Choose your own adventure

Buffy pulled Angel aside as Gunn and Wesley fought the last two vamps. Cordelia was caught in their fight as well, watching intently to see if she should jump in to help. Angel tried to pull away from Buffy to help his friends, but The Slayer was not going to be dissuaded.

"They can handle it," Buffy whispered, pushing him back from the horrible room, "You need to get home before you're stuck in this smelly place all day. Come on." She urged quietly, pressing against him suggestively, "They'll be fine."

Angel looked from Wes, Gunn and Cordy and then back to Buffy in confusion. Something was not right here. Since when did she leave the "civilians" to do the Slaying? Why would she try to tempt him when she knew damn well how dangerous she was to him? He reached out and caressed her cheek, looking in her eyes intently. She looked so...happy.

Something was definitely not right.

"Just a second," he said before jumping back into the fight and finishing off the final vamp who had knocked Wesley aside. He turned from the vamp's dust to watch Gunn's stake sink into his opponent's chest. Angel twinged inwardly as he watched the vampire crumble away, his shocked expression breaking up and landing in a pile at his friend's feet. He had been fighting his own kind for so long, it shouldn't matter to him. It didn't in the heat of battle and on most days he didn't even think about it, but with Buffy standing just a few feet away, he was reminded once again of his difference from her. Even the impending day was a harsh reminder of what they would never have together. Shanshu be damned. He knew he would never stand in the sunlight with his love. He had accepted that a long time ago.

Angel felt her small hand on his arm, tugging him away and he allowed it, turning with her and running from the warehouse. The sky was beginning to brighten and they both knew it was only a matter of minutes before the sky became deadly. Buffy clasped his hand in hers and urged him to run faster with her. Gunn, Wes and Cordy were left far behind at the two fell into a speed that could only be matched by another Slayer or vampire.

They reached the hotel quickly and hurried inside to escape the oncoming day. Angel barely had time to think about what to do next when he found himself pressed against the wall next to the double doors in the garden, just out of the early morning light flooding through the windows. Buffy threaded her fingers through his hair, pulling his mouth roughly down to hers before sucking greedily at his lips and tongue.

"Buffy," Angel panted, pulling away with much difficulty, "What are you doing?"

"I want you," she said, pulling him further inside the hotel and nudging him toward the stairs, "I'm tired of being apart. I can't even remember why you left now."

"Let me remind you," he whispered before morphing into his game face. Gesturing at his distorted features he lisped around his fangs, "This is just one of a hundred reasons why I left."

"It's not good enough," she insisted, pushing him back with the intention of making him go up the stairs, but instead he tumbled back, landing in the perfect position for her to hop into his lap. "I want you," she repeated, "Here. Now."

"Buffy," Angel said, keeping his game face intact and adding a growl to his words, "Soul. Demon. Vampire. Ringing a bell here, love?"

"Nope," she answered, smiling wolfishly before swooping down to nip at his exposed neck. He gasped as she bit down and wiggled closer to him, grinding against his lap.

"Dammit," he rumbled out as he heard the footsteps of his friends entering the hotel. He placed his hands on her waist and lifted, prepared to change their compromising position, but she tightened her legs around his waist and bit into his neck harder. A small growl came from her throat as she exerted her dominance on her demon lover.

"What is wrong with you?" he demanded forcefully, causing Cordy to jump in shock as she came in, but Buffy didn't even flinch. The Slayer just leaned back in his lap and smiled at him like he had whispered a sweet nothing in her ear.

"Wrong?" she echoed lightly...happily, "Just because I want you something has to be wrong?"

"Buffy," he said, futilely trying once again to escape but failing as she clenched against him harder. The only way to extract her from him would be with force and he had no intention of hurting her, so he leaned back against the stairs and tried to pretend that Cordy, Wes and Gunn weren't gaping at them. "You have to stop this," Angel continued, "Go home to Sunnydale."

"You know," Buffy said, cocking her head to the side as she looked over his concerned face, "Everyone always worries so much. I'm tired of worrying, tired of not getting what I want. If Spike tells me one more time that I'm only fucking him cause he reminds me of you, I think I'll stake him just on principle."

"Spike?" Angel asked tersely and then roared as the rest of the sentence reached his brain, "FUCKING?"

"See what I mean?" she clucked, "Stress, tension, worry. There's way too much of it. I've spent so much time worrying that I'll never find love again and the whole time it never occured to me to just come here and get what I really wanted. Why settle when I can have you?"

"Buffy, please tell me that you're just trying to make me jealous," Angel pleaded. Even as the words left his mouth, he knew it was all for naught. He could smell his childe's scent on her warm skin. He wasn't sure how it had gotten past him until now. Course, there was the mind dumbing lust. That could have been it.

"Why would I try to make you jealous?" she asked curiously. Normally, he would have assumed the statement was coy, but it wasn't. It was an honest question. "I don't need jealous to get you, Angel. I think we both know that."

"Okay, love," Angel said, taking a deep unneeded breath, "There's something really wrong with you. You would never do this if you were in your right mind."

"Wouldn't I?" she teased, "Why wouldn't I want you? I always have, baby."

***

What happens next?

Angel drags Buffy back to Sunnydale to have Giles help him find out what's wrong with Buffy

He keeps her in LA to find out what's wrong with her

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