Angel sighed and focused on the patterns of footprints in the carpet and the muted sounds of Willow moving about in the kitchen. The vampire felt uncomfortably out of place in Willow's cozy living room. He didn't belong, sitting on edge in a plush lazy-boy, surrounded by pictures of Willow, Oz, and their children. Hesitantly, he reached out to brush his fingers along the surface of an older picture. Xander and Willow, full of youth and happiness...and with them...the last person who'd made him feel welcome. The only one, really...his love, his Slayer. She was so damned alive...

So innocent.

He hadn't wanted to come, but Willow had been insistant.

Interrupting Angel's dark thoughts, Willow frolicked happily into the room and placed a bowl of suspicious-looking green...stuff...into Angel's hand. The spoon that had been stuck into it slid around the edge of the bowl and bounced against his thumb.

Angel regarded the substance dispassionately for a moment, watching a globule of chunky ooze slide into the think pool in the bottom of the dish. "What is it?"

Willow scooped a generous helping from her own dish toward her mouth. "Ice Cream." To Angel's horror, she popped the spoon into her mouth and licked it clean. "Mmmm. Try it Angel. You'll like it."

"Are you sure it's safe?" Angel asked warily, lifting his spoon out of the sludgy depths. A foamy-looking glob fell back into the bowl, and the vampire winced. The smell coming off of the stuff was enough to make even his teeth ache.

"Of course it's safe, silly", Willow chirped, batting him lightly on the shoulder. The vampire jerked back and stared at her in shock. Willow's bright smile faded and she sat back with a sigh. "Angel..."

"I'm sorry", Angel interupted quickly, shaking his head. "I shouldn't have come." He stood gracefully, placing the bowl of ice cream on a doily that decorated the end table. "I'm sorry, Willow, but--"

"Angel, sit", the red-head ordered firmly. Responding immediately to her tone, he dropped back into the seat. For a moment the Wiccan regarded him sadly. Finally, she lay a hand on his knee, ignoring his involuntary flinch, and gently told him, "I asked you to come here for a reason, Angel."

He studied her serious expression nervously. "A reason? Is there something coming? Is--"

"No", Willow cut him off. "It's been quiet for a while now. Our Slayers are doing a great job. So great that the Council is sending Tamara to France to deal with something non-Hellmouth related. This is about you."

"What about me?" Angel asked warily, searching her eyes for a sign.

Willow sighed. "It's a couple of things, actually. Partially, this is because I haven't seen you in weeks. You never stop by the Library to say 'hi' anymore. Giles hasn't heard from you. You've even been avoiding the girls. It isn't right Angel. We're your friends, and we care about you. We worry."

The vampire looked away. "It's been difficult lately. I was patrolling with Aly a few weeks ago, and out of no where I just thought 'she's beautiful'." He met Willow's concerned gaze, his eyes dark with emotion, and whispered, "I'm not supposed to think that about anyone except... I felt like I'd betrayed Her."

"You can say Her name, you know", Willow assured him. "And appreciating a beautiful woman doesn't betray Her memory, either."

"No", Angel admitted, "But it hurts." Tears blurred his vision for a moment and he fought them down, blinking furiously. "She was hardly more than a child, Willow. All of you..."

"I know", Willow agreed with mournful bitterness, setting her own ice cream aside. "We were so stupid. We knew that it'd end badly. It was our own fault, Angel. Mine, B-- ...Hers. We were the ones who let it happen. And looking back, the reasons we did that seem so naive and childish. If we had only told you or Giles..." The redhead wiped moisture from her cheeks and offered Angel a tremulous smile. "Sorry. I shouldn't... This isn't what I asked you to come for."

"Then what?" Angel sat back in the chair, feeling tremendously old as he stared at the twenty-two year old Wiccan. "What else is there?"

Willow swallowed convulsively and murmured, "Your soul."

Angel stiffened, his eyes going hard. "What?"

"I can bind your soul", Willow breathed, bracing herself for an explosion. "I can modify the spell. Not remove the clause, but fix it, modify it, so you'll never lose it."

For long moments, the vampire was a statue, frozen with shock. Finally, a single word slipped past his cold lips. "No."

"It's perfectly safe", Willow assured him quickly, her voice taking on a desperate pitch. "Even if the spell fails, it won't break the curse and we can test it after to be sure, so--"

"No", Angel snarled. "No spells." His fingers sank deep into the fabric of the chair, threatening to split the material under the pressure. His voice oozed pain like a raw wound as he asked, "God, Willow. Why would you even suggest that?"

The young woman stared uncomprehendingly at the vampire, unable to fathom the reason for his pain. "I want to help you. What if you feel true happiness again? I'm just protecting you and all of us."

"There was only one person who could make me feel true happinees, Willow. And She's been dead for five years." This time the tears spilled over, and bloody trails marked Angel's face. "I don't think that the curse will be an issue."

Willow's face crumpled slightly at Angel's sorrow, but she didn't stop herself from telling him, "Buffy would want you to be happy, Angel." She tried to ignore his flinch at the sound of his dead lover's name. "She would. She really loved you, Angel. More than anything else in the world." The redhead's expression turned wistful, and she looked away for a moment. "Buffy would be so sad to see you punishing yourself...she didn't want that."

Angel shuddered and leaned forward, placing his head in his hands. "What do you need me to do?"

Willow held Angel's hand palm-up, the surface covered in a thick herb paste that burned just slightly because of the holy water in the mixture. Ignoring Angel's grimace of pain for the time being, Willow carefully enunciated the words of the spell as she held a knife above the vampire's hand.

Willow brought the knife down and through Angel's broad palm, driving the poultice into his blood. The vampire roared as white light filled the room, and his dark blood sprayed the sink, splattering the used icecream spoon that Willow had forgotten.

And then there was a flash and a scream as an explosion rocked the house, throwing the vampire and the witch across the room...

"I messed up", Willow said miserably, staring fixedly at her toes. "And...well..." She shuffled a bit and sniffed, studiously avoiding Xander and Giles' eyes.

Her oldest friend wasn't in the mood. "Spit it out, Will!"

"Well...", Willow ventured, "to put it bluntly.. it's the ice cream."

Xander's jaw dropped as he stared at her. "WHAT?" Giles merely raised his brows over his tea.

Taking a deep breath, Willow babbled, "Okay, so Angel and I were having ice cream, cause I was trying to cheer him up a little before I did the binding, and then we went into the kitchen 'cause it was gonna be kind of messy and I did the spell, but I forgot the spoon in the sink and it was covered with ice cream and now the demon needs to be eating pistacchio almond fruit fudge delight!" With a wail, the red-head dropped her head into her hands and sank into the chair behind her.

Xander blinked. "Demon... eating..."

Giles frowned at his tea for a moment and ventured, "Ah...Willow?"

"Hmm?" The redhead peeked up through her fingers at the apparently unconcerned Watcher.

"Just what *are* the terms to break the spell, exactly?"

Willow frowned for a moment and replied, "Er... well... Fire and water have to flow together, and the moon has to burn as bright as the sun, and the wind has to blow east and west at the same time as time comes undone, and then the sun has to rise and set in the same spot right before the sky burns black for forty days and all human beings are dead and darkness falls forever, while a Demon Lord is giving Angel a happy. And eating pistacchio almond fruit fudge delight ice cream."

Giles blinked. Xander whistled.

Willow buried her face in her hands again and groaned.