Okay going on a family reunion camping trip thing like...now, so this is going to be the last update until Sunday at the earliest. Very long car trip to get to the campsite, though, so I might work on it on the road so I can post something as soon as I get back.
"What…what do you mean?" asked the man, clearly shocked.
"I mean," said Wesley, "that I intend to bind Angelus's soul so that he will not lose it in the event of achieving perfect happiness." He said every word slowly and clearly so that his meaning could not be mistaken.
The man's expression darkened. "But the curse is a punishment," he said. "What vengeance does it serve if he can find joy?"
"You never had your vengeance!" said Wesley, who was finding it increasingly impossible to keep his voice calm. "The human soul was the one you punished, not Angelus!"
"He suffers! It is what we wanted in return for what he did to the most precious daughter of our people!"
"The soul suffers for the crimes of Angelus! You locked the demon away beneath the soul, but you made it so it could be taken away, which would unleash the demon exactly as he was! And the people he killed when he was free. Two of them your cousins! Don't you see it? It's madness!"
"We are not concerned with his victims who are not Kalderash. If the demon does not suffer for what he did to us, why should he keep his soul? That was why we cursed him with it."
"The demon never suffered for what he did to you," said Wesley in frustration. "He is a sadistic, unfeeling monster. As soon as the soul was gone, he killed again without the slightest trace of remorse—with, I imagine, more enjoyment than before, because of being unable to for so long. He was so eager to make up for lost time that he almost had the whole world swallowed into Hell, which, incidentally, would have included every last one of your people! For God's sake, man, this needn't ever have happened! Your Janna and Enyos needn't have died! Why would you forgo the opportunity to ensure that nobody else shares their fate?"
Liliana was peering at Wesley from behind her husband in alarm. "We must have our vengeance," he said. The two men glared at each other for a long moment.
"Then think of this," said Wesley, managing with difficulty to lower his voice from a shout, "Angelus does not suffer for what he has done, but he cannot act when the soul is in control. He must watch, always, powerless to stop it, as the soul not only does not kill, but protects, befriends, and loves humans. He can never taste human blood because the soul will not allow it. He will destroy others of his own kind because the soul despises them as much as he despises himself. How much better of a punishment would it be if there was no escape from that? Angelus's own mind: his prison, from which he must watch as the righteous human soul does good deeds in an attempt to balance out the evil of the demon. And if the soul is happy through all of this? If he is allowed to feel joy in spite of the lingering presence of the demon? There could be no Hell more effective for Angelus than this!"
Liliana tugged at her husband's arm and whispered something to him in Romanian. He replied, pointing at Wesley, which gave the Englishman the impression that he was translating their conversation for her. She looked at Wesley in surprise, then spoke to her husband again. He shook his head, but she became more insistent. Finally, he turned to face Wesley again. "My wife agrees with you," he said. "And after discussing with her, I see the advantage in what you propose." Wesley's heart leapt. From the man's expression through most of Wesley's argument, he had expected to be thrown out into the freezing cold. But the man noticed Wesley's jubilation and looked stern. "However, it is not our place to decide. This concerns all Kalderash. We must discuss it with the elders." He paused, and spoke to his wife again. She nodded. "Do you have a place to stay?"
"Not exactly," said Wesley, who had been staying in a different cheap hotel each night so far.
"Liliana will prepare our guest room for you. I will go to the elders tomorrow."
"Thank you, sir."
The man made a funny expression. "Please, call me Nicolai." Wesley inclined his head, struggling to keep his face from splitting in a wide grin. If the elders were as mule-headed as Nicolai, he shouldn't get too excited yet.
[o]
For Angel, being free after so very long of Hell or imprisonment was incredibly exhilarating. All of a sudden, he had gone from being chained to a wall to being able to do whatever he pleased. The first thing he did upon reaching his apartment--which was indeed just how he had left it, if a bit dustier--, after removing Buffy's ring from his pocket and placing it carefully on his nightstand, was to throw the ragged pair of pants he'd been wearing for his entire stay in the Council's dungeon unceremoniously into the garbage. The second thing he did was take a very long, hot, and through shower. Though any physical traces of Hell hadn't survived the blinding light that brought him back, it felt wonderful to rid his skin of the layer of grime it had acquired from his cell. He was surprised that Buffy had even wanted to touch him in that state. It hadn't been as bad as when he lived in alleys, but not by much.
After the shower, Angel eagerly donned clean boxers and slacks. Wearing a shirt was probably the most foreign of all his rediscovered freedoms, second only to the option of sleeping on an actual bed, which he did gratefully after he'd finished showering and dressing. He remembered that he used to sleep in boxers or nothing, but thought it wouldn't be a good idea to do so now if he was still asleep when Buffy arrived. He needn't have worried about that, however, as he only slept for a few hours.
He walked slowly around the apartment, running his fingers down the spines of his books. On the shelf below, he spotted his sketchbook and charcoals, and he picked them up tenderly, sat down in his chair, and began to draw. If his inherent ability to differentiate night and day had atrophied, his drawing ability certainly had not. In no time at all, a two-dimensional, black and white replica of Buffy, standing in that shaft of sunlight as he had first seen her that morning, had all but come to life on the page.
