Authors: Amy Mina, LightLes
Willow sighed as she climbed into the motel bed. <Home!> she thought, wearily but happily, <I'm going home!> She had been Cedarville, Ohio for almost two months and, much as she liked the little town, she was anxious to get back to Sunnydale. She had been able to peek in on Angelus occasionally and knew that he was on his way back to the Hellmouth. Plus, she had less than two weeks until she was supposed to arrive at Erikson College for Freshman Orientation. One way or another, things had to be settled by then.
"Will?" Buffy came out of the bathroom clad only in a towel. Willow smiled at her friend and rejoiced, once again, in the fact that her friend was emancipated. She and Giles had discovered some major errors in the work done by the police and an under-the-table deal had been made. As far as the rest of the world knew, Buffy Summers was still in jail. However, Anne Gideon (a name made up of Buffy's middle name and her mother's maiden name) was a free woman. Willow thought that the new name actually suited the young woman who she had come to know over the last few weeks. For this woman was not the Buffy Summers that Willow had come to admire and love during her sophomore and junior years of high school. Anne was much tougher and angrier than Buffy had been. She lacked Buffy's flexibility and ability to laugh at herself and the world around her and she was all business. Still, Willow liked her and envied her assertiveness and take-charge attitude. It had taken a while for all the arrangements to be made, so Willow had been forced to fend for herself until the Slayer was finally released.
"Yes, Anne?" Buffy had asked to be called Anne, in keeping with her new life.
"I need to talk to Angel."
"Sure thing." Willow nudged the part of her that was Angel. "Do you want me to disconnect?"
*Please.* When Angel and Buffy had started talking again, he had asked Willow if she minded detaching her soul from her senses to offer them a modicum of privacy. Willow had reluctantly agreed, and was surprised to find that it grew easier each time she did it. She prepared to hand control over to Angel, then had a thought.
"No hanky panky." she said mock-sternly. This was the first time that Angel and Anne were going to talk without a glass wall between them or the presence of guards. She trusted both of them, but Anne was still only clad in the towel....
*Don't worry.* Angel said. *I'll behave myself.*
"Oh good." Willow giggled as she suddenly remembered the last time they'd recited those particular lives. Her reverie was interrupted by Anne's impatient cough and she meekly turned her body over to Angel's control.
****
As Willow floated in the void that was total and complete sensory deprivation, she idly began to wonder what Anne and Angel were talking about. She quickly tried to distract herself from that thought, since it would inevitably lead to others that were far more painful. During the past two and a half months that she had shared her body with him, Willow had come to care very deeply for the vampire. At first, she had passed her feelings off as a result of the forced "quality time" they had shared, but had soon come to realize that this was not the case. She was pie-eyed, head over heels, to the moon in love with the man.
While in Ohio, most of her time had been spent with only Angel as company. Giles had come with her, initially, but had left after a week to supervise the effort to get Buffy out and to make the necessary preparations for Angelus' arrival in Sunnydale. Willow was only allowed to visit Buffy three times a week, which left her with a lot of free time on her hand. She had introduced Angel to the wonders of the internet, and they had spent a good deal of time picking through the treasures in Cedarville's used bookshop. They had taken in several movies and gone to the park almost every day. Still, most of their time was spent talking. She felt closer to him than to anyone else and she knew she would sorely miss his presence in her life
She knew he didn't feel the same way....in the same way she had always known that Xander could never love her the way she had loved him a couple of years ago and that Oz's feeling had never run as deeply as he claimed. Angel was still in love with Buffy, she was sure, and was probably telling her so right now. Neither Angel nor Anne told Willow what they discussed during their "private" conversations, but Willow could guess. Finding that she was, once again, treading down the well-worn path of sorrow and self-pity, Willow forcibly steered her thoughts in another direction. She decided to concentrate on the inevitable fight to come and on her secret plan to put Angel's soul back into his body.
