Chapter 7: Getting To Know Your Room Mate.

The next day Buffy slept in. It was Sunday, it was her lazy day- although Saturdays could be seen as her lazy day too. She loved the weekends! Buffy still worked on the weekend but she only worked half days unless she had a case that needed her attention. Today she didn't have a case. She would just go in and answer phone, take messages and screw around at the office until a case fell into her lap. 'Yeah, weekends are good.'

Buffy then noticed how quiet the house was. It was completely silent. 'Either the guys were sleeping in to or they are really quiet for guys.' She closed her eyes again and enjoyed the silence. Dawn was never quiet in the morning.

Buffy tiptoed down stairs an hour later, after she had showered. She didn't want to wake anyone up if they were still sleeping but she also didn't want any guys seeing her when she first woke up. 'That would be embarrassing.' Buffy walked threw the living room noticing that everything was very tidy. The boots Xander had mention the day before were not lined up along the wall by the door. 'Angelus must have made time to clean up some.'

She walked into the kitchen were she saw all four of the guys. Doyle was sitting at the counter looking threw some papers, Gunn was sitting at the table doing a word search, Angelus was reading the Sunday paper next to Gunn. Spike had just walked in from the patio off of the kitchen, a smoke smell wafted towards Buffy and she made a face while Angelus handed Spike the comic strip from the paper without even looking at him. 'They must know each other really well, I wonder if that is how Willow, Me, Xander and Veronica would be if we all lived together.'

Angelus seemed to sense someone else in the room because he looked up from the paper at Buffy. He gave her a little smile and said "Good morning. How was your first night here?"

"Good morning." Buffy smiled back. "It was good. You are all very quiet in the morning."

"Don't get to used to the quiet." Doyle said nodding towards Spike.

Spike looked up from his comic confused. "What?"

"Do you have anything planned for today, Buffy?" Doyle asked.

"Work. Do you mind?" Buffy asked motioning to the pot of coffee in the coffee machine.

"Not at all. Anything here is free for you to use as well." Angelus said.

"Thanks. I tend to get a little cranky when I don't get my morning cup of joe, just for future reference."

"Noted." Angelus and Doyle said together.

'Monday. Oh how I hate you so.' Buffy thought as she got woken up by a lot of noise coming from what seemed like everywhere in the house. She looked at her alarm clock on the stand by her bed. 6:00AM. 'Gah!' As Buffy sat up in bed she heard Spike yell "Where the fuck is my bloody Ruck?"

'What is a ruck?' Buffy thought.

"You should have kept everything together in your room. Hurry up and find everything, get your ass in uniform, Penn." Buffy heard Angelus say in a stern voice.

She then heard Spike say "Could you for once not act like my boss?"

"When do I ever act like your boss outside of work? Never. Just get your ass moving and be quiet, don't wake Buffy." Buffy got out of bed curious to know what Spike and Angelus were doing so early in the morning.

Buffy opened her bedroom door, just then she thought she should go back in her room… she must look horrible with no make up on and her hair in a messy bun. She then looked down at her pajamas. She was wearing pink sleep pants with light pink flower design on them and a white tank top with a flower on it. 'Yeah, totally going back in now!' Just as Buffy was about to go back in her room she happened to look down the hall and saw Angelus standing in front of one of the doors to a bedroom, Doyle didn't show her all the rooms in respect of the other room mates privacy but Buffy thought maybe it was Angelus' room. He was looking threw some papers, had a big green bag thrown over his shoulder and he was wearing…. 'Is Angelus a soldier?' Buffy all the sudden wished it was Halloween and he was wearing a costume.

He looked up at Buffy. "Hey, sorry if we woke you." He whispered walking towards her. "You should go back to sleep, its early."

"Um… what are you wearing?" Buffy asked.

"My uniform. I have to be to work in about 20 minutes but Spike is holding us up." Angelus answered.

"You and Spike are soldiers?"

"We all are. Doyle didn't tell you?" Angelus wondered.

"All of you? Doyle and Gunn too?"

"Yeah. I cant believe Doyle left that out." He said.

