Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. All of these characters belong to the God Joss Whedon.

Most of the occupants of the hotel turned apartment building left their doors open. They thought of each other as family and saw no reason to shut each other out. The only time any one would close the door to their living quarters was when they had company or didn't want to be bothered.

Angel sighed in relief when he reached Buffy's open apartment door. "That's a good sign." He thought to himself as he crossed the threshold into the living room in search of its occupant. "Buffy?" He called out to her looking around the tidy room and at the kitchenette to his left. The blond he was in search of was nowhere to be seen and she hadn't answered him when he called for her. "Buffy?" He called out to her again as he made his way through the living room to the doorway on the far right side of the room.

"Nice job, Buffy," She told herself as she fell back on to her bed. "You totally flopped on that one." All it had taken was a fraction of eye contact and she broke right there in front him. Buffy closed her eyes and pictured the eyes of the man she had just met. She never thought that she would ever see crystal blue eyes like that again. They were the kind of eyes you could see forever in. Eyes, just like William had. She tried to picture the friend she had lost so many years ago, but all she could see was the outline of a little boy and the same blue eyes she had just seen on the face of the man downstairs. It had been a long time since Buffy had thought about him, but the memory of him still pained her. Silently she cursed herself for making that bet with Angel the night before knowing that it was going to be much harder now that she would also have to deal with the memories from her childhood.

"Buffy?" Her eyes snapped open once Angels voice had finally made it through her thoughts. She looked at the opening to her living room and saw him standing there leaning against the doorframe.

"Hey." She replied propping herself up on her elbows. "What's up?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. What just happened downstairs?"

Buffy fell back down on to the bed and sighed. "It's a long story."

"Care to talk about it?" Angel asked stepping into the room and walking over to sit on the edge of her bed.

"Not really."

"Come on Buff. Whatever the deal was down there you can tell me."

"It's nothing really. Your cousin just reminded me of some one from my past. Some one that I haven't seen in a long time."

"Did this person hurt you?"

"I guess that depends on how you look at it. He was my best friend, but he moved away. When he did he took part of me with him. It took me a long time to stop thinking about him. Actually, it took me until I moved here with you and Faith. I used to wish every year on my birthday that he would come back. This past year was the first time I didn't do that."

"Buffy, if you want we can call our bet off. I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

Buffy glanced at Angel. His back was to her, his elbows rested on his knees. "No. I want to do this." She said to her own surprise. "I wasn't sure at first, but I can't let my past haunt me. Maybe this is just what I need to get through all of that for good."

"Great. I can't wait for you to have to play chef." Angel told her. She could hear the smirk in his voice. Buffy picked up one of the pillows off her bed and flung it at the back of Angel's head. "Hey!" He yelped getting up from where he was sitting. "You better watch it or I am going to have to up the stakes."

"No that's okay, really." Buffy replied trying to sound appalled at the suggestion while she stifled a giggle.

"Well I should leave you to get your plan together." Angel told her as he picked the pillow up from where it had landed on the floor. "Although, I should tell you that if you want to get his attention just traipse around in what you're wearing. It seems to have worked so far." Before Buffy could respond to his comment he chucked the pillow back at her and walked out of the room.

"Angel you are going to be in so much trouble." She mumbled after him as she got up from the bed and went to get dressed.

Buffy exited her apartment wearing a pair of low cut jeans and a black halter top with black high heeled boots. She let her long gold locks fall freely down her back and around her shoulders. As she made her way down the hall towards the staircase she had the feeling that some one was watching her. Buffy glanced over her shoulder and there at the end of the hall stood Angel's cousin. He was leaning against the doorframe to one of the apartments watching her as she walked down the hall. Buffy cast him a small smile and continued down the hall. "Wait, Buffy" She heard him call after her. Buffy stopped but didn't turn around to look at him. She could hear the sound of his footsteps as he approached her. Within a few seconds he was by her side and she started walking again.

Spike had seen her as she emerged from her apartment. At first he was going to just watch her as she walked down the hall following his cousins instructions to stay away from her, but when she had turned and smiled at him, he couldn't resist trying to talk to her. He called for her to wait and to his surprise she had stopped walking, however, he wasn't sure if that meant that she was welcoming him to join her since she hadn't turned around when she had stopped. It didn't matter to him, he wanted to talk to her. "Buffy, I just wanted to apologize to you, for what I said earlier. If I offended you…"

"You didn't." She cut him off coldly wondering why he even bothered to make amends. After all Angel and Faith had both told her that Spike was nothing but a jerk. Buffy had a feeling that he was up to something.

Spike wasn't sure what to say. "Is there something that you wanted?" Buffy asked him when he didn't reply.

"Um, no I guess not. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't the one that caused you to run away and if I was I wanted to apologize."

"Well you don't have to worry about your guilt. It wasn't your fault."

"I wasn't worried about me feeling guilty. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." Spike told her. After the words came out of his mouth he wondered what had made him say that. Normally he didn't care how any one felt. His main concern was usually himself.

"I'm fine." Buffy told him as they descended the staircase. "Now if you'll excuse me I have better things to do."

"Yeah, of course." Spike replied stopping where he was to watch her as she walked away from him. He had noticed that she hadn't bothered to look at him and the tone of voice she had used with him was cold and uncaring. "That girl is going to drive me mad." He thought to himself as he headed back up the stairs.

"So I see you met Angel's cousin." Faith said to Buffy when she came to sit beside her on the sofa in front of the television in the lobby.

"Yeah. He's a real piece of work." She replied watching the television.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well let's see. The first time I saw him I came prepared to fully dislike the guy and give him nothing but attitude. However, I ended up running off with my tail tucked between my legs. Which is why he was just talking to me now. For whatever reason he was attempting to be concerned about what had happened."

"And what exactly did happen?"

"Nothing really. We had a bit of a squabble and when I finally turned to face him I caught his eyes and I fumbled. I knew he noticed it so there was no use continuing. I retreated to my place to lick my wounds."

"It's not like you to back down B. Is it possible that you have finally met your match?" Faith proposed trying to recall the last time Buffy had backed away from an altercation.

"No. I haven't met my match." Buffy defended herself with a roll of her eyes. "He just caught me off guard."

"You mean those gorgeous blue eyes caught you off guard." Faith teased. She had met Spike when Angel asked her to show him to his apartment after he had talked to Buffy. Faith couldn't help but fall in love his eyes.

"I never said they were gorgeous. They just, well, those were the same eyes that William had."

"Buff, come on girl, don't tell me you are going to start to dwell on Boy Wonder again."

"No. No dwelling of any kind. I already decided that he is never coming back. I should have never believed he would." Buffy admitted standing up turning to look at Faith. "I think I am going to go up to my place. I have some cleaning to get done. If you want, stop by later."

"You sure you're okay B?" Faith asked her as she turned towards the steps.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just have some things to take care of." Buffy answered without turning around.

"Okay. Maybe I will stop in later I have some errands to run first." Faith watched as Buffy disappeared from her sight. She knew Buffy had lied to her about being fine, but she let her go. Faith knew she liked to have time to herself when some thing was troubling her. Eventually Buffy would come to her and want to talk.

A/N: Thanks to all of you have kept on reading. This is the last chapter that I will be posting for tonight. Be sure to let me know what you think, even if it isn't any good.