W/T Season 3 Y'all by JustSkipIt

Disclaimer: Willow and Tara and any other character that appeared in the syndicated television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is property of Joss and Mutant Enemy, I’m only borrowing them and am not making any money off them Thanks.

Author's Notes: You remember how Willow was in a coma and came out of it in Becoming? And how Buffy was accused of killing Kendra? Well, Willow’s parents actually took some notice of those events. That and the fact that when they got to the hospital, she had a boyfriend they had never met: a musician! So they did what any caring loving parents would do. That’s right: stay home more and pay more attention to their daughter right? Wrong! They sent her to boarding school out in the beautiful Hill County of Texas.

Summary: Willow's parents send her to boarding school for her senior year. And guess who's there?

She instinctively grabbed for a stake as she awoke to the sound of the conductor announcing the Amarillo stop. Looking around, it took a moment to get her bearings in the near dark of the train car. Her laptop lay open on the table top in front of her. By the lack of even the quiet hum sound, she knew that it wasn’t just sleeping; but that the battery was completely dead. "Great," she thought, "now won’t get any more work done on that analysis and I’ll be even more useless." Without the computer, she didn’t even know what time it was since her watch didn’t have a light on it. "I guess I feel asleep with the rocking motion of the train," she concluded. Packing the laptop in its case, she noted that everyone else in the car was asleep and decided to stop at the restroom before seeing if there was any coffee available in the lounge car. Even without her computer, she felt like she could work on her mapping project.

On her way from the restroom to the lounge, she asked a conductor the time (1:30) and how far it was to her stop. Shocked that she still had so far to go, he informed her somewhat snootily that "Texas is a big state and it takes a while to get across the whole thing." Laughing, Clarence continued, "and you ain’t even goin all the way across."

Grumpy, tired, and mad about this whole trip, she moved away from the man toward the lounge. After two days on this train, at least she had an appreciation for the coffee. She decided to work in the lounge for a while so that she could continue getting fill-ups. After all, she didn’t need to sleep now; she could save that for once she got where she was going. Surely, there wouldn’t be anything worth staying awake for in Texas anyway.

The map of Sunnydale showed a large number of cemeteries and churches and not much in the way of a booming commercial district. It was virtually covered with red, blue, and green markings with some areas showing higher concentrations of the marks. Before falling asleep and running down the battery on her laptop, Willow had been working on an algorithm to predict the distribution of attacks in Sunnydale. Struck by a wave of resentment and bitterness again, she thought, "At least if I can’t be there to help, I can help the Scoobies. Well, not all the Scoobies: Xander, Cordelia, Giles, and Oz." The bitterness turned to sadness as she wondered where Buffy might be and when she might see her again. Not that it was easy leaving home at all. The loneliness and sadness at leaving Xander and Oz was truly more than she felt she could handle, although never seeing Cordelia again might be just fine. The last brought a slight smile to the redhead’s face. Savoring the coffee, she settled down to the map, attempting to make some progress on her project.

As she heard the conductor calling out her stop, Willow briefly wondered how far she could make it before anyone noticed that she hadn’t gotten off. Would she be in North Carolina or New Orleans or Florida before the calls started? Amused at the thought of Sheila Rosenberg freaking out, she decided to go ahead and disembark. After all, at least the state wasn’t as ugly as she feared from her first view. The first view she had of the state was a barren wasteland of red sand, swirling dust, and dying trees. This area; however, was much more lush with rolling green hills and beautiful trees.

Stepping down from the train, she was overwhelmed by the heat rising from the small platform. She had never felt anything like it before and feared melting in this weather if this was an average August day. She was again thankful that her mother had shipped most of her belongings ahead, leaving her carrying only a small carry-on bag and her computer. While she stood on the platform, absorbing the scenery and the heat, the few other departing passengers left in the few cars in the parking lot. After a few minutes, she sat on the bench by the ticket office.

Sitting on the bench she saw a truck approaching, stirring up dust as it came. The driver seemed to drive pretty fast but then she wasn’t really all that used to seeing anyone driving. At home, the Scoobies pretty much ran or walked most places. If they rode it was either in Cordelia’s car which she was too attached to to drive quickly, Giles’ car which couldn’t drive quickly, or Oz’s van and he never hurried about anything. As the trucked pulled into the small lot, she noted the emblem on the driver’s side door: "Brennams." "Yep, that’s me," she thought, "here we go."

A young blonde woman stepped from the truck. Willow was struck by two thoughts simultaneously as she saw the driver. First, "wow, she looks really young to work at the school." Second, "Goddess, she must be hot." The woman was slightly taller than Willow with longish blonde hair. She was wearing jeans, boots, and a long-sleeve shirt.

Willow had to stifle a giggle as she glanced around: "Um. Well, I’m ready, but no one else got off the train here. Are we waiting on someone else?"

"What?" the blonde responded puzzled, picking up Willow’s carry-on bag and beginning to move quickly to the truck.

Willow followed close behind, "Hey, I thought we needed to wait on someone else?"

Tossing the bag in the bed of the truck, the blonde turned back to Willow, "Why would we be waiting on someone else? You’re the only new student from California. Plus which you’re like a week early." Goddess, who is this they sent out here? she thought to herself. She motioned to Willow to climb up in the driver’s seat and scoot across to the passenger side before climbing in herself.

Having just barely pulled from the parking space, the blonde pulled back in, putting the truck in drive before turning to her passenger: "Ok. I’m totally lost. I said that we were waiting on someone else. When did I say that?"

"Well, um, when you walked up, you said uh, ‘y’all ready?’" The words sounded very weird coming from Willow’s mouth and she intentionally mumbled them.

"I said? I said?" the blonde got no farther in her answer before she began laughing. Once she started, she laughed and laughed. Within moments, she was laughing so hard that she had to hold her stomach as tears streamed down her face. Every few seconds she attempted to speak again, "I said…" After 10 or 20 seconds of this Willow began laughing too although she still didn’t know what was so damn funny to the blonde. Or for that matter who the blonde was. As the two girls were recovering from their laughter, the blonde attempted to speak, gasping, "say it again," before collapsing in laughter again. This happened 2 or 3 times before she managed to speak without collapsing, "say it again," she told Willow.

"Say what? Y’all?" Willow asked perplexed before both succumbed to the laughter again.

Finally the blonde held up her hand. "Wait, don’t say anything." Taking a deep breath, she explained, "Ok, you thought we were waiting on someone else because I said ‘y’all’ right?" As Willow nodded she explained, "Ok, how do I explain. Y’all isn’t always plural. Sometimes it’s plural and sometimes it’s singular. Sometimes if you want to make sure everyone knows you mean it plural, you say ‘y’all all.’ That’s always plural. But if someone says, ‘do y’all want to go?’ they might mean you and everyone you’re sitting with or just you."

"But that’s not right." Willow said firmly. "The word can’t be plural or singular. It’s one or the other. I mean, you can’t decline it like that. And that other phrase the one that is always plural, which I’m definitely not going to say, that doesn’t even make any sense. I mean it’s redundant; the first word is a contraction and half of it is the same as the second word." She sputtered in indignation at the stupidity of this word, this woman. In her mind, it didn’t bode well for the school to which her parents had decided to banish her for her last year of high school.

The blonde smiled a particularly lop-sided smile as she appeared to assess Willow for a moment. "Well, ‘you’ is both plural and singular but let’s not quibble. Sorry that I wasn’t clear. I’ll try to remember you’re not fluent in Texan." Extending her hand she continued, "Plus which I’m not that good a representative of our state. I’m Tara Maclay. Welcome."

Willow reached for the outstretched hand, "Willow Rosenberg. Nice to meet you Ms Maclay," she said as she grasped Tara’s hand. As their fingers touched, Willow received a shock and momentarily pulled back but the scientist in her quickly realized that the dry air contributed to the increase of static electricity. As she moved her hand forward again, she touched the index finger of her other hand to the metal on the truck door to ground herself and this time, felt no similar shock. Holding the contact for a moment, she was amazed at how strong and tough the woman’s hand felt. However, she was not able to hold it for long as Tara again began the laughter which had been so infectious before.

Willow quickly held up her hand, raising it in the air as if she were a crossing guard stopping traffic: "Hey, before you get started again, what’s so funny now?"

"Ok. Ms Maclay what’s so funny about that? I have manners, so what?" Willow was finding this entire encounter quite perplexing and wondered if it was a preview of the next year.

"Let’s drive," Tara said pulling into the road, "it’s about an hour to the school so we can get started and talk on the way if you want."

"Sure." Willow answered. Striving for some conversation she asked, "so how long have you been working at the school?"

Tara looked across the truck at the redhead, a smile on her face, "I get it: ‘Ms Maclay.’" "I don’t work at the school. Well, I guess I kind of do. I’m a scholarship student. I work 10 hours a week in the administrative office and running errands and stuff like that to defray the cost of my scholarship."

As she talked, Tara leaned her elbow out the window. Willow watched her as she drove, noting how she looked totally at home behind the wheel of this vehicle. "Actually when we get to the school, I’m supposed to show you around and stuff like that. You’re going to get me most of my hours to for this week," she smiled as she talked.

Despite her reluctance to accept anything about her situation, Willow found it hard not to warm to drive and tour guide. "So how long have you gone to school here?" she asked.

"I’ll be a senior this year. I started as a Freshman but I had to leave for a while last year. I was here for the last month making up some classes so I can still graduate this spring," she explained.

"I-I-I had some family stuff," Tara answered quietly, "how about you? Why are you here for just your senior year?"

Willow took a deep breath before answering, "You know I’m kind of tired. I didn’t sleep well on the train. Do you mind if I just rest while we drive?"

As she drove, Tara glanced frequently at the girl in the seat next to her. She had fallen asleep quickly and seemingly deeply. She rested with her head on the seat, leaning toward the center of the bench seat. Her mouth was open but she was not drooling, a fact for which Tara was quite thankful. She felt like it’s one thing to watch a total stranger sleep but quite another to watch their disgusting body fluids. On the other hand, she found that she kind of liked watching this girl sleep. For one thing, she looked like an angel and somewhat smaller and more innocent than she did arguing about plural and singular declination.

