Ladies and Gentlemen... we are done.
Below is Part 103... The finale as I was calling it for so long. More on that I am sure after you guys get to see it. I hope you find it worthy of the journey.
Babeeliv - Life stuff always gets in the way. Thanks so much for popping in to say that. Multiple reads? Now there is a scary thought!
Kerry - Those 24 hours are up... Kitty Pulitzers. LOL. You did spill some beans there though. Chocs and wine are better as you say...
Interesting sig you have there Kerry... in context.
Jo - WAAAH! I made you get up at 7? (never mind I was five minutes from work then!) and then I did not post? Sorry... I am sick with a cold and couldn't finish beta last night. I like mornings though... if you wanna write with me you go to get up!
Party favours? Ooooh. *Imagining Celia scampering with one of those*
Here it is then... I can see you are online... or Ruth is... or you left your broadband on...
So you might get it... but I know another kitten who is going to reply first. In 103 parts... she never managed it. This time we got it rigged!
Enjoy it kittens
Katharyn
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Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle - A Step into Us (Part 103)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome.
katharynrosser@hotmail.comSpoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe though reference is made to events that occur in both realities.
Summary: What can I say… the girls look to the future and each other.
Disclaimer: I still don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc, etc. I am making zilch from this series of stories.
Rating: 15
Couples: T/W – It’s always been the whole damn point. Didn’t I always say?
Notes: This is really it… I suppose that I could wax lyrical here about it all, and maybe I will if I come back to this, but I figure it is better placed in the thread – after you guys get to have your say. I mean who is reading this but anyway?
Thanks To: Every Kitten that ever there was. The Mods, those that help me out, those that read, those that feed back, those that lurk. Everyone.
Oh, Amber and Aly too.
I mean where would be without them?
The Sidestep Chronicle
A Step Into Us
By
Katharyn Rosser
Water blasted down on the back of her head. That was good. There was nothing worse than a weak, dribbling, shower that barely got someone wet before the water went all cold. And washing her long hair in a shower like that…
She’d had to do it more than once and if she was going to stay here then she wanted something which was going to soak her and keep her warm at the same time.
I am, she admitted to herself, ]I]a shower ho.[/i] And proud of it too. She’d been in here about ten minutes already and there was no sign of the heat slacking off – though that might change tomorrow when there were far more people making demands of the tank. She’d have to see about that then though. For now Tara was just enjoying herself.
She rested her hands against the door of the cubicle and leaned forwards on them appreciating the water smashing against her back, flowing like rivers along the easiest course her body offered to it. It was a pleasant sort of pain where it struck her, massaging her skin as the trickles tickled her in other places. She just adored the wet heat. It was all steamy too. There was so much power there and it was so perfectly natural.
She shifted a little, standing straight again so that she could squeeze some shampoo into her hands, stroking it into and beginning to massage both her skull and her long hair. She liked being wet… it was so slippery.
And warm.
They could have lived in town at the apartment that Mayor had transferred into her name before his death, but as Willow had put it when she’d mentioned that idea - doing it that way would have missed out on the whole ‘college roomies’ thing. Even if they had been living together for so long anyway. Here they were just another pair of girls sharing a room and, as some of those girls were, they were in love. Plus there were going to be other people here in the dorm – people who didn’t know who they were, what they could do or what they’d done in the past.
There was a clean slate to be had here when they all started to arrive – all those other people.
It was also kind of an adventure. This was their first day in their new home and most of it, so far, had been spent getting sweaty and dirty moving in, moving things around and then cleaning the place up after a summer of neglect cleaning-wise.
Dorms. Tara liked them already.
Dorm showers right now, and she approved of those too. She tipped her head back into the powerful flow, arching her back to move as she needed to in order to get the job done. The stream of water washed the shampoo out of her hair as she moved her hands through it and when it was free of the lather she slicked it all back again, away from her cheeks. After tipping her head right back to let the water pummel her face for a moment she leaned once more on the door… one handed this time so she could still rub herself down. She was getting a little hot but it felt so damn good.
