Part 3 -

AN - text between ' // ' is phrases said, or things done in the present by other people, in real time.

*********

"Where are we now?" Buffy asked, still emotionally shaken both from the revelation about the day that wasn't and the swift change of time and space. She tried to keep her thoughts straight, but she couldn't even get her mind to work properly and rationally. Nothing seemed rational to her anymore. The pain she had felt following the return of her memories was being slowly replaced with anger, but the anger was mixed with understanding, and Buffy lost track of her most inner feelings, not knowing where to put what. Nothing made sense to her anymore. She needed to understand too many things, and she wasn't given the time to even start.

"You'll have time," the boy next to her told her, as if responding to her inner thoughts. "You're learning now. It is up to you to make the right decision...later. You're in the present now. There are things...you have to see. The Powers agreed you deserved to know everything that happened first."

"Powers?" Buffy blinked, wiping her moist eyes. "What Powers?"

Niran smiled. "The ones that gave you the snow."

*********

// "What do you mean, something's wrong with her?" Xander asked his friend.

"Just that. Something's wrong with her," Willow clearly didn't supply the information he needed.

"Perhaps...something in the books," Giles suggested, rising from his seat.

"It's not that," the redhead stopped him, making him sit back down.

Four pairs of eyes peered at her expectantly.

"It's Christmas," she revealed, sighing melancholically.

"Christmas isn't supposed to affect the Slayer," Giles obviously misunderstood, "it's just..."

"Giles," she cut him off, "not everything must be explained supernaturally."

The former Watcher sighed, then smiled coyly, removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Alright. What is it then?"

"It's Christmas. Last year's Christmas."

"What happened..." Xander started, glancing at his girlfriend, who only shrugged, not giving away much interest, then at Oz and Giles. Finally, he looked at Willow.

"She didn't tell you?" the redhead witch surveyed the people present in the room. "She never told you?"

They all shook their heads. //

"She never told them," Angel observed, a slight smile playing in the corners of his mouth.

"Why does it make you happy?" Amara asked.

"It means it's still important to her. She would have told them by now. She would have told them everything if it hadn't been important to her."

The girl grinned. "How could you ever think it wasn't?"

The vampire gulped, briefly averting his eyes from his blue-eyed companion. What made him think... God, was there an easier question than that?

"Riley?" Amara guessed. When he beheld her in surprise, she offered him a shrug, grinning that same playful smile.

*********

"What do you want to show me here?" Buffy asked Niran, while the two of them were walking, unnoticed, down the dark streets of Los Angeles.

"I show you things," he replied cryptically, "you are the one who decides upon what she sees."

"You remind me too much of someone," she noted, smiling slightly to herself, then gazed down at him seriously. "Is he the one you're going to show me?"

The boy shook his head. "You will not see him yet. You can't find him in the present."

"Why not?" Buffy frowned, a bit confounded by his statement.

"For the same reason he can't see you," he replied simply, entering a building.

The Slayer gasped. "You mean..."

Niran only shrugged, beaming, and took her hand, pulling her after him through a shut door, into an apartment. "Look," he told her, as they entered the living room.

// "It's not exactly my fault, Doyle," Cordelia remarked, walking over to her boyfriend with a bowl of chips in her one hand and a can of diet-coke in the other, and perching next to him on the sofa, as he turned on the TV.

"Maybe I should try too, then," he suggested, draping one arm around her shoulders and taking a handful of chips from the dish with his other hand.

The brunette reached across him to grab a glass and emptied the can into it, taking a sip. "It wouldn't do any good, believe me. Especially not after my little slip."

He gave her a look.

"I said the forbidden 'B' word," she explained.

"I see," Doyle nodded.

"Well, I didn't. And I sent him right back into brood-mode, the advanced kind. He's probably reliving Thanksgiving right about now," she added with a sad note. "I didn't mean to," she sighed.

"I know you didn't, princess," he kissed the top of her head. "But I don't think it's in our hands just as I don't think it's in his. He just..."

"Loves her," the former cheerleader completed his sentence. "That's his curse, I'm telling you. I mean, things could be great if he didn't go all 'Grrr' every time they go at it. What the Hell is so special about her, anyway?" she exclaimed. "Annoying little blonde," she muttered under her breath, fishing for chips with her free hand. "And she doesn't even look that good in that picture he has hidden in his book."

"I'm sure your feelings are mutual, Delia," her boyfriend remarked, instantly receiving a nudge in the gut. "But said annoying blonde happens to be what occupies Angel's mind most of the time these days, especially after..that day."

