Four days had passed since Buffy's meeting with the council, it was a strange adjustment for her to not be out and running around so much (especially during the night hours) but she was surprised about how much easier it was than she'd thought it would be. She and Angel had managed to fall into a kind of routine over the last few days, his wounds were now healed and he could walk normally again, but Buffy had insisted he stay for a few extra days "just to be on the safe side". She knew it was really because she liked having him around, but he wasn't all that reluctant to say yes so she hadn't given the matter much thought.

Every morning, Buffy would wake up and go through her early morning routine (shower, coffee and such) while Angel was still asleep. He had given up battling with her over who should get the bed and silently agreed that they would share. Although Buffy didn't know it, most mornings he was awake as early as she was; he would just lay in bed with his eyes closed; listening to her move around the apartment (and occasionally sneaking a glance at her) until she left to go to Giles' place, when he would fall back asleep. Although he had yet to meet the british trainer, he had heard a bit about him from Buffy. She'd told him a little about her training, how Giles had raised her as well as her friend/sister Tara. Given the little that Buffy had told him, he seemed like a reasonable man who was obviously like a father to Buffy.

Angel would get up in the afternoon, and had just enough time to shower and feed before Buffy would return. She would generally wander around aimlessly for a few hours, doing a bit of this and that, before she would make herself some dinner. After the dishes were clean and put away, she and Angel would usually fall into conversation; sometimes about training, with the occasional bit about Buffy's life. It was a strange experience for Angel; he was usually less than social, but when he spoke to Buffy, time would just fly by and they would spend hours talking about nothing in particular. He was surprised that she was willing to open up to him in the small way she had, and he found himself wishing he could tell her more about himself as well. So far he had answered a few small questions about his life: his age, where he lived before, just general questions. Buffy had picked up that he wasn't really into sharing just yet, and he was thankful that she didn't seem to mind. It was strange how their lives seemed so different, and they were both somewhat reserved when it came to their personal lives, but they still managed to have a conversation.

At the moment they were standing in her living room, Buffy had a large mug of hot chocolate in her hands and was trying to explain to him some of the techniques that Giles had shown her over the years. It was hard to explain them (since she didn't know the names and couldn't actually perform them without an opponent) but Angel could usually guess what she was talking about. He was surprised how little she knew about weapons, she had only been taught a brief amount of hand to hand combat but mostly the council had told her to only use long metal rods (ironically a lot like the one that had hit him before), she had barely learned how to use a stake. From what he'd heard, her colleagues (Gunn and Faith) seemed to have the same knowledge of weapons, but a lot more about hand to hand than she did.

"Giles actually has a collection of that kinda stuff, but he never showed me what they did. The council always told him to stay away from weapons, other than stakes I really don't use anything else." She said, taking another sip of the warm drink.

"You don't use the rods?"

"Nah, they're practically pointless. I mean ya they can do some damage but they're easy to drop and take from someone. Chances are the other person is just gonna grab it and use it against you anyway."

Angel nodded,

"So other than stakes, you don't have any weapons?"

Buffy thought for a moment.

"No, not really. I have a couple knives, and one has a pretty interesting pattern on it, but it's nothing big. I don't even use them most of the time."

"What do you do when you find demons that don't die from stakes?"

"Honestly? There's not much I can do, I don't know that much about the species of demons either, usually I just stake and if it doesn't work I try and knock it out and run in the other direction."

"You don't know about demons? I thought your trainer had some huge library."

"He does. I kinda just missed that part of the training it was- delayed." She looked away, obviously not wanting to elaborate. "The resource books Giles will let me look at, but the council designed the place so most of the stuff is off limits. Giles usually looks through the books and gives me the important stuff, but I can't ever look at anything to do with history or prophecies. I've skimmed through a few books, but given the lack of good descriptions everything just kind of blends together."

"That's strange, history and prophecies are some of the most important things to know. It tells you so much, what happened, where the council comes from, it sounds like they're trying to keep you away from anything to do with the past."

Buffy nodded,

"Ya, Giles curses them a lot, history is like his favourite subject ever, but even he can't look at some of the stuff. He says he only gets 'half the picture' like they'll say something about the council but only a few necessary facts, all the rest isn't really there."

