"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/
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BETA READER: Ashley Russo (last parts un-beta¡¦ed)

Part 9

The next morning, Buffy awoke with a groan, her head was killing her. She peeked her blonde head out of the blankets that were covering her.

Through squinted eyes she looked at the room she was in, in confusion. This was so not her room. Instead of her mint striped wallpaper, decorated with butterflies and collages of pictures, the walls were painted a dark shade of blue with a white trim. Trophies, plaques, and framed photos were all around the room much bigger than hers.

Then it registered in her head, she was in Angel's room. She shot up in bed, holding the covers to her chest. Her eyes widened. Did she do something with Angel? She held in a breath and dared to take a look downwards to see if she was wearing any of her clothing. She exhaled deeply in relief when she still wore her hip hugger jeans and her cream colored peasant top. Although her blouse was in a little disarray from moving around a lot, it was good to know that it wasn't actually off. The only thing that was taken off was her boots which were neatly placed by the doorway.

She couldn't remember a thing. All she remembered was going to the party and having a good time, especially with Angel. That is, until her crush's girlfriend decided to drop by and hang all over the guy. Then, there was beer, a tequila shot game, and some extra jello shots thrown in, and the rest was a blur. She tried to let the thought go, her head hurt too much to think.

While Buffy was still trying to figure out what the hell happened, the door to the bedroom opened and in entered Angel, carrying a glass of water in one hand and a glass of some mysterious liquid in the other.

"Hey, you're up," Angel greeted, shutting the door gently with his elbow to shut out the noise coming from outside his room.

A bewildered looking Buffy turned her face towards him and automatically shot a hand to her long, blonde hair. Her mouth dropped open and she gasped when she felt that her usually tamed hair was disheveled. She immediately started to run a hand through the tangled mess to smooth it out.

Angel let out a little chuckle and walked to the bed, handing her the mysterious liquid.

"Calm down. You look fine," he told her truthfully.

Dropping the hand that was combing through her hair into her lap, she looked into the cup and then back to Angel with disgust.

"It helps, trust me."

For a second time, Buffy took a deep breath and chugged the foul tasting stuff down. When she gulped down the most she can handle, she coughed and made a noise of distaste.

"Ugh. That was horrible," she sputtered out.

Angel laughed, "Don't worry, it'll all be worth it in a few minutes," he then offered her the cup of water, to which she took willingly.

After a few sips, she licked her lips and gazed at Angel with confusion, "What happened?"

"Well," he took a seat on the edge of his bed, "Let's just say you really let yourself go last night."

"Hmm..." Buffy groaned, "That explains why that Irish jig guy made a special appearance in my head."

Angel laughed again in return, putting a sympathetic hand on her back, trying to ignore the spark he felt at the minor contact.

"Did I... um... do o-or say anything that will eventually come around and kick me in the ass?" She mentally crossed her fingers, hoping she didn't admit her feelings to Angel. They were only friends and he had a great woman like Nina, she couldn't bear it if she ruined all of it.

"Well, I don't think Brian will be too happy when he hears that you did a table dance; you almost started stripping," Angel nearly growled when he reminded Buffy of her drunken stupidity. He thought about how the blonde almost gave a free show to the crowd of inebriated males.

Buffy's jaw dropped, her hand covering her opened mouth.

"Don't worry, Xander and I stopped you in time," Buffy groaned in response at Angel's reassurance, "But other than that, it was just random comments that absolutely made no sense whatsoever."

The girl just scoffed, her head bowed in shame. She felt rather embarrassed that she would do such a thing, but she was also relieved that she didn't ruin any relationships. Well, all but one. But she wouldn't exactly say she ruined it.

"Brian's not an issue anymore," she raised her stare into his brown eyes, "We broke up last night over the phone."

"Oh, so is that why you let loose last night?" Angel scooted a little bit closer to her, feeling overjoyed that the little prick was gone.

Buffy grinned and raised an eyebrow, "Oh please! He was a minor issue in my life. I'm glad I broke up with him. I mean, geez, my parents don't give me as much a third degree as he did."

Brian had called during the party, berating her with questions like "What are you doing", "Who are you with", or "Are you wearing a sweater?". Buffy had finally snapped and used her cousin's advice and gave him the old boot. She felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders as soon as she hung up with him, letting him off as gently as possible in her annoyed state.

"That was just me having fun," Buffy finished, half lying. She had seen Angel and Nina making out in a not-so-discreet part of the house. That sort of pushed her into doing shots with a group of people she was acquainted with from school.

"Oh, well, I guess you're entitled to that." Buffy nodded.

She then furrowed her eyebrows and questioned, "Why am I at your house and not at mine?"

"Well my house is just a few houses down from Mason's, and half of the group was drunk, so everybody just decided to crash here," then he added, "And since you had more to drink then everybody else, we gave you my room, which," he pointed to his private bathroom, "is the only one with its own bathroom. Thank God for that." He remembered all the vomit that came out of the small woman. His mom would've killed him if she got any of it on anything that wasn't the toilet.

"Wait, everybody's here?" She silently groaned. Great, that's all she needed, a hangover and more Angel and Nina kissage.

"Everybody but Nina," Buffy tried to keep herself from smiling and sighing in relief, "She had to do something for school today."

"Sorry," she apologized, although, she wasn't.

"Yeah," the tone of his voice sounded as if he felt the same way as Buffy, but she dismissed that, "So, you feeling up to going downstairs to join the others?"

She thought for a moment before answering, "No, I just wanna stay up here for a bit if you don't mind."

"No, no that's okay, I'll just leave you alone to get some rest, "he moved to get off his bed when Buffy grabbed his arm.

"Can you stay with me," she pleaded, not wanting him to leave her side.

Angel sat back down with a smile, "Yeah, I'll stay with you."

