Part 9

Buffy woke up this morning refreshed, she knew she should have been upset about the prank Angelus played on her and Angel last night, but the only thought that came to her mind was, "Xander." She smiled brightly and got out of bed, she headed over to her closet humming to herself, and thinking about the plans she had for her and Xander.

Xander on the other hand was running through the halls of Sunnydale High like a madman, every girl went after him, worshipping him like a God. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew he was scared out of his mind. Xander turned the corner and bumped into Harmony.

"Hello Xander." She said demurely, touching his cheek with the tip of her finger. She began to trail her hand down his chest.

"Um, I have to go." Xander stuttered.

"No!!" Harmony screamed, she jumped on his back, kissing down his cheek, and nibbling on his ear lobe. Other girls saw the display, and tried to pull Harmony off Xander. "No!! He's mine!!"

Xander was able to shake her off of him, with the help of the other girls, and took off to take refuge in the library. He crashed into the library, causing Giles to jump in surprise. "Giles, you gotta help me, I'm being attacked!"

Giles grabbed Xander by the arms. "Xander calm down, what happened?"

Taking a deep breath. "I made a mess, Giles. See, I found out that Amy's into witchcraft, and I was hurt, I guess, so I made her put the love whammy on Cordy, but it backfired. And now every woman in Sunnydale wants to make me her cuddle monkey. Which may sound swell on paper, but..."

"You bloody idiot!!!" Giles yelled, his face was beet red. "I cannot believe that you were fool enough to do something like this."

Xander nodded. "Oh no, I'm twice the fool it takes to do something like this."

"What the hell were you thinking? Oh, that's the problem you weren't" Giles sighed. "OK, you said Amy helped you, I'm going to go find her, you stay put, you've already cause enough trouble." He stormed out of the library.

Xander bowed his head, not wanting to see the disappointment on Giles' face as he left. Xander turned to go sit down at the table, until Buffy popped up in front of him, from behind a book shelf. He gasped in shock. "Buff, give me a heart attack!" He yelled, until he saw the picture she gave him, it was his fantasy come true. Buffy stood there in a short (I mean short) rain coat, in high heels her hair was slightly curled in a sexy way, flowing across her shoulders.

Her hands were fiddling with the straps of the coat "Oh, I'm going to give you more than that." She walked toward him, with a sensual smile across her face.

"Buff...for the love of God, don't open that raincoat!!"

"Come on, it's a party. Aren't you gonna open your present?" Buffy began to pull at the straps, Xander's eyes widened in shock. Just as the strap began to loosen, Giles came in and nearly fainted.

"Buffy!!" He dove towards her, pulling her hands away. Giles grabbed the straps and tightened them. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just showing Xander a good time." Buffy said, focusing on Xander the entire time.

"Bloody hell." Giles sighed, he took Buffy's hand and dragged her into his office. He sat her down and wrapped a blanket around her. "Stay." He ordered. Giles sat down in his desk chair and grabbed the phone, dialing a familiar number.

After 2 rings. "Hello." Angel's voice traveled.

"Angel, we have a situation here."

"What's wrong?" He asked worriedly.

"Xander had a spell performed, and it backfired on it's true purpose."

"Great." Angel replied sarcastically.

"He had Amy perform a love spell on Cordelia, but now it seems that every girl is after him." Giles turned to look at Buffy, and the little attire she was wearing. "Um, in a very intimate way, I need you to help me, it seems that Buffy has been affected also."

"What?!! We knew he was upset, but did he have to revert to the black arts for relationship problems." Angel yelled, he was pissed, Xander had done some dumb things, but this was the dumbest, and now Buffy being affected made him even more upset. Buffy's now in a vulnerable state, anything could happen to her, but that wasn't the reason Angel was pissed off, knowing that Buffy was throwing herself at Xander, made Angel sick. He shook the visuals out of his mind. "I'm on my way, make sure the windows are closed OK." Angel hung up the phone.

Giles hung up the phone, grabbed Buffy and went into the main room, to see Oz punch Xander in the face, and Giles didn't even move to help. He helped Buffy sit down into the chair, especially since she was trying to get to Xander, who was nursing his bruised cheek.

Giles stared at her firmly. "Buffy, if you get up, I'll make sure you never see Xander again." He warned. Seeing the pout on her face told him she would do what she was told. Giles proceeded to go to every window and pull down all the shades.

Xander sat down at the table, keeping his distance from Buffy, noticed what he was doing. "Giles, what are you doing?"

"Angel is coming." Giles said tightly, he was still a little upset with Xander, and answering his questions wasn't helping. Giles finished and headed toward the door. "I'm going to look for Amy again, stay put, all of you."

Oz went over to the table, still shaking his hurt hand.

"Why did you hit me?" Xander whined.

