"Angel," she murmured warmly, taking strange comfort in the familiar foreplay oh god, only with him could something so simple as saying a name be so sensual- before continuing brightly, "It is not to worry. I think I can state with total confidence that I've made a new art form of the words 'leisure time.' I mean, it was not easy to find this whole outfit for less than 100 Euros, but voila!"

"What are you doing here?" he barked roughly, warmth fading from his eyes as she continued to stand there, and despite her best efforts she found herself growing defensive, snapping back,

"No, what are YOU doing here? What, do vampires not believe it's bad form to drink alone?" she enquired, looking pointedly at the drink in his hand before knocking it out of his grasp and sending it shattering against the wall. "My god. For someone I always looked up to you really are falling apart."

He looked at the wall where the glass had shattered in disbelief before snapping "What do you know about it?"

She looked at him, genuinely offended for along moment before saying softly with a disgusted shake of her head, "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." She paused for a fraction of a second, deliberating about whether she should just shove her way inside or try to maintain some façade of politeness, cringing slightly as she realized that her plan to keep everything light and casual was, to put it mildly, turning into a complete joke. "May I come in?" she enquired softly, deciding to try to salvage the situation, stunned as his eyes grew colder.

"You're not welcome here."

She hesitated only an instant. "Pity," she shrugged, shoving past him into the massive… office? I thought Willow said he was living here, and why is he all alone-

"Clearly you haven't been kept up to date," he growled, slamming the door shut behind her and advancing toward her menacingly backing her up against a wall.

"Oh for real," she snapped, shoving him sharply away from her and throwing her purse onto the nearest desk. "Get over yourself. Clearly you've had a little too much to drink, which is kind of unfortunate – or maybe not. Do vampires get hangovers or do you just-"

"Clearly you haven't been kept up to date," he repeated, eyes flashing. "I'm working for the other said now, and even if I weren't, nothing to do with the council would be welcome in my home. I'm warning you-"

"You're WARNING me?" she enquired incredulously, deciding to abandon her plan of making nice with him as she placed her hands on her hips. "Do I need to remind you that I have repeatedly KICKED YOUR ASS? And how stupid do you think I am? You're 'working for the other side?' Maybe you can convince your little friends of that, but I KNOW you. You're not working for anything but-"

"People change," he growled and she rolled her eyes.

"Right, okay. You're actually evil and I'm really retired." She met his eyes for a poignant moment before she said softly, anger suddenly fading as she felt the exhaustion and tension pouring off of him, "It's sort of amazing how much we can fool other people just by saying something enough times isn't it? But in the end," she shrugged, still staring at him, "we can't escape what we are."

He averted his gaze as he replied, with far less conviction, "Exactly. And I'm a vampire."

"No," she said softly, taking a step toward him and gently placing a hand on his arm, cringing as he flinched but didn't pull away, "You're a hero."

He did yank away then, anger on his face, but through it she could see the hurt, hurt she didn't fully understand and wasn't sure she wanted to as he snapped,

"I don't want you here. Don't you have some clubbing to be doing? I bet the nightlife is just getting started right about now in Italy- maybe your boyfriend could-"

"That is true," she nodded calmly, cutting him off, a trace of wistfulness in her voice. "Clubbing has been a major theme. Right behind shopping and sex." She shrugged, dropping her defensive posture as she decided that her best bet was probably to be honest. "It was okay. Didn't make me particularly happy, but then, pretending never does-"

He looked confused for a fraction of a second and she drew some hope from that even as he snapped. "Fine then. Go home to your Immortal lover and-"

"Please don't" she cut him off, voice taking on a pleading quality despite her best efforts and he averted his gaze again, looking even more off balance as she continued slowly, hesitantly, "I've racked up a lot more sexual partners than I ever would have believed I could have in my life when I met you, but none of them were my lover."

"None of them?" he asked in a choked voice and she ventured a small smile.

"You know the answer to that." She shook her head as though to clear it before saying with more confidence. "So yes, I had my kicks in Italy. But in the end- I am who I am."

"The slayer," he supplied slowly and her eyes narrowed slightly as she opened her mouth to contradict him, deciding at the last moment that it wasn't worth the effort before she shrugged.

