Hey Kittens - Here's an update for you.
Rating R mostly for nakedness, implied nakedness, evil thoughts, and mild swearing.
It probably also should be rated J or NN.
Have fun.
*****
So tempting … just to lie here like this, body draped over her lover, arms and legs entwined with hers. Tara listened to Willow’s slowing heart, felt her own slowing, and heard their breathing even out. She was – and doubtless Willow was too – filling with the warm afterglow of their loving. Such delicious lassitude; moving was going to become an impossibility shortly.
But did she really have to move? She licked her lips and thought about that question. Lying here, pillowed by Willow’s body, she had everything that she wanted in the world. Eventually, one of them would start to touch the other again, which would lead to more lovemaking – but that scarcely counted as moving. More of Willow-touch – whether she gave or received – was definitely a good thing.
She snuggled her head into Willow’s shoulder and chest, and her lover’s fingers tightened in her hair for just a moment before relaxing. So good. She sighed happily and felt Willow echo her. They just fit together so well, like they had interlocking pieces – like Legos. She smiled at the memory of their conversation on Sunday.
Her lover’s tummy growled.
“Damn,” Willow said. It was barely more than a whisper.
“D-Damn what?” Tara replied, inwardly amused that apparently saying “damn” was harder for her than saying “fuck”.
“No lunch.” Her lover wriggled a little beneath her and she started to lift herself up. Willow’s arm tightened around her. “No, Tare, stay there. I’m just trying to convince my tummy it’s had food.”
She stopped, but smiled when Willow’s tummy growled again. “I don’t think it worked, sweetie.”
“I am soooo not romantic,” her lover grumbled, stroking her hair.
“I didn’t have lunch either, or not much. Some applesauce when I got back here,” she elaborated.
“Applesauce?” Amusement filled Willow’s voice.
“Uh-huh.” Her own stomach growled, having apparently decided that since they were discussing food, it should voice its opinion as well. “What time is it, anyway?”
Willow turned her head, dropping a kiss on the top of her head as she did so. “5-ish, but if you’re suggesting that we put on clothes, well – I’m coming out firmly against it.”
Tara lifted her head to look in her love’s face. “Sort of, but not many.” She smiled slowly, her lips quirking to one side a bit.
“Oh, I recognize that smile. That’s your naughty smile.” Willow grinned at her. “So not many clothes ….” She blushed suddenly. “Uh, Tare, I’m ….”
Tara suddenly flushed herself, realizing where Willow’s thoughts might be heading. “N-No. Not that. Um, I have no desire to go eat in the buff. Okay?”
“Okay.” Willow relaxed. “Then what is your plan?”
“A kind of compromise – if she’s in …” Tara considered, frowning.
“Buffy!” Her lover stiffened in shock.
“Uh-uh.” Tara lifted her arm and pointed at the wall. “Jo. Or more precisely, ‘Jo’s Delivery Service’. She owes us one.”
“Never thought of you as the payback-y type,” Willow chuckled.
“It’s balance, not payback,” Tara defended herself. “She’s had the two of us off-balance since Monday; I think it’s time to even things up a bit. I just don’t know if she’s in.”
“Well, the last part is easy.” Willow smiled, and intoned, “Solvo silentium.”
The room was immediately flooded with amplified noise and both women winced at the sudden onslaught.
“There’s gotta be a better way,” Willow said with a pained frown.
“Shhhhh.” Tara angled her head from side to side, trying to isolate Jo from among the clamor. She had had several months to become accustomed to her immediate neighbors’ noise, assisted by the dorm’s thin walls. The after-effects of the silence spell made things both easier and harder. She had to sort through more, but it was all clearer. There – the soft, off-key singing – that was Jo. “She’s in.”
“So what’s the plan?” asked her lover.
“W-We drop in on her ….”
“That involves getting up,” Willow interrupted, “and getting dressed and ….”
“Yes, but not for long, and we don’t have to dress completely,” Tara explained. “S-She orders a pizza for us and accepts delivery, so we don’t have to go out.”
“And why exactly would she do this?” Willow looked skeptical. “We could just stay here and I could feed you applesauce ….” Her voice trailed off and her eyes unfocused a little.
Tara was suddenly very warm. “S-Sorry, um … I sort of … ate it all.”
“Damn,” Willow sighed. “I had the most incredible image of ….”
She interrupted her lover with a kiss and murmured, “I know.” She settled back down again in the crook of Willow’s arm. “From now on I’ll keep applesauce on hand.”
