Once Upon A Slayer.
Disclaimer:
Nothing is mine. I promise. Not even the plot, really…but the words are!
"Love given
or love taken is never lost. Once you've loved someone, the love is
always there, even after they're gone. Love is the thing that endures.
Mountains are torn down, built up, and torn down again over millions and
millions of years. Seas dry up. Deserts give way to new seas… But love is a
force, an energy, a power… Love is like a ray of
sunlight, traveling for all
eternity through space, deeper and deeper into infinity; like that ray of
light, it never ceases to exist. Love endures."
-Darkfall.
Part One: This Mourning.
(Angel's POV.)
"Somehow, they'd survived. It had been one of the most difficult days of
their lives. The ultimate price had been great, and it had been something to
haunt them forever.
Forever and a day. I'd promised her that.
Thinking of her made me chuckle, made me think of the good times. Damn, the
good times when she wasn't dead, when we weren't separated by highways and
byways.
Had there ever been a time when we were together?
Ha, Once upon a time, hahaha…it was funny, in an abstract way.
We'd just been once upon a time.
And then here I was, standing beside her grave, my knees trembling, dying roses
in his arms. How long had I stood here? Minutes? Hours? Days?
It felt long than that. I checked my Rolex, and found it'd only been fifteen
minutes.
Fifteen minutes felt like an eternity.
"Wow," A voice behind him interrupted his reverie, Damn…
"Since when did you grave-sit?"
"Cordelia." He spoke, it had been the first time for
days.
"That's my name, don't… um… overuse it…"
She shrugged, and then glanced to the slab of stone next to me.
"Having a chat with old Buffy? Possibly not a chat, could be a think…if she…"
She then turned to look at me, and noticing my must-be obvious discomfort,
paused…
"… Thinks…"
She grew silent, which caused us both to fall into another deep quiet, and
nothing and nobody moved for a few minutes. Until…
A hand poked from Buffy's grave, clawing through the dirt and leaves and false
grass…
A hand embossed with a glinting silver claddagh ring.
Cordelia spotted it first, and began pointing emphatically at the grave.
"Gah…gah…hand…Angel…hand…BUFFY!"
And I turned; stunned to see the golden head of my beloved popping like a daisy
from the dirt.
I froze."
"Buffy?"