Title: The Skate
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I don't own some of the dialogue, and I don't own the TV ad embedded in here.
Distribution: If you want it, take it, lemme know where it's gone.
Rating: PG-13 for a bit of language and violence.
Summary: It's my first AU. Buffy's a skater, Angel's a skater, Darla's jealous. Despite all my efforts to the contrary Riley turned into a moron.
Notes: This is pretty much fluff. I also want to apologise to anyone who is kinda tired of blatant Riley bashing. It wasn't supposed to come out this way but Riley turned into the moronic dupe before I could help it. On the other hand, if you like Riley as a dip then I suppose go ahead and enjoy. Also, yes, I know the title sucks.
Dedication: Special for this time is a dedication to all those feedbackers at ff.net who I never respond to.
It was the fourth time that day. Buffy swooped around and glared at Riley. "Look! I'm not some fragile little princess who needs pampering! We got to this point with both of our talents and we can't suddenly drop the quads just because you think I suddenly can't land them!"
He looked hurt, "Buffy, I just don't want to risk falling," he said reasonably, "It'll look badly overconfident if we keep them in and-"
"And what?" she demanded, "We won't come close to winning otherwise. There is no point in going to the Olympics if you don't have a chance at winning."
Riley had the gall to smile at her condescendingly, "It's for the experience Buffy. America will win hands down with Matthews and Riker. We can enjoy the experience of the Olympic village and quaint local customs . . ." He trailed off at the look on her face. It was a combination of shock, disgust, irritation and disbelief. She was sincerely appalled that he was spouting this tripe at her.
"Riley. We. Are. In. Canada. What 'quaint local customs' are you expecting to find?" She glanced around the well-appointed rink. "This is a first-world country, it shares a border with us, and we're just across the border from Detroit." Windsor had been a surprise winner for the Olympics to be sure, but the small city had gracefully risen to the challenge. By setting up most of the events in Detroit and having only those absolutely necessary events take place in the official host city they had avoided most of the headaches associated with hosting an event of that size.
Riley grinned at her goofily, "Well, I wanted to see an Eskimo eat some blubber for one."
She snorted in disgust and skated to their coach. "Giles, I can't take this. If I have to do one more competition with this guy I'm gonna to be arrested for murder one."
"Buffy, he's an excellent skater-"
"He's a moron," was her unequivocal response.
Her coach sighed. He agreed, but there was very little he could do. Riley was the only skater willing to skate with Buffy. As the first woman to effectively pull off quadruple jumps in competition she continually found it difficult to get a partner who could keep up with her. The virtuosity her skills demanded was hard to come by. Riley had been the only one so far who could come close. Still, he was too cautious, and Giles had to admit that hesitation was holding Buffy back. For what had to be the hundredth time, he started, "Buffy, you really ought to consider returning to solo skating. It-"
"No!" Her fervent response, as always, made Giles wonder why she was so insistent on having a partner. "No," she continued more calmly, "I like to skate pairs, and that's what I'm gonna do." For a moment she seemed to waver, looking at Riley as he carefully practised single axels, single salchow, single this and single that. Instead of doing anything challenging. Then she put her chin up and skated back out onto the ice. "Riley, why aren't you practising the jumps in the program? Or your footwork?"
He did the condescending thing again that made Buffy grit her teeth, "You should always have the basics in place before you try the more difficult steps. My last coach-"
She rolled her eyes. If she had a dime for every time Riley mentioned his last coach, Maggie Walsh, she could have bought the whole damn city of Detroit. "Come on," she growled, and dragged the other skater out to centre ice, and cued Giles to hit the music.
So they started again, neither aware of the man with dark hair watching them from the bleachers. His concentrated stare picking out the flaws in both their performances, but noting the greater flaws of the man's and how they seemed to cause about half of the small blonde's problems. He rolled his eyes as the pair hit the side by side jumps in the short program, and again the woman performed faultlessly, while the guy wimped out, this time with a double.
The dark-haired man was called Angelus. He had been born Liam MacKenzie, but had his name legally changed the moment he reached the age of majority. His Catholic parents had been appalled their son would seemingly try to imitate rock stars like Sting at the same time as those godless gay male skaters. They hadn't spoken since his first competition. Even now, as he was representing the Republic of Ireland with a good chance of winning the men's figure skating competition, they still told people they had no son. It was one reason of many he trained in the US.
He had come to know Buffy Summers from a distance and had been entranced by the sheer power of her skating. What she lacked in presence was something that would be corrected by time and experience. Of course, if she kept to the pairs skating she was going to have to find a partner who was up to her mettle. As Riley gave her a smug look and demonstrated an alternative for the step their coach wanted them to do that was both obscene and utterly unaesthetic, Angelus amended the thought. At the very least she could find a partner who wasn't a complete idiot.
Finally he tired of watching the pair on the ice who were supposed to be doing some sort of love story. They looked like they had been pulled from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Buffy as the Fairy Queen Titania, Riley as the donkey-headed Bottom. He stalked off, his trademark black duster sweeping behind him, and ignored the large numbers of media hounds wanting to talk to the ever-elusive Irish skater. He simply strode past, got into his rental car and headed for the Olympic Village.
He was meeting his coach for dinner, and the two were going to talk tactics. Both for dealing with the press and dealing with the competition. "Angelus!" she exclaimed, a sweet smile gracing her features. He smiled back and they did that air kissing thing that Angelus privately thought was moronic, but put up with for the sake of a carefully crafted reputation. A reputation that was the only thing keeping most of the screaming teenage girls away. It also succeeded admirably at keeping Darla at arms' length.
"Darla," he greeted her and held her chair for her. Once they were seated and their orders placed he got down to business. "Anton Kozyrskyj has just added a new spin sequence to his routine, and I think he's working with that Armenian girl on those spins."
Darla's expression of polite interest turned to wolfish business, and she frowned slightly as she concentrated, "Kozyrskyj relies a lot on those spins, I don't think this should be a problem. He hasn't landed more than one quad per program for a while now."
Angelus shrugged, "He's still capable of it though, and I think we need to get something into the program. Otherwise I'm going to have to resort to crowd pleasing shenanigans," he shuddered, "You know I hate doing those."
"Mmm," she was about to say something when their food arrived. After getting a decent start she turned to him, "So when is our free time on the ice?"
"Eight o'clock. We're less likely to have to deal with anyone seeing the new choreography that way."
The conversation ranged on, covering the things Angelus was going to say and not say when interviewed, and repeated admonitions on Darla's part that he be nice to and about the other skaters in public. As if he hadn't learned that early in his career when he had called another skater 'a damned fool'. There had been a media circus and he was forced to retract the statement. It was proven two days after the retraction when the other skater was caught publicly supporting a group that believed the government had been infiltrated by evil vampires from another dimension.
Dinner wore on. In spite of the fact that she was his coach and despite the reputation about him that she seemed to believe wholeheartedly, Darla insisted on flirting with Angelus in the most outrageous fashion. "So," she said, leaning forward just enough so that he had a perfect view down her shirt. "I hear you've been watching that Summers girl and her partner."
In spite of his best efforts, his gaze could not help but land on her enticingly displayed breasts. Sensing the direction of his gaze, Darla shifted and Angelus caught a glimpse of her bra beneath her shirt. "And you care why?" he asked.
"I want to know if there's a reason you find the pair so interesting. You and I both know that neither Finn nor Summers are the sort of people to hold your attention for . . . personal reasons. That really only leaves professional ones." She looked at him inquiringly. He wasn't about to tell her how very wrong she was about his interest in Buffy, so he told her half the truth.
"It can be entertaining to watch the two of them," he said with a calculatedly careless shrug, "She skates circles around him while he looks like he should be competing in the junior Olympics." He grinned at the memory of just how goofy Riley Finn had looked with his carefully controlled motions. At his best the other skater was mechanical. Excellent technique, but there was more to good skating than just technique. At his worst he looked grossly amateurish and Angelus could not fathom for the life of him why the two were partners.
They left the topic of Summers and Finn aside and concentrated on a discussion of how to manipulate the judges into giving higher marks. Darla was all for Angelus to play up to the audience, Angelus was planning on altering the choreography to play up the fact that he was as good at spins and footwork as he was at jumping. Something very few skaters in this competition could boast. An image of Buffy's delicate and graceful footwork across the ice sprang to mind but he pushed it away.
