Angel was staring intently at the dormant fireplace, lost in the chasm between conscious and unconscious thought when he spied Cordelia striding in, blinking owlishly at him through heavy, sleep riddled lids.

The sun had only just set a few minutes ago and already the waning light had given way to the inky greyness of early evening. Angel had toyed with the idea of actually getting a fire going in the face of the cooling night but had been thwarted by a lack of matches and his general ineptitude at starting fires in general. Well, the ones that didn't burn houses down at least.

Besides it was a rather warm night - which technically didn't mean anything to Angel, being a vampire who couldn't feel temperature and all, but still - it was nice to pretend it mattered, wasn't it?

"Are you brooding?" Cordelia blearily asked as she slowly made her way to his side, dropping heavily on the couch next to him. Sleep and fatigue still clung to her frame, illustrated by the way her normally graceful form unceremoniously sunk onto the back of the couch.

Angel smiled into the empty air, knowing the lecture that was already beginning to form inside Cordelia's mind. Sometimes it scared him, the way he was able to almost see what she was thinking and feeling - as if he was there thinking and feeling those same things along with her. It scared him not because it was an indication of the intimacy of their minds and emotions that he had only just begun to realise in the past few months, but because of the growing possibility that he didn't want it to ever cease. This togetherness that he now shared with Cordelia that was founded on friendship, bonded by love.

Sometimes it made him wonder at the unpredictability of life - that two outsiders who had exchanged no more than perfunctory greetings and small talk, whose lives had only crossed due to chance and mutual acquaintances, could somehow be thrown together in body as well as in mind just a few short years later.

"Seer to broody boy. Seer to broody boy. Anyone there?" She paused as she playfully waved a hand in front of his intense eyes, glittering in the dim light. "Okay Houston, I think we have a problem."

"Cordelia, I meant everything that I said before." He turned suddenly to her, grabbing her attention with the intensity in his dark orbs.

Cordelia screwed her nose up in concentration, vestiges of sleep still fogging up her mind. "Ah ... which part exactly? The part where you said I wasn't your maid or the part where you said you loved me?"

Angel cocked his head to one side, letting a tiny smile play on his lips. "Both actually."

"Ah ... me too. I mean, the I love you part." She sat up straighter and played with her entwined fingers. "So, we're on the same page here?"

Angel frowned in confusion. "Which ... page is that?"

Cordelia huffed impatiently although the growing smile that hovered on her lips showed she was, in fact, otherwise. "The page that says that we both have the good feelings." She said matter-of-factly. "And now we need to go on to the next page."

Angel was becoming hopelessly lost in Cordelia's strange analogy. "The ... the next page?" He asked carefully.

"Duh. The page that says how we're going to deal with it." She looked at him, slightly anxious orbs flashing in the dimly lit room. "You know, for a 250 year old vampire with an unhealthy brooding obsession, you sure are slow with the issues sometimes. The whole 'we're friends but we have love feelings for each other and now what are we going to do' thing didn't cross your mind once while you were serial brooding the afternoon away? What kind of soulful brooding vampire are you?"

"249." Angel automatically corrected. "And ..." He floundered, sure that Cordelia's strange logic would have provoked an elephant-sized migraine if he had been human, which at the moment he gladly was not. "I was ... I don't know what I was thinking. It's been a big day for me. Talking to Buffy for one thing ..."

"Oh." Cordelia's voice dropped in understanding. "Sorry ... I kinda forgot about that. How'd it go anyway? I mean, did you guys sort your wacky issues out or is she going to be doing the uninvite spell sometime soon?"

"I think ... more the former." Angel rushed on as Cordelia processed this. "You know, she invited us to dinner tonight." He said, bemused by the banality of Buffy inviting them over for dinner as well Cordelia's unguarded surprise.

"She? Invited us ... to dinner?" Her brows wrinkled in confusion. "Are you sure you guys, you know, didn't accidentally hit each other over the head or something? Something that made her go all Martha Stewart?"

"Quite sure." Angel's eyes twinkled as he continued staring at her. "You up for it? We don't have to go if you don't want to." He added quickly.

Cordelia glanced carefully at Angel, seeing the light shining in his dark eyes before replying. "No, I think we should. I mean at least, you should. Are you sure she won't try to murder me if I go?" She quipped half-seriously.

