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Countdown
By Rach
Setting: New Year in LA, before Hero
Pairing: Cordelia/Doyle
Rating: PG
Challenge: a fluffy Doyle/Cordelia (pre-Hero, of course) set at New Year's – not established relationship.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and probably never will!
Note: Hope you like it, m’love! Sorry it’s so late!
“Come on, Angel! There’s only fifteen minutes until the New Year!”
“Sorry, Cordelia. I’m just too tired.”
Cordelia eyed him. “You don’t sleep.” She answered dryly.
He sighed impatiently. “I don’t do jolly and festivities. I do brooding and hiding.”
“Doyle!” Cordelia whined. “Help me out here!”
“Sorry, Princess. If he wants to go to be a party pooper, there’s just nothing we can do to stop the man.”
“Thanks, Doyle.” Angel nodded and turned from the room, and slight smirk at having been able to escape Cordelia’s clutches relatively easily.
Cordelia turned back to Doyle. “Wow, thanks for the help, Doyle. I thought we agreed we were going to bring Angel out of his shell a little more this year? Make him more of a people person! What better way to start?”
“It’s not the new year just yet, Princess.” Doyle grinned. “Figure we should give him one last moment of broodiness before we go all tough-love on his ass.”
Cordelia laughed. “Okay. He can have it this once. After all, it’s not like he hasn’t lived through the turn of a century before, right?”
“Right.”
“As long as you stop saying ass. It’s just not you.”
Doyle pouted playfully. “It’s not? I thought it sounded cute.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t.” She flopped down on the couch next to Doyle with a sigh.
“My first new year in LA, and I’m sitting in an office with a short Irishman. I was supposed to be rich and famous already.”
“Okay, firstly, height? Isn’t the be all and end all, alright?! So will you stop bringing that up?”
Cordelia laughed. “And secondly?”
“Secondly, surely, there are worse places you could be. You could be in your old apartment. You could be fighting demons. You could be dead.”
“You’re right! There are worse places I could be. I could be in your apartment!”
“Exactly! You could be in –“ Doyle shot Cordelia a look as what she’d said sank in. She laughed again.
“Oh, hey, look. Almost midnight. As she flicked on the TV, she watched an announcer begin the countdown.
Grinning, she and Doyle stood up, joining in with the count.
“4…3…2…1…Happy New Year!” they yelled, in unison. As Cordelia flung her arms around Doyle for a hug, she caught him off guard and he wrapped his own arms around her waist. As she pulled away, she looked at his face, hesitating for a few seconds before leaning forward and kissing him. Her eyes closed, she pulled away with a smile.
“Maybe height isn’t so important,” she whispered, and she grinned again, a twinkle in her eye.
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