Author's note: hey everyone, relatively short chapter. Some fun awkwardness between Angel and Buffy only slightly tempered by her new friends. Spike confrontation is in the next chapter, and ANGEL bashing! I LOVE Angel bashing!

Chapter XVI – Amsterdam: OH SHIT!

Oddly enough, the first thought that went through Buffy's head was not 'Oh, Angel! Why didn't you tell me that you were back? I've missed you and our bloody Soap opera like romance and now I want to be with you forever even if we can't really DO anything.' Neither was it: 'oh Angel you bastard how could you do this to me? How could you come back? Wasn't killing you enough of a clue for you to know that I don't love you?' it was not even: 'Hey, Angel, what're you doing out of hell?'

It was:

Oh, shit

As she dropped a watermelon that she had been carrying-she didn't even realize she had been holding it. Her next thought was:

Ow!

As it fell on her foot, and after that:

Spike is so going to kill me.

"Angel." She managed to sputter. "What are you doing here?"

For a moment he didn't answer and Buffy went over her question just to make sure she had said it in English it had been quite a while since she had spoken in her native tongue. She concluded that indeed she was, but Angel was just standing there, staring at her with amazing intensity. He looked just like she remembered him, except his eyes which looked kinda funny.

Suddenly he crushed her in a desperate, bruising bear hug, one that she didn't return.

Oh, so that was emotion she saw in his eyesooooooh! Well, that was sort of a first.

"God, Buffy I thought you were dead." He murmured into her hair, pulling her as close to himself as he could. Taking in everything that was Buffy, even if this might be the last he ever got to hold her. At least that what he deserved, not that that stopped him from hoping he would have her again. She always did come back to him, they were meant to be together, that much he knew.

"Can't say I wasn't thinking the same thing." She muttered as she tried very hard to push him off of her. Was he always this heavy and MASSIVE? Jeez! Did he want her to turn into one giant bruise with a side of Buffy? "Uh, Angel, uhm, Breathing, kinda becoming an issue here."

"Oh?" Angel said sounding surprised, and then finally caught her meaning and let her go. She instantly stepped away from him and wiped her palms on her thighs. "Right."

She nodded grimly at his realization.

"Buffy?" asked Sonja. Buffy glanced behind her to see Sonja and Annie still standing on the cobbled street. Sonja had lowered the cross and was looking at Angel quizzically. "What's going on? Who is this guy?"

Angel squinted at the two girls who Buffy had been talking to when he had interrupted. They were speaking in a language he didn't understand. Dutch, he presumed since they were in Holland. Buffy however nodded and responded in kind.

"Don't worry." She said to the pale blonde. "It's all fine."

"Buffy-"

"Fine."

"Buffy," Annie said sounding a little uncomfortable.

"Fine."

"You are telling us all about this later; especially if this is part of the reason you needed to run away from America." Sonja cut in. "do you understand Buffy Raleigh?"

Buffy would have replied but unfortunately, Angel caught most of her attention. He looked like a kicked puppy and a kid on Christmas morning at the same time. As if he was trying to decided whether to be tortured or be ecstatic, she waited for a twinge to come and confuse her.

But there was nothing.

There should have been something telling her to be sorry for him or to hate him or just for him to affect her in someway, after all, the last time she saw him, she had sort of figured she would never see him again. It was an unfortunate consequence of him being, well… dead.

Buffy just stared at him realizing that she felt nothing for him. Not a twinge, no sadness, no anger, no regret, no hate nor love.

He was like a ghost. A token of her past, reminding her of things she didn't want to remember. She wasn't that slayer anymore, she didn't belong in Sunnydale.

"What are you doing here?" they asked in unison, and he smiled. Her face remained stoic; she was not quite sure how she wanted to proceed with this turn on events. Angel was here which meant that something wiggy was going on over the hell mouth and she really did not want to go back to the Hellmouth.

"I've been looking for you." Angel said trying a different tactic.

This was not how he had envisioned this is his head. He had hoped that she would show some sort of emotion when she saw him. Actually, he had hoped she would be happy to see him, at least until his soul reared its head and declared that she needed to hate him for all he did to her. Either way, he would prefer it to this.

She stood there, just staring at him, no emotion, no feeling, no love and no hate. As if he was nothing.

To him she looked as if she was dead. As if she was dead inside, but she wasn't dead.

Before his soul could say anything thing else Buffy interrupted its sudden call for brooding. The last thing she needed was for Angel to turn into a big pile of goop on her watch.

"Oh." She said, she really wasn't sure what to say. Normal people would never be in this situation. When normal people's boyfriends died, they had a tendency to kinda stay dead.

She sorely wished Angel would just go away.

Angel frowned, he could practically feel her retreating. This was a lot colder a reception than he had hoped for. He studied the love of his life closely. She looked different, older, wiser. She even felt different, when he had hugged her, she was so distant, not at all the trusting little girl that he had fallen for, she had become a woman, and he loved her still loved her so much that his soul yearned for her even if it knew that it shouldn't. Her greeting maybe less overjoyed than he would have liked but at least she hadn't mentioned hell.

"So, how was hell?"

Well, that was direct.

"I'd really rather not talk about it." He said.

Buffy nodded, she glanced back to her friends, who had both calmed down somewhat when they realized that the vampire was not as much of a threat as they had first thought. She jerked her head, and Sonja nodded she mouthed 'call me later' and then tugged Annie away, leaving Angel and Buffy alone, staring at each other.

In a way, Angel was sad to see them go. They were a little like a buffer, that kept Angel and Buffy in the safe zone. And now, he was left alone in the presence of his love and was quite unable to meet her eyes until he really forced himself to. She met his with absolutely no problem. They were back in a position they had been in a hundred times before.

"And this will bring us back to the original question of what are you doing here?" Buffy said. She tried to keep the hostility out of her voice, but she just couldn't stop a tendril from worming its way in. she was happy in Amsterdam. She didn't want to go home. She didn't belong there anymore.

Angel spared her a puzzled smile.

"What do you mean what am I doing here?"

Buffy cocked an eyebrow, had he always been this tiresome? (AN: YES!)

"What is your purpose for being here in front of me?"

Angel stared at her incredulously for a few seconds.

"How could you ask me that?" Angel said. "I'm here to take you home."

Buffy almost smiled at him patronizingly.

"Angel," she said, she put her hand on his arm and pushed him so that he would see something over his shoulder. His eyes got very bright when she touched him. "Home, is that blue door over there," she pointed to a blue door to a nice townhouse across the canal. "And I can walk myself."

Author's note: I wonder if you guys missed this!

Choose THEIR own adventure:

Obviously, Angel isen't here alone, the Scoobies would never send just him right? So pick two:

a) Joyce

b) Giles

c) Willow

d) Dawn

e) Oz

f) Cordy

Send in your votes, I can't write the next chapter without you:D (well, I can, it'd just be less fun)