The skater and his coach finished dinner and left for the rink where several pairs were just finishing the final bits of their rehearsal. As he moved out, getting a feel for the ice, he noticed a blonde sitting on the bleachers watching intently. He did a couple warm-up double axels then circled the ice again to get a look at his audience. It was Buffy Summers. Their eyes met, and she glanced away, flushing slightly. Darla returned from wherever she had disappeared off to, and he put the younger blonde out of his mind as he went over his routines.
Buffy watched in fascination as the handsome male skater started into his rehearsal. His technique was virtually flawless, the choreography was both graceful and masculine, he was an amazing artist and he was one of the most stunningly sexy men she had ever laid eyes on. He was also quite intelligent, Buffy knew, having watched him in interviews with various talk and news show hosts. He had even graduated from Oxford with a double major and minor in history, Celtic studies and music respectively.
She herself was working through the final stages of her major/minor in dance and kinesiology. Of course, unlike Angelus, she was very unlikely to graduate at the top of her class. She wasn't at the bottom by any means, but she was hardly one of the best students either. She was helped at least partly by having a near eidetic memory for choreography, and avidly watched other skaters to steal bits of theirs. It was cheating in a way, she knew that, she also knew that several pairs had been ripping off a couple of her trademark moves.
They were hers. For all that Riley was her partner and they were in this together, she was the one who worked with Giles on the choreography. Riley was an excellent skater, but he had no initiative. What his coach told him to do, he did. And nothing more. Once again, Giles' words came back to her 'Buffy, you really ought to consider returning to solo skating'. She considered it for a moment before the memories began to take hold again.
She was sixteen and on her way to the junior nationals. Next year she would be going into the amateur competitions. Next year she was going to get to be famous for doing the thing she loved most. That afternoon she met Parker. He said he thought she had potential as a pairs skater. She was intrigued enough to try some skating with him. It hooked her. Being lowered into a death spiral, the lifts and throws, the added challenge of perfect synchronicity with her partner were things she relished. After a promising start as a working pair they even started dating.
Then, one afternoon, during a competition he dropped her. Buffy broke one leg, her arm, sprained the other ankle and was out of competition effectively for a year. Parker dumped her and publicly humiliated her when she began to practice again. One of her friends, never up to her level of skating, had dragged her onto the ice and had partnered her through several competitions as she regained her confidence. Xander had forced her to remember how much she loved skating, and he had helped her by taking the attention away from her.
Time had returned to Buffy the confidence to appear before the cameras, but she was still terrified of being alone. That was the real reason she didn't consider going back to skating alone. She did love the challenge and headiness of pairs, but nothing was worth the irritation and stupidity Riley put her through. Except she couldn't bear the thought of being out there alone. Parker's dumping her had left her with deep-seated insecurities about her worth as a person and a skater, and so she stayed with a style of skating that was slowly ceasing to be a joy simply because she was too terrified to do otherwise.
Suddenly, out in the rink, Angelus' music started and Buffy was pulled from her reverie to watch a master at work. His every move combined athleticism with a grace and style that was as beautiful as it was individual. She watched, mesmerised by his choreography, even as she began to commit to memory every detail of the intricate dance on the ice. Every step he took was a study in restrained power and Buffy was drawn to him. She had been ever since she first saw him skate. She still fantasised about getting him to notice her, and had, on a regular basis, some pretty intense dreams on the subject.
It was such a pity he was gay.
Not that he was one of those people who felt it necessary to announce to the media that they were coming out of the closet. He hadn't been seen in any compromising positions with a member of the male sex and certainly there was nothing effeminate about him. Still, his parents had repeatedly said in interviews that he was, and he had never tried to deny it. It was also well known that he was never seen with a woman in anything other than a professional capacity. Learning about his preferences had popped one of Buffy's most cherished fantasies, but she just couldn't stop thinking about him.
Out on the ice, Angelus' attention had returned to the other skater in the stands. There sat the object of some of his more fevered fantasies, watching him practice with an avidity that surprised him. Finishing up with the last bit of his footwork, he skated over to her. "Hi," he said.
She just sat there blinking for a moment while he mentally smacked himself for starting with something as stupid as 'hi'. Then she smiled and replied, "Hey."
"So, you here to steal my choreography?" he asked with a smile.
She grinned, "I was considering it, but Riley could never manage that spread eagle into a camel spin that you got going. If he can't, I don't get to." She shrugged, then leaned forward. "What brought you over here?"
He didn't pause as he told her the truth, "I've been wanting to meet you for a while, Buffy Summers."
"Oh?" she asked with a flirtatious smile. His breath caught in his throat as the expression made even the hairs on his head tingle. "What possible reason could the great Angelus, Baryshnikov of the ice, have to meet me?"
"Maybe I find you interesting," he replied, easily falling into all the tricks he had used back in Galway to entice the girls.
Her smile moved from flirtatious to something else entirely, and he shifted slightly in the vain hope of hiding his interest in her, "Maybe?" She leaned forward . . .
And Darla called from the other end of the rink, "Angelus! Are you going to practice or should I hand in your letter of withdrawal from the competition?"
"I've gotta go. I'll see you around." With that he turned and left before she could say anything.
"Yeah. Around." Great. Another evening spent trying not to think about how sexy the man looked in tight leather pants. Or how expressive and flexible his hands were.
Angelus came to a halt beside Darla who gave him a suspicious look. "What were the two of you talking about?"
He shrugged, "Choreography," he replied.
Her eyes narrowed, then she turned and sent him practising his footwork across the ice until he was ready to drop. All the while he thought about Buffy and how she had been flirting with him. At least he hoped she'd been.
Darla watched Angelus with deep suspicion. Oh, she knew his reputation of being gay. She also knew that was a complete lie. She'd known that ever since they'd been forced to share a hotel room on tour and she'd walked in on him and some floozy he'd picked up in a bar. After that night she'd watched him carefully, and she knew now that he had both a voracious sexual appetite and, with his carefully maintained reputation, virtually no outlets. It was just a matter of time until he gave in and then she would have him. Until then, if it pleased him to think she was convinced like everyone else, so be it.
At least until today, when he had demonstrated more interest in the little blonde skater than he had in anyone at all for the last three years. She was going to have to step up her campaign. More, she was going to have to get rid of her competition.
"Angelus," she said, as he flopped onto the ice in exhaustion. So maybe she'd overdone her revenge on him for flirting a little. "I almost forgot to tell you. This year the skating gala is going to be in two parts. The one at the end for the winners, and an Ice Capades type of show over the weekend. You're going to have to learn some new choreography for the show."
She leaned back awaiting the explosion and was not disappointed.
"They want me to fucking learn new choreography!?" He glared at her, becoming further annoyed and angry when her only response was a shrug. "Do they think I'm some kind of machine? I can't put in a half-decent performance with only a week to learn the steps while preparing for competition!"
Darla shrugged again replying, "You're not the only one who'll be suffering you know. All the skaters are going to have to learn the new performance piece."
Angelus snarled in irritation and began to stamp (as much as he could in skates) off the ice. Abruptly he turned, "What do you know about this?"
Darla put on her most innocent look, "I didn't find out until earlier this evening. It simply slipped my mind. All I know is that you'll be asked to do some partnered dancing. No," she said lifting a hand to forestall the question, "I don't know who with."
He almost growled and stormed off the ice into the changeroom.
*****
The next day he sat at the rink as the others straggled in. His eyes trained solely on Buffy as she yelled at the organisers for arranging something as badly planned and executed as this publicity stunt. She was magnificent when she was angry, and Angelus could just imagine that fire redirected to more pleasurable pursuits . . .
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when she turned sharply away from the gala choreographer and skated right up to where he was sitting and flopped down next to him. He was so involved in not saying something as stupid as a pickup line that he missed the look of complete shock that settled over her face when she realised who she was sprawled next to.
The only thing in Buffy's mind for several seconds was that she had just gracelessly plonked down next to one of her idols looking like a sulky teenager. Complete humiliation didn't even begin to cover how she felt. So as soon as she got herself under control, she started to get up. Unfortunately the goof in charge chose that particular moment to ask for everyone's attention and begin describing the way he wanted things to unfold.
On the whole it wasn't nearly as bad as they had been lead to believe. Only a couple people had to learn any significant amount of new choreography, for the most part all that was being done was the short programs, with the long ones to be performed in the closing gala.
