My apologies for the incredibly long delay. I’ll try to get the next (and last) part updated in a much more timely manner.
Wallflower - Thanks and don’t worry about missing the feedback. Yes, everyone has it figured out. And yes to starting out (although not necessarily slow – ha ha). Thanks for the birthday wishes.
Natti - Yep, the bad time is definitely over. Glad you liked and yes to more smoochies. Enjoy.
Title – School Days
Part 26 – First Date
Author – JustSkipit - Debra
Spoilers – Geez! Even in Europe, the show has been off the air for a year. If you haven’t seen any given episode, you aren’t really trying. Nonetheless…
Rating – Part 26 – R!
Note - Thanks to Washi for again hosting my new Ashvatar.
Note - I’ve said it before but I don’t mind being redundant: VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. This election is incredibly important! Let your voice be heard. (My apologies to those to whom this doesn’t apply).
Disclaimer – Guess what… I don’t own W&T, Buffy or the rest of the BtVS crew. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental and fortunate.
Thoughts in italicsWillow pulled into the dirt driveway, her eyes opening in shock as she took in the crowd of vehicles lining the grass and dirt. “Ok, is the president visiting and I missed the news bulletin?” she muttered to herself. The six identical black Suburbans with tinted windows certainly gave the impression of a figurehead on vacation with his secret service agents but why would he be here? In comparison to the major testosterone load, Giles’s red convertible looked particularly middle-aged-crisisy.
The redhead parked her Jeep at the end of one of the rows of SUVs and grabbed her cell phone and keys before locking the door. She idly wondered how many people could possibly fit in Tara’s apartment. Upon reaching the door she heard an unmistakable English accent.
Watcher’s council, she concluded as she knocked quietly.
Apparently no one heard either the first or the second knock so she pulled the door open and allowed her gaze to roam around the room looking for Tara, Faith, or Giles. Giles sat on the sofa with an older man while other men and women stood around the room looking British and stuffy. The man on the sofa was the same one who had been speaking when Willow approached and he didn’t pause as she stepped inside and allowed the door to close behind her. Tara smiled at her from her position on the other side of the room. Faith and Tara stood in front of their kitchen table and the Slayer had her arms crossed defensively over her chest.
“Do you just let anyone in to discuss council business, Rupert?” the older man now challenged.
“This is Willow Rosenberg,” Giles returned, “I hardly think she’ll be shocked by anything you have to say.”
“Yeah,” Faith added, “and a quick look at the clock tells me that Red is here for her date so maybe you kids should just head home for the evening.”
“Miss Rosenberg,” the man greeted her stiffly, “I’m sure Miss Maclay won’t mind your waiting in your car for a few more minutes.”
“I’m sure Miss Maclay would want to point out that Miss Rosenberg was invited,” Faith again argued, “while you were not.” She added, “And she’s on time which we know is crucial for a first date.” She smiled at the redhead who blushed furiously.
“Are we f-finished?” Tara asked, noting the way both Faith and certain of the watchers seemed to be losing their tempers.
“I believe so,” the speaker, who Willow later found out was Quentin Travers, agreed. He pointed at a man standing near the sofa and explained, “This is Mr. Spoon. He will be your new watcher.”
Faith opened her mouth to speak but before she could Tara began: “No he won’t.”
“Excuse me?” Travers asked.
“What’s your n-name?” Tara asked a woman standing near the front door of the apartment.
“April Cheeves,” the woman answered somewhat timidly and with a glance to Travers.
“Miss Cheeves or Mr. Giles will be Faith’s watcher,” Tara explained.
“Or no one,” Faith added.
Travers inhaled loudly before standing and moving toward the two girls. “I appreciate your input,” he said. “It was lovely to meet you both,” he said as warmly as Willow imagined he had the capacity to and extended his hand to them.
Both girls shook hands with Travers and he turned and left the room. Moments later, Giles, Tara, Faith, and Willow heard the convoy of vehicles drive away. “Well done,” Giles attempted to assure the girls, “and for the record I appreciate your including me on your list of acceptable watchers.”
Faith nodded at the watcher and turned to Tara. “I’m going to patrol with Buffy later, T,” she assured the blonde and then went into her room shutting the door behind her.
“Well,” Giles said, “I guess that is my cue to leave. I hope you girls enjoy your evening.”
“Thank you Mr. Giles,” Tara answered.
