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Chapter Title: Out Of This World
Author: Chad
E-mail: chad_m_@hotmail.com
Rated: R
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine, but the story is.
Summary: After all the heartache and four years of marriage, Buffy and Angel’s relationship finally comes to and end when he cheats on her. B/A, B/S, and A/C.
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~Out Of This world~
*Bush*
//When we die
We go into the arms of those who remember us
We are home now//
It was quiet in the restaurant, with only a few tables filled. The faint smell of garlic and herbs filled the entire place, enticing and tantalizing the customers with its exotic and refreshing smell. Angel stared at the blonde goddess before him, studying and admiring the smooth contours of her face and the maturity that had developed in her form. She, in return, stared down at her notes, fervently scribbling down at the yellow pad paper.
“Stop staring,” Buffy finally grumbled.
Angel couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sorry,” he apologized for the one-hundredth time since entering the peaceful eatery.
She sighed, aggravated yet amused, and gazed up at him with fiery hazel eyes. She fought to keep a smile off her face at his boyish attentions and charms, not on their meeting, but on her. He had been acting as though it was his first date, and she just wanted to laugh and be giddy with him. They had been sitting here for an hour and seven minutes, discussing plans and ideas for redecorating his loft. An hour and seven minutes of sitting so close to him, accidentally brushing up against him a few times with her hands and legs, and smelling his favorite aftershave from across the table. It was killing her.
She rolled her eyes and went back to work, all the while thinking how handsome he was when he was smiling.
“For the second guest room, I was thinking pale blue as the main color . . . ”
Angel shook his head. “Something different, the entire place is already manly.”
“Pale blue is not that manly,” she argued.
“It’s a male type of color.”
Buffy rolled her eyes once again. “Your opinions on what is masculine astounds me,” she sighed and stared at her notes again. “So, you want something . . . “
“Feminine . . . for this particular room,” he finished for her, “And I’ll leave the decisions for that on you.” He met her surprised gaze. He wasn’t entirely sure on what he was doing and why, but it didn’t matter. She was here and he was now able to make up for his mistakes.
Buffy let out an unsteady breath. He had been deliberately doing this all afternoon, making little side comments and subject changes towards their “relationship” . . . or lack there of. She sighed and said a little prayer. “I think we’re done for today. I’ll come by tomorrow to show you the sketches, material samples, and pictures of possible furniture selections.”
Angel nodded and watched as she began packing her things into her briefcase. “So . . . this Saturday.”
She stopped and stared at him curiously. “Saturday?”
“Yes, after your day out with Connor. Dinner. You and me,” he stated, pleading in his brown eyes.
Buffy looked at him long and hard. This was it. The moment of truth. She had told him she would give him another chance to redeem himself and to prove that he was sorry . . . to prove he wanted things to work out. But this was confirming it, and she still had a chance to deny him. Will she be able to put her heart on the line for this man again? To give her soul and love to him for the fourth time? Can she risk everything that she’s made of . . . for him?
The answer came easily.
“Pick me up at eight.”
//Out of our heads
Out of our minds
Out of this world
Out of our time//
The soft breeze of the ocean tickled Buffy’s senses as she walked along the sandy beach of the Hawaiian coast with her sandals at hand. Wisps of her golden blond hair caressed her face as the setting sun disappeared below the ocean. Golden hues of orange, pink, and ginger painted the sky with soft touches of blue, purple, and green where the sun’s fading rays no longer touched.
The distant sound of beating drums could be heard along with a soft and enchanting voice singing a native song.
“How goes it, pretty lady,” a familiar voice asked from behind.
“Eh . . . it’s going,” she shrugged halfheartedly and stopped to watch the sun set. “Where are the twin terrors?”
“Waxin’ their little surfboards for tomorrow,” he answered.
Buffy smiled. “Let me guess, they’re gonna sleep with those tonight.”
