Okay, Kittens, time for another fic challenge! I was going to wait a bit longer, but people have been pestering me. So here it is. (BTW, the previous fic challenge is still open! So if you want to write a fic about baby pools full of Jello and power tools, go right ahead...just post it to the other thread.)

The required elements for this fic challenge are as follows:

1. Smut is optional -- any rating will be fine.[br]
2. You must use the titles from at least FOUR of JustSkipIt's fics -- any 4 of your choice (completed or WIP are up for grabs). Please make sure that the titles are bold in your text so that they stand out. If you use Please: The Series you need to use the full title (that's why it's called a "challenge" people ).[br]
3. Willow and Tara must switch places for at least one day. This can be from magical means (ala Buffy and Faith's switch in "Who Are You?") or intentional. NOTE: If you choose to include smut in your fic, and you choose to have W and T switch places by magical means, the smut may NOT happen while they are switched. Smut in their own bodies, please.[br]
4. Willow and Tara must use cell phones to have a conference call with another Scooby.[br]
5. Willow and Tara must have a conflict that only Buffy can resolve. This conflict can be between themselves (W & T) or come from an outside source.[br]
6. The fic must be completed in one posting -- it can be as long as you wish/need it to be, but you must have it done with one posting.

That's pretty much it, Kittens. Again, this is meant to be fun -- light and fluffy is the goal. There should be minimal to no angst. (I realize you might need a little angst considering the elements listed above, but it should really be kept to a minimum if possible.)

If you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to contact me.

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Wow, wow, wow! I'm shocked and amazed and humbled by being included in the fic challenge. How cool and thank you. My only suggestion would be to add "Please: the Series" as an optional or to use in the place of one completed title. This because that fic will never be finished.

Anyway, I'm stoked. Now I feel like I must come up with something. Thanks again.

_________________
Menorah Tales | Working It Out | Random Bits

Debra, that's because you're ELVIS! Or, an Elvis anyway.

Car, can we use Please or does it have to be Please: the Series. Additionally can we use Shadow and Sunlight because it's also completed? I wasn't being silly when I said I spent the whole day thinking about the challenge and I'm still finding it hard to come up with a good entry.

_________________
quiet thoughts

Please note that I have edited the original challenge message and have made some changes (due to popular request).

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Carleen, and my fellow Smutaholics,
This week will see not only the end of the Republic and the rise of Darth Vader but also my first foray into providing the world with my own Willow/Tara variation given the parameters of the challenge.
I'll give you the title as a taste of things to cum:
Willow, Tit Willow, Tit Willow
Blayne aka Taralicious aka Agent Brer Rabbit

_________________
I can deny chicks in chainmail nothing.
Amberhol-from the land of sky blue waters.
No Mere Music Hall, This my novel available directly from rosestindog@gmail.com.

This is tough. Did I mention this is tough?

I know, I know, not a challenge unless it's tough.

*going back to write some more*

_________________
quiet thoughts

Gee... What about the titles to fics that only exist in my computer hard drive and my twisted imagination?

_________________
Menorah Tales | Working It Out | Random Bits

Well, Debra, if people can figure out those titles, then I say more power to them!

BTW, you're a NUT! I LOVE it!

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Okay, I had the whole bloody story typed up here and ready to post but the board decided to log me out and lose the entire post instead so i'll have to wait and try to post the story again over the weekend or early next week.
That's the benefit of writing things out longhand before posting them is there's a record to fall back on.

_________________
I can deny chicks in chainmail nothing.
Amberhol-from the land of sky blue waters.
No Mere Music Hall, This my novel available directly from rosestindog@gmail.com.

Out of the requirements I think the trickiest was using the names of four of Debra's stories. To be honest, I was tempted to have Willow find a website full of stories about her and Tara, and to read out some of the titles but I decided that probably wasn't in keeping with the spirit of the challenge.

Title: Wacky Wednesday
Author: Justin
Rating: PG
Summary: Willow and Tara switch bodies, wackiness ensues
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, unfortunately
Disclaimer 2: Any similarity between this story and any films with similar names are purely coincidental. Coincidental I say! *shakes fist*

Wacky Wednesday

Willow woke up with a sore head and her throat feeling rough. She hadn't slept at all well last night and she knew why. It was all due to a stupid argument that she'd had with Tara the night before. For a moment she thought about waking Tara up to discuss it, but decided it'd be better to wait till she was a bit more awake. Swinging her legs out of bed Willow threw her robe on, wondering for a moment why it didn't fit, then walked into the bathroom.

Willow couldn't help gasping as she saw herself in the mirror.

Willow closed her eyes a few moments then reopened them.

The reflection remained the same.

Willow closed her eyes and rubbed them.

The reflection still refused to change.

“Okay,” Willow thought, “I was sure that I was Willow, but it seems that I'm actually Tara.” Willow reached up to touch her face, “Or maybe we've switched bodies, but how did that happen?”

Willow went back into the bedroom saying, “Uh Tara, I mean Willow,” Willow shook her head, “I mean Tara.”

***

Tara woke up to hear Willow calling her, except there was something wrong with her voice. Sitting up Tara found herself staring at herself. “Willow, what's going on?”

Willow sat down on the bed next to Tara and took her hands, “I don't know. I just woke up with a severe case of being you.”

"So what are we going to do?" Tara asked.

"I don't know. I guess the first thing to do is figure out what caused this."

"So we call the others round for some research."

Willow nodded, then smiling she suggested, "Or we could just try that never realm spell."

"I think research first."

“Oh, but...” Then smiling Willow said, “we should ask Buffy to come round here.” Seeing that Tara didn't understand she said, “I've got an idea.”

Willow explained her idea.

“She won't fall for it.”

“She will, Buffy isn't all that observant.”

“Okay,” Tara said, in a far away voice.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I was just wandering if the shop will be okay.”

“You're kidding, with all that's going on you're thinking about the shop?”

“It's important.”

“I'd say this is more important.”

“And you're not thinking about the latest software project.”

Willow started to answer but just turned and left saying, “We need to call the others.”

***

Buffy arrived to find Willow working at her laptop whilst Tara cooked some pancakes. They both seemed to be pointedly not talking to the other. "So what's the problem?" Buffy asked.

“Oh well there isn't a problem, I mean there is but it isn't that urgent, well at least we can have breakfast before...”

“Speaking of breakfast, it's burning,” Buffy pointed out.

Giving a small cry Tara grabbed the frying pan and took it to the sink, where she filled it with water.

Buffy turned to Willow, who seemed to be having trouble with her laptop, "You know magic devices for switching bodies aren't toys," Buffy said in a firm voice.

"I told you we wouldn't fool her," Tara said.

"How did you know?" Willow asked.

"It was pretty obvious. So is this what you wanted to research," Buffy guessed, "Do you have any idea how this happened?"

"No. we just woke up like this," Tara said.

"I'm betting it's something demony," Buffy said. As they both turned to her she said, "Come on, it's always something demony."

Willow glanced at her watch, "Oh, I have to get to work."

"Willow," Tara said, "Don't you mean that I do?"

Willow stared at her in shock a moment, "Oh, you're right."

"Maybe you should both take the day off," Buffy suggested, thinking that Tara trying to pretend to be Willow would just lead to wackiness, and the last thing they needed at the moment was wackiness.

"I would but I've got to give a presentation that I've been working on for months, or at least Tara does."

"Don't worry, I've been helping Willow practice it, I can do the presentation and then come straight back."

"Well if you're sure," Buffy said, sounding skeptical.

***

Once Tara left Willow and Buffy started researching. As they both started reading through their respective books Buffy said, "Maybe I'm being silly but things seemed a little strained earlier."

"I know, we had an argument last night, it was silly really but with all of this going on we haven't had a chance to talk about it."

"So what was it about? Maybe I can help."

"Well we've both been busy lately. I mean I've had this presentation and Tara's been busy at her shop, things just kind of flared up."

"You should talk about it as soon as possible, you don't want to let this sort of thing linger."

"I know and as soon..." Willow stopped as the phone rang. Getting up she went over to go and answer it. As she put the phone down she said, "I've got to go."

"What? Go? But what about your problem?"

"There's been an emergency at Tara's shop. She's off giving my presentation I can't just leave this."

"But..." Buffy stopped as she realized that Willow wasn't listening. As Willow rushed out the door Buffy said to herself, "Well I'm sure that nothing can go wrong here."

***

"So now to discuss our new world class, best of breed, intuitive and seamless web application suite is Ms. Rosenbody."

"That's Rosenberg," Tara corrected.

"Sorry, Ms. Rosenbody."

"That's better." Tara got up in front of the group and brought up the first slide.

"here we have an overview of the structure of the application. By using our new clustering technology we can increase the scalability by a factor of ten whilst making it completely slashdot proof." Tara said, whilst thinking, 'How am I supposed to give this presentation, I don't know what half these words mean.'

***

As Willow arrived at the shop she found Jenna, the assistant, waiting for her, "Oh Tara I'm glad you've got here."

"What's wrong?"


“Remember we had the customer complaining, I think it was two days ago.”

“Yes,” Willow thought back to Tara telling about it, “Didn't Ta.. I sort it out?”

“Apparently not. He complained to a local consumer group and they want to go over our books.”

“Well how bad can that be, we haven't done anything wrong. Did they say when they wanted to see them?” Willow hoped it'd be sometime next month, or maybe even next year.

“Today.”

“I should have known.” Opening the book Willow Turned to the right page and tried to make sense of what was written. 'I'm supposed to be a genius,” She thought, 'but I can't understand any of this.'

“Are you okay? You don't seem yourself.”

“Of course I'm myself, who else would I be? I mean I'm not Willow, am I?” Seeing the strange look that Jenna was giving her Willow decided to change the subject, “Wasn't Anya going to help?”

“Yes, but she lost a bet with some of the other ven, uh justice demons and had to do a forfeit. She said she had to take part in a smut challenge, lists!”

“Lists?”

“She gave me some lists of things to check.” Jenna ran off to find the lists.

***

When Tara was finally able to get away from the office she out her phone and called Willow. "Hi, sweetie."

"Hi, how did it go?"

Tara hesitated a moment, trying to work out how to put it. Finally she said, "The good news is you haven't been fired."

"Oh, I..." Willow decided she didn't want to know the details.

"have you found anything in the books?"

"Actually I haven't been able to do any research. There was an emergency at the shop."

"Were you able to sort it out?"

