Part 3
Cordelia ran her hands over her damp hair, taming the thick locks into place, she flushed the toilet, straightened her shirt, smoothed out the crinkles in her pants and stared at the bathroom door.
Now if only she could get her legs to work.
C’mon Cor, she silently told herself, you can’t hide in here forever. Sooner or later you’re going to have to go out there, you may as well get the awkward after sex goodbye out of the way.
They’d sat side by side in silence for what felt like hours until Cordelia had slipped out of bed, horribly conscious of her nakedness she’d retrieved her clothes and made her way to the bathroom. With the click of the lock she finally released the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.
She’d just had sex with Angel.
The sentence repeated itself over and over again in her mind as she’d taken a quick shower, washing away the sticky evidence of their coupling from between her thighs with soap that smelt of Angel. Angel, whom she’d just had sex with.
The pain in her head was gone, until the next vision at least, but had it been at the cost of losing her friendship with Angel? Would they be able to go back to being Angel and Cordy, best friends that bicker and bitch and laugh and smile in equal doses? Or would the dreadful bleak awkwardness be the third person in the room for the rest of their lives?
Oh quit with the drama already and just open the frikken door! Cordelia scolded herself, her hand hovering on the handle. Everything will be fine, Angel will no longer be naked and we’ll just pretend this never happened until the next time the PTB attempt to implode my brain and we’ll have to do this all over again. No big. She straightened her shirt again. Yeah right, no big my ass.
“Cordy? You OK in there?” Angel’s concerned voice drifted through the door.
“I’ll be out in a second Angel.” Cordelia called back trying to keep her voice calm and even. She turned back to the small mirror and fiddled with her hair for a moment longer, briefly wondering why a man that had no reflection needed a mirror in his bathroom at all.
OK, so it’s going to be a little awkward for a while, that doesn’t mean that we’ll lose our friendship. Friends have sex all the time and don’t end up losing each other, right? She silently asked her reflection, annoyed when her image didn’t give her the answer she wanted.
A lot of help you are.
***
“I’ll be out in a second Angel.” Her too carefree voice did nothing to ease the vampire’s anxieties. Angel stood waiting on the other side of the door listening to Cordelia’s continued silence, his hands firmly wedged into his pockets as he rocked back and forth on his heels.
How long does it take one woman to have a shower and freshen up? The vampire asked the question every man had pondered at one time or another. He’d said nothing as Cordelia quietly slipped from his bed, trying to avert his gaze from her naked body but finding his eyes drawn to the bright tattoo on the base of her spine anyway. Then she was gone, the click of the bathroom door echoing in Angel’s ears followed by the hum of the shower being turned on.
It annoyed something deep inside the demon that she was so quick to wash away his scent, his touch, his seed. The rational part of Angel’s brain understood her desire to shower, Cordelia liked to be clean, she wasn’t necessarily washing away his touch but the animal in him felt a punch in the gut at her actions. Angel wasn’t sure what to do with that.
It was just sex, sex to keep her alive. Sex with Cordelia to keep her from dying.
Sex with Cordelia.
Sex complicated things. Angel was well aware of that fact, hell he was the poster child for the disastrous morning after, he just never thought this would be an issue between him and Cordelia. They were best friends, she was the one he turned to when the shadows threatened to overwhelm him and he’d thought it was the same for her, but now he wasn’t so sure. Cordelia had been dying and she’d kept it from him. The vampire wondered how long she would have kept the truth secret if the powers hadn’t played their hand, would she have just carried on regardless, silently waiting for the last vision to slice through her brain.
Don’t think about that, it doesn’t matter anymore. She’s going to be OK. It worked. Everything will be OK now.
He took a deep unneeded breath into his lungs and tilted his head up to look at the ceiling trying to keep a reign on his thoughts, images of warm naked flesh demanded to be remembered but he refused to give into the desire. That was just the demon in him, not the man, not the friend. He needed to think about something else, something that wasn’t secrets and full breasts. Something that would help Angel form full sentences when and if Cordelia ever ventured out of the bathroom.
Nice. Angel squeezed his eyes shut with mortification at her description of his performance pushed to the forefront of his brain. This wasn’t exactly what he was aiming for to get his thoughts in check but he was thinking about it now and unable to do anything about it.
She said it was nice. Mittens are nice. She compared me to mittens. He folded his arms over his chest and shook his head, his ego struggling to stay a float in a sea of nice.
Nice?
***
“Bah!” Cordelia yelped when she opened the door and walked straight into a solid chest. “Jesus Angel, of all the places you could lurk.” She muttered, her hand pressed over her pounding heart.