“Only because it’s their first surfin’ lesson. For luck and all that ruckus,” Spike chuckled. The bleached blond look down at her, curious and wondering, “So . . . what happened, pet? And can you be more specific with your usual description of ‘angst and drama’? I know your love life is a bloody soap opera, but I wanna know the details . . . who slept with who, who’s shaggin’ who, you know, the usual.”
Buffy sighed, “No one is sleeping with anyone.”
“Yet,” Spike said, waggling his dark brows. “Now, c’mon . . . share . . . vent.”
Buffy crossed her arms firmly against her chest. “I have a date . . . two dates actually . . . with two different men on Saturday.”
“Wow. Lucky blokes . . . do you think you’ll ‘ave room for a third date?” he teased lightly, hands toying with a cigarette that he was fighting to light. Cancer, cancer, yellow teeth, stinky breath, he kept repeating to himself.
She rolled her eyes. “A day of mother and son bonding . . . and dinner with Angel.”
Spike looked at her curiously. “Will there be bonding there too? Specifically of the scarves, chains, and handcuffs kind?”
Buffy chuckled. “Not on this date.”
Spike smirked. “Good, ’cause that should be reserved for the third date . . . and every other date after that,” he said, causing Buffy to laugh lightly. He sighed and threw a casual arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer towards him, “You don’t sound too excited, luv.”
//Are you drowning or waving
I just want you to save me
Should we try to get along
Just try to get along
So we move we change by the speed of the choices that we make
And the barriers are all self-made
That's so retrograde//
“You wouldn’t be either if you felt like one step towards this ‘rebuilding of a relationship’ and the whole world I’ve built for myself and my sons will come crumbling beneath me,” she explained, closing her eyes, “I’ve worked hard constructing a life that doesn’t require Angel . . . My world no longer needs him.”
Spike smiled and lightly shook his head. “That’s only ‘technically,’ pet.”
Buffy frowned up at him.
The half vampire sighed. “Yes, you’ve built a life where you don’t need Angel . . . technically anyway. As in, you have a job of your own, a house, your own little family. But even through all that, you still need him. I told you once that love isn’t brains . . . it’s blood, fighting to do it’s will. No matter how many times you deny it to yourself, Angel will always be part of you . . . and your blood, your soul, will always call out to him . . . because you need him, emotionally, physically.”
He bent over and grabbed a seashell and a few pebbles, tossing them in his hand before throwing them into the ocean one by one, “And don’t forget, the kids need him, you have to think about that.”
Buffy rubbed her sore shoulders and rubbed her temples. “Trust me, I haven‘t forgotten that . . . it‘s in my mind all the time. And considering the fact that he lives right down the beach, it just makes things even more scary and complicated.” She took a deep and long breath, “I thought I was getting over him.”
“You can never get over true love, pet. That’s like saying the sun’ll never come up in the morning and that the night won't chase it away again.”
“Not unless you’re in Alaska,” she pointed out.
Spike growled. “Smartass,” he grumbled and lunged for her, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as he ran towards the sea.
//Are you drowning or waving
I just need you to save me
Should we try to get along
Try to get along//
The bark of a dog could suddenly be heard in the distance as the twins came running out from the back of the beach house with bright colored water guns in their hands. Their shrieks and shouts could be heard all the way down the beach as icy cold water was sprayed at the older pair.
With an animalistic call, Spike dropped Buffy unceremoniously in the water as the five year olds went after him with a gusto of battle cries, spurting water at him as a barking and growling mutt backed them up.
And that’s what the dark haired beauty saw and watched as she stood behind a group of small palm trees. A wicked smile formed on her lips as she turned away, her mind going through the endless possibilities of doing even more damage than she had already caused.
//I am alive
I am awake to the trials and confusion we create
There are times when I feel we're about to break
When there's too much to say
We are home now out of our heads out of our minds
Out of this world out of this time
Out of this time
Out of this time//
Continue to Chapter 10: Crash Into Me
Back to Chapter 8: It's Been A While