Once again, Willow was glad that Angel couldn't read her thoughts anymore. If he knew what she was planning, he would certainly try to prevent it, which would probably mean the death of all of them. If her plan succeeded, Angel would have his body back and he and Buffy could be together, and if it didn't......Willow shied away from that thought instinctively. She instead thought about how lucky she was that in his various and sundry explorations of her mind, Angel had stayed away from her knowledge of the occult. Everything hinged on one small little factoid she had gleamed from one of Giles' books while doing research on a completely different subject. If Angel discovered that she had the knowledge and made the same intuitive leap she had–or chose to share the information with Giles–all would be lost. Willow ran over the procedure in her mind over and over again, making sure that she would be ready when the time came. She did this, until the mental nudge came telling her that Angel and Anne were finished talking.
*****
The plane landed shortly before noon. Willow and Anne walked off with the rest of the passengers and were met by a smiling crowd of people. Willow stood off to one side as Buffy's mother hugged her and cried, while Xander, Cordelia, Giles, and Oz all swarmed around her talking at once. In fact, they were all so busy welcoming Buffy home that they started to walk off without acknowledging Willow's presence. She squawked incoherently at this outrage and was rewarded with a sheepish look from Giles.
"Willow....ah, sorry." he stammered.
"Nice to see you too, Giles." she growled "I'm very glad to be home, thanks for asking."
"Yes....well, welcome." He regained enough of his composure to offer to carry her bag, which mollified Willow somewhat, but certainly excuse the behavior of the others who had completely ignored her presence.
*Poor baby.* Angel teased.
"Don't start." she warned. Giles looked at her askance for a minute, before he remembered.
"Ah yes. And how is Angel?"
"He's fine." she answered. "How are things here?" The minute she saw his expression, she knew that the news wasn't going to be good. "What happened?"
"Angelus came back last week." Giles sighed, talking quietly so as not to be overheard by the others. "If I had to make a guess, I'd say he was on some sort of strict diet after getting out of Hell, and is making up for lost time."
"Oh no." Willow moaned softly. "Anyone I know?"
"No." Willow was relieved, but at the same time felt guilty for her sentiments.
"So when do we hunt?" she asked, ready to get back to business.
"As soon as possible. We'll give Buffy....I mean Anne....a few days to get back into the swing of things and then...." his voice trailed off.
"Right then." Willow said, as they reached the parking lot. "We've got a lot of work to do and not much time, so let's get started."
*******
"Willow?" Giles walked in to find his protégée dozing over her keyboard, as he had so many times before. She started and smiled at him.
"I'm sorry, I was just....."
"Resting your eyelids." he chuckled. "It's all right. Listen, I need to speak with Angel for a moment, if you don't mind."
"Oh. Okay." Willow obediently closed her eyes for a moment, and when they opened again, Giles knew that he was talking to a 240 some-odd year old vampire, rather than an 18 year old student.
"Rupert?" Willow's eyebrow raised quizzically and Giles marveled at how much the slender hacker resembled Angel at that moment.
"I feel I owe you an apology." The Watcher stated baldly. Angel was taken aback by this announcement.
"For what?"
"I...I believe I've treated you unfairly. I've blamed you for Angelus' actions and, over the past week, it has become abundantly clear that you were not and are not responsible for what he did."
*Told you so!* Willow crowed. Angel ignored at her and stared at the man who had held him responsible for a good number of the troubles that had plagued his charges over the past three years.
"What?" Angel was frankly flabbergasted at Giles' sudden shift in attitude.
"Well, it's fairly obvious that you couldn't have caused all the mayhem that's been happening around here since Angelus got back." Giles smiled wanly. "After all, you were on the other side of the continent, right?"
"Yes." Angel nodded weakly.
"So, I can't reasonably blame you for what's happening now....or for what happened last year, can I?"
"I....no." Willow had been trying to tell him the same thing for months, but he hadn't wanted to believe it. Willow had always been his champion and he'd always assumed that her statements were more partisanship than actual fact. Coming from Giles–a man who, until very recently, had blamed him for the death of his love–the argument made a much larger impact.