“Sorry.” Angel winced and took a couple steps back.
“One of these days I really am gonna get you that bell.” The brunette said lightly as she crossed the room and picked her purse up from his leather chair. “Oh, I think I used all the hot water.” She smiled apologetically, some how managing to not look him in the eye but somewhere above and to the left of him.
“You were in there a while.” Angel frowned with concern, he wanted to ask her if she was OK, if she regretted what they’d done to keep her alive but the words refused to form in his mouth. He was afraid that if he asked her anything it would be what she meant by nice and this really wasn’t the time for that conversation.
“Yeah, sorry.” Cordelia shrugged ignoring his unasked question.
“That’s OK.” The vampire put his hands back in his pockets and stared down at his boots, unable to think of anything to say.
There had never been this kind of tension between them, not even when Angel had given up the mission for vengeance, pushing the people he loved out of his life for their own good. Hurt, anger and resentment, yes. Loaded silences and forced conversation, no. Nothing like this, this uncomfortable tension that threatened to suffocate the life out of their friendship if they didn’t stop it this instant.
“Thanks.” Cordelia blurted out when the silence stretched thick and heavy.
“For what?” Angel said a little confused.
“For….” The brunette nodded towards the bed.
“Oh.” Understanding dawned loud and clear. “For the…sex.”
“Yeah. The sex.” Cordelia nodded and desperately tried not to keep seeing the image of Angel’s naked body over and over again in her brain but it was burnt into her retina. “Thank you.”
“You’re….er…welcome?” The vampire grimaced. Smooth Angel, real smooth.
“Can we keep this just between the two of us? If Wes found out…and you know how Gunn gets….” Cordelia trailed of as she imagined the their reaction to her situation.
“Sure, whatever you want Cordy.” Angel nodded his agreement, he didn’t much fancy having to face the wrath of Cordelia’s most ardent protectors. If they were to discover that he had slept with Cordelia there would most definitely be violence first and questions later, no matter the reasons.
“Well I really should be going, you know, things to do….”
“Oh…OK.”
“So…I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Of course.”
“OK. Um….” Cordelia took a step towards Angel as though she were going to hug him but stopped mid gesture apparently changing her mind. “Err…bye.” She turned around and opened the door desperate to get out of the room.
“Bah!” The brunette shrieked when she came face to face with Fred. “Do you people make it a hobby to scare the crap out of me?”
“Sorry.” Fred winced apologetically.
“The next person to make me yelp is gonna be spending the next forever removing something sharp and painful from their ass.” Cordelia muttered with no real venom.
“I didn’t know you were coming over today Cordy.” The shy Texan ignored her threat. “Whatcha doin?” Fred asked, bored of sitting in her room on such a glorious day.
“I, er, had a thing…and Angel helped with the…thing….” Cordelia darted a glance at the vampire next to her for back up.
“Thing?” Fred parroted her.
“Yeah…a thing.” Angel nodded emphatically.
“A thing.” The newest member of Angel Investigations repeated the word as though it held some hidden meaning that only she wasn’t aware of. Which, of course, was true. Fred shifted her gaze between Cordelia and Angel, confused at the strange tension that appeared to be crackling between them. The vampire’s arms were crossed firmly over his chest, a forced smile on his lips that looked as though it was going to crack any minute. His Seer was repeatedly tucking the wet strands hair behind her ear with the same slightly manic smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Are you two OK?”
“We’re fine.” Cordelia said quickly. “Absolutely fine. Peachy in fact. I have to go now.” The former cheerleader rambled and hustled past both Angel and Fred, her heels clicking sharply with every step she hurriedly took.
“Oh, OK.” Fred blinked at her friends hasty departure. “Bye!” She called out to Cordelia but she was already out of sight down the corridor. “Was it something I said?” The physicist turned back to Angel worried that she’d chased the unusually skittish Cordelia away.
“Of course not.” Angel smiled softly at Fred feeling guilty for the confused expression on her pretty face.
“Oh.”
“So….” Angel stepped out of his room that smelt of sex and awkwardness, closing the door behind him as though everything that they’d done would stay in there and wouldn’t seep into every aspect of their lives. “Fred….” Fred, sweet little Fred who he could talk to because he hadn’t had sex with her or seen her naked and never ever would. “Whatcha doing?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged and fell into a slow step beside Angel as they wandered down the corridor. “You?”
“Nothing.” The vampire said truthfully. Sunday’s were notoriously slow in the Hotel. Well, they used to be anyway.
“Hey, you wanna watch Planet of the Apes again?” Fred asked hopefully, almost bouncing on her toes at her ingenious suggestion.
