Fic: Last Exit To Eden
Fic: { Title: Last Exit to Eden}
Fandom: BtVS/AtS
Characters: Buffy, Angel, Cordelia, Connor (mentioned), Spike, Faith, Dawn (mentioned)
Pairings: Buffy/Angel, Angel/Cordelia (elements) Faith/Spike
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,523
Beta: slybrunette thank you so much bb, you’re a blooming star you are!
Author’s Note: For kairosimperfect . No idea what happened here, I seriously got carried away... and am five months late with this. And I hope you like it.
Summary: Future fic.
Last Exit to Eden
They were two solitary figures, walking slowly down the abandoned pebble beach. Broken bottles, pieces of tin and the odd brightly colored sea-shell entwined with sea-weed were strewn all over the coastline. Stormy grey sea water reared back like an angry snake before crashing onto the shore, its white frothy garbage-littered venom spraying the two men.
The shorter one of the two hunched his shoulders and stuffed his hands in the pockets of a short dark brown leather jacket. His blue eyes never left the turbulent ocean or the watery sunlight filtering hazily through the black clouds crowding the sky.
“You know what Peaches-”
“Don’t.” Angel warned.
Spike looked up at the man that used to be his grandsire and wondered for the thousandth time what they were even doing here.
Angel burrowed his hands deeper into the pockets of his dark blue wool coat. ‘Wow, don’t go crazy there with all the color big guy. Not that I’m saying you don’t look good, the dark blue coat and the charcoal grey scarf with your crocodile skin shoes are totally hot. In a Euro-trash kind of way of course.’ Angel felt his lips tug at the corners a little at the sound of Cordelia’s voice in his head.
He felt good that even after all this time, she was still with him.
Spike nudged him with his elbow, “Look lively mate, I think I see someone.”
Angel immediately scowled at the physical contact, which made Spike grin unapologetically.
Angel let out a long suffering sigh, his features impassive but his fists clenched inside the coat in apprehension.
‘What if too much time had passed? What if she had changed? What if she wasn’t how he remembered her? Pureness, sunshine and light? What if time had been unkind to her personality? Would she understand about Connor? Cordelia? Darla? Fuck, even Wesley? What if she didn’t? What if she was a stranger to the girl he’d seen on the steps of Hemery High? Then what?
‘Oh My God Broody McBroodypants! Don’t you ever just stop? Just enjoy your life? If Buffy could suck your face off when you were all fangy and feral-eyed with blood on your breath, which ew gross, I’m sure she’ll still love you now.’
‘Get out of my head Cordelia.’
‘What? After all this time you’re still surprised that I know you so well? Typical.’
Angel rolled his eyes at the Cordy only he could hear. Spike who caught the motion raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“You hearin’ Vision Girl in your noggin’ again?”
Angel blinked his assent.
Both Spike and Cordelia spoke at the same time, “Stop brooding!”
The look on Angel’s face was priceless and Spike tried to bite his lip to keep from laughing. He faced south again and started to approach the two women walking toward them. Angel forgot to be nervous as the usual competitive streak that Spike always managed to rouse, reared its ugly head. Lengthening his strides he caught up to Spike and surpassed him.
“Ponce!”
Angel stopped abruptly, forcing Spike to bump into him, he reached out and steadied Spike with a bruising grip on his elbow. The two women stopped a few feet away from them, dressed identically in long black leather coats, black leather boots and black jeans. The only difference in their attire was the cashmere scarves around their necks. One was dark purple and the other dark green.
They both sported dark brown hair which made both Spike and Angel frown in momentary confusion.
Faith smiled her shark-like grin and ran to Angel, throwing herself at him and wrapping her arms around him tightly. Angel’s arms instantly went around her slender frame and he held her just as tightly.
“Hey Buddy,” Faith whispered to him as she leaned back to plant a wet kiss on his lips before hugging him tightly again.