Unfortunately Buffy, holding the position of the first woman to ever complete a quad jump in competition, found herself having to match steps with the best of the male skaters. That meant Angelus. The friendliness he had shown her the night before evaporated, leaving her with a man who was more demanding than any coach Buffy had ever had. Finally she had enough. "What the hell is your problem?" she demanded.
Angelus honestly had no idea why he was driving them both so hard. If pressed he might have said that he hated to see her potential going to waste the way it was with Riley. He couldn't say that however. "What do you mean?" he replied nastily, continuing before she could respond he added, "Maybe if you weren't so damn lazy we could get this down and I could get some real work done!"
With those words he whirled around and by some miraculous coincidence the section of Swan Lake his short program was done to came on over the speakers. He launched into his variation, the same one he had done last night under Buffy's watchful eyes, and let the motion take away his anger. He had based this dance around an invisible partner, a woman who wasn't there, but could be felt by the audience from the way he moved.
Only suddenly she was there, matching every step he took with a precision that took the breath away from every person watching. Not touching, Angelus and Buffy circled the rink, their motions in such perfect harmony that no one dared to interrupt. Not even Darla who had put on that music in the hopes of getting Angelus away from the little blonde who was trespassing on the coach's territory. Instead she had given the two a chance to show an uncanny connection and chemistry in performance.
Out on the ice, Angelus was now skating purely on instinct. The only thing keeping his moves matched to the music was body memory. All his concentration was trained on the small blonde pulling ever closer to him as they launched into a completely synchronous quad-quad combination followed by a camel spin.
Buffy was lost to the concentration of copying Angelus' choreography, she came out of the camel spin, and was nearly shocked out of her skin when his arms circled her waist and he pulled her into a complicated footwork sequence that combined his steps into a piece of partnering that was an absolute joy to do. Buffy lost herself to the improvisation and the feel of his hands on her waist. The positioning of the previously invisible partner Angelus had danced with came so naturally to Buffy it was startling. If there was one thing she'd always had problems with, it was synchronicity with her partner. Now they were waltzing around the ice with no rehearsal, and it was the most amazing experience of her life. This was why she had taken up pairs skating.
Angelus was similarly caught up. He had worked out the choreography of the routine with a partner in mind, and suddenly the space he had left for one was being filled to perfection. All too quickly the dance was drawing to a close and suddenly Angelus wanted to add something. Sure he could never do it in performance. He was, after all, a single skater, but he could take her hand just so, and do something he'd seen done a hundred times both live and on television.
She felt one of his hands slip into hers, and he began to move away. Buffy frowned slightly as he did so, this wasn't even close to being in the routine. Then he braced himself, leaning back, and Buffy understood what he was going to try with no preparation whatsoever. She smiled and let him. At least he wasn't going to try a throw.
Everyone watching out in the rink stared in utter disbelief. This was insane and impossible. No one would try to do a move like that unrehearsed. Then she slid into an elegant death spiral. It was then, silently and unanimously, decided that the pair on the ice must have been practising on the sly, simply because no one could do something that perfectly on the spur of the moment in a first skate together. No matter how good both skaters were.
Buffy felt as though she was flying. Her body was held in the most perfect position and She knew it was her best death spiral ever. She could only wonder where Angelus had been practising to be such a fantastic partner. Angelus was absolutely stunned as he held Buffy's hands in a vice-like grip at how beautiful she looked stretched and arched out moving in a circle around him. That was when the attraction partnered skating held for so many came clear to him. But only if he could skate with Buffy.
They came out of the move and into the final slow steps of the routine, then it was over. The crowd burst into applause, and Darla swept across the ice fuming. Angelus was staring into the little blonde's eyes as though she were the only woman in the world. She could hardly begin her campaign to make the girl look like a clumsy freak if she had just shown she was a perfect match for Angelus. Worse, the gala choreographer was planning to extend the pair's part of the show into a full blown tango. She was going to have to find another way to get the little brat away from Angelus.
She was about to try to pry them apart when the girl's skating partner came scrambling over. "Buffy! Why've you been practising with him? Coach Walsh always said that partners should skate just with each other."
Buffy looked at him in irritation. "Riley, this was the very first time Angelus and I have even been on the ice at the same time." Darla couldn't blame the girl for her annoyance with the young man and was very impressed at her ability to lie. "And would you cut the cord between you and Walsh?" The utter disgust with which Buffy spoke to her partner gave Darla a moment of regret. She might have liked the blonde if it weren't for Angelus.
Riley gave her a shocked look, "Buffy! Why are you always so disrespectful of Coach Walsh? I mean, you're that way with Giles too. I don't understand. They're the ones who take care of you and-" he was cut off as Buffy snorted and headed for the changerooms. He trailed after her, whining about respecting her elders.
Darla raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. She might have just found a useful tool. Now she just needed to find out how to use it.
Angelus glared in irritation after the Backstreet Boys wannabe. He controlled a snicker as his partner dumped Riley on his ass outside the women's locker room. A moment later he blinked as his own thoughts registered. His partner? He didn't have a partner. He skated singly, and after Riley's showing that day she ought to as well. He turned to clear the ice for the other skaters who had started to rehearse as well, and ran into Darla. "Hey," she said. "I really don't appreciate you going behind my back you know."
He paused and turned to look at her confused, "What are you talking about?"
Eyes rolling at the question she replied, "How about the fact that you've clearly been teaching the girl your routine? How about the steps you've clearly been rehearsing with her? How about the fact that you never even mentioned her name until yesterday?"
"I hadn't met her until yesterday," he responded. He was completely baffled by her line of questioning. The steps had simply felt completely natural. As though they were meant to dance them together.
"How did she learn the steps then? When did you learn how to work a death spiral that competently? If you hadn't met her until yesterday how the heck did you do that?" Darla demanded.
"We just did," he said. Darla stared at him incredulously, then threw her hands up in disgust and left the arena. Angel was startled when a voice spoke up from behind him.
"You know, if you're going to lie about it you might as well try something a touch more believable." Angelus whirled around to see Buffy's coach looking at him with dry humour.
"What are . . . Oh." Angelus suddenly realised just how insane the truth was. "As nuts as this is, I'm not lying."
The British man simply arched an expressive eyebrow then strolled away, presumably to catch up with his skater. Angelus looked after him for a moment then decided to get to his hotel room and rest before going back to rehearse his long program that evening.
Giles was hastening to catch up with Buffy while he mulled over Angelus' words. The man couldn't be telling the truth. Rupert Giles had been coaching for years, and even though both Buffy and Angelus were among the best skaters in the world, he simply could not believe something as patently fantastic as the two of them simply having a magical ability to partner each other. Clearly Angelus was trying to protect Buffy from adverse publicity, something for which Giles was extremely grateful. If word were to get out that Buffy was courting Angelus for a skating partnership, there would be a corresponding media storm, and worse, the judges would start to see partnering problems where there were none.
Although the sheer number of problems with the current partnership were enough to drive the poor coach quite batty. After the Olympics were over though, Giles was certainly willing to encourage her to court the male skater. They had excellent partnering, and were a good match both technically and artistically.
He caught up with Buffy as she slammed the women's dressing room door in Riley's face. Rupert suppressed the urge to smile. "Excuse me," he said to the young man standing dumbly outside the door. "Buffy, could I speak with you for a moment?"
There was some shuffling then she came out and, fixing Riley with a stern glare, replied, "Okay. What's up?" She turned her attention back to Giles and smiled.
"I wanted to know how the hell you managed to rehearse with Angelus when you haven't been out of our sight for more than an hour at a time on any given day." He smiled at her and waited expectantly.
"We didn't," she replied.
Giles just stood blinking at her for a moment before he said, "You . . . didn't."
"No." She looked confused he would even ask the question. "I just met him yesterday. I mean, I've watched him compete and stuff and yesterday he was going over his short routine, so I know the steps." She gave Giles a look of what appeared to be unfeigned innocence. He could hardly believe his ears.
"That death spiral and the footwork sequence were most definitely not in the routine." Giles looked at her baffled at how she could continue to claim the pair hadn't rehearsed.
Buffy looked at him imploringly, "Look, Giles, I know I sound nuts but it's true! The footwork and the death spiral were just improvised." She sounded so sincere, Rupert was forced to believe her. Which left him with the difficult task of convincing the other man to give up a solo career to work with Buffy.
