Angel fell in love with her instantly and wanted desperately to help her. But he also saw Buffy as perhaps the key to finding the redemption he so desired.
Though he did not aid her during the brief time Buffy remained in Los Angeles after becoming the Slayer, Angel did come into her life once she had relocated with her mother to Sunnydale. At first, he attempted to keep his distance, not trusting himself to stay objective.

He tried to help her behind the scenes, and with whatever information he could provide. But it soon proved impossible for him not to take a more active role. He loved Buffy, and soon enough, she loved him as well.

Angel became part of Buffy’s circle, the group of friends who aided her in combating the forces of darkness. It was not long before Buffy and her friends learned the truth about Angel. Not only was he a vampire, but he was perhaps the most notorious vampire who had ever lived. Darla, a vampire who was in Sunnydale, had sired him, and he was of the lineage of the Master, an ancient vampire who was trapped beneath the town and ran the vampire operations of Sunnydale from there.
Still, Angel proved his loyalty time and again, and he was accepted by Buffy’s friends. Later Drusilla arrived in Sunnydale with Spike, and the two of them made things more difficult, both in their efforts to kill the Slayer and because they were vivid reminders of the era when Angel was the most feared creature in all of Europe.

Despite Spike and Drusilla’s presence, the Slayer and the soulful vampire grew more and more deeply in love.

“My people -- before I was changed -- they exchanged this as a sign of devotion. It's a Claddagh ring. The hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty... and the heart... Well, you know... Wear it with the heart pointing towards you. It means you belong to somebody. Like this.”
- Angel, in “SURPRISE”

Finally, on Buffy’s seventeenth birthday, realising they had almost lost each other, they made love for the first time.

Their lovemaking had catastrophic results: the Romany curse upon Angel had a second facet of which Angel was unaware. Should he ever achieve even a single moment of true happiness – such as the rapture of making love to the woman who had captured his heart – his human soul would leave him once again.

And it did. When Buffy awoke the next day, it was to a world completely turned upside down. Angel was truly evil once again, having reverted to the evil vampire Angelus who had terrified and feasted upon Europe for over a hundred and fifty years. Almost immediately, the newly restored Angelus fed upon a human – something he had not done in a century – and then sought out Drusilla and Spike to reassert his dominance over them. At first, preoccupied with the demon war machine they’d resurrected – the Judge – Spike and Dru did not realize what happened:

Without hesitation, Angelus set about establishing himself as the patriarch of the “family” that consisted of Drusilla, Spike, and himself. But toying with his “family” was only a distraction. Angelus’s priority was the emotional torture of the Slayer. He hated Buffy because she had made him feel love, and he feared her for her power. Thus, Angel tormented Buffy and her friends for weeks.

He turned a local girl named Theresa Klusmeyer into a vampire just so the newly risen creature could remind Buffy he was around. He sneaked into Buffy’s room at night and left sketches of her sleeping, as though to prove how easy it would be for him to kill her.

He attempted to murder Willow, threatened Buffy’s mother, and then purposely revealed to Joyce Summers that he had slept with her daughter – with the same unrelenting cruelty that he had once used on the hapless Drusilla.

This series of brutal perversions culminated in Angel’s most terrible act of this period, the callous murder of Jenny Calendar; but, not content with simply killing her, Angelus added torture to the act by leaving her body to be discovered by her new beau, Giles.
Not long thereafter, Angelus changed course entirely. He was through wasting his time with the Slayer. Instead, he acquired the remains of the demon Acathla, with the intention of resurrecting it. If he could awaken Acathla, he would open a channel into the demon dimensions.

Though Willow had discovered Jenny’s notes about restoring Angel’s soul and was working feverishly to re-create the original curse, Buffy did not have time to wait. She went to find Angel and faced him in battle.

Willow managed to complete the curse, but not before the gateway to the demon dimensions began to open. Realising at the last moment that Angel’s soul had been restored, Buffy remembered that Whistler had already told her what she must do.

Buffy knew the only way to close the portal was to make Angel bleed and then thrust him through the portal, and she did so. She told him she loved him, bid him close his eyes, and killed him.