"Among other things." She looked around uncertainly. "You live here?"

"Yes."

At her disbelieving look, he elaborated reluctantly "I also work here."

Despite herself a small, genuine smile flashed across Buffy's face. "Still with the cryptic," she grinned and was surprised when he smiled back, the tone in the room somehow having lightened… and her brow furrowed slightly as she remembered something he had said. "Also, I am SO not with the council," she said abruptly. "I'm just here. As Buffy. No slayer stuff going on." She shrugged again. "And even if it was, which, it, SO totally is not," she said, then cringed, hoping she wasn't overdoing her mad insistence that this was just a social call, at the suspicious look on his face fearing that she had, "I haven't been working with them since they refused to help you when Faith shot you with that arrow- what? Six years ago?"

His eyes narrowed. "And you haven't been working with Giles, either, I suppose," he bit out sarcastically, and her brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"Um- when? Recently?" She flushed. "Pretty much my recently has consisted of smoky Italian clubs, you were right about that much. Why?"

He looked at her tensely for a long moment, seeming to try to read her face, then relaxed his posture slightly, admitting softly,

"It never did ring true that you would be that cruel-"

"I'm sorry?" she said in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"It's not important," and she sighed deeply in frustration, trying to focus on the positives. Like, that he was no longer demanding she leave or insisting he was evil.

"I always wondered a lot more about the thoughts you didn't finish than the ones you did," she blurted unthinkingly, then flushed at the realization that she'd said it aloud, continuing to babble, mostly in a mad effort to change the subject. "So, non-evil Angel, if I can call you that," she said, trying for flippant but shooting him a genuine smile as she perched on a desk, "What the hell are you doing here alone in an insanely big office at 2 in the afternoon on a working day trying to drink your way into oblivion?"

He was silent for so long she thought he wasn't going to answer before he finally said carefully, "I was with my son."

Her mouth formed a small 'o' as she blinked before saying softly, "Yeah, heard something about that. I meant to send a card, actually, but then, you know," she shrugged.

"I do," he said softly, eyes meeting hers oh god, why do we always have to understand each other so damn well-

She shook her head briefly, trying to clear it, before she offered a sympathetic grimace. "And it didn't go well?"

"What?" he asked, brow furrowing in confusion, and she rolled her eyes affectionately.

"Well, you go see-" her brow furrowed as she tried hard to remember the name that had been whispered tentatively around her, mostly when her well intentioned friends thought she wasn't listening- whispers about Darla and Angel and unprecedented occurrences- "Connor?" she questioned, rewarded by his brief nod before continuing, "And the next thing I know you're drinking yourself into oblivion… generally that would mean something bad happened-"

"Didn't," he cut her off briefly, not meeting her eyes. "It went- better than I could have hoped."

Her brow furrowed. "I don't-" before she realized that seeing his son had probably made it harder for Angel to accept the fact that he was going to die tonight- "I mean- how old is he now?" she asked carefully, relieved as Angel perched on a desk across from her, seeming to accept that she was going to stay a while.

"Not exactly sure," he admitted briefly. "Maybe 20?"

"Wow," Buff replied after a long moment, looking floored. "Kids sure do grow up fast nowadays-"

"Long story," he said briefly and she shot him a weak smile.

"I've got some time." She swallowed hard, trying to brace herself before saying in a rush, "I'm sorry I haven't been better at keeping in touch."

He shrugged. "It's not like I've made some heroic effort."

"Let's be better from now on," she said softly, meeting his eyes once more and actually feeling like the words meant something even though she knew she would be dead in less than twelve hours, slightly gratified at the earnestness on his face as he nodded slowly.

"I'd like that."

Buffy's stomach growled suddenly and she offered him a wry smile. "So, is there a kitchen somewhere in this place you call a house? Because, I mean, I hate to be rude, but I'm sort of starving, and I figure, you know, talking good, food good, so maybe cookingtalking very good, yes?"

He blinked, just once, in confusion before a small but genuine smile graced his face and he shook his head kindly. "You never really change."

She felt like her heart was breaking. "Neither do you."

He stood, gesturing lightly. "Follow me."

--

Feedback is better than David Boreanaz (almost!) and truly does inspire me to continue…thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!