DISCLAIMER: Nope.
SUMMARY: Morning After & Other Fairytales 'verse. Set in a parallel BtVS3. It was strange for a first step in better relations with Buffy's friends, but this was the Hellmouth, and stranger things had happened...
WORDCOUNT: 1345

Written for Raya. Prompt: jack'o lantern.

HALLOWEEN, TAKE II
by Leni

Angel had seen many weird things in this library: Severed tentacles that had crawled out of the Hellmouth, Joyce acting like a teenager, Cordelia and Xander kissing... but all those paled in comparison to this.

He'd barely stepped into the room when he caught sight of his girlfriend. He had to laugh at the picture of her.

Buffy swirled at the sound and, blushing, managed to scowl at him. A darker glare came when her friends joined him with some giggles. Angel coughed, a successful attempt to check his laughter, and tried to look understanding. It didn't work. "You're really doing it?" He couldn't help it if he sounded amused. He was amused.

"Snyder didn't get any more human this year, and apparently he was 'pleased' with my performance last year."

"Didn't you lose your kids?"

"Believe me, I reminded him." She sighed. "He smiled. It was very scary."

Angel nodded, knowing better than to point out she'd faced scarier things than a creepy principal. To steer her off the subject (or she'd go on forever and then the other kids would chime in their personal protests against the man), he smiled and took her hand, taking a step back to look carefully over her costume. "What are you?"

"Oh man." Xander sighed as he shook his head disapprovingly. "Join the century?"

Angel ignored the boy; but Buffy's expression reflected that same thought. "Weeeeeeell, I thought I'd go as this really cool girl who studies by day and saves the world by night, but I thought wearing a 'Slayer' sign would be confusing."

"And not good for your secret identity," Willow piped in.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Please. As if anyone in this town didn't know it already."

"Supergirl."

Angel looked at Oz with a frown.

"My costume," Buffy explained, and she turned around to show it off. "Close enough, don't you think?" she asked when she faced him again. Angel hoped she wasn't expecting an answer. She wasn't. She'd obviously forgotten she'd asked something when she suddenly smiled dreamily. "And I thought, well, if anyone does the same mojo as last year it'll be really cool to be able to fly."

Behind her Cordelia gave a small snort. "Nice to see she's got her priorities straight. What?" she added at her boyfriend's look. "Last Halloween she had all the fun playing princess while I was stuck saving her. I'd like a whimpering-free night this time, thanks."

Buffy rolled her eyes and her lips moved in what Angel guessed was a prayer for patience. Or a quiet insult. But otherwise she didn't answer. Instead she happily focused back on him. "Why are you here? Not that I'm not happy, I am!" she was quick to add. "It's just that...well, you, uh...."

Avoided the high school, and especially the library, as much as he could under the circumstances? Thankfully nobody commented, not even Xander. Angel shrugged; he'd thought to take Buffy out tonight, make the most of the only night in the year where she wouldn't feel guilty at being on a date instead of patrolling. "Doesn't matter now," he said instead. It really didn't. She had other plans, and the other guys had Bronzing written clearly in their eyes. He didn't want to ruin her night out with her friends, if that was what she chose - and he didn't want her to feel she had to choose.

"Maybe there's an Apocalypse. Angel always brings the best news," Xander groused, obviously only half-joking.

Buffy considered that. "I'd take the End of the Days over herding a pack of sugar-high kids," was her final decision. She looked hopefully at her boyfriend.

He shook his head. "I just thought...." But there were four curious faces that weren't Buffy's and he trailed off. He should be used to the Scooby's constant presence, but somehow he'd believed that tonight he could have Buffy all to himself. Turned out that he'd share her with primary school children first, and between that and the Bronze, Angel doubted she'd have any time for him left.

"You thought?" Buffy prodded.

"Nothing important."

Buffy looked disappointed but didn't call him on it. The four behind her wisely kept quiet.

Then Oz coughed. "Five past seven."

Buffy gasped and her eyebrows shot up in alarm. "I'm five minutes late! Snyder can't expel me for five minutes, can he?" Nobody looked too reassuring. Buffy heaved a big sigh. "Damn. I swear, if some big monster ever tries to eat him, I'm so not helping him!" she huffed as she hurried out of the library, her short cape fluttering behind her.

Angel turned around to follow. If Buffy wasn't here, then his business was over. It had been uncomfortable to come within these doors in the first place, and he looked forward to ending the experience. Whatever Buffy said, he felt the library didn't welcome him anymore - if it ever really had.

"Angel, wait!"

He stopped and turned back towards the voice. Willow took a deep breath for valour. "Is it true that demons lay down tonight?"

Were they planning to go somewhere else than to the Bronze? "In most places," he answered truthfully, "but here...." He didn't think he needed to say more. Surely they'd remember last year's disaster, and it wasn't as if they'd managed to keep track of Rayne afterwards.

"So you aren't going to patrol?" Willow continued.

Angel frowned at the oddity of the question, not the question itself but rather that it'd been addressed to him. Buffy's friends and he rarely interacted unless she was present or the world was at stake. "Guess not."

Willow grinned and gave a meaningful look at her boyfriend. Oz was better than Angel deciphering the meaning. He immediately got up, went to the office and when he came back, he was carrying a...

"A Jack'o lantern?"

"That he knows?" Cordelia sounded really surprised.

Willow was still smiling. "We thought you might want to put it at your front door tonight."

Angel accepted the offered pumpking, mostly because he was too surprised not to. He blinked, though, trying to find the right comment to accept this - gift?

"Trick or treat, man," Xander interrupted. "Please say you know about that."

Angel thought he was getting good at ignoring Xander. He raised a questioning eyebrow at Willow.

The girl nodded. "What Xander said. We thought someone might knock on your door, ask for candy, you know."

"But I don't have any candy." He furrowed his brow. So many months around these kids and they were still a mystery when they tried. And, oh, were they trying now!

Willow also frowned, shook her head a little. That small gesture that said someone hadn't understood what she wanted to say, and that it was rather simple. Angel was sad to admit it was a look normally reserved for Buffy during Calculus tutoring.

"Come on, Angel. Someone!" Xander groaned. "Someone as in blonde, five feet something, currently dressed in a very tight, very... ouch!"

Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her boyfriend.

"A fitting costume." Willow turned to Oz, eyebrow high. The boy shrugged. "A superhero outfit for a real life superhero. It's fitting." He scratched his chin. "Kind of ironic, too." He chuckled to himself, then smiled at Willow. She smiled back.

"That's what I meant!" Xander cried. "Fitting, not tight. Aren't they synonymous?"

Both girls rolled their eyes.

Angel took his chance to leave while the four bickered - well, the three. Oz just nodded when Willow said something and looked kindly at Xander as he was assaulted by both girlfriend and best friend. He took the jack'o lantern with him, on a whim. It was strange for a first step in better relations with Buffy's friends, but this was the Hellmouth, and stranger things had happened...

...such as Xander's voice calling out to him. "We'll send her your way, Dead Boy!"

For once, Angel almost didn't mind the nickname. Maybe he could still enjoy this quiet night as he'd first planned to.

The End
04/11/06

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