Disclaimer: Nope, don't own anything. Do you honestly think I would treat Buffy and Angel so horribly if I did? I don't think so. And the poem "The Road Not Taken" is by Robert Frost.
Timeline: Two years after S5
Spoilers: Everything's fair game
Synopsis: Two roads diverged…
Distribution: Go ahead and take it. Just let me know where it's going
Author's Note: Obviously, since I wrote this, I'm not working on the Truth Hurts. But I will. Soon. This is just a quick fic that I wrote in study hall, while reading Frost. Actually, I was supposed to be reading Frost, instead I wrote this.
Rating: PG, there's nothing in here

***
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
***

That was it. The End of Days was over, and good had triumphed once more.

Buffy stood amongst the carnage. Bodies scattered the ground, from both sides. Mostly soldiers; Riley had returned to fight, bringing the troops with him.

But her friends had survived. Willow, Xander, Giles, Anya, Tara, Riley, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn were all still standing. And Angel…

He had fought the bravest of all. Throwing himself into unsurvivable situations, only to conquer them all.

And now he was standing on the lawn of the old high school, with the sun shining down on his face.

He looked like an angel, cast down from heaven, just for Buffy to marvel at.

While Riley knelt on a bent knee in front of her, asking for her hand in marriage.

***
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
***

He still loved her, he said. He couldn't continue his life without her anymore. He wanted to be with her forever.

And Buffy couldn't tear her eyes from Angel.

He turned with a smile on his face, a living human smile, only for her. He gazed at Buffy…

Then his eyes fell on Riley. His smile wiped from his face. She was going to marry. Marry someone who wasn't him. Now when he could finally give her a life she deserved.

Angel turned, defeated, and began to walk away. Just like he did four years ago.

***
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
***

Buffy saw this, and began to panic. No, he couldn't leave now. Not when they had a chance. But then she looked at Riley's smiling face. He could give her so much. Everything she had ever wanted in a normal relationship.

But he couldn't give her passion, and fire, and pain and a consuming love.

Buffy knew that this was it. This was the moment that would decide the rest of her life. Memories flashed through her head, urging her to decide between the two men in her life. Angel, or Riley.

And then Buffy saw her future, her death. And as she took her last breath, it was Angel's arms that held her. It was Angel who grieved his wife's death. And then she knew.

Buffy took off running, leaving a devastated Riley behind her. Legs pumping, lungs burning, Buffy rushed down the street, trying to catch up with Angel.And then she was there. Standing two feet from him. He looked at her with those big, luminous eyes that always caused her to lose herself.

Buffy took a deep breath, trying to form the words to explain to Angel how much she needed him, how much she wanted him, how much she loved him.

But she needed no words. Instead, she took one more step towards him, pulled his head down, and kissed him.

Angel's arms automatically circled Buffy's tiny waist, and Buffy's arms found their way around his neck.

And Buffy and Angel continued to kiss, the sun streaming down on them. They kissed for everything they had, and lost, and found again. And for everything they would have in the future. A future that was bright, and shining, and right in front of them.

***
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
***

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