"Wow. Jenny was not kidding, you look awful."
Angel scowled. "Thank you. That helps so much."
Buffy snickered then started to get him checked in for his appointment. "It shouldn't be too long," she told him. "The person in front of you actually called before you got here and canceled so you are next on the list."
He broke out into another coughing fit which made her wrinkle her nose up. She handed him a medical mask and a handful of cough drops. "There's a water fountain just inside those double doors if you need it."
He muttered thanks and went to go sit down. His butt had barely hit the cushion though before a nurse came out to call for him.
Buffy gave him a small wave as he passed back by her little window and he followed the nurse until they got to the right room. He felt like he explained what was going on with him to four different people, had a number of tests ran, had a lot of time just waiting around... but finally it did end.
Buffy made a pouting face at him as he made his way to the discharge desk. A young kid came up behind him just as he got to her and he let the little boy and his mom go first so he wasn't in the way when he chatted for a little while with Buffy.
She looked over his papers, got him to sign what he needed and set him up with a follow up visit. She did a double look at the medicine they were sending him off to get filled and told him he should go to a different pharmacy than the one he'd put down.
She quickly made a note on the computer and made a phone call to a different store. "It's about five more minutes for the drive but you won't have to wait nearly an hour in the store" she told him.
"I appreciate it."
"No problem," she replied. "Is there anything you might need? I could drop something off once my shift is over or just tell Giles to pick something up."
He shook his head. "I think I'm good."
"Alright then. I will see you later in that case."
OoOoO
Three days later and he still felt awful. He'd go through bouts of feeling better then suddenly take three steps back in this road to recovery. And he was tired of it.
Groaning, he pulled himself up from the couch. His body ached with every damn move. He opened the door to find the bubbly blonde, she handed him a large bowl of soup. He thanked her as he took it from her then watched as she bent down to grab the small bag laid down at her feet. "I also brought you an I hope you feel better soon kit."
"Why does none of this ever surprise me?"
She shrugged and followed him inside. He sat down and sipped slowly on the food while she sat the bag down on the couch beside him and started to gather a few things out to show him then put away for him.
Most didn't go far, she helped make a little station out of one of his end tables with Kleenex, Germ-X, new cough drops and such. She picked up around the apartment despite his protests of saying she really didn't need to trouble herself, even washing the few dishes he had in his sink plus the bowl and spoon she'd brought over when he was done.
He groaned more as he moved positions on the couch and she made a face at him before going back to this bag of hers. He wondered how much she brought, it looked like it wasn't that big but she kept pulling shit out of it like a magician.
"Hold on a sec," she told him then disappeared into the bathroom. He heard the water running not long after.
Her head peeked out from the doorway. "Come here."
His face wrinkled up and he moaned and groaned the whole time but he made his way there. He looked at the bath tub that was now filling with water. "What's that?"
She grabbed a small bag and pour white things into the running water. "Bath salts should help your muscles feel better," she told him. Then she grabbed a green bottle and poured it in as well, it had a stronger scent than those salts. "And this is for a vapor bath, it should help the other gunk going on."
He looked at her, the filling bath, then her again. "You want me to get in there?"
"Yes, you big baby. It'll help you feel better."
He was silent for a moment. "I don't really... 'do' baths..."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "You will live. It will help. It won't make you any less manly or whatever." Eye roll again. "When is the last time you took some medicine?"
Angel told her he was about due for his next dose.
Buffy grabbed him some towels and placed them on the sink. "I'll grab you some clean clothes and you can take the bath, dry off, put some new comfy clothes on, take your pills and maybe get some rest and heal up a little better mmmk."
She didn't leave him much time to respond to that, slipping past him and heading for his closet.
His mouth opened to say something as she began digging around but no words came, he just watched until she came back. She laid two outfits out saying she didn't know what he might one, one was just some sweatpants and a shirt while the other was one of the pajamas she'd gotten him for Christmas. She'd also grabbed him some socks and boxers and a throw blanket since he kept wearing them as capes.
Buffy turned the water off and started for the door. "You can throw your dirty laundry out the door if you want. I'll stand over there and take the hamper over and start washing all this."
He sighed but just threw his hands up as a 'whatever then.' Buffy disappeared from sight and he groaned some more as he undressed. He put his discarded blanket and rest of what he was wearing outside the door with a long reach then closed the door.
He looked at the tub again once more before getting in.