They had the means to live pretty well, between Tara’s parents insurance, the Mayor’s legacy of the apartment and what was effectively a full scholarship – for her and Willow – as well as Ira’s contribution to Willow’s education, they were a lot better off than most students here ever would be. But they had a lot to make up for and to achieve, in order to try and dilute some of the things that they each felt that they’d done in the past. Without a course book being opened in anger they knew that they couldn’t afford to fail – because if they failed then they couldn’t become all that they could be… and that would mean that they wouldn’t be able to fulfil a promise to help people. The Mayor wanted her to follow her dreams and be a teacher… that was fine but she hadn’t promised it to him – or even to Willow. They’d promised it to everyone – even if ‘everyone’ would never know about that. Hopefully some would come to realise it – only through their actions though. Those that already knew about their past… and those that would encourage them to make things better in the future.
Tara knew she could do that, be a teacher – if she studied hard and passed all of her exams. It had been a dream of hers anyway, so why wouldn’t she work hard for it? And she couldn’t let any student in her care suffer the taunts she had. At her school she’d only told about her troubles twice. One of the two teachers she’d spoken to had listened politely and done absolutely nothing and the other had actually, later, joined in with mocking her. If her students ever they told her something like that, as she’d told her teachers, then she’d do something about it – even if that were just to be there for them to talk to. She knew that there were limits to what a teacher could do for pupil without the pupil receiving even more taunting than they had already. But that was one little part of what she could do.
Just one tiny thing.
Unwilling to stand up straight again just yet, Tara just squeezed some of the shower gel directly onto her body and, still shielding it from the flow by having her back towards the shower, was able to rub that into her skin before it trickled too far down her already slick flesh, washed away by water that swirled around her curves.
There was almost too much money around for just the two of them, which was why some of it was already in a savings account. That account seemed to mean different things to each of them. Willow was already looking at it as a part of their future and had calculated the compound interest for the next ten years… Tara was of the opinion; still, that Willow’s plan was a definite maybe. She saw it primarily though as their escape money. Just in case. And aside from that there was their post-graduate studies… if she was going to be a teacher then there was likely to be at least a year of training after graduation and Willow was smart enough to find herself in post-graduate school too.
That cost money the Mayor hadn’t provided for. Which was also good. She wouldn’t have wanted him to have paid for it all.
There was just the little matter of passing all of the courses first.
The rest of the money, which they couldn’t justify keeping for themselves, was going to equally into an account for Faith and for Lizzie. It would be nice, they theorised, for Jenny and Mr Giles’ daughter to have some extra when she came of age, to do something special with. And they both wanted to be around at that party… It was a way off yet but they’d be there.
As for Lizzie… The Mayor had been right – she wouldn’t have accepted what he’d left for her, but Tara had been able to get her to go to a clinic that was making things a little easier for her with the illness. There was just no way that she could continue to type though, so they kept sending money to her for ‘looking after the apartment from time to time,’ and mainly to supplement the pension she was receiving already. Lizzie hadn’t really been very impressed with the new Mayor. From what Tara had seen, she had to admit that the new one was ever so slightly different to her predecessor Mayor Wilkins.
From what Tara had seen and what Lizzie had said to her it seemed that the new Mayor regarded the wellbeing of the people of Sunnydale more as an optional extra to economic development in the town. Richard Wilkins III wouldn’t have seen it that way.
On the other hand he’d wanted to become a big demonic snake who would eat the voters. Tara could forgive a lot for not wanting to be a big demonic snake that ate the voters. It was a question of style and priorities. In her own way the new Mayor was doing her best for the people. Instead it was the people as a whole rather than the individual that Lizzie’s final employer had been looking out for.
Without eating them.
It was just different, and with her illness Tara could completely understand Lizzie’s choice to retire.
She wiped her wet forehead. Tara had the impression that it wasn’t just water that was there, she felt as if she should have been sweating – that she was – and when she was sweating she needed to wipe her brow. All wet and hot… that tended to lead her to sweatiness.
She remembered when she’d had to scrabble for money just to buy some food… when there had been no money left for a motel room and she’d been sleeping on cold concrete trying to keep warm in an old sleeping bag. In a basement somewhere. Some city. She’d come a long way since then, but having more money available now was just a symptom of change rather than the cause of it.