"So he has all these books but he never reads them?"

"Mostly, I mean there's only a few that are off limits and the council would kill him if he went against orders. I mean he's usually pretty good with me and my slight habit of bending the rules, but he's just really good at covering up for that stuff if he has to. The council doesn't even know I patrol, I don't even want to think about what would happen if they found out."

Angel didn't reply, lost in his thoughts.

"It's not just me though." Angel looked up at her questioningly, "All the warriors have the same thing, I mean a few of the senior guys get told more, but it's basically the same info as us only in bigger words; it boosts their ego. The council has this thing they tell everyone: 'we've all made mistakes in the past, it's time to focus on the future'. It works for most people, keeps them all quiet."

Angel just nodded again, knowing how easily some people would accept what they were told, not wanting to cause trouble. Buffy drank the last of her hot chocolate, before heading into the kitchen to wash her mug. Angel followed, watching her move around the small room. He admitted that he didn't know her really well, but already he had picked up how unique a woman she really was. She was beautiful both inside and out, she seemed so strong as though unexplainable power emitted from her. She was no doubt a strong woman but as he was with her more and more he learned that she also had some insecurities. She could go from ordering to shy and quiet in a matter of minutes, her disposition changing from the smallest thing. He couldn't imagine why someone like her would have any uncertainty about herself, but she never ceased to puzzle him.

One thing he was sure of, that she had amazing potential. He was still not sure why he had offered to train with her, but a part of him felt the need to teach her to harness her power, while another small, buried voice told him to run away as fast as he could. He still couldn't figure out why (or what) part of him reacted to her like that, it was like this nagging feeling that he should have remembered it, that it was important (so, of course it was loooong forgotten).

"So where exactly are we going to be training?" he heard her ask, placing her mug in a nearby cupboard.

He looked up at her quickly, her voice pulling him from his thoughts.

"Oh, there's a good sized empty room that's an old addition to my apartment. It used to be set up as some kind of gym, a lot of the equipment is gone but the mats and stuff is all still there."

Buffy nodded, containing her excitement about the idea of training with him.

"We could start anytime now really, that is if my lovely nurse would give me a clean bill of health." He said jokingly, giving her a small smile.

Buffy smiled back a small blush creeping across her face.

"I think that you're all better now. Although then again, it couldn't hurt to take you for a test ride." She said before she could stop herself.

Angel raised an eyebrow at her words, suppressing a grin, which would have probably led to the end of his unlife. Buffy's face quickly turned bright red as she realised what she had just said.

"I- well you know as in the fighting way because you h-have a gym now and we were going to train- in the fighting way, of course. I didn't mean- not that I wou- I meant… you know what? Can you excuse me when I go and hide under my nice roomy bed? Oh my god will someone PLEASE shut me up already!" she babbled, thumping her head down on the table.

Angel couldn't help the smile that crept across his face or the barely-suppressed laugh that he prayed she wouldn't hear. Unfortunately she must have heard him because she raised her head slightly to glare at him.

"Sure laugh at my pain."

Angel gave her a smile.

"I know what you meant, I just found the way you 'expressed' yourself somewhat… amusing."

Buffy stuck her tongue out at him.

"You know now that I think about it, there a lot better uses for that tongue." He said winking- yep he was soooo gonna die.

Buffy gave him a death glare before launching herself at him. Suddenly thankful of his vampire reflexes, he moved aside running out of the kitchen. Buffy grabbed a nearby frying pan off the stove and sped after him, yelling something along the lines of "evil vampire- you're so dead". Yep, life was good.

Soon after the sun went down, the (non) couple (who so didn't have an undeniable attraction to one another) made their way across town to Angel's apartment. Buffy followed a little behind him, doing her best to adjust to his longer strides. After almost hitting Angel over the head (several times) with her frying pan and knocking over one of her lamps (which she'd "always hated anyway") their battle had lead to a pillow fight and Angel eventually learning that Buffy was indeed ticklish (which lead to her to once again chasing him around and another hour of wackiness). Buffy had called Giles to give him the what's what before they both agreed it would be a good idea to start some training.

