Spike: You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love till it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends.
-- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode Lover's Walk
X X X X X
Their reconciliation didn't last.
It couldn't have lasted. It was just ingrained in their natures: They hated each other too much to be able to stay together.
Their breakup didn't last, either.
It couldn't have lasted. They loved each other too much to be able to stay apart.
And so the endless cycle continued: They loathe each other; they recognize the loathing masks something deeper; they ignore that something deeper until it consumes them; they are consumed; then someday something sparks the loathing all over again.
And they'll never break free.
Nor will they find more than temporary solace in anyone else. Duncan, Leo, Troy; Caitlin, Hannah, whoever. No one else is the other that they need; no one else is the person that makes them the happiest.
The saddest thing about it is that they know all this while it's going on. They do.
And yet they've both been hurt too many times: By their parents, by their friends, and most importantly, by each other.
They've fought 10,000 wars, and can never surrender that final part of themselves: that part that's so scared of being hurt, because it's been hurt so often before.
And they'll fight another one tomorrow.
But for right now . . .
As they lie in each other's arms once again . . .
It all seems to have been worth it.
X X X X X
A moment of peace is worth every war behind us
-- The Indigo Girls, "You and Me of the 10,000 Wars"