Other people were the cause. Other people were the ones she’d been fighting for. Other people had kept her sane… away from the darkness and other people had made mistakes… just as she had.
Good people. Bad people. Willow.
She was going to start to wrinkle if she stayed in here in the shower too much longer but it just felt so good after the day that they’d had. Part of what had sustained them was the thought of being able to have a long shower at the end of the day. And so when they were done it had been pronounced time to test the facilities - after all that sweatiness and dirt – after all they were going to be here for the best part of a year. Besides they’d moved in a day earlier than most students. With her reference from the Mayor, history in and knowledge of Sunnydale as well as being just a little older than most students they’d offered her a position to help guide the newcomers around – which was a little strange as she barely knew the campus at all - aside from the best places to hunt vampires of course.
There was, the Committee Chair had explained, just a lack of enough Post-Graduates though to fill all the roles that a big college needed, so all the second and third year student volunteers were being bumped up a level, organisationally, to get things done. Even the new people were having to get involved – if they knew the town at all. Besides, it could lead to a student counsellor’s role later on – which was something that Tara really wanted to do – if she kept up with her studies well enough to spare the time. It would be a good thing to do. She thought that maybe she could really help that way… there was nothing that said that she had to wait until she’d become a teacher to start that, was there? And of course that was in addition to her other ‘interests.’
With the imminent studies there would be new demands on her time now – the main one in fact, after Willow and the whole madly-in-love thing. She still intended to help Mr Giles to keep Sunnydale safe, not that much beyond the odd vampire had been happening recently according to the Watcher. No matter that they were on a Hellmouth, there were still only twenty-four hours in a day. Plus there was the magic. Willow needed more of the basics down before she could consider trying to do her own thing and that was just the start. Eventually they might get to explore their very different magic together – figure out where it was coming from and why there was a difference between them now.
What Tara had discovered about her own magic had told her that maybe, passing on her mother’s Wiccan based teaching to Willow, she’d been doing some of the right things – but she also knew, instinctively, that Willow would chafe at the limits of that tradition. Willow was a knowledge seeker – always wanting to understand more and branch out into other areas. That was fine, that was good even… It was just that Willow was demonstrating an aptitude and a level of power that suggested that by far the most important thing for her before she did anything more advanced was having an absolute understanding of the rules and the basics of magic. The price that had to be paid, before she could contemplate going beyond them.
Tara wasn't going to let the Darkness ever whisper to Willow, let alone scream in her ear.
Never.
And maybe, Tara had to admit, some of her teaching until her own revelation a couple of months ago had been, not exactly wrong, but not enough to help Willow avoid the darkness. She’d been a little focussed on the magic rather than it’s nature and the other side of it. Willow knew about the responsibility, but knowing wasn't quite understanding and she needed to
understand. Tara’s early teachings, like her mother’s to her, hadn’t been based on the way that things might really be – they were more based on tradition.
The Wiccan Tradition – stressing the link with the natural world was, at least in part, something that had come from what she’d found – or rather what had found her. She was pretty sure of that. That new magic, it felt
old to her – in the same way that a great forest was, or a mountain. Timeless. The Darkness, though patient was always wanting her – in some sort of need. Nature… the song was just there.
Really, if she thought about it, she was pretty much free of traditions now. Instead she was feeling her way – carefully – through such a very natural magic and nature was, by definition, chaotic. Not in a bad way, just a natural way. There were systems, there were laws… but there were also leaves that fell and resulted in a tornado across the other side of the world. Everything was linked together… including her and Willow.
Willow, Mr Giles and Jenny had been helping her with the research side of it, especially since she’d realised what sort of power she actually had access to now, but whilst they’d all managed to find things that seemed to apply to the art as she was coming to understand it, it was all hearsay. There seemed to be no first hand accounts at all. Wicca had tomes… rows and rows of books in a good library, still there was nothing that told her about this new magic she was dealing with.
Mr Giles had even asked the Watcher’s Council, in the name of theoretical research of course, and the Council had offered very little extra to what they’d already discovered. Everyone knew that her sort of magic should exist, or even that it had existed, it was just that no one had bothered to record anything at that time.