Buffy and Spike stood watching them awkwardly before Spike let out an aggressive, “Sod this” and crossed the distance between them to lift Buffy up in a bear hug.
“Spike”, she said in the customary exasperated tone she used when she spoke to him.
“Whatever Slayer, you’re hugging me back and I’m bloody positive that’s a smile I hear in your voice.” Spike retorted gruffly.
He turned around with Buffy in his arms and met Angel’s brown eyes; his former grandsire’s eyes were just as misty as his. They all released each other simultaneously, laughing wetly as brown eyes danced on hazel and hazel danced on brown then blue which danced on whisky-brown then back to hazel and round again.
Faith was the first one to speak, “So Shanshu turned out to be for both of you and gave you some sexy salt and pepper and wrinkles too. Talk about two for one deal.”
Spike and Angel shared an annoyed look before mock glaring at Faith. Trust her to mention their aged appearances.
Angel walked over hesitantly to Buffy and reached out a slightly trembling hand to finger her brown tresses. She looked up at him and he felt like he had been struck with a lightning bolt all over again. This was how she had looked at him on a much brighter beach a long time ago. How she had looked at him on a day only he could remember.
‘And me.’ Cordy said smugly.
Angel scowled then back-pedaled through a gamut of expressions as Buffy’s eyes widened with ill-concealed hurt.
“You don’t like it.”
“No. I love it.” Angel said.
Buffy smiled at him beatifically and Angel felt his lips tug in response.
She leaned toward him, instantly sliding her hand up his chest, into his jacket and over his beating heart. He watched her as she pressed her ear to his chest and sighed contentedly. His arms came up to wrap around her and Angel felt like he had finally been granted absolution.
Buffy pulled away slightly and looked up into his eyes, tears springing up as she smiled in disbelief.
“Angel your heart is beating.”
Angel’s hand covered hers and he gripped the fingers tightly, his heart thudding underneath their clasped hands. He looked down at her inviting lips but felt himself hesitate.
‘Oh go ahead, I promise not to mind too much.’ Cordy grumbled good-naturedly.
Angel leaned down and pressed his lips to Buffy’s in a chaste kiss. He felt his skin start to tingle, blood rushing down to his groin as he realised that he was finally kissing Buffy Summers again. She opened her lips and tangled her tongue with his and Angel groaned deep in his throat as he slipped his tongue into her mouth and stroked it against hers.
The kiss deepened and would have gone on forever if they both did not need to breathe.
‘Bet you never get tired of that do you? Needing to breathe?’ Cordy whispered.
Angel stared into Buffy’s eyes and felt like his heart was breaking and mending at the same time. Cordy should have been here, on Earth, living and breathing like him, here with him.
‘Threesome huh? Didn’t you get enough of that in your vamp days? Besides I don’t share.’ Cordy teased.
Buffy took a step back from him, but slid her hand in his and steered them in the direction her and Faith had come from. Angel wordlessly fell into step beside her.
“Angel… I’m sorry about LA and… Cordelia.”
‘Don’t you dare feel sorry for me you brazen hussy!’ Cordelia sniped.
Angel frowned slightly, ‘Cordy come on.’
‘No you come on. What exactly is she sorry about?!’
Buffy stopped and released Angel’s hand completely, “I have an idea of how much she meant to you and I know you loved her…”
Buffy wrapped her arms across her chest in a protective gesture as she floundered for words.
“I would love to hear about her, about the woman she’d become if it’s not too painful,” Buffy offered in a trembling voice.
Angel was frozen to the spot, he hadn’t expected her to pull out a broadsword and cut him deep to the core within five minutes of seeing him again.
“Connor doesn’t talk about her much but I know he must have loved her and…”
Angel felt tears sting his eyes, “Connor? You’ve met Connor?”
Buffy nodded, “Yeah, him and Dawn have been together since they met at Stanford years ago. They live with us.Angel felt himself get light-headed and stumbled backwards sitting down hard on the litter-strewn pebbles. Buffy picked up some offending pieces of garbage, tossing them over her shoulder, then sat down next to him.
