AN: VACATION! I'M ON HOLIDAY AND HAPPY ABOUT IT, CAN YOU TELL? PEOPLE KEEP EMAILING ME, ASKING IF I'M STILL ALIVE, SO I THOUGHT I'D BETTER START UPDATING AND WRITING MORE OFTEN. THIS IS THE SECOND IN MY AU SERIES THAT STARTED WITH MY ALTERNATIVE ENDING TO SEASON THREE, DON'T WALK AWAY.
RATING: PG-13 FOR INNUENDO, LANGUAGE AND GRATUITOUS CUDDLING
DISCLAIMERS: I DON'T OWN IT, IT ALL BELONGS TO WHEDON-SAMA
We can explain, really
"I can't believe that this is actually happening."
Buffy murmured this from her comfortable resting point on Angel's broad bare chest. The two of them were curled up together in Angel's luxurious bed. The black silk sheets were pooled over both of them and some had fallen from the bed. Buffy's lithe slender from was almost completely surrounded by Angel's taller, muscular body. The slayer's delicate head rested on Angel's broad chest, coming up to barely his chin. Her golden hair lay pillowed beneath her head and Angel had been playing idly with a couple of the strands when Buffy had spoken.
"Do you require more convincing?"
He spoke quietly, his voice almost a purr and Buffy laughed, a seductive chiming laugh that made Angel's unbeating heart ache. She then kissed the nearest part of him, the base of his neck, and sat up slightly so that she could look at him. She spoke softly, not wanting to spoil a perfect moment,
"I mean, everything's so right. We survived graduation, the mayor and Faith are out of the picture. Everyone I love is still alive. You're still here and we're together again, more than we've been since my seventeenth. Anya has finally left Sunnydale and Xander and Cordelia were exchanging glances all evening."
Angel decided it was best not to ask about the Xander and Cordelia point, he understood many things, but the workings of the mind of an eighteen-year old girl was not one of those things. Instead, he merely bent his head slightly and kissed his lover's temptingly upturned lips. As he did this, he caught sight of his watch on the bedside table. He did not know how it had managed to survive the whirlwind they had caused as they had undressed so quickly earlier, but it had.
He swore silently. He hadn't known it was that late. But the watch sat there, it's luminescent hands mocking him as they burnt the time out. He gently tapped Buffy on her shoulder. His lover… HIS lover, rolled over so she was facing him. Her lips were pressed together in the most tempting pout. Resisting the urge to kiss that smug pout off her lips, he said,
"Buffy, love, it's time for you to be going home."
Completely oblivious to the effects her actions had on him, Buffy frowned and curled up closer to him. She muttered softly and sleepily,
"No, it's not. I am home."
Desperately trying to ignore the burst of joy in his chest at Buffy's words, he persisted gently at trying to get his lover to wake up,
"Love, it's three o'clock in the morning, your mother will be wondering where you are."
Buffy shook her head idly, slightly more awake now than she had been before, but still not at the height of consciousness.
"No, she won't, she'll be fast asleep in bed in a hotel in Los Angeles, not getting back until tomorrow afternoon, this afternoon, whatever. Now, kiss me again."
Angel sat up straight,
"Your mother left town during your graduation?"
Buffy frowned sleepily, upset that her request had not been granted,
"Yes, I made her leave. I didn't want her getting killed by the mayor, 'cos she would have been if she'd come to graduation. Are you going to stop worrying and kiss me now?"
She pouted up at him again, it was more temptation than one vampire should ever have to resist. Growling, he pounced on her and kissed her thoroughly. Buffy laughed and wrapped her arms around him.
It was seven hours later when they emerged again. This time it was Buffy who lifted her head from her lover's chest and glanced at the watch face. She groaned softly and sat up. Slipping out of her lover's grasp and bed, she padded naked over to the trail of clothes left on the floor. She managed to find all of her clothes and slipped them on.
She turned back around to the bed to find her lover gazing sleepily at her. She did a little turn, pouted at him and asked,
"How do I look?"
Angel growled and said in a far too satisfied voice,
"Thoroughly debauched. Do you want a shower?"
Buffy groaned,
"If I do that, I'll never get home. I'll get washed up at home and hope my mom's kept to the schedule and not come home early, for once."
Angel frowned but didn't try and stop Buffy as she slipped on her jacket, his old jacket actually. Buffy walked over to the bed and kissed him then. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pressed her to him.
The passion in the kiss increased, but eventually Buffy reluctantly pulled away from him. Angel growled slightly as she stood, but he didn't stop her as she walked towards the door of the room.
When Buffy reached the door out of Angel's bedroom, she turned back and spoke, fixing Angel with a loving glare as she did so,
"I'll be back this afternoon. Don't leave."
Angel smiled at her,
"Wouldn't dream of it."