OoOoO
When he was all done, he found Buffy putting a new pillow and blanket on his couch. She frowned and turned to face him. "Why don't you just go stay in the guest room? It's a lot more comfortable than sleeping on this thing and God knows you don't need to be trying to climb up there to the bed right now."
He knew that was some truth. He hadn't even attempted that in days, nearly killing himself getting down the ladder one morning. "Didn't seem right?"
"For Pete's Sake. You are impossible."
"Where are you going to sleep?"
"Well, there is a sofa bed in their living room that I am pretty acquainted with. Or I could always stay with Wil or something."
"I don't want to put you out."
She threw the pillow at him, barely missing. "You're not. Plus it'll put Jenny's mind at ease I am sure with her being able to keep a better eye on you. So, grab what you need and come over there."
He tried to argue with her again but it was useless. He wound up next door a few moments later.
He took his next dosage of the medicine Buffy's clinic had given him, got a drink and headed into the guest room. He waved her off when she started to tell him he need not worry, the bedding had been washed and everything. "It's all fine, Buffy. Thank you."
She fluttered around the room a little then let him get into bed. He barely even registered her turning the lights off and closing the door all but a crack before he passed out.
OoOoO
Angel had to admit he didn't feel perfect but he sure in the hell felt a lot better than he had since all this shit started. His body ached less and he had slept straight through the rest of the evening, night, and damn well past noon the following day and that didn't hurt matters either. He stretched and groggily said a greeting to Rupert once he made his way to the living room.
"How are you feeling?"
Angel told him he was much better and the two chatted for a few moments before he excused himself to the bathroom. He got a little more waked up then came back out. He didn't see that anyone else was at the house so asked Rupert what everyone had been up to before the older man told him there was a plate of food sitting in the microwave for him when he was ready.
He was starving so you didn't have to tell him twice. He hadn't eaten a real meal in days either. Attempted, and failed... so he was a little cautious and didn't eat too much but even just the small portion he had was next to heaven.
Rupert came to join him with a new cup of tea and they just talked while he ate, and then just sat there for a long time after. He rarely got a lot of time alone with him so it was actually kind of nice he decided.
OoOoO
Angel was able to return to work mid-way through the next week and he was thankful for that. With the weather getting even warm by the day work was flowing a little more which was nice as well. Every now and then he'd be able to pull a few extra hours in and started to feel a lot better about his current financial situation at the very least. He felt much better about being able to buy more things for himself and help out with things back at the house but mostly he put everything into savings in case he needed it for any number of reasons.
He'd even been able to pay for another trip back East. It hadn't been much of one and he didn't even bother staying overnight, just flew in, got what he needed handled then caught the first flight back out.
Any more lately anytime he even heard from his lawyer it'd about put him in a bad mood for the whole day after their discussion. He'd gotten some good news in the past few months but more often than not he was just annoyed with the whole thing period.
OoOoO
"What are we, ninety?" Angel asked as they pulled into the Bingo Hall.
Buffy laughed and shrugged. "It was Anya's idea. We're just going with it."
"They have Bingo and Trivia," Oz read as they all, plus Xander as well, all got out and started walking toward the door.
"I feel like we should be helping the old ladies make it across the parking lot or something," Xander commented... moments before he fell over not having seen the lift up to the sidewalk.
"Maybe they need to help you there Xan," Buffy laughed.
Once more, Angel found himself enjoying the evening much more than he thought. Bingo wasn't so bad, he wound up making a couple hundred and winning one of the raffles... not to mention his ego sure wasn't hurting from all the elderly ladies hitting on him the entire time. One lady had him damn near blushing and the others all rolling with laughter.
After Bingo they did head over to another part of the building to partake in the trivia section. The group broke up a little over there so now he was just walking around trying to find anyone that he knew, grabbing popcorn and cotton candy along the way. When he found Buffy she had drinks in her hand and smiled at him. "You have better goodies than me."
He offered some to her and thanked her when she handed his drink over. "You wanna come watch Oz? Somehow he found a giant Guitar Hero play off and is kind of killing it."
"Lead the way," he told her. They picked up Xander and Anya on the way and all took seats together to watch the show.
"This might be more interesting to watch than The Dingoes," Anya said and everyone looked at her.
"Don't tell him that," Angel chuckled.
OoOoO
"What kind of bucket do you want?"
"What?" Angel took a few steps back to where Buffy was and followed her line of sight. Easter supplies. "You cannot be serious."
"Um. Have you met me?"
"You're really thinking I'm going to be Easter egg hunting?"
She pursed her lips together and nodded. "Sorry, not sorry. It's gonna happen. Soooo... what kind do you want? Or do you want me to go ahead and choose for you?"