Cordy was deafeningly silent.
‘Figures’, Angel thought.
He glanced over at Spike and Faith who were talking quietly between them by the shoreline and cowardly wished he was somewhere else right now
****
“So what’s the deal with the aging and shit? The PTB didn’t think it was bad enough that the whole world’s facing THE apocalypse, they had to go and make two damn good warriors human and kinda old too?”
“Does your brain ever engage before your mouth?”
Faith shrugged, “Not if I can help it.”
Spike chuckled, “Tell you what, you got bloody good control over not engaging your brain then.”
Faith rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
Spike cleared his throat slightly, breaking their eye-contact as his eyes strayed over to Buffy and Angel.
“So you think there’s hope for them two?”
Faith looked over her shoulder before bringing her eyes back to meet Spike’s, “Fuck whatever man. That’s their deal. I’m more interested in you and me.”
Spike's eyes widened comically, “Sorry what?”
Faith grinned evilly, “I told you back at the Hyperion, remember that one time you and Angel nearly lost your unlives and I fed you my blood to keep you ah… not breathing?”
Spike scowled suspiciously, “I was a little out of it luv, be a dear and jog the old noggin for me would ya?”
Faith sighed dramatically, “I told you that unlike Buffy I liked my men breathing and you should give me a call if you ever did join that club.”
“And what did I say?”
“Sure thing luv, I'll have you know, I’m very loyal.” Faith said in a very good impression of him.
Spike straightened his shoulders and stood a little taller, “Really?”
Faith sidled up to him, her eyes never leaving his, she tilted her head to the side a little. Spike did the same.
“Yeah, really. We’ve been dancing around each other for so long now Spike don’t you think it’s time to shit or get off the pot?”
Spike sputtered in shock as she danced her fingers up his sleeve and cupped his chin, her pupils dilating as she licked her lips.
He frowned suspiciously, “You sure this is not a second-bests are us thing?”
Faith shrugged languorously, her teeth gleamed blindingly white against her ruby red lips, “Oh Spike, don’t you get it? Drusilla was a headcase, B is well… Angel’s and I’m… well, I’m a damn good fuck, I don’t cuddle unless I feel like it and I’m a Slayer, got muscles that will make you pop in places you wouldn’t believe.”
Spike swallowed convulsively, oh yes the Slayer muscles, matter of fact this was the bitch that had put his interest in Buffy in a sexual light in the first place. He owed her a good arse kicking for that!
Faith smiled at him knowingly as she ran a finger along his lips and then leaned in, “Oh that’s right you would believe… I hear it’s more intense for a human male. So give us a taste so we can make this whole thing seem spontaneous and not predestined or some shit...”
Despite himself Spike leaned in and his lips met hers. He tensed imperceptibly; this was very different from everything else he had ever felt in his first life, unlife or this new Shanshu-life. It felt like his body was a firecracker that had been ignited by a mere meeting of the lips and was about to blow if Faith applied the right kind of pressure.
Faith’s hand slid down his right flank, across his abdomen and then assertively stroked the inner seam of his jeans to cup his groin. Spike yelped like he had been burned and jumped back from her in shock. ‘Yeah she knew the right kind of pressure alright.’
“Y-y-y-you. Stay away from me you sadistic bitch.”
Faith licked her lips thoughtfully and shrugged again, “Whatever you say Big Boy. Now let’s head on out, before the water nasties come out to play.”
She strode past him purposefully and headed towards Buffy and Angel who were still seated on the beach, something painful and palpable beating around them.
Buffy watched Spike and Faith walk past them, and glanced back over at Angel.
“Angel I’m sorry I brought her up. I just felt you had to know. I don’t want you to feel like you’re betraying her. I don’t wanna feel like I’m betraying her either.”
Angel’s eyes whipped round to meet Buffy’s, “Why would you feel like that?”
