Buffy: Who are you?Their first few meetings consist mainly of Angel turning up to warn Buffy of impending danger.
Angel: Let's just say, I'm a friend.
Buffy: Yeah, maybe I don't want a friend.
Angel: I didn't say I was yours.
Angel: I won't stay long.
Buffy: No, you'll just give me a cryptic warning about some exciting new catastrophe and the disappear into the night, right?
In the episode Angel, they share their first kiss and moments later Buffy is horrified to discover that Angel is a vampire. Although she wavers, Buffy realises that the time has come to kill Angel. When she confronts him she lays down her weapon and offers Angel her neck. The look that they share gives them a deeper understanding of each other although they realise that this can never be anything. However good their intentions are, Buffy and Angel are inexplicably drawn together and at the end of Prophecy Girl they go to the junior prom together.
At the beginning of Season Two, Buffy returns from summer vacation cold towards everyone including Angel.
Buffy (to Angel): Uh, could you contemplate getting over yourself? There's no 'us'. I'm sorry if I was supposed to spend the summer mooning over you, but I didn't. I moved on. To the living.Once Buffy has cooled down and ground the Master's bones to dust, their relationship progresses as any other couples...they quarrel. Buffy's sexy dance with Xander leaves Angel jealous but once it's sorted out they carry on until... . Things get worse in Reptile Boy as the age problem and dating a vampire get in the way.
Buffy has to cope with some more bitter truths about Angel in Lie to Me when she finds out about Drusilla, the girl Angelus tortured to the point of insanity. Buffy absorbs this and their love grows through What's My Line? and Bad Eggs where Angel worries about the future. Then, on the night of Buffy's 17th birthday, in Surprise, they reach the apex of their relationship and sleep together. Unknown to them both, this is the biggest mistake that they could have made. The following morning Buffy wakes up to find herself alone in Angel's apartment. Soon enough she finds out that their moment of passion turned Angel back into a demon who will turn out to be her worst enemy.
Until the end of Season Two, Angelus makes Buffy's life a living hell and although she cannot at first bring herself to kill him, the time comes in Becoming when she faces her long lost love. Just as Buffy is about to kill Angel, his soul returns and he is her lover once more.
Angel: What's happening, Buffy?Then, in a moment of bitter irony she sends him to hell to live a lifetime of torture. Buffy cannot come to terms with what she has done and spends the summer in an un-named city away from her friends and family.
Buffy: Shh..It doesn't matter.
She pulls away to look at him. Kisses him passionately.
Buffy: I love you.
Angel: I love you...
Buffy: Close your eyes.
When she returns, she is just about managing to regain some sort of normality in her life when, out of the woods comes Angel (Beauty and the Beasts - Season Three), an animal driven insane by his time in hell. As Buffy's mind races, she decides to help nurse Angel back to health whilst keeping him secret from the rest of the gang. No matter how she may try, they find themselves in each other's arms before realising that they can never regain what they had. Once Angel is better, they seem to put the problems out of their minds and return to being more-than-just-friends.
However, the issues of Angel's immortality come up and knowing that Buffy will be unable to make herself let go, Angel tells her that he will leave her and Sunnydale after the graduation. They share a last dance at the prom together before the battle with the mayor. Faith tries to kill Angel by shooting him with a poisoned arrow - the only antidote being the blood of a Slayer. Buffy forces Angel to drink from her in order to save his life and then, on the day that Buffy and friends finish high school, Angel takes one last look at Buffy before walking away into a cloud of smoke.