*****
The week to the performance passed quickly for Angelus and Buffy. Every moment she wasn't being frustrated out of her skull by Riley she was with Angelus rehearsing their tango. It started simply enough, some footwork across the rink, a couple side-by-sides, then it got hot. Right after the jumps, Buffy was supposed to essentially glue herself to Angel's back, and writhe around after him, then she was supposed to slide down, give him her hands to be pulled though his legs, and then the real partnering began. Of course, usually by then she was trying very hard not to think of all the tight muscles and extremely well proportioned anatomy she was all pressed up against.
Angelus was firmly trying to keep his interest in Buffy a secret from everyone while dressed in tight pants. This meant a lot of time spent imagining uncle Hamish dressed in bikini briefs. He was starting to get nightmares. The best and worst point in the routine came right at the end for the male skater. Buffy's slender, lithe, feminine body pressed its whole length against his, her face inches from his own, and then the damned thing called for them to kiss. They'd both been putting it off. Angelus didn't know why she was, he was just grateful. The moment their lips met, he knew he was going to drag her off the ice to somewhere more private and have his way with her.
He should have known that pretending to be gay was going to come back and bite him in the butt.
The week was a much longer period for Darla. Her first order of business was to find some way of getting rid of her competition. Violence was simply lacking in finesse, and she didn't want to risk being traced to Buffy's dismissal. No, she had to find something that could get rid of the little blonde that was within the rules. The only problem was that Buffy Summers had never violated any rules within the skating community. There was nothing to be found on her that could get her thrown out. There were no scandals she could throw at the girl, and worse, even if she'd found some Angelus was a faithful friend. He would stick even closer to the other skater in support.
"Dammit! This is useless!" she shouted throwing the stacks of illegally gained information on Summers onto her hotel desk. The copy of the girl's birth certificate came free and fluttered to the floor. Darla huffed in irritation and bent over to pick it up. As she moved to toss it onto the desk with everything else something on the photocopy caught her eye and Darla leaned over to examine the paper more carefully. She began shuffling through her papers and three hours later was arranging an appointment with Riley Finn, a grin on her face.
They met in a small restaurant in the outskirts of the city. Once they had both ordered and the food had been brought, Darla began her pitch speaking in a carefully distressed tone of voice. "Mr. Finn, I know you're wondering why I asked you here, but I simply need advice, and as Miss Summers' skating partner you seemed the best to ask."
The young man puffed up in pride at being someone who was turned to in a crisis, and spoke in what Darla assumed he thought was a reassuring tone of voice. "Well, I can't guarantee you that I'll be able to help, but I'll surely try Ma'am," he said gallantly.
She suppressed the urge to either stare or wince. "You see Riley-- May I call you Riley?"
"Sure," he smiled at her and Darla gritted her teeth.
"I've come across some information about your partner, and it might well disqualify her from competition." Darla spoke with all the sincerity and concern she could muster, and was rewarded to see Riley's face settle into a condemning frown without a moment's hesitation.
"She's not using . . . *drugs* is she?" Riley looked so horrified and stunned Darla was ready to roll her eyes at the boy.
She smiled comfortingly instead and replied, "No! No. Nothing like that. It's not even something she would even be aware of." Darla was going to be going to the dentist after this because she was oozing so much sweetness her teeth were hurting.
"Oh. Well then what's going on?" Riley asked. His big blue eyes were so trusting Darla patted herself on the back for making use of him.
She took a deep breath and deliberately and visibly steeled herself. "Buffy wasn't born in America, she was born in Ireland. Her parents never got her citizenship changed and because of this she's not actually a citizen of the United States. She can't skate for the US."
Riley's eyes got even bigger and he said, "But if the rules say she can't skate for America why didn't you go right to the authorities when you found out?"
"The last thing I want is for anyone to accuse me of trying to undermine the American team or for anyone to think I'm trying to get Miss Summers to compete for Ireland. And, I mean, this isn't a big deal. It's not as though she's been cheating or deliberately doing anything wrong." Inwardly Darla smiled exultantly as Riley took the bait.
His face settled into a frown. "The rules are there to keep us from falling into anarchy," said Riley, beginning something that sounded like a frequently repeated lecture. "Without rules we're no better than animals. If we break one rule, how long will it be before we start breaking others? And then how long before society collapses?"
Darla hastily turned her laughing fit into a coughing fit. It wouldn't do for Riley to be mocked then. She took in a deep breath once she had recovered and said, "What do you suggest then?"
"I'll take the evidence to the Olympic committee. I may not be happy about it, but it's my duty to follow the rules." He smiled patronisingly at Darla who took him back to her hotel, gave him the papers, got rid of him, then collapsed in hysterical laughter to the bed. It was just perfect. That chump was so sincere in his beliefs that no one would look past him and he would get Buffy thrown out of competition.
And she would go home leaving Angelus to Darla.
*****
Buffy was at an early practice with Riley when her cell phone rang and Giles was hurrying onto the ice a minute later thrusting it at her. "Hello?"
"Oh sweetie! I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" her mother cried over the line.
Buffy stood simply blinking for a moment, ignoring Riley and Giles. "What?"
"I just heard the news about how the Olympic committee found out about your citizenship. I want you to know that your father and I never meant for anything like this to happen. It-"
Buffy interrupted her mother. "Anything like what? What does my citizenship have to do with anything?"
"You hadn't heard?" the woman's voice was both startled and, if anything, more upset. "Someone on the board found out that because you weren't born in the US you're not technically a citizen of the country. They're currently deciding whether you could be allowed to skate for America." Her mother's frantic explanation had Buffy staring off into space utterly stunned.
"I'm not an American?" she finally asked.
Giles, watching Buffy anxiously for a clue as to what had distressed his skater, shook his head in disbelief at that statement and muttered, "If she's not a bloody American then I'm Queen Victoria."
Buffy shot her coach an irritated glare then focussed on her mother's explanation. "Your father and I were on a business trip. We were on a brief side trip to Ireland when I went into labour and so you were born in Dublin." Her mother sighed. "It never occurred to either your father or me that you were anything other than an American, and I didn't know about this loophole until we were called for confirmation."
"I . . . How did they find this out?" Buffy asked.
Her mother sighed, "I haven't a clue. I just wanted you to know that-"
"It's okay Mom. You wouldn't have known." Buffy said goodbye and began to skate laps until Giles finally shouted her over demanding to know what was going on. "Apparently I wasn't born in the US which makes me a citizen of Ireland and somebody found out and told the Olympic committee and they're now deciding whether I'm American enough to skate for America or if I'm gonna get thrown out of the competition before it even begins."
Appalled, the coach demanded, "And your mother couldn't tell you who did this?"
Before Buffy could respond, Riley finally spoke. "I did." The two turned to stare at him watching as he straightened up looking righteous and proud. The incredulous stares simply made him indignant and he added, "Rules are there to be followed. If we don't follow them on a little thing like this then how long before we stop following them entirely? Then chaos will rain down-"
"Stop being so bloody damned melodramatic Finn," growled Giles, "You've practically destroyed both your chances of even being in the competition for a ridiculous bit of morality."
"It's not ridiculous!" cried Riley. As he began to expound upon his philosophies of right and wrong Buffy and Giles headed for the stands. Riley hurried after them, struggling with his skates as the two ignored him.
When Buffy sat down to take off her skates, Giles said, "Look. I'll go and ask around to see if anyone knows anything. See if I can't affect the decision." She smiled up at her mentor and squeezed the hand he rested briefly on her shoulder.
"Okay," she replied. Just as Giles reached the doors Buffy's eyes went wide and she left her shoes untied as she trotted after him. She caught up outside and called, "Giles! One more thing." Riley was puffing after her and muttering something incomprehensible about caution and shoelaces. Giles tilted his head inquiringly.
"What?" he asked.
"We need to arrange a press conference to deal with this. Especially if Riley," she favoured her partner with a long sardonic glance, "Is going to go around telling everyone that he's the one who told."
Giles smiled at her, "I'll look into that as soon as I can, Buffy." He had just reached his car when he turned around and shouted back, "Don't forget you have rehearsal with Angelus this afternoon!"
"I won't!" she waved and smiled. Then smiled more broadly at the thought of spending an afternoon with the handsome skater. She could fantasise about him while they practised. Which reminded her of another obligation to be fulfilled that evening.
