Title: World Of Want
Author: Christel
Rating: As of now, PG – but eventually NC-17
Feedback: Yes please. It’s my first time writing, so I’d like a lot – good, bad, whichever.
Disclaimer: Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc. own all characters, not me.
Summary: A day on the beach. Oh, and it’s A/U. Oz was never really that important…
Note: I’d like to be updating at least once a week. So check back with me when you get a chance…the smut will be on it’s way, but I want to build the friendship between Willow and Tara first, so I hope you’ll bear with me. I’m nervous because it’s my first attempt at this, hope you enjoy!
Dedication: Entirely to my girl, Shanna (jeepchickscully). She came up with the main plot line and details, so this story and everything to do with it is all for her. I love you sweetie.
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CHAPTER ONE
"Dawnie!" Walking faster, Willow glanced back and saw Dawn leisurely applying tanning lotion all over her shoulders, looking desperately across the beach at a boy she recognized from school.
"Dawnie, hey, we gotta get a move on here!" Willow shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other as she stood impatiently waiting for the Slayer's sister to catch up to her. She could already see the long line-up for the women's washroom beginning to stream out onto the hot sand of the beach.
"Geez Will, that was the hottest guy in school." Dawn whined at her.
"Guys? Dawn, I just had about seven icy mochas and if the line for the bathroom gets any longer then we might as well stand here because pretty soon we'll be at the end of it, so how exactly can you be thinking about guys at a time like this?" Willow was unusually short winded at the moment. Dawn suspected that it must be because of the uncomfortable circumstance she was currently faced with. Normally, mocha-induced Willow-babble had a much longer life span.
"...And did you see his eyes? I mean, wow. They're brown, but who would have thought that brown could look so good? They're like...pennies! No! Pennies mean cheap. They're more like chocolate. No, maybe a little closer to..."
Willow assumed that Dawn had been going on for quite some time now but she hadn't been paying much attention. Usually she would be enjoying herself in Dawn's company; laughing and chatting with her about almost anything, but lately things were different. Dawn didn't seem to notice (which didn't say much) but Willow assumed it was from all the stress she'd had as of late. In fact, Dawn's constant babble was beginning to get on her nerves. 'She actually learned that from me?' Willow thought to herself, and made a mental note to ease up on the babble from then on.
The Scoobies were on a well-deserved break...a day on the beach. And hopefully there would be many more to come throughout the year. The past couple of weeks it had seemed like there was a mass corruption of some kind everywhere they turned. They had definitely been putting in a lot of overtime, and things had only started to get back to normal...whatever that was in Sunnydale.
With nothing major to worry about, Willow found her brow furrowed anyway. With all this talk of guys, Willow thought of Oz - her boyfriend up until just three months prior to that very trip to the beach. She thought he was a pretty good guy, which never explained his impetuous disappearance. On second thought, she wasn't so much worried as she was angry. In all honesty, she was not in love with Oz, though she still felt completely abandoned when he just picked up and left. She never could figure him out. Right now though, she wanted to push that far from her mind and focus on something else. There was that line-up. She wondered how long she would have to wait, and decided to approximate how much longer she would have to contain herself - but the mere thought made her wince, so she decided that thinking about something else - anything else - would keep her safe for now. What she really wanted was for Dawn to be quiet, just for a while.
"...So I told her that joke you told me, you know - the one about the cubed root of Pi, and then the biatch has the nerve to call me annoying! Me, Willow! Of all people!" Dawn hurried her pace somewhat and crossed her arms over her chest, wearing a disapproving pout.
"Wow, the Pi joke didn't make her laugh...are you sure you told it right?" She looked at Dawn for a sign of assurance, but instead received an almost icy glare, immediately realizing she had said the wrong thing. "Annoying, you?! Well, she obviously has no sense of humor whatsoever; because you are so not annoying...you're quirky, Dawnie. Yes, quirky,” Looking over again, Willow noticed that Dawn had uncrossed her arms from in front of her chest but still wore the pout, so for her sake Willow added, "That biatch."
Dawn looked better after that, but kept up her speedy pace, for which Willow was grateful, because they still hadn't actually reached the dreaded line-up.
"Hey Will, thanks for bringing me with you guys,” Dawn proclaimed.
"Not at all, Dawnie, you deserve a break, too. Today is going to be great!" Willow tried to maintain optimism, but she was starting to consider even sneaking into the men's room, since of course, there was no line-up there, so things were really looking grim.
"I know Buffy didn't want to bring me. Geez, she thinks I'm a five year old kid or something...that I'll go and get myself into trou -- OWW!" Dawn shrieked as she hit the sand with a dull thud.
"Ouch." Cried a soft voice Willow knew she recognized. She looked down in alarm at Dawn getting up off the ground and then over at a young blonde woman who was holding her ankle and wincing just slightly.
"Stupid shoes. Honestly, who wears shoes on the beach?" Dawn scolded herself briefly aloud and glanced down at Willow who had her eyes fixed on the blonde.
In one confident movement, Willow crouched down to be at eye-level with the other woman and instinctively began to palpate for swelling at the ankle. As soon as she touched the woman's ankle she felt a rush of exhilaration throughout her, like a spark. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. They both stayed just staring into each other for quite some time. Not once did Willow take her deep green eyes out of the blue ones of the gently injured stranger in front of her - only she didn't seem at all like a stranger. Willow had seen the blonde before, she knew it. Only when she saw the blonde blush and glance briefly away, did Willow acknowledge her own actions.