Angel shifted in his chair, and the light from his lamp glinted off something small. He looked up and saw that it was the Claddagh ring, still sitting on the nightstand. It, along with the dreams and his newfound friendship with Wesley, had been what kept him going in that cell. But now that he was back, he realized that he didn't need it anymore. It had been Buffy's, and it should be hers again. Remembering that she'd mentioned that it was her birthday, he chuckled. Even though the ring had acquired so much more meaning in the intervening year, he couldn't give it to her as a birthday present again, could he? Not unless there was something else he could add to it.
[o]
Buffy felt slightly guilty as her mom doted on her all afternoon, because all she really wanted to do was go to Angel's apartment. He was back. He was really back. And after everything that had happened, he still wanted to be with her. She kept repeating it in her head, and whenever her mom asked what she was smiling about, she would just say it was because of her birthday. But she was going to have to tell her about Angel soon. She'd already told everyone else, and it hadn't been nearly as bad as she'd feared. How was she supposed to tell her, though? "Hey, Mom, guess what? Remember Angel, that vampire I was dating behind your back last year and lost my virginity to which made him go evil and then I had to send him to Hell? Well, he's back, and we're together again." Um, no. She'd have to figure out a much more careful strategy for her mom than the one she had used on Giles and her friends.
After what seemed to be weeks, rather than hours, the sun finally neared the horizon. Since she still didn't have her strength back, she had decided to leave before sunset, just in case. "Bye, Mom, I'm going on patrol," she called from the door.
"Okay, honey," Joyce called back from the kitchen. "Be careful!"
It took all of Buffy's self-control not to sprint the whole way there. She didn't want to arrive all sweaty and windswept and gross. But even though she managed to keep her pace at a walk, her heart was still hammering wildly by the time she arrived, so that she doubted she'd even need to knock for him to hear her there. Sure enough, she hadn't even raised her hand to rap her knuckles against the door when she heard his voice say, "Come in! It's unlocked."
She smiled and opened the door, then let out a gasp of delight. Somehow, Angel had managed to prepare an incredibly delicious-looking meal for her, which was set up on the rug, lit by candles, and surrounded by cushions. Angel was standing next to all of this, looking slightly awkward. "Uh, happy birthday," he said, running a hand through his hair.
"How did you get all of the stuff for this during the day?" she asked, her smile growing wider.
He shrugged. "I can get pretty much anywhere through the sewers and electrical tunnels. How'd it go with Travers and the other men from the Council?"
"They're gone," she said. "But Giles was fired, so they're going to send a new Watcher." Her smile faded, to be replaced by a worried look. "What if whoever it is finds out about you—about us?"
"Hey, it's okay," he said, taking her hand and leading her over to the cushions on the floor, where they sat down together. "We'll figure something out." She smiled gratefully and started on the food, which was even more delicious than it had smelled.
"Mmm. You know, for a guy who doesn't eat, you're a pretty amazing cook. How does that work?"
"I follow the recipe," he said, smirking. "But that's not all," he added, more seriously. He pulled two items from underneath one of the cushions.
Her eyes widened when she spotted the first. "Is that—how did you find that?" She took the silver ring from his outstretched hand and stared at it in awe.
"I became friends with one of the Watchers when I was in that dungeon. He had it, and he gave it to me. I never asked him how he got it."
"I left it in the mansion," she said. She felt like her heart was constricting her air passages. "It hurt too much to keep it, so I left it where I lost you."
"If you don't want it—," began Angel quickly, but she shook her head and put it on, heart pointing in. He smiled, then remembered. "I have something else for you." He handed her the second item, which, unlike the ring, was wrapped. Buffy looked at him curiously before removing the wrapping paper as carefully as she could. It was a small book with a brown leather cover. She opened it to the title page, which identified it as Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She remembered studying some of the poems from it in her English class the year before. Beneath the title was one beautifully hand-scripted word. She traced her fingers over the letters.
"Always," she read. Her vision blurred. Less than twelve hours ago, she had believed she would never see him again. And yet here they were, together. She never thought things would get this close to perfect again.
I love writing angry Wesley. He can still make very clear points even when he's shouting at a much larger man who could easily squish him if he crosses a line. This is the only thing Wesley can think of doing to really help Angel, and gosh darn it, he's going to make sure it gets done. Now to the Buffy/Angel stuff. I wouldn't imagine that Angel would take any of the things he has for granted after what he's been through, so it makes a day that could otherwise be considered fairly average into pretty much his best day ever. (Also, he's at the apartment instead of the mansion mostly just because I like it better, but also because I think he'd prefer living in the place with fewer bad memories.) And Buffy is much happier than she was in canon "Helpless" at the moment, so it enables her to be properly touched by the awesome birthday present. I should have known I wouldn't be able to make it through a Buffy/Angel fic without taking at least one chapter title from that that poetry book. Also, ring! Yay!