“Sure.” Angel happily agreed, silently wondering whether Charlton Heston had ever had nice sex with his best friend.
Probably not.
***
Monday dawned slow and drizzly, the perfect weather for Wesley’s melancholy mood. It reminded him of home, of the sharp morning air before London had the chance to wake up and fill the streets with dust and smog. He missed England, he missed the changing seasons and the Daily Telegraph, he missed Heinz baked beans and BBC2. The small everyday things like black cabs and the weight of a pound coin in his hand which he’d never paid much attention to whilst he lived in his motherland but now sent a pang of painful remembrance through his chest at odd times during the day, like today as he was forced to listen to the nasal twang of the latest shock jock Gunn deemed to be the funniest thing since sliced bread.
The Englishman didn’t know what was funny about sliced bread either.
“Gunn, could you please turn that down.” Wesley shouted as he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Three nights without sleep, three nights of staring at words that made no sense no matter how he translated them.
“You’re especially clipped this morning English, wanna share with the class?” The black man asked once he’d switched off the radio and sat down opposite the ex watcher. He propped his feet up on the book laden desk and ignored the annoyed glance Wesley threw his way.
“I’m trying to read.” Wesley muttered testily as he thumbed through yet another useless tome. It didn’t make sense, none of it made any sense.
“Like you do anything else.” Gunn said under his breath, irritation coating his words.
“Charles-”
“Did you sleep at all last night?”
“I-”
“Who wants coffee and donuts?” Cordelia called loudly from the lobby cutting off whatever the Englishman was going to say. Charles Gunn sprang from his chair and sprinted out of the office before Wesley had the chance to stop him.
He missed England where things were simple.
***
“How’s my favourite bald black Adonis today?” Cordelia beamed at Gunn as she put the box of donuts down on the lobby counter.
“Lovin’ that you call me that.” He grinned and snagged the donut he wanted before Fred appeared and ate them all.
“Well between you, the noodle armed Brit and Captain cro mag brow you get my vote every time.” She winked at him.
“As it should be” Gunn nodded as he took in the beauty on the opposite of the counter, there was a light in her eyes and a bounce in her step that he hadn’t seen in weeks. “And damn look at you all sexy and fine today. Going somewhere?”
“Pfft, on my salary? Hardly. I just felt the need for pretty.” Cordelia shrugged, it was the first morning in months that she hadn’t felt the remaining side effects of a vision clouding her brain and it made her feel light and young again. She’d found herself singing in the shower, chatting happily to Dennis and able to eat more than just a dry slice of toast for breakfast. The grim reaper had lost it’s bony grip on her ankle, everything felt shiny and new so she’d put on a dress that hadn’t seen the light of day since she’d bought it because in her line of work it was more than likely going to be covered in some sort of demon goo, but this morning she didn’t care because there were no shadows beneath her eyes and even the impending awkwardness with Angel couldn’t shatter her good mood.
Hopefully.
“Good morning Cordy.” Wesley greeted her as he ambled out of his office in search of coffee that hadn’t been brewing for a week.
“Hey Wes, wow, you look like crap.” Cordelia frowned with concern at her friends dishevelled appearance, there was two days worth of stubble on his face and his hair looked as though he’d repeatedly been pulled through a hedge backwards. It was interesting new look for him.
“Thank you Cordelia, that’s always nice to hear.” Sarcasm dripped heavily from his words but he smiled at the young woman nonetheless.
“That’s what I’m here for.” She grinned and popped a chunk of donut into her mouth.
“Donut?” Gunn offered the former watcher as a peace offering when he sat down beside him.
“Thank you.” Wesley smiled apologetically at him, he knew they needed to talk but his brain was too occupied with possible impending doom for anything else right now. Cordelia watched the unspoken moment pass between her friends and shook her head, some people just couldn’t be helped. Speaking of which….
“Cordy.” The vampire said by way of greeting as he emerged from the basement.
“Angel.” Cordelia said quickly, she thought she’d have a little more time to prepare herself for this.
“How are you?”
“Good, you?”
“Good.” Angel nodded with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched as though he were heading into a storm. He could feel his Wesley’s and Gunn’s eyes on him, shifting between himself and Cordelia while the uncommon silence stretched thinly between them.
“Have I missed something?” Gunn whispered to Wesley as they watched Cordelia and Angel look everywhere but at each other.
“I think we both have.” The Englishman agreed quietly.
“Make that three of us.” Fred muttered making the two men startle at her sudden appearance, the Texan was used to that kind of response and paid it no mind, her concentration already fixed to the box of glazed goodness in front of her.
“Did you sleep well?” Angel asked Cordelia politely. Too politely.