Now it was Willow's turn to hesitate, "Well the good news is the shop hasn't been closed down." Quickly changing the subject Willow said, "We should talk to Buffy, see if she found anything. Plus I want to try out the conference call feature on our new phones."

Willow called Buffy and said, "Buffy we were wondering if you found anything."

"You mean after you both ditched me?'

"Yes, after we ditched you."

"No I couldn't find anything that matched what happened to you."

"Did you look in Granger's text?" Tara asked,

"Yes, that and a whole lot of other texts. So when are you coming back?"

"We're coming back now," Willow said. Willow's phone beeped a moment. Glancing at the display she said, "That's Xander, I'm going to bring him into the conversation."

"Hey Tara, I hear you've had a problem. I tried calling Willow a few times but her phone was off."

For a moment Willow didn't know why Xander was calling her Tara, until she remembered the body switch. "Oh yeah, we could do with getting the gang together."

"I've just finished up on site. I can come right over. Don't worry, whatever it is I'm sure I can sort it out. I've got my power tools with me."

"Xander," Willow rolled her eyes, "That's the other challenge."

"It is? So does this mean there won't be any wrestling in a pool full of jello?"

Willow disconnected Xander, "I don't think he's going to be much help," she said to the other two.

***

Everyone decided to meet up at Buffy's house.

"Where's Giles?' Dawn asked.

"He just wanted to pick up some books before coming over," Buffy explained.

No sooner had she said this than there was a knock at the door. Tara got up to go and Answer it.

"Hello Willow, uh Tara, uh... which are you?"

Tara smiled as she said, "Tara."

"Quite. This is all very confusing." As they went through to the others he went all, "I went through some of the books and I think I have the answer."

"What's that?' Buffy asked.

"Mr Giles thinks he has the answer," Tara answered.

Sitting down Giles placed a large book on the table. Opening it he said, "It's a very old spell known as the..." Giles hesitated a moment, "Wacky Wednesday spell."

"Don't you mean Freaky Fri..." Dawn started to say.

"Dawn stop," Willow interrupted, "Do you want to get us sued?"

"So who cast this spell? And why?"

"Well it says that the spell is cast by two people both saying the words, 'You don't know what it's like to be me.' at the same time."

"Oh," Willow and Tara both said as they remembered the argument from the night before.

"So we were the ones who cast the spell," Willow said.

"So how do we fix it?" Buffy asked.

"You have to sort out whatever argument caused you to invoke the spell."

"Okay," Buffy stood up and said to Willow and Tara, "You two come with me."

***


Buffy took Willow and Tara outside and said, "Willow said you were arguing about how you haven't had much time together."

They both looked at each other then agreed.

"Well this is something I can relate to. With having to have a job and saving the world every week I don't have much time for a social life. Now what I've found is you just need to try to take advantage of any free time that you get."

"She's right," Willow said.

"Yes," Tara agreed.

"I'll try to spend less time at work," Willow said, "Now the project is almost finished I shouldn't be so busy."

"And I'll try to spend a bit less time at the shop."

They gazed at each other a moment before kissing. Both started to glow, their bodies shining brightly.

When they glow had died down, Willow stepped away asking, "Did it work?'

"Well are you Willow?" Buffy asked her. As Willow shook her head as Buffy turned to Tara, "And are you Tara?" Tara also shook her head. "Then I'd say that it didn't."

“Oh, I was sure this would fix it.”

“But it did,” Tara said, “Well not the body switching thing, but at least we're not arguing any more.”

“So I wasn't totally useless.”

“Not totally,” Willow answered.

***

As they were getting ready to go to bed Willow asked, “Do you think it'd be possible to get away from the shop for a week?”

Tara was going to say no, but thought better of it, “I guess we can ask the others to look after things while we're gone. Why?”

“Well I can take some time off, I thought we could go away, just the two of us. Spend the time reconnecting. Like Buffy said we need to make use of any free time we get.”

“I like it. Though won't it be a bit strange, being in each other's bodies?”

“Hopefully we'll come up with a way to fix it before then.”

***

Willow woke up with a sore head and her throat feeling rough. She hadn't slept at all well last night and she knew why. She was worried about the spell and whether she'd ever get her own body back. For a moment she thought about waking Tara up to discuss it, but decided it'd be better to wait till she was a bit more awake. Swinging her legs out of bed Willow threw her robe on, wondering for a moment why it didn't fit, then walked into the bathroom.

Willow couldn't help gasping as she saw herself in the mirror.

Willow closed her eyes a few moments then reopened them.

The reflection remained the same.

Running back into the bedroom she shouted, “Tara, it worked.”

“Huh? What worked?”

“We've been switched back.”

Sitting up, Tara saw this was true, “Will this is...” her words were cut off as Willow jumped on her.

***

Later that day Willow, Tara and Buffy were researching whilst Dawn was being annoying in that way which only she could.

"Dawn, don't you have any homework to do?' Buffy asked.

"You see,” Dawn complained to Willow and Tara, “she's always telling me what to do."

"I just asked if you had any homework. I mean your grades have fallen a bit. You don't want to squander this time, I mean..."

"Oh, so this is where you tell me that my school days are the best days of my life. What you don't get is all the work they keep giving us. Maybe you'd notice that if you were around more."

"I'm sorry if I'm too busy. I'm doing unimportant things like making sure we can keep a roof under our heads and, oh yes, saving the world."

"Here we go again with the saving the world excuse."

Buffy and Dawn stared at each other a moment then both said at the same time, "You don't know what it's like to be me."

"No!" Willow and Tara shouted, too late.

The end.

_________________
02/28/2007

Out of the requirements I think the trickiest was using the names of four of Debra's stories. To be honest, I was tempted to have Willow find a website full of stories about her and Tara, and to read out some of the titles but I decided that probably wasn't in keeping with the spirit of the challenge.

Title: Wacky Wednesday
Author: Justin
Rating: PG
Summary: Willow and Tara switch bodies, wackiness ensues
Note: This is set a couple of years after the series. Willow and Tara are living together in their own home. Willow is working for a software company whilst Tara has recently opened a shop up.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, unfortunately
Disclaimer 2: Any similarity between this story and any films with similar names are purely coincidental. Coincidental I say! *shakes fist*

Wacky Wednesday

Willow woke up with a sore head and her throat feeling rough. She hadn't slept at all well last night and she knew why. It was all due to a stupid argument that she'd had with Tara the night before. For a moment she thought about waking Tara up to discuss it, but decided it'd be better to wait till she was a bit more awake. Swinging her legs out of bed Willow threw her robe on, wondering for a moment why it didn't fit, then walked into the bathroom.

Willow couldn't help gasping as she saw herself in the mirror.

Willow closed her eyes a few moments then reopened them.

The reflection remained the same.

Willow closed her eyes and rubbed them.

The reflection still refused to change.

“Okay,” Willow thought, “I was sure that I was Willow, but it seems that I'm actually Tara.” Willow reached up to touch her face, “Or maybe we've switched bodies, but how did that happen?”

Willow went back into the bedroom saying, “Uh Tara, I mean Willow,” Willow shook her head, “I mean Tara.”

***

Tara woke up to hear Willow calling her, except there was something wrong with her voice. Sitting up Tara found herself staring at herself. “Willow, what's going on?”

Willow sat down on the bed next to Tara and took her hands, “I don't know. I just woke up with a severe case of being you.”

"So what are we going to do?" Tara asked.

"I don't know. I guess the first thing to do is figure out what caused this."

"So we call the others round for some research."

Willow nodded, then smiling she suggested, "Or we could just try that never realm spell."

"I think research first."

“Oh, but...” Then smiling Willow said, “we should ask Buffy to come round here.” Seeing that Tara didn't understand she said, “I've got an idea.”

Willow explained her idea.

“She won't fall for it.”

“She will, Buffy isn't all that observant.”

“Okay,” Tara said, in a far away voice.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I was just wandering if the shop will be okay.”

“You're kidding, with all that's going on you're thinking about the shop?”

“It's important.”

“I'd say this is more important.”

“And you're not thinking about the latest software project.”

Willow started to answer but just turned and left saying, “We need to call the others.”

***

Buffy arrived to find Willow working at her laptop whilst Tara cooked some pancakes. They both seemed to be pointedly not talking to the other. "So what's the problem?" Buffy asked.

“Oh well there isn't a problem, I mean there is but it isn't that urgent, well at least we can have breakfast before...”

“Speaking of breakfast, it's burning,” Buffy pointed out.

Giving a small cry Tara grabbed the frying pan and took it to the sink, where she filled it with water.

Buffy turned to Willow, who seemed to be having trouble with her laptop, "You know magic devices for switching bodies aren't toys," Buffy said in a firm voice.

"I told you we wouldn't fool her," Tara said.

"How did you know?" Willow asked.

"It was pretty obvious. So is this what you wanted to research," Buffy guessed, "Do you have any idea how this happened?"

"No. we just woke up like this," Tara said.

"I'm betting it's something demony," Buffy said. As they both turned to her she said, "Come on, it's always something demony."

Willow glanced at her watch, "Oh, I have to get to work."

"Willow," Tara said, "Don't you mean that I do?"

Willow stared at her in shock a moment, "Oh, you're right."

"Maybe you should both take the day off," Buffy suggested, thinking that Tara trying to pretend to be Willow would just lead to wackiness, and the last thing they needed at the moment was wackiness.

"I would but I've got to give a presentation that I've been working on for months, or at least Tara does."

"Don't worry, I've been helping Willow practice it, I can do the presentation and then come straight back."

"Well if you're sure," Buffy said, sounding skeptical.

***

Once Tara left Willow and Buffy started researching. As they both started reading through their respective books Buffy said, "Maybe I'm being silly but things seemed a little strained earlier."

"I know, we had an argument last night, it was silly really but with all of this going on we haven't had a chance to talk about it."

"So what was it about? Maybe I can help."

"Well we've both been busy lately. I mean I've had this presentation and Tara's been busy at her shop, things just kind of flared up."

"You should talk about it as soon as possible, you don't want to let this sort of thing linger."

"I know and as soon..." Willow stopped as the phone rang. Getting up she went over to go and answer it. As she put the phone down she said, "I've got to go."

"What? Go? But what about your problem?"

"There's been an emergency at Tara's shop. She's off giving my presentation I can't just leave this."

"But..." Buffy stopped as she realized that Willow wasn't listening. As Willow rushed out the door Buffy said to herself, "Well I'm sure that nothing can go wrong here."

***

"So now to discuss our new world class, best of breed, intuitive and seamless web application suite is Ms. Rosenbody."

