Ducks: Queen of Frickin' Everything

This could fulfill either of the prompts, which were:

Weep not poor children
for life is this way
murdering beauty and
Passions.

and/or

Hush now dear children
it must be this way
to weary of life and
Deception

Both lines from "Come Little Children" by Edgar Allen Poe (who seriously needed some anti-depressants, man.)



Buffy sharpens a sword almost twice her size, face scrunched in concentration, and Angel realizes that he has known her for over 20 years. A moment for him, but a fourth or more of an average human lifespan.

He remembers when her eyes were full of hope, when she wasn't overcome by loss to the point where her smiles require effort. That's the joy of childhood versus the tragedy of growing up.

The blame for her lost innocence is only one of countless stains on his soul, and yet it is the one that aches most, an eternally un-healing wound.