AN: THIS IS JUST ADDICTIVE. I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS. IT'S THE ONLY TIME WHEN I CAN SPEND ALL DAY LYING ON MY BED EATING PIZZA STRAIT FROM THE TAKE-OUT BOX, WATCHING MOVIES, EATING ICE CREAM AND WRITING FANFICTION WITHOUT GETTING TOLD TO MIND MY DIETRY HABITS. I DON'T OWN ANYTHING YOU RECOGNISE WITHIN.
Chapter 4
Once Angel and Buffy had left the mansion on Crawford Street, they went to Buffy's house. Buffy pulled a set of keys from her pocket and opened the door. She went inside then turned to where her lover stood,
"You can come in, Angel. You'll always be welcome here."
Angel smiled at her and followed her into the house. They quickly climbed the stairs to Buffy's room and went inside. Once they were both in the room, Buffy closed the door and went over to her closet. She pulled out the false bottom from the chest she kept hidden there and removed some stakes and a few bottles of holy water.
She laid these items on her bed and then went to find the black leather jacket Angel had given her not long after she had first come to Sunnydale and stopped the Harvest. While she did this, Angel looked around the room. It had not changed much since when he had been here as Angelus. It was then that he noticed the pile of sheets on one side. He went over to them and would have gasped if he had needed to breathe. It was every single drawing of her or her mother that he had made as Angelus. He turned to see Buffy looking at him,
"Why did you keep these?"
Buffy smiled sadly,
"They were all I had left of you, those and the ring. I thought I'd lost you forever. It was slightly reassuring to me to know that Angelus was here and didn't hurt me. It gave me the hope that maybe, maybe, there was still a part of you in Angelus, a part that cared about me."
Tears rolled down Buffy's cheeks, and Angel cursed himself as a hundred times a fool for having ever hurt her. He gently brought one hand up to dry the tears from her cheeks. He was pulling his hand away from her cheek when she pressed her hand against it and looked up at him. He almost could have drowned in those beautiful green pools. It was perfectly natural for them both as Buffy stood on tiptoe and pressed her mouth against his.
They both sated themselves on the feeling of each other for a long time, exploring what they had so long been separated from. The kiss was a true reflection of the love they felt for each other. It was passionate, yet deeply respectful of the other. There was so much love and so much passion in that kiss. Buffy's arms came up to twine around Angel's neck and his wrapped tightly around her slender waist. Buffy's hands were just reaching to pull Angel's turtleneck over his head when she remembered where they were and the consequences of what they were doing.
The two pulled away from each other as they had been electrocuted. They jumped back to opposite corners of the room, where the stood, panting with passion. After a moment, Buffy walked quickly back to the centre of the room and gathered her things form her bed. She stuffed a stake in each pocket and placed her holy water in her bag. She pulled on her leather duster and shrugged the bag over one shoulder.
She stalked to the door, tension showing in her every movement. When her hand was on the handle, she turned back to Angel,
"Well, are you coming or not?"
She swung the door open and walked out, not even turning to see if Angel even followed her. He, of course, did. When the two walked past Joyce's room, Buffy stuck her head through the door and yelled,
"Mom, I'm going on patrol. I'll be back sometime before dawn."
Without waiting for an answer, she swung the door closed and stalked down the stairs. Angel shrugged and followed after her.
Unfortunately, there were very few vampires out that evening. Buffy had staked two and beheaded another, but was still unusually tense. She and Angel were currently sitting on a wall in one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries, watching to see if any fledglings rose that evening. As yet, none had and this was the last cemetery on their circuit. The chances of Buffy being able to work off any of the excess tension that evening were diminishing by the minute.
Buffy picked a pebble from the sidewalk and threw it. She accidentally forgot to monitor her strength, and the stone went flying. After some time, Buffy scowled and turned to Angel,
"This is pointless, absolutely nothing is happening. Let's go to Willie's or something."
Angel smiled at her,
"How do I get the feeling that you really want to either kill or terrify someone?"
Buffy smiled back at him,
"Yeah, well, I have a lot of excess tension at the moment."
The two were just about to go to Willie's, when Angel spoke,
"Buffy, I was wondering if you would wear this again."
Angel had proffered his hand and Buffy saw that he was holding her Claddagh ring. She felt tears start to rise in her eyes, and tried to suppress them as she took the ring from Angel. She placed it on her finger and made sure that the heart was pointing towards her. She spoke then,
"I'm sorry I ever took it off, but I thought that I'd lost you for ever and I knew that if you weren't going to come back I had to try and live again."
