Close Encounters Of The Wiccan Kind
Willow knocked lightly on Tara's door, bouncing lightly on her feet, but trying not to knock over the candle in her hands. She turned around, pacing slightly in the corridor. The door latch clicked softly, and she turned around. Tara stood inside the doorway of her room, blinking softly as the light invaded her eyes.
"No candles? Well, I brought one. It's extra flamey." Tara stood there, not speaking and not moving. Willow stepped inside and handed over the candle, closing the door behind her. She took a deep breath, looking at the floor, and then up at the other witch.
"Tara, there's something I have to tell you..." She was interrupted, as Tara spoke up.
"No, I-I understand. You have to be with the person you l-love." Her eyes shone bright with tears, but the rest of her face was covered with what Willow imagined was Tara's resolve face. She smiled softly and kissed Tara on the cheek before apologising, thanking her and running out of the room to Oz's waiting van.
Tara wandered over to her desk, setting down the candle lightly. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, burying her face in her hands.
Buffy sighed, walking back to her dorm room. She'd spent all last night 'explaining' to Riley, and then the bastard broke up with her. All she wanted right now was bed, bath, and Willow's shoulder to cry on while she pigged out on Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice-cream. She reached their dorm-room and opened the door, frowning slightly when she realised that neither of their beds had been slept in, brightening slightly at her next thought.
Willow and Tara...might be a Willow-and-Tara now...Ooh, but then again, there could be Willow and Oz...but I think Tara really loves Willow...then again, Oz was here before and they were all with the lovin', but I don't know if Oz is over the Xander-thing...oh, this is confusing...
"When you start having internal debates about your friends' love-life, Summers, you've finally cracked," she told herself firmly, moving into the kitchen and thinking.
I'll give it till noon, and then I'll go on a Willow-hunt.
Buffy knocked lightly on Tara's door, lowering her hand as it opened.
"Buffy?"
"That's me! Is, uh, Willow here?" Tara bit her lower lip softly.
"N-no. She went w-with Oz last night. Is something wrong?"
"Oh Tara, I'm so sorry." She saw the blonde's look when she talked about Willow and Oz, and knew that while Tara wanted Willow to be happy, her own heart had been broken. "But I don't think anything's wrong. I mean, if she's with Oz then they should be okay..." Stop talking, Summers. She chided herself internally.
"And I should just stop talking, right?" Tara smiled lightly.
"D-do you wanna come in?" She asked, ducking her head. Buffy considered for a moment, before nodding and stepping inside, closing the door behind her.
"Do you have ice-cream?" Buffy asked. Tara frowned slightly, not having expected the question, then moved over to the mini-fridge and getting out a pint. "Ice-cream is good for break-ups. Ice-cream solves all."
"But we didn't really break up. I mean, we weren't even really dating before."
"True," Buffy nodded, "But you did really like her. Love her, maybe. Anyway, we are both victims of the love-bug, so let's drown our sorrows in..." she turned the tub around "Mint-choc-chip. Good choice." Off Tara's puzzled look, she continued. "See, it's got the chocolate, which is necessary for every break-up. But it's not all chocolate, which is good because then you don't get all fat from eating a whole pint at once..."
Tara set down her spoon for a moment.
"W-what do you mean, 'both victims of the love-bug'?" Buffy slowly came out of her ice-cream induced euphoria.
"Huh? Oh, Riley dumped me. He was having testosterone issues. Can't deal with my past. Or that I'm stronger than he is." She pulled a face, digging her spoon back into the ice-cream viciously, imagining she was sticking it in Riley's stupid head. Tara was struck with the same mental image, and as if she couldn't help herself, her lips quirked up, letting a small chuckle out. Buffy looked up from her attack on the green half-melted mass, and then cracked up herself.
"Hey Mom," Buffy yelled as she entered the house, tossing her keys onto a side-table.
"Buffy? I'm in the kitchen." She ambled over and looked at the box in the middle of the room.
"Ooh. Box." She frowned. "Mom, why is there a box in the kitchen?"
"Delivery for the gallery, honey." Buffy nodded in understanding.
"Need a hand?" Buffy managed to break open the box and Joyce yanked the statue out, both sets of eyes widening. "Woah."
"Buffy, I think maybe he should..."
"Back in the box? Totally." She added hurriedly.
When the statue was safely secured back in his box, Joyce turned to her daughter.
"Buffy, would you mind going grocery shopping for me? I really have to get to the gallery, but I don't have any food in the house." She shook her head.
"I'll go. Now you go. They like it when you go to your job, they're weird like that."
