TITLE: Chopin & Vows
AUTHOR: Ragna (writinggoddess@aol.com)
RATING: FRT
CLASSIFICATION: Darla/Other
SUMMARY: A man from Darla's past comes to visit her.
SPOILERS: Season 1 A:tS, plus I pulled some references from "Judgment," but that was just about the music.
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kazui Sandollar, FOX and the WB own it or them. Various friends of mine are holding characters hostage. You may see them by appointment only.
FEEDBACK: Sorry I'm not home right now I'm walking in the spiderwebs so leave a message and I'll call you back...in other words, I want it. Don't care if it's onlist or not, but I prefer offlist since I have quite a few lists on No Mail.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For Tairis...it's not much, but...

***

The two stared at each other for quite some time, trying to get a gauge on what the other was all about.

"So you..." she began.

"I'm not," he said.

"Ah..."

"And you?" he said questioningly.

"I am." She opened the window carefully, so not to hit him, and stood in it's rays for a moment, the sunset making her blonde hair dazzle.

He stood up, his dark hair a sharp contrast to his slightly pale face, only now noticeable in the pale light of the boardroom. She liked soft light, as well as Chopin and Brahms. "I didn't know if things had gone according to plan. This firm...they have a history, Darla..."

The woman nodded, her soft voice penetrating the thoughts he was having about her. "Why are you here?" she asked as though he hadn't said anything before.

The man smiled. "I wanted to see you. It's been a long time...Remember my vow?"

She nodded, then went to the CD player and pressed play. Chopin in C-minor. The preludes and the nocturnes. It swelled around the room. "Do you remember him?" she asked. "He's all I can listen to."

The man nodded. "I remember him."

"He was such a wonderful man, so talented." She stood up. "Dance?"

The man knew better than to refuse, though he'd forgotten the old dances they had done so many times before. But she sensed this and led the two of them.

It was like the times before Angelus, before they had been separated and before she found a new playmate. The warm room, the sounds of Chopin next door, making his beautiful music as though it was for them, the smell of her hair and the feel of her body next to his...

It seemed like an eternity, but soon he heard the telltale knock on the door. The lawyer needed time with Darla again, to plot Angelus' downfall. It had been hours since he'd arrived, and they'd spent most of it in the midst of Chopin and silence between them.

"You will come back?" she whispered in his ear before they broke apart.

The man kissed her softly, a lingering kiss that left one of them breathless. "I will come back."

Darla turned and watched him leave. "I miss you, TA."

"And I, you," he said, nodding to the lawyer as he left the office to beat the first rays of sunlight on his way back to Sunnydale. He would go back to see her, and to help her remember everything...

And he would win her back from the invisible clutches of the mysterious Angelus.

He vowed this, like the vow he'd made so long ago. He would remember.