"Yeah, me either." 'Oh my god! Angelus looks so fuckable right now! Who would have thought I would find someone in a uniform hot? I cant believe I am even thinking this right now.' Buffy turned half way around to go back in her room. "Um.. I'm going back to bed."

"That would be smart. I don't always like being up this early either. If I could go back to bed too, I would."

As Buffy shut the bedroom door she heard Angelus yell "Spike, move your ass! NOW!"

Buffy woke back up 2 hours later. Showered, dressed and had a cup of coffee then headed out the door to work. She was still feeling kind of sluggish from being woken up at 6 this morning and not being able to get back to sleep. She was still thinking about the fact that she was now living with a bunch of soldiers. Riley had been a retired soldier. Odd, since he was to young to be retired from anything but he explained to her once that a lot of soldiers retire early and go on to living "civilian lives". Riley hardly ever talked about his time in the service but she did get to see him in uniform once. One of his old Army buddies that didn't retire early was getting married and wanted all of his Military friends that were in the wedding to wear their uniforms. "Gotta say, Angelus looks A LOT hotter then Riley did in uniform." Buffy said as she drove up to the Starbucks drive thru to order another coffee.

Buffy walked into Mars Investigation, setting two Starbucks cups down on her desk that Veronica was sitting at. "Oh, thanks" Veronica said.

"Angelus is a man in uniform." Buffy blurted out.

"Huh? Who? What are you talking about?" Veronica asked.

"Angelus. The hot room mate I told you about last night. He is in the Army! Actually, all of the guys are! I got woke up this morning at 6. Can I tell you how much that sucked all by its self! But I got woke up because Spike, who's real name is William by the way, couldn't find his equipment. I walk out into the hallway to see what was going on because Angelus was yelling at Spike and Spike said something like "stop acting like my boss for a minute" and there Angelus was in his uniform all ready for work." Buffy explained sounding out of breath. 'I should really learn how to breathe when I rant.'

"and…" Veronica urged her on.

"He looked totally hot! I don't even know when the last time was that I got so hot over a guy!" Buffy said breathing a little heavy.

"You would do him?" Veronica said smiling.

"Totally!" Buffy agreed, still breathing heavy.

"Are you thinking about it right now?" Veronica joked.

"Little bit."

That night Buffy got home around 4:00 PM, she got out of work pretty early because she decided to take some of her work home with her. She walked inside and shut the door behind her. She got a few things out of her bag and set them on the coffee table by the couch.

Angelus walked into the living room from the hallway that lead to the kitchen. "Hey, Buffy."

"Um… hi." 'Keep Angelus sex thoughts out of your head Buffy! At least he isn't wearing his uniform anymore, he still looks hot in those khaki shorts and white wife beater.'

He sat down on the couch and bit into his apple. "Got anything interesting?" He asked nodding towards her pile of folders on the coffee table.

"Not at all. Just work stuff."

"Where exactly do you work?" He asked.

"Mars Investigation. Have you heard of us? Private Investigation Agency." Buffy asked while opening her laptop.

"I don't know, maybe. Sounds familiar. Is it on Main?"

"That's the place." Buffy said. "So, where exactly do YOU work."

Angelus smiled. "A little place called Fort Marshall. Have you heard of us? United States Army." Angelus mimicked what she said to him.

"I don't know, maybe. Is it on Main?" Buffy mocked.

Angelus laughed. "No, its off Dyer Street. Have you never been to the Base before?"

"No, I haven't. Cant only Army Personal go there?" Buffy asked.

"No. Civilians can go on Post too. They just have to be checked at the gate and with or going to see someone who is Military Personal." Angelus explain.

"Oh. Learn something new everyday." She muttered. Buffy began to type something on her computer and her cell phone rang.

"Hello." Buffy answered the phone. "Hey, Keith. What's up?… Yeah, I have that file right here. What do you need?… I got that for you before I left, its on your desk…. I'm one step ahead of you boss. I'm just that damn good." Buffy said into the phone with a chuckle. "Speaking of me being damn good, can I barrow your baby tomorrow night?… No, I'm referring to your camera, not your daughter…."

Angelus made a strange face, listening to a one sided conversation of Buffy's was a little confusing.

