As Willow approached the library doors, she heard Xander's loud laugh. 'I thought I told him to be nice to Angel,' she thought angrily as she stormed through the doors.
She was a bit surprised when she realized that Angel was laughing too.
They both looked up as she entered the library, Xander still chuckling about the joke she had missed.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"Oh, Xander was just telling me some Willow anecdotes. They were enjoyable."
"Xander Harris, what tales have you been telling?"
"Calm down, Wills. Angel enjoyed hearing about your reaction to the stuffed frog I gave you." Willow's cheeks flushed crimson as she smacked Xander across his head.
"Angel, ignore anything this mental patient has told you."
Angel's eyes actually twinkled as he grinned up at her. "Frog fear?"
"Ribbit," Xander croaked, making Willow smack him once more.
Angel laughed again as he watched the two teens in mock battle, Xander eventually begging for mercy. He didn't notice Giles examining him, then retreating to his office.
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Giles wasn't exactly worried, but he was certainly confused by Angel's behavior since waking up. It wasn't that the vampire was terribly different, but he was more lighthearted, less troubled. The Angel they had all known for the past three years had always had an omnipresent guilt complex, something that only Buffy had ever been able to lighten. This Angel, missing only three years, seemed confused, but more open than Giles had ever seen him. He trusted Willow implicitly, and Giles could see that he was striving to please her above all else.
Giles had finally forgiven Angel, realizing (with the help of exasperated Willow logic) that Angel and Angelus were entirely different. So it wasn't that he wanted Angel to go back to the self-hating brooder that they had always known. He had, however, assumed that Angel had always been that way.
Perhaps it was the shock of the amnesia, but Angel's very character seemed different. Giles needed to find out why, and there was only one person who could tell him.
He picked up the phone.
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Angel was trying to pay attention to the conversation, he really was. It was just that every time he looked at Willow, the rest of the world seemed to slow down as he drank in everything about her. By the time he finally managed to drag himself back to the conversation, the topic had always changed. He would regroup, but by the time he finally figured out what they were talking about, Willow would catch his eye again and he'd refreeze.
Dang inconvenient, but awfully pleasant.
What was it about this girl? Ever since he had been cursed with his soul, he had wandered the earth in confusion. He had been a mass of guilt and bewilderment, not knowing where to go or how to live. He had been so profoundly alone, and the pain from his reinstated conscience had been unceasing. Every crime he had ever committed ran through his mind over and over, not allowing him a moment's peace.
Until now.
Oh, he certainly still felt guilty, and his soul still plagued him. But he had long since learned how to control the demon. It was the confusion that had blocked out any hope or rational thought for so many years that had diminished. He still felt confused, as would any amnesiac. But not about his place, not anymore.
From the very first moment that he had seen Willow, her sleeping head resting beside his own, he had felt her acceptance. She had trusted him enough to share his bed, something that he would never have expected from a human who knew what he was. During the time he couldn't remember, she had watched him revert to the demon his body housed, watched him kill her friends, she had even come close herself to being killed by his own hands. Yet she had seized those same hands with fervent joy upon his awakening, and she never gave the slightest indication of any wariness around him.
Angel had always assumed that a human would have to be crazy to trust him, because he didn't trust himself. But Willow trusted him utterly, in a way he had never seen, even between humans. And she wasn't crazy. In fact, she knew more about him than he did. If the girl who was always right thought he was trustworthy, maybe it was true.
And maybe that was why Angel was learning how to laugh again.
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Giles hung up the phone and returned to the library table.
"Well, Willow, I must say I'm impressed. Getting Xander to talk to Angel has always been a chore, but getting him to be nice to him- I wouldn't have thought it possible." Xander shrugged.
"Well, she had that whole resolve face thing going on, so I didn't have much of a choice. Besides, Angel and I have gotten along. Occasionally. Briefly."
"Like when?" Willow asked skeptically.
"Well, there was that time we saved Buffy after the Master killed her. Okay, I had to use a cross on him to get him to help me find her, and I accused him of checking out my neck, but we shared a moment when she started breathing again. We actually smiled at each other. And we were both pissed off by her that time she was acting bitchy. And we were getting along when Spike first came, until Angel used me as bait, anyway. We fought those snake-frat guys together. We got along when I was turned into a soldier, and we both hated Ford. Remember, I agreed when Angel said Ford's leaving no paper trail was incriminating?"
"Xander, if I recall correctly, you called Angel 'Dead Boy' that same night, immediately followed by 'Bossy the Cow'."
"But I said I agreed with Dead Boy. It was just a new name for him."
Angel was slightly disgruntled, because he felt like a complete outsider in the midst of a conversation that was about him. Willow, of course, noticed.
"You know, it's Angel's first day of consciousness in awhile. Maybe we should head back to the mansion." Angel couldn't help but hear the 'we' in her sentence, and something inside him glowed.
"Yes, why don't you do that. But Willow, I'll need you back here tomorrow just after sundown. There are some things we need to figure out." Willow nodded to Giles and ruffled Xander's hair as she grabbed her jacket.
"Okay, Angel, you lead the way. I'll just follow and be delighted when you remember how to get there. Goodnight fellas."
"Goodnight, and thanks," Angel added.
He walked out of the library, intensely aware of the girl behind him whose steps somehow matched his own.