Ready

by Tango

E-MAIL: Tangofic@hotmail.com
DISCLAIMER: Nope. I still don't own them.
DISTRIBUTION: Of course you can have it! Please let me know though.

Rating: PG-13?

Spoiler: AtS Season 5 ficlet

***

He’s not sure what to do when she walks through the door closely followed by five Slayers. He knows the scent of Slayers well and that’s what they all are. He would have been confused if Giles hadn’t explained it to Wesley who explained it to him, how all the potential Slayers in the world turned full fledged in an instant from a few words coming from the lips of Wiley Willow.

He was positive it was more than just a couple of words, but still. She was now a powerful witch, maybe the most powerful, and he was a little proud knowing that her first spell was on him.

He looked over Buffy and her band of super girls and he sucked in a breath. She always stunned him with beauty and poise and most of all, power, that licked at him from every angle. She was a full force attack standing still. They were all Slayers, but she was the first, the real deal and they all know that being Slayers will never make them The Strongest Slayer in the History of Slayers – which consequently, no longer exists. The History of Slayers blew up with the Council.

Wesley says that Giles is in the processs of recreating the Watcher’s Council himself. Buffy and the others were seeking out the Slayers and sending them to Giles. They were setting up camp in the Hyperion, since Angel still owned it and filling the rooms with giggly girls who had more power than they knew what do to with.

For months they had trained there and slept there and he never even walked through the door. He was the CEO of Wolfram & Hart now. He had Things To Do. He knew if Buffy had been there he would have found every excuse in the book to be there, even would have volunteered to train the new ones.

But she hadn’t been there and neither had he. He was pretending he was a Real Live Person by looking at day through specially covered windows and seeing the sun head on for the first time in over two hundred fifty years. He was using power to stop evil rather than battling it with his hands. He was fighting for the Ultimate Good.

Then Buffy walked through the door with her entourage of Slayers. They took turns going out with her and finding the others, learning the ropes, learning to hunt and to kill, realizing their own potential. They stood behind her and looked him with widened blinking eyes.

“Angel,” she said, her voice slightly hoarse like it always sounded when she was working on too much battle and not enough sleep.

“Buffy,” he said, holding his groan in check. How could it be after all this time that just seeing her was like a punch in the gut? All that time he thought he loved Cordy, he thought he was content fucking Eve on the side now and then, but now he Remembered. She was more than his first love. She was the key to Perfect Happiness. She was his Mate. For the first time since he moved into his lush penthouse at Wolfram & Hart he remembered that primal urge, that violent possessiveness that came from seeing his Mate, needing to touch her and willing to rend limb from limb those who stood in the way.

Yes, he remembered all right. It was why he ran then. It was why he wanted to run now.

“I need to talk to you,” she said, almost defiantly. She was waiting for him to turn her away and her body was so tense, he could see the pulse in her throat throbbing.

“Alright,” he rasped, nodding. His suit felt too tight. He felt stupid in these clothes, in this office with her looking. He glanced over at Harmony and mustered up a warning glare. “No disturbances,” he said low enough for just her vampire hearing to pick up. She nodded almost imperceptively and offered Buffy a cheery hello.

Buffy stared at her for second and then turned to Angel with her hands on her hips. “Harmony is your secretary?”

And he smiled. The tension would have swallowed him up if not for that.

The new Slayers waited in the lobby, while Buffy went into his office alone. They were obviously just stopping in on their way to someplace else and soon after Buffy started talking, he knew why she came. The Slayer project was too large with not enough funds and they needed the backing of Wolfram & Hart.

She was all business, his little mate, pacing around the room as she explained that feeding, clothing and housing all these Slayers was turning out to be a job of work, especially with her traveling expenses and the cost of shipping the girls out to locations to protect Hellmouths and dens of evil. Apparently, there were some legal issues with Giles getting a hold of the Council’s funds and until he could, they would be in trouble.

He agreed to take on the new Watcher’s Council as Wolfram & Hart’s premiere philanthropic effort. After all, it was tax deductible and he called Gunn and put him on the task of snagging free the tied up Council’s funds and transferring them to Rupert Giles.

He sighed when that was finished. Now he could focus on the Real Reason she came by. They could talk about the future or cookies or whatever she wanted to call it and he stepped closer, took an unneeded breath and tried to think of something to say. She wrung her hands awkwardly, thanked him and before he could say anything, she had walked out of his office.

Angel crossed his arms over his chest and tried to scowl, but his heart sank.

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