"Buffy, this will be the seventh time I've told you in one hour."
"Well, you know what they say: seventh time's the charm!"
Angel sighed. "Fine. So we had just defeated the Black Thorn-"
"Are you sure that's not a band?"
"Yes, I'm sure. We had just defeated the Black Thorn's army when a portal appeared right behind us. It took us awhile to figure out what happened until Wesley and Fred showed-"
"And they were already dead, right?"
"Yes, Buffy, they were. Please stop interrupting."
Buffy rolled her eyes, "Well geesh, sorry. It's just hard to keep the body count straight after all the carnage."
"Anyway," he continued, "Wesley and Fred came and told us that we had an audience with the Powers That Be, basically saying that we could ask for whatever we wanted."
"So you, Gunn, Spike, and Illyria could just wish for anything?"
"Yes. Illyria asked to be in charge of her own dimension again. Gunn asked to see his sister, and Spike asked to be human again."
"And you asked for..."
Angel looked down. "I asked for forgiveness, from everyone that I had ever hurt or killed."
"And that was when the PTB's told you you already had it, right?" Buffy asked. "That you had earned it after nearly a decade of constant-fighting and spending centuries in hell?"
Angel just nodded.
A smile grew on Buffy's face. "And then they made you human. Extra human, with other demon-like capabilities, allowing you to fight alongside say, a slayer?"
Angel found his own lips curving up. "Pretty much."
"And then you, Gunn, and Spike popped back into LA, with Wesley and Fred at your side 'cuz they 'had an audience with the Powers That Be' too."
"Yep."
Buffy slowly crawled her way onto his stomach, her feet sticking off the end of the small bed as she stretched languidly next to her former/current boyfriend. "And then, instead of calling me right away, you began to clean up the mess that Wolfram and Hart had made before settling back into the Hyperion."
Smiling sheepishly, Angel replied "Yes. But after that, I got a calling-card allowing for four free hours of trans-Atlantic calls that would give me a baking cookie and a future wife."
Buffy wrinkled her nose. "Angel? Lets back off on the whole cookie-analogy thing, just this once."
He laughed, a full laugh that started at the bottom of his stomach and worked his way up. Buffy felt tears prick her eyes at that sound, a sound that was once so foreign to her but was quickly becoming an frequent occurrence. And she liked to think that she was partially responsible for his lighter attitude, especially when he looked down at her lying on his chest with that twinkle in his eyes. Who'da thunk it? Angel was twinkling.
Scooping her up into his arms, he continued, "I told you I loved you, you told me you loved me, we jumped on planes, met up in New York, and here we are."
"Yep, now we've been staying in the cheapest hotel known to man in the smallest bed known to man because you forgot to bring your credit card," said Buffy, looking around the room with disdain.
"Hey, I'm not the only one here without a wallet," he argued, planting a kiss on the top of her head.
"True. However, my wallet doesn't have the same bulging quality that yours seem to do."
Angel smiled against her hair. "Don't worry, we'll remedy that someday."
Buffy closed her eyes, listening to the beating heart that pounded underneath her ear. "Angel?" she asked, her voice quiet.
"Yeah?"
"Where do we go from here?"
He tucked his fingers under her chin, raising her eyes to his. "How's forever? Does forever work for you?" he said, echoing her words from so long ago.
She smiled. "I think it'll do."
And they lived Happily Ever After!