"I was on the phone all night listening to Willow cry about you, and I had a sudden urge to hit you." Oz explained quickly.

"Oh." Xander replied.

Buffy leaned her face onto the palm of her hand, her eyes directed at Xander. She used her other hand to trail over her upper body, since Xander was watching intently, made her smile. Buffy began to pull at the collar of the raincoat, letting Xander get a small peek at her exposed flesh, she reached her hand inside the coat, and grasped herself; she licked her lips. Xander was panting, his eyes widened as Buffy began to pull her hand back, but his eyes widened in fear, Angel was storming toward the table.

He saw Buffy staring at Xander and it made him want to kill. Angel kneeled down beside Buffy's chair. "Buffy, stop." He pleaded, Angel turned her chair so that she was facing him. "Come on."

"I can't stop Angel, he's so hot, he makes me wanna..." Buffy trailed off, until Angel placed his hand over her mouth, and quickly lifted her into his arms, and carried her into Giles office.

Xander stood up. "Can I help?"

Angel answered with a growl.

Giles came running into the library, dragging Amy with him. "You are going to undo this spell, now!"

Amy whined. "Can I have Xander now? You said I could have him, if I came to the library. Please." Amy closed her eyes in pleasure. "We see into each other's souls." She whispered.

Giles rolled his eyes in disgust.

"I'll do it, if only I could have him." Amy pleaded.

"No!!" Buffy came running out of Giles' office, with Angel running behind her. "He's mine."

"Xander is mine, he needs a strong woman in his life, not some preppy air-head cheerleader." Amy sniped at Buffy.

Buffy reeled back and landed a punch on Amy's jaw. "Is that strong enough?"

Amy snapped around, her eyes gleamed red opals, that shined brightly, everyone was blinded. She raised her hands above her head. "Goddess Hecate, do my will!!!" A beam of light hit Buffy, and she shrunk down.

When the light disappeared, everyone glanced around. Angel looked down and saw the raincoat she was wearing puddled on the floor, he kneeled down and saw a white rat, sitting there. "Buffy?"

The rat squealed, and took off.

"We have to catch the Buffy rat." Giles stated. "Oz, go after it, her."

Oz nodded and chased after the rat. "Here, Buffy."

"Angel I need you to help me with the spell."

Xander who stood there stunned the whole time, came out of his trance. "Can I help?"

Angel and Giles snapped toward him. "No."

"But..."

"Xander maybe you should leave." Angel said tightly.

He nodded, and walked slowly out of the library.

Giles grabbed Amy by the arm, and pulled her to the table. "Do it."

Amy pouted and began to get the spell ready, while Angel helped her set up. A few minutes later, the spell was ready and performed it smoothly, a light shined through out the room.

Down in the basement of the school, the light shined brighter, and Buffy materialized; very naked. She glanced down at herself, and hid behind some box, just in time to see Oz pop up.

"Buffy, you're back." Oz said.

She nodded. "I seem to be having a slight case of nudity here."

"But you're not a rat ... so call it an upside."

***********************************

The next day, Xander and Buffy walked down the hallway Xander was still a little scared about being around her, but she told him everything was fine, except to stay away from Angel for a while. Xander sympathized with that.

"Well, I'm back to being incredibly unpopular." Xander cheered.

Buffy patted his shoulder. "It's better than everyone trying to kill you, right?"

"Mostly, but, uh, Willow won't even talk to me."

"Any particular reason she should?" Buffy replied.

"How much groveling are we talking here?"

Buffy sighed "Oh, a month at least."

"Well, I'm all for it, Buff I'm sorry."

Buffy started to laugh. "You're off the hook with me, and I wanted to thank you for what you did, well didn't do." She turned to Xander. "I remember coming on to you, I remember begging you to undress me, and then a sudden need for cheese. I also remember that you didn't."

"I couldn't take advantage of you like that. Okay, for a minute, it was touch-and-go there." Xander replied.

Buffy laughed. "I'll see ya, I think your fan club is walking this way." She motioned to Cordelia and the cordettes walking their way. "Bye."

Xander turned and faced the group.

Harmony walked to him. "My God, who dressed you."

Xander shook his head, and started to walk off.

Harmony shrieked back, as Xander nearly touched her. "Eww. Cord you must have been brain damaged cause..."

Cordelia snapped toward her. "Do you know what you are, Harmony? You're a sheep."

Harmony gasped in shock "I'm not a sheep."

"You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does, just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are, 'cause I'm not a sheep." Cordelia pointed her finger and Harmony. "I do what I want to do, and I wear what I want to wear, and you know what? I date whoever the hell I want to date. No matter how lame he is." Cordelia turned around to see Xander smiling brightly.

He reached his hand out to her, and she took it. As they made there way down the hallway, Cordy began to whine. "Oh, God, what have I done?! They're never going to speak to me again!"

