Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, have no rights whatsoever to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any of her cohorts and/or enemies. I'm just borrowing them for some cheap (as in: I don't get paid, and I don't pay for) thrills. Here's my beg for feedback: GIMMIE! Enjoy!

"I like the black one, truthfully," Angel stated, slightly hesitant, as he gestured at the items displayed in the store window.

Buffy snorted. "You would," but she smiled, softening the comment so that her lover would not take offense.

Angel gave Buffy a half-grin. "But I have to agree with you, those really are obnoxious jackets."

She snickered at the clothing articles in question. "'Obnoxious' is an understatement. I mean, can you *believe* these kids are wearing today?" Buffy paused, horror-stricken, "Did that just come out of *my* mouth?"

Angel's grin became a shade more genuine, and he patted her hand as if she were a small child. "Don't worry, dear, these things happen to all of us, at a certain age..."

The ex-Slayer hit him roughly on the arm at his comment, and gave him one of her you're-*really*-asking-to-get-a-table-leg-through-the-heart glowers. The effect was spoiled a moment later, however, when Buffy accidentally looked into Angel's beautiful, loving, deep chocolate eyes and couldn't resist the urge to kiss him.

Angel's arms slowly wrapped around her and he deepened the kiss. Had her mouth not been busy, Buffy would have sighed in contentment. *I could stay this way all day...* she thought dreamily.

Reluctantly pulling away when she realized that they were in a public place and that she desperately needed to breathe, Buffy linked arms with her beau and strolled with him away from the store window.

Being dangerously close to the holidays, Sunnydale Mall was brightly decorated and very busy. Buffy, during her heavy Slaying days, had discovered a severe dislike for being in crowded places unarmed, and so she carried a few discretely hidden wooden stakes and a cross or two, even though she was "retired." On the whole, she now led a bit more of a "normal" life than when she was seventeen: she didn't spend every night in a graveyard, and slaying was no longer one of the main focuses of her life. Angel, however, was.

As they walked slowly through the mall, looking in shop windows and making comments to one another, neither Buffy nor Angel missed the startled and questioning glances (or, in some cases, blatant near-disgusted stares) that much of the surrounding mall-goers threw them. *You'd think that Sunnydale residents would see enough odd things in their lives that they wouldn't even blink at a simple couple like Buffy and me,* Angel thought, slightly annoyed.

"I think they must think you're my love slave," Buffy stated to him in a calm voice, her thoughts along somewhat similar lines as her boyfriend’s. "Or, possibly, that you're a very demented young man who enjoys going out with women two or three times his age."

Angel blinked when he realized what an unusual comment the ex-Slayer had just made, then gave her a mischievous smile. "Are they right? Am I your ‘love slave?’"

"If I have my way about it..." This kiss mirrored the last, except that it drew a few more stares, as Angel was careful to make it appear to the viewer to be very passionate and involving. Of course, it *was* very passionate and involving, so when Buffy and Angel finally pulled apart, she was quite a bit breathless. Again.

When she recovered, the couple grinned together at their small, shocked crowd of watchers, then laughed as everyone scrambled to make it appear as if they weren’t staring at the kissing pair, shocked. Linking hands again, Buffy and Angel slipped soundlessly along to the next store, admiring the beautiful jewelry that was found there.

"Y’know, you’ve got to look at their side of the thing to," Buffy pointed out, after oohing and ahhing over a particularly gorgeous diamond-encrusted ring.

"Hmm?" Angel queried. "What do you mean?"

"I mean those people staring at us; to them, you look about 20, and I look at least 45 or so. Not that they’re too far off about me, but you’ve got to think how it looks to see two people kissing when they’re so obviously so far apart, age-wise."

"Yeah, it would look kind of unusual, I guess. But from *my* point of view, kissing you isn’t a hard thing to accept at all..."

Buffy smiled, "Aw, that is so *sweet.*" Their third kiss of the evening wasn’t as lengthy, but it was very loving.

"You know its kind of fun to watch people choke a little bit when we do that," Buffy grinned.

Agreeing with her in the nonverbal way that seemed most appropriate, the two lovers--both young and old at the same time--strolled out of the Mall.

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