Disclaimer: They don’t belong to me. This is all I can do. Write about them in hopes Joss will wake up and smell the humanity and make the world a brighter place once again.
Summary: Just a little Christmas fluff. *G* Buffy returns home from a long night’s slaying to find something on her doorstep.
Author’s Note: This is a Christmas present to all my feedback-ers for “In the Dark” which, by the way, will be presenting itself before the holidays. I hope. *G*
Feedback: This is seriously a stupid question. Geez. *G*
Rating: *sigh* PG-15
This is seriously plotless mush, but I've decided that I don't write enough happy fics, so here we go. Feedback, please!!!!

Buffy walked home slowly. Tonight had been a long, hard night of slaying. Every bone in her body ached with fatigue.

Buffy sighed as she passed a pathetic looking Santa with a fake beard and Bermuda shorts.

“I guess vampires really don’t celebrate Christmas,” she said as she walked by the post office rubbing her sore shoulder. The post office doors and windows glittered with holiday garland.

Unfortunately for her, when every other normal person was taking time off from work to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, Buffy was still out protecting those merry folk who were oblivious to the nightly going-on’s of Sunnydale.

She rubbed her sore shoulder as she moved slowly along the road that would take her home.

As she passed houses on Revello Drive, she couldn’t help but smile at the sad looking neighborhood with its decorated houses in seventy -degree weather. And as she came across the last few houses, she stopped, a faint cold breath of air catching her attention and taking her back to a Christmas past.

There was one Christmas that was different…

Buffy looked up at the sky. The moon was full and bright and glowed silver. Buffy closed her eyes and remembered a time when the heavens opened up and magical snow fell upon the town of Sunnydale.

Of course, that had been a special showing of gratitude from the Powers. The ones who had put this burden on her shoulders had only once shown compassion toward the pair of lovers who could never be.

Now, of course, they were over, and snow was something that wouldn’t come to Sunnydale this year.

Buffy sighed and continued on, finally coming to her own house decorated with bright, cheery lights and plastic Santas in the front yard.

And then…she froze.

For upon her stoop was the one thing…person…she had hardly expected to see this Christmas…this year…this…ever.

“Angel…” she said slowly, still slightly shocked from the normal everyday way he sat on her front stoop as if he had been doing it for years and years.

He looked up from his position on her front steps and smiled. “Merry Christmas,” he said with a slight smirk, knowing the irony behind the saying.

She was too shocked to reply for a moment. Then, she smiled softly. “Merry…it’s never merry here. I think you’ve hit the wrong address.”

He stood up and walked toward her, never breaking eye contact. “I think perhaps you’re mistaken,” he said as he held out his hands.

Buffy’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

In his large hands, a small box sat proudly wrapped in red and white- stripped paper with a bright gold bow on top.

“I had to come back and give it to you,” he said softly.

Buffy smiled, then looked up into his eyes knowingly. “Why’d you really come back…”

He half smiled, half smirked. “You know me too well.” Then, he cleared his throat and began fumbling with the bow. “I-I have something to tell you.”

Buffy frowned in confusion. “Something that couldn’t have been said over the phone?”

Angel ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe-Maybe it’s better if…could we-could we go inside?”

Buffy frowned even harder at his inarticulation and then gestured toward her door.

He followed suit as she opened the door and took off her brown suede jacket, revealing her simple white sweater and jeans.

“Can I---“ she offered as she pointed toward his usual duster.

“Oh, sure…” Angel said. He slid the jacket off his broad shoulders and handed it to her. Buffy noticed the unusual casualness of his clothing---black turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans---and frowned a bit harder.

Something must be up if he’s dressing…normally, she thought as she hung his jacket on the rack in the closet, taking a small eternity to smell the scent of sandalwood and soap and fresh laundry on it before hanging it up.

He looked out the window and frowned. “Looks like something’s coming this way,” he said.

She gazed out the window at the sky and saw huge gray clouds blocking the once bright moon from view. “Hoping it’s not something of the paranormal kind,” she said, tucking a strand of blond hair behind her ear.

Then, she followed him into the living room and sat on the arm of one of the chairs. “So, can I get you something? Coffe? Water? O-Pos?”

Angel chuckled. “No, thank you.”

She smiled and plopped the rest of the way into the chair. “So…we’re going straight to business, I see.”

Angel paused a second, fiddling with his hands. Then, he cleared his throat. “I’m-uh…I’m not exactly sure how to say this,” he began uncomfortably.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at his lack of grace, and then realized it must be something hard to get out if it was taking this much effort. Usually he was big straight forward out with the bad with most of the time cryptic, yet simultaneoously graphic details, guy.

She bent forward over the coffee table and reached for one of his hands. “It’s okay. You can tell me, Ang---“ she began. Then, she gasped sharply and recoiled as if she had been hit.

Angel snapped his eyes to hers. “Buffy…”

“…But it’s not possible,” Buffy said quietly, her pretty face drawn tightly in confusion and slight fright.

“…The powers sent a vision to Cordy…”

“…But you’re not---“

“…And it had to do with the end of days,” Angel said.

Buffy couldn’t make eye contact. All she could do was stare at the place where his once dead heart was encaved.

“End of-end of days?” She stammered out.

“Buffy…look at me,” Angel offered quietly as he stood up and walked over to her.