Xander chuckled. "Oh, sure they are. If it helps, whenever we're around them, you and I can fight a lot."

"You promise?" Cordelia pleaded.

"You can pretty much count on it." He kissed her on the lips, and walked hand in hand down the halls.

Part 10

Music blared from the Bronze. Xander, Willow, and Cordelia sat at their normal table, engrossed in their conversation. Laughing and enjoying each other's company, while Buffy and Angel moved to the soothing, sensual sound of Morcheeba; on the dance floor.

Not one of them noticed the eyes following their every movement. Angelus stood back, deeply observing the group; his prey. He watched Buffy and Angel dance, hold each other tenderly, and kiss here or there in the middle of the song. Their expressions told him that they were just as close as before, and that they didn't have a care in the world; except for each other. That made Angelus come up with all sorts of ideas to stir up things.

Time passed on, the gang gathered together and decided to leave; before it got too late. They all walked hand-in-hand outside, not noticing Angelus watching them. He smiled, and began to follow Buffy and Angel whom had split up from the others. Angel walked Buffy home, kissing her deeply before leaving. Buffy went up to her room, and went straight to bed.

When he knew she had fallen into a deep sleep, Angelus silently came to her side, like a gentle lover not wanting to wake it's mate. He reached a hand out to brush a lock of hair from her face. His movements may have been gentle, but his intentions were far from it. Angelus smirked and stood above her, his shadow covering her form, and his actions.

Buffy awoke slowly the next morning, she stretched her arm out to work out her limbs, until she came in contact with a piece of paper. Confused, she sat up to open the paper, her eyes widened as she stared at a charcoal picture of herself sleeping. Buffy rushed out of bed to get ready, she needed to talk to Giles.

Arriving at school 10 minutes later, Buffy stormed into the library. "He was in my room."

Giles looked up from stamping books. "Who?"

"Angelus, he was in my room last night."

Giles came from where he was standing to talk to her "Are you sure?"

"Positive, when I woke up I found a picture he left me on my pillow."

"A visit from the pointed tooth fairy." Xander replied, adding in his snide remarks.

"Wait! I thought a vampire couldn't come in unless you invited them in." Cordelia asked suddenly.

"Yes, but once you've invited them, afterwards there always welcome." Giles answered.

"Giles, there has to be some sort of spell to reverse the invitation rule. A barrier, a no shoes, no pulse kind of thing." Buffy asked quickly.

"Well, I can check on it......"

Giles was interrupted by some students looking for books, he quickly got rid of them, and quickly rushed out so they could continue there conversation. They walked out to the hallway. "So, Angelus has decided to step his harassment toward you."

Cordelia had a sudden thought. "By leaving stuff for her at night, that doesn't make sense. Why doesn't he just slit her throat, or strangle her while she's sleeping, or cut her heart out?" She stopped noticing the looks Xander and Buffy were giving her. "What? I'm trying to help."

Giles rolled his eyes. "Um it's classic battle strategy. He's just trying to provoke you, to taunt you, to-to goad you into, uh, some mishap or some other sorts"

"The nan nan nan nan approach to battle." Xander said.

"Yes, Xander. Once more you've managed to boil a complex thought down to its simplest possible form." Giles said sarcastically.

"Giles." Buffy said, to get his attention. "Angel once told me that when he was obsessed with Drusilla, the first thing he did was to kill her family."

"Your mom." Xander replied, worriedly.

"I know, I gotta tell her something." She said, sitting on a bench "The truth.

"No, you can't do that." Giles intervened.

Buffy fumed. "I gotta tell her something, Angelus has an all access pass to my house, and I'm not always there when my mother is."

"I told you I will find a spell." Giles said, trying to calm her down.

"What about until you find a spell?" Buffy asked.

Giles put his hand on Buffy's shoulder, to try to comfort her. "Buffy I will find something, I promise you But you must not let Angelus get to you, no matter how provocative his behaviour gets."

"So, what you're saying is just ignore him and maybe he'll go away."

Giles just stayed silent, all he could do is nod, and the confused look she gave him was not surprised. He wished there was another he could help her.

*****************************

The day went on, and Buffy became even more worried about what Angelus might do. That night, Buffy sat with her mother, enjoying a nice home cooked meal, well her mother was. Buffy picked at her food, eating just wasn't appealing to her at the moment, she had so much on her mind it was starting to give her a headache.

Being her mother, she noticed that something was wrong with her daughter. "OK, what's troubling you?" Joyce asked suddenly.

"Nothing."

Joyce smiled. "Come on, I've read all the parenting books, you cannot surprise me."

Sighing. "Do you remember that guy Angel?"

Joyce thought for a moment. "The college boy, who was tutoring you in history."