Buffy leaned against him, "Your mom doesn't mind having a whole bunch of teenagers in her house?"

The brunette shook his head, "She loves having company. As long as we tell her and the other parents."

Buffy opened her mouth to ask, but Angel read her mind and answered her question before she can utter it out.

"I had Spike call your parents last night, they know you're here. They just don't know you were drunk."

Buffy smiled thankfully at him. He was so sweet. She kicked herself almost everyday for not snagging him when he was available.

For awhile they sat there in comfortable silence, with Buffy leaning against Angel, until there was a knock on the door.

Both of them looked toward the door when Connor entered.

"Hey guys," the tall sixteen-year-old greeted, "We're all going to the mall to annoy Xander, wanna come?"

Angel glanced at Buffy and then looked back to his brother, "Nah, I think we'll stay here. Buffy's still not feeling well."

Connor silently nodded, looking as if he wanted to comment but refrained himself from doing so.

"Okay," the blue-eyed brunette accepted, "Hey Angel, can I borrow ten?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't have enough money," Connor said.

"Why are you asking me?"

"'Cause you're my favorite brother," Connor tried, but when he saw that Angel didn't buy it, he sighed, "Come on Angel. That new game that WE wanted came out and I'm a little short. So can you be a gracious big brother and spot me a few bucks?"

Angel rolled his eyes and got up off the bed, walking over to his desk to retrieve his leather wallet, pulling out a ten.

"You need a job," he stated, handing the bill to Connor.

"Why get a job when I got three older brothers to bum off of," he smirked, snatching the money from Angel's hand, winking at an amused Buffy.

Angel couldn't help but chuckle, playfully shoving his younger brother's long-haired head, "Leave you leech."

"Thanks Angel. Bye Buffy."

"See ya Connor. Have fun," the blonde said from her spot on the bed.

"Yeah, you too," Connor devilishly smiled and looked between Buffy and Angel before backing out of the room and shutting the door.

Buffy giggled when he left, "He's too cute."

Angel turned to the girl resting on his bed, "Yeah, he's just plum adorable," he sarcastically replied, walking back to his bed and sat back in his spot.

Buffy giggled again, transferring her weight onto Angel, leaning back into his side.

After a moment, Buffy questioned, "You know what I've always wondered?"

"Hmm?"

"How you got the nickname Angel."

Angel looked down at her and smiled, "My mom wanted to originally name her first born that, after her grandfather. But my dad won the coin toss and ended up giving me the first name of Liam. It was weird, because even though he wanted Liam, he was the one to start calling me Angel. I guess it was because he knew how much my mom loved that name."

"Is that where they got your middle name? Only with an 'us'?"

"Yeah, my mom said Liam and Angel didn't sound right together, so my dad suggested Angelus."

Buffy nodded in interest, "And Oz and Xander? How'd they get their nicknames?"

"Well don't tell him I told you this, but his middle name is Oscar. He's always hated it ever since we were kids, so he told our parents that he wanted to shorten it to 'Oz' because it sounded better and because of his obsession with 'The Wizard of Oz'. So my dad just started calling him that and it stuck. And Xander got his nickname because Dad thought Alex was too common of a name so he just used Xander instead."

Buffy lifted her head off of Angel's shoulder and looked into his brown eyes, softly smiling, "Your dad sounded like a great man."

Angel sadly reverted his gaze to his lap, "Yeah. He was."

Buffy bit her lip, a little afraid to ask, but still couldn't help be curious.

"If you don't mind me asking, h-how did he..." she trailed off, not able to finish the question because she didn't want to upset Angel greatly.

Angel let out a deep breath. He didn't know why, but he felt compelled to tell her the reason of his father's death. That was something he always kept to himself due to the circumstances. "It happened about ten years ago. He was um… He was shot. By one of the nurses that worked for him. H-He was a pediatrician, one of the best," Angel briefly grinned at the memory of his beloved father, "Anyway, the nurse, Darla, she got fired by my dad because she mistreated the patients and slacked off a lot. Not only that, but she was always all over my dad. I could remember some of the times I'd overhear him and mom argue over her. I guess she wasn't very mentally stable because the way she took my dad's rejection… She broke into his office one day, pulled out a gun, and just shot him. She was going to go after my mom and us next, but the police caught her in time. She's rotting in prison back in Orlando. She deserves to die a slow and painful death for what she did to my family."

Buffy sat there, watching Angel with sad eyes as he told his story. The whole time, he talked with a far away look in his eyes. It was almost as if he forgot she was there and he was just thinking out loud.

"Angel," Buffy tried to bring him back to her, reaching out and touching his cheek.

As Angel locked his watery eyes with Buffy's, he gave her a small, reassuring grin, a single tear escaped and dripped onto Buffy's comforting hand.

"It's okay. I-it happened a long time ago, I barely even remember what happened," he lied. Buffy didn't believe him but chose not to say anything.

She moved her hand from his cheek to his shoulder and then traveled it down his arm to hold his hand. Angel knew it was supposed to be a friendly gesture, but he couldn't help but feel the tingle that went up and down his spine from the touch of her hand.

Getting the feeling that Angel didn't want to talk about the death of his dad anymore, she smiled at him, "Christmas is coming up soon you know," she said, trying to lighten up the depressing mood.

Thankful for the rather random change of subject, Angel smiled back at her.

"Yeah, it is " he responded.

"Buy me something pretty yet," she asked and he laughed.

Angel playfully glared while he smirked at his friend, "What makes you think I bought you something?"

She poked him in the chest, "Because you're secretly in love with me," she joked, all the while thinking, 'Only in my dreams would that ever come true.'

'If only you knew Buffy, if only you knew,' he thought as he kept up their flirtatious banter.

TBC…