"Does it matter what I need it for?" Buffy asked her boss. "…Would you believe me if I said a school project?.. Yeah, your right. That would make more sense if I was still in school. I'm doing a stake out tomorrow night for this case I got this morning and I let Weevil barrow my camera, you should really get that boy his own…. Thanks, Keith! Okay, I will see you tomorrow."

Buffy hung up the phone and looked at Angelus who still had the strange look on his face. "Sorry about that."

"That's fine. Big case?" He asked.

"Not really but it will get me out of the office." Buffy looked at her laptop and shut it. "Angelus, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot." Angelus said leaning back against the couch.

"Well, my ex… the one I told you about- we were going to move in together but ended up not.." Angelus nodded his head and Buffy continued. "He was in the Army too… before we got together. He's retired. Which I still don't get because he is so young. He never talked about it… to me. How can he be retired so young?"

"Well in the Military you can sign a 3 year contract and when those 3 years are up you can either resign or get out. He must have decided Army life just wasn't for him. Was that your question?" He answer.

"No. But thanks, I always wondered about that. My question is…" Buffy turned towards Angelus on the couch, now sitting Indian style. "… Don't you get hot in that uniform? Its like 100 degrees outside!"

Angelus laughed. "Yeah, it gets hot sometimes. Luckily we have PT outfits too that are a lot cooler."

"PT?" Buffy scrunched up her nose.

"Physical Training. We do it everyday." Angelus told her.

"Do you guys have like cool code names you call each other? I heard one of my ex's friends call him Lie Lock before. And once year Xander was a soldier for Halloween and his code name was The Five Dollar Costume King." Buffy and Angel both laughed.

"Yeah, we have nicknames. Gunn is actually called Gunn, he is the best at reassembling his weapon the fastest, Spike is also Spike… you don't want to know how he got his name, believe me."

"What if I do want to know how he got it?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know if I would tell you…."

"Oh, come on. I'm a big girl." Buffy teased.

"If you are sure…" Angelus turned further to face Buffy more. "During our first deployment together, he snuck up on one of the enemy soldiers and rammed a railroad spike into his head."

"Ewwww! I think I am going to have nightmares about that now!"

"I told you! Doyle is Night Hawk. He does good recon at night. No one sees him go in or out." Angelus said sounding proud of Doyle.

"And what about you?" She asked.

"… Dark Avenger but a few of the kids that we were helping overseas used to call me Angel." Angelus said thinking about those kids and wondering how they were doing now. It was upsetting to see how the people over there were treated and it broke his heart to think about what could have happened to those kids they tried so hard to help.

"Angel." Buffy whispered. "I like it… and Dark Avenger is pretty cool. How did you get that name."

Angelus smiled. "Because of my good looks of course."

"Nice" Buffy laughed.

" Honestly, I don't like it when people are treated cruelly, I have often Avenged people, and I like to do it at night, once it dark." Angelus explained.

"How do you ever have time to do… other nightly things?" Buffy asked getting lost in Angelus' eyes. "Like sleeping!" She said loudly breaking eye contact.

Angelus chuckled.

"Where is everyone else?" Buffy asked hoping that would make Angelus forget what she was just insinuated.

"I got out earlier then they did. I'm higher rank, they have to stay and do whatever their Sergeants want them to do. While I get to go home, relax and talk to my new beautiful room mate." Angelus smiled.

"Beautiful?" Buffy whispered. "Wait, why are you higher rank? You all didn't join at the same time?"

"No. Doyle and I, we joined together but we choose different M.O.S's… jobs. so we went to different basic trainings. Doyle was sent to Fort Deerwood - its near the Illinois boarder and I was sent to Fort Sam in San Antonio, Texas. I met Gunn in Basic Training and Spike in AIT- That's where you pretty much do your training for what your actual job is going to be. Spike and I, we have the same MOS." He tried to explain to her. He knew the Military life was confusing for someone who wasn't in it or knew someone who was in it. It really didn't seem like her ex had told her anything, Angelus was happy to explain it to her.

"And what is your job, Angelus? She wondered.

"Delta Force." He answered, seeing the confused look on her face. "I'm a sniper." He put it simple.

"Oh. Remind me not to piss you off." She said.

"Have you ever shot a gun, Buffy?"

