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?

Luckily for Tara, both Faith and Angel were distracted as she rushed forward. Nearing Willow, she simultaneously reached out both hands. The cross, dropped by Willow as she fell, flew into her left hand which she held outstretched toward Angelus. Her wish to keep the creature away from her was increased by her first view the face of evil as bumps and ridges stood out on his forehead and his fangs hung over his lips. With her right hand, she motioned toward a large piece of pipe in the alley. The pipe flew quickly through the air, knocking the Faith to the ground and holding her there by pressing firmly against her throat.

Standing stock-still over Willow’s fallen form, Tara concentrated on both other figures in the alley. She attempted to hold an awareness of the area behind her but knew that even this much concentration was really pushing her abilities. Needlessly, she waved the cross at the vampire: "stay b-b-back Angelus."

Working to return his face to its human visage he obeyed her asking, "who are you?"

Tara could feel Faith struggling against the pipe and couldn’t believe her strength. Of course, having heard Angel call her Faith, she knew that the brunette was a slayer. The blonde poured more energy into holding the pipe against the dark-haired woman’s neck. Rather than answering his question, Tara expressed her confusion: "y-y-you’re d-d-dead. Willow s-s-said so."

Struggling against the pipe Faith spit out, "Hey B-B-Blondie, wanna find out about D-D-Dead? Keep the pipe…" she was cut off as Tara pressed the metal more heavily into her throat. At the best of times Tara had no fondness for anyone who teased her about her stutter and this was not the best of times. Add to that the threat and she was really not finding herself warming to the dark-haired slayer.

Angel attempted to calm the blonde, "I’m back. Why don’t you let Faith up and we can try to explain?"

Tara looked from Willow to Faith to Angel, unsure what to do, "I d-d-don’t think s-s-so. Willow’s already h-h-hurt."

Tara felt another presence behind her and turned slightly to see a smaller blonde running toward the group. She immediately recognized Buffy from Willow’s photograph. Waving her the hand holding the cross at the slayer, she indicated that she wanted her to stop. Tara’s feelings were torn as she looked from the two slayers to the vampire to her lover. The energy it took to hold the pipe in place was more than she had ever had to expend before. She could feel the energy of the Hellmouth pouring through her, giving her strength she had never felt. At the same time, it went so harshly against her nature that she felt blackness overpowering her senses. Her stomach turned violently and she feared being sick right there in the alley.

Buffy broke the silence, "who are you? What happened?" She rushed to Angel, seeing that he was hurt where Willow had hit him with the cross and the stake, and then advanced toward Willow as if to check on her.

Buffy looked again at everyone in the alley before speaking. She held out her hands, palms up: "you’re Tara right? Willow’s friend? Let’s calm down and we can talk about what happened."

As Tara looked confusedly around Angel said, "Buffy, we’ve got to get Willow inside. The blood."

Realizing the danger from predators other than her boyfriend Buffy pleaded with Tara, "Tara, we need to get Willow to a hospital. A doctor needs to see her and give her stitches ok?" As Buffy looked again at Tara she noted the thin line of blood beginning to drip from the witch’s nose down her lip and chin. "You too ok?"

Trying to assess everything, Tara finally realized that she couldn’t keep up the attention to all three. If they wanted to attack her, they would. She decided to trust Willow’s faith in Buffy. As she released the pressure on the pipe she told Buffy, "N-n-no doctor. I’ll take c-c-care of W-w-willow."

Faith leapt to her feet and Buffy gave her a stern look and moved toward the witches: "I’ll carry her, ok?"

As Buffy picked up the Willow and turned to enter the club, she addressed Faith: "Faith, can you go take patrol for a little while?" The dark slayer left and Tara finally felt the pressure of the encounter and the poison of the mystical energy take hold. She leaned against the wall, vomiting violently. Wiping her mouth and nose on her shirt, she silently followed Buffy into the club with Angel leading the way.

Angel quickly led them to a couch in a corner of the bar and Buffy laid the redhead down on the couch. Tara immediately dropped to her knees to look at Willow. Willow’s cheek was split open with blood coming from the cut and she sported a large bump on the back of her head, apparently where she hit the pavement when she fell. Her eye was starting to blacken.

Holding out a glass of water and a towel, Buffy asked, "Tara? Look, I don’t want to distract you but do you need anything?"

Tara had been really involved in examining Willow’s injuries. Part of her was concentrating on the magical assessment of the pain and hurt and the rest of her was just worried for her girlfriend. Buffy’s voice jolted her from her own world. "W-w-what? Oh uh th-th-thank you," she answered taking the glass of water. She took a quick drink before pouring it on the towel and beginning to lightly dab at Willow’s face. She was going to try to heal the injuries but first she needed to see the extent of the damage.

Buffy kneeled next to the witch, ready to help with anything Tara needed. Oh God, what if Willow’s really hurt? Why didn’t I tell her about Angel? What in the Hell is she doing here now? Worries and questions rushed through her mind one after the other. Although Willow had not mentioned it, it was obvious to the slayer from the moment she entered the alley that Tara was a witch. Buffy was amazed that she had had the presence and power to contain Faith and now apparently she believed that she could do something to help Willow. If not, they could still go to the hospital.

Actually, Buffy was starting to think that maybe Tara needed a doctor as much as Willow. Her nose was bleeding freely and she looked like she was going to lose her cookies any moment—again. As Buffy watched, Tara finished cleaning the wound. The bleeding had slowed and she could now see the edges of the split skin. The witch closed her eyes, recited an incantation, and placed her hands over the cut.

Buffy gasped in shock as she watched Tara work. While Buffy was impressed with the witch’s power, it was obvious that she was feeling the strain of her efforts. Blood poured from her nose, over her lip and down onto her shirt. Her body shook more and more violently as the spell gathered strength and sweat poured from her brow. A pale green light seemed to flow from her fingertips, winding between her hands and Willow’s skin. As the streams of light tightened, the cut pulled together slowly. The skin appeared to be knitting together and after a few minutes it had sealed completely, leaving only a dark angry looking mark on the skin.

Buffy looked back and forth between the two witches wondering which might need her help more. After getting the water and towels, Angel had left the bar and Buffy was now alone with Tara and Willow. Just as the slayer was wondering what she should do, Tara opened her eyes. Quickly she took another drink and wiped her nose with the towel before looking at Willow’s injuries again. "That’s b-b-better," she nodded at the redhead.

Buffy looked from one witch to the other before speaking: "It looks good. When will she wake up?" Before Tara could answer Buffy spoke, "Um, Tara? I’m Buffy, nice to meet you."

She held out her hand which Tara took laughing lightly: "N-n-nice to m-m-meet you t-t-too."

The two girls heard a laugh from behind them: "Awww, how friendly huh? Well, I might as well get friendly too. Nice to meet you Tara, I’m Faith." The dark slayer held out her hand to the blonde who took it gingerly but shook it firmly.

Faith leered back, "mmm three vamps dusted. Now it’s time for some action. Anyone good around tonight?"

Tara’s jaw dropped as Faith spoke. She couldn’t believe the energy the dark-haired slayer emitted. The girl was obviously sexually excited by slaying vampires, taking a rush off the violence? She looked to Buffy who shook her head as if saying, "don’t ask me."

Pulling herself to her feet, Tara glanced around panicked before muttering, "b-b-bathroom?"

Laughing lightly Faith quickly tapped her hand on the blonde’s arm: "Come on Blondie. I’ll show you." Tara quickly followed the slayer in the direction of the bathroom as Buffy moved onto the couch to cradle Willow’s head, wondering if she would wake up soon.

As Buffy brushed her hands over her friend’s face, Willow suddenly awoke. Her eyes flew open painfully as she shouted out, "Tara? Buffy? Angelus! I saw him! Where’s Tara? Is she ok? Oh Goddess!" She tried to sit up but the room spun in front of her and she had to lean against Buffy.

As she caught Willow in her swoon Buffy tried to calm the redhead, "Will, breathe. It wasn’t Angelus. It was Angel."

Still trying to calm the redhead, Buffy held her hands: "Tara’s fine. She’s in the bathroom with Faith."

"Faith, the next slayer after Kendra. Your head met her foot a little while ago?" Buffy teased.

Willow began to remember how she came to be lying on the couch. Her cheek ached and she grimaced as she spoke: "I attacked Angel? Faith knocked me out?"

Handing the glass of water to Willow, Buffy explained: "I wasn’t there but here’s what I gather. You attacked Angel. Faith knocked you out. Tara went after them. She held a cross on Angel — he wasn’t going to attack anyway of course. She knocked Faith down with a pipe and held her down. I showed up and convinced her to let up and we brought you in here." Willow nodded as Buffy spoke. "By the way, she seems very powerful. I thought you would need stitches but she fixed you up."

"Damn," Willow exclaimed as she looked around panicked. "She shouldn’t be. She…"

"It’s just, well she spent like 10 hours trying to heal a horse yesterday. She doesn’t have the energy to spend. Was she ok? Is she sick or anything?" Willow worried.

"Um, well yeah. She got sick outside and I think that’s why she had to head to the bathroom now." As she saw that Willow looked like she wanted to get up and go check on the other witch, Buffy put out her arm to stop her: "Hey, Faith’s with her. She’ll be fine and I’m sure she’ll be back any minute."

The girls on the couch looked up to see both the dark-haired slayer and Tara striding toward them. Tara looked much better although blood splattered the collar and top few buttons of her shirt. As Buffy moved aside, Tara quickly took her place: "How are you feeling Will?" she asked, carefully avoiding any pet names.

Brushing her fingertips over her lover’s face and then the dried blood on her shirt, Willow took no such precautions: "I feel like I got kicked by a slayer. Are you ok? You shouldn’t have done this baby."

As Tara grasped Willow’s hand, stroking the skin on the back, Faith looked between the two witches nodding and smiling. Tara whispered, "I couldn’t let you be hurt. And I figured you didn’t want to see a doctor or your folks would know you are here."

"Sorry to interrupt this touching moment ladies," Faith announced loudly. "I’m Faith by the way. Sorry about the kick," she said as she held out her hand to the redhead who shook it tentatively. Turning to Buffy she explained, "look, being attacked by a possessed pipe tired me out. I’m going to head back to the hotel. Maybe look for some company on the way," she leered. "I hit three on patrol so why don’t you take the witches home and take the night off."

Buffy nodded at her counterpart before addressing the other two girls: "Hey, Faith’s right. I’m going to go call mom for a ride so we don’t have to walk home ok? Where is your luggage?"

Willow nodded, although her grimace showed that even that movement hurt her tender head. "At the station," she explained. "Where’s Xander?"

"He thought you weren’t coming till tomorrow. He’s out of town: trying to ride out the holidays away from his family. He’ll be home tomorrow Will," Buffy reassured her friend. After explaining Xander’s absence, she went to use the phone.

Willow took a deep breath: "Well, let’s see. It seems that Angel is back among the undead and no one bothered to mention it to me. I got my head split open by a slayer. And I haven’t managed to talk to Buffy about us yet, so considering that, peachy with a side of keen."

Tara leaned over and gently hugged her girlfriend, kissing her on the forehead: "Oh baby, I’m so s-s-sorry that it went like this. Your head will be b-b-better in a few days and I can do some m-m-more healing on it t-t-tomorrow ok?" As Willow nodded, she continued, "and y-y-you don’t have to t-t-talk to Buffy about us until you’re r-r-ready."

"Tell me what?" Buffy asked as she returned from the phone. "Mom will be here in 10 minutes and I told her we’d be outside waiting. I uh, had to tell her you got hit since you look kindof beat Will."

"Tell you what? Uh well, you know. I mean about why we came in on the earlier train and I just wanted to surprise you and everyone only it was a bigger surprise for us than for you it seems like. And I got kicked for my efforts so next time, no surprises and Xander’s not here and big surprise for me and hey, is it time to go?" Willow’s babble surprised no one and Tara giggled surreptitiously as she looked at the woman she loved.

Joyce picked up the girls in front of the club. She felt concern for both Willow and Tara and tried to convince them to go to the emergency room but neither would relent and eventually she gave up trying. After stopping by the train station to pick up their bags, the group headed home.

While Willow went in the kitchen with Joyce who wanted to take a good look at her injuries, Buffy showed Tara around. "Here’s the guest room Tara," she explained as she pointed it out, setting the girl’s bags on the floor. "I thought Willow could sleep with me in my room like a sleepover. We haven’t had a slumber party in a while you know?"

Willow had come upstairs for the last part of Buffy’s speech. "Uh Buff?" she questioned as she looked over at Tara.

Buffy looked from Willow to Tara who was intently studying her shoes: "Oh right: You guys are both feeling crummy and sick. You don’t need to be up half the night. Why don’t you two sleep in the guest room tonight and tomorrow we can do the slumber party thing." Satisfied with her solution, Buffy hugged Willow good night and entered her room shutting the door behind her.

Tara woke to the smell of coffee and a very bad headache. Her head felt like every vein and artery in it was on fire. When she moved as little as opening her eyes, the movement of the eyelashes made her world swim and the nausea was almost overwhelming. But as bad as she felt, she felt something wonderful too. Willow was wrapped in her arms. Tara chuckled as she thought about when she first met the redhead. She remembered being confused as if Willow had two personalities. One was the sweet angel she saw sleeping so beautifully and the other was the delinquent in and out of trouble with her old school. Now her amusement increased as she looked at her lover. The redhead was sleeping peacefully and deeply as she usually was when Tara rose for the day. But she sported a nasty looking black-eye and a mark where her skin had been split open. In fact, the entire side of her cheek was badly bruised. Tara knew that she would need to do some additional healing or Willow would be really hurting for a long time.

Quietly and painfully, the blonde eased herself from the bed and went to take a shower. Her head continued to throb from the exertions of the past two days. After getting dressed, she went downstairs and found Buffy having breakfast. The slayer offered some to Tara who gladly accepted.

"Will’s still sleeping huh? That girl can really sleep in when she wants to," Buffy observed.

Tara laughed as she agreed: "Yeah. She likes to sleep late and with her head hurting so badly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she sleeps for a really long time."

Buffy nodded: "I feel bad about what happened. I mean I know it’s my fault for not telling her about Angel but I just didn’t know what to do. I mean how do you tell someone you love so much that you love someone you shouldn’t? I mean how can she understand? And now I kept this huge secret and she’s still my best friend but what if she doesn’t trust me or forgive me?"

Tara let Buffy talk placing her hand gently over the slayer’s and sending some comforting energy through the connection. Even that help taxed her energy and increased her headache and she knew that she needed to rejuvenate soon. "M-m-maybe she can understand. M-m-maybe you can j-j-just explain and b-b-be honest?" Tara ventured.

Buffy just nodded, contemplating the conversation she knew needed to happen with her best friend. She relaxed as she thought about how much she had missed the redhead and how happy she was to have her back home.

"I have q-q-question and I don’t know if it will m-m-make sense," Tara began. As Buffy nodded, Tara continued, "um. I n-n-need to m-m-meditate. Like a cleansing. B-b-but the H-h-hellmouth…"

Buffy finished eating and stood up from the table. "Let me call Giles—he’s my watcher, like a trainer—he should know someplace that will work for you. Ok?"

Buffy told her, "Giles has a place that he says is pretty good. It’s on hallowed ground so it’s pretty shielded from the Hellmouth. He can come pick you up if you want to go over there and I can stay here with Willow."

Tara nodded to Buffy’s suggestion and the slayer went to call Giles back. On one hand, Tara didn’t want to leave Willow but on the other, if she didn’t go and do some energy work, she couldn’t do any more healing and she knew it was really needed. After checking on Willow and ensuring that the redhead was still sleeping comfortably, she left instructions with Buffy to give her some aspirin when she got up and left with Giles.

Willow woke up with a terrible headache. As she sat up, feeling the room spin out of control, she wondered when she had decided to allow a truck to drive over her head. As the cloud between her aching ears eased, she remembered the events of the last night. Oh, what a mistake. Trying to wrap her mind around everything she processed what she knew. Let’s go one at a time: Angel’s alive or well, not alive but still undead and no one told me. Especially Buffy. When I attacked him, Faith used my head for a soccer ball. Tara healed me and made herself sick.

On one hand, Willow felt tremendous anger at the slayer for keeping Angel’s return from her. She wanted to know what had happened and how he came back if Buffy even really killed him to begin with. At the same time, she wanted and needed to talk to Buffy about Tara. Not just because she wanted to be open and didn’t want to keep anything from her but because this feeling, this love, this amazingness was just too much to keep to herself. She wanted to share it with her friend because she knew that even if Buffy was shocked, she would be happy for her friend. Because that is what friends do. Right?

