wesleynotponcy | Angel's Offices, then the Lotus Spa, then Angel's Offices | Los Angeles, CA

The ride back to Angel's offices was a wee bit awkward. Wesley didn't want to rub it in Angel's face that he had totally won that fight for them, because that would be rude, but when it was just hanging over them like the elephant in the room (or rather, the car)... Well. He was just going to keep quiet.

And then they got to the offices, and oh, this was all wrong. They simply didn't have the resources necessary to run a proper demon-hunting facility. Simply unacceptable. He followed Angel down the steps all the same, only to discover --

-- an empath demon. Right. Well, then. No wonder their offices were in such disarray, considering that they were apparently fraternizing with demons right and left. (Yes, because what he was doing in Fandom wasn't that at all.)

And all of a sudden, said empath demon was pointing at him and shouting something about Wesley being after him. Or possibly Angel, but it seemed unlikely that the two hadn't already met, given that this was Angel's place of business.

Well. Wesley was just going to go ahead and make a beeline for the books when all of a sudden --

"Cordelia?" Yes, that was indeed Cordy, Wes. Nice going. "Well, Angel never mentioned -- what a nice --"

Cordelia	"Wesley?" Cordy blinked for a moment, not quite sure why he was there, before deciding she didn't really care. She reached for him and kissed him as deeply as she could manage.
Wesley	To Wesley's credit, this was unacceptable, and he made a good effort to escape. It took a bit of wriggling around, but he managed it. " -- surprise," he concluded, considerably deflated.
Cordelia	"That didn't work at all," Cordy said, rubbing her fingertips over her lips as she stepped back. "Darn."
Wesley	"Work -- work how?" Wesley sputtered. Sorry, Cordy. He was all wrapped up in that whole getting-kissed-by-someone-not-the-girlfriend thing.
Cordelia	"It's not you," Cordy said in a dismissive tone, finally looking him over more seriously. "I was ... kind of doing an experiment. Don't worry about it. Wait, why are you here? Are you working with Angel?"
Wesley	Ha! "A lone wolf such as myself never works with anyone," Wesley told her, fully back into pompous-mode. "I'm merely allowing Angel to assist me." Yes. Obviously Angel could benefit greatly from his... assistance.
Cordelia	"Oh ... wow." Cordelia clearly thought Angel did not get the better end of the deal, there.
Wesley	Well, obviously Cordy was way wrong there, because Wesley had hours of experience with this sort of thing. So clearly, he knew what he was doing. Smugly, he announced, "I'm a rogue demon hunter now." Well. Today, anyway. He still had to get back to school in time for class on Friday.
Cordelia	"Wow, really?" Cordy said, sounding impressed in a way that was ... not. "What's a rogue demon?"
Barney	Wesley was spared having to respond by the return of the empath demon, Barney. "So," he was saying to Angel, "what you’re telling me is that all this time your friend wasn’t hunting me, he was hunting something else that was hunting me?"
Angel	"That's about the size of it," Angel said. He hoped they were done with future kissing situations. Angel didn't want to see what happened when the pairing options narrowed down to Wes and Barney.
Barney	Yeah, that was a topic best left undiscussed. "And that something else was after me because…" Hey, he had to sell the ruse, right?
Angel	"It wants to steal your empathic ability," Angel said. he left off the part about how the demon obviously wasn't after Barney's dress sense.
Cordelia	"The feelings thing?" Cordy asked, wincing. Bad enough to get slammed with visions. "What kind of demon would do that to another demon?"
Wesley	Aaaand there was Wesley with the book. Not, of course, that he had needed it, because he was a big smartie like that. "A Kungai," he announced.
Barney	Barney wasn't buying it. Or he was pretending he wasn't buying it. Same thing. "A Kungai?" he repeated.
Wesley	"The description matches," Wesley told him matter-of-factly. "It's of Asian origin. Very deadly. A powerful race of demons, the Kungain possess a Tak horn, capable of consuming its opponents' life force." A beat. Then, horrified: "We're lucky to have escaped with our lives."
Barney	Barney adopted the same horror. Only his was fake. "I know these Kungais," he said in the tone of one making a great realization. "They're killers!" Turning to Angel, he insisted, "You've got to take this thing out before it finds me." And that should buy him some time to sell the horn! Bonus.
Angel	"I'm working on it," Angel said. "I have to find it first." Angel tried to take the book away from Wesley. Asking was for people who didn't own the book in the first place.
Wesley	But -- but -- but --book! Alas, Angel won the tug-of-war, but that wasn't stopping Wes' brain from whirring at a thousand miles per hour. "Hang on," he said. "It's of Asian origin... Earlier today I tracked it through an Asian district just north of here. Perhaps it's hiding there?"
Cordelia	"That's Koreatown," Cordelia put in, since the conversation had finally gotten back to something she actually knew something about.
Angel	Angel snapped the book shut. "Then that's where I start looking."
Wesley	Ah-ah-ah. "Don't you mean we?" Wesley asked, immediately on the defensive. Hey, he'd traveled halfway across the country for this thing.
Angel	"I mean me," Angel replied. "I work alone."
Wesley	Well, that just wouldn't do. "The hell you say, this demon is mine!" Wesley blurted out, appalled. Okay, calming down, calming down... "Angel," he pressed, his tone slightly more manageable. "I know how to track him." He knew how to research him. "You won't catch him without me by your side." Probably wrong.
Angel	"I had someone by my side," Angel said, all tact. "He's dead now. I won't let that happen again. I work alone."
Wesley	Well, there was no reason to be grumpy. "You don't even know where to begin to look!" Wesley protested. Right, because it wasn't like they'd just been discussing Koreatown.
Angel	"I have a pretty good idea." Angel immediately turned and went up stairs. Because he worked alone, and also with dramatic exits.
Wesley	Huffily, Wesley set the book down on the stairs, as if that would negate the obvious rudeness going on here. He went to sit down (because unlike Angel, he was unenlightened in the ways of dramatic exits), then winced and changed his mind. Leather? Chafed.

