TITLE: Cross Against The Moon.
AUTHOR: Kelly Rowe
EMAIL: [email protected]
RATING: PG-13.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and all other characters (except those I make up) are the absolute property of Joss Whedon, Fox, Mutant Enemy, UPN and Warner Bros (If I owned them, do you think that they would be acting this ridiculous right now).
SUMMARY: AU Fiction - vampires exist but there is no slayer. Buffy is a powerful witch an important destiny.
SPOILERS: Minor (if any) for all three shows.
DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it; just tell me where you put it. Any lists just take it.
PAIRING: Buffy/Angelus, Piper/Leo, Prue/Andy, Oz/Willow/Tara, Spike/Dru.
CATEGORY: AU, Action, Romance and X-over with Charmed.
NOTES: Based on a challenge sent to BA_FLUFF list. Challenge will be at end of fic.
Part One
Los Angeles, California - 1997
Staring out of the French-style patio doors into the balmy Los Angeles night was not exactly what Buffy had planned to do when she had arrived at her mate's penthouse an hour earlier. Unfortunately only a few moments after she had breezed through the entrance, Angelus had received a call and disappeared into his private study to take it. She'd had such plans for the evening and they had all gone to waste. Heaving a sigh, Buffy moved away from the doors and curled up upon Angelus' king-sized bed to await his return. After a while exhaustion began to overtake her and her eyes slowly drifted shut as she fell into a deep and comfortable slumber.
A short time later Buffy awoke as she sensed his approach and sat up, arranging herself seductively on the bed in anticipation of his arrival and events thereafter. However the second she caught sight of him she could do nothing but shudder. Before he had taken the phone call he had been happy, relaxed and naturally sexy as hell and now he was growling and stalking around in full game-face - not that it made him any less sexy to her - but the room vibrated from the anger radiating from his muscular frame.
"What's wrong?" Buffy asked him, her eyes filling with concern for him.
His eyes met her's and she watched as he struggled to regain his human guise. "It is nothing," he replied in a calm voice, even though his body-language was screaming an entirely different story.
"Angelus!" she said forcing him magickally to look into her eyes. "Am I, or am I not your chosen mate?"
Angelus sighed an unnecessary sigh, as he moved closer to her, "You know that you are."
Buffy crawled along the bed to meet him, reaching up to gently cup his face with her small hand. "Then tell me what the fuck is going on?"
"It's Master Nest..."
"Old Ugly?" Buffy questioned curiously. "What does he want?"
Angelus pulled himself away from her touch and sighed once more. Suddenly he took a seat on the bed near her, but not close enough to touch. "He's ordered me to appear before him," he told her. When he saw Buffy's blank look he continued, "He is currently in Europe. It means that I have to leave here and... I don't know when I'll be able to return."
Buffy looked at him, her hazel eyes filling to the brim with tears as his words began to sink in. "D-do you have to go?"
"Yes," Angelus told her forcefully. "Although he has no say over my actions here in America - he is still my Grand-sire. When he orders me to appear, I must go."
Buffy didn't say a word, she simply started to get up and leave and in a moment of pure panic, Angelus reached out and grabbed a hold of her arm. "Where in hell do you think you are going?"
"Anywhere that's away from you," Buffy told him childishly.
"Sit the fuck down, Buffy Anne," he ordered, his eyes flashing gold in anger. He waited until she complied with his order before he spoke again, "What is your problem? Why are you acting like some stupid, fucking brat?"
"What does it matter to you?"
Angelus rolled his eyes and wondered why fate had seen fit to send him his destiny in the form of a sixteen year old girl. He sat down next to her once more and took her hand, trying to wait patiently for her to speak about what was on her mind.
"You're leaving me?"
"That's why you are acting like such a bitch?"
Buffy shook her head, as Angelus missed her meaning entirely. "Everyone leaves me. Daddy left, Uncle Victor disappeared, most of my step-grandpa's ran away... and now you're leaving for parts unknown. I'm starting to see a pattern here. Am I really that unlovable?"
