TITLE: Quirky
AUTHOR: Ben is Glory
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: Joss, the Great One.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was written for my new favorite community, the 15minuteficlets community at livejournal. Therefore, it had to be written in fifteen minutes ((a dur…)). Word #47: Quirky. A little tribute to Anya. ::sniff::
FEEDBACK: Love it!

***

He often remembers her. Now his days are long, and his nights are even longer. Every night he lies awake in bed just staring up at the ceiling, thinking about her. It's been almost a month, but every single detail about her still burns in his memory. He's scared one day it will start to fade.

The first thing he thinks about is her laugh. So sweet and infectious. He remembers her scent, warm vanilla and honey. Sometimes he wishes he had a bottle of her perfume or maybe some of her shampoo. People always say that smell triggers memory, but he knows whatever's left that once belonged to her is now buried deep inside the earth. So is she.

Whenever he sees money he remembers. How could he ever forget? "Welcome to today's episode of 'Go Money, Go!' I hear it daily." But not anymore.

A thousand times a day he'll see a woman with blonde, brown, or even a slight twinge of red hair, and he hopes it is her. Color constantly changing, one of them could be. But in the back of his mind he knows that she is gone forever.

He still has his wedding band. Knows it doesn't mean much, but he keeps it anyway. Perhaps it's for comfort, knowing what he could have had. Maybe it's guilt, knowing if he had made a better decision, she might still be here today. Regardless, it is a constant reminder of her. He just wishes he had the engagement ring she kept.

The last thing he thinks about before he drifts off to sleep is the final night they spent together. It wasn't much, and he knows this. Still, he seeks solace in recognizing that while he was sitting around a table playing Dungeons and Dragons in an attempt to forget about the impending doom the next day would inevitably bring, his princess was safely dreaming away beside him.

She always was very quirky.