Buffy eyes were large and filled with tears that were about to fall.

Angel knelt down in front of her and took one of her hands in his, ignoring the slight flinch from her as he did so.

“They sent me on a quest. That’s where I’ve been the last three months. They told me that if I fulfilled this quest, I will have to make the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.

Buffy brought her eyes back up to his and shook her head in confusion. “Sac-sacrifice?”

“I had to sacrifice my life in the end.”

Buffy gasped, but then realized just how undead he actually was. In fact, he was more alive than ever, no pun intended. “But…”

“But it turns out, I was also given the ultimate gift in return.”

“But…why?” Buffy stammered out.

“They said they wanted to give me something for servicing them faithfully. They said that they needed two strong and happy warriors when the End of Days finally comes around.”

Buffy still shook her head. “But-But…”

Angel sighed and looked down. “For a while I thought they meant Cordelia. I even tried being happy with her. But…it didn’t work.”

He gazed up into her eyes.

“It could never work,” he said. He tightened his grip on her hand lovingly.

“You’re the only warrior for me,” he said with his trademark half grin on his face.

Buffy felt a tear slide down her face. “But I don’t understand. If you’re human---“

“They let me keep my strength, Buffy. They need me, just like they need you. That’s why I’m here.”

“Why you’re here?” She asked.

“I was sent, by the Powers, to find you. To offer you the one thing you were denied. The one thing the Powers took away from you,” he said, his eyes melting into hers.

“A normal life,” he said slowly.

Buffy took a moment to comprehend. Once her mind was at full working level again, she opened her mouth. “Angel…you’re…you’re human,” she said slowly, her voice breaking slightly on the last word.

Angel smiled as he wiped a tear from her eye.

“You’re human,” she repeated, the full effect blindsiding her with emotions.

He picked up the little box he had brought with him and gave it to her.

“This is for you. If you’ll take it.”

Buffy untied the ribbon on the box and let it fall to the floor. She took her time unwrapping the box, all the while still taking in what was going on.

He’s human. My Angel. He’s human. And he’s mine, she thought.

Buffy let the paper fall to the floor and stared at the box.

“It’s not an arm,” Angel joked lightly.

Buffy chuckled. “I know. It’s just…Angel…”

He smiled, taking the box from her hands and opening it for her.

“And as a human, I think I have the right to do this properly,” he said as he knelt on one knee in front of her.

“Buffy Anne Summers, I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you. I told you once I could see your heart. And now, my love, I can see it more than ever. And more than that, I can feel it, beating inside my own chest. There’s no one else in existence I’d rather be with, and believe me, I know. I’ve seen the other dimensions. There’s no one who could ever compare to your beauty…your strength…your brilliance…” he said, “your heart.”

Buffy felt her heart beat rapidly.

Angel pulled out what was hidden in the small box.

A small, yet beautifully shapen piece of silver shone brilliantly, putting the lights that were hanging from her tree to shame.

My claddagh ring…Buffy thought frantically.

“Will you marry me?” He asked quietly, his chocolate eyes boring into her own.

At that moment, she was at a loss. She wanted desperately to say yes. To live in a house with two children who had their father’s expressive eyes and her bright smile. To come home every night and eat dinner with her family. To have a minivan with the words “soccer mom” imprinted on the back. To live in that big house up in the hills with a garden and a tire swing outback.

To have a normal life…

And yet there was still some part of her, however small, that knew that this life wasn’t going to be easy. It was going to be brutal, and now that he was human, he was at even more risk of going out there everynight to fight.

Buffy was torn. She knew eventually there would be an ultimatum, and she wasn’t sure if she could make the right decision if it meant putting the one person she loved more than anything, on the line.

“Angel…I…” She replied softly.

She looked deeply into his eyes. Beyond the deep pools of chocolate, beyond the mixed emotions she was seeing. She searched out his soul. She reached out to it, trying to find comfort and warmth in the one place she knew was safe.

And as she looked inside his soul, she felt something in her own break. Something that had kept her from holding back with Riley, and so many guys after he.

She was falling in love again.

Sure, there would be obstacles ahead, most of them bigger than ever. And there would come a time when they would be reduced to being nothing more than warriors fighting next to one another.

But in both of their minds, if this was the only heaven either of them ever knew, then it was worth taking those risks.

She could feel the tears well up in her eyes as the feeling of safety and ultimate happiness engulfed her. Angel’s face twitched in uncertainty as she smiled widely.

“I never thought you’d ask,” she said as she pulled him up and threw her arms around him.

Angel smiled happily, sniffling back the tears that had rapidly begun to form behind his eyes.

Buffy pulled him into a passionate kiss, all the while letting tears of happiness cascade down her cheeks.

“Oh, Angel…it’s what I’ve only dreamed about…”

Angel kissed her neck where his mark still stood proudly.

“I love you,” he said as he pulled her back against his mouth.

She moaned compliantly and smiled as he ravaged her mouth with his own.

That night, they made sweet love under the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree, all the while remembering the promises they had made in the past, and realizing now how they were about to come true.

And inside the small house on Revello Drive, two lovers slept comfortably, both drifting off to find the greatest gift of all under the tree the next morning.

And outside, small flakes of pure, white bliss fell from the sky upon the sleepy town of Sunnydale.

Awwwwwwww...wasn't that sweet? *G* Send feedback if you liked it.

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