Before coming out to pick up the new student, Tara had taken a look at her file. It was quite impressive in some areas and suspicious in others. Her academics and test scores were amazing. Tara considered herself pretty smart and certainly had to be to earn a scholarship at this prestigious boarding school, but this girl blew her scores out of the water. On the other hand, some things in the file didn’t add up. It indicated that she had been involved with a somewhat undesirable crowd: in trouble with the principal and school officials. Strangely a note in her file indicated that some people thought she might have been involved in some major damage committed in the local shopping mall with, of all things, a stolen rocket launcher. It seemed that whenever major destruction happened in Sunnydale, the redhead was in the middle of it. The capper was last year when she was put in a coma in some kind of altercation on school grounds—an altercation which resulted in the death of a young girl and the disappearance of another. Additionally, Tara strongly suspected that the girl’s "why I want to attend Brennams" essay was not written by her. It seemed unlikely that this girl was seeking a "wholesome" and "outdoorsy" experience in a "quality educational institution." I mean, like any 17 year old is going to copy that corny shit off a brochure and put it in their required suck-up essay?

On one hand, the blonde instinctively liked the newcomer and certainly she hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. Not since… Well a long time. But on the other hand, she desperately needed a full college scholarship and couldn’t afford to be mixed up with a troublemaker. If this Willow was all the things her file indicated, she might not even just be dangerous to Tara’s college career but to her health and life.

For the second time that day, Willow woke in very unfamiliar surroundings. This time however, she did not reach for a stake. She heard someone softly singing and whistling. Whoever was singing had a very beautiful voice, something which Willow was painfully aware she did not possess. As she started to stir, the singing stopped suddenly. "No please don’t stop, it’s beautiful," she pleaded, not yet opening her eyes. Tara finished her song just as she pulled the truck to a stop at the school. Reaching a hand out, she lightly tousled her passenger’s hair, "Ok, last stop Brennams."

Shocked at the contact, Willow instinctively recoiled from the other girl’s extended hand. Tara pulled her hand back immediately looking at the floor of the truck and mumbling "sorry, I-I-I," before trailing off into silence. Oh Goddess, she thought, why did I do that? Now she’s freaked and probably thinks I’m some kind of pervert or something. Oh Jeez Tara, get a grip, she wasn’t awake. Get over yourself.

Willow regretted her reaction immediately, especially when Tara looked so hurt and shy about it. But she didn’t mean to hurt the girl’s feelings. It’s just that when you’re used to demons and vampires and all that, it’s hard to take a surprise touch well.

Tara opened her door, addressing the redhead, "C-c-come on. I’ll show you your room. Some of your stuff came yesterday and I put it up there. I didn’t put anything away or anything but it’s in your room which is something. You probably want to r-r-rest for a while before dinner."

Willow slid across the seat, under the steering wheel. Part of her wanted to make some amend for shying away from the young woman’s touch but another part was just so tired, she didn’t care. She followed Tara into a dorm building and up the stairs to a room on the second floor. Tara unlocked the door, before turning to hand Willow the key. Willow took the key without speaking but did not advance into the room, staring into the space.

Jokingly, Tara asked, "Hey, what’s wrong? Do you want me to carry you over the threshold?"

"What? What? Uh no. I mean. No. I mean. Hey, there’s only one bed in there. Where will my roommate sleep?"

"Your roommate? You don’t have a roommate. I mean, it’s a single. Your mother said you needed to study and needed peace and quiet." As Tara saw the look that came over the smaller girl’s face at the mention of her mother, she continued, "Hey, it’s a good thing. I mean it’s a really nice room and you have lots of space and well, it costs more and…" "Ok, wow, open mouth insert foot much Tara?" The blonde again looked at the floor in total embarrassment.

Now it was Willow’s turn to feel bad as she saw the look of embarrassment and horror possess Tara’s face. She reached out to touch her lightly on the back of her hand: "Hey, don’t worry about it. What you said is true. It’s a nice room and costs more. No reason to pretend that’s not true." Drawing back her hand, she entered the room, "Look, it’s been a long day for me and a long drive for you. I really do need to rest up and bathe. Can I see you later for that tour?"

Tara answered from the hallway, "Sure. Not many students are here right now and even if they were, there’s usually plenty of hot water around this time. Once people start to show up, you have a lot better chance at hot water if you take your shower at weird times." As Willow nodded, she asked, "Do you need anything else?"

Willow turned from assessing the room, "No thanks Tara. I really appreciate it. I’ll catch you later ok?" Tara turned to move down the hallway as Willow watched her go. After closing the door and sitting on the bed to remove her shoes, she was deeply asleep in moments, sprawled on the bed fully dressed.

Willow woke in total darkness save for the scant light coming through her window. Looking around she immediately recognized her dorm room with some of her belongings in the corner. Moving to the light from the window, she looked at her watch: 12:30. She had obviously slept right through dinner. "Oh well," she figured, "I can take a long shower and then sleep some more. I’ll eat in the morning. Too bad though, I was kind of hungry. And it would have been nice to see Tara again. Now that’s a funny thought. I mean, I just met her. Besides, to her I’m a job, most of her 10 hours for the week. Ok, whatever. Babble-obsess much Rosenberg? . Willow giggled to herself over her internal dialog as she looked through her bags quickly, finding a change of clothes, something to sleep in, and shower stuff.

As she stepped from her room, she almost tripped on the package outside her door. At her feet sat a medium-sized brown paper grocery sack, folded over with a note stapled to the outside of it. Written on the note in Green bold magic marker was her name. She placed the bag inside the door before proceeding to the bathroom down the hall.

Refreshed and changed for bed, she returned to the room to investigate the bag. Smiling she read the note:

"Willow, when you didn’t show for dinner by 7:30 (the cafeteria closes at 7:45) I figured you crashed. So I swiped some food for you. I didn’t know if you eat: meat, sugar, yeast, wheat, caffeine, or dairy, etc. so I just got an assortment.

Still smiling, Willow began to unload the bag finding a cheese sandwich, chips, apple, oatmeal raisin cookie, Orange soda, and bottle of apple juice. She didn’t realize how hungry she was until she started eating and found the food gone in minutes. Without a garbage can, she didn’t have anywhere to put the refuse so she set the bag by the door and got in bed. Although she was very tired, she couldn’t fall asleep. When she tried to sleep, she kept thinking of how nice it was for Tara to get her some dinner and what would she have done without. The second time that she got up to reread the note, she realized how stupid it was to keep getting up. She placed the note carefully under the bag to her laptop computer before returning to bed.

As she crossed the quad to the cafeteria, Willow felt relieved that it wasn’t as hot as it seemed yesterday. Maybe she would survive this place after all. Of course, it wasn’t likely to be as hot at 7:15 as later in the day anyway, but maybe yesterday was an anomaly? Her confidence lifted immediately as she saw Tara sitting on the steps to the cafeteria building. As yesterday, she was wearing jeans, long sleeve shirt, and boots and Willow began to wonder if maybe she was an ice demon to be so impervious to the ridiculous heat. The blonde smiled and waved before standing to greet Willow, "Hey, come on, I’ll show you the caf and how it works and everything. Here’s your dining card."

Willow took the card from her friend, "Thanks. And thanks for dinner last night. I was starving when I got up."

"Good. I mean, not good, you were starving but good that it was good or … oh you know." As the two girls made eye contact they realized that they were in danger of loosing themselves in giggles again and decided to serious up and get some breakfast.

After getting some breakfast and choosing a table, Willow asked, "so, you were up early?"

"Yeah, I had to do some work this morning. Better early than later." Tara looked across at the redhead noting a strange look on her face, as if she kept smelling something she didn’t like.

Willow looked puzzled as she answered, "Uh ok, work. Uh that makes sense. I mean you work and everything and that makes sense. I mean. But hmmm, where is this office and what’s it like? I mean filing and stuff? I mean, ok, don’t take this wrong, but aren’t offices usually really clean or at least just dusty? I mean, not that you smell or anything like that or … Ok. I’ll tell you what? I’m going to climb under the table and hide and later I can give you a tour of the underside of tables ok?"

The laughter had started as Willow babbled and continued through her retreat. "You know you babble right?" Tara asked, "not that I don’t like it because I do like it. I mean it’s cute." As soon as the words were out of the blonde’s mouth, she looked like she regretted them, looking down at the floor. "Sorry," she whispered.

Throwing a grape at the blonde, Willow answered, "Hey, sorry why? Yes I babble." She smiled at Tara as she raised her head, allowing the grape to hit her between the eyes.

As she popped the grape in her mouth, she asked, "So, you babble but can’t come out and say what you mean. Let me try. I smell huh?"

Willow recoiled, "What? I mean. I wouldn’t say that. I mean that’d be rude. I mean…" Noting that Tara was smiling, she confirmed, "Well, yes you don’t smell like you’ve been working in an office. Actually you smell like you spent the night in a barn." As she finished she threw another grape at the blonde. Because she had been watching this time, Tara was able to catch the grape in her mouth, throwing her hands out to demonstrate that she wanted applause.

Finally Tara explained, "I didn’t spend the night in a barn. I spent the morning in a barn. The office is one job. That’s 10 hours a week. Then I work 10 hours a week in the stable so I’m allowed to keep my horse here."

Willow stammered in confusion and terror: "Horse. Your horse. Stable. Horses. Uh ok. There are horses here? There’s a stable here?"

Again Tara’s laugh echoed through the nearly empty room, "Of course there’s horses here. Goddess, you think I dress like this for fun? I’d melt. Didn’t you even read the brochure?"

"Brochure? What brochure?" Willow was beginning to think that she sounded like a total idiot. And somehow, she didn’t really want to feel like an idiot in front Tara.

"Knew what? That’s I’m afraid of horses? Why does that make you so happy?" Willow asked.

"No, not that. That you didn’t write your entrance essay. Your parents must have written it. It’s really dorky," she laughed.

"Entrance essay? There was an entrance essay? No I certainly didn’t write any essay. Must have been totally lame if my mother wrote it. Probably some crap about wholesomeness and normalcy and a high quality education right?"

Tara looked somewhat shocked, "Well, actually that’s exactly what it said. Hey, it was well written though."

Willow looked angry as she spat out through her clenched teeth, "Well my mother is pretty literate so at least my essay doesn’t look like I’m an idiot, just a lamo. Can I see it?"

"Uh, I. I mean, well, no one’s supposed to see it. Actually I shouldn’t have seen it. Uh. B-b-but I mean, maybe you just want to review what you wrote? And I could kind of unofficially borrow it when I’m showing you around and showing you where the copiers are and like that?"

Willow smiled a conspiratorial smile: "Sure that’d be fine. So when does this tour start?"

