Author: Tinna Karen
Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer belong to Fox, Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon. Some dialog has been borrowed from BtVS scripts.
Rating: PG13
Summary: Willow and Buffy start their freshman year at U.C. Sunnydale.
Notes: Set in an AU season 4. All you need to know is that there is no Oz. I have taken some serious liberty with the season 4 storyline. This won't be a story of season 4 where I integrate Tara sooner than the show did. This will be a semi-rewrite, where storylines from season 4 are up for grabs, but I won't be using all of them. Oh, and thanks to my fantabulous beta reader: hellyeahallday
Chapter 1: Roommates
So far, Willow's day had been a good one. Buffy had arrived at her house at 8 am, on time for once — which surprised Willow so much that she had actually asked "Buffy, what are you doing here?" — then they had loaded her neatly packed stuff in Joyce's jeep and set off for U.C. Sunnydale. The drive took less than 15 minutes.
They went to the housing office first and got their room assignments. They were happy they had been assigned rooms in the same dorm, Stevenson Hall, and only a floor apart. Hoping to have been assigned each other's roommate was too much to ask for, and they accepted that, gracefully. Buffy's room was on the second floor, Willow's on the third, so they decided to move Buffy in first. When they finished, around 10 am, Buffy's roommate still hadn't arrived, and Buffy wanted to wait and see if she'd show up soon, but they had no time to dawdle — Willow's words, to which Buffy replied: "You've been spending way too much time with Giles." — so they set their sights on the third floor.
"How did we miss that vamp last night?"
"I'm not sure, but I think American Pop Culture had something to do with it." Buffy said as she carried the three boxes towards Willow's dorm room.
"Oh, here...let me get the door for you Buff." Willow ran a few steps ahead and opened the door to her room.
"Thanks Will." Buffy grunted. "I'm glad that piece of paper you're holding isn't too heavy for you — someone had to open the door."
She stepped into the room and put the boxes on the empty bed, on the right side of the room. She sighed with relief, false relief, the boxes were no more than paperweight with her slayer strength. As she took in the sight of Willow's room she noticed that the other side of the room was almost barren, but not empty. The bed had been made, and few boxes were next to the bed and on the desk. "I guess you're roommate's already here. Have you met her yet?"
"Nope, especially on the account of this being my first time in this room and all."
"Oh, right."
"So, should we get the rest of my stuff?" Willow asked. She was leaning on the door, holding it open.
"Sure, where is Xander anyway? Why isn't he helping us?" Buffy asked as she made her way past Willow and through the door.
"He's still on his cross-country trip, said he'd be back in a couple of days."
Willow followed Buffy out of the room and they headed downstairs to the lobby. Students and parents were bustling about the whole building. A group of middle-aged men — fathers presumably — had congregated in the sitting area in the lobby, with a cold drink in their hand, taking a breather after having carried boxes and suitcases up flights of stairs. Mothers were helping their offspring decorate. You could hear exasperated 'Mom!' and indignant 'Oh don't take that tone with me' from almost every room. As Willow and Buffy reached the main entrance and stepped outside a girl carrying two boxes was nearing the entrance.
"Here, let me get the door for you." Willow offered, and held the door open for the girl.
"Oh, um, thank you." She responded, her face hidden behind the box.
"No problem." Willow watched the girl try to navigate towards the three steps leading to the door. As she got to the last step a student bumped into her causing the top box to topple off the bottom one. Buffy was the first one to react and caught the box before it crashed to the ground. "Got it."
"Um, thank you. Thank you so much." A blonde haired girl came into view when the box had fallen; she smiled at Buffy, appreciating the help.
"Sure, I mean, you're welcome. Let us help you with those boxes. Where are you heading?" Buffy asked, as she and Willow followed the girl into the dorm.
"Uhmm, 313."
"Hey Will, that's your room."
"It is?" Willow looked at the piece of paper still in her hand. And sure enough, in the top left corner, in the box under the word 'Room' it said 313. "Oh, yeah..." Willow looked up and turned towards her apparent roommate. "Hey roomie." She grinned.
The girl smiled shyly back at Willow. "Hey."
"Oh Buff, why don't you give me that box and you go get my suitcases?"
Buffy half-glared at Willow, "Since when did I become your personal servant Will?"
"Since sophomore year in high school." Willow grinned and picked up the box from Buffy's grasp.
"Right." Buffy mumbled and turned around.
Willow smiled as she watched her best friend jog out the door and towards her mom's jeep that was parked by the dorm entrance. She turned towards her new roommate. "So...I'm Willow by the way."
"Tara."
"Nice to meet you Tara."
"Nice to meet you too Willow. Oh, and um, thanks for, you know, helping." She nodded towards the box Willow was carrying.
"Again I say no problem. That's what friends are for right?" She started walking towards the main stairway that would lead them to the third floor. Tara followed. I wouldn't know.