Angel	Angel had arrived at the spa to be told that the Kungai demon was dying. He tried examining the crossbow bolt to examine it. That had proven to be enough to get the demon to grab Angel's arm and try to talk to him. The only problem was that the Kungai demon was, rather annoyingly, speaking Kungai. "I don't know your language," Angel said.
Wesley	Wesley was sure that the Kungai found that bit of information very helpful, and possibly the only thing it had left to live for. Ahem. "I do," he said, striding into the room. "At least I think I recognize the dialect." Lucky, lucky Kungai.
Angel	"Then it's a good thing you happened by," Angel said. He even sounded like he might have possibly meant it.
Wesley	Wesley made a smug little noise that was Watcher code for 'Thank you for acknowledging my superiority.' And then he moved on to looking the demon over, because hey, he was nothing if not professional. "I wouldn't've thought the wound I gave him was fatal," he mused. Apparently the little fragments of horn sticking out of the demon's head didn't resonate with him.
Angel	They did with Angel. Again since he noticed horror more than words. “It wasn’t the arrow. Look at his head." Angel indicated the spot in question. "His Tak horn’s been broken off.”
Wesley	Huh. So it had. Wesley needed to get better at that whole visual-learning thing. Then the demon was talking, so he leaned over to hear better and try to translate. Er, poorly. "Stick?" That didn't make a whole lot of sense. "Not stick. Horn!" He turned to Angel and supplied helpfully, "He's trying to tell us that his horn was taken." Really?
Angel	Yeah, really? "Is he trying to tell us something we don't already know?" Angel replied.
Wesley	Well, that took some more listening. And of course the demon had to use all these really obscure words and sounds that Wesley wasn't familiar with. Yeah, thanks, Kungai. After a while, he mused, "He says his horn was taken for something. The Klu-kah. I'm not familiar with that word..." Even the demon was starting to look bored, and it was dying. Good job, Wes. "Fish?" Seemed unlikely. "Fish will die. No, no, not fish. More will die."
Angel	"Okay, yeah, but who's doing this?" Angel demanded. Because talking louder was always the way to make translations happen.
Wesley	"There's no good losing patience," Wes chided. "He's dying and I'm not exactly fluent." Plus, he was, you know, eighteen. With Angel sufficiently berated, he focused more intently on the demon. It didn't really improve his translations, though. "Bit the cherry? Slam the cherry?" Now, that just sounded obscene. Then -- "Oh, oh, no, oh dear. Stop... stop the demon? Demon -- heart -- reader --?" And then the Kungai up and died on him. Perfect.
Angel	"Empath demon," Angel said, making the connection. "Barney."

