“Yeah, I’ll be home for a while.” He answered his lil sis. He was kind of close with her. He loved her, but he was away for most of her life and wanted to take the time to hang out and see what life was like in the Summers home now. She was just a little kid when he’d left for the Navy. Now he’d served his time and was home for a bit.
“Okay, good. Because we have plans for the afternoon, but I’ll be home by dinner time.” She told him as she hugged him goodbye. It was good to see him again.
“Okay, I’ll see you at home. Angel, it was nice meeting you. You taking care of her?” he asked Angel as he stuck his hand out for Angel to shake.
Taking the man’s hand, Angel assured him, “Don’t worry, she’s in good hands with me, and it was nice to meet you.”
Taking off, Riley turned around and Buffy and Angel walked out to Angel’s car. Throwing their stuff in the back they climbed into the front seats and Buffy gave Angel a kiss on the mouth.
“What was that for?” he looked at her, happily but a little curious. Starting up his car, she smiled at him happily, and said, “Because you’re one of the best boyfriends ever, and that I’m glad that you met Riley, and that Riley’s home. It’ll be good to see him.” She was so happy.
The smile on her face Angel wouldn’t trade for the lottery. To see her that happy was like a little kid going to see the Christmas Tree lighting for the first time. It was such a simple, base emotion and she loved it.
“So, where are we off to?” Buffy asked as he pulled up and out of the parking lot. Taking her hand in his, Angel kissed her knuckles and said, “It’s a surprise.”
She usually didn’t like those words, since most of the time it came from a person she was trying SO hard to forget, but when Angel said them to her, she didn’t know why, but she felt completely safe with him, that she could trust him, that he’d protect her, treasure her and never let anything happen to her.
Lord, she really was falling in love with him. That was a new concept. Even though she stayed with Spike for so long, and thought that she loved him, that was nothing compared to how she was feeling for Angel right now. Nothing ever would compare to this. She determined that love, this love, was cloud nine and she had a back stage pass.
Five minutes later they pulled up into the park area and Angel grabbed a basket from out of the back of his truck. When she saw it, she knew what he had planned and could only feel more love for this man. How did he go from being the arrogant asshole next door, to being the most romantic and loving man she’d ever known? In a few days as well?
“Oh well,” she thought. She wasn’t particularly caring why her view changed of him, only that it did. She was so grateful to have him in her life.
Angel set up the picnic blanket and the food that he’d prepared during his lunch hour and set it down on the blanket. He’d grabbed some apples and strawberries in one container, some ham sandwiches in the other along with some apple/cherry juice. Digging right in, she almost inhaled her sandwich.
“What?” she asked as he was lightly laughing out loud.
“Nothing.” He lied.
“No, what?” she persisted in a playful mood.
Taking a sigh, he smiled and said, “you’re so cute when you inhale your food…”
Looking at him like she was about to hit him, she playfully smacked him along the shoulder and said, “That’s not fair. I didn’t eat lunch today, I’m starving.” She informed him.
“Well, then by all means, eat away.” He graciously told her as he laid back and soothed her by stroking her back with his hand as she ate.
She’d never felt more relaxed than if she was with Willow and Faith over at one of their houses during their many sleepovers. She really hadn’t felt this comfortable with a guy since… well, thinking back, even then, she wasn’t really that comfortable with him. Maybe it was her subconscious trying to tell her something. Shrugging it off, she focused back on present day and that was that Spike was away and was never coming back.
“That’s what’s important.” Angel said out loud.
“What?” Buffy asked confused.
“You said that Spike was away and was never coming back.” He replied to her confusion.
“Oh,” she said, she figured that she must have said it out loud rather then to herself. Smiling back at him she leaned down and kissed him. Laying down on the blanket, the two of them snuggled closely together and took an afternoon nap.
Over in the bushes…
“That’s what you think cutie…” Spike thought as he saw the couple kissing and in love with each other. “Well, I’m gonna have to do something about that.” He claimed as he threw his cigarette and bottle on the ground and stormed off.
By the time the sun was setting, Buffy and Angel were getting up from their nap and watching the sun set from their picnic. It was an incredibly romantic setting with all the pinks and oranges filling the sky. They hadn’t seen anything so spectacular.
“It’s beautiful.” Buffy commented as she stared off into the sky.
“Yes, yes you are.” Angel replied as he could only look at her and how incredibly gorgeous she was. Not just on the outside, but as a person as well.
She looked at him when he said that. Just to spoil the mood, she said, “That is one cheesy pick up line. You already got the girl, whatchya need those awful things for?”
“I do not lie.” He told her confidently.
“Ooh, someone’s confident, aren’t we?” she shot back at him with a smile on her face.
Angel looked around their area and then looked down at himself to check himself out, “Who? Me? Confident? Nah…” he shrugged it off and watched as she laughed her cute little butt off.
“In what hell dimension is that the truth?” she laughed at him.
Pretending to be shocked at her, he asked, “Are you mocking me?”
