Sorry for the major delay in uploading this, real life got in the way and I had hoped I would have enough time to get this posted before I left on vacation but as you can tell, I didn't. I also still have the rest of I Always Loved Christmas to post. Again, I am so sorry!
Chapter 13: Christmas
Buffy and Angel sat on the floor in her living room in front of the fireplace. Buffy picked on Angel for wanting the fireplace on in the first place because they were in California and it was already so hot. She had to admit though, it kind of added to the romantic feel of sitting by the Christmas tree with only a few candles and the Christmas lights from the tree. They were spending Christmas Eve together so Angel could spend Christmas with his parents. He felt bad for leaving Buffy all alone on Christmas but she told him she would just hang out with Oz because he didn't have anyone either.
"This is nice." Buffy smiled leaning her head against his chest.
"Mmmm." He mumbled against her neck.
Buffy laughed. "Did you want to open your presents or did you want to mess around?"
Angel thought about it for a second. "Can't we do both?"
She handed him a wrapped box. "Open."
"Okay okay, but we are totally messing around later." He smiled tearing open the wrapping paper and opened the box. "Clothes?"
"I made them myself! I think you would look totally hot in it!" She smiled. "I know you don't normally wear dress shirts but I think maroon is your color."
"It's not to girly?" He asked her.
Buffy shook her head and handed him another package.
"I feel like you got me to much." He told her
"Please, I made most of it." She said pushing the package closer to him until he took it.
Angel opened up 3 more boxes, Buffy had made him a few dress shirts, dress pants and a black pair of lounge pants. "Okay now you open at least one!" Angel handed her a small package.
Buffy gasped, putting her hand over her mouth when she saw the necklace with the letters BA dangling from it. "Please tell me this is cubic zirconia."
"Can't you tell?" Angel smiled. "I thought you had an eye for this kind of thing."
"How did you afford this?" She asked turning around to look at him
Angel kissed her on the cheek. "I won at the Casino on my birthday, remember?"
"You never told me how much." She pointed out.
"And I'm not going to tell you." He told her.
Buffy sighed. "Thank you. It's beautiful. I love it." She kissed him. "Speaking of... I wanted to give you this." She handed him a white envolope.
He looked at her questioningly, opening it he saw that it was a check. "Baby, I can't take this." He said handing the check back to her.
"Why not?" She asked confused. "It's to put towards College."
Angel smiled. "Because I got a full scholarship."
"Oh my god! Angel!" She hugged him. "That is amazing!"
"Yeah, it kind of is." Angel nodded. "Thanks though. Okay, I have another one for you." He handed her another small box.
Opening the box she gasped again. "Angel! Will you stop with the diamonds now?"
Angel laughed. "You don't like them?"
"I love them." She said taking her new diamond ear rings out of the box. "I would put them on but I don't want to rip them out when we have sex in a little while."
"Good idea." Angel smiled against her neck.
"Okay, last one." Buffy said handing Angel another gift.
Angel shook his head. "I think you gave me enough."
Buffy gave him a pointed look until he took it.
"Okay okay, I get it." He said opening the box and finding a cell phone. "Buffy you did not get me a cell phone."
"I did." She smiled. "You are now on my family plan."
"Don't we have to be family to be on the same family plan?" He asked laughing.
"Well if anyone asks your my brother." She joked.
Angel shook his head. "I'm not in to incest."
Buffy laughed but stopped when the Christmas lights went out. Angel got up and checked the outlet but the lights were still plugged in. "Okay, that is creepy."
"Yeah it happens sometimes... or maybe Ms. French has come to kill us." She joked.
"Where is your fuse box?" Angel asked.
"Basement." She told him.
Angel walks towards the basement door grabbing a flashlight from the kitchen drawer.
"Don't leave me alone!" Buffy whispered running after Angel.
Buffy followed Angel down the stairs.
"Whoa!" Angel almost tripped over a box. "What is all this stuff?"
"Um... stuff from when I redid my house. I am going to take it to Goodwill." She said reaching out for him. "at some point."
Angel made it to the fuse box, opening it he flipped the fuses. When nothing happened Buffy squeezed his arm tighter. "Great, Ms. French really is trying to kill us. Why the hell do you have to be so sexy!" She slapped his arm. "Now we are going to die because of your sexyness. Or maybe she will only kill me so she can have her way with you!"
"Baby, calm down. We will just get you some new fuses..." Then he realized it was Christmas Eve. "not tomorrow because everything is closed."
"I'm supposed to live in the dark until the stores decide to open again?" She asked him.
Angel shrugged. "I could ask my parents..."
"What? If your 22 year old girlfriend can spend the night?" Buffy signed. "I'll see if I can stay with Oz."