“Thanks, Giles,” Willow agreed as she walked over to the blonde. Without censoring herself Willow quickly leaned in to kiss Tara and felt the affection returned. “Hi,” she whispered as she leaned their foreheads together.
“Right then,” Giles said as he cleared her throat. “I’ll be going. Thank you for having us here Tara,” he mumbled as he let the door slam behind him.
“He’ll be cleaning his glasses before he even gets to his car,” Tara whispered.
“No doubt,” Willow agreed as she again brought her lips to the blonde’s. Finally, Tara pulled away with a frustrated sigh.
“I’m impressed that you’re on time,” she started, “b-but I didn’t expect the w-watchers and …”
“You’re hungry and want to get going?” Willow teased.
Tara giggled at Willow’s question. “I thought I’d take a quick shower and change clothes. Do you mind?” Willow shook her head and her eyes glazed over slightly at the thought of Tara in the shower.
Naked Tara. Naked Wet Tara“Willow?” Tara asked again as she wondered just where the redhead’s brain might have gone.
“Oh sorry,” Willow said blushing as she realized that Tara was trying to get her attention. As she noted the way the blonde’s eyebrow was raised slightly in a curious and suspicious way she explained, “I was just … um … I’m so glad you’re not a student.”
Tara laughed again as her suspicions of the nature of Willow’s thought pattern were confirmed. She leaned in and kissed the girl before telling her, “Help yourself to a drink while I get ready.”
Willow looked around the apartment again as she took a seat on the couch. The room wasn’t dirty, just run down looking. Looking for something to keep her busy she focused on the journal on the table. Just as she was picking it up, the door to Faith’s room opened. Willow smiled at the Slayer before returning her attention to the journal. It took a few seconds for her to realize that Faith had joined her on the couch. “Um hi, Faith?” Willow said as the intensity of the dark-haired girl made her uneasy.
“I’ve been thinking of how to say this,” Faith started. “I thought about being subtle or bringing over some weapons and sharpening them while being less subtle,” she continued. “But finally I decided to be direct.”
“Hard to imagine you ever aren’t direct, Faith,” Willow answered shakily.
“Tara is my best friend and the only family I have,” the dark-haired slayer told Willow, “if you hurt her I will come after you and make you very sorry.” She stood up from the couch and patted the stunned redhead on the shoulder. “Have a great time tonight,” she said cheerily before reentering her room and closing the door.
The redhead sat on the couch and tried to control her breathing. She had just been blatantly and directly threatened by a Slayer. Not that she was planning on hurting Tara, but this pretty much cemented the whole “don’t hurt Tara” plan. As she looked at her watch and saw that Tara would still be a few more minutes, she decided to look through the witch’s journal after all. She didn’t look up until she heard the door to Tara’s room open.
Willow looked up and smiled as she saw the blonde coming forward. She was wearing a pair of white jeans and a royal blue top. Her hair was pulled back from her face and Willow noted that she had even put on a little makeup. “Wow,” the redhead breathed as she stood up and wiped her hands on her own jeans.
Tara smiled flirtatiously. “Hey baby,” she whispered before wrapping the redhead in a hug. As she was enjoying the contact, her stomach started growling.
“Very romantic,” Willow joked in the blonde’s ear.
“Well,” Tara purred, “you did say you wanted to take me on a date before we made love.”
Willow gulped audibly. “Right,” she said in a high pitched voice as she stepped back but kept one hand in Tara’s.
“See you later, Faith,” Tara called toward her roommate’s closed door and the two witches stepped outside. Seeing Willow’s car at the end of the driveway, Tara apologized: “Sorry about the Watcher’s parking lot.”
“That’s ok,” Willow assured her as she opened her door to let Tara in, “I’d walk much longer than that for a date with you.”
“Sweet talker,” Tara accused as Willow got in her side of the car.
“Do you like Thai food?” Willow asked. “Because I thought we would go to this nice Thai place but if you don’t like Thai food or you’ve never had it or wanted something else, we can go somewhere else but not Pizza because Buffy and Dawn will likely be there and if we go for Chinese we may run into Xander and Anya and Giles really likes Shoneys, which I can’t understand at all because everything there tastes like everything else but then he’s English and what did the Watcher’s council want?”
Tara laughed—a full rich laugh as she leaned lightly against the door of the car, keeping her hand on Willow’s and watching the girl’s adorable profile. “Thai food sounds great,” she assured the girl. “You know,” she started, “’welcome to being a slayer. Thanks for the good slays. Rah rah rah.”