"An hour ago, when I gave you your card and showed you the cafeteria. Seriously though, how about if I go and grab a shower since you so eloquently pointed out that I smell and we can start after that?" Tara asked as they exited the cafeteria. Before Willow could object that she didn’t mean to insult Tara, the blonde flashed a smile that left no doubt that she wasn’t offended. Tara left Willow at her room, indicating that she would be back in 30 minutes.

Willow made some progress putting away her clothes and books while she waited for Tara to return. When the blonde knocked on her door a little while later, she quickly opened the door, inviting the woman to enter. The other girl still wore jeans and boots but a short sleeve shirt had replaced the long sleeve one, which at least gave her the impression that the woman wasn’t totally insane. She smiled at the thought, actually those boots are nice; they show off her ass. What the hell? Where did that thought come from? What does she think? Oh Goddess. Why am I noticing her ass? What does she think? Hey wait, she can’t hear me thinking. She doesn’t know I was thinking about her ass. Oh Goddess, stop thinking about her cute ass. Ok, brick walls. Baseball. Slime demons.

"Willow. Earth to Willow. Hey, anyone home?" Tara passed her hand in front of the redhead’s eyes.

"What? Huh? Uh Yeah. Thinking about. Uh nothing. Thinking about nothing." Willow stammered as she blushed bright red.

"Yeah, I can tell you weren’t thinking. Is this who you weren’t thinking about?" Tara asked picking up a framed picture of Oz and Willow sitting on the ground in the park and holding it up for the redhead to see.

Willow breathed out in relief as the color began to leave her face: "Right, definitely not who I wasn’t thinking about. That’s my boyfriend Oz. And that’s my best friends Buffy and Xander and Xander’s girlfriend Cordelia."

Unable to think of anything to say, Tara stuck with an old standard, "He’s cute. They all look nice."

Willow nodded as tears pooled in her eyes. Tara placed her hand on the smaller girl’s arm, "Hey I’m sorry to make you cry. Do you want to talk about it?" She was shocked as the redhead broke down completely crying and sobbing as she hugged the blonde in a tight embrace. After a few minutes she pulled back, reaching for a tissue, "Thanks."

"No problem. Do you want to talk about it?" Tara asked kindly, not wanting to pressure but finding herself particularly sympathetic to her new friend’s pain.

"It’s just. It’s just. Well, I miss them so much and I can’t believe I’m here instead of there with them. And they need me. I mean really. But I’m here which is totally useless and they’re there. Ok, not all of them. Because Buffy’s not there but they need me, especially with Buffy not there. And I hate it here. I mean. Ok, no offense intended; I mean you’ve been really nice and it’s a nice room and everything but I don’t want to be here…" she trailed off as she began actively crying again.

Tara gently guided the smaller woman to the bed where they could both sit as she held her. As Willow calmed again, she asked, "Where’s Buffy? I mean you said Buffy’s not there."

Willow exhaled, "Yeah. Buffy’s not there. She ran away at the beginning of the summer. Well, the end of the school year. I turned in as many of her assignments as I could but she couldn’t take her exams so she didn’t even finish the year. No one knows where she is."

"Wow, that sounds really hard. I mean you miss your friends and you’re worried about Buffy and you’re not even there. I’m really sorry," Tara sympathized.

"Well, yeah. And now I cried all over you after you just took a shower that I practically insisted on and you probably think I’m a big baby and I look all splotchy and red-eyed…."

Tara interrupted her, "Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m really sorry that you miss your friends so much and I did need a shower." Looking down at her feet, she mumbled, "and the red goes really nice with your green eyes."

Willow pushed herself up from the bed, trying to sound cheery, "Ok, awkward moment over. Let’s get started with my tour ok? If you don’t mind, I need to start a process running on my computer. Won’t take a minute ok?" She continued, "Actually I meant to ask you. What type of Internet connection does the room have? I need to configure my software to maximize the broadband."

Tara looked at her blankly before responding, "Um, I’m gonna guess that’s like Californian for English? Or maybe computereeze?"

She was relieved to see Willow laugh: "Yeah right, not very clear. Do you know anything about computers? Or the connections in the rooms? I need an Internet connection and the faster the better."

Catching the contagious laughter, Tara responded, "I know nearly nothing about computers but I know that the room is supposed to have a good connection. Some initials or something that mean it’s good. We can ask in the office. Your file said you are some kind of whiz or something."

Finally, the two girls began on their tour. Tara showed Willow the other two dorms, classroom buildings, administrative building, library, and gym. As she pointed out the cafeteria again, she pointed to a side door: "That leads to the canteen. It has coffee and fruit and candy and stuff like that and is open all night. You can study in there. The only rules are that paying is on the honor system and you have to make more coffee if you leave less than a cup in the pot. If you’re ever lonely, there’s usually someone in there studying all night who needs company."

Willow nodded, "actually that’ll probably be me. I mean studying all night and lonely both."

"Hey, you can come visit me anytime you’re lonely," Tara said before she could think about how it sounded. "I mean, not that I never have anything to do or I’m totally desperate or …"

In the administrative office the girls had "borrowed" Willow’s file to copy the essay and picked up their class schedules. Now they sat on a rock under a tree as Willow read the file. Looking concerned, she turned to the blonde, "Uh, Tara? Did you read all this?"

Tara looked at the ground, "Well, yes. I mean… But hey, great test scores!" She attempted a smile at the redhead.

Willow stood up and started pacing, waving her arms and gesturing widely: "Sure, great test scores. But I can’t believe the other stuff it says in here. Buffy didn’t kill Kendra and … well… ok, lots of damage but I didn’t cause it. I mean I was in a coma. Do people in comas destroy their school library? Did I destroy it my sophomore year too? Well, I guess that time I was conscious anyway. Oh wait, it didn’t say anything about that. I mean! Geez, what a worm Snyder is. And the rocket launcher! Do I look like I can carry or shoot a rocket launcher? My shirt has a kitten and a ball of yarn on it!? Do people with kittens on their shirts blow up the mall?" She collapsed next to Tara still fuming and mumbling what the blonde assumed to be curse words under her breath.

"Well, maybe if you really wanted a shirt with a camel or a dolphin and were mad that all they had was kittens?" Tara ventured and was relieved to see Willow laugh, releasing her tension. Tara continued, "So you didn’t have anything to do with blowing up the mall?"

Willow looked at her new friend, "Uh, well ‘nothing to do with it’ may be putting it a little strongly. Hey, let’s continue that tour ok?" she said standing quickly and striding away from the rock. As they walked, each girl looked at her class schedule and then at the other girl’s. Tara pulled Willow’s from her hand, "Hey, you’re taking calculus AND computer science AND an independent study in something mathematical that I don’t think I can pronounce. What’s with that?"

Willow smiled snatching Tara’s schedule from her, "What can I say, I’m a whiz. But hey, now here’s something, it looks like we have English and History together but how come there’s no PE on your schedule. How do you get out of that and I can I? Cause seriously, I don’t see how it will help me in future life to be some dodgeball expert."

Handing back Willow’s schedule, Tara answered, "Actually it’s not so much that I don’t have any PE classes. It’s…well… Um, I teach horseback riding. They count that as my PE credit. Hey, actually from the code on your schedule, that’s your PE, although it doesn't’start till next trimester."

It took a few steps before Tara realized that Willow had stopped walking and was staring at her. "Ok, you’re staring at me like I have two heads. What did I say?"

"Riding? Riding? Like horses? Like Riding? Like riding horses? Like me riding horses." Willow looked totally pale, dropping to sit on the ground.

Tara wanted to laugh but the redhead looked just so pale that she could do nothing but kneel down by her. Willow continued, "I knew this was some kind of cosmic joke. I’m at school in Texas and I’m taking horse riding. And I probably can’t take it by computer. I can’t do it. I mean, no way. No way. No way."

"Pony. Bad birthday party pony experience actually," Willow actually smiled up at the blonde. Somehow as miserable and scared as she felt, she noted that Tara did seem to calm her nerves.

"Ok, I can see that. Lots of students have fears when they start out. We can work with that in class. Kind of desensitizing you slowly. And you pretty much get an A for effort in my classes," Tara tried to reassure Willow.

"Your class. Right you said you teach riding. How does that work? A third job. When do you sleep or do you sleep? Is there anything you don’t do well?"

Now it was Tara’s turn to look embarrassed: "Well, there is quite a bit I don’t do well but I’m not about to tell you that stuff. And I guess it’s a third job. They even pay me a little but I’d do it for free. The thing is that without the three jobs, I couldn’t go to school here and honestly even with, it’s a struggle."

"Well, yeah but it doesn’t pay to get me here at the beginning and the end of the year or for clothes or shampoo or whatever." Quietly she whispered, "and my family really can’t afford it." Changing mood, she asked, "So do you want to see the stables? Or at least see where they are so you don’t accidentally go there?"

"What the stables, no. No stables. Hey, wait a minute. Are you teasing me?" Willow caught on.

"Well, yeah, you’re so fun to tease and you turn all red and start your babbling and… Ok, it’s not nice but you can make fun of me about something if you like," Tara smiled back.

Willow smiled as she turned toward the dorm building, "I’ll definitely think of something. Hey, if you don’t mind, I need to do some work. Ok? Maybe we can catch up later for dinner?"

"Sure, my room’s all the way at the top of the building so you can’t miss it. Plus which, says Tara on the door in big letters. I’m going to go down to the stables but I’ll take another shower before dinner ok?" Tara teased as she walked away from the redhead.

Tara loved working with the horses. Sure, sometimes it was hard work mucking out the stables and everything but it was worth it to get to spend time with all the horses and particularly her mount: Chestnut. After working for a few hours, she decided to go on a long ride.

As she rode, she allowed her mind to wander. And it kept wandering back to Willow. She felt very sympathetic to the redhead and her loneliness, remembering how hard it was when she first came to school. As a very shy person, it took a long time before she was able to use her riding proficiency to give her some type of connection with people and something to talk about. It hadn’t taken her long to determine that her gifts would be well directed with Willow.

Aware that her heritage as a witch and inheritance of those powers gave her not just power, but a responsibility to use that power, Tara sometimes felt drawn to those in pain. Her strongest power was that of empathy: the ability to feel what another person was feeling and then relieve them of unnecessary suffering. Of course, she used this power very carefully as she was fully aware that while she wanted to relieve the suffering of others, she also needed to allow them to feel their emotions in a productive and full way to allow them to move through their unique experience of life. Sometimes this created a delicate balancing act for the witch.

