DISCLAIMER: raises eyebrow
WORDCOUNT: 1200
SUMMARY: As normal as I can make them. pre S/I Buffy/Angel.
A.N.: Again, who'd guess that could be a help for title-searching?
DEDICATION: Happy Birthday, Copper! A little late, I know. But my brain totally sucks for dates. smooch hugs coppersinger
FEEDBACK: It's pretty. Isn't it pretty? hugs feedbackers
THANK YOU: To margotlefaye for the help. grin

STILL HUNT
by Leni

Buffy watched as he walked quietly half a block ahead. Until now he hadn't shown any signs of having spotted her presence. No hesitation as he kept going forward, no interrogative glances around, no concerned inspections of his surroundings. So far, so good.

Silently, she raced through the distance between them and shot her hand to his shoulder when she arrived at her goal. "Hey!"

Angel turned and didn't seem the least surprised as he smiled slightly. "Hey."

She frowned. That wasn't the reaction she'd been going for. She'd expected a wild startle at her sudden presence, or maybe even an instinctive fighting pose. God knew those were her usual greetings when Angel snuck up on her.

But he'd just smiled and welcomed her. Buffy smiled back and tried to hide her self-disappointment.

She had known that it was a bad idea. Earlier she'd set out to be the one to stalk him tonight. It wasn't the first time, either. It might seem a crazy idea, but Buffy had her reasons. They'd been together for weeks, and he still was the one to turn up unexpectedly at the Bronze, the cemetery, the library and that time at the mall when she'd been trying out the cutest little shoes. Weren't relationships about balance?

She was the Slayer. Not to brag, but she was the best hunter on the Hellmouth and Buffy thought that two consecutive years at the top of the food chain was proof enough. Okay, so there'd been that small death thingie at the Master's hands, but most everyone who knew of that slip was ashes in the wind. And in the end she'd come out improved from it, hadn't she?

Buffy knew she hadn't, but why ruin her friends' expectations? They didn't think her able to fear Death anymore, even Giles looked at her with an expression beyond pride and quite close to awe when he thought that she didn't notice. It was scary. It was another burden that she hadn't meant to carry. But Buffy sort of understood their eagerness to believe that she could overcome everything, and, anyway, Angel did understand her and that was enough.

Point was, she was the Big Shot in this town. The terror of the underground, the blonde with the mean aim and meaner comebacks. Buffy knew she deserved her reputation, and yet Angel's touch at her arm or his voice right behind her made her jump like a girl during a horror movie. Tonight - and a couple of times every week - Buffy had wanted to return the favour.

She'd failed. Again.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he walked up to her.

She shrugged, trying not to pout as she met him midway and, out of habit, offered her hand.

He took it, but didn't move towards the nearby cemetery. He'd noticed that she wasn't her usual perky self. Angel privately thought that said perkiness shouldn't mix with their patrols, but Buffy was who she was. If she wanted to laugh and joke and dismiss the seriousness of these hours, then she would. Frankly, Angel had grown to like that part of her, too. It was refreshing. Now his brow furrowed as he tried to guess the cause for her moodiness. "Something wrong at school?"

She shook her head and nodded towards the main gate. To be sincere, school was at its best, considering. Willow was taking advantage of every nook between Big Bads and Snyders and her grades stayed above average. Even that ruthless Algebra teacher was impressed, not to mention her mother who'd hugged Buffy tightly after she saw the B+ on her test.

As she let her thoughts run, Angel walked at her side calmly. But he still wore that concerned expression. "Your mother, then? Your friends?" He kept on as she just replied a negative to each question. "Is Giles okay? Did Cordelia bother you again?"

Yes and not more than usual. She and Cordelia had reached a sort of understanding. Buffy saved her life and Cordelia tried to mince her words around her. Taking into account how cutting and to the core the brunette's comments could be, Buffy thought it was a pretty good exchange. Furthermore, it was kind of fun to pull Cordelia out of danger and get her beloved pricey clothes trashed along the way.

"Are you mad at me?"

That pulled Buffy out of her fond memory of Cordelia screeching at a broken heel. "No!" He cocked an eyebrow, looking at her in that way that made her feel all those two-hundred-seventeen years younger. "'S nothing," she mumbled sheepishly, and she tried to lead him further into the graveyard.

He stood his ground. "Buffy."

Buffy sighed. He said her name with just that mix of patience and exasperation. As if he would wait her out until she told him her concerns, but at the same time couldn't understand why she'd made him wait at all. She always responded to that tone, in a way not even Giles managed to make her respond to his orders during training. "I wanted something different tonight." This time she pouted, just a little.

"Different? Like actual coffee?"

She chuckled at that. They often said they'd go for coffee after patrol, and they often got distracted. Not by demons or other threats, but by increasingly intense make out sessions. As far as Buffy was concerned, those were good distractions. When she glanced up at him, Buffy knew he was joking. Angel joking, that was enough to make her smile for real. "I wanted to surprise you," she admitted with a small shrug, as if it didn't really matter.

Angel knew it mattered. Her expression in the last five minutes were enough to tell him that. "Oh." He wouldn't offer a lie, like that she had surprised him and he was a good faker. Besides, Buffy would see through it in a second; she already knew what a lousy faker he was. He also wouldn't give her false, over-the-top support. She didn't need that. "You're getting better," was all he said.

At first Buffy was a tad disconcerted. Her friends would at least pretend that it had been a good attempt; even Giles would encourage her more cheerily. Angel's words left her... smiling. Smiling? "Thank you," she told him. So he had noticed when she'd tried to do the same before. And he hadn't noticed her following so soon tonight. That was what his 'getting better' meant. Her smile turned into a grin and Buffy loosened his hand just to latch onto his arm. Leaning her cheek against his shirt, she looked up at him. "Want to hit the coffee shop after vamp number three?" Who knew, maybe they'd make it this time?

Angel seemed equally skeptical. He began to nod, but all of sudden the movement halted as he fixated on a point behind her. "What about vamp number five?"

Buffy turned and, sure enough, there were five vampires leering at them at a mausoleum's door. She sighed and disentangled herself from her boyfriend. Reaching for the first stake of the night, she took a second to blow a kiss at Angel. He seemed amused even as two of the vampires rushed to attack him.

Buffy took her stance and waited.

Number five it was.

The End
16/01/06