BtVS fic: The Skate 2 (1/2)
Title: The Skate 2
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don’t own the Dixie Chick’s “Sin Wagon”, I don’t own Mary MacDonald’s song, “Sealwoman”, I don’t own the Rogers and Hammerstein song “Lonely Goatherd” and I don’t own any of the characters in this either.
Distribution: Want it? Take it. Just lemme know.
Summary: There were requests for a sequel to the first figure skating story and I was (somewhat) inspired so this is what happened between the end and the epilogue of the first story.
Rating: R It got upped because of some naughtier bits.
Notes: I have many. First, I need to apologise because in the last story I forgot that Coffee Crisp is a Canadian product, meaning no one but Canadians who have watched too much TV will recognise the ad. So, for those who were wondering, the so so so so so thing was an ad for a chocolate bar with coffee in it. A friend of mine and I used to recite the ad. Anyhow, to maintain the theme, I’ve put in another candy ad. For those who don’t know, Smarties are essentially M&Ms, only they’re tackier. The ad is to be sung to the tune of “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight.” The “Hockey Night in Canada” thing is to be sung to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. You just have to kinda smush the Canada on the first couple. Those who watch hockey in Canada will know what I’m talking about. Everyone else just smile and nod.
Notes2: I felt this next set of things deserve separate notes. I have actually broken many ISU regulations on pairs figure skating, so any figure skating fanatics out there yes, I know this. However, I wanted to sort of match the choreography to something and lyrics are easier than trying to explain to readers what’s going on with the music. Also, someone mentioned with the last story that one of the amendments in the US constitution means Buffy is and American citizen despite her place of birth. Well, pretend that amendment doesn’t exist because it’s not worth finding a way around it. The Gaelic is, in fact, Scottish Gaelic because I wanted to practice somewhere and this seemed as good as anywhere. What Angel says is literally (because I have no freakin’ clue what dictionary in Gaelic is) “I am a fool. Look for fool in a book my picture is there.” I also suspect I wrote it wrong.
Feedback: Anything else I’ve missed? Feel free to tell me at scwlc@yahoo.ca
“Darla Wells you are hereby found guilty of assault with intent to kill. You have been sentenced to twenty years in a maximum security facility,” the judge presiding over her trial said.
She was dignified as she stood and began to make her way toward the exit, but as she got close to where Buffy and her fiancé were sitting she abruptly lunged toward them and was jerked back by the guards escorting her. “I’ll get you for this, bitch! He won’t stay with you! Soon he’s going to want a real woman and not some anorexic little skater!” Darla was dragged from the courtroom kicking and shouting obscenities. In her wake the reporters and camera crews closed in on Buffy and Angelus.
“What is your response to Wells’ threats?”
“Miss Summers!”
“Angelus!”
“Is it true you’re marrying to gain a US citizenship?”
“Are you pregnant?”
“How will Wells’ incarceration affect your performance in the coming season?”
“Is the damage to Miss Summers going to keep her off the ice?”
The questions continued to swirl around the couple with them responding to the select few that directly pertained to either their careers or the trial that had just ended. “Buffy and I are about to begin rehearsals for this coming season,” Angelus said. “We’ll naturally have to go through the whole gamut of regionals since we’re an untried team, but I expect us to reach the Worlds without too much difficulty. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.”
“So you are both going to skate for Ireland?” one reporter questioned.
Buffy smiled. “Absolutely. Angelus has no intention of skating for anywhere else, and I have no intention of skating with anyone but him.” They two shared a smile and created a perfect photo-op for the surrounding cameras. The questions paused as a hundred flashbulbs went off simultaneously.
Another reporter finally got through with a sensible question. “So who’s going to coach you both? With Darla Wells now in prison will you be getting a new coach?”
“No,” Angelus replied firmly. “We will be coached by Rupert Giles who has been Buffy’s coach for years. He knows pairs skating as well or better than anyone else in the business and we both know and trust him.” They continued to field questions all the way out to the car, avoiding the ones that were demands for sensationalistic headlines, and brushing aside those that were too intrusive. Finally they were inside and Angelus floored it out of there.
“How are you feeling?” he asked his fiancée. He glanced over at her as she sat calmly in the passenger seat. The stitches had come out and she looked healthy and ready, but he knew looks could be deceiving. He had no intention of letting her anywhere near a rink if she wasn’t fully ready to begin training again.
She rolled her eyes. “Angel. Honey. This wasn’t even as bad as what happened when Parker dropped me. I want to get back on the ice and start practising. With you. Besides, how am I gonna keep up with my new partner if I don’t stay in shape?” She smiled and placed her hand on his knee.
He took a hand off the wheel briefly to place it over hers. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.” She said nothing in response, just squeezed his knee and then sat back for the rest of the drive. They’d had this discussion before and everything was said.
The pair climbed out of the car on reaching the arena and went to change and warm up. By the time Angelus got out of the changeroom Buffy was already skating around the rink. He paused and smiled as he watched her swing into a spread eagle, glide easily into a turn and then change legs into a Bielman spin. She was just so beautiful. Tiny, slender and with an iron will that had her trying a quad before she was ready.
He was practically next to her when she missed the landing on the quad axel and fell. He stood over her, glowering irritably. “Why can’t you wait until you’ve been practising for a while before trying the damn quads?”
“Why can’t you let me practice my quads so that I’ll be able to land them in competition?” she shot back, equally cranky.
Giles came walking onto the ice and gave both a warning look. “Angelus, you’ll have to trust that your partner knows what she’s doing in practice or else you’ll have no trust when it comes to competition. Then you’ll lose.” He turned to Buffy. “You know damn well that you aren’t ready to try the more difficult jumps. I will not work with a young fool who refuses to pay attention to the state of her own body.” He determinedly ignored the stuck out tongues from both which became giggles between the pair, then turned into more heated looks. “Buffy, do you still recall the steps you had in mind for your short program last year?”
Buffy came out of the staring contest she was in with her fiancé and replied, “You mean the “Sin Wagon” routine?” Giles nodded.
“Sin wagon routine?” Angelus asked.
Buffy grinned at him. “Riley didn’t want to do something risqué, so we didn’t do it, but I wanted to do a short program to the Dixie Chicks’ song “Sin Wagon”.” She cuddled up to him and he wrapped an arm around her.
Giles nodded again and added, “Actually, I think this would be a perfect introductory piece for the two of you as a pair.” He smiled happily. The year was looking up for him. His skater looked happy and she finally had a partner worthy of her mettle. “The thing is, Buffy has more to her than the sweet and innocent appeal people are used to, and with the two of you beginning an artistic, as well as personal relationship, the new style of skating would be an excellent change from her previous style.”
“And I was thinking of you in leather,” Buffy said with a grin. She reached around him and squeezed his butt. Angelus jumped and then smiled down at her wolfishly.
“Okay,” he said after a moment’s consideration, “But since I haven’t ever heard the song, why don’t we listen to it. Maybe improvise a little before I say yes. I may not like it.” Buffy jerked her head at Giles who promptly went over to the tape player and started it up.
There was no discussion of other music for the short program after that. Giles was privately convinced it was partially because of the way Buffy was writhing all over her lover, but he refrained from comment. Mainly because all the improvisation gave them practically a whole routine by the end of the afternoon. He knew he could rely on Buffy to remember what he didn’t of the choreography, and Angelus had come up with a wonderful little lift and twisting drop that was perfect for showpieces. Giles grinned at the startled look on Buffy’s face when Angelus lifted her up and then got her out of her sweater as he put her down.
He hadn’t been certain the two would be ready for pairs work in time for the new season, but while Buffy recovered Angelus had learned to partner with another coach. She used to be a pairs skater, so he had learned how to properly do the lifts and throws on her, and when Buffy started to skate again, he was ready.
Buffy came out of a triple loop with barely a wobble and Giles brought things to a close. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow. Buffy, I don’t want you overdoing it, so I’m cutting practice off now.” She tried pouting but the two men ignored her. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Buffy.”
