"Buffy." Angel breathed, lifting her in his arms. He smelled her hair,smiling. She buried her head into his chest, chuckling softly. She then backed away, still clasping arms with the vampire.

"It's been so long..." She began, looking into his eyes.

"Yeah." He said "It has." He looked back into her own eyes, the past flooding back to him all at once. Him giving her the cross when she was first here, the night they had made love..... He wanted to kiss her. But he then reminded himself. That was of the past. He looked past her at the bald man behind her with the guitar. "Hello,Oz." He said, recognizing the smell.

"Hey." he said, waving. He walked over to the door, looking out.

"No one came with you, Angel?" he asked. Angel shook his head.

"Are you two the only ones to arrive?" Angel asked, looking between Oz and Buffy. Buffy shook her head yes."We're the only ones." She said, nodding "But I thought I caught wind of Nastiassia being in town." The door was flung open and Xander walked in, Nastiassia close behind.

"Hey, Owen, get me a drink!" Xander cried, sitting down at the bar "I don't think I could stand watching Angel and Buffy fall all over each other while sober." He looked over and noticed that he was sitting next to the slayer and the vampire. He smiled, his face turning red. "Oh,uh,hey guys." Buffy grinned and wrapped herself around him, holding him close.

"I missed you, Xander." She said.

"That's nice. I miss me,too." he said. He held her tightly for a moment, and then let he go. He looked past her "Hey, Deadboy." Angel frowned and then shook Xanders' hand.

"Asshole." The two looked at each other a moment and then laughed. Oz walked over.

"Mr.Clean, Mr.Clean!" Xander sung, embracing his old friend. "What's up with the bald head?"

"Tibetan monk." Oz said, smiling "Long story." Xander nodded. Nastassia stepped over and hugged Buffy, smiled over at Oz and gave Angel a small hug."Good to see all of you." She said. She looked over at Owen. He smiled.

"Drinks are on me." He said, already pouring the beer into mugs. Xander and Oz walked over to grab a table. Angel, Nastassia and Buffy all grabbed the mugs and walked over to the table they selected.

"No word from Willow?" Buffy asked "Or Giles?"

"Giles had been a bit busy." Came a british voice from the door. Buffy turned to look at her watcher, a smile crossing her face. The voice was older, tired, but still amicable. She walked over and wrapped her arms around him, pulling the older man into a tight embrace. Angel and Nastassia sat down at the table with the werewolf and the zeppo.

"Giles..." Buffy began.

"I know, I've aged terribly I'm afraid." Giles said, looking into her eyes with a smile. "I missed you terribly."

"I missed you,too." Buffy said quietly.

"So the five of you are the o-only ones who arrived?" Giles asked.

"Yeah." Buffy said "No word from Willow, Cordelia or Spike."

"No surprises there." Giles said.

"Yeah." Buffy said. The pair walked over and sat down. Giles surveyed the slayer and her friends again, as if it had been twenty years instead of only five. Angels' eyes seemed darker, more sinister, as if they had seen more darkness in the past five years as he had in all of his hundreds of years as a vampire. Xander looked much more mature than he had five years ago, and Oz was the most radically changed. His hair was gone, and now his demeanor was quiet, watchful and peaceful. He leaned back in his chair, completley at ease. Nastassia didn't seem to have changed a bit. She was still beautiful and bouncy, her eyes sharp and alert. Buffy seemed tired, her eyes infected with small bags under them. He suspected she hadn't slept for a few nights. He leaned heavily on his cane as he walked over, Buffy helping him on his other side.

"Did that leg never heal correctly?" Oz asked, concenred. He was half out of his seat to help the older gentleman.

"No." Giles said "Our battle with Harvest left more than a few scars on me."

"On all of us." Buffy said. She looked around. "Xander, maybe you can help us out. Where's Willow?" Xander took a sip from his mug and then set it down on the table with a bang.

"No idea." he said. "I got no word from her. I got a postcard from south america, and that's it."

"I got one of those." Oz said, not even looking at his drink. His head then perked up as he noticed the figure in the doorway. He heard a loud roar and watched as a big man entered the room wearing a sunnydale jacket. He tunred his buzzcut head towards the table and yelled out a loud greeting. "Larry." Larry walked over and sat down.

"Hey,guys." He said, cheerfully.

"Larry!" Xander said "Forgot all about you,Buddy." He said, smiling genuinely. Xander had been one of the few who actually liked Larry when he started helping the team. Larry put an arm around Xander and gave him a push.

