After his final swing had severed the demon’s head with a satisfyingly wet KER-SPLUNK, Angel dropped his broadsword without another thought and ran over to where Doyle lay, half camouflaged by broken building rubble and half of a dead blue and white demon. The green-eyed man swayed as Angel hauled him to his feet, and would have fallen for certain if the vampire hadn’t held him up bodily for the several minutes it took for Doyle to re-establish his land legs. Finally, he was able to disentangle the older man‘s arms from around his chest without landing in a puddle at Angel’s feet.
“Angel, I’m all right. Really. I’m not just saying it this time. Look...” And with that, Doyle proceeded to walk in a somewhat round - though rather unsteady - circle.
Some of the tension went out of Angel’s expression as he surreptitiously used his heightened sense of smell to ascertain that Doyle’s cuts were really only shallow nicks and scrapes, and he reluctantly admitted to himself the young man really didn’t appear to be hurt anywhere else. Still, he couldn’t just let Doyle go home without asking one more time. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
The half demon gave him a tired smile. “Yeah, for the fourth or fifth time. You know Angel, you’d better watch yourself there. Just because Cordy thinks you should be more sensitive doesn’t mean you have to take it quite this far.”
Angel frowned. “You think I’m overcompensating?”
“Just a bit,” Doyle answered, holding his hands about two feet apart.
“Sor-”
“And don’t even think about saying you’re sorry.”
“Oh. Right. Okay. Umm...how about a ride home, then?”
Doyle considered for a second, and then grudgingly shook his head. “Actually, we’re pretty close to my apartment now, and I don’t mind the walk. Plus, I gotta run a few errands on the way.”
“Errands?” Angel repeated uncomprehendingly.
“Yeah, you know, food shopping, ATM, a few other things. Even us heroes need to do ordinary, mundane stuff every once in a while. Well,” he added, looking at Angel, “most of us do, anyway.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I could drive you to the grocery store and the ATM.” Angel was suddenly anxious to hold onto his friend for as long as possible in the late evening. Although it was usually his only refuge from the world, lately his apartment had seemed to brunette vampire to be growing smaller and more stifling with each passing hour. And besides his not-quite-acknowledged dread of returning home, Angel found himself wanting to accompany Doyle shopping for another reason: these errands, no matter how dull and routine Doyle made them out to be, were nothing of the sort for the brown-eyed man. They were a piece of a humanity which he was completely outside of. Grocery shopping, the need for solid foods...these things represented life and sunlight to someone who was trapped in the shadows of death.
Angel’s brief reverie was shattered by Doyle’s response. “I suppose if you really want to, though I have to tell you that I really don’t think it’s going to be very exciting or anything. I mean, especially considering the excitement we’ve already met up with tonight,” he said, nudging the slain demon’s body with the toe of his shoe.
Angel lips curled upwards in what was indeed a rare phenomenon: a large, white, and absolutely real smile. “Actually, I’m kind of hoping it isn’t. I think I‘ve had as much demon guts as I can stand for the next twenty-four hours or so.”
Doyle started to nod in agreement, but then went still when he remembered what day of the week it was. “Uh oh. You do know that it’s Wednesday night, don’t you? Tonight’s the night that the local Safeway changes all their sales, so we might just see more action then you’d be expecting at the supermarket. All those last minute shoppers fighting over the last $0.99 can of Spam and 5 yogurts for $1.00.”
Angel grimaced. He knew there had been a reason why he never bothered buying human food. He picked up his sword as they walked to where his car was parked. “At least we‘ll be armed for anything,” he muttered, tucking it under his coat.
As soon as they had walked in through the sensor-equipped door, the scent of overripe fruit and ammonia hit them in a waft of refrigerated air. Angel stood and surveyed the crowded store while Doyle walked over to get a cart He, too, took a quick look at the milling shoppers and hesitated, then picked up a small red basket instead. “I think I’ll just grab what I absolutely need tonight for dinner and just come back tomorrow when it’s a bit quieter.” Angel shot him a relieved smile, then sighed as they entered the drifting throng.
* * * * * *
As they stood at the checkout counter about an half hour later (20 minutes of which had been spent standing in line), Doyle turned tiredly to the brunette vampire. “Ya know the rest of those errands I was gonna run tonight? I think maybe I’ll do them tomorrow. I mean,” he added with an amused glint in his eyes, “I’ve been putting them off for this long anyway that another day really can’t hurt much.”