Placing a hand on the side of her head so that it wouldn’t fall off, Willow sat up and swung her legs off the bed. Ok, that went well. I don’t think I’ll hurl yet. she thought. It seemed to her that showering would probably be expecting a bit much but a bath would feel good.

After finishing her bath and dressing, Willow slowly made her way downstairs. It sounded as if the house were empty although she couldn’t imagine where Tara would be since she didn’t know anyone in Sunnydale. Since yelling would hurt her head, Willow slowly toured the rooms of the house and found them to be empty as she had suspected. Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do she thought. I come home and my girlfriend and my best friend bail on me. Where are they? "Tara?" she called quietly. Getting no response, she entered the kitchen and saw a piece of paper on the island.

After reading and rereading the note, Willow made a sandwich and went back upstairs. She started reading one of the books Teresa had given the girls on magic but it hurt her eyes and she found them closing.

A few hours later Tara and Buffy entered the house quietly, aware that Willow might be resting since she had not shown up at the library. Tara felt much better having found the location Giles suggested very appropriate and full of positive mystical energy. The most difficult part of the afternoon was meeting a new person and an adult at that. But Giles was very nice and patient with her stutter, which had definitely increased in severity since arriving in Sunnydale. When Tara could bring herself to actually talk to the older gentleman, she discerned that he did seem to have a lot of useful knowledge concerning the occult and mystical forces. While Buffy went to get a soda, Tara said she would go and check on Willow.

Entering the guestroom, she was overwhelmed once again at her depth of love for the sleeping redhead. Willow lay on the bed one hand over an open magic book, the other resting comfortably at the unbuttoned and unzipped fly to her jeans. The blonde smiled as she saw her lover so innocent and not so innocent at the same time. Approaching, she could smell Willow’s essence and knelt by the bed, taking the redhead’s fingers in her mouth and lightly sucking them. Willow’s eyes flashed open as she stammered: "Tara?"

Dropping her lover’s hand back to its resting place, Tara teased, "would it be anyone else love? I just thought you should share a little of that wonderful taste."

Grabbing a pillow Willow quickly plopped it on top of her head and groaned. Tara gently removed the barrier from her blushing girlfriend: "How are you feeling love?"

"Well, embarrassed. I mean ok, maybe I shouldn’t be embarrassed but yeah embarrassed because you came in and I’m sleeping here and what was I doing before I fell asleep and I was thinking about you and your beautiful blue eyes and then well, I just you know and it’s totally obvious and now I’m all red and blushing and looking totally silly. Also my head feels like someone ran me over with a truck and I’m getting tired of feeling crummy because this is the second time in three days and I didn’t get to see you all day and Buffy wasn’t here either and this is not the best vacation I’ve ever had." Finally Willow ran out of breath.

Tara laughed lightly at her lover and whispered in her ear, "I’m glad to hear you were thinking about me. I’ve missed you. Missed you in my mouth and on my tongue." Seeing Willow turn bright red again the blonde decided to go easier on her. "I’m sorry that you are hurting. I went and got a recharge so I can do some more work on your head. Giles brought Buffy and I home. She’s ordering pizza for dinner ok?"

She kissed the redhead lightly on the forehead, pulling back as they heard Buffy’s footsteps on the landing. "Hey guys," Buffy said, "how are you feeling Will?"

"Well, the pizza’s going to take about 45 minutes if you want to do your thing now," Buffy told Tara. Tara had to cut her eyes at Willow who was giggling in response to the thought of Tara "doing her thing." She really had trouble containing herself when Buffy asked, "can I watch? I’d really like to see the kind of stuff you two do together."

Pinching Willow’s leg through her jeans, Tara swallowed loudly before answering: "Um s-s-sure. Um. In a m-m-minute." She quickly got up and went to the bathroom where both girls could hear her running the water loudly. Willow knew that Tara was just too embarrassed to stay in the room and she enjoyed feeling like the tables had turned on the blonde who was teasing her just a few minutes earlier.

When Tara returned to the room, looking much refreshed not to mention less red, she quickly directed Willow to lie on the bed and Buffy out of her way. From her bag, she pulled some herbs that she scattered around the room before concentrating her energy on the redhead. To Buffy, the process looked much like the one that Tara had initiated the night before. The exception was that this time, rather than seeing the green energy directly tying itself to the cut on Willow’s face, it appeared to envelop her entire being. Tara sat completely still as if she were just a conduit for the energy passing from her into Willow’s being. As the slayer watched, the bruising on the redhead’s face lessened noticeably. After a while, Tara opened her eyes, brushing her fingertips lovingly over Willow’s forehead. She motioned to Buffy that the smaller girl was asleep and the two blondes crept quietly from the room, pulling the door shut behind them.

"Wow, Tara, I could really use you around here. Even with slayer healing, I get banged up all the time. You’re awesome," Buffy genuinely complimented the witch.

"Th-th-thanks B-b-buffy. I just like to h-h-help people." The blonde looked down at her feet as she spoke.

As the girls heard the doorbell, announcing the arrival of the pizza, Buffy informed Tara, "well, since you like to help people. You’d make a great scoobies." She turned and went down the stairs to get the pizza and Tara followed right behind her.

The two blondes were just putting their slices on plates as Willow entered the kitchen. "Hey sw-Willow, you w-w-want some?" Tara asked her.

Willow smiled as she reached out for the plate: "Definitely. I’m starving. I feel like I could eat a horse. Or maybe another very large animal if it was cooked and had a good sauce like Bernaise or Hollandaise I guess."

Buffy laughed as she asked, "so Will, are you feeling better? You look way better."

The redhead continued shoveling in the pizza as she answered: "tons. My ba… Tara here is really a good witch. Very powerful. Barely have a headache at all."

"Yeah, she’s very cool," Buffy agreed. "I was thinking if you’re feeling up to it, how about you and me go on patrol tonight. We can talk and stuff and then we can meet up with everyone at the Bronze." She looked from Willow to Tara to make sure that the plan was ok with them.

Willow hesitated before answering, looking at Tara, "uh well. That sound good I mean goodly mcgood but Tare, do you want to wait for us at the Bronze or would you rather stay here till we get back?"

"Hey, Faith said she would hang with you at the Bronze," Buffy interjected. "I talked to here a little while ago. She said you two can play while we go to the office," the slayer joked.

After finishing eating and noting the ensuing darkness, the three girls went upstairs to get dressed. "Hey baby, are you ok about this plan?" Willow asked her lover.

"W-w-well, I’m a little n-n-nervous you know? I mean Faith is a little…" Tara trailed off. "I mean, d-d-didn’t you think?"

Willow laughed, "sweetie. I really didn’t notice much about her except her stylish yet affordable shoe smashing into my skull and knocking my overactive brain loose."

Tara hugged the redhead close saying, "I’m glad you are f-f-feeling better love. But Faith. I just don’t kn-kn-know…"

Tara backed up as a flush entered her cheeks explaining, "well. It’s just. I think she kind of, you know, g-g-gets off on the s-s-slaying. You know?"

Willow looked aghast as she answered: "For real? That’s weird. I mean ok, she must like to get off or something. She slept with Xander after all. Hmmm, actually I’m not sure if that means she does or doesn’t like to get off. Don’t even want to think about it. Come-on love; Buffy’s waiting for us and the evil undead won’t wait."

Faith was already at the Bronze, dancing in the center of a circle of hulking guys. As she saw the other three girls come in, she left the dance floor to come over and check on them and particularly on how Willow’s head felt, apologizing again. Seeing how good Willow looked, she told Tara: "Damn girl, you must be really good if she’s feeling that good already." Turning to Willow and Buffy, she directed, "hey girls. Go do my job for a while and I’ll keep this one busy ok?"

As soon as the other two had left, Faith turned to Tara, "so Blondie, you want a drink?"

"Tara what? Oh Tara name right. So you want a drink Blondie?" Faith pulled the witch toward the bar.

Tara looked at Faith for a moment with complete puzzlement. Although she persisted in calling Tara Blondie, Faith’s tone and manner were nice, perhaps a little too nice. As if she were brewing up some plan and Tara didn’t really know what to expect from the dark-haired slayer. Attempting to gather some more information, Tara ensured that she brushed fingers with the slayer as she handed her the cup of water. Shocked she pulled back her hand as she tried to identify the myriad emotions pouring through her companion. She identified numerous ones including but not limited to: anger, sadness, grief, rage, lust, and happiness. The grief and rage seemed to battle for supremacy on the inside although Tara felt that Faith’s outside betrayed those emotions.

Tara was still nervous about the brunette’s motivation but decided to try and be friendly back: "o-o-ok."

The two moved to the dance floor where Faith quickly staked them a sizeable portion of real estate and began gyrating energetically. Tara moved less vigorously, being much more of a two-step girl than a bump and grind girl at least on the dance floor she thought. As the music progressed, the blonde became more and more interested in her dancing and began really letting herself go, enjoying the physical motion. It had been a day since she’d had any good exercise and her muscles warmed to the activity quickly.

As she danced, Tara watched the other woman closely. She seemed to be really enjoying herself in the dance. Occasionally she turned to rub against someone who was dancing close by and she seemed to have plenty of guys intentionally stationing themselves at hand or hip to be available. Playing the good host, she returned after each encounter to give her attention to Tara. As the evening progressed, the dance floor became more and more crowded and the two women danced closer together. Tara was shocked as Faith suddenly moved closer than the space limitations required, rubbing her body up and down Tara’s stiffening one: "so Blondie," she smiled sexily, "it’s really nice that you came home to visit with your friend ."

As Tara tried to move subtly away from the slayer, she attempted to answer, "w-w-w-what? W-w-w-hat? M-m-maybe we sh-sh-sh-ould sit d-d-d-own?"

"Sure," Faith shrugged, "whatever you want Blondie." The two girls turned toward the couches lining the wall of the club. As they neared an empty couch, Tara felt Faith right at her shoulder and heard her whisper: "so Blondie, do you stutter when you scream her name?" As Tara turned to look at the dark-haired slayer, Faith uttered a parody of an orgasmic scream: "W-w-willow!"

Tara stared on in absolute shock as the dark-haired slayer fell into the couch, grinning widely. She was still standing there opening and closing her mouth repeatedly when the young man with spiked hair approached. "Hey," he said to Faith, turning to Tara and wiggling his nose as if smelling the air around her.

After leaving Tara with Faith at the Bronze, Buffy and Willow started their patrol. They walked in silence to the cemetery, cautious for any visitors. "Well, I could ask how school is or something lame like that but I’m guessing that are wondering about Angel," Buffy started.

Willow nodded her bruised head, "it did cross my mind. Buffy, why didn’t you tell me?"

Sitting on a headstone Buffy started to explain: "I really was going to tell you. I was planning to tell you all about it when I picked you guys up at the station today. You know, during the daylight."

"Oh God Will, I wanted to tell you so bad. But at first, it just hurt so badly. I mean I killed him and I left town. And then I came back and it was so painful to be here and you weren’t here to help me," Buffy started. Willow looked at her in a mixture of sadness, compassion, and resentment that Buffy seemed to blame Willow’s absence on her. "Then he came back and he was in really bad shape. He’d been in hell Willow. But he got better. And I wanted to tell you but then it seemed like the longer I hadn’t told you the worse it would be to tell. Does that make any sense?"

Willow had taken Buffy’s hand while she spoke and now answered, "kindof. I’m sorry that you were hurting so badly. I missed you so much. And well, yeah, I’m hurt that you didn’t tell me about Angel but I guess I kind of understand. I mean, sometimes you want to tell someone something. Something really important that makes you really happy but you don’t know if your friend will take it right and will approve of it. Like what if they can’t handle hearing who you love and they don’t accept it?"

Buffy hugged her friend, "wow, Willow. I can’t believe that you understand so well how I feel about Angel. You’re really smart you know," she finished, completely oblivious to Willow’s intended double meaning and the reason for her empathy.

Willow decided to dive right in saying, "uh yeah well. I do understand. Really Buff. And well, actually I kind of was wanting to talk …"

Her words were cut off by the appearance of three vampires coming through the bushes across from where the two girls sat. "Well, look at that dinner," the biggest one growled.

"You’re gonna wish you had called out for pizza like we did," Buffy quipped as she leapt from the headstone and went straight for the lead vampire. Sidestepping his first blow easily, she staked him from behind. Not watching his pile of dust settle, she quickly moved to the next one, taking him on in a flurry of punches and kicks as the final vampire advanced on Willow. Scared for Willow, Buffy staked her prey and moved to grab the vampire that was still moving toward the redhead. As she grabbed him by the collar, spinning him around before her could reach her friend, Buffy heard Willow call out: "hey Buff, wait a minute. I want to try something."

Both the slayer and vampire looked puzzled but the witch smiled back at them. Suddenly Buffy felt heat and dropped her grip on the collar of the vampire, looking down to see flames spreading all over his clothing. He screamed, trying to pat them out and dropped to the ground to roll but was quickly reduced to a screaming pile of ash. As the witch dropped to the ground next to Buffy, staring at the spot where the vampire had just been, she smiled broadly.

Buffy hugged her friend, "hey Wills, check you out: witch-foo. First the curse on Angel and now this. You are getting way powerful."

Willow looked at the ground saying, "well sure powerful. Too bad the curse didn’t work."

As they started walking through the again quiet cemetery Buffy whispered, "it worked Will."

Stopping to look at her friend, Willow questioned, "what? It worked? But you killed him."

Unable to hold back her tears Buffy explained, "he’d already awakened it. I had to kill him anyway. I kissed him and told him I loved him and asked him to shut his eyes. Then I killed him and sent him to hell. He never even understood what was going on Will." Buffy collapsed to the ground, unable to contain the emotion. As Willow held her best friend, Buffy finally experienced all the anger and grief that she had been holding in. Willow leaned against the nearest headstone, feeling her best friend’s grief and perhaps beginning to understand why the slayer had run away.

Faith looked from Tara to Oz. This should be good she thought as she smiled. "Hey Oz, this is Tara, Willow’s friend from school," she politely introduced them.

Oz quickly held out his hand, sniffing no longer just at the air, but at Tara herself. "Tara?" he questioned.

Realizing that the smaller man was not letting go of her hand, Tara trembled slightly, "n-n-nice to m-m-meet you." She glanced over at Faith who appeared to be amused by the entire encounter.

Oz began politely, "friend of Willo…" Raising his eyebrows he sniffed at her more directly and obviously: "You smell like her. She's all over you, you know that?"

Tara started to withdraw from the conversation, "I I I c-c-can’t talk about th-th-this."

Withdrawing his hand, the boy pulled back, "Hey sorry, uh nice to meet you Tara." He turned and quickly walked back toward the stage.

Breathing out the breath she had been holding, Tara turned to see Faith smiling, "well that went well didn’t it?" Seeing the angry look on the blonde’s face, Faith smiled her innocent smile, "come on let’s dance and we won’t have to talk ok? Truce?" She held up her hand and Tara shook it briefly before moving toward the dance floor.

When she was totally cried out, Buffy wiped her face on her shirt before hugging her friend. "Thanks Will. I’ve really missed you you know?" As Willow nodded, hugging her again, Buffy continued, "it’s been really hard without you here and keeping this from you and everything."

As they stood to continue their patrol, Willow started, "hey, speaking of well stuff and everything, I was wanting to kind of talk to you about I mean well, if this is a good time and everything and well with the not keeping secrets and with the happy and you know how sometimes you don’t tell something and then you want to but the time isn’t right and you still want to…"

Willow took a breath before speaking, "yeah sure slow down. Um well so about Tara…"

"Yeah Tara, I wonder if she and Faith are having a good time at the Bronze. We should head over there soon," Buffy mused.

"Right Tara, sorry that we didn’t have more room at the house, only one guest room you know? Tonight we can do the slumber party thing, you and me. But sorry that you had to share a room last night Will," Buffy blathered on oblivious to the frustration streaking the redhead’s face.

The anxiety and frustration of this conversation was really getting to Willow. She grabbed Buffy’s wrist, "Buff, listen to me: Tara and I don’t mind sharing the guestroom."

"Of course not," the redhead sighed, "you see the thing is that we sleep in the same room every night."

"Oh right, you are roommates then? I was confused about that. I thought your mom got you a single," Buffy questioned.

Dropping to the ground and starting to gently pound her forehead against the heel of her hand, Willow strained to explain, "no. We’re not roommates."

Buffy dropped to sit by her best friend: "You’re not roommates but you sleep in the same room every night? Why, is her roommate loud or has guys over all the… no. that’s not what you mean is it?"

Getting up and beginning to pace, Buffy rambled: "Well... That's great too, right? I mean, she seems like a great girl, Will.."

