thatotherperv
PG Angel/Dawn
When Angel develops a crush on Dawn, she pretty much laughs in his face. But, you know…things work out. Unapologetic fluff.
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“I’m surprised that you’ve never been told before
that you’re lovely, and you’re perfect
and that somebody wants you.”
—FNT by Semisonic
“Angel. Angel. Earth to Angel. Hello!”
When he finally turned back towards Cordelia, she was watching him with a put-out expression. “Sorry, what did you say?”
Cordy waved the question off with one perfectly manicured hand. “I think the more important question is, when did you start drooling all over yourself when Dawn Summers walked by?”
“Drool…I’m not drooling. I was just….”
Faith reached over and wiped imaginary spittle off of his chin. “There you go, chief. Try that again, now that you look the part.”
She winked when he gave her an exasperated look.
“I’m not drooling, I’m just…is it my imagination, or is Dawn looking more….” Sweet. And put together. And kind of…shiny.
“Like a member of the actual human race? Check. I think she bought a hairbrush.”
Angel rolled his eyes at the inevitable cattiness in Cordy’s tone as he took a big bite out of his sandwich, using his over-full mouth as an excuse not to comment. He’d learned his lesson about talking back—it often wasn’t worth the trouble it bought.
Faith looked over her shoulder with a knowing little smile. “Well I think she’s a hottie. You know what they say about the quiet ones…I don’t blame Angel for wanting to bring out the wild child.”
“What? No, Dawn’s not like that. She’s….”
His eyes slid across the cafeteria to where Dawn was laughing with her friends Willow and Fred. She snorted as she laughed, and then tripped over her own feet when she turned to take her tray to the garbage. Angel wasn’t even aware of the stupid little smile that stole across his face until Cordy hit him. “Shut. Up. You actually have a thing for this girl!”
“What?” A deer in the headlights had nothing on him. “No, it’s just…I’m glad that she’s….”
“I think it’s sweet,” Tara put in, and they shared a smile as everyone else went silent.
“You’re joking, right?”
That…was not what Angel was hoping Dawn would say when he asked her out the movies. It was bad enough that he stuttered his way through the invitation like this was the first date he’d ever had, but flat-out rejection…ouch.
“You know, as flattered as I am that your harem gave you the go-ahead…I’m gonna have to say no.”
Angel blinked at her as she dug through her locker—she didn’t even look at him as she shot him down. “My harem?”
“Yeah, you know, the Angel Fan Club...two X chromosomes required for membership?”
“They’re not…I have male friends! Oz and Dev and…the guys on the team. Gunn”
Dawn snorted. “Yeah, ok. You have buddies. But they’re not the ones who lead you around by the nose like a big dumb bull. What’s that cartoon’s name? Ferdinand.”
Angel covered his nose protectively. “I lead myself around by the nose.”
When Dawn burst into giggles, Angel couldn’t help but smile, even though he suspected she was laughing at him. It was just such a nice sound.
“But the answer is still no.”
Angel’s smile promptly dropped off his face.
“I don’t get why I should give you the time of day when you’ve never returned the favor.”
With that, Dawn slammed her locker and turned to breeze off. She destroyed her big exit a little when she ran smack into the wall behind her, but she didn’t look back at him as she changed course and took off down the hall.
So much for that.
“She said no, Cordy. Trust me on this one. I got the message loud and clear.”
Cordy’s sigh heaved through the phone line, because apparently today was the day that all women thought Angel was as dumb as a lamppost. “She said no, but trust me when I say that in this instance, she didn’t mean it.”
“…She didn’t?”
“Nooo. God, how are you so popular when you’re so socially retarded? Give a guy classic good looks and an air of mystery, he can get away with anything. Good thing you have me to take care of you.”
“Uh….”
“Okay, look, I’ll make it simple for you. You’re the hottest guy at our school. Therefore, she can’t possibly mean it when she says no. Us girls like to pretend that the boys are the shallow ones, but we can be remarkably shallow ourselves.”
Gee, Cordelia, I’d never have guessed…you hide it so well.