"I just wanted to tell you that and tell you that I will do everything I can to help you get back in your own body." Giles smiled, then went back to his office. Meanwhile, Willow did a mental dance for joy.
*****
"Show time." Xander said. They were all there–Xander, Cordelia, Oz, Giles, Anne, and Willow/Angel. Angel was in control of Willow's body, but was contriving to look as much like Willow as possible. He was their secret weapon. They had all agreed that Angel was a far superior fighter, but that it wouldn't do to reveal his presence until the right time.
"You couldn't think of anything more original?" Cordelia joked, nervously.
"I don't do well under pressure, honey." he whined. "You know that."
"I certainly do." she muttered, casting a look at Willow that made her snicker inside. They were all in the park, waiting for Angelus' inevitable arrival. Word had spread that the Slayer was back in town and everyone knew that Angelus would have to defeat her before he could truly be the ruler of Sunnydale.
"Well, well, well." He stepped out of the shadows, not even making an effort to sneak up on them. "Look who's back. Enjoy your time in the slammer, Princess?"
"Enjoy your time in Hell?" Xander's voice was overly loud.
"I did, actually." Angelus sat down on a headstone, as if he was carrying on a normal conversation. Willow could see the movement in the trees and knew that the others recognized the presence of the other vampires. "It's fun when you're a demon. So many people to torture, so little time and all that."
"So why'd you come back?" Cordelia asked. She wasn't really curious, she was just trying to stall until they had a better idea of what sized army they were dealing with. From the looks of things, Angelus was being overconfident. There were only about six other vampires in the area.
"Because I missed you all so very, very much." Angelus sneered. He made a gesture and the vampire army–what there was of it, anyway–came rushing out. The first three were easily dispatched by crossbows, leaving three more, plus Angelus, who had yet to move from his seat. Anne staked one, without any of her usual witticisms or acrobatics. Neat, clean, and yet somehow passionless. Xander grabbed a second and held him, while Cordy staked him. Giles easily doused the third with holy water.
"I'm disappointed." Xander panted when the last was gone. "Is that the best you can do?"
"Well, you know it's so hard to find good help these days." Angelus sighed melodramatically, then lunged for Xander. Xander easily avoided him, but grabbed his arm as he passed by. Giles grabbed the others.
*Hold him!* Willow yelled, and Angel passed her message along. *Angel, be ready to go on my signal.* she ordered.
"What are you talking about? Go where?"
*Back into your body.* Without another word, Willow separated her soul from her body and flung herself into Angelus. That had been her plan all along. Once she had learned how to disconnect her soul from her bodily senses, she had set about figuring out a way to separate her soul from her body. The connection between her soul and body was much stronger than Angel's, and would act like a rubber band. She could only go out so far, then she would snap back. She had then recalled an obscure passage having to do with expelling demons from mortal beings.....
Willow's soul slammed into Angelus with such force that she literally went through him, carrying the demon right along with her.
*Now!* she screamed as her soul began to race back towards her own body, but it was unnecessary. Once the demon was out of his body, Angel's soul felt impelled to return to its natural home. Meanwhile, the demon had run into Anne Gideon and her trusty stakes, knives, and other assorted weaponry. Anne hadn't been expecting to fight anything other than vampires, but made short work of it all the same. In an instant it was over. The demon exploded in a flash of light.
"Where the Hell did that come from?" Xander yelled.
"Me." The voice was strained and appeared to be gasping for air. It took them all a moment to realize that the voice was coming from Angelus. Xander instinctively raised a stake, but Giles stopped him.
"Wait." He knelt by the vampire, who was struggling to take in a lungful of air. "Angel?" The vampire merely nodded, since was too busy taking a crash course in the use of his lungs to talk. Giles instantly noticed the problem. "Slowly. Breathe slowly." he instructed. "In. Out. In. Out." Finally, Angel got the breathing thing down and looked up at the faces around him.
