The Dark Rose

By darkmagickwillow

Copyright © May 2003

Chapter 26 (Sunrise)

"Why are we going to the Bronze?" Willow asked, gazing at Tara with her best pleading puppy eyes.

"Because of your birthday," Tara answered, surprisingly patient despite all the times that Willow had asked her this question.

"This isn't a joke about my age, is it?" Willow asked in an ironic tone. "You know, bronze age, and all that."

Tara couldn't stop herself from smiling, but Willow wasn't going to be able to tease the secret out of her with jokes either. "No, honey. It's so we can dance."

Willow rubbed her belly through the slippery fabric of her scarlet dress. "I had too much dessert to dance," she suggested innocently, encouraged by Tara's small revelation but certain there was more to the surprise than dancing.

"You knew about this before dessert," Tara answered with an oblique glance.

"But their tiramisu was perfect," Willow protested. "I couldn't let any of mine go to waste."

"Or mine either," Tara said, turning to poke Willow gently in the stomach with her index finger. "But you knew we were coming here."

Seeing that her first objection was going nowhere, Willow changed tactics. "I can barely walk in this, much less dance," she said, plucking at the long skirt of her dress. Only Tara could have talked her into wearing a dress, but despite her complaints she loved it. Tara's breathless reaction to seeing her wear it for the first time had convinced her that the dress was a good thing.

Tara took Willow's hand, raised it up, and twirled her around, watching as the hem of the skirt flared out with a proprietary smile. "See," Tara said. "You can dance."

As Tara released her hand, Willow looked up and down the street, but thankfully found no one to see her. "Okay, okay," she said. "I can dance." As she looked around again, it struck her that that the street was too quiet for a weekday night near the Bronze. "Tara?" she asked uneasily. "Where are all the people, the music?"

"They're around," Tara said too quickly, taking Willow's hand to pull her toward the door. "It's perfectly normal." She had to get inside before Willow suspected anything more.

Willow dragged behind Tara, feeling that there was something she wasn't understanding here. She reached out with her otherworldly senses, but found no traces of darkness near them. Shrugging, she let Tara pull her through the door into the brightly lit room.

There were floating balloons, colorful streamers, and a small table piled high with brightly wrapped presents. That wasn't too much of a surprise, but what made her stop in her tracks were the people. There were so many of them. There were all the girls from the campus Wicca group where she was acting as the adviser, the previous one having mysteriously disappeared. And there was Giles. And Dawn. And ...

"Xander!" she exclaimed. His hair was showing the first signs of greying, but he was still strong and fit from years of working with his hands. He looked comfortable in a dark blue button-down shirt and khakis. His dark eyes were warm as he looked at her.

She dashed forward and wrapped her arms around her old friend. After the briefest of hesitations, she felt his arms wrap around her too, squeezing her tightly as if only with this touch could he believe she was real. A long moment later, they relaxed their embrace enough for Willow to look up at Xander. Both their eyes were wet with tears.

Tara smiled broadly as she watched the two old friends embrace. She had been worried about this reunion, but she knew Willow missed her friends of the past even if she was too afraid to call them on her own.

"Will," Xander said. "You haven't changed a bit."

She paused a moment, looking closely at her old friend, noting the scars and wrinkles that hadn't been there before. "You have though," Willow said. "You're more ... solid."

"That's because he keeps eating those ice cream bars," a familiar, matter-of-fact voice interrupted from behind her. "I told him to stop, but-"

"Anya," Willow said with a smile, as she turned to face the woman who it seemed had married her best friend after all. The years had been good to Anya. She was older, but the bitterness Willow remembered was gone. The lines on her face told a story of laughter and smiles. She found hope in that. If Anya could find a mortal life and love after a thousand years of being a demon, then surely Willow could too. "It's good to see you."

"That's not what you said the last time," Anya pointed out.

Willow couldn't help herself from glancing back at Tara as she recalled the disastrous wish she'd made the time she'd met Anya.

Tara took Willow's look as her cue to step forward. "Hi, I'm-"

"Tara!" Anya exclaimed, enthusiastically wrapping her arms around the surprised girl. "It really is you! It sounded like you on the phone, but I wasn't about to believe it until I saw you. How have you been?"

Tara wasn't quite sure what to say, and looked over at Willow. She thought that she'd be ready for meeting people who knew her past self after meeting Dawn, but it wasn't easy to explain who she was. Her understanding was intuitive, emotional, and didn't lend itself easily to words.

