SEQUEL TO: One Year Of Love
AUTHOR: Tisienne Blue
E-MAIL: tisatko@msn.com
DISCLAIMER: I own nobody you know from TV. They are Joss', and David Greenwalt's. I own neither the title nor the lyrics; they belong to Johnny Clegg & Savuka.
RATING: maybe R-ish, cuz I'm taking a smut-break (FROM, not FOR...)
PAIRING: uhhh... if you don't know, then... you haven't been paying attention!!!
DISTRIBUTION: if I've said yes, then have at it; otherwise, just ask!!!
FEEDBACK: please.
DEDICATIONS: to: Susie, Di, Nutty, Mystie, SusiSnail, Natty, and Ali... thanks for the feedback, luvs!!!
NOTES: Okay, those of you who have been reading this know what happened in the last part. If you HAVEN'T been reading this, then why haven't you deleted by now??? *teehee* Okay, well... long story short??? Angel and sweet Will were together, but he fucked up and said something stupid... she left... came back for a forgotten computer disk... she left again... he found her and said he was sorry... they had the sex... and now it's a few days later at Willow's house just outside San Francisco. Oh, and * *= emphasis, while // // encloses lyrics, and ( ) within // //= translation of the South African tongue that part of the lyrics are in.
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He woke slowly but surely, happily surrounded by her scent, and frowned only for a moment when he realized that he was alone in her bed once again. He didn't particularly like the sensation, but... he supposed he understood in a way... After all, they hadn't really talked about what he'd said yet... hadn't really talked at *all*!
He thought that he should probably be a bit more worried about that than he actually was, but... how could he be? He was in her house, in her *bed*, and... she was sharing herself with him, letting him touch her again, and... he refused to let worry interfere with his enjoyment of their time together.
None the less, he was aware that this glorious idyll couldn't go on forever, and that the time was fast approaching when he'd actually have to *explain*, and... regardless of anything else, he wasn't looking forward to it.
He sighed softly and rolled onto his back, listening to her steady heartbeat out on the balcony. He'd lost himself to her the very moment she'd re-entered his life, and had been lost once more when she'd left him... He wouldn't let in happen again, not now that she'd taken him back into her heart... he *couldn't*!
// One day I looked up, and there you were...
Like a simple question looking for an answer...
Now I am a whale listening to some inner call...
Swimming blindly to throw myself upon your shores... //
He sighed again, and rolled from the bed before pulling on the sweat pants he'd worn sporadically for the last three days, and wandered down the stairs for some coffee before returning to the bedroom and standing just inside the balcony doors, marveling-- yet again-- at the sight of her in the bright sunlight just beyond the slightly overhanging eaves. He'd never thought to see her that way, but... ever since the first morning he'd woken here with her, it had become a sight he longed for... needed... and he made a point of watching her lit by the same rays that would have killed *him*, every day.
He loved her. He'd known it for what felt like ages, now. And he thought that she loved *him*! But she'd left, without even a word. She'd waited until he was out for the night, and... she'd packed up her things and just... *gone*, and... he found that he could only *hope* that he acceptance of him in her bed indicated an acceptance of his apology, because... he didn't know what he'd do if he lost her again.
// But what if I don't find you,
When I have landed...
Would you leave me here to die,
On your shores stranded? //
He stood there for a moment more, glorying in her sun-lit beauty, before the tears in his eyes-- just from the sight of her like that, when he could never share that heat and glow with her-- drove him to turn away. *She* was his sun, but he didn't think she realized it fully. It didn't change things, though...
There had been a time when he'd stared obsessively at photos and films of suns... rising, setting, or just... *shining*, but... all that had stopped on the day she'd walked into his hotel and asked if he had room for one more, because... Sol, that bright star in their solar system, would never shine as brightly, or be as warm, as *she* was. And still, she looked... indescribable in the light of that same dying star, and just being able to see her that way... was enough.
// I think I know why the dog howls at the moon...
I think I know why the dog howls at the moon...
I say: Dela! Dela! Ngiyadela
(Content! Content! I am content)
When I am with you...
Dela! Sondela, mama
(Closer, closer, come closer, mama)
Sondela! I burn for you... //
He frequently found himself crying silent tears these days, mostly because he'd spent so many years feeling so alone and cold inside... Even when he'd first been turned, the demon had known there was something missing. Maybe that was why they'd been such a fucking bastard to everyone around them, he wasn't sure. The only thing he *was* sure of was that...
The moment she'd allowed him to see that she cared for him more than he'd ever dreamed possible, that was when he knew... There would never be anyone else for him... never *had* been if the truth were known, not *really*. There had been one or two mistakes on his part, the last one of which she knew about-- when he'd mistaken a desire to help and make a difference and protect... for*love*-- but he'd learned better and moved past that. Then she'd come back into his life, with her shining red hair and glowing jade green eyes, and he'd discovered what he'd never really admitted to himself before.
