Summery: Buffy and Angel live in the same building but have never met before. One day they are in the elevator together and it breaks down.
Rating: same as the show
AN: This just popped into my head and it didn't really fit with any of the other things I'm working on, so I decided to put it in its very own fic. Enjoy. and don't forget to check out my website, I just updated it on july 19th. (oh this is set in L.A. in a completely different universe as the Joss-verse)

Buffy stepped out of the bathroom after drying her hair and putting it into a ponytail. She shivered and moved to turn on the gas fireplace. After setting it to a low heat, she curled up in her big comfy chair and picked up her book on the nightstand. She opened it and began to read all about the tall, dark and handsome warrior who is cursed with remorse for his evil past and is now striving for redemption by protecting the unprotected. It was no romantic with the beautiful blond he's in love with who is also a warrior, but they can't be together because if he ever experienced a moment of true happiness, he'd lose his soul and become the monster he once was.

A tear tracked down her cheek when she read a part in the book where the hero thinks about his love. He describes her as a star. It seems so close, but it's really so far away, and it's light can only be seen after the sun goes down.

She so wished she could fall in love like that. To just have a gorgeous guy walk right up to her and profess his undying love, and then pick her up and take her to a secluded island and ravish her to oblivion..... she sighed, sure like that would ever happen to her. The last relationship she got out of the guy had the emotional capacity of a soap dish. She needed a romantic and passionate guy, one that didn't act like a robot in bed. One that would always be telling her how very much he adored her and loved her. One who didn't cause her to cry herself to sleep every night.

It was a nice dream. Too bad it would never happen. She was a dance choreographer for a major dance studio. The guys that she spent her days with were usually snobby, thick headed recording artists, or homosexual. She closed her eyes and tried to envision the hero from her novel. He was about 6'2, brown eyes and brown spiky hair. Muscular chest, abs, and biceps.

She smiled, then heard a loud slam down the hall. She waited listened to hear if she could catch any fighting, she was supposed to report any fighting to the manager of the building. It was a rule. Then when she realized there wasn't any fighting going on she started to read again.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

She was snapped out of her book. She slowly put her book down and rose from her seat. "Who is it?" she asked.

~*~

Angel walked out of the bathroom and turned on his gas fireplace. He didn't know why, but it always got a bit chilly around this time of night. She moved into the small, but functional, kitchen and started making a late dinner.

He hated working late. Working as a music video director was hard work. The artist were always so thick headed, saying that they want this car, and this diskman, and this and that oh and also this 10 thousand dollar watch. It was so stressful. Then coming home to an empty apartment and having no one to say "honey, I'm home" to. No one to hold him and sit by the fire after a long day of yelling and shooting and reshooting scenes. He just wished he could have someone to love.

That wasn't likely. The girls that he worked with her whimpering, self absorbed, drama queens, who thought that love was the feeling you got when you see those 'totally awesome shoes' in the mall. It was hopeless. Who would love him? He wasn't anything special. Sure he made a lot of money and lived in a very classy apartment building. But he wasn't the rich type who liked to flaunt it. He didn't have the huge mansion that had 24 rooms and 16 bathrooms and huge halls that you never go into. He didn't have the ferari or the indoor swimming pool.

He just had a nice, cozy little apartment that he could...be all alone in.

He sighed and opened the cupboard to find that he was out of sugar. "Dammit. It just figures, doesn't it?" he said to himself. Then he heard movement next door and decided that whoever was next door probably wouldn't mind lending him a cup of sugar.

It was kinda corny, but he picked up the measuring cup and walked out of his apartment and knocked on the next door neighbors door. And old lady answered. "What do you want!" she rasped.

"Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" he asked, wishing that he hadn't come over here. He knew that the old bat of the building lived there.

"Sorry, sunny. Why don't you try Blondie down the hall, apartment 1609, I saw her with groceries yesterday." then she slammed her door with a grunt.

Angel stood there for a second. "Thank you." he said quietly. He made a mental notes to never go over there ever again. He should have known better. With shrug he walked down the hall and stopped in front of apartment 1609. He was suddenly a bit nervous. The old lady had mentioned that the person was blond and a she. He was always a sucker for blonds. He was about to leave to avoid the embarrassment of stumbling all over his words in front of a potentially hot girl. Then it was as though his hand had a mind of it's own and it rose up and knocked three times on the finished oak door.

He knew it was too late to turn back. "Who is it?" he heard from the inside. The voice was kind of muffled, but he could still tell that it was a very nice voice.

