hear no evil...(Angel)

[elexa]

"Oh my god, I forgot my science homework!"

"stupid kids. I wish we could get rid of them."

"What is she wearing? Can you say fashion crisis?"

Talk, talk talk. Is that all this dude ever does?"

Buffy's eyes shifted nervously. She was hearing so much! But when she looked around, not alot of people were talking. How could this be happening? Was she losing her mind? Buffy strolled into the cafeteria and was suddenly attacked by thousands of voices. It wasn't what anyone was saying...it was what they were thinking. Buffy stood, frozen in the room. She had come here for a little bit of breakfast....now, she was thinking it was a bad idea.

Buffy felt like she was going to faint. She couldn't just stay in here. She had to get out. Turning, she ran out and bumped right into a teacher. "I'm sorry!" she said instantly, but her eyes widened when she heard what he was thinking. stupid trouble maker. Why'd Snyder ever let her back in? Buffy folded her arms. Why was this happening to her? She hated it, and she didn't understand it. But she knew who would.

Buffy ran down the halls towards the library. Her eyes closed, trying to block out what everyone was thinking.It was so loud, she couldn't even hear herself think. Buffy stopped at the double doors, trying to calm down. After all, she could just be overreacting. She took a deep breathe, but then overheard a guy thinking about how he'd love to slam her into a locker and sleep with her right there in the halls, and she entered the library.

"Giles." she announced her presence. "Something's wrong with me and you need to fix it....or something" she flopped down at a table and rested her head against her hand, leaning onto the table. She didn't even notice that Giles wasn't alone. No, that wa Buffy for ya. When she was focused on a problem she had, that was all she paid attention to. It made her similar to Cordelia at times.

[Andre Simpson]

Angel didn't like how Giles kept staring at him. All that he wanted to do was find a book, open it up and figure out what had happened to him. It was precisely what they started to do, but Giles kept looking at him, muttering things and reminding him that it was a remarkable feat. Yeah, Angel understood that. It was remarkable—but also impossible. Vampires didn't become human. There wasn't a cure for vampirism! And if there was, no vampire would want it... Well, other than one that was plagued with a soul. The rest were more than content with their nature and their immortality. To take that away would cause more damage than it solved. They were in Giles' office, a sketch of the demon that Angel had fought just before dawn laying on a table amongst the books. He spent the morning sketching the demon he fought, because it was the only strange thing that had happened. He'd been cut in the fight, and he'd felt strange just by touching the green blood of the demon. Then, when it was all said and done, he was breathing... And heavily. Then there was the sun (which he'd spent about fifteen minutes just standing beneath and staring)... And food. God, he was starving, just standing there.When he heard Buffy come into the library, his eyes widened. "Don't tell her," he whispered harshly. He couldn't let her know just yet, not until he knew what was going on. Giles respected his wish and walked out of the office and into the main library, his eyes skimming over to the slayer, suddenly concerned. "What is it?" He asked, honestly worried. There was already one strange happening in the other room concerning the vampire with a soul, well former vampire now. He didn't say anything about him, of course, because Angel was intent on not saying anything. Instead, he kept digging through the books.

It has to be in here... Somewhere. You just don't wake up one morning and think you know, I'm going to quit the blood and have a salad... Do I like salad? Angel thought, his thoughts trailing off for a moment. No, he didn't know if he liked it, but it didn't sound all that good. Food was different now and it had been a long time since he had anything and could actually taste it correctly. He couldn't even remember the last thing he had eaten before he died... Drank, yes. He drank ale. Lots and lots of ale before following Darla into that alley. But, before that, he couldn't remember. He had liked chocolate, but he wondered if even that tasted the same... He shook his head. He needed to find the demon and figure out what had happened. He flipped through the pages when he finally saw its ugly face. He was busy reading, quietly eavesdropping on Giles' and Buffy's conversation. Don't let her know I'm here... Don't. He thought to himself, hoping that Giles could keep him a secret. It was a little hard, given that he wasn't even in a different room. Just back in the office, hoping she had no reason to go back there and catch sight of him.

[elexa]

Buffy stood up as soon as Giles walked in from his office. "I-I don't know. I can hear stuff. And I don't think it's stuff I'm supposed to hear. Giles, I can hear what people-" she stopped, though, when she heard Angel's thoughts. "Angel's here?" She looked around, not explaining how she knew. Her attention was on her vampiric boyfriend who should really be in bed and hiding from the sun right about now.