Angel nodded at her,
"And that's fine Buffy, and it was the right thing to do. You don't have to come with me now, you deserve someone better than me."
Buffy placed her hand over his mouth before he could continue saying anything else.
"How many times do I have to say this, I love you?"
Angel smiled,
"I know, but after everything I did…"
Buffy shook her head,
"What Angelus did was not your fault, now let's go to Willie's and intimidate as many people as possible."
Angel nodded,
"Okay, but your buying."
Buffy smiled and the two swung down from the low wall and headed towards Willie's.
Willie's Alibi was the perfect place for demons and vampires wanting to avoid trouble, or anyone who wanted somewhere safe to go. There was an unwritten code that nobody killed anyone else whilst in Willie's. Despite this fact, the proprietor, Willy, was still terrified of the slayer. He was also terrified of Angel. Or rather, he was terrified of Angel, but since the return of Angelus that had been upgraded to petrified.
Willy had justifiable reason to be scared of them, everyone in the demon community was scared of the slayer and Angelus had a terrifying reputation for brutality, which had been proved as more than elaborate fiction. Angel had scared Willy too, despite his soul, and almost every time that Buffy entered the Alibi, Willy got beaten on. Most, if not all of the patrons of the Alibi were petrified of the two, if not of both than of one of them.
Taking these things into consideration, it was no surprise that there were more than a few frightened moans as the notorious duo entered the sleazy establishment. Willy himself turned a most unattractive shade of puce, and Angel realised that the man had not seen him since he was Angelus and the common consensus was that he still was.
As Buffy and Angel approached the bar, Angel could smell the fear in the crowd, much of it coming from Willy himself. The bartender's pudgy hands were trembling as he attempted to nonchalantly wipe down a beer mug that Angel smelled had contained blood, not beer. The smile on Willy's face was very fixed and fake. The demon in Angel revelled in the abject terror that he inspired and Angel found he was craving the smell of fear once again.
Angel took a deep but unnecessary breath and squashed his demonic instincts back into the cage at the back of his mind where he kept them locked. A vampire sat in a corner nursing a mug of human blood that Willy 'acquired' from a blood bank somewhere. Angel's skin itched with the urge to show his true demonic visage. He must have growled softly, because Buffy squeezed his arm comfortingly.
Buffy walked straight up to where Willy stood at the bar. She casually removed a knife he hadn't seen her take and placed it point down in the bar. She leant forward and, smiling a deadly smile, spoke to Willy,
"It's really horrible to see you again. Angel will have whatever is freshest and I will have a diet coke. Oh, and I had an awful summer and a worse day so it was really nice of you to say we didn't have to pay tonight."
As she said this last part, Buffy casually removed the knife from where it had been wedged into the tabletop and admired it. Willy opened his mouth to object, but wisely closed it when he saw the nigh on homicidal look on the Slayer's face.
Once Willy had supplied the two of them with Angel's blood and Buffy's coke, they moved over to a booth in a dark corner. After they had sat down, the conversation in the bar resumed, if at a slightly muted level. As Angel took the first sip of the warm blood, which had been poured into a large beer mug, an ecstatic look came onto his face. Buffy merely sipped at her diet coke and waited until Angel had finished drinking. When he had, she placed her glass on the table top and looked at her lover,
"Angel, I wanted to come here tonight because I wanted us to be able to talk without being interrupted by any of my friends."
Angel would have paled, if that were possible, but he settled for looking nervous instead. He opened his mouth to speak, but Buffy interrupted him,
"Not about Angelus. I want to talk to you about these wizards. Was I sensible to accept this Dumbledore's job offer?"
Angel nodded slightly,
"Yes, definitely. I trust Albus Dumbledore with my life. We can arrange for you to take your SATs in England if you want to do that. It would also be good for you to assist in the fight against Voldemort."
Buffy stared at him,
"You have a dark lord called Moldywarts?"
Angel smiled slightly and Buffy's heart skipped a beat,
"No, not Moldywarts, Voldemort. He and his Death Eaters…"
Buffy cut him off,
"Voldemort? Death Eaters? And here I thought the Master and the Three were cheesy, those names officially take the whole fucking biscuit barrel."
Angel rolled his eyes slightly at Buffy's comment. After a moment, the slayer spoke,
"So, I'll tell my mum and the evil Snyder monster tomorrow morning. Then I will pack and meet up with you at the mansion at six-ish?"
Angel nodded and Buffy leant forward over the table,
"So, did you do anything exciting at this school of yours?"
Angel smiled fully then, Buffy was certain that she would remember that smile for the rest of her life.
"Well, I did blow up my Aunt once…."
tbc.