capeandcowllogs | A Polite Discussion

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A Polite Discussion

WHO: Julian Keller and Angel
WHERE: Out about town
WHEN: Backdated to Sunday evening, after sunset whenever that is
WARNINGS: Wild accusations, stalking, possibly aggressive negotiations
SUMMARY: Julian is walking home, minding his own business. Angel would like a word with him.
FORMAT: However you like

It had been kind of a long day. Julian has, to his own general amazement, actively been looking for employment and so far is having very little in the way of luck. When he had first arrived in the City, he'd gotten in the habit of flying to most places he needed to go. It was faster than walking, and this version of New York had a couple of key differences from the one he knew. It had taken him a while to be familiar with the streets. Tonight, though, getting lost wasn't a problem he was having. He was looking forward to getting inside and shutting out the stupid world that wasn't giving him a job.

Typically, he'd been brooding on the lack of success on that front, and wasn't paying the greatest lot of attention to what was going on around him. Hell, tonight wasn't a patrolling night. If any unsavoury types wanted to hit him up, he'd deal with it. For once, he wasn't looking for a fight.

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Angel's day was just getting started. Well, not exactly, considering it was night, but the interesting part of it was at least; the part where he got to leave and find the guy he'd had his sights set on for a couple days. Julian had hit his radar with the talk of stalking Buffy and as much as Angel thought he might have been joking, he had to be sure. In fact, a lot of people had piqued his interest when it come to their interactions with Buffy, but this one was at the top of his list.

And it wasn't like he was particularly hard to follow. Angel was maybe a little bit rusty when it came to his own variety of stalking, not feeling nearly hidden enough for reasons unknown. But he fell into it just like old times, hanging back in the shadows and waiting for just the right moment to assert his presence.

One came soon enough and with some quick moving, Angel had his hand on Julian's shoulder, and he was perhaps doing some agressive directing towards a discreet side alley that had just enough light so Julian could know what was going on. Angel knew he could be a lot more pushy, but this wasn't a desperate situation, and he didn't need to rack up a tally of enemies quite so quick. But he wanted this kid's attention, and he had every intention on getting it.

"Mind answering a question for me?" Tone firm, but not altogether mean, Angel was trying to approach this with a sense of self-preservation. But it was hard enough when it was Buffy on the line, and holding himself back when it came to her never really happened.

And all of a sudden the street was gone and someone with a ridiculously strong hand was ushering him into an alley. Julian jumped at the touch of the hand, which seemed to come from nowhere and took him by complete surprise. Damn it, he was out of practice or something. He got his wits about him a few seconds late, and his telekinesis reacted instinctively to push the hand away. But then he turned, and recognised Angel's face from that vid a while back. That made him relax the teke shower, but he frowned.

"Uh," he said. "Y'know, most people don't make alley-pushing the first form of contact. They'd at least say hi first." He paused looking at Angel's face. It's kind of...worryingly serious. "...What question?"

Frowning faintly, eyebrows furrowed as his hand was given the nudge away, Angel folded his hands over his chest instead. It wasn't like telekinesis was something he'd never dealt with before on some level when it came to magic, but it gave him pause all the same. And yet he was the one who had made with the grabby hands, so he couldn't really complain.

Ignoring entirely Julian's request for him to say hi, Angel had no intention yet to pull back on the overly brooding serious look. At least until he had his questions answered. "The one that goes, whether or not you've been following Buffy."

"Following her?" Julian's eyebrows shot up. He hadn't even realised Angel was connected in any way to Buffy, although maybe it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. Angel had known what a Slayer was, but Julian had pretty much figured that was because of the whole vampire thing.

Yeah, vampire...but Angel had also said he was the kind of vampire who fought demons, not the kind who attacked people. So, this was definitely weird. Caught in an alley with a vampire hadn't been on his list of things to do today, either way.

"Of course I haven't been following her! She's my friend, I've hung out with her a few times, that's all. Why do you ask that?!"

In Angel's books, this didn't really come all that close to attacking. He knew the ins and outs of the word, the method, the events that would follow directly after. But this? This was covering his bases, the bases being doing whatever he could to make sure that Buffy was safe.

Despite Julian's proclamations for doing absolutely nothing suspicious, Angel was still keeping his gaze decisively firm. Sure, Angel believed him already. But that didn't mean he couldn't carry on a little bit longer, just to make sure his gut feeling was right. "Kind of thought the answer to that would be obvious by now. Might want to be careful where you talk about stalking people."

It took him a minute to even realise what Angel meant. This was definitely not the first time shooting his mouth off had gotten him in trouble with someone, and he sadly doubted it would be the last.

"You were listening to our vids?" He shook his head. "Dude, that was a joke. We'd run into each other a few times that week, that's all, I swear. I mean come on, if it was serious do you really think I'd announce it like that?"

Because saying that would help his cause here, obviously.

The longer this went on, the less of a threat he felt this kid actually was, which was really all he wanted from this encounter. To make sure that Buffy hadn't acquired anymore unwanted stalkers and if they existed to see if they were even worth worrying about. He obviously couldn't keep Buffy from living her life, and he'd promised to keep from doing exactly that.

But that didn't mean he couldn't kept an eye on everything else. "You'd be surprised what people'll say out in the open when they think no one's listening."

Okay so Julian was willing to accept that. He was frequently surprised what people said out in the open when they knew everyone was listening, so Angel might have a point with this.

"Maybe, but not everyone out there's a bad guy. Granted some of them are. Honestly, though? I think anyone stalking Buffy would regret it real quick. She's no slouch when it comes to protecting herself."

He almost, almost cracked a grin-- at least the kid knew what he was talking about. Granted, anyone who knew Buffy for a hot second knew that she could take care of herself. So it was really anyone's guess why Angel felt the need to protect her all over again, and it wasn't information Angel was going to be giving out too easily, either.