"Oh!" Willow exclaimed suddenly, as she resurfaced into reality.
"Yeah, what are you, Will, some kind of doctor now?" Dawn chuckled nervously at her own joke, noting the obvious intensity of the situation.
‘Annoying!’ Thought Willow. "Um, she's sorry. She just doesn't know how to tell you in so many, uh, words." Although she was very bright and had quite the extensive vocabulary, Willow could produce only vowel-type sounds at the moment. The blonde accepted the awkward apology in the form of a shy, half-smile and a soft nod that caused Willow to inhale sharply all of a sudden.
"Oh, man, yeah, really sorry here! It's these shoes,” Dawn exclaimed enthusiastically. She was embarrassed that she had forgotten to apologize. "They're Will's shoes and I borrowed them like an idiot to wear on the beach, but again, who wears shoes on the beach? Geez, I'm really sorry."
The blonde nodded and smiled at the nervous girl and set her gaze back to the redhead in front of her.
"Are you ok?" Willow inwardly congratulated herself for finally managing a little coherence.
"Y-yes, I'm fine. A-are you ok?" The woman had her eyes on Willow's, noticing that she overtly had something on her mind, but re-addressed her question to Dawn.
"Yeah, you know, kind of embarrassed but all is pretty much well." Dawn's eyes were busy scouring the beach for the guy she saw earlier. She thought she might die if he saw her take that fall.
"You sure you're ok?" Willow asked her again. Her heart raced when she heard the blonde speak, and suddenly she never wanted her to stop.
"Yes. And you, y-you're ok?" The stranger leaned in forward. She knew she would never get out of the state of trance she felt in those green eyes.
"Me? Oh, I'm fine. I was just worried because of Dawn here, I thought she hurt you." Willow was captivated. She couldn't believe how protective she was becoming of this stranger. That was when it suddenly occurred to her that although the woman seemed fairly familiar, she was still a stranger to her. "What's your name?" She asked shyly, feeling her face grow hot. She knew she was blushing.
"Tara." The blonde answered.
'Tara,' Willow thought, 'that's perfect. That is so perfect. She's so perf -- oh, my God, she's looking at me. I should say something. What should I say? She's smiling! Tara is smiling and she's smiling at me! Wow.'
"Tara,” Willow couldn't help but echo the blonde. She thought the name was beautiful and it suited her perfectly. She looks like a Tara. "I'm --"
"Willow! Oh, my God, Will! He just looked at me and he SMILED! Then I did this wave-type thing, and then flipped my hair back...do you think he likes me? Oh, my God! I love him! I'm in love, Will!" Dawn was practically shaking the slender redhead senseless.
Willow looked quickly over at Tara who was laughing gently, trying to keep a straight face, then up at Dawn who had momentarily stopped shaking her and pursued her quest for her 'love', casually, of course.
"This is Dawn. Or Dawnie. Sorry about that, she's a monster...a, um, Dawn monster. Which is sometimes what I call her when she does things like that or when she borrows my stuff. Like those shoes she's wearing at the moment. She just sneaks in there and takes things, the monster. Hence the name." Willow realized that Tara probably didn't need all the unnecessary info just yet.
Tara simply nodded gently. "And you're Willow?"
"Yes. I'm, um, Willow. Though sometimes I'm Will, it depends really. Dawnie here always calls me that. I think she forgot the rest of my name, but if you want to you can call me Will, or Willow, or that dorky redhead who just can't seem to stop talking...please help me." Willow blushed furiously. Of all the times for Willow-babble to be put into full effect, why did this have to be one of them?
And Tara did help. 'So cute.' She thought to herself, and mustered up every ounce of courage she had just to amplify her thought just a little bit. Tara had felt the surge of energy in her too when Willow checked her ankle. It was a thrill unmistakably caused when two powers meet, so she knew there must be some magic in the petite red-head, whether she knew it or not, and this was the test to see.
"Whoa," Willow said aloud when she heard a faint voice echo around her. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, from all sides of the beach, but it was so very soft. It was in her head, Willow realized, and it was Tara. "Tara?"
Tara knew she was right about the power. "I-I've seen you in my English Lit. Class. You have all those d-different colored pens, right, for your notes?"
Willow suddenly placed a name to the face she had seen a few times since her class had commenced that fall. Of course, that's what was so familiar about the girl. She had never realized the natural beauty of her before. Her long blonde hair fell neatly down her back and her blue eyes shone, an easy rival to the sea.
"Willow! The line!" Dawn's voice snapped her back into reality once again. She looked slightly annoyed, back at the bathrooms and noticed the line-up was considerably shorter, maybe even nonexistent. Willow had forgotten all about that. She didn't even feel the effect the mocha's had on her until Dawn brought it up again. "Lets go Will!" Dawn grasped Willow's thin arm and began to tug the shorter girl. "Sorry again about your ankle, I hope you feel better soon!" Dawn shouted one last get-well-wish to the blonde and hurriedly dragged Willow along with her toward the shortening line, before the startled redhead had a chance to say anything more.
Edited by: burtonreid at: 11/24/03 12:39 pm
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