Buffy manoeuvred the shiny cart past one belonging to a woman who either wasn't paying attention to what she was getting, or was sacrificing to a peanut-butter demon. She hoped desperately that it was the first option. She didn't even want to think what one of those demons would look like, but couldn't help but wonder: would he be made of peanut butter, dripping it wherever he went, or would he just be really obsessed with it? She thrust a lone jar of chocolate-peanut-butter in her cart, convinced her inner self to drop that topic of conversation and twirled round the corner, right into someone else.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was...Tara?"
"Buffy? Hi."
"Which direction you going in?" Tara pointed towards Aisle 12. "Cool. Was gonna head there later...Can I walk with?" At her assent, the two headed off towards 'Toiletries and Grooming Products'.
"Tara, you don't use that toothpaste do you?"
"W-well yeah. It smells good. And it looks really pretty on the toothbrush. And I always want to try to make the colours mush and make a new one...Why, what's wrong with it?" She frowned slightly at the tube in her hand.
"Well it's three different colours. That's not natural. How do you keep them separate? There's something demonic about it." Tara raised an eyebrow.
"D-Demonic toothpaste?" Buffy realised how ridiculous she was sounding and smiled.
"Been living on the Hellmouth way too long."
Buffy stalked back to her dorm in one hell of a mood. Giles was drunk, Willow was acting...not at all Willow-y, and Xander seemed to think that she wanted to put him in the army. Wondering when all her friends had gone crazy, she flung open the door, throwing herself onto the bed. When her eyes started to get sore from looking straight at the light for so long, she rolled over and picked up the phone.
She knocked on the door, repeatedly. Just as she began to hammer her fist into it, it opened. Only just managing to avoid hitting Tara, she drew her fist back.
"Oops?" Tara smiled, and stood back, purposely not issuing a verbal invitation. "I-we killed Adam. Thought you might want to know."
"H-how did you do that? I thought he was pretty invincible."
"Oh, there was a spell and I was all uber-Buffy. Yanked out a uranium power core, and boom! No more Adam."
"That's good. So is everything fixed with Xander and Willow? And Mr. Giles?"
"Yeah. That's why I'm here. Scooby video night tomorrow at my house. Wanna come?"
"I don't know."
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun. Me, Willow, Xander, Anya, Giles...Mom's even gonna be there."
"W-what about Oz?"
"Oz is...somewhere, getting...something for...something else. Don't know where, don't know what or what for, and don't want to. Pretty sure it's illegal."
"Is anything you do legal?" Tara asked, chuckling.
"No, probably not."
Tara walked back to her dorm, slightly confused. Cheese? Why was I dreaming about a cheese man? No, scratch that, why was I dreaming about kissing Buffy? I mean, she's not...and she's just a friend. Right? Right. Stop it Tara. You always fall for the unobtainable girls...but there's no falling here. Not this time.
Buffy waved off the last of the scoobies and headed back towards the living room. Okay, weird much? The cheese guy, what was that about? And 'death is your gift' - can I be wigged for a moment here? She sighed. And why is kissing Tara the one thing that freaks me out least? Of all the things that happened, that's the most wig-worthy. She frowned. Major thinkage needed here, Buffy.
"So do you like it?" Willow asked excitedly, biting her lower lip.
"It's - a surprise party. Woah." Anya frowned.
"Does he like it or not?" she asked Xander. "I can't tell. He's not saying much." His grip tightened around her shoulders.
"That's just Oz, sweetie. Dracula could bite him and he wouldn't say much."
"I met Dracula once. I was only about 100 at the time. Did I tell you this?"
"Umm, no."
"Oh, it was an experience..." Joyce interrupted her story.
"Who wants cake?" Willow's eyes lit up.
"What kind?"
"Vanilla cake with strawberry icing." Everyone made a mad dash for the kitchen, Buffy poking her head out the door.
"Tara, you coming? Cake good."
"I-I'm allergic to strawberries," she stuttered.
"Oh god. I'm sorry. I didn't ask...Mom!" She grabbed Tara's hand and dragged her into the kitchen. "Do we have any other cake? Tara's allergic to strawberries." Tara blushed deep crimson.
"R-really Mrs. Summers, don't go to any trouble."
"Oh don't be silly, it's no problem. We don't have any other cake...chocolate mousse?" She accepted the mousse gratefully, thanking both Buffy and her mother quietly.
Buffy realised that she'd grabbed hold of Tara's hand and hadn't let go. But she also realised that it felt good, and if the other blonde wasn't going to say anything about it, then she sure as hell wasn't. She led her to the table and they sat down, keeping Tara away from the icing.
One disastrous rendition of 'Happy Birthday' later, the gang was happily massacre-ing their cake. Xander was watching them all, a beady look in his eyes. When Anya put the last bite of cake in her mouth, he ushered them back into the front room.
"Party games!" he yelped. "Spin the bottle or truth or dare?"
"Xander, I'm not playing spin the bottle with my mother." That was Buffy, sounding suitably disgusted. "Keep talking like that if you want Slayer puke all over your shoes."
