Work Text:
Later, he remembered the first time he had seen her -- not Not-Fred, not Illyria the God-King either, not the walking symbol of loss she represented for him, his own ambulatory hairshirt. She did need to eat (and sleep), after all -- only a little, and not very often, and not for long -- and she had been there one day when an order of Thai food had been delivered to Angel's office, and had actually accepted an offer to share.
But then she had picked up a spoonful of hot mustard and swallowed it, and her expression had been so shocked and outraged he had had to laugh -- and then apologize and offer to bring her milk, water, soda, a napkin....She had sulked and left soon afterward, but he always remembered it as the first time he had felt anything in her presence other than pain.