Tara had used her powers to attempt to calm and support Willow’s upset about her friends, anger about her file, and fear of the horses. As she thought of it, it was like drawing a line to connect two things: another’s emotions and her’s and then using that line to pull negatives into herself and send loving energy into the other. In constant contact with nature, she was able to send the negative energy into nature to absorb and diffuse its power.

While she felt that she had been moderately successful in her endeavors, she also noted that the opening of those channels allowed her to know that Willow was hiding a lot. She hadn’t tried to explore those channels although she could have; nonetheless, the witch felt somewhat guilty for knowing this, as if she had been spying on the other girl. She didn’t like that feeling at all and resolved to work harder to not pick up those extra feelings.

The next few days passed quickly for Tara and slowly for Willow. For Tara, her duties kept her very busy as students began arriving. She gave regular tours and explanations of the rules as well as being interrupted at all times of day and night by new students with questions. Of all of her responsibilities, working with the parents was the worst to the blonde. Although she managed to overcome her shyness with many of the students, she still felt very intimidated by these rich parents sending their children off to boarding school for whatever reason. Throughout that time, she felt her greatest release and relaxation through riding.

In the meantime, Willow continued working on her program to help the Scoobies. She got her room completely unpacked and resumed communication with her friends through e-mail. Although she began to meet other students as they arrived, she nonetheless felt incredibly lonely and missed her friends at home. She truly couldn’t wait for classes to start.

The day before classes started, she was sitting under a tree reading a computer journal when she noticed a sudden dust storm. Looking up she saw Tara grinning from the open window of the school truck. "Hey," the blonde said, "What are you doing?"

"Reading this great article about fuzzy logic matching theory. Ok, you probably didn’t need to know that. Let’s go with reading. You?" Willow answered, walking toward the truck.

"Actually I’m fixin ta head into town to get some supplies and thought I’d come look for you to see if you wanted to come. Whatcha say?"

Willow was already moving around to the driver’s side as Tara slipped from beneath the wheel to allow her to slide across. "Actually I was hoping to come into town with you at some point. Can we go to the post office? I need to rent a PO Box," Willow explained.

"Well sure," Tara responded, "but why do you need a PO Box? We get mail at the school."

"Well, uh, I kind of want a PO Box so I can get some other type mail. You know boxes and such. Nothing bad." Willow struggled to explain.

"What? Porn? Do I look like… hey, wait a minute, I think you’re teasing me again," Willow had turned bright red but now lapsed into the laugher that both women found infectious.

"Well yeah, I’m teasing. I mean you get so cute when you turn red and everything. It’s kind of irresistible," as Tara said the words, she felt like a cartoon character and the words were hanging there in a bubble above her mouth but she couldn’t get them erased or taken back or clear the screen. "I mean, oh Hell, I don’t know what I mean," she concluded turning red in response.

Willow laughed, "well, at least now we know you can turn as red as I do Ms Maclay." The unintentional reference to their first ride from town started the two women laughing again.

Finally getting themselves under control, Tara answered, "Yes going by the Post Office is fine. I need to run an errand so how about I drop you off and go run my errand and then come back for you. That way your PO Box is totally private and I won’t even know the number or anything," she smiled.

Now getting into the mood of the joking and teasing, Willow responded, "Well sure but I was kind of counting on your being my little gopher. Now I guess you’ll just have to put up with my company and bring me into town with you to check the box myself."

Taking her eyes from the road, Tara answered quietly, "Then I definitely don’t want to know the number."

"Buffy came home. She just showed up a few days ago. She called me this morning. Seems like I missed quite a party for her homecoming but nothing unusual for Sunnydale. Everyone was really glad to see her and I guess she and her mom kind of reconciled," Willow trailed off at the end. She felt somewhat bad for only telling half-truths but better half-truths and a potential friend than full-truths and someone who thinks you’re a total nutjob right?

"Wow that’s really great." Tara answered. Tenatively she ventured, "and she’s going to be tried or no?"

"What? Tried of what? For what? Oh, Kendra’s murder? Nah, that’s over, she’s innocent and I don’t mean not guilty cause they can’t prove it. She wasn’t there with us when it happened; she was at the … I mean.... But she’s not back in school yet; Snyder expelled her."

"The worm? Well yes, he’s a worm. Oh, I called him a worm in an earlier rant right?" Willow clued in. "Yes, he’s a worm; also the principal of the high school so a worm on a power trip." She then remembered, "Oh one other thing Buffy told me. My genius boyfriend Oz, ‘forgot’ to go to summer school so he’s repeating his senior year."

"Oh don’t get me wrong. He’s a genius and everything but he isn’t all that committed to school work or, well anything but music I guess, and he didn’t show up for class a lot last year and then didn’t show for summer school so he is repeating," Willow explained. "I guess he thought it would be cute that he’d graduate with me…"

"Well, I guess that would be cute," Tara posed somewhat tentatively pulling up to the post office. "Look, I’ll be back in like 20 minutes ok? I can pick you up here or at that Starbucks. What do you want?"

"Ooohh, Starbucks mocha. Definitely at Starbucks. But come in and have one with me. You don’t have to be back right away right?" Willow encouraged.

Willow interrupted quickly, "Hey mochas on me ok? I owe you for this ride into town and for dinner that first night. And I won’t take no for an answer."

Embarrassed, Tara assented: "Well ok. Only cause you won’t take no for an answer. I’ll meet you there in about 20 minutes ok?"

Having a mocha at Starbucks turned into having another and another until the two women felt pretty sure sleep wasn’t going to happen any time soon. As it was getting dark, they headed back to the campus. Tara went to deliver the supplies she had picked up as Willow went back to her room. As she was researching some spells on the Internet, she heard a quiet knock at the door. Although she was resistant to answer it, interrupting her research, she felt like she needed to since someone might know she was in the room. Muttering to herself, "Geez, don’t people know if the door’s open, come on by but if it’s closed, leave me alone?" she opened the door.

Tara stood in the hall holding a small fish bowl with a blue and red fish in it. As Willow invited her in, she explained, "Hey, I uh, well, I. I. I."

Taking the bowl from Tara, Willow set it on her bookshelf: "Hey, you do own sneakers. I thought you slept and lived in boots." As Tara smiled at her feet, Willow prompted, "So what’s with the fish?"

"Uh, Boris I think. I thought. I thought." She took a deep breath before continuing: "You’re so lonely and miss your friends and everything and well, I couldn’t get you a kitten but I thought maybe it would help… but probably lame and a dumb idea and I’ll be going now ok?"

As tears filled her eyes, Willow reached out to stop Tara from nearing the door, "No! Not ok. You can’t go. I mean it’s so sweet that you would do that." By now the tears were freely flowing down her cheeks and she collapsed on the bed.

Tara moved to sit next to her, "Ok, I’m glad it’s ok. But you seem upset about it. You don’t like fish?"

Willow continued crying as she explained, "no that’s not it. I like fish. I love fish. It’s…" Taking a deep breath she decided to plunge in, "I had some fish and last year someone killed them."

"You mean like accidentally knocked the bowl over?" Tara ventured, "You must have really liked those fish."

Willow laughed somewhat bitterly, "No. Not like knocked the bowl over. Like broke into my room, killed the fish, put them in an envelope and put my name on it."

Tara was so shocked she almost didn’t start her empathetic spell to help Willow: "Wow, that’s really sick. Who would do that?"

Willow felt slightly better but couldn’t identify why. She attempted to explain, "It’s complicated. It was Buffy’s boyfriend or maybe ex-boyfriend." She trailed off. . Very quietly she continued, "That’s not what makes me cry so hard though. He. He. He killed another friend of ours a few days later."

As Tara redoubled her efforts to lessen Willow’s pain, she concluded, "Oh Kendra? Wow, I’m really sorry. You’ve been through a lot."

"Huh? What Kendra? Oh no. Jenny. Angel didn’t kill Kendra. His girlfriend did."

Tara was becoming not only concerned but confused, "Wait, I thought Buffy was his girlfriend but you said she didn’t kill Kendra."

"Oh. Goddess. It’s really complicated. His other girlfriend killed Kendra. He killed Jenny. Buffy didn’t kill anyone." Connected as she was to Willow, Tara suddenly felt a sudden bolt of energy: the energy of falsehood and lies—a really big lie. Allowing Willow to feel her emotions, she held the redhead for a long time. Finally she asked, "Will, can I ask you something personal?"

"Well. I don’t know how to say this. But um. Well. You seem really sweet and nice and obviously an academic overachiever and everything."

"Well, not exactly but you have two friends murdered, people you know did it. You may or may not have stolen a rocket launcher and blown up the mall. You apparently have something to do with trashing your school library not once but twice and I don’t know what else," Tara finished.

And my boyfriend’s a werewolf Willow thought to herself. "Uh, would you believe ‘they started it/’?" she asked.

Strangely enough, that statement rang totally true to Tara’s magical sense. Holding eye contact, she whispered, "From you I might believe anything."

"Well good, because I don’t want to lie to you and I want you to know that. You mean a lot to me," she answered. Lightening the mood, she walked over to the fish, "So, Boris the Beta huh? He’s great. I really like him. Thanks."

Tara pulled a small package from her pocket: "You’re welcome. Here’s some food for him. Uh well I should probably let you sleep, big first day of classes tomorrow." She turned toward the door to leave.

"Hey," Willow called out, probably a little too suddenly. As Tara turned back she asked her, "I’m too caffeined up and you said ‘anytime’ so how about we listen to some music or something. I have some cards if you want to play gin."

Willow exited the hall glad to be through her 3^rd hour class. Her A day was the heavy math day and she already felt like her brain was going to explode. Now she had off till 5^th hour. Since it was a beautiful day, she thought she’d grab a sandwich and head out to enjoy the weather, from under a tree, and write some letters. After grabbing a sandwich and drink, she walked out toward the fields. As she approached the spot she had been using since arriving, she saw someone sitting under it. Tara sat leaning against the tree, focusing on a spot in the distance and writing on a pad.

Willow stopped walking as she got close to take the chance to watch the blonde. She seemed totally entranced her studying and completely at peace. Dressed in the usual jeans and long sleeve shirt, she had taken her boots off and they lay at her side. Her hair blew in the slight wind and she kept having to tuck it behind her ears. As she approached quietly, Willow noticed, not for the first time, how Tara gave her such a feeling of peacefulness.