Unable to deal with the death of her lover by her own hand, Buffy ran away to Los Angeles, where she spent the summer incognito until a former Sunnydale resident came to her for help. Then the Slayer realized she could not deny her duty or her destiny, and returned to the Hellmouth.
When Angel was returned to the world – by mysterious intervention - he was like an animal, mindless and savage.

Realizing how her friends would react to Angel’s return, Buffy kept it secret for some time. Their love resumed, but it was forever tainted by the knowledge that it was impossible.

Angel and Buffy could never make love again, or the curse would remove his human soul once more. Simply being together was absolute torture for them, and their doomed passion began to wear on them both.

“You’re not friends. You’ll never be friends. You’ll be in love till it kills you both. You’ll fight, you’ll shag, you’ll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you’ll never be friends. Love isn’t brains, children, its blood, it’s blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.”
– Spike, in “LOVER’S WALK”

Even in alternate realities, however, it seems that Buffy and Angel were destined to be together. When the demon Anyanka granted Cordelia’s wish that the slayer had never come to Sunnydale, they were all transported to a vampire-infested world ruled by the Master. Xander and Willow were his vampire followers, keeping Angel prisoner for torture-related entertainment. When the Slayer finally arrived in Sunnydale, at the desperate request of Giles to her own Watcher, we saw a hardened, battle-weary Buffy Summers who only Angel recognized.

Back in the real world, Angel was being driven insane by images of his many victims urging him to kill Buffy. To escape the hauntings, and his own misery in their star-crossed situation, he tried to kill himself, waiting on a hill-top for the deathly rays of sunrise. Buffy attempted to talk him out of it, not understanding why he thought this was the way out.

They almost came to blows, but at the last minute the Powers That Be intervened, bringing dark skies and snow to the California Christmas day and saving Angel’s life.

Just as Angel had returned from Hell, the Slayer Faith had arrived in Sunnydale. Eventually, Faith became a traitor, allied with the demonic Mayor, and the two attempted to sway Angel to their cause. Faith hoped to seduce Angel, and pointed out how hopeless his love for Buffy was. In order to reveal Faith’s duplicity, Angel pretended to have become evil once more.

Seeing him this way only made Buffy feel even more uncertain, an emotional state that others, particularly the Mayor, attempted to use to their advantage.

Finally Buffy’s mother confronted Angel with the hard truth about his relationship with Buffy. It was doomed. Everyone knew it. He could not offer her anything but pain, as she grew old and died he remained the same.

Accepting this common sense approach, which he believed was the right thing to do for Buffy, Angel decided that after the Mayor was destroyed, he would leave Sunnydale.

Before the Mayor’s Ascension to true demonhood was scheduled to come about, however, Angel was poisoned by Faith. The poison was powerful, and the only thing that could save Angel was the blood of a Slayer.

Buffy fought Faith, hoping to use her blood to save Angel, but merely succeeded in wounding her before Faith jumped off a building onto a passing truck which took her out of the frame. Realizing it was the only way to save him, Buffy forced Angel to drink from her, to take her blood, and he nearly killed her.

Goading him into a fight, Buffy succeeded in making Angel revert to vampire form, and drink her life-saving blood.

Rejuvenated, he rushed his unconscious saviour to hospital where he met with the disapproval of the Scoobies, but Buffy recovered, and they all joined forces in the battle against the Mayor. Mayor Wilkins was defeated, and in the aftermath of the battle against him, Angel left Sunnydale. Their eyes met across the smoke-filled road, but they did not say 'Goodbye'.

He went Los Angeles, where he met Doyle, another messenger from the Powers That Be whose visions of people in trouble led Angel to ‘help the hopeless’.

After Doyle’s persuasion, Angel became an unlicensed private detective, running Angel Investigations with the help of Doyle and stardom-hungry Cordelia Chase. One of Doyle’s visions led Angel to Sunnydale, to protect Buffy from mortal danger, and with the secret help of Giles and the scoobies, he was able to keep her from getting killed.

When Buffy discovered this duplicity – having sensed his presence but never seeing him while he was there – she went to Los Angeles to confront him. Attacked by a Mohra demon, they were thrown together in battle and conversation, and their old feelings began to surface. The demon’s blood mingled with Angel’s, which miraculously restored Angel to humanity, and he was able to share a ‘normal’ day with the love of his life – walking in the sunshine, eating favourite foods, making love to the point of exhaustion.