Angel	"Cordelia?" Angel didn't smell her, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to check. "Cordelia?"
Wesley	Some part of Wes' psyche decided that this called for some angst, so he sank down into a conveniently-placed chair, running a hand through his hair. "This is all my fault," he murmured. Yeah, that was helpful.
Angel	"We both left her here," Angel said, offering words of comfort in his own way. "We didn't know."
Wesley	Yes, but this was his first hunt ever! Well, first hunt without a team of Scoobies. Same thing. "I should have," he insisted, shaking his head. "All this time I've been tracking the wrong demon. All my research -- " He cut himself off. "If anything happens to Cordelia because of me..."
Angel	“Nothing is going to happen to Cordelia," Angel said, firmly. "I won’t let it." Angel kept searching for signs of what had happened to Cordy. When he noticed that Wesley, well, wasn't, he added, "In case you’re wondering, this is me looking for a clue. Feel free to join in any time you want.”
Wesley	Unfortunately, Wes wasn't quite on the same page. "I'm a fool," he said mournfully. And then came the bitter, self-loathing monologue. "The Council was right to sack me. I had two -- two Slayers in my care! At seventeen! The highest honor any Watcher could hope for, let alone a junior one. And what happened? One turned evil and vegetates in a coma, and the other's a renegade. Fire me? I'm surprised they didn't cut my head off." He shook his head, staring into his hands. "No wonder Father wants me in high school, not out doing proper work. I'm a fool. A useless, snivelling..."
Angel	"Ugly, gray, blobby thing," Angel said.
Wesley	Wesley adopted the term and tried to add it to his melange of insults. "Ugly, gray, blobby thing," he added. Then -- "What?"
Angel	Angel tapped the drawing he was looking at, paying more attention to it than Wesley. "I know this. It’s a sculpture by Van Gieson, Maiden with Urn." Angel showed the picture to Wes. "Cordelia saw this in a vision. It could be telling us where Barney took her."
Wesley	Oh! That was good news! Wesley perked up interestedly. Gaining momentum, he said, "So we ascertain the sculpture's whereabouts and Cordelia's whereabouts, and then -- you can go rescue her." Because obviously, Wes sucked at this.
Angel	"No, we go rescue her," Angel said. "I need your help. The Kungai said Barney wanted the horn for something."
Wesley	"Klu-kah," Wes volunteered helpfully.
Angel	"Yeah," Angel said, after a pause in which the word still failed to make sense. "You're the only one here who can translate that. Are you in?"
Wesley	Inspired by this little pep talk, Wesley nodded and got up to do the research. See, he was committed! And no longer angsting, thanks to Angel. Clearly they were both better off.
Angel	Angel joined in. Amazingly this involved him touching a computer without accidentally setting it or himself on fire. After some time Angel finally found something. "Van Gieson’s Maiden with Urn was sold to the Ramsey Hotel Chain in ‘82," Angel said. "There are twelve hotels between here and San Diego, it’s got to be in one of them."
Wesley	Oh! Wesley took a moment to process this and nod thoughtfully, then plowed on with his information. Which was of course sadly less than what Angel had. "I keep running up against a translation of Klu-kah," he said, still pouring over the book. "It translates as caller-sale... caller-... caller-sale... Oh!" There was the lightbulb moment. "Yes, of course! I know what Klu-kah is!"
Angel	"What?" Angel asked.
Wesley	Wes had decided to just build the suspense, apparently. In a very self-satisfied sort of manner, he intoned, "Auction."