“Woo hoo,” Willow echoed dryly as she pulled into a parking space and jumped out to open Tara’s door.
“No money though,” Tara continued, “thanks for being the Slayer but it doesn’t pay. What do they think that we live on?”
“That’s why Buffy works and is in school and why I live with Buffy and Dawn,” Willow agreed. “I once sent them a persuasive paper attempting to convince them that the Slayer needs a stipend but they gave Buffy a whole ‘Destiny doesn’t pay’ speech.”
“I want to come back to w-why you live with Buffy and Dawn,” Tara said as they sat at the table, “but they did make an offer.”
“What kind of offer?” Willow asked.
“They want to buy my journals,” Tara explained, “apparently they can’t pay Faith for being a Slayer or me for working with her for two years but they want my journals.”
“Is it a good offer?” Willow asked.
Tara smile. “I could pay off all but $3000 of our student loans,” Tara nodded.
“You should negotiate for the last $3000,” Willow said excitedly, “but it’s a fantastic offer either way.” She lifted her water glass to toast: “Congratulations, baby. I mean Tara. Not baby because I probably shouldn’t call you baby yet so Congratulations, Tara.”
Tara clinked her glass against the redhead’s, thinking that she was falling more and more in love with the girl’s babbling, “You can call me b-baby,” she whispered before taking a drink.
“Excuse me,” the waiter said quietly, “I thought you might like a bottle of wine since you are obviously celebrating.” He held out the wine menu before settling on handing it to Willow.
Willow looked over the menu before selecting a wine. She pointed at her selection on the card and was pleased to see Tara nod. Turning to the waiter she again repeated her selection and was shocked as the man asked to see her identification. Her stammered lie that she had left her ID in the car brought a raised eyebrow from Tara but the blonde smoothly showed the waiter her own card. As he walked off with a promise to return momentarily with the bottle Tara asked skeptically, “You left your ID in the car?”
Willow grinned embarrassedly. “Um, well, I’m not exactly completely totally 21 yet,” she whispered.
“How not exactly?” Tara asked with a suspicious glance.
“I graduated from high school a year early and finished college in three years,” Willow explained, “so I won’t be 21 until Halloween.”
“Your birthday is on Halloween?” Tara confirmed.
“Yep,” Willow said, “the big 21!”
Tara smiled as she remembered, “that’s why you said you weren’t old enough to drink that night at the B-bronze.”
“Oh yeah,” Willow remembered, “no wonder you thought I was a student.”
“Right,” Tara agreed, “you’re not a student; you’re a brilliant teacher who graduated from MIT at age 20 and then moved in with her best friend to help raise the friend’s sister.” She leaned across the table and lightly kissed the girl on the lips. “No wonder I’m falling in love with you,” she whispered.
As the blonde leaned back she noted the way Willow was opening and closing her mouth as if she couldn’t think of words. Just as it appeared at the girl was about to speak the waiter approached and asked for their orders. Tara ordered a Tofu dish extra spicy while Willow ordered a chicken curry and vegetarian appetizers for them.
Still nervous from Tara’s earlier pronouncement, Willow changed subjects: “So no male watcher for Faith huh? Well, not counting Giles that is.”
Tara got a serious set to her jaw as she nodded, “There’s no way Faith is going to t-take orders from some pseudo-father-figure.”
“That bad?” Willow asked.
“Her father, her childhood was…,” Tara trailed off. “Mr. Giles or Ms. Cheeves or we go on free-lance.”
Willow noted the way the blonde’s anger radiated off her in waves. Taking a chance she suggested, “Yours too? I mean father issues.”
Tara smiled slightly as she noted Willow’s sensitivity. “Definite father issues,” she agreed. “As Inigo Montoya says, ‘Let me splain. No takes too long; let me sum up.’” She did a very bad Spanish accent which brought a smile to Willow’s face. She took a sip of the wine before explaining, “By the time I was 8, I understood that the Maclay family had a secret: the women in our family were all demons.”
“What?” Willow asked, incredulously. She wondered how this incredible, beautiful person could possibly be a demon.
You’d think Xander would have wanted to go out with her? she thought sarcastically as she tried to recover from the shock of Tara’s admission.
Tara waited for the waiter to set down their plates and leave before continuing her story. “Yep, all demons. All of us. My f-father made it clear that it was something to be very ashamed about. He also let me know that the men in the family had a responsibility to control the demon.” Willow nodded to let her date know that she could continue. “He had some particularly… persuasive methods of controlling the demon.”
