Fic: A Memory to Last a Lifetime
This was written for ba_rosebuds
Title: A Memory to Last a Lifetime
Prompt: End of an Era
Characters: Buffy and Angel
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Warning! Spoilers through Season 8, Issue 35
Summary: Buffy's thoughts as she and Angel plan to return to Earth.
His hand is cool but grips hers confidently. Eternity lies behind them. The future, whatever it would bring, lies ahead. She has traded a thousand perfect lifetimes for a single imperfect one. She hesistates briefly. Having experienced happiness again, for one tiny moment, can she really give it up, for the hope of a future that may never come to pass?
But that is all happiness has ever been to Buffy, fleeting moments punctuating a life otherwise marked by grief, loss, sacrifice. Subsumed by the larger, more difficult stretches of her life, the happy parts have all but disappeared from her memory. The first time she let go of the wall in skating class, building the tallest sandcastle at the ocean with her parents, the first time she kissed Angel (before his revelation), that night, when she and Angel were only two people who existed. They are but shadows on her mind. It is too painful to look at them head on because every spark is tinged with loss and regret.
Now she stands again straddling the brink of ecstacy and horror. What kind of girl risks losing the love of her dreams to fight a battle she can never truly win? But Buffy has never been an ordinary girl. She has learned to accept loneliness as part and parcle to her unusual life. She can return to it if she must, but this time, something feels different.
The energy from their union still hums through their bodies, passing through their joined fingers. She glances over at him, and wins a rare smile back. That is all the acknowledgment she needs. This is the end of an era. No longer will they face their demons alone. They will save the world, once again, but this time, they will emerge together on the other side.
Title: A Memory to Last a Lifetime
Prompt: End of an Era
Characters: Buffy and Angel
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Warning! Spoilers through Season 8, Issue 35
Summary: Buffy's thoughts as she and Angel plan to return to Earth.
His hand is cool but grips hers confidently. Eternity lies behind them. The future, whatever it would bring, lies ahead. She has traded a thousand perfect lifetimes for a single imperfect one. She hesistates briefly. Having experienced happiness again, for one tiny moment, can she really give it up, for the hope of a future that may never come to pass?
But that is all happiness has ever been to Buffy, fleeting moments punctuating a life otherwise marked by grief, loss, sacrifice. Subsumed by the larger, more difficult stretches of her life, the happy parts have all but disappeared from her memory. The first time she let go of the wall in skating class, building the tallest sandcastle at the ocean with her parents, the first time she kissed Angel (before his revelation), that night, when she and Angel were only two people who existed. They are but shadows on her mind. It is too painful to look at them head on because every spark is tinged with loss and regret.
Now she stands again straddling the brink of ecstacy and horror. What kind of girl risks losing the love of her dreams to fight a battle she can never truly win? But Buffy has never been an ordinary girl. She has learned to accept loneliness as part and parcle to her unusual life. She can return to it if she must, but this time, something feels different.
The energy from their union still hums through their bodies, passing through their joined fingers. She glances over at him, and wins a rare smile back. That is all the acknowledgment she needs. This is the end of an era. No longer will they face their demons alone. They will save the world, once again, but this time, they will emerge together on the other side.