-Sassette
by Sassette » Fri Dec 28, 2001 10:43 am
-Sassette
by Quill » Sat Dec 29, 2001 2:29 pm
by Dumbsaint » Sat Dec 29, 2001 10:54 pm
And a big thank you to Ruth, the best Beta reader this side of the planet Zorg. Whatever would I do without you? However would my anal retentive, inner sentence Nazi be satisfied? Major props.
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Tara stood before the front door of her former home, watching over her shoulder as Mr. McCabe pulled away from the curb, waving to her one last time. Voices came from inside, Dawn giggling, Xander chiding someone teasingly. Here she was. Home, she sighed, closing her eyes for a moment against the turmoil in her heart. It felt right to be here, and she didn’t regret coming. But at the same time, she knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Still, she’d never know for sure until she… Taking a deep breath, she gathered her strength and knocked softly but firmly on the door.
“She’s here, she’s here!” Dawn’s voice came immediately, crowing in exultation, the teenager deciding even before the door was opened who was standing behind it.
“Dawn-” came the warning from a concerned Buffy.
But then the door was being yanked nearly off its hinges in youthful exuberance, and Dawn was throwing herself into Tara’s arms.
“I knew you would come,” the younger girl insisted, laughing and holding her tight. “I knew it!”
Tara had to chuckle at the enthusiastic welcome, her arms wrapping tenderly around the girl’s slighter frame to hug her affectionately. And then, looking up over Dawn’s shoulder, Tara’s breath caught.
There was Willow, standing a few feet behind and looking at her with such a mix of hope and desperate love and sorrow. Tara swallowed convulsively, torn in a thousand directions at once. Should she run and throw her arms around the redhead as she had ached to do for weeks now or should she keep her distance? Would it be too much? Too soon?
“It is Tara?” Buffy’s cheerful voice cut through the intensity of the moment, relief coloring it to an almost absurd degree. “Thank God! Someone who knows how to cook.”
Anya’s voice came immediately after, positively indignant. “Hey! I resent that!” A sudden clanging crash of pots sounded from the kitchen, followed by a string of colorful ex-demony type oaths.
Willow’s nose crinkled, laughter dancing in her emerald eyes. Tara laughed softly, too, finally extricating herself from Dawn’s arms, the initial moment of tension broken.
“Well, come in, come in!” The youngest Summers grabbed hold on Tara’s elbow, trying to forcibly haul her inside.
But Tara hesitated, gesturing to the shopping bags full of presents at her feet. There were more than she could carry by herself. She’d had to make three trips back and forth between the car and the front porch upon arriving, insisting that Mr. McCabe not trouble himself to get out and help her.
“Ooh! More presents!” Dawn squealed excitedly, stepping around Tara to heft a bunch of them into her arms.
“Oh, let me help!” Willow finally spoke, rushing forward, eager to be of any assistance.
Tara’s brain told her feet to move, to step aside and make more room in the doorway for her lover, ex-lover, love. But somehow, the signal didn’t quite seem to make it all the way down there, caught instead bouncing around in the confused jumble of emotions crowding through her all at once. Her mind swam, there not being nearly enough time to sort through the sudden onslaught of conflicting thoughts and feelings before Willow, in the haste of the moment, loomed dangerously close, nearly crashing into Tara where she stood rooted in place, watching her come.
Instinctively reaching out to steady her, Tara caught Willow about the shoulders, her fingers curling protectively around the hacker’s upper arm. She braced herself for the impact, unable to help but long for the familiar brush of Willow’s body against her own. But it never came, the other girl’s forward momentum falling away with strange suddenness. Still, there she was, her Willow, mere inches away, the closeness, the electricity of her touch, the purity of the longing in that emerald regard- all of it settling at the base of Tara’s throat in an insistent ache that would allow for nothing short of-
Tara wrapped her arms around the woman she loved, settling her face in the hollow of Willow’s throat, inhaling her scent and letting the rest of the world just fall away. Willow stood for a moment, trembling, hands clenched down at her sides, her terrible fear all too evident. But Tara only pulled her closer still, holding on to her more fiercely and nuzzling into the warmth of her skin and hair.
“Willow…” She spoke the name pleadingly, her voice thick with need.
Something seemed to break inside of the redhead then, and she reached up, clinging just as tightly to Tara. Her Tara.
“Baby?” The redhead whispered, questioning, a sob wracking her slight frame.
Dawn had the good sense to take her armful of gifts into the house, giving the lovers some privacy. Xander had started towards the door with the intention of greeting Tara, but the teenager yanked him around by the arm nearly wrenching it out of its socket.
“Ow! Dawn, what’s up with the Slayer junior strength today?” He protested as he rubbed his shoulder gingerly.