As she swelled up with pride, Willow began her babble: "She is. And there's something
between us... I wasn't looking for it, you know. It's just totally powerful."

Worried about the slayer’s response, Willow asked, "Are you freaked? Do you get it?"

Buffy nodded, "What? No, Wi- No! Absolutely no to that question. I'm glad you told me.
You like Tara; that’s cool."

Wondering how thick Buffy could possibly be, Willow clarified, "yes it’s cool but Buffy?" Seeing Buffy nod at her to continue Willow explained, "I don’t like her I mean well, I do like her I mean, I’m in love with her. I’m crazy about her. I love her more than I ever knew it was possible. Just the thought that she exists and knows that I exist fills me with more joy than you could imagine. I want nothing more from life than to make her happy forever."

By now the two girls had turned to approach the Bronze. Buffy nodded, "Uh ok. Well, I’m glad you told me." They joined Faith and Tara in the bar to dance until everyone was tired and wanted to go home.

Tara and Willow lay cuddled on the bed in the guest room. After dancing for a little while, they had come home and Willow had politely indicated to Buffy that she would prefer to sleep with Tara than slumber party it. The redhead was very disappointed when Xander called saying that he wouldn’t make it home until the next day. Apparently his out-of-town relatives had decided to emulate the in-town ones and gotten too drunk to take him to the bus station.

Tara didn’t want to push but she wanted to know how the talk with Buffy had gone. "Sweetie," she asked, "how was your patrol?"

Excitedly sitting up, Willow began gesturing as she spoke: "it went really well, she staked two vamps and I got one with the fire spell. I just pictured his coat burning and poof: no more vampire. What do you think?"

Taking a deep breath Willow explained, "well, it was intense. She talked about Angel, about how much she missed and loved him. It turns out that the curse worked but it was too late and she had to kill him anyway. Then he came back better and she’s wanted to tell me but didn’t know how. She really kind of collapsed. I feel bad for her but it was nice to be needed and loved again." Tara nodded as she continued listening. "Does that make me a terrible person? That I felt ok that she was hurting because she needed me?"

"No love," Tara answered, "it just makes you human. You tried to comfort her right?"

Although Tara was interested in talking about Buffy and Angel, she really wanted to know how Willow’s talk with Buffy about them went. "Did you talk about anything else?" she led.

Willow began lightly tickling the blonde then softly kissing her neck. She whispered as she kissed: "well, I did mention that I’m completely in love with the most beautiful woman in the world. That her very existence gives me complete joy and I want to spend forever making her happy."

As she spoke she pressed her lips to Tara’s, enjoying the soft contact. Moving her hands to Tara’s hips, she pressed her body on top of the blonde’s enjoying the feeling of their full lengths coupled together. Tara wound her hands in Willow’s hair, trying to pull the smaller woman closer and closer. She darted her tongue out to taste her lover’s soft lips and felt those lips close around her tongue, pulling it deep into her mouth and sucking the tip. Tara moaned with pleasure at the sensation starting at her mouth and shooting throughout her body.

Willow smirked, "she said that I should…" she leaned over and whispered in Tara’s ear. As the blonde got a look of complete shock on her face Willow laughed, "oh wait a minute, that was the voice in my head, not Buffy who said that."

Trying to recover from the red completely flushing her face Tara gulped, "I hope that was only in your head or your best friend is a little too accepting."

Willow laughed as she rolled off Tara to lie next to her, absently trailing her fingers over the blonde’s supine body. "Actually that will probably be Xander’s reaction," she predicted. As they talked, she slid her fingers inside the buttons to Tara’s pajamas to touch her soft skin. "What about you baby? How was your evening with slayer number two?"

Willow went immediately into worried mode, cupping her lover’s chin in her hand as she asked, "what happened sweetie?" Worried or not, however, he other hand did not stop its sensual transit across the blonde’s skin.

Aware of her lover’s hand still moving with purpose and beginning to unbutton her top, Tara decided to summarize: "well, let’s see. In no p-p-particular order: I met Oz. He sniffed me and s-s-said your scent was all over me and got weird, then left. Actually, maybe he s-s-started out w-w-weird. Faith was very amused all night, k-k-kind of t-t-teasing me."

"Sh-sh-she asked if I s-s-stutter when I scream your name. Then she d-d-did it," Tara explained quietly.

Softly Willow kissed her lover saying, "I’m sorry she was a jerk sweetie." Rubbing her hand over Tara’s soft breast and cupping the nipple in her palm she whispered, "I’ve never noticed you stuttering. But it’s the kind of important. We should probably test it, don’t you think?" Rather than waiting for an answer, she lowered her mouth to Tara’s hardening nipple and began tracing the tip of her tongue around the aureole.

Lifting her mouth only slightly from its target, Willow joked, "I don’t want to make love with Buffy. I want to make love with you sweetie." She immediately lowered her mouth again, wrapping her lips around the nipple and sucking it gently into her mouth.

Winding her fingers in Willow’s hair Tara moaned quietly: "w-w-well if we need to do the test, we c-c-can be quiet." Murmuring her agreement, Willow quickly shifted to the other nipple, teasing it with the tip of her tongue as she pinched the first, already-wet nipple between her fingers. The redhead flicked her tongue against the Tara’s nipple, feeling it harden under her attention. Scraping her teeth lightly over the surface, she felt the blonde arch her back, thrusting her breast to Willow’s mouth. The smaller woman sucked Tara’s nipple more deeply into her mouth while caressing the other with her hand. As Tara moaned quietly pulling the redhead closer and closer Willow returned to the first nipple, alternating her attention and enjoying Tara’s energetic response.

Absorbed in the feeling of Willow’s mouth on one of her most sensitive regions, Tara nonetheless gathered the wherewithal to begin unbuttoning Willow’s top. She slipped her hands into the opening, pushing the garment from Willow’s shoulders and onto the floor and returning her hands to softly touch her lover’s small breasts. Circling her palms over the aureole, she felt the nipples hardening and grasped them between her fingers alternating soft loving touches with increasingly rough pinching. Unsure at first about this new direction in their touching, she was rewarded as Willow gasped and moaned into her flushed skin.

Lifting her lover’s face from her own breast, Tara raised up to take one of the redhead’s very hard nipples between her teeth, tugging gently before circling the tip of her tongue over the bud. As she lifted up to reach the nipple, Willow slipped the blonde’s top from her shoulders and tossed it to join her own on the floor. Absorbed and excited by the attention being paid to her nipples, Willow ran her hands over Tara’s torso and abdomen, finally snaking it under her lover’s pajama bottom to touch and tease at blonde curls. Separating from her attention to her lover’s nipple only long enough to switch to the other, Tara released a long moan in response to Willow’s hand gliding through her wetness. Reaching the other nipple she pulled it deeply into her mouth, scraping her teeth along the edge repeatedly and feeling Willow shudder from the attention.

As she sucked and bit the redhead’s nipple, Tara lowered her hands to Willow’s pajama bottom waist and began easing the pants from her lover’s slight hips. When they got too low to reach Willow quickly stood shucking off the offending barrier. Leaning over the blonde, Willow next grasped the waist of Tara’s bottoms and pulled them quickly off before lying back down on top of her lover. The two women reveled in the naked union they had missed for the past few days. "I’ve missed you love," Willow whispered as she ran her hands through Tara’s waiting wetness.

"You too baby," Tara moaned back, her hands caressing her lover’s back and straying to cup and squeeze the redhead’s ass.

Willow began kissing Tara’s chest and stomach as she whispered: "you know what amazes me?"

"Well yes but," Willow answered as she began placing kisses liberally but lovingly all over Tara’s skin. "We’ve been together over two months and I don’t think I’ve ever kissed right here." As she said this, she kissed a spot just on the inside of Tara’s hipbone on the left side. "Or here," she continued, "or here…"

Once again the intensity of love Willow shared with her was apparent to Tara as she allowed herself to absorb every kiss and touch. The connection was refreshed and increased through each contact and the blonde was enveloped in absolute loving and comfort. Lowering her body along her lover’s Willow began at Tara’s knee: "or here, or here, or here," she echoed as she slowly worked her way up the inside of both of Tara’s thighs, smelling her excitement as she neared its sweet source.

Tara moaned wrapping her fingers in her lover’s soft hair as she felt the smaller woman speaking into her wet curls. "mmm, I have kissed this spot but maybe I need a reminder." "What do you think baby?" she teased, nuzzling her mouth and nose into Tara’s center.

"Y-y-yes reminder p-p-please," the blonde gasped as Willow lowered her mouth to lightly kiss her wet curls. Nuzzling into the soft wetness, she hummed as her tongue darted out to quickly lick one outer lip and then the other. More slowly, she flattened her tongue against the skin, savoring the feel and taste of her lover. Willow reveled in the scent and feel and taste of Tara as she repeatedly ran her tongue along the blonde’s outer lips.

Relaxing into the feel of Willow’s soft mouth on her, Tara felt herself opening to the attention her lover paid her. As Willow gently separated her lips with her fingertips and tentatively darted her tongue into her inner folds, Tara heard a moan escape her own lips. Have to be quiet, Oh Goddess! she though and complied only by using every bit of restraint she could muster. As if completely entranced by her lover’s secrets, Willow slowly explored every millimeter of Tara’s skin with her tongue, licking slowly and softly, absorbing every drop of wetness that she could. Her fingertips lightly brushed over Tara’s clit as her tongue darted inside her opening.

The blonde rocked with the waves of pleasure radiating from her skin where it met and was met by Willow’s mouth. She thrust her center repeatedly to her lover’s waiting tongue and lips to feel that softness on her clit, grasping and sucking and grazing the teeth over the swollen nub. She was grasped by further ecstasy as without having to be asked, Willow slipped two fingers into her waiting wetness while continuing to worship her lover with her mouth.

Willow delighted once again in the soft warm wetness her fingers found. Feeling Tara’s body envelop her brought to mind the word and feeling of ‘home.’ Her smile against Tara’s clit caused further shivers to run through the blonde’s body and Willow continued to move her mouth and tongue against that pleasure center while gently wiggling her fingers within Tara’s depths. Opening her eyes she looked up to see Tara’s beautiful body, head thrown back with her hair spilling onto the pillow, eyes closed and her wrist pressed against her mouth as if restraining a scream.

Tara felt as well as heard Willow’s hum "I love you" on her tender nub, the vibrations and the words causing her pleasure to radiate more strongly from her center outward to every inch of her being. Thrusting her hips forward and biting down hard on her wrist to keep from waking their hosts, she felt an explosion of pleasure rip through her and wrap itself around Willow’s hand and mouth. Pulling her wrist from her mouth she moaned as quietly as she could, "Willooooowwww!" while wave after wave of pleasure wracked her entire body.

Softly kissing, licking, and stroking her lover as her orgasm continued and then retreated, Willow murmured wordlessly into Tara’s wetness. As the blonde relaxed, she slipped her fingers from their wet resting place. "Don’t want to dirty the sheets," she teased as she slowly licked the wetness from her fingertips.

"Too late," Tara retorted as she pulled Willow to embrace her and once again merge their lips. As Willow settled onto her, she felt the wetness coating the redhead’s tiny curls and pressing against her stomach. Their kiss deepened and Tara slowly trailed her hand down Willow’s slight body to touch and tease the wet curls, wrapping them around her fingertips. Willow lifted slightly to allow access to her wet center. "No stutter?" the blonde asked as she found her lover’s clit, passing her fingertips lightly over the swollen muscle.

Pressing her fingers more forcefully into Willow’s clit and darting them to tease at her opening, Tara again whispered, "no? Do you want me to stop baby?"

Pressing the fingers of her other hand to Willow’s lips, Tara continued her teasing, "don’t stop? But you said ‘no’ baby. I should respect that don’t you think?" As she spoke, Tara leaned forward, shifting Willow’s weight so the smaller woman was sitting in her lap with her legs wrapped around Tara’s back. The blonde found herself facing her lover’s perfect breasts and bent forward to take one small nipple in her mouth. Remembering Willow’s earlier reaction, she roughly ran her teeth over the surface of the nipple and was rewarded as Willow bit down hard on her neck as if trying to restrain a scream.

Willow attempted to press her center onto her lover’s fingers but those fingers continued their dance over her flesh capturing and releasing every intricate treasure. Wrapping her arms around Tara’s neck Willow began licking and kissing the soft flesh there as she whispered in her ear: "lover, I need you inside me." As she spoke she lowered one hand to capture Tara’s outstretched fingers, bringing them to her opening. Looking her lover in the eye and seeing absolute love and devotion, she suddenly pressed her center forward, capturing Tara’s fingers within her depths.

Wrapping one arm around Willow’s back, Tara found that she could virtually glide the smaller woman against her hand. As her thumb pressed against her lover’s clit, her two fingers easily glided deep into Willow’s depths. Her own arms wrapped around her lover’s neck and back, Willow began to thrust vigorously against Tara’s fingers, driving them deeper into her wetness. Willow felt amazed by the total enrapture she felt as she took her lover so deeply into her body and soul while Tara reveled in the trust being shared by her chosen. Pressing her mouth to Tara’s ear, the redhead whimpered, "more…" and was quickly rewarded as Tara slowly allowed a third finger to join the first two.

Thrusting slowly but deeply into Willow’s body, Tara could hardly believe the trust and openness the redhead was sharing with her. Hearing Willow gasp on the first thrust, Tara stilled her hand as she asked: "are you ok baby?" Biting down on her lip, the smaller woman could only nod her head as she moved her body against the fullness of Tara’s fingers filling her.

Knowing that she could not resist either coming or screaming for much longer, Willow grabbed Tara’s face, pressing her mouth down onto her lips. She felt her scream echoing back into her body as an orgasm ripped through her, crashing against Tara’s fingers and hand and body and soul. Pressing her arm to her mouth, the redhead fell back on the bed as she continued to thrust and gyrate against Tara’s fingers, her inner walls clenching and releasing, clenching and releasing endlessly against the contact.

As she felt the contractions releasing Tara began to slow her movements, brushing lightly against her lover’s clit and slowly pulling from her inner depths. Gently maneuvering her body, she turned to lie against Willow’s spent form, trailing her hand over her sweat covered skin. "I love you Willow," she murmured into the redhead’s neck, eliciting a favorable, "mmm" response from the collapsed woman.

Enjoying the feel of total relaxation, Tara nonetheless felt the two women sliding quickly toward sleep: "sweetie?"

"Don’t you think w-w-we should put on some p-p-pajamas and unlock the d-d-door?" she ventured.

Willow groaned as she agreed, "oh phooey to having to move. But yes love, Buffy will probably come wake us in the morning." As she spoke she rose to sit on the edge of the bed, pulling on her pajamas as she handed Tara’s to the blonde. Once dressed she looked to the door for a moment and heard the refreshing click of the lock releasing. The two women climbed under the covers, snuggling tight together. Before going to sleep they kissed again, softly and lovingly. Feeling the change in Tara’s breathing to indicate that the blonde had fallen asleep, Willow whispered her new mantra: "I love you Tara Maclay. I’ll do anything to make sure we are together always."

Buffy stood outside the door to the guestroom, her hand raised as if to she was about to knock but was unsure whether to do it. On one hand, she had made coffee and was ready for breakfast and wanted to wake her friends. But on the other, well, it was just so strange. Willow left for school four months ago and although Buffy wasn’t around, she didn’t remember having any hint that her best friend was gay. But now, she showed up and brought Tara with and the girl seemed very nice, if a bit shy, but well… Willow’s gay? How? What? How? — Three excellent questions.

Buffy really worried about what she should do. How do I look at them now? And after last night? While it was obvious that the girls were trying to be quiet, they seemed to have forgotten that Buffy had slayer hearing. Slayer hearing: that’s mystical for "very very good." The clearest sound from the night was Tara calling, or maybe moaning would be a better term, out Willow’s name and Willow practically screaming "Goddess Tara don’t stop." Buffy blushed thinking, why was Tara even thinking of stopping? No, I don’t want to know.

Ok, this is stupid. The day is wasting. the slayer thought. She knocked loudly on the door calling out, "Will. Tara? You guys awake?" Moments later, Tara pulled open the door. Well, god, at least they were wearing clothes. No one can get dressed that fast Buffy thought.

Pulling the door closed and stepping into the hall, Tara explained, "Willow’s s-s-still asleep Buffy."

The slayer nodded dumbly as she looked at Tara’s neck, a neck that sported evidence of last night in the form of a dark bite mark. Noting Buffy’s discomfort Tara asked, "c-c-coffee?"

Relieved to have something to talk about Buffy nodded, "yes, want to come eat and Willow can eat when she gets up?"