"Oh, sorry," Anya said, noticing Tara looking away from her. She released her embrace and clapped her hands over her mouth for a moment. "I shouldn't have asked with you being dead and all. People tend to be sensitive about that. I'm just not used to this sort of situation any longer."

"I'm sure it's okay, An," Xander said, putting a reassuring hand on his wife's shoulder. He looked over at Tara. "Tara," he said. "It's great to see you." He paused a moment, then added, "And thank you."

Tara blinked, looking confusedly at Xander, but Anya interrupted before she could say anything.

"Thank you for ... you know," Anya said, silently clapping the heels of her hands together and leaving Tara completely mystified.

"I'll explain later," Willow whispered in Tara's ear. She hadn't told Tara about the wish Anya had granted her and Tara's subsequent breaking of Anya's talisman.

"I don't mean to interrupt," Dawn said, her long, forest green skirt swishing back and forth as she walked over to Willow. She was accompanied by a lanky, blonde teenager who looked a bit like her. "But I have someone I'd like you to meet. Willow, this is Hope. Hope, this is Willow, your mother's best friend."

"Hope," Willow said softly, regarding the young girl with a sense of wonder. She hadn't known that Buffy had a daughter. The name was so appropriate though. Buffy had lost hope after Glory had arrived and hadn't found it again when Willow had brought her back. Now Willow saw that Buffy had found hope in her life after all. She opened her arms to offer a hug to the girl. "It's wonderful to meet you."

Hope wrapped strong arms around Willow. "You don't look like I imagined," Hope confessed once they broke their embrace.

"Younger?" Tara asked. She had been wondering how everyone would react to Willow looking just like she did in her pictures from university almost twenty years ago.

"No," Hope said. "Shorter."

"Shorter?" Willow said with a surprised laugh.

"You were always such a big part of mom's stories," Hope said, "that it just seemed like you'd be bigger too."

"I told you I was the tallest," Dawn pointed out. After Xander coughed discreetly, she amended her statement, adding, "of the women."

"I know, Aunt Dawn," Hope said, "but some of your stories are hard to believe; all that stuff about portals to other dimensions."

Dawn shot Tara and Willow an amused glance. Her niece gave her no more respect for being the Key than she had given Buffy for being the Slayer when she was a teenager.

Willow turned to Xander and Anya. "Don't you two have any children?"

"We left Arsinoe and Ptolemy at home with a sitter," Xander said. "They're still a bit young."

"And we didn't feel Sunnydale was safe," Anya added, practical as always.

"That too," Xander admitted.

"Arsinoe and Ptolemy?" Willow said, raising an eyebrow. "When did you become a history buff?"

"He didn't," Anya interjected. "I didn't like any of the modern names, and it's not like anyone we knew had common names."

"So," Tara said. "Presents, then cake?" Xander's stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. "Okay, cake, then presents."

Everyone laughed.

After cake and conversation, Willow sat at the small table opening her gifts. She paused a moment to speak with each guest, still amazed at how many people had showed up for her first birthday celebration in years. In a brief pause between guests, she looked across the room to check on Tara and found her in an animated conversation with Spirit, who must have slipped in once she'd finished her patrol. She was glad the two of them had gotten past their fight. Friends were important, and she didn't want Tara to make the same mistakes she had.

"Willow," Giles said, startling her. She glanced up to see him looking in the same direction she had been. "I'm glad everything worked out between you and Tara."

Willow was surprised to see the warm approval in Giles' eyes as he met her gaze. She had never expected to see that look from him again. "Thanks, Giles," she said. "That means a lot to me."

"What are you planning to do now that you're staying in Sunnydale?" he inquired.

"I'm not quite certain," Willow admitted. "I'm happy the Wicca group decided that they didn't need a faculty member to be their adviser, but that doesn't take too much of my time. I'm thinking of going back to school, but that feels a little weird at my age."

"You should get a real job," Anya interrupted. She was carrying a medium-sized box with an orange bow. "I didn't go to school and look at how well I'm doing."

"Still partners in retail?" Willow asked, looking over to Giles.

"No," Giles said with a look of relief. "I'm happier in the stacks of a library than behind a cash register. Anya's taken over the business."

"We moved the Magic Box up to San Francisco after Giles left," Anya agreed, then added excitedly, "I've got three shops now, and we're planning on opening another one in L.A."

"Life is good?" Willow asked.

Anya looked thoughtfully at Willow for a moment before speaking. "It's not always easy; I've gone through so many changes. I spent over a millennium as a demon without experiencing nearly as much of life as I have these last twenty years. But I've got my children, Xander, my friends, and my business, everything I ever wanted without knowing it."