"Exactly!" she looked up sharply. "Speaking of which, you know what I realized recently? That there's been a whole twenty-four hours, in which I might have done things..." her eyes scanned Doyle from head to toe, "I shouldn't have, and now I'll never get to know."

He chuckled, rolling his eyes playfully. "I don't think THAT was what I wanted to say..." //

"He has a picture of me?" Buffy asked, nobody in particular. "I don't even have a picture of him," she whispered softly. But she did have a picture of him. She had his gentle features, his chocolate orbs, enshrined so deep within her soul, she knew she would remember them for as long as she was alive in this world, no matter how many Riley's would come and go throughout her life. But as sad as it was, it also felt good to know he had something of her with him like that, something to remind him of her, although she knew he had never forgotten. She, on the other hand... Buffy sighed, preferring not to think about it.

*********

"This is Riley," Amara observed, as she and Angel were watching the blond man anxiously pacing in front of the Sunnydale gang, which was assembled in Buffy's living room, telling them how he had arrived to her house that night, and found her gone without a note, and the door open. The worry was evident in his features, and it was soon reflecting in the faces of the others as well.

Angel nodded, but didn't say anything.

"He loves her," she observed, "I can see it in his eyes."

The vampire faced her, his own eyes filling with anguish.

"But she doesn't," Amara went on, as if oblivious to him, "her heart is already taken. It had been taken long before he ever entered her life." A small smile appeared on her lips as she looked up at Angel. "And deep inside, you know it."

He sighed, offering a weak grin in return, looking back at the gang. "I never belonged there, you know? I never belonged in the circle of her friends. They never accepted me. And it hurt her...us. It made her choose...too many times."

"And she chose you," Amara smiled.

"No," Angel shook his head. "Not every time."

"Every time," the girl insisted. "She did some mistakes, some bad choices, but only because you left her no other option. It was hard on her too, but in the end of the day, you always came first. And then you left her, shattering all the trust she put into you."

The vampire turned to look at her again, finding instead of the girl a young woman. He sighed, shaking his head, not knowing what to think anymore.

Amara smiled knowingly, then reposed her hand on his shoulder. "You both made your share of mistakes. Everybody does them. It's the only way to learn. Come," she made one step forward, motioning for him to follow.

*********

"Where are we going now?" Buffy asked her companion, as the two were exiting Cordelia's apartment.

"To the future," he replied, and she rotated, startled by the drastic change in his voice.

"What..." she started, finding a young man instead of the former boy. Then she just exhaled and shook her head. Nothing could surprise her anymore.

Niran smiled, holding out his hand for her. "I have some more things to show you," he said. "It'll be over soon, I promise."

"I'm not so sure I want it to be," the Slayer contemplated aloud. "I'm not sure I want to go back to what I have."

"You won't," he promised her. "You'll go back to what you WANT to have. It's up to me to guide you. What you do afterwards...it's up to you. Now, come," he stretched out his hand again, and this time, she accepted it

Part 4 -

AN - text between ' // ' is phrases said, or things done in the future.

*********

// "You're not evil. I...I don't understand. Was I...was it...not good?" the blonde vampiress laughed. "Well, I don't accept that. You can not tell me that wasn't perfect. Not only have I been around for four hundred years, but I used to do this professionally. And THAT was perfect." She grabbed Angel's arm, pulling him back to the bed. "We'll go again."

He shook her off, standing up. "No. No, we can't. You know we can't. We're finished."

"Finished?" she wouldn't accept it. "Why? What, because you suddenly decide? You know, an hour ago you wanted this. You weren't tricked into anything. I didn't seduce you. You WANTED it!"

"Yeah," he admitted weakly, "and it WAS perfect, Darla. It was perfect despair." //

Buffy gazed into the eyes of her love, as he was arguing with his Sire. He had slept with her. With Darla, with his Sire, with the vampiress who had made him, who he had dusted...to save her life. He had slept with Darla. She felt like her heart was breaking, slowly, painfully cracking into millions of pieces. And on the other hand, as she was looking into his eyes, she found there peace. Very little, but peace, some sort of sick ease to his soul, he had obviously found in the arms of his Sire. He was saying she saved him. But he couldn't save her. Buffy wished more than anything to know what he must have been going through, what had happened, that it was so horrible that he would seek solace in his Sire, that it would drive him to THAT kind of despair. And most importantly...why hadn't he turned to HER for help?...

"Why did he do that?" she asked Niran.

"Did what?" he inquired. "You mean Darla? Why he slept with her?"