“Oh God,” Willow gasped as she reached out to hold Tara’s hand. She was surprised to see the blonde smile.
“But,” Tara continued, “my mother explained the Maclay family heritage to me. The women in my family weren’t demons: we’re witches.” She took a bite and savored the flavor before telling Willow, “My father and brother thought they could control us with violence.”
“But?” Willow raised an eyebrow as she listened to Tara’s story.
“You know the three-fold law?” Tara asked before finishing her story: “A simple shielding spell and a prayer for a three-fold return for their actions.” She smiled somewhat victoriously: “My father and brother always seemed to have a lot of accidents. Eventually they forgot to discipline me.” She concluded her tale: “I left for college and never went back.”
“Not even to visit your mother?” Willow asked before remembering that Tara’s mother had died four years earlier. “Oh God,” she gasped, “I’m so sorry baby. I forgot that…”
Tara pulled the redhead’s hands toward her and slowly kissed her fingertips. “Thanks, Willow,” she whispered, “but let’s not c-concentrate on that tonight.”
Willow nodded but didn’t pull away her hands, enjoying the Tara’s soft breath on her skin. After a moment, both girls smiled and giggled as they glanced at their cooling food. They dropped hands and picked up their chopsticks. A few minutes passed as they talked about their Halloween responsibilities and Willow related the tale of the year that all the kids turned into their costumes.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Spike said as he quickly turned the third chair at their table around and sat straddling the back.
Tara’s hand tightened about her chopstick as she turned it with the point facing outward. She was surprised to hear Willow address the vampire. “Spike,” the redhead hissed, “great I thought I had planned everyone to avoid tonight.”
“Very cute, Red,” Spike said, obviously assessing Tara. “You must be the witch who works with the new Slayer.”
“Is there a reason we’re not staking him?” Tara asked Willow.
“Another long story,” Willow said with a frown. “He’s harmless.”
“Hey, give a bloke a little respect,” the blonde vampire argued.
“Why don’t we respect your leaving,” Tara suggested.
“Right, right, right,” Spike muttered as she stood from the table, taking his to-go container with him. He pointed at Tara telling her, “Let your Slayer know I’m on your side.”
“He really is,” Willow agreed as she saw Tara’s raised eyebrow. Looking down she realized that both girls had finished their dinners. Neither felt hungry enough for desert and they decided to leave the restaurant. “Do you want to walk for a while?” the redhead offered.
The two girls slowly strolled through downtown Sunnydale. The city was nearly deserted as most people had learned not to venture forth after dark.
Nearing the car again, Willow felt surprised as Tara suddenly pressed her against the car. The blonde stroked Willow’s arms from the shoulders to the hands and back up. Slowly she moved closer, insinuating her knee between the redhead’s knees. Her lips brushed the shorter girl’s ear as she whispered, “Now you’ve taken me on a date. What would you like to do?” punctuating the question by slowly tracing her tongue along the other girl’s neck.
Willow moaned as she felt Tara’s flirtatious question, followed by the lick on her neck. She could feel her heart beating as she grasped the other girl’s hips in her fingers. Unsure of her ability to speak coherently she merely gasped, “Yes.”
Tara took a step back and smiled sexily as she reached toward the key fob in Willow’s hand, clicking to unlock the doors and reaching for the handle. Just as her hand touched the metal she realized that Willow had snapped from her trance. She quickly opened the door and let Tara in before racing around the car. She quickly started the car and smiled slyly at the blonde as she pulled from the restaurant lot and drove toward Tara’s apartment.
MoveOn.Org
American Civil Liberities Union
Human Rights Campaign
by Insanity » Sun Sep 19, 2004 4:13 am 
the whole time 
Then all of the gang each coming forward with their thoughts about the Tara being a college student. 
I take it you were pleased then? It seems so. I’m glad it was funny. Yes, there will be more. 
Thanks for the birthday wishes. Thanks for all your comments. 
Yay! That was brilliant and so funny how they all worked it out but w & t were a little too fast for them. 
, after Will knew they all were trying to tell her, plain 
next update.
rofl...its so great to see that everyone trys to help them and found out that Tara isnt a student etc...it was just so hilarious to read their reactions....hmm cant wait for the next update, cuz that means more smoochies, more kisses and their first date oh and of course maybe even slow and hot sex
BTW, the date is lovely, except for Spike's cameo appearance.