“Let’s go into the kitchen and help Anya and Buffy,” she said loudly, dragging him off with her.
But the two outside were completely oblivious to anything but the nearness of one another, their shared hurt, and the overwhelming relief that came with finding that in the six weeks they had been apart, after all that had been said and done, their love for each other was still there. Still there and seemingly stronger than ever, binding the two of them together as closely as ever. Closer still. They pressed into one another with all the raw need and ferocity that came with having come so terribly close to losing each other.
“I’m sorry,” Willow managed to get out, speaking haltingly through the tears that simply wouldn’t stop coming. “I’m so sorry, Tara. I didn’t see- I didn’t want to see what I was doing- to you, to myself, to everyone. But especially you. I know now there’s nothing worse I could have ever done to you. And I’m so sorry, baby.” She pulled back a bit, just enough to look into Tara’s eyes, her own full of remorse.
Tara smoothed away the tears as they came, leaning her own cheek into Willow’s, letting their salt mingle on their skin where their faces met. She just nodded at first, accepting the rushed explanation and communicating her understanding in the caressing motions of her hands and lips. She wasn’t trailing kisses so much as tracing the planes of Willow’s face with her mouth. It was as if she needed to make sure each line, each curve, each hollow, was exactly how she had left it.
“I know, love,” she finally murmured, threading the fingers of one hand through Willow’s hair, its familiar texture a welcome softness against her palm. “I had to go. I had to wait until you realized everything for yourself. Me. The magic. About yourself. I knew when you were sick, from giving it up. I could feel it, and I’m so sorry that I couldn’t be here to help you. I wanted to so much…”
Willow shook her head insistently, brushing her fingers over Tara’s lips. “No, Tara- I know. I understand that you had to leave, and I don’t blame you. Not at all. I just-”
They pulled apart again, needing, hungrily, the sight of each other. Willow’s lower lip trembled, her eyes welling up with tears again. “I missed you so much, baby.”
Tara whimpered at the pain in her love’s face, the way her voice broke with hurt and need. Before either of them understood the purpose of the motion, Tara’s mouth brushed tentatively against Willow’s, the gentleness giving away almost immediately to a series of fiercely passionate kisses. Their arms blazed new paths across each other’s shoulders, up and down sides, grasping, tangling.
And then a slightly irritated voice sounded behind them, from the doorway.
“You’re not doing it right,” Anya commented petulantly. “The mistletoe is over here.” She punctuated her last statement with a jab of her finger upwards, but a telltale half-smile played on her lips.
“ANYA!” Three voices from inside scolded the ex-demon all at once.
“Oh, alright, alright, I’m coming. Back to the kitchen. Like I’m your SLAVE.” Anya sniffed indignantly as she turned on her heel and headed back inside.
Willow and Tara merely giggled into each other’s shoulders, hands still trailing possessively over their favorite places of one another’s bodies. Tara gathered Willow again into her arms, both of their tears finally having ceased, the joy of the reunion washing over her. Over her shoulder she eyed the hanging swing off to her right.
“You think they’d mind if we just stayed out here for a while?” she asked, gesturing with her head to the loveseat.
“Tara, I was just kidding about needing you in the kitchen!” Buffy called suddenly, startling the both of them. “Sorry, slayer hearing. You guys forget that the rest of us are even here. In fact, I order you! Stay out there as long as you want. Until spring if necessary. Shutting up now!”
The two girls settled into the swing, curling up in each other’s arms and just enjoying the silence between them. The understanding that the worst was behind them, that they had made it through the darkness and back to one another at last seeping into their minds. There was nothing that needed to be done for the moment but to sate themselves with the physical closeness they had gone so long without, starved as they were for each other’s touch.
Back in the kitchen, the four Scoobs went about their tasks with irrepressibly large grins, trying to keep their voices hushed so as not to disturb the girls outside. But they knew, they all knew, Willow and Tara had found one another again.
~~~~~
It was Dawn’s idea to start the Christmas photo album. She announced it over breakfast, a huge book that they’d fill a few more pages from every year. Buffy greeted the idea approvingly, her enthusiasm muted, thinking sadly of new traditions as she silently ached for ones that had died with her mother on a spring afternoon a year ago.
Still she knew that this was how the healing would continue, and she was grateful to Dawn for having a heart big enough to make room for the life that stretched out before the both of them. It didn’t seem quite so scary, the years that loomed ahead of her, knowing she didn’t have to blaze the path on her own.
“So you think it’s an okay idea?” Her sister’s voice anchored Buffy, the plaintive note not lost on her, seeking her approval.
Her mouth moved slowly, but she let the smile come on strong. “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” she concluded, her friends quickly adding their assent as well.