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I don't own some of the dialogue, and I don't own the TV ad embedded in here.
Distribution: If you want it, take it, lemme know where it's gone.
Rating: PG-13 for a bit of language and violence.
Summary: It's my first AU. Buffy's a skater, Angel's a skater, Darla's jealous. Despite all my efforts to the contrary Riley turned into a moron.
Notes: This is pretty much fluff. I also want to apologise to anyone who is kinda tired of blatant Riley bashing. It wasn't supposed to come out this way but Riley turned into the moronic dupe before I could help it. On the other hand, if you like Riley as a dip then I suppose go ahead and enjoy. Also, yes, I know the title sucks.
Dedication: Special for this time is a dedication to all those feedbackers at ff.net who I never respond to.
It was the fourth time that day. Buffy swooped around and glared at Riley. "Look! I'm not some fragile little princess who needs pampering! We got to this point with both of our talents and we can't suddenly drop the quads just because you think I suddenly can't land them!"
He looked hurt, "Buffy, I just don't want to risk falling," he said reasonably, "It'll look badly overconfident if we keep them in and-"
"And what?" she demanded, "We won't come close to winning otherwise. There is no point in going to the Olympics if you don't have a chance at winning."
Riley had the gall to smile at her condescendingly, "It's for the experience Buffy. America will win hands down with Matthews and Riker. We can enjoy the experience of the Olympic village and quaint local customs . . ." He trailed off at the look on her face. It was a combination of shock, disgust, irritation and disbelief. She was sincerely appalled that he was spouting this tripe at her.
"Riley. We. Are. In. Canada. What 'quaint local customs' are you expecting to find?" She glanced around the well-appointed rink. "This is a first-world country, it shares a border with us, and we're just across the border from Detroit." Windsor had been a surprise winner for the Olympics to be sure, but the small city had gracefully risen to the challenge. By setting up most of the events in Detroit and having only those absolutely necessary events take place in the official host city they had avoided most of the headaches associated with hosting an event of that size.
Riley grinned at her goofily, "Well, I wanted to see an Eskimo eat some blubber for one."
She snorted in disgust and skated to their coach. "Giles, I can't take this. If I have to do one more competition with this guy I'm gonna to be arrested for murder one."
"Buffy, he's an excellent skater-"
"He's a moron," was her unequivocal response.
Her coach sighed. He agreed, but there was very little he could do. Riley was the only skater willing to skate with Buffy. As the first woman to effectively pull off quadruple jumps in competition she continually found it difficult to get a partner who could keep up with her. The virtuosity her skills demanded was hard to come by. Riley had been the only one so far who could come close. Still, he was too cautious, and Giles had to admit that hesitation was holding Buffy back. For what had to be the hundredth time, he started, "Buffy, you really ought to consider returning to solo skating. It-"
"No!" Her fervent response, as always, made Giles wonder why she was so insistent on having a partner. "No," she continued more calmly, "I like to skate pairs, and that's what I'm gonna do." For a moment she seemed to waver, looking at Riley as he carefully practised single axels, single salchow, single this and single that. Instead of doing anything challenging. Then she put her chin up and skated back out onto the ice. "Riley, why aren't you practising the jumps in the program? Or your footwork?"
He did the condescending thing again that made Buffy grit her teeth, "You should always have the basics in place before you try the more difficult steps. My last coach-"
She rolled her eyes. If she had a dime for every time Riley mentioned his last coach, Maggie Walsh, she could have bought the whole damn city of Detroit. "Come on," she growled, and dragged the other skater out to centre ice, and cued Giles to hit the music.
So they started again, neither aware of the man with dark hair watching them from the bleachers. His concentrated stare picking out the flaws in both their performances, but noting the greater flaws of the man's and how they seemed to cause about half of the small blonde's problems. He rolled his eyes as the pair hit the side by side jumps in the short program, and again the woman performed faultlessly, while the guy wimped out, this time with a double.
The dark-haired man was called Angelus. He had been born Liam MacKenzie, but had his name legally changed the moment he reached the age of majority. His Catholic parents had been appalled their son would seemingly try to imitate rock stars like Sting at the same time as those godless gay male skaters. They hadn't spoken since his first competition. Even now, as he was representing the Republic of Ireland with a good chance of winning the men's figure skating competition, they still told people they had no son. It was one reason of many he trained in the US.
He had come to know Buffy Summers from a distance and had been entranced by the sheer power of her skating. What she lacked in presence was something that would be corrected by time and experience. Of course, if she kept to the pairs skating she was going to have to find a partner who was up to her mettle. As Riley gave her a smug look and demonstrated an alternative for the step their coach wanted them to do that was both obscene and utterly unaesthetic, Angelus amended the thought. At the very least she could find a partner who wasn't a complete idiot.
Finally he tired of watching the pair on the ice who were supposed to be doing some sort of love story. They looked like they had been pulled from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Buffy as the Fairy Queen Titania, Riley as the donkey-headed Bottom. He stalked off, his trademark black duster sweeping behind him, and ignored the large numbers of media hounds wanting to talk to the ever-elusive Irish skater. He simply strode past, got into his rental car and headed for the Olympic Village.
He was meeting his coach for dinner, and the two were going to talk tactics. Both for dealing with the press and dealing with the competition. "Angelus!" she exclaimed, a sweet smile gracing her features. He smiled back and they did that air kissing thing that Angelus privately thought was moronic, but put up with for the sake of a carefully crafted reputation. A reputation that was the only thing keeping most of the screaming teenage girls away. It also succeeded admirably at keeping Darla at arms' length.
"Darla," he greeted her and held her chair for her. Once they were seated and their orders placed he got down to business. "Anton Kozyrskyj has just added a new spin sequence to his routine, and I think he's working with that Armenian girl on those spins."
Darla's expression of polite interest turned to wolfish business, and she frowned slightly as she concentrated, "Kozyrskyj relies a lot on those spins, I don't think this should be a problem. He hasn't landed more than one quad per program for a while now."
Angelus shrugged, "He's still capable of it though, and I think we need to get something into the program. Otherwise I'm going to have to resort to crowd pleasing shenanigans," he shuddered, "You know I hate doing those."
"Mmm," she was about to say something when their food arrived. After getting a decent start she turned to him, "So when is our free time on the ice?"
"Eight o'clock. We're less likely to have to deal with anyone seeing the new choreography that way."
The conversation ranged on, covering the things Angelus was going to say and not say when interviewed, and repeated admonitions on Darla's part that he be nice to and about the other skaters in public. As if he hadn't learned that early in his career when he had called another skater 'a damned fool'. There had been a media circus and he was forced to retract the statement. It was proven two days after the retraction when the other skater was caught publicly supporting a group that believed the government had been infiltrated by evil vampires from another dimension.
Dinner wore on. In spite of the fact that she was his coach and despite the reputation about him that she seemed to believe wholeheartedly, Darla insisted on flirting with Angelus in the most outrageous fashion. "So," she said, leaning forward just enough so that he had a perfect view down her shirt. "I hear you've been watching that Summers girl and her partner."
In spite of his best efforts, his gaze could not help but land on her enticingly displayed breasts. Sensing the direction of his gaze, Darla shifted and Angelus caught a glimpse of her bra beneath her shirt. "And you care why?" he asked.
"I want to know if there's a reason you find the pair so interesting. You and I both know that neither Finn nor Summers are the sort of people to hold your attention for . . . personal reasons. That really only leaves professional ones." She looked at him inquiringly. He wasn't about to tell her how very wrong she was about his interest in Buffy, so he told her half the truth.
"It can be entertaining to watch the two of them," he said with a calculatedly careless shrug, "She skates circles around him while he looks like he should be competing in the junior Olympics." He grinned at the memory of just how goofy Riley Finn had looked with his carefully controlled motions. At his best the other skater was mechanical. Excellent technique, but there was more to good skating than just technique. At his worst he looked grossly amateurish and Angelus could not fathom for the life of him why the two were partners.
They left the topic of Summers and Finn aside and concentrated on a discussion of how to manipulate the judges into giving higher marks. Darla was all for Angelus to play up to the audience, Angelus was planning on altering the choreography to play up the fact that he was as good at spins and footwork as he was at jumping. Something very few skaters in this competition could boast. An image of Buffy's delicate and graceful footwork across the ice sprang to mind but he pushed it away.