Willow looked at Anya, surprise showing on her face as she realized how well Anya had understood the subtext of her question. She wasn't sure what to say.

"I'll leave you two to talk," Giles said. "I should go check on Spirit."

"Speaking of the new Slayer," Anya said, deliberately changing the mood. "Tara was telling me about your adventure with our old friend Amy, but Spirit interrupted before she could tell me how you survived the 'true name' spell."

"I'm Jewish," Willow said simply.

"Ah," Anya said, immediately understanding with her centuries of experience with magicks. "So you have a Hebrew name given to you by your rabbi. But wait, wouldn't there be a record of that?"

"I helped my rabbi store all the temple records on a computer one summer," Willow smiled. "Somehow my records got lost."

"Planning ahead," Anya said. "The secret to business success. Thinking of which..." She put the box she was carrying on the table. "This should help you with that. Planning ahead, that is."

Willow smiled as she took a crystal ball from the box. This present was something to share with Tara. Tara had told her about the accident with the bowl of seeing. With this, they could share the seeing together with no secrets between them. "Thank you," she said to Anya.

As the pile diminished, Dawn and Hope came to her together. Hope was holding a tiny festively wrapped box with an ornate green ribbon.

"We got you a gift together," Dawn said. "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," Willow said, gesturing around her. "I wasn't expecting any of this. Just dinner and a night with my girl, which isn't just at all of course; I'm so happy with every night that we have together, especially nights when we have something to celebrate, though I haven't usually been much for birthdays, but you know what I mean, right?"

Dawn and Hope both laughed. "So I see that Willowbabble hasn't entirely disappeared," Dawn said.

"So what did you get me?" Willow said as she looked at the little box on the table in front of her.

"You'll have to open it and find out," Hope said solemnly.

Opening the box turned out to be more difficult than Willow had anticipated; it was very tightly taped and wrapped, defying her attempts to open it with her fingers. Once she finally got all the paper off, revealing a small jewelry box, the size for a ring, she looked at Dawn. "Is there something you want to tell me?" she said with a wry smile.

Dawn slapped her lightly on the shoulder. "No," she said with a smile. "Now go ahead and open it."

Inside the padded box, Willow saw a ring that looked very familiar. "Is it?" she asked, her voice catching in her throat as she looked up at Hope and Dawn.

Hope nodded. "She wanted you to have it."

It was the friendship ring that Buffy had given her in high school, the one she and Tara had used to access the nether realms to discover that Faith had switched bodies with Buffy. She had left it behind when she had departed Sunnydale long years ago, never thinking to see it or her friends again.

"Thank you," Willow murmured softly. Her hands trembled as she took the ring from the box. It meant so much to her that Buffy had kept this ring for her, never giving up hope that she would return some day.

Once Dawn and Hope left, Xander appeared and handed her a present wrapped in bright red paper. When Willow tore open the wrapping paper and saw what was inside, she paused a moment. Then she removed the familiar picture in its hand-carved wooden frame from its wrapping and held it up to regard it closely. She used to keep this picture in her room when she lived here before.

The three of them - Buffy, Xander, and herself - looked so young and so happy together. She remembered the day when they had taken the picture. It had just been an ordinary Saturday, no school and no apocalypse looming over them. They'd gone to the mall, seen a movie, had lunch, window shopped. It hadn't seemed like anything special at the time, but as she held this frozen moment of time captured on film, it felt like one of the most important days of her life.

"I hope you like it, Will," Xander said. "I carved the frame myself ... and well, I've always kept the picture in the hope that it would be like that again. I know it can't be, though. It's just ..."

"It can be, Xander," Willow said suddenly, looking away from the picture of her past and taking Xander's hand in hers. "I mean," she hesitated for a moment, "we've both changed and we can't go back to the past, but that doesn't mean we can't be happy as friends again. I'd like to try, at least." She looked up at him with hope in her eyes.

"I would too," Xander said. This time there was no hesitation when he embraced her.

Willow smiled as she saw Tara, resplendent in her gold and green dress, approaching them. Xander followed her gaze and smiled too. "I'll leave you to your lady, Will. We'll talk tomorrow, okay?" She squeezed his hand in promise of their friendship, then her eyes were only for her beloved.

"My dance?" Tara asked softly.

Willow let Tara take her hand and lead her out to the dance floor as a slow song started. Tara had her hands on Willow's waist, while Willow's hands were on Tara's shoulders as they began to dance.

"Good birthday?" Tara asked.

"Best birthday," Willow said. Her smile was so bright that it dazzled Tara.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell me that your name was Sarah," Tara said. She whispered the last word discreetly in Willow's ear.

