Suite 518/520, Monday morning

[demonbelthazor]

When Bel woke up Monday morning, he felt strange. Wait, no, he felt normal. That is to say, he no longer felt the irrestible compulsion to share his feelings with everyone around him. "What the hell?" he mumbled to himself in confusion. And then he remembered the phone call to Angel and groaned, pulling a pillow over his face, wondering if his new apparent invulnerability would prevent him from smothering himself.

[ooc: for those with future in their usernames.]

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[sensethevisions]

Phoebe watched him leave and then buried her face in her hands, crying.

She hadn't meant to hurt him like that.

"We hurt him..."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders wrapped his arms around her. "We frakked up," he said thickly, crying pretty freely himself by now. "We frakked up bad, Phoebe. We gotta fix this . . . what are we gonna do?"

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe buried her head in his shoulder as she cried. "I didn't think. I should have been more responsible than this." She swallowed. "I never thought that it would make him feel like when he was in the Underworld."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think about anything other than wanting to hear him tell me he cared about me," Anders half-mumbled. "He's gotta know we didn't mean to hurt him, doesn't he?"

[sensethevisions]

"I don't know if he realizes that right now, Anders. He's so upset and... we betrayed that trust."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"We were asking for it . . . not what we planned to do, but we were asking for it and --" Something horrible occurred to Anders. "Oh gods, what if he goes to Angel over this?"

[sensethevisions]

That was enough to make Phoebe feel even sicker than she already did about this.

"We'd deserve it," she said miserably.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry I talked you into this," Anders told her, although he couldn't disagree with them deserving it. "If it wasn't for me being stupid and insecure . . ."

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe shook her head. "I could have told you no. I should have told you no." She sniffled.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I should have known better," Anders countered. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

[sensethevisions]

"You are going to go find him and talk to him. I am going to hide figure out something. I'm the witch and I should have known better." She shook her head. "We are going to let him think that I did the spell so Savannah doesn't get an angry demon at her door."

The fact that Cole was going to think badly of her for this made her sick inside, but better than him getting mad at a child.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders nodded. "Yeah. 'kay, I can . . . I can do that. Love you," he said hoarsely. "And I'm really, really sorry."

[sensethevisions]

"Love you, too," she whispered. "And stop apologizing. If he had been willing to tell you, you wouldn't have felt desperate enough to talk to me about a spell in the first place." She shook her head, trying to fight back the tears. "Go find him. He'll... he'll probably talk to you easier right now."

And wow did admitting that to herself hurt.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Yeah . . . hearing it from her hurt like hell, too.

"Two days in a row where waking up wasn't fun," Anders said half to himself as he gave her one more hug before climbing out of bed to get dressed. "Promise I won't let it be three. I swear."

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe nodded. "Not your fault, Anders. Just... go make sure he's okay?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

If he could find Bel, anyway.

Anders gave her a quick kiss, crammed his feet into his shoes, and pulled on a clean shirt. "I will. Wish me luck," he said, and bolted out of the room.