Title: The Tale
Author: Tru2urheart or Ariel
Feedback: I stand for 5 year olds everywhere when I say, "Please ,Please, Please," Lip quivers and the puppy dog face emerges.
Spoilers: Lots
Setting: AU. 7th Season remake.
Rating: It may get worse than pg-13, but if it does, I'll let you know.
Disclaimer: I don't have a lawyer and there is no profit invovled. Please don't sue.
Angst:2 out of 10
Summary: Not very angsty, just a reunion of the scoobies. Hope you like the slight humor.
[hr]
Rattling around could be heard as Tara slowly descended the stairs and it was coming from the kitchen. As she entered the small kitchen, she could see Buffy moving around trying to make some coffee and some toast. Buffy spotted Tara as soon as she had come through the entryway,"Hey."
"Hey," Tara responded half heartedly, giving a small, strained smile,"Is the world gonna end? You're up before seven."
Buffy smiled at her attempt at humor, and then remembered what had woken her up,"You know what? I really don't know these days, Tara. Between the demons and the vamps, or the demony robots and the hell gods, it gets confusing. I think they confuse me on purpose. They probably even hold meetings to decide what to do next. ("Ok. Who's going to pretend to open the hellmouth this time? We also need someone to actually try to open it)," Buffy said in a really bad voice impression of a vampire.
Tara gave a small laugh. She sat herself down, while Buffy got her a cup of coffee. The rain had finally died down outside and the sun was starting to show through the clearings opening in the clouds. Silence overtook the two for a long while. They stared into their own respective places, getting lost in their thoughts. Finally, Tara broke the silence.
"What's going on today?" She asked.
Buffy looked toward her,"Well, we're probably going to have a meeting at the Magic Box because of my stupid slayer dream, so we can research it and come up with absolutely nothing. You up for it?"
Tara smiled,"Yeah, sure. What could be more fun? I'll call Anya and Xander right now. It's eight. They'll be heading down there in about an hour. Gives us time to meet up with them and get some searches done before Anya opens the shop."
Tara went off to her respective task after Buffy nodded her head. About 15 minutes later, Dawn joined Buffy in the kitchen. She smiled and sat down to have a bowl of cereal.
Buffy looked to her,"You up for boring research that won't turn up with anything?"
"How else would I spend my day? I mean, come on, what kind of teen spends their summer partying and hanging with friends? You would have to be nuts to skip a good, worthless research session," She couldn't hold the sarcasm that dripped into her statement.
"Good," Buffy stated," And since you don't have any friends to hang with at the moment either, then you have just enough time to do the dishes before we head to the shop."
Dawn groaned and got up to start the dishes. Tara was upstairs getting ready, and Buffy went off in search of a hairbrush to put her hair up.
[hr]
Buffy backed the jeep out of the drive as the others put on their respective seatbelts, both holding onto the door handles for dear life knowing that Buffy wasn't the best driver. It was quiet all the way there. They had all gone into their own thoughts once again and thought about the past couple of weeks. Other than a few vamps, there really had been nothing out. It seemed it would soon end, as Buffy's dream would tell it.
As they parked in front of the shop, they noticed Xander opening the door to his car, allowing Anya out. She pushed him out of the way, showing that she still had dislike to his choice of leaving her and that she was still going to at least pretend to be furious at him. He gave a half wave as a sign of hello, then started following Anya into the shop. She unlocked the door and turned on the lights, but that's when she stopped in the doorway, blocking everyone else from entry.
"Anya, what's the hold up?" Xander asked from right behind her.
Anya couldn't say a word, because she was dumbfounded. The person they had awaited return of, and yet had dreaded it was slumbering on the couch of her shop, as if she'd fallen asleep reading, like she had so many times before. Anya hesitated before stepping back, pushing Xander along with her. Anya slowly closed the door, so as not to disturb the figure, before looking up into everyone's eyes, ing on Tara's,"She's back." Anya whispered.
Buffy seemed confused, but Tara knew right away what Anya had meant. Tara charged in there before Anya could stop her. She stopped at the top of the two stairs that led onto the main floor, her heartbeat speeding up.
Tara stared at Willow, feeling everything she had felt around the , the good and the bad: Love, fear, familiarity, safety, , heartbroken, and sadness. The sleeping red head stirred slightly, as the slight noise from the door bell and the rush of footsteps started to wake her from her slumber. By now, everyone had joined Tara in the shop.
The gang immediately recognized the small figure on the couch. Mixed feelings were floating around the room. The most felt was concern for the young who seemed to be waking up as if she had just appeared.
Willow blinked sleepily. Her eyes were blurred from sleep and she couldn't remember much from the night before. Dawn cautiously approached the couch, everyone watched on. Tara couldn't move another inch. She couldn't believe this was happening.
Willow finally blinked the sleep from her eyes, and looked up. The first thing she saw were Dawn's light blue eyes... Willow yelped and rolled off the couch,"I'm ok."
The next second later, we see Willow's head pop up from beside the couch. She looked around the room. Everyone was gathered next to each other except for Dawn who was looking at her weird from just above her. Next thing Willow knew, she was being attacked. Dawn was hugging her tightly,"You're back. It's really you. What did you see? Was it bad? I bet it was. 'Cause a world without you would probably suck!"
"Dawn. Willow's back so you don't need to fill in with the babble anymore," Xander smiled as he came over and hugged Willow as well. It seemed overwhelming, but Willow also felt like she was safe once again.
Anya was the next to greet her,"Willow, we missed you. Now you can help us research because we really suck at it." Anya gave Willow a quick hug and a patented Anya smile. Buffy just came over and gave her a bear hug.
"Buffy, need... to... breath," Willow choked out. When Buffy blushed and let go of her, Willow nodded at her as she tried to catch her breath.
There was only one person left in the room that had yet to say hello to her yet. Willow figured that it was a bad sign. She had lost the right to expect a nice welcome from Tara. She had lost the right to a lot of things from Tara, including the right to expcet her forgiveness. Willow only got a brief glance before she realized that it was no longer Buffy hugging her, but... "Tara?"
"I missed you," was the whispered answer in her ear. She could feel drops of tears on her neck. Willow didn't know what to do. The one person she loved more then anything was hugging her, but wasn't this exactly what Joyce was trying to tell her. She was getting a chance to set everything right.
"I missed you, too," was her only answer. She finally realized that things could work out, even on the hell mouth. You just had to do things right, no shortcuts, and you had to believe.
But this journey wasn't even close to being over. It was just starting, and the hard part hasn't even happened.
[hr]
I know you wanted W/T smoochies. Sorry to disappoint, but if any help, the rating will go up in about two chapters, and not for
. I love the feedback and thank you Dianneswillowtree for your love of my story. I hope I didn't disappoint. Keep it real and I'll have an update, I hope, next Sunday and every Sunday after. Sometime early sometimes late, but pretty regular. Thanks again--tru2urheart.[hr]
OK I,M ABOUT TO JUMP OFF THE CLIFF YOU PUT US ON (just kidding please update this one is where thay all get willow back and we see how things work out before the big bad comes and maybe if we are nice you will let us have alot of 
please 
by Willowtree252 » Sat May 13, 2006 11:38 am 
. All my info and details on this story are on there. Thank gods or moms because without mine being loving and just as sneaky as I am, I wouldn't even be able to be on the site anymore because she lets me use her computer when dad's not home.