"Could you tell the difference?" Anya mused. Xander, trying to hold on to some shred of dignity, sat his girlfriend down.
"Okay, so, truth or dare it is. I go first. Wills, truth or dare?"
"Truth. I'm not doing one of your dares."
"How many times have you and Oz..." he made a few hand gestures that really left nothing to the imagination. Willow's face flushed crimson.
"Xander! I'm not answering that." He sighed.
"Fine. I dare you to..." his eyes lit up. "Kiss Buffy." Willow, still crimson, crawled over to Buffy, planted a kiss on her cheek, and went back to Oz.
"My turn. Joyce. Truth or Dare?"
By the time Oz had been dared to only speak in full sentences all night, Joyce had drunk a bottle of Schnapps - and gotten so drunk that she had to be sent to bed - and Xander had made and enforced a new rule - where every dare had to be a kiss - most of the scoobies were feeling a little worse for wear.
"Buffster, truth or dare?" That was Xander again.
"Dare," she was feeling a little adventurous now.
"I dare you to kiss..." his eyes swept the room for possible candidates. "Tara!" Buffy's eyes widened, but she turned to face Tara anyway.
"B-Buffy, you don't have to - " Tara spoke in a low voice
"Slayers do not turn down dares. Especially not dares from Xander. He'd never let me live it down."
"She's right," Willow piped in. "I gave in once when I was eight and he still teases me about it."
"Well, Will, I just think it's pretty pathetic if an eight-year-old can't drink a gallon of caramel sauce." Tara grimaced slightly, imagining it in her head. She was distracted from her thoughts when Buffy took Tara's hands in her own, and pulled her in, touching lips softly. They kissed briefly, chastely, before pulling away. Buffy opened her eyes slowly, looking into Tara's. Tara smiled at her gently. As they remembered that they weren't alone in the room, and turned to face the others, Tara kept holding Buffy's hand in hers, squeezing it once, lightly.
Buffy lay in bed, tossing and turning. Okay, so I kissed Tara. And liked it. Does that mean I'm a lesbian? Or, no, wait...Angel. Hmm. Still get warm fuzzies when I think of him. But Tara...more warm fuzzies. Way more. Oh, confused...
Tara lay straight in bed, staring up at the patterns on the ceiling. So...Buffy kissed me. Maybe we could be possible. I need to talk to her. I think...
Giles polished his glasses heavily, turning his back towards Willow and Oz and Xander and Anya.
"I thought that perhaps we should try a different kind of sparring today, Buffy." She perked up at this.
"Ooh. New how?"
"Er, magic against strength. The fact is, while you can beat the 'undead', with physical strength, you don't have magical ability."
"And score one for team duh." He frowned at her.
"Yes, well, if your opponent can use magic, that is an obvious disadvantage. So I thought I'd team you up with Willow, but seeing as Willow is...preoccupied...at the moment, I'm not really sure what to do."
"Aren't you all with the mojo?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure that I'm strong enough. It's been a while since I practiced..."
"Hello?" Tara opened the door and walked in, looking around. "Mr. Giles? Buffy?" Giles came down the stairs when he heard her voice.
"Tara, hello. I was wondering if you could help with Buffy's training." She looked slightly confused. "I want to pitch her against a magical opponent. I'm out of practice, and Willow is unavailable. Would you be willing to help?"
Tara watched as Buffy limbered up, stretching her arms out. Giles walked into the room, holding a dusty volume.
"What is this place?" Buffy asked him.
"It's a disused warehouse. I thought it would be good for training, there's a lot of room." She smiled.
"Cool."
"Tara, are you ready?" She nodded and moved, taking her position opposite Buffy. "Start when you're ready, girls." Buffy looked at Tara, who nodded. She struck out, kicking to the side, Tara moving out of the way just in time. She cast a spell, and Buffy tumbled over backwards. On the way down, she swept Tara's feet out from underneath her. As she went to hit her, Tara levitated off the ground, then bringing herself to a standing position. Buffy flipped back up and drew back her right hand, finding herself suddenly frozen to the spot. Tara released the spell, and an invisible hand slapped Buffy hard across the face. The force of the slap caused her to turn her body sideways, and when she turned back, Tara had disappeared. She looked for her, and then felt Tara's hand grabbing her arm, twisting it behind her back. Buffy twirled and jumped, pushing them both down to the ground, Buffy on top of Tara. She ended the invisibility spell, both of them breathing heavily. Buffy looked at Tara's face and leaned down, kissing her deeply. After a moments surprise, Tara kissed her back with equal force. When they separated, Buffy breathed in deeply.
"I love you." Tara's eyes widened, and then teared up slightly.
"I love you too." She drew Buffy back down, kissing her again. Giles, looking extremely confused, cleaned his glasses again.
"Did I miss something?"