The two girls moved downstairs and began making breakfast. Just as they were finishing the meal preparation, Willow came downstairs yawning. As all three girls ate Buffy asked, "so any plans for today?"

Tara looked to Willow who answered, "nope. I want to see Xander soon but other than that, nothing. What are you doing?"

"I need to run over to the university for Giles and trade some books with some occult dude. You guys want to go? We can get lunch on the way and take a nice leisurely stroll," Buffy explained. "Actually it might be nice to take a walk during daylight. Sometimes I feel like all I do is walk around this town in the dark."

Both girls nodded as Willow teased back: "isn’t that the job description: Wanted Slayer: walking around in the dark, poking bad guys with a sharp piece of wood?" As everyone laughed over that, she answered, "sure going over to the university sounds good to me. Tara?" The blonde witch nodded.

After getting ready the three girls set out on their outing. The university was a good five miles across town so they had worked up an appetite by the time they reached the campus. After dropping off the books and getting the new ones, the girls stopped at a coffee shop for drinks and lunch. Buffy and Willow enjoyed the chance to catch up on the events of the last four months while Tara mostly sat quietly as the two others visited.

Knowing that Willow would be missing the adventures of the Scooby gang and feeling left out, Buffy tried to make her feel useful with how much her prediction programs had helped with the slayage.

"Yeah well, welcome to Sunnydale. It was a mask thingy. But hey, mom saw some action," Buffy joked.

"I thought that was because of the band candy," Willow teased back, knowing that Buffy was still creeped out at the thought of Giles and Joyce together.

"Uggh. Gross," Buffy responded, "I mean this town is so evil. Mom and Giles: yick."

As Willow and Buffy visited, at first the redhead felt like she should try to include Tara in the conversation, but quickly she realized that the blonde was more comfortable quietly perusing the occult books they had picked up for Giles. Quickly the conversation between the two friends turned to college choices. "So Will, what colleges are chomping at your bit?" Buffy asked.

Willow glanced tentatively at her girlfriend, "uh well. I guess all of them. What about you?"

"Oh yeah, all with the chomping. How many colleges are chasing down a slayer with discipline problems and borderline grades?" Buffy looked downcast. "I don’t know if I can ever get out of this Hellmouth anyway." She looked at Willow regretfully as added, "I’m going to apply a few places but I just don’t know. Actually I thought while we were over here we could get some information about UC Sunnydale. Sound ok to you two?"

Getting Tara’s attention, Willow asked, "hey baby, Buffy wants to pick up some information about the college. You mind?"

Startled from her concentration on the book, the blonde looked around, "huh? Oh. F-f-fine. Whatever y-y-you want to do."

Although she appeared to be entranced by the book, Tara had in fact been listening intently to Willow and Buffy’s conversation once that conversation turned to college choices and options. The blonde was very torn on the subject of college. She knew that more than anything she wanted to be a veterinarian. It had been her dream since she was a very young girl and she had probably done more doctoring on the animals on her family farm than many first year practicing doctors. In fact, her dream of being a vet was the reason that she attended the boarding school in the first place. Her ambition allowed her to realize in eighth grade that to earn the scholarship she needed to attend college and post-graduate school, she would need to attend a better high school than was available in her small hometown.

Since coming to Brennams, she had worked tirelessly at her goal of earning the honors and grades that would allow her to earn the college education she wanted to badly. On the way, she had piled up not only academic honors but countless recommendations from teachers for her extra-curricular activities. More importantly than that, she had found a home at Brennams—a place where she could excel and interact with many people and share her love of animals and feel like she was making a difference.

So part of her heart was filled with her single-minded ambition to fulfill her dream to be vet. But the other part, a part which was increasing in intensity and focus even now, was filled with Willow. Tara was not oblivious to the way Willow spoke. The way she would say that she wanted to make love to her forever or make her happy for the rest of their lives. And feeling the connection between them she knew that it wasn’t just idle talk. She knew that Willow truly wanted to stay together past the next six months. But how could she? It was a thought, a worry, a concern, that filled her mind in her sleeping and waking hours. Willow had so many options and what she could achieve given her opportunities was almost overwhelming. How could Tara expect her to give that up? And would Tara be willing to do the same thing? If Willow decided to go to MIT or somewhere like that would Tara go just to be with her and give up her dream of being a veterinarian? Would she end up resenting the choice if she did or would Willow become bored if her girlfriend spent the rest of her life teaching horse-back riding rather than healing animals?

"P-p-probably Texas A&M. It’s in-state and I n-n-need a s-s-s-cholarship," Tara stuttered as Willow attempted to calm her, stroking her knee under the table.

Unaware that Tara was any more upset than her usual level of stuttering indicated Buffy continued, "Are your grades good? And SATs, because there are scholarships everywhere."

Willow cut in quickly, "yeah her grades are great. She’s like near the top of the class and her SATs will be really good." Looking over at her girlfriend and forcing eye contact Willow continued, "we’re going to have lots of options." Breaking the eye contact, Tara looked down at the book again.

Buffy glanced back and forth between the two witches. As she did, she realized two things. First, that this subject, the topic of college had obviously come up before for them and seemed to be some sort of a point of contention. She couldn’t see the reason for the contention but it certainly was there. Second, it hit her like a punch to the stomach: Oh God. Willow is really in love with her. Not in like and not just playing around with something new: a girl thing. She’s totally in love with her. Wow, I didn’t get that at all. Jesus. "Hey, how about we go and pick up those pamphlets and stuff ok?" Buffy asked as she cleared her dishes and moved toward the door.

The girls took a few hours to tour the campus and pick up information from the admissions office and various departments. Willow of course picked up literature from the mathematics and computer science departments just in case and made sure to get information from biology and pre-vet for Tara. Having no idea what she wanted to do if she even lived through high school, Buffy just picked up some information from every department. As they started home, Willow pointed at the sizeable pile of paper the slayer had amassed: "wow Buffy: it’s a good thing you’re a slayer or you couldn’t carry home all that paperwork." Buffy nodded her agreement, handing over a few inches for the redhead to help her carry as Tara laughed.

"What? A Sunnydale thing? What are you…nevermind. I forgot to tell you guys." Buffy began her explanation: "I set up a welcome home thing at the Bronze tonight. Everyone wanted to see you and everything so everyone is coming: me, Angel, Faith, Oz, Xander, Cordelia, mom, Giles…well everyone. I hope that’s ok? I mean, I didn’t know … when I invited Oz or anything." Buffy lamely finished.

Taking Tara’s hand in hers as they walked down the street Willow answered for both of them: "no that’s fine. Tara and Oz met last night and it seemed ok right baby?" The blonde nodded and Willow continued, "it will be fun. Thanks for setting it up Buff."

After getting home, having some dinner, and changing clothes, the three girls headed to the Bronze. Joyce assured them that she would be along shortly for Willow-pseudo-coming home party. When they arrived at the club, Oz and Devon were setting up for their gig but no one else from the gang had shown up yet. They sat around for a little while as people began to arrive.

Tara was looking around the club and thinking about the last three nights. Her visit had so far been pretty unusual. She hadn’t imagined at all what the visit to Sunnydale—the Hellmouth— would be like. She had assumed that it would be somewhat like the visit to her family: some good food, some relaxation, fun times. Instead it had been encounters with vampires back from the dead and slayers that either kicked you in the head or teased you about your stutter and girlfriend. Not as fun as she was hoping.

Just as she was sitting there thinking about all this, she heard a scream and Willow was swept off the couch by a taller guy with dark hair. As he picked her up and twirled her around, Tara recognized Xander from the photographs Willow kept in her room. The two friends were screaming and hugging and greeting each other. Willow was crying and saying how much she had wished he was in town for the past two days causing him to make a lame joke about keeping away from his family for the holidays: a joke which Willow appeared to agree with.

Finally, Willow turned to Tara and began introducing Tara to Xander: "Tara this is Xander. Xander, this is Tara, my g…" she was cutoff as Buffy came back from the bathroom, screamed and threw herself into the Xander’s arms. "Hey, let’s go dance everyone," she commanded as she pulled Xander and Willow by the hand toward the dance floor. Willow grabbed Tara’s hand, pulling her along.

By the time the four friends had danced to a few songs, they glanced over to the side of the dance floor to see the entire gang, including Giles and Joyce, waiting. As they approached, Giles lit a few candles on a cake that had "Welcome Home Willow" written across it. Everyone enjoyed the cake as they relaxed and visited, dancing in all possible combinations.

Everyone was standing in a large group when Faith appeared, grabbing a piece of cake with her hands. Smirking at both Willow and Tara, she gestured at Tara’s neck announcing loudly, "damn Willow. The last time I saw a bite mark like that, I had to stake the guy that did it." Turning to Angel she teased, "no offense dead-boy."

As Willow’s mouth dropped open Faith stepped closer, smirking more widely now: "so tell me Red. Did she?"

Seeing Willow’s anger rising, Tara stepped closer to her girlfriend. With her right hand, she reached forward, grabbing Willow’s hand to allow her the redhead to feel their connection. Regardless of the connection and love she felt from Tara, Willow advanced toward the dark-haired slayer: "Did she what?"

"Stutter. Did your girlfriend stutter when you were making that mark? Or when she made her own?" Faith could barely contain her pleasure at making the two witches squirm and the anger showing on Willow’s face made it apparent that she had hit a sore spot.

Suddenly Xander turned toward the quarreling girls. "Tara’s your girlfriend?" he asked perplexed.

As Buffy stepped into the fray she turned to Faith: "hey confrontation girl. How about taking it down a few hundred notches huh?" As Faith smiled and nodded, Buffy turned to Willow saying, "and Will. Sorry that Faith’s being a jerk but you kind of caught us off guard here."

"What?" Willow asked. Tara could feel the anger and hurt surging through her girlfriend and really wished that they could just be somewhere by themselves so she could try to calm her down.

"Well, it’s just you know. I mean you were dating Oz and then you go to school and now you’re all like ‘Hey Gay Now!’" and we weren’t really ready for that," Buffy explained.

"But we can be. I mean like Gay how? And what do you do together?" Xander tossed in hopefully. As all the girls turned and shot him a dirty look, he put up his hands, "hey can’t blame a guy for asking."

"Well, no you can’t loser guy," Cordelia tossed in, "I mean Willow was so in love with you for so long. That’s got to really get to a girl."

Faith turned to Cordelia, running a hand along her hip: "well yeah, maybe it’s Xander that does it. What do you say Cordy? Wanna try it?"

Slapping Faith’s hand away Cordelia turned back toward everyone, "hey I’m just saying: Put yourself in Willow’s shoes: I’m a total nerd and been hanging with other nerds and losers so maybe I can’t get a guy and decide to fish on the other side of the river."

"Cordy, get out of my shoes," Willow cut in. Tara tried to send her healing energy through the connection their hands made. She could feel the rings they had given each other for Christmas touching and it almost seemed that they were increasing that connection. Seeing that Willow was not becoming any more calm, and was in fact becoming geometrically more upset, she opened her magical channels completely.

As her anger rose, Willow grabbed a glass. She shattered it on the floor in the center of the group: "Hey everyone! Stop fighting. I didn’t get fed up because I couldn’t find a guy. I fell completely in love with the most amazing, beautiful, kind, loving woman I have ever met!" Although Joyce appeared to be nodding her head in approval, everyone else just looked shocked by the outburst. "By the Goddess, you are all such immature children!" she shouted, turning toward the bathroom still tightly holding Tara’s hand.

As the reached the bathroom and darted inside, Willow quickly turned to allow the blonde to wrap her in her arms. She began to cry and shake, falling to the floor as Tara held her, sending loving healing energy to her lover. After a few minutes, the crying eased and Willow brushed her fingers over her Tara’s face: "I’m so sorry baby. I had no idea my friends would be such jerks. I mean: this hasn’t been a very good visit. I’m sorry love."

Tara slowly kissed the redhead on the forehead, cheeks, and finally the lips before speaking: "I love you b-b-baby. This might not be the best visit. B-b-but I’m with you and that’s always b-b-best." The two girls kissed deeply for a few minutes before beginning to push themselves from the floor.

"Ok, I guess we should go make peace," Willow conceded as she pulled open the door. The two witches held hands as they stepped through the door and stopped right there to take in the sight.

"Oh Goddess!" Tara exclaimed. She locked eyes with Angel who seemed to silently plead for help as he stood near the cake, helplessly watching a crowd of children grabbing the cake and chasing each other, putting it down each other’s shirts and on their heads.

As they rushed over to the very distressed vampire, they took in the chaos of the scene. The crowd of children, mostly about 8-10 years old ran completely wild throughout the bar. A few were running up and down the stairs. Others had taken the cake and were trying to smash it into each others’ faces. Three kids were fighting over who got to play Oz’s guitar while one little kid with spiky hair tried to keep them from getting it. He was definitely losing the battle as feedback whined throughout the club.

One kid stood on the bar, holding the soda spigot and alternately drinking directly from it and spraying anyone within spraying distance. He appeared to be trying to experiment and see if jumping up and down while spraying would make the streams of sticky liquid go any farther.

Tara, Willow, and Angel looked on in horrified shock as the scene unfolded before them. Suddenly a little boy with a crew-cut ran past followed closely by two little girls, one blond and one dark haired. As they caught up to him, each punched him on the arm and he screamed, clutching the spot where they had hit him. "Xander," Willow whispered as she pointed at the boy clutching his arm.

"He got that haircut right before my eighth birthday party. He wore a cap with a chicken on it the whole time."

"Oh," Tara agreed. "H-h-how about the r-r-rest? It seems safe to s-s-say that the kid wrapped around that g-g-guitar is Oz."

"Oh Goddess, he just kissed that little girl: Mrs Summers?" Willow asked appalled. As the other two nodded their agreement, she strode over and pulled the two smoochers apart. "Hey kids, how about either sitting down and reading a book or punching some other kids ok?" she suggested.

Willow pointed, "hey, the junior beauty queen having the tea party is Cordelia. I guess that’d be Harmony and the others with her?"

Angel waved his arms around: "Buffy and Faith?" Simultaneously all three pointed at the two girls who had punched Xander.

Grabbing a chair Tara slumped into it. Angel looked from her to Willow and followed suit. "Uh Angel," Willow said to get the vampire’s attention.

"Seems likely," Willow conceded. "Um, do you think you ought to go catch him or pull him up or something?"

After pulling Devon from the catwalk and setting him back on his feet on the ground level, Angel looked around. As Tara and Willow shrugged at him, he tore out the bottom few steps so that no one could get to the second level of the club. "Well, that w-w-works," Tara nodded as the vampire returned to the table.

Angel looked over at the red-haired witch: "Hey Willow, this has been fun but you want to put it back?"

Both Tara and Angel looked at the hacker. Tara stroked her hand as she said, "um baby, you uh, c-c-called them immature c-c-children."

"What? Well, I called Angel a child and he’s not a kid," Willow retorted. Although it sounds likely that she had in fact done this, she just wanted to be insulted and indignant for a few minutes.

Tara thought about it for while before responding: "maybe he’s y-y-young for a vampire? Or maybe it didn’t work on him b-b-because he’s a vampire." Turning to Angel she apologized, "s-s-sorry."

"Ok, but back to the problem at hand," Willow interrupted. "So you guys think I did this?"

Standing and looking around she ventured hopefully, "so I just say they’re not kids and they grow up?"

Willow stood on the table so she could see all the kids. She closed her eyes and concentrated on gathering the magical energy from nature as Tara had taught her. When she felt that she had a good level in her system, she thrust out her hands to encompass the room. "You are not immature children!" she shouted.

Opening her eyes, she was hit in the face by a handful of cake and icing thrown by Faith who was subsequently high-fived by Buffy and Xander. "Hey Faith," Xander shouted, "for someone who’s not a child, that was a pretty childish thing to do." As he finished he took off running around the table on which Willow stood, followed closely by the dark-haired future slayer. Seeing the chances of being injured once again increasing with every step taken by the kids, Willow quickly climbed down from her perch. As she did, she noted Giles and Mrs. Summers again in a lip-lock.

All three adults looked up as a brunette woman came in the door. Allowing the door to slam shut behind her, she seemed to grasp at her neck as if she had lost something there. Finding nothing to grab, she nodded her head and got a smile on her face before crossing to the bar and getting a beer. Opening it and taking a long drink, she advanced toward the others. "Neat," she commented and dropped to sit at the table.

"It’s pretty good though. I remember once when this woman’s husband was always chasing younger women and she wished… well, never mind. This is good," the brunette nodded.

Seeing not much of a solution at hand, Tara got up and went over to Giles and Mrs. Summers. She grabbed Giles and brought him back to the table. Joyce followed closely behind. "You’re G-g-giles right?" she asked him.