She then tried pouting at Angelus. He just kissed her and pulled her off the ice. “How about we watch that movie you’ve been wanting me to see,” he said. She stopped pouting and eagerly dragged him back to the car and their shared apartment. They had started living together almost before Buffy got out of the hospital and they were in the middle of plans for the wedding as well as everything else in their lives.
Unfortunately the movie was not to be. They arrived home to find an unfamiliar car parked in the visitor’s lot and Angelus’ parents waiting in the living room for them. “So, I see you were no’ gonna tell your own parents about the wedding,” were the words that greeted the skaters.
Angelus tensed and his jaw began to work. “I sent the both of you letters, emails, faxes and I even left phone messages tellin’ y’about my fiancée. Just because you refuse to talk to me-”
“Oh. Right. We dinna want to talk to our only child,” Henry Joseph Mackenzie snorted. “Yer mother’s been worried about ya ever since you decided to ignore your heritage and change your name.” He glanced around the living room to where his wife sat and back to the couple standing uncomfortably in their own home. “So does your ‘fiancée’ know her lad is a bleedin’ gay man?”
Buffy smiled. “Oh I heard the rumours, but if my lover is gay then I’m Mary Queen of Scots.” She paused, frowned, then said, “Mary Queen of Scots? I’ve been hanging around Giles way too much.” She took Angelus and her coats and hung them up, then turned to her boyfriend’s parents and asked, “Is there anything I can get you? We have juice, milk-”
“Whisky on the rocks,” said Henry. His wife frowned and smacked him on the arm.
Angelus stalked past them to the bedroom growling irritably, “Neither Buffy nor I drink. We both have to maintain our balance on the ice when we’re training or competing so there’s no alcohol in the kitchen.” He slammed the door behind him, leaving Buffy to deal with their unexpected guests.
Twenty minutes later, Buffy was desperately fielding questions from Angelus’ father about skating, the wedding, their relationship and whatever else seemed to come to mind. Finally she had enough and shouted at the man. “You know, you’re not even giving him a chance! He went to university and got those degrees to make you happy! He’s doing something he loves! Why can’t you let him be happy?”
Henry glared at her and snarled, “He was supposed to take over the family business! Instead he’s prancing around in those poofy great tights and-”
“Have you ever watched him? Do you even know what he does? Angelus is one of the best male skaters on the ice and I am grateful to be skating with him!” Buffy shouted. She advanced on Angelus’ father and sent the man backing toward the door. “Furthermore, he is my fiancé and I would appreciate it if you could keep from badmouthing the man I’m going to marry.” She marched past him and yanked the door open. “I was going to ask him to invite you both to our wedding since your opinion is really important to him, but since neither of you seem to care one way or another about what your son wants I’m telling you both to get the hell out.”
Buffy stood in the doorway with one hand pointing out the door, and stared the other couple down. They left silently and she went into the bedroom to find Angelus pretending he wasn’t upset. “You okay?” she asked him.
He cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Fine. Why don’t we watch that film hunh?” He tried to brush past her, but Buffy stopped him in the door.
“Why don’t we talk about your parents?” she asked softly. His jaw worked a little and he refused to look her in the eye. “Angel-”
He sent a good-natured growl her way. “Why do you keep insisting on calling me that?” he grumped at her. “It makes me sound like a girl.” Buffy giggled, leading him over to the bed.
“I like calling you that. Only I get to call you that so it’s a name for you that’s all mine,” she replied as they sat down. Buffy plunked into his lap to keep him on the bed with her and said again, “Why don’t we talk about your parents.”
Angelus nuzzled into her hair and wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t want to talk about them because it makes me depressed.” He caught her look and sighed. “Alright!” Buffy squeaked as he pulled her to lie down with him and they twined themselves comfortably together. He sighed and started. “We used to get along. I worshipped the ground my mother walked on and even though Dad and I never got along well, we could always talk about football or fiddling.”
Buffy cuddled him a little closer and asked, “What happened?”
“I met my first skating coach,” he replied. “We were at some Irish culture festival that my father always liked to play at and there was a rink for kids to skate on. She started to improvise a bit while my father was playing and I copied her.” He sighed again and smiled at the memory. “Mum thought it was a nice thing for me to do and let me take up skating. Dad didn’t quite like it but I thought he’d be okay since he could understand about art and music and dance. He couldn’t,” Angelus said bluntly. “When I got serious he was furious. I tried to make him understand but I couldn’t. Mum always thought Dad hung the moon, so when he said . . . whatever it was he said to her, she just started treating me like a criminal.”
Buffy looked into her lover’s eyes and saw how much it had hurt him to have his parents turn on his dreams that way. “I’m so sorry sweetheart,” she said.
“’Salright,” he replied. In a sudden mood swing rolled them so that he was lying on top of her then grinned wickedly. “I’m suddenly in the mood for a little fun.”
Buffy giggled and arched up a little bit, “Oh?” she asked. “What sort of,” she paused to lick her lips, causing Angelus to groan at the sight, “Fun did you have in mind?”
Angelus swooped down and kissed her. After that there was little in the way of coherent conversation.
**********
The weeks passed as the two worked on their routines. Angelus was the one who picked out the music for the long routine. Things went well until Giles told them they ought to take on the opportunity offered by a Rogers and Hammerstein musical special. Buffy was promptly excited and started to try to come up with a good piece for them to skate to. Angelus took one look at the notion and said, “Absolutely not.”
“But Angel-”
Angelus glared at her. “No. I will not ham up to a crowd who knows nothing about skating and is only there to watch people be cute.” He flopped down on a chair as Buffy and Giles exchanged looks.
Giles hesitantly tried another tack. “You will be paid into a trust account and given access after you enter the professional skating world,” he offered. Given that, should he be paid, Angelus would no longer be an amateur skater and would become ineligible to skate in the Olympics or World Championships, this was the best offer.
Angelus just glared and slumped down.
Buffy pouted. “Fine. I’ll just have to ask Xander to skate with me.” She sighed wistfully. “It might have been nice to get in a nice performance or two before there was any pressure on us, and I just won’t be able to do as much but-”
“You are not skating with anyone but me!” Angelus interrupted. He frowned. “We’ll find something else if you feel we need a no-pressure performance,” he added.
“But I want to do this. It’s great PR. Besides, you could show people that you have a sense of humour. We could do a threesome thing with Xander and us.” Buffy trailed off as an idea occurred to her. “Giles?” Her coach looked at her. “What would you think of Angel in lederhosen?”
The two men just blinked.
***
Angelus was still unsure one month later how this had happened precisely. One moment he was objecting to the very notion of skating to anything which had yodelling, the next he was rehearsing a three-person routine in which he had to dress up like some freakish Bavarian. It was extremely disturbing. He was certain the worst part was the bit about to happen as the latest round of yodelling ended.
Xander came bounding out of the back after his last costume change and did a backflip to land between them dressed like a big baby. Literally. Angelus suppressed his wince and concentrated on the unusually demanding choreography. He had been suspecting for the past two weeks it had been arranged to make sure he shut up. It had also been done to compensate for Xander’s limited capabilities, but it was mainly so that he couldn’t whine at the other two during the performance. They reached the big conclusion and Angelus legged it off the ice.
Xander followed him and asked, “Y’know, I’ve been wondering. Why are you doing this if you hate it so much?”
He was about to answer the other man when Buffy’s arm shot out of the dressing room and dragged him in. When Xander poked his head in seconds later he found his ex-partner and Angelus wrapped around each other and Buffy wriggling out of her skating costume. Xander was about to close the door and hurry off when he heard Buffy say, “See? That wasn’t so bad.”
Angelus harrumphed. “Right. I look like a fool and the song is moronic and ahh!” He broke off as Buffy reached between the two of them and did something Xander couldn’t see. Angelus started whimpering.
