish."
Damn right I do, he thought privately, but instead just smirked at her. "No, I think you wish. Who ended up on top of whom here?'
She rolled her eyes at him. "Who decided it was a brilliant idea to take a stroll through the graveyard with only a stake?"
"Who forgot almost forgot to bring even a stake?" Angel asked pointedly. He grinned as he waited for her retort.
"Who almost didn't sense the fact there was a demon around?" She snapped back. This was the only point she had that she could regularly bring up against him that he couldn't respond to. Her 'spidey-sense' as she had dubbed her ability to sense vampires and other supernatural beings was much stronger than his. Of course, he had a much better fighting technique but she was convinced that was because he'd been a Slayer longer. That and he was a good deal more dedicated to training regularly with Wesley. She and Giles sometimes had little tiffs over her training methods- or lack thereof.
"Well, if you knew he was there, why didn't you get out of his way before he kicked you?" Angel inquired, happy to find something that would shut her up for once.
Or not. "How was I supposed to know he was going to move that fast? Huh? Answer that one. And..."
"You're bleeding."
"What?" Buffy looked down at he arm, which had gotten in between her and the demon's foot. There was a scratch going from her elbow to her wrist. "Oh. So are you."
He reached his hand up to where she was pointing. She was right, there was a small scratch on his forehead, probably from when he'd hit the ground with her on top. "It'll heal. It's not that bad."
"Are you sure?"
He gave her a look. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure Spike gets worse injuries when he plays with your sister."
Her jaw dropped at his comment and for once she found herself completely unable to respond to his comment.
----
"Patrol was successful then?" Giles looked over from the circulation desk as the two Slayers walked in and sat down at the wooden table.
"Sort of." Buffy answered. "We got four vamps but one demon got away."
"Oh really, could you describe it?" Giles set the books he was entering into the computer system down and walked over to the table.
"Didn't get a really good glance, sort of got kicked and knocked over." Buffy admitted. She looked toward Angel, "Did you get a look at it?"
He shook his head, wondering if she'd get mad at him if he spoke his thought. Biting his lip, he decided that just for fun he'd speak up. "Nope, in case you forgot you were on top of me. While I don't mind being under you, it doesn't exactly give a good view of demons."
He could see the outrage in her green eyes, but she couldn't say anything with Giles standing right there cleaning his glasses.
"So, neither of you actually know what this demon looks like?" Giles asked tiredly as he placed his glasses back on. He had a feeling he'd missed something in their banter but he really couldn't care. Both he and Wesley were still trying to translate the prophecy that their Slayers insisted was never going to come true. The difference was now they weren't telling their Slayers about it so Giles was dragging books back and forth from the school to the museum at odd hours. It was getting tiresome and all the Slayers could offer was knowledge of demon that hadn't seen.
The only thing he could be thankful of was that the two Slayers seemed to be getting along better than ever. Whatever they had discussed before telling their Watchers not to worry about the prophecy had created a sense of ease around them. Now, Giles thought, if only it would lead to Buffy being more willing to do her training.
----
"So, are you going?"
"What?"
"Are you going?"
Buffy turned away from her closet to glare at her exasperating sister. "I don't know, okay?"
"Why not?" Faith watched as her sister rolled her eyes and turned back to digging through her cramped closet. "You could just get Angel to take you. It's not like he'd say no."
"Angel and I are just friends. I told you that...and I told you we'd spoken about it and decided that we could never be more than friends." Buffy took a deep breath as she tried to find the boots she'd bought the week before. "There's no point in him taking me."
"You could go as friends." Faith pointed out, sensible for once in her life. "Unless you don't think you could go as 'just friends' because you still like him."
She watched as the Slayer's body stiffened at her words. Buffy turned away from the closet again, her eyes a sharp green as she glared at Faith. "It doesn't matter whether or not I like him. We're just friends."
Understanding the unspoken order to leave, Faith stood up. "Keep telling yourself that."
----
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want to." Angel said through gritted teeth. "Do I have to give you a reason?'
"You could take her as a friend. Isn't that what you two are supposed to be?" Spike watched his friend pace the living room aimlessly. "For pity's sake, Angel, it's the Holiday Formal, Buffy's going to want to go."
"Then she can get a date." His jaw was starting to hurt because he'd stood there with it clenched for so long.
"And do you think you could watch her dance with some other guy for an entire evening?" Spike inquired, failing to keep an accusing tone out of his voice.
Sighing, Angel turned to his blond friend. "Why do you think I'm not going?"
Stumped for a moment, Spike glared at Angel. "Do you really think she's just going to be able to get a date?"
"What do you mean?" Angel bit his lip, forcing himself to think rationally about the idea of Buffy being with someone else. "Who wouldn't want to ask her?"