***
"So that's everything, right Will?" Buffy asked. They had finished moving all of Willow's stuff inside, and even helped Tara with the rest of hers. Clothes had been hung up or placed in drawers, a bed had been made and a computer set up.
"Yup, I think so." Willow looked around her half of the room and nodded. Everything looked in order.
"So what do you wanna do now? I'm voting mochas first and foremost, then I'm open for suggestions."
"Definitely mochas. Ohh, and muffins." Willow bounced and clapped her hands.
"Alrighty." Willow looked at Buffy and nodded towards Tara, and Buffy nodded in the affirmative. Willow turned to Tara who was just finishing hanging up her shirts and sweaters. "Hey Tara?"
Tara turned away from her closet. "Um, yes?"
"Do you wanna come with us to the Espresso Pump for mochas?"
"Mochas?" Buffy and Willow nodded excitedly. "I've never had a mocha."
Willow's eyes widened. "Buffy!" She looked aghast. "She's never had a mocha. This is horrible. Unthinkable." Willow mock fanned herself. "I can't breathe." The slayer turned to Willow and placed both her arms on the redhead's shoulders.
"Will, breathe, don't panic. We can still salvage this." Buffy played along. She looked towards Tara. "Tara, I think it's for the good of Willow's health that you come with us." She looked back at Willow, who was paler than before. "Will, it's okay. Just keep breathing. I think we got her just in time, she can become a mocha addict yet." She let go of Willow's shoulders and turned her attention back to Tara.
"So what do you say Tara?"
"Um..." Tara giggled. "Sure, if it's um, in the best interest of, um Willow."
"Good. You ready?" Tara nodded. All she had to do was grab her jacket and her wallet.
"Will?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, I'm good." Willow said with a grin. She walked towards her door and held it open. Buffy walked out, then Tara, then finally Willow stepped out, and the door clicked shut.
"That was a, um quick recovery Willow." Tara grinned as they walked down the hallway.
"Uhhh..."
"So Tara," Buffy laughed and decided to come to her friends rescue. "What classes are you taking?"
***
"So now you know all about me and Willow here. How about telling us something about yourself?" Buffy asked. She and Tara were sitting side by side inside the booth at the Espresso Pump, and Willow was sitting opposite. They had already received their mochas, and Tara expressed her appreciation of the concoction with an exclamation of "Oh, wow, that's good." Willow and Buffy heartily agreed with a synchronized chorus of "Oh yeah."
Tara immediately ducked her head, obviously not comfortable with the sudden shift of attention.
"Um..." she mumbled.
"Let's start with something easy. Like, where you're from?" Buffy said.
"Alabama." Tara answered.
"Alabama? Really? That's so cool." Willow smiled at her roommate. "So do you say any southern um, words, like uh...howdy or y'all and stuff?" Willow inwardly groaned at her choice of words. Howdy and y'all? Geez Rosenberg, predictable much?
"Um, not really. But um, my mom, she used to say that I sometimes um, have a s-southern accent when I'm talking in my s-sleep."
Willow giggled and Tara ducked her head again, a lopsided smile on her face. That is so cute Willow thought. She's adorable.
"So I'm gonna be hearing 'howdy y'all, how 'bout them Yankees' at night?" Again, Willow groaned. Don't I know any other southern words?
"Um, p-possibly." Tara met Willow's eyes and they grinned at each other.
"That's so funny."
"Who are you to talk about funny Will? You talk in your sleep all the time." Buffy piped up. She had been enjoying herself so far, but Willow and Tara had been monopolizing the conversation and it was time for her to reintegrate.
"Oh, don't you dare Buffy!" Willow warned her friend.
"Will, she might as well hear about this now, instead of tonight...I think it's my duty to warn her. The tadpoles might scare her, you know." Buffy smirked mischievously at the redhead.
Willow shuddered at the mention of the tadpoles. Those damn icky, slimy, thingies...yuck.
"Um, am I missing something?" Tara asked. The banter between the two best friends was fun to watch. She hoped to experience that kind of friendship sometime as well. But Willow's visible shudder wasn't as amusing.
"Will?" Buffy asked for permission.
"Fine." Willow grumbled, and sunk low in her seat.
"See the thing is Tara..."
***
After a long first day at college Willow was finally winding down. She lay in her bed, with her laptop, exploring the university neighborhood with her very fast Ethernet connection. Her laptop rested partly on her thighs and partly on her stomach, her knees bent so she could see the keyboard better.
After the mochas and the muffins she had been downright hyper for the rest of the day — and classes hadn't even started — wearing even the slayer out in the end. But it had been a great day. She'd met Tara, who was just adorable in Willow's opinion. She was very shy, that's for sure, but witty. Sometimes Willow wasn't sure whether Tara was joking or not, she had incredible control over her emotions. Well, maybe emotions wasn't the right word, expression was probably better, because while she could say, deadpan, the weirdest things, her eyes gave her away. When she was joking her eyes would sort of twinkle, and she'd be able to maintain eye contact, but when she was serious she'd eventually glance away, like she was almost embarrassed by her admission.
