If The World Is Ending
by thedtree

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, in any way, shape or form. So not.
Summary: If the world is ending, Angel doesn't see a need for honesty.
A/N: A very short drabble/ficlet. Set after 'Rain Of Fire'/'Apocalypse Nowish', except, what if the Rain of Fire hadn't stopped?

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If the world was lost, and if there was nothing they could do, he would surrender. He never thought of surrender... no, that's a lie, he's thought it many times, but only with himself. Death and hell were beckoning constantly, a frail line that many times he had crossed, if only in his mind. A surrender so global, so all encompassing he had not contemplated, for in his mind he was never alive to witness it. He'd always go down fighting first.

The sky bleed fire, but there were no clouds crying. He was not alone, and he had not outlived the people he wanted so desperately to call friends if not family. They were with him, in his home, his hotel, huddled together in a smorgasboard of human and inhuman warmth. What separated them was no longer important in the light of the unnatural tears that gave the world no more light than it wanted to.

He wanted to cry, to laugh, to feel human. Because if this was the end of the world, he would not only surrender, he would lie. To himself and to the others, he would lie, pretend it was okay, pretend to have hope. He knew better, but the world was lost so it didn't really matter.

Cordelia and Connor were lost in the fray, outside in the streets of Los Angeles. He knew he'd already lost them, knew also that if they weren't dead already they would be in a short while anyway, just as everyone else. It didn't make it hurt less. There was no peace he could make with the loss of his child.

But he was lying, he was pretending there was light in the world, light far brighter than the sky on fire. He clung to the person next to him - Wesley - who clung back just as hard, and nothing was inappropriate, so he hugged harder, seeking the warmth. Watched as Fred, Gunn and Lorne did the same. Stood there, silent, pretending the world wasn't ending.

- Fin