"I'm from apartment 1612. I was wondering if I could borrow a cup of sugar." he felt like an idiot asking for sugar. Then the door opened and his eyes widened. She was beautiful. Her hair was shiny and her face was smooth and soft looking. Her eyes were a lovely shade of green, and she was only wearing a yellow tank top and cute pajama bottoms that had lips on them and the words "goodnight kiss".

"Hi." she greeted the strange, but absolutely gorgeous man, standing outside her apartment in a white t-shirt and black drawstring sweat pants. Her eyes traveled up his body to his eyes. She blushed and hoped he didn't notice that she was obviously checking him out. She quickly forgot all that when she stared into those brown orbs that seemed to look right through her to her soul. "Um. You said you wanted something?" she reminded him.

Angel forced himself to calm down and said, "Ya, if you don't mind."

Buffy went for casual and actually succeeded. "Sure." she took the measuring cup. "you can come inside and wait if you want." she offered.

He smiled and stepped inside. He watched her as she closed the door behind him and moved into her kitchen. He forced himself to look away as she bent over and lifted the sugar out of it's low cupboard and onto the counter top. Then she filled the measuring cup to the 1 c line and put the sugar back. Then she came back to him and handed it back. "thanks. I should go shopping soon."

Buffy smiled. "You're welcome." she replied. Then he turned around and started to leave. She had an indescribable urge to stop him and make his stay. The tingles that were coursing through her body the moment he stepped inside were nice, and she didn't want them to go away.

"Well, I'll see you around." then he was out of door and gone down the hall.

Buffy closed the door. "Brilliant Summers. Why didn't you act more illiterate, I don't think he thought I was stupid enough." she scolded herself. That man was exactly the man she had pictured. He was....what was the word... dead sexy! She felt her skin warming up the minute she laid eyes on him, imagine what would happen to her body when he laid those strong, masculine hands on her. She didn't know if he was married, she didn't see a wedding band or anything. Then she pushed the thought away, she was certain he wasn't interested. She barely said a word.

~*~

Buffy hurried into the dance room. She was 5 minutes early, but she really wanted to get all her clients done today, so she could get home early that night. Also so see if she could run into that mystery sugar guy. That was what she has started calling him, well, she didn't know his name, what else would she call him? tall, dark and handsome sexy hotass mystery guy who came to her door out of all the other doors, he came to hers. She felt like she was chosen. She was the chosen one. The chosen one to see that sexy guy with broad shoulders and penetrating eyes that bore into her. She shivered and walked up her Leif, one of her assistants.

"So, Leif. What's the story today?" she bypassed the pleasantries and got right to business.

"Good morning to you to, Summers." he said sarcastically.

"Look, Leif, I wanna get through this day and get home. I'm really not in the mood for your little antics today, alright." she huffed and took off her jacket to reveal her adidas tank top and baggy sweatpants.

"Your the boss. We've got N-Sync rebooked for noon after they canceled their 9:00 am. And right now we've got Craig David, he called and said he'd be arriving in about 10 minutes and so we've got 5 minutes to relax." he updated her.

Buffy nodded and started stretching. "Trust me, Leif, in this business, there is no relaxing." she said. "I have to come up with another brilliant dance for N-Sync's new video and I have to deal with Craig David who always tried to feel me up. That is not relaxing in my book."

Then Buffy's other assistant, Willow Rosenberg rushed up to her. "Ms. Summers, your 9:00 is here." just then Craig walked through the door and smiled at her.

Buffy waved. "Hey Craig, how's it going." she greeted.

"Better now that your here." he said, and opened his arms to hug her. She quickly moved away and acted like she didn't notice.

"Okay. I've got most of the routine mapped out, I tried to work that one cross step in, but it didn't work out, so live with it. I have a few ideas for the dance break, but I want to run them by you." she went right into business to keep him from trying to hug her, or touch her at all, again.

"Awww, Buff, where's the love?" he said with a pout. Buffy ignored him. He turned to Leif. "Hey Leig how's it goin'." he greeted, then quickly moved away. Leif just made a face and left the dance room.

Buffy was busy looking through the CD's to find the copy of Craig David. Then she felt his hands around her waist. She rolled her eyes. "Craig, how many times have I told you. The answer is no." she tried to removed his hands from around her, but they wouldn't budge. "I'm serious Craig, let me go."

"You're suck a tease, Buff." he whispered into her ear, then backed off when she heard Willow come into the dance area again. "Hey Willow, what's goin on?"

Willow blushed and held her clipboard tightly to her chest. "It's going good." then she looked passed him to Buffy. "Ms. Summers. I found the CD you wanted." she handed the CD to her boss.

Buffy took it and smiled. "Thanks, Will." she popped the CD into the player and moved onto the dance floor. "let's get started Craig. You only booked 2 and a half hours today." she reminded him. She tried to ignore the fact that he was ogling her body and focused on doing her job, and that was teaching him the routine.