She nodded.

"Why wouldn't he?"

"She..."

"She saved him. These are not my words, these are his. SHE saved him. Can you even imagine what he must have been going through if he chose to turn to her?"

Buffy looked down briefly, inhaling a deep breath. "He fucked Darla," she uttered slowly, allowing it to sink in. "My God, what must have happened to..."

"He wanted to lose his soul," the young man said. "You heard him. Perfect despair. He wanted to stop the despairs, to stop...feeling, to lose his soul."

"But..." she peered at him sorrowfully.

"He didn't," he smiled, putting down her fears. "He didn't lose his soul."

Buffy looked at him for a moment, then her lips curved up in a hesitant beam.

*********

"I wasn't there for her, was I?" Angel asked Amara, as the two were watching the future's Buffy and Angel, sitting underneath a tree in the cemetery, right following Joyce's funeral.

"No," she replied silently. "But you're there now."

"It doesn't cut it," he shook his head. "I should have been there for her. She was her mother, and she...died. I should have held her up through the Hell she must have been going through. Why didn't I?" he demanded to know. "Why didn't I? Where was I? It was the time she needed me the most, where the Hell was I?" he didn't even notice his tone was becoming more aggressive with each word. "And where the Hell was Riley?"

"Riley left her months before that. And you...you weren't standing yourself," she told him gently, "you couldn't hold her up too."

He looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "Things happened. Almost a year has passed since you two last saw each other, a lot has changed. Both of you fell, both of you weakened. It was too rapid a decision, the one you made right before her prom. You should have thought of the consequences first, instead of assuming you were doing the right thing. But of course, it's granted you couldn't know," she smiled sadly. "Humans are so fragile. You make one mistake and it possesses the power to destroy your entire lives."

"I'm not..."

She dismissed him with a grin. "You get my point."

"It doesn't excuse it," he shook his head, "whatever happened to me, it doesn't matter, I should have been there for her. I..." he sighed softly, laughing dryly at the thought, his gaze drifting away. "I could make her pain go away, I could make her smile. I still know how to do that, I'm sure I do. Have I...has he...forgotten?"

Amara shook his head. "No. But you two grew up. Too much pain causes people to shut themselves off from the world. You should know," she motioned with her hand at him. "But in your cases, it wasn't the world. You two shut yourselves off from love. You...forgot what love felt like. And now, you remembered," she motioned at the kissing couple under the tree. When the two pulled apart, Amara turned to her companion again. "But you both were too broken to take her offer seriously."

*********

Buffy reached out her hand, in a dull attempt to touch the vampire's shoulder, who was sitting on his bed, feeding a small baby that was carefully cradled in the crook of his arm. It was the most beautiful scene she could ever hope to witness, and perfect was an understatement for it. Her Angel, holding an infant in his arms. Fatherhood suited him, she could detect it straight away. When he held the child, his orbs sparkled with genuine happiness. Her Angel deserved this child. No one deserved him more than he did. And this child brought him happiness. And he was perfect. Only that he wasn't hers...

"How could it happen?" she asked the man next to her. "They're both vampires, how could it happen?"

He shook his head.

"You're not going to tell me," she observed, sighing.

"It isn't mine to tell," was all he said.

"I'm happy for him," she said, smiling sadly at her former lover and his son. "If anyone deserves this gift, it's him."

"And you," Niran voiced her contemplations. "I know what you're thinking," he beamed knowingly. "You wish for this child to have been yours."

"How can I not to?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Then perhaps, you should remember that too...when you go back."

"You mean...how?" the Slayer inquired, her face both hopeful and frightened. "How can I make him to be OUR child?"

"I never said you could," Niran looked at her cryptically. "The way you form your future is up to you, I am not the one to decide upon what you might do. I told you, I'm here to guide you. You act according to what you think is the right thing to do, to thwart whatever I show you, if you want to thwart it, of course."

"Do you EVER answer exactly what you're asked?" Buffy wondered, after fully processing his reply. "But it doesn't matter. I can't ever do that. I can never steal these precious moments from him. The way he is with his son...I can't take that away from him, and if I change the future, I will. And I can't...I love him too much," a lone tear slowly trickled down her cheek.

"It isn't only up to you," Niran remarked softly. "And this child is a soul, it is not yet placed into a human body, it is not yet created and brought into life. His parents have not yet been chosen."

Buffy shot him an odd look.

He just shrugged, grinning.

