“We may be into a forgetting spell later,” Buffy said. She still had a disgusted look on her face from having kissed Spike. She and Willow were standing in Giles’ kitchen. It smelled like cookies, which Willow had been baking in her guilty cooking spree. She wasn’t feeling any better. She’d made Giles go blind, sent demons after Xander . . . made Buffy get engaged to Spike. All was set right now, but Willow wasn’t feeling any better about it.

Suddenly Buffy’s mood shifted. She started giggling. Grinning from ear to ear and giggling. “What’s funny?” Willow asked.

“I just . . . I kissed Spike!” she laughed. “He’s like . . .”

“I’m still not getting what’s funny.”

Buffy’s laughter quieted, but she was still grinning. “Sorry. I just realized something. Spike, connection . . . and it was funny.”

“Still left out of the joke,” Willow muttered. “Are you going to tell me what you realized?”

Sobering, Buffy fidgeted. Her lip twitched, trying to smile again. “Uh, no?” She couldn’t fight her smile forever and it broke through as a huge grin.

Willow sighed. “What’s with you this week?”

“With me? Nothing at all. Uh . . . what makes you think there’s something with me?”

“You’re bouncing off the walls! You’re supposed to be mad at me!”

Buffy shook her head. “I’m too happy to be mad at you.”

“You’re happy,” Willow stated flatly. “Does this have to do with the same thing that’s been making you hyper ever since you got back from L.A.?”

“Uh . . .”

“The same thing that you refuse to tell me?”

“Not refuse!” Buffy objected. “I just can’t tell you right now.”

“Uh huh. The same thing that made you completely brush off Riley this week? I mean, I thought you guys were . . . going somewhere.”

Buffy looked stricken for a second. “Riley-“ And then she burst out laughing again.

“What now?”

“Riley. He thinks I’m engaged . . . to Spike.”

Willow’s eyes went wide. “Oh no. What are you going to tell him?”

Buffy’s eyes sparkled. “Tell him? Who said I was going to tell him anything?” With that she bounced back into the main room.

Sometimes, Willow didn’t understand her roommate at all.

The happiness was for her. Midday tomorrow, Angel was going to arrive and everyone would know that he was human. Buffy couldn’t wait to see him. She couldn’t wait to see everyone else’s reactions to him, too.

She was sad for Angel, though. He had called her that evening, and she had greeted him enthusiastically before his depressed tone of voice had registered. She’d listened sympathetically as he told how Doyle had died saving a family of demons, not to mention himself and Cordelia. She didn’t really know Doyle; she’d only met him the once and she’d been spending most of her time with Angel. But he was Angel’s friend, and Angel didn’t have many friends. He was doing pretty well, considering.

So, Buffy was happy to be seeing Angel, guilty that she was happy when someone had just died, and sad for the death. It didn’t make for a restful night. On the upside, the sunrise was pretty.

Awake and decidedly antsy over Angel’s impending arrival, Buffy dragged Willow to an early breakfast. Next, seeing as how it was morning and she needed to do something until Angel arrived sometime after noon, she suggested they go to a sports game on campus. Willow, probably not wanting to deal with a strangely hyper Buffy alone, suggested they invite Xander and Giles to meet them. Inviting Xander meant inviting Anya, and the five of them ended up at the final U.C. Sunnydale football game.

Not that Buffy paid much attention to the game. Or any attention at all. She was thinking about her boyfriend. She knew she had a silly grin on her face thinking of Angel that way. She hadn’t felt safe referring to him as her boyfriend since before he lost his soul.

As if thinking about him had summoned him, Buffy became aware of Angel’s nearby presence. She felt it inside; something indescribable that she knew now had nothing to do with being a vampire and everything to do with being Angel. Sitting up straighter to find him, she saw Angel step into view next to the bleachers. Excusing herself from her friends, Buffy stepped down to meet him.

Angel saw her as she stepped down level with the field. He looked worn and tired, but he smiled when he saw her. Buffy approached him quickly and wrapped him in a hug. She couldn’t make everything better, but she could try.

Willow felt a tap on her shoulder and turned. Sitting behind her was one of the girls from the campus wicca group. “Hey, Willow,” she said. “Who’s that really hot guy with Buffy?”

Hot guy with Buffy? Willow looked toward where the girl was gesturing and nearly fell off the bench. “Angel?!”

The girl chuckled. “Appropriate name.”

Xander must have heard part of the conversation, because he muttered “Not really,” under his breath. Realizing what they were saying a moment later, he looked at Willow sharply. “Why are you talking about Dead Boy?”

Staring at Buffy and Angel embracing in the sunlight, Willow couldn’t make a coherent statement. She could, however, gesture wildly in the appropriate direction.

Xander followed her wildly pointing finger with his gaze. His eyes went very wide, and he made a sound of disgust. “Giles!” he called, getting the adults attention. He gestured at the couple standing below. “Tell me I’m seeing things?”

Giles pushed his glasses up on his nose and looked in the same direction. “Good lord!”

Anya was quick to pick up on what everyone else’s attention was on. “But . . . I thought he was-“

“Yes, indeed,” Giles replied. He stood, and everyone else took that as his or her cue to join him, following Buffy’s path down the bleachers.

The mismatched couple was no longer embracing when the gang came up behind Buffy. Still, neither of them noticed the Scooby gang’s approach until Xander cleared his throat loudly to get their attention. Buffy stopped whatever she had been saying and turned so that she was now standing next to Angel, facing her friends. She was grinning, standing close enough to Angel to touch him. Angel was looking at the group, smiling slightly if apprehensively.

It wasn’t hard for Willow to put the pieces together. Buffy had been nuts ever since she got back from L.A. Angel lived in L.A. Buffy got back to school, was happier than she’d been in months, and completely ignored her prospective boyfriend to the point that he’d asked her roommate what was going on. “This is what you’ve been so excited about!” Willow blurted into the silence.

Buffy chuckled. “Yeah. My big secret.”

“I asked her not to say anything, Willow,” Angel said. “I wanted to tell everyone myself.”

Giles looked completely flabbergasted. “How . . . what . . .?”

“Are you sure you want the explanation here, Giles?” he asked, gesturing to the nearby crowd of students.

Xander wasn’t so easily dissuaded from getting answers. “I thought you destroyed the Gem of Amara,” he challenged.

In response, Angel said nothing, only held up his hands devoid of any jewelry.

Willow looked at Angel critically and understood. She took notice of some details that she wouldn’t have noticed on anyone else, only on Angel because they were unusual. First, the color in his cheeks . . . she’d never seen him in sunlight before, but she was sure he was usually paler. Of course, there was the sunlight, which was the first clue that something unusual was going on with their vampire friend. The final detail, though, was one she never would have noticed if she didn’t look for it. After all, you didn’t usually notice whether someone was breathing. And there it was. “You’re alive!”

Collective sounds of surprise and wide eyes went around the group. Buffy chuckled, and Angel smiled.

“Yeah.”

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