Still laughing and finding all the humor in the situation she answered, “Yes.”
He had to laugh with her. He enjoyed spending time with her. He was having fun. He didn’t remember the last girl that he went out with that it wasn’t about sex, and they just had fun. Had he ever done that with any girl before? He didn’t think so, and the thought that his first was with Buffy, just made it seem so much more special.
Looking down at her watch, Buffy regrettably said, “It’s eight, I better get home. Dad and Jenny might flip if I don’t get home soon.”
“Okay,” he agreed. He needed to get home too. He had to get everything ready for tomorrow for school for himself and for Connor. It was his week to do all the household stuff.
Grabbing the basket and the blanket, he and Buffy walked back to his car and got settled in. Their hands intertwined as he drove back home, both had smiles plastered all over their faces and neither could be brought down from cloud nine.
Angel pulled up into his driveway and got out to walk Buffy to her door. She looked in and the only thing that could take away the smile on her face was going on in her house at the moment.
Her face went flat when she heard the screaming voices. One was very clearly her father and the second clearly Riley.
Very lightly he took her hand in his and rubbed her shoulders. Quietly he asked her, “You wanna go for a walk?”
All she could do was nod. Slowly they walked away from the house in front of them that was currently having a major argument going on inside of it. Buffy just hoped that Dawn was out of there while all the shouting was going on. Though knowing Jenny, they were both together and not there in the disaster area.
For a while, Buffy didn’t say anything and Angel didn’t press what he just witnessed. He really didn’t know the situation to want to bring it up to her. If she wanted to talk about it, he had to trust that she would tell him.
“Riley went away eight years ago. I was ten years old, Lindsey was just twelve and Dawn was a baby. She doesn’t really remember him. She’s seen photos but that’s about it.” She started to tell him.
“He got into quite a bit of a rebellion and started to do a lot of things.”
“Like what?” he prodded.
She looked down and said, “He started to drink and do drugs and sleep around with a lot of girls. He didn’t care about our family or his dad. Since his mom left and said she didn’t want anything to do with him, he wasn’t exactly in the best frame of mind. Until one night and I’m not sure on any of the details, the next thing I knew, we were saying goodbye and he was off to the Navy for eight years.”
Angel rubbed her shoulders for support and kept reminding her that he was here for her in any way she would let him be. He wouldn’t turn away from her or hurt her anymore then she already had been.
“Like I said, I don’t know what exactly happened; I just know that it really hurt Giles. That’s why I was so surprised to see him at school today. I didn’t think he’d ever come back.” She finished.
Feeling how tense she was, he continued to massage her arms and her shoulders. He stopped his actions for a moment to ask her, “Are you glad that he’s back?”
She turned around and faced him and truly looked confused. “Yes and no. I’m glad that he’s back because I did miss him. We’re eight years apart, but I loved him. He was my other big brother. He’d take care of me. Then I’m not because he hurt our family and he really hurt Giles. What do you think I should do?” she asked him for his advice on the subject.
Taking a deep breath, he honestly told her, “I think you should find out what happened and then decide how you feel. You’re not ten anymore Buffy, you’re eighteen. You can handle it. You’re stronger then you look.”
“Thank you.” She said gratefully. “For listening and for being so understanding. For being here when I needed you. Thank you.” She told him as he took her in his arms and wrapped them around her tightly like a security blanket. In his arms, no one would ever hurt her.
Kissing the top of her head, he murmured, “Thank you for telling me.” Letting her go, but keeping her hand in his, they walked back to her house. When they arrived, everything looked peaceful from the outside. She was afraid of what was going on inside, but she knew that she had to face it sooner or later so she might as well now.
Kissing her on the front porch, he wished her goodnight and wished her the best. He left telling her, “If you need me, you know where I live.”
Achieving his goal, he got her to smile on that one and then continued with the goodnights and walked to his house. The lights were off, and he still had to get everything ready for Connor the next day. It was still early yet. He had time.
Closing the door behind her she walked into her house and saw that it wasn’t trashed as she suspected but perfectly neat and un-trashed. With the fight she heard, she’d imagined it would have looked a lot worse and not clean.
Walking into the living room, no one was there, she tried the dining room and no one was there, the study was empty as well. She walked into the kitchen and jumped a little. She was expecting no one and there was Riley standing over the counter top with one hand on the counter top and one hand on a bottle of Jack.
Shaking her head at him, completely disappointed she was about to run off when he stopped her, “Buffy, please. Let me tell you what’s going on.”
Turning around, hearing the desperateness in his voice she turned around slowly and faced her half brother. He didn’t look drunk. In fact the bottle didn’t even look like it had been opened. “That’s weird,” she thought. “What’s going on?” she asked him.
At his apartment…
Spike looked at a picture of himself and Buffy that they took at the movies once in those little machines. She seemed happy with him. He did make her happy once. Stroking her face with his index finger, he muttered to himself, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, he put the picture down and went promptly to sleep in the arms of Drusilla.