Buffy's fingers wandered all over Angel's face, tracing his jawline and generally traveling along the contours. He lay beside her, watching her quietly as her thumb paused over his bottom lip, caressing it, pulling it down slightly. Making it look almost as though he were pouting. Like he was trying to look sexy, but it looked more comical than intended. She smirked in amusement as he chuckled.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Buffy let go of his lip and poked his nose playfully. "Just admiring you from close up. It's nice seeing you where there's some light. You're always hiding your pretty face in the shadows. Such a waste."

They were lying on her bed in her room. Her mother had gone to visit a friend for the evening, so it had been safe for her to invite him over. They'd spent some time with Buffy talking about school and her friends before they'd decided to just lie down and simply hold one another.

Angel frowned as he lay quietly beside her. Buffy wondered if she'd said something weird and placed a hand on his chest in concern.

"Angel?"

His face softened as he looked at her, shot her as reassuring a smile as he could probably manage. "Sorry. I was just thinking. I haven't…" he laughed nervously. "I haven't so much as looked at a photo of myself in years. I think I've forgotten what I look like."

There was a brief silence where Buffy was slightly confused. Then it hit her as she remembered.

Oh.

Buffy lowered her eyes as she processed this information. She played with Angel's shirt, creasing and smoothing the fabric. She thought about the way his eyes had smiled at her just earlier when she'd told him a dumb joke, how lovely they looked when they creased at the edges ever so slightly. How his practiced grim face looked two hundred years younger when he did allow himself to laugh freely.

For the first time that evening, she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Her heart flooded with the strangest form of grief.. It just felt so tragic to her that he could no longer remember something as distinct and special as his facial features. His dark, brooding eyes beautifully framed by his brows were what she loved most about his face. What he didn't divulge with speech, she could often read in the depths of his eyes. They were so intense. So…part of him.

And he didn't know what that could look like anymore.

"That's sad," she responded as she resisted the urge to pull out a camera from her drawer. Bottled up her emotions and tried to be strong and silent, like him. Felt shy about admitting to Angel how much she truly loved just looking at him.. "I'd hate to not be able to see my reflection. Like what if I had a bad case of dandruff and had no way of finding out unless other people told me."

They lay there in silence while Buffy wondered if she could survive even a week without being able to see herself in the mirror. Not only that but everything about his life seemed like such a hassle, like trying to obtain blood without killing people. Being Angel just seemed so…hard. She even hated referring to him as a vampire because it felt like she was lumping him with others of his kind who were not so docile and friendly..

"I use Head & Shoulders," Angel said, breaking the silence.

"Huh?" Buffy stared at him dumbly.

"That's why I don't worry about dandruff. Because I use anti-dandruff shampoo. Can't tell if I have acne, though."

Buffy simply lay there, unable to absorb what he was saying for a few seconds. Then she saw his eyes twinkling mischievously and the corner of his lip lifted just a tad. When it hit her that he was making some kind of an attempt at humor, her jaw dropped a little and she punched him softly. "Angel…you made a joke..."

"Was it funny?" he asked, looking hopeful.

She smiled as she raised a hand to his face, once more stroking his cheek. "A little." The more she thought about it the more amusing it was. The image of pale Angel clad in all black, shopping at Target in the shampoo aisle emerged in her mind, making her burst into a fit of giggles.

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Is it really that funny?"

She grinned as she squeezed him, holding him close. Enjoying his warmth and forgetting her worries.

"Kinda."