Buffy/Angel Fic: IWRY Marathon
1999
There has never been such a thing as an innocent touch between them.
Her hand lands on his, and she stares, understanding what she’s just done. The shock of the contact is a current that passes through both of them and snaps back on itself again, drawing them into its power.
He kisses her. Hard and fast and warm… Oh God, he’s so warm… ( Read more... )
And of course it was lovely to revisit this and give it another good read. I'm kind of fascinated at the way B/A writers are divided between the Shanshu as a happy ending, and the preference for Angel as a vampire, especially since I'm not really sure which one I am. What this particular story does for me, though, is show a comparison between the two kinds of happiness that they could have together, and you made it beautifully clear that the love between them isn't diminished either way: it's just the circumstances giving them trouble, like it's always been.
The other thing I love is that you held so faithfully to the timeline. Everyone seems to like writing Angel dreams for Buffy, but these actually mattered: they mark the anniversary of the most significant day of her life that never happened, and they tell her (and us) exactly what she missed, and oh man did the early ones ever hurt bad when we had to see her waking up and being back in the hardest times of her real life. So it was especially interesting to see them develop into something she and Angel were better off without.
Another recurring B/A theme that really touches me is the idea that Buffy and Angel have earned their happiness-- not earned each other, because that's not the way love works, but fought and suffered and eventually found the reward for all they sacrificed. Buffy really did have to go through those terrible post-S5 years, and Angel really did have to give up his humanity, not because it was best for their relationship but because it was the right thing to do. In the end, that kind of selflessness is what validates the greatest of love stories.
Let's see, what else...well, I could read novels worth of your casual conversational Buffy/Angel dialogue, even if there were no plot to speak of. The little moments of humor were just right. I can't tell exactly what, if anything, you changed from my suggestions, but I'll just go ahead and say that nothing 'feels' off to me in this version.
Bonus points (as if you needed them!) for the baby named Kathy. Awwwwww.
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