"That's Rosenberg," Tara corrected.

"Sorry, Ms. Rosenbody."

"That's better." Tara got up in front of the group and brought up the first slide.

"here we have an overview of the structure of the application. By using our new clustering technology we can increase the scalability by a factor of ten whilst making it completely slashdot proof." Tara said, whilst thinking, 'How am I supposed to give this presentation, I don't know what half these words mean.'

***

As Willow arrived at the shop she found Jenna, the assistant, waiting for her, "Oh Tara I'm glad you've got here."

"What's wrong?"


“Remember we had the customer complaining, I think it was two days ago.”

“Yes,” Willow thought back to Tara telling about it, “Didn't Ta.. I sort it out?”

“Apparently not. He complained to a local consumer group and they want to go over our books.”

“Well how bad can that be, we haven't done anything wrong. Did they say when they wanted to see them?” Willow hoped it'd be sometime next month, or maybe even next year.

“Today.”

“I should have known.” Opening the book Willow Turned to the right page and tried to make sense of what was written. 'I'm supposed to be a genius,” She thought, 'but I can't understand any of this.'

“Are you okay? You don't seem yourself.”

“Of course I'm myself, who else would I be? I mean I'm not Willow, am I?” Seeing the strange look that Jenna was giving her Willow decided to change the subject, “Wasn't Anya going to help?”

“Yes, but she lost a bet with some of the other ven, uh justice demons and had to do a forfeit. She said she had to take part in a smut challenge, lists!”

“Lists?”

“She gave me some lists of things to check.” Jenna ran off to find the lists.

***

When Tara was finally able to get away from the office she out her phone and called Willow. "Hi, sweetie."

"Hi, how did it go?"

Tara hesitated a moment, trying to work out how to put it. Finally she said, "The good news is you haven't been fired."

"Oh, I..." Willow decided she didn't want to know the details.

"have you found anything in the books?"

"Actually I haven't been able to do any research. There was an emergency at the shop."

"Were you able to sort it out?"

Now it was Willow's turn to hesitate, "Well the good news is the shop hasn't been closed down." Quickly changing the subject Willow said, "We should talk to Buffy, see if she found anything. Plus I want to try out the conference call feature on our new phones."

Willow called Buffy and said, "Buffy we were wondering if you found anything."

"You mean after you both ditched me?'

"Yes, after we ditched you."

"No I couldn't find anything that matched what happened to you."

"Did you look in Granger's text?" Tara asked,

"Yes, that and a whole lot of other texts. So when are you coming back?"

"We're coming back now," Willow said. Willow's phone beeped a moment. Glancing at the display she said, "That's Xander, I'm going to bring him into the conversation."

"Hey Tara, I hear you've had a problem. I tried calling Willow a few times but her phone was off."

For a moment Willow didn't know why Xander was calling her Tara, until she remembered the body switch. "Oh yeah, we could do with getting the gang together."

"I've just finished up on site. I can come right over. Don't worry, whatever it is I'm sure I can sort it out. I've got my power tools with me."

"Xander," Willow rolled her eyes, "That's the other challenge."

"It is? So does this mean there won't be any wrestling in a pool full of jello?"

Willow disconnected Xander, "I don't think he's going to be much help," she said to the other two.

***

Everyone decided to meet up at Buffy's house.

"Where's Giles?' Dawn asked.

"He just wanted to pick up some books before coming over," Buffy explained.

No sooner had she said this than there was a knock at the door. Tara got up to go and Answer it.

"Hello Willow, uh Tara, uh... which are you?"

Tara smiled as she said, "Tara."

"Quite. This is all very confusing." As they went through to the others he went all, "I went through some of the books and I think I have the answer."

"What's that?' Buffy asked.

"Mr Giles thinks he has the answer," Tara answered.

Sitting down Giles placed a large book on the table. Opening it he said, "It's a very old spell known as the..." Giles hesitated a moment, "Wacky Wednesday spell."

"Don't you mean Freaky Fri..." Dawn started to say.

"Dawn stop," Willow interrupted, "Do you want to get us sued?"

"So who cast this spell? And why?"

"Well it says that the spell is cast by two people both saying the words, 'You don't know what it's like to be me.' at the same time."

"Oh," Willow and Tara both said as they remembered the argument from the night before.

"So we were the ones who cast the spell," Willow said.

"So how do we fix it?" Buffy asked.

"You have to sort out whatever argument caused you to invoke the spell."

"Okay," Buffy stood up and said to Willow and Tara, "You two come with me."

***


Buffy took Willow and Tara outside and said, "Willow said you were arguing about how you haven't had much time together."

They both looked at each other then agreed.

"Well this is something I can relate to. With having to have a job and saving the world every week I don't have much time for a social life. Now what I've found is you just need to try to take advantage of any free time that you get."

"She's right," Willow said.

"Yes," Tara agreed.

"I'll try to spend less time at work," Willow said, "Now the project is almost finished I shouldn't be so busy."

"And I'll try to spend a bit less time at the shop."

They gazed at each other a moment before kissing. Both started to glow, their bodies shining brightly.

When they glow had died down, Willow stepped away asking, "Did it work?'

"Well are you Willow?" Buffy asked her. As Willow shook her head as Buffy turned to Tara, "And are you Tara?" Tara also shook her head. "Then I'd say that it didn't."

“Oh, I was sure this would fix it.”

“But it did,” Tara said, “Well not the body switching thing, but at least we're not arguing any more.”

“So I wasn't totally useless.”

“Not totally,” Willow answered.

***

As they were getting ready to go to bed Willow asked, “Do you think it'd be possible to get away from the shop for a week?”

Tara was going to say no, but thought better of it, “I guess we can ask the others to look after things while we're gone. Why?”

“Well I can take some time off, I thought we could go away, just the two of us. Spend the time reconnecting. Like Buffy said we need to make use of any free time we get.”

“I like it. Though won't it be a bit strange, being in each other's bodies?”

“Hopefully we'll come up with a way to fix it before then.”

***

Willow woke up with a sore head and her throat feeling rough. She hadn't slept at all well last night and she knew why. She was worried about the spell and whether she'd ever get her own body back. For a moment she thought about waking Tara up to discuss it, but decided it'd be better to wait till she was a bit more awake. Swinging her legs out of bed Willow threw her robe on, wondering for a moment why it didn't fit, then walked into the bathroom.

Willow couldn't help gasping as she saw herself in the mirror.

Willow closed her eyes a few moments then reopened them.

The reflection remained the same.

Running back into the bedroom she shouted, “Tara, it worked.”

“Huh? What worked?”

“We've been switched back.”

Sitting up, Tara saw this was true, “Will this is...” her words were cut off as Willow jumped on her.

***

Later that day Willow, Tara and Buffy were researching whilst Dawn was being annoying in that way which only she could.

"Dawn, don't you have any homework to do?' Buffy asked.

"You see,” Dawn complained to Willow and Tara, “she's always telling me what to do."

"I just asked if you had any homework. I mean your grades have fallen a bit. You don't want to squander this time, I mean..."

"Oh, so this is where you tell me that my school days are the best days of my life. What you don't get is all the work they keep giving us. Maybe you'd notice that if you were around more."

"I'm sorry if I'm too busy. I'm doing unimportant things like making sure we can keep a roof under our heads and, oh yes, saving the world."

"Here we go again with the saving the world excuse."

Buffy and Dawn stared at each other a moment then both said at the same time, "You don't know what it's like to be me."

"No!" Willow and Tara shouted, too late.

The end.

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02/28/2007

YAY, Justin! Let's hear it for our first contributor to "Fic Challenge Part Deux" -- and what a contribution!

This was a lot of fun, Justin. I knew titles from Debra's fics could be incorporated in a story!

And let's also hear it for keeping inside jokes alive:



This was priceless! (Good thing you didn't mention tumbleweed, though -- there are people around here who would throttle me. LOL)

Again, this was a lot of fun. I really needed something fun to do during my lunchbreak and you came through for me. Thanks!

Now then...who will be the next to step up to the plate???

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Justin,
Yay! How great to see an entry in the fic. I loved the fact that Xander wanted be in the other challenge. Very funny. Also, cool that you thought of the smut challenge, lists. I had forgotten that one. Awesome job!

_________________
Menorah Tales | Working It Out | Random Bits

Justin,

That was very sweet . Wacky Wednesday and Freaky Friday! And I echo Car's comments about keeping the inside jokes alive by mentiong FC#1.


Am I bad for wanting to wake up to a severe case of being Amber?

I admire them for being so responsible, even in different bodies. Going to work, researching. I suppose they could have switched with other people, switching bodies with someone you live with and are so close to is not as traumatic. I mean, surely not as traumatic as a Buffy/Dawn switch, argh! Great ender.

_________________
quiet thoughts

I have to admit Car, this one was little more difficult. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. I feel like I'm in a creative writing class. I love it! T


Switcheroo and Anya Too
Disclaimer: None of the characters of BtVS are mine; I just use them to fulfill my imagination.
Notes: After her failed attempt with Willow in Dopplegangland, Anya found her necklace after leaving Sunnydale. She has not been a part of the scoobies lives since then…until now.
Rating: NC-17




“Two days! Two days, I say.” Xander slapped shut the text he was perusing. “We’ve been searching for information on this demon for two days with no luck.” He clasped his fingers together in front of his chest and turned his palms outward to stretch out his arms. “I really need some R & R.”

Buffy looked up from across the big round table at the Magic Box, “Well no problem there, Dawn has a marathon sitcom night planned for us.”

“Oh yeah?” The boy seemed most interested, “What’s the Dawnster have in mind?”

“Friends, she got the box set at the mall today.” The slayer responded.

Willow approached from the front of the store with a spell book in hand. She passed the table and paused at the stairs, “which season?”

“Hmm, dunno, guess you’ll hafta…” Buffy’s cell phone rang and she looked at the display, “wait until she calls me so I can ask her. Hello?” The blonde stood and stepped into the training room to take the call from her sister.

Xander popped up from his chair, “well, I’m out. Gotta go get spruced up. Put on some TV watching attire.” Willow rolled her eyes and proceeded up the steps to the second level.

“And what is it you call your present outfit?” Giles asked from behind the counter as he closed out the cash register.

“This?” Xander pointed to his T-shirt and jeans, “This is research attire.” He started towards the front door, “see ya in a few hours.”

Giles called after him, “Um, can you turn the sign around on your way out?”