"Well, you for starters, and it's pretty clear she likes you." Spike answered promptly. If it weren't for the fact that Faith had convinced him to do this... "She's not exactly little Miss I-Wanna-Go-Out-With-Anyone. She clearly has standards and frankly I don't think there are a lot of guys who wanna hafta to deal with that. And then you add the fact that half the time she's scary and you get a lot of guys who wouldn't want to ask her."
'What do you mean she's scary?"
"She gets like you do." Spike waved his hands around uselessly attempting to explain what he meant. "All Slayer-y and stuff. And even more, most of the school thinks you have some strange obsession about her. Darla made sure of that."
"I'm not obsessed with Buffy." Angel ground out, reminding himself that Spike thought he was being helpful.
"You still watch her window, don't you?" Spike didn't wait for an answer, seeing it in the way Angel avoided his glance. "Whatever you two agreed upon, forget it. You like her, she likes you, it doesn't really add up to much else. Just ask her to the bloody dance."
----
"So..." Angel grimaced as he and Buffy walked through the graveyard.
"Yeah?" Buffy turned to him trying to suppress anything that resembled hope in her voice. It was the third time he'd started to say something and she secretly had her fingers crossed that he was planning on asking her something.
"It's a nice night out." Angel winced inwardly at the fact he'd chickened out for the third time. When he spoke to Spike the entire thing seemed easy but face-to-face, asking Buffy to the Winter Formal was a lot more difficult.
"Yeah." Buffy shivered a little in the cool air. While Sunnydale never got cold, the nights did get a little nippy. "It's getting chilly out. Sort of like it does every December."
"You're cold."
"You can take it." Buffy didn't see any point in trying to be nice to him. Even if she liked him half as much as her sister thought she did, there was no reason to act friendly to some guy who wouldn't even ask her to a stupid dance.
"No, I mean you look cold." He shrugged off his leather jacket and placed it around her shoulders, wondering why she thought a tank top was appropriate in the middle of December, even if California.
Startled by his actions, Buffy was silent for a moment before she remembered her manners. "It's a little big on me...but thanks."
She tightened the black leather coat around her body, trying to subtly breathe in his scent. The warm, overwhelming feeling of comfort slightly intoxicated her. Angel walked beside her, pretending not to feel proud as he watched her hug his jacket closer to her.
"So..." He flinched as the words left his mouth again.
Buffy grimaced as they started again. "I can give you your jacket back tomorrow."
Stopping, Angel looked down at her. She was so little and his jacket engulfed her. "Nah, it looks better on you."
Buffy looked up at him confused. A very annoying mental argument was taking place in her head as one side of her told her she was a fool to get this close to him and another side angrily told the other one to shut up. "Thanks, I think."
"DoyouwanttogototheWinterFormalwithme?" Angel spat the question out in one breath, wondering why he chose this one time to follow Spike's advice.
"What?" It sounded like he'd said what she hoped he'd said, but it was hard to tell.
"Do you want to go to the Winter Formal with me? As friends." Angel quickly tacked on, mentally deciding that this was somehow all Spike's fault.
The "as friends" part hurt a little, even though she knew that was a vital part of their relationship. The 'we're just friends and that's all we can ever be' was a never-ending litany in her head that kept her sane when she wondering why he didn't seem to want to pursue a relationship with her. She knew he was attracted to her, or she thought she knew that, after all, he didn't mind watching her at night.
"Um, do you?" Angel asked again after her silence started to make him nervous. This was really a bad idea.
"Oh, yeah, sure." Buffy smiled at him, half-heartedly. "It'll be fun and going with you takes off all the pressure of finding a date."
"Yeah." Angel suppressed a sigh as they continued to patrol.
----
Awkward didn't come close to describing the current situation. Buffy glanced down at Angel uneasily. "You okay?"
"Yeah." He shifted a little, very glad that she was so little. "I still don't see why we couldn't have taken another car."
"Because, Angel, no one else has a car we can take." Spike rolled his eyes as he held Faith close to him. He felt a little bad since Angel was the one who had to have someone on his lap but Buffy was the smallest of all the girls so it only made sense. "For someone as smart as you Liam, you sure do ask dumb questions."
"Shut up, William." Angel snarled trying to breathe around Buffy's hair, which smelt wonderful but didn't make it easy to stay alive.
"Will the both of you shut up?" Gunn snapped as he turned into the school parking lot. "Man, one would think we were driving across the country rather than barely half a mile. Get out, we're here."
Carefully opening the car door, Buffy stepped out, straightening her dress as she stood up. She turned around to see Angel unfold himself from his cramped position in the car. He looked gorgeous in his black blazer; much more polished than Spike who was wearing the same leather jacket he wore everyday and more sophisticated than Gunn in his blue suit. Her breath caught as he smiled at her and offered her his arm.