'Soulmates' wasn't just a word, or a fatuous way of saying that you cared for someone... oh, no, every once in a while, it was a statement of *fact*, and she was*his*! Of course, then he'd gone and fucked it up.
Well, he snarled to himself-- soul and demon alike-- she'd let him back in, and there was no *way* he was going to do *anything* to make he unhappy, ever again!
If she'd let him, he'd make her his *world*.
// I've been waiting for you all my life--
Waiting for a miracle...
I've been waiting day and night--
Waiting for redemption...
I've been waiting day and night--
I burn for you... //
He sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his forgotten mug of coffee on the night stand before scrubbing at his eyes with his fingers. He knew her patterns now, after just three days, and when she came back inside in a few minutes, he didn't want her to know that he'd been crying.
That was, after all, what had gotten him through the last months without her. The knowledge that if he just hid away in the dark, bemoaning his suddenly 'single' status, she would have been thoroughly disappointed in him. And even so, he'd spent more time than he'd ever admit just... sitting in the dark, staring wistfully at the photograph of them at David Nabbit's last 'party'.
There was so much he wanted to *tell* her; so much he wanted-- needed-- to explain! And yet, she'd just taken him back, and he was... afraid. What if he said the wrong thing? What if, instead of drawing her closer, he only drove her away again?
// A blind bird sings..
Inside the cage that is my heart...
And the image of your face comes to me
When I'm alone in the dark...
If I could give a shape...
To this ache that I have for you...
If I could find the voice that says
The words that capture you... //
He sighed again, finally raising his head, and when he opened his eyes, he found his own brown gaze trapped by the green one of the girl crouched before him. "Willow..." he said softly, not sure of how to explain his own fears and regrets.
"Hush..." she said softly, knowing the time had come. "It's alright, Angel..." She smiled slightly, trying to hide the fact that her heart was breaking once again. "I knew you couldn't stay long..."
He knew his eyes were wide. He knew they were swiftly turning to gold. He knew that if he had a reflection-- and a mirror handy-- he would have seen a look of rage and betrayal on his own face that would probably have shocked even *him*, and... he didn't care about any of those things. She was telling him to *leave*! She was telling him to leave *her*, when that was something he would *never* do, not even if she *begged* him to! And the next thing he knew, he'd flung himself from the bed, and was pressing her smallish form hard against the floorboards, and his sharp, wicked fangs were deep in her throat, and...
She was quivering beneath him, and only the *smallest* part of it was from fear, because... she'd known what he was before she'd ever even *considered* being with him, and... in all the time they *had* been together, he'd never bitten her even once. It was something she'd wanted, though... something that would have proven his feelings more than *words* ever could, and... He was doing it *now*, and it felt almost sublime. She relaxed beneath him, he head tilted as far to the side as was possible for her in that position, and her hand moved to his side, then up his back, and finally came to rest at the nape of his neck, her fingers wrapped gently in his short dark hair as she sighed "Angel..."
He pulled back from her for a moment then, his tongue lapping delicately at the large, open wound he'd given her, and when her blood stopped flowing so freely, he pulled back even farther, his golden orbs shifting to brown as he met her green gaze. "Willow, I..." he began, intending to apologize. But then he saw the complete acceptance and love she was letting show, and he changed his mind. "Be mine...?" he asked, ignoring the fact that he should have asked before even *starting* to claim her, and when she nodded, a soft smile on her face, he rolled onto his back, pulling her above him as he sliced his own neck shallowly with one manicured nail. "Drink, my love," he sighed quietly, still holding her eyes with his, "Drink and be *mine*, just as I'm yours..."
Her eyes closed as she lowered her lips to the small gash in his throat, and she licked tentatively at the sluggishly seeping wound. Then she heard his deep moan, and fastened her lips hard on the slight scratch, sucking at it for all she was worth. They still had to talk, and he needed to give her some answers, but... she loved him, and this little ritual they were enacting didn't really change anything, anyway. After all, she had *always* been his... even before either of them had known it.
His eyes were closed, and a huge smile was plastered to his lips, but... he didn't care. This was how they were *meant* to be, and finally, finally... he was whole... *complete*... He'd worry about making her his Mate later. For now, she was his claimed, and that was *more* than enough... for *now*.
// I think I know... I think I know...
I think I know why the dog howls at the moon...
I say: Dela! Dela! Ngiyadela
( Content! Content! I am content)
When I am with you...
Dela! Sondela, mama
( Closer, closer, come closer, mama)
Sondela! I burn for you...
I've been waiting for you all my life--
Waiting for a miracle...
I've been waiting day and night-- Day and night!
I've been waiting all my life--
Waiting for redemption...
I've been waiting day and night, I burn for you! //
End.