“I don’t know, Cordy, she sounded pretty—”
“She’s just feeling all…insecure because you’re so much better than she is.”
Angel pulled a face at the phone. “I really don’t think that’s the case.”
“Angel. Do you really like this girl, or not?”
He really liked her, but she didn’t really like him. What was the point?
But Cordelia being Cordelia, she took his silence as assent. “Okay then. Shut up and listen to what I have to say.”
Angel was beginning to think that Cordelia had no idea what she was talking about.
Step one. Flirt with her friends and get on their good sides. That was a big flop. They all just stared up at him blankly as he tried to make small talk. Willow asked if he needed tutoring, and when he said no, they all just looked confused. Then Dawn came back to the lunch table and glared at him.
Step two. Show an interest in ‘her geeky after-school activities.’ The problem was, band was really not a spectator sport. You could only enter the room from the front, and everyone turned and stared at him. Then the director asked if he was lost.
He mumbled ‘yes’ and slunk out of the room to subdued snickering.
Step three. Show off your best assets. Which according to Cordelia meant he should keep his mouth shut and take off his shirt. Seeing as the school had a strict…shirt-wearing policy, they decided the best way to execute this plan was for him to show up at the pool during swim team practice.
Dawn rolled her eyes at his muscles.
Step four. Give her something she’d like for no apparent reason. He gave her chocolate. She declared that she was hypoglycemic, and that he was trying to kill her.
“God, what, are you stalking me or something? What do you want.”
Angel looked towards the cars whizzing by them on the busy freeway. Some of them passed close enough to rock the frame of Dawn’s car in a way that was nerve-wracking even to him. They were lucky that the flat tire was on her passenger’s side. He looked back to her in disbelief.
“I recognized your car. I thought it looked like you could use some help.”
“Well…I don’t. I’m not a helpless little girl, I know how to change a tire.” Dawn squatted down by the flat, staring at the jack in consternation. When he didn’t move, she looked back up at him crankily. “You can go now.”
Fed up from the long, embarrassing week, Angel crossed his arms and leaned against the concrete barrier. “I think I’ll stick around. This should be entertaining.”
He smiled when she stuck her tongue out at him, but she had already turned back to the car with determination. She was one of the most infuriatingly stubborn people he’d ever met. When she struggled with jacking the car up, he took pity on her and gave her pointers that were promptly ignored.
Then came the lug nuts. She couldn’t get them off. She spent (and he timed it) nine minutes on the very first one, and when it finally came loose, she fell flat on her ass from the sudden change in force.
Dawn glared up at him as he tried not to laugh. “I can do this. You can go.”
Her problem was she had a one-armed lug wrench that gave her no leverage. And, you know…it really didn’t help that she was trying to loosen them after she’d jacked the car up.
“Look, you could do it. But it’s going to be dark by the time you’re done, at this rate. And I’m not leaving you out here. C’mon, let me do it so we can both get out of here.” When she continued to frown up at him, he added, “The sooner you let me take care of it, the sooner you won’t have to look at me anymore.”
She rolled her eyes but moved out of the way. “Well I’m sold. Have at it.”
He was pretty sure she was teasing.
Dawn declared it cheating when he went and got his own four-way lug wrench out of his trunk. Angel lowered the car, loosened the lug nuts, jacked it up and finished removing the tire, replaced it with the flat, lowered it and tightened up the bolts until he was sure the tire wouldn’t go flying off when she merged back into traffic.
The entire process took him 15 minutes.
For once, she looked sheepish. “Well. Okay, yeah, I couldn’t have done that. So…thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Angel wiped his hands and gathered his things. He hesitated. “Look, I’ll leave you alone. I get it, you don’t want me. I’ve just been thinking….”
Dawn’s face softened. “You’ve been thinking what?”
“Just.” He was embarrassed now. “About you.”
She didn’t say anything. God, kill him now. He turned to make a break for his car.
“Ask me again.”
Angel stopped and turned back. “What?”
Dawn shrugged. “Ask me again.”
…Oh. “Uh. Wanna go to the movies with me…sometime?”
