A.N. I give in. Here's chapter 5 :D

- 5 -

It didn't by-pass Maria's gaze when Angel returned that he had changed clothes and his hair was damp. Clearly he held the view that being vomited on merited a full shower. Maria felt the flush of embarrassment return. Still, no amount of shame could stop her gaze from following Angel as he walked over to Wesley. Wearing a white long sleeved tee with black jeans, he was rating high on her eye candy scoring. Her appreciation, however, was interrupted by the appearance of a glass tumbler of whisky pointedly blocking her line of sight.

"Don't even think about going there. He's strictly a look but don't touch kinda deal."
Maria looked up at Cordelia as she accepted the drink.
"Oh...right. Are you and he..?"
Maria was surprised at Cordelia's expression, a mixture of horror and amusement.
"Oh my God. No! Sooo much no!"
Maria lowered her voice to a whisper.
"So, he's gay? Is he with Wesley?"
Cordelia stalled.
"Oh crap. Thanks for the image. Gross! No, he's not gay and neither is Wesley...At least...I don't think Wesley is...Nahh. That's just his prissy accent."
"So how come he's apparently off the menu?"
Cordelia snorted and choked on her mouthful of whisky.
"Menu? That's a good one! No, really. It's a long story. Just take my word for it girl, he's not up for grabs, better you get over it and look somewhere else."

Sometimes his heightened auditory senses meant that Angel had to work at appearing not to have heard other people's conversations as clearly as if they were speaking directly to him. But even he had to work particularly hard to shrug off the creepy thought of himself and Wesley being together. It wasn't that he hadn't had his past experiences of same gender sex. Hell, even he and Spike had...But, this was, well...Wesley!

Angel shook his head, clearing the unwanted visuals and turning his focus back to the job at hand.
"So. What do I need to do to kill this thing?"
Wesley glanced up from his research.
"It seems straight forward actually. Any weapon made of brass will suffice. I believe we have a rather attractive brass short sword in the weapons cabinet that should do the job admirably."
"Alright then. That's that side of things taken care of. Now, what about this guy's speed? Anything we can do to slow this sonovabitch down at all?"
Wesley's eyes widened.
"Oh...Am I right in assuming that's how he got away the first time?"

Angel strummed his fingers on the desk top and nodded.
"This guy's fast Wes. At least as fast as me and heights don't phase him. He managed to get over a 25 foot high wall with no problems. If there's any way we can hinder him, any way at all, it would make for a useful advantage."
"Right. Leave it with me. I'm sure I can come up with something to help. Of course, another thing that could be quite beneficial in this whole endeavour, would be some vague clue as to where the beast might be holed up."

Angel tilted his head slightly and held a hand up, signalling Wesley to quiet down.
"Actually, I don't think that's gonna be much of a problem for us."
"What? Why not?"
"Well, judging by the sound of the roar I just heard, I'd say he's currently on the sidewalk right outside the building."

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