Author: C l a d d a u g h K i t t e n
Summary: Angel's POV on the last few minutes of "IWRY".
Rating: PG14
Dedication: Graham - Promises, kept.
Life's funny. Funny in the way that one minute, the Fates give you everything you ever wanted, and the next, forcing you to beg them to take it all back.
When I realized what had happened to me, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Crying probably would have been the better option if I'd seen the shape of things to come. But Fate, of course, stepped in, and the choice was taken from me.
Holding Buffy in my arms like that, seeing her in daylight, God, even kissing her in daylight, was all I ever wanted. And in the few short hours I was given, Buffy was all I knew. I turned to her because she was my security. My one familiar in a thousand unknowns, a world of confusion.
We could have been logical about it - No, wait. We couldn't have. Not like that. In the few seconds that her hand touched mine, I was willing to give up everything for her. Fuck the curse, fuck Fate, fuck it all. All for her.
And now, standing here, I don't regret it one bit. She doesn't remember it, but I do. It is my one perfect moment, forever locked away in my soul. Pure, touched only by me, remembered, known, only to me.
The last kiss was perhaps the most painful thing I ever did. I think I could hear my own heart as it tore to pieces - again. I hurt Buffy more than she will ever know, in a span of five seconds. Everything I went through with her, for her, was surpassed by the one twenty-four hour period I spent wallowing in my humanity. Until I was forced to give it up.
After 250 some-odd years as a vampire, I can only give it one single merit, which I am going to use to my advantage right now.
"I need to go kill something."
//Click.//
Life's a funny thing, isn't it?
~End~