The door to the room opened and Tara stepped in. She closed the door behind her, and turned the lock. She tossed her toiletries bag on her desk and made her way over to her bed. She crawled under the covers and lay down on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She couldn't stop the smile from appearing; this had been one of the best days of her life.
She had been scared and excited at the same time coming here. Excited to escape from her so-called family, escape from that room, but scared all the same. Scared it wouldn't be any better, scared she wouldn't make any friends, and scared they'd find her before she got here. But she had been scared for no reason apparently. They hadn't found her; she had made it across the country, to Sunnydale California and it was better than she could have ever imagined. She wasn't sure if she'd made a friend yet, acquaintances — yes, but friends? Tara turned on her side and looked over at Willow. I'm working on it.
Willow could feel Tara's eyes on her so she glanced over. "Hey, tired?"
"A little." The blonde answered, yawning as she said this.
Willow giggled. "Wanna go to sleep?"
"Um, no, I'm okay. Unless, you are then, um, okay." Tara smiled.
"I'm still kinda wired so I was gonna watch a movie, wanna watch with me?"
"Um, Willow," Tara looked around the room, "we don't have a TV in here."
"No, I mean..." Willow giggled as she closed her laptop and got out of bed. "I know we don't have a TV but," she walked over the room to Tara's bed, "we can watch it on my PowerBook."
Tara raised one eyebrow. "PowerBook?"
"My computer."
"Ohh..." Tara got it, yet she didn't. You can watch movies on computer's these days? She wasn't a big computer wiz. But apparently Willow was.
"Yeah, so you wanna?"
"Sure."
"Well, then scoot over roomie."
Tara did so and Willow handed her the laptop while she crawled under the covers. She grabbed the laptop from Tara and opened it up.
"I have a few movies on my hard drive, but I was browsing the servers on campus and there's a lot of stuff on there. Here..." She clicked on a few keys on the keyboard, a shortcut combination she had created, and her movie folder opened up. She double clicked the file called Movie Lists and a document with a long list of movies opened up. "I've sorted the movies by genres and then alphabetically. What are you in the mood for."
"Um, something non-horror-y."
"Okay, no slash...well that narrows the list down considerably." Willow giggled, "Most of these come from Xander."
"Xander?"
"Oh, he's my best friend since kindergarten, and also a big horror movie fan."
"Oh, okay...well, let's see." Tara scanned over the list. There was a list where the genre said 'unknown'. She recognized few of the titles, some she'd seen, some not...ooh. Fucking Åmål, I've always wanted to see that one.
"Um, Willow, can we watch this one, um Fucking Åmål?" Tara asked as she pointed to the name of the movie on the screen.
Fucking what? Willow's eyes widened. Fucking Åmål was one of the titles she hadn't recognized when ordering the list, and she had assumed it was... "Um, Tara...I'm not really, um, into, you know...porn."
Tara looked at Willow, an unrecognizable expression on her face, and then she burst out laughing.
"Oh my stars, Will..." she guffawed.
Willow watched Tara trying to stop laughing and almost succeeding but then the laughter bubbled up again. Adorable. Willow thought.
"I said something funny?" Willow asked. Tara had managed to control her laughter, but few giggles escaped.
"Fucking Åmål isn't, um, p-porn Willow, it's a Swedish movie, about two girls in high school, who, um, fall in love."
"Swedish — two girls in high school...are you sure it isn't porn?" Tara just rolled her eyes and Willow giggled. "Okay, so not porn, my mistake. But the title is kinda, you know, sketchy?"
"Yes, I think they renamed it to Show Me Love when it came out here."
"They went from Fucking...something, to Show Me Love?"
"Åmål, and yes."
"Okay..."
Willow opened up her network neighborhood and connected to the server who had the movie Tara had chosen. It only took a minute to download it to Willow's computer and soon it was playing. It had subtitles, to both Willow and Tara's relief — neither one of them verse in Swedish — and they snuggled down and got comfortable for the rest of the night.
***
Buffy stood in the middle of the quad and turned around in circles. She was completely disoriented, which was ironic given the fact that it was orientation day. She had remembered to bring her folder she had gotten from housing yesterday. It was yellow, and included supposedly valuable information; like a map of campus, where to go to take your math and foreign language placement tests, and where to register for classes if you hadn't already done so. And yet, Buffy spun in circles.
On the other side of campus, at Weisman Hall, Willow and Tara had just gotten their ID cards and were heading over to the Math and Science Building, a.k.a. Bear Hall to register for their classes. When they walked out of Weisman they noticed the long line of students waiting for their ID card.
"Wow, we just missed the line." Willow said. They had gotten there early and only a handful of students were waiting when they arrived, so they didn't have to wait long, now however, the line wrapped around the entire building. And it wasn't a small building.
"Yeah, I think, um, your colorful schedule will really come in handy, um, today." Tara said, and bumped into Willow's shoulder playfully.