Buffy smiled and sighed,
"Good. I love you."
"I love you too."
Buffy blew him a kiss and slipped out of the door, closing it softly behind her.
Joyce Summers sat it her kitchen, drinking coffee. She had returned from Los Angeles, where she had been hiding from whatever had been going on at graduation. She knew that she had told Buffy that she would not be back until the afternoon, but she had been desperate to get back as soon as possible to make sure her daughter was alright.
She had of course checked in with Mr Giles on her way back, as well as keeping her eyes on the news, so she had heard about the 'gas explosion' at the High School, as well as learning of her daughter's continued well-being. Mr Giles had been unusually close-mouthed about how Buffy was, but had assured her that she was safe.
Of course, the other reason she had come back early was to make sure that unnatural vampire had left the town. Joyce detested the vampire with a passion, to her he signified everything that was wrong with Buffy's life. No matter how attractive the vampire might be, he was still nothing but a walking corpse who had apparently run a bloody path across the world for one hundred and fifty years until he had claimed to be ensouled. Having a soul did not make Angel any less of a walking talking corpse, nor undo a hundred and fifty years of evil, and it also did not make the vampire any less old.
Joyce lifted her coffee to her mouth and sipped through pursed lips. She almost spat out her coffee as she heard the door swing open. She placed her cup down on the table and stood up, hoping that one of the freakish denizens of Sunnydale hadn't decided to come and make more trouble.
She peered into the halls and shrieked when she saw, instead of one of the demons she had feared to be there, her little girl, looking utterly debauched and exhausted. She was dressed all in leather, but was wearing a leather jacket that Joyce remembered seeing Buffy wearing a lot, but had never remembered buying her.
Buffy was wearing no make-up and her hair was pulled up into a loose bunch at the nape of her neck, revealing an all too telling scar at the point where her neck joined her shoulder. There was a small but joyous smile playing at the corners of Buffy's mouth, which had been sunken with sadness ever since the prom.
Joyce had suspected that the foul vampire had finally done the right thing for once and had broken up with Buffy just before the prom. Buffy had obviously overreacted and sulked about the break-up. It wasn't that Buffy was stupid or selfish, it was just that she was far too naïve and didn't know what was the best for her. But Buffy would eventually see that it was the right thing to end that destructive relationship with a monster that wasn't even human.
However, with what she was now seeing, it was obvious that the selfish monster had gone against the sensible idea she suggested and had stayed in Sunnydale, risking everything out of his own selfishness. Joyce then made up her mind that she would have to take the more direct route this time and appeal not to the slight vestiges of conscience she had thought the monster might possess, but instead to her daughter's common sense.
Surely, after hearing Joyce's reasoned rational arguments, Buffy would recognise the futility of attempting to continue the perversion of a relationship that she currently persisted at with the monster.
Buffy froze at seeing her mother in the kitchen, but quickly regained her composure and said,
"Mom, you're home early."
Joyce smiled saccharinely at her daughter and said,
"I know, I though that I'd come home early to surprise you. But imagine my surprise when I got home and found out that you weren't. I was terrified, Buffy. I thought you'd died. I had to call Mr Giles to check that you were okay. How could you be so selfish, Buffy? All I ask of you is that you at least leave a note if you're going out. And Mr Giles said he didn't know where you were, just that you were safe. Do you have any idea how foolish you've been?"
Buffy rolled her eyes,
"Mom, I'm eighteen. That means I'm old enough to make my own decisions when it comes to love. Besides, I told Giles where I was going to be. He knew I was fine and he trusts me to make my own decisions concerning my life."
Joyce sighed at Buffy's naïveté,
"Buffy, darling. You're still a child, no matter what that monster may think. You're not old enough to be throwing your life away like this."
Buffy frowned,
"And when you say monster I suppose you're referring to my husband? Don't bother to answer that. And I'm not throwing my life away. I'm the Slayer and I want to have some happiness in my life, so I'm going to be with Angel and my friends and my Watcher."
Joyce scowled,
"I don't see why you insist on continuing with this Slayer nonsense. Why don't you let Faith do the slaying and actually do something worthwhile with your life?"
Buffy's patience broke,
"There is nothing more worthwhile that I could be doing with my life. And as for letting Faith slay, she went evil so I stabbed her in the gut and pitched her off her apartment building, she's in a coma and there's very little chance she'll ever wake up."
Joyce flinched,
"Buffy you're being quite childish, if you insist on continuing with this ridiculous behaviour, I will be forced to ban you from going slaying ever again."
Buffy rolled her eyes once again,
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm moving in with Angel anyway, then we're getting married, I just came to pick up my stuff. Talk to Giles if you're ever going to accept what I am. I won't wait up."
With that, Buffy went up to her room to pack her bags, leaving her mom in shock, finally realising just how much she had thrown away in her blindness.
TBC.