"Wait... like over night?" Angel didn't like that.
"Like yeah." She nodded in the dark. "It's not like anything is going to happen. It's Oz."
He knew nothing would happen, they were in a committed relationship as for as he could tell. "We are still going to be together tonight right?"
"Of course! I can spend the night in the dark tonight." She said kissing him. "now come on stud, blow my mind... wait, does this mean all my food is going to go bad?"
Buffy and Angel laid in front of the fire with pillows from Buffy's couch, he gently ran his fingers up and down her arm.
Buffy smiled at him. "Your right, this is amazing. Who would have thought you would know more about romance then me."
"Was that a compliment?" He asked.
Buffy laughed. "Yeah, it was. You are the most romantic guy I have ever been with."
"And what is going to happen to that romantic guy when you decide to trade up?" He looked at her seriously.
Buffy propped herself up on her elbows. "Trade up?"
Angel nodded. "You know when you want someone your own age."
"Excuse me?" Buffy sat up holding the blanket to her chest. "Do you really think that lowly of me?"
"No! I don't think lowly of you at all!" He exclaimed. "It just a fear of mine."
"A fear?" She whispered looking at him.
Angel nodded. "Well, I'm 18 and your 22. At some point you aren't going to want to be in a relationship with a kid."
"It's not like this is a phase, Angel." She said putting her hand on his cheek. "I... I care about you. Other wise I wouldn't get insanely jealous whenever I think about you being with your Science Teacher."
Angel smiled at her. "Don't gross me out."
"You...care about me too, right?" She asked biting her lip. She hated feeling this way, she hadn't felt vulnerable in a long time but recently every time she was with Angel or thought about Angel she felt vulnerable.
"Of course, I care about you." He said laughing softly. "Why would you even ask that?"
"You know what my fear is?" Buffy asked him looking down at the blanket. "That your going to wake up one morning and want to be with Cordelia... or hell Harmony. Anyone your own age."
Angel took a deep breath. "So this age thing is a pretty big thing for us, isn't it?"
Buffy nodded. "I guess so."
Angel wrapped his arms around her. "So how about we make it not a big thing?"
"How do we do that?" She whispered leaning back against him.
"By focusing on us." He kissed her neck. "Let me just tell you that I don't have those kinds of feelings for Cordelia anymore and I sure as hell want nothing to do with Harmony Kendall."
"No other girls?" Buffy asked and then laughed. "Now I sound like you."
Angel nodded. "We really need to work on our communication skills."
"I would have to agree." Buffy nodded. "Any chance you could stay a little longer?"
Angel looked at his watch. "I think I could pull another hour. Any longer and I think my mom would send out a search party."
"An hour is good." She smiled, snuggling against him.
"Merry Christmas!" Buffy smiled walking into Oz' apartment.
"Is it Christmas?" Oz smiled getting two beers out of the fridge, handing one to Buffy.
Buffy put the bag down she was carrying and put her hands on her hips. "Yes, it is Christmas and why are you drinking beer? It's not even 9:00 AM!"
"9:0AM?" He looked at the clock on his microwave. "Why are we even up?"
"Because it's CHRISTMAS!" She said jumping up and down."and because my fuse box died and everything is closed so... can I stay here until I can buy new ones?"
Oz raised his eyebrows at her. "It died?"
"Completely died." She nodded.
Oz smiled. "So not just a little dead?"
"Completely dead!" She smiled back.
"Yeah, you can stay here." He nodded drinking his beer. "What about Angel though?"
Buffy looked at him confused. "I don't think he wants to stay here..."
"That's not what I meant." Oz laughed walking over to sit on his couch.
"Oh." Buffy sat next to him on the couch. "Well he was going to ask his mommy if I could spend the night but I thought it would be better if he didn't."
"His mommy, huh?" Oz looked at her. "How does he feel about you staying here?"
"He's cool with it." Buffy smiled.
"You know you can stay here, Buffy." He told her taking a drink.
"Thanks... Now lets talk about getting you into AA!" She laughed. "I'm also going to need you to go... where ever you get fuses from because I have NO idea what I am looking for."
"You want me to let you stay here, go to AA and help you get new fuses." He said seriously. "Want want want. It's always the same with you woman!"
Buffy laughed. "Your totally my bitch! Now go open your present it's in the bag."
Oz went to get the bag and looked in. "Ah, a set of picks. Thanks."
"That's not all!" Buffy playfully slapped him.
"But the multi color picks were enough." He smiled reaching back into the bag. "Straps, headphones... this is from..."
Buffy nodded. "It's the only music store in Sunnydale!"