"Hey! No mocking the schedule. By the end of the day, you will be worshipping said schedule."
They entered Bear Hall and went their separate ways, promising to meet each other outside the building when they were finished. Tara entered the room with the K-O sign above, and Willow went to the one where it said P-T.
***
Buffy had finished registering for her classes and was heading over to Weisman to get her ID when she saw Willow and Tara walking towards her.
"Buffy, hey!" Willow skipped over to her, Tara following at a more sedated pace.
"Will, Tara. Boy, am I glad to see you."
"Hi, Buffy."
"Isn't this great Buffy? There's so much going on." Willow enthused, bouncing on her feet with excitement.
"It is...something alright."
"I got all my courses, except for 'Modern Poetry', I had to switch to 'Ethno-musicology.' But that's cool, West African drumming; I think it's going to change everything. Oh, and Tara's taking psych with us."
"Great...I see you guys got ticketed as well." Buffy said, indicating the different colored flyers Willow and Tara were holding.
"Yes! I've heard about five different issues and I'm angry about each and every one of them." Willow frowned playfully. "What'd you get?"
"Jello shots."
"I didn't get 'Jello shots!'" Willow pouted and turned to Tara, "Tara, why didn't we get 'jello shots'?" Tara shrugged. The redhead turned back to Buffy and handed her a flier from her pile. "I'll trade you for a... 'Take Back the Night.'"
Buffy let her have all of her fliers with a smile.
"Yay!" Willow jumped. Tara and Buffy shared a smile. Willow was like an adorable, bouncy puppy.
"Are we heading anywhere near Weisman Hall? I still need to get my I.D. card." Buffy asked.
"Oh, we got ours this morning. The lines are really long now, you should have gone early." Willow stated.
"Yes, um, Willow made a s-schedule." Tara added.
***
It was nighttime in Sunnydale. A seasoned citizen would know better than to be out after dark, but this was the U.C. Sunnydale campus — freshmen were all over the place. It was like a feeding ground for vampires, and for that reason Buffy patrolled.
"How am I supposed to patrol here Will? Don't these people have homes to go to?"
"Uh, Buff. We're on campus...this pretty much is their home."
"Smartass."
Buffy and Willow navigated through the throngs of students that populated the narrow walkways at campus. It was the night of orientation and the craziness from this morning had not yet abated. The lines of freshmen waiting to get their ID cards earlier that day had only shifted to a new venue. Now they were waiting to get into the auditorium for the 'Welcome Freshmen' concert.
"Is Tara going to the concert?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, I'm meeting her there in..." Willow checked her watch, "45 minutes. The concert doesn't start for another hour or so, right now they just have this cheesy 'Welcome Freshmen' stuff."
"Will, I gotta tell ya, you completely lucked out on roommates. Tara's great."
"I know — she's amazing..." A bright smile lit Willow's face. Buffy waited if any further information was forthcoming, but when Willow had smiled dreamily for nearly a whole minute, Buffy spoke. "My roommate on the other hand is a complete psychopath — as far as I can tell."
"What makes you say that? I thought you said Kathy was alright." Willow asked. She distinctly remembered Buffy saying those exact words. ("Met your roommate yet?" —"Uh-huh. She's alright.")
"I was wrong." Willow chuckled and raised an eyebrow at Buffy. She shook her head at the redhead. "Don't ask." Willow waited. "Okay, so do you know what she did last night? All night?" Willow shook her head. "Listened to Cher."
"Oh, really?"
"I'm serious Will. All freakin' night — and it was the same stupid song too...all night."
"Well, maybe she's just a big fan?"
"Being a fan is one thing, being a psycho lunatic is a whole other card game."
"Ball game."
"Whatever."
Willow and Buffy headed away from the auditorium to the less populated areas; Buffy was convinced that the vamps and demons would hide there in the bushes for lost freshmen trying to find their way. A rustling noise caught Buffy's attention.
"Did you hear that Will?"
Willow looked from left to right, and, like a well-trained Scoobie, behind her. She didn't hear anything.
"I'm chewing my gum pretty loud."
"Something else."
"My sneakers are squeaky."
"Will, I'm going for something lurk-y."
Willow stopped and listened for a few seconds..."Sorry, no."
Buffy sighed. "Where are all the vamps?"
"Maybe they found out you were coming here and decided to stay away?"
Buffy pouted. "But...Hello, slayer here...it's like their mission statement to kill me. I am so not down with this avoidance-y."
"Who said anything about avoidance?"
Buffy and Willow whipped their head towards the sound of the voice. A blonde haired vampire, dressed in black from head to toe, and four lackeys stood on the other side of the bushes, which separated them from the Buffy and Willow.
"Shit," Buffy whispered.
"And you thought they were avoiding you..." Willow whispered back.
"Will, on my word, run. There's too many of them for just the two of us. I'll try to stall them."
"Okay." Willow breathed.
"So..." Buffy turned her attention to the blonde leader, "you go here? I thought this was a dead-free zone?" Willow started walking slowly backwards towards the auditorium.