Perhaps they had written it down and it was just lost.
Or perhaps it was just a very long time ago and nothing had survived.
The care that she was taking seemed to have impressed both Mr Giles and Willow, her lover all the more as, simultaneously, Tara was teaching her about the dangers of magic. Willow was worried about what the dangers of this new kind of magic were for Tara.
That was okay… Tara was worried about that too. More so because she couldn’t sense them those dangers at all. That might mean that they weren’t there… or that she couldn’t control them… or possibly that they were all sneaky like Miss Kitty when she’d been hunting on the farm.
Quite the vicious, lovely, little kitty was their cat. Like all cats not at all a pet, more of a lodger who allowed herself to be handled in exchange for food, a roof and affection – strictly when Miss Kitty wanted those things. She’d barely been outside much and she’d still known how to do that.
Was there a parallel there? Tara herself just
knew the natural forces…
She tipped her head back again, letting the water spatter into her face, eyes firmly shut but seeing things there, in the backs of her eyelids. Once she’d closed her eyes and it had been like the darkness had been waiting there for her. Now she saw Miss Kitty, she saw Willow. She saw trees and grass. Rivers and oceans. She saw the world as everyone should be able to see it. And it wasn't at all dark.
And she heard the song.
She took a deep breath, it seemed harder to breathe in the steam, but when it was inside her it felt so good. Just wet and heated. Exactly what she needed.
Gradually Tara had found that she even able to replicate the things, through this new – or rather old – magic, things that she’d used to be able to do before. It took a different way of thinking and it meant that she was slower than she had been - at least right now - but with that she didn’t feel that there were any boundaries between good and bad… only what was in her heart and her intent and that was much easier. She didn’t think that this magic would let her be bad… How long had she been worrying if her intent was pure before? And then only to find out that the magic really didn’t care – it just wanted to be out there, through her.
Now the intent was truly everything – but it was solely that which decided if the spell would even work. Magic was no longer something to be used – it used her as often as she it. It was like… It was like the Goddess was working through her – except it was less focused than that. There was no “power” guiding her or giving her anything with wants and needs… there was all of nature and nature just
was. She could open herself up to it, anytime, and hear its song. Nature was everywhere, even where it had adapted to the destructive habits of humans.
Even here in the shower.
And for everything she did with that natural magic there was a price. Instead of that price being fatigue or risking the escape of the darkness though, it was a gain for nature in some way. Willow had jokingly called it “Green Magic” but that wasn’t it at all. It was simply the way it worked for her now. The only way that nature
would interact with her… It wasn't so much a price as a consequence. Sometime what she was trying to do had consequences for nature – and sometimes what nature wanted had a consequence for her. It was confusing and explaining it had been more than half the problem, but it worked. It was a power, but it wasn't scary – at least not scary in a dark way.
And thinking of magic as she was, she dropped her hands to the back of Willow’s head and, stroking the slick, wet, hair – guiding her lovers magic lips and tongue as she gasped again, then sucked in another humidity laden breath. Willow, talented woman that she was, could always read her, and her moment – and Willow always knew just what to do. This might be the last time that they could… here in these showers… could….
“Ohhhh sweetie,” she cried out and didn’t even care who else might be around while she rode the waves of pleasure that Willow’s loving had drawn from her, and she was less than delicate when she clasped that loving mouth tightly to her body as if to share the pleasure through their connection. But Willow knew anyway. Willow always knew. That was why she… at that moment… ohhh.
When the pleasure slipped from her she sank down before Willow, sitting on the tiled floor as the water, cooler after falling the extra distance, continued to wash them down. Her legs were splayed around her kneeling lover just as her they had been for her fingers. She stroked Willow’s face before chose to strain her neck to be able to kiss her deeply. “So that’s the shower broken in,” she commented after their lips parted.
“Only for you,” Willow pointed out.
Tara grinned, “I could have sworn that you were here too baby…” She let a hand drop to Willow’s breasts and tweaked her nipple. “Yeah, there you are. Large as life.”