He shook his head and they looked through the isles worth of Easter decorations, baking supplies, premade baskets, candy and more. She about filled the entire shopping cart full of random things for the coming holiday.
As soon as they'd gotten back to the house, she already started putting some of the decorations up and sorted through craft supplies. Again, she saved some for the house for them to do and made some bags for Rupert to put up in the library for the kids at school. She made a list of various egg hunting and events coming up and threatened him when he joked about there was no way he was taking any photos with an Easter Bunny.
OoOoO
By the time Easter actually came, Angel had taken about five different photos with various Easter Bunnies, he had more candy and small toys such as stampers and bouncy balls than one person would ever need.
He was pretty sure he hadn't been to as many events in his entire lifetime for Easter than he had in the past few weeks. He'd even started just giving away what he got after all was said and done at some of these events.
Angel did have to admit he was having fun though.
There was childlike wonder inside of Buffy and she seemed to instill it into anyone and everyone around her every time.
He was sure that had anyone else in the past two decades asked him to do any of this shit he'd have looked at them like they were crazy. He looked at Buffy like she was crazy all the time, too, but he went. He did all the things. And he enjoyed himself with activities you couldn't have paid him to do before.
Angel put his blue marker back into the bucket then held up his drawing for Jenny to see. She laughed and he waited for her to get done with hers before the got up off the tiny picnic table and handed them to the lady at the head of this craft table. He scanned the large area and was mentally checking off what activities he'd done since getting here... the egg hunt, photos, petting zoo area...
"Come on!"
He turned slightly and felt Buffy's hand grabbing his. "Where are we going?"
"Give that to Giles," she said, using her other hand to take the bucket he was holding and handing it to her father. "We'll be back," she called out and started pulling him along.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
Next thing he knew he was standing at the top of a barn. Buffy turned around to face him and slowly backed up the edge. She giggled as she closed her eyes, held her arms out and let herself fall backward. He stepped forward to watch as she fell down into the endless amount of hay below. She disappeared when she landed, huge pieces of loose hay flying up in every direction.
For that split second before she fell he felt a strange sensation in his chest again.
Earlier, when he had opened the door and found her on the other side it'd struck him out of nowhere. She stood there in a little sundress and sandals, bunny ears and her face painted with a little nose and whiskers and he'd felt strange as he looked at her. It was like it was hard to breathe for a second.
She turned around and shook her behind at him to show him the poof of a bunny tail she was also sporting and when she laughed he'd felt almost dizzy. For a moment his mind seemed to scream that he wanted to just kiss her.
It'd hit so fast and out of nowhere... and he'd had a hard time shaking it. He'd been trying ever since.
She'd done a face painting on him when they'd first gotten here and that hadn't exactly helped either. She was too close and he felt like he was blushing the entire time. He was wondering if it'd been just too damn long since ringing in the New Year with Faith.
Finally, Buffy emerged from the depths of the hay pile from hell. She looked at him and shook and yet it was sticking out from everywhere... her hair was a mess, she took her shoes off and shook them and fell about four times as she attempted to move out of the way. She beamed up at him and shouted for him to come. He shook his head at her but did it anyway. He mimicked what she'd done minutes ago and soon was racing toward the ground.
Buffy laughed so hard she nearly doubled over. He just looked at her. She waved a hand in the air then tried helping brush the itchy yellowness off of him. He plucked a few out of her hair then just gave up. "I think you just have to look like this now."
Buffy laughed harder.
OoOoO
A month passed before Angel started to really give more to these random moments of lust toward his favorite blonde.
He had brushed it off for any number of things and yet couldn't seem to shake it, and they were happening much more frequently than he'd like to admit. He had even avoided her one entire weekend and he had attempted two dates that Jenny set him up on - she had mentioned her coworker before but he had told her the first time it'd been brought up that he just wasn't interested in dating or being with someone again yet but he hoped it'd put an end to all this mess with Buffy - but that hadn't helped one damn bit.
In fact, he was pretty sure it made it worse.
"You're acting weird."
Angel's head snapped up. "What?"
"You're acting weird," Buffy repeated. "You keep looking at me like you're mad at me."
He cleared his throat and sat up more in his seat. "Sorry. I'm not, why would I be?"
"I don't know either, Angel," she gave him a pointed look.
He cleared his throat again. "I just... Nah, I just have a lot on my mind. I was kind of spaced out anyway, sorry."
