Birthday Wishes

SPOILER WARNING: 'Innocence' be damned--it never happened. This is a happy story!
RATING: PG-14
FEEDBACK: PLEASE! Unless you want me to quit writing fan-fic and take up rug hooking.
CONTENT: A little sexual innuendo, but nothing a normal viewer of the show couldn't read.
SUMMARY: Buffy gets a happy birthday for once, and another fairy tale. This is another in the Fluff Series.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Buffy and Angel. Joss and the WB do. I'll return them when I'm finished in the same condition I got them in.

Buffy smiled to herself as she fixed her hair in the mirror in her room, readying for her private birthday celebration with Angel. She and the rest of the Slayerettes, Angel included, had had a nice little birthday party at the library in her honor the night before her actual eighteenth birthday. She had decided to spend the day before with friends, the day with her mother and the night and the next day with her vampire lover.

She had no idea what his plans for her were, but she suspected that they were probably similar to their plans for Christmas; a lazy night laying together in the apartment, just enjoying the other's company. She didn't mind that, in fact, it was nights like those that were her favorite.

Once she had finished with her hair, she walked downstairs, told her mother that she was going to the Bronze and then going to spend the night at Willow's, and then exited the house for Angel's apartment. Silently she longed for the night when she wouldn't need to lie about the man she loved with all of her heart.

Buffy knocked on the apartment door twice and waited for her boyfriend to answer the door. When he did, she couldn't help but giggle at the sight of him; on top of his head was a birthday hat which didn't exactly match his usual black clothing. "You look sexy in a party hat, Angel," Buffy smiled as she walked inside. What she saw made her gasp.

The entire apartment was covered in balloons and flowers. She estimated it must have been at least two hundred balloons; they were not the usual "Happy Birthday" novelty balloons that she'd gotten plenty of the day before but rather teal and purple ones that were tied with black ribbon. Flowers were arranged everywhere flowers could be put; the desk, the tables and even the cabinets held bouquets of all colored roses on top of them. The only table not covered in flowers was the coffee table, and on it sat a small birthday cake decorated in frosting roses and stating simply, "Happy Birthday, Beloved."

Buffy's eyes remained large as she stared at the decorated room and thought of all the trouble Angel had gone to for her, "It's too much, isn't it?" Angel asked softly, the Slayer shook her head and threw her arms around the vampire in a tight embrace.

"No. It's perfect. You're perfect. Thank you." she whispered into his neck. They held each other for a long time, speaking without words as they stood in silence in each other's embrace. Finally, Angel pulled away slowly and without saying a word, led the Slayer to the couch where they sat down together.

"Happy Birthday, Buffy," he whispered before placing a kiss on her forehead. "Do you want to open your presents first or eat cake?" the Slayer, though tempted to see what Angel had gotten her, chose cake. She was starving at this point, so the cake was very tempting.

"You already gave me a present," Buffy reminded him as she cut the cake and put slices on the plates he'd set out.

The night before, at the library, everyone had given Buffy her gifts, including Angel. Willow had given her a camera so that she and Angel could take all the pictures they wanted, Xander had given his friend a few CDs, Giles had chosen a gift certificate based on the fact that he was fairly clueless as to what teenagers, especially Slayers wanted, so he decided she should chose it for herself; and Cordelia had given her a purse so that she'd have 'at least one thing that was fashionable' to quote the May Queen. When Buffy opened the last gift, she found it to be a beautiful, purple velvet covered book from Angel. She flipped through it and found the white, unlined pages blank, "So you can fill them yourself with anything you want to write or save," he had told her. On the first page was a sketch that Angel had done of the two of them together; a drawing achieved thanks to the photos Buffy had taken with Willow's camera a week before. It was such a beautiful gift that Buffy was quite surprised that Angel had gotten her anything else.

"I know, but I got you some things I didn't want to give in front of everyone." Angel replied while the Slayer handed him his plate of cake.

"If it's a black leather body suit, so help me, Angel...." she playfully stated, her voice trailing off as the vampire beside her quietly laughed.

"It's not," Angel assured her. The Slayer took a bite of cake while Angel said, "It's a purple leather body suit." Buffy nearly choked on her cake, causing Angel to laugh once more.

"Not exactly a joke I'd expect from you, Angel. Dare I say that I'm rubbing off on you?" she asked, her only response was a shrug of Angel's shoulders and a small smirk on his lips. She grinned and took a bite of her cake as Angel did the same.

Together, the vampire and his girlfriend finished off half of the chocolate cake before they finally decided that that was enough cake for the both of them. One could only eat so much chocolate cake, after all. "Now presents, right?" Buffy asked, her tone like that of an excited child who could no longer wait to rip into the packages containing her gifts.

"Whatever you want. It's your birthday." Angel answered as he rose to his feet. The Slayer thought for a moment, then stood as well and walked to her boyfriend's side and wrapped her arms around him before placing a kiss on his lips.