"Where's Willow?" he asked, his voice still hoarse. Giles began to panic, then saw her lying on the ground nearby. He rushed over to her, followed quickly by Angel, and felt for a pulse. To his relief he found one, although it was very weak.
"She's alive." he said. "What happened?"
"She did it." Angel said, his voice filled with awe. "She got rid of the demon."
"But how?" Anne stood behind them, scanning the horizon for more vamps.
"I think that the questions can wait until we get indoors, don't you?" Giles removed his coat and wrapped it around the unconscious hacker. He carefully picked her up and began to walk towards his car. Angel stayed right beside him the entire way.
"Is she going to be all right?" he asked, anxiously.
"I don't know." Giles answered. "I honestly don't know."
End Part 5
"Xander! Xander, you are going to die!" Xander tried to run, but tripped over Ira Rosenberg's brand new sprinkler system and fell flat on his face. In a moment, Willow was beside him, knee pressed firmly into his spine. She looked up, spotted Cordelia and grinned evilly.
"Cordy, would you do me a favor?" She gestured to something near Cordelia's feet. The brunette grinned and handed it to her. Hiding her new toy behind her back, Willow flipped Xander onto his back and straddled his chest.
"Uh....hi, Will." Xander chuckled weakly. "I guess I shouldn't have tried the mud thing again, huh?" Willow smirked. <At least some things don't change....> she thought happily. It had been four months since that final fight in the graveyard. Willow had been unconscious for a week, but upon awakening, had been assured that Angelus was gone for good. She still didn't remember anything that had happened, and no one seemed particularly anxious to fill in the blank spots. Her last week at home had been spent packing frantically and spending quality time with her parents (who had never learned about their daughter's "extracurricular" activities or that she had actually possessed two souls for several months). Willow hadn't really had a chance to say goodbye to her friends, and hadn't even seen Angel before she left. Giles had assured her that Angel was well, and subsequent correspondence via snail- mail (like the Watcher, Angel refused to communicate electronically) had proved this.
Buffy (a.k.a Anne Gideon) had left Sunnydale soon after Angelus had been defeated, and Willow hadn't heard from her. Mrs. Summers still kept in touch, though, and said that Buffy had started a new life in Seattle. The Hellmouth had been relatively quiet lately, and she was close enough to come home in a pinch. Willow had been shocked when, in his letter, Angel had admitted that he and Buffy had never rekindled their romance after his return from Hell. While his soul was still in Willow's body, he had attempted to help the Slayer heal her broken spirit, but had always known that any further relationship between them was impossible. Willow had been genuinely sorry at this news. Although her love for Angel had not died–had, in fact, grown stronger over the past few months–it saddened her to know that such a beautiful love story had ended so tragically. As for Willow herself, she had gone off to college and had recently completed the first semester of her freshman year. She had been back in town a whopping total of an hour, before Xander pulled the mud trick on her.
"Uh, Will?" Xander's voice brought her back to the here-and-now.
"Yes?" she purred, stroking his cheek with one finger.
"What do you have behind your back?" Xander attempted to turn his head, but she held him firm.
"A present." Willow giggled and then, in one swift movement, brought the nozzle of the hose up so that it was inches away from his face and squeezed the trigger. Xander spluttered as he was hit by the jets of water and rolled. Willow easily slipped off of him and stood up. She continued to spray Xander, but was thrown off balance when he grabbed her around her knees and pulled. A wrestling match followed, with Cordelia getting in on the act, and the three were soon soaking wet and covered with mud. Finally, they stopped, and Willow lay back on the grass, laughing and gasping for air.
"Good to have you home, Will." Xander panted as he helped Cordelia stand. "Messy, but good."
"I'm going home to change." Cordelia stated. "Will we see you at the Bronze tonight?"
"Sure, why not?" Willow said as she picked herself up off the ground.