Buffy sat his orange juice down then grabbed both of their plates and returned to the table, sitting down to eat. Skating had become an every other Saturday thing for the two of them and this was their week off so she began throwing out different ideas of something all of them might want to do.
"Oh, wasn't there a movie you wanted to see?" Jenny asked Rupert.
Buffy got interested right away. "Really? An actual movie, a new movie, in a theater and you want to see it?" she asked. "I think that's a must do."
OoOoO
Angel had watched movies alongside Buffy but going out to one hadn't been on the list of many activities they had done together. Probably because it was "normal" he joked in his head. Usually they were off doing something wild and crazy.
While Rupert got their tickets together, Buffy dragged him over to the small arcade area in the corner and they played a few games before being called back over to pick out snacks. He shook his head once she was done placing her order.
"For as much junk food as you eat, how in the hell are you so damn tiny?" he had to ask.
Buffy shrugged, biting into a piece of a Red Vine. He had to carry half of the stuff from the counter to their seat since there was so much there. Buffy sat at the end of the row, her father then Jenny sitting between the two of them but it didn't bother him. Buffy made sure he didn't know he was forgotten about in a million different silly ways through the movie.
After it was over, Rupert mentioned he didn't even remember the last time he'd gone to a movie with her but Buffy did. Her face lit up as she reminded him of one of the last work related events her mother had been part of, how everyone had gotten tickets for their families to come watch a movie, got free popcorn and drinks.
Buffy's face was elated by reliving the memories, talking about how she remembered it was so cold outside and so cold inside the movie theater, that he had gone out to the car to bring her a blanket in. They watched the Christmas movie then had snuck in after it was over to another room and saw a second one before calling it quits.
Jenny had told stories of how when Angel was little it was one of the things they had done together the few times she'd gotten to come visit him on the ride toward the diner they had decided to stop at before heading home. The rest of the evening Buffy went off for a girls' night out with Willow then Sunday came and they all, plus Xander and Anya, made a zoo trip.
An older couple had sat behind them on the little electric train ride and while they'd been whispering to themselves both he and Buffy had heard them making comments about them as if they were a couple. She had that sly look on her face he was familiar with right before she rested her head on his shoulder and cuddled close.
Playing along - and kind of not - he wrapped one of his arms around her and their fingers entwined, staying that way for the whole ride. He'd barely held it together when their show really got put on when they started just carrying on a conversation as if they were together, loud enough that they knew the two behind them could hear.
OoOoO
Angel knocked on the door and waited for the invite before stepping inside. Jenny looked shocked to see him and quickly got up, asking him if something was wrong. He quickly eased those fears out of her mind and told her he just needed to talk to her.
That brought on a whole new worried look on her face. He'd only had a half day at work today due to some schedule changes the previous week and he knew she had this hour typically free during these summer school hours... so here he was.
Angel knew that while it was her free hour, sometimes she'd use it for meetings and more often to catch up and plan for other things so he checked to make sure he wasn't messing something up before taking a seat in one of the desks in the front row in front of her large desk.
This probably wasn't the best time or place to get into this, but he'd been fighting the urge to come clean to her now for weeks and came to her on a whim almost.
So, Angel sat here and repeated he just wanted to talk to her about something... then he started to explain he thought there was someone he was starting to have feelings for, had been for awhile now actually.
"And... it's probably not the best person that I should be looking at in that kind of light..."
"Oh, no," Jenny said. "I love you, Angel... but please, for all that is holy, please don't tell me you've started to fall for Eve."
His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What?! No! God, no!"
She let out a sigh of relief. "Well! You did say twice in the past month she had tried contacting you!"
"She had but I had nothing to say back to her! Christ, Jen. Eve? No, I'm not having feelings for Eve."
"Good. I couldn't handle that."
Angel had to laugh and shake his head. "No, no," he told her. "It's someone you actually like... just probably not with me. And... I don't even know where she stands on anything and..." he mumbled on but was interrupted by another teacher sticking her head in and asking for help.
Jenny tried to push it back but Angel told her it was alright. "It can wait," he quickly said and was already standing. "I'll talk to you later alright?" And then he spent the rest of the afternoon wishing he hadn't even gone because suddenly all he could see were the negatives of this whole situation.
OoOoO
"Buffy! I didn't know you were coming by tonight."
She smiled. Angel noted she looked a little extra dressed up tonight. And then cursed himself for noticing it. "Well, I hadn't been planning on it," she admitted. "I actually just was breezing through to grab a pair of shoes."
"Do you not have enough at your apartment?"
