Title: No, I still don't have an official title. Shocking, no?
Author: TwiLightJoy/Joy C
Email: twi_light64@hotmail.com
Distribution: Email me, and I will say yes.
Feedback: Thanks much to everyone who's been hanging around waiting (and waiting and waiting ad infinitum) for this part, your feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated.
Setting: The morning following the last chapter. In other words, it's Christmas Day in Season 3.
Other Stuff: Chapter 39 begins Part 5, Fairy Tales. Yes, I finally got around to writing again. Slow, and a week later than I'd hoped, but still going. Let me know what you think!
Chapter 39Tara lay on her left side, slowly awakening. She was first aware of something tickling her nose, and a weight on her left arm. Then she realized she had her arms around something. Something warm and breathing and Willow-scented. Willow. All at once the memories and feelings rushed into her ever more alert mind. The stars. The snow. The kiss. And then, once the unusually cold weather had gotten to them, they had come inside to warm up. This, luckily, had involved quite a lot of snuggling and quiet conversation in front of the fireplace. It hadn’t been a dream. It had all been real.
Carefully, not wanting to wake the redhead, Tara moved her hand from where it rested on Willow’s soft, flat belly up to try to tuck the tickling locks of her girlfriend’s hair away from her nose for a bit. Wait,
girlfriend? Was it too soon for that, maybe? What if Willow changed her mind? What if she just wanted to be friends after all? And why couldn’t Willow’s hair just behave itself? Finally, seeing no other options, the taller girl shifted her weight and rolled reluctantly onto her back. This was … well … a bit uncomfortable, since Willow had decided that Tara’s arm made a rather nice pillow.
“No, come back, I need my umbrella to protect me from the midget frogs,” a quiet and nearly indecipherable mumble followed. An arm groped about blindly in an attempt to get her “umbrella” back, finally finding a hold on Tara’s hip and tugging insistently. Tara suppressed her laughs and rolled back onto her side, brushing through Willow’s hair with her free hand.
“Willow? You awake?”
“Mmm. No, still sleepy,” came the reply after a moment’s consideration of this question. “Snuggle me.”
The Wiccan grinned and tucked Willow’s hair back, then wrapped her arm around the slender waist of the one she adored, her hand slipping beneath the white tank top the other girl had slept in. “So what’s this about midget frogs?” She could feel Willow’s small body tense, and snuggled closer in response. “It’s okay, I’ll be your umbrella as long as you want me to.”
“How did you know?” the redhead asked, sounding much more awake. “I mean, about the umbrella and the … the frogs?”
At this, Tara had to chuckle. “You kind of mumbled about it. I think you were barely awake. I moved and I must have woke you up.” Her thumb slowly rubbed circles around Willow’s bellybutton, eliciting a giggle from the petite witch. The fair-haired girl immediately ceased the motion, but within a few heartbeats a small hand covered hers, gently prodding her thumb.
“It tickles, but … I like it. It’s a good tickle.” Willow rolled onto her back and turned her head so she could face Tara. “You don’t have to stop. I don’t want you to stop.” The hand that had been covering Tara’s moved up to the blonde’s shoulder, her other hand trailing slowly up and back down Tara’s forearm. “I think this is perfect. Like a happy ending, only it’s more of a beginning, right?” Her smile was breathtakingly beautiful. “I’m just sorry that I … that it took me so long to see. Things haven’t been the easiest to figure out, but you’ve been there every time I needed someone. You were the one who got me to trust myself.”
Tara felt her face flush with warmth. “I, I didn’t do anything special. You would have worked through everything on your own.” Her fingers had once again begun caressing the warm flesh of Willow’s stomach beneath the white tank, savoring the tactile sensation. She watched as Willow’s eyes drifted closed in pleasure.
“Mmm. But how long would it have taken me to notice?” the flame-haired young woman queried. “You probably would have long since gotten bored with me and gotten together with Amy or something.”
A hearty laugh followed. “Amy?” she managed once she could speak. “No, no, no. Amy’s not-”
Puzzled, Willow said, “But she goes to the meetings?”
“She goes with
Michael. And by the way, I doubt I’d ever get bored with you.” One blue eye closed in a playful wink. “It’s not just for the gay kids, a bunch of Larry’s friends go, too,” Tara explained, toying with the drawstring on Willow’s pajama bottoms. “It’s for people who care about the issues effecting the gay community, whether they’re gay or straight or bi or whatever. We didn’t really have a group in my old school, so it’s good to have a place to go and know people care instead of just saying that we’re going to hell.”
Willow couldn’t hide her surprise. “People actually
told you that?” she asked, shifting around until she was face to face with Tara, propped up on her right side.
“Well, yeah, some have.” She shrugged. “Personally, I never really believed in that. But what’s the Hellmouth, then? It’s not like, the literal, Biblical version of Hell?”
The smaller girl frowned. “As far as we can tell, it’s a portal to a place not too different. It’s got big nasty demons and fire and all that. But I go with the theory that there are just a bunch of different worlds, different dimensions. There are supposed to be spells or certain things someone can do to open the doors up, if they can find the right place. When Buffy sent Angel to hell, I think he was in another dimension where he was just … tormented. I think it’s more about Good versus Evil, day to day. Buffy and Giles and Xander and us, we fight for Good. We never really win, but we fight. There’s probably always gonna be Evil around, even after we’re all … gone.”
Tara shook her head. “Well, I’m thinking this isn’t a really good snuggling topic any more, so … why don’t we get back to this later? I’m sure we can keep ourselves occupied.”
“And how do you propose we do that, Miss Maclay?”
“Oh, I have a few ideas….” Tara laughed and leaned over to capture Willow’s lips once more.
“Mmm. Good idea,” Willow sighed.
Joy: The shapeshifter scared the poo outta me when it first came on!!!!!
tk: this whole speech about going back..wayyyyy back, to the beginning
Joy: the real beginning ... hopefully not the movie....