"Tell me something I don't know," But his tone was quickly losing its earlier aggression, and he even took a step back, less interested in boxing Julian in. "Out of everyone i've ever met, she's gotta be the front-runner in being able to take care of herself."

Julian was relaxing again. His shoulders were less tense, though he was still kind of wary. Five minutes ago this had looked like it might break into a fight. He was still kind of primed for that, just in case.

"Exactly. I'd rather stay on her good side. First time I met her, she was doing something similar to this cause I was friends with her sister." And then, frowning a little. "Does she know you were coming after me?"

"I don't tell her everything i've got planned." He sighs; why did everyone always seem to think he had to inform Buffy about his entire life, including Buffy herself. Things had changed, or at least he spent enough time trying to convince himself of that fact.

And yet here he was, involving himself in her life again. He was truly, the most convincing. "She thinks she doesn't need help looking over her shoulder." And then second later, "And she doesn't. But it's never really stopped me."

And that meant she hadn’t known. Awesome. Julian still planned on asking her about it, though. She should probably know that tall, dark and brooding was chasing down people close to her, especially since Peter got a hell of a lot closer to her on a regular basis than Julian ever did.

“You’re talking like you’re her boyfriend or something.” Julian literally had no idea how close to the bone that might be hitting. “I’m sure she’ll be real glad you were looking out for her and whatever, but seriously man, I’m no kind of competition for Buffy. And I’m no kind of danger to her either.” The last part was mostly an afterthought. He was only dangerous to people who pissed him off, and that wasn’t a category Buffy was anywhere near.

The boyfriend comment, admittedly made him grit his teeth a bit, glancing off down the length of the alley. This whole thing, this whole place- it was almost like every time their lives had butted up against each other since he'd left for Los Angeles. She'd shown up there from time to time and they couldn't keep from rubbing their lives in each others faces.

But he didn't want that, never wanted it to be that way. And he never wanted to turn into the jealous ex. He was over two hundred, he was supposed to be better than that. And yet, with Buffy, he could never make himself stop, either.

"I don't have to be her boyfriend to care." He hated that for some reason, he felt like she needed him here, and he kept trying to blame Buffy for that. But glowering back at Julian, he could really only blame himself for wishing that she actually did. "Not like i'm much competition for her, either. But it's a different city, comes with different rules. You might not be a danger, but someone else always could be."

Julian was personally skeptical about how following people who talked to Buffy was the same thing as protecting her from all danger. Seemed like overkill, but hey, who was he to judge? This guy seemed made of the intense. If he wasn’t Buffy’s overprotective boyfriend, he was putting on an awesome show of acting like it. Which wasn’t exactly a bad thing, but he was starting to get why Buffy kept implying her life was complicated.

“Yeah, someone else could be,” he agreed. “Like any one of the crazy supervillain types we got wandering around this place. I mean, come on, you’re the guy who told me you fought apocalypses on a regular basis.” It was seriously weird to say that in the plural. “I’m not in the evil club. And if you’d want to protect Buffy from the things that are, then I’d be on your side.”

"Believe me, I get it, you're not one of the bad guys." And he also understood that he was being far too overprotective and falling back into bad habits.

But he couldn't help it and it was difficult and a million other things that he in no way could explain to this guy. Especially not now that he'd made a legitimate ass out of himself. Though, he still thought he had a pretty good reason for it.

Taking a few more steps back, Angel could practically feel himself going into slightly awkward territory before he even spoke up again. "Right, well. The things that go bump in the night around here aren't really the same kind that bring around the apocalypses back home. It's a different kind of evil entirely."

Julian nodded, at least convinced that Angel didn’t think he was dangerous to Buffy. It was hard to know what to say after being jumped like that – he wasn’t entirely used to situations like this ending as well as this one had. They generally involved, like, lethal injections or something. So you could say he wasn’t exactly used to the small talk element. At least he and Angel were in agreement on the awkward territory. Which…didn’t actually make it less awkward.

“Yeah, I get that. Supervillains and all that jazz. And zombies and soul-sucking demons, sometimes. All assholes. If you’re Buffy’s friend I’d rather be on the up with you. There’s enough bad guys.”

No, no it really didn't. But Angel wasn't really in the mood to try to make it any less awkward, not to mention, he tended to make things even more so simply by way of trying.

"Then maybe keep an eye on her. Instead of alerting the masses that you're the next in line to grab the stalker-baton." He gave Julian a particularly firm look all over again, making as if he was about to leave before hesitating, glancing over his shoulder, "And maybe don't mention this to her." Not that he thought that would actually stop Julian, but he might as well make an attempt at it.

And then he was off, hunkered down into his longcoat and disappearing back into the night from whence he came.

"Dude, it was a joke! And I'd already be keeping an eye on her, you don't have to tell me that." Which he must have been saying for, like, the millionth time here. Even as Angel said it, he knew there was no way he wasn't telling Buffy about this. If anyone was stalker material, it was this guy. Especially if he didn't want her to know he was shadowing her friends.

Still...he was doing it because he cared about Buffy. Julian could appreciate that, even if he was still weirded out by how this all went down. Of course, before he could try and finish this on a note that wasn't completely awkward, Angel was doing his creature of the night thing again and vanishing. Julian was about an inch away from going after him, but when he stepped out of the alley, he couldn't see where the guy had gone. He shook himself.

"Okay, that was weird."

Shaking his head, he decided he'd just fly the rest of the way home. Dark alleys were not his favorite way to spend a night. The familiar green glow settled round him and he raised himself above the rooftops. No more crazy detours. He was headed straight back to the MAC.

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A Polite Discussion

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