The skater and his coach finished dinner and left for the rink where several pairs were just finishing the final bits of their rehearsal. As he moved out, getting a feel for the ice, he noticed a blonde sitting on the bleachers watching intently. He did a couple warm-up double axels then circled the ice again to get a look at his audience. It was Buffy Summers. Their eyes met, and she glanced away, flushing slightly. Darla returned from wherever she had disappeared off to, and he put the younger blonde out of his mind as he went over his routines.
Buffy watched in fascination as the handsome male skater started into his rehearsal. His technique was virtually flawless, the choreography was both graceful and masculine, he was an amazing artist and he was one of the most stunningly sexy men she had ever laid eyes on. He was also quite intelligent, Buffy knew, having watched him in interviews with various talk and news show hosts. He had even graduated from Oxford with a double major and minor in history, Celtic studies and music respectively.
She herself was working through the final stages of her major/minor in dance and kinesiology. Of course, unlike Angelus, she was very unlikely to graduate at the top of her class. She wasn't at the bottom by any means, but she was hardly one of the best students either. She was helped at least partly by having a near eidetic memory for choreography, and avidly watched other skaters to steal bits of theirs. It was cheating in a way, she knew that, she also knew that several pairs had been ripping off a couple of her trademark moves.
They were hers. For all that Riley was her partner and they were in this together, she was the one who worked with Giles on the choreography. Riley was an excellent skater, but he had no initiative. What his coach told him to do, he did. And nothing more. Once again, Giles' words came back to her 'Buffy, you really ought to consider returning to solo skating'. She considered it for a moment before the memories began to take hold again.
She was sixteen and on her way to the junior nationals. Next year she would be going into the amateur competitions. Next year she was going to get to be famous for doing the thing she loved most. That afternoon she met Parker. He said he thought she had potential as a pairs skater. She was intrigued enough to try some skating with him. It hooked her. Being lowered into a death spiral, the lifts and throws, the added challenge of perfect synchronicity with her partner were things she relished. After a promising start as a working pair they even started dating.
Then, one afternoon, during a competition he dropped her. Buffy broke one leg, her arm, sprained the other ankle and was out of competition effectively for a year. Parker dumped her and publicly humiliated her when she began to practice again. One of her friends, never up to her level of skating, had dragged her onto the ice and had partnered her through several competitions as she regained her confidence. Xander had forced her to remember how much she loved skating, and he had helped her by taking the attention away from her.
Time had returned to Buffy the confidence to appear before the cameras, but she was still terrified of being alone. That was the real reason she didn't consider going back to skating alone. She did love the challenge and headiness of pairs, but nothing was worth the irritation and stupidity Riley put her through. Except she couldn't bear the thought of being out there alone. Parker's dumping her had left her with deep-seated insecurities about her worth as a person and a skater, and so she stayed with a style of skating that was slowly ceasing to be a joy simply because she was too terrified to do otherwise.
Suddenly, out in the rink, Angelus' music started and Buffy was pulled from her reverie to watch a master at work. His every move combined athleticism with a grace and style that was as beautiful as it was individual. She watched, mesmerised by his choreography, even as she began to commit to memory every detail of the intricate dance on the ice. Every step he took was a study in restrained power and Buffy was drawn to him. She had been ever since she first saw him skate. She still fantasised about getting him to notice her, and had, on a regular basis, some pretty intense dreams on the subject.
It was such a pity he was gay.
Not that he was one of those people who felt it necessary to announce to the media that they were coming out of the closet. He hadn't been seen in any compromising positions with a member of the male sex and certainly there was nothing effeminate about him. Still, his parents had repeatedly said in interviews that he was, and he had never tried to deny it. It was also well known that he was never seen with a woman in anything other than a professional capacity. Learning about his preferences had popped one of Buffy's most cherished fantasies, but she just couldn't stop thinking about him.
Out on the ice, Angelus' attention had returned to the other skater in the stands. There sat the object of some of his more fevered fantasies, watching him practice with an avidity that surprised him. Finishing up with the last bit of his footwork, he skated over to her. "Hi," he said.
She just sat there blinking for a moment while he mentally smacked himself for starting with something as stupid as 'hi'. Then she smiled and replied, "Hey."
"So, you here to steal my choreography?" he asked with a smile.
She grinned, "I was considering it, but Riley could never manage that spread eagle into a camel spin that you got going. If he can't, I don't get to." She shrugged, then leaned forward. "What brought you over here?"
He didn't pause as he told her the truth, "I've been wanting to meet you for a while, Buffy Summers."
"Oh?" she asked with a flirtatious smile. His breath caught in his throat as the expression made even the hairs on his head tingle. "What possible reason could the great Angelus, Baryshnikov of the ice, have to meet me?"
"Maybe I find you interesting," he replied, easily falling into all the tricks he had used back in Galway to entice the girls.
Her smile moved from flirtatious to something else entirely, and he shifted slightly in the vain hope of hiding his interest in her, "Maybe?" She leaned forward . . .
And Darla called from the other end of the rink, "Angelus! Are you going to practice or should I hand in your letter of withdrawal from the competition?"
"I've gotta go. I'll see you around." With that he turned and left before she could say anything.
"Yeah. Around." Great. Another evening spent trying not to think about how sexy the man looked in tight leather pants. Or how expressive and flexible his hands were.
Angelus came to a halt beside Darla who gave him a suspicious look. "What were the two of you talking about?"
He shrugged, "Choreography," he replied.
Her eyes narrowed, then she turned and sent him practising his footwork across the ice until he was ready to drop. All the while he thought about Buffy and how she had been flirting with him. At least he hoped she'd been.
Darla watched Angelus with deep suspicion. Oh, she knew his reputation of being gay. She also knew that was a complete lie. She'd known that ever since they'd been forced to share a hotel room on tour and she'd walked in on him and some floozy he'd picked up in a bar. After that night she'd watched him carefully, and she knew now that he had both a voracious sexual appetite and, with his carefully maintained reputation, virtually no outlets. It was just a matter of time until he gave in and then she would have him. Until then, if it pleased him to think she was convinced like everyone else, so be it.
At least until today, when he had demonstrated more interest in the little blonde skater than he had in anyone at all for the last three years. She was going to have to step up her campaign. More, she was going to have to get rid of her competition.
"Angelus," she said, as he flopped onto the ice in exhaustion. So maybe she'd overdone her revenge on him for flirting a little. "I almost forgot to tell you. This year the skating gala is going to be in two parts. The one at the end for the winners, and an Ice Capades type of show over the weekend. You're going to have to learn some new choreography for the show."
She leaned back awaiting the explosion and was not disappointed.
"They want me to fucking learn new choreography!?" He glared at her, becoming further annoyed and angry when her only response was a shrug. "Do they think I'm some kind of machine? I can't put in a half-decent performance with only a week to learn the steps while preparing for competition!"
Darla shrugged again replying, "You're not the only one who'll be suffering you know. All the skaters are going to have to learn the new performance piece."
Angelus snarled in irritation and began to stamp (as much as he could in skates) off the ice. Abruptly he turned, "What do you know about this?"
Darla put on her most innocent look, "I didn't find out until earlier this evening. It simply slipped my mind. All I know is that you'll be asked to do some partnered dancing. No," she said lifting a hand to forestall the question, "I don't know who with."
He almost growled and stormed off the ice into the changeroom.
*****
The next day he sat at the rink as the others straggled in. His eyes trained solely on Buffy as she yelled at the organisers for arranging something as badly planned and executed as this publicity stunt. She was magnificent when she was angry, and Angelus could just imagine that fire redirected to more pleasurable pursuits . . .
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when she turned sharply away from the gala choreographer and skated right up to where he was sitting and flopped down next to him. He was so involved in not saying something as stupid as a pickup line that he missed the look of complete shock that settled over her face when she realised who she was sprawled next to.
The only thing in Buffy's mind for several seconds was that she had just gracelessly plonked down next to one of her idols looking like a sulky teenager. Complete humiliation didn't even begin to cover how she felt. So as soon as she got herself under control, she started to get up. Unfortunately the goof in charge chose that particular moment to ask for everyone's attention and begin describing the way he wanted things to unfold.
On the whole it wasn't nearly as bad as they had been lead to believe. Only a couple people had to learn any significant amount of new choreography, for the most part all that was being done was the short programs, with the long ones to be performed in the closing gala.
