TITLE: A Forgotten Day
AUTHOR: Nate
DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to Joss Whedon and anyone else who own the copyrights.
SUMMARY: It’s Christmas 2000 in Sunnydale and Buffy sucked into the Christmas spirit and remembers a long lost special day.
RATING: PG
AUTHOR’S NOTE:this was written very quickly and it’s unbeta… so please understand ?
DEDICATION: To all of you who believe in B/A. Merry Xmas and Happy Hanukkah!
 

“Come on! They’re gonna close the shops!” Dawn pulled Buffy’s arm.
“Relax, it's early. And if anything Giles will open the Magic Box for us”. Buffy said,
looking out the window. “It looks cold outside”. She noted.
Dawn rolled her eyes and opened Buffy’s closet. She searched through the clothes,
taking out a leather jacket that was staffed in the back.
“This looks warm enough”. Dawn handed it over to Buffy.
Buffy’s looked at the jacket, paling.
“How did you get this anyway? Is it dad’s?” Dawn asked.
Buffy took the coat from her sister’s hand. “It’s Angel’s… he gave it to me… a few
years ago”.
“Oh I’m sorry… I didn’t know…” Dawn lowered her eyes.
“No it’s okay,” Buffy put the jacket on. “I just forgot I had it…”
“But it makes you sad. I wanted you to be happy… because riley left”.
Buffy shrugged. “Mom is coming home today. Believe me, I *am* happy”.
Dawn looked at her suspiciously. “You didn’t even cry when he left”.
“I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Remember there are thing that are… my things?”
“Yes”.
“Let’s go get mom a Christmas present”.

The girls walked down the street, their arms full of shopping bags.
“A tree!” Dawn reminded Buffy.
“Right. A tree. I forgot”. Buffy shook her head.
“Let’s get one with fake snow!” Dawn was enthusiastic.
Buffy touched the fake snow. She remembered a happy christmas day, 2 years ago.
It snowed and she walked down the street with Angel, holding him tight.
She was afraid for his life and he knew she was tensed. He could feel it.
She barely let him take away his hand, when suddenly he leaned down and before she
could say anything he threw a snowball at her.
She glared at him for a minute and he smiled at her. His smile was genuine and her
heart flipped inside her. She didn’t see him smile like this for a long time… from the
morning of her 17th birthday to be exact. When he smiled and told her he’ll surprise
her and that everything was gonna be okay.
He, still smiling, moved closer, and then she burst into laughter.
His face lightened up but he couldn’t say one word when she ducked quickly and got up just as quick shoving a snowball in his face.
They started a little snow war there, running around and then wriggling like children,
until she found herself on top of him. She laughed again and he grabbed her face closer
to him and kissed her. The kiss deepened as the snow kept falling on them.
She lost the feeling of time when she was lying in his arm, ignoring the cold.
Slowly he caressed her body until he turned her over, positioning himself above her,
but not letting go of her lips. He gripped tight her hands, then whispered against her
lips. “Gotcha”.
She wriggled and within seconds she was on top of him again.
She laughed. “Shut up and kiss me”.

“Buffy? Angel or a star?” Dawn woke her up from her daydream.
“Angel”. Buffy said, looking over at Dawn. She was standing on a small ladder,
decorating the tree.
Dawn looked at her. “What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing”.
“You don’t have a nothing face”.
“My things!” Buffy walked away.
“Dad called”.
“Did you tell him about mom?”
“Nope”.
“Good. What did he want?”
“To say happy Halloween. Hel-lo? What do you think he wanted?”
Buffy wrinkled her nose. “You little brat. C’mon, let’s pick up mom”.

Buffy clung onto Angel’s arms when they finally entered his mansion. They must have
spent two hours in the snow, which was a great distraction after everything they’ve
been through… not just today, but since the last time they were really together.
He looked around. “Look, Buffy, I don’t want to ruin your christmas-“
“You won’t believe how better it is… or was, until you said that”.
“I’m sorry”. He looked at her. “You’re freezing”.
He walked to his fireplace and light up the fire.
“My clothes are all wet”, She complained when she took off her long blue coat.
“I’ll get you dry clothes”. He walked away.
Buffy looked at the flames, smiling slightly.
“Don’t you rather spend the day with your family?” He asked when he returned
handing her the dry clothes.
“I’ve spent the holidays with them for 18 years”. She said, getting up.
She walked away to get dressed and came back shortly after.
Angel looked at the clothes that hanged on her loosely and smiled.
She returned the smile and moved over to him, putting her arms around him.
“We need a tree”. He said, kissing her forehead.