Willow kneeled down in front of the boy in tweed: "ok Rupert. We need to fix something that went wrong. Do you know a spell to undo a spell?"

Sitting at the table like the adult he wished he were, Ripper responded, "you have to find them in the books. Father has lots of books. Grandmother too."

"Right the books," Willow nodded vigorously. Turning to the others, she suggested, "so I should go and get some books from the library and you three can watch them? Make sure none of them leave or knock themselves out much?"

Angel quickly stood, "well, it seems to me that I’d be more safe than you going to the library. Maybe I should go?"

The new girl waved her arm, "or I could go since I didn’t have anything to do with this anyway?"

Phooing both their suggestions Willow argued, "do either of you know anything about magic? How will you get the right book?" "Hey," she suddenly screamed, "you kids get off that speaker!"

Still intent on trying to get the non-kid detail for the next hour, Angel suggested, "I could take Giles…"

"Right. I could take Ripper with me. He can help find the book," Angel persisted.

Still grasping for a solution Willow retorted, "how are you going to take tweed-boy, I mean Ripper, with you? Can either of you drive?"

Both Angel and the new girl shook their heads and sat back down. "Uh b-b-baby?" Tara commented.

"Well, yes but you don’t know where the library is," Willow responded. "But you and I could take Ripper with us," she suggested.

"Oh wait a friggin minute little miss I-don’t-know-how-I-turned-these-kids-into-kids-and-now-I-want-to-leave-the-scene: No way you and she are going off to fulfill some nerd library love-scene fantasy while this …" she looked at Angel for a moment before continuing, "… vampire and I watch all these rugrats."

"I am Anyanka. Ok, now I’m just Anya. I’m new here," Anya explained. "I know Cordelia," she pointed to the girl still holding the peaceful tea party in the corner with her entourage.

Angel spoke quickly, "ok, so if Tara takes Ripper to the library, how will she find it?"

Willow looked around at the kids in the club: "Uh, take Cordelia. Wait no, she’s not breaking anything or anyone. Take Xander. He knew where the high school was when he was eight." As Tara stood, Willow gave her a quick kiss and suggested, "take Ripper’s car. He should have the keys in his pocket. It’s a crappy gray foreign car. There can’t be that many of them parked around here." Tara quickly yelled for Xander and Ripper who both followed her out of the club. As they went out the door, she heard Willow call desperately, "hurry!"

Once they found the car, Tara, Ripper, and Xander raced toward the high school. Xander’s directions weren’t as clear as she might have hoped—probably due to the fact that he only knew how to get anywhere from McDonalds so they had to find the McDonalds before they could find the high school. By the time they located the high school, Willow’s spell had been cast for over an hour and a half and the chances of someone being seriously injured or slightly killed increased with every minute.

At the high school, they had to find the library and both boys decided they needed to use the bathroom. Tara didn’t warm to the thought of setting them loose in the school so she took them to the bathroom and waited outside the door. As she listened, she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know what they were doing to the interior of the boys room. Both children emerged from the bathroom soaked and laughing. Xander’s nose was bleeding and Tara quickly used the sleeve of her shirt to try to stop the drip. This trip has been pretty hard on my clothes she chuckled.

Once in the library, Tara found the occult books locked in the large metal cage. Unfortunately, to open the cage she had to get the keys from Giles who, insistent on being called Ripper, ran around the library. Finally, he stopped at the top of the stairs announcing that he would trade the keys for a kiss from the pretty lady. As he dangled the keys in front of her, Tara simply used magic to reach out and take the keys. Before entering the cage, she grabbed both boys by the collar and shoved them in the cage with her. She didn’t fancy the thought of two eight year-old kids locking her in the book closet and making her stand on her head or take off her shirt or hop on one leg or something before letting her out.

"Ripper," she said, "what book will be useful?" As she and the tweed-clad boy began looking through the books, Xander started grabbing various weapons from the shelves and waving them around. "Hey!" Tara yelled, "put that d-d-down Xander." After a few moments, she had to take a large axe away from the boy. "Now Xander," she told him, "I want you to sit r-r-right here, on your hands or when we get b-b-back, I am going to hold you down while Faith and B-B-Buffy give you a wedgie. Understand?" The last word was unnecessary as the boy was already sitting on his hands by the time she finished her threat.

Despairing of finding the spell she needed, Tara grabbed a few likely looking books, threw them in a book bag and directed the boys from the room to return to the car. Unfortunately, Willow’s plan about Xander knowing how to get to the high school was only useful to get TO the high school. They found their way back to the McDonalds but Xander had no idea where the Bronze was. Ripper called out from the back seat, "so it’s not a total loss. I would fancy a happy meal."

Tara pounded her head on the steering wheel as Xander joined in the call for food and both boys banged their hands on the windows, seat, and ceiling of the car until she agreed to go through the drive-through for Happy Meals. As she handed the food to the two boys, she began driving around trying to estimate where the Bronze might be. I don’t even want to know what Xander is doing with the ketchup and mustard she thought. Having been gone a few hours by now, she searched for the club and wondered how the other three adults were doing with their charges.

The answer to Tara’s question was not well. The only advantage that Willow, Angel, and Anya had over Tara was that the kids at the club were beginning to tire. Those who had managed to intake any of the cake rather than just wearing it were coming down from their sugar high as were those who had taken the soda spigot from the first guy to hold it, who Willow had finally identified as Jonathan, and had drunk their fill of the sugary sweet refreshment.

With Xander gone, the two future slayers had turned their attention on the "girly" tea party. In moments the table was overturned with the tea cups broken on the floor as Buffy and Faith hooted and high-fived their way across the club. Cordelia and Harmony and their friends shrieked each time the two tomboys ran past whether they actually did anything to the more sedate girls or just catcalled them.

Chasing the Faith and Buffy Willow called after them: "Buffy! Faith! Stop running now!" The two slayers headed into the bathroom ahead of the screaming witch. Entering the bathroom, Willow was pelted with tampons and condoms from the machine formerly attached to the wall. As she stood there shocked at the blatant destruction, she had to dodge the dispenser that flew at her from across the room. She easily sidestepped the metal only to be smacked in the forehead by a wet blob of toilet paper, followed by another. She was able to grab hold of the two girls only when they took a break from their assault to congratulate each other. As they raised their arms to again slap palms, she grabbed each and dragged them from the bathroom.

She emerged from the bathroom with the two slayers and took in the scene. It appeared that Angel of all people had been able to organize some sort of exercise for the children. Allowing each child to take a turn, he and the "leader" had all the others doing a series of calisthenics. On the other side of the room, a group of children sat at the foot of Anya, as she told stories. Oz was in that group, crying as he cradled his broken guitar. Joyce, Cordelia, Harmony, and their entire clique listened intently to Anya.

"So she makes this wish and the next thing you know, intestines, entrails, tendons everywhere…" Anya was saying as Willow passed by tugging Buffy and Faith behind her.

Dropping her hands from the slayers and pushing them toward Angel’s group Willow grabbed Anya by the arm, pulling her to her feet. "What are you doing?" Willow shouted. "You are telling these kids a story with intestines? Are you crazy? No intestines! No entrails! Do you understand?"

"But they were listening and sitting so calmly," Anya pleaded, indicating the children sitting in horrified shock. "That’s better than the ones you are watching," she pointed to Buffy and Faith who had taken over the exercise group, apparently trying to drive the other children to collapse.

Seeing Tara coming in the door with Xander and Giles, Willow told Anya as she turned away, "right, listening calmly. Keep it up but not with the intestines ok?"

As Willow turned away she heard Anya start, "and anyway, if any man cared half as much about the woman’s orgasm as his own…"

Willow turned back again hissing at the strange girl: "Anya, how about Goldilocks and the three bears, ok?"

Anya got a dreamy smile on her face. "Oh yeah, they were a riot. Very fun. What a mess…" Seeing the look of anger from Willow she retracted her musings, "ok, whatever a nice story." Turning to the enraptured and terrified children she began, "Once upon a time…"

Willow raced across the club to greet Tara just as Faith and Buffy sighted Xander entering. Taking off as he saw them coming, he leapt onto a table that crashed to the ground allowing the slayers to catch up and dog-pile on him. Willow glanced over and turned away quickly. She remembered the time that Xander had eaten 5 hot dogs and then a gallon of Gatorade on a bet and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Although she wasn’t looking, it sounded like the crazed tickle-fest the slayers were embarking on was re-enacting that scene.

She shuddered at the thought but sighed thankfully as she saw that Tara had a book bag in one hand and the other held firmly to Giles’ collar. Crossing the club quickly, she plopped the books on the table and shoved Giles into a chair. Seeing that Willow was about to open her mouth and ask something, Tara held up her hand: "d-d-don’t even ask. I t-t-think Xander threw-up in the b-b-back of the car."

Willow shook her head as she answered, "yeah here too. Buffy and Faith are tickling it out of him. Yuck!" Grabbing a book she asked, "did you find anything?"

Tara, Willow, and Giles sat and began quickly paging through the books. Tara looked up, "do you think Oz w-w-would be any help looking through this s-s-stuff? Or Cordelia? You said they both h-h-help with research."

Looking across the room at the two figures Tara indicated Willow answered, "yeah but not when they were eight. Anyway, both of them fell asleep a little while ago." In fact, most of the kids had fallen asleep by the fourth hour of the immature-a-thon. Angel was still supervising Buffy and Faith who had given up on Xander as the boy became too tired and messy to be any fun. Anya joined in the research and Joyce sat nearby looking moon-eyed at Giles.

After 10 or 15 minutes, Giles held out a page from the book he was looking through: "how about this one?" Willow and Tara looked over his shoulder at the "Spell of Undoing."

"That one never works," Anya predicted. "Not unless you have the spit of three virgins and even if we counted you two, which I don’t, where are you going to find another one?" she continued on.

Tired out and irritated Tara turned on the girl: "have you met F-F-Faith? You two have a l-l-lot in common." Turning her attention to Willow she asked, "do you want to t-t-try anyway baby?"

Nodding Willow read through the incantation once again before standing on the table and reciting:

Everyone watched in hope and then shock as Buffy and Faith fell instantly to the floor and lay there unmoving.

"Oh Goddess!" Willow and Tara shouted as they ran across the room to the fallen slayers. Angel reached the two girls before Willow or Tara and the three of them bent to check on the girls. Just as they placed their fingers on their necks to check for pulses, Buffy and Faith leapt to their feet shouting: "Gotcha! Ha ha, we Gotcha!" The two slayers again high-fived as they jumped up and down waving their fingers at the witches and Angel.

As the adults stood shocked at the completely age-appropriate display, Faith said, "you are so fun B," before leaning forward, kissing Buffy on the lips, and running off in the opposite direction.

"Ok, let’s scrub that from our memories and hope they do too," Willow suggested as they returned to their books to continue the search for a spell. Forty-five minutes later, Faith, Buffy, and Joyce had all joined the pile of sleeping children while the 4 adults and Giles continued scanning the spell books for any thing that might reverse Willow’s ill-advised words. So far, she had tried 10-12 spells ranging from "aging" spells to "true-essence" spells. Anya was perhaps the least helpful member of the research team as the others quickly learned to read for footnotes about side effects. It had occurred to Tara that the girl might actually be looking for spells with the most messy or gross side effects rather than those that might reverse the problem.

"No. I m-m-mean… Hey! L-l-look!" Tara held out the book she was searching for everyone to see.

Tara handed the book over to Willow who read: "The Legend of the Rings: Paired Rings acquired for pure love, exchanged simultaneously as gifts of soul, joined as union… blah blah blah…" Tired of summarizing Willow leaned down kissing Tara gently as she whispered, "hey baby, you did it too."

"W-w-well let’s undo it before Buffy and Faith get a second w-w-wind and burn the p-p-place down," Tara proposed.

Reversing the spell was anticlimactic after the entire evening and morning. The two girls stood on a table, holding hands so that their rings touched. Tara opened her magic channels completely to give all her strength to Willow as Willow recited a simple incantation:

This time both witches felt the power surge through them as an electric-like current jolted from their bodies to each and every child in the bar. As the light hit each form, the individual grew to their former age and maturity. Angel, Tara, and Willow began waking them one by one, joined by Giles who glared at the two witches the entire time. Anya left fairly quickly after declaring that the evening was no longer interesting.

Tara had her hands full healing the numerous cuts and bruises everyone had amassed. Even after her work on it, Xander’s arm held proof of Faith and Buffy’s tireless assault on it throughout the night. Her final attempt was to do some healing on Oz’s guitar and Willow leant her energy for that effort. Although Tara was able to mend a few cracks, the instrument was pretty thoroughly trashed and Oz left the bar still cradling it in his arms. Tara and Willow continued apologizing to everyone until the bar was empty and Mrs. Summers finally insisted on driving home the three girls.

As they sat in the back of the jeep, Willow turned to Tara: "welcome to Sunnydale sweetie. How do you like it so far?" She hadn’t noticed before speaking that the blonde was fast asleep on her shoulder.

Joyce entered her own house to find a small crowd of teenagers enjoying themselves in the living room. Faith, Buffy, and Xander sat in front of the television watching videos and eating Pizza. Although he couldn’t really be considered a teenager, Angel sat in the living room; he wasn’t watching the television—he was reading a book as the others yelled at the screen. After greeting everyone, she moved to the kitchen where she found Tara and Willow sitting at the Kitchen Island. Tara leaned her head on the island and Willow looked like she lapse into a coma any moment.

Regardless of how quietly she had spoken, Joyce’s words seemed to startle the two girls who both jumped from their stools, looking around frantically. "Oh Mrs. Summers, you startled us," Willow explained.

Collapsing back into the chair, Willow nodded, "the longest. We’ve been trying to make it up to everyone about last night."

"Sure. If fun means not fun and very hard work," Willow agreed. "First we made cookies for everyone. And I mean a lot of cookies. And Xander didn’t want any pecans but Faith wanted extra Pecans and Cordelia likes hers not very crispy and Buffy wanted Oatmeal Raisin."

"Oh yeah, Oz wanted chocolate cookies with peanut-butter chips," Willow explained. "Then everyone wanted videos but they didn’t want to go so we went to the video store and called from there and told them every video in the store and they decided what to watch and we brought it back. Then we got them Chinese take-out for lunch and Pizza for dinner."

Joyce grinned at the two exhausted witches: "It doesn’t sound like today is any better for Xander’s stomach than yesterday was."

Willow held up her hand: "I don’t even want to ponder it. Also, I had to detail Giles’ car. And I went and got a nice book of poetry for Angel and I couldn’t even find where that Anya girl lives." Willow prudently didn’t mention that one of Faith’s suggestions, supported by Xander, was for the two witches to make up for their ill-advised spell by videotaping themselves "doing a spell together." Both Willow and Tara had pointed out that this was exactly the type of thinking and talking that started the entire incident before storming from the room.

Willow sighed before answering, "I feel really bad about it. He really loved that guitar plus it’s hundreds of dollars so I’ll be paying him back for a while."

Joyce patted the redhead’s hand before speaking again: "I’m really sorry about that. Actually I wanted to talk to you two."

Joyce laughed as she explained: "no. I know that there is some value in having to make up for your mistakes. But it was just that: a mistake." Both girls released their breath as Joyce spoke. "But… Willow, I know that your parents are, how do I say, not very involved in your supervision." Willow nodded at what could be termed the understatement of the year.

Joyce continued: "and I know that you are a few months older than Buffy so you are 18. Tara are you 18?"

Joyce smiled: "Ok, that’s good that you are both 18. But girls, I’m not comfortable with the two of you sleeping together while you are here." As she watched the girls’ faces drop, she explained, "understand that it’s not that I have a problem with your relationship; I’m very happy for you. I wouldn’t be comfortable with Xander and Cordelia or Faith and well, whoever, sleeping together either. So for the remainder of your visit I would prefer that one of you sleep on the couch or in Buffy’s room."

Tara nodded understandingly but Willow protested: "Ok. I totally understand what you are saying. And it’s your house so whatever you say goes. But … we’ve slept together every night for months and I don’t know if I can sleep alone. What if we both are totally dressed and sleep with the door wide open? Never close it at all? Please?" Willow’s desperation was apparent in her tone of voice. Tara tried to stroke her hand to calm her down but found it hard to have any effect, especially while she had to ponder sleeping apart.

Hearing the tone of Willow’s voice, Joyce conceded: "well. It’s not my preference but you make a good argument. That’s fine with me." As Willow jumped down from her stool to hug and thank the woman, Joyce reiterated: "but the door stays open!"