Willow tipped her head and yes, Tara did know what she meant. She gave Willow a little smile and it said ‘Another time for you love.’
“Some might say that it’s, you know, more traditional to start with the bedroom and the bed,” Willow told her, rubbing Tara’s shoulders as they looked deep into each other’s eyes – and through those into their souls.
“We’ll get to that, besides the dorm will be full tomorrow, so when are we going to get a chance to do this again? Do you really want to get up in the middle of the night?”
Willow looked at her, perhaps deciding about that. Finally she shook her head. “It wouldn’t be an issue if you were quieter,” she said.
Tara just looked at her, a smile on her lips.
“How about every time we want to stop by the nice, cosy, furnished apartment that the Mayor left you perhaps?” Willow suggested with her own smile.
“Oh yeah… there.” It had history, but history was just that. In the past. Not where they were going together.
Willow kissed her again. “Take me to bed… we have some more breaking in to do.”
-------------------------
Sheer indulgence. She was indulging herself in perfection. Tara was perfection to her – she
and Tara more so. More than perfect Was there ever a more perfect moment than right now? Whenever ‘now’ was, as long as it was with Tara then it was perfect.
And this was a pretty special ‘now.’ All things considered.
They hadn’t moved straight away. The suggestion, more like an instruction, that she’d given Tara to renew their passion had just prompted more of that right where they were. Kissing, touching… sliding of hands. Slipping. And then they’d found the limits of the hot water supply. They’d been warned that the boilers had only been turned on late in the afternoon, but they hadn’t thought that it would matter.
Not until the stream of lovely, hot, water had turned into a torrent of tepid and then rapidly cold torture. Still, their towels were warm, if a little damp from the steam they’d absorbed, and that had led to some brisk, playful rubbing before they’d finally run down the corridor to their room and disappeared under the covers with each other. Seeking all kinds of warmth.
Heat hadn’t seemed to be much of an issue then, no matter how cold they’d got in that shower. They’d made their own heat when they’d made love.
Warm enough baby. Right now though Tara was wrapped around her, her head at Willow’s breast. She was just resting there, but there was occasional kissing still going on – and gently, slowly, wandering hands. A reminder of what had been and what was to come… but right now was pretty fine.
Willow ran a hand through her own hair and then reached for Tara’s instead. Hair was nice when it was Tarahair. Pretty much anything was nice when it was Taraanything. “There’s still a Wicca Group you know?” Willow remarked having spotted it in the welcome packs they’d be distributing the next day – without really having had chance to digest it themselves.
She knew what had happened to the last one. They both did. They both remembered. People were resilient like that though… never let a massacre get in the way of organisation. Willow thought it was a good sign that they could even think about that.
“I know,” Tara murmured and snuggled up to her a little more tightly with a deliberately placed kiss.
“Not interested?” Willow guessed. There was a chance that they could do some good there, that Tara could teach the people who chose to sign up something about what Wicca was
really about. It didn’t have to be all bake sales.
“No,” Tara said after a moments thought, “it’s just that you’re the only magical woman I need in my life.”
Naturally more snuggles followed that.
“I don’t think,” Tara told her a few minutes later, “that I can offer them anything that they should have. I knew Wicca – I was taught it – but I left it behind when I started hunting vampires. And I still haven’t really gone back to that. If I taught them, then there would just be a few more people that the darkness could chase.”
“If they had the talent,” Willow reminded her love. Not everyone did, Tara had made that very clear. And Tara was taking very good care of her magical education. Willow thought that maybe she was ready… but she really wasn’t. Not until Tara said that she was.
“Maybe I could look in… like a casual member?” Tara suggested. Willow nodded and her lover went on, “I think maybe one or two of them – if there was a good sized group – might. The ones with talent, well they’d be drawn to it. Like you,” Tara mused. “And like you I’d want to keep them from getting into trouble.”
But Willow really wasn't drawn to it. She’d just seen it there. “All I’m drawn to is you baby. And the only trouble I want is you.”
“Mmmmm.”
She knew that Tara loved it when she said things like that. That was why she said the things that were so very true. “Its probably not in good taste is it?” she wondered. After all the last Wicca Group at UC Sunnydale had died to feed the thirst of a certain vampire that they’d been tricked into recalling by a bunch of city lawyers.