Buffy was rocking on Angelus’ lap as she repeated, “See? That wasn’t so bad.”
“As long as you promise to keep that up I’ll agree to anything,” Angelus replied.
Xander left, chuckling, and was still smirking when the pair reappeared looking calm and together except for the lipstick barely visible on Angelus’ neck. Xander waved the couple over to his table at the arena hot chocolate stand and said when they got close, “Angelus you got a little lipstick . . . “ He finished by gesturing at his neck.
Angelus hastily wiped the smudge away and sat down. Buffy ignored the empty chair and sat on his lap. Xander grinned at them both and said, “I see skating together hasn’t destroyed your romance yet.”
“Nope,” Buffy said. “We’re enjoying being joined at the hip. How’s life with Anya?”
“Good, although you can ask her what she thinks of life with me.” Xander stood as Anya arrived and held her chair for her. She took one look at Xander standing at the ready to be a gentleman and shoved him into his chair again before imitating Buffy by sitting in Xander’s lap.
She looked Angelus up and down and said, “Xander says you’re going to be wearing lederhosen. I’m looking forward to seeing whether your legs and butt look as good in the shorts as they do in black leather.” Angelus made a choking sound. He looked at Buffy expecting her to be furious, but she was just giggling.
“What’s so funny?” he asked her.
She snorted a bit to get herself under control and replied, “I was just thinking how perfectly Anya described my thoughts about it.” He frowned as he thought this over and then glared at her.
“You’ve got me doing this utterly humiliating routine because you want to see me in some stupid shorts?” he growled. He was going to try to dump her off his lap when she whipped around and straddled him. Angelus found himself briefly staring at her enticingly bouncy chest and completely forgot what was going on. Then she finished turning around and was seated facing the other direction.
“Actually,” she grinned, “I just saw this little pink costume I thought would look totally cute on me and I just had to find something to wear it in.”
Xander laughed. “You know, she used to do the same thing to me,” he said. “She would find some outfit she adored, then she’d convince Giles to make us do a routine to fit the costume.” Buffy pouted at Xander while Angelus filed the information away for future use. “I think those were some of our better programs actually,” Xander added thoughtfully.
“So to really inspire Buffy to work you need to buy her clothes.” Angelus sounded contemplative as he spoke. The wicked twinkle in his eye gave him away. “Why am I unsurprised by this?”
Buffy swatted him and the two couples turned their discussion to Buffy and Angelus’ upcoming wedding. They talked flower arrangements and bridesmaid dresses until the two men were about to go insane. In response the guys had their own talk about the wedding night and finding a stripper who could skate. Buffy was about to swat her fiancé again when she noticed someone hovering at the back of the room. “’Scuse me guys,” she said. “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
She crossed the room and sat down next to Justine Mackenzie. “Hey. I almost thought you weren’t going to come.”
Angelus’ mother looked at her soon-to-be daughter-in-law and said, “I don’t know if I should be here. I don’t need to watch my son prance-” she would have continued but Buffy cut her off.
“If you’ve never seen Angel skate then you don’t know what you’re going to see.” Buffy sighed. “Of course, he’s not going to be at his best here. It’s a difficult program, technically speaking, but it’s not him.”
Justine glared at Buffy. “If this isn’t a good program for me to see him in, then why am I here?” She started to stand up but Buffy grabbed her arm and pulled her back into her seat.
“You’re here because you refused to listen when I tried telling you that, and insisted on seeing the soonest performance rather than the competitions or even a better demonstration piece.” Buffy said it calmly, but there was an edge to her words that made the other woman sit down and pay attention. “Now if you want character references from people I can have a friend introduce you around to some of the other skaters.” Justine stared at Buffy for a moment before agreeing to the introductions.
Buffy quickly handed her soon-to-be-mother-in-law over to a couple of her old team-mates and hurried back to Angelus and Xander. “Hey, where’s Anya gone?” she asked, noticing the other woman’s absence.
“I sent her to find you,” Angelus replied pointedly. “What took you so long? I was getting worried.” He punctuated his sentence by tugging her into his lap.
Buffy gave him a look of exaggerated repentance. “I’m sorry sweetie,” she said. “How can I ever make it up to you?” she finished, her voice husky and sensual. Angelus promptly stood and made their apologies to Xander and Anya, dragging Buffy away with him.
They were nearing the door when he froze, his eyes narrowing. “Is that...” he trailed off staring at the door that his mother had disappeared through.
“Is that what?” Buffy asked, hoping to distract him.
Angelus frowned and hurried after Justine. “My mother,” he replied.
Buffy’s eyes widened in surprise and she hurried after him, hoping to catch up to the other woman before Angelus did. Luck was with her and she caught Justine and pulled her out of sight. “So how was your tour?” she asked.
Angelus’ mother looked troubled. “It was . . . enlightening,” was the reply. “I don’t think I’d ever really watched the skaters before.” She suddenly turned to Buffy. “The performance is at eight tonight?” Buffy nodded silently. “Then I’ll see you then.” Justine turned away sharply and vanished into the crowds at the rink. Moments later Angelus appeared.
“Did you see her?” he asked. Buffy couldn’t tell whether he was hopeful or angry.
She chose to misdirect rather than lie. “Angel, maybe she wasn’t here. There are women with red hair like hers.” Her fiancé looked ready to disagree, but he let her steer him out the door and then distract him on the ride back to the hotel.
**********
At eight thirty that evening it was the threesome’s turn to skate. The music started and Angelus was hard put not to wince in emotional agony as Julie Andrew’s voice came on over the PA. He pasted a fake smile on his face and concentrated on the fact that his Buffy had spent a fortune on Victoria’s Secret products. It almost helped with the yodelling.
//High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Angelus began the routine with the footwork and a series of jumps on the yodels. It was difficult as all hell, but he still felt ridiculous. Here he was, prancing across the rink in lederhosen, playing up to the audience and listening to yodelling. He had once sworn this was his concept of damnation.
//Folks in a town that was quite remote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Lusty and clear from the goatherd's throat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Some more step work and a Russian split jump later and he still had half a verse and more yodelling to go before Xander would come in to take the burden of acting like a moron off his shoulders. Angelus gritted his teeth and prayed it looked like a smile as he dropped into a glide on one knee and spun around, coming up into a spread eagle for the last yodel of the verse. And he still had yodelling left to go. He was never going to make it.
//O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay//
The crowd was clapping. It had to be Hell. Okay, so it was nice to hear them encouraging him, and the cheers every time he did a death-defying feat were a boost to his ego. And he had to admit that his normal routines didn’t gain him the smiling faces he was getting from the audience as he swung into an illusion turn and then a scratch spin made the vertigo of turning far too quickly seem a little less dizzying than usual.
//A prince on the bridge of a castle moat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Men on a road with a load to tote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Xander had finally arrived, cavorting across the ice in his pretend Bavarian traveller costume. He bounded across the ice to Angelus and faked looking amazed at the tones that were supposedly issuing from Angelus’ character of the goatherd. The shameless mugging had Angelus wincing internally.
//Men in the midst of a table d’hôte heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Then came the part Angelus had had the most trouble with. The two men were to circle in towards each other, join hands and do backward scissor kicks with the momentum holding them up and letting them circle. Angelus liked the other man well enough, but the only person he’d ever felt comfortable in a skating partnership with was Buffy. The insane spinning backward kicks went off without a hitch and Angelus felt his knees go weak when he realised he hadn’t made a fool of himself.
As Xander took off to change into his second costume he hissed at Angelus, “Don’t lose it now, man!” Then he was gone and Buffy was swirling onto the rink in her lovely little pink skating outfit. She looked like Dorothy Hamill or something.
//One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
She yodelled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Buffy came in, mugging just as much as Xander had. Angelus felt a vague sort of horror at the thought. He also realised, rather abruptly and with some self-directed disgust, that the upbeat responses of the crowd were revving him up. He quashed the thought and concentrated on the lift and Buffy’s shifting positions above him as she went from prone, to upright, to her side all the while with him shifting his grip until she was held aloft on one hand.
//Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Xander reappeared in a voluminous dress and the couple stopped in the centre of the rink while Xander pretended to fuss around them. And there was more yodelling. Angelus decided that whatever good came of this, the yodelling more than balanced it.
//One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hoo hoo
She yodelled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
They hit their side-by-sides, in triplicate, as Xander was still on the ice in his dress. Angelus watched, impressed as usual with the quality of the other man’s spins. Xander was barely able to manage a triple flip but the speed and precision of his spins had given Angelus the understanding of Xander’s high placement within amateur ranks. Xander had been an adequate partner for Buffy because he had strengths that could partially make up for his deficiencies.
There was more yodelling then and Angelus and Buffy both began to steel themselves for their new signature move. It wasn’t going to be much. Certainly they wouldn’t go down for their creativity on this one, but it was coming.
//Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o
o lay dee odl lay dee o ee oo
Soon the duet will become a trio
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Xander came back dressed as a big baby for their finale. Angelus hadn’t been skating the whole time, but he was starting to tire, and the pause while Xander backflipped between him and Buffy was a welcome rest. Then they started the final run of jumps.
//Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee
Odl lay odl lay, odl lay odl lee, odl lay odl lee
Odl lay odl lay odl lay//
It started with a simple ‘voice and echo’ motif. Angelus and Buffy would do a jump, Xander would copy. Then they did their quads and Xander stopped dead. Then it was there. For the last line of yodelling Angelus wound up for the throw. They had discovered this fact in practice that, with the added momentum of the throw, Buffy was capable of doing five turns to a jump.
This was the first time they’d tried it in a public forum and Angelus could sense how nervous Buffy was. When they settled into position he gave her hand a quick squeeze for reassurance. Then she was leading them into the throw and Angelus threw her into her toe loop. She looked beautiful in the air, but when she came down, her supporting leg wobbled and her whole body dipped. But she held on.
The rink exploded. There was nothing else that could be said. The three skaters came together for the final pose, but no one could hear the music over the shrieking audience. There was a sizeable crowd of knowledgeable people there and the three on the ice could feel the floor beneath them vibrate with the strength of their reaction.
**********
They finally left the ice and Buffy was shaking with a combination of triumph and relief. A good part of the relief was simply that she had pulled off the jump, but the rest was that Angelus hadn’t noticed his mother in the audience. She had been within feet of Angelus at one point and Buffy was simply relieved that she didn’t have to deal with her fiancé’s fury over her plot to reunite his family. Angelus sweeping her off her feet and kissing her pulled her out of her thoughts. “You were fantastic!” he said.
Buffy sent him a look that tried to be annoyed but never got past amused. “What happened to Mr-I-hate-this-routine-and-everything-connected-to-it?” she asked.
Angelus frowned at her. “I never said that,” he replied. He smiled at her again. “Besides, I love you, and you’re connected to this routine so I can’t hate everything about it.” Before she could respond to that he kissed her again.
“Hey lovebirds!” Xander interrupted them. “I hate to break this up but there are a couple of reporters out here who want to talk to you guys about the quintuple loop.” Buffy stuck her tongue out at her former partner and then tugged an exceedingly reluctant Angelus to meet the press. They had almost reached the reporters when Buffy spotted Justine trying to catch her eye from the edge of the crowd
Buffy thought quickly and yanked a skate guard off and hid it when Angelus turned away. She tugged his arm and said, “Angel, I can’t believe this, but I forgot a skate guard back there.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s not like you. Buffy-”
“I know, I know,” she said, as Justine became more agitated off to the side. “I guess it’s just the whole performance had me more on edge than I thought.” She began to move away slightly. “I’ll find the guard and be right back. I promise.” She began to hurry off. Then she stopped, trotted back to Angelus, kissed him, and scurried off again.
In the background she heard him say, “She is the strangest girl.”
Paying no mind to him, Buffy hurried out of sight and pulled the guard on over the blade and went to catch up with Justine. “Hi,” she said breathlessly, “Sorry it took so long but I had to sneak off-”
Justine was barely paying any attention to Buffy. “Why didn’t he ever show us?” she muttered.
Buffy blinked. “Show you what?” she asked the older woman.
“He never showed us any of what he did,” Justine explained. “I don’t know. Maybe if he’d let us see what it is he does . . .” She looked deeply troubled and Buffy frowned.
“This really wasn’t the best stuff he does,” Buffy tried to explain hastily. “I mean, I think our competitive piece is way better. In fact he complained the whole time-”
Justine interrupted her looking confused. “Why would he complain? He looked . . . “ She paused, clearly searching for the right word. “Magnificent.”
There was a pause, then Buffy frowned at Angelus’ mother and said, “Y’know, if you’d actually gone to some of his competitions or performances you might’ve seen something like this sooner.” Justine acknowledged the reprimand with a nod but seemed distracted.
“Is it . . . D’ye really think we can still reconcile?” Justine asked.
Buffy smiled. “I know he wants to. He’s just scared that you’ll reject him.” She glanced up and said, “I hate to say this but I’ve got to catch up with him. Why don’t we talk again after our first competition?”
Justine just nodded and vanished into the crowd saying, “Thank you.” Buffy turned and hurried off to catch up with Angelus. She was greeted by a hail of flashbulbs going off and Angelus pulling her into a lengthy, albeit very pleasant, kiss.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked, somewhat breathlessly, when he let go.
Angelus pulled her to him. “There was some question as to whether we were having a fight over your landing of the throw,” he replied.
Buffy rolled her eyes and turned to the crowd of reporters. “In case this goof didn’t tell you guys I was going back for something I forgot.” She and Angelus answered a few more questions then they headed for their apartment and an evening of planning their wedding. Her friends and her mother were all there and Xander pulled Angelus aside saying something to him about stag parties, while Buffy’s mother started talking flower arrangements.
“Honey, what do you think of having the violets form a figure skate?” Joyce asked her offspring, who was promptly appalled at the very notion.
“A skate? Mom! This is my wedding, not a theme park!” Buffy said indignantly and looked disgusted. “Besides, I wanted the violets there to offset Angel’s clan colours and stuff. Once we had the yellow, red and green as well as the pink and white for wedding colours I figured we could just do a sort of multicoloured thing.” She explained. “That way we’ve got a lot of colours and nothing clashes ‘cause it’s all rainbowy.”
Joyce blinked at her daughter and then muttered, “Right. My daughter wants a tie-dyed wedding.”
As the wedding preparations continued on the far side of the room, Xander was promising Angelus the “Best Bachelor Party Ever in the History of Male Pre-Wedding Events.” Angelus was somewhat sceptical of the whole thing until Xander told him about the scheduling. They were going to have it literally a month and a half before the actual event so that the party wouldn’t interfere with the competition and, more important, so that Buffy would forgive them both by the time the wedding ceremony started. Then he had to agree, although Xander’s comments about requiring forgiveness for the night were a little nerve wracking at best.
Finally the crowd of friends and planners left and Buffy dropped to the couch with an audible thud. “I hate seating arranging!” she said vehemently. Angelus slipped in behind her and began to rub her shoulders. “Mmm. That’s niiiice.”
“What’s got you so riled up about the seatin’? Everybody gets one,” Angelus said with a confused frown.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I have to make sure that people who don’t like each other don’t sit next to each other. Barring that, I’m gonna have to keep everyone who might get into a fight separated. I have to keep the family drunks away from the bar, I have to balance the number of men and woman at a table, immediate family has to be seated together, I have to get a kids table set up and-“ Buffy was interrupted in her list by a very determined kiss.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Angelus said, amused. “Why don’t you stop thinking about it for a little bit?” His shoulder massage moved around to naughtier parts as he spoke. Buffy let herself be distracted.