“Like a baby. You?”
“Yeah…like a vampire.”
“Cool.”
Fred, Wesley and Gunn watched the stilted back and forth like a tennis match, curiously gripped by the uncomfortable display, it was like a car crash, you knew you shouldn’t look but the compulsion to stare was beyond your control.
“That’s a…pretty dress.” Angel inwardly winced at how pathetic he sounded, if Spike were to see him like this he’d never hear the end of it. The Scourge of Europe making polite conversation about clothes? Maybe there really was a reason the blonde vampire called him peaches.
“Oh, thank you.” Cordelia smiled awkwardly and wondered why Angel was suddenly noticing what she was wearing, then wondered when exactly it was she’d become so paranoid.
“This is painful to watch.” Gunn grimaced.
“And yet strangely compelling.” Wesley nodded.
“I like your…pants.” Cordelia said then realised she was looking at an area she shouldn’t be looking at even though she’d seen it pant-less.
“Thanks.” Angel wondered why she was looking at his pants in the first place. They were just run of the mill black slacks, nothing to see here.
“Good morning boys and girls.” Lorne sang gaily as he made his grand entrance into the Hotel in a blaze lilac. Angel and Cordelia silently thanked the prescient demons timing.
“The sun isn’t shining and it looks like rain but who cares because-” Lorne stopped short when two auras screamed loudly at him.”Woah kids, look at you two with the matching auras.” He grinned and slapped Angel companionably on the back, the vampire saw Cordelia’s eyes widen in terror and he realised the cat would soon be out of the bag if he didn’t do something. “When did this happen? I must say it’s hardly a suprise with all that sparring you two do. You could have told your uncle Lorne that you mpfllr phmmf phuurh….”
“Excuse us.” Angel muttered and dragged Lorne into Wesley’s office, his hand firmly clamped over the Host’s mouth.
“What was that about?” Wesley asked Cordelia.
“How should I know?” She said defensively under the stare of three pairs of inquisitive eyes. “I have to use the little Seer’s room.” Cordelia mumbled and hurried away before anyone could stop her.
“That was interesting.” Wesley said curiously after the bathroom door clicked shut.
“Girl, I thought you were meant to be the crazy one?” Gunn asked Fred.
“Maybe it’s something in the water.” She shrugged then zeroed back into the almost empty box in front of her. “Does anyone want that last donut?”
***
“Hey Angelcakes mind the suit.” Lorne muttered after he’d been unceremoniously hustled out of the lobby and into the office. “This is handmade Italian silk, it doesn’t come cheap.” He straightened his pink tie and flattened out creases only he could see.
“Lorne-” Angel attempted a pre-emptive strike but failed.
“So when did you and the delicious Cordelia realise you’re a match made in sexual heaven?” Lorne grinned.
“It’s not what you think.” The vampire folded his arms over his chest and stood his ground, for all it was worth.
“So you and brown eyes haven’t finally got down and dirty? Aura’s don’t lie sugar muffin.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“C’mon Angel, care and share.” The green demon almost bounced with curiosity, if there was gossip floating around his favourite group of clueless warriors he had a right to know.
“I don’t want to talk about it and I’d appreciate it if you kept you’re readings to yourself Lorne. In fact keep your nose out of our aura’s altogether.”
“Oooh someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning. Wanna tell me who’s bed it was?”
“Lorne.”
“Oh quit growling you overgrown teddy bear.” The Host could tell this was a prickly subject and not just by the way the vampire looked as though he was about rip him a new one. Both Angel’s and Cordelia’s auras were a muddled mess of sex and awkwardness and you didn’t have to be empathic to see that they were uncomfortable with each other. Whatever had happened was beyond Lorne’s ability of deduction but he could tell it signalled interesting times ahead.
“I take it whatever you and our resident Princess are up to is not to be made known to the masses?”
“We’d appreciate it.” Angel nodded shortly, his body language screaming that this wasn’t up for discussion.
“Well spoil my fun why don’t you.” Lorne pouted theatrically. “Well congrats cream puff, it’s about damn time you two got it together.”
“We’re not-”
“Yeah, sure, whatever you say big guy.” He winked conspiratorially as he made his way to the door. “Oh and Angel?”
“Yes?”
“You hurt Cordy in anyway and Wes Gunn and I will personally tear the limbs from your body without a second thought. Capishe?”
