Title: Stick It There

  Author: meagan <nutmeg@serv.net>

  Summary: Um... Angel has a revelation. Really, truly, hideously silly. Slightly slashy.

  Rating: G

  Disclaimer: Of *course* they belong to someone else. If they were mine, things would be different. Specifically, they belong to Mutant Enemy, Fox, WB, and anyone else I forgot.

  Note: Originally posted to lists 13 January 2000. I saw a disturbing commercial. Written in about ten minutes while watching _Popular_ (the show duringwhich I saw the disturbing commercial) and making dinner. Most of those ten minutes were spent correcting typos and filling out this header.

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  Angel stared in the mirror. There was nothing there, but he had an idea. It had seemed silly when it had occurred to him. *Seemed* silly? He was fully aware that it was insane. But he still felt compelled to follow through on the plan.

  About a month before, he had stumbled across a new type of camera. It produced instant photos -- about the size of a postage stamp, on an adhesive back. For some reason, he had decided to send one to Willow with the request that she take pictures of the gang in Sunnydale and send the stickers back to him. She had done so, and now he had a small collection of likenesses of his old -- wincing, he corrected that to "former" -- friends.

  And what could he do with such small photos? Hiding them would be easy. He could easily carry them in his wallet, use them as bookmarks, or tuck them away in a drawer, but this seemed like a better idea.

  The first few stickers were quickly discarded. Oz, Willow, Giles -- none of them lived up to his expectation. So he was down to two last faces.

  Buffy.

  And Xander.

  Hopes high, Angel peeled the protective backing from the photos and placed them in their places of honor. Flex right, flex left, back and forth, over and over, until one fell to the ground. His gaze followed it in the mirror, fluttering to the ground in front of blank space.

  Smiling when he recognized the face peering up at him from its final resting spot next to his foot, he plucked the photograph still clinging to his body from his right nipple. "You didn't leave me."

  He hummed contently as he tucked the tiny photo in his wallet.

  Xander would be with him.

  Forever.

  ~~~ the end ~~~