His second thought made her stop looking around for him and focus on Giles. "Is he in your office?" She walked over, and folded her arms when she saw him. "Angel? What's going on? Why-why are you here? The sun is up, you can't be here. How did you even get here without burning up?" Her heart pounded. He was supposed to be at home, asleep, not playing Chicken with the sun.

[Andre Simpson]

"What people—what?" Giles began, but she had already moved onto Angel. He was going to lie for him, unsure of how she even manage to know that, but she already made it to the office and instead of doing anything about it, Giles stayed back. There was no way that he was going to get involved with that. Angel would just have to cover for himself. He still didn't have the utmost sympathy for the brunette. Although, he would love to hear what he was going to say to her. Honestly, he didn't know how he'd lie about it or why he didn't just come out with it. Buffy could take it, even if it wasn't permanent and they had no way of knowing whether it was until they researched it more. Angel heard the two talking and he frowned. No one said he was there! He had started to look around, as if for a place to hide when Buffy was right at the door. His eyes landed immediately on her and he felt his heartbeat quicken.

His heartbeat! It felt so foreign to him to feel that thudding in his chest. And to feel... Warm. She wasn't happy, but he couldn't blame her. If he really had been there during the day then he would have taken quite a risk. But, Angel wasn't worried. He knew how to travel during the day, but he blanked for a moment. "I—tunnels. I used the sewers, then my coat. It was urgent, I needed to talk to Giles." He explained, and that would have been a way he could do it. It was risky, but he was capable of pulling his coat over his head and sizzling his way into a building. Of course, he had taken the longest route there, in full view of the sun, because he couldn't get enough of it. Don't question more, don't... he thought to himself, slowly shutting the book he was reading and keeping the sketch inside of it to keep his place. "Don't worry, I know how to get around, Buffy." He assured her gently.

[elexa]

Buffy took a step back when she heard his thought. "I-I can't do this." she said, looking down. "something's going on and you don't want me to know about it. That-that scares me, Angel." She took another step back, trying to make sense of what she was hearing. She looked at Giles. and back at Angel, then to Giles again. God, what was she supposed to do? Just announce it? Yes...that was exactly what she should do. After all, she wasn't the one hiding something.

"Thoughts, Giles. I can hear what people think. Just like you just said don't question any more." She said, directing it to her boyfriend. She looked back at her watcher. "And it sucks. Ok, I have to hear things I don't wanna hear. There's a teacher here who wishes I hadn't been let back in after I was expelled. Wanna guess how? Cause he didn't tell me." She stepped closer to Giles, now ignoring Angel altogether. If he wanted her to butt out of his business, then she would do exactly that. "Giles, what's wrong with me?"

[Andre Simpson]

"Buffy," Angel wanted to reach out to her; he never meant to make her feel that way. But, he couldn't give away what happened right away. What if this wasn't real? They might get their hopes up for nothing! She was addressing Giles though, not him now, and Angel bowed his head, ashamed but at the same time not sure what he should do. He couldn't just tell her outright and bluntly. It was in her confession to Giles that his big brown eyes widened. Oh no. How was he supposed to hide if she could hear his thoughts. His mind started to race even more, despite his constant string of thoughts to stop thinking. It was Giles who walked closer, eyeing Buffy.

"Thoughts?" He asked, surprised. Immediately, he was trying to assess different reasons that might develop. He imagined that it wasn't such a nice skill to have. Hearing someone's thoughts was plenty overrated. There were certain things that a person wouldn't want to hear, much less if they were thrown them constantly. "That's strange indeed... Did you—" He began, and was going to say more when Angel suddenly moved past both of them, still clutching a book. "Look, I should go. Buffy's right, the sun's dangerous." He was slightly panicky, his heart beating even faster. As he walked out of the office, however, he was stopped at the glimpse of himself in one of the library mirrors. Of all the things he did that morning, looking at his face wasn't one of them. After all, Angel didn't have any mirrors in his home. Of course, he knew what he looked like. He saw photographs, and the vampire remembered how his face had looked when he saw mirrors before. It was the exact same as it had been for over two-hundred years. His hair was shorter, much shorter, but it was him. He forgot what he was doing, and just stared, his hand lifting to touch his forehead and then the spiky brown hair atop his head. It's the same...

[elexa]

Buffy side-glanced when she heard Angel's reaction. "Real nice," she said sarcastically when he was telling himself to stop thinking. She looked back at Giles, and nodded. "Yeah, thoughts. Like Dracula over there thinking to stop thinking." Oh, this was getting worse and worse. She wanted to yell at Angel for his thoughts, but she couldn't. She was too concerned.

