Buffy wasn't crying so much for him as for her life. So many goodbyes, some completely unintended. Xander and Willow hadn't shown up, and while Faith and Giles were here, she felt the lack intensely. She cried for her mother, for all the people she had been too late to save, for the ones who never had come back.
The tears were selfish, but long overdue.
"Thank you," she finally managed against his shirt, pulling away and doing her best to compose herself. Slayers didn't cry.
... okay, they did, but they felt wicked guilty afterwards.