(Untitled)

[_wes_pryce_]

It was a hard summer. We were all struggling. Cordelia with her visions who were getting worse. Gunn with the fact that he thought he'd abandoned his 'crew'. Fred, trying to return to the normal world after five years in Pylea. Lorne coming to terms with leaving his homeworld behind. And Angel

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[stoic_angel_]

Summer seemed to be passing by so slowly... and for a vampire, that was saying something. In all the time I had spent as undead, I couldn't remember a summer where days and things had gone by so slowly... after all, for vampires, years went by pretty quickly. Only to be expected when one had eternity to live.

I sighed, turning over in my bed again. The sheets were tangled around my legs, but I ignored them; I didn't feel much like getting up today. Or moving much... and untangling the sheets would mean doing either of those; or both.

Buffy was gone... I had known that someday, this might happen, because after all, she was a Slayer. But somehow, I hadn't really known. Even though we weren't together anymore, I couldn't help feeling the loss deeply. After all, she was the girl that had been the one to really give me the initial reason not to give up

[_wes_pryce_]

Cordelia had decided that she couldn't take the brooding any longer and in order to get her mind of things, she announced to go shopping. And poor Gunn had been chosen to be her chauffeur. Not that there was much choice in the matter, he was the only one around who could drive her. Well, besides Angel and myself. But Angel was too busy feeling sorry for himself and I had work to do. I had to...thumb through books and look occupied

[stoic_angel_]

I slipped down the hallway silently, moving silently past Fred's room. It was always the hardest to get by her room... she had pretty good hearing, for a human

[watcher_pryce]

Angel just stood there for a long moment and stared at me, as though he had no idea how to react to anyone anymore. Which, considering the amount of hiding and brooding he'd done lately, wasn't a very strange thought. He might have actually forgotten how to interact with us mere mortals. Alright, that wasn't very fair.

Pulling off my glasses, I blinked at him and sighed. "Hello, Angel," I said softly, pinching the bridge of my nose. I took in the way he was standing there. All nervous and fidgety, ready to flee at the first wrong word I might utter. Which at this point might actually be any word.

Not that I could really take that into consideration now. We all had suffered a loss when we heard the news about Buffy. Even Cordelia and I, and of course it's not the same as it was for Angel. But really, no amount of brooding is going to bring her back at all.

"I think that should be my line, shouldn't it?" I said with a calm, soft voice. "How are you doing, Angel?"

[stoic_angel_]

"I- what?" I asked, confused. Then. "Oh. Um, sorry..." I began to pace absently, wandering back and forth across the office.

"So, um, does that help?" I asked, after a moment of silence. "I mean, I want to help, and..." I shrugged, and sighed slightly. Yeah, help... help when I could barely talk to anyone, when I was hardly out of my room, and help when I couldn't drag myself away from my own thoughts...

I stopped pacing, instead sitting awkwardly in a chair facing Wesley. That was still odd, considering that it had used to be my desk, but now I was on the other side of it. For some reason, I felt like I had been sent to the headmaster's office as a child.

I looked up at Wesley, and asked quietly, "Anything I can do to help?" And yeah, that still felt like a child being punished for something... And shouldn't I be? After all, I had let my friends down, and now, I had to find my way back to them...

Again, when it shouldn't even have happened a first time.

[_wes_pryce_]

"It might," I replied absentminded, scribbling down a few more notes. I glanced up at him as he started to pace my office. My eyes followed him, while I kept them down cast. He still seemed troubled and that really had to stop. I appreciate a guilt fest as much as the next fellow, but really.

And there is really just something about a two-hundred and something year old vampire acting as though he's being scolded by the headmaster. Which made me slightly uneasy when I considered in what role he had suddenly cast me. It's quite disconcerting. I shifted in my chair and looked up at him fully.

"You can stop acting as though I'm about ready to hit your hands with a ruler, Angel." Seriously, as though I'd actually get away with reprimanding... Oh wait, I do get away with that on occasion don't I?