"But what about A...ow!" Xander yelped as his girlfriend punched him in the arm. She gave him a "look" and he shut his mouth hastily.
"Great! See you there!" Cordelia said quickly, then dragged Xander towards her car.
<Wonder what that was about.> Willow mused idly as she entered her house. Her parents were not due back from Phoenix until tomorrow, so she had the place all to herself. Willow bounded into her bedroom, grabbed some clean clothes and headed straight for the shower. When she came out of the bathroom a half hour later, she was dressed in clean jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair, which had grown long again, hung in front of her like a curtain. Willow felt her way to her chair and picked her brush up off her dresser. When she was done, she turned towards her mirror, pushed her auburn tresses out of her eyes and shrieked.
"I take it you're surprised to see me." The voice hadn't changed a bit. Willow gingerly touched the mirror's surface, running her fingertips lightly over the faces reflected in the glass.
"This is impossible." she murmured.
"Oh, come on, Will. This is the Hellmouth. Nothing's impossible." He was chuckling.
"But....but Giles said you were back in your body.....there were all those letters....." Willow wanted to cry in frustration, but chose instead to let loose a volley of curse words. Angel's eyes widened at her vocabulary, then he realized what she was thinking. Gently, he placed his hands on the back of her chair and turned her around. Leaning forward, so his face was at her level, he placed his finger under her chin and raised her head until she was looking directly into his eyes.
"Willow, it's me. Angel. Body and soul." She stared at him. Slowly, several facts worked their way into her brain. Angel was real...not a hallucination, and not merely a projection of his soul in her body. He was standing in her bedroom. He was directly in front of her French doors which weren't covered.....and he had a tan. The numbers began to add up in her head, but the answer made absolutely no sense.
"But.....you.......Angel, you're standing in sunlight!" she finally blurted out.
"Your perceptiveness never ceases to amaze me." he laughed as he sat on the edge of her bed. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he removed something and, keeping his fist closed, held it in front of her eyes. He teasingly uncurled his fingers, one by one, until Willow could see what lay in his palm. She gasped and slowly picked up the small silver cross. Holding his hand in hers, she examined his palm for any marks, but found none. She ran her fingers up to the pulse point on his wrist and felt the steady beat of blood flowing through his veins. Only then did she realize that his skin was no longer strangely cool.
"I don't have any holy water handy, but if you like I can go get some...." Willow merely glared at him, then could no longer contain her smile of joy. Whooping, she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. Laughing and crying at the same time, she held on to him for a solid five minutes. Angel finally tried to pry her fingers loose, with little success.
"Will.....Willow, I have to breathe!" he managed to choke out.
"What?" she said, letting go. "Oh! Sorry. I forgot about that part, I guess this is going to take some getting used to. What happened? When? How? Why? Why didn't you *tell* me?" Angel raised his hand to still her barrage of questions.
"I thought you already knew. Didn't the others tell you what happened?"
"No!" She sat back in her chair and simply stared at him for a few minutes. "All anyone said was that you were all right and that Angelus was gone. They never said anything about you being.....well.....what *are* you?"
"I'm a real boy!" he pronounced. "I'm an honest-to-God, flesh and blood, daylight walking, food eating, air breathing human!" At that moment, Willow wished more than anything that she had a camera so that she could capture the expression on Angel's face.
"Wow!" was the only thing she could think of to say.
"Yeah." he grinned. "It is pretty amazing, isn't it?"
"That's the understatement of the century. But how did it happen? I mean, I remember you talking to Giles and...and going to the graveyard....and Angelus showing up.....then nothing." Willow's brow creased in bafflement.
"There was a fight." Angel said, in a serious voice. "We managed to dust off Angelus' army–what there was of it anyway–then Angelus made a grab for Xander. My memories are kind of fuzzy at this point, but I do remember you telling me to be ready to go and then......Willow, I was in control of your body and I felt you *leave*. Why did you do that?"
