By: Cass
Disclaimer = I own not the
characters but the plot and ideas portrayed in this fanfic. Any dialogue is from
the episode "When She Was Bad" Please, don't sue, unless you want to deprive
me of me valued Buffy collection J I wish I owned Buffy and Angel 'cause God
knows I would treat them better than Joss, so Joss if you're reading this, and
are willing to sell J
Authors Note = Okay, usually I would be against writing this fanfic
subject, but I got the idea one day when I was bored. So I decided to see how it
would develop. I hope you like it. Feedback: Always! I love to hear what people
think! Bad or good, but please constructive criticism. Flames will be used to
practice my fire eating (ouch!).
Author's Note 2: Live life to its fullest carpe diem, and love what you
have, give what you can, and NEVER expect anything in return!!! Rock on, e-me at
Angel_luv2@BuffyMail.com
Buffy tossed and turned. She was having a dream, one she preferred to wake up from. She was in the lounge at school talking to Willow and Xander. Giles came up to her and told her he figured out what was going on with the vampires. He then attacked her. Buffy pulled on his face, and revealed the master hidden behind it
Just then, Buffy woke with a start. Why did these nightmares have to haunt her? She killed the master, he should be gone. Buffy then realized that she wasn't alone. She didn't even have to look to know who it was. Her heart rate beat faster when she saw him.
"Hello," Buffy said to Angel, her heart rate growing as he looked at her with his beautiful brown eyes.
"Mind if I come in?" Angel could sense her heart. At the same time he thought Her heart beats faster for me? It can't be, she had a bad dream, I know it. I don't deserve that beat.
"Be my guest."
"How are you?"
"Peachy. So, is this a social call? It is kinda late. Or, well, it is for me, anyway. What is it for you, lunch hour?" She knew he could tell she was lying. He knew whatever she was feeling. She hated that.
"It's not a social call." Something was bothering her, he wished he could help. He wished he could go over to her and hold her and tell her everything would be all right.
"Ah. So, lemme guess. That means grave danger. Gosh, it's good to be home."
"I'm sorry. I wish I had better news." He really did. He never wanted to see her like this. She looked so helpless. What an oxymoron. The slayer, looking helpless? But she was. She had died fighting the master, and it had scared her.
"So, some of your cousins are in town for a family barbecue, and we're all on the menu." She didn't want to hear that right now. She just wanted to forget being the slayer. She wanted Angel to hold her so bad it hurt, but she wouldn't let him know that.
"The Anointed One. He's been gathering forces somewhere in town. I'm not sure why."
"Guess I'll find out soon enough, huh?"
"You don't sound too concerned," Angel didn't like it. Didn't she worry? Why was she acting like this?
"I can handle myself. Besides, I could use a little action anyway." It was true. Kicking some vamp ass would help her relieve some of the very heavy tension she had right now.
"Don't underestimate the Anointed One just because he looks like a child. He has power over the rest of them. They'll do anything for him."
"Is that it? Is that everything? Y'know, 'cause you woke me up from a really good dream." Yea, if you count almost being killed by the master in your dream, Buffy thought. She turned away from him, hoping he wouldn't see through her lie. But he did.
"Sorry. I'll go." He turns around, but pauses and then says, "I missed you." Oh, man, did he miss her. He wished they could have spent the whole summer together, but he didn't deserve her. He left.
"I missed you?" Buffy turned around, but it was too late, he was already gone. She wish he had heard her. She missed him so much, and now all she wanted was someone to listen to her, and hold her. She wanted Angel.
Angel walked back to his apartment, thinking. She was so distant, so scared. He loved her so much, but yet he knew he didn't deserve for her to love him back. He knew she did. He could sense the change in her heartbeat when she sensed him in her room. Why did he have to love her so much? It would have been so much easier if he didn't. It would be so much easier if he just told her what she needed to know, and then left. But he couldn't stay away.
He remembered the first time he saw her. It was on a bright California afternoon in LA. She was called to her destiny, and he fell in love with her right there. Over the next year, he followed her, watching, waiting to tell her. He would follow her when she went on patrol, and kill any vamps he could without her noticing him.
Whistler had told him that it was too early to show himself to her. He said he wasn't ready, and neither was she. Whistler told him he had to wait until she needed him the most, and he would know when that time would come.
The time finally came when she moved to Sunnydale after her mom and dad divorced and she got expelled from Hemery because she burnt down the gym. It wasn't fair to her, he knew it. She couldn't tell anyone who she was, and it caused her to be a social outcast. He held pain for her in his never-beating heart.
When he met her in that dark alley her first night in Sunnydale, he knew he wouldn't be able to stay away once he saw her. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen in his life. He told her that she couldn't turn her back on things, and he tossed her the necklace. He hoped with all of his tortured soul that she liked it.