Unfortunately Buffy, holding the position of the first woman to ever complete a quad jump in competition, found herself having to match steps with the best of the male skaters. That meant Angelus. The friendliness he had shown her the night before evaporated, leaving her with a man who was more demanding than any coach Buffy had ever had. Finally she had enough. "What the hell is your problem?" she demanded.
Angelus honestly had no idea why he was driving them both so hard. If pressed he might have said that he hated to see her potential going to waste the way it was with Riley. He couldn't say that however. "What do you mean?" he replied nastily, continuing before she could respond he added, "Maybe if you weren't so damn lazy we could get this down and I could get some real work done!"
With those words he whirled around and by some miraculous coincidence the section of Swan Lake his short program was done to came on over the speakers. He launched into his variation, the same one he had done last night under Buffy's watchful eyes, and let the motion take away his anger. He had based this dance around an invisible partner, a woman who wasn't there, but could be felt by the audience from the way he moved.
Only suddenly she was there, matching every step he took with a precision that took the breath away from every person watching. Not touching, Angelus and Buffy circled the rink, their motions in such perfect harmony that no one dared to interrupt. Not even Darla who had put on that music in the hopes of getting Angelus away from the little blonde who was trespassing on the coach's territory. Instead she had given the two a chance to show an uncanny connection and chemistry in performance.
Out on the ice, Angelus was now skating purely on instinct. The only thing keeping his moves matched to the music was body memory. All his concentration was trained on the small blonde pulling ever closer to him as they launched into a completely synchronous quad-quad combination followed by a camel spin.
Buffy was lost to the concentration of copying Angelus' choreography, she came out of the camel spin, and was nearly shocked out of her skin when his arms circled her waist and he pulled her into a complicated footwork sequence that combined his steps into a piece of partnering that was an absolute joy to do. Buffy lost herself to the improvisation and the feel of his hands on her waist. The positioning of the previously invisible partner Angelus had danced with came so naturally to Buffy it was startling. If there was one thing she'd always had problems with, it was synchronicity with her partner. Now they were waltzing around the ice with no rehearsal, and it was the most amazing experience of her life. This was why she had taken up pairs skating.
Angelus was similarly caught up. He had worked out the choreography of the routine with a partner in mind, and suddenly the space he had left for one was being filled to perfection. All too quickly the dance was drawing to a close and suddenly Angelus wanted to add something. Sure he could never do it in performance. He was, after all, a single skater, but he could take her hand just so, and do something he'd seen done a hundred times both live and on television.
She felt one of his hands slip into hers, and he began to move away. Buffy frowned slightly as he did so, this wasn't even close to being in the routine. Then he braced himself, leaning back, and Buffy understood what he was going to try with no preparation whatsoever. She smiled and let him. At least he wasn't going to try a throw.
Everyone watching out in the rink stared in utter disbelief. This was insane and impossible. No one would try to do a move like that unrehearsed. Then she slid into an elegant death spiral. It was then, silently and unanimously, decided that the pair on the ice must have been practising on the sly, simply because no one could do something that perfectly on the spur of the moment in a first skate together. No matter how good both skaters were.
Buffy felt as though she was flying. Her body was held in the most perfect position and She knew it was her best death spiral ever. She could only wonder where Angelus had been practising to be such a fantastic partner. Angelus was absolutely stunned as he held Buffy's hands in a vice-like grip at how beautiful she looked stretched and arched out moving in a circle around him. That was when the attraction partnered skating held for so many came clear to him. But only if he could skate with Buffy.
They came out of the move and into the final slow steps of the routine, then it was over. The crowd burst into applause, and Darla swept across the ice fuming. Angelus was staring into the little blonde's eyes as though she were the only woman in the world. She could hardly begin her campaign to make the girl look like a clumsy freak if she had just shown she was a perfect match for Angelus. Worse, the gala choreographer was planning to extend the pair's part of the show into a full blown tango. She was going to have to find another way to get the little brat away from Angelus.
She was about to try to pry them apart when the girl's skating partner came scrambling over. "Buffy! Why've you been practising with him? Coach Walsh always said that partners should skate just with each other."
Buffy looked at him in irritation. "Riley, this was the very first time Angelus and I have even been on the ice at the same time." Darla couldn't blame the girl for her annoyance with the young man and was very impressed at her ability to lie. "And would you cut the cord between you and Walsh?" The utter disgust with which Buffy spoke to her partner gave Darla a moment of regret. She might have liked the blonde if it weren't for Angelus.
Riley gave her a shocked look, "Buffy! Why are you always so disrespectful of Coach Walsh? I mean, you're that way with Giles too. I don't understand. They're the ones who take care of you and-" he was cut off as Buffy snorted and headed for the changerooms. He trailed after her, whining about respecting her elders.
Darla raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. She might have just found a useful tool. Now she just needed to find out how to use it.
Angelus glared in irritation after the Backstreet Boys wannabe. He controlled a snicker as his partner dumped Riley on his ass outside the women's locker room. A moment later he blinked as his own thoughts registered. His partner? He didn't have a partner. He skated singly, and after Riley's showing that day she ought to as well. He turned to clear the ice for the other skaters who had started to rehearse as well, and ran into Darla. "Hey," she said. "I really don't appreciate you going behind my back you know."
He paused and turned to look at her confused, "What are you talking about?"
Eyes rolling at the question she replied, "How about the fact that you've clearly been teaching the girl your routine? How about the steps you've clearly been rehearsing with her? How about the fact that you never even mentioned her name until yesterday?"
"I hadn't met her until yesterday," he responded. He was completely baffled by her line of questioning. The steps had simply felt completely natural. As though they were meant to dance them together.
"How did she learn the steps then? When did you learn how to work a death spiral that competently? If you hadn't met her until yesterday how the heck did you do that?" Darla demanded.
"We just did," he said. Darla stared at him incredulously, then threw her hands up in disgust and left the arena. Angel was startled when a voice spoke up from behind him.
"You know, if you're going to lie about it you might as well try something a touch more believable." Angelus whirled around to see Buffy's coach looking at him with dry humour.
"What are . . . Oh." Angelus suddenly realised just how insane the truth was. "As nuts as this is, I'm not lying."
The British man simply arched an expressive eyebrow then strolled away, presumably to catch up with his skater. Angelus looked after him for a moment then decided to get to his hotel room and rest before going back to rehearse his long program that evening.
Giles was hastening to catch up with Buffy while he mulled over Angelus' words. The man couldn't be telling the truth. Rupert Giles had been coaching for years, and even though both Buffy and Angelus were among the best skaters in the world, he simply could not believe something as patently fantastic as the two of them simply having a magical ability to partner each other. Clearly Angelus was trying to protect Buffy from adverse publicity, something for which Giles was extremely grateful. If word were to get out that Buffy was courting Angelus for a skating partnership, there would be a corresponding media storm, and worse, the judges would start to see partnering problems where there were none.
Although the sheer number of problems with the current partnership were enough to drive the poor coach quite batty. After the Olympics were over though, Giles was certainly willing to encourage her to court the male skater. They had excellent partnering, and were a good match both technically and artistically.
He caught up with Buffy as she slammed the women's dressing room door in Riley's face. Rupert suppressed the urge to smile. "Excuse me," he said to the young man standing dumbly outside the door. "Buffy, could I speak with you for a moment?"
There was some shuffling then she came out and, fixing Riley with a stern glare, replied, "Okay. What's up?" She turned her attention back to Giles and smiled.
"I wanted to know how the hell you managed to rehearse with Angelus when you haven't been out of our sight for more than an hour at a time on any given day." He smiled at her and waited expectantly.
"We didn't," she replied.
Giles just stood blinking at her for a moment before he said, "You . . . didn't."
"No." She looked confused he would even ask the question. "I just met him yesterday. I mean, I've watched him compete and stuff and yesterday he was going over his short routine, so I know the steps." She gave Giles a look of what appeared to be unfeigned innocence. He could hardly believe his ears.
"That death spiral and the footwork sequence were most definitely not in the routine." Giles looked at her baffled at how she could continue to claim the pair hadn't rehearsed.
Buffy looked at him imploringly, "Look, Giles, I know I sound nuts but it's true! The footwork and the death spiral were just improvised." She sounded so sincere, Rupert was forced to believe her. Which left him with the difficult task of convincing the other man to give up a solo career to work with Buffy.