“Sure thing,” the dark haired boy flipped the sign to ‘Closed’ and exited.

Buffy returned from the back of the store. “Where did Will go?”

“Upstairs,” the watcher answered.

~

Willow ascended the stairs to find Tara hunched over yet another thick book. “Baby, I think we’re about to call it quits for the day.” She sat down on the floor to face her lover.

The blonde closed her book and flashed a sexy half smile at the redhead. Willow couldn’t resist, she leaned in and planted a soft kiss on those voluptuous lips. She started to pull away but Tara grabbed the back of her head and pulled her back in to a deeper, more sensual kiss.

Tara let go of the redhead’s lips to kiss softly on her lover’s neck. “Mmmm, wanna skip TV night?” Willow mumbled incoherently with heavy lidded eyes.

“Dawnie would be disappointed,” the blonde continued to tease Willow with kisses on her collar bone.

The redheaded witch squirmed and moved along side of Tara to wrap her arms around her torso. She turned her head towards the floor below to make sure of where Buffy and Giles were. Seeing that they were at the counter in conversation she asked her lover, “Can we be late?” She gently moved her hand up Tara’s thigh and under her skirt.

~

The slayer leaned on the counter, “so, are you coming over tonight?”

“Well, yes actually. I have become quite fond of this sitcom you will be viewing. It is amusing I must say.”

“Great.” Buffy was ready to get out of research mode as well. “What do I need to do to help close up shop?”

The man replied, “Just make sure the lights are off on all the displays and we’ll be done.”

The small blonde girl hopped into action. By the time she reached the last display she heard the moaning coming from above. Her ears perked and she heard her best friend sigh deeply. “Oh dear.” She shot a look at the watcher.

“That’s my line,” Giles stated with a frightened look.

“Eww, eww, gotta go.” The slayer grabbed a notepad and pencil.

“I second that,” the watcher hurried around the counter.

Buffy quickly scribbled a note for Willow and Tara and taped it to the handrail of the stairs while Giles stood at the front door tapping a foot.


~

“Oh baby, oh baby,” Willow moaned.

“Shhhh they’ll hear us.” Tara warned lowly, her voice was shaky.

The doorbell jingled and Willow turned with a start to see Buffy and Giles walk by the front window. “Not anymore, we have the place to ourselves now.” She re-initiated the kiss she had broken.

“Vixen,” the blonde whispered. She laid back to allow her lover to lie on top of her.

Willow moved smoothly between Tara’s legs and drew up the girl’s floral skirt around her waist. Cupping the blonde’s mound, she began to massage the girl’s soaking wet center through her cotton panties.

Tara writhed. “Oh Goddess, I love you Willow, I love the way you make me feel.”

Willow looked upon her lover and caught her blue eyes in a gaze as she pushed the cotton panties aside to insert a finger into her waiting channel. “Ahhhhhhhh, baby” Tara arched into the redhead’s hand. Willow caught Tara’s plump red lips in another passionate kiss. She stroked inside her lover while rubbing her clit with her thumb. The blonde heaved heavily as her lover brought her to orgasm. They had perfected this “Quicky” practice in the time they had been together. It was always effective.

Willow withdrew slowly from her lover, pausing when the blonde’s walls would clench.

Tara clung to the redhead tightly and whispered, “I love you.” When she finally opened her tear-filled eyes, she found Willow gazing lovingly at her. “What?” She asked her lover.

Willow replied, “I wish you knew what it's like to be me and feel how loved I am by you.”

Anyanka emerged from the shadows, “Wish granted.”

A sparkle gleamed simultaneously in Tara and Willows eyes.

“What the..?” The redhead exclaimed and jumped up quickly. The blonde followed her up just as hurriedly while smoothing down her skirt.

“Anya? Oh goddess, what have you done?” Willow said, looking down to see the breasts of her blonde lover.

The demon laughed heartily, “Hello Willow, or should I call you Tara?”

The redhead looked at the blonde, “Will?” The blonde reciprocated with a nod and asked, “Tara?”

“Y-you evil, h-heinous…b-b-bitch!” Willow shouted at the demon.

Anya laughed again, “Not quite as insulting with that little stutter of your girlfriend’s.” She strode to the top of the stairs, “that was some hot lesbian sex you were having there, too bad you two probably won’t fell like sexing up yourselves in the future. Of course if it were me, I’d have a little fun with it.” The demon giggled and started down.

“What happened to scorned women?” Willow shouted after her.

“I took a break. I needed to inflict some vengeance of my own.” The demon continued down the stairs and out the front door.

The girls stood silently staring at each other, at themselves.

The redhead spoke first, “I hate my hips.”

“Huh?” Willow grunted.

“Willow, why didn’t you tell me that my hips look huge in that skirt?” Tara asked.

Willow looked down at her body, er, her lover’s body and stroked her hips, “I like your hips baby, I mean my hips, eww.” She slapped the back of one of her hands, “I don’t like this. We’ve got to get to Buffy’s.”

“Wait, what about Xander, I heard him say he was going home.” Tara interjected.

“Shucks, I’ll go get him and you can go on to Buffy’s.” Willow directed.

“Hmm, I like when I’m all ‘decision making girl’,” Tara mused.

The girls descended the stairs as they made a plan. On the way down, Willow saw the note stuck to the rail and grabbed it to read. Tara looked over her shoulder.


W/T,

Season 3.

Y’all be careful walking home.

Buffy

“I like skinny Chandler better, he’s funnier,” the blonde said.

“Yeah, me too,” the redhead agreed as she closed the door behind them.


*

When Willow arrived at the basement apartment of her best friend she figured she’d have a good time with her body swap situation. She rapped on the door and waited for Xander to answer. She heard the boy stumble across furniture and shout expletives about cleaning up.

The door swung open and he was in a wife beater and boxer shorts, “mom the clothes are not finished dry-ing.” Realizing that is was ‘Tara’ he ran to his bed and pulled on the pair of jeans that were laid out. “Sorry Tare, I wasn’t expecting it to be you.”

Willow strutted in and stood very close to Xander. “It’s ok,” she placed her palm on his chest and ran it over his pectoral muscle.

The dark haired boy’s eyes grew wide and he backed up away from ‘Tara,’ “So, er, what brings you here?”

Stepping forward to remove the distance Xander had just put between them, Willow ‘admitted,’ “Oh Xander, I’ve always had thing for you.” She put both hands on his chest this time, “I just love your hairy manly chest.” She batted her eyelashes at him.

“Tara!” He jumped and ran to the other side of the bed, hoping that the obstacle would keep her at bay. “Willow is my best friend, and besides, I thought you weren’t into anything hairy and manly.”

“Ours is a forbidden love,” the blonde moved around the bed and cornered her prey against the washer. She cupped his face with her hands and leaned in to give him a kiss.

“No! Tara, no!” the boy hopped onto the bed and scurried across, “um, don’t get me wrong Tara, you are absolutely beautiful and Willow is a very lucky woman. Except for the part about you hitting on me which I will have to tell her about immediately.”

Willow arched an eyebrow and smiled, “you better.”

“Huh?”

“You better tell me if Tara ever hit on you.” She clarified, somewhat.

Xander shook his head, “Ok, did I just fall asleep and wake up in La La land?”

“Xander, it’s me, Willow.” The blonde pointed to herself. “Remember Anya? Well she just paid Tara and me a visit at the Magic Box.”

“And?” The boy reeled trying to grasp a hold on the situation.

Willow explained further, “Well, let’s just say a tiny wish got granted and now Tara is in my body and I’m in hers.”

“Whew, so Tara really doesn’t have a thing for me?”

“Uh, no. She’s doesn’t like anything hairy or manly.”

The friends waited for Xander’s clean clothes to dry and then set out for Buffy’s house.

On the sidewalk the blonde looked at the dark haired boy. “You know I’m glad that you’re my best friend Xander,” she declared.

“Me too,” he beamed a heartfelt smile.

They continued walking towards Buffy’s house when Willow’s cell phone rang, “says it’s me,” she looked at Xander, “must be Tara. Hello?”

“Hey baby, Giles and I are back at the Magic Box, we’re hunting for the book with the demon locator spell in it. Do you know where it is?” Tara spoke sweetly to her girlfriend.

“It’s in our bedroom at home. I kinda slid it under the bed the other night.” Willow lowered her voice, “You know when you came in with that new outfit you bought at the Pleasure Chest.”

“Whoaaaaaaaaaa!” Buffy screamed on the line, “I’m on conference here Will!” All three girls were blushing. Willow and Tara were speechless.

“I’ll get it and meet you guys at the magic box,” the slayer stated.

Click. Click. Click. All three hung up their phones.

“What?” Xander asked of his blushing friend.

“Nothing.” The blonde was quiet.

“Come on Will, what’s the matter?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Will it’s me, the Xan-man.”

“Remember back in our school days, when I walked in on you in the bathroom with that magazine?”

The boy threw up his hands, “Whoa, enough said. Nevermind. I get it, embarrassing moment we don’t want to talk about. Ever.”


*

While Willow and Tara performed the locator spell, Buffy and Giles paced the front of the store.

“I wonder if Anya is the cause of the other demonic activity we’ve been researching.” The watcher pondered.

Buffy heard Willow yell, “We’ve got a bead on her.”

“Where?” The slayer stepped down and crossed to the round table.

“Sunnydale Cemetery,” Tara relayed.

The scoobs filed out the door with weapons in hand. Once they reached the graveyard, they split into groups. Willow, Tara and Xander took the north side while Giles and Buffy headed south.

On a hunch Buffy went directly to Spike’s crypt first. The watcher followed behind his slayer as she marched across the cemetery. Buffy peered into the tomb from the window and saw Anya and Spike laughing. She heard the muffled voice of blonde vampire.

“And now the love birds are each stuck in the other’s body,” Spike cracked.

“No sex for them unless they want to do some self loving, which is not bad by the way.”

Spike perked a brow at the demon. “You are an odd bird, aren’t you?”

“Always have been.” Anya confirmed.

Giles saw Tara at a nearby grave and motioned for her. She rallied the rest and within moments they all watched the demon and vampire.

“So who’s next on your list?” Spike asked.

The demon replied, “I was thinking about visiting that pathetic excuse for a man, Xander.”

“Ok, that’s it,” Buffy rushed to the crypt door. Once inside she ran full force and threw a drop kick to Anyanka’s chest. Neither the demon nor the vampire had time to react. With slayer speed she snatched the necklace from Anya and threw it to Giles. The man came down hard on the jewel with a brick and shattered it to bits. The subsequent twinkle in Willow and Tara’s eyes revealed that the spell had been broken.

