"Mahal"
By: Lynn
DISCLAIMERS: Making it short...NOT MINE!
SUMMARY: AU; Just another story where everybody's human and Angel, Oz, and Xander are the new students in school.
DISTRIBUTION: Are you kidding me! I NEED someone to host my fics. Just e-mail me if you want them. Previous Parts found at: http/
E-MAIL:
BETA READER: Ashley Russo (last parts un-beta¡¦ed)

Part 4

When dusk approached later on that day, Angel sat in the upstairs balcony of his new home, watching as the sun set. From where he was resting, he could see the expansive backyard with the beautiful floral garden that his mother just absolutely loved. The sun was slowly disappearing into the horizon, and changed the color of the bright blue sky to a mixture of orange, pink, and yellow. He then decided that this was his favorite area in the huge house. It was going to be his own private place for him to quietly reflect, or brood as his family would tease him about.

He had a sketch pad in his hand, and was working his charcoal pencil so he could draw out the one thing that occupied his thoughts; Buffy Summers.

It was weird, he only knew the girl for not even a day, and he was already thinking about her constantly. All that went through his mind was the way she walked, the sweet sound of her voice, the sparkle in her eyes whenever she smiled or laughed. Every little detail of her was stuck in his head all day that he decided to put it on paper.

He was so caught up in his own little world, that he didn't hear the quiet foot steps behind him.

A pair of hands landed roughly on his shoulders and a voice chirped loudly next to his ear, "Hey Angel," causing him to jump from his chair and drop his sketch pad.

He whipped around and found his little sister giggling at the fact that she had managed to scare her "fearless" brother.

"Got ya," she said in between her giggles.

"That wasn't funny," Angel growled.

"Yeah it was," Jessica replied in a sing song voice, not intimidated by him one bit. Angel just glared angrily at her in response.

"Aww," she stuck out her lower lip and talked to him in a baby voice, "I'm sowwy I scared da big, big man," she held out her arms, "Hug?"

Angel fought the urge to smile at his sister's attempt to make him laugh, which she always managed to do.

"No. Go away."

Jessica waddled closer to her brother and repeated the word 'hug' while attempting to wrap her arms around Angel. During his struggle to push her away, Angel's stern face cracked and he started to laugh. After a minute or two of their playful wrestling, Angel finally relented and brought his sister into a tight embrace.

Jessica glanced down at the floor and noticed Angel's abandoned sketchpad. "Ooh," she said, leaving his arms to swipe the sketchpad before he could snatch it away from her, "Who's this?"

She promptly turned her back to Angel when he tried take back his drawing, and ducked away whenever he attempted to grab it from her.

"She's pretty," she commented. She then smiled mischievously when she decided to tease him. She turned the sketchpad around so the charcoal drawing of Buffy faced the artist and wiggled it in front of her.

"Angel has a girlfriend. Angel has a girlfriend," she sang and squealed when he lunged for her. After they went around the balcony a few times, Angel finally managed to catch her and tickled her to the ground.

They were both panting and still laughing on the ground when they heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. They turned their matching brown eyes to see the woman they got their coloring from leaning in the doorway with a raised eyebrow and a grin on her face.

"I knew something like this would happen if I sent Jessica up here to get you," Isabella Roarke stated. She watched as they rose up from the floor and dusted themselves off. "Go wash up. Our guests should be here soon."

"Guests?" Angel questioned.

"Oh yeah," Jessica said, "I was supposed to come here and tell you to wash up because Auntie Emily, Uncle George, and Riley coming for dinner." She smiled brightly at them and then skipped off into the house right after kissing her mother on the cheek.

Angel shook his head and retrieved his sketchpad. "She's your daughter," he said to Isabella before following his sister into the house.

When Isabella walked by the den not long after, she found all five of her children together watching t.v. and playing pool. She gazed lovingly at them for a few a moments and walked off to the kitchen. She paused in her tracks to look over her shoulder at her kids again. She looked up towards the ceiling and smiled.

"We did good," she whispered to her deceased husband, Donovan. She blew a kiss to the sky and with unshed tears in her eyes, she continued off to the kitchen to finish cooking the dinner for her family.

Twenty minutes later, Isabella suddenly found herself squealing in delight when she opened the door. She first pulled her red headed sister-in-law, Emily, into a hug and kissed Emily's husband, George, on the cheek. She gasped when she saw the handsome, sandy-haired young man that stepped behind his parents into her home.