She decided to break that peacefulness with a little play. She snuck up behind the tree and pulling some fallen pecans, began to toss them at the blonde’s pad one at a time. At first Tara just brushed them off but as the fourth hit her page, she turned to look for the source. As she did, Willow approached around the other side of the tree, dumping an entire handful of nuts on her head. Tara turned quickly to grab the redhead by the legs pulling her to the ground.

"Well now Miss Rosenberg, acting like a juvie again huh? I think you need punished," she said beginning to tickle Willow around the middle. Willow attempted to fake not being ticklish but that only lasted for a few seconds before she had to give in. As she tried to tickle the blonde back, it quickly turned into a wrestling match with Willow on top. As she straddled Tara, leaning forward to hold her down by the wrists, she taunted her, "So, now who’s getting punished huh?"

Tara felt her heart beating in her chest and ears but couldn’t really hear anything else. She was vaguely aware that she should say something but couldn’t even imagine what. All she could see was Willow leaning over her, her lips moving to say something. Finally a recognizable thought entered her head, She’s talking. She’s saying something. I can tell because her lips are moving. Her lips are moving. Her lips. Beautiful lips. Full lips. Soft lips. Hey, wait. What the? Why am I thinking about her lips?

Suddenly Willow rolled off her, grabbing the pad: "Oh Goddess. This is amazing. You did this?" She held up the pad to show a beautiful sketch of a horse. Tara grabbed for the pad, "wait, don’t. I mean don’t look no one looks at my… Please…" she hung her head.

As she looked at her friend, Willow gently closed the cover of the pad before handing it back to her. Placing her hand softly on Tara’s chin, she raised her face to look in the eye, "I didn’t mean to intrude but it’s really beautiful. If you want to show me some day, I’d love to see more."

"No problem. Hey, I brought a sandwich and drink. Wanna share? We have history 5^th hour so we have a little time," Willow offered. The blonde agreed and took half the offered lunch. As they relaxed against the tree, they both shared about their days and how classes had gone. Willow expressed surprise and satisfaction with the level of learning that she was going to get from the math and computer classes. Sometime around binary notation she lost Tara who sat looking somewhat blank-faced at her profile throughout her long speech. Soon it was time to go to history class and they walked silently back across the field.

Willow felt thankful for her single room for the first time. In general, she had felt lonely and felt like having a single made her different from the other girls. But tonight was different. She had found a few spells on the Internet that she wanted to try. Just light stuff: floating a feather or maybe something bigger.

The full moon made this the ideal time to try the spells. Her attempts during the summer, turning ice to fire don’t try that one on your bedspread and the such had worked out ok. But she still wasn’t able to harness or focus any power. Really the only spell with any power that she had tried was restoring Angel’s soul, twice. And the first time it was interrupted and the second it didn’t work. Which meant that in a way she was responsible for Buffy leaving town.

But now, she was alone at school with nothing to distract her and the full moon meant that she could try to harness and focus some additional power from the phases. Of course if she were at home, this night would be spent wolf-sitting for Oz in the school library. Actually now that she thought about it, she hadn’t thought about Oz all that much lately.

Banishing thoughts of Sunnydale from her mind, she sat cross-legged on the floor. She quietly called in the elements and directions to cast the circle and opened her eyes, focusing on the feather in front of her. A feather. Light as air. Power of air. Beauty of air. Beauty. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Wait a minute. Ok, focus. Feather. Light as air. Power of air. Beauty of air. Jeans. Boots. Laughter. . Willow opened her eyes for a moment. She took a few deep breaths and attempted to focus again. Feather. Light as air. Air under the feather. Increase the air under the feather. Air. As she watched, she felt the feather rise from the floor. First a few inches and then even with her nose. She was exhilarated by the feeling of oneness with the feather and the air under and around it. Slowly, she started to spin the feather, first one direction and then the other.

As soon as the moon was high enough in the sky, Tara crossed the quad toward the woods. She had found this spot years ago and still used it every full moon for her ritual. It was a ritual taught to her by her mother. A cleansing and replenishing ritual. One that leant her the strength and compassion to utilize her gift with those around her.

She carefully laid her blanket and stones, casting the circle. Sometimes she laughed at the thought of if someone came along and found her. Hell to pay for a witch like me . But one reason that she loved this spot was its isolation. No one had ever happened across her and she doubted that anyone ever would. Closing her eyes, she focused on the energy of the trees, ground, rocks, and moon. She began the interchange between the elements and her energy, pulling in strength and healing power and cleansing herself of any negativity. Total relaxation possessed her body and soul as she became one with nature to share its gifts. She intentionally heard the sounds of nature as they fed her power.

She could hear the leaves rustling, trees growing, rocks moving, and even the grass growing. Listening deeper, she could sense the connectedness of all nature. Slowly she became aware of another energy in the web Feather. Light as air. Air under the Feather. Increase the air under the feather. Air. . Someone was doing magics nearby. An elemental spell working with air. The practitioner was a beginner but with a large potential for power. Tara was intrigued by the interruption. She sent a tendril of her energy toward the other spell caster, still concentrating on her ritual but sensing out the other energy.

Enthralled with her success with the feather, Willow progressed to larger objects. She floated a pencil, book, pillow, and pair of shoes. The shoes were particularly fulfilling as she raised and lowered them in contrast, one up and the other down. Satisfied with her success, she lowered the final object to the floor and uncast the circle. Just then the ringing of the phone startled her. She grabbed it quickly before anyone else could hear the ringing since phones were not allowed in the rooms. She had wired it from the DSL line to have a phone but didn’t want any one else to know.

"Everything’s fine. I’m wolf-sitting and bored so I thought I’d use the long distance from here to call you. What’s going on?"

The two best friends visited for quite a while before Buffy had to get off the phone to go try to calm the wolf. She had time to tell Willow of Faith’s appearance and that the other slayer didn’t have a problem with werewolves. Also that she was back in school. Willow told her about her classes and room and what the school was like but the conversation made her miss Sunnydale terribly.

Just as Tara was finishing her ritual, the other spell caster also finished. Tara sent some extra energy to hold the connection. Perhaps if she could identify the other witch, they could do some joint spells and both grow their abilities and power. Eyes closed she listened but could not tell if she was hearing a conversation or thoughts:

Tara’s eyes snapped open as she released her connection. The other magic user wasn’t just a witch but appeared to be involved with greater forces. The blonde had heard of the Slayer—one girl in all the world destined to fight vampires— and of werewolves but had always believed them to be myths like the loch ness monster or big foot. But here was a magic user who believed them to be real and apparently believed that they knew at least one Slayer? It didn’t make sense.

Tara’s frustration with the book was just beyond what she could handle. She threw the thing at her wall of her room. As her roommate looked up quizzically, she explained, "sorry, frustrated. I’ll get out of your hair," before leaving the room quickly.

Willow was lazily reading an assignment in her room. Truly she was quite bored. She had finished all her homework for the next two weeks as well as completing and sending the attack prediction program to Giles. Hopefully Oz could help him use the program, otherwise, what is the point of her work? Hearing a knock at the door, she got up quickly to answer it, finding Tara standing in the hall.

"Hey, come on in. You own sneakers! I thought you lived in boots," Willow teased.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Gets funnier each time you say it Will," Tara shot back. She looked at Willow’s desk, "Uh, Will, is that a phone on your desk? And tell me it’s a paperweight ok?"

Tara looked suspiciously at the redhead, "Willow, you know you’re not allowed to have a phone in your room. Plus which how did you get it to work?"

Willow smiled innocently, "well hypothetically, not that I have a working phone, but it would be possible for someone to split the digital signal from the computer to a phone."

"Ok, let’s say hypothetically that someone did that: how would they find out the number and get service?" Tara inquired.

"Ok, well still hypothetically, someone might uh, accidentally hack the phone company’s computer, then call the phone company from the phone, then trace the call," she smiled an even more innocent smile.

Tara laughed, "Goddess you’re adorable. I mean, well good that it’s just a paperweight. The ringer is low right???"

"Of course," Willow answered, "hey, wanna go to the canteen for some coffee? I’m bored."

Tara sat on the bed: "Well good news bad news. Good news, I think we can get rid of the bored. Bad news, I came to ask you for a BIG favor."

"Ok but first, how’s your school work? Do you have any assignments due tomorrow that aren’t done or anything?"

Willow smiled, sticking out her hand, "Hi. Nice to meet you: Willow Rosenberg. Geez silly, my assignments are done through the end of next week."

Tara exhaled relieved, "Ok good because I need a favor and it will take a while," she looked at the floor as she spoke.

Willow softly brushed the hair that was blocking Tara’s eyes she should never let her hair cover those beautiful eyes from her view behind her ear before speaking: "Hey babe, you’re scaring me. What’s up?"

Tara got up and began to pace slowly: "Ok. You remember you were teasing me about is there anything that I don’t do well and I said there is? Well. Ok. Well. I have trouble reading. Not like I’m stupid or illiterate or anything. But it’s really slow and hard. I look at the book and the words all turn backwards or the letters do or they get out of order. I can trace my finger around the words to help them stay right but it is really slow and I get a bad headache. And, we have that paper on Flowers for Algernon due in three days and I’m only about halfway through it." As she finished her speech, she turned to Willow and exhaled slowly.

Willow got up and walked over to where Tara stood looking at the ground. Lifting her chin she spoke softly: "Please don’t keep hiding your beautiful eyes from me. So you want me to write your paper?"

"What? Ok and What?" Tara asked, "No. I-I-I want you to read the book to me. I can remember almost anything I hear and everything but I just can’t read it fast enough to get the paper done. You can have a claim."

"A claim. Like a future claim. You get a credit to ask me for something that you need or want and unless it’s like unreasonably dangerous or illegal or whatever, you get it.

Willow smiled knowingly at the blonde, "I think I already know what I want for my claim. But first let’s get reading. Can we take 10 minutes to go get some coffee and then start?"

Finishing the book took hours. Willow read it, repeating certain parts that she had underlined on her pass-through of the book. At points, Tara would ask the redhead to highlight a sentence or write a note in the margin. Willow sat on her bed, her back against wall to the side of the bed and her legs across the bed. Tara lay face down on the bed with her face resting on Willow’s jeans covered thigh. She found that she could concentrate better on the story with her eyes closed and rested there quite comfortably. As she read, Willow wound the fingers of her left hand through Tara’s soft hair. Neither woman was consciously aware of the motion but both felt entirely at home and comfortable.