"Slayer, I heard you went here. Won't do you much good though, seeing as you'll be dead in 5 seconds."
"You're not the first one to make me that offer, and you won't be the last."
"You sure about that?"
"Will, go!" Buffy said, right before she jumped over the bushes. Willow turned around and ran as fast as she could towards the crowd of students up ahead.
One of the lackeys started to chase after Willow but Buffy caught him with a low sweep, sending him face first into the ground. She quickly staked him and got up facing the other four vampires.
"Nice move." The leader said, then she charged Buffy. They traded kicks and blows, Buffy being on the receiving end more often than not. She got the upper hand at one point and managed to drive the vampire down to the ground, but a stake-break never came, and the blonde fought back — effectively. After the vampire managed to dislocate Buffy's shoulder, the slayer accepted her defeat and ran.
***
Buffy had been in a major funk after her defeat against the vampire gang. And it only got worse after they cleaned out her dorm room, taking all of her stuff, and planting a fake note saying that Buffy had moved out, not being able to handle the pressures of college life. Buffy had gone to the Bronze to drown her sorrows, only to meet up with Xander, who convinced her to snap out of it, and go kick some demon ass. With the help of Willow and Xander she cleaned out the nest, and got almost all of her stuff back.
***
"Oh my god Tara, you would not believe this girl." Buffy complained. After ordering their mochas that first day (Buffy and Willow staring in rapt attention as Tara took her first sip, and almost high-five-ing each other at the smile that lit up Tara's face afterwards) Buffy, Willow and Tara had made it their daily tradition to come to the Espresso Pump — in actuality, it already was a daily tradition for Buffy and Willow but they warmly welcomed Tara into their fold.
Now four days into their first semester at U.C. Sunnydale, Buffy was telling Tara all about her roommate Kathy, with Willow giving the affirmative nods now and then to support her friend's story, and the occasional "It's true" when Tara needed something more than a nod to believe the anecdotes about Kathy's antics.
"Seriously, she labeled every single item of hers in the fridge...every egg included. She'd already labeled the box, but oh no, that wasn't enough. She had to label every egg as well." Buffy paused to take a sip of her double-mint, extra foam mocha. "I told you about the pencil's right?"
"Yes, you did. And although I agree that um, sharpening ones pencils and using a ruler to make sure each pencil is the same length is slightly um, obsessive..." Tara said.
"Just slightly?" Buffy interrupted.
Tara giggled, "however, there are some um, pen obsessions that are..." she glanced over at Willow, "very cute."
"Oh, you mean Willow's system of different colored pens?" At Tara's nod, Buffy said, "Yeah, you're right, it's completely insane."
"Hey!" Willow protested.
"I'd say quirky." Tara smiled at Willow who smiled brightly back, then turned to Buffy and stuck her tongue out at her. "Ha! If Tara says it's quirky, it's quirky, not insane."
"And Tara is an authority of quirky versus insane?" Buffy questioned.
"Well yeah, she has to live with me after all." Willow giggled, soon followed by Buffy and Tara.
***
"That's all you're having?" Willow asked. She looked down at her tray — it was stacked with food, Tara's tray, however, was only holding a bowl of soup, a biscuit and a glass of water.
"Yeah, I'm um, not very hungry."
They made their way to an empty table in the dining hall. It was still rather early, 5:30 pm, and with the dining hall being open till 7:30, not many students had arrived. Willow and Tara preferred being early rather than late. The food was still hot rather than lukewarm and there were more choices available.
They found a table by the windows, the sun casting a warm glow over the area.
"You know," Willow said as she sat down, "Buffy met this cute guy earlier today and he advised her to take advantage of the food system here."
"What do you mean?"
"Um, well, he said to stack your tray with as much food as you can possibly get away with — what you don't eat can serve as a nice snack later that night, or even breakfast the next morning. That way you save your meal plan — make it last all semester."
"Oh, I see what you're, um saying. So I should go back and get some, um apples and yogurt — stuff like that, and just put it in my bag."
"Exactly. Oh, could you get some bananas too?" Willow grinned.
"Sure." Tara giggled, and got up from her seat.
She returned a minute later with assortment of fruits and yogurts, and even some cookies.
"Oh, cookies...good choice."
"I thought you'd like it."
They ate their meal without a hurry, enjoying each other company. Despite the mountain of food on Willow's plate, she still went back in and got some more. Maybe the reason being she'd only taken a bite out of this and that — never actually finishing a whole dish. She came back with a big bowl of frozen yogurt and chocolate fudge. She even produced a second spoon for Tara, who accepted with a smile, and they dug in.
"Oh, yumm..." Willow said, her mouth full of frozen yogurt. "You know, for a dining hall dessert, this ain't so bad." Tara looked up at her friend and giggled.
"Um, you've got a little fudge right..." she pointed at the side of her mouth "there."
Willow blushed and licked her lips and the sides of her mouth. "Did I get it?"