Buffy shrugged with a timid smile, “’Cause I’m not a kid anymore Angel, I get it or at least I want to get it. And look around you, this is the new world. Demons walk in the daylight and fight with Angels, and humans and vice versa.”
Angel smiled sheepishly, “Yeah you’re not a kid anymore, you haven’t been for a long time.” His finger stroked the faint laugh lines creeping out of her left eye. Buffy turned her face into his palm and he cupped her cheek, taking a deep breath.
‘Don’t push her away you big dummy. This is it. This is what you fought for.’ Cordy said with exasperation.
Angel smiled sadly, “I loved Cordy. I really loved her. In every way a man can love a woman. No form of that love was lesser than the other.”
Buffy took a deep breath and forced herself to look into his eyes, nodding encouragingly for him to go on.
“I wish you could have known her Buffy. She was so strong, so supportive, so beautiful and larger than life. She was the heart of the group… she was my heart, she is my heart even still.”
Buffy felt like her heart was going to burst with jealousy and admiration all at the same time.
“Angel, I wish I could have known her too.”
Angel smiled tearfully, “I wish you could have known all of them Buffy. Doyle, Wesley, Gunn…Fred.”
“Darla.”
Angel flinched and Buffy smiled at him wistfully, “Was it really only 12 years ago when you left Sunnydale and the world was black and white?”
Angel smiled again, “Feels like 120 years ago.”
Buffy shrugged, “It might as well be. Speaking of which, we better go.”
She made to get up and Angel rose swiftly, taking her hand and helping her.
Buffy brushed the seat of her pants awkwardly as she felt Angel’s intense gaze on her.
She gestured in the direction Faith and Spike had gone and led the way.
***
Spike stared at the two motorcycles parked on a patch of gravel on the isolated hill. Looking down he could see Buffy and Angel begin the steep climb up to them. He glanced over at Faith who was twirling an ancient Saxon double-axe expertly with her left hand while she smoked a cigarette with her right.
“Alright luv, that’s enough, you can stop showing off.” He snapped bitterly.
Faith cocked an eyebrow at him before taking one last puff of her cigarette and tossing it over her shoulder, never breaking the pattern with the axe.
“Now that you’re just a normal guy, bet you miss all the extra trimmings you got with being a vampire, huh.”
Spike rolled his eyes and then lunged at her, catching and stilling the axe with his right hand and pulling Faith toward him with his left.
“Didn’t lose all my trimmings luv, ‘sides me and the Big Poofter spent six months at sea travelling from Japan to Sunny England and had diddly to do but practice weapons handling.”
Faith tilted her head with amusement, “Why exactly did the PTB drop your gaijin asses in Japan?”
“Buggered if I know, but I’m sure glad they did, what with what’s been going on in the rest of the world.”
Faith shrugged and leaned in close for a kiss, “You’re fast but still not nowhere near as fast as you should be.”
“Am fast enough,” he whispered.
As Spike’s lips touched Faith’s she grabbed the axe from him, flipped Spike over her back and delivered a spinning kick to the red eyed Mohra demon that came running at her. One hefty upper-thrust with her sword and she wrenched the glowing gemstone out of its forehead, crushing the stone with her boot. She wiped her hand down her leather coat and reached down to help Spike up.
“Told ya.”
Spike just stared at her and opened his mouth to speak but Buffy and Angel came running up the hill.
“Faith! Spike!”
Faith turned to face Buffy and waved her axe in the air, “I got it B. But you know those guys don’t travel alone so let’s motor.”
She jumped on her bike and gestured for Spike to hop on behind her.
Angel and Buffy remained rooted to the spot, staring at the glittering pieces of the Mohra demon’s jewel. Both assaulted with the memory of the last time they had confronted the species together. Angel’s memories were obviously more tortuous.
‘Oh God not this again. Can’t you two ever change the song?’ Cordy grumbled.
Angel straightened his shoulders and gestured for Buffy to precede him but she shook her head and digging out her keys from her back jean pocket, she tossed them to him. Grinning self-deprecatingly she hopped on the bike behind him when he started the ignition and took off after Faith and Spike.
