Author’s Note: This is a tearjerker. Belated present for Bloody Tears Of Life.

*~*

It is the little things that count in the end; the actions which you take on a normal day, when no one is watching you, when no one is looking.

It is the touch of your hand, the sparkle of your eyes. The words you spoke while saying good bye.

In the end the true measure of a person is not how they died or the heroic actions that they took. It is what they said when it didn’t matter.

These are the thoughts that were reflected in his blue eyes.

It didn’t matter that the apocalypse was done. That they had won one more time; that they were heroes of the night.

For she was gone and he remembered the moments in between; he remembered the laughter and the tears, the joy of everyday life, of love.

He lived for her. He watched them grow old, the witch, the carpenter, the magical key. Through their eyes he saw her legacy live on; the laughter, the joy – their humanity anchoring him to this world.

Slowly he regained his purpose, he lived through their moments.

And years passed, decades and slowly the remnants of Sunnydale faded away.

And in one more moment he was alone. The last Summers took her breath, the final battle had been won and under the brilliant blue sky he was no more.

Moments they live forever.