Author- Miss Kittys ball O Yarn
Disclaimer- we all know the drill..but I guess it must be said... I don't own anything even remotely related to Willow and Tara nor do I plan to get anything that resembles monetary gain for such creative musing. The great and powerful Joss owns all and I am not but a unimportant bug to be crushed. (now that that's been said...)
Summary- The starting point is simple, beginning innocently enough with a road trip between father and daughter. Let the seeds take root as we are brought forth into a journey of epic proportions. I dare not say more...
Rating- PG13 for now...cause with the main characters being too young for anything more that shy glances and feelings of smittenness....But prepare of a rating change within the next couple of updates...
Note: Okay kittens... sighing... yes I know that this little jaunt into creative oblivion will take my total count, in the category of unfinished works up to a grand total of three... But fret not... for...I've been working on this one for quite a while and it is completed already...I will be posting as I type what I've written into my computer. So Updates will be often....
Feedback? Please let me know what you think...cause I love feedback. I hope you enjoy.
Catching Sunflowers In BloomPart One: Thus begins the journeyWillow sat staring gloomily out the window of her parents black Lexis. This road-trip sure hadn't been her idea, It was her father's way of dealing with his guilt over the lack of time he had spent with her over the course of her life, she was sure.
As a last ditch effort at quality family time Mr. Rosenberg had packed up his fourteen year old daughter and insisted she join him on an adventurous jaunt into destinations unknown-- A joyous, cross-country road-trip that, to Willow's way of thinking, bordered on form of torture that she‘d read about in a history book once. She thought she recalled an excerpt in which ancient peoples would torture prisoners by taking them for long canoe rides down the Amazon River...okay...so that wasn't exactly what it had said, but it was close enough.
Willow's fifteenth birthday was to be a turning point. In a couple of years she would be in college, and his baby would be swallowed up in society's ravenous hunger to feed on the younger generation. At least that was what her father had said a few weeks ago, when he'd first started mentioning this trip.
They had been on the road since yesterday morning and already the heat of summer had effectively cut through the car's interior shield of air-conditioning, and was more than prepared to bake any part of Willow's skin that got near the heat of the glass window.
They drove across the desert, eastern bound, the destination still unknown, to Willow anyway. But her father seemed to know where he was going, which was probably a good thing, seeing how Willow really didn't want to be driving aimlessly around without an end point of some kind.
She had asked him about where they were going but he had refused to answer her, stating that the fun was in the getting there not in the destination itself. This didn't sit well with Willow, she'd much rather know before-hand. If she had to guess though she would say that they were probably heading to New York for her father’s business meeting.
Willow smirked at the thought. It would be just like her father to do something like that--drag her all the way out here only to end up sitting in a hotel room somewhere while her father went to meeting after meeting. The cell phone next to her on the seat began to ring. She picked it up and saw her mother's name light across the display screen.
Willow’s mother was another story all together. At least her father was making an effort; Sheila had simply refused to go with them, using the excuse that she had to be in Seattle for an important conference. Then again that hadn't been a big surprise to Willow, her mother was always gone on some business trip. It was a well known fact that Sheila Rosenberg preferred work to raising her child.
"It's Mom, Dad," Willow said, her voice reflecting no emotion to speak of.
"Let it ring...If she asks about it we'll just say we were out of range."
Willow's father chuckled at the thought of getting "one over" on Sheila Rosenberg.
"How about some music, kiddo?"
Ira glanced back at her through the rear-view mirror. Without waiting for an answer, he flipped the switch on the radio and some band from the decade before songs had actual lyrics began to play.
Mr. Rosenberg seemed to be enjoying himself and Willow didn't want to begrudge him his fun so she smiled and pretended to get into it, when in reality she wished she was back in California, in her room, with her computer. But all the pretending in the world wasn’t going to make her any more happy about being stuck out on this road trip with her father, and in a matter of minutes she was, once again, staring forlorn out the steaming window.
___________________________________________
Two days after their horrid journey began, Willow stood with her mouth agape in front of a decrepit looking building that even in its hay-day would have been considered a dilapidated, white-washed shack.
"What do you think, Kiddo?" Ira asked.
Willow looked over at her father, who stood happily looking up at what, in Willow's mind, had just morphed into a miniature Alcatraz prison, where trying to escape was completely pointless on account of the freezing cold waves.
She gave her father another look, but still he stood grinning, completely oblivious to his own daughter’s misgivings. Willow managed a few incomprehensible noises and that seemed to appease her father, because he picked up a couple of suitcases and headed for the paint-chipped stairs leading up to the front door.
_____________________________________________________
Eight hours, nine minutes and twenty-seven seconds later Willow found herself walking alone down a stereotypical dirt road, kicking a random stone with each step.
She looked down the long dusty road. As it turned out this "quality time with her father had been a bust. Instead of getting to spend her days wandering the streets of New York, or in a stuffy hotel room, her father had actually expected her to spend time with him.
She had been completely wrong about the business trip, instead she found herself in the middle of nowhere, somewhere... and in the foothills of Kansas, which seemed nearly impossible because as far as her knowledge went, Kansas was completely flat and didn't even have foothills. Yet here she was--foothills and all.
Willow sighed. looking around, she could see nothing for miles except for farmhouses peppering the landscape on the left and right side of her.