Buffy looked down at the vengeance demon under her boot and then to the blonde vamp, “well you and Spikey should make a great couple. He’s neutered and you’ve just been spayed.”


THE END

Oh, terra!!!! This was absolutely delightful! The room was filled with quite a bit of laughter as I read your fic. So creative! Nicely done!



WONDERFUL use of this title. I was wondering if anyone was going to use it. So glad you did!

Thanks so much for contributing, yet again, to the challenge.



I knew this one would be a BIT more of a challenge. But I also have faith in all of you lovely authors. I already have two more challenges written up for the future. Those will be a little easier...but still just as much fun. I'm glad you're enjoying the creative process, T.

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Word to the feeling like we're in Professor Car's creative writing class.

Plus anytime soon, the Professor will be giving us pop quizzes

Back to T's entry. That, my friend, was brilliant in its simplicity . To the point, funny, Anyanka in her original incarnation (before she became a full Scooby) is so fun, so full of tricks and just the other side of evil.

My favorite parts:

Xander's TV attire - who wouldn've thought the Xan-man is this fashion conscious?


Buffy in a Giles-ism, woo!


Trust Tara to focus on something negative about herself rather than how hot she is. Damn those Maclay men!


And trust Willow to allow her insecurities to show through, even though she must know how Tara loves her, and is probably meaning just to teast Xander.


I'm claiming "lovebirds" as mine, so I consider this a shout-out to me !

_________________
quiet thoughts

Wow was that great. Loved it totally. I agree that the use of the Y'all title was inspired. I couldn' t imagine anyone working that in. Loved the story. Quite funny.

_________________
Menorah Tales | Working It Out | Random Bits

Ooooooooohhhhhhh....now don't be giving me any ideas!!

hehe

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Oh my that was so funny. This is such an awesome challenge. I can't wait to see what other delightful stories you talented writers come up with.


Christina

justin, great, funny story. I really loved Willow and Tara trying to trick Buffy, and her figuring it out right off. The image of Tara having trouble with Willow's laptop, and Will giving a small cry at the burning breakfast was really clear, and made me wish they had done a W/T body swap on the show. I also enjoyed all the inside and self referential jokes.


terra21:



That? Was brillant.

Loved 'Tara' coming on to Xander, and him freaking out. Very funny. Great story.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my story, I'm glad that you all liked it

Terra21, Your story was brilliant. whilst reading it I alternated between and

As everyone else has said the way you managed to work W/T Season 3 y'all into the story was inspired.

It we seems we all think that Willow and Tara are a rather mischvious couple since in both stories the first thing they do is try to trick their friends

I loved the last line about Spike being neutered and Anya spayed

_________________
02/28/2007

The gauntlet has been thrown down and tomorrow night shall see the posting of my Willow/Tara entry for this challenge.
Hopefully the board will not swallow it up and proceed to lose it a second time

_________________
I can deny chicks in chainmail nothing.
Amberhol-from the land of sky blue waters.
No Mere Music Hall, This my novel available directly from rosestindog@gmail.com.

ATTENTION FIC CHALLENGE CONTRIBUTORS:

Due to apparent errors with some posting on the board, please be made aware of the following:

[blockquote]If you are having problems submitting your fic in one posting, you are more than welcome to split it up into 2 or 3 postings to lessen your chance of errors when hitting the submit button. PLEASE MAKE SURE THESE ARE CONSECUTIVE POSTS. Readers should not have to wait for updates to your challenge fic. So, technically, we are sticking with the "one post" requirement -- we are just adjusting that requirement due to board difficulties while posting a long submission.[/blockquote]

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Thanks, again, to all who are contributing!

Carleen

_________________

Frivolous Views

Thanks Car. I was thinking, it's only 3,800 words, it shouldn't kill the board.

~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Home and Away
Author: watson (hiddenwatson@yahoo.com)
Rating: R
Distribution: This one's for Pens, please email me first if you want to archive it somewhere else
Disclaimer: BtVS characters, concepts and dialog belong to Mutant Enemy, Fox, The WB, UPN and others.
Notes: The lesson of this challenge is to make sure your fic titles are short and easy to incorporate into future challenges, on the off-chance that you one day attain the stature that Debra enjoys.

*****


"... so I'm there every chance I get, I've managed to try everything at least twice now. They have this green aloe vera yogurt drink that tastes better than it sounds, and strange sounding energy drinks, I like the roast coffee, it's not as good as Mrs George's, but we don't have time to go to the canteen, besides it's free," the voice on the other side of the phone line took a breather before continuing, "I feel so environmentally unfriendly, it's all in paper cups and we have to use a cover cos, quote, spillages damage the carpets, unquote, and the cups are so tiny. I wish you were here."

"I wish I were there too, Sweetie," Tara sighed as she absorbed the stream of narrative and picked up the abrupt change at the end. I can listen to her read a book of plant names and I'll be happy. "Did they like your lecture?"

Willow sighed. "Honestly, all I saw was a sea of inscrutable faces. I can't tell if they understood me or if I was too boring or if the subject was way over their heads. They nod a lot and they always say please. The series of monographs that Dr Hudson and I wrote just sat there on the lecture table, no one asked any questions at the end, just polite clapping," Willow complained.

"I think it's part of their nature," Tara tried to explain. "I read that there are at least four levels of politeness in the Japanese language, with layers of subtlety added on top. Speaking out is not something they are comfortable with."

"I guess, but it would have been nice to be, I don't know, appreciated, acknowledged even," Willow sighed.

"I'll show you my undying appreciation when you come home," Tara promised.

"Really?"

"Of course, my darling."

"Anything I want?"

"Anything."

"Yay! Oh, did the couch arrive in the end?" Willow asked, changing topics. Otherwise we'd spend the whole call making goo-ga noises at each other and I miss her so much, I think I'm gonna have to buy some gloves to keep her scent on my hands, she thought as she leant back against the headboard.

"— kept apologizing, though it wasn't his fault," Willow only managed to catch the last part of Tara's answer.

Shit, so do we have the new couch or not. "That's great," she mumbled.

"Your mind was someplace else," Tara accused.

Busted. May be if I stay quiet. Or not. "I was thinking of you," Willow backpedaled.

"You were thinking of me in the middle of talking with me, should I be concerned or jealous?"

"Hmmm."

"Will."

Beat.

"Will."

Silence.

"WILLOW!"

"Honey?" Willow's voice came back on sheepishly.

"I'm hanging up now," the irritation could be heard clearly across the Pacific.

"Oh no, Tara, please. I'm sorry, I'll stop fantasizing about you," Willow blurted. She's annoyed at me and I come out with that? Way to go Rosenberg.

"I should be angry. I am angry. You need punishment," Tara said with a distinctively firm voice.

Oh, good save! "Yes Tara," Willow responded immediately.

"Your fantasy," Tara started.

"Yes Tara," Willow responded again.

"Describe it," Tara instructed.

"Um, it wasn't a fantasy per se, I was thinking I need to buy a pair of gloves tomorrow morning," Willow replied.

"Gloves," Tara deadpanned.

"Yes, cos I don't want to lose your scent on my fingers," Willow said.

"My scent?" Tara felt like repeat-o girl.

"Yes, I love bringing my hands to my nose and catching the most beautiful smell on earth," Willow smiled at the sense-memory. "But it's been two days, and ..." she trailed off.

"What kind?"

"Eh?"

"What kind of gloves were you thinking of buying?"

"Those delicate cotton crochet ones that you see Japanese gentlewomen wear, or may be the silk ones that go all the way up to your elbows," Willow described dreamily.

"Get them. Tomorrow."

"Which one?"

"Either one."

"Okay."

"You think gloves might help? You know, keep the scent," Tara asked.

"Scientific basis, no. Makes me feel better, may be," Willow confessed.

"We can't have that," Tara said.

"Have what? Me feeling better?" Willow started to pout.

"No, no. No scent on your fingers, can't have that," Tara declared.

"When I come back I'm gonna do research on how to have it bottled, you know, like those lavender calming beads you bought at the aromatherapy shop, only it'll be Tara's Secret Essence," Willow said.

"Or Willow's Sweet Spice," Tara added.

They broke off in companionable silence, each with their own thoughts.

"We should market that," Willow said cheekily.

"Will!"

"Come on, they sell pheromone oils on the internet. I bet this will sell even better," Willow continued.

"You're such a perv, Will," Tara admonished.

"I bet our room's a Smutaholics' Heaven. Or, the Graceland of Sensuous Intoxication. Oh, oh, oh, now I get it," sounds of Willow slapping herself on her forehead. "That's why Buffy looked at us funny at breakfast when we stayed over last time."

"We stayed with Buffy and Dawn plenty of times before. And we used to live with them, she never looked at us funny," Tara said.

"Well when we lived there, she was probably used to it," Willow said.

"Used to what exactly?" Tara asked, even though she had a good idea what Willow was talking about. Mind in gutter much, Red.

"The musk of Witchy Lovin', you know, um, us," Willow whispered conspirationally.

"So why would she be looking at us funny? We've been together 6 years, she knows what we get up to in the bedroom," Tara pointed out. And other places.

"But she's the Slayer," Willow replied.

"And?"

"Slayer senses. Enhanced smell power."

"I don't think so, otherwise she'd be overwhelmed by it all the time. Imagine following vamps through the sewers, she'd be too busy gagging."

"May be she learnt to tone it down, or her smell is not as enhanced as her hearing or sight, but I still think she can outsmell a normal human."

"You make her sound like a dog."

"Hey! Best friend here, not tryin' to say she's a dog, it's just, everything about the slayer is enhanced, that must include smell, cos it's a vital part of hunting and attacking."

"Really, Will, I have to disagree with you on this. She has enough enhanced powers to spare. And, and, why are we wasting very expensive overseas call charges discussing whether Buffy can smell our lovemaking? In any case, we can talk about it till the cows come home, and still have no answer."

"We could ask her."

"Willow Rosenberg, if you think I'm going to participate in that conversation, you have something coming."

"Tara, it's Buffy. She's seen and heard us in all sorts of compromising situations before. This is gonna bug me all night, I can't sleep and I already can't sleep cos you're not here," Willow tried her puppy dog plea, not as successful because Tara couldn't see the hangdog expression, though she heard it coming through loud and clear.

"Why are you so anxious to know?" Tara asked, trying to turn tables on her stubborn redhead.

