Disclaimer: Well, since there are no actual names mentioned, I could take credit….ok, ok, they're not mine!

Summary: Buffy and Angel play a game...and it's not really as dirty as that sounds.

A/n: Just a short something I've had for awhile and thought I'd post. Hope it's not too confusing or horrible. Review and let me know, but please, no flames.

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He cowers in the darkness, afraid of the light. He watches her from afar, afraid to speak. Afraid he can't. He watches as she approaches him. He can't move. The thrall of her emerald eyes won't let him.

"You're watching me," she says. "Why?"

He opens his mouth and, to his surprise, is able to form words. "You're nice to watch," is his almost inaudible reply.

She blushes slightly. "Who are you?" she asks. She looks into his dark, chocolate eyes.

He looks away. "No one." His voice is louder this time, stronger.

"Everybody's someone." She stares at him intensely, trying to get him to look into her eyes yet again. She loves his eyes. They bare his soul to her.

Complying, he responds, "Not me. I am a shadow, nothing more." His voice is full of determination, heartache, and regret.

She takes his large hand in her much smaller one. "Come on," she says.

He hesitates.

"What?" she asks, turning to face him once again.

"Where are we going?" he asks her shyly. He wants to go, but the light! He is afraid of the light!

"Don't be afraid," she answers. "Trust me."

And he does.

She leads him into the light.

He flinches, but the sun doesn't burn his skin, it warms it. And he doesn't scream in pain, but smiles in joy.

They walk hand-in-hand down the streets of Galway.

They play this game every year. Every year, around her birthday, he runs in cover of darkness; she follows in light of day. It's a different city every year; a different country every other. He watches her; she finds him. They act as though they've never met. Complete strangers.

The demon is gone; banished to hell for its crimes. And still, he's afraid he'll hurt her. Still thinks she can do better. That he can't take her into the light.

It took her a month to find him this time-he covered his tracks well-and every night she cried. She has no more tears to cry, so she'll just have to convince him that demons and darkness were heaven as long as he was there.

She knows he'll run again next year, but she still has the hope that maybe, just maybe, he'll bring her along.