Near the end of the book, Willow noted that a strange sensation on her legs. She looked down to note Tara crying silently. Alarmed, she asked, "Hey, what’s wrong Tare?"

Again Willow asked, "Tara, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?" She was shocked as the blonde quickly reached to hug her and started crying uncontrollably. Willow hugged her back, attempting to comfort her as the blonde had done her in the past, Goddess she’s really upset. It’s a sad book but she seems really sad. Her body feels so nice against mine. And her hair smells really great. Hey, supportive friend here. Ok, she’s upset.

After a few minutes Tara pulled back. Holding Willow’s hands in hers, she looked down before explaining: "The story is so sad and it makes me cry. But. But. But that’s not what’s so sad to me. My m-m-mother died last year. That’s why I was away and had to make up my classes this summer. At the end, she was like that. She didn’t understand what she had lost. She didn’t know me or my brother Donnie or dad or anyone. And then she was gone and I never get to hear her voice again. And she’ll never hold her grandkids or see me graduate or bake cookies again." Willow was amazed to hear the level of emotion that Tara shared with her and more amazed that she made it through that speech without breaking down. That breakdown came though and all she could do was hold the blond as she cried.

Eventually, Willow eased both their bodies against the pillow and continued holding Tara as she ran her fingers through and over her hair and over her back. After a few minutes, she noted that exhaustion had taken over and Tara was completely asleep, pressed tightly against her body. Willow closed her eyes and tested her magical power, using a version of the feather spell to turn out the light without moving from her place or disturbing Tara. As she drifted to sleep her final thoughts floated through her head: right right soft right.

Used to getting up early to work at the stables or take a ride, Tara woke as the first sun was coming through the window. A little groggy, she tried to identify her location as she heard words in her head right right soft right . She opened her eyes to see Willow holding her and looking as peaceful and innocent as she had the other time that Tara saw her sleep, on the way to the school. Not wanting to wake the redhead, she started to gently disentangle herself from her reach but was stopped as Willow tightened her hold muttering, "No baby. Stay here with me a little longer. Right. Right." Not one to argue first thing in the morning, Tara drifted back into sleep.

Both women awoke suddenly as the phone rang. Willow looked embarrassed and Tara looked at her accusingly as the redhead explained, "maybe I need to answer my paperweight? Did I mention it’s an alarm clock?" Tara let Willow up as she moved from the bed, motioning that she would go get ready for class and see her later. As she left the room she heard Willow’s greeting to Buffy and her panicked question, "What? He got out? Did he hurt anyone?

Thursday had become Willow and Tara’s regular day to make their run into town. Tara always needed to do errands and pick up supplies for the administrative office. Willow needed to stop at her PO Box. It was always a good chance to catch up on their weeks. Of course the original idea was to catch up but since they saw each other nearly every day, there was little to catch up about.

In fact, the two girls spent plenty of time together every day. Every day they had either History or English class together. Frequently they worked on projects together. They sat together at meals usually and often just sat in Willow’s room listening to music or working on homework. Since Willow had read Flowers for Algernon to Tara, they occasionally repeated the act with Willow reading a History or English assignment to the blonde. Although Tara also took a heavy load of Biology and Chemistry, Willow rarely read those chapters.

Arriving in town, Tara first dropped Willow off at the Post Office. She indicated that she’d meet the redhead at Starbucks in 45 minutes as had become their pattern. Willow checked her box, finding some rare spell books, supplies and herbs, and a special package she had ordered over the Internet. By the time Tara arrived at Starbucks, Willow was half-way through her first mocha. She ordered one for Tara as she saw the familiar truck pull up.

The blonde entered moments later, accepting the drink with thanks. Ever since the first time, the two girls had gotten over the awkwardness of Willow paying for the drinks with the understanding that it was her payment for the regular trip into town. Tara took her seat with an audible exhale: "You wouldn’t believe the time I had getting some of the supplies for the school. Some new guy was at the counter and didn’t believe that I could sign for it and he had to call out to the admin office and get confirmation that I was allowed. I mean like some student would come in and pick up stuff to mess with the school? Goddess, people are nuts. I don’t think I can take another surprise today."

Willow smiled and mouthed, "Sorry," as both girls heard the first bars of a very familiar song:

Willow of course joined in the singing immediately, although she kept her singing quiet to keep Tara from hearing how bad she was. At the end of the song, the owner came out with a muffin with a candle in it. He set it down in front of the embarrassed and surprised blonde. As Tara gave Willow a sideways smile, she closed her eyes and blew out the candle.

The owner turned to Tara, giving her a kiss on each cheek and telling her that all her drinks for the day were on him. Willow thanked him: "Thanks Joey. That was perfect," she told him as he walked back behind the counter.

She turned back to Tara to see tears pooled in her blue eyes. "Ok, that was devious Ms Rosenberg but you are really sweet. Thank you," the blond told her.

"Oh, you think I’m sweet. Just wait," she offered pulling a package from under the table. Handing it over she said simply, "Happy Birthday Baby."

Knowing that she could never talk Willow out of anything she had set her mind on, Tara accepted the present and started tearing the wrapping paper from it like a little kid. Speechless she pulled item after item from the box: drawing pads, sketching pencils, charcoals, fixative spray, etc. Opening and her closing her mouth she tried to speak but found herself totally unable to say a word.

Willow started giggling as she pointed out, "Hey, you look like a fish opening and closing your mouth like that. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you speechless before."

Unable to find anything to say, Tara grasped Willow in a tight hug, kissing her lightly on the cheek before releasing her. As Tara turned back to sit down at her place, looking again at the art supplies, Willow subconsciously raised her hand to her cheek, caressing the place that still tingled, the place Tara’s lips had touched so quickly.

Riding back to the school, Tara still was having trouble finding a way to thank the redhead for her generous gift. Willow changed the subject: "so how did you do on your paper?"

"A-, good enough for me. Thanks so much for that. Sometimes it seems that I have so much to thank you for. Hey, you said that you knew what your claim was going to be. Wanna share it with me?"

Willow smiled her sneaky smile, "No. I’ll wait till it’s the right time. Soon though. So no schoolwork pressing?"

Tara was curious about the claim, especially with the way that Willow kept acting about it, but knew enough not to bother the redhead, "Nothing special. I want to do some extra riding this weekend. I haven’t had a good long ride in a week and really need to relax."

"Well, hey you no big school work and me way ahead. How about seeing the movie this Saturday night with me? Sleepless in Seattle which is a pretty cute movie. We could have the sundaes before." Every Saturday night the school showed a recent popular movie in one of the large lecture halls. Admission was $1 and for another $.50 you could get a big sundae to eat during the show. Most students that didn’t have cars went to the shows.

Tara looked over shocked, "Uh. Well. I mean. Well. I-I-I. If you had asked me earlier. But. Well, I have a a d-d-date."

Willow couldn’t stop her initial reaction, "What? A date? A date with who? I-I-I mean not that you can’t have a date because you certainly can have a date. I mean why wouldn’t you have a date? I mean you’re smart and funny and beautiful and… ok, babbling much now and ok but a date? With who?" You have a date? How can you have a date?

"Will take a breath," Tara teased. More seriously she answered, "Joss, you know from English class. He has a car; I think he wanted to go to a movie in town. I-I-I didn’t know you’d mind. I mean not that you mind but I didn’t think you would and … ok, stopping talking now. Sorry Will."

Willow finally recovered enough to answer, "You have a date? With Joss from English class. Ok. Well, he’s cute and not a total idiot so that’s good." You have a date? How can you have a date? I’m gonna turn this guy into a frog. Ok, where did that thought come from? What the hell? Will get a grip. She’s your friend; she can have a date.

"Uh. Not much I guess. Actually I haven’t talked to him in a few weeks. I mean, well, I’ve been busy and I guess he’s busy and a lot is going on there and everything. But I talked to Buffy the other day and everyone’s doing ok. Well there was a little incident where he escap… I mean got in trouble at school a little but it’s ok and everything and he’s fine so that’s good," Willow finally slowed down. Hey, I really haven’t talked to him in a long time. Actually I haven’t thought of him in days.

Tara woke early on Saturday. Growing up on a farm, she had always been an early riser. Then as a freshman, trying to cope with holding two part-time jobs and keeping up with her schoolwork, she read a journal article on reducing the necessary amount of sleep and followed the program to reduce the amount of sleep she generally required to just 5-6 hours a night. Glancing around the cafeteria, she was not surprised to not see Willow. Willow was more of a staying up late, getting up late person and Tara rarely saw her before heading down to the stables.

At the stables, Tara involved herself in her chores, cleaning out the stalls, replenishing the hay and grain supplies and checking each animal as well as the condition of the tackle. Although she tried to encourage her students to take an active interest in maintaining the order of the stables, it was unlikely that those taking a casual (or worse yet, required and resistant) interest would live up to her expectations and standards.

Just as she was finishing the work for the morning and preparing to saddle her horse for the long ride she had craved all week, she heard voices entering the barn. Michelle, Emma, and James came in calling out to Tara as they entered. All three students were in her advanced riding class and obviously truly enjoyed the experience. The two girls were roommates in the same dorm that Willow and Tara lived in and James was Emma’s boyfriend.

The interest the three juniors took in riding really pleased the blonde. All three had started in her beginning class two years earlier and had really taken to riding. It filled Tara with great pleasure that she had been able to share the joy of riding with others and besides her, they were the three best riders at the school.

"Good morning Tara," Emma called out, "is it ok if we take some horses out for a long ride? It’s such a pretty day."

Tara smiled as she continued saddling Chestnut: "Of course, the horses need the exercise. Y’all know which ones to use right?"

As James moved to get the horses from their stalls, he called out, "Yeah, we’ll use the same horses from class ok?" Meanwhile, Emma moved to get the gear.

"Yeah, I have been feeling cooped up all week with too much homework and office work. I’ve been crazy all week to get out there and really stretch," Tara smiled as she answered.

"Well, why don’t you go with us?" Michelle asked. "We stopped at the caf and got some chicken sandwiches, fruit, and juice. We’re fixin ta ride for a few hours, have a picnic, and ride some more."