Angel reached his apartment and came out of his thoughts. He entered his apartment and went over to the fridge. He pulled out a blood bag and drained its contents. He wondered what Buffy would say if she ever saw him feed. He hoped she would never have to see the monster inside of him. She had seen it before, and he hoped that it would never happened again.
He remembered their first kiss. How it had started out so unsure and then turned into a furry of passion, lust, and love. Then, he wasn't able to control the demon inside. He showed her his true face, and she screamed. His heart sank when it happened, knowing now that things would be different. Knowing she would no longer trust him.
But yet, when she came to the Bronze after she thought it was him who attacked her mother, she showed him the ultimate trust. She walked up to him, fear showing in her eyes, and bared her neck to him. The Slayer, baring her neck to a vampire. He wasn't expecting it, but it almost made him feel human. Someone had showed him so much love and trust that his soul soared.
Their moment was gone. Darla shot Angel in the chest with a gun. Luckily for him, guns didn't kill vampires. He staggered into the wall. Darla then started firing at Buffy. Angel knew what he had to do. He had to stop her. He pulled himself up with the bolt that Buffy had shot at him earlier. He wondered for just a minute whether she meant to miss. He staggered up to Darla and pushed the bolt through he back, through her heart. He watched as she disappeared into ash. He had killed his sire. And all for the love of the Slayer.
When he went to go and check up on Buffy the next night at the Bronze, he never would have expected what would happen. They said it would never work, and they kissed their kiss goodbye. As she left, he held her in his heart, and in his soul. She left her mark upon him. He now wore the imprint of the cross he had given to her burned into his chest.
As Angel fell asleep that night, he fell asleep with that kiss on his mind, and the thought of Buffy. The dream he would have that night would prepare him for what would happen in Buffy's next adventure.
Buffy tried as hard as she could to go back to sleep. But she couldn't. He mind was on Angel, on how he said he missed her, and how she had missed him, too. She thought of the first time she met him, and how she had fallen in love with him in that instant. She wondered if he loved her, too. It was impossible. She was sixteen, and he was two hundred and forty-two.
She thought of their first kiss. Even now as she thought of it, it was like a dream. A dream that turned into a nightmare. She loved the way his lips felt on hers. How she would just melt into them. They shared so much in that kiss and it all ended with him vamping out on her. It had sucked.
When she went to the Bronze that night, she went with the intentions of killing him. That soon changed when he told her about the cruse, and how he had gone eighty years without feeding. She wondered how he fed. She didn't give that much thought, though. When he killed his sire to save her life, she knew from that moment on that she would never let go of him. That no matter how much she tried not to, that she would love him.
And when they shared their kiss goodbye, she knew she didn't want it to stop there. She knew that she wanted more. She didn't care what he was. She didn't care that he didn't breathe nor do other normal human activities. All she wanted was to be in his arms, and kissing his lips.
Buffy went to sleep that night with the thoughts of her and Angel together. The dream she had, not knowing it, was shared with Angel. He who was all the way across town, dreaming of the same thing.
The dream started out with Buffy walking through the cemetery on patrol. She then sensed a vampire behind her, but for some reason, she didn't worry. She knew why. She knew it was Angel.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi."
"So, how's the hunting going?" He was trying the best he could to start up a conversation.
"Fine." Great way to start it, Angel thought.
"So, how 'bout we go for a walk?" He suggested.
"Okay."
They walked in silence until he took her hand. She looked up to him with a question in her eyes. She knew he knew they could never be anything, so what was he doing?
As if he had sensed her question he told her, "I have something to show you."
They walked on until they came to a lake. Nearby was a blanket spread out onto the grass. There was a picnic basket beside it. "Why don't we sit down?" He suggested.
They sat down, and he started pulling things out of the basket. There were sandwiches, salad, and grapes. He handed her a sandwich, and she nibbled on it, unsure of wanting to eat in front of him.
He sensed her uncomfortableness, and took a sandwich off of the plate and started to eat it.
"I didn't know you could eat real food," she said.
"I can. It's just that it doesn't really do anything for me. I can only get the nutrients I need from… well, you know."
"You can say it. The word doesn't bother me, Angel. I know you drink blood, a vampire has to. It doesn't scare me."
"Are you sure? You've never seen me feed."
"I've seen vampires feed on their victims before. After you see it for a while, you just kind of get used to it."
"Yea, but this is different. I don't feed off of humans."
"I know, but you do feed."
She could sense that he didn't really want to talk about it, so she changed the subject.
"Okay, not to sound ungrateful, thank you for the food. How did you know I was hungry?"
"I know."
"Why did you bring me here?"