"Right," Willow agreed. "It will be a totally open door. The openest door ever. Very openy openness to the door. Totally open for all the openness you could ever want…" fearing a complete babble-fest, Tara reached out and touched her lover’s hand to stop the babble as Joyce laughed, standing and moving toward the living room.

"I’m going to have some of that pizza," she told the girls. "When are Buffy and Faith and Angel going out to patrol?"

"Oh crap," Willow muttered as she looked out the window and saw the complete darkness. "They’re not. We are. We’ll be back later Mrs. Summers." The two witches grabbed their coats, stakes, and crosses and opened the door to leave.

As they started from the house, Tara turned back to Buffy’s mom: "Mrs. S-s-summers? T-t-thanks for letting us s-s-stay here and for n-n-not b-b-being m-m-mad about l-l-last night." Joyce smiled as the witches went through the door and into the night.

The two witches walked slowly through the cemetery, hand-in-hand. "W-w-what are we supposed to be doing sweetie?" Tara asked.

Pressing the redhead against a nearby crypt, Tara growled, "you never have to try b-b-baby. You ARE yummy." Leaning her head in closer she captured Willow’s lips in hers, first kissing them softly and then quickly deepening the kiss to dart her tongue into Willow’s warm wetness.

The passionate kiss grew for a few minutes until Willow pulled her mouth away: "mmm oh baby, I love you." She pecked the blonde on the lips again before pulling her hand and saying, "come on. Let’s go patrol some more."

As they walked, they discussed their visit and their day. When they went to Giles’ to detail the car, he had talked to them at great length; perhaps lecturing would be a better description of the conversation. Although Tara explained that she had been practicing her whole life and had been trained by her mother and grandmother, he still was not comfortable with their practice. He seemed to indicate that Willow was too new in the practice to mess with such dangerous magics. While Tara agreed that the energy of the Hellmouth was too powerful and did not go well with their natures, she felt that the only way for Willow to learn was to practice.

In the end, Giles had admonished them about their responsibility regarding the power they held together and particularly through the rings. Initially he wanted them to not wear their rings; however, both girls were absolutely opposed to that idea given the importance and beauty of the gift. Given that they were not willing to give up their rings, he strongly advised them to be very careful when holding hands to ensure that a repeat of last night never happened again. By the time they left his house, Tara felt that detailing his car was the high point of the visit.

Although Tara felt that the visit was not the best episode she had ever experienced, in a way, she was pleased with the trip. While the whole interaction at the Bronze, before they turned everyone into children, indicated a range of feelings and interests regarding the nature of Willow and Tara’s relationship, it seemed that everyone "got it": that they all understood the nature if not depth of love that the two girls shared and none had rejected Willow for her disclosure. Xander, Buffy, and Mrs. Summers seemed genuinely happy for the redhead. Tara felt glad to know that at least this aspect of the trip had been successful. Also, she enjoyed having gotten to know Buffy better in the time they had spent together.

And her fears that they would not be able to sleep together were now allayed by Joyce’s agreement that they could sleep together but with the door open. Of course that meant an obvious curtailing of their lovemaking but she knew that they had plenty of time to enjoy each other. While she would miss that aspect of their union, she knew that she would be able to hold her angel every night and for now that would have to suffice.

As they continued their search for vampires Willow spoke, "Tara?" When the blonde nodded she asked, "will you go out with me on Friday night?"

Kissing her lover’s hand lightly Tara smiled: "of course love. W-w-what do you want to do?"

Willow smiled knowingly, "oh I have a few ideas. There are some things we have never done together and I think we might like to do before we leave town."

Tara teased, "not that t-t-third thing right? Don’t tell me it’s legal here."

"What third thing?" Willow asked. As she stood there, a blush rose to her cheeks: "oh Goddess! No not that. Not what I was thinking at all. Not at all." She started to protest further but recognized the smile creeping across Tara’s face at the redhead’s embarrassment. "Ok, you stinker. Just for that, I’m not going to tell you what I have planned."

"Well no but Vampire!" Willow shouted the final word as a large figure stepped from behind a tree toward them.

Both girls turned to face the newly arisen visitor, pulling their crosses from their pockets and holding stakes in their other hands. As the vampire darted quickly toward them, they both held out the crosses, which slowed the vampire only somewhat. Avoiding the cross, he quickly backhanded Tara and she went sprawling onto the grass. As he started toward the fallen girl, Willow grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him toward her as she shouted, "hey fang face. That’s my girlfriend!" The vampire flashed a toothy grin before realizing that as she yelled, Willow had thrust the stake through his back. He dissolved into dust still pondering this girl who had taken such offense at his effort. As Willow pulled Tara to her feet, they heard the sound of clapping.

Expecting another vampire visit, they spun to find Buffy and Xander approaching. "Hey Will, nice to see you haven’t forgotten how to fight the evil undead," Xander cracked.

"What are you guys doing out here? I thought you were watching videos and stuffing your faces?" Willow asked.

"Well, we thought you might need some help and decided to come check on you," Buffy explained. She didn’t mention that Joyce had not so subtly suggested that the slayers get off their butts and go patrol before Tara or Willow got hurt. Everyone took the hint she dropped in the form of turning off the television and taking the pizza in the kitchen and headed out immediately with Faith heading in one direction and Buffy and Xander deciding to hit the graveyard.

"Hey Will, I can’t believe you told that vampire that Tara’s your girlfriend and you just met him but you didn’t tell me," Xander whined.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "You two have been a couple for what, two months? And you just now decide to let us in on it?"

Tara started smiling immediately as she realized that Xander and Buffy were just messing with their friend. "Well, I wasn’t sure how you would take it and it’s a big deal and I’m really happy but what if … hey, you guys are just messing with me aren’t you?" Willow asked as she started to catch on.

"Sure we are Will," Xander answered. "It’s fun to see you freaking out. I’ve really missed you you know?" With that, he gave his best friend a big hug.

"We leave Sunday," Willow answered. "The train ride takes about two days and we both need to study before our exams." Looking over at Tara, she continued, "plus which Tara needs to work."

"Y-y-yes," Tara stuttered. Although the blonde was finding that she did genuinely like Willow’s friends, a lifelong speech impediment was not to be conquered by a few days of friendly chit-chat. Her stutter had remained pronounced throughout the visit to Sunnydale except when she was alone with Willow.

"Three? Wow, no one around here even has one," Xander joked. "Actually how come none of us work but we always seem to have spending money?" He questioned.

"Hey, I never thought about that but it’s kind of strange. Even Faith has money to live in the motel but she doesn’t work. Hmmm," Buffy agreed. Forgetting to question the situation further she turned to Tara asking, "so what jobs do you do?"

As they continued patrolling, occasionally stopping for Buffy to slay a random vampire, Tara explained: "I w-w-work in the administrative o-o-office and in the s-s-stables and also I t-t-teach r-r-riding at the s-s-school."

Both Xander and Buffy stopped suddenly and looked at the blonde as if she had grown a third head. Since both of them had seen creatures with third heads before, they knew the look well. "You work in the stables? And teach riding?" Buffy echoed dumbly.

"You have riding at your school? And you teach it?" Xander now questioned shocked.

Pointing at Willow Buffy continued her shocked and perplexed expression: "Your school has horses and Willow goes there? And you two are a couple?" Placing her hand on Willow’s forehead she feigned concern for her friend’s health: "Willow. Are you ok? You didn’t hit your head on the way out there did you?"

Xander had given up all pretense of concern and now was laughing loudly as he clutched his stomach. Hearing the noise, Faith rounded a corner to take in the view of Buffy and Xander clutching their sides as tears rolled down their cheeks: "Hey, you guys trying to wake up all the dead around here?"

Xander pointed back and forth between the two witches: "she… and she… and then … and I can’t believe…" was all he could get out between bellows.

Turning to the witches she asked, "Hey Red, you didn’t put another spell on these two to make them go crazy did you? Maybe said ‘you guys are crazy’ offhand?"

Huffing her exasperation, Willow explained, "no these guys are having a little joke at my expense. I’m afraid of horses and Tara teaches riding at the school and they are finding that very amusing." Getting really irritated she continued, "actually they are finding it a little too amusing."

Pretending to ask an innocent question Faith spoke to Tara: "so are you going to ride with Willow? Or maybe get her on a horse sometime?" Before Xander or Buffy caught on to her double entendre or Tara or Willow could express their indignation, three vampires broke from the bushes.

Willow and Xander grabbed Tara’s arms whispering, "hey watch this. It should be good." The three amateurs moved to sit against a gravestone and watch the show. Tara was even more impressed with the speed and power of both slayers and the way that they worked so well together as all three vampires were staked in a matter of minutes. Agreeing that they had all had a productive evening, the five teenagers decided to go home and watch videos some more.

Willow knocked on the front door and it was quickly opened by Buffy. "Hey Will, come in," the blonde offered.

"I don’t really get you Will," Buffy started. "You and Tara are staying here and got dressed for this date together but you left 15 minutes ago and now are knocking on the door. That’s really weird you know?"

Willow huffed slightly, "well I wanted to get her some flowers. That’s why I left 15 minutes ago. I went down to the flower shop to get her these roses." She held up the red buds in question. As Buffy nodded but still looked skeptical over the setup Willow continued, "the thing is: Tara is amazing." As a dreamy look came over the redhead’s face, her speech trailed off.

Leaning against the arm of the couch Willow answered the slayer, "no. I mean yeah she’s amazing but that’s not the why for the weird. It’s well, ok we went away for my birthday to this sweet bed and breakfast and she was incredible. She treated me like a queen the whole time with bubble baths and fruit breakfast and it was amazing. Then 2 weeks ago, she planned a whole anniversary weekend for us with dinner out and staying in a hotel all weekend and it was just amazing. It was the first time I really understood how much she loved me and let her know how much I love her and ok, now I’m totally embarrassed…" Willow trailed off turning red as her color started to match the roses.

Touching Willow’s hand the slayer answered, "that’s cool. You feel like you owe her."

"Grrr Arrgh!" Willow growled. "No. That’s not it at all. I just want to give her as great a romantic time as she has given me. And we haven’t been on that many like ‘go out’ dates. Usually we just hang together or maybe go see a movie on campus or something. This is a chance to have a more ‘datey’ time."

"Ahhh, that does sound great," Buffy agreed. "Do you want me to go and get her?" Willow nodded and Buffy went up the stairs to knock on the guest room door.

Tara heard the knock and knew that Willow had "arrived." It was kind of funny to her that Willow felt it was so important to pick her up for their date but she went along with it any way. Having not packed for a romantic date, she wore jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and boots. Of course, she smiled as she remembered that it was basically the outfit she was wearing when she first met the redhead. Her hair hung loose but she carried a rubber band so she could put it back if it bothered her. Crossing to the door, she opened it to find not Willow but Buffy in the hall. "B-b-buffy?" she questioned.

Buffy smiled as she said, "hey Tara. Willow’s downstairs. She wanted me to come get you." Seeing some level of puzzlement on Tara’s face, she clarified, "like a real date."

Spotting Willow at the bottom of the stairs, Tara nodded, "only one of the m-m-many reasons I l-l-love her." As the blonde approached Willow held out the flowers she had picked up. Tara accepted them, kissing the redhead lightly as she whispered, "I m-m-missed you love."

Willow gave her lover a light hug as she agreed: "me too. Are you ready to go baby?" As Tara nodded, Buffy took her flowers promising that she would put them in water right away. The two witches said goodbye before pulling on their coats and going out the front door.

"Who said we are having dinner?" Willow responded. As Tara gave her that adorable lopsided smile that the redhead loved so much, she had to answer, "well ok, when you look at me like that, I’d tell you just about anything. We are going to dinner but we have a stop to make first. Our date’s theme is ‘California.’ Ok, maybe more than California. Maybe California and things we can’t do at home. Ok, maybe that’s not the best thing to call it because not everything that we can’t do at home we want to do or …" Knowing the best way to stop an out of control Willowbabble, Tara quickly pressed her lips to her lover’s soft ones, stroking her fingertips along Willow’s cheeks as she tenderly kissed her.

Sighing deeply as Tara pulled back Willow whispered, "right. Are you ready baby?"

"Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do," Buffy called out behind them as the two girls skipped down the porch stairs. Both girls giggled, raising their eyebrows seductively at each other. Willow subtly shook her head indicating that she had no intention of following Buffy’s admonition and incurring a hearty laugh from Tara.

Nearing the end of the walk, Tara looked up to note the taxi standing at the curb. "Hey, a t-t-taxi. Where are we going baby?" she asked.

Opening the door to allow the blonde to slide across the seat, Willow just smiled coyly and winked at her lover. Leaning forward she handed a piece of paper to the driver who accepted it, read the instructions, and started from the curb.

As they drove, Willow pointed out various sites throughout Sunnydale. Many of her stories started with "this one time at the Expresso Pump when Buffy and I were patrolling" or "this one time at the park…" stories dated earlier started with "this one time: Xander and I were goofing off." Although Tara tried to keep Willow off guard by tossing in questions about their date, the redhead managed to keep her secrets to herself.

Leaning in to nibble on the blonde’s neck Willow teased, "maybe if you are very good I could tell you something about the date."

Giggling Tara responded, "well I can think of a few ways to be very g-g-good such as …" she whispered in Willow’s ear, "but I can’t really do that in this c-cab so I guess I’ll just have to be patient." As the redhead gulped in response to Tara’s teasing words, the cab pulled to a stop.

Willow paid the driver, giving him a generous tip and confirming that he would return at 5:00 to pick them back up as previously arranged. Although the redhead considered covering her lover’s eyes to surprise her, she was abundantly aware that the smell of salt water permeated the air and both women now knew where they were.

As the cab drove off, Tara’s face was filled with a smile: "you brought me to see the ocean?" She grabbed the redhead in a tight hug swinging her around.

Excited by Tara’s enthusiastic response Willow pulled her by the hand toward the beach. "Come on love; let’s get your first glimpse of the Pacific."

As they crested the dunes Tara gasped grasping Willow’s hand even tighter. "Oh Goddess!" she whispered, completely overwhelmed by the sight. The two girls walked silently toward the waves. At the point where the dry sand met the wet Tara dropped immediately to the ground, pulling off her boots and socks.

Watching her with disbelief Willow interrupted the blonde’s action: "Baby? It’s too cold. You can’t go in. It snowed her last week and it’s only 50 degrees out."

After rolling up her jeans as high as she could, Tara stood up hugging Willow again before speaking: "sweetie. I’ve never s-s-seen either ocean before. As long as it’s not frozen solid, I’m going to at least w-w-wade in." Before advancing closer to the water she asked, "are you coming?"

The redhead leaned forward whispering in her lover’s ear: "not yet baby." Brushing the tip of her tongue up Tara’s ear she continued, "that’s later love – I hope" before stepping out of her shoes. She grasped Tara’s hand so the two women could wade into the cold surf together.

In spite of the shock of the cold water, both women reveled in the beauty of the ocean: the sun on the waves and the feeling of the ripples of water running over their toes. As it withdrew, they felt the erosion of the sand beneath their feet as the receding water pulled the damp earth with it. Tara felt completely ecstatic with the start to the date. Hugging Willow tightly she asked, "baby, do a ritual with me." As Willow nodded, Tara closed her eyes and started the incantation.

Both women felt as well as heard the words that echoed through their souls. The effect of the magic was as usual multiplied by their connection and the energy passed through their bodies, tingling at the spot where the skin of their hands met. Untainted by the Hellmouth, the incoming waves poured purity and power into their souls while the receding tide pulled negative energy away. Having never done a ritual of this type before, Willow was amazed by the feelings rushing through her magical center. The connection she felt to Tara was nearly overwhelming, as she could not separate the pleasure and power passing through her from that entering her lover.

After a few minutes, both women opened their eyes and kissed deeply as they turned to move from the water. Looking at her watch, Willow indicated that the taxi would be back any minute and both girls replaced their shoes. Although the ocean was beautiful, their feet were very chilled and they shivered as they huddled close walking from the tide.

As they entered the taxi, Willow again handed a scrap of paper to the driver who nodded and pulled quickly toward the town. Seeing that the girls were chilled, he turned the heat up full blast to allow them to defrost a little. Willow continued pointing out highlights and lowlights of her life in Sunnydale as they drove quickly toward dinner. Although the sun was still keeping darkness away, the streets were growing more and more deserted as those residents sensible enough were getting somewhere safe for the night. The taxi pulled to a stop and the two girls exited as Willow again paid the driver and thanked him for the heat.

They stood in front of a barely noticeable but classy looking building. Tara looked up at the sign before looking questioningly at Willow: "Sushi?" As the redhead nodded, Tara remained skeptical: "Sushi as in r-r-raw fish? We’re eating sushi for dinner?"

