Chapter 38: Two Month Anniversary

Buffy and Angel were coming back from practicing driving. They did it all week and Angel thought she was ready to take the test again but Buffy didn't want to so they kept practicing it everyday after work. Angel pulled the car up to the house, he unbuckled his seat belt and looked at Buffy.

"Do you know what today is?" He asked her.

"Um… Monday?" She hoped she got it right.

Angel nodded. "Yes, it is Monday but do you know what else it is?"

"Is this a trick question?" She smiled.

"Its our 2 months anniversary." He told her. She was trying not to think about it because then that would mean she only had 9 more months with him. "Two months ago today we…. Got together."

"Has it really been 2 months already?" She asked even though she knew how long it had been.

Angel smiled. "I'm the guy, shouldn't I be the one who doesn't remember?"

"I guess." She whispered.

"I got you something." He said pulling out a box. He opened the box and pulled out a ring. "I ordered it back when my family was still here but it just came in the mail today, which works out perfectly. I was just going to get you neck less but I couldn't pick one that just screamed you."

"Oh." Buffy breathed.

"It's a Claddagh Ring." Angel said as Buffy looked down at the ring. It had a heart with two hands holding it and a crown on top of the heart. "If you wear it on your right hand with the heart facing you, it means you belong to someone." He took a second ring out of his pocket that looked identical to the ring he was giving Buffy but bigger. He put it on his right ring finger. "Like this."

When Angel looked back up at Buffy she had tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I…" Buffy couldn't form her words. "I cant do this." She said getting out of the car and running inside.

Angel caught up to her at the top of the stairs. "Do what?"

"This! I thought I could but I cant! I keep telling myself that when our time is up, when you have to leave that I can just let you go! But I cant! Your so sweet and you just make it worse!" She cried.

"Make what worse?" He asked her quietly.

"I love you!" She exclaimed then threw her hand over her mouth in shock. 'Did I really just say that?' By the look on Angel's face she knew she had. Buffy got scared. "No. No. No. Don't say that you don't love me…"

"I do." He whispered. "I love you."

"You do?" Buffy whispered. "But we cant be together. Not after you leave."

Angel looked down at the floor. "There is one way. One way we can be together when I have to leave."

"What?" She asked him.

Angel looked back up to Buffy's face. "Marry me."

"Mar…wha…" Buffy started to breath heavy. She felt like the room was spinning. The only thing she could think about doing was laying down. She ran into the closest room- her old room and locked the door.

Angel started after her but when he heard the door lock he leaned his head against the door. "Damn it." He turned around and leaned against the door for a minute, then walked down stairs.

Buffy laid down on her bed, the bed from her mothers house. What Angel had said running threw her mind over and over again. He said he loved her too, but he also said the M word. The M word that she thought all men ran away from but this time, he brought it up and she ran. 'I ran. Oh god! I don't know what I was thinking.. I don't know what he was thinking! We cant get married! We have only been together 2 months! We have only known each other for a week long then we have been together! This is insane. Why would he say that. Marry him! He doesn't really want to get married… does he? We just dodged a pregnancy bullet, he didn't want to marry me when he thought I was pregnant so why now? Maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing, he didn't mean for it to come out. I bet he is thinking the same thing right now. He is completely regretting saying it… and I'm regretting just running away from him. I really thought I was going to pass out though, I'm feeling a little better." She thought just laying perfectly still, afraid to move. "Oh my god! I ran away from him!"

Buffy got up from the bed and hurried to the door. She didn't see him in the hallway anymore, she didn't know how long she had been in the bedroom just rambling on in her head. She peaked into their bedroom, he wasn't there either. She quietly went down stairs, Angel wasn't in the living room either. 'Maybe he left.' She thought until she looked down the hallway to the kitchen and saw his back sitting at the kitchen table, she walked closer. He had his hand in his hands.

Buffy walked into the kitchen. She still felt like she was going to fall down so she gripped onto the isle counter. "Where you serious?"

Angel looked up at Buffy and nodded.

