Bad Timing. 10

Part 10: Tell Me Your Story

Hours later, long after her Eureeka moment, Cordelia found herself pretty amazed at how well the day had gone. Buffy and Dawn had left to spend some time with their father and frankly, Cordy thought things started to improve about that time.

She and Willow had taken Connor to the park. Willow seemed to be warming up to her. I never thought the day would come when I would be actively trying to get Willow Rosenberg to like me. But Cordelia was realistic. She didn’t have many girlfriends and the circumstances of her life made it hard to make new friends.

And Willow, it was turning out, wasn’t so bad. They had talked, really talked. Cordelia surprised herself when she had told Willow about the demonization—everybody at AI had agreed it was an unnecessary detail that the group from Sunnydale didn’t NEED to know. Willow had talked a little about how much she missed Tara…and magic. Cordy knew it was like the visions—Willow’s magic was what allowed her to help people and now that was gone—she could definitely relate.

When they came back from their walk they found Gunn and Angel playing video games with Xander, and the only blood being drawn was on the TV screen (thankfully). Cordelia and Xander continued to bicker for most of the day, and neither of them would have had it any other way. He was annoying and could be crude but she still saw glimpses of why she had once allowed herself to love him.

Fred and Wes had basically locked themselves in Wesley’s office. Willow asked what they were researching and it was then Cordelia realized that she didn’t know. Those two were being awfully tight-lipped. It couldn’t be a prophecy or anything big, because then they would have told everyone.

Cordelia shrugged it off, figuring they would tell her if it was anything involving the words apocalypse or Armageddon.

The day had actually gone by rather quickly. To an outsider, the group hanging out might not have seemed like a big deal, but that’s because they never spent twenty minutes removing William the Bloody’s black nail polish. Early evening found the hotel comparatively empty.

Fred and Gunn had taken Willow and Xander of a whirlwind tour of LA (Xander wanted to go see real-life hookers). Wes was making a taco run and Spike had disappeared to god knows where.

All in all, not such a bad day.

It had, however, been exhausting. That’s why it was 7 pm and Cordelia was sprawled on the lobby couch with her feet laying in Angel’s lap. Connor was wriggling around on a blanket they had placed in front of the couch, seemingly fascinated with trying to suck on his toes. They had spent the past several minutes in lovely, comforting silence.

“You know, this wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be,” Angel said, echoing Cordy’s thoughts.

“Tell me about it. I had a heart-to-heart with Willow. And trying to give Spike a makeover was like the most fun I’ve had since Christmas.”

“I can beat that. I got to instruct Xander on how to change a diaper. I wish I could have videotaped it. And I never threatened him with physical violence, not once.”

Cordelia nodded that she was proud of him. “Still,” Cordy added, “once every three years.”

“Oh yeah, that’s more than enough quality time.” They both laughed. Angel looked down as he noticed that he had been stroking Cordelia’s ankles. All that soft brown skin. “One day I’m going to figure out how you see the sun about as often as I do and you stay so tan,” he commented.

Angel was tracing small patterns on her skin, which in turn were creating small explosions in Cordelia’s head. Who knew your ankle was an erogenous zone? Cordelia smiled slyly. “That’s my secret.”

“Is all this color from when you went away with Groo,” Angel asked. Cordelia held her breath, hoping more questions wouldn’t follow. Of course, they did. “Speaking of that, you never really did tell me what happened.”

“That’s my secret too,” Cordy replied. She didn’t feel like meeting Angel’s eyes just then, so she turned her head to look at Connor.

“Cordy, you go away with the Groosalug, you come home after less than a week, and all you tell us is that Mexico was very pretty and that Groo went back to Pylea. You can’t just leave it like that.”

“Oh, I believe I can leave it exactly like that.” Cordy was feeling very nervous but she didn’t know if it was from the inquisition or the fact that Angel was still running his fingers over her ankles.

