Graveyard: Early Monday Evening

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

It was her last patrol in Fandom. After that it was over the causeway and then... whatever came next. She'd sent out a *handwavey* e-mail and left notes for various people to let them know if they wanted to see her off, that this would be the place for it.

Sitting on a gravestone, Mel took one last look around. Could someone really feel sentimental about a graveyard?

[Goodbye post for Mel. If you think you got notification then you did. Will be subject to bouts of AFK-ness throughout the day.]

Comments

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

Mel looked a bit uncomfortable. "Well there's this great Waffle shop over in Alexandria and then... well home," she lied.

[needsaparrot]

The question he should've asked, and he knew it, was 'How the hell are you planning to get home?' but he also knew, as they all did now, that there were ways; Willow had managed it once.

What came out instead was, "By yourself?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Not many people want to hang out in a future where the shower is just a leaky pipe in an alley," Mel said trying to avoid the question. "But yeah. Can't have the future without a slayer, right?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander glanced down at the graves under their feet, not really registering them, just thinking of how many futures there were that didn't have Slayers, and seemed to get along just fine, more or less.

Then again, those futures didn't have Hellmouths, either.

"Slayer's supposed to have a Watcher," he said, looking up. "What about me and Dawn?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"You're both still going to be my watchers," Mel said. "I wouldn't take anyone else. Even if they weren't some crazy assed lunatic who liked to set themselves on fire."

[needsaparrot]

"It's good you have standards." Xander was still frowning even as he nodded. "It's not like I can say you don't know what you're doing; hell, you've learned more about being a Slayer than I'll ever know about being a Watcher. But..."

But he still didn't like the idea of Mel going off by herself. Or this whole saying goodbye concept.

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Don't sell yourself short," Mel said quietly. "Every time my life fell apart you were there to help me sort it out. When I got out of line you knew just what to say to get me on the right track. You may not wear tweed or be able to name off the names of ancient texts at the drop of a hat... but you're exactly what a slayer needs."

[needsaparrot]

"Oh, I can reel off the names at the drop of a hat," Xander said, and if it looked like his cheeks were turning red it was a DAMNED LIE OKAY? "I'm just not allowed to read out loud from them. Fire issues."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Oh, shut up," Mel said and suddenly followed the urge to glomp onto Xander.

[needsaparrot]

"I'm gonna miss you so much. I mean, who the hell's gonna remind me not to set myself on fire now?"

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

"Don't be stupid," Mel said. "I'll have to come back and kick your ash."

[needsaparrot]

"...I love you only slightly more now than I did five minutes ago."