Angel schooled his features carefully so that none of his disappointment would show. As much fun as the food shopping hadn’t been, he had enjoyed being close to Doyle and taking part in the routine task. “I’ll just drop you off at home then, if you want.”
“Oh, sure. As much as I was all for walking earlier, I think that last demon took more outta me than I thought. Even the idea of walking out to the car seems too far away right now.”
Angel looked at him. “Well, if you want, I can carry you,” he said, in what was supposed to be a joke. Too late, he remembered why he didn’t often joke. Even when he was alive he had never been any good at it.
The younger man’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Angel’s comment had been just about the last thing he had ever expected to hear coming out of the vampire’s mouth, especially directed at Doyle himself.
Before the half demon could bother his stunned brain for a response, Angel ducked his head. “I was just kidding,” he said in a voice that was almost a whisper. If he could have, Doyle would have sworn he would have been seeing Angel blush right then. Doyle could feel his own cheeks growing warm and dropped his eyes as well. Thankfully, the checker finished right then and gave Doyle the excuse of having to fiddle with his wallet to distract him. By the time he had gotten his change, Angel had gathered up the bags and stood waiting at the door for him.
The walk to the car seemed tense, but that could easily have been Angel’s imagination, due mainly to the fact that he hadn’t been able to look directly at Doyle since his idiotic blunder. But as he started the car he glanced over at the passenger seat and saw that Doyle was studiously avoiding his eyes as well. Angel’s expression quickly shifted from one of embarrassment to one that Doyle, if he had seen it, would have recognized as Angel headed into deep brood mode.
The short car ride was silent, both men lost inside their own thoughts. When they finally pulled up in front of Doyle’s building, he hopped out and picked up the bags from the backseat, but stopped when he noticed the look in Angel’s eyes.
“Hold on a minute. Don’t tell me you’re about to retract into yourself just because of a little joke. I mean it wasn’t that bad. Maybe it we worked on your delivery a little bit...”
“Doyle...”
“Okay, you’re right, we’d have to work on your delivery a lot. It might take awhile. But when you’re immortal, time probably isn’t really such an issue. We could -”
“Doyle.” He broke out of his babbling to realize that Angel was standing right beside him on the sidewalk.
“Doyle, I’m sorry that I made you feel uncomfortable.”
“Nah. It was just a joke. I mean, it’s not like you kissed me or anything.” He blinked as he realized what words had just come out of his mouth. And at the image of Angel kissing him that accompanied them. And the instant arousal that the image brought on. Arousal which he was certain Angel could smell. [Oh. My. God.]
Angel just stood there regarding him with an unreadable expression, his body not more than an arms length from the green eyed man.
Doyle opened his mouth to say something - anything - that would relieve this incredibly awkward silence. However, just before something nearing intelligent made it from his brain to his tongue, he was stunned back into silence when he felt Angel’s fingers brush against his cheek. Doyle was too overwhelmed with equal parts surprise and desire to move. Angel apparently decided to take this lack of rejection as a positive sign and slid the fingers down, rubbing his thumb back and forth over Doyle’s silky bottom lip until Doyle’s mouth parted a fraction.
With a tiny smile, Angel leaned in and replaced his finger with his lips in an entirely chaste, too short kiss. When he pulled back, it was to see Doyle gaping wide-eyed at him. He leaned down to see what a less-than-chaste kiss might do to Doyle’s demeanor -
- and was rudely jerked back to reality as the car horn behind him told him that the light was no longer red. They were about a block away from the half demon’s apartment. He looked over at Doyle, who was still avoiding his eye. [Making that comment was bad enough. Now he’s probably smelling my arousal over that stupid fantasy. Great thinking, Angel. Just scare off one of the closest friends you’ve ever had. One of the only friends you’ve ever had.] Angel sighed and pulled up in front of the building.
Doyle hopped out of the car and gathered up his bags from the backseat. “Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” And then the younger man was inside.
Angel sighed again, looking after him. Tomorrow would probably not be that awkward, once Cordelia got in. That would be a relief. However, there were quite a few hours between now and tomorrow, and Angel had a sinking suspicion that almost all of them would be spent alternately brooding over and fantasizing about one green eyed half demon.