As they walked Buffy couldn't help but feel on edge. Despite the lethal broken nose she had given Riley she was still nervous for Angel to be out on the streets. She knew it was unreasonable and that he'd undoubtedly have to go out sometime, but she'd seen how many people were more than willing to hurt him before and she was still afraid that it'd happen again. Looking around again, Buffy was surprised when she felt Angel's cool hand wrap around her own. She looked up at him questioningly.

"We're almost there." He said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Buffy gave him a small smile and nodded, somewhat calmed by his actions. She was a little surprised he had sensed her worry but then again he had been living with her for a few days now. Over her life Buffy had never really had a friend. I mean she had Gunn and Faith but even though she'd known them for so long, they still didn't know her very well. They had always been more like 'classmates' or something rather than friends. The only person she'd ever really had was Tara (who she considered to be her sister) but her training had always seemed to limit their time together when they were growing up. Now there was Angel. He seemed to know her so well even though they'd met such a short time ago, and in the last few days she'd found that for the first time in a while, she could truly be herself when she was around him. And for her that was a greater gift than she'd ever recieved.

Buffy was pulled from her thoughts as Angel led her into a large building. The walked down a few flights of stairs before stopping in front of a wooden door. Letting go of her hand, Angel reached into his pocket and eventually pulled out a small key. Slipping it into the lock, he opened the door and lead her inside. As she walked through the doorway Buffy felt her jaw drop in awe. The apartment was dark, only lit with a few lamps. The walls were painted a light grey shade and the floor was covered in chocolate brown carpeting. Slowly, she stepped further into the room; in the corner was a beautiful small desk that was already partially filled with papers; it was carved out of wood with intricate patterns etched into it. Across the room was a deep red coloured couch and a matching table across from it (also made from the same coloured wood as the desk). The apartment was filled with red and brown shades, giving it a warm feel. Buffy also spotted a large chest, which seemed to have a large broadsword peeking out of it (which she was already itching to try out).

She turned to Angel in shock, unable to form actual words.

"I haven't been in it that long. The council brought most of my stuff here but a lot of it's still packed. I know it's not-"

"It's amazing." Buffy interrupted, unable to keep her eyes off the room.

"What?" Angel said, surprised by her reaction.

"The furniture, it's all wood! Like everything is steel now, it's almost impossible to get anything else- especially not something this detailed." Going across the room she bent down to examine the nearby table, carefully running her fingers across the carvings. "The designs on here are beautiful, and the colours…" she trailed off, standing up again.

Angel was more than a little surprised by her reaction. She struck him as a more modern-typed person, not someone who would be this excited by old furniture or art.

"Uh, Thanks. I bought the furniture a long time ago, wood used to be almost a standard for most furnishings."

"Really? I never would have thought… things must have been so different back then!" Buffy said, her voice sounding a bit like that of a small child.

"They were, a lot actually."

"I can't even remember ever being outside the colony. I've always wondered what it's like- in the rest of the world. Or what it looked like before." She said, studying one of his small sculptures he'd gotten in Rome a while back.

Angel watched her moving around the apartment curiously, she seemed so fascinated by what he considered to be everyday life.

"I could tell you about it sometime. I have a lot of older stuff, and I don't have a ton of pictures but I have lots of sketches I could show you if you wanted."

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Really? You'd do that?"

Angel nodded and before he knew it Buffy was before him, her arms wrapped firmly around him and her body pressed against his own in a tight embrace. He awkwardly put his arms around her for a minute before she pulled back and let out a squeal of delight.

"You are sooooo awesome!" she said smiling.

Angel just smiled back. After a few minutes of silence Angel give her a quick tour of the apartment with plenty of "oooh"s and "awwwe"s from Buffy (and a thick silence when he showed her the bedroom, which she silently berated herself for) before leading her into the large addition. The room was brighter than the others, the walls were simple cement but most of them were covered with mats and/or bars and weapon-racks. Several mats were placed on the floor, there was also a bench on each side of the room along with a large cabinet and punching bags.

"This is great!" Buffy said, walking further into the room to examine the equipment.

"Ya, I was relieved when I saw it. It could still use a bit of touch-ups but it's alright."

Buffy stood before him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"So, wanna spar for a bit?"

Angel smiled, taking a defensive stance. Why not? After all it wouldn't take all THAT long.

End of Chapter Ten.