Angel suppressed a shiver as Buffy delicately placed her hand on his arm, trying not to take advantage of the view he had of her bosom in her white gown. The color contrasted beautifully against her golden tan skin. Her was swept elegantly, emphasizing her poised head. As they walked behind Spike and Faith with Gunn and his date trailing behind, Angel couldn't help but feel proud of walking the most beautiful girl in the world into the school gym.
----
"Ask her to dance." Spike hissed out of the corner of his mouth as Faith dragged him onto the dance floor. Gunn had already disappeared into the crowd with his date, which meant that Buffy and Angel would be the only ones in the group who weren't at least pretending to have fun.
Buffy stared at the crowd of teens swaying to the music. She could see Xander dancing goofily around Fred, who was awkwardly inching her way of the dance floor. Jesse and Willow were laughing at their friends. She wished she could walk over and join them but as Angel's date she couldn't just abandon him, even if he didn't want to do anything with her.
Doing his best to ignore Spike's order, Angel shifted from his weight trying to find a way to stand without being uncomfortable. After half an hour of just standing though, it was getting a little difficult. Maybe, just maybe, if he danced it would let his muscles loosen a little and he could stand for the rest of the evening. He looked down to Buffy who was unconsciously shifting from leg to leg, as her shoes grew more uncomfortable. She was staring in the direction of her friends. He turned to see Xander the class clown doing some kind of hop step around Fred. Angel hid a smirk as he remembered how Gunn was still slightly entranced by the skinny brunette who had smacked him in third grade when he'd called her a dork. As Xander pretended to dance with her, she laughed and continued to do so even after he tripped and nearly fell on his face. A small snort next to him, reminded Angel that Buffy was his date for the evening. Taking a deep breath, he asked her to dance.
Stunned that he finally spoke to her, Buffy looked at the tall dark Slayer before nodding. Carefully he led her into the throng of teens moving to the heavy bass of the song. Joining the crowd around them, they danced to the music. As was usual in such a large group moving erratically, the two were occasionally pushed closer together than the way the started, however, neither did anything to move away.
Angel relaxed as he felt Buffy lay her head against him, her hands draped loosely around his shoulders. He tightened his grip slightly, causing her to move even closer to him, a feeling that caused him to relax even further.
"Don't you two make a cute couple?"
The two Slayers pulled apart at the simpering sarcasm. Darla stood glaring at them, her blue eyes cold. She looked at Buffy and smirked. "I see you're moving down, Angel. What a pity, we could have been great."
"You had your chance Darla, and if my memory serves me you broke up with me." Angel's voice was low.
Smirking at the other blonde, Buffy moved a little closer to Angel, tightening her arms around his shoulders. She didn't say anything but neither did she miss Darla's slight snarl.
"Look bitch, you think that just because you're able to get him to one dance on time that you're special. Trust me, you're not. Just wait, pretty soon he'll be ditching you to go off and do whatever bullshit he does. And then you'll learn why the Trio is just a bunch of sad, lonely, single guys." She glared at Buffy. "Trust me."
"See over there," Buffy pointed over to another part of the gym where she could see her twin and Spike making out on the dance floor. "I think that at least one member of the so-called Trio is no longer single. And really, just because you can't maintain a guys interest for longer than the thirty seconds it takes for them to realize you're an idiot doesn't mean that the rest of the female population can't. Or more specifically, it doesn't mean that I can't."
Turning away from Darla, Buffy leaned against Angel again, wondering if she'd said too much.
"You bitch." Darla turned to Angel with a seductive smile. "When you're tired of playing with the children, come join the big girls again."
Ignoring Darla, Angel continued to sway to the song, inwardly singing at Buffy's statement. If only he could believe that her quick defense meant anything.
----
"You and Buffy looked pretty cozy at the dance last night." Spike commented as Angel walked into the kitchen. "You had a good time with Blondie."
"Shut-up, Spike." Angel yanked open the fridge to pull out the orange juice.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you two were a cute couple who'd been dating the past couple of months." Spike added on as he watched his friend clench his jaw.
"Buffy and I are just friends." His brown eyes darkening with warning, Angel glared at the blond.
"Yeah, you're just friends." Spike snorted as he recalled the expression on Angel's face any time he saw Buffy.
"What do you mean by that?" Angel snapped, angry at Spike's insinuations.
Spike rolled his eyes, trying to find a way to convince his friend. "You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll both be in love till it kills you both."
"I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH BUFFY!" The shout echoed throughout the house.
"LIAM O'CONNOR!" Both boys winced at the sound of Spike's mother's voice. She glared at Angel as she entered the kitchen. "What have I told you about yelling in this house?"