"Angel, feeling guilty about being guilty about the whole situation isn't going to help. You've going to have to let go of that or I'm going to tell Cordelia to take you shopping." I kept my face serious while I looked up at him.

[stoic_angel_]

I pulled away, immediately flying from guilty to apologetic. I wasn't doing too well for my first day back, huh? I was either guilty, apologetic, or absolutely useless...

And sometimes, it felt like since Buffy had died, my brain had, too. Although to hear Cordelia tell it, I never had one in the first place...

"You wouldn't," I accused, leaning forward. Wesley wouldn't do that to me, right? Make me go shopping with Cordelia... we had both been there before, and it was worse than being stuck in te office all day. Hours upon hours of chasing her around through stores, as well as carrying multiple bags, and answering questions like "How does this look?"

And of course, my answers were always bad... seeing as how she decided that she needed to pick something else.

"I... you wouldn't," I said, and looked up. "I'm sorry?"

[watcher_pryce]

I raised my eyebrow at him. I wouldn't dare? He does not know me all that well then. Which, might be true, all things considered. We were just getting to re-acsuaint ourselves with the new 'us'. After all, we went from being fired, to be flung into Pylea not shortly there after

[stoic_angel_]

I nodded to Fred, following Wesley back down the hall. As we went down the stairs, I caught up with him, and asked, "What does she mean, she can come out more now? Why would she think she couldn't come out?"

I was confused, and I didn't know why she would think that she would be trapped in her room or something. And I had heard the others talking to her, so I knew they hadn't unintentionally done anything to seen threatening... so what was going on?

"Is she having problems with anything else?" I asked, for lack of anything else I knew. I hadn't thought that she would hide in her room when we brought her back, but... it was kind of understandable. I had just thought she would have been better with that by now.

[watcher_pryce]

"Oh no, no," I quickly reassured Angel. Or well, tried to reassure him. "She's just having a very hard time adjusting." Giving him a little smile, I moved over to the weapons cabinet to get us some weapons. One doesn't go trotting around un-armed in the sewers.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes, noticing he was still confused about Fred. How was I supposed to tell him that she worshiped him, that he was her hero. And if he was hiding out in his room, then this world really must be a bad place. Which is the main reason she kept hiding in her room.

"She's doing fine, Angel," I assured him, grabbing a crossbow and waiting for him to get something. Well, with Angel out of his room now, she would probably do a whole lot better. At least, that was my theory. "Ready to go? I'll just go and leave a note for Cordy and Gunn."

[stoic_angel_]

"Yeah," I said quietly. "I'm ready." I watched as Wes went over and quickly wrote out a note, leaving it on the counter for the other two to find. I grabbed a small sword while he was writing, then went over to the desk, leaning against the counter as he finished up.

"So, where we off to?" I asked lightly, trying to keep things light. Yeah, we were going off to hunt a monster, but we usually did things like that... it wasn't different from any other time we had done this. It had been a while, but I was sure I could just fall right back into the swing of things.

I waited for Wesley, even as I moved toward the door to the basement, where the sewer entrance was. We should probably get moving... the sooner we did this, the sooner we could be back, so the others didn't worry...

[watcher_pryce]

Putting Cordelia's mug on the edge of the note, to make certain they would find it and it wouldn't get blown away, I picked up my crossbow and joined him at the door to the basement.

"I'm ready when you are," I smiled at him, hopping the subject of Fred pushed away for now. Following him down the stairs, I waited for him to open the door to the sewers. Angel got in ahead of me, of course, and I followed him quickly. The smell of the sewers at first isn't something one will ever get used to. Or should. But oddly enough, if one walks around in it long enough, one does. I can only imagine what it's like for Angel and his enhanced smell.

"Right, well," I said, landing on my feet and glancing around in the dark. I flicked on my flashlight and pointed it to the right. Angel may also have superior eyes, I on the other hand do not. Far from it in fact. "This way."