*****

Angel kneeled next to the Slayer's lying form, tears running down his face, as he brushed his palm over her face, in a desperate attempt to touch her one final time. But he couldn't. Because he wasn't real. And she was dead. The love of his life, the only thing that truly mattered, that kept him going, was now dead, and what's worse - she had died before his very eyes. He bent forward, and in a yet another desperate attempt, brushed his ghostly lips over hers, recalling the taste of her kiss in her mind. But outside his memories, he still felt nothing.

"I love you," he whispered to her lying form, unable to tear his eyes from her, until a female hand on his shoulder raised him back to his feet, using some sort of magical force. Angel looked away from the fallen Slayer, into Amara's tender face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"This is what I gave up my humanity for?" he questioned. "So that she would die?! They promised," his voice cracked, "they promised me she'd live!"

"Oh, she lived, alright," the woman promised him, "and what a life did she have. One I wouldn't wish to a soul."

The vampire peered at her, his eyes demanding an explanation.

"She didn't only jump to save the girl," Amara told him, "she jumped because she wanted to." Saying that, she quieted, not willing to give away any further information.

Angel shook his head. "If I had known, I would have never..."

"Would have never what? Given up that day?"

He sighed, nodding sorrowfully. "Yes. I would have...I would have made the best of those few months we would have had left together. We would have had at least a few months of happiness. Maybe then," he paused for a beat, "she wouldn't have jumped."

"Your happiness isn't lost yet," Amara assured him with a smile.

*****

"I'm taking you back now," Niran told Buffy, as the two were making their way down the stairs of the Hyperion hotel, to the lobby.

"Back where?" she asked, not grasping straight away what he had meant by that.

He laughed shortly. "To where you belong. From now on, everything is going to be up to you...and him."

She nodded. "Can you just...tell me something?" she requested.

"Yes," he agreed.

"Tell me who you are?"

"That's simple," Niran chuckled, gesturing at himself, "the ghost of Christmas future," he answered with a lighthearted smile. "Before me, were my two younger brothers, the ghosts of the present and the past."

"And...Angel?" Buffy asked hesitantly.

"He is guided by my three sisters. We were sent to the two of you. We're supposed to help you choose the right path."

"And...you think you helped me?" the Slayer wanted to know.

He chuckled again. "It isn't up to me to judge."

"It's up to me, then?"

He beamed, taking her hand, and pulling her to him. "Remember your promise, Warrior," he whispered in her ear, before everything faded into white.

****

"Don't show me any more," Angel implored. "I can't watch any more."

"You won't have to," she touched his arm. "It's over."

He peered at her, as if not believing. "We must go back now."

"Back?"

"To your time. To your present. You'll never see me again afterwards," she smiled at him, tenderly brushing her hand over his cheek. "I can only hope I achieved my goal."

"Goal?" he echoed.

"I did show you," she said, "I can only hope I also made you SEE. Did I?"

Angel nodded, chewing at his lower lip. "These were the Powers, weren't they? They sent you?"

She smiled, not giving him a reply this time. "My sisters and I were to guide you. My brothers were to guide her. Now, our work here is done. After this...you're on your own. I hope you'll find that happiness. And Warrior," she grabbed his arm, waiting until he locked eyes with her, "don't let the curse hinder you." She smiled reassuringly at him. "Your happiness is in no one's hands but your own now. Remember that."

Angel nodded, still appearing somewhat thrown.

She beamed, positioning her palm in front of her lips, and blew at the silvery stardust that was pilled up on it.

He thought he heard her final goodbye just as everything about him turned white.

Part 5 -

The lamp is burning low upon my table top
The snow is softly falling
The air is still within the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly calling
If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
On this winter night with you

*****

A second after Angel found himself in his bedroom, the door flew open, and a very anxious Doyle stormed into the room.

"You're here," he observed, his voice giving away slight disbelief, as if he weren't entirely convinced it really was Angel standing before him.

"So I was, last time I checked," the vampire retorted, eyeing his friend, as if nothing happened and he really had been in the bedroom all the while.

"He's here!" Doyle yelled to Cordelia, then turned his full attention back to Angel. "I checked this room five minutes ago," he swore, "you weren't here."

"Maybe you just didn't look hard enough. What time is it?" he asked abstractly, while rummaging his pockets for something seemingly very important.

"6:15 PM..." Doyle checked his watch. "WHY is it important?" he abruptly snapped back to reality. "Where have you been?!"

"And you better make it good, because we were looking for you like crazy for hours!" Cordelia added, walking into the bedroom.

"So, it's not sundown yet," Angel contemplated, as if he hadn't even heard them.