Smiling at her lover Willow teased, "hey I’ve adjusted to Texas with ‘y’all’ and ‘dinner’ and ‘supper’ and ‘best’ and the heat not to mention chicken-fried steak which by the way, not chicken and why do that to a steak? You can try a little California ok? If you don’t like it, we’ll go get hamburgers ok?" She ended pleading with her lover like a child.

Smiling Tara again leaned in to kiss her lover as she nodded: "I can think of at least one thing from California that I love and I never tried before so why not s-s-sushi?"

As they entered she looked around the restaurant. The lighting was dim in a very classy romantic way. Most people were dressed nicely and the crowd seemed to range from families enjoying a treat to business people out for happy hour. Those in the happy hour contingent seemed to have been drinking for a while and noisy boisterous laughter came from that section of the restaurant. When they removed their shoes as indicated by the hostess Willow asked, "baby, do you want to sit at the sushi bar where we can see them make it or at a table by ourselves?"

Tara glanced again at the two choices. On one hand, she wanted to see the sushi chef make the dinner but on the other hand, a romantic dinner and evening with her lover beckoned. Kissing Willow’s hand she nodded toward a secluded table in the corner and Willow let the hostess know their choice.

The two girls sat close together on the floor while Willow explained the menu. Before the hostess left, she ordered some sake which she explained was a Japanese wine which you drink warm. Although Tara thought warm wine sounded kind of gross, she figured she could at least try it. Willow showed the blonde the menu explaining the kinds of sushi and recommending her favorites. Overwhelmed by choices Tara finally just asked the redhead to order for them and then admired her lover’s authority in placing the order.

After ordering Willow turned to look Tara. The light in the restaurant was low and although they occasionally heard a commotion or excitement from the other side of the restaurant, their section was quite deserted. The light glimmered in Tara’s blonde hair and sparkled off her blue eyes. Willow felt her heart jump into her throat and she gasped as she took in the beauty of her date. Stroking her hands along Tara’s cheeks she leaned forward kissing her lover tenderly. "Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed with how much I love you," she whispered.

Feeling tears of happiness welling up in her eyes Tara nodded: "I know the feeling Willow Rosenberg."

As they hugged, the waitress brought the wine. Not knowing what to expect, Tara took a tentative sip and was pleasantly surprised by the taste. She smiled at Willow and leaned into her to snuggle as they waited for the food to arrive.

"What do you think of Sunnydale?" Willow asked. As Tara raised an eyebrow, Willow clarified, "ok. Not what do you think of Sunnydale. I mean Sunnydale: who thinks much of it. It’s a Hellmouth and filled with vampires and demons and it’s been an interesting trip. I guess I mean what do you think of my friends?"

Tara nodded, "Ok. W-w-well Sunnydale might be a H-h-hellmouth but at least you’d never be bored here." The food arrived and Willow pointed out the different items, the wasabi, and ginger and how to eat each in combination. Used to hot food in Texas, Tara was nonetheless surprised by the taste of the wasabi but warmed to it quickly as it enhanced her enjoyment of the sushi. The girls took turns slowly feeding each other with their fingers or chopsticks.

As they ate slowly enjoying their dinner and drinking more wine, Tara expanded on her response: "Xander and Buffy are great: very fun and nice. Actually I like Buffy a lot. I think that she’s really deep although she seems to try to portray this dumb-blonde persona. I think she’s k-k-kind of angsty about the slayer stuff and not being comfortable with her role in the world." As Tara spoke Willow nodded her head, amazed at her grasp of people. "I think both of them r-r-really miss you a lot. It seems like you were an important part of the group." The blonde lifted Willow’s hand to her mouth, softly placing a kiss on her palm as she spoke.

Loosened up with the wine, Tara laughed: "You were right on the roof. Cordelia is a human bitch, but not d-d-dangerous, just bitchy." As the thought about it, the blonde added, "there’s something more there though. She is going to change and g-g-grow after high school and become a very different person."

"I don’t know but I do," Tara responded quietly. "Oz is nice and doesn’t seem to have a problem about us. I’m really glad about that. I know you didn’t want to hurt him. I like Giles even if he is a bit, well, British you know? He sure cleans his glasses a lot." Willow choked on her wine as she laughed. "And Faith. I don’t know what to say about her. She’s…"

"Well yeah rude and mean, but…" Tara began. "There’s something else. She’s missing something. I read her energy the other n-n-night and it was scary. She’s lonely and alone and hurt and angry. I mean I guess it’s good if she takes that out on the vampires but …"

"I don’t know sweetie," Tara responded. "Let’s not spend our California date thinking about her anyway." Changing the mood Tara dipped her finger in her wine before drawing her fingertip lightly down Willow’s jugular. The blonde slowly licked up the spot glistening in the dim light to whisper in her lover’s ear: "we don’t need any hamburgers. I think everything I want to put in my mouth is right here." Willow whimpered her agreement as she pressed her lips against Tara’s.

Changing the subject she asked, "Are you ready to go love?" Tara nodded and both girls rose somewhat unsteadily from the floor. Tara noted that the sake had apparently had more of an effect than she realized and she felt quite light and dreamy as they made their way across the restaurant. Although she tried not to take any notice, she was aware of the cost of their very expensive meal. At times the difference in their economic situations made the blonde somewhat uncomfortable. For the cost of the dinner, she could have bought two textbooks or pairs of new jeans and it was hard not to think of the money in those terms. She had to placate her self by thinking of it in Willow’s terms: that the redhead had money and wanted nothing in the world better than sharing her love and good fortune with Tara.

As they exited the restaurant, the cold air struck them as the temperature had dropped further during their long dinner. Looking around, they were amply aware that the dark meant danger in a town like Sunnydale. As they started walking Tara asked, "n-n-no taxi?"

"We don’t have far to go and I have a cross in my pocket baby," Willow responded although both girls continued walking quickly.

Pausing for a second before laughing and continuing to walk Tara asked, "and you figure Buffy can keep us safe?"

"She’s more s-s-stealthy than that when she’s stalking creatures of the night right?" Tara teased. She made sure to speak loudly that the slayer following them heard her.

Willow continued laughing as she explained, "she just wanted to make sure we make it home safely baby."

The short walk soon led the three girls to a house with a mailbox out front. "Hey!" Tara called out. Before Willow could comment that she was still adjusting well to Sunnydale, the blonde continued: "this isn’t Buffy’s house. It’s yours baby." She pointed to the mailbox, which clearly showed the Rosenberg name. A few lights shown from inside the house. "I-I-I thought your f-f-folks were out of the c-c-country," she stuttered.

Realizing Tara’s panic Willow explained as she unlocked the front door: "oh they are. They’ll be gone for a few more weeks. But I wanted to show you my home and give us a few nights away." She continued, "is that ok baby?" Tara nodded and both girls called out to Buffy that they were inside safely and thanks for following them home.

Once inside Willow turned to kiss her girlfriend on the cheek before waving at the living room. "Welcome baby. Let me show you around ok?" Tara nodded as they started the tour.

After seeing the downstairs and starting up the stairs Tara asked, "what if your parents f-f-find out we were h-h-here?"

"Oh, no problem," Willow answered. She explained, "I e-mailed my mother two days ago saying ‘hey mom, my friend Tara and I are here. I need to pick up some clothes and will be at the house for a night or two to pick up some clothes and books; let me know if that’s not ok.’ But I sent it through three servers that all have delays so she wouldn’t get it until it was too late to say ‘no.’"

Tara pressed the redhead against the wall at the top of the stairs growling, "sometimes I don’t know whether you are more sneaky or vixeny."

Willow took the opportunity to kiss her lover softly at first. After a few minutes, she wound her fingers in Tara’s soft hair, pulling her closer and darting her tongue to lick and flick at the blonde’s lips. Soon Tara opened her mouth to accept the soft intrusion and Willow swirled her tongue around the interior of the blonde’s mouth. Tara sucked on the tip of Willow’s tongue and felt the redhead moan in appreciation and lust. Both women could feel their bodies pressed tightly together, breast on breast and hip to hip. Their breathing came short and fast as the kiss grew.

Pulling her mouth back Willow answered, "at the moment, I’d say vixeny." After placing a quick kiss on Tara’s gasping mouth she whispered, "come on. I’ll show you the rest of the house including my room." As the girls entered Willow’s room, Tara was fascinated and impressed simultaneously. It was much larger than she had imagined and the French doors to the balcony were beautiful. Before she could even ask Willow reminded her, "sorry baby. We can’t sleep out there: too dangerous."

Tara nodded as she commented, "your room is awesome. I love the balcony especially. What are all the other rooms for up here?"

Sitting on the bed and pulling Tara to her to snuggle against the pillows, Willow thought about it before responding: "I guess maybe they thought they’d have more kids when they bought it. Now it’s a study for mom, one for dad, and the library. They said I could use one room as a study but I like my stuff in here."

Tara turned slightly to look into Willow’s green eyes. Stroking her face with her fingertips she spoke: "it seems like a lonely house my love. I’m sorry." After thinking about it for a minute, the redhead nodded, then leaned in to snuggle her lover more closely. For quite a while the two just held each other, trying in vain to heal the past with the love of the present and the future.

Finally Willow sat up saying, "so something else we’ve never done." Tara looked at her curiously as the redhead jumped up from the bed and picked up a video case. "Want to watch a video?"

Tara laughed in response, "never d-d-done before! Sure baby, a video sounds great as long as we snuggle. Here or downstairs?"

Willow kissed her softly before responding: "here so if we want to fall asleep we can. I thought we’d stay here till we leave Sunday so whatever we don’t watch tonight we can watch tomorrow." She handed over the two cases to allow Tara to choose.

Neither girl had seen Tara’s choice: the Matrix. They enjoyed the movie fantastically as they snuggled absent-mindedly stroking each other’s skin as they watched. After a while, Willow started playing with Tara’s hair. As the blonde purred with pleasure from the gentle strokes, Willow got up and got a brush to pay closer attention to her lover’s hair. As she finished the intricate braiding, Tara took the brush from her to work on the red hair she loved so much.

The movie ended and both girls lay discussing the movie for hours. Although neither girl considered herself an action movie aficionado, both loved the movie. They talked excitedly about the meaning of the movie, its implications for the difference in reality and life. About the spiritual life and the one we live in the physical world and reincarnation. As they talked through and around and over the intricate themes of the move, Willow felt a tickling at the edges of her mind. She couldn’t put her finger on it but it seemed that she should know something more than she knew. As the two girls finally reached the end of their discussion on the movie, their beliefs, and life, they snuggled together to fall into sleep as always holding each other.

Willow opened her eyes to blinding sunlight. It was kind of strange actually. She remembered falling asleep holding tight to Tara in her bedroom. And that it was cold outside and they were in Sunnydale where it was cold. But now…

Willow felt herself drifting into sleep. She didn’t want to. She tried to resist but she could not. She wanted to stay longer with Tara’s mother, to learn the answer to her riddle, her koan, to spend more time and bring the energy of her lover’s mother back to Tara. But she could not. As she drifted to sleep, she heard but could not respond to the whispered words: "I will not be here again if you can come back but I will see you soon Willow."

Tara opened her eyes suddenly. She remembered falling asleep after the movie holding Willow, her hands gliding through the smaller girl’s hair and over her skin. Their fit perfect as always. Now she felt the rough bark of an oak tree at her back and recognized the crisp clean smell of home.

Glancing around she instantly knew the farm. The oak tree grew next to a winding stream and sunlight bounced off the water as it glided over the rocks. This tree was one of the most sacred magical spots of her life. She remembered the first spell she ever cast, sitting under this tree holding hands with her mother and grandmother as leaf after leaf rose in front of her wondering and sparkling eyes.

She reveled in the feel of her home soil under her body, this loved tree at her back, and the familiar feel of the head in her lap as her hands glided through long dark hair. Even after nearly a year of her mother’s absence, she would never forget the pull of energy and connection between the two. Only now, rather than her mother holding her and running her fingers through Tara’s hair, Tara held the smaller woman.

Finally the dark-haired girl spoke. "Tara?" Tara nodded, still enjoying the feel of her hands in the younger girl’s hair. "I hope you’ll be there so I’ll know someone."

"Not yet but when I get there I’ll be there now." Lifting her face to look at Tara, she finished: "I’ll need you Tara."

Placing the younger girl’s head back on her lap to continue stroking her hair, Tara reassured her: "No matter what, you’ll have me Dawn." The two girls sat like that under the tree until both drifted into peacefulness.

Tara was blasted into wakefulness by the unbelievably loud ringing of a phone close to her head. As the blonde was still trying to place herself in the strange surroundings Willow disentangled herself and reached for the phone. Tara listened to the one-sided conversation from her sleepy girlfriend:

Willow hung up the phone shaking from a combination of surprise at being awakened from a sound sleep and hurt about the phone call. Not that this conversation was any different from any other she had had in her life, but somehow it seemed more painful. Sensing her lover’s pain, Tara wrapped her arms around Willow and kissed her forehead. The two women nestled closer in their love as they once again found sleep.

Tara woke slowly, aware of the sunlight streaming through the balcony doors. She took her time before moving, knowing and reveling in the feel of Willow’s skin meshed with hers. The redhead was nestled into her front and the softness of her touch was nearly intoxicating. Leaning her head, she bent her face to Willow’s neck and breathed in deeply her lover’s scent. The scent was so uniquely Willow. It permeated her body. It was a scent and taste all wrapped together and Tara craved it. When she kissed the smaller girl, she tasted that scent in her mouth. When she licked her skin, she knew it in the feel of skin and taste of sweat. And when she made love to her, that taste filled her mouth, her body, her senses, and her soul.

The thought of Willow’s scent and essence in her mouth and on her skin brought Tara arousal and awareness. She couldn’t believe the amazing fit between the two girls and their fulfillment in every aspect of their relationship. The blonde was glad that they had waited to make love until she knew — until she understood her love for Willow and knew Willow’s love for her. Now weeks later they had shared their love and their union over and over and each time it felt simultaneously like the first time and not like the first. Like the first time because each time it was so incredible and new. But not the first because each time it seemed more passionate, more compelling, and more unifying than ever before. Each new experience brought the women a greater awareness of their love and union.

Tara ran her fingertips lightly over the smaller woman’s body. Willow didn’t stir and Tara knew that she wouldn’t. The redhead always slept longer and later than she did. At first, Tara had tried to be very quiet and not disturb her girlfriend when she rose from bed. But after a few months, she had learned that short of an explosion or earthquake (or the phone ringing as had happened last night), Willow would not wake.

Tara knew that today would be no exception as the redhead was particularly tired from their visit. Much as she was aware that Willow was glad to be back home, it had been a very eventful visit. The bruise on her cheek had faded to a dull purple battle scar but she knew that the internal scars still stood proudly on her lover’s heart. Tara believed that Willow had expected (unrealistically perhaps) that a more accepting and even welcoming reception was going to be forthcoming on her coming out announcement. While Xander and Buffy had eventually reached to an understanding of Willow and Tara’s relationship, they had not quite jumped for joy (unless Xander jumping for perverse interest counted). And Faith’s behavior was of course out of line. At first Tara felt hurt by the dark-haired slayer’s merciless teasing. But quickly she realized that the slayer was just striking out in her own pain and anger and believed that she had found an easy target in the stuttering witch. As soon as Tara realized that Faith was not the fount of strength she portrayed but a small hurt child in a strong body, she found it easy to feel no pain from the taunts directed her way. But she also knew that Willow’s protective feelings toward her meant that the redhead had anger towards the new slayer and would harbor those feelings for a while. It was clear that Willow did not wish to discuss her anger but Tara was aware of it nonetheless.

And then the final straw would have been the call last night from Willow’s mother. Tara knew that her lover was upset by the call. The one-sided conversation that she heard seemed exemplify Mrs. Rosenberg’s way of interacting with her daughter. It was apparent that the woman had not understood that it was the middle of the night and had questioned the redhead about her school and SATs. It had sounded like she pressured Willow about whether she had achieved a high enough score to take advantage of her opportunities. Tara was well aware that Willow’s relationship with her parents was strained: not that the Rosenbergs would have any awareness of that. But no matter how much Willow had grown to understand and accept the seeming limits to her parent’s love for her, it would always hurt. And the money was a mixed blessing. On one hand, the money allowed both girls to enjoy their lives and their time together more and to have more options such as this visit to Sunnydale including the visit to the farm. But on the other, it was apparent that each time Mrs. Rosenberg was lax as a parent, she sent money, which meant that Willow could not help but be aware of the meaning of the money as she received it in the place of attention.

