Looks like we both got what we need

So one of my numero uno favourite tropes is -- well. It’s hard to define. Not exactly exes who become friends; that’s nice but doesn’t turn my narrative crank. It’s people who loved each other once, and who honour that even though they’re not the same people any more and the relationship is so different. Enemies who are ex-best friends or ex-lovers and can’t let go of that connection is an obvious, intense example of it; Captain Jack letting John in close enough to get hurt (and John leaving him a way out), Hanna and Mona slipping into and out of their old BFF dynamic, Giles and Ethan having drinks together.

There’s this Buffy fic I read years ago and I remember basically nothing about it except for two lines.

SPIKE: You were my absolute everything, once upon a time.
ANGEL: But not this time.

It’s just. The enmity, and the acknowledgement that that old relationship doesn’t exist any more -- but it did once and that’s important. It gives me a lot of feelings.

All this is to say that Pretty Little Liars ( pulled off something impressive )