"Once. Didn't go to well." She answered.

"Maybe I could show you how sometime.. Then you will have to remind me not to piss you off."

"You should already not piss me off, Mister. I may not know much about guns… or well anything about them but my body is a weapon all on its own." Buffy smiled.

"I bet it is." Angelus flirted.

"No, really. I cant totally kick… well maybe not your ass since you have all that military training but I could kick anyone else's ass! …. Well actually, I kicked Riley's ass a few times. That was actually kind of fun."

"Riley? Your ex?" Buffy nodded.

"Finn?"

"Yeah, do you know him?"

"Lie Lock. Of course. I know him…In a way. You dated that guy?" Angelus couldn't believe it. Buffy dated a guy like Riley Finn! "I heard Finn and his girlfriend broke up. 3 years, huh? Why did you break up?… if you don't mind me asking."

"Normally I would mind but you don't seem like you like him very much anyway. He cheated on me." Buffy said feeling a little ashamed.

Angelus looked up towards the ceiling and yelled "He's such a stupid ass!"

Buffy glanced up at him. "Well, I cant disagree with you there…. So, the Army takes you a lot of places, right? Where has it taken you?"

Angelus looked over at Buffy. "Well, I have been to two Cities in Texas, Then to Oklahoma, New York and then I was lucky enough to be stationed here, close to my home town too." Angelus said smiling at Buffy. "And lets not forget 2 deployments."

"Two?" Buffy asked. "How long have you been in the Army?"

"Eight years."

"Wow! How old are you, exactly?" Buffy asked.

"26. I joined as soon as I turned 18."

"You must have really wanted to join, if you did it as soon as you graduated from high school." Buffy commented.

Angelus shook his head. "Actually, I took a year off. I graduated high school when I was 17- something about me being really smart. If I tell you something promise not to tell anyone?"

"I wouldn't tell anymore… I don't want to piss you off, remember." Buffy said wanting to know this secret he was about to tell her.

"I actually joined to piss my dad off and ended up liking it. My dad always wanted me to go into the family business. I never wanted too. His dad was a soldier too and had wanted my dad to go into the service. My dad didn't want to- I think he was afraid and all that." Angelus let out a bitter laugh. "So to piss my dad off, I did the one thing he hated the most. I joined. But every time the end of my contract comes up, it never fails. My dad calls me and tried to convince me to leave- go into the family business. Being so close to home this time worries me. I hope he doesn't come here and try to tell me to my face. Wouldn't want anything to come to blows." Angelus said getting up and walking to the kitchen.

Buffy got up and followed him. "Where is home?"

"Calabasas, California."

"Oh. That's only like four or five hours from here… right?" Buffy said.

"Yeah, its on the other side of LA. You want something to eat or drink." Angelus asked.

"Water. When is your contract up?" She wanted to know.

"In a year. So if I get deployed between then and now, it will be a short deployment… unless I decide to resign."

"Are you going to… resign, I mean?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, I want to." He told her as he got a glass out of the cupboard and poured some wanted in it for Buffy.

"Oh." She put her hand on her glass. "Sorry, I am being so nosey. I have never been interested in military life before. Actually, until this morning I kind of despised it."

"Why is that?" He asked pouring himself some mountain dew.

She sighed. "Because of Riley. I know I didn't actually know him when he was in the military but once he cheated on me, I kind of got it in my head that all military guys are like that."

"Well…" Angelus said taking a drink. "We aren't all like that… and just to let you know: Riley rejoined."

"What!"

"Yeah," He said nodding. " About 5 or 6 months ago…. Actually it was 6 months ago, he was back for a month before he was placed in my unit."

"We broke up 5 months ago, he was back in the Army for a month before we broke up and I didn't even know it? How could I not know it?…Wait, your unit? Like you work with him everyday?"

"Yeah, I work with him everyday. I'm his boss." He said watching Buffy's reaction.

"Oh…" Was all he got out of her.

"Why?…" Angelus asked taking another sip. "Why did you despise the military until this morning?"

Buffy glanced up at him quickly and then back down at her glass of water. "Because I saw you wearing the uniform." She answered and then walked out of the kitchen and up to her room.