DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: General (if any)
TIMELINE: Three Years After Buffy's College Graduation.
DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.
NOTES: From Always Luv's secret Santa challenge.
Buffy Summers was rudely awoken Christmas eve morning by Angel's snoring, she looked over at him and thought about the last three years. Angel turning up at her college graduation had been surprising enough (especially since they hadn't spoken to each other since the Faith incident, Freshman year), but then she'd found out he was Human. It had taken her about three seconds to ditch Riley and get back with Angel, unfortunately Angel had decided they had to get to know one another again, instead of picking up there relationship from before. It had taken a year and a half of a long-distance relationship for Angel to decide they were both ready for a commitment and so she wouldn't have to move away, Angel opened a branch of Angel Investigations in Sunnydale, which left Doyle and Cordy in charge of the LA office.
Buffy took one last look at her sleeping (and snoring) love and reluctantly got up, she had a long day ahead of her. They were having a Christmas party-dinner thing that night, it was also a kind of Scooby reunion, even though most of them still lived in Sunnydale they all had very different lives now and didn't see each other as much as they should. Buffy was heading downstairs when she heard the doorbell ring, when she answered it, she found her mother standing there.
"Merry Christmas Sweetie" Joyce said as she entered the house.
"Mom, why are you here so early?" Buffy asked still half asleep.
"I thought you could use some help" Joyce replied as she walked past Buffy and towards the kitchen.
Buffy looked at her mother and realised that something or someone rather was missing. "Mom, where's Giles? He's usually attached to your hip" Buffy said.
"He's at home and he's not attached to my hip, he goes where he wants and does what he wants" Joyce replied annoyed.
< Yeah, right > Buffy thought as she followed her mother into the kitchen.
*
A couple of hours later Angel awoke to find an empty bed and the delicious smell of food cooking. His first thought was, "Angel" Joyce acknowledged turning back to the food preparation. Just because she had finally accepted the inevitability of Buffy and Angel being together, didn't mean that she liked him or wanted to be his friend. "Morning Honey" Buffy said jumping off the counter and kissing him. "Morning" Angel said smiling, then kissed her back. Joyce tuned out the disgusting spectacle (at least that's what she perceived it to be) and tried to concentrate on the cooking. Buffy and Angel broke apart when the phone rang. "Hello?" Buffy said, "...Oh, hi Wils...Sure...Okay, see you then." When Buffy hung up, Angel asked "Well, what did Willow want?" "She's coming here soon, since Oz is going to see his parents and they despise her" Buffy answered. "Are they ever going to forgive Willow for the Tara-thing?" Angel pondered. "Nope. These are the people that haven't forgiven Oz for flunking senior year and dropping out of college. The only redeeming feature they have is Rosie" Buffy told him. "And even then they screwed that up by making us God parents." "Yeah, well tough. Oz's parents can kiss my..." Angel started, but was interrupted by the phone. "Hello?" Angel answered this time. "Daddy, is that you?" a familiar voice said. Angel groaned, he didn't need this today or any other day. "Spike, what do you want?" "I'm coming for a visit" Spike informed him. "Why? Did Dru kick your ugly butt out again?" Angel asked trying not to laugh. Spike hung up and Angel said to Buffy, "Guess who's coming to dinner?" "Oh, no" Buffy groaned, she really didn't want or need Spike around. Everytime he saw her and Angel together he started to tell the I-was-once-engaged-to-Buffy stories and Angel didn't know about that. Angel hugged her and said, "Don't worry, he probably won't even show up. He and Dru will make up and we'll have a nice peaceful Christmas." Buffy gave him a funny look to which he replied, "It could happen...I'm gonna take a shower." Buffy watched Angel go upstairs and wished that her mother wasn't here, so that she could join him. Buffy sighed, turned around and walked back into the kitchen resigned to her fate of cooking and mother-daughter bonding. * Four hours later everything was ready for the party-dinner thing, so Buffy, Willow and Joyce were sitting around relaxing, while Angel did the manly-work of hanging the mistletoe in the doorway to the living room. Just as he'd finished the doorbell rang, when Angel answered it he saw it was Giles. "Hello everyone" Giles said as he quickly made his way to