It took Willow a moment to realize what he was talking about. "Oh! I think I'm beginning to understand." She stood up and began to pace as she talked. "I read somewhere that once a demon enters a host body, it doesn't like to share living quarters. That's why vampires lose their souls, right?"
"Right."
"Well, the only way a soul can enter a body that houses a demon is if the demon is distracted. Kind of like a sneak attack. That's what the Rom curse was, you know, a sneak attack. The demon wasn't expecting it, so your soul was able to re-enter your body." Willow's eyes widened in astonishment. "That's probably why the spell went all screwy the second time! Think about it. The demon knew the warning signs, so was able to prevent your soul from re-entering your body!"
"That doesn't explain why my soul ended up in your body, though....or how I got my life back." As usual, Angel was unable to follow Willow's leaps of intuition.
She thought for a minute. "If I had to guess, I'd say that you ended up in my body because we were somehow connected during the spell. As for what happened during the final fight, I was *trying* to....I don't know.....do the metaphysical equivalent of a body slam. I wanted to distract the demon long enough for the natural connection between your body and soul to kick in and pull you back to your rightful home. I take it that's not exactly how it happened?"
"No." he chuckled. "From what I understand, you were so forceful that you managed to push the demon out of me completely. Buffy–I mean Anne–killed it. I don't remember that part. All I remember is feeling you leave, then this really strong pulling sensation, then....all of a sudden, I was lying on the ground and I could see you, and I had this incredible need to breathe."
"Wow." she grinned at him. "I wish I could have been there to see it....I mean, I know I was there, but...."
"I understand. I wish you could have been there, too. It was quite a sight....Particularly the expression on Xander's face when he figured out what was happening."
"I can't believe they didn't tell me." she murmured, coming to stand in front of him. He spread his knees, allowing her to come closer. She lightly placed her hand on his shoulder, and simply enjoyed looking at Angel's face–the cheekbones subtly highlighted by the sun's rays and the eyes no longer hidden in shadow.
"I guess they wanted it to be a surprise."
"Remind me to thank them properly." she said, using her most sarcastic voice.
Angel smiled wickedly. "Can I help?"
Willow snickered. "What did you have in mind?"
"Well...." he pretended to give the matter some thought "we could tell Xander that we were lovers." Willow laughed out loud at this, but Angel didn't miss the slight flash of pain in her eyes.
"I don't think so." she said.
"Why not?"
"He'd never buy it." There was no mistaking the sad look that passed across Willow's features at that moment.
"He will because it'll be true.." Angel said as he lightly began to stroke Willow's cheek with his fingertips. She tried to back away, but discovered he had effectively confined her legs with his knees. Finally, she grasped his wrist and pulled his hand away.
"Please don't joke about this." she said, hoping he would drop the subject.
"I'm being completely serious." He easily pulled his hand from her grasp and placed his palm on her cheek.
"Angel..." she managed to choke out past the quickly expanding lump in her throat.
"Did I ever tell you that you never really quite got the hang of your mental shields?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, apprehensively.
Angel spoke very gently. "I mean that, no matter how hard you tried to hide them from me, I was pretty much aware of what you were feeling most of the time." Willow moaned softly as the implications of his words sank in. She tried to move, but Angel's knees held her in place. All she could do was jerk her head away from his palm. He lowered his hand to her arm to hold her steady. He watched as her expression changed from dismay to something that could best be described as determined resignation.
"All right." she said, through a clenched jaw. "Let's get this over with."
Angel was confused. "What?"
"Well isn't this the part where you tell me that I'm a really special person and that there's some guy out there who's going to be really lucky to snag me?" Angel flinched at the bitterness in her voice. "Just please don't say anything about how you still want to ‘be friends'." Willow tried, but couldn't keep her voice from quivering.
"I won't." he said. "I don't want to be your friend."
"What?" It was Willow's turn to be bewildered.
"I want more. Much more."
"More? What are you talking about?"