"No, um..." Tara leaned over the table and wiped the fudge off with her index and middle finger. "There, all gone." To her own surprise she sucked the fudge of her fingers. Willow's eyes widened at the display and again she blushed.
"Uh..." Willow started, but finding herself to be speechless — a rare occurrence in her life — she grabbed another spoonful of frozen yogurt. They finished the yogurt in silence, stealing glances here and there. When it was all gone, Willow found her voice again. "So, ready to go?" Tara nodded and put the fruits and the cups of yogurt she'd grabbed earlier in her bag. She got up and picked up her tray and then left the table. Willow grabbed her tray as well and followed Tara to the conveyor belt. They dropped their trays on the belt, watching them disappear under an opening in the wall, leading towards the dining hall kitchen.
They exited the building and started walking side by side towards Stevenson Hall. It was a nice night, and the sun was still up, so there was no need to hurry inside. They took their time strolling along the path leading to the dorms.
"What's your family like?" Willow piped up.
Tara winced, and she hoped Willow hadn't noticed. "They're um, t-they're okay, I guess."
"Touchy subject, eh?"
You have no idea. Tara thought. "Yeah, a little. You?"
"I'd rather just forget about them sometimes if I could, you know?"
Tara nodded. "So should we, um, should we just agree n-not to talk about them for now?"
"Okay Tara, but..." Willow slowly took hold of Tara's hand and interlaced their fingers, "if you ever want to talk about it, you know, with me, you can." Tara looked down at their interlaced fingers, a lopsided smile on her face. She squeezed Willow's hand gently. "I will."
***
"Hey Tara, are you doing anything after class?" Willow asked as Tara came into the room. She had just finished getting dressed this morning when she remembered that she had promised to meet Buffy after class so she could help her with her psych assignment 'which is due today' Willow thought and shook her head, but she had also signed up for the Wicca group whose first meeting was today, right after class. "Not to say you never not have anything to do after class. I mean, not that you're not a very social um...but I, uh...well are you doing something after class?"
Tara rolled her eyes at her roommate and smiled. Sometimes Willow would just keep going, even though there was no need for it. It was very cute.
"Actually, yes I am. I have a, um, meeting, but it should only take about an hour or so. Why?" Tara grabbed her book bag and slung it over her shoulders. Willow did the same and they walked out the door.
"Oh, it's nothing." Willow said as they walked down the hallway towards the stairs. "I just remembered I promised Buffy to help her with our psych homework, but I have to be somewhere after class, which only takes an hour too, I should be free at 4, but Buffy has that class at 4 and the assignment has to be in before 5 o'clock. And I was just wondering if you had time to help her, but I guess not."
Tara opened the entrance door and they stepped outside into the sun. It was a good day — weather wise, but then again, most Sunnydale days were good in that respect. They headed towards Bear Hall.
"And yeah, I realize she's had three days to work on it, but she's been busy with p-" Willow stopped. Not ready to go there yet. "Well, you know how her stuff got stolen two days ago?"
Tara nodded. "Well, apparently her notebook wasn't among the things found. So no helpful notes for the sl-" Hello, secret identity Willow. Spill much? "Um, for Buffy."
"Oh."
"Yeah..."
"I'm sorry I can't help her, but she can have my notes after class — the assignment isn't very hard, I'm sure she can do it within the hour."
"Hey, that's a good idea. With our notes she'll no doubt finish the assignment in time, and if not...she can always ask the T.A. for help."
"Yeah, Riley's a nice guy, if she asks he'll definitely help her."
"You know Riley?"
"Oh, um, yeah, I've seen him around campus a few times. And we've talked then."
"Oh, neat."
When they got to the entrance of Bear Hall Willow held the door open for Tara. She smiled, appreciating the gesture. "So what's this meeting you're going to?"
"Oh, it's um, just some art stuff. You?"
"Computer stuff."
They stood there, avoiding eye contact for a moment — neither one comfortable with lying to one another.
"Well, this is me," Willow pointed towards her classroom, "Calculus."
"Yeah, I know. I'm upstairs. Trig."
"Yeah, I know." They giggled. Then Willow started walking towards her classroom and Tara watched her go. "See ya later, Tara."
"Bye Willow."
***
Three o'clock rolled around and Willow was already sat in of the chairs where the Wicca group met. The president of the group, Carol, was going to say a prayer to the goddess, and then the meeting would start.
"We come together, daughters of Gaia..."
A late arrival managed to sneak quietly and take a seat on the floor without disturbing Carol. No one noticed except Willow. The rest of the Wicca group had closed their eyes but Willow had sneaked a peak after the first syllable. When she saw the familiar blonde sit down at the floor she was shocked, and thrilled at the same time. Tara.
Tara looked around the group. She started on the girl to her left and worked her way to her right. She didn't recognize anyone, except... Willow. Tara's eyes widened as she locked eyes with Willow. At first they just stared at each other, motionless, but then a slow smile crept up on Willow's face, and an answering grin from Tara. They knew. Pretty soon they were smiling goofily at each other.