"Seems a lot like sundown to me," the Irishman informed. "There's no sun out there, lad, trust me. I won't be surprised if it's gonna snow any minute now..."

"Wait ONE minute!" Cordelia shushed them both with a gesture of her hand, then turned to Angel. "Where the Hell do you think you're going?! You just got back, you're not going anywhere, until you explain everything."

"I'll explain everything, Cordelia, I promise, but not now." Angel pulled a small ring out of his pocket, seemingly it being what he had been looking for earlier, and grinned, pocketing it right back. "Now, I have to go," he grabbed his coat, and headed out of the room.

"And where would that be, if that's not a secret?" the brunette called after him.

"Sunnydale," he supplied over his shoulder, and before she could conjure up a response, was gone.

****

"Buffy!" Riley jumped up to hug his girlfriend, the second she entered the house, to everyone's relief, in one piece.

She returned his hug, then gradually pulled off, taking a deep breath, not quite knowing how to handle everyone's piercing eyes.

"Where have you been?" the inevitable question was finally popped up, courtesy of Xander.

"It's a long story," she started.

"We have time," Willow assured.

"Buffy, you were gone for almost twenty-four hours, not even bothering to leave a note, or inform someone where you're going. It wasn't incredibly mature, nor responsible of you, I presume you  know that. Are we at least entitled to some sort of an explanation?" her former Watcher asked.

"Giles, I get it," she smiled, addressing her upcoming words to everyone present in the room. "I'll tell you everything, I swear, as soon as I get back..."

"Back?" Willow frowned at her. "Back from where exactly?"

"I need to go somewhere," she sighed. "There's something very important I need to do tonight. I made a promise," she beamed.

"Buff..." Xander attempted to speak, but she held up her hand to shut him up.

"I said, later, Xander. Later, I'll tell you everything. Right now, I need to save my future." Saying that, the Slayer was already on her way out of the house. When she walked past Riley, she stopped. "We need to talk," she whispered to him, tugging him after her out of the house, and shutting the door behind them.

Xander groaned helplessly, leaning back on the couch.

*****

"So...Angel," Riley breathed out the name, looking away from his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry," Buffy cast her eyes to the ground.

"I thought it was over," he turned to look at her, his gaze something between anger and anguish. "Dammit, Buffy, you promised me it was over!"

The Slayer averted her eyes again, then looked back up. "Riley, I..."

"Save it!" he snapped. "For God's sake, at least while you're breaking up with me, don't lie!"

"Riley," she said gently, putting her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.

"You don't love me," he stated. "You don't," he let out a dry chuckle. "I always knew you didn't, but I... God, I don't even know why I stayed with you, why I was putting myself through all this."

Buffy cast her eyes to the ground.

"You were fucking him behind my back," the commando spat at her, and her head snapped up, her eyes filling with horror and disbelief. "You were screwing a VAMPIRE behind my back! God!"

"How can you say that?" she uttered the question slowly, cautiously, in a low voice. "How can you even THINK that?"

"And why the Hell not?" he threw his hands in the air in a gesture of utter despair. "You're leaving me for him, aren't you?"

"I'm leaving you for ME," the Slayer corrected him, "and I AM sorry, very sorry, for the way everything has turned out, for that you got stuck in the middle of all this, but I'm NOT, and never will be, sorry for the choice I made. And I wanted to talk to you, because I wanted to apologize..." she grimaced, "somehow, I don't quite think that's the word...but whatever it was," she gazed back up at him again, her eyes determined. "You're a pig," she spat in disgust, and stormed away.

"Buffy, wait!" Riley's voice made her stop, and he caught up with her after a second. He looked away from her for a moment, inwardly counting up to ten to collect himself, then looked back up. "I don't want us to part like that. I don't want it to be over like that, I...I'm sorry," he finally managed.

"What for?" she challenged him with her eyes, folding her arms on her chest.

"For," the blond faltered, "for what I said about you and...Angel. God, I hate him," he muttered.

The Slayer allowed herself a small grin. "Something tells me he doesn't exactly think highly of you either. And I accept."

Riley shot her a look, then licked his dry lips, smirking. "No, I suppose, being in his place, vampire or not, I wouldn't like me a lot either."

Buffy giggled to herself, then her face became solemn again, when she looked back up at her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend. "I need you to understand that...that it wasn't his fault," she held his gaze as she was saying that. "If it was anyone's fault, it was mine."

