Chapter 3
They stood together at the airport waiting for the scoobies to land. When Buffy saw them she grabbed Angel's hand and he squeezed it tightly for reassurance, whether his or hers she didn't know.
The friendships she had forged with these people were unbreakable, they were forever, but overtime, over distance, the tightness had lessened. They no longer shared each other's lives, they had all become individuals.
Willow was the first to come running from the terminals, behind her, Xander, and last but never least was Giles.
"Buffy!" Willow hugged Buffy in greeting, she hadn't seen her best friend in over a year because Will had been in Australia studying with the aborigines.
"Hi Will!"
"Buffster!" She hugged him briefly than turned towards Giles.
"Hello Buffy. How are you?"
She hugged him and stepped back beside angel, "I'm so glad you're all here!"
They returned to the Hyperion and everyone looked to Angel in askance, they had expected to go to the Wolfram and Hard headquarters. Angel explained, "The W and H building got burnt down by a dragon." He looked sheepish and added, "while I was kind . . . of . . . riding it"
"Good lord," Giles took off his glasses, cleaned them, than put them back on, "You actually rode a. . . . a dragon?"
"Yea. It's, I believe, the reason I lived and nobody else did," Angel thought Giles looked a little guilty at the statement and he wondered why. Angel waved towards one of the staircases, "I cleaned out some rooms in that wing," he motioned to the other staircase, "My room, and Buffy's, are in that wing."
Xander stopped at the bottom of the stairs, "separate rooms, right?"
Angel growled and Buffy glared at Xanded. Putting her arms across her chest, "We're not going to have sex Xander! We are not stupid!"
After stomping off to her room Buffy climbed out of her 2nd story room. She walked to the area where she had lived pre-Sunnydale. From there she headed to the cemetery where she had slayed her first vampire. She didn't remember much about that night, mostly, just the intense fear. She smirked at the memory of that first hungry vampire she had run into; today vampires were a cake walk. Push stake in heart, pull stake out. Dust-o-rama. Repeat. But that 1st fight could easily have been her last.
Her moves were elegant. Both precise and beautiful. She had finally grown to accept the part of her that was the slayer. She was working out a little anger on the two fledgling. Angel couldn't help but smile at his woman. She was truly a magnificent being. Predator, victim, friend, lover . . . He stepped into the settling dust of the two vampires, "Buffy."
"Angel."
He shrugged his shoulders and she knew that he wanted to say something, but he didn't. She wondered why.
They stood still and stared at each other.
"Buffy. I—"
She interrupted, "shh. . . I have to say something first. It's important, so . . . just listen, please?"
When he nodded she continued, "Do you remember the 1st time I visited you in LA? You're office was attacked by a Mohra demon. Do you remember the ice cream? I do. I know I wasn't supposed to. When I was dead? In heaven? That was part of my peace, part of my happiness. I was in heaven—and I could see everything—all the future and all the past. Before I die I want to love you again. Without the bitterness, without the anger. When I go out this time I don't wan to feel anything but love."
"You won't die Buffy."
"Everything, remember?" She smiled sadly, it seemed to be the only where she ever smiled anymore, "I will die, angel. I will. Not tomorrow, Maybe at the End of Days. I don't know exactly when. Soon. Later. I am mortal. Mortals do die."
"Buffy—"
"No Angel. Don't deny it. Just accept it, please. Allow us to love each other for the time we do have left, but first we have to get rid of this pain, this hurt that we've caused each other."
"Buffy I—"
"Sorry, I keep interrupting. I complain a lot. Most of our conversations revolve around me and my pain. And while, yea, I've been hurt a lot, so have you. And you don't have friends to talk to anymore. So you should go first." Buffy looked up at him expectantly.
"Do we have to do this in a cemetery though?" Angel really didn't want to tell her about his pain, how he had been hurt. He was used to keeping it to himself; he was also afraid that she would leave.
"But I am she-who-hangs-out-in-cemeteries! I love cemeteries!"
"Sarcasm becomes you." Angel smirked as he led her back out onto the street.
"It does doesn't it?"