Disclaimer: They are not mine. Because if they were, things would have gone more like this.

A/N: Written as a fill for Icarus_Chained at Comment-Fic who prompted "a moment of pure joy."

And for MaireAilbhe, who pleaded me to write it about Willow and Tara instead of Angel.

Angel lost his soul in a moment of pure joy; Willow will never know why he let it be so short, because hers needs to last forever. She makes it last through the sun rising, and Xander's muffled voice outside, and she even makes it last until the bullet shreds through the poster over their heads and dusts them with plaster, but then it's time for their moment to wait, because of Buffy, because of Warren, because they have a job to do. But it's okay, they can return to their moment soon, they've got the rest of their lives.