It made Tara mad and sad to think of her lover living 18 years without that kind of love. While she now enjoyed a greater level of love and fulfillment through her relationship with Willow than she had ever known possible, Tara was also very aware that she had never felt unloved in her life. The love she shared with her family had been ever present and she had never doubted their love and devotion to each other or to her. She could not imagine how anyone could allow such a wonderful woman as Willow to ever feel a lack of love: to fail to see just how incredible she was and to make her know that. Tears seeped from Tara’s blue eyes as she continued to feel her lover’s pain even while she was permeated with the truth and power of her own love for the woman.

After a few more minutes holding and loving her petite lover, Tara slipped quietly from the bed. Since no one was home for vacation, it took a few minutes for the water to run hot from the pipes. She stepped under the hot water and thoroughly lathered her blonde hair before slowly and luxuriously soaping her body. As she finished washing quickly, she simply stood in under the spray enjoying the warm water as it seeped into her skin and completely warmed her. She relaxed leaning against the wall as she sung to herself.

"That’s really a beautiful song lover," Willow purred as she pulled the curtain back. Stepping into the shower Willow pressed her body against the blonde’s and ran her fingertips along Tara’s hip. Grasping a bottle of liquid soap she whispered, "did I mention that this date includes some activities that we’ve never done and that we can’t really do at school?"

Tara gulped loudly as she felt Willow’s exploring fingers caress the skin of her thighs and her outer lips. Reaching her hand out she removed the soap from Willow’s hand as she whispered in her ear: "oh, wonderful idea lover. But I already washed. How about I wash you?"

Placing her hands on Willow’s shoulders she gently pressed the smaller girl under the warm water, allowing it to run over and through the redhead’s curls. As the water poured over the smaller girl’s head, Tara ran her fingers into her lover’s hair. She gently caressed the skin before pouring a handful of shampoo into her palm and beginning to rub it into Willow’s scalp. The redhead purred her enjoyment in response to the complete sensuality of Tara’s loving attention. Allowing the shampoo to seep into Willow’s hair for a few minutes, Tara poured a dollop of soap into her hand. She reached out to rub the lather liberally over her lover’s shoulders and arms. "Turn around love," she commanded lovingly.

Willow turned and leaned against the wall of the shower as Tara ran her soapy hands over the smaller woman’s muscular back and neck. Pressing her body close to the redhead’s Tara softly kissed her neck and ears and heard her moan in response. As she licked up first one side and then the other side of Willow’s neck, she ran her hands over Willow’s hips and ass. "I love your ass Willow," she growled as she kneaded the area. She reached around in front of the smaller woman to soap her front, allowing her fingers to trail lightly over and through her wet curls. Dropping to her knees, the blonde ran her hands over Willow’s thighs, knees, and her calves. One-by-one she lifted the redhead’s feet, washing each and running her fingers between the girl’s toes.

Tara stood again: "turn around beautiful." Tara guided the redhead under the stream of water to allow it to rinse the soap and shampoo before again pressing her against the wall, embracing her and clamping her mouth down on her lover’s. Tara’s tongue immediately sought entrance to Willow’s soft warmth and Willow wrapped her mouth around that intrusion, sucking on the tip and eliciting a groan from the blonde. As she kissed her lover, Tara ran her soapy hands over the redhead’s breasts. Knowing her lover’s responses well, she took the two nipples between her fingertips, twisting softly and then more firmly. Feeling the pinching on her hard tips Willow moaned more loudly, pulling Tara closer. Releasing her lover’s breasts Tara trailed her still soapy hands down the responsive body.

Encountering her lover’s slippery curls she again whispered: "oh baby, you are so wet. So slick and soft. And wet." "I can’t resist anymore," she announced dropping to her knees in front of Willow. She brushed her thumb over the redhead’s mound a few times as Willow bucked in response. Leaning forward, Tara spread her lover’s lips with her fingertips before darting her tongue out to taste Willow’s juice. The first taste of the sweet juice reached the tip of her tongue and it curled in response. Entranced by the wondrous taste and sensation of her lover in her mouth, Tara pressed her mouth fully against Willow’s lips. She lovingly kissed Willow’s outer lips before softening her lips and tongue against the red curls.

Willow wrapped her fingers in Tara’s soft blonde hair as she felt the heavenly sensation of her lover’s mouth on and in her. The blonde ran her tongue through her velvety lips, drinking her ample juices as the shower water ran over both their bodies. Transported by the overwhelming sensation of being loved by Tara, Willow wound her fingers more and more tightly through her hair, clutching and pulling at her head. She didn’t want to be too demanding but the feeling was so incredible and she could only moan and squeeze in response. Her other hand clutched unsuccessfully for purchase on the slick tiles at her back.

Tara felt transformed by her pleasure in making love to Willow. The redhead’s fingers wound so tightly into her hair combined with the loud moaning caused the blonde’s juices to gush in response. Since the water kept washing the sweet juice from her target, Tara repeatedly darted her tongue into her lover’s depths to pull out still more wetness. "Oh Goddess! Oh Goddess!" Willow screamed each time Tara’s tongue caressed her inner valley. Tara alternated plunging her tongue into her lover’s silky entrance and lightly rubbing it across Willow’s engorged clit. With her fingers, the blonde softly stroked her lover’s opening as she flicked her tongue over her clit. Slowly she began to circle the clit with the tip of her tongue, allowing it to spring back and forth against the softness of her mouth. Sucking the hard nub, she felt Willow’s hand tense at the back of her head just as the redhead screamed out, "Oh Goddess!" and came hard against and into and over the blonde’s mouth.

As her lover shook and quivered, Tara continued her attention to Willow’s clit. When Willow whimpered, making it apparent that her clit was too sensitive, Tara diverted her movement to dive inside the redhead or to lick along her inner lips. After each few strokes, she returned her tongue to flick against Willow’s quivering clit. As she thrashed in response to Tara’s loving caress, Willow lost any awareness of whether she was actually experiencing multiple orgasms or just one that went on and on with repeated zeniths.

Finally Tara stood to wrap the redhead in her arms, kissing her mouth passionately. Willow tasted her juices on her tongue and smelled Tara’s own. "I love you Willow," Tara whispered as she kissed her lover. Reaching for the water she turned off the spigot and took Willow’s hand: "I think you’re clean enough and I don’t want to lose the hot water lover. Come to bed with me."

Willow quickly complied as the two women kissed their way back to the bed. Reaching the bed, it became obvious that the redhead had regained her stamina as she pushed the blonde onto her back. Covering Tara’s body with her own, Willow passionately kissed her, pressing her tongue deeply into her mouth as Tara moaned in response. The redhead ran her hands over her lover’s soft breasts rolling the nipples in her fingertips. The blonde arched against Willow’s body and hands and her wetness coated her hair and Willow’s legs. Running one hand through Tara’s slick curls, Willow growled, "Goddess baby, you are so incredibly wet. I love knowing that it makes you so turned on when you make me feel good. You were wonderful." Tara moaned in response to her lover’s words and the soft fingers flowing along her skin. Lifting her fingers to her mouth Willow licked the tips before returning both hands to her lover’s breasts. She rolled the nipples between her thumb and forefingers, catching them in the webbing. Then she rolled them more firmly and felt the blonde arch her back in response. Willow broke the kiss to take one of Tara’s nipples in her mouth, first sucking and then lightly biting the flesh.

"Oh Goddess baby!" Tara screamed out before moaning incoherently once again. The redhead switched from one nipple to the other, repeatedly running her fingers through Tara’s slick curls to garner the sweet juices which she rubbed on her lover’s nipples before licking them clean once again. Rising up the larger woman’s body once again, Willow captured Tara’s mouth with hers, darting her tongue firmly into her mouth. Breaking the kiss she whispered, "roll over baby."

Tara looked shocked by the request but complied immediately and felt Willow’s body again press down on her naked back. She could feel the redhead’s wet curls on her ass and the bed pressed into her mound. Willow trailed kisses over Tara’s shoulders and neck for a minute before whispering again, "get on your knees for me lover."

Tara rose onto her hands and knees to feel Willow’s body pressed into her. She could feel the wetness of Willow’s center on the back of her leg. She felt totally vulnerable and open and enjoyed the sensation of giving that to Willow. The redhead ran her fingertips along Tara’s dripping lips only once before plunging two fingers into her depths. "Oh Goddess! Oh Fuck!" Tara screamed out. For the first time, both women enjoyed the freedom to express their passion loudly. With each scream, Willow plunged her fingers more deeply into her lover’s welcoming body.

Willow’s other hand circled the blonde’s waist and her fingertips brushed over the blonde’s clit. When Tara began to lean back into the thrusts, her leg pressed into Willow’s straddling center. The redhead began rocking her clit and lips against Tara’s strong leg. Pulling her fingers most of the way out of Tara’s valley, Willow added a third finger and inserted them all the way into her lover. She held her fingers still for a moment to ensure that it wasn’t too much: that Tara’s continued whimpering was from pleasure, not pain.

Tara moaned out wordlessly in response to the sensation of Willow’s fingers filling her so completely. As she rocked back and forth into the pressure of her lover’s hand in her depths the blonde felt lost in love. This sensation marked a new level of trust between the two women. She felt as if she were giving her self, her body and soul, over anew to Willow. That in welcoming the overwhelming sensation of Willow’s hand inside her, she was announcing "I am yours. I always have been. I always will be." Unable to form words enough to make that declaration, she moaned out, "yyyyyyyyoooourrrsssss" as her orgasm broke. And not just broke but exploded and imploded, crashed and destroyed, rearranged the atoms of her body and the synapses and neurons in her mind. Her body clenched down so tightly on Willow’s fingers that she feared hurting the smaller woman. When Tara tensed, she pressed back hard, pressuring her leg and ass into Willow’s swollen clit. She screamed her lover’s name so loudly that she completely eclipsed the sound of Willow’s answering scream as the redhead came with Tara’s powerful climax.

Both women clenched and released and shook until, aware that they could not maintain their position, Willow eased her fingers from their home and guided both bodies to the bed. Without speaking she wrapped her arms around Tara’s spent form, lavishing kisses all over the blonde’s back and neck. Slowly the blonde flipped onto her back to hold the smaller woman. "Thank you baby," Willow whispered as she ran her hand lovingly over Tara’s chest.

Willow rose up slightly to look into the azure eyes she loved so well as she spoke: "for being mine: for trusting me." Tara simply nodded her understanding.

For a long time the lovers lay completely spent on the bed, absently trailing their fingertips over the other’s skin or kissing lovingly. Both felt deliciously sleepy and relaxed. As they teetered on the edge of sleep, Willow brushed her fingers along Tara’s chin. "Tara?" she asked. Emotional and vulnerable the redhead pleaded her fear: "say you’ll never leave me?"

Tara’s heart broke as she watched the woman she loved be so vulnerable. She knew that the phone conversation with her mother had really upset the girl. She also knew enough about basic psychology to understand that as much as she would love Willow for the rest of her life, it would never replace the love she missed from her parents, that unless Willow chose to heal her own soul, that hole would always remain. Pulling her crying lover close she whispered over and over again, "I love you Willow. I’ll never leave you."

Willow’s head hurt and her eyes felt puffy as she opened them to see the not so bright light of day. She heard the sound of rain, which was muffled by the closed balcony doors. Slowly she eased herself from Tara’s grasp to open the doors before returning to bed. Able to listen to the soothing sound of the rain, she raised Tara’s arm to slide under it, spooning in front of the larger woman. The room was filled with the mixed scents of their lovemaking and the rain and she felt dreamy and content nestled close with her lover.

A glance at the clock confirmed the redhead’s suspicion that they had slept until mid-afternoon after their late morning lovemaking. A smile crept over her face and then took up residence there as she thought again of the morning. She ran her hands lightly over Tara’s arms, marveling in the beauty of the golden hair sprinkling her skin. It was soft and beautiful, just like her amazing lover. Gently she pressed her face into the crook in Tara’s elbow and breathed in her scent deeply. That scent, oh Goddess, the mixture of honeysuckle and Tara.

For the first time in weeks, she thought about the worries she had harbored before they had made love. Willow had known that she was ready to share the intimacy of making love before Tara was ready. Tara had not explained her reticence and Willow didn’t push. She suspected that Tara had simply not been ready to share that intimacy until she knew that Willow loved her and that she felt the same. It almost made Willow regret having not spoken the words "I love you" earlier but she also knew that their making love on their two-month anniversary had been perfect.

The smile still graced her face as she thought about the perfection of their fit. Months earlier Willow had worried about their physical relationship. Even before they started dating, when she was barely acknowledging her attraction for the blonde, she had wondered how it might be. Would she like being with a woman? Not that she had ever been with a man, but she had kissed them. Them? Ok, one man: Oz. She enjoyed it but never felt the spark, the passion she felt when she and Tara touched. Once they had kissed, alleviating her worry over that benchmark, she began to worry about every stage of their physical relationship. What if she wasn’t comfortable with a female body? What if Tara wasn’t? If it wasn’t fulfilling? If she didn’t know what to do? If, if, if? And then, at some point, she had given up the worrying. She had decided to not worry about it. Not think about it. But feel and love and be. And she had found that her fantasies about Tara allowed her to know that when they did make love, it would be wonderful and beautiful.

And then she had found that nothing she ever had known before had prepared her for how wonderful and beautiful it would be. Every time they made love, she felt completely united with Tara. The line between giving and receiving and making love and being made love to was indistinguishable as they flowed liquidly together. It seemed that they had been born to love and be loved by each other; to experience this perfection. Lifting her fingers to her face she breathed in deeply the scent of Tara still coating her fingers.

Willow began slowly stroking her lover’s skin and placing soft kisses along Tara’s neck. "Is it raining?" the blonde asked without opening her eyes.

"Yes love, I thought you would like the sound so I opened the doors. You can smell it in here," Willow explained.

Tara sat up in the bed as she pulled Willow to nestle closer to her: "I feel so wonderful baby. But hungry." Willow agreed and seeing as there was no food in the house the two girls eventually dressed and went to get some lunch.

"Hey, that’s my fry," Willow yelled as Tara dipped the item in question in some hot sauce and popped it in her mouth.

Tara smiled as she responded, "mine now baby." Lower she growled, "j-j-just like you."

Leaning across the table Willow kissed her as she agreed, "yes baby, I’m yours always and you’re mine." As Tara nodded her agreement Willow asked, "so um, are you ok? I mean earlier?"

Blushing furiously Tara looked down at her sandwich before whispering, "I’m a little s-s-sore…" seeing Willow looking worried and about to start apologizing, she continued, "b-b-but not in a bad way. Mostly my stomach muscles are sore from, from you-know." She whispered the last before kissing her lover.

"I’m sorry if I hurt you love," Willow told the blonde as she stroked her hair and face with her palm.

Again kissing the redhead Tara emphasized, "you didn’t baby. It-it-it was w-w-wonderful."

Willow was filled with complete love for the blonde who was so willing to give herself over totally to their love. "Why don’t we get some groceries and go back to the house?" Tara nodded and they moved from the booth to do just that.

Once at the house, they nestled together to watch the second movie before making dinner together. They had the radio turned up loud and both girls sang and danced while cooking. Willow whipped the eggs while Tara grated some cheese and cut fruit. "Do you think this is what it will be like when we…" Willow allowed her question to trail off at the end.

Brushing her thumb along Willow’s jaw line the blonde asked, "w-w-when we what love?"

Willow looked around the kitchen indicating the space with her hands as she slowly answered, "you know… when we … later…?"

Without stilling the hand moving along her lover’s skin Tara looked into Willow’s green eyes and said, "better" before hugging the smaller woman to her body.

Tara finished toweling off her hair and brushed through it quickly before dressing. Picking up her books and notebooks, she checked her watch before moving down the stairs and out of the dorm to the library. As she settled into a chair to open her Biology book, an envelope fell out onto her other belongings.

She recognized Willow’s handwriting at once. The redhead was in her calculus exam for which she had studied on the train and once they returned to school. Both girls had completed their History and English exams. Tara had only Biology left and Willow had only her independent study math project remaining. A smile gracing her face, she opened the envelope and began to read. In the upper margin and running along the right side of the letter in purple pen Willow had written: I’m going to put this in your biology book so you will find it while you are studying and I’m in my calculus exam. I know you will do great.

Refolding the note, Tara felt fingers brushing through her hair and turned to give Willow a kiss. "Wow," she exclaimed indicating the letter. "How did your calculus test go love?"

Sitting down and handing her lover a cup of coffee, Willow smiled, "it went great." Both girls settled down to study for their last tests, occasionally taking breaks for coffee, food, or conversation.

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W/T Season 3 Y'all

By JustSkipIt