Road
Author: Ares
Word count: 726
Rating: PG13
Written for ba_rosebuds Prompt: Road
Disclaimer: Sadly, they’re not
mine.
**
Road
“Close your eyes.”
Pain blossomed in his chest, and
his eyes flew open in surprise. Buffy was standing there, a look of
desolation on her face. He reached out to her, his arm outstretched,
wondering what was going on.
“Buffy?” he asked, before
realization came upon him. His memory returned, and with it the awful
knowledge of what he had done as Angelus. An unseen force picked him up and
drew him from her. He blacked out.
+++
When he came to, Buffy was
kneeling beside him. He recognized his surroundings. They were still in the
mansion. He was bewildered. What had happened?
“What?”
“Shhh. It’s okay, Angel. You
took a knock on the head.”
He raised his hand to his head.
There was a bump there. Wait.
“What happened?”
Buffy stood and walked to where
the statue of Acathla stood. The sword was back in the monster’s chest.
Angel touched the spot where the sword had been rammed in his body. There
was no sign of a wound.
Buffy was saying, “…hit your
head. And when I realised what was happening, I pulled the sword from you
and gave it back.”
He didn’t know how she was able
to stand there so calmly, after all he had done to her, and tell him that
she had rescued him. From Acathla. From the demon he had called forth to
end the world.
“Buffy,” he started to say,
guilt settling over him once more.
She was back beside him in an
instant and took hold of his hands. “It’s okay, Angel. It wasn’t you. The
things you did, it wasn’t you.”
He shook his head, wanting to
believe what she was saying, but he couldn’t. He had done those terrible
things. Angelus, Angel, vampire. He was one and the same. His soul…
“How did…?” Maybe the blow to
the head had addled his brains. What was he missing?
“My soul?” he managed to ask.
And she began to cry. Tears spilled
over and down her cheeks, even as she was smiling. Angel pulled her to him,
wanting to comfort her, and just wanting to feel her in his arms again.
“Willow. She put back your soul.
She found Miss Calender’s notes and…”
The name was a knife to his heart.
“Jenny Calender.” He was mortified. There could be no forgiveness now. Not
from Buffy, not from Giles. He groaned. Giles…what he had done to the man.
Buffy clutched at him, stared
into his eyes. “It. Wasn’t. Your. Fault. It was mine. If we hadn’t…” Her
chin wobbled. She started to cry again. It was Angel’s turn to soothe her.
He stroked her hair.
“Shhh…Buffy. It wasn’t your
fault.”
He was rewarded with a tremulous
smile. “As long as you accept it wasn’t yours,” she said. He wanted so
badly to believe.
Buffy sniffled and wiped at her
eyes. His thumb smoothed away the tears sliding down her face. Suddenly,
she was kissing him. It had been months since he felt her lips against his.
Knowing it was wrong, he kissed her back. Urgently. Hungrily. He couldn’t stop.
He just wanted to forget all the badness. He knew she wanted that too.
Buffy started pulling at his clothes, and he found his hands were
unbuttoning hers. His mind was telling him, wrong, wrong, wrong, but he
couldn’t seem to stop. He was inside her before he realised what his mind
had been trying to say to him.
“Don’t stop!” she insisted as
she rocked against him.
“No!” he shouted and pushed her
away. She tumbled to the floor in a sprawl of naked limbs. “We can’t do
this!”
“Just this once,” she pleaded
and crawled back to him. He stood up and backed away.
“Buffy.” He held out his hands.
“We can’t. Not ever.”
Not able to believe his eyes,
Buffy actually pouted. She got to her feet and stood there, arms
outstretched, in her naked glory.
“This is what you want. You know
you do. Come and get it.”
And then she began to laugh and
laugh and laugh. A chill went down his spine. The thing in front of him
wasn’t Buffy. He wasn’t in Sunnydale. He was somewhere else entirely. And
this was just the beginning. The road to hell led to suffering and torment.
What better way to start his torture than this?
The end
September 2010
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