"Or mine, if to take into account the fact I fell for someone I never really had a chance with," he observed bitterly, the leveled his eyes with hers. "You never told me about him...when we just began...you never told me you loved him so much. With time...I realized. I would have been a real idiot if I missed something so obvious, but...you never made it a fact. And as long as you never said the words, I could still believe...

"Riley," Buffy put her hand on his arm, "I'm sorry."

He nodded, as if accepting her apology. "Just...can I ask you something?"

Buffy nodded as well.

"What can he give you that I can't? What does he have that I don't?"

Her face lit in a smile, as she peered at the man in front of her. "It will snow tonight," she said, her tone just a bit above whisper, raising her eyes to the heavens.

The commando didn't grasp what she meant by that. "What?" he eyed her like she were crazy. "Buffy, we're in California, in case you forgot that, what does this have to do with..."

Buffy giggled at his flabbergasted mien. When she looked at him, she beamed. "It snowed for him, last Christmas," she said, the look in her eyes mirroring her thoughts, and it was so full of love, Riley knew he wasn't in them. "And tonight," she peered at the sky again, "it will snow for us."

"Why?" he asked the final question, and she knew he wasn't referring to the snow.

*****

"Angel," she called his name, the second her eyes lay on him. Her heart couldn't help skipping a beat at the memory of the last time she had found him, standing on on the very same spot on that hill.

He revolved to the sound of her voice, so soft and gentle, like it could only be with his name on her lips. He reached out his hand for her, followed with his trademark half-smile.

Buffy returned him a coy grin, and made a few hesitant steps forward, until she finally accepted his offered hand and was standing by his side. They both didn't utter a word for a few minutes, and just stood there, holding hands and watching the town underneath. The night had already went down on Sunnydale, and the town was sparkling with millions of lights, constantly popping up in the blackness. The moon was hidden somewhere amid the heavy clouds, and a cool breeze was the only indication it was really Christmas.

"I knew I'd find you here," Buffy was the first to speak up, breaking the silence, but her eyes never turned to the vampire standing next to her.

He didn't look at her either, instead, kept staring straight ahead. "I knew you would," he said, "that's why I came here. Buffy," he averted his eyes from Sunnydale, to her, and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Angel, wait," she interrupted him, reposing her palm on his lips. "Let me go first, I...I have a promise to keep."

"What promise?" he eyed her strangely.

Buffy beamed, taking his hands. "I love you," she whispered. Then, suddenly, her sparkling orbs dimmed with sadness, and she sniffled, momentarily averting her gaze. "And I'm so sorry," she added softly.

"What about?" Angel asked, his concerned eyes searching hers for an answer, as he gently propped her chin up with his index finger.

"I'm sorry I forgot," the blonde said inaudibly, as a tear trickled down her cheek. "I'm sorry you gave me everything...and that you loved me...and that I didn't even remember," she peered him deep in the eyes, "and I'm so sorry that I didn't keep my promise."

Angel pulled her to him, crushing her small body to his chest, gently holding her in the safety of his arms. He had a lot of explaining ahead of him, and he wasn't quite sure he was wholeheartedly ready to relive that day all over again, even if it was for her. Still, he owed her that much, after... "I'm sorry I made this decision for both of us," he confessed.

"I'm sorry too," she pulled back, her eyes roaming the earth instead of his, as she took his hands again. "But I would have done the same thing, had I been in your place," she bit her lip, then looked back up at him. "Angel?"

"Yeah?" he released one of her hands to tuck stray tresses behind her ear.

"I didn't like what I saw," she said gravely.

"Me neither," he shook his head.

"And I want to fix it," Buffy went on, making sure to hold his gaze the entire time. "I want for this Christmas to be a beginning...for a different kind of future. I don't care how we'll make it, and I don't care what sacrifices it'll require, because I know it'll require a lot. But I don't care. Our future without those sacrifices," she averted her eyes for a beat, "it's not something I wanna experience. We never had it the easy way, Angel, and...we probably never will, but..."

She never finished her sentence, because that moment, he pulled her hard against him and wrapped his arms tightly around her, sealing her lips with a kiss. Buffy let go of his hand, and snaked her arms around his neck, urging his head down and rising on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss.

"Angel! Angel, look," Buffy pulled back first, but still remained in his arms, as they both lifted their eyes to the sky. "It's snowing!" she laughed, and jumped on him, fastening her arms around his neck, attacking his mouth with her own.

"I knew it would snow," she said, grinning up at him, "it's our Christmas miracle."

Angel beamed, embracing her to him. "Merry Christmas, my love," he whispered, finding her lips again in a soft kiss.

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