“It’s beautiful!” Joyce smiled as she entered the house followed by Dawn and Buffy
and saw the well-decorated tree.
“Dawn’s contribution to the Christmas spirit”.
“It’s good to be back”. Joyce smiled and walked inside. “It looks like I’ve never left. I
was worried you might tear the place down”.

“I can do this!”
“No, let me!”
“Angel, I can handle this!”
Both Buffy and Angel were trying to grab a hold on the tree they brought to the
mansion. Now they were stuck with it in the doorway.
Buffy started laughing. “You’re acting like a kid”. She tried to push her way in.
Angel laughed. “Must be the holiday spirit”. He winked at her.
Finally they managed to release the tree and themselves from the doorway.
Angel placed the tree in front of the fireplace.
They looked at the pretty tree proud.
“I can’t believe we stole a Christmas tree”. Angel said, glancing over at Buffy.
She giggled. “We didn’t *steal* it… we um, *borrowed* it”. He smiled and she
walked over to his arms.

They snuggled close to the fire, and Angel hugged her close to him and kissed her
head. “Are you sure you’re not tired? You’ve been up all night”.
Buffy brought his palm to her mouth and kissed it lightly.
“I can sleep everyday, but it’s the only day I can spend christmas with you”. She said
quietly.
“It’s my first… real christmas…” He told her quietly. “And I can’t think of anyone I
would want to spend it with other than you”.
“Didn’t you have Christmas when you were human?”
Angel was quiet for a moment. “We had Christmas dinner… my father would spend
the time reminding me how much I’m useless and how I’m nothing like him”.
“He… even when you were a kid?”
“Then he’d beat me up… I was a wild kid”.
“My dad was yelling all the time… it got worse around the time my parents got
divorced…“ Buffy’s voice cracked and Angel tightened his hold on her in a reassuring
hug. “I guess we have that in common…” She smiled bitterly and received another
soft kiss from Angel.
“So you want- I... I didn’t get you anything”. He said quietly.
“Angel, you’re the best present I got for christmas ever… I can’t even imagine if the
powers that be haven’t stepped in… you’d be a pile of dust by now…”
“I was-“
“An idiot”.
“True”. Angel smiled faintly. Buffy turned around to look at him.
“You never got to finished your words”. He whispered.
“What?”
“You said you won’t mourn over me because…”
Buffy shook her head. “I was lying. By then I was thinking to knock you out cold and
drag you to safety”.
“By then I was ready to walk away with you”. He admitted.
“Really?” She moved her face closer to him.
“You’re very convincing”. He kissed her briefly. She looked at him.
“Angel, I will never let darkness take you again, I promise. Not if it’s up to me”.
“I’ll try to be strong for you”. He said.
“Promise?”

“Buffy?” Buffy looked up to see her mother.
“She went again to that Buffy's special place”. Dawn said.
“Are you okay, honey?” Joyce put her hand on Buffy’s shoulder.
“Yeah… I was just… never mind”. Buffy shook her head. “I’m tired, I think I’ll go
take a nap before dinner”.
She ran up the stairs and entered her room. She took off the leather jacket and put it
back in her closet.
She quickly changed to her PJs and snuggled under the covers of her bed.

Buffy tossed and turned  but couldn’t fall asleep. After a few moments, she just got
up and started pacing around the room. The sun of the afternoon shined through the
closed shutters. She walked over to her desk, and opened the drawer, under the pile of
papers her diary was resting undisturbed. She had to hide it deep there because of
Dawn, even though she stopped writing in her diary about 7 hours after Angel broke up with her.
The last page had still the smeared ink stains from the dried tears.
She wanted to open her diary when she noticed a brown book underneath it.
She dug it out and her heart started beating faster.
“Sonnets From the Portuguese” – Elisabeth Barret-Browning.
She trailed her fingers softly on the golden letter and opened the book.
On the first page, there was one word scribbled: “Always”.  Angel’s handwriting.
He gave her this poems book for her 18th birthday.
She was too distracted then to appreciate it, but he wasn’t insulted, or if he was he
didn’t show it. He understood what she was going through and stood by her comforting  her with words that meant more to her than any present in the world.
She smiled bitterly thinking that riley would have probably been pissed off if she
neglected his gift like this.
She flipped through the book.
             “Because thou hast the power
              and own’st the grace to look
              through and behind this mask
              of me, and behold my soul’s
              true face”.
Buffy felt the tears choking her throat. She closed the book and picked up the phone.
She hesitated for only a slight moment, then dialed the number she knew by heart for
no apparent reason.