***
They stopped at an abandoned truck stop halfway to their destination.
The structure was gutted from the inside out, providing no real shelter. In this new world though, the memory of a secure structure was better than nothing.
Faith and Spike were sitting on an overturned and long-emptied fuel tanker, sharing a cigarette. They watched with half-wistful, half-mocking grins as Buffy and Angel started to bicker by the bikes.
“Angel, you’re gonna have to talk to me. You’re gonna have to stop with the careful tiptoeing on eggshells slash resentful deference thing that you’ve been doing since I mentioned her name.”
“Everything has to be done on your timetable or not at all right?” Angel snapped.
Buffy drew herself up, “Okay, harsh much? I didn’t… I don’t expect for us to pick up where we left off because a) last time we saw each other you were still weak from that stand against the Circle of the Black Thorn and b) my cookie dough speech still applied and c) you and I have both changed from the Sunnydale days. Angel I just want-”
“There you go again with the ‘I want’, I’m not the guy you knew in Sunnydale Buffy, in fact I don’t think I was ever really that guy.”
Buffy recoiled like she’d been struck, tears welled up unbidden in her eyes, “Wow… thanks. Great to know that I- that what we had was so out of character for you.”
Angel wanted to reach out to her, apologise say something but his jaw remained stubbornly welded shut of its own volition.
Buffy nodded hurriedly and looked away. Blinking the tears back she shoved her hands in her pockets and walked away from Angel, heading toward the tree-line and forest behind the carcass of the building.
Angel watched her go with a silent plea for her to come back.
‘Oh my God Broody, that’s a new low-blow, even for you. Why would you say that? Don’t you want to at least get along with her?’
Angel turned his back to Spike and Faith and walked away from the bikes, facing the highway.
“Come on Cordy, that’s not fair.” He said out-loud, his heart seized in his chest with regret. He hadn’t thought it possible but he missed his best friend more and more each day.
‘No… what you said to Buffy wasn’t fair.”
“Truth hurts,” he said brusquely.
‘Okay, you wanna do this hard way, fine. Angel you love her, you’ve always loved her. You spent six months on a frigging freighter navigating hostile waters, etcetera, so you could see her again. You didn’t come here to dredge up the painful parts of the past or to fall back into your old patterns cause I got news for you buddy, you’re not as young as you used to be and there is a war going on here. So every second counts.’
Angel’s brow furrowed in stubborn denial, “But Cordy, it’s always about her.”
‘Cut her some slack Angel, every other topic that doesn’t revolve around her has made you clam up and withdraw like you’ve been attacked.’
“That’s cause I miss you and I need you and-”
‘I know, but Angel, you know its time for you to let me go right? To live whatever’s left of your life. To enjoy your Shanshu, however you can?’
“Do I?”
‘Do you what?’
“Do I know I have to let you go?”
Cordelia sighed, “Yeah, you do.”
Angel sighed too, “But not yet, not until I’ve seen Connor’s okay and-”
‘You’re so stubborn!’
Angel grinned to himself, “That’s why you love me.”
Faith and Spike watched Angel muttering to himself with amusement.
“So being human’s made him crazy huh?”
“Nah, he’s just got some loyalty issues to deal with,” Spike shrugged.
“Loyalty to who? That werewolf chick? I thought that ended way back in LA.”
“To Cordelia you daft bint.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah and you pile that on the survivor’s guilt and you’ve got one messed up human Captain Forehead.”
Faith snorted at that, “Whatever you big poser, you’ve got survivor’s guilt too. That’s why you’re being really slow to actually come out and say, Faith me luv, I fancy the pants off of you and I can’t wait til we get to your room so I can shag you bloody senseless.”
Spike choked on his own saliva and stared at her in surprise, coughing and spluttering.
Faith thumped him on the back soundly and grinned, “Yeah I know all about you and Fred/Illyria.”
