SUMMARY: Angel is NOT doing more shopping. Nope. No way. No how.
RATING: TV-PG
SPOILER: Nothing and everything and other stuff. That made a ton of sense didn't it? In English, if you know who the characters are, nothing's gonna be spoiled.
DISCLAIMER: Everyone belongs to Joss. I belong to no one. Heehee. I love being all powerful.
WEBSITE: http://planetslaythis.homestead.com
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Go me! Getting back into the fanfic swing of things is not only enlightening but fun. I'm trying for three fics a week. I stopped counting so how'm I doing? Three if you count the repost.......I'm gonna be five before Sunday. I SWEAR it.
DEDICATION: *NSYNC. I owe everything to *NSYNC.
AUTHOR'S NOTES2: If anyone wants to send me MP3s for Christmas, that's high on my list............
AUTHOR'S NOTES3: This is the second story in a new series, I think. I guess I'm calling it Holidaze for now, and yes, that was the name of an LSS story last Christmas. That was just Christmas though. This will be all the Holidays. Probably. < g >

"No." Angel folded his arms across his chest, sat down in the living room and downright refused to move.

Usually, he was a very reasonable vampire. He even went out during the day on occasion, with a proper cape, of course.

But today was the most stubborn Buffy had ever seen him. Even when he was Angelus, he was bendable. This behavior was inexcusable, and Buffy knew that as much as he pouted, in the end, she'd get her way because who would force a pregnant woman to bear the malls at Christmastime alone?

"Angel," Buffy bit her lip, "I didn't buy anything for Cordelia yet. Or Tara, or Spike."

"Give Cordelia money, because she returns everything anyway. Give Tara something old and Wiccan from the attic, she'll adore it. And all Spike deserves is a stake."

Buffy made a face. "Angelus Matthew, do not make me try to drag you out to the minivan. I'll have to strain myself and the doctor already told me to relax because of all the Mom-induced stress 'cause the baby is half vampire and--"

"All right," Angel relented. "One store."

Buffy just smiled and grabbed her purse.

*****

"Oh my God," Angel muttered when they pulled into the Kellyview Mall. "There's *no parking*."

"You can valet though," Buffy pointed to the sign and Angel turned right. "And it's only four dollars, that's nothing."

Angel said nothing. Instead, he frowned and handed the acne-sporting, Mohawk-wearing teenager his keys and said a silent prayer for the van's safety. It was Ford's newest model and he didn't want a scratch on it ever.

"Angel still lives in the era where you can keep a car forever," Buffy told her mother, laughing, when he bought the vehicle a few months back.

Angel followed Buffy into the mall and sighed, knowing how this was going to go:

He would follow her from store to store, waiting in monstrous lines while she picked out item after item that were usually for herself or the baby. It wasn't that he minded--he wanted to spoil them both--but he wished Buffy would've waited until January to buy everything. The stores would be empty and most importantly, everything would be cheap.

Buffy went to the Disney Store first, allowing Angel to stand in line while she picked out a picture frame ("We can put the baby's first picture in here!" she squealed), scrunchies and slippers without explanation, a sweater with Pooh on it for Tara ("Everyone else will be buying her something Wiccan--I wanna be different."), Tigger and Eeyore boxer shorts for Spike ("Faith will have a blast ripping these off," she'd commented with a smirk.) and pajamas ("You can never too many pairs of matching silk pajamas."). Angel was unsure about that one--after all, these were 102 Dalmatians, complete with paw prints on the butt of the pants.

After that, Buffy wanted a smoothie, so the couple got a bench by giving two Game Boy-toting teens ten bucks and shared one each of lemonade and strawberry blast smoothies.

"Okay," Buffy stood up, "Let's hit Nordstrom."

The last place Angel wanted to be was a junior department full of loud teenage girls, but he went with Buffy anyway, because he loved her.

Luckily, instead of waiting in line--there wasn't one--Angel got to sit down by the coats while Buffy picked out a leather top for Cordelia.

"Isn't that kind of pricey?" Angel asked when Buffy showed it to him.

"You don't pay her enough," was Buffy's reply.

From Nordstrom, they went to FAO Schwartz. From there, Warner Brothers to buy baby clothes. Waldenbooks for a new journal; Hallmark for cards and candles.

H20 for a loofah for Buffy's mother, Eddie Bauer for jeans Buffy insisted Angel "needed".

"Are we done?" Angel asked when they were done having dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. They'd had to sit in a booth just so they could find a spot to hold all their packages.

"Okay," Buffy sighed. "We can go."

"Thank God," Angel muttered. "Christmas Eve is the day after tomorrow, this way you can relax, and maybe tomorrow we can make those sugar cookies you were talking about."

"Sure," Buffy smiled. Then she smirked. "Are you hungry?"

"We just ate!"

"I want some ice cream." she looked at Angel. "Wanna go get ice cream?"

Sighing, Angel nodded and resolved himself to another hour in line at the grocery store while Buffy ate the melting ice cream right out of the carton.

*****

"You know what?" Buffy asked as she licked the plastic spoon and put the ice cream back in the cart. "I think we need some games."

"Games?" Angel questioned.

"Yeah, for Christmas Day. Everyone's coming over for the Mexican feast Anya's bringing and I think we need some groupy games to try and bring everyone together."

"What kind of games?" Angel asked skeptically.

"Taboo, Scatergories, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, Disney Charades."

"You're kidding, right?" Angel asked.

"No."

"MORE shopping?" Angel asked.

"Super Target's not that far away," Buffy reasoned. "We can drop the food at home, check on the house and then set out again......."

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