"I feel like I'm standing at the mouth of hell and you are on the other side." She told him gripping tighter to the counter.

Angel looked down at the table. "And what are you going to do? At the mouth of hell."

Buffy looked directly at him and bluntly said. "I'm going to jump into it."

"What?" He said whipping his head up.

"On one condition." She told him.

Angel got up and walked to the other side of the kitchen island standing across from Buffy.

"You get out of the Army." She whispered. "When you get to where you want to be. Career wise, whatever rank it is you want to be when your contract is up you don't resign."

Placing his hands on the island across from her, she saw he was still wearing the ring. It was a pretty ring. "Buffy, do you know what rank I want to be at when I get out?"

Buffy shook her head no.

"I want to be a General. That's a long time from now. Just to be a one star General would be 15 more years at the least. 20 years at the most." He told her. "That's a long time."

Buffy nodded. "It is, but if that's what you want…"

"Why?" He asked her walking around the counter to be in front of her. "You are willing to marry me if I get out of the Army in 15 years. Why?"

"Because I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too, Baby." He whispered then kissed her. "Are you sure? Its a lot of moving. 15 years its going to be 5 moves if not more. We will have 3 years in each base we are stationed at then its off to somewhere else."

"If I'm with you, I don't care." She told him wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Its going to be an adventure." He whispered.

"A Buffy and Angel Adventure." She whispered back. "Bring it on."

"Yes?" He asked her with a smile.

Buffy nodded. "Yes."

Angel's smile got bigger. "Yes!"

"Yes!" Buffy laughed when Angel's smile got even bigger. The biggest she had ever seen, even bigger then the smile he gave to Kathy.

Angel picked Buffy up off the ground and twirled her around laughing. "YES!"

When he put her down he still had the huge smile. "God, I love you so much!"

Buffy smiled so big her cheeks hurt. He said he loved her three times now. "I love you!" She kissed him. "I always have."

"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked her.

Buffy bit her lip though her smile. "I almost did a few times."

Angel rubbed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "You should have."

Buffy nodded. "You know, that wasn't exactly the kind of proposal I was looking for."

"Sorry." He told her leaning his forehead against hers. "I wasn't exactly planning it."

Angel reached into his pocket. "Just for now." He said getting down on one knee causing Buffy to laugh. "Buffy Anne Summers… or Mars, whatever the hell you want to be called. Will you do me the honor of making me the happiest man in whole damn world and marry me?"

Buffy laughed again, he was happy. Really happy and he was letting it show, he was being playful and she knew it. She loved it. She pretended like she was thinking about it.

"Do I have to beg you to tie yourself down to this lazy no good piece of shit?" He laughed.

"No. No begging." She whispered. "You had me at 'room mate who DOESN'T jerk off to anime' You could have asked me to marry you at that moment and I don't think I could have said no."

Angel slipped the Claddagh Ring onto Buffy's left hand and kissed it. He stood up and kissed her lips. "You had me at Hello." He quoted. "…Salty Goodness."

Buffy fake pouted. "I so hoped you didn't hear that."

"Oh, I heard it." He said with a smile before he kissed her again. "When do you want to get married?"

"We have to decide that now? There is still 9 months before you resign." Buffy asked.

Angel nodded. "True, but there is also a lot of stuff that needs to be done in the Army aspect of it after the actual wedding and before you can move with me. Everything has to be finalized in order for you to leave with me when I do."

"Oh." Buffy said realizing that it would most likely take a while. "When do you want to?"

Angel smiled. "I could do tonight… but I don't think you would be okay with that."

"You would think right." She smiled. "Plus a honeymoon, right? You cant take any time off."

"I would have to put in for some time off." He told her. "I need to give them at least two weeks notice of when I want the time off."

"Okay." Buffy whispered.

"Okay, now that we got that out of the way… can we go upstairs and make love already? I'm dying here, Baby!" Angel exclaimed.

Buffy kissed him. "No dying.. Race you up there!" She took off running upstairs with Angel hot on her heels.