"Riley Tanner Finn," she gave her nephew a bear hug and held the seventeen-year-old at arms length, "My, my, my... You have gotten even more handsome since last year. You've even gotten taller than Liam."

With a hint of pink appearing on his cheeks from his modesty, Riley smiled broadly at his aunt's compliments.

"Thank you Aunt Izzy. Um…Where's-" Riley's question was cut off when Isabella held up her hand.

"Don't worry. I'll get them," she turned away from the family and faced the upstairs level where she knew all her children were; hanging out in each other's rooms, "Kids," she called, "come down, they're here!"

Several pairs of feet stamping could be heard on the wooden floor and five different voices greeting their relatives rang through the huge house.

Hugs and kisses were exchanged and then like Isabella had done, George and Emily started flattering their nephews and niece with compliments.

After dinner, the reunited family disassembled around the house. The parents were in the living room, conversing happily about topics teenagers would be so bored to hear. Xander and Jessica got stuck in dish washing duty, while the four other teenagers were hanging out in the den. Connor was totally engrossed in the video game he was playing on the boys' shared PS2, ignoring everything around him. Oz sat on the couch strumming his guitar, trying to make his own song and Riley and Angel were playing a friendly game of pool.

Throughout the whole game, Angel tried to find a way to fish some information out of Riley about Buffy.

"Hey I got a question for you," Angel said while Riley was lining up his shot, "Your friend Buffy, is she seeing anyone?"

Riley grinned and straightened up when he sank in the ball he was aiming for. "I was waiting for you to ask me that."

Angel raised his eyebrows, "Why do you say that?"

"Because," Riley took another shot, but this time it missed the pocket and bounced off the wall, "I saw the way you were looking at her during lunch and how you were flirting with her. Actually, if it wasn't you that asked me about Buffy, I was thinking it would've been Oz asking about Willow or Xander about Cordy."

At this, Oz stopped playing with his guitar and turned his attention to his brother and cousin.

"Well, then, are you going to answer my question?"

"No, she's not. In fact, all three of them are single."

Angel grinned happily and exchanged looks with his red haired brother at this information, "That's good to know."

While Angel was reveling in his happiness, Riley stared at him warily, to which his cousin noticed.

"What," Angel questioned his look.

Riley broke his stare and cleared his throat, "Oh, um, nothing."

Angel quickly realized what Riley was thinking and frowned deeply. "Riley, I'm not like that anymore," he told the sandy-haired male. He was speaking of the notorious reputation Angel gained two years ago as a "Love 'em and Leave 'em" type. It was one of the many dreadful things he did during those long, dreadful months, and was a phase that no one in the family particularly liked to talk about.

Oz remained silent as he watched the scene before him, and Connor had actually torn himself away from the PS2 to see what was going on.

"I know," Riley said in a tone that Angel thought wasn't totally sincere, "It's just that…"

"You're protective of her," Angel concluded and Riley nodded.

"She's special. I just don't wanna see her hurt."

"I understand that, but believe me, I won't go back to that person I became two years ago. I've learned from my mistakes."

Riley nodded in acceptance to his declaration.

After a moment, Angel tilted his head and gazed at Riley curiously. "You went out with her," he stated more than asked.

"Yeah, for a few months until we both realized that we were better off as just friends."

"Oh, um, if it's too awkward for you, then I could just forget about dating her," Angel offered, but internally hoped that his cousin would refuse his proposal.

"No, it's okay. Really. It's water under the bridge. It worked out for the best, you know," Riley honestly said, much to Angel's relief.

At that time, Xander walked into the room with Jessica hitching a ride on his back.

"Hey, hey happy people," Xander greeted, "What'd we miss?"

With his eyes back to the t.v. screen in front of him, Connor said, "Angel wants to date Riley's ex-girlfriend, three girls that you three seem to like are up for the taking, Angel's not going to be the jerk-off he was before, and I just beat your high score."

"What," Xander exclaimed. He none too gently dropped his sister to the floor and jumped the back of the couch so he landed next to Connor and scowled at the screen, "That's not possible!"

Riley bent over the back of the couch and said to Xander, "Cordelia's single, man. Don't you think that's great?"

Not even sparing his cousin a glance, he waved his hand in dismissal. "Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Connor, how in the hell did you do that!"

TBC…