Buffy: "This is a dream. You're human for, like, a minute and already there's cookie dough fudge mint chip in the fridge."
Angel: "God, I love food."
Buffy: "Food is good."
- "I WILL REMEMBER YOU"

Another of Doyle’s visions interrupted this idyll, and Angel left Buffy asleep while he and his side-kick went to sort it out. Fortunately, Buffy discovered what was going on, and arrived in time to save her lover – robbed of his vampiric super-strength and agility – from perishing at the hands of the demon.

Realising that as a mortal he was no help to Buffy, and could be a liability in her fight against evil, Angel asked the Powers That Be to undo the miracle that had made him human. Unable to do so, but impressed by Angel’s unselfish reasoning, they compromised – they would turn back time, so that Angel could avoid the affects of the demon’s blood, but only he would remember the day he had shared as Buffy’s human lover.
Angry at first, but then heart-broken, Buffy understood why Angel had made such a decision, and their final minute of that wonderful day was spent in each other’s arms, weeping for what might have been.

Back in Sunnydale some time later, Faith awoke from her coma and began to create havoc in Buffy’s life. Using a device left to her by the Mayor, Faith switched bodies with Buffy and sampled her former friend’s life … including her boyfriend, Riley.
Leaving Sunnydale to pick up the pieces, Faith went to LA and was hired by attorneys at Wolfram & Hart to kill Angel. Angel and Wesley realized that Faith needed help, and took her in. When Buffy arrived, seeking vengeance under the guise of protecting Angel from Faith's violent nature, she was shocked and hurt to discover her former love siding with her nemesis. They came to blows when Angel stepped between the two slayers -

- but they ended up fighting together to save Faith from capture. After Faith gave herself up to the police, Buffy told Angel that he should have told her what was happening with Faith, but he explained it wasn't her business, he was trying to save somebody's soul and she was just looking for vengeance. She told him she had a new life and love and someone she can trust. Hurt and upset, Angel told Buffy it's nice she's moved on but he can't.

Angel stands his ground with fighting his own wars and Buffy has changed immensely, no longer the 16 years old in love with the dark, brooding stranger. They have lives now, and its painfully obvious these lives take them in different directions. Wesley walked in a few moments later and Angel confessed he felt bad about the exchange.

Angel followed Buffy back from Los Angeles to apologize, but got into a fight with Riley before he could do so, giving him even more to apologize for. Through several interruptions, he and Buffy eventually came to terms and parted as friends.

Buffy and Angel came to realise that, due to their separate natures and obligations – and the curse on his soul - they were fated never to be together.
When he learned of Joyce’s death, Angel travelled to Sunnydale and spent the night with Buffy at her mother’s grave.

Their love for each other remained unspoken, but Buffy revealed her need for him, even though she accepted their separation.

Angel’s love for Buffy, and hers for him, remained true as they each continued to live out their separate destinies. Fighting her greatest foe, Buffy acknowledged the trials The Powers That Be had set her during her relationship with Angel.

When Buffy died, Angel mourned for her as any human would mourn the loss of their one true love and soul-mate.

When he learned of her resurrection, Angel contacted Buffy immediately and, at his request, she dropped everything and rushed to meet him. It remains evident, as they continue their separate struggles against evil, that their love for each other is intact. Buffy's liaison with Spike was no more than an attempt to feel some emotion; I believe she was subconsciously drawn to him only because of his vampire nature and his link to Angel: it's the closest she can get to him, because of the curse. Spike knew that Buffy would never love him, because she loved Angel.

And Buffy's love for Angel, and her dream that one day they will be together, was confirmed in the season finale, when Angel arrived unexpectedly to help Buffy avert yet another apocalypse.

Even though they acknowledged that they still had work to do, they confirmed that their being together was their shared dream, their eventual goal.

The strength of their love was further confirmed in 'Angel' season five:

It remains to be seen what other torments the two lovers will have to endure before they are re-united. Now that both series have ended, maybe we'll never know for sure. But it has been revealed through the seasons that both Angel and Buffy are warriors for the Powers That Be. My belief is that The Powers That Be brought these two warriors together for a higher reason - to save the world, to help the hopeless, and eventually to re-unite their souls in immortal love.

The end.

 

For now ...

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