Carol finished the prayer and started the meeting.
***
Willow and Tara walked silently to their room after the Wicca group. They kept stealing glances at each other, but never making eye contact. As they reached their door, Willow was the first one to grab her key so she opened the door and held it open for Tara. She watched the blonde walk in and sit down on her bed. They stared at each other for a moment, before Willow stepped into the room and closed the door.
The redhead kicked off her sneakers and tossed her jacket on her bed. She made her way over to Tara and pointed to her bed. "Do you mind?" Tara shook her head so Willow climbed onto Tara's bed and sat Indian style, gazing at the blonde. Tara felt Willow looking at her, so she turned to face the redhead, tugging one leg in front of her, leaving the other by the edge of the bed, touching the floor.
"So..." Willow started.
"So..." Tara echoed.
"You're a witch." They said at the same time. Willow giggled and Tara ducked her head down, hiding behind her hair, as she smiled shyly.
"Hey," Willow reached out and lifted Tara's chin up so they made eye contact again. "You have a beautiful smile Tara, don't hide it."
"I'm just..." Tara sighed. "What?" The redhead asked.
"I'm not, um used to...all of this." Tara whispered. Willow scooted closer to the blonde.
"What do you mean Tara?"
"I'm not used to having a friend, or someone saying I have a beautiful smile...or someone knowing I'm a witch, and not um, running the other way." Tara giggled self-consciously.
"Well, I'm your friend, so you better get used to that." Tara barely nodded but Willow caught it so she continued. "And I also think you have the most beautiful smile I've ever seen, so get used to me saying that a lot." Tara smiled — she couldn't help it. "And I'll never run away from you Tara." The blonde let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Willow had truly become her friend. "Thank you Willow," she whispered.
Willow smiled at Tara, but when she noticed Tara's eyes glistening with unshed tears she became worried. "Hey," she cupped the blonde's cheek and wiped away a single tear that had managed to escape. "Are you okay Tara?"
Tara nodded. "I'm just...um, happy, I guess." She sniffled and brought up her hand to dry her eyes.
"Tara?" The blonde looked up at Willow. "Um, hug?" Willow offered. Tara smiled shyly and nodded again. Willow scooted even closer and wrapped her arms around her friend. Tara slowly brought her hands up around Willow and reciprocated the hug. They stayed like that for a long while but then a sharp knock on the door, and the door being opened brought them out of their reverie.
Buffy walked in with a determined look on her face. "Will, I've figured it out."
"You have?" Willow had a confused look on her face. What was there to figure out?
"I have. Kathy is evil and she must be stopped." Willow rolled her eyes. Oh, Kathy.
"I'm going to have to kill her."
***
"Buffy, wait up."
After Buffy had so abruptly left after announcing her plan to kill Kathy, Tara and Willow had stared at each other, eyes widened, until Willow had finally scrambled out of bed, yelling "I'll be right back" before following Buffy out of the room.
Buffy turned around at the sound of Willow's voice, and waited while the redhead caught up with her.
"Um...hi!" Willow started, then "Are you insane?"
"Will, she's evil. And I have proof. Check this out." She opened the front pocket of her book bag and pulled out a plastic bag. Willow stared at it before commenting. "Toenail clippings?"
"Evil toenail clippings." Buffy stated. "She cut them last night and I collected them while she was in the bathroom — she thought I was sleeping — anyway, I measured them before I went to bed and again this morning and they grew Will. That's totally a demon thing."
"Okay...well, will you at least talk to Giles before you do anything rash?"
"Of course, I'm not stupid."
So you say. Willow thought, out loud she said, "Great." And then she watched Buffy walk away from her down the hallway and disappear around the corner. Willow turned on her heal and ran to her room. Without saying anything to Tara she picked up the phone and called Giles.
"Giles, it's me...Buffy is on her way and she's gone a little, um...insane."
She listened to what Giles had to say. "Right, okay bye." Then she hung up.
***
As it turned out, Buffy was right. Kathy was a demon, who had escaped from her overbearing father in another dimension to come to Earth to go to college. She needed a soul to hide from her father so she had been secretly performing a ritual every night to suck parts of Buffy's soul into her, almost succeeding. Only Willow and Giles performing a spell at the nick of time stopped the ritual from completion. Buffy and Kathy had fought, wrecking the room in the process, until Kathy's father had shimmered into existence in their room and had taken his daughter home with him through a dimensional portal.
"Obsessive-compulsive schizophrenic?" Tara asked. She was lying on her bed, on her stomach, having been in the middle of writing a paper when Willow came in, sat down on the bed next to her and told her about what had happened with Kathy.
"Yup, turns out she'd escaped from some, um, mental hospital and disguised herself as Buffy's roommate. Pretty scary stuff." Willow said. She was lying through her teeth, and hating every minute of it. But Tara still didn't know of the dangers that lurked in Sunnydale, and while not telling her might be dangerous as well, Willow wanted to shield Tara for as long as she could from the very real nightmares the knowledge of vampires and demons brought to the surface.
