Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice...Skating

SPOILER WARNING: Innocence be damned, it never happened in my little world. Spoilers for What's My Line part 1, big time.
RATING: PG-14
CONTENT WARNING: A little sexual innuendo.
SUMMARY: Buffy's mom is still out of town so Buffy is still staying with Angel. In this installment, Angel and Buffy go ice skating to make up for their date that was interrupted by the Order of Taraka. It's another in the Fluff Series. It gets overly mushy near the end, but oh, well....
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Buffy and Angel. I wish that I owned Angel, but what can you do? "Who Wants to Live Forever?" is by Queen.

Angel had woken that evening to find the slayer sitting on his leather couch. She was reading the latest issue of Cosmo while waiting for him to wake from his vampire slumber. "Hey." he smiled upon seeing her. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of her in his apartment, at her being there with him. "What's up?"

"I was waiting for you to wake up. You mumbled something about having big plans for us tonight before I went to sleep last night. You've gotten my curiosity flowing." she replied as she rose gracefully from the couch and walked over to her boyfriend. She slipped her arms around his neck and gave him a good morning--err--evening kiss. "So, what do you have planned?"

"It's a surprise." He coyly answered. Buffy groaned softly at Cryptic Guy before staring into his eyes, giving him the pathetic puppy dog look that she used to get whatever she wanted. In this case; answers. "No, I'm not telling you. You can just wait a half an hour for me to get ready before we go." he turned away, determined not to let her expression phase him.

"We have ways of making you talk." Buffy stated slyly in a fake accent. He turned around to face her again and quickly found himself toppling onto the couch with the slayer on top of him. As soon as his back hit the leather of the couch, she instantly began tickling him in the ribs--his most sensitive spot. "Do you give up?!" she asked between her giggles that were matched by his own.

"Never!" he laughed, grabbing her arm with his hand and quickly flipping the duo so she was on her back and he was above her. "I have not yet begun to tickle!" he grinned before he began tickling her in turn. Their laughter rang through the apartment until finally they were both reduced to tears from all the giggling.

"Do you forfeit?" Buffy asked as she caught her breath from the massive tickling attack.

"We'll call it a draw." Angel answered as he sat up from his horizontal position. Buffy too sat up as she attempted to straightened her hair that had gotten mussed in the mock battle.

"So, are you going to tell me?" she asked, arching her eyebrow in anticipation. The look in her eye told the vampire that he would either have to tell her or face the wrath of the tickling slayer for the second time that evening.

"I rented out the ice skating rink for the night for just the two of us. I wanted to make up for the date we never got the last time we were there." Buffy's expression melted as she listened to the vampire. Finally, she reached over and put her hand on his cheek.

"That is so sweet, Angel. You rented out the entire place just so we could have a date?" Buffy asked as she stared into his dark eyes.

"I couldn't wait till next Tuesday night...so I forked out a few dollars. I figure you're worth it." he replied with a smile. She couldn't resist the urge to lean down and give him a kiss, and she really didn't want to fight that desire anyway. "I'm going to get ready so we can go, okay?" she nodded her head as he rose to his feet and walked off to take his shower and dress to get ready for their night together at the skating rink.

Forty minutes later they arrived at the empty rink together, hand in hand. "You know," Buffy offhandedly remarked as they walked closer to the ice. They both were carrying ice skates; Buffy's were ones she owned and Angel's had been rented for the occasion. "The last time we were here, we got attacked by the Order of Taraka." Buffy commented.

"I don't think that we will be disturbed tonight. So just relax and have fun." the vampire replied, quickly getting a grin from the vampire slayer. The pair sat down together on a bench near the ice as Buffy quickly put her skates on. "Go ahead and start skating--I need to do something really quickly."

Buffy shrugged at Angel's cryptic comment and once her skates were tied on she stepped out on to the ice. She glided across the rink to warm up, and as she did Angel could only stare at her graceful movements. She looked free, as though she were flying, and to the vampire, she never looked more beautiful.