Part 2
Back to archive page
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I don’t own the Dixie Chick’s “Sin Wagon”, I don’t own Mary MacDonald’s song, “Sealwoman”, I don’t own the Rogers and Hammerstein song “Lonely Goatherd” and I don’t own any of the characters in this either.
Distribution: Want it? Take it. Just lemme know.
Summary: There were requests for a sequel to the first figure skating story and I was (somewhat) inspired so this is what happened between the end and the epilogue of the first story.
Rating: R It got upped because of some naughtier bits.
Notes: I have many. First, I need to apologise because in the last story I forgot that Coffee Crisp is a Canadian product, meaning no one but Canadians who have watched too much TV will recognise the ad. So, for those who were wondering, the so so so so so thing was an ad for a chocolate bar with coffee in it. A friend of mine and I used to recite the ad. Anyhow, to maintain the theme, I’ve put in another candy ad. For those who don’t know, Smarties are essentially M&Ms, only they’re tackier. The ad is to be sung to the tune of “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight.” The “Hockey Night in Canada” thing is to be sung to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. You just have to kinda smush the Canada on the first couple. Those who watch hockey in Canada will know what I’m talking about. Everyone else just smile and nod.
Notes2: I felt this next set of things deserve separate notes. I have actually broken many ISU regulations on pairs figure skating, so any figure skating fanatics out there yes, I know this. However, I wanted to sort of match the choreography to something and lyrics are easier than trying to explain to readers what’s going on with the music. Also, someone mentioned with the last story that one of the amendments in the US constitution means Buffy is and American citizen despite her place of birth. Well, pretend that amendment doesn’t exist because it’s not worth finding a way around it. The Gaelic is, in fact, Scottish Gaelic because I wanted to practice somewhere and this seemed as good as anywhere. What Angel says is literally (because I have no freakin’ clue what dictionary in Gaelic is) “I am a fool. Look for fool in a book my picture is there.” I also suspect I wrote it wrong.
Feedback: Anything else I’ve missed? Feel free to tell me at scwlc@yahoo.ca
“Darla Wells you are hereby found guilty of assault with intent to kill. You have been sentenced to twenty years in a maximum security facility,” the judge presiding over her trial said.
She was dignified as she stood and began to make her way toward the exit, but as she got close to where Buffy and her fiancé were sitting she abruptly lunged toward them and was jerked back by the guards escorting her. “I’ll get you for this, bitch! He won’t stay with you! Soon he’s going to want a real woman and not some anorexic little skater!” Darla was dragged from the courtroom kicking and shouting obscenities. In her wake the reporters and camera crews closed in on Buffy and Angelus.
“What is your response to Wells’ threats?”
“Miss Summers!”
“Angelus!”
“Is it true you’re marrying to gain a US citizenship?”
“Are you pregnant?”
“How will Wells’ incarceration affect your performance in the coming season?”
“Is the damage to Miss Summers going to keep her off the ice?”
The questions continued to swirl around the couple with them responding to the select few that directly pertained to either their careers or the trial that had just ended. “Buffy and I are about to begin rehearsals for this coming season,” Angelus said. “We’ll naturally have to go through the whole gamut of regionals since we’re an untried team, but I expect us to reach the Worlds without too much difficulty. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.”
“So you are both going to skate for Ireland?” one reporter questioned.
Buffy smiled. “Absolutely. Angelus has no intention of skating for anywhere else, and I have no intention of skating with anyone but him.” They two shared a smile and created a perfect photo-op for the surrounding cameras. The questions paused as a hundred flashbulbs went off simultaneously.
Another reporter finally got through with a sensible question. “So who’s going to coach you both? With Darla Wells now in prison will you be getting a new coach?”
“No,” Angelus replied firmly. “We will be coached by Rupert Giles who has been Buffy’s coach for years. He knows pairs skating as well or better than anyone else in the business and we both know and trust him.” They continued to field questions all the way out to the car, avoiding the ones that were demands for sensationalistic headlines, and brushing aside those that were too intrusive. Finally they were inside and Angelus floored it out of there.
“How are you feeling?” he asked his fiancée. He glanced over at her as she sat calmly in the passenger seat. The stitches had come out and she looked healthy and ready, but he knew looks could be deceiving. He had no intention of letting her anywhere near a rink if she wasn’t fully ready to begin training again.
She rolled her eyes. “Angel. Honey. This wasn’t even as bad as what happened when Parker dropped me. I want to get back on the ice and start practising. With you. Besides, how am I gonna keep up with my new partner if I don’t stay in shape?” She smiled and placed her hand on his knee.
He took a hand off the wheel briefly to place it over hers. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.” She said nothing in response, just squeezed his knee and then sat back for the rest of the drive. They’d had this discussion before and everything was said.
The pair climbed out of the car on reaching the arena and went to change and warm up. By the time Angelus got out of the changeroom Buffy was already skating around the rink. He paused and smiled as he watched her swing into a spread eagle, glide easily into a turn and then change legs into a Bielman spin. She was just so beautiful. Tiny, slender and with an iron will that had her trying a quad before she was ready.
He was practically next to her when she missed the landing on the quad axel and fell. He stood over her, glowering irritably. “Why can’t you wait until you’ve been practising for a while before trying the damn quads?”
“Why can’t you let me practice my quads so that I’ll be able to land them in competition?” she shot back, equally cranky.
Giles came walking onto the ice and gave both a warning look. “Angelus, you’ll have to trust that your partner knows what she’s doing in practice or else you’ll have no trust when it comes to competition. Then you’ll lose.” He turned to Buffy. “You know damn well that you aren’t ready to try the more difficult jumps. I will not work with a young fool who refuses to pay attention to the state of her own body.” He determinedly ignored the stuck out tongues from both which became giggles between the pair, then turned into more heated looks. “Buffy, do you still recall the steps you had in mind for your short program last year?”
Buffy came out of the staring contest she was in with her fiancé and replied, “You mean the “Sin Wagon” routine?” Giles nodded.
“Sin wagon routine?” Angelus asked.
Buffy grinned at him. “Riley didn’t want to do something risqué, so we didn’t do it, but I wanted to do a short program to the Dixie Chicks’ song “Sin Wagon”.” She cuddled up to him and he wrapped an arm around her.
Giles nodded again and added, “Actually, I think this would be a perfect introductory piece for the two of you as a pair.” He smiled happily. The year was looking up for him. His skater looked happy and she finally had a partner worthy of her mettle. “The thing is, Buffy has more to her than the sweet and innocent appeal people are used to, and with the two of you beginning an artistic, as well as personal relationship, the new style of skating would be an excellent change from her previous style.”
“And I was thinking of you in leather,” Buffy said with a grin. She reached around him and squeezed his butt. Angelus jumped and then smiled down at her wolfishly.
“Okay,” he said after a moment’s consideration, “But since I haven’t ever heard the song, why don’t we listen to it. Maybe improvise a little before I say yes. I may not like it.” Buffy jerked her head at Giles who promptly went over to the tape player and started it up.
There was no discussion of other music for the short program after that. Giles was privately convinced it was partially because of the way Buffy was writhing all over her lover, but he refrained from comment. Mainly because all the improvisation gave them practically a whole routine by the end of the afternoon. He knew he could rely on Buffy to remember what he didn’t of the choreography, and Angelus had come up with a wonderful little lift and twisting drop that was perfect for showpieces. Giles grinned at the startled look on Buffy’s face when Angelus lifted her up and then got her out of her sweater as he put her down.
He hadn’t been certain the two would be ready for pairs work in time for the new season, but while Buffy recovered Angelus had learned to partner with another coach. She used to be a pairs skater, so he had learned how to properly do the lifts and throws on her, and when Buffy started to skate again, he was ready.
Buffy came out of a triple loop with barely a wobble and Giles brought things to a close. “We’ll pick this up tomorrow. Buffy, I don’t want you overdoing it, so I’m cutting practice off now.” She tried pouting but the two men ignored her. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Buffy.”