Spike stopped coughing and took a wheezing breath, his eyes stinging from the cold wind soughing bitingly through the truck stop.
Faith sniffed the air and lost her jaunty humor, jumping off the truck door, she landed on the cracked tarmac lightly and hurried to her bike. Flipping open the carrier, she pulled out two trusty battleaxes, tossing one to Buffy without turning in the other Slayer’s direction as she came running. Buffy caught the axe easily without breaking her stride.
Spike jumped down as Angel jogged over to them, the question obvious in his eyes.
“Wind means there’s a swarm of Mohra demons coming our way. That yellow swarm of demons coming from the north are probably Brachnors so we’re gonna have to make a stand and fight. There’s some magic stuff Willow stashed under my bike seat if you know how to use it.” Buffy said seriously as she tossed Angel her keys.
Angel and Spike shared a serious look as Faith handed them each a flail, and some throwing stars. Then they retreated to the tree-line with the bikes, Angel took out the book of spells Willow had hidden and some crystals. Flipping through the book he muttered something and the crystals splintered and spread across the forest like fairy lights. Then they took up strategic positions together and braced themselves for the fight.
***
Spike smiled at Faith as she lit up another cigarette, they were standing about fifty feet away from Buffy and Angel.
“Want one?”
Spike shrugged as he took a cigarette from her, watching with narrowed eyes as she lit it for him.
“I didn’t say yes,” Spike said gruffly.
“You didn’t say no either,” Faith said with a lift of her eyebrow.
Spike couldn’t help the chuckle that rose out of him, “Get us out of here luv, I’m dying’ to see if you’ve really got the goods.”
Faith beheaded the Brachnor demon that had crept up behind Spike. He ducked and rolled away, rising to his feet and smashing a Mohra demon’s jewel with his flail. He turned around to face her with a laugh on his lips and she gifted him with a smile could have lit up a city.
“Baby I thought you’d never ask.”
Angel looked down at Buffy who was concentrating on the two Brachnor’s moving stealthily across the cracked tarmac. His heart raced with adrenaline and fear and the aching familiarity of being in a life and death battle. Without thinking he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look up at him.
“Buffy, I-”
“I know,” she said softly.
“You do?”
“Yeah, I do.”
A Mohra demon launched itself at them, Buffy and Angel simultaneously diving and rolling away. Buffy rose first and used the hilt of her battle axe to crush the jewel in its forehead then decapitate it. Before she could look for Angel, she saw a throwing star hurtling towards her and ducked as it imbedded itself in the other Mohra. She looked across the dim forest and grinned her thanks. Angel shrugged effortlessly.
Jogging over to him she smiled at him, “You still got some moves.”
“Yeah well, I was a vampire with a soul in my past life,” Angel said with a grin.
Buffy squinted up at him, “Really? I dated one of those once.”
They were distracted for a few minutes as they fought a few Brachnors. When the ground was strewn with carcasses Angel put his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
“And?”
“And what?”
“You dated a vampire with a soul once and?”
“Oh… it doesn’t matter now, that’s in the past.” Buffy wiped the Brachnor blood off her hand then held it out to him, “Pleased to meet you Reincarnated Guy, I’m Buffy.”
‘Okay Mister, I don’t mean to be the voice of doom and gloom but this is your last chance. She’s offering you an olive branch and a clean slate after that serious foot in mouth-itis you displayed earlier. For crying out loud, take it!’ Cordy encouraged.
Angel grinned ruefully, “Angel, my name’s Angel. And this is gonna sound kind of lame but, I have never really dated anyone before.”
‘Finally! Now I better go and make sure you two live to go on a date. Don’t say or do anything stupid while I’m gone.’ Cordy warned, her voice drifting away.
Buffy chuckled as they readied themselves for a batch of Mohra and Brachnor demons coming their way, “Neither have I, but we’ll figure it out together if you like.”
Angel gripped his flail tighter and grinned, “I’d like that very much."