"I missed you guys." He said, his face begining to turn serious. "I've been hanging around the west coast areas for the last five years and man has it been boring." He smiled around at all of them "But I have the locations of all of Harvests' factories in the area." Buffy smiled at him.

"Great, Larry." She said "That will be very helpful." She looked over at Giles, who watched everything quietly. He seemed lost in the past.

"So when do we go after Harvest?" Larry asked.

"Hey, can we maybe do a little socialising first?" Xander asked "I haven't seen you people in five years, I plan to do a little chatting about old times and getting plastered before we go fight the unwinnable battle." He drank heavily from the mug.

"Nervous?" Oz asked.

"Of course!" Xander said, his arms being flung into the air for emphasis.

"You should learn to control your emotions." Oz said "Be at peace. When you master emotion, everything else falls into place."

"Not everyone is a monk." Nastassia said, smiling warmly at him. She looked over at Buffy. "You okay,Buff?"

"No." Buffy said "I was hoping Willow would be here." She looked overat Xander and Oz. "I hope she's still alive."

"I'm sure she is." Angel said "It's just that sometimes the past is a hard thing to forget. I'm not sure how happy Willow will be to return to sunnydale. This place destroyed a lot of things for her." Buffy nodded.

"Or maybe it's just she's too busy. I mean, most of us found very little to do in the past five years, just pieces of information. But that's not to say that Willow couldn't have found something big and is caught up with that. No, I'm more surprised that Cordy isn't here." "Is there any real reason for her to show?" Xander asked, raising a hand to order another beer. Owen walked over and poured him one.

"Well...I don't know." Angel said "I just didn't think she'd desert. She couldn't have joined up with Harvest.."

"There it is again!" Xander shouted "I don't want to hear that guys' name for at least an hur, okay!? I'm going to shit my pants."

"Hey, don't worry,Guy!" Larry said, slapping him on the back "Anything we face, Buffy and the slayerettes can handle,right?"

"Where you there five years ago,Larry?" Xander asked,looking at him with his forehead creased. Larry nodded.

"Yep. It was a good fight..." "Harvest smashed us." Xander said. "I mean,look at the G-man over here" He gestured at Giles "His leg was busted in, like, six places. Nastassia was almost killed when she fought him one on one. Wills' parents......" He looked down at the table and lifted the beer. He downed the rest of it. "Another Beer!" He called. Owen walked over as the table became silent. Owen poured another one.

"I'm gonna start charging soon." He grinned. His grin vanished when he looked up at the door. "Shit."

"What?" Giles asked, looking over at the door. There stood a dark-skinned vampire with slicked back hair and no shirt. He stepped in, heavy cowboy boots thudding on the floor. Behind him where three lesser demons: Medium sized things with night black skin and piercing green eyes. Slime dripped from thier skin onto the floor. The lowest of all of Harvests' soldiers.

"That's Maghan." Owen whispered "He's the local vampire authority." Xander drank down the new beer.

"I hate Lesser demons." he whispered.

"Where is the slayer?" Maghan asked, his voice thick and gravelly. Buffy looked over the table at Giles and Nastassia. "The slayer." Maghan said, staring at Owen.

"No slayers here." Owen said, raising his hands.

"Who are they?' Maghan asked, nodding his head at the table "They're not regulars."

"Old friends." Owen replied. "Meeting here in Sunnydale."

"Harvest wants the slayer,Owen." Maghan said. Xander stood up, drunk.

"I said I didn't want to hear that numbfucks name for an hour." He drank down the rest of Larry's beer and walked over drunkenly. "And you, Magdococka-doddle-do, are one ugly melon head." He laughed drunkenly and slapped Maghan on the back. "Jus,kiddin'...." Oz stood up and walked over calmly. He looked Maghan in the eyes and then looked the lesser demons over, his breathing calm and regular. Buffy was impressed. Oz grabbed his friend by the shirt and pulled him back. Maghan reached forward and grabbed Xander. He looked Oz over and sniffed.

"Werewolf." Maghan said.

"Shit." Angel said, his body tensing for the inevitable fight. Giles breathed a low prayer and closed his eyes. Nastassia and Larry tensed for battle as well, Larry actually getting up, hoping his size would be an intimidation. Angel did the same. Maghan pointed at Oz and Xander, and nodded at The vampire and the football hero.

"Kill them." He ordered.

...........................................