Her lover shivered, apparently having images again. Tara felt her swallow – hard – and smiled, the smile that her lover had just referred to as her naughty smile. She had better things than applesauce in mind for Willow. She filed the thought away for later … consideration.
“Jo w-would do it because she’s basically a good person.” Tara picked up the threads of her plan. “She realizes she’s been pushing us, I think.”
“Yeah, you may be right,” Willow agreed slowly. “She did apologize to me this afternoon. Rather profusely, actually.”
“To me too,” she confirmed. “So we give her a chance to really apologize by doing us a favor, to balance things between us.”
“Pizza it is, then.” Willow hugged her tight.
*****
“Come in,” Jo sang out when she heard the soft knock at her door. Still seated at her desk, she turned a bit to see who she’d just invited in. She set her French reader down and leaned back in her chair in surprise as her guest – no, guests, plural – entered.
“H-Hey Jo.” Willow’s soft “Hey” echoed that of her lover.
“Hi Tara, Willow.” Jo returned the greeting and wondered at the visit, especially given that neither woman was completely dressed. She was positive that Tara had nothing on under the sweater, unless you counted the baggy shorts. She was less certain about Willow, but it seemed likely that she also had nothing on beneath the extra large football jersey, which was long enough to cover any evidence that the redhead was wearing shorts … or not. She was thoroughly bemused by the visit. She had two partially-dressed lesbians in her room – two lesbians who had been quite angry with her earlier in the day. She didn’t think they were looking for revenge, but ….
Willow closed the door behind her, the latch clicking with a finality that made Jo’s heart skip a beat. She crossed her legs and regarded her guests, curious in spite of the plummeting feeling in her stomach.
“You might want to be careful about that.” Willow stepped up beside her blonde girlfriend.
“Huh?” Jo asked, confused.
“W-Willow means the way y-you answered your door,” Tara explained.
“Now I know you didn’t come over here to give me a safety lecture,” Jo replied. “Got the booklet, read the booklet. I’m careful. Besides, it’s just getting dark now.”
Willow sat down on the edge of her bed, Tara finding a perch beside her. And no, from the way the jersey rode up, Willow did not have shorts on.
“Just be more careful, okay?” the redhead advised.
“Sure.” Jo agreed pleasantly, increasingly curious about the visit. From their state of dishabille, they’d obviously been together recently. More quietly though, ‘cause she hadn’t heard a thing.
“W-We were w-wondering if you could do us a f-favor,” Tara stated the reason for their visit.
“Okay, I’ll bite.” Jo saw a smile flicker over Tara’s face, and looked at Willow who was openly grinning, wondering what was so funny. “What do you need?”
“Pizza,” Willow replied, still grinning.
“Pizza,” she repeated. “Why does that involve me? I mean, they all deliver to the dorms.”
“Ummm, w-we didn’t want to get c-completely dressed. That’s w-why pizza and not the cafeteria,” Tara clarified.
“You order, accept delivery, and bring it next door. Oh – we pay, of course.” Willow supplied the details.
“You’re spending the night?” Jo asked, looking directly at the redhead.
“Possibly. The evening, at any rate.” Willow smiled at her lover softly.
She looked back and forth between the two of them. They were too cute for words and she was an evil woman for tormenting them. But this whole thing with the pizza reeked of payback. Willow’s idea, definitely; Tara was too nice to have come up with this – payback then, and deservedly so, she admitted to herself. “Okay. Where from?”
“V-Victor’s.” Tara glanced quickly at her lover and smiled.
“And what do you want on it?” Jo asked, knowing that on pizza from Victor’s you could get some pretty strange stuff.
“Small pizza,” Willow specified with a smirk. “Don’t want to overeat.”
She sighed, staying disengaged. “Okay, small pizza.” She wrote on a piece of paper.
“T-Tomatoes, mozzarella, and ….” Tara hesitated.
“Artichokes,” Willow chimed in.
“Artichokes.” Jo lifted an eyebrow but wasn’t really surprised.
“Th-they’re good on pizza,” Tara declared.
“No,” she countered, “Sausage, pepperoni, and extra cheese – those are good on pizza. Not weird California vegetables.” She eyed the two women seated on her bed, and couldn’t help but tease them a little more. Besides, that hicky on Willow’s neck deserved a comment. “For a moment I thought you were gonna get calamari on it. Y’know…,” she sucked in wetly, making a rude noise, and looking very intently at Willow’s neck.