*****
The week to the performance passed quickly for Angelus and Buffy. Every moment she wasn't being frustrated out of her skull by Riley she was with Angelus rehearsing their tango. It started simply enough, some footwork across the rink, a couple side-by-sides, then it got hot. Right after the jumps, Buffy was supposed to essentially glue herself to Angel's back, and writhe around after him, then she was supposed to slide down, give him her hands to be pulled though his legs, and then the real partnering began. Of course, usually by then she was trying very hard not to think of all the tight muscles and extremely well proportioned anatomy she was all pressed up against.
Angelus was firmly trying to keep his interest in Buffy a secret from everyone while dressed in tight pants. This meant a lot of time spent imagining uncle Hamish dressed in bikini briefs. He was starting to get nightmares. The best and worst point in the routine came right at the end for the male skater. Buffy's slender, lithe, feminine body pressed its whole length against his, her face inches from his own, and then the damned thing called for them to kiss. They'd both been putting it off. Angelus didn't know why she was, he was just grateful. The moment their lips met, he knew he was going to drag her off the ice to somewhere more private and have his way with her.
He should have known that pretending to be gay was going to come back and bite him in the butt.
The week was a much longer period for Darla. Her first order of business was to find some way of getting rid of her competition. Violence was simply lacking in finesse, and she didn't want to risk being traced to Buffy's dismissal. No, she had to find something that could get rid of the little blonde that was within the rules. The only problem was that Buffy Summers had never violated any rules within the skating community. There was nothing to be found on her that could get her thrown out. There were no scandals she could throw at the girl, and worse, even if she'd found some Angelus was a faithful friend. He would stick even closer to the other skater in support.
"Dammit! This is useless!" she shouted throwing the stacks of illegally gained information on Summers onto her hotel desk. The copy of the girl's birth certificate came free and fluttered to the floor. Darla huffed in irritation and bent over to pick it up. As she moved to toss it onto the desk with everything else something on the photocopy caught her eye and Darla leaned over to examine the paper more carefully. She began shuffling through her papers and three hours later was arranging an appointment with Riley Finn, a grin on her face.
They met in a small restaurant in the outskirts of the city. Once they had both ordered and the food had been brought, Darla began her pitch speaking in a carefully distressed tone of voice. "Mr. Finn, I know you're wondering why I asked you here, but I simply need advice, and as Miss Summers' skating partner you seemed the best to ask."
The young man puffed up in pride at being someone who was turned to in a crisis, and spoke in what Darla assumed he thought was a reassuring tone of voice. "Well, I can't guarantee you that I'll be able to help, but I'll surely try Ma'am," he said gallantly.
She suppressed the urge to either stare or wince. "You see Riley-- May I call you Riley?"
"Sure," he smiled at her and Darla gritted her teeth.
"I've come across some information about your partner, and it might well disqualify her from competition." Darla spoke with all the sincerity and concern she could muster, and was rewarded to see Riley's face settle into a condemning frown without a moment's hesitation.
"She's not using . . . *drugs* is she?" Riley looked so horrified and stunned Darla was ready to roll her eyes at the boy.
She smiled comfortingly instead and replied, "No! No. Nothing like that. It's not even something she would even be aware of." Darla was going to be going to the dentist after this because she was oozing so much sweetness her teeth were hurting.
"Oh. Well then what's going on?" Riley asked. His big blue eyes were so trusting Darla patted herself on the back for making use of him.
She took a deep breath and deliberately and visibly steeled herself. "Buffy wasn't born in America, she was born in Ireland. Her parents never got her citizenship changed and because of this she's not actually a citizen of the United States. She can't skate for the US."
Riley's eyes got even bigger and he said, "But if the rules say she can't skate for America why didn't you go right to the authorities when you found out?"
"The last thing I want is for anyone to accuse me of trying to undermine the American team or for anyone to think I'm trying to get Miss Summers to compete for Ireland. And, I mean, this isn't a big deal. It's not as though she's been cheating or deliberately doing anything wrong." Inwardly Darla smiled exultantly as Riley took the bait.
His face settled into a frown. "The rules are there to keep us from falling into anarchy," said Riley, beginning something that sounded like a frequently repeated lecture. "Without rules we're no better than animals. If we break one rule, how long will it be before we start breaking others? And then how long before society collapses?"
Darla hastily turned her laughing fit into a coughing fit. It wouldn't do for Riley to be mocked then. She took in a deep breath once she had recovered and said, "What do you suggest then?"
"I'll take the evidence to the Olympic committee. I may not be happy about it, but it's my duty to follow the rules." He smiled patronisingly at Darla who took him back to her hotel, gave him the papers, got rid of him, then collapsed in hysterical laughter to the bed. It was just perfect. That chump was so sincere in his beliefs that no one would look past him and he would get Buffy thrown out of competition.
And she would go home leaving Angelus to Darla.
*****
Buffy was at an early practice with Riley when her cell phone rang and Giles was hurrying onto the ice a minute later thrusting it at her. "Hello?"
"Oh sweetie! I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" her mother cried over the line.
Buffy stood simply blinking for a moment, ignoring Riley and Giles. "What?"
"I just heard the news about how the Olympic committee found out about your citizenship. I want you to know that your father and I never meant for anything like this to happen. It-"
Buffy interrupted her mother. "Anything like what? What does my citizenship have to do with anything?"
"You hadn't heard?" the woman's voice was both startled and, if anything, more upset. "Someone on the board found out that because you weren't born in the US you're not technically a citizen of the country. They're currently deciding whether you could be allowed to skate for America." Her mother's frantic explanation had Buffy staring off into space utterly stunned.
"I'm not an American?" she finally asked.
Giles, watching Buffy anxiously for a clue as to what had distressed his skater, shook his head in disbelief at that statement and muttered, "If she's not a bloody American then I'm Queen Victoria."
Buffy shot her coach an irritated glare then focussed on her mother's explanation. "Your father and I were on a business trip. We were on a brief side trip to Ireland when I went into labour and so you were born in Dublin." Her mother sighed. "It never occurred to either your father or me that you were anything other than an American, and I didn't know about this loophole until we were called for confirmation."
"I . . . How did they find this out?" Buffy asked.
Her mother sighed, "I haven't a clue. I just wanted you to know that-"
"It's okay Mom. You wouldn't have known." Buffy said goodbye and began to skate laps until Giles finally shouted her over demanding to know what was going on. "Apparently I wasn't born in the US which makes me a citizen of Ireland and somebody found out and told the Olympic committee and they're now deciding whether I'm American enough to skate for America or if I'm gonna get thrown out of the competition before it even begins."
Appalled, the coach demanded, "And your mother couldn't tell you who did this?"
Before Buffy could respond, Riley finally spoke. "I did." The two turned to stare at him watching as he straightened up looking righteous and proud. The incredulous stares simply made him indignant and he added, "Rules are there to be followed. If we don't follow them on a little thing like this then how long before we stop following them entirely? Then chaos will rain down-"
"Stop being so bloody damned melodramatic Finn," growled Giles, "You've practically destroyed both your chances of even being in the competition for a ridiculous bit of morality."
"It's not ridiculous!" cried Riley. As he began to expound upon his philosophies of right and wrong Buffy and Giles headed for the stands. Riley hurried after them, struggling with his skates as the two ignored him.
When Buffy sat down to take off her skates, Giles said, "Look. I'll go and ask around to see if anyone knows anything. See if I can't affect the decision." She smiled up at her mentor and squeezed the hand he rested briefly on her shoulder.
"Okay," she replied. Just as Giles reached the doors Buffy's eyes went wide and she left her shoes untied as she trotted after him. She caught up outside and called, "Giles! One more thing." Riley was puffing after her and muttering something incomprehensible about caution and shoelaces. Giles tilted his head inquiringly.
"What?" he asked.
"We need to arrange a press conference to deal with this. Especially if Riley," she favoured her partner with a long sardonic glance, "Is going to go around telling everyone that he's the one who told."
Giles smiled at her, "I'll look into that as soon as I can, Buffy." He had just reached his car when he turned around and shouted back, "Don't forget you have rehearsal with Angelus this afternoon!"
"I won't!" she waved and smiled. Then smiled more broadly at the thought of spending an afternoon with the handsome skater. She could fantasise about him while they practised. Which reminded her of another obligation to be fulfilled that evening.