‘Taste’ probably wasn't a thing that she wanted to bring up here either.
“Nnnn” Tara replied, her face turned downwards into another kiss. More than one kiss. More than two. A flurry of them.
“And our time will be pretty full,” Willow went on as she savoured those lips on her flesh once more.
“Mmm”
“What with our studies, and library time and parties… I bet there’ll be dorm parties too. This dorm is pretty much renowned for them, you know?”
“Mmm” Tara managed to respond after switching the side of her attention.
“Porter Dorm – home of the ‘We went down to the store’ party and the ‘It’s 24 hours since the last party started’ party.” Willow frowned despite the wonderful things that Tara was starting to do to her again. Nipples, she had to admit, were important, but she had to wonder how they’d ended up in this dorm. It wasn’t exactly what they’d filled in on their preference forms. “How did we end up here?”
“Mmmm, mmmm mmm.”
“Oh. Right.” That explained it then. “Where was I?” Willow asked. Between thoughts of parties and Tara’s nipple suckage it had slipped her mind entirely. Whatever it was. Which was why she’d asked. About it.
“Mmmmmm.”
Oh yes, right. Her big decision. Well request. Whilst she might have decided, that was just her. But there was more than one of them here – which was kind of obvious because well Willow didn’t suck on her own nipples and there was definitely one of them doing that and… it really didn’t matter. The point was… “I’d like to help you,” she said as she idly caressed Tara’s back.
“Mmmm?”
“With what you’ll be doing with Mr Giles,” she added slowly, regretfully because she knew that the answer wasn’t going to be ‘Mmmm’ this time. And she was right.
Tara lifted her head and Willow sighed. Still they’d get back to that later – she had kind of dropped a bombshell there. But Tara had the good grace not to give up entirely, even if she wanted to speak to her about it. Instead she brought her hand up to rest her chin on her wrist. The fact that the hand came to rest on the abandoned breast was probably a total coincidence.
Probably.
“Wh-What?” Tara asked after a few moments looking into each other’s eyes, each trying to figure out what the other meant or what their reaction was.
“I want to help you baby,” Willow told her again. There were reasons and she knew that she was going to have to try and explain them. “I mean… it’s like you said...”
“Me?”
The serious nature of the conversation was only a little belied by what Tara’s hand was doing to her breast. “About not waiting until we graduate to be able to help.”
Tara frowned. “I thought we knew this already – that it wasn't you sweetie.
She wasn’t.”
“I know… but it wasn't you either,” Willow replied and saw Tara tip her head in a question. “Well, okay, it was sort of you, but it wasn't the you that is you now. It’s a you that isn’t you anymore. You know?”
Tara expression suggested that she knew, she just didn’t believe it, which was fine – Willow knew that they both had things to make up for – and that was pretty much what a part of their lives were going to be given over to. But she couldn’t see why it should
just be Tara who started to do that now. Why should her baby take all the risks?
If she had to, then she had to, because really who else was there? She needed all the help she could get to keep her safe and bring her back to Willow each and every night. “I just want to make sure you’re okay baby,” Willow summed up, “And I can best do that by helping you.”
“You want to come out with me?” Tara asked, the concern was a palpable force and her hand had stilled, even if Willow had deliberately maintained her own caresses to make this seem less serious than Tara thought it was.
Did she want to go out with Tara? Well, she would have felt better if Tara wasn’t alone, but she knew what Tara did when she was out there, and she knew that she wasn’t going to be much help with that, at least until she got a lot further with the fine control of magic. In fact she could really get Tara hurt if she was having to worry about her lover while she was out there hunting bad things. “Maybe,” Willow admitted despite those, obvious, objections.
Tara started to raise one of those and Willow silenced her with a finger pressed to her lips before she even found out which it was.
“Maybe,” she said again, “But not yet, I need more… more…” More what? “More… you know ‘Grrrrrr,’ I think before I should do that.” She pantomimed some sort of animal with claws and fangs then rested her hand on Tara’s back again.