Buffy shot a look at her dad before going off to the guest room and a moment later she was back, already working on putting them on as she leaned in the small hallway between the living room and kitchen. "I do," she finally answered. "But these one look better with my dress. And I have a date that I'm actually kind of excited about for once soooo... I wanted to look extra cute."
Rupert started to ask her a few questions and something about his face or body language or something must have given it away because Jenny had this light bulb turning on look on her face and she stared at him hard.
His jaw set and he shook his head so this could be discussed at a later time, away from the other two people in the room right now.
Jealousy was new. He felt it rush through him. Not overwhelmingly but just a dull pain. It only made it more apparent to him that this wasn't something he was getting rid of so easily.
OoOoO
"Buffy?!" Jenny asked, her eyes wide.
Angel pursed his lips together and took a seat on the small couch in the apartment. "Yeah."
"Well, I mean..." her head cocked to the side a little, her hand going up to her neck, "It makes sense in many ways but..." she trailed off. "Is it because she looks like Darla?"
"What?! Buffy doesn't look like Darla. At a glance maybe... small, blonde... yeah but no. Gross. And Buffy couldn't be otherwise more different than Darla."
Jenny nodded. "That is true." She took a moment then came to sit beside him. "So... like... real feelings for her?"
Angel shrugged. "I don't know. Yes?"
"For how long?"
"Easter..."
"Easter? That was in April. It's the start of June... and you've just been carrying that around?"
He shrugged again. "I was hoping it'd go away. I thought I was imagining it or something... I don't know. She was just there in front of the door on Easter with bunny ears on her head and... I just felt... well, it's going to sound weird putting it that way but I felt attracted to her. She just smiled in this way that I could feel it in my bones and I just wanted to grab her and kiss her. And it hit me again later and time and again. It goes beyond that, too... I am never happier than with I am with her. I have fun, she makes me laugh. I've had more fun with her in the past several months than I did in all my years with Darla, like I feel more myself somehow. Which sounds dumb."
"No, it doesn't," she cut in softly.
"Maybe it's just that... just that I haven't bothered trying to really be with someone else, maybe it's just natural to fall into that because I happen to spend the most time with her. But... something is there for whatever reason. I'm happy when I'm with her, when I get some random ass text message from her, when I spend an hour on the phone with her every now and then just talking about random shit."
"That actually sounds pretty natural."
He shrugged. "Trying to get them to just pass and life to go back to normal."
She was quiet for a moment, then, "It's not like it's a bad thing... You can do a lot worse than Buffy."
"It just feels wrong."
"Why?"
He shrugged again. "She's Rupert's daughter for one thing. Then... I don't know. She's all bright and shiny over there and I'm just getting this new life of mine going. I don't want to dump my crap all on her. And hell to begin like I said earlier it's not like she's over there even wanting any of this so... yeah."
"I will admit it seems a little complicated but that doesn't mean it's wrong," Jenny told him. "Yes, Buffy if Rupert's daughter but that isn't an issue... he adores you, you know that. And it's not like you guys are family by blood, you're not first cousins over here or something," she told him with a laugh. "You're family by other means and that can cover a whole lot of ground. Whether you two are friends or more, if that worked out or even if you guys gave it a shot and something didn't work out... you're still both family to us. And it's not like either one of you are purposefully going to just be out to hurt the other so..."
"Yeah. I know."
"I think it could be a good thing… if it ever came to be. Don't down it before any steps are even taken. Maybe everything will just fall into place naturally..."
"Yeah. Maybe."
OoOoO
It felt good to at least say the words out loud to someone, it eased a lot off of his shoulders Angel found. He still fully enjoyed spending time with Buffy... their weekends were still full of adventures, he still talked to her almost daily, he was still as much part of her world as she was his but it had changed in other ways.
Sometimes he had a hard time listening to her talk about the guy she was seeing, or would have trouble not up and saying something he shouldn't, or a few times having to restrain himself from just grabbing her and kissing the hell out of her in those moments where she just would have that look on her face as if she was made of fucking sunshine.
The fact that it was now much warmer didn't help with those type of feelings either. Constantly less clothing on everyone's bodies now, going swimming constantly, heat making him lose his damn mind all the more.
OoOoO
"How do you feel about camping?"
"Like in a tent?"
"Well, maybe a tent or like a rented cabin."
"Does it really matter what I even say to this?"
"In the long run, no. But it might be nice to see how much convincing I need to do between now and the fourth."
Angel shook his head. "Nah, none. Sign me up, let me know when and where. It sounds fun."