As Tara prepared to answer the younger girl, she thought of something. Michelle had actually stopped the blonde after class a few days earlier to invite her to see the weekend movie. At the time she didn’t think anything of it and of course, had her date with Joss but now, something about the way the girl was looking at her definitely held something. "Thanks Michelle. I really appreciate the invitation but I kind of really wanted some s-s-solitary time, you know? Another time would be great though." Finishing preparing her horse as she spoke, she slipped on her black duster. Looking back at Michelle, the look in the younger girl’s eyes left no doubt what she was thinking.

James walked by, "Hey Chelle, close your mouth, you’re drooling." As Michelle blushed and looked at the floor, he turned to Tara, "we’re saddled and ready. Do you want to check for us?"

Tara glanced at Michelle, noting the girl’s embarrassment before answering the young man: "No I’m sure y’all did fine and one of the requirements of being an ‘advanced rider’ is knowing how to care for your mount. Enjoy your ride and picnic today," she finished as she started to lead Chestnut from the stable.

"Yeah I’m sure but thanks for the invitation. See you later Michelle," she smiled at the still blushing girl.

Willow woke to two very distinctive feelings. The first was the feeling that her arms were empty. It wasn’t so much that they were empty, but the overwhelming feeling that they shouldn’t be. The second was the feeling of fresh tears on her cheeks. The redhead lay in bed feeling that she was missing completion. It didn’t take her long to know what or who she missed.

Thinking the name made a smile involuntarily cross her lips. Thinking of the morning she woke with the blonde in her arms increased it. Willow closed her eyes and thought of Tara. She allowed her mind to wander to the times they had spent together. Particularly the way Tara’s blue eyes sparkled when she laughed, the electricity when she touched her, and the times she called her sweetie or babe. She caressed her cheek where Tara had touched her so lightly and briefly with her soft lips on Thursday.

Willow noticed the connection and attraction she felt for Tara very quickly after arriving at school. Pulling the note from her journal, she traced Tara’s writing regarding dinner and the words, "Yours Tara." At first, she attributed her strong feelings for the blonde to loneliness and feeling the need to bond with someone in her new surroundings. But she quickly identified them as much more than that. She wanted to be with Tara as much as possible. More telling, she found herself finding reasons and excuses to be physically near the blonde: to hold her hand, tickle her, brush her hair from her eyes, or hold her as on that night she comforted her.

Until Thursday she had been convinced that Tara felt the same connection and attraction. It certainly felt 100% natural to be together. But now, Tara had a date tonight with Joss. It wasn’t that Willow felt jealous that Tara had a date with anyone but with Joss? No wait a minute, that wasn’t right. She did feel jealous that the blonde had a date. And why with Joss? Did that mean that Tara was totally straight? On the other hand, would she feel better if it were with a girl? Would that mean that Tara was gay but not interested in Willow? So which would be better? If Tara were straight or if she were gay but not interested in Willow? And what if neither of those were the answer? What if she was gay but didn’t know that Willow was interested? Certainly Willow still had Oz and Tara frequently asked about him.

On the other hand, maybe Tara was definitely interested in her but didn’t feel right interfering in the relationship between Oz and Willow. Which Willow could definitely respect. Or she was interested and that was part of it plus which thinking that Willow wasn’t interested? Because why would she think that Willow was interested? As far as the blonde knew Willow was totally straight.

Pulling her journal from the desk, Willow sat up. Ok, I’m logic-girl. Let’s be logic-girl. I’ll figure this out. She wrote three headings on the page: "What I know" "What I feel" "What I want".

Closing the journal, the redhead formulated a plan. She needed to take some actions to get what she wanted but if she could fight vampires and demons, she could certainly defeat her fears. She closed her eyes and again thought of the blonde — her eyes, her skin, the way she smelled and the softness of her lips. Moving her hand under the covers, she lost herself in exploring her desire.

Tara walked Chestnut to the stream and dismounted. From the saddle bags, she pulled her light lunch and a blanket, spreading it on the ground. As the horse moved to the stream to drink and then rest, Tara sat on the blanket to enjoy her lunch. She had ridden for hours, enjoying the clear beautiful weather and the strength and beauty of her joining with the horse. On the horse she felt at home as no where else in the world. Ok, maybe there was one other place where she felt as at home: with Willow.

Finishing her lunch, she sat cross-legged on the blanket and placed a crystal in front of her. It was her focus stone—a large quartz crystal, not good for channeling magic but good for exercises of concentration and reasoning. Closing her eyes she thought of the redhead, a smile crossing her features immediately.

From the first time that she met the redhead, she knew they had a special connection. The electricity that passed through them when they shook hands was just the first sign of that connectedness. Since then, she had consciously explored the way it felt to be physically near Willow: the seeming perfect ness of their fit. The night they spent together represented a connection and belonging that the blonde had never felt and did not know was possible.

At times Willow amazed her with her contrasts. On one hand, this was the girl who hacked the phone company computers to install a contraband phone in her dorm room, who had a PO box for receiving secret mailings, and who showed a very strange chain of events in her home town. By this time, Tara had a very good idea of the cause of those events and Willow’s role in them. On the other hand, the girl expressed complete tenderness toward the blonde. On Thursday, when Tara had hugged and kissed the redhead, she hadn’t planned it in advance. If she had, she probably would have refrained. But as she turned back to her chair, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Willow brush her hand over her cheek, her eyes expressing the same dreamy emotion that Tara often felt when thinking of her.

Now Tara felt somewhat worried and frantic about the situation. She was very clear about what she wanted: Willow. But… Willow was with Oz and had expressed no intention of leaving that relationship and Tara couldn’t push her to do that. So when Joss asked her out, she accepted. Now looking back on it, she tried to understand her motivation. Did she do it to make the redhead jealous? No. Not at all although her reaction in the truck indicated that perhaps she was in fact jealous. But that wasn’t Tara’s intention. Quite the opposite: Tara had thought that having a date with Joss would relieve Willow of any pressure to pursue a romantic relationship with her.

And Joss wasn’t a bad guy. It was just, well, he was a guy. Why had Tara said yes to him but no to Michelle? Certainly she felt more comfortable with Michelle and more attracted to the younger girl by far. But… Well… In a way, she felt like it would be a larger betrayal of Willow to go out with another girl. As if a date with a guy didn’t truly count because Tara knew she wasn’t interested. But if she went out with Michelle, she might be interested and Willow would know that.

But what did Willow think now? Did Willow think she wanted to go out with Joss? Why wouldn’t she think that? Of course she thought that and she didn’t even know about Michelle. Goddess, it was just so confusing. What if Willow wanted to be with her but didn’t know that Tara was waiting for her to do something about Oz but now she thought that it was too late because of Joss or that Tara wasn’t interested?

Realizing that she was becoming too upset, the blonde decided to concentrate her energies on the crystal. She took the stone in her hand and lay down on the blanket to relax. Eventually she sorted through the thoughts running through her mind to distill one question: "What do I want." As quickly as she could distill the question, the answer came to mind: "Willow." As she began to relax even further, she trailed a hand over her body, allowing her desire for the redhead to express itself more physically. She allowed the crystal to roll from her hand, forgetting the meditation entirely.

Since the dorm had a curfew, Willow knew that Tara would be home from her Saturday date by 11:00. Willow waited until about 11:30 to head up to the blonde’s room. As she climbed the stairs, she realized that she had never been to Tara’s room. She only had her description from the first day that it was "at the top". That description was totally true and she could feel the heat building as she passed from one level to the next, even in late October and this late in the night. As she stepped onto the top floor, she saw Tara ahead of her walking back to her room from the restroom. Rather than yelling out so late at night, she followed and then knocked on the blonde’s door. When no answer came from within, she knocked again and again.

Finally, she turned the knob, calling out, "Tara," and entered the empty room. Ok, call me crazy, I just watched her walk in here . Seeing the open window, she moved across the room. She looked through the window realizing that it opened onto the roof of the building. Tara lay on a blanket under the stars her head on a pillow. It was obvious to Willow that she did this frequently as she had an entire setup including a travel clock and a reading lamp. Playfully she called across the roof, "hey, is that the type of accommodations they give scholarship students here?"

Tara looked up surprised and smiled broadly, "Willow! Come out and look at the stars with me. They’re beautiful."

Willow climbed out the window, dropping to the roof and crossing toward the blonde: "Yeah, it’s beautiful out here. Is it safe?"

Tara laughed, "Of course, I’ve been sleeping out here part time for 4 years. The vampires don’t like the country air."

As Willow joined Tara on the makeshift bed she asked as politely as she could, "So how was your date?"

The blonde smiled before making a sneering face, "All about football and college choices. I’d much rather have been with you. What did you do?"

"Well, I. Remember the other day when I was saying that I hadn’t talked to him in weeks. Well, I really hadn’t thought about him either and I guess it just ran out its lifespan. Plus which I’m here and he’s there you know and … " Willow finished somewhat lamely.

"I said you didn’t break up with him because he’s a werewolf? Or is he a vampire? No, I think werewolf," Tara continued. Oh goddess, that look you get on your face when you are totally shocked is so adorable. Hey Maclay, how about some compassion for your friend? Maybe she’s having a hard time.

Willow sputtered semi-incoherently, "Did you say? Did you say?" yes she said. She knows. Oh Goddess, she’s looking at me. Those blue eyes. Ok, focus. Answer her . "No not because he’s a werewolf. He was one when we started dating. Or at least by our third date or so. How did you know?"

Taking the redhead’s hand, Tara looked deeply into her eyes, "Ok, confession time. I’m going to make a series of guesses and you can tell me what’s wrong if you want. Ok?"

"Ok. Here goes. First, you’re a practicing witch like me. Buffy is the vampire slayer. Her new friend Faith is also a vampire slayer although honestly I don’t get that because there’s supposed to be only one. Oz is a werewolf. Buffy’s boyfriend or ex-boyfriend or whatever is a vampire and well, I don’t know what Xander or Cordelia are."

As Tara spoke, Willow showed more and more shock. So much so that Tara actually sent a little healing energy through the connection of their hands. "Hey Will, can you answer?"

"Yes. I mean: me Witch, you Witch, Buffy slayer, Faith slayer, Oz werewolf, Angel vampire or he was: Buffy killed him. Giles the librarian is Buffy’s watcher. That means that he trains her. How did you know?"

Tara smiled again, "Will, you’re not that great at secrets and your stories start not making that much sense. Plus when you were floating the feather, pencil, and shoes, I could feel you. You got in my spell. I didn’t know it was you at the time but I figured it out. Plus which, once our spells got tangled, I started being able to feel the magical energy."

