Title: Everything Dies

Rating: T

Summary: An immortal Buffy and soul bound Angel take walk after The End of Days has passed.

Disclaimer: If I owed them, Angel never would have left and his soul issues would have been sorted out in season 3.

They were walking together, looking at what used to the human world. Now a days, they were lucky if they could find anything alive, human and demon alike. She plucked off a withering rose petal.

"It's dying." she whispered, gesturing to the rose bush.

"Everything dies."

"Except us."

"We die, we just don't stay dead."

"I never thought I would live to see this... the end of days. I always thought I'd be dust in the wind by the time this happened."

"And I feared I would see this, that I wouldn't be dust and that I would be alone. But I'm not alone."

"No, we're not." The quiet of the almost completely baren world enveloped them as they continued walking. "It's funny, The First thought it killed me or at least seriously wounded me but in some bizarro "let's screw with Buffy some more" twist of fate it only made me stronger, immortal. It's not funny haha, just funny."

"An immortal Slayer, if the Council was still around there would be a whole lot of glasses being cleaned."

"I'm glad you're not dust, I don't think I could handle eternity without you. I wouldn't survive it, not emotionally or mentally anyway."

"You would survive it because it's who you are."

"But I wouldn't want to survive it without you. I lived most of my mortal Slayer life constantly sacrifing little pieces of myself everyday, and in some cases whole chunks of my heart and soul. I don't want to do that as an immortal. I just want to live and be as happy as I possibly can be, with you. Always with you."

"You'll have me as long as you want me. Always."

"That's the whole point." The silence settled over them again, and still they continued walking. "Do you think this was destiny? Me becoming immortal? You having your soul bound as a reward? Us?"

"I think... I know in my soul that I was made to love you and to be loved by you. Destiny or fate, whatever you want to call it. I'm yours now and always, soul and demon, forever. Nothing, not time, space, or other people can change what's in my soul."

"If I could die, would you let me?"

"I would die with you."

"Would he stay with me?" Angel didn't need to ask who "he" was.

"He wouldn't leave you Buffy, he belongs to you just like I do. And you belong to us." Buffy had the mark, his mark, on her neck to prove him right. Not that she would argue with him about that, in her heart she's been his since the first time he kissed her.

"Would he turn me?"

"Eventually, maybe." Angel sighed.

Angel still, after all this time, didn't like talking about Angelus but he knew there was a part of Buffy, a darkness in her, that craved that side of him. They had days filled with such love and tenderness that if it were still possible he would lose his soul in her all over again, and then they had nights occupied by pain and passion to the extent that he sometimes questioned the state of his soul. It was balance they had perfected in the last 100 years since the world as they knew it ended. Angel knew they would never really talk about everything there was to talk about between them, not because they didn't have the time to courage but because it was rare for Buffy want to talk about the past. It was easier to live in that moment, to be happy with each other rather than bringing up the hurt and pain from over a lifetime ago.

"I love you." Her voice was soft and sweet, breaking him out of his thoughts. He reached over, tangling his fingers with hers and knocking the dying rose out of her hand. He watched it fall to the ground as he whispered,

"I love you too."

Yes everything died, even them. And who knows, maybe one day they might stay dead but for now, he would live and he would live for her and with her. Always with her.

I've posted a companion/parrell piece with Buffy and Angelus as well.