Angel was sitting on the couch in the lobby. He haven’t heard from any of his friends
since he fired them. He was too busy arranging his weapons for tonight. He sat back
on the couch, handling a stake. His face were expressionless.
The phone rang. At this hour usually it would be Cordelia getting calls from her friends.
He just kept staring into space immersed in his thoughts.
Cordelia’s voice on the answering machine filled the void.
“Angel Investigations, we can’t talk now, so leave a message!”
Silence. Angel lifted the stake to his eye level checking it closely.
“Um… Ugh…” The voice on the answering machine decided to talk after a moment
of hesitation. “Angel, it’s me… Buffy…”
Angel’s fingers tightened around the stake and he closed his eyes. Why did she have
to call now?
“I… ugh.. I just wanted to say… uh, merry christmas…”
She paused and Angel wished she’d just hang up already.
She started talking again after a second.
“I guess I better…”
Angel got up quickly and jumped over to the phone, picking it up.
“Buffy?”

Buffy swallowed, but she could still feel the lump in her throat and the sudden heat
wave that passed through her body.
“Angel?”
“Is everything all right?” He asked.
“Ye-yes. All is well in Sunnydale…” Buffy giggled softly.
“Good. I’m… I’m glad”.
She felt awkward. “So how are you doing?”
“I’m doing fine. Getting ready for some action tonight”.
“Oh, well…”
“Gotta kill some demons”. He didn’t want her to know about Darla and Dru.
She laughed shortly. “That action! I thought…” She stopped embarrassed. “I thought..
um, other action”.
Angel smiled to himself slightly. “Not that kind of action for me”.
“I’m glad.. No! I…. I didn’t mean it this way like you’re still… but… you know… um, you know.. right?”
“It’s okay Buffy”. He said quietly, amused. He waited a second. “How’s riley doing?”
“Oh, he’s fine…” Buffy started saying. “He’s uh, gone”.
“Gone?”
“He left. He had some night action of his own… and it didn’t mesh well”. Buffy
laughed nervously.
“I see, I’m sorry”.
“Don’t be. …I’m not”. Buffy suddenly felt all better, it was true.
Angel was quiet.
“How are things there? You don’t have any new… stuff on your head, hmm?” He
asked after another awkward silence.
“There are a few… but I’m used to it. I just… I kinda… I miss you”. She said finally.
“Buffy, please-“ He started saying but she cut him out.
“I just remembered our christmas day together… it feels good to remember…” She
said.
“It does”. Angel agreed.
“Even though the part with mom being extremely angry when she came to the mansion  and caught us and all that part… I’ve never had a better christmas”.
“Me neither”. He sighed.
They were both silent again.
“Angel?” Buffy asked softly.
“Yes?”
“If you…” She hesitated, “Um, if you needed my help… I mean, if there was
something… well, um, if you were in troubles, you would call me, right?”
Angel was dumbstruck. How could she know?
“Angel?”
“I’m doing fine on my own, Buffy”. He said.
Buffy could feel the distance in his voice.
“I know you do. I’m… I’m proud of you”. She said simply. He was quiet again. The
girl who begged him not to walk away from her about 18 months ago has grown and
changed and matured. He wanted to tell her he was proud of her as well, but she
started talking again.
“Just if there’s something you need. You know I promised you we’ll fight together… I  had a lot of changes in my life and I kinda forgot.. but not really. So just know that…  I’m here if you need me”.
“Thank you”. He said softly.
“I guess… this is it then…”
“Merry Christmas, Buffy”. He half-whispered.
“Thank you”.

Buffy hanged up the phone and went back to bed. A smile spread on her face and she
drifted away to sleep. A sweet sleep like she haven’t had in a long time.

THE END.