Joyce's side. Ever since they'd gotten together, Giles had been like a love-sick puppy and eventually everyone had gotten used to seeing them together, even Buffy who'd proclaimed that since Giles has always been like a father to her she didn't mind if he and Joyce ever made it official. After a few minutes of silence, Giles asked "Who is left to come?" "Well, there's Oz and Rosie" Buffy replied, "Also Cordy and Doyle and we can't forget Xander and Anya." "No, we can't forget them" Giles said, "No matter how hard we try." That was when they heard a car pull into the drive, Angel jumped up and ran to the window. "It's Cordy and Doyle" Angel told them. Angel went outside to meet his friends, while everyone else sat around the living room in a state close to boredom. A few seconds later everyone heard an excited Cordy yell, "Hey guys." Then Cordy surprised both Buffy and Willow by hugging them. "Hi Cordy, it's good to see you too" Buffy said returning Cordy's hug. "Where's Doyle?" Willow asked still uncomfortable with Doyle's uncharacteristic behaviour. "He's at the car with Angel. I think that they're up to something, because they practically shoved me inside here" Cordy answered Willow's question. Finally Cordy noticed Giles and Joyce, "Hey" she said to them. Joyce nodded and Giles answered with a "Hello Cordelia, how have you been?" "Great. I got a job" Cordy proclaimed proudly. "Acting?" Buffy asked in total disbelief, especially since she'd seen Cordy act. "Yep" Cordy said. "Wow" was all Buffy could say, since she was in total shock. Angel and Doyle came inside and Doyle gave Buffy a hug and asked in a teasing voice, "How's it going Miss Puppy-eyes?" "Hi Doyle, everything's great" Buffy told him. "Terrific. Lets get this party started" Doyle yelled. "We can't" Willow told him. "And why is that?" Doyle asked confused. "Oz, Rosie, Xander and Anya are still missing" Joyce replied before Willow could. "And of course we can't celebrate without Xander and Anya, the moron twins" Cordy said sarcastically. "Princess, you promise to play nice" Doyle warned. "Alright, alright" Cordy capitulated. She decided instead to catch up with her old friends. * Darkness was just about to fall when the others finally arrived. The second Xander walked through the doorway he spotted Cordy, but before he could even say anything, Buffy hit him. "Ow" Xander yelled, "What was that for?" "Play nice or else. No one is gonna ruin this Christmas" Buffy threatened. To break the tension Oz handed over Rosie to Buffy, who happily walked off with her Godchild towards the party. "What's with Buffy and the sudden mood swing?" Xander asked Oz. Oz stared at Buffy and had a sudden realisation and he said to Xander, "I think Angel's gonna get a special Christmas present this year." Oz walked off and Xander followed with a majorly confused look on his face. About twenty minutes later when they were all eating, the front door burst open and in walked Spike. "Hello, happy meals" he said. He looked around and the replied, "I'm hurt, you didn't send me an invite and I was a part of the Scoobies for a while." Everyone was shocked in speechlessness and Spike decide to take the opportunity to torment Angel. "Hello daddy" he said in a little kiddie voice. Angel couldn't believe this Spike was going to ruin the big plans he had for tonight. "Get off of me, you Billy Idol wanna-be freak" Angel told him angrily. Before Spike could reply, a voice was heard from outside, "Spikey, Spikey." "Well I guess my babydoll wants me back" Spike said to them happily heading for the door. "See ya 'round losers." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when he'd gone, but it didn't last long because a minute later Spike stalked back in, this time with luggage. "Oh, no" Angel said, "She really did kick your sorry butt out." "She apparently met another vampire. She says that he's more evil than me, how is that possible?" Spike spat out bitterly. "I'd say it would be pretty easy, Mr-I-have-a-chip-in-my-head" Buffy replied totally unsympathetic to Spike's situation. "Jeez, I'm so glad that I didn't marry you. You're a total bitch" Spike yelled at Buffy. Buffy and Spike were so busy fighting that they didn't hear Angel ask, "You two were engaged?" Willow quickly answered on behalf of Buffy, "It was only because of a spell I cast." Angel outwardly breathed a sigh of relief, but inside he was secretly wondering if anything other than animosity had happened between Spike and Buffy. A few minutes later it seemed that Buffy had triumphed over Spike, because Spike went into the living room by himself to sulk over Dru's desertion. * An hour later, after they'd all eaten and caught up with the gossip on each other, the gang all