Your picks for everything fannish

I love rare pairings and this particular pair tends to come about under very specific circumstances - Buffy's death or absence. The wrenching grief that both characters share over a sister and a lover that they've lost is haunting and lovely, as are the inevitable comparisons made between the two Summers girls. The first three fics reach through the numbness of mourning and/or sacrifice to touch the fire beneath. The last two non-shippy fics explore the obstacles of timelessness vs. youth and mortality. 

1. Departure by only_passenger
NC-17, post-NFA
Summary: A few years post-Chosen, Dawn lives with and cares for a post-traumatic stress disordered Buffy in Rome. When a trip to Los Angeles brings Dawn and Angel face to face, she must decide whose life she is going to live.      

Review: It's hard to know what to say about this story other than it's amazing and possibly my favorite one shot ever. Pass writes things real and hard and gritty, and she didn't pull her punches here. This story explores the difficult realities of what it means to be a caretaker to an ill person, the stresses it causes, the sacrifice it takes. Although the fic is really about Dawn's journey as she makes her way in the world, Angel's presence is like the catalyst for a big bang. He's dynamite and Dawn has the fire to make him explode.

( The hardest thing in the world is to live in it )