***
The day continued in that vein, Cordelia avoided Angel, Angel avoided Cordelia, Lorne watched it all with a knowing grin and the three resident humans were just confused. With no soul saving visions for a week, not counting Cordelia’s own personal SOS of course, work was slow with only a few stalking cases on their books. Those could be solved easily and were most probably less para and more normal, a jealous boyfriend, a scorned lover, the regular things that turned love into death threats and dead roses. But those cases paid the bills and the members of AI knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
If work was slow they knew not to complain, if they did that was usually when the powers deemed it time for another apocalypse. So they quietly enjoyed the rare moments of down time because there would always be a soul that needed saving around the corner.
It was that knowledge that was turning Cordelia’s earlier good mood irritable. No soul saving visions for a week meant that she was due for another one any day now. Which meant…you know.
Sex with Angel again.
If they couldn’t even have a comfortable conversation with each other then how on earth were they going to have sex again when it was needed?
It was ridiculous and Cordelia missed talking to her best friend even though it had only been a day, a day in which their friends watched them with barely disguised curiosity. If Angel and Cordelia carried on as though they were strangers then sooner or later someone was going to figure out what was going on. It had been a close call with Lorne, the young woman had no idea what Angel had said to him but the knowing wink and smile the prescient demon kept throwing her way was disconcerting, the only saving grace was that he appeared to be keeping whatever he knew to himself.
Which was a first for Lorne.
By the late afternoon the tension was getting to them all, Gunn had taken himself and his Gameboy to one of the many rooms upstairs complaining of bad vibes, Fred had scurried off to her room to soothe her nerves with numbers and theories and even Lorne had complained of a headache and promptly fell into blissful sleep on one of the lobby sofa’s, sea breeze still in hand, completely unaware of the vampire slowly pacing the floor beside him.
Cordelia tapped her pen on her desk in an irritating rhythm that threatened to drive Wesley over the edge if she didn’t stop it soon, but before he had the chance to reprimand her the brunette was up and out of her chair, hustling a surprised looking Angel out of the lobby and down into the basement.
Finally, Wesley thought, maybe now we can all get some peace.
***
“OK, this has to stop.” Cordelia stated plainly when they were in the shadowy basement.
“What has to stop?” Angel asked even though he knew exactly what she was talking about. Sometimes playing dumb was the best way to go.
“The weirdness. You and me, it got weird.”
“It did.”
“I don’t want it to get weird.”
“Well me neither.”
“So what do we do about it?”
“Ignore it and hope it goes away?” Angel suggested.
“Yeah, cos that always works so well for us.” Cordelia arched an eyebrow at him. “Fred’s gone back into hiding, Lorne’s passed out on the couch and Gunn’s making best friends with a video game. Don’t even get me started on Wes. If we carry on avoiding each other like the plague then our friends are going to figure out something’s up and I really don’t want them to figure out what the something is.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“We get over the weirdness right here right now, we had sex, saw each other naked blah blah blah. Whatever. We’re adults and need to not let our situation interfere with our friendship. We should leave whatever happens in the bedroom in the bedroom, as simple as that.” Cordelia declared as if it really were as simple as that.
Which it wasn’t.
“OK.”
“Good.”
“Now what?”
“Now we hug.” The young woman stepped up to her best friend and circled her arms around his waist, the vampire automatically reciprocating the embrace as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Which it was.
“See, that wasn’t so difficult was it?” Cordelia sighed as she felt the tension that had wracked her body since she’d seen Angel that morning easing away.
“Piece ‘a cake.” The vampire smiled down at her, trying not to notice how her breasts pressed against his chest, he dropped a friendly kiss down on to her hair and thanked whoever was responsible for bringing this wonderful creature into his life.
“So what’s up with Wes? He’s all crazy mad with the research all of a sudden.” Cordelia asked him, her chin resting on his chest and her arms wrapped snugly around him.
“You noticed that too?” The vampire frowned, he thought he was the only one to pick up on Wesley’s strange behaviour.
“I’m a Seer, Angel. I notice everything.”
“Of course you do.” Angel nodded, an amused smile tugging at his lips.
“One of us needs to talk to him.” Cordelia said thoughtfully, worried about her haggard looking friend.
“Yeah, I vote you.”
“How did I know you were going to say that?”
“Because you’re a Seer, you know everything.”
“Smartass.”
Maybe they’d be OK after all.
“C’mon, we can’t stay down here all day. We have the helpless to save.” Cordelia untangled herself from Angel and began to make her way back upstairs.
“Cordy can I ask you something?” The vampire called out before he could stop himself.
“Of course.” She stopped on the middle of the stairs.
“What did you mean by nice?” Angel finally asked the thing that had been plaguing his thoughts ever since she’d said it the day before.
“You are such a man.” Cordelia rolled her eyes and shook her head with exasperation, leaving the vampire none the wiser, but happier all the same.
