This story is dedicated to MB, who got me through writer's block with only friendship and a little bit of nagging. :)

Standard disclaimers, blah blah blah. < g > Inspired by the Toby Keith song

Vampires rarely sleep. Demons don't like it. Specifically, *their* demons don't like it.

Sleep is when dreams come, for humans and vampires.

And where do dreams come from? From the mind?

Or from the soul?

/She left a yellow rose and a long-necked bottle on the table beside my bed
With a short little note that said "I had a good time" - it was written in lipstick red/

It was her. It was her face, her eyes, her smile, her lips. He turned, twisted, threw himself away from her, but she would not leave. Would not leave him.

/She didn't sign her name - I wonder
Is that a little secret that she keeps?/

"Angel."
*angelangelangelangelangel...*

He tried to shout her name, to scream at her to run away, then to beg for
mercy.

"Angel. Pretty name."
*pretty...angel...pretty...angel...pretty...*

/Ooh, she's walking around in my sleep./

"Buffy," he gasped as his whole body shuddered.

/Dream walking, pillow talking, she's calling my name again
Day's breaking - I ain't waking up, I'm sleeping in
I'm on a roll now, I gotta know how this dream ends/

"Buffy."

/She took my new sunglasses and my old jean jacket and she never even bothered to ask/

Buffy, in his jacket, at the Bronze, smiling shyly at him.

He blinked and she was standing, facing him. Coming towards him. Reaching for him.

/You could say I hadn't seen her since late last summer, but every night she comes back
Just like smoke through a keyhole, she slips in so silently
Ooh, she's walking around in my sleep/

"Angel, come with me," he heard, though her face never changed. "Angel, come back to me. Angel..."

In the space of a breath, she was in his arms.

/Dream walking, pillow talking, she's calling my name again
Day's breaking - I ain't waking up, I'm sleeping in
I'm on a roll now, I gotta know how this dream ends/

She was with him, in his arms, burning his love into him in the shape of a cross as she kissed him. He could not let her go.

She was before him, caressing a face no other human could bear, and comforting him.

She was underneath him, around him, inside him, loving him. And he was -

/Ooh, it's a thin line between dreams and memories/

He threw himself violently against the walls of his dream. His sleeping body pitched out of the bed, scraping his head across the floor. But all he saw was the red of his comforter surrounding her, the red of his desire illuminating her, the red of her heart beating as she gave herself to him.

No--

No--

/I'll be losing my mind until she comes back to me/

She was facing him again, now with tears. Crying for him, for them. For
his soul.

She was facing him with a stake. Attacking his demon. Nearly defeating it.

She was facing him with a gun. Firing it. For a moment - just for a moment - he died. And for a moment - just for a moment - he beheld his own blood with a mix of horror and gratitude.

The blood whirled through his mind. Now she was a vampire, teeth bared, trapping him, trying to destroy him--

Now she held fire in her hands, round orbs of it, and flung them toward
him--

She was screaming his name, in grief, in rage, in terror.

"Angel! Angelus! *Angel!*"

/Dream walking, pillow talking, she's calling my name again
Day's breaking - I ain't waking up, I'm sleeping in
I'm on a roll now, I gotta know how this dream ends/

He ripped himself up into reality - a cold gray floor next to a cold white bed in a basement, somewhere that might be termed hell. "No," he said in Angel's voice, "Buffy," and he slid back to unconsciousness.

/I'm on a roll now, I've gotta know how this dream ends
Oh, she's walking around in my sleep/

the end

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