Willow got up and started to pace around the roof. Oh Goddess, how do I? Can I? Oh Goddess. Ok, deep breath

Seeing her friend starting to walk herself into total panic, Tara pleaded, "Willow, just come over here and talk to me."

Willow dropped to the blanket, taking another deep breath: "Ok, yeah. Why did I break up with Oz? Well, like I said I wasn’t ever thinking about him and really didn’t want to be with him any more. And I mean I wanted to be available if there was someone else to be with or someone else to want to be with or well, not that there is, or not that I would know if someone else wanted to be with me but what if there was and I really wanted to be with that someone else and …" The Willow babble was cut short by the feel of very soft lips pressed against hers.

After a few of the greatest seconds of her life, Willow pulled back to see incredible blue eyes looking at her. "Wow," she gasped.

Tara stopped briefly at Willow’s door and listened. She didn’t hear any noise coming from inside. Usually this meant that the redhead was not awake or was not in her room. Since she had been working at the stables for a few hours, Tara decided to go take a shower before returning to Willow’s room. Hopefully she would still be able to wake the redhead up as she truly loved this experience. Since that first time of seeing Willow sleep, she had loved watching her sleep and wake slowly and lovingly from slumber.

This late in October, the cold had finally settled in Texas. Although they had some warm and sunny days, the days and evenings carried a chill. The night that Willow and Tara first kissed was the last night that the blonde had felt it was warm enough to enjoy sleeping outside—even with the added warmth of another body snuggled close.

Even after working for hours in the stables, Tara was one of the first girls in the shower this Saturday morning and was able to enjoy plenty of hot water. She stood under the spout, allowing the warm water to pour over her head and body and warm the chill from her bones. Slowly she rinsed and washed her hair, luxuriating in the feel and smell of her honeysuckle shampoo. Using her body wash, she soaped a scrubbie and took her time soaping her body thoroughly. She allowed her mind to wander and it didn’t have to go far: to Willow. Now that Tara had fully admitted her feelings both to herself and the other girl, she allowed herself more freedom to daydream. Standing under the steamy spray, she played over and over in her mind their first kiss.

Even before her date, Tara knew that she had to take some action on her feelings for Willow. Her meditation and ride had told her that much. It wasn’t that the date with Joss was that bad or that he was an ass or anything. It was just that throughout the movie and dinner, she was doing nothing but thinking about Willow. It wasn’t really fair to the young man. He was polite and a good companion, asking her open-ended questions to try and guide the conversation and learn more about her. Nevertheless, when he tried to kiss her and ask if she wanted to see him again at the end of the night, she was firm and direct, telling him kindly that she thought he was very nice but honestly she was interested in someone else and was sorry if he was disappointed. He had laughed and said that was fine, her heart didn’t really seem to be in the evening, wished her luck, and said he’d see her in English class.

She had gone to sleep on the roof expecting it to be one of the last suitable nights of the year and could hardly contain herself when Willow appeared at the window. Knowing the redhead as she did, it would have made no inroads at all to attempt to take the initiative. Willow was a woman with a plan; that much was apparent as she crossed the roof. While Tara wanted to let Willow take her initiative, she also knew that she had figured out about her Sunnydale past and wanted to let Willow know that. She feared that Willow would think that hiding that information would be a barrier between them and wanted to discard that possible barrier. So she asked about Oz being a werewolf and the others. As Willow first started her babble, the blonde was amused as she always was by her babbles. But on the other hand, she couldn’t let her go on. That kiss, mmm.

Now Tara stood in the shower letting the hot water stream over her body and remembering that kiss and many more since then. Lost in her thoughts, she had no idea how much time had elapsed until the water turned lukewarm and quickly ice cold. She gasped from the shock as she struggled to turn off the spigot and grabbed her towel. Hoping to still find Willow asleep, she quickly dressed, stopped at her room, and went downstairs.

Again listening at the door, she heard no sound or movement and let herself in with the spare key Willow had given her over a month ago. As she hoped and expected, the redhead was still nestled in bed, clutching the stuffed bear that Tara had placed in her embrace when she got up. Tara closed the door quietly before crossing to the bed, dropping to her knees and kissing the redhead on the cheek: "Sweetie…" she sang out. Willow murmured in her sleep in response and Tara took the opportunity to run her fingers through her girlfriend’s long copper locks beginning to sing softly as Willow slowly opened her eyes, smiling lovingly at the blonde.

Tara climbed onto the bed before answering, "I’m warm sweetie. Didn’t you notice, no stinky barn smell? I took a long shower."

Wrapping her arms around her Tara, Willow nestled her nose into the blonde’s neck and hair: "mmmm oh yeah. Honeysuckle. No stinky barn smell for my girl."

Tara laughed hugging Willow close: "it’s late Will. I swiped you some fruit if you want to eat something. Or you may just want to wait for lunch. It’s closer to lunch time now anyway." She stood up, grabbing the fruit from the desk to hand it to the redhead.

As Willow sat up in bed propping her self against her pillows against the headboard, she took the fruit. "Hey," she said taking a bite of apple, "what are you smiling at?"

"You’re wearing that kitten shirt. The one that made you say that you wouldn’t blow up a mall," Tara explained.

Willow smiled seductively before answering, "Maybe you can get that information from me somehow Ms Maclay."

Tara smiled back, "Now that sounds like fun." As Willow nodded, her mouth full of apple, Tara asked, "So what’s up for today? I need to do a lot of studying for midterms. How about you?"

"I made a schedule," the redhead answered, grabbing a piece of paper from the desk and handing it to Tara: "take a look."

Tara looked closely at the piece of paper Willow had handed her. It was a true work of art. The paper was divided into two rectangles side-by-side marked Saturday and Sunday. Each of those rectangles was dissected vertically to say "Tara" or "Willow". From that point, each rectangle was divided into horizontal rectangles obviously denoting hours of the day. The Saturday blocks started at 11:00 and continued until midnight while Sunday began at 10:00 and ran until 9:00.

Willow’s sections were completely filled. Each hour was marked with red, blue, green, purple, pink, or gray. Some colors covered more than one block while others took less than one block. Still others contained a diagonal pattern on top of the colors. Tara noted that while her rectangles were not filled in, all the blue blocks on Willow’s schedule were denoted with identically sized green blocks on her schedule.

Laughing out loud at Willow’s super-organization, Tara commented, "I’m almost afraid to ask about this." Suddenly Willow jumped up from the bed, grabbing the schedule and a blue and green colored pencil before jumping back in the bed: "hey, I forgot." Grasping Tara’s hand, she asked, "Would you like to go on a date with me tonight? To see the movie and have a sundae?"

As Tara nodded and leaned forward to kiss the redhead, Willow quickly colored in the blocks on her schedule for 7:00 – 11:00 blue and the corresponding ones on Tara’s schedule green. At this point, Tara could no longer contain her laughter; as tears poured down her cheeks, she tackled the redhead and started tickling her to try and get her going just as hard.

"I’d say quirky," Tara smiled back. "Seriously though, it looks great. Looks like blue is the Tara time and green on my side is Willow time right? What are the others?"

As Willow explained the intricate system of denoting time to study for each subject, accompanied by the legend which identified color combinations, Tara gazed at her face and lips. Oh Goddess, I could listen to her babble about squares and schedules forever. Look at that face, those lips, the softness of her skin. The blonde leaned forward to place a soft kiss on Willow’s neck as the redhead continued explaining her system. Drawing back to note the still glistening spot where her lips had been, she softly blew on the moisture and was rewarded as Willow shivered. Tara leaned forward again, licking the spot slowly from the base of Willow’s neck to her chin, growling, "What color is the square right now?"

Her concentration on the schedule waning, Willow whispered, "uh yellow which means uh calculus for me and uh I don’t know for you uh …" before giving up on the schedule and grabbing Tara’s face between her hands to pull her in for a deep kiss.

"Now that’s a sundae," Tara laughed at the enormous mound of ice-creamy goodness in front of the two girls. They had three or four flavors of ice cream, covered completely with hot fudge, butterscotch, caramel, whipped cream, nuts and two cherries. Taking a huge bite of chocolate and whipped cream, she commented, "Yeah, now that’s a good cure for too-full-brain. I’m thought-out I think."

Sticking her finger seductively into the pile of cream on the top of the sundae, Willow smirked, "I know another cure for too-full brain Ms Maclay." She held out her finger to the blonde who took it softly in her mouth, sucking the sweet goodness from the tip and running her tongue around it.

Lost in their own world, the two girls didn’t notice Michelle approach the table: "Hey, uh oh sorry I interrupted, I mean. Uh, never mind. I’ll talk to y’all later ok?"

Both Tara and Willow quickly turned to look at the retreating girl, glancing at each other before answering, "Hey Michelle. That’s fine. Sorry we were a little lost there. Come sit with us and have your sundae. Going to the movie?"

"No she and James went into town for dinner and the movie there. Something tells me I won’t see her till morning."

Tara nodded, "Yeah, Alyson’s the same way. See Willow, having a single isn’t that much different from a double sometimes."

Willow smiled, "Yeah, it seems that way. So Michelle, how are you doing on the computer assignment?"

Smiling as she noted the two older girls still eating from the same sundae and the comfortable way they sat together, Michelle answered, "Pretty good. I’ve got the logic structure figured out but working on actual code lines now. I’m ready for my other exams already so I’m planning to spend tomorrow morning working on it. In the afternoon I thought I’d take a ride. Y’all want to go?"

She was completely unprepared for the response as Tara nearly spit her ice cream across the table and Willow paled completely, muttering somewhat incoherently, "uh horses, no uh, no I mean no thank you. I’m studying I mean I uh," looking to Tara she muttered, "little help here?"

"Willow doesn’t ride, Michelle," Tara explained. "I’d love to come but I have too much studying. Another time though?"

Hearing the announcement that it was time for the movie, Willow indicated that Michelle should sit with them: "Why don’t you sit with us since Emma and James aren’t here, ok?"

Michelle nodded yes, noting the way the two girls instinctively took each other’s hands as they walked. As they entered the lecture hall, she whispered quietly, "I just wanted to say, y’all look really good together. I mean you fit, you know?"

Both Tara and Willow looked at each other before answering equally quietly, "Yeah, we know. Thanks."

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W/T Season 3 Y'all

By JustSkipIt