"Later...I just got a better idea." With that Buffy smiled seductively and led her cradle-robbing-creature-of-the-night boyfriend to the bedroom.

Later that night the couple lay in bed, bathed in the light coming from the candles Angel had lit for a nice, romantic atmosphere. They lay contented in silence for a long time, just enjoying the quiet and the feel of being together, which was something they knew to never take for granted. Angel gently tightened his arms around her, pulling her just a little bit closer to him. "This is the best birthday I've ever had." Buffy sighed happily as she snuggled into Angel's embrace.

"I'm glad that you're happy. All I want in the world is for you to be happy, you know." he whispered into the strands of her blonde hair that fanned around him. Without saying a word, Angel moved from her grasp just long enough to reach his night stand and pull out two small packages from the drawer. "Happy Birthday," he smiled to her as he handed them to his smiling girlfriend.

"You know, you spoil me," she whispered while sitting up so that she could assume the proper gift opening position.

"I like spoiling you." Angel quickly replied without hesitation.

"Hey, I'm not complaining. I like being spoiled." Buffy answered as her fingers moved over the wrapping paper on her first gift. She removed the paper to find a small box like that which usually contained jewelry. Holding her breath, she opened the box to reveal a gold ring looped through a slim gold chain.

On the inside of the gold ring were words written in a language she didn't understand. She looked up at him questioningly, "It's in Gaelic, my native language," he explained, "It's a traditional Irish proverb that means, 'Where there's love, there's enough.' I thought it was appropriate because your love is all that I need. If I had nothing else but your love, I would be the richest man in the world." Buffy felt tears in her eyes but tried rapidly to blink them away since she knew that Angel hated to see her cry, even though these were tears of happiness.

She swallowed back her tears and threw her arms around her boyfriend for a tight, warm embrace. "I love you, you know." she whispered in his ear as they held each other.

"I know," he assured her.

"Do you know how much?" Buffy asked softly, releasing her boyfriend just enough so that she could look into his sable eyes as she spoke.

"I think I know." Angel replied as he gently trailed his fingertips over her cheek in slow, deliberate patterns.

She looked down slightly as she spoke, "I don't think you do, Angel. You're always the one with the great words, you always have the romantic stuff to say. I try to, you know. I try to think of things to say to you that could tell you just how much I love you, but it's like the second I get near you, I forget what I was going to say. I forget everything else but you." she answered, fumbling slightly with her choice of words before lifting her eyes from their downward glance to gauge her boyfriend's reaction. On his face was a gentle smile that radiated pure love.

"You just told me. You may not think it, but you tell me everyday, in everything you do. You know that saying, "actions speak louder than words"? You don't need to tell me, I can see it, I can tell. You tell me with every kiss, every touch. I know that you love me, and you don't need poetry or well-chosen words to prove it or to show it." he gently smiled while she slipped her hand around his neck and brought him in for a slow, gentle kiss. "That's all you've got to say." he whispered between their light kisses.

"If that's all I've got to say, let me say it again," she grinned before meeting her boyfriend for another kiss. "In fact, I could sit here and 'tell' you all night."

"I'm entirely in favor of that, but perhaps first you'd care to open your gift," Angel then motioned to the small, still untouched package still sitting on top of the blanket near Buffy's leg. She reached for it and carefully pealed back the paper, wondering what else Angel could have possibly done to make the night, and her birthday, any more special.

"She removed the paper to find another small box. She opened it to find a ring...of keys. Whatever symbolism was here apparently went by the Slayer as she looked at her boyfriend in silent confusion. "I don't get it, Angel."

"It's a key to the apartment lock, the dead-bolt and the other is a key to the car. I figure that you're going to need them when you move in," her jaw dropped as she finally realized the keys were her formal invitation to move in with him. "I know it's what you wanted, and I want it too. So, as soon as you let your mother in on everything, you're free to move in and take all of my closet space."

"You mean it?" she asked, not quite believing her ears.

"Yeah. You're going to have to bear with me for a while, since I haven't lived with anyone for a long time. I'm afraid I've forgotten the unwritten rules of etiquette that come with living together." he smiled before placing a soft kiss on her lips.

"I don't care about etiquette. I don't care if you leave your towels over the bathroom, or if you leave your dishes out for me to clean up...or if you leave the toilet seat up." Buffy whispered back while she ran her fingers over Angel's dark hair slowly.

"Oh, you say that now...." Angel quietly jested.

"No. I mean it. All of the annoying male things you could do won't matter because we'll be together--really together. I've wanted so much, for so long to want to be with you, to wake up with together everyday, I don't care about anything else but that." Their lips met for a slow, gentle kiss that lasted until Buffy pulled away in order to draw a breath.

"Is it a good birthday so far?" Angel asked as he lazily sprawled on the bed with the Slayer beside him.

