"I may not be super-man, Princess, but I don't think even he could do anything about all of your 'little' problems here! Why don't you just stay at Angel's until he comes back, and then we'll see what we can do?"

"Fine, Doyle. Sorry about all this, Tina! The management was meant to be sorting out some sort of pest control, but apparently it wasn't meant to be."

"We could go apartment hunting if you wanted? I did a fair bit before Russell got to me – there has to be some places that aren't controlled by evil vamps."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Come on, girls. Pack up your things – we're going to Angel's." God knows his place wasn't decent enough to put them up. When the vampire in question got back from his trip they could talk about it. Until then, it didn't really matter all that much.

On Thursday night (two or three days later, and no, they hadn't actually house hunted – all of the time was spent sorting out the new business and getting rid of Cordy's apartment), Angel trudged through the open door of the newly named 'Angel Investigations'. It was only two hours after sundown, but he had decided to leave early just in case he and Buffy fell asleep after patrol. They had a tendency not to wake up again until past dawn, and then he would never leave. Not that that was a bad thing as such, but he did have a destiny after all.

He walked over to the music player that Buffy insisted he got, and put some decnt music on – Beethoven, none of the rock and pop stuff you heard all over the place nowadays. 'I am so old.' He thought as he entered the bathroom. The mansion may be great and all, but it was hard work to get a decent amount of hot water through the pipes, especially as it was supposed to be abandoned.

Hot water was heaven. AN mmmm ... wet Angel ... mmmm

Five minutes into his bliss, he was interrupted, as footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs to his apartment. It could only be one or two people, not that many would be coming to see him, and even fewer knew he was back in LA. This left him with three options: a) Buffy/Dawn really, really needed him (unlikely), b) he was being robbed (since when do thieves make that much noise, or c) Doyle/Cordy/Tina was seeing if he were here (very likely, especially if Doyle had had another pesky vision).

The footsteps got louder, and gave way to voices, female, and two of them. 'Cordy and Tina. What are they doing here?' He went to open the door for them; it would be a surprise for them that he was actually there when they came to see if he was. As he went to the entrance, he began to notice things which he hadn't before – a few bits of women's clothing hanging on the back of a chair – he knew they weren't Buffy's – and the remains of a meal in the kitchen. In his absence, someone had been living in his apartment, and if it wasn't Cordy with an exceptionally good reason, he was not going to be a happy vampire.

Not that that was a bad thing. In fact, people should go out of their way to make him unhappy. Maybe if he was unhappy enough, he and Buffy could … no that would never work. The first time, they had been afraid for their lives. Well, he was afraid for Buffy's life, and she was afraid for both of them. And it had still been perfect in spite of (or perhaps because of) everything and everyone else around them.

I have got to stop writing fanfiction at 2 in the morning – I never get enough done before I want to fall asleep, and then I can't pick up again later. All my chapters are done in one sitting, otherwise, I lose the flow of it … night night D