started to go their separate ways. Willow and Oz took their daughter home and Xander and Anya headed off also (Xander claimed to be tired and Anya said they were leaving to have sex). That left Cordy and Doyle (who were staying with Buffy and Angel for a couple of days), Joyce and Giles (who apparently didn't want to leave) and Spike (who had decided to move in). Buffy just wanted to be alone with Angel but it seemed as though that wasn't gonna occur anytime soon. After another hour or so a miracle occurred, Joyce and Giles left (Buffy didn't want to know what they were leaving to do) and Spike decided to head over to Willy's and drown his sorrows, that left just Cordy and Doyle. Cordy knew that Buffy and Angel wanted to be alone, especially since Doyle had been dropping hints about bed and early nights since dinner. Even though she knew she should give them it, part of her perversely wanted to drive Buffy and Angel insane. Eventually she told Doyle, "I'm tire, let's go to bed." "Oh, Delia. I thought you'd never ask" Doyle said dramatically. * Buffy and Angel watched them go and they both sighed in relief. They just sat there in each others arms for a few minutes, then Angel got up and pulled a package out from under the tree. He handed it to Buffy and asked, "Please open it?" Buffy obliged and was so busy unwrapping it, she never noticed Angel getting down on one knee in front of her. When Buffy opened the package and box, she gasped at the contents, it was a gold claddaugh ring with a ruby for the heart. She gasped again when she saw Angel down on one knee. "Buffy Anne Summers, I love you more than life itself. I know we have never had it easy and I can't promise you that it ever will be. All I know is that without you my heart and soul aren't complete and I don't ever want to be without you again. Will you marry me?" Angel asked her using the speech he'd been rehearsing since they had first started dating. Buffy looked up at him with tears in her eyes and asked, "What took you so long? I thought you were never gonna ask." "Does that mean yes?" Angel asked. "Yes" Buffy said pulling him into her arms and a kiss. When she'd finished she said, "Now for your present." Angel looked at her and asked, "Where is it?" "Well..." Buffy told him, "It won't actually arrive until June." "You mean..." Angel started. "Yep." "We're going to have a baby..." Angel replied in shock. "Yep" Buffy repeated. "Wow" was all Angel could think to say. He could hardly believe how lucky he was, for Christmas he was not only getting Buffy to be his wife but also the news of their child. "I guess this means that you're happy?" Buffy asked. "Ecstatic" Angel said, "I've gotten more than I've ever hoped for and more than I'd ever thought that I'd deserved. Angel pulled Buffy into his arms and held her like he'd never let her go. They stayed that way for a few minutes just enjoying being there alone and together. All of a sudden Buffy said, "Let's go to bed." "Like I'm gonna argue with that idea" Angel replied kissing her. "I didn't think you would" Buffy told him as they headed upstairs to celebrate Christmas in private.
ALWAYS LUV'S CHALLENGE Maybe it's you By Damhnait Doyle //Will I ever truly love someone, //Chorus: //So i'll pray to Mary, the mother of god //And I am too young for the responsibility, //Chorus Chorus out
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Necessary:
-Future Fic
-Angel is human
-The whole gang lives in Sunnydale, or has come to visit for x-mas if they don't
-Doyle is still alive
-Couples: B/A, X/Anya, C/D, W/?(Can be Oz or Tara), G/?(Can be anyone...Joyce, Olivia, Hell even Jenny)
-Angel Proposes
-Spike HAS to be in it
-One of the couples has to have a baby or a toddler (not BA)
-Has to be Fluff
Optional:(Please use as many as you can)
-Mention of a Claddagh, or the meaning of the Claddagh (Irish Wedding Band)
-The Song Maybe it's you (Lyrics below)
-Someone's Birthday
-Angel Investigations
-Dru
-Buffy Telling Angel that she's pregnant
-Angel being able to sing, and serenading Buffy
-Angel wearing leather pants
-Mistletoe
-Burnt Christmas dinner
-Christmas party gone wrong
who I want to be a better person because of
I have tasted good and I've adored the bad
There is only one thing that I haven't had
Maybe it's you,
With my luck it's not
But how do I know if I don't give it a shot
That she'll speed my recovery from Lusts sweet nod
And that she'll save me from myself
And save you from me
but my urge to please is becoming a disease
I am marking up my flesh to mask the clean
to camouflage the bruises that haven't been
So i'll pray to Mary, the mother of god
That she'll speed my recovery from Lusts sweet nod
And that she'll save me from myself
And save you from me