Little Things

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Summary: Angel muses over something happy...for once.

AUTHOR: Aurora
EMAIL: girl292@hotmail.com
SEQUEL: to Angel's First Time
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: Buffy/Angel
DISCLAIMER: If they were mine, Buffy and Angel would be a two hour crossover event every Monday AND Tuesday
DISTRIBUTION: All you have to do is ask...
CATEGORY: FLUFF to the utmost power
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here is a companion/sequel of sorts to 'Angel's First Time' for all those that requested one. Much love to everyone who gave me such positive reviews!! *smooches*
DEDICATION: To Leni, for asking for more! I know this isn't exactly what you requested, but I hope it will do!!
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somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near;

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose;

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands.

Excerpt from: somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
by: e e cummings (1894-1962)

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He was supposed to be leisurely reading the Sunday paper, poring over the front-page news, skimming by the vagaries of local politics, and perusing the latest turn in the stocks before skipping the sports to begin his daylong battle against the wretched crossword puzzle. He was supposed to be reading but his attention was elsewhere. Sure, he still held the paper suspended in front of him, half draped over his knees, elbows on the arms of the chair. The paper was in the right place, it was his eyes that he was having trouble controlling.

Despite his most valiant efforts they just wouldn't stay focused on the tiny printed words spread across the recycled sheets in front of him. The black smudged newsprint just didn't hold the same appeal as that which his gaze continually wandered towards, finally lingering in one spot, soaking up the image as if it were sunlight. Which, he supposed, to him it was; even if only metaphorically.

He smiled to himself as he tried to watch in secret, even though he knew it was useless. He knew she knew what he was up to as easily as if he were across the room gawking at her over her shoulder like some lovesick teenager. He knew and he didn't mind. He liked their little game and she was playing along as well, so why ruin a perfectly good opportunity to study her from afar?

She shifted her position slightly, her slender hand coming up to brush a stray hair from her face as her attention remained solely focused on the task at hand. He grinned again as he studied her face. Her attention so controlled, all her efforts at once aimed at a single goal: applying the perfect coat of shimmery iridescent pink glimmer nail polish to her toes.

It was funny when he thought about it. Only Buffy could devote the same amount of concentration to taking out a nest of the undead as she would to applying nail polish. He didn't mind. It was one of those little things about her. One of those unique and quirky attributes that made her different from everyone else. Made her the person she was. Made her the woman he loved.

Angel had been wrapped up in the little things lately. It was important. All the everyday idiosyncrasies and habits that made one, well...human. And he was, after all, human. Again. So, with his newfound humanity he had begun to notice a whole host of tiny oddities about the human race that he had never paused to give a second thought to when he was immortal. Everyday trivialities didn't rate high on the concern scale when your existence could be measured in centuries. But now the little things absolutely fascinated him, *especially* when it came to Buffy.

Buffy.

Just thinking her name made his body fill with an all-consuming warmth he'd never believed possible. Had he not known better he would have thought that it was just love. But he knew better. He knew better than anyone, maybe more than Buffy herself, that what she gave him was more than just love, it was freedom. Freedom from fear, freedom from guilt, freedom to exist in a world he thought forever lost to him just a few short months ago. But now, none of that mattered. The past was behind them both and it was as if the door had been forever closed to all the pain and the loss they had endured leaving them together to face a new life and a bright future. A life where nothing was predestined, where every day held the promise not only of adventure but also of the achingly normal preoccupations of ordinary existence and he loved every minute of it.

Okay, so if he had to be honest with himself, it was the minutes like this that he loved the best. The hours when Buffy was away from school, visiting him in L.A., the weekends that he lived for Monday through Thursday and prayed would never end Friday through Saturday. The days when they were together. No longer a vampire and a slayer, but just a couple in love.

A normal couple.

He had begun, in the past weeks, to keep a running mental list of each new trait he discovered about his love whenever she was with him. Each amazingly endearing attribute that made him laugh out loud sometimes from the sheer joy of being lucky enough to be witness to, and not to mention an integral part of, her everyday life. He knew it wasn't practical, and if Cordelia knew he did it she'd never let him live it down. He knew and he didn't care. He couldn't help being totally fascinated by everything that was well, Buffy.

Like just this morning, they had woken up late and stayed in bed even later, as was their ritual every Sunday. Buffy emerged first from the cocoon of linen sheets and soft velvet blankets and stumbled into the shower while he headed towards the kitchen and the coffee maker, starting breakfast and grabbing the paper while waiting for her to surface from the steamy bathroom.

He had been thoroughly engrossed in obtaining the perfect folds in the omelets when she finally joined him and he noticed as she leaned into kiss him good morning that she smelled not only of peach shampoo and ivory soap but of his shaving gel which she stole to use on her legs in the shower. The realization of which made him smile in satisfaction and reminded him of how last Monday morning when he had stumbled out of the shower, still tired, and a little low knowing he had an entire week ahead of him until she returned on Friday only to find the words: I LOVE YOU still there from the day before, scrawled across the fogged mirror in a familiar flowery cursive. The thought of which still made him grin like little kid.

She was constantly doing things like that, and he honestly, couldn't quite ever get enough of it. He would be rummaging through a drawer or flipping through a magazine and find a little yellow post it note hidden away marked with words of love or naughty little suggestions for her next visit, either way it always brightened his day and sent him running to the phone for a quick call to Sunnydale. Sure his long distance bills were outrageous, and he was more than a little certain that he was singly handedly putting some of the telephone company's children through college, but it was worth it just to hear her infectious laughter on the other end of the line when he revealed what little surprise he'd stumbled upon this time. He had the vague suspicion that as long as he lived he would never be able to find all of them and briefly wondered if Buffy even remembered all the little things that she had hidden in and around his apartment.