Tara was holding Willow’s upturned hand in her own atop the table, tracing the lines on her palm. It seemed an infinitely entrancing task. The blonde Wiccan had been at it for about half an hour, her attention only straying when the sudden flash of a camera interrupted the movement of her thumb across Willow’s skin.
“Dawnie,” Tara laughed, “you’re starting already?”
“No time like the present,” the youngster replied sagely.
Throughout the rest of the day and evening Dawnie caught other memorable moments on camera. There was Buffy frowning cutely at the pie she had baked, which had come out rather lop-sided. The slayer’s lower lip protruded in such an expressive pout that even Anya had giggled at seeing it.
The next picture taken was of Buffy chasing Anya around the living room with a rolling pin, the slayer’s face contorted into a grimace of gleeful silliness.
Another one showed a grinning Anya pretending to struggle in Xander’s arms, a big cheesy grin lighting up his face as he dipped her backwards preparing to kiss her, yet again, under the mistletoe. He’d made a mission of doing it at every available opportunity, just to tease her good and proper.
Someone, probably Xand, had caught Dawnie leering over her present from Tara before she was allowed to unwrap it. The photographer had snapped the picture just as the teenager looked up, her guilty expression not entirely masked by the hasty, and toothy grin that had spread across her features.
There was one of Buffy hugging Xander to her affectionately, resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed. And another one of Dawn laying with her head in her sister’s lap where she sat on the living room floor against the couch, one of Buffy’s hands caressing Dawn’s hair.
Another showed Tara and Willow giggling over a shared joke. Tara’s nose was crinkled. Willow’s eyes were bright with mischief, her hand pushing playfully at her lover’s shoulder.
And finally, the one they had taken using the timer setting on Dawn’s camera of all of them piled onto the sofa together. It wasn’t the kind of proper, sitting up straight with cheesy or wooden smiles family picture that they were used to seeing. They were all sitting and half-laying on each other so that everyone would fit in the frame, and the resultant laughter had contorted their faces goofily. But they all looked happy, grinning into the camera, or at each other. That one was carefully placed in the album by Dawn, last among the pictures from that year. She had captioned it at the bottom, “Christmas 2001. My weird (but cool) family.”
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Well, yeah. You know, wholesome in that naked, writhing heap of multi-bodied girlflesh way.
[This message has been edited by Dumbsaint (edited December 30, 2001).]
by tommo » Sat Dec 29, 2001 10:56 pm
Ah.
Just going to creep out of this thread then...
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"Bitter, party of one. Bitter, party of one." she muttered... ~ Four Months After by Capt. Murdock
by Warduke » Sat Dec 29, 2001 11:05 pm
by AutumnT » Sat Dec 29, 2001 11:09 pm
by xita » Sat Dec 29, 2001 11:20 pm
Willow and Tara merely giggled into each other’s shoulders, hands still trailing possessively over favorite places on the other’s bodies
Ah yes, I think they're probably my favorite parts.
by Rane » Sat Dec 29, 2001 11:32 pm
it's official, i'm a dork. i posted and totally missed the last update! how in the world did that happen?! OH MY GOD! that part where tara hugs willow. and anya is hilarious with the mistletoe comment! and the photo album is great.
[This message has been edited by Rane (edited December 30, 2001).]
by Sassette » Sun Dec 30, 2001 12:06 am
-Sass
by Quill » Sun Dec 30, 2001 1:34 am
by BytrSuite » Sun Dec 30, 2001 1:56 am
I love the describing what's in the pictures thing. That's a great way to capture moments. Awesome.
by Scout » Sun Dec 30, 2001 6:16 am
Thanks so much!
by 'lucy' moore » Sun Dec 30, 2001 6:17 am
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fiat justitia,ruat caelum.
by Charlie » Sun Dec 30, 2001 7:52 am
That was the perfect ending, Julia...
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"Appalling. Almost as if they no longer believe money can buy happiness..."
by RomanceJunky » Sun Dec 30, 2001 2:40 pm
RJ...loving those happy endings!
by Kajun » Sun Dec 30, 2001 2:44 pm
by The Rose » Sun Dec 30, 2001 8:24 pm
I hope you write more soon.
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Tara: My heart doesn't stutter.
Tara: Willow, I got so lost.
Willow: I found you. I will always find you.
Tara: Nobody messes with my girl!
by Brynn » Sun Dec 30, 2001 9:08 pm
I really enjoyed this -- can't wait for your next story!
by Dumbsaint » Mon Dec 31, 2001 12:30 am
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Well, yeah. You know, wholesome in that naked, writhing heap of multi-bodied girlflesh way.
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