Buffy heard his thought about his hair and looked over, her eyes widening when she saw his reflection. She stepped in front of the mirror and faced him. "Is it that bad to let me in on whatever's going on? Don't you trust me? And don't lie, Angel, I can hear your thoughts." However, on second thought, she wasn't sure she could handle it. "You know what? Forget it, Just go" her eyes brimmed with tears and she looked down, fighting them off.

[Andre Simpson]

"Hey," Angel called back over his shoulder when he heard the comment. Dracula? Oh, that was creative. Because, he felt he had to, he was going to leave, read and figure it out before he ever told her. He didn't want to do anything rash and he wanted to just know where he stood before he did. He knew she might not understand, but he was doing it for them, for her... Giles was readying himself to say something all the while trying to ignore the little spat going on between the two. They both had two very big problems on their hands and he was trying to assess both of them at once. Then, again, before he could say anything, Buffy was gone and by Angel.

Why do I even bother? He thought, typical Giles not getting a word in edge wise. He wasn't upset, by any means. But, he did bow out to wait his turn to talk. Right now, what happened between the two of them seemed a little more urgent. Instead, he walked to his desk and the books there, there was probably nothing there that could help them with Buffy's problem. He would have to look through his other material.

When his face was replaced with Buffy standing in front of him, his eyes went down and stared at her. What was he supposed to do? He did trust her! It wasn't that. What am I supposed to do? He thought, feeling helpless to the answer. He could tell her, and that seemed like his only choice. But instead of saying anything out loud, he suddenly reached for her hand when she looked away and grabbed it. Pulling it to him, he placed her palm right on his chest, over his beating heart (that had sped up just at the contact). "That, Buffy, that's what's going on." He said, looking a mixture of shocked himself, and worried. He didn't want to tell her so fast, but she gave him no choice.

[elexa]

Buffy heard Giles and felt guilty, but before she could apologize to him, Angel's thought appeared and she didn't even answer it. He knew what to do. When he took her hand, she looked up at him, and jumped when she felt his heart beat. "You...you're alive?" she was stunned, but slowly smiled. "You're alive!" she repeated excitedly. Instantly, she pulled him closer and kissed him. Everything she had worried about was gone. Angelus was gone. Buffy couldn't be happier. "I'm sorry," she said instantly. "I'm sorry I got so upset. But-you're alive! How did this-?" she asked, but stopped when she realized that might have been why he was here.

Slowly, she pulled away from Angel and returned to where Giles was. She couldn't help but grin. Her boyfriend was alive! "Any suggestions on what happened to us?" Something huge had happened. While she waited, she examined the hand that had been itching the day before. It was still a little bit itchy, but not as badly as it had before. Idly, Buffy scratched her hand as her gaze went back to her watcher.

[Andre Simpson]

To be honest, Angel was trying not to be too excited over it. He had no way of knowing how long it was going to last. For all he knew it was so temporary that by the time he knew what did it, it would be over. But when she kissed him, he got caught up in the excitement for a moment. He kissed her back, an almost goofy grin starting to spread across his face. It was such a rare smile, one that very few people had even witnessed in that last 240 years. More in the last one hundred, since while evil, Angelus did smile a lot more than Angel. But, he couldn't help it, he grinned, "I'm alive." He said it out loud. It was something so surreal, like a dream. More than a dream. He knew he had to get back on track though, back to the research and not that need to grab Buffy and pull her closer than he ever did before. Lately, it was hard to get him to stop frowning let alone wearing a smile of that brightness. It faded like it always did, but there was still some sort of excitement taking him away.

Giles shook his head, "I—I'm not sure, this is outstanding." he commented, in awe, but not sure of what might be causing it. And he had a nagging suspicion that it was something completely different for the two of them. Angel seemed certain that it had to do with the demon he fought the night before, and Buffy... He wasn't sure. Angel looked down at Buffy's scratching and suddenly spoke aloud.

"The demon. The demon part." He said out loud, and was only looking at Buffy for another second before his eyes were distracted by the mirror again. The novelty hadn't worn off yet and he didn't know how long it was going to take for it too. He wasn't able to see himself before that, so naturally he wanted to look. It was a lot worse when he was outside. He felt like just standing there and staring into the sky. It had been a very long time since he was able to enjoy the sun. That's so weird... he thought, eyes on himself once more.

Why didn't I think of that? Giles thought immediately, noticing Angel going off into his own little world before he looked at Buffy. "Telepathic. They were telepathic." He said, following up with what Angel said. It had to be the best bet. After all, the development came soon after and they had been waiting for something to occur.