"It's part of knowing the strengths and short-comings of the Slayer. I'm sure Giles has researched and documented all of Buffy's powers, may be we can ask him instead?" Willow asked, knowing full well Tara's reaction.

"NO! I'm putting my foot down on this. No asking Mr Giles." Tara, Tara I know you so well.

Willow dragged the suspense out for 2 seconds more than necessary. "Sooo, let's ask Buffy shall we," she said slowly.

"Fine. But this is best friend stuff, I don't need to get involved."

"Ah my love, my beautiful love, remember the part where I said it'll bug me all night and I can't sleep properly and be all scholarly for tomorrow's lectures?" Willow would have batted her eyelids if she was sure Tara was there to see them.

"Then call her after, she'll be up already."

"Nuh uh, we're calling her together."

Tara squirmed. "What?"

"Call her together, conference her in."

"Now?"

"Now."

"Can we do that?"

"That's why I got everyone these spanking new cellphones."

"I thought that was to make patrolling and fighting this year's Big Bad easier."

"That, plus the fact that it has more functions that we'll need, including one touch teleconferencing."

"Oh."

"Can you do it?"

"You know these things better than me, why don't you do it?" Tara was getting a little annoyed now. If Willow wanted to continue with this distraction, she was willing to sit back and watch the fireworks, but now she had to be the one to call Buffy?

"Because if I call, it'll count as an overseas call. Just press star then Buffy's number then star again when she answers."

Tara sighed inwardly. "Alright, but you do the talking," she insisted.

"Okay."

Tara dialed as instructed. Brrr, brrr. Brrr, brrr. Brrr, brrr. Oh good, no answer. Just as she was about to give up and report to Willow, Buffy picked up.

"Hey Tara," the Slayer greeted.

"Hi Buffy, hold on a sec, I'll try to connect Will."

Static.

"Hello?"

"Will?"

"Hi Buffy."

"What's up, you're in Tokyo, right? On your lecture tour thing?"

"Yeah."

"What time is it?"

"It's 12-something at night."

"Something wrong? Giant Earth-crushing robots? Attack of the Hello Kitties?"

"Oh? No, nothing. Just talking to Tara."

"And you thought of me, wow, thanks, I'm touched."

"We always think of you, Buffy," that was Tara.

---------

Next part follows immediately (when the server stops hating me :( )

"Of course! You and Dawn are always on our minds. But hey listen, Buff, Tara and I, well, we were talking," Willow started. "And, um, well, we have a question."

"A question for me?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, that only you can answer."

Beat.

"So ... what's the question?"

"Well ..." Willow voice trailed off again.

Silence.

"I'm sensing hesitation here, Will."

"Well, it's kinda hard to ask. Well, not hard as such because it's essentially a simple question but I don't know how to ask it in a non-provocative way," Willow paused. "So, now, our question is, it's about Slayer powers. You know, you can throw a stake into a vamp's heart from 100 yards away, you can hear a cry for help inside a building when you're still outside, and you have super reflexes and fast healing ..."

"Yes, for more years than I care to remember."

"But can you, can you ... can you smell?"

"Is this a trick question?" Buffy asked, puzzled.

"No, we were just talking about smells, and we wanted to — Tara, a little help?"

"What Willow is asking, Buffy, is whether your Slayer powers extend to smell. So may be you can smell the blood from a vamp from far away, or if you get overpowered by the garbage smell when you go down to the sewers," Tara interjected, sensing that Willow was going to either go into babble mode or go completely off into an Escher-like speech pattern.

"I don't think so," Buffy pondered. "I can smell pancakes cooking in the kitchen from my room, especially if Tara is making them, but Dawn seems to smell your pancakes before anyone else. I can sense the presence of vampires, but I don't smell them first. And when I go into the sewers I just think 'ewww' and try to get out pronto."

"I would have thought you have increased smelling, I can't believe Giles has never tested it," Willow mused.

"I don't think I want to smell vamps more than I do already, do you know most of them totally stink? Fledges smell of soil and rot, most of them never shower, and their breath, eeeek, total yucksville," Buffy shuddered.

"Sorry for the bad mental image," they laughed.

"I can't believe you called me just to ask about that. You know what I think? I bet you two were talking about other things, things that will shock Giles into orbit. You two give out this impression that you're so innocent, but you not," Buffy teased.

"Buffy!" two voices exclaimed at the same time.

"I'm teasing. I'll let you two get it on now, when are you coming home Will?"

"Saturday."

"Okay. Listen I gotta go, Dawn is hovering near the weapons chest again. Be seeing you."

"Bye," the best friends bid each other goodbye.


"Do you have to get up?" Willow asked gently, after Buffy rang off.

"Hmmm, don't want to. Can I stay in the bed until you come back?" Tara grumbled as she stretched.

"What about food, bathroom breaks?" Willow asked with mock concern.

"You'll just have to come back quickly and rescue me before I wilt away," Tara breathed.

"I'll be back as soon as the conference is over. Believe me, if I can teleport myself into our bed right now, I'd do it in a second," Willow said.

"Are you in bed yet?" Tara asked suddenly.

"Yes."

"What are you wearing?"

"My 'Your Sunnydale High School: Days are Severely Numbered' T-shirt."

"Take it off," Tara implored.

"Only if you do the same," Willow countered.

"Okay."

Rustling of clothing slipping off skin.

"All of it," Willow again.

"Yes."

"Are your hands free? You have the headset on?"

"Yes."

"I can feel you."

"I want you, Will."

"I love you, Tara."

"I want to try the spell."

"I was just thinking the same thing."

"Do you think it'll work?"

"We tested, didn't we?"

"Will, we tested with you in the next room, not thousands of miles away."

"Don't think distance is an issue. We won't know till we try. Do you want to try?"

Oh yes. Willow heard Tara's affirmation inside her head.

It was a spell of synchronicity, unity and balance. Willow uttered the words that brought them out of their bodies. Tara wove the patterns that united their essences. There, on that almost dream-like world created by their spell, they were together in more than one level.

Words, feelings, senses, these mortal expressions were left behind with their physical bodies. It was as if they were a merged entity floating and falling as their joint pleasure surged and swelled.

"Do you want to be inside me, to have my scent permeate to your skin, to touch me, to be me?" Tara asked.

"Yes," Willow hissed as she felt her insides clench, her climax building from somewhere that would correspond to the tip of her toes, then spreading outwards, racing through her body. No, it was their body, their being.

Together they exploded. On that other plane of existence where sensations moved faster than jetstream, where feelings had color and where touches were like the sun and the moon and the wind and the rain. Their screams of "I am yours and you are mine" in a heartbeat turned into "I am you and you are me."

And then they were complete, fulfilled. One.

Gently, they came back into the physical plane.

The last time they tried the spell, it took a few minutes to catch their breaths and for physical sensations to return. It felt different this time.

"Honey," Willow managed to croak out, her throat felt thick. Then she frowned. I sound funny. "Tara?"

She tried to move, to open her eyes, everything felt so heavy. "Tara?" she tried again.

"Ah," a faint groan.

"Oh thank god, are you alright?" I definitely sound different.

"Feel weird," came the reply. She sounds different too.

Gradually movement returned and Willow tentatively opened her eyes to grab the comforter from the foot of the bed, which she then wrapped around herself to wait for the icky sensations to settle down.

It took a full five seconds before it hit her like a ton of bricks.

"What the hell?!" she gasped and sat up. She cast her eyes round at the familiar surroundings — their comforter, their bed, their room, their house. This meant Tara was ...

"Tara? Can you hear me?" she asked, panicked.

All she heard was a whimper.

"Honey, don't panic, can you open your eyes? Can you see?" she said in as comforting a voice as she can muster.

"Yes. What's happening?" Tara said in a small voice.

"I think I know. Are you on a hotel bed with crisp white sheets and six pillows?"

"Yes."

"On the bedside table, do you see the book I was reading at home and my watch and the dolphin bracelet you gave me last Christmas?"

"Yes."

"My bag on the stand next to the TV?"

"Yes."

"We switched. I'm at home and you're in my hotel room. Are you feeling okay otherwise?"

"I have a headache and my arms and legs are heavy."

Willow flexed her muscles and looked closely at her hands. "I think we switched more than locations."

"What?"

"I think we switched bodies."

"Oh. You mean I'm in your body that was in Tokyo and you in mine back home?"

"Are you up to checking in the mirror?"

"Think so."

Slowly the image became focused. "Hey," they said to the reflection of the person they loved.

"It was the spell," they said together. And chuckled.

"I should be freaked out, but I feel strangely calm," Tara said.

"I know what you mean," Willow agreed.

"How do we switch back?" Tara asked.

"Do the spell again?" Willow guessed.

"Probably, but we should do a little research first," Tara said sensibly.

"Okay. I'll go to the Magic Shop," Willow suggested.

"You'll tell the others?" Tara asked.

"I'll see if I can find something first. You get some rest, may be run a bath, the bath has massage jets," Willow grinned.

"Lucky I, or rather you, don't need to go to work today," Tara said.

"Yep. Oh hell."

"What?"

"I'll be fine in your body for a day, I can explain to the others. But you, tomorrow morning, the lecture!"

"Oh," Tara was worried now.

"Wait, wait. Can you get the schedule, it's in my backpack."

"One sec ... got it."

"Dr Hudson is speaking at all the lectures tomorrow?"

"Um, yes."

"Considering the audience reaction, or lack of, you can probably get away from sitting there looking intelligent. If they ask you anything, just ask 'and what do you think?' back."

"What about Dr Hudson?"

"He won't notice, he's got too much on his mind, just help him with the books and flip charts, then plead tiredness, he'll be fine."

"Okay."

"You sure, baby?"

Tara pondered for a moment. "Yes, I've seen enough of your work to try to bluff my way through. I'll pretend I have a splitting headache, which is not far from the truth."

"Get some rest now, we'll catch up tomorrow, okay?" Willow said.

"Night Sweetie," Tara said, stifling a giant yawn.

"Goodnight Love," Willow said, then took a deep breath. "Let's do this."

*****

24 hours later

"Hey Honey," Willow answered the phone at the second ring, her heart leapt when she saw it was her love. Well, technically the caller display said "Willow" but she knew it was Tara.

"Hi Will," Tara greeted.

"Did your day go okay?" Willow asked.

"It was fine, I sat in all the lectures and I don't think anyone suspected anything," Tara laughed.

"I haven't found any solid lead for the spell yet," Willow reported.

"I know."

"You know?"