"This." He cupped her face in his palms and pulled her down for a kiss. For the briefest of seconds, he felt her respond, then she braced her hands on his shoulders and pushed away. In her eyes, Angel could see fear warring with hope.
"Angel..." she whispered, but he placed his fingers over her mouth to silence her.
"Listen to me, Willow." He spoke calmly and clearly. "Last time we were together, you trusted me with your body and mind....even your life. Now, I'm asking you to trust me with your heart. I don't know how or when it happened, but somewhere in the past seven months I fell in love with a beautiful, incredibly intelligent, compassionate, loving woman who, for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, loves me back. I do love you, Willow. You have to believe me."
Willow was openly weeping. "This is all some dream, isn't it?" she asked quietly. "Any minute now, I'm going to wake up and....and....this will all go away, won't it?"
"No." He reached up and began to wipe the tears from her face. He felt her hand come to rest on his, but was surprised when she made no effort to pull him away. He turned his wrist until her fingers rested in his palm. Slowly, he brought her hand to his lips. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the softness of her skin and the way she trembled ever so slightly under his kisses. When he looked up at her again, her tears had stopped and her eyes were shining brightly. He pulled her down for another kiss, and this time she only pulled away when the awkward position began to put a strain on her back muscles.
"I love you, Angel." Her voice was so soft that he almost didn't hear her.
"I love you too, Willow." he said, before kissing her again.
*****
"Do you think she's seen him yet?" Xander asked casually, as he brought Cordelia her drink.
"I think Giles told him she was coming in today, so I'll bet he stopped by." she said.
"Did you remember to tell him that we never told Willow about....you know." Xander winked in an exaggerated fashion. Cordelia gasped and smacked her forehead in a very un-cheerleader-esque movement.
"I completely forgot!" she groaned. "Poor Willow, she's not going to know what's going on. Why didn't you tell him?"
" Cordy, you know I try to be around Angel as little as possible. Relax, maybe Giles told him." Xander reassured her. "Besides, there's not much we can do about it now, unless he hasn't been by to see her yet." He was facing Cordelia, and therefore did not see Willow and Angel enter the club. Cordelia, however, did see them.
"She knows." she smiled, and waved her arm to get their attention. Xander turned around and saw them.
"What did she bring *him* for?"
"Well, *duh*. He's her friend." Cordelia moved over to make room for the new arrivals. "Hi guys!"
"Hey!" Willow sat down and gestured to Angel to take a seat.
"I'm going to get something to drink." the ex-vampire said. "Willow, do you want anything?"
"Just a Coke, thanks." she smiled at him. He leaned down, kissed her, and walked off. Willow and Cordelia then spent the next two minutes tending to Xander who had, unfortunately, been drinking soda at that moment and was having a merry time getting it to go down the right pipe.
"He *kissed* you." Xander wheezed, when he was finally able to talk again.
"Yeah, isn't it great?" Willow's smile could have lit up a room. Cordy squealed in delight and immediately began to plague Willow for all the juicy details.
"You let him *kiss* you?" Xander was having a great deal of trouble erasing the image from his head.
"We covered that already, Xander." Cordelia said impatiently. Just then, Angel came back to the table. He handed Willow her soda, sat down, and casually slung his arm over her shoulder. Willow moved her chair to be closer to her.
"You *kissed* her." Xander spluttered, not knowing whether to hit Angel, run screaming from the club, or both.
"Xander's having a bit of trouble with the kissing thing." Willow explained, amusement in her voice.
"Get used to it, Harris." Angel smiled and mockingly saluted Xander with his drink. "I intend to do it quite often." He then proved this point by kissing Willow again. Xander continued to splutter, but they ignored him, preferring to be in their own little world. Their hands were entwined on top of the table, which made Cordelia smile and Xander scowl.
"Isn't it sweet?" Cordy whispered into her boyfriend's ear.
"Hardly." he scoffed. "What does she see in him?" What Willow saw, at that moment, was Angel's eyes. They shone with love and trust and, she knew, were reflections of her own.
THE END