[elexa]

Buffy stopped scratching when Angel mentioned the demon. She giggled at his following thought before turning her attention back to Giles. "Does this mean I don't have to get tailor made clothes to make room for a tail?"she asked, and it was definitely a relief. Still, it was annoying. Buffy leaned against the door and folded her arms.

"So, how long does this demon stuff last? When do I go back to being normal?" Hopefully, it would be soon. She was getting pretty overwhelmed out in the halls. She already hated going to class as it was. This was giving her more excuses to skip. She gazed over at Angel for a moment. At least now she could find out the truth about Faith. Willow had told her to just ask, but she liked the idea of bringing her up and letting his mind tell her.

[Davey Callaghan]

"It looks like you're free of the tail," Giles joked with a smile. Though, now it was a matter of fixing her. He didn't think that she would want to keep hearing the thoughts of others. Although, it was an outstanding ability. She could judge her opponents faster in a fight. Although, not vampires, since their thoughts were known to reflect nothing. Still, he didn't have all of the answers to it. "I need to do some more research, but I'm sure it can be rectified," he assured her with a nod of his head. It was Angel that had fallen out of the conversation almost completely, too distracted with looking at himself in the mirror to be bothered with what they were saying. He furrowed his brow slightly, as if glaring at his reflection while he touched his forehead. He already knew his face wouldn't go into vamp face, but he still kept making sure, as if he would suddenly have a vampire face to contend with. But nothing. Nothing happened, except for making a strange face at his own reflection.

Realizing what he was doing, Angel stopped, embarrassed and dropped his hand and looked at Buffy and Giles instead. He worried about Buffy, of course, but his mind was pretty distracted with what was happening to him. But, naturally so. Vampires didn't just become human! God, I'm starving... He noticed it again, that pain in the pit of his stomach, craving something that wasn't blood. In fact, the idea of blood didn't sound good at all. He'd already realized his odd cringey reaction to the red stuff in his fridge. His human senses weren't drawn to it. Since the two of them probably had a little more information on the demon, he kept quiet and waited for them to finish.

[elexa]

Buffy nodded and then heard Angel and smiled. There was her ticket to ditching! Hopefully, Giles wouldn't mind...much. "Ok, well, you don't need me here, right? I mean, I can come by later, see if you found anything, but gosh, Angel...Angel's a human and I bet he is starving. So I'm gonna go take him to get something to eat, have fun in your books." She said quickly, hoping her watcher wouldn't realize that she didn't plan to attend class today. She had a human boyfriend, and while she loved the vampire, it was going to be so much better now that he could roam around under the sun.

Buffy backed up and took his arm. "Come on. You won't get full by staring at yourself," she teased him. She pulled on him gently, keeping her eyes on Giles. If it had been that geek of a new watcher, Wesley, she wouldn't have cared what he said. She would have just walked on out. But she was close to Giles. She cared about him, and knew he cared about her. After all, that freak from the counsel said it himself.

[Davey Callaghan]

It was as if Buffy read his thoughts completely, then on second thought, she probably had read his thoughts. Giles looked at the pair and he shook his head, more at himself to keep from telling her that she should probably stay and help or attend class and he'd handle it. He understood her excitement though, even if he had his own wariness towards it. If it wasn't permanent she would be in for a big surprise. But instead of being the rain cloud over her head, the Watcher let it go. "Go ahead, stop in later, I should have something by then," he began, and Angel suddenly held up the book he had taken out of the office.

"I'll bring this back," he assured him, and Giles trusted him enough to let him leave with it. He already started to walk with Buffy, and since Giles gave her leave to go, he wasn't going to stop her. Even though he knew she had class. Angel wanted to go outside again, as silly as it might sound to anyone else. But after two-hundred and forty years without the sun, he had every right to want to rush out into it again. "Buffy," he began, his voice hitting an almost serious note as he started to head towards the door. "I'm sorry I wasn't telling you, I just—I don't even know what this means yet."

[elexa]

Buffy nodded "yeah, no, it's no problem. Gee, I wish I could have this demon thing when we were dealing with Faith," she said, saying her name to try to trigger thoughts that could answer he questions. She walked as fast as she could, avoiding teachers as she left the school. She was sure she'd hear about it from Willow later, but feeding her non-vampire boyfriend was more important. She looked at him, as if to tune in to his thoughts after having mentioned Faith. Hopefully, he wouldn't notice what she was doing.

It wasn't that she didn't love Angel, or trust him. She did. But after seeing them that night, it had casted doubts in her mind about Faith. Faith was a girl who took what she wanted. What had she said? See, want, take? And while Angel was with her, and she knew he loved her, she also knew he was a male. After all, didn't Xander love Cordelia?