Finally, he managed to force his eyes away from the skating slayer and to the task at hand.

When Buffy looked to where the vampire had been standing, she noted that Angel had disappeared, causing Buffy to wonder as she skated around the rink where the vampire had gone to. She didn't see him at first, causing her to wonder exactly what he was up to. Finally she heard something--not Angel's voice but music. She turned her head to find Angel fiddling with the controls of the sound system of the rink near the side it.

The music soon filled the air, and it was not the classical music that made up the majority of Angel's CD collection. It was a soft classic rock ballad that she had heard in the car when her mother had control of the radio. Now she knew she would never hear that song again without thinking of Angel. She stopped skating for a moment as she caught Angel's eye.

He smiled at her, a truly beatific smile that only crossed his face when he was with her, as he made his way over to the ice. She skated over to meet him, and greeted the vamp with a soft kiss. "This is amazing, Angel." Buffy whispered in his ear as her arms wrapped around him tightly. "Are you going to come out on the ice?"

"You're going to have to teach me." he murmured.

"You don't know how to skate? Why am I not surprised?" she asked with a playful grin.

"This is your world, not mine. I never had a need to learn before--until now. But I'm a fast learner, and I'm sure you're a good teacher." he replied. He sat down and took a moment to tie on the skates that he had rented for the evening while Buffy waited. Once the skates were firmly on Angel's feet, Buffy took him by the arm and led him to the ice.

"It's easy." she declared as she helped him step out onto the ice. Immediately, he almost lost his balance and had the slayer not been there to hold him up, he would have plummeted to the ice. But she was there to catch him and help him regain his balance.

As she helped him stand, he looked at her and thought about how much that was a metaphor for their relationship. Whenever he fell, she caught him. And, in turn, when she fell, he was there to put her back on her feet once again. Unless, of course, it was on the ice rink. He really couldn't help her there...."Okay, so it's not as easy as it looks." Buffy conceded, knocking Angel from his thoughts on the matter of the metaphors of their relationship and back into reality.

"Now what do I do, Teacher?" Angel asked lightly as she placed her hand in his.

"Follow my lead." she slowly moved her legs to begin skating at a snail's pace. "Just move your legs like that." cautiously, Angel did as she instructed and began mimicking her motions with his own. Slowly, the pair began moving across the ice, all the while the slayer still kept her grip on the vampire. "Good. You're doing very good." Buffy murmured.

"Well." Angel corrected.

"What?" Buffy asked as Angel suddenly lost his balance and toppled to the ice, taking the slayer with him. She landed on top of him, her chest flat against his. She giggled as she surveyed their position with a cocked eyebrow.

"Well. It's 'well,' not good. But I suppose it makes no difference now." he replied with a laugh.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked, noting that Angel had been the one to take almost all of the force from the fall. He nodded his head before leaning in to steal a quick kiss before the couple attempted to stand up on the ice once again. Buffy smiled as she watched Angel struggle to his feet, wobbling like a new born deer taking it's first steps.

Once the duo was back on their feet again, Buffy took Angel's hand in hers again to continue her lessons. "Just take it slowly." she said as the pair began skating once again. After a few minutes they slowly picked up the pace of their skating across the rink as Angel gained a little more confidence in his movements.

"This would be much more romantic if I had actually known how to do this before we came here." Angel muttered as he tightened his grip on her hand slightly for a brief moment when he feared that he would fall once again. Buffy slowed the pair to a stop before she reached her hand to touch Angel's pale cheek.

"It's already romantic. It's very romantic." she whispered before placing a kiss on his waiting lips. "But so is pretty much anything when I'm with you." she grinned prior to giving him one more kiss. Then the pair began skating again, this time Angel had a little more confidence in his movements and his balance.

Within a few minutes, the couple was skating hand in hand at a fairly leisurely pace around the rink. Angel had proved that he was the fast learner he had claimed to be by finding his balance and 'groove' so that he was now able to skate without the slayer's hand for assistance. But even with his newly acquired skill, he still held her hand in his as they skated together.