Tara nodded. “Yeah sweetie, you need a lot more ‘Grrrrr’ before I can be not afraid for you… what am I saying? I always be afraid for you, but I trust you to know when.”
Just as she’d always be afraid for Tara – but also just as she trusted Tara to overcome any obstacle that happened to be in her way. Especially now that her love had this new, or old, or whatever it was, magic which, if it was willing, wouldn’t risk anything bad for her jus through its use.
It was all that was really allowing Tara to take up this fight again… she wouldn’t have dared without something changing. But now that she was in the fight… well, then Willow needed to be involved in that too. She had her guilt to work through in a constructive manner. “But I can help Mr Giles and Jenny, when they need it. I mean… I am sooo the net-girl and I can use books too. We have the university library now too.”
“Does it have an occult section?” Tara asked, curious now and seemingly accepting the role Willow had picked for herself.
“We can look,” she suggested. Willow had been expecting more of a struggle and possibly persuasion smoochies.
“But not while we’re showing people around?” Tara clarified.
“No,” Willow replied after a moment too long in consideration for Tara to believe that she’d actually been thinking about it. “Because that would be freaky.”
“For them? Or it would be us who looked that way?”
Willow thought about that. “A little of both I think. Are you going to warn them?” she wondered. Tara knew what was out there, could she
not warn people new to the town?
“I won’t say that there are vampires and a Hellmouth – but I’ll push the travel in at least pairs message, if they’re out after dark anyway.”
“There’s a pair here I’m more interested in,” Willow told her and Tara demonstrated her interest once again. This time with lips and hands.
It was good that Tara was going to be careful. She was always careful, which gave Willow faith that she’d always make it back. And she was always considerate – which was going to be her biggest asset as a teacher some day. Willow wasn’t quite sure yet what she was going to do with her own life – just so long as it was with Tara. All she needed was a school to be nearby… and there were schools everywhere.
She’d missed a few years of ‘making up her mind time.’ And there wasn't even any need to do that yet. There had been a time when she’d just
known what she wanted for herself… but now, instead of what was expected of her… she was looking to what would both do some good in the world and would also be good for her.
Oh and it would be near Tara. Within touching distance for many hours a night.
And all weekend.
“Really?” Tara asked.
“Really.”
“Why?”
“Because…” she tailed off as Tara pressed a finger to her lips. “But you asked…”
“Shhh” Tara said to her… except that she didn’t did she? She didn’t
say anything. She just… felt it. She never heard the words.
------------------------------
There’s no need to say a word.
But how does this work? Does it matter?
Not when you do ooooh. That?
That and other… oh you minx I prefer vixen.
I meant to say vixen… but I was thinking Minx. I do when you do… ohhh. So… we’re not just speaking – I mean feeling?
You’re definitely feeling me.Words were important though. Some things were better said.
“Love you.”
“Love you.”
“Can I show you?”
“Can
I show you?”
Together.
Both
****************
EDITED TO ADD: The link to skip to the first page of the sequel (also in this thread) missing out the feedback (fun as it is) is
here. -------------------------
If I want a little pussy, I got my own to play with.
Chance in
Chance.------------------------
by fudgie9 » Tue Nov 19, 2002 1:15 am 
at: 11/19/02 1:53:14 am
True in more ways then one. Still wondering if they really intend to go to college in Sunnydale. (and no I still don't recommend that 
. You did make him into an *interesting* charachter, I'll grant you that. Just not all that likeable (or trustworthy) to me anymore. I like the mayor better for instance.
breaking in the shower at the dorms, Tara pondering this new facet in her magick (ie "new-or-rather old-magic") and how this affects not only her, but Willow (especially in making sure Willow "understands" the responsibility that comes with her own magic/"Tara wasn't going to let Darkness ever whisper to Willow, let alone scream in her ear."), or how W&T plan on making amends/helping people in the now, as well as what their education well enable them to offer in the future (ie Tara wanting to become a teacher), the sense of their togetherness is never overshadowed. Or in other words, being a "they", W&T can/will lean on on each other for support, find strength in their love to truly "live" and embrace their future. Thus, the past won't be forgotten, but they can move-on to the life and happiness they deserve!