Fate by Galadrielle1983

Rating: M

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series

Relationship: Angel/Xander Harris, Tara Maclay/Oz Osbourne, Rupert Giles/Ethan Rayne, Allen Francis Doyle/Spike, Cordelia Chase/Charles Gunn

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me!

AN: Willow is not an issue in this story and Tara meets the gang earlier due to happenings that will be explained later! This is not taking place in any season (just after season one) and will not correspond with the show.

Summary: After Angel's trip to hell Buffy ran away and didn't come back. During a fight a few weeks later the rest of the Scoobies were able to close the Hellmouth permanently. Moving to LA to help Angel seek his redemption seemed to be the next logical step. Pasts are left behind and new attachments built until Buffy returns and tries to get Angel back. At the same time she claims Spike. Will she get what she wants or will real love win?

Chapter 1

###Four Months after Buffy's departure###

It was a quite night and everything seemed to have calmed down after Buffy ran away. Her friends were still hurt that she hadn't trusted them enough to stay and let them help, but they knew she'd be alright in the end.

The quite itself was unnatural in Sunnydale.

A tension seemed to envelope all Sunnydale habitants as not even a single demon crossed the way of the Scoobies on patrol.

"Let's go back, Oz. Seems as if all the nasties are down for the night!" Alexander Harris smiled at his friend. Since Willow had left with her parents, who finally discovered that they really had an almost grown daughter, Xander and Oz had become fast friends.

"Sure," Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne answered as short as always but knew that Xander always understood him.

Leaving the graveyard the two 16 year old boys went over to Giles house where they met up with Angel and Spike, just coming back from their own patrol.

Nodding in greeting they entered and were met with a white light flashing in front of their eyes, alerting Giles and Cordy sitting on the couch researching.

Blinking they saw a message fluttering to the floor.

"What is that Giles," Cordy asked hesitant.

Giles bend over and picked it up. Reading it quietly for a few minutes he finally turned to the others. "This is a message from The Powers That Be. They want us to go to LA…It seems the power overuse closed the Hellmouth permanently. Now we are needed in LA and we have to take Angel and Spike with us," he told them.

Xander frowned, "We can't just leave for LA! What about our homes and work?" He'd just started working at the local grocery store, additionally to going to school, to finally earn his own money and leave the hellhole he called home.

Giles took of his glasses and began cleaning them, "Xander, we can't just ignore the Powers when they tell us that we have to do something. I know it's difficult for you to leave your family but..." Giles was cut off as Xander began laughing.

"What? You think I'm gonna to miss them?! They are responsible that I can't move properly right now!" Xander ranted and forgot that the others in the room didn't even know he was hurt. He had never told anybody. Neither about what happened at home, nor that he seemed to possess an incline for magic. He used his abilities to hide bruises and the smell of blood so that Angel and Spike wouldn't suspect something.

Angel, Spike, Giles, Oz and Cordy looked at him shocked and they came to the conclusion that they needed to know what was going on.

"What do you mean, Xander?" asked Angel stiffly.

In the background the Vampires could hear Giles quietly chanting.

"I...Nothing..." Xander replied and tried to stand up but couldn't move.

"Xander, you have to tell us what is going on so that we can help you!" Cordy told him tensely.

"I'm sorry, Xander. I put a truth and a revelation spell on you. Trust me, my boy, we only want to help you." Giles told him imploringly, hoping that Xander would forgive him for the magic he used on him.

Shame and betrayal warred within Xander before he felt the spells take a hold of him, compelling him to answer Cordy's questions. Falling in a trance he replied in a monotone voice, "I can't move properly because my parents were mad that I was out late, woke them up and forgot the booth I was told to buy them from my own money. They beat the crap out of me. But I deserved it because I'm worthless and stupid. Can't do anything right. Told them I was bi and they called me a faggot. My father started to show me what should be done to me. As he pulled my pants down I managed to run! Coward, worthless filth, and a faggot that can't do anything right!" At the end a tear escaped Xander's eyes and slowly trailed down his cheeks.

The others were shocked. They hadn't thought that Xander saw himself in this light and that he would blame himself for his parent's abuse.

"Xander why didn't you tell us?" Cordy sniffled, trying to suppress the tears threatening to fall.

"You should have told us, Xander! I could have helped you. You wouldn't have been forced to go back to them." Giles was shocked that the boy he saw as a son had gone through all this and they never saw anything. No wonder that the boy cracked jokes nonstop, it was an act of hiding so that nobody could see through his mask.

"Xan, why?" was the only thing Angel could say as he grabbed the boy in a tight hug.

"I can kill them for you, pet!" Spike was furious because he hadn't seen it coming. He respected the whelp and knew of his Sire's feelings for him. He only hoped that the two would get their act together soon before he had to intervene. And he hoped that he would find his own mate soon, too. Then they could be a family again and nothing would ever separate them! He had been overjoyed when Xander had helped him and Angel rebuilt their Sire-childe-bond and trust after Angel came back from hell.

####Flashback####

Angel had been so very weak after his return from hell a few days ago.

The one to find him inside his mansion had surprisingly been Xander and not Buffy. The boy had taken care of him, keeping him warm and comfortable before calling Giles for help.

The thing that had surprised Angel the most was that Xander hadn't staked him on sight, had in fact given him a bit of his own blood, unknowingly starting a bond between them.

During the days he recovered taking up Giles spare bedroom Angel learned not only of Buffy cowardly running from her duty, but also about Xander's trick to make her kill him…and rescue the world in the process. After thinking about the boys motivation Angel had forgiven him. Just like that.

His thoughts often warred between thinking about Buffy and Xander. It hurt him that Buffy had left all behind to get over his loss, even when he had been about to destroy the whole world.

As soon as he realized what she had done, what he had caused her to do, he understood the things that he had been told while residing in hell. It had been a mistake to be with the Slayer; while his soul loved her his demon hated her with all passion and rattled at its cage until it finally broke in the moment of carelessness during their love making.

That was the reason why his curse was broken. It hadn't been created to make him suffer like he thought for over a century. No, it was there so he could learn what real love is.

Among other regrets Angel saw his failure with Spike. How he left him and Dru behind to go with Darla. And the moment they met again, with Angel having his soul.

Now he just had to look up to see his Childe standing in front of him. It reminded him how he had sacrificed his relationship with Dru to be with his family, his Sire again, resulting in killing her when she attacked Angel to get her 'Daddy' back while on patrol. Spike had asked Angel and Giles if he could stay with them and had been taken in by Angel, therefore renewing their Sire/Childe bond.

To make sure, that Spike really meant it, Giles had performed the curse after they had discovered that there wasn't really a 'Happiness-clause' to consider. Spike now had his soul. To Giles' and the children's surprise he still acted like he did prior to being cursed. Angel had just laughed and told them that this was the true William.

Angel soon felt able to confide his deeper feelings to Spike. He told him about his regrets with Buffy and his new found feelings for Xander. How the boy that had helped them so much, became a friend and so much more that he even put Buffy out of the picture.

Spike had been a bit hesitant at first, believing his Sire to be obsessed with the boy, until he saw the way they interacted with each other. This was not Angelus stalking his prey, but Angel slowly and gently courting a human boy. And a boy he was, not even old enough yet to live alone.

And just like that they had all but forgotten about Buffy.

###End Flashback###

tbc