"This is such a Kodak moment." Buffy giggled as they rounded the corner.

"How so?" the vampire inquired as his eyes met hers.

"Just you--ice skating. No one's going to believe it when I tell them that we went ice skating together and that you can actually skate now. What will it do to your cryptic brooding reputation?" the slayer asked sarcastically as he slowed the pair to a stop and gathered her into his arms quickly.

"Well, I guess it'll just shatter my image, won't it?" he mumbled before placing a kiss on her lips. When the kiss came to an end, she rested her head against his shoulder as he slipped his arms around her so they just stood together on the ice, unmoving, just holding each other.

"Promise me something. Promise me that you'll remember this. That you'll remember this moment."

"Always." he whispered as he shut his eyes slowly. "I will never forget this--not if I live to be a million years old." he murmured in her ear. Her fingers kneaded into his back gently as she pulled him tighter against her. They stood in silence, the only sounds were that of the song coming from the sound system.

//But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is ours today
Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever?
Forever is ours today
Who waits forever anyway?//

Buffy sighed softly as she listened to the song and concentrated on the feel of Angel's body against hers. Her eyes closed as she lost herself in his arms as she had a thousand times before. In his arms, she could forget everything-- school, slaying, everything. When he held her, the world stopped spinning and it was only the two of them.

She could only imagine how they would appear to anyone who might happen to see them--standing on the ice together in a tight embrace, as though they were holding onto each other for dear life. Maybe in a way they were. "Buffy?" the vampire's soft, soothing tone pulled her from her thoughts.

"Mmmm?" she asked as she shifted her arms that were against his back.

"Are you okay? You seem a little...." he voice broke off, unable to figure out what she seemed like.

"Oh, I was just thinking that's all. About how lucky I am to have you." she grinned before placing a kiss on his waiting lips. When the slow, passionate kiss finally came to an end, he stared deeply into her eyes. It was as though he could see into her heart when he looked into her clear blue eyes.

"I'm the lucky one. You could have chosen anyone to love, and you chose me. You have no idea how blessed I feel knowing that." he whispered in her ear as the strands of her blond hair tickled his neck as they held each other closely. "You make me feel so much that I've never felt before. You taught me how to love again, and that I deserve it. No one else has ever done that before." she blushed slightly at his loving words. He tightened his grip on her, pulling her even closer to him so that he could feel the warmth of her body against the coolness of his own. The contrast was like fire and ice, but it felt natural.

He rested his chin on the top of her head as she clung to him, her head against his shoulder. As he held her, the smell of her hair filled his nostrils; the fragrance of jasmine and lavender. He knew that in a year, or ten, or even a hundred, whenever he smelled those flowers, he would think of her. "Let's go home." Angel whispered in her ear. She slowly moved her head from his shoulder to look into his eyes.

"You don't want to ice skate anymore?" she looked mildly disappointed.

"I just want to crawl into bed with you, hold you, and never let go." he answered, causing her look of disappointment to vanish completely and be replaced by a bright smile.

"That can be arranged." she grinned.

Together, hand in hand, the pair skated off of the ice. It didn't take them long to take the skates off, put their regular shoes on and then depart from the rink for Angel's apartment.

When they walked into the apartment, they walked to Angel's room and got ready for bed. Once they had changed out of their ice skating clothes, they crawled into bed together. There, Angel wrapped his arms around the slayer; his chest pressing against her back as he laid his head in the space between her shoulder and her head.

"I had fun tonight." she whispered as she ran her hands over his.

"I had fun too. Maybe someday we can do it again. Hopefully then I won't fall down." he said with a smile as she shut her eyes while he spoke. "It makes me wonder what I'm going to have to do to top that in the future...." he stopped when he looked down at her peaceful face and discovered that she'd fallen asleep as he had spoken. "I guess teaching me not to fall on my face wore you out." he mumbled softly so as not to awaken her from her serene slumber. "Goodnight, Beloved." he whispered before closing his eyes and falling asleep with her in his arms. It was the perfect way to fall asleep.

The End