"Sorry," Willow said, tenderly tucking a strand of blonde hair behind Tara's ear. "I didn't think it would ever be so important as it was that night."

"I'm just glad we got through everything," Tara said with a sigh of relief.

"We didn't." Willow shook her head. When Tara gave her a look of confusion, she continued, "All that was the past. Everything's just beginning for us."

"I'm so proud of you," Tara said. "Everything you've been through ... and you came out of it with such hope and love."

"It's you," Willow said. "You always make me feel special. How do you do that?" She cocked her head as she looked into the love and clarity of Tara's eyes.

"Magic," Tara said, her smile starting crookedly at one side of her mouth before blooming into the fullness of her joy.

They embraced, putting their heads on each other's shoulders as they moved to the music. Blissfully unaware of the other couples on the dance floor, Willow and Tara floated slowly up until they were several feet above the floor, gently swaying in each others' arms.

The night air was cool and crisp on Willow's cheeks as Tara pulled her through the back door of the mansion and into the garden. In the quiet darkness, it felt like the two of them were the only people in the world as they walked hand in hand through the small labyrinth of hedge-lined paths. They had just begun reclaiming the backyard, its myriad of plants tangled and unkempt after years of neglect.

Willow had always felt so alone in this hour before the faint glimmering of dawn would appear on the horizon, but tonight felt different, a time reserved for the two of them. She let Tara lead her by the hand until they reached the center of the garden, where layers of blankets and two sleeping bags were set out in the middle of a circle of grass enclosed by neatly trimmed hedges. She looked inquiringly at Tara, wondering when she'd done all this.

"You were telling me you missed the stars," Tara said, sitting down on top of one of the sleeping bags. Her face was faintly luminous in the darkness.

"I do," Willow smiled, taking the other sleeping bag for herself. She lay on her back to better watch the stars. "You know, I used to love to look up at them when I was little. They're supposed to make you feel all insignificant, but ... they made me feel like ... like I was in space ... part of the stars." She pointed up at the starry sky. "There's ... the Big Pineapple."

"You know, I'm not sure I remember that one," Tara said with a slight frown.

"Oh, it's, it's a major one," Willow said with a knowing smile. She pointed more carefully this time. "See those three bright stars right over there?"

Tara wriggled across the plush sleeping bags to put her head on Willow's shoulder so she could look along her pointing arm. "Yeah."

"And see those stars along there?" Willow said, sweeping her finger across the sky while she wrapped her other arm around Tara. "That's the bottom of the pineapple."

"It's big." Tara pressed her hip into Willow's.

"Hence the name," Willow said in a mock pedantic tone of voice. She dropped her arm and looked at Tara, her face suddenly serious. "They're your constellations, you know? The ..." She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "The past Tara said that the real ones never made sense to her, so she created her own and taught them to me. Ever since, I've looked for them in the night sky instead of the ancient ones."

"Teach me," Tara said, her lips slightly parted as she turned her head to see the love and tenderness in Willow's eyes. There was no searching in those eyes, looking for someone else wearing her features, but only a small worry that she might hurt the one she loved by mentioning the past.

Willow traced the outline of Tara's cheek with her fingers, as if trying to memorize her features in the darkness. "I love you," she whispered, bringing her lips to Tara's in a sweet, short kiss.

"Always," Tara promised with a soft sigh.

After a long moment of looking into each others' eyes, Willow resumed the conversation. "See those stars over there?" she said, pointing at another loose grouping of stars. "That's 'Short Man Looking Uncomfortable.'"

They both giggled.

"Uh," Willow said, pausing a moment as she searched the night sky. "There's 'Moose Getting a Sponge Bath,' and over there's the 'Little Pile o'Crackers.'"

"Tha-that was a bit of a stretch," Tara said with a hint of a laugh in her voice.

"You do it," Willow said. "What would you call ... mm, that one?" She pointed at a sheaf of stars almost directly above them.

"Hmm, let's see," Tara said, gazing into the vault of heaven for a long moment. Then she smiled with certainty in her eyes, as she turned to Willow and said, "Two Roses Intertwined."

Willow looked up into the heavens and smiled, finding two roses made of faint tracings of starlight nestled together in the heavens. As she brought her gaze down from the stars, she saw the faint pink glimmering of dawn.

Tara sat up to better see the horizon, her eyes following Willow's gaze. Willow pulled herself up to join her, scooting back between Tara's knees. Tara wrapped her arms around Willow, bringing her close to her chest, and rested her head on Willow's shoulder, as they watched the beginning of a new day together.

The End