"Yeah, otherwise you would have called me straightaway," Tara point out.

"True."

"But there was something I wanted to ask you, it's quite important," Tara said.

"Okay," Willow said, hoping it wasn't more wacky spells.

"Well, this morning I was looking through your bag for something to wear after I had a bath," Tara started.

"Sure, cos you can't wear the Sunnydale High T-shirt to the lectures at all," Willow smiled at the image.

"Like you told me, the bathtub had massage nozzles," Tara continued.

"Good aren't they," Willow smiled, thinking back at the luxurious bathroom in the hotel room. Mmmm, nice bath. OH SHIT!

"And what did I find next to the bath?" Double Shit!

"Um," Willow hesitated. I totally forgot!

"Imagine my surprise at finding that you'd brought Mr Ducky with you," Tara remarked.

"Well, it was for fun, to play with while in the bath, as a normal rubber duck!" Willow backpedaled.

"And then, what do I find in your bag?" Tara asked, in a tone that indicated she knew the answer already.

"A brown paper bag?" Willow asked in a small voice.

"Yes."

"Did you open it?" Willow followed up, though she knew the outcome already.

"I thought it was shoes."

"Oh."

"But no, no shoes inside, just some, how shall I call them? Interesting gadgets. I've never seen these before, what else are you hiding from me? I thought we don't have secrets. What happened to 'you're all I need'?" Tara choked, clearly close to tears.

"You are all I need! Tara, listen to me. I'm not dissatisfied with our sex life, and I'm not doing anything behind your back. Those toys, I bought them at this novelty shop on Monday. They were supposed to be a surprise," Willow blurted.

"S-s-surprise?"

"Yes, they're still wrapped, and look at the labels, all in Japanese."

Tara took a deep breath. "Oh. So, they're not for
you?"

"Well, some. They're for us."

"Oh," then Tara laughed. "I ruined your surprise, now I feel like a clingy wife, looking through your stuff."

"You're never clingy. Wife-y yes, but never clingy."

"Really?" Tara beamed.

"Although, suspecting me like that, not trusting me. Don't you agree you should be punished?" Willow stated, in a tone Tara used more often, but was instantly recognizable.

Oh, turnabout. "Yes Willow," Tara replied, the same way Willow usually did.

"I'm feeling generous, so I'll let you choose, Tara."

"Thank you Willow."

"You can choose one of the toys in the box, unwrap it, and let me listen to you while you use it."

"Yes Willow."

"You may start now."

Tara did not hesitate. Soon Willow could hear her lover's moans as the new toys were put to good use.

"Do you want to feel, Will?" Tara managed to squeak out, while feeling incredibly pleasurable sensations all over her (or was it Willow's) body.

"How?"

"Do the spell."

"Oh!" Willow's brain suddenly sprang into gear.

And they did the spell again, and found themselves back at the place they loved so much, with the person who was their one and only love.

Their climaxes were just as powerful, their love just as fulfilled. They were One again.

This time, they came back to their own bodies.

And were determined to file the experience away for another time.

*****


The End

_________________
quiet thoughts

First of all I would like to say, this was a difficult one. To quote Willow though, “What are we if not women up to a challenge!” I also learned that there are a few of JustSkipIt’s Fics that I haven’t read yet. So after I post this I can get to reading the other’s who’ve entered the challenge thus far, and then on to the great writer that is JustSkipIt. We bow humbly before thee!

I also feel bad for posting this up right after watson's, but I wanted to get it up ASAP so I could get to the reading!


Title: The ‘Sitch’ of the Switch
Rating: PG-13
Author: wiccanbotanist

“Dawnie, sweetie what are you doing in there?” Tara asked the closed door in front of her. She had spent most of dinner looking at Tara strangely just before her ears perked up, and she hopped up from her seat heading towards her room. Now there were crashing sounds coming from inside, causing Tara to be curious and slightly worried.

“Uh…. Homework.”

Tara reached for the door, she wasn’t one to invade other’s privacy but this was Dawn and she was concerned. The door was only open a slight crack before the young girl appeared, effectively halting the continued opening of the door.

“Dawn?” Tara gave her that concerned motherly look laced with the implication of ‘You better fess up and tell me what is going on!’

“No really it is a project…an extra credit sort of project. It’s not done yet but I promise you I’ll show you when I’m finished, ‘kay?”

“Okay.” Tara relented, but had yet to move from the doorway. Dawn stood fast in the space but quirked eyebrow. “You know, I miss it sometimes….but only sometimes.”

“What?” Dawn asked her eyebrows switching positions.

“School days, projects, homework, that sort of thing.” Tara’s eyes got distant with memory, a little happy and a little sad at the same time.

“No, I think you’re just missing Willow.”

Tara sighed. “Yeah…It’s just she’s been gone before, and she’s only been gone for two days so far…it’s just….”

“No, I understand. You usually go with her to her conferences but you had to stay and take care of me. Which I appreciate, I really do, and I’ll make it up to you, I’ve just got to finish…” Dawn trailed off and indicated her project with the motion of her head.

“Can I help at all?” Tara asked meekly. She was getting a bit desperate for attention. Willow was at a conference in Seattle, Xander and Anya were away on a ski trip, and Buffy was called up to LA for some situation, leaving Tara’s usually bustling household way too quiet and still and it was just plain driving her nuts.

“NO.” Dawn said quickly and forcefully. She back peddled quickly after seeing Tara’s frown. “Its just…uh…it won’t count if I have help, you know, gotta do it on my own. I won’t be long I promise and then all will be with the good….”

Tara finally relented and headed back downstairs. Slumping down on the couch she reached for her book off the coffee table. It took re-reading a paragraph on the 5th time for her to give up and try the television instead. She flicked through the channels finding nothing of interest on, with the exception of an advert for a new show called Please: The Series. But being an advertisement, its distraction was short lived. Flicking off the TV, she grabbed her cell phone and held down 1 until she heard that familiar ring.

~*~*~

Willow entered her hotel room, swiftly kicking off her heels, depositing her blazer on the chair and dropping her body onto the bed. She never enjoyed the conferences but was forced to go. Whenever there was some corporate situation they called in their best programmer. She also happened to be one of the more socially adept programmers…the mere reason for her not being in a management position was because she choose to remain a programmer. Was it a coincidence that she was happened to be adorable, funny, and could easily charm the suits at the top? No, no coincidence, they knew that was how it worked and took full advantage of it. And Willow played along because the computer industry was volatile at times, and knew that her involvement in these silly office politics was what kept the Sunnydale branch afloat.

Plus there were the whole cash bonuses from these little excursions, along with paid hotel, a break from the Hellmouth, and Tara was allowed to come along. Not this time though, with Buffy going to LA someone had to stay and take care of Dawn. Willow thought Dawn could handle herself, she was old enough now, but with Buffy and Tara always being super protective and cautious, they didn’t want to leave her be.

She wanted to be mad at Dawn, blame the girl for her lack of Tara, but she knew she was just jealous. ‘Dawn gets undivided Tara attention for a week and I have to deal with damn corporate suits, who have neglected their geek-infested roots for large sums of money.’ She grumbled in her head.

With that she reached for her cell phone, held down the number 1 and waited for the ring.

Though separated by distance, both women started giggling because at exactly the same time they were transferred directly to each other’s voicemail. This was something that happened all the time, and each time it still amazed them. They’d usually go through it about 3 times. The 2nd time usually after a long pause while they each waited for the other to call, quickly followed by the 3rd in which they’d both leave a message. Then it would be a random pick for which ever one finally got through. Willow attempted to draw up a plan, a chart made with different colored pens, for when this situation would happen but it didn’t seem to work.

During the long pause before the second attempt at a call Tara heard another crash from Dawn’s room. She got up quickly off the couch and headed towards the stairs, but before reaching the first step the blonde wavered and dropped her cell phone. In Seattle, Willow shot up quickly from the bed. They both grabbed their phones and quickly dialled once again.

~*~*~

Dawn came bounding down the stairs excitedly, and seemed a bit disappointed to see Tara standing at the bottom of the steps and a cell phone pressed to her ear. “I guess it didn’t work.” She mumbled to herself. But the comment didn’t go unnoticed.

“What the hell have you done?” Tara’s voice was raised and harsh while she was staring quite angrily at Dawn.

Dawn was taken aback, she had never heard Tara take that tone with her, or with anyone for that matter, and the language! It took awhile to compose herself before she answered. “I…I tried a spell so that Willow would be here and you wouldn’t have to be all lonely and sad. But….it didn’t work.”

“Like hell it didn’t. I’m Willow.”

~*~*~

After the 5th time Tara let out a frustrated groan which sounded very off in Willow’s voice. The panicked dialling each other’s phones seemed fruitless. Tara was only sure about a few things, this situation could not be good and that Dawn was the likely suspect for the switch. The thought of Dawn reminded Tara there were a few more phone numbers left to try. She pressed 2 down and waited for the ring.

~*~*~

Willow looked like she was about ready to throw Tara’s cell phone across the room. “We don’t have time for this!” was her response to the 5th connection to voicemail. Instead she pointed the device at the young girl. “You will bring me everything you used to do this spell, got it?”

Dawn sprinted up the steps in a hurry as the house phone began to ring.

‘Ha, my Tara is a smart one.’ Willow thought as she went for the phone.

“Tara?”

“Uh…no. Isn’t this Tara? Nevermind, is Dawn there?”

“Janice, right?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s officially been grounded as of a minute ago, and I need the phone line open, so bye.” With nothing else, she slammed down the phone.

~*~*~

Tara dropped her arm as if the cell phone had suddenly become a brick. With a heavy sigh she shook her head. “Busy….”

This was getting absurd. But Tara knew she had to keep at it. Switching bodies was never good. Sure Willow could handle being at home with Dawn, but Tara here and with the computer stuff. No…this was not good at all, and needed to be solved quickly. She pressed on and pressed 3, the next number on speed dial.

~*~*~

Willow wasn’t waiting for Dawn to bring down the stuff, she need to vent and she need to vent now. She pressed 3 on Tara’s cell.

“Hello.”

“Buffy, Thank the Gods.”

“Willow, hold on a minute, I’m on the other line.”

“Wait…” was all Willow could say before the click and silence. But she couldn’t help wonder outloud, “How’d you know it was me.”

Shortly the click happened again and Buffy spoke.

“’Kay got you on conference call. Tara got to me first, explained everything she knew. How are things on your end Will?”

“Dawn used a spell.”

“I’m gonna guess that is what her project was….”

