"Angel, why are you here?"
"Hm?"
"I was just wondering why you were sitting on the beach in the middle of the night on a -- pink blanket?"
"Just felt like it."
"Oh really?"
"Mm-hm."
"I'm just curious, because you haven't come out of the hotel room for the week we've been here, and suddenly you decide to go out in beachwear chic. I mean, Angel, you're wearing white. I didn't even know you *owned* any white."
"I'm a deep guy."
"So it seems." Pause. "So. Um."
Angel turned and gave her a clear look. "Cordelia, just ... be quiet. Enjoy the night. It's a full moon, we're in Mexico, and everyone else is out at the disco. Absorb the ambiance already."
Cordelia's eyebrows shot up. "You're not, like, evil, are you? Because this is very much not Angelspeak. There's no broodiness at all here. I'm ... lost."
Angel smiled. It wasn't a big smile. Wasn't really more than just a small upward turn of the corners of his mouth. But it was enough to make Cordelia's mouth hang open slightly. "Not evil. Just ... pausing. I'm a Champion all the time. I think the Powers can afford to give me a night off. Especially considering we pretty much destroyed that demon they sent us after. I bet Wes was surprised to learn that the Magoraseth was allergic to taco sauce, huh?"
Cordelia blinked. Her head inclined a bit, and exhaling lightly she plopped down next to Angel on the garish beach towel. He leaned back on his elbows, and she crossed her legs. He moved a little closer, and she let herself rest in the crook of his arm. They fell back easily, letting their eyes move upwards to the new moon.
"Pretty," she murmured.
He gave a small noise in assent. Summer, hot and humid, had a clear aspect to it. They'd all felt it - the clarity that came with overcoming grief, accepting their lives and the path they chose once again. The past three months it had been one demon after the next, one more hopeless case in neverending line, but the staff of Angel Investigations worked in an easy companionship unmarred by serious trauma.
And then the very, very rare vacation came. Though it involved an evil they had to defeat before they got to the cocktails and poolside dancing.
But after all the evils had been conquered and the Fang Gang, as Fred blushingly called them once, collapsed in a tired heap in the cheap Comfort Inn just south of the border and on the coast of Mexico, there was a happy glow emanating from them all. It wasn't that bright, and it was tinged by the wincing knowledge that there would always be yet another job for them all in service to the Powers, but it was there. It hid in the way Fred played chess with Wesley, how Gunn and Cordelia argued over the remote, and even in the way Angel sat in the uncomfortable hotel room chair with his chin in his hands, just watching the humans who never went away, despite his worst efforts.
A small, trilling noise could be heard on the beach. If Angel listened closely, he could make out Lorne belting "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." This almost prompted him to give that little half-smile again, but it developed instead into a relaxed forehead and a small shifting of his arms that brought the now-dozing Cordelia closer to him.
He decided not to question the odd feeling of calm that settled over him. Of course, it wasn't the ever-feared "true happiness." There was far too much left for him to do in this unlifetime, and redemption was still his absolute quest.
But now, with the ocean lapping at his feet and the stars spread out before him in the sky, a warm body curled up next to him, and the knowledge that the people he loved, those he cared about, the people he considered his *family* were okay, he could let his mind slip away for the briefest of moments and just ... enjoy it.
words © SA. characters, show, and people not mine. no infringement is intended.