A/N: And the next chapter! Enjoy!!!!
Disclaimer: don't own anything...
Later that night, Buffy was trying on different outfits for her date with Angel. Willow sat on the bed behind her, sorting through a box of pictures and watching Buffy run around in a panic.
"Should I wear the pink or the black?" Buffy asked, holding identical dresses, one in pink, the other in black.
"Well, you know if you wear the black you and Angel will match" Willow smiled.
Buffy wrinkled her nose and nodded. "Pink it is! He needs more shades of color in his life." She tossed the black dress on the bed and Willow frowned as it narrowly missed her "photo-album worthy" pile.
"Yes he does" Willow agreed. "So what are you kids going to do tonight?"
"Oh, you know, the usual" Buffy sighed, smoothing out the knee-length dress and turning to look in the mirror. "Well start with coffee and a movie, only to be interrupted by a smelly demon crashing into the theater, getting blood all over me. On second thought, maybe I should wear the black."
"I think you guys will be okay" Willow said, hopping up to help Buffy tie the halter top on the dress. "Faith and Spike are taking some of the girls out, so there will be plenty of other people to keep the peace."
Buffy smiled. "So how are you doing Wil? We haven't got a chance to talk since Angel came back."
"Oh, I'm okay" Willow smiled. "I'm glad Angel is here. You forget how much you really missed someone until they show up."
"I know" Buffy agreed. "Still thinking about Oz?"
Willow shrugged. "Not too much. I still want to know what happened to him, where he is, how he's doing, you know? It would be nice to know that he's okay."
Buffy reached and pulled Willow into a hug. "We'll find him Willow. You and I can do some research tomorrow while the girls are packing"
"Ok" Willow agreed. "Ok, you go on your date! I am going to finish this and give it to Dawn"
"Ok ladies!" Spike said, pacing back and forth in front of three of the slayers. "Tonight, me and Faith are in charge. We are going to do a quick sweep of all the hot spots and have you kiddies in bed before Spongebob comes on."
"We don't watch Spongebob Spike." Yuki frowned.
"Well, I do" Spike said, making everyone snicker. "So we will be careful and have some-"
"Ooo you look nice Buffy!" Lauren said. She and Yuki ran over to the older slayer and gushed over her dress. Faith smiled at the look on Spike's face at the girls ignoring him.
"You might as well get used to it Spike" Faith teased. Spike threw her a look and Faith caught herself shivering. Spike smirked and walked over to lower his mouth to her ear.
"What's wrong pet?" he whispered, his voice dripping with lust. "Cold?" He was pleased to find that Faith tilted her head up to his voice, as if inviting him to move his lips closer.
"Angel!" the two young slayers called, and Faith and Spike broke apart. Faith took a step away from Spike and looked up to see Angel had entered the room.
"I thought we told you to go with the red sweater?" Yuki frowned, looking at the blue one under his coat. Angel had been looking at Buffy and saw her lift an eyebrow.
"Taking fashion advise from teenagers?" Buffy smiled. Angel gave her a smile and then glared at the two girls.
"What? It's not like you listen to us anyway" Lauren shrugged.
"Come on girls" Spike said, holding the door open as Faith, Lauren, and Yuki walked out into the night. "See you kids later" he said to Buffy and Angel.
"You look beautiful" Angel said honestly. Buffy stayed with the pink dress and the way Angel was looking at her, she was glad she did. She took a moment to take in his handsome form. He was wearing his usual outfit, but he looked better than usual.
"So do you" she smiled. Angel offered his hand and they walked out the door, ready to see what the night had in store for them.
Meanwhile, Dawn and Connor were in the house holding the fort down. They were in the living room, packing boxes for the move. They occasionally chatted, but every time they got into a nice conversation, a group of girls would run through.
"I can't wait until we get to the hotel" Connor said. "I want a whole floor to myself!"
"Won't you get lonely?" Dawn asked.
"No, you guys can come visit." he told her. "Just not hoards of teenage girls at one time."
Dawn giggled, then she mentally kicked herself for giggling. Every time she was around Connor, she always seemed to do something stupid. It drove her crazy. She seemed to inherit her sisters luck of falling for the wrong guys, but not her sisters luck with the guys. Dawn could not believe she had a crush on Angel's son. It was so wrong, she didn't even want to think about it.
She looked up and started to say something, but noticed that a few girls were flirting with Connor and he was flirting back. Dawn sighed and went back to her box. Good, that will stop me from thinking about him. It's for the best. Right?
"So that was nice" Buffy smiled. "We made it through a whole movie without one supernatural interruption."
"Different isn't it?" Angel smiled. He and Buffy were walking down the street hand in hand. Angel really missed this. He worked for so long to forget her, to let her move on to a better life, he almost forgot how happy just her touch made him. Time seemed to flow back to when they were first dating. But he knew it hadn't and they still needed to talk. But for now, he was content to hold her hand.
Buffy walked alongside Angel, easily falling back into routine with him. They used to walk everywhere on patrol, him quiet and her just happy to be with him. A lot had changed since then, but it was still the same to her. The two came to a small park and Angel led Buffy over to a bench.
"So" she said, sitting down and looking up into his face. "Angel, I feel like I need to say a few things to you. So I need you to just listen." Angel nodded and sat back, looking at her and wondering what she was going to say. She looked nervous and that made him nervous.
Buffy took a deep breath and began. "Angel, I'm not going to pretend things are great between us. A lot has happened and I've done a lot of stupid things since I last saw you. I mean, coming back from the dead really changes a person, but I want you to know something." Buffy paused and looked up into his deep eyes. "Angel, I've always loved you. Ever since that day I kicked your ass in that alley and you gave me my cross. I knew that I was supposed to be yours."