She then tried pouting at Angelus. He just kissed her and pulled her off the ice. “How about we watch that movie you’ve been wanting me to see,” he said. She stopped pouting and eagerly dragged him back to the car and their shared apartment. They had started living together almost before Buffy got out of the hospital and they were in the middle of plans for the wedding as well as everything else in their lives.
Unfortunately the movie was not to be. They arrived home to find an unfamiliar car parked in the visitor’s lot and Angelus’ parents waiting in the living room for them. “So, I see you were no’ gonna tell your own parents about the wedding,” were the words that greeted the skaters.
Angelus tensed and his jaw began to work. “I sent the both of you letters, emails, faxes and I even left phone messages tellin’ y’about my fiancée. Just because you refuse to talk to me-”
“Oh. Right. We dinna want to talk to our only child,” Henry Joseph Mackenzie snorted. “Yer mother’s been worried about ya ever since you decided to ignore your heritage and change your name.” He glanced around the living room to where his wife sat and back to the couple standing uncomfortably in their own home. “So does your ‘fiancée’ know her lad is a bleedin’ gay man?”
Buffy smiled. “Oh I heard the rumours, but if my lover is gay then I’m Mary Queen of Scots.” She paused, frowned, then said, “Mary Queen of Scots? I’ve been hanging around Giles way too much.” She took Angelus and her coats and hung them up, then turned to her boyfriend’s parents and asked, “Is there anything I can get you? We have juice, milk-”
“Whisky on the rocks,” said Henry. His wife frowned and smacked him on the arm.
Angelus stalked past them to the bedroom growling irritably, “Neither Buffy nor I drink. We both have to maintain our balance on the ice when we’re training or competing so there’s no alcohol in the kitchen.” He slammed the door behind him, leaving Buffy to deal with their unexpected guests.
Twenty minutes later, Buffy was desperately fielding questions from Angelus’ father about skating, the wedding, their relationship and whatever else seemed to come to mind. Finally she had enough and shouted at the man. “You know, you’re not even giving him a chance! He went to university and got those degrees to make you happy! He’s doing something he loves! Why can’t you let him be happy?”
Henry glared at her and snarled, “He was supposed to take over the family business! Instead he’s prancing around in those poofy great tights and-”
“Have you ever watched him? Do you even know what he does? Angelus is one of the best male skaters on the ice and I am grateful to be skating with him!” Buffy shouted. She advanced on Angelus’ father and sent the man backing toward the door. “Furthermore, he is my fiancé and I would appreciate it if you could keep from badmouthing the man I’m going to marry.” She marched past him and yanked the door open. “I was going to ask him to invite you both to our wedding since your opinion is really important to him, but since neither of you seem to care one way or another about what your son wants I’m telling you both to get the hell out.”
Buffy stood in the doorway with one hand pointing out the door, and stared the other couple down. They left silently and she went into the bedroom to find Angelus pretending he wasn’t upset. “You okay?” she asked him.
He cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Fine. Why don’t we watch that film hunh?” He tried to brush past her, but Buffy stopped him in the door.
“Why don’t we talk about your parents?” she asked softly. His jaw worked a little and he refused to look her in the eye. “Angel-”
He sent a good-natured growl her way. “Why do you keep insisting on calling me that?” he grumped at her. “It makes me sound like a girl.” Buffy giggled, leading him over to the bed.
“I like calling you that. Only I get to call you that so it’s a name for you that’s all mine,” she replied as they sat down. Buffy plunked into his lap to keep him on the bed with her and said again, “Why don’t we talk about your parents.”
Angelus nuzzled into her hair and wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t want to talk about them because it makes me depressed.” He caught her look and sighed. “Alright!” Buffy squeaked as he pulled her to lie down with him and they twined themselves comfortably together. He sighed and started. “We used to get along. I worshipped the ground my mother walked on and even though Dad and I never got along well, we could always talk about football or fiddling.”
Buffy cuddled him a little closer and asked, “What happened?”
“I met my first skating coach,” he replied. “We were at some Irish culture festival that my father always liked to play at and there was a rink for kids to skate on. She started to improvise a bit while my father was playing and I copied her.” He sighed again and smiled at the memory. “Mum thought it was a nice thing for me to do and let me take up skating. Dad didn’t quite like it but I thought he’d be okay since he could understand about art and music and dance. He couldn’t,” Angelus said bluntly. “When I got serious he was furious. I tried to make him understand but I couldn’t. Mum always thought Dad hung the moon, so when he said . . . whatever it was he said to her, she just started treating me like a criminal.”
Buffy looked into her lover’s eyes and saw how much it had hurt him to have his parents turn on his dreams that way. “I’m so sorry sweetheart,” she said.
“’Salright,” he replied. In a sudden mood swing rolled them so that he was lying on top of her then grinned wickedly. “I’m suddenly in the mood for a little fun.”
Buffy giggled and arched up a little bit, “Oh?” she asked. “What sort of,” she paused to lick her lips, causing Angelus to groan at the sight, “Fun did you have in mind?”
Angelus swooped down and kissed her. After that there was little in the way of coherent conversation.
**********
The weeks passed as the two worked on their routines. Angelus was the one who picked out the music for the long routine. Things went well until Giles told them they ought to take on the opportunity offered by a Rogers and Hammerstein musical special. Buffy was promptly excited and started to try to come up with a good piece for them to skate to. Angelus took one look at the notion and said, “Absolutely not.”
“But Angel-”
Angelus glared at her. “No. I will not ham up to a crowd who knows nothing about skating and is only there to watch people be cute.” He flopped down on a chair as Buffy and Giles exchanged looks.
Giles hesitantly tried another tack. “You will be paid into a trust account and given access after you enter the professional skating world,” he offered. Given that, should he be paid, Angelus would no longer be an amateur skater and would become ineligible to skate in the Olympics or World Championships, this was the best offer.
Angelus just glared and slumped down.
Buffy pouted. “Fine. I’ll just have to ask Xander to skate with me.” She sighed wistfully. “It might have been nice to get in a nice performance or two before there was any pressure on us, and I just won’t be able to do as much but-”
“You are not skating with anyone but me!” Angelus interrupted. He frowned. “We’ll find something else if you feel we need a no-pressure performance,” he added.
“But I want to do this. It’s great PR. Besides, you could show people that you have a sense of humour. We could do a threesome thing with Xander and us.” Buffy trailed off as an idea occurred to her. “Giles?” Her coach looked at her. “What would you think of Angel in lederhosen?”
The two men just blinked.
***
Angelus was still unsure one month later how this had happened precisely. One moment he was objecting to the very notion of skating to anything which had yodelling, the next he was rehearsing a three-person routine in which he had to dress up like some freakish Bavarian. It was extremely disturbing. He was certain the worst part was the bit about to happen as the latest round of yodelling ended.
Xander came bounding out of the back after his last costume change and did a backflip to land between them dressed like a big baby. Literally. Angelus suppressed his wince and concentrated on the unusually demanding choreography. He had been suspecting for the past two weeks it had been arranged to make sure he shut up. It had also been done to compensate for Xander’s limited capabilities, but it was mainly so that he couldn’t whine at the other two during the performance. They reached the big conclusion and Angelus legged it off the ice.
Xander followed him and asked, “Y’know, I’ve been wondering. Why are you doing this if you hate it so much?”
He was about to answer the other man when Buffy’s arm shot out of the dressing room and dragged him in. When Xander poked his head in seconds later he found his ex-partner and Angelus wrapped around each other and Buffy wriggling out of her skating costume. Xander was about to close the door and hurry off when he heard Buffy say, “See? That wasn’t so bad.”
Angelus harrumphed. “Right. I look like a fool and the song is moronic and ahh!” He broke off as Buffy reached between the two of them and did something Xander couldn’t see. Angelus started whimpering.
