Disclaimer: I don't own anything. "The Old Ways" belongs to Loreena McKennitt.
Timeline: Somewhere in the future.
Summary: That last of my so-called "Darkness" series. Reunion.
Notes: Okay, hopefully I can now get over my songfic addiction. This is the last of My Loreena McKennitt songfics anyways. Thanks to everyone who has sent me feedback, especially on the last two songfics. I name no names, you know who you are. I also promised myself I would never beg for feedback, so I'm not. I'm fishing. There's a difference. So, comments, questions, complaints? scwlc@yahoo.ca

Somewhere in between she'd once said. They had met halfway from LA to Sunnydale. Now they stood on that point between land and sea. The night air swirling about them, it seemed appropriate for this couple who, themselves, met on that fine line between the opposite poles their natures dictated.

The point where they both balanced so precariously as the other end of the spectrum called. A border they had both crossed and recrossed uncountable times as the essence of their natures shifted, as changeable as the sea and surf, the desert sands. Yet always retaining their original essence.

//The thundering waves are calling me home to you//

He was born of cool wet lands, where the call of the ocean was everpresent. The impenetrable blackness of the sea at night spoke so clearly of his domain. And yet the sound the water made as it met with the land, that which held both opposition and symbiosis. For the earth holds the water, cleans it, yet is worn away by the tide.

//The pounding sea is calling me home to you//

She was one with the arid dryness of the desert, the rocks and stones. Bound to the earth, but drawn to the banks and beaches where the water that nourished the earth flowed. She was called to the surf, where the land met the water, and the two briefly merged to one. Like her and Angel.

//On a dark new year's night
On the west coast of Clare//

He had first seen her at the time most inimical to his kind. Even as the darkest night was strange and terrifying to humanity, the day held similar terrors for a vampire. Looking out the car window he had seen a girl whose nature was so very diametrically opposed to his she seemed to exude the sunlight that trapped him.

In that moment he was transported back to the days, centuries past, when he had also walked in the sun.

//I heard your voice singing//

Even across the sound of the traffic, the chattering of teenagers on escape from school, and the many sounds that were never heard in the night, her voice carried across to where he sat, entranced. Every stammered word and gesture of disbelief only brought him further under her spell.

//Your eyes danced the song
Your hands played the tune//

If he had been thinking objectively, he would have realised she was not the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was not the most graceful or socially accomplished either. She was ignorant of many things and seemed to lack any sort of intellectual depth.

In the instant he saw her though, she captivated.

//T'was a vision before me.//

The joy in life she exuded drew him in. Under his loving gaze the blonde hair, suffering from some frizz, became waves of sunshine, and the slight snub nose became adorable and gave her face character.

************************

//We left the music behind and the dance carried on//

Buffy had once played the game. She had dated and crushed and flirted. When she met Angel, she found herself drawn away from the complexities of play, and had withdrawn with him. The others had continued without her, occasionally trying to reinterest her in it. Angel had taken her away and taught her not to fear the darkness she was a part of.

//As we stole away to the seashore//

They stood now at that border between the solid comfort of land and the cool weightlessness of the sea. Standing and facing one another, each waited for the other to make the first move. To cross the line between the two of them. The water rushed up the beach and past their feet, then was swept back to the ocean carrying some of the beach sand with it, leaving the rest of the sand wet.

Buffy could feel his presence washing over her, taking a bit of herself back to him and leaving some of himself in her. The way he always had.

//We smelt the brine, felt the wind in our hair
And with sadness you paused.//

That beach was one they had been to so frequently they had carved out places that were theirs. Not too far down the beach was the dock where he had once tried to leave her. They had fought demons and each other there. They had talked together about life and their love for each other.

//Suddenly I knew that you'd have to go
My world was not yours, your eyes told me so//

It was on that beach that she had seen the first hints in his eyes that he felt he could not stay. Maybe he was right in some ways. He had been so wrong in others. She waited for him to break the tension.

*************************

Angel waited for Buffy to cross the distance between them.

//Yet it was there I felt the crossroads of time//

The first time they had come to the beach together, he had looked at her as she spoke and knew that he would have to leave her. He could see light within her, untarnished by the blackness that made him less than a man.

//And I wondered why.//

Sometimes he had to ask himself what reason he had for leaving. He stood, facing the woman who was once his lover and he knew. Still, he was drawn to her and he could not turn away. They shared a bond that death itself had not broken, and the separation was torment.

*************************

//As we cast our gaze on the tumbling sea
A vision came o'er me//

They stood together, separated by time and a small stretch of sand, both lost in their thoughts. Both wanting to cross the distance and heal the wounds that had pulled them apart, neither wanting to reopen them enough to allow it. So they waited.

//Of thundering hooves and beating wings//

The pair remembered the times here, both embattled and peaceful. The clashing of weapons to the sound of the tide rushing in, the sound of animals fleeing from their laughter in startlement.

//In clouds above.//

They had memories and dreams attached to this piece of shoreline. Airy fancies, concrete desires, and the reminders of a hundred intimate moments. None were so horribly intimate, and yet completely impersonal as that final separation years before. Angel had faced her then, surrounded, not by the smell of the salty air, the sound of the waves crashing to ground, and the pinpricks of starlight, but by sirens, smoke, and the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.

//As you turned to go I heard you call my name,//

He had stood, as he did now, silent, with both waiting for the other to make a move. Together or apart. He had made the move then, strengthened by his resolve. She had heard him call to her silently as he walked away.

//You were like a bird in a cage spreading its wings to fly//

She had respected his decision, perhaps knowing that he had needed the time to find who he was separate from her. The parts of him that were not hers, but himself. He had been trapped all his long life, and that moment he had taken flight for freedom.

//"The old ways are lost," you sang as you flew//

Things could not be the same between them as they were then. Both knew that, and he lacked the resolve that had given both the strength to be apart. Neither had any reason to be separate from the other anymore. Each had discovered themselves, from the depths to which they could fall, to the heights to which they could rise.

//And I wondered why.//

Now they stood and waited. One had to make the move. Together or apart. Stay or go. Resolve wavered, and for a moment it seemed he would choose separation. That decided her.

It was her turn to choose for both.

//The thundering waves are calling me home to you//

One step, then another.

//The pounding sea is calling me home to you//

Then they were home.

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