“What happened?” Angel just wanted her to answer the damn question. And it wasn’t just the fact that he needed to make sure that Groo was gone for good. There was also just the plain and simple fact that she hadn’t confided in him.

And that’s what they were supposed to do. Confide in each other. “I know you told Fred something about an epiphany.” Cordelia merely sighed. “Did Groo do something to upset you? Did he hurt you?” Angel’s whole body tensed at the thought.

Seeing how riled up Angel was getting, Cordelia struggled into a sitting up position, keeping her feet in Angel’s lap. “No, Angel,” she put her hand on his cheek and turned his face towards her. “Groo, he didn’t do anything wrong.”

Angel had to make sure she was physically okay. Even if it meant asking, “Was it, um, the com-shuck, did you—.”

“Please tell me you aren’t about to ask whether it was good for me.”

“No, you, I, I just…”

Cordelia put her hand on top of his, which was actually still on top of her leg. “Look, it’s no biggie. I just came to, oh, realize certain things. I was on this perfect trip with this perfect looking guy and all of the sudden I was wondering why I had to keep reminding myself that everything was perfect. And that got me wondering why I had to keep telling myself that Groo was endearingly naïve, not just dumb as rocks. And I realized how hard it was, what with all the reminding and telling myself stuff. It was too hard. Love, I mean, not that I’m the expert, but I don’t think love should be so hard. It should be something you just…slide into. It should be like coming home.”

Cordelia looked down at their still joined hands and shivered slightly. “So I told Groo that it wasn’t him it was me, we bought some souvenirs, and I sent him home. The end.” Cordy let out a dramatic breath and laid back on the couch.

Angel was smiling widely. Nice to know I don’t have any competition. I mean, it’s nice to know if I wanted to make a move on Cordelia like that, I wouldn’t have any competition. Okay, now I’m lying to myself. Great.

All of the sudden Angel had a thought. He frowned. “Soooo, this epiphany of yours. Was it the kind of epiphany that one has while walking solo on the beach at sunset or—.”

“Or?”

“Or did it happen post, you know, like me, with Darla?” Did you have sex? Was there nekkidness with the Groosalug? Were someone else’s hands in places that only mine should be touching?

“Angel, you just want raunchy details. It’s none of your business whether I commed when we shucked, or whether any shucking went on at all.”

Woman, that is so completely not an answer to my question. “I’m not looking for details. I’m just saying that, hey, with those teeth and his lack of experience with women from this dimension, I could understand if it ended with a perfect despair-induced epiphany.”

I should probably be defending Groo’s skills in the sack, or at least look angry. But it was hard to worry about Groo’s honor when Angel’s fingers were tracing higher and higher up her leg. He had to know what he was doing. His thumb was running over that spot right above her knee. That couldn’t be an accident. What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, sex with Groo. “Angel!”

“What! There weren’t a whole lot of cows in Pylea for him to practice on. It’s understandable.”

Cordelia was having issues with breathing. Angel was definitely leaning towards her now. His eyes held this intent look, like he was after something. And he was looking at her. “Uh, wha, what’s understandable?” Cordy asked.

Angel’s eyes were hooded and he had this sexual smirk on his face that Cordelia had never seen before. It made her insides go all liquidy. Oh shit! Now his hand was on the soft skin of her inner thigh. He was in a restricted area.

“It’s understandable, if you didn’t, you know. I mean, not ALL champions can be good,” his hand went a half inch higher, “at everything.”

Cordy knew she was staring and with her mouth hanging open she probably looked like a wide-eyed fish. He hit a particularly sensitive spot and she couldn’t hold in a gasp. As gasps went, it sounded an awful lot like a moan. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and Angel’s eyes flared with what looked suspiciously like desire and—

In walked Buffy and Dawn. Cordelia swung her legs off Angel and yanked her skirt down. Angel didn’t move, he just sat there, clenching his teeth.

How many times is this gonna happen? Is there some sort of rule, are we not allowed to ever get to the good part?

Part 11

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