SUMMARY: Angel pays Buffy a special visit
SPOILER: A New Man
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, just email me & lmk where it's going - I like seeing my name in print =)
FEEDBACK: Please, I'd hate to have to Slay for it. =P
RATING: TV-PG
DISCLAIMER: Joss owns the stupid characters. Matchbox Twenty owns the beautiful song. I own the idiotic tendency that made me search the Net for an hour for lyrics that were right on my desk in the booklet the whole time. Sigh.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I don't know why, but I'd never written an Afterthoughts for this eppy, and I was thinking about Buffy's pathetic birthday S4 and this song was playing, and bam. I write without logic.

It had been a rough couple of weeks.

First, there'd been the whole Sunnydale High demon thing, then the whole kissing thing, and then the everyone-forgot-my-birthday thing. Buffy felt like Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles.

Angel, the important person, had remembered, but it still pained her that neither Giles or Willow could recall the actual date, the one that, in the past, represented unspeakable horror for all Scooby Gang members.

She wasn't even going to think about Riley forgetting.

Nope, she was gonna run around packing things up and sing Dingoes Ate My Baby songs and think about how funny Giles spoke when he was a demon.

And then she heard them.

Someone was coming.

Angel's footsteps made Buffy's heart stop beating. She'd stupidly left the door open for Will to return easily from the laundry room, and now Angel was in her room, watching her load clothing they both knew she'd never wear into a suitcase for a four-day trip to Chicago to visit her favorite aunt.

"What are you doing here?" she asked without looking at him.

"Wishing you a happy birthday."

"The call and flowers were enough, thank you."

"At least I had the date right."

Buffy turned around and glared at him.

//I think you're so mean
I think we should try
I think I could need
This in my life\\

"No one remembered the date except me and your mother," Angel stepped closer to her and Buffy went back to her packing.

"I had to drop hints for three days for Will to wake up, and even then, she thought it had been the twenty-fourth and that she was just one day off. And everyone else....." Buffy stopped talking, knowing Angel knew who she was referring to.

Riley.

"I'm sorry," Angel said sincerely.

"No, you're not."

"You're right," Angel smirked. "I'm not."

"You're loving this." Buffy carefully folded her white sweater, the one she used to wear patrolling with Angel, into her suitcase and shut the lid. She sat on the overstuffed piece of luggage and met Angel's eyes. "You're thrilled that Riley forgot."

"Maybe I am. So what does that matter?"

"Did you come to gloat?"

"I came to warn you," he took a step closer. "And to give you this."

"I don't want it."

"Take it anyway."

Buffy accepted the gift bag from him and peeked inside. Inside a simple frame was a poem, one that she instantly recognized. She put it back in the bag and hugged it to her chest. "Thank you," she whispered.

"It's not much."

"It has sentimental value." she pulled it out again and looked at it, touching the glass. After her last birthday, she thought she'd never see the poem again, thought she'd never see his quirky handwriting over its title again. "I can't believe you found it."

"It wasn't easy. I had to walk through the mud, and then there was that dung beetle--"

"Why are you here?" Buffy repeated.

"I already told you, I wanted to give you--"

"You wanted to warn me. What about?"

"Riley."

//If you're gone
Maybe it's time to go home
There's an awful lot of breathing room
But I can hardly move
If you're gone
Baby you need to come home
'Cause there's a little bit of something me
In everything in you\\

Buffy jumped off the bed and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you."

"He's not what you think."

"And what is that?" she asked.

"He's not human. And--"

"Wait, lemme guess," Buffy put her hands on her hips. "He doesn't love me?"

"I was gonna say that you don't love him."

Buffy glared at him. "How dare you."

"You don't. I think Lizard Boy knows it, too."

"Lizard Boy?" Buffy echoed.

"Isn't that what Xander calls him?" Angel scratched his head, trying to remember.

"It's Fish Boy, and don't call him that."

"I'll be watching your back." Angel said as he turned to leave.

"Don't do me any favors!" Buffy shouted to his back.

He turned around and looked at her. "Believe it or not, I know something about your gay lover, all right? He's not all he seems."

"He's not gay!" Buffy said defensively.

"Just be careful," Angel warned. "Happy Birthday."

Buffy was so pissed off, she wanted to scream and yell and beat the Hell out of her boyfriend, her lover, her soul mate.

She wanted to scream at him not to leave her, wanted to make him come back to her, hug her, make her come back to LA with him, which she would do without thinking twice about it.

Instead, she stood in the doorway and watched him exit her dorm, wondering when she might see him again, when she might not be angry anymore, when the sight of him wouldn't tear her fragile heart in two all over again.

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