"Right, were.. going out, and..." Buffy stopped for a minute to think about what story to give her. "He has, a twin brother, identical twin brother, and he has a serious crush on me."

"Oh, a love triangle, how cute." Joyce chuckled.

"Not really, see Angel and his brother don't get a long, and I don't mean sibling rivalry; they can't stand each other."

"Why?"

"Um, he did some things in the past and Angel doesn't want anything to do with him." Shaking her head. "Anyway, now he's been following us around, leaving notes, and it's really getting to me." Buffy muttered, there was a slight tint of fear in her voice, and mommy didn't miss it.

"Buffy has he done anything?" Joyce asked worried for her daughter, it seemed to her that her daughter was in an unhealthy relationship.

"No, no it's nothing like that, I just don't want him around, OK."

After dinner, Buffy went to her room, she began to pull out some crosses and holy water out of her night stand, just in case Angelus decided to made a guest appearance again tonight; so she didn't hear Angel come into her room.

"Hey."

Buffy jumped, and thrust the cross in his face, causing him to jump back. When she realized it was Angel, Buffy threw the cross to the floor. "Oh, sorry."

"It's OK. You all right, Giles told me what happened last night." Angel said, walking toward her.

"I will be, when Giles finds a spell to revoke the invitation." She said sitting down on the bed. She looked at Angel, he saw the worry in her eyes, and she saw the worry in his eyes. "Stay with me tonight, I don't want to be alone." Buffy asked, already knowing the answer but just needing to see him acknowledge it.

Angel smiled and nodded. He sat down beside her and pulled her into his embrace, Angel noticed a vulnerability in her, and he tightened his arms around her.

The phone began to ring, and interrupted their quiet time.

Buffy sighed. "It's Willow, I told her to call." She moved away and answered it. "Hey Will."

Angel smirked and scooted up on the bed, near the headboard. He pulled her into his arms so that she sat between his legs, while she talked on the phone. Buffy looked up at him and smiled, she entwined there hands, while her other hand held the phone. It was a little hard to talk to Willow while Angel's other hand stroked her hair.

"Buffy? Did you hear me." Willow asked.

"Yeah, sorry, you were talking about what Giles told me earlier."

"Yeah, and I agree with Giles, you can't let Angelus get to you, he's just trying to get you to do something stupid." Willow said, pacing her room. "I swear guys can be such jerks, dead or alive."

"Yeah, well I just hope Giles can find a keep out spell. Buffy managed to say, while Angel's hand was massaging her scalp, it wasn't very intimate, but it felt just as good; it set her mind at ease.

Willlow chuckled she heard the stuttering in her voice, as she went to feed her fish. "Don't worry, I'm sure Angel will protect you, I know he's there and you two just......." Willow stopped when she saw an envelope by the fish tank.

"Just what??" Buffy said smiling, but when she didn't answer, she got worried. Buffy sat up, pulling away from Angel. "Willow?"

Willow pulled out the string, and all 5 of her fish hanged from it. "Buffy I'll call you back." Will stuttered, and dropped the phone.

"Willow?!" Buffy yelled into the phone, but all she got was a dial tone. She hung up the phone, and stared at it in worry.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked, seeing the worry in her face.

"Something happened at Willow's." Buffy got up from the bed, she grabbed her shoes, and put them on quickly.

Angel stood up. "Do you want me to...."

He was cut off, by the phone ringing. Buffy picked it up. "Willow?" Hoping it was her, and that she was OK.

"It's me Buffy." Willow said, she was a little more calm then she was before.

Buffy on the other hand wasn't. "What happened?"

"Angelus paid me a visit, he killed my fish."

"Oh." Buffy took the phone from her ear. "Angelus was at Willow's." She said to Angel.

"Is she OK?" He asked, standing next to her.

Buffy nodded, and put the phone back to her ear. " Where are you?

"I'm at Xander's." Willow said.

"Oh." She breathed a sigh. "Will, I'm sorry about you're fish." Buffy replied sadly.

Willow stuttered. "It's OK. We didn't have time to bond yet, now for the first time I'm glad my parents didn't let me have a puppy." She paused for a second. "Well, I'll talk to ya later Buffy, tell Angel goodnight."

"I will." Buffy hanged up the phone.

"She's gonna stay at Xander's for a while."

Angel sat down beside her.

Buffy sighed, she put her head in her hands. "This is so weird." Buffy looked up at him. "Everytime something like this happens, my first instinct is to run to you, but now it's almost the same person I'm running from, except for the whole no emotion thingy."

Angel nodded and wrapped his arms around her waist, trying to comfort her. "But we have one thing in common. You're still the only thing we think about."

Buffy turned her head to face him. "What else do you two have in common?" She replied, not as a question but a thought.

Angel stared into her eyes, wondering.

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