~*~

"Angel. Man, where have you been?" Doyle asked, obviously flustered about something.

"What's the problem now, Doyle." he asked.

"It's the dancers again, man. They hardly know that steps. Why don't you just hire a Choreographer and do this right for once and stop making us look like fools. We're 2 weeks behind schedule." Doyle rambled.

Angel cut him off. "Relax, Doyle. I'll take care of this." he promised then moved to the dance set. It was a green floor with a green backdrop. it was designed so they could super impose the dancers onto a moving train image. "Cordelia. Can you please tell me why these dancers don't know their job?" he yelled. this was where his headache started.

Cordelia rushed in and handed him his morning coffee. "Sir, Jay was working with them this morning and they seemed to know it fine, now they're lost." she filled him in.

"Great. Okay." he looked over at the dancers. "Ladies!" he got their attention. "How much of the routine do you know?" he asked. They all shrugged and some of them started the dance, then stopped where they got lost. "Okay, that's fine. Wesley!" he yelled.

The British assistant rushed in. "Yes sir." he said.

"Look through the phone book and find a choreographer soon as possible, let's get this done so we can all finish this damn video." he ordered. Then he sat in his chair and sipped the bitter liquid of his coffee. His mind drifted back to the sugar girl. That was the perfect image of the woman he had always wanted to be with. She was petit and she looked smart, and she was obviously very successful because she was living on the 16th floor, on the same floor as him. She was just ravishing. He chuckled at his used of words. His romantic side was coming out, it was a side he rarely used.

Wesley rushed up to him again. "Sir. I found one. It's called Summers Dance Studio. that ad looks promising. It's run by a woman by the name of Buffy Anne Summers. She comes highly recommended." he told his boss.

"Great. call her." he said. Putting his coffee down and picking up his loudspeaker. "Okay, let's move on to the hallway scene." he said into the loud speaker, then watched as the set people changed the set. Sometimes he loved his job, but most of the time, he despised it.

~*~

Angel was so glad when he stepped up to the lobby door of his apartment building. He unlocked the door and moved toward the elevator, pressing the up button. It took a couple of minutes, then it dinged and the doors opened. He stepped inside and pressed the 16th floor button. The doors started to close when he saw the sugar girl running to catch. "Wait!" she was shouting. Like the gentleman he was brought up to be, he pressed the 'open door's' button. She stepped into the elevator. "Thank you so much." she said.

"no problem." he replied. Damn, she smelled so good. She smelled like flowers or all kinds, and she just smelled like...home.

She discretely took a breath through her nose and breathed in his scent. It was such a deliciously masculine scent. His scent went right along with his appearance, he was the perfect image of the man that she had always wanted, and he was a gentleman. He was just so, damn, sexy.

*bang*

"What was that?" Buffy asked nervously. Her heart started to race even more when the lights flickered and the elevator screeched to a stop. There was silence, she waited for it to start up again. It didn't. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Dammit."

"Great." Angel grumbled. He pressed the 16th floor button again. Nothing. He was really looking forward to a nice cup of coffee and watching the late show before going to bed. But instead he was stuck an elevator, but whom he was stuck in the elevator with wasn't so bad. "It just figures."

"Bad day?" she asked.

"The worst." he replied.

"Tell me about it. Try having a thick headed recording artist trying to feel you up for 3 hours, then have 5 dumbass boy band guys star at your ass for 4 hours." she spilled to him. She didn't even know why she was telling him all this. Not like he cared.

Angel nodded. This whole elevator thing wasn't that bad after all. He could get to know the object of his fantasies better, and maybe even make those fantasies reality. "You in the music business?" he asked.

Buffy's feet were killing her, so she sat down against the wall of the small box elevator and took off her shoes. "I'm a dance choreographer for music videos, award shows, concerts, and movies." she told him.

Angel followed her actions and sat down too. "Really?" he asked. She nodded, starting to rub her left foot. He noticed and leaned forward, taking her right foot in his hands and began to massage it. "I'm a music video director." he said.

She barely heard him, she was too lost in the relaxing feeling of all the pain going away in her right foot. "Huh? oh, music video director. I got called today by a assistant music video director. Is that your assistant?" she asked lazily.

He nodded. "The dancers in the video are completely clueless. We needed your help." he replied. She smiled at him. He felt tingled rave through his body as he stared into her sparkling eyes. "So, your Buffy's Summers then?" he asked.

"Yup. that's me. And you are...?" she questioned. This felt like an interview. But then again, first dates are interviews...did she just think date. Was this a date?

"Angel McTagert." he introduced himself, smiling and motioning for her to give him her other foot. She did so. "Nice to meet you."