Buffy smiled. "Well. Okay then. That was easy."
Angel shrugged and continued working on the repairs on the decorative fence in the front yard by Jenny's little flower garden. Buffy took a seat on the porch step and started scrolling through her phone at different options, every now and then asking him what he thought about something or stopping to show him a photo of a campground or whatever.
Every now and then she'd go inside to ask Jenny or Rupert something as well. By the time he had finished, she had pretty much planned the entire little vacation out.
OoOoO
"Did we buy enough food for a four day trip, or did we buy enough to feel a small country?"
Buffy looked over at everyone's carts and shrugged. "We may have gone overboard. But! But it's not all food!"
That was true... tucked away in the garage had been a number of things they already had packed and ready to go. He'd helped make sure everything was in working order prior to the trip. Then they had worried about what they didn't have and still needed to get.
Shopping with Buffy was always an experience. And shopping on an empty stomach was never a good idea.
OoOoO
"Do you plan on helping with the setting up part?"
Buffy made a face. "I wasn't. At least not with any of... that," she waved at the tent.
He chuckled and told her to get her ass up. She grumbled at him most of the time but it wasn't too terribly long until their campsites were set up, items all squared away and out of the cars. They all took a little tour around the grounds before he came back and started grilling a few things up.
Once everyone had eaten, she had dragged him up the road to one of the little playgrounds that were offered to the guests. "It gets any hotter, I'm gonna have to make you carry me over to the pool."
"I don't know about lugging you around but the rest sounds good."
"Yeah?"
"Mmhmm."
Somehow he got roped into racing with her up to the pool which was nearly on the other side of grounds after getting changed. He waited around a corner until she caught up to him, lifted her up and wasted no time just chucking her in. There weren't any other guests around surprisingly, but a couple had shot him some looks as she screamed flying through the air and then making a huge splash.
Buffy started playfully yelling at him as soon as she came back up for air but he didn't catch all of it, jumping in his own self and swimming to the other side of the large pool from her.
By the time they finally decided to get out, Angel thought he just might be full blown in love with his girl rather than some weird ass crush hitting him on repeat. It was one thing that of course she was beautiful... whether she was waking up with a bird's nest in her head, dressed up as something silly, ready to go out on the town... no matter what she was stunning.
It was one thing that her body had to attract every male who could catch a view of her in their eyesight. Seeing her in a tiny little bikini sure didn't make him feel any less of that lust to touch her and stare at her and wish he could see what little was still covered.
But beyond all of that... it seriously was he just enjoyed the fuck out of being with her. Acting like kids, splashing, chasing each other around a pool, making up stupid games to play with one another... that was what struck him more about her. Going back and forth between doing all of that or just floating around on inflatables just talking or hell even being in silence together felt like it was noteworthy when it came to it happening with her.
OoOoO
As night fell, Angel grilled up their dinner and they got to see some fireworks going off early all around them in the distance. Buffy went over their plans for the next few days one more time and then everyone just kind of relaxed until one by one calling it a night.
Buffy was already passed out in the tent they would be sharing when he came back after taking a shower, changing into some sleep clothes and just getting ready for bed. He couldn't help but brush a loose strand of her long blonde hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. She'd taken up nearly all of the air mattress they had set up so he did his best to slide in beside her without disturbing her.
OoOoO
The majority of their Fourth Of July was spent at a water park. For a major holiday it wasn't as crowded as he expected and fully enjoyed that aspect. He was wore out by the time they did all decide to head out and took a long nap when they got back to camp. When he finally did wake up it was dark and they were all packing up to go watch fireworks.
Buffy made sure every last one of them was wearing red, white and blue. They all had glowing bracelets, hats or light up headbands.
They watched a huge show that a hotel put on over the water. A concert also played off to the side before and after so there was music, dancing... being goofballs the entire time. They went out for some ice cream before going back to the camp where he wound up building a fire and making some late night snacks.
The day after they went to an amusement park that was tied up with the campground they had decided to stay at. He was tired from the day before but he knew one hundred percent he would be after all they did. He was pretty sure he'd ridden every single ride they had to offer - including all of the kiddie ones because, of course, Buffy insisted.
They did all the rides, took a million photos, did every game they had... bought tons of gifts, food... just generally enjoyed their day as best they could.
Then their final day, again they mostly stayed close to camp. They played on the playground, swam... went to two museums and then packed up and headed back to Sunnydale where they pretty much all just got what they absolutely had to get out of the car and slept and slept and slept.