“Aftermath” [Buffyverse drabble]

[aadler]

Aftermath
Copyright March 2023

Setting: Buffy, Season 6; Angel, Season 3
Spoiler(s): “Life Serial” (Buffy S6-05), “Fredless” (Angel S3-05)

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Following the post-resurrection rendezvous, people on both sides are desperately curious about how the meeting went.

Buffy returns to Sunnydale to find her friends softly concerned and not knowing how to ask. She says that she can’t talk about it. (It’s true.)

Angel returns to the Hyperion to find his friends gently mocking the ‘grand drama’ of the vampire in love with a Slayer. They do ask; he refuses to tell them anything, and mocks them in turn.

She feels empty, alone, because she’s positive her friends can never understand.

He feels that he’s home again … because his do.


– end –
 

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And there you are. Don’t hesitate to offer commentary.

Comments

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is a scorching indictment on the Scooby gang or a look at Buffy's self isolation, certain she has to carry her burdens alone. Either way, Angel has the better end of the deal and that's surprising in it's own right. Accurate as well I believe. Given where the gang is in Season 6 I think I'd go with the first theory.

[aadler]

Since this took place two episodes before “Once More With Feeling”, the Scoobs genuinely didn’t understand one very important aspect … but my focus was on Buffy’s conviction that they couldn’t. Angel, by contrast, saw his crew’s very satire of the situation as evidence that they knew what it meant to him. So it was a sort of half-and-half mix of your two theories.