Buffy was rocking on Angelus’ lap as she repeated, “See? That wasn’t so bad.”
“As long as you promise to keep that up I’ll agree to anything,” Angelus replied.
Xander left, chuckling, and was still smirking when the pair reappeared looking calm and together except for the lipstick barely visible on Angelus’ neck. Xander waved the couple over to his table at the arena hot chocolate stand and said when they got close, “Angelus you got a little lipstick . . . “ He finished by gesturing at his neck.
Angelus hastily wiped the smudge away and sat down. Buffy ignored the empty chair and sat on his lap. Xander grinned at them both and said, “I see skating together hasn’t destroyed your romance yet.”
“Nope,” Buffy said. “We’re enjoying being joined at the hip. How’s life with Anya?”
“Good, although you can ask her what she thinks of life with me.” Xander stood as Anya arrived and held her chair for her. She took one look at Xander standing at the ready to be a gentleman and shoved him into his chair again before imitating Buffy by sitting in Xander’s lap.
She looked Angelus up and down and said, “Xander says you’re going to be wearing lederhosen. I’m looking forward to seeing whether your legs and butt look as good in the shorts as they do in black leather.” Angelus made a choking sound. He looked at Buffy expecting her to be furious, but she was just giggling.
“What’s so funny?” he asked her.
She snorted a bit to get herself under control and replied, “I was just thinking how perfectly Anya described my thoughts about it.” He frowned as he thought this over and then glared at her.
“You’ve got me doing this utterly humiliating routine because you want to see me in some stupid shorts?” he growled. He was going to try to dump her off his lap when she whipped around and straddled him. Angelus found himself briefly staring at her enticingly bouncy chest and completely forgot what was going on. Then she finished turning around and was seated facing the other direction.
“Actually,” she grinned, “I just saw this little pink costume I thought would look totally cute on me and I just had to find something to wear it in.”
Xander laughed. “You know, she used to do the same thing to me,” he said. “She would find some outfit she adored, then she’d convince Giles to make us do a routine to fit the costume.” Buffy pouted at Xander while Angelus filed the information away for future use. “I think those were some of our better programs actually,” Xander added thoughtfully.
“So to really inspire Buffy to work you need to buy her clothes.” Angelus sounded contemplative as he spoke. The wicked twinkle in his eye gave him away. “Why am I unsurprised by this?”
Buffy swatted him and the two couples turned their discussion to Buffy and Angelus’ upcoming wedding. They talked flower arrangements and bridesmaid dresses until the two men were about to go insane. In response the guys had their own talk about the wedding night and finding a stripper who could skate. Buffy was about to swat her fiancé again when she noticed someone hovering at the back of the room. “’Scuse me guys,” she said. “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
She crossed the room and sat down next to Justine Mackenzie. “Hey. I almost thought you weren’t going to come.”
Angelus’ mother looked at her soon-to-be daughter-in-law and said, “I don’t know if I should be here. I don’t need to watch my son prance-” she would have continued but Buffy cut her off.
“If you’ve never seen Angel skate then you don’t know what you’re going to see.” Buffy sighed. “Of course, he’s not going to be at his best here. It’s a difficult program, technically speaking, but it’s not him.”
Justine glared at Buffy. “If this isn’t a good program for me to see him in, then why am I here?” She started to stand up but Buffy grabbed her arm and pulled her back into her seat.
“You’re here because you refused to listen when I tried telling you that, and insisted on seeing the soonest performance rather than the competitions or even a better demonstration piece.” Buffy said it calmly, but there was an edge to her words that made the other woman sit down and pay attention. “Now if you want character references from people I can have a friend introduce you around to some of the other skaters.” Justine stared at Buffy for a moment before agreeing to the introductions.
Buffy quickly handed her soon-to-be-mother-in-law over to a couple of her old team-mates and hurried back to Angelus and Xander. “Hey, where’s Anya gone?” she asked, noticing the other woman’s absence.
“I sent her to find you,” Angelus replied pointedly. “What took you so long? I was getting worried.” He punctuated his sentence by tugging her into his lap.
Buffy gave him a look of exaggerated repentance. “I’m sorry sweetie,” she said. “How can I ever make it up to you?” she finished, her voice husky and sensual. Angelus promptly stood and made their apologies to Xander and Anya, dragging Buffy away with him.
They were nearing the door when he froze, his eyes narrowing. “Is that...” he trailed off staring at the door that his mother had disappeared through.
“Is that what?” Buffy asked, hoping to distract him.
Angelus frowned and hurried after Justine. “My mother,” he replied.
Buffy’s eyes widened in surprise and she hurried after him, hoping to catch up to the other woman before Angelus did. Luck was with her and she caught Justine and pulled her out of sight. “So how was your tour?” she asked.
Angelus’ mother looked troubled. “It was . . . enlightening,” was the reply. “I don’t think I’d ever really watched the skaters before.” She suddenly turned to Buffy. “The performance is at eight tonight?” Buffy nodded silently. “Then I’ll see you then.” Justine turned away sharply and vanished into the crowds at the rink. Moments later Angelus appeared.
“Did you see her?” he asked. Buffy couldn’t tell whether he was hopeful or angry.
She chose to misdirect rather than lie. “Angel, maybe she wasn’t here. There are women with red hair like hers.” Her fiancé looked ready to disagree, but he let her steer him out the door and then distract him on the ride back to the hotel.
**********
At eight thirty that evening it was the threesome’s turn to skate. The music started and Angelus was hard put not to wince in emotional agony as Julie Andrew’s voice came on over the PA. He pasted a fake smile on his face and concentrated on the fact that his Buffy had spent a fortune on Victoria’s Secret products. It almost helped with the yodelling.
//High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Angelus began the routine with the footwork and a series of jumps on the yodels. It was difficult as all hell, but he still felt ridiculous. Here he was, prancing across the rink in lederhosen, playing up to the audience and listening to yodelling. He had once sworn this was his concept of damnation.
//Folks in a town that was quite remote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Lusty and clear from the goatherd's throat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Some more step work and a Russian split jump later and he still had half a verse and more yodelling to go before Xander would come in to take the burden of acting like a moron off his shoulders. Angelus gritted his teeth and prayed it looked like a smile as he dropped into a glide on one knee and spun around, coming up into a spread eagle for the last yodel of the verse. And he still had yodelling left to go. He was never going to make it.
//O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay//
The crowd was clapping. It had to be Hell. Okay, so it was nice to hear them encouraging him, and the cheers every time he did a death-defying feat were a boost to his ego. And he had to admit that his normal routines didn’t gain him the smiling faces he was getting from the audience as he swung into an illusion turn and then a scratch spin made the vertigo of turning far too quickly seem a little less dizzying than usual.
//A prince on the bridge of a castle moat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Men on a road with a load to tote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Xander had finally arrived, cavorting across the ice in his pretend Bavarian traveller costume. He bounded across the ice to Angelus and faked looking amazed at the tones that were supposedly issuing from Angelus’ character of the goatherd. The shameless mugging had Angelus wincing internally.
//Men in the midst of a table d’hôte heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Then came the part Angelus had had the most trouble with. The two men were to circle in towards each other, join hands and do backward scissor kicks with the momentum holding them up and letting them circle. Angelus liked the other man well enough, but the only person he’d ever felt comfortable in a skating partnership with was Buffy. The insane spinning backward kicks went off without a hitch and Angelus felt his knees go weak when he realised he hadn’t made a fool of himself.
As Xander took off to change into his second costume he hissed at Angelus, “Don’t lose it now, man!” Then he was gone and Buffy was swirling onto the rink in her lovely little pink skating outfit. She looked like Dorothy Hamill or something.
//One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
She yodelled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Buffy came in, mugging just as much as Xander had. Angelus felt a vague sort of horror at the thought. He also realised, rather abruptly and with some self-directed disgust, that the upbeat responses of the crowd were revving him up. He quashed the thought and concentrated on the lift and Buffy’s shifting positions above him as she went from prone, to upright, to her side all the while with him shifting his grip until she was held aloft on one hand.
//Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Xander reappeared in a voluminous dress and the couple stopped in the centre of the rink while Xander pretended to fuss around them. And there was more yodelling. Angelus decided that whatever good came of this, the yodelling more than balanced it.
//One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hoo hoo
She yodelled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
They hit their side-by-sides, in triplicate, as Xander was still on the ice in his dress. Angelus watched, impressed as usual with the quality of the other man’s spins. Xander was barely able to manage a triple flip but the speed and precision of his spins had given Angelus the understanding of Xander’s high placement within amateur ranks. Xander had been an adequate partner for Buffy because he had strengths that could partially make up for his deficiencies.
There was more yodelling then and Angelus and Buffy both began to steel themselves for their new signature move. It wasn’t going to be much. Certainly they wouldn’t go down for their creativity on this one, but it was coming.
//Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o
o lay dee odl lay dee o ee oo
Soon the duet will become a trio
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo//
Xander came back dressed as a big baby for their finale. Angelus hadn’t been skating the whole time, but he was starting to tire, and the pause while Xander backflipped between him and Buffy was a welcome rest. Then they started the final run of jumps.
//Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee
Odl lay odl lay, odl lay odl lee, odl lay odl lee
Odl lay odl lay odl lay//
It started with a simple ‘voice and echo’ motif. Angelus and Buffy would do a jump, Xander would copy. Then they did their quads and Xander stopped dead. Then it was there. For the last line of yodelling Angelus wound up for the throw. They had discovered this fact in practice that, with the added momentum of the throw, Buffy was capable of doing five turns to a jump.
This was the first time they’d tried it in a public forum and Angelus could sense how nervous Buffy was. When they settled into position he gave her hand a quick squeeze for reassurance. Then she was leading them into the throw and Angelus threw her into her toe loop. She looked beautiful in the air, but when she came down, her supporting leg wobbled and her whole body dipped. But she held on.
The rink exploded. There was nothing else that could be said. The three skaters came together for the final pose, but no one could hear the music over the shrieking audience. There was a sizeable crowd of knowledgeable people there and the three on the ice could feel the floor beneath them vibrate with the strength of their reaction.
**********
They finally left the ice and Buffy was shaking with a combination of triumph and relief. A good part of the relief was simply that she had pulled off the jump, but the rest was that Angelus hadn’t noticed his mother in the audience. She had been within feet of Angelus at one point and Buffy was simply relieved that she didn’t have to deal with her fiancé’s fury over her plot to reunite his family. Angelus sweeping her off her feet and kissing her pulled her out of her thoughts. “You were fantastic!” he said.
Buffy sent him a look that tried to be annoyed but never got past amused. “What happened to Mr-I-hate-this-routine-and-everything-connected-to-it?” she asked.
Angelus frowned at her. “I never said that,” he replied. He smiled at her again. “Besides, I love you, and you’re connected to this routine so I can’t hate everything about it.” Before she could respond to that he kissed her again.
“Hey lovebirds!” Xander interrupted them. “I hate to break this up but there are a couple of reporters out here who want to talk to you guys about the quintuple loop.” Buffy stuck her tongue out at her former partner and then tugged an exceedingly reluctant Angelus to meet the press. They had almost reached the reporters when Buffy spotted Justine trying to catch her eye from the edge of the crowd
Buffy thought quickly and yanked a skate guard off and hid it when Angelus turned away. She tugged his arm and said, “Angel, I can’t believe this, but I forgot a skate guard back there.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s not like you. Buffy-”
“I know, I know,” she said, as Justine became more agitated off to the side. “I guess it’s just the whole performance had me more on edge than I thought.” She began to move away slightly. “I’ll find the guard and be right back. I promise.” She began to hurry off. Then she stopped, trotted back to Angelus, kissed him, and scurried off again.
In the background she heard him say, “She is the strangest girl.”
Paying no mind to him, Buffy hurried out of sight and pulled the guard on over the blade and went to catch up with Justine. “Hi,” she said breathlessly, “Sorry it took so long but I had to sneak off-”
Justine was barely paying any attention to Buffy. “Why didn’t he ever show us?” she muttered.
Buffy blinked. “Show you what?” she asked the older woman.
“He never showed us any of what he did,” Justine explained. “I don’t know. Maybe if he’d let us see what it is he does . . .” She looked deeply troubled and Buffy frowned.
“This really wasn’t the best stuff he does,” Buffy tried to explain hastily. “I mean, I think our competitive piece is way better. In fact he complained the whole time-”
Justine interrupted her looking confused. “Why would he complain? He looked . . . “ She paused, clearly searching for the right word. “Magnificent.”
There was a pause, then Buffy frowned at Angelus’ mother and said, “Y’know, if you’d actually gone to some of his competitions or performances you might’ve seen something like this sooner.” Justine acknowledged the reprimand with a nod but seemed distracted.
“Is it . . . D’ye really think we can still reconcile?” Justine asked.
Buffy smiled. “I know he wants to. He’s just scared that you’ll reject him.” She glanced up and said, “I hate to say this but I’ve got to catch up with him. Why don’t we talk again after our first competition?”
Justine just nodded and vanished into the crowd saying, “Thank you.” Buffy turned and hurried off to catch up with Angelus. She was greeted by a hail of flashbulbs going off and Angelus pulling her into a lengthy, albeit very pleasant, kiss.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked, somewhat breathlessly, when he let go.
Angelus pulled her to him. “There was some question as to whether we were having a fight over your landing of the throw,” he replied.
Buffy rolled her eyes and turned to the crowd of reporters. “In case this goof didn’t tell you guys I was going back for something I forgot.” She and Angelus answered a few more questions then they headed for their apartment and an evening of planning their wedding. Her friends and her mother were all there and Xander pulled Angelus aside saying something to him about stag parties, while Buffy’s mother started talking flower arrangements.
“Honey, what do you think of having the violets form a figure skate?” Joyce asked her offspring, who was promptly appalled at the very notion.
“A skate? Mom! This is my wedding, not a theme park!” Buffy said indignantly and looked disgusted. “Besides, I wanted the violets there to offset Angel’s clan colours and stuff. Once we had the yellow, red and green as well as the pink and white for wedding colours I figured we could just do a sort of multicoloured thing.” She explained. “That way we’ve got a lot of colours and nothing clashes ‘cause it’s all rainbowy.”
Joyce blinked at her daughter and then muttered, “Right. My daughter wants a tie-dyed wedding.”
As the wedding preparations continued on the far side of the room, Xander was promising Angelus the “Best Bachelor Party Ever in the History of Male Pre-Wedding Events.” Angelus was somewhat sceptical of the whole thing until Xander told him about the scheduling. They were going to have it literally a month and a half before the actual event so that the party wouldn’t interfere with the competition and, more important, so that Buffy would forgive them both by the time the wedding ceremony started. Then he had to agree, although Xander’s comments about requiring forgiveness for the night were a little nerve wracking at best.
Finally the crowd of friends and planners left and Buffy dropped to the couch with an audible thud. “I hate seating arranging!” she said vehemently. Angelus slipped in behind her and began to rub her shoulders. “Mmm. That’s niiiice.”
“What’s got you so riled up about the seatin’? Everybody gets one,” Angelus said with a confused frown.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I have to make sure that people who don’t like each other don’t sit next to each other. Barring that, I’m gonna have to keep everyone who might get into a fight separated. I have to keep the family drunks away from the bar, I have to balance the number of men and woman at a table, immediate family has to be seated together, I have to get a kids table set up and-“ Buffy was interrupted in her list by a very determined kiss.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Angelus said, amused. “Why don’t you stop thinking about it for a little bit?” His shoulder massage moved around to naughtier parts as he spoke. Buffy let herself be distracted.
Part 2
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