Oh boy, she thought, she was falling, and hard. "Yeah." she almost moaned out load when his fingers brushed that little hot spot she had in the arch of her left foot. She felt heat spread through her and she had an unbearable urge to kiss him. He seemed to far away, sitting on the opposite side of the elevator. Then she noticed that their eyes had been locked from a long time, so she averted hers and cleared her throat. "So, Mr. McTagert," she said in a deep interviewer voice, "Are you married?"

He chucked. "No, Ms. Summers. I'm not on that road at all. My last girlfriend dumped me for a new pair of shoes." he joked.

Buffy giggled. "Were they Prada?" she asked.

"I think so." he replied, putting on his killer half smile.

Buffy felt butterflies in her stomach at that sexy grin, she couldn't help but smile back. Then she closed her eyes and shuddered when his thumb brushed that spot again. No one knew about that special spot but her, and it was obvious that he knew now because he was purposefully brushing it now. "I guess you found my little secret." she observed.

He grinned and rubbed his thumb directly against it, chuckling when she whimpered. "What little secret?" he asked innocently, but the smirk gave him away. She gave him a look. He chuckled again. He felt like he had known this woman forever, and they were just hanging out together like it was just natural, damn he wanted to kiss her and...touch her... so badly. He wanted to feel that smooth skin under his fingertips.

"I know it's a weird spot to have one. Most women have them on their necks or behind their ears. But I got one on my foot." she said with a giggle.

"Are you sure your not just lucky? Maybe you have those and this one." he suggested, caressing that spot again.

She moaned softly, her body was flushed a bit from her racing heart and because that sexy hunk of a man was touching her hot spot. "Maybe." she considered. She felt like saying 'do you wanna find out' but didn't have the guts. She took a deep breath. "So when do you think they'll find us. Or are we gonna starve to death first?" she half joked.

"I'm not sure." he answered, switching to her other foot. "I don't know about you, but I'm in no real hurry to leave." he said, looking up at her with something in his eye she had never seen before. Was that adoration? Love?

She smiled sweetly. "I don't know how I could have lived down the hall from her for so long and never notice you." she said.

"Maybe we weren't supposed to meet until now." he suggested. She gave him a funny look. "I never used to believe in fate, but since I saw you standing in the door of your apartment, I had to reconsider that." he said cryptically.

Buffy was really intrigued now. "How do you mean?" she asked.

"Let's just say that I'm glad that I needed sugar that night." he said mysteriously.

She decided to just brush it aside for the time being. "Well, I've always believed in fate and destiny." she told him. "Everything has a purpose. I'm also a great palm reader." she told him.

"Oh really? And how does one go about getting a palm reading?" he baited her.

Buffy smiled and slipped her foot from his. She scooted over to him and sat crosslegged in front of him. "Okay, give me your hands." she held out hers. He obeyed and rested him hands on her, palms up. She looked down at them and studied the lines. She was more interested in the love line and, by the looks of it, he was an excellent lover. He had big hands too, and she loved big hands.

"So. What's my diagnosis doctor?" he asked in a teasing voice. She looked up and they both realized that they were close enough to kiss now.

Her stomach fluttered. "Too soon to tell. I have to gather some more data first." she answered. They were leaning in, closer....and closer...and closer. Then their lips touched and adrenaline rocketed through her body as it recognized it's mate. Her heart raced as he pulled her into his lap and the kiss deepened. She felt his tongue pleading entrance to her mouth, so she opened for him and let their tongues duel for dominance.

He knew that he was kissing a person whom he barely knew, but he it just felt so right to hold her and kiss her. Soon oxygen became and issue and they pulled away, both panting for air. He looked into her sparkling, hazel eyes and fell so deeply in love. He attempted to express his emotions to her as she gazed back at him, her face flushed, her arms wrapped loosely around his neck.

She felt it too, and saw a love in his eyes. A deeper love than she had ever witnessed and it was for her. Then she became aware of their suggestive position and began to move away. But he stopped her by wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. "Angel..." she began, but was cut off when his lips closed over hers again, she gave herself over to the intense, exquisitely new but tear jerkingly familiar, sensations.

~*~

Epiloque

Buffy and Angel were only trapped in the elevator for a hour, but in that hour they discovered more about themselves and each other. They fell in love so fast that they took a break from seeing each other, but it didn't last long. They couldn't stay away from each other. They started dating each other shortly after Buffy started working with him on his music video. They went out almost every night. Their love for each other grew and Angel asked Buffy to move in with him. After moving in together, they made love practically every night. Now they're engaged to be married, they have the date set for the 18th of August.

Once again it's a happily ever after for our favorite couple.

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