“Only if I get to pick the film.”
Angel grinned. “Yeah, ok. I think I can live with that.” He took a few steps backwards towards his car and stumbled slightly over a road reflector. “Be careful pulling back onto the road, ok?”
“Be careful walking back to your car,” she retorted. But for once, she was smiling.
She picked an Italian film with subtitles, which was not exactly what he had in mind, but that was ok. She looked pretty. Really pretty, and she smelled nice. Angel was so nervous that when he came to her door to pick her up, he actually stuttered, and her sister made fun of him. Just a little bit.
When he bought popcorn instead of candy (‘so you won’t go into a coma or anything’), she laughed even though he knew the joke was a little lame.
“God, I’m sorry, I was horrible. I practically threw that candy at you. I was so mean.”
“Little bit.”
Instead of cooing in sympathy, she grinned and shoved at his arm. Called him a baby. He grinned right back, even though he felt a little foolish.
The movie was good. You know, not awkward. Angel wasn’t sure things could be awkward in a movie, since you weren’t really expected to talk, or even look at each other necessarily. But it was good that he didn’t somehow find a way to be awkward despite all that, because…his track record with this girl wasn’t so good.
After the movie…it was awkward. Awkward and silent.
She wasn’t hungry for dinner. She wasn’t in the mood for ice cream. She didn’t drink coffee.
Taking her somewhere to fool around…he didn’t dare ask.
Angel was pretty sure she was going to ask him to take her home, but then she surprised him. “Let’s go to the playground.”
“The…playground? The playground?”
Dawn was laughing at him on the inside. “Yeah, the infamous playground. Don’t be weird, let’s just go.”
They were the only ones there when they pulled into the parking lot. It was quiet and there were no streetlights nearby, so you could see the stars a little more clearly. The cicadas were droning out a hypnotizing rhythm.
Angel followed Dawn over to the little wooden suspension bridge of the play fort, and swung up next to her as she settled herself.
The bridge swayed under the weight of their bodies. They were silent, but it wasn’t really awkward anymore. It was kind of nice, actually.
“You remember that time we dared Wes to twist himself up in the swings until we said so, and then he spun so fast that he almost fell off until he vomited in the grass?”
Angel remembered, and bit back a grin. “We? That was all you. I had nothing to do with that.”
Dawn shoved at his shoulder until he couldn’t conceal his smile. “That’s what you told the teacher too. And of course she believed you, because you used the big round puppy eyes. I had to stay after school for a week!”
“You’re not the one who had to help Wes to the nurse’s office when he was covered in his own spew. Believe me, you got the better end of that deal.”
“No way! Mr. Greene was in charge of detention that week! He looked like a constipated turtle.”
“Smelled like one, too.”
It was so childish that he knew it would do the trick—once she started laughing, she couldn’t stop…and once she started snorting, he couldn’t stop laughing either.
Angel was shocked when Dawn scooted closer and insinuated herself under his arm, hugging her arms around his middle.
“Cold,” she said by way of explanation. It was May…and the night air was 80 degrees. But hell if he was going to push her away. He put his arm around her back under the auspice of keeping her warm, and hugged her closer.
There was a warm buzz in his stomach.
“I missed you,” she mumbled accusingly into his shirt.
He didn’t know what to say. She poked him in the side. “Well?”
“I was stupid.”
“Of course you were stupid. You’re a boy. But you were my best friend, and you were stupid for years.”
They were quiet for a long time. He knew he’d hurt her, and he wouldn’t blame her if she never forgave him, really. “…Does it make any difference that I’m not stupid anymore?”
Dawn shrugged, but she hadn’t pulled away. He sniffed her hair…that’s what smelled so good.
He inhaled deeply and pulled her closer. “I missed you too.”
Dawn leaned up and brushed a kiss over his cheek before settling back against his shoulder. It was perfect.
~end~
“I’m surprised that you’ve never been told before
that you’re lovely, and you’re perfect
and that somebody wants you.
I’m surprised that you’ve never been told before
that you’re priceless, and you’re precious,
even when you are not new.”
— FNT by Semisonic
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