"Only one thing could make it better." Buffy replied, Angel waited until she elaborated, "Tell me another story, another fairy tale. Please?" Buffy asked, batting her eyelashes to her boyfriend, as though she actually needed to use her feminine wiles in order to convince him.

"It is your birthday." he thought briefly about the perfect story to tell the Slayer, "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess/Slayer who lived in a little village in the Royal County of California. She was a radiant beauty who would cause heads to turn every time she walked down the street." Buffy felt her cheeks grow warm and flushed as the vampire spoke.

"You flatter me, Sir." she commented in her best English accent that was fairly accurate due to all the time she spent around Giles.

"She could have had any man that she wanted, anyone at all. One day she was walking through the forest and she came to a...a...." Angel stopped as he tried to remember how the story that he was roughly basing his tale on went. It had been so long since last he'd heard it....

"I think you mean frog, Honey." Buffy interjected.

"Frog. That's right. Anyway, she was walking one evening and she met a frog on the side of the road. "Oh, Princess," the frog croaked to her, "You are in great danger." After telling her that, the frog hopped away into the pond beside the road."

"Boy, do I know the type." she jested.

"A few nights later, Princess Buffy met the frog again, and again he gave her a cryptic message of doom and then hopped away to his lily pad." Buffy couldn't help but giggle, Angel couldn't keep the smile from his face either.

"This frog certainly sounds familiar," she joked as she ran her hand over the vampire's shoulder slowly.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Angel slyly replied, "Anyway, so one night the frog met the princess again, and this time she was fighting some bad frogs. Well, the frog couldn't stand the idea of her getting hurt, so he intervened. The little frog jumped on the other frogs and did everything a frog could possibly do in order to help the princess. And sure enough, he did, but in doing it he got a nasty cut over his froggy stomach. The princess, worried about the cryptic frog, took him back to the palace with her."

"Then what happened?" Buffy asked as she trailed her fingers down Angel's chest, a movement which proved to be a little bit of a distraction for the vampire.

"She took him to her room and let him stay there during the day but she didn't tell Queen Joyce that she was associating with the frog. Well, the frog sat in her room all day until she returned at night. When she came into the room she noticed that her diary was out of place...." Angel began, a grin spreading across his face.

"You're never going to let me live that one down, are you?" Buffy giggled.

"No, I'm not. Can I continue?" she nodded her head and motioned for him to continue with the tale, "She thought that he was reading it, even though he didn't actually possess the opposable thumbs needed to open said diary. At this time she spewed forth a long explanation that the 'F' in the book, which really stood for 'Frog', actually stood for Fletcher, a very charming exchange student." Buffy groaned and rolled her eyes at the distorted memory in the form of a story.

He smiled all the more and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before continuing with the story, "Well, the princess was outraged, as you can probably guess. The frog told her that he should leave, they were too different because not only was she human and he an amphibian, but he was something like 224 years older than her. He was an incredibly well preserved frog, as you can imagine. But, somewhere along the line, they kissed." Angel stopped and waited for Buffy look at him with curiosity as to how his tale was going to end.

"So, what happened?" Buffy asked quickly, unable to wait any longer for the resolution to the story.

"Well, there was a big flash of light and the princess was blinded for but a moment. When she opened her big, beautiful eyes, she saw a handsome prince standing in front of her where the frog had been. "What happened to Frog?" she asked, quite confused at this point by the goings-on that had just occurred. The man, who happened to be a prince, replied, "I am Frog. You see, 242 years ago, a spell was placed over me that turned me into a frog and your love broke the spell and restored my humanity to me." Princess Buffy was quite shocked but also quite pleased that Frog was now the man standing in front of her." Angel brushed back a few strands of Buffy's hair as he finished his sentence.

"They had better live happily ever after...." Buffy smiled as she nestled her head into the crook of Angel's arm.

"I'm getting there." Angel assured her, "The ex-frog, now prince, then told the princess that he had loved her since before they'd spoken their first words together and that even though they had been so different he had loved her with all of his frog heart. The once-frog wanted to get married, but the princess declined his offer, saying they should live together first. So, the Princess and the Prince went to his lily-pad, which was actually quite spacious even though he had rather dark decorating taste where they lived happily until they decided to get married. Then they moved to a condo where they had the standard 1.7 kids and a family dog. They grew old together and even though they got wrinkled, whenever they looked at each other, they always saw each other exactly as they were the night he regained his humanity with her kiss. The end." The vampire concluded with a smile that had spread also to his girlfriend, currently laying peacefully in his arms.

"Another perfect story." she said with a contented sigh as she snuggled closer to the vampire, preparing to go to sleep. "Thank you for a wonderful birthday, Angel. It was the best ever." she smiled. He placed a small kiss on her forehead as they snuggled together.

"Wait 'till next year." he grinned and with that, they both shut their eyes.

When sleep took hold, they both dreamt of the same thing; Angel's fairy tale. As they both smiled in their sleep at the happy ending to their dreams, they clung together in the darkness in their own real-world happy ending.

The End