"She wouldn't do that." He playfully said, grabbing her hand tenderly. "It'd be good for you to see the whole gang again. Catch up with everyone. You can't avoid thinking about your past forever."

She sighed in resignation. "I suppose, Oh Wise and Extremely Old one. Besides ... I'm really hungry." As if to prove her point, her stomach began to growl noisily. She giggled. "Really hungry."

"Good." Angel patted her hand affectionately as he rose, stretching his taut limbs. "I'm going to drive into town for a few ... things. We could go to Buffy's after I come back." He halted. "Maybe you could get all our stuff together while I'm gone. That way we could head off straight after dinner."

A dangerous glint began to form in the corner of Cordelia's eyes at his commanding tone. "Anything else you'd like me to do? Clean your car? Do your laundry?" she asked ascerbically.

Angel smiled, feigning ignorance at her rancour. "Maybe ... you could put the rest of my blood in the ice pack? Wouldn't want it to go off you know."

"No. Of course not." Angel could almost hear Cordelia grinding her teeth in mild irritation. "Anything else?"

Angel pretended to ponder her question for a split second. "Yeah Cordy ... why don't you take a shower while I'm gone? You kinda ... smell." He grinned mischievously.

That was it. Cordelia grabbed a cushion from the couch and threw it at him with all her might, hitting his perfectly gelled hair. "I don't smell. I have a scent. A lovely, womanly, sexy scent. And you're lucky that you can ... smell it mister."

Unusually aroused, Angel crossed the intervening distance between them and roughly wrapped an arm around her perfect waist, crushing his hard body against hers. "Yeah, you do." He whispered as he twirled her dark locks sensually with his free hand, dipping into the crook of her neck to inhale her scent more deeply.

Before Cordelia could even think to respond, Angel quickly leaned for a light, tingling kiss, deepening in intensity as he began plundering her luscious mouth with his tongue, sweeping all thought from her mind and bringing to the fore a myriad of sensations teased to the zenith by his skilful exploration. Her arms slackened at the exhilarating unexpectedness of his actions, a moan escaping her in primal passion as she at last regained control of herself long enough to run her hands urgently through the strands of his silky hair and down to envelope his chiselled waist.

He broke away at long last due to Cordelia's need for air, intently absorbing the dreamy expression in Cordelia's eyes before another devilish smile crept on his face.

"Be back soon." With feigned casualness, as if he hadn't just experienced one of the most mind-blowing kisses of his life, he sauntered out of the mansion, leaving a breathless and profoundly confused Cordelia staring numbly in his wake.

Cordelia was rooted to the spot. What the hell had just happened?

Cordelia was extremely confused by Angel's erratic behaviour. She didn't know what to make of his rapidly shifting moods; she sure as hell hadn't been exposed to so many different facets of Angels during such a short period before. Angel had been the cornerstone of her life for over two years - she took comfort in the immutable knowledge that he was always calm, in control, kind, decent, caring ... collected. She felt safe knowing that there was always one person who she could always run to, scream at, cajole, whine and bicker with and it would be okay.

But today - today he had been erratic, manipulative, devilish ... playful. It scared her because she wasn't used to this other less-safe Angel. Maybe it was due to the extreme proximity of the Hellmouth, or of the Slayer, or maybe he had drunk some bad blood - she didn't know. Cordelia just knew that there was going to a lot of learning about her best friend in the next few days - and she was both scared and excited by the prospect of such a profound change to their friendship.

Cordelia's hand fingered her lips lightly in wonder. She had never, ever been kissed like that in her entire life which granted, didn't really say much since the sum total of her experiences consisted of high school jocks, Xander Harris, Wesley, Doyle, Wilson Christopher and most recently, Groo - none of whom had left her with this strange excitement that threatened to overwhelm her motor functions and thought patterns. She was still feeling the energy from the surprise kiss reverberate around her body - and it had just been one kiss. She shivered in fleeting anticipation of other, more tingly kisses from Angel - soon.

Yep, soon. Very, very soon.

Shaking herself out of stasis she headed towards the bedroom to fish out a fresh change of clothes. Angel had been right about one thing. She really needed a shower at the moment.

A cold shower.

 

(c) Vivian Ngan September 2001