"I had to talk to you. I had to tell you… I had to tell you how I fell."
"Angel…"
"No, let me talk. Just let me say this. I have to. I know we can never be anything, but I can't live without you. I love you too much. Buffy, I can't help it. I'll understand if you want to leave. I'll take you home."
He started to get up, but Buffy stopped him.
"Angel, I… I… love you, too. I was so afraid that you didn't feel the same way. I've loved you since the first time I saw you. I thought you thought I was too young. That I was just a child."
"Oh, Buffy, I never thought you were a child. You are the most wonderful person I've ever met in my whole existence."
After hearing that, Buffy had to kiss him. She pulled him down to the blanket with her. They kissed. They kissed for what seemed like hours, but it was only minutes. They were so involved in the kiss that neither of them noticed the sun rising until they were bathed in it. Buffy broke away from Angel in horror.
"Oh my god, Angel, we have to get you inside! You're going to die!"
"Buffy, I don't feel anything. I just feel the warmth of the sun. Could it be that…"
"You're human?!"
Just then the two lovers woke up. Both in a sweat and amazed, but scared looks on their faces. "Wow," was all they said.
The next two days were the worst of Buffy's life. She had told Angel at the Bronze that she had moved onto the living, where as in reality she hadn't. She did a very provocative dance with Xander in hopes that it would make Angel jealous, but she found out that he had just left.
But tonight, that was the worst. She had found out what the vamps were up to when they captured Cordelia, and sent a trap to get Willow and Giles. They had delivered her message on a rock that said to come to the Bronze or Cordelia would become a meal. She went, knowing it was a trap, but thinking it was for her.
She met Angel on the way, and challenged him to fight with her. It ended with him asking her if she had somewhere else to be. She did, so she went with him following her.
When they entered the Bronze, they realized that it was a setup, but the bait was there with no hook.
When Buffy returned to the library, she found out from Xander that they needed the people closest to the master physically when he died to restore him. Buffy's worst fears had come true. They were going to restore the master, and they were going to kill her friends to do it. Just then, Buffy forgot all of her personal issues to save her friends.
She, Xander, and Angel went to a factory that the vampires were keeping them. Buffy then fought them while Xander and Angel got the others loose.
Now, it was over. Buffy had stopped them from ever restoring the master by pounding his bones into power. But was it really over? She started to cry. She just cried, and then Angel came over and held her. He just put her arms around her and let her cry.
"Shh, shh, it's going to be all right," he told her, and she knew now, that it would.
When Buffy woke up the next morning, she knew she would have to apologize to her friends, but she didn't know whether they would forgive her.
She went to school, and walked into the classroom. She looked at them talking, and when Willow told her they saved her a seat, she smiled.
"There's a rumor going around that that, uh, Mr. Cox is the most boring teacher in the entire world. Like, I think he won a belt or something," Xander told her.
"Well, I heard that he falls asleep, so that's a plus," Willow commented.
"So are we bronzing tonight?" Xander asked.
"Wednesday, it's kinda beat," said Willow.
"Well, we could grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer, but gosh, we did that last night!" Xander commented while Willow just smiled at Buffy. They then just started to talk, and Buffy knew things were better.
Later that night, Buffy was sleeping when she was woken with the feeling that she wasn't alone. She was right. He was there. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Hi," he said in that tone of voice that always made the hairs on the back of her head prickle.
"Hello."
"I was just checking to see how you're doing. Are you okay?"
"I will be. I just need some time."
"Oh, I'll go," said Angel hurt, but knowing she needed her space.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Angel. I didn't mean you."
"You want me to stay?"
"Yea, I guess I do. I'm sorry about the last few days. I wasn't thinking right. I was just so scared. I've seen all of these things in the past year, and…" just then Buffy broke down into another set of tears.
Angel sat on her bed and just held her again, and just let her cry. "Shh, it's okay."
Buffy looked up into Angel's face. In his eyes, she saw something she had never seen before. She saw the love that he held for her. When she saw that, her heart soared into a moment of true bliss. Could it be that the thing she has hoped for this past year is true?
As Angel looked into Buffy's face, he showed her the love he had for her. He wanted her to know that he held her heart so close to him. He wanted her to know that nothing would cause him to stop loving her.
"Let's go for a walk," he told Buffy. She could only nod.
As soon as Buffy was dressed, they climbed out of her window, and strolled down the street.
"Where are we going?" Buffy asked Angel.
"I don't know. I thought we'd just walk until we found what we were looking for."
They walked into a little bit of woods past the cemetery until they came to a clearing. When they saw the setting before them, they both gasped in surprise. This was the spot from their dream! When they both had noticed that the other had gasped, they turned and faced each other.
"Could it be?" they said in unison.
"Angel, I had a dream that we were in a place just like this."