The redhead looked at the floor, her fair skin scarlet. Tara, on the other hand, positively smirked back at her.
‘Uh-oh.’ Jo backtracked a little. Maybe she was wrong about whose idea this was. Quiet and shy weren’t necessarily synonyms for innocent.
“I l-like calamari – just not on pizza,” Tara continued, “but artichokes are quite good. Have you ever e-eaten one, Jo?”
She looked at the blonde warily. “No.”
“Y-You have to cook them carefully. And they’re a little h-hard to eat. Y-You have to go slow, petal by petal.” Tara’s mouth quirked in a smile. “And the f-fibers can get c-caught in your teeth. Like h-hair.”
Okay – not going there. SO not going there. That was very much in the Way Too Much Information category. Jo blushed deeply and revised her entire mental image of the shy blonde. Or rather, not-so-shy blonde.
“Tomatoes, mozzarella, and artichokes,” Jo reiterated the order and glanced quickly at Willow, who appeared be looking at her lover with an expression of awed delight. No way was she going to look at the blonde. “I’ll call this in and bring it over when it arrives.”
The two women stood, Willow heading toward the door.
“Jo …” Tara’s voice was very close.
Jo found she had to look up at Tara, who was still smiling, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement.
“H-Here.” The blonde extended a $20 bill. “There’s enough there for y-you to get yourself something, too.”
“Okay.” Jo watched her neighbor walk to the door, unable to think of any smart rejoinder.
Tara paused in the doorway, her smile broadening. “T-Try an artichoke sometime, Jo. They’re well worth the effort.” She closed the door behind her.
Jo sat frozen until she heard the door next to hers close, then slumped in her chair and whispered to herself. “Oh My Frickin’ God!”
******
Tara closed and locked the door to her room. She met Willow’s grin with one of her own.
“She just said ‘oh my frickin’ god’” the redhead said gleefully. “Tare, that was excellent.”
She crossed to the bed and joined her lover. Kissing her lightly, she said, “That balanced things rather well, I think. Her fingers found the bruise on Willow’s neck. “Besides, sh-she deserved it for the calamari comment.”
They listened as Jo made the phone call.
“45 minutes.” Willow frowned. “What can .…”
Tara pulled her sweater off with a smile.
****
Jo stood in the hall outside Tara’s door, juggling pizza and soda – and collecting her wits. She still didn’t think she had them all. She was certain a few had rolled under her bed when all her assumptions about her neighbor had crashed to the ground 40 minutes ago.
She knocked lightly. As several moments passed, her trepidation grew. Unable to bear it any longer, she called out “Pizza delivery.”
The door swung open, hiding most of Tara from view.
“Hey.”
“Hey, J-Jo.”
Jo’s quick glance inside had located Tara’s lover. Willow was tucked in bed, covers pulled up to her chin. The clothing Tara had worn earlier was very much in evidence on the floor. “Here’s the pizza. Oh, and I got some sodas too. I wasn’t sure what kind but I figured Coke would work. It’s what I …. ”
“Hey. Coke’s good,” Willow confirmed.
“C-Come in,” Tara requested, opening the door more widely. “We wouldn’t want to have an accident with the pizza.”
Jo stepped within, bobbling the food in her nervousness. “Where should I put this?”
“Foot of the bed is f-fine.” Tara left the doorway. Jo was relieved that she at least had on the football jersey.
She let Tara take the soda cans and glanced around the room. Weird. She set the pizza down. “I … they didn’t leave any napkins.”
“I don’t think we’ll need any.” Willow reassured her with a lifted eyebrow.
“Uh, yeah, well…,” Jo floundered. “Here’s the change. I got myself a sub.”
Tara touched her hand gently. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” she replied, heading quickly for the door. “Say, I have studying to do. Should I go to the library?” Damn, why had she said that?
“N-No, I don’t think you’ll hear a thing.”
The door clicked shut.
by Triscuit7 » Fri Aug 16, 2002 12:49 pm 
WOW... Damn, I don't know how I'm going to concentrate now. I might just have to read that again tonight. 
) 
I gotta stop reading this stuff on my down time in the middle of the day. My clients wonder why I'm all flustered!! 
That was frickin hillarious. 
Very cool. I got kinda, um... peeved, is that the right word, when Jo made fun of Willow's hicky. That was very rude of Jo, but Tara didn't let her get away with it. 