Other than the farmhouses, an occasional cow would look up from its dinner of grass, chew a couple times in her direction before returning to his previous engagement of eating more grass.
Willow definitely wasn't a country girl, not that she lived in a big city or anything, but she was certain that cows were supposed to do something more than eat and stare...In kindergarten they taught the children that cows say Moo, but Willow could see now that all that had been a complete fabrication. She'd seen at least thirty cows since she'd been there and not one of them said anything close to 'Moo'.
Other than the defective cows, there
was nothing else,
had been nothing else, and Willow was sure,
would be nothing else for the rest of her stay there.
The farmhouse Her father had rented a couple miles back the way she'd come didn‘t even have a television-- not that Willow ever watched that much television, but it sure beat standing around while her Father practiced his Golf swing for hours on end.
She had needed to get away for a little while, and that's the reason Willow presently stood alone, dust flying in sheets around her head , staring off into the distance and thinking on the whys and wherefores of public education. She walked over to the side of the road, leaned against the wooden fence that separated the road from yet another farm house and stuck her hands in her pockets.
Moments later she froze as she felt what appeared to be a nibble at the back of her neck. Something very large seemed to be breathing heavily through her hair and with each breath she could feel the moist nose of the thing nuzzling her.
Willow, finding her feet at last, bolted from the fence just as the nuzzles turned to a very wet snort in her ear. "Oh my god! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Willow said squealing. She turned around, and to her fright stood the most hideous beast imaginable.
Willow prepared to run, when the demon barred its large yellow teeth at her. The monster before her was quite formidable, and Willow had the sense that she stood no chance against such a creature, also, she was really scared...her legs were all wobbly...yes her best bet would be to run.
"A-are you alright?"
A blonde girl about her age came jogging up behind the beast, she wore a worried expression on her face. Willow momentarily forgot her fright when the girl spoke to her. The other girls voice was like creamy peanut butter. The real spread-able kind.
Coming back to her good senses Willow realized that the girl had asked her a question. And she thought she should answer her, instead of standing there puzzled by how anyone’s eyes could be blue-er than deep pools of water.
Willow patted her body just to make sure she still had all her parts before answering. "Yes...I’m okay..." She suddenly felt quite silly for being frightened, for what she thought had been a horrible beast upon closer inspection had turned out to be nothing more than a really scary horse.
The girl laughed. Clearly she was amused by Willow's actions. Willow returned the smile with one of her own when she watched the blonde offer an apple to the horse.
"This is my horse, Kaneeda" The blonde said patting the horse behind its pointed ears. "And my name's Tara..."
The girl climbed up onto the fence, and sat on the edge of it. She swung her feet over the railing and jumped onto the grass next to Willow. The blonde dusted her hands on her weathered jeans before offering her hand to Willow.
Taking Tara’s hand, shyly, Willow felt their palms touch. Then she was blushing, and had no idea why she was doing such a thing.
Willow was mesmerized for an instant by the sun shinning through Tara's hair, and then a loud sound pierced the moment and both girls seemed startled.
"Tara!"
A man called from the doorway of the house a good half a mile away. Willow couldn't really get a good look at him, but he appeared to be older. Willow saw Tara jump slightly as the man called her a second time.
This time Willow caught a seed of anger in his voice. She watched Tara back away and climb back over the fence. Willow wanted to ask the girl to stay, but it was apparent that Tara was going to leave.
"Y-you're not from h-here are you?" Tara asked jumping the rest of the way over the fence.
"Willow shook her head. "I’m staying at the-"
"At the old Nelsen farm house, r-right?"
"Right....how did you know?"
"Word gets around."
She had been beyond smitten the moment Tara smiled at her...it was this completely adorable half smile, that seemed to light up her whole face.
The girl started to run backward toward the sound of the angry man's voice but was still looking at her when she shouted, asking Willow what her name was. "Willow…," Willow called out, feeling her cheeks brightening even more. It was a good thing Tara was far enough away that she wouldn’t see her face burning. By that time she was sure it was an exact match with her red hair.
" Willow.... I'll see you later, okay?"
Willow only had time to nod her consent before Tara had turned around and was running full throttle toward the chipped, white two-story house. She stood there silently as she watched Tara disappear through the door and into that house.
She considered the fact that she too should head back, but something kept her feet from moving even an inch away from where she was. When her feet finally would move she found herself extremely confused as to what had just happened.
Blinking, she started the two mile walk back to the house her father had rented. The scenery was the same as before, only, this time Willow hand a slightly better attitude about the whole situation; which in turn caused the grass, cows, and endless miles of nothingness to seem suddenly exciting and new.
TBC
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The horse thing cracked me up...so Willow.
Hannah. 
I really don't know why it was so funny, but seriously it took me a while to settle down. 
thanks to all your wonderful responses, I have actually begun to type out the next part....you'll like it...it has everything a person could want... insomnia...daring escapes...and late night rendezvous..
Hopefully now that you've seen how much time and energy I put into trapping you, you'll stick around. huh? will ya? 
Can't he just leave Tara alone?! The Maclay men are seriously demented.
Anyways yes I am definately hooked and I absolutely loved this update! So cute with the sneakin out and then the climbin up the tree for her. 
soon. 
Maybe Kaneeda will come to the rescue and push them into each others lips or something (hey that Idea isn't half bad!) *Scurries off to type out the next update.*
I'll take your word for it. lol 
& 
-Cameron