"So did I."
"What happened in the dream?"
"Well, I brought you here, and we ate some food. Then we talked about my feeding. Then… I told you that I loved you, and that I couldn't help myself."
"And then I told you that I loved you, too. Angel, could it be that our dream is coming true?" Buffy asked him.
"I don't know, Buffy."
"Angel?"
"Yes."
"Do you love me?" Buffy asked in a voice that was so unsure that Angel's heart ached.
"Of course I do, Buffy. I have loved you since the first time I saw you. I always have, and I always will."
"Oh, I love you, too, Angel!"
Just then, Angel wrapped his arms around Buffy' waist, and bent his head down to kiss her. Buffy wrapped her arms around Angel's neck. They kissed passionately. They were so wrapped up in each other, that they didn't realize the person approaching them.
"Well isn't this a lovely sight? I was wondering how long it would take you two to come to your senses," said the figure that had approached them.
"Who are you, and why the hell are you interrupting us?" asked Buffy as she and Angel pulled apart looking at him annoyed.
"You can call me Doug. I was sent to watch over you two. I deal with the romance department of mankind. You two have proven your love for each other so many times, that we decided that you deserved to be together."
"Okay, so why now? Why not before?" Buffy asked him.
"We had to be sure. We had to be sure that it was real, not some infatuation between a soulful vampire and a vampire slayer. That's what you are, right? We kind of refer to you two as the Hellmouth's Romeo and Juliet. You two were so different that we had to be sure that your differences would bring you together, not pull you apart."
"So, what your saying is that we can be together because you and whoever else said we could?" Buffy asked, getting really annoyed and angry because someone else decided when she got together with Angel.
"What I'm saying is that you two hold such a great and powerful love that it has lifted a burden."
"What burden?" asked Angel.
"Unfortunately, I can't tell you. You have to find that out for yourself. You'll know when it comes," and with that, Doug left Angel and Buffy to think about what he just said.
Angel had dropped Buffy at her house, and was headed home. While he walked, he thought about how he and Buffy were together, about the dream, and about what Doug had said.
"A burden will be lifted," Angel thought aloud. "What burden?"
As Angel walked, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the warm glow rising over the horizon. When he did, it was too late.
"I love you, Buffy," was all Angel said as he waited for the sun to turn him into ash. But he didn't.
What's going on? He thought. Just then he remembered the rest of the dream.
"No way. It couldn't be. Could it?" he ran to Buffy's house.
When Angel reached Buffy's house, he wondered if he should knock or go up into Buffy's bedroom. He decided to climb up to her bedroom.
When he climbed into the window, the room was empty. He could hear the water running in the bathroom down the hall.
As he waited for her, he sat and thought about the possibilities of what just happened. Maybe I'm just dreaming he thought, but I never went to sleep. There could be no way for me to be out in the sunlight. What's happening to me, am I dead, and was allowed to say goodbye to Buffy?
Angel's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. He just stood there, and waited for the person to see him.
Buffy got out of the shower, and slipped into her robe. It felt good to take a warm shower, and let all of the past days events play in her mind. She and Angel were finally together. It felt wonderful. Then her thoughts went to what Doug said. A burden will be lifted? What could that mean? She finished combing her hair and walked down the hall to her room.
As she was about to open the door, she felt her spider sense go off. It can't be, you're just wigging. It's day, she thought.
Buffy entered her room, and started to take off her robe, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
"What the hell?" Then she saw him, standing in the sun! "Angel?! What are you doing here? God, you're going to kill yourself!" She went over to close the curtains, but was stopped by Angel who pulled her into a firm embrace.
Buffy was so caught up in the embrace, she did not notice Angel pulling her over to the window. When she did realize where they were, she looked at Angel with a questioning glance.
"I don't know either," Angel said, reading her mind. "I was walking home, thinking of you, and before I knew it, the sun was in the sky. But I was not burning or even smoking. I think we need to go see Giles."
"I think you are right," Buffy said before holding on to the back of his head, and pulled him down to meet her lips. When they separated, Angel turned his back so Buffy could change. Then they left for the library.
On their way to the library, they noticed that Doug had appeared beside them.
"I see you got your surprise," he said, smiling at them. "As you can see, Angel is human now, but there are a few complications."
"What?" Buffy asked fearing of what it may be.
"Well, crosses and holy water will still hurt him, but other than that everything is good. He will still keep his vampire strength so he can help you, and other than that, he's completely human." And with that, he faded.
When he left, Angel and Buffy looked at each other. Angel picked Buffy up, and swung her around in circles. When he put her down, they kissed.
On their way to the library, they walked with Angel's arm around Buffy's waist, and Buffy listened to Angel's now beating heart.
THE END