Oz went to his room then came back with something in his hand. "I didn't get to wrap it or anything." He said handing her a new sketch pad and some pencils.
"Thank you." She smiled. "I love it."
Buffy got back to her house in the afternoon, she had spent the night at Oz' house and slept in. It was nice to be able to sleep in. She was taking a few days off of work because of the holiday. She was still tired she had stayed up almost all night with Oz. He was going to be there in an hour to get the fuses that she needed. She laid down on her couch and closed her eyes, maybe she could sleep until he got there. She sighed when she heard her front door open.
Angel smiled when he saw his girlfriend laying on the couch with her eyes closed. He walked over and sat on the edge of the couch. "What are you doing? I have never seen you just lay around before." He laughed then shrugged. "Well that's not true. I have never seen you just laying around before I came over."
"I'm tired." She pouted not opening her eyes.
"Why?" He narrowed his eyes. "What did Oz do last night? Serenade you?"
Buffy opened her eyes and lifted her head a little to look at Angel. "Was that jealousy I heard in your voice? I didn't know you got jealous... well I have never seen it before."
"Oh, I get jealous." He nodded. "Do you really think I would punch that Parker guy if I didn't get jealous?"
Buffy shrugged. "Maybe it was a macho thing.."
Angel rolled his eyes shaking his head. "Come on, lets go. I have been waiting for you to come home." He lightly slapped her thigh.
"Where are we going exactly?" She asked sitting up. "I kind of have plans with Oz."
"Oz? I didn't see you at all yesterday and he got you all day and all night!" Angel exclaimed. "What plans do you have?"
"He is going to help me get fuses because I have no idea what I need." She told him.
"I was going to go with you." Angel said raising his eyebrows and pointing to himself.
"Oh." Buffy whispered. "I didn't know if you knew what you were looking for either. I can just call Oz and tell him you are going. It's not like he actually wanted to go anyway.
"Okay." Angel nodded. "He didn't serenade you, did he?"
"Angel!" She laughed. "He didn't serenade me! He played a few songs for me but that was just to try out the stuff I got him for Christmas. Do you think all musicians serenade girls?"
Angel shrugged. "Maybe... Don't they?"
Buffy walked over to him laughing and hugged him. "I don't know, I have never been serenaded before. You don't happen to be able to sing, do you?"
"Sing or sing well?" He joked.
"I'll take whatever you got." She kissed him. "Let's go. I want to get back as soon as I can and go to bed!"
Angel wrapped his arms around her waist, walking towards the door. "If you take a nap this late you won't be able to sleep tonight."
Buffy stared at all the fuses at the store. Why were there so many? "Is there a fuse for every letter of the alphabet?"
Angel laughed a grabbed the fuses that Buffy needed.
"How do you know those are the right ones?" She asked pouting.
"I know." He said walking towards the check out.
Buffy leaned against the counter where the cashier was. "So this means you get to help me clear out my fridge right? Because I checked and everything went bad."
"Yes." He nodded. "I will help you."
Buffy walked down the stairs to her basement where Angel was putting the new fuses in. "How's it going, Handy Man."
Angel turned his head to look behind him as she sat down on the steps. "Fine. I'm almost done."
"I didn't know you knew how to do all this fixing stuff." She said watching him. "It's kind of hot."
"Hot huh?" Angel smiled turning his attention back to the fuse box.
"Very hot." She smiled, leaning back against the stair. "Huge turn on."
"Huge?" He asked turning to her again.
Buffy bit her lip. "HUGE."
Angel laughed as he put the last fuse in. "Would it still be hot if I told you that you will need to hire a electrician?"
"Why?" She asked getting up from the step.
Angel sighed. "The new fuses don't work. Chances are there is a wiring problem. Did they tell you how old this house was?"
"Was I supposed to ask?" Buffy asked unsure.
Angel shut the box. "Well this place has been here as long as I have lived next door so it's over 12 years old."
"Okay." Buffy nodded taking a deep breath. "I will have to call a electrician. Are you still going to help me throw everything away that went bad?"
"Sure." He smiled hugging her.
"Good." She smiled. "because with you not being here as often I have food that went stale."
Angel narrowed his eyes at her playfully. "I have come over more often lately."
"I know." She laughed. "This stuff is from before. I never threw it away."
"Gross." Angel smiled wrinkling his nose.
Buffy took him by her hand, pulling him up the stairs. "Lets throw away everything I own."
Angel looked at Buffy then back at the fridge. "Do I really have to be the one to open it?"
Buffy nodded. "I already got the pleasure of smelling that."
He tried not to breath as he opened the door.
Buffy laughed at the look on his face. "Oh, the joys of dairy products gone bad."