"Wow, Buffy must be freaked?"
"Totally — and when they, um, the people from the hospital, came to pick her up, Kathy kinda went nuts-o and wrecked the place."
"Not so good." Tara surmised.
Willow giggled. "No, not so good, so I'm gonna go help Buffy fix up the place. Wanna come?" She stood up and walked backwards to the door, keeping her eye on Tara.
"Oh, um, I'd love to help, but I have s-some homework I need to finish?"
"Oh, of course...school comes first I always say — and that's really lame — anyway, it's not a problem. I'll see ya later then?" Willow opened the door.
"Okay, oh and, um tell Buffy I'm sorry."
"Ah, sorry, schmorry...there's nothing to be sorry about. Later." Willow grinned, and closed the door.
"Bye Willow."
***
"Buffy, I'm sorry I didn't believe you, you know, about Kathy." Willow said. She was sitting on the empty bed in Buffy's room. Buffy was trying to fix the shelves that had been smashed in her fight against Kathy. "It's okay Will. It was understandable. Even I didn't pick up on her demon-y ways, well, not immediately. But there was always this small tingling, you know..." Buffy scratched the back of her head, "like right here," she pointed at the place she had been scratching, "but my spider sense didn't kick in until the 27th time of listening to 'Believe' ... then I knew she was the spawn of Satan."
"Yeah, well I'm still sorry, Xander and Giles are too. We feel terrible." Willow stood up and walked over to Buffy and helped holding up a piece of board while Buffy screwed one end to the wall fastenings.
"Anything we can do to make it up to you? Just name it."
"Well, you could move in." Buffy grinned at Willow but when an answering grin wasn't forthcoming — an apologetic look instead, she frowned. "Oh."
"It's not that I don't want to room with you Buffy, really, I would love that, it's just that well..." Willow started to turn around — she needed to pace. She let go of the board she was holding, but immediately regretted it when Buffy yelled, "Will!" But it was too late, the board crashed down and landed on Buffy's feet.
"Ow!" Buffy pouted.
"Oops!" Willow giggled.
"It's not funny."
"Yes, it is." Willow bent down and picked up the board and held it in place for Buffy again. The board was chipped where it had broken off from the fastening, but still usable.
"It's because of Tara isn't?"
"Um, well...yes." Willow hesitated.
"You like her?" It sounded more like a statement, than a question.
"Of course I like her, she's a wonderful person." Willow said matter-of-factly.
"No I mean..." Off Willow's confused look, Buffy relented, "never mind. So you wanna keep rooming with Tara?"
"Yeah...yeah, I do." Buffy finished screwing one end of the shelf, and moved to the other, so Willow let go. She moved out of the way and sat down on the bed again. "We had a really good talk last night, and I sort of promised her I'd never leave her, and I don't want to either."
Willow sat in silence while Buffy finished with the shelf but then she sat down opposite Willow. "What do you mean you promised her?"
Willow was quiet for a moment while gathering her thoughts. A slow smile spread over her face. "She has the cutest smile, you know." Buffy nodded. "And she was ducking her head — hiding — in that cute way she does when she gets shy or embarrassed, and I was like 'Hey, don't hide, you have a beautiful smile,' and she said it was because she's not used to all of this, and when I asked what this was she said having a friend, someone telling her she had a beautiful smile, and not running away when they found out she was a witch...Wait, I told you she was a witch right?" Again Buffy nodded. "Oh good, well, after she said all of those things I just kept thinking 'How on earth is that possible?' Anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend, and hello! She has the cutest smile ever, how can you not comment on it?" Willow sighed. "I think she's been really lonely Buffy and I'm afraid that if I do move in with you, she'll draw away from us, and I don't want that. I want to be her friend."
***
Willow walked back up to her room and opened the door. Tara was lying on her bed reading a book. "Hey." Willow kicked of her sneakers, and they landed with a 'thud' next to her closet. "H-hi Willow." Tara sat up and placed the book on her nightstand. "Do you, um, n-need any help with packing?"
"Why? Am I going somewhere?"
"Oh, I just figured you'd be moving in with Buffy."
"And leave this heaven? Now why would I wanna do that Tara?" Willow made her way over to Tara's bed. "Scoot over." Tara complied and Willow lay down next to her. They stared at the ceiling for a moment.
"So you're not leaving?"
"Nope."
"You're staying here?"
"Yup."
"Good."
--------------------------
Tinna Karen
-tölvunörd í fyrsta ættlið
That was hilarious! Buffy figuring out that Willow loves Tara before Willow does? That's kind of cool. But oh man, did I laugh... don't really know why, but this is funny! 
at: 2/4/04 7:38 pm
You sneaky little minx, you're gonna make us wait to learn what she's feeling, aren't you? 
). That just means more update-y goodness! 
Let's hear it for long, descriptive and well-written updates! 