Angelus lifted her hair out of the way and nuzzled his mark on her neck. "You know that I wouldn't leave you unless I had too. You and I are eternal. I do promise that I will return to you as soon as I can, did anyone else promise to come back?"
Buffy stayed silent for a moment and then sighed. "When do you leave?"
"In a few hours."
"Then we'd better make the most of the time that we have left," she told him.
Angelus watched Buffy as she slept peacefully next to him and sighed, it was time for him to leave her. He knew that he would return as soon as it was possible - and whenever the Master chose to let him do so - but he really didn't want to leave her here all alone and unprotected. For over two hundred odd years he had been under the mistaken impression that Darla had been his fate - the one who had transformed him into what he had become -, but a chance meeting with his little witch had changed all that. He had once again become obsessed with her and had stalked her for almost a month - he had never grown bored waiting for his chance, never had he felt anything for an intended victim like he did for this slip of a girl. He had naturally grown sloppy and one night the object of his obsession approached him and wanted to know why he was following her. What he told her surprised him as much as it did her, he simply told her he loved her - something that shouldn't be possible for a demon and especially shouldn't happen to The Scourge of Europe.
He began to spend every second he could spare with Buffy and never even realised that his overly jealous sire was growing ever more suspicious of his behaviour and lack of affection - so much so that she had followed him. Unfortunately for him and Buffy his bitch of a sire had chosen the night that he and Buffy had first consummated their budding relationship to confront him. Of course it also hadn't helped that Darla had watched as he marked Buffy as his during their coupling. The second that he had realised that Darla was there and that she intended to harm Buffy, the choice was clear - the bitch had to die. He felt very little guilt - hell, he didn't even miss her - over the death of his sire, although it had put him out of favor with the family and with Master Nest.
"Peaches, it's time to go," Spike said barging into the room without knocking. He didn't care if he walked in on anything, after all it wouldn't be the first time he'd seen peaches perform.
"Shut up," Angelus replied shaking of his reverie and slipping out of the bed, unashamed of his naked state. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."
Spike ignored his sire and nodded his head towards the bed where Buffy still slept, "How'd Fluffy take the news?"
"As well as I had anticipated," Angelus told him as he dressed.
"That bad, huh?"
Angelus finished dressing and sat down to put on his boots and looked at his grand-childe, "She is only sixteen. How else should she react?"
"You know that you could bring her with you," Spike reminded him. He didn't exactly like Fluffy, but he had to admit that when she was around Peaches was a hell of a lot nicer.
Angelus shook his head, "Her destiny is here and I have no right to interfere."
"What about your destiny?"
Angelus took one last look at his mate and said, "It'll be here waiting for me." He kissed her softly and then he walked away with Spike following behind.
Buffy knew that she was alone before she even opened her eyes. Although she had known that he was leaving, it hurt that he hadn't woken her to say goodbye. She climbed out of the bed and wrapped the blood red silk sheet tightly around her naked body and began to gather up her scattered clothing. She headed into the ensuite and felt a jolt of pain when she saw that all of Angelus' things were in fact gone. All she really wanted to do was sink down onto the cool tiles and cry over Angelus' departure from her life and her own broken heart. However she resisted the temptation, instead she dropped the sheet onto the floor and put on her clothing.
"Buffy?"
Hearing her name being called, she rushed from the bathroom, hoping against hope that Angelus had returned for her. She was disappointed to find that it was only her older, half-brother Oz. He opened his arms to her and she ran into them and let the tears fall, as he comforted her.
"He called you?"
"He was worried," Oz replied.
Buffy shook her head against Oz's chest, "If he was worried, he wouldn't have left."
Oz replied in his usual way, "He's gotta do what he's gotta do. Regardless of his own feelings for you."
"I know," she whispered tearfully. "But it doesn't stop it hurting."
Oz detangled himself from his sister's embrace and then place a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Let's go home."
Buffy nodded as she took a last look around, "Yeah."
TBC...