The thought of her spending the time to write him a note and then go to the trouble of hiding it made him long for the day that she wouldn't have to leave anymore. Made him wish that this last month of fall semester would end and they could finish moving her belongings to L.A., but considering how long they'd waited just to get to the point they were at now, he knew that a month was nothing. One month and she'd be there permanently and then...marriage.

That was a great big 'little thing' that they had been planning since he'd gained his redemption and yet another event that allowed him to see a side of Buffy that he'd never known existed. She had really surprised him with the way she'd planned their wedding.

Not only had she picked a date he'd figured she'd rather forget (her 22nd birthday) she'd also planned a very small, very intimate ceremony, outside in the daylight. As long as he'd known her, Angel had always figured Buffy for the kind of girl that had mapped out her entire wedding down to the tiniest detail, including the big ceremony at the church with 300 people and a reception to rival the inaugural ball but instead, instead she had caught him completely off guard with the ease and laid back manner in which she had decided everything. He was certain he'd seen her fret more over what movie to see than she did arranging the entire thing, and it was...arranged. All planned and paid for. No last minute to do lists, no worrying over the caterer, no guest seating charts and flight arrangements. The only indication there was of their upcoming nuptials, besides the platinum and diamond engagement ring on her finger, were the identical calendars that hung, one on his fridge and one on hers, with their wedding day marked with a big red heart and each passing day exed off with meticulous regularity.

Yes he had to admit, as he watched her finish the last toe and lean over to blow gently across the drying polish, that she was constantly surprising him and he loved every minute of it.

"So what's the big news of the day this morning?"

Buffy's voice pulled him from his thoughts as she rose from her perch in the sun on the window seat and made her way across the room to stand before him at the breakfast table a knowing smile on her face.

"Oh um...UC Sunnydale is closing down permanently. All seniors will receive their degrees a semester early so..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence as she playfully punched him in the arm and set the nail polish down on the table before reaching for his cup of coffee for a sip. She regarded him over the rim of the mug with a serious glare though the laughter in her eyes gave her away.

"I see, so it was you that was staring at me all morning instead of reading the paper and here I though it was just my wacky imagination."

She teased and relinquished the mug to his waiting hands.

"Who me? Never."

He replied with mock innocence before taking a sip of the steaming liquid as well.

"You know sweetie, if you really want something from me all you have to do is ask."

She winked playfully at him as he reached out to try and grab her around the waist but she skillfully evaded him.

"Well, if that's the case, then I guess you wouldn't mind..." He began.

"I'd love to!"

She answered before he finished and pushed him back down into the chair with force. She grabbed the nail polish off the table and trapped his feet by sitting on his legs.

"Buffy? What are you?? No way! Stop right now!"

He protested and tried to wiggle out of her grasp once he realized what she was up to but it was no use, she was stronger than he was.

"But Angel..." She pouted and shifted her weight slightly so he could receive the full benefit of her puppy dog eyes. "Don't tell me that you don't want your nails painted too. Why else would you have been staring at me the entire time I did mine?"

She grinned mischievously up at him as his laughter signaled her victory and quickly turned her attention back to his feet.

"Stop moving or it's going to smear and you'll look trashy."

Buffy fussed at him and swiped at a smudge of polish on his big toe.

"Oh, I thought you liked me when I am trashy."

Angel teased and Buffy answered without turning around, her attention now thoroughly fixed on his still wiggling toes.

"Baby, I like you any way I can get you, I just don't want the other girls to get the wrong idea."

"It's not the girls getting the wrong idea I'm worried about." Angel replied truthfully causing Buffy to laugh at him.

Fifteen painfully long minutes later, Angel found himself the proud recipient of ten shiny pink toenails. It was hardly something that he'd ever imagined he'd see, but then again, there really wasn't anything he could refuse Buffy.

A sudden knock at the door drew him from his contemplation of his feet. He rose and opened it to find Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn waiting on the other side.

"Morning."

He offered and stepped aside for them to enter.

"Morning? God Angel, what planet are you on?" Cordelia answered as she brushed past him and into the apartment. "It's 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Did you just get up? Wait. You know what? On second thought, don't answer that, I don't want to know."

The others laughed at that and made their greetings to Buffy as she emerged from the bedroom, now fully dressed.

"Everyone ready to..." Gunn started to ask and then halted midsentence, his mouth sort of hanging open in midair before curling into a huge grin leaving the others at a loss.

"Gunn? What's?" Wesley began but stopped when his gaze found what Gunn's had just moments before.

"Um, guys? What's...? Oh. My. God. Angel? Is that...nail polish on your toes? What have you two been...?" Cordy began but hastily backtracked. "You know what? Whatever weird games you two play on your own time is your own business. Can we just go already before we stumble onto whatever other weird stuff you guys have hidden around here and I am traumatized for life?"

Cordy finished and exited the apartment, Gunn and Wesley chuckling to themselves behind her and Buffy and Angel bringing up the rear. Angel smirked at Buffy when she shot him an amused look as he turned to lock the door. In response she leaned in and whispered a little surprise something in his ear that made him immediately forget about the myriad of pranks and never ending teasing that awaited him in the wake of having his pink toenails discovered by the gang.

He turned and offered his arm to Buffy which she refused in favor of lacing her warm fingers through his own as they joined the others in the elevator. As they waited for the car to reach the ground level, Angel looked around at his closest friends and the woman at his side and couldn't help but grin. Yeah, it was definitely the little everyday moments like this that made all the difference.

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Aurora - girl292@hotmail.com