“And…” Buffy inquired.

“She’s bringing me all the stuff she used….”

There was a long pause, while sounds came from the Summers’ home end of the conversation, some rustling about and dropping of things.

“Tara?”

“Yeah?”

“Remind me to secure our room better, she used one of our books…..” Some rustling of pages were heard before Willow continued. “Here we go...” There was a pause as Willow skimmed the book… “Paths diverged…divulged” She mumbled some of the spells incantation “…Oh damn. Well there is good news and bad news…”

“What?” came from both Buffy and Tara.

“The spell wears off in 24 hours.” said Willow.

“So, what is the bad news?” Replied Tara.

“So, what is the good news?” Replied Buffy at the same time.

“Well, you both are not wrong….Good news is that we can just let it run its course. We don’t really have to do anything. The bad news is I’ve got important stuff to do to tomorrow and well Tara, I love you but you aren’t exactly computer savvy, and I’m supposed to give a presentation and answer questions tomorrow and how are we going to do this….I mean…

“Wow, so that is what Tara would sound like if she babbled.” Buffy comment was enough to put a stop on Willow’s rant.

“Willow, is there any way to get out of it. Can I call in sick or something?”

“No can do, the big boss is only available tomorrow, it was tough to schedule in the first place.”

There was silence on the phone as all three Scoobies pondered the next move.

“Willow, please calm down, I can feel you stressing out from here.”

“Really, so are you guys like still linked or something?” asked Buffy.

“We’ve always been linked, but this is kind of weird. Tara can always tell what I’m feeling, and I can usually tell what she is feeling. But being Tara is completely different.”

“Yeah, we are going to need to have a conversation when we get switched back, and probably when you get back home, face to face.”

“Uh oh, what did I do?” Willow responded.

“No I don’t think she means it like that, do you Wil…I mean Tara. This is confusing it is like hearing you both talk about yourselves in third person, but you’re not. Anyways, this sort of situation warrants a need for talking afterwards. Remember my switcheroo? That was an experience….” Buffy said.

“So what are we going to do?” Tara asked.

“Look I’ll get the LA crew here to look into more, if you give me some of the details Will, and we’ll see if anything comes up before your meeting tomorrow. I would suggest that you two work out the presentation details. Tara you should be prepared to give this presentation if it comes to that. I’m sure Willow has everything lined out….”

“In different colored pens.” quipped Tara.

“…And as long as you stick with the presentation and avoid the questions I think we can pull this off.” continued Buffy.

“Go Buffy with the plan, yeah I think we can do this. Tara, would that be alright with you? You’ve met most of my co-workers but I can fax you some other information. And all the presentation stuff is on my laptop along with a paper copy in my briefcase.”

“See, no problems. I’ll get a hold of you in the morning and see if there is an update on any information. Willow if you find anything else that might help us here, let me know.” said Buffy.

After information was passed between the girls, Willow hung up Tara’s cell phone and slumped down on the sofa. She looked across to a very nervous Dawn sitting in the chair across from her.

“This is bizarre.” commented Dawn.

“And it is all your fault.” Willow said giving her a proper Willow glare.

“See, a Willow glare on Tara’s face. I can’t handle this…. Look, I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I just wanted you to be home for a short while. And since you two are always making sacrifices on my behalf I just wanted to do something in return.”

Willow could tell that Dawn was sincere. And as much as she wanted to be mad at the girl, she could only remember the time when she was young and ‘spells going awry, friends in danger’ was common. Good intentions were there, but sometimes that led to…well you know the line.

“I’m going to forgive you. But if I get fired or something really bad happens, we’ll see the tables turned. I’ll switch you with Buffy.”

“That would be cool.”

“Okay Superpowers bad, I’ll switch you with Anya instead….”

“Okay, point taken.”

“But for now, your punishment is research. We need to see if we can reverse this, or at least figure out why the spell went wrong in the first place. I’ve got some work stuff to take care first but we’ll see this taken care.”

“Don’t worry Tare…Uh, Willow, it’ll work out. It always does.”

~*~*~

Willow found herself waking up on the couch, books spread out along the coffee table. She heard a crash in the kitchen, a noise she was sure that had waken her up in the first place. When she stirred enough from the couch, she had caught sight of herself and remembered their current predicament. Just a few more hours before her meeting, and they hadn’t gotten anywhere closer. She hoped Buffy would be calling soon.

Dawn exited from the kitchen carrying a tray of pancakes and coffee.

“Its okay Dawn you don’t have to keep trying to make it up, especially with cooking.”

“I know they aren’t Tara pancakes but she has been working with me to make them better. And coffee, strong….just the way you like it.”

Willow decided it would be best to eat something. Often when she was stressed she’d forget to eat until Tara would remind her. While that was okay in her own skin, she figured it would not be best to do that to Tara.

She took a sip of the strong coffee and enjoyed the caffeine rushing through her body….well not her body but Tara’s body.

“Dawn, could you put some milk in this.”

“But you don’t drink milk in your coffee…”

“Tara does, and I don’t want her getting back into her body with a tummy ache. So just do it.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Dawn popped up and ran into the kitchen.

Willow sighed, she really missed Tara…Having her body here only made it worse. She was here but not. They were together but not. It was strange….all she wanted to do was hear Tara’s voice. And she could hear it when she spoke but it wasn’t the same. Willow couldn’t say things the way Tara could.

She was so off in her own thoughts she didn’t even know the phone had rang until Dawn was standing with a carton of milk in one hand and the phone handed out to her in the other.

“Buffy?”

“Tara.”

Willow grabbed the phone quickly.

“Hey I was just thinking about you.”

“Hey Sweetie. Dawn was just telling me she made pancakes. I’m glad to know you are eating.”

“Yeah I was having one of those What Would Tara Do moments.”

“So have we heard anything?” Tara asked.

“No…Not yet.”

“Okay well we still have a bit. I was thinking about going for a swim, maybe calm the nerves before I present your information, but seeing as I’m you I just wanted to let you know.”

“Oh, go ahead Tara. Anything you need to do to mentally prepare, go right on ahead. I trust your judgement with my body, even when you are not in it.”

“You didn’t bring a suit did you?”

“Uh…no. The only reason I usually do is because you pack it for me.”

“Well, I’ll just go buy you one.” There was a pause, “Hmm…Might be a few problems with that though.”

“What?”

“I might spend too much time in the dressing room trying them on, checking you out in the mirror.”

“Hey now!”

“Just kidding…..I think.”

“Okay well, you have a good swim, and as soon as I get a hold of Buffy, well I guess we’ll leave you messages. The meeting is at 2 and I’ll call you by 1 with information or lack of information either way okay?”

“That is fine. I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

“Bye.”

As Tara hung up the phone, there was a knock on the hotel room door.

~*~*~

Another hour passed in the Summers’ household as a frustrated Willow in Tara’s body and Dawn flipped through the spell book one more time, when the phone had finally rang.

“Buffy?”

“Yep, I’ve figured it out. Looks like it is my fault.”

“Actually it’s Dawn’s fault.” The comment got a sad look from the girl.

“Yes, but I mean the reason it went wrong is because of Slayer energies. Whether it is because of Dawn being related, you being a part of the enjoining spell, or merely because you have been in contact with me we are not sure. But I can reverse it, I just have to do the spell.”

“Really, it is that simple?”

“Yeah, kinda funny huh?”

“I’ll find the humour in it later, now quick make with the magics girlie.”

“Hold your horses Will. We’re gonna need another hour to set up here. So transformation is approximately 1 o’clock. Can you call Tara and let her know the sitch….”

“Yes I will. Bye.”

“Bye.”

After leaving a message on the cell phone, Willow sat and waited.

~*~*~

“My goodness that was the longest hour I’ve ever had.” Willow said out loud in her own voice.

“No kidding.” Replied John.

Willow looked around and realised that she was in a bar, with a drink on the table and her co-worker John sitting across from her. She checked her watch. It was one o’clock. What in the world were they doing in a bar! She began frantically searching for her cell phone.

“Hey, you okay there?” John asked.

“I can’t find my cell phone. I was…er Tara was supposed to call me.”

“You probably forgot to grab it. We were in a bit of a rush. I really hate it when the higher ups think it is okay to jerk us around and change the times, but if we request a change we get threatened. But thanks to you we impressed the hell out of them. Not only do we have this huge new account, we also have new found respect. A little higher up on the food chain. I’ve got to say that was very graceful of you today, different than your usual style but it worked so hey, not gonna complain right?”

“What?” Willow just stared blankly at him. It was all just too much. They already had the meeting? She wanted to ask questions about how it went, but she knew she couldn’t, he’d think she was nuts.

“I’m beginning to think the stress is getting to you. Tell you what. I think I can take the care of the rest here. Why don’t you pack up and get the hell out of here and go home to your honey. Tell her I say ‘Hi’ alright?”

Willow was out of there in the blink of an eye.

~*~*~

Willow made her way through the Sunnydale airport heading straight towards the line of taxis. She wanted to show up and surprise Tara, only to her surprise Tara was standing outside with a big grin on her face. They embraced tightly.

“How did you…” Willow asked letting go only enough to see Tara’s face through her own eyes.

“I may have made a few pointed comments towards John.” she smiled wickedly.

Willow pressed her lips to Tara’s as they tightened up their hold once more. They released and headed towards the car.

“How’s Dawn?” Willow asked.

“I scolded her, but then un-grounded her and sent her to Janice’s.”

Willow paused taking in the information. Tara began to worry Willow would be upset about her decision. But she knew they were in for some serious conversation when they got back and it would be best if they were alone.

“Tara,” Willow began quite seriously. “When we get home you are in for a tongue lashing.”

“Look, I know you are probably still upset with Dawn but…” Tara trailed off when she noticed the wicked smile Willow was now sporting.

“Oh…” Tara replied with understanding and a bit of shock. “Ohhh….” She said again returning her half-smile. “Vixen.”

They got in the car and sped off quickly.

The End

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All you need are student loans and a sense of destiny. - A friend of a friend
I’m looking forward to taking your shirt off tonight – Willow First Date by Foomatic
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Both of those stories were brilliant

Watson: A rubber duck that's also a vibrator? now I've seen everything (Well everything apart from a man eating his own head that is)

The call with Buffy was really funny Just how do you ask if someone can smell when you've had sex?

WiccanBotanist Naughty Dawn, she should have realised that something like that wouldn't go as planned.

The ending was great well who wouldn't want a tongue lashing from Willow?

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02/28/2007