"Sorry, Laura, I won't do it again." Angel said softly, ignoring Spike's snort.
"And William, dear," his mother's voice caused Spike to shrink down in his seat. "What have I told you about teasing Liam?"
"Not to do it." Spike said, his tone falling short of the unrepentant one he was aiming for.
Smiling tightly at the two teenagers, Dr. Laura Windsor sat down at the breakfast table. "So what are your plans for today?"
"Um, I think we're going to meet up with some of the others at the mall." Glancing briefly at Angel, Spike continued, "Buffy and Faith want to get a gift for their mother's birthday."
"If you're going out, why don't you take your sister?"
"Mum!" Spike yelped, his voice not alone as a brown haired girl ran into the kitchen protesting.
"Yes," her voice picking up its earlier chill, Laura looked down at her children.
"Nothing," muttered Spike.
Turning away from the kitchen, Laura hoped that with all the kids gone from the house she'd finally be able to get some sleep after her night in working in the emergency room. "Don't forget to be back before dark."
Angel and Spike rolled their eyes at the statement, causing the young brunette to open her mouth, only to find Spike's hand over it. "Don't you dare say a word Kathy."
----
"I can't believe my mum made me take her." Spike whined to Faith as he pulled her away from the rest of the group. "I mean, she my little sister, why should I take her shopping?"
Glancing back to where Angel and Buffy were awkwardly listening to Kathy's chatter, Faith shrugged, "I go shopping with my sis all the time."
"Yeah, but you're a girl and you're twins." Spike insisted. "It's different. Kathy's just a baby."
"She's thirteen. You're seventeen. She's not a baby." Gunn spoke up as he neared Spike and Faith. "If she were a year or two older and not your sister, I'd date her."
Gunn stepped back as Spike turned to glare at him. "Or not."
----
"So, what are you looking for again?" Kathy asked Buffy. She liked the blonde girl a lot and completely agreed with her brother that Angel was in love with her.
Shrugging Buffy looked away from the shoes she was gazing at, "I don't know yet. Just something motherly and stuff. My mom says she doesn't want anything for her birthday and would rather just forget the day but I know if I don't get her anything she'll flip."
"Somehow I don't picture Joyce as the flipping type," Xander said as he caught the end of Buffy's statement. "I'd picture her more like the handstand kind. Hey, that's not nice."
Buffy giggled as she watched Kathy stick her tongue out at Xander again. "What do you recommend?"
"I don't know. I always get my mum something related to her work. This one year, I got her an entire set of fridge magnets that had to do with being a doctor. There was one that was shaped like a stethoscope and one like a doctor's coat and all sorts of stuff like that." Kathy shrugged and pointed to another pair of shoes in the window. "I like those ones but I don't like the color."
"Hm, yeah, the bright yellow doesn't quite seem useful. But I bet we could find an outfit for them." Buffy agreed.
Leaning over to look at the strappy sandals the two were looking at, Angel frowned. "So, the scary price tag doesn't bother you."
Both girls looked at him. Rolling her eyes, Kathy smiled, "Angel, you need to lean something about shopping. If you find an awesome pair of shoes, you'll eventually find something to wear with it."
When he looked at Buffy to confirm this, she only nodded firmly before looking away. Despite Spike's complaints she was extremely happy that Kathy had come along. She could see that Kathy adored Angel and had no problems in encouraging the younger girl to stay around them. It made things slightly less stressful because every time Angel was close to her she wanted to wrap her arms around him like she'd done the previous night.
"Hey, B!" Turning away from her thoughts, Buffy looked over to her twin. Seeing she had her sister's attention, Faith gestured to something in the store in front of her, "What about this?"
The object was displayed in the center of the store's display window, turning slowly as the group edged around closer.
"It looks like the one Grandma used to wear." Buffy said.
Grinning, Faith nodded. "I bet if we pooled our money together we could get it."
"Like, who would wear that piece of trash?"
As a whole, the nine teens crowded in front of the display of the delicate rose necklace turned to see Cordelia and Darla standing next to them.
"Cordy, why do you even bother to ask this group? Darla rolled her eyes. "C'mon, I want to get to CachŽ and show you the dress I put on reserve."
Dragging the taller brunette with her, Darla stalked off in the direction of the dress store.
"Okay, ignoring the bitch squad, do you really think Mom would like it?" Faith asked Buffy.
"Remember how upset she was when Celia's mom told her that their dog accidentally bit it because Celia sort of put it around his neck?" The twins exchanged a grin, remembering how it had originally been Buffy's idea to make the dog prettier with the necklace and how Faith had actually been the one to take the item and give it to Celia who had placed it around her pet's neck. "Oh yeah,I think she'll like it."
Um, Please Review.
-Kastia