"Buffy" Angel said, taking her face in his hands. "You are mine. Just like I'm yours, but it wasn't enough-"
Buffy pulled back. "Angel if you start that whole what's best for me speech, I swear I will stake you."
Angel smirked. "I wasn't going to. I was going to say that it wasn't enough then. I tried to move on. I really did. But nothing ever compared."
"I know, me too!" Buffy cried. Riley, Parker, Spike, all of them never compared to who she knew was in her heart. The first two she really didn't care about, but she hurt Spike time and time again because he wasn't Angel. It wasn't his fault, but she already belonged to someone.
"Angel, I'm so tired of this" Buffy sighed. "I know that I will never be completely happy if I'm not with you and I don't want to run anymore."
"Buffy, there's still-" he began slowly.
"The curse?" she asked. "I know. But Angel, if you are willing to work around it, then so am I. I'm not convinced that we can't find a way."
"I'm not sure there is" Angel sighed. "But it doesn't matter to me if you are okay with it."
Buffy smiled and Angel brushed her tears away. "I'm okay with it. So Angel?"
Angel smiled widely at her, making her heart flutter and he reached into his pocket. "I think you should take this back." he said pulling out a small silver ring. Buffy felt her jaw drop. "I landed on it when I came back from hell and decided to hold onto it for you."
He lifted her hand and put on the ring she left behind so many years ago. "I thought it was lost" she admitted. Once her ring was in place, she looked up at him and lifted the same hand to his face. Angel closed his eyes as her fingertips brushed his cheek and he caught her hand in his, turning his head and planting a firm kiss on her palm.
"Angel" Buffy whispered as he leaned forward and gently touched his lips to hers. He kissed them lightly and waited for her to respond. It didn't take long for Buffy to run her lips back and forth over his. He smiled for a second before cupping her face and crashing his lips firmly into hers. Buffy gasped at the sudden movement and Angel took the opportunity to run his tongue over hers. The kiss deepened and the two forgot everything else but each other. After so long, this was where they belonged.
"Can we go home?" Yuki asked. "Nothing is going on out here!"
"We'll double back through the graveyard and head home then, ok?" Faith said, keeping on eye on the area and one eye on Spike.
"I want to try to fight something!" Lauren complained. She hadn't gotten to try out her slayer skills yet and was itching to hit something.
"Calm down loves" Spike said. "I smell a little vampy around the corner. Smells like he just woke up too."
All three slayers perked up at the prospect and nodded. Now that Spike said something, Lauren could feel her slayer senses tingling. It was a funny feeling. She rarely ever felt it when Spike and Angel were around, but maybe she didn't know what to pay attention to. She made a note in her head to ask Faith about it later. The group walked further into the graveyard they had checked out once before and looked around. Spike looked at Faith to see her scanning the ground with her dark eyes. Something was different between them lately. She seemed more friendly towards him, and he didn't mind it at all. She caught him looking at her and he held her gaze for a moment.
"Over there!" Yuki hissed, pointing a few yards away. The ground was rising sightly, a pale hand extending from the turf and a male figure following it out. The new vampire shook the dirt off of his body and looked around lazily. He caught site of the group and frowned.
"Back from the dead for one minute and I already meet three slayers?" he said incredulously. "That has got to be a new record."
"Not really" Faith smirked, tossing a stake to Lauren. "Good luck" she said more to the demon than Lauren.
Buffy and Angel were both our of breath, her lips swollen from kissing. Angel smiled and instinctively nibbled on her lower lip, enticed by the warm blood there. Buffy pulled back, knowing she was going to jump on him if he continued that.
"That was nice" Buffy said, touching his lips.
"Nice?" he asked, taking her hand with his and kissing the back of it. Buffy giggled and jumped forward, hugging him tightly.
"Nice" she confirmed to his disappointment. "Wanna try for great?" Angel smirked and captured her lips again. Moments later, the two broke apart at hearing a far off noise that didn't sit well with either of them.
Buffy sighed, pulling her lips away and kissing him on the tip of his nose. "Well, it was nice while it lasted."
"At least we expected this to happen" Angel said, standing up and offering a hand to Buffy. "Let's go see what went bump in the night."
The two walked in the direction of the noise and soon found the culprit in an alley. Buffy and Angel stopped walking and stared at the person. He seemed to be ignoring both the slayer and vampire and was looking a map. He was a vampire, but Angel smelled something different about him that he couldn't place. Buffy was waiting for the guy to notice them.
"Um, hello?" she called after a minute. The man turned around to reveal he was a tall, dark haired Japanese man that looked strangely familiar, but neither could place from where. He studied the pair for a minute and looked intrigued.
"Buffy and Angel?" he said in a smooth, cool voice. "It's a pleasure I'm sure. You need not worry about me. I have business to attend to."
Slayer and souled vampire blinked. This was different. "So you want us to just leave?" Buffy asked. The vampire nodded and went back to reading his map. Angel and Buffy exchanged a look and wondered what to do. Buffy shook her head and crossed her arms.
"Lookie here, you!" she said. "You can't tell us what to do!"
The vampire never looked up from his map. "What are you, five?" he said monotonously.
"No", Buffy scoffed, "what are you...stupid?"
"Nice Buf" Angel said. The strange vampire sighed and put his map away. Angel and Buffy took up fighting stances, but the man simply walked away, disappearing around a corner.
"Should we go after him?" Angel asked. Buffy was looking at the place the man was standing and saw a piece of paper on the ground. She walked over to examine and Angel followed. The blonde picked up the paper and frowned.
"What could this mean?" she asked Angel. Angel frowned and the two shared a ominous glance.
A/N: hm...what is going on?