fic: the path

[scylla]

Glad to hear there's more to come! Keep up the great work!

[WiggleStick]

Really hope that there is more of this soon, because i am really enjoying this fic

[Mini-ALF]

um....just wanted to give this fic a little boost b/c i miss it!! Hope there's more soon.

Michelle

[ShaggyKat]

I agree!

Please sir may I have more.
What did you say!
Please sir may I have some more.

Now I have Oliver Twist stuck in my head. *grin*

[ShaggyKat]

Haven't heard from you in a while. Hoping everything is okay? Cause I really like this fic.

[Jae]

I'd just like to second the "hope you're alright, all is well... and for more of this fic" sentiment.

[ForeverPiper]

There hasn't been an update for a really long time and I wanna know what happens next! This is a really interesting story. Please update soon!

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Willow! Check you out! Witch-fu. -BUFFY

[Pixie]

*knock, knock* Uh, anonymityrocks? You've been kinda...anonymous lately. Hope everything is okay, and your midterms went well. Here's one more kitty waiting for more, whenever you're ready. Could that be soon, please?

[ForeverPiper]

What happens next. Have you like, disappeared off the face of the Earth or something? I wanna know what happens next. I really like this story.

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Willow! Check you out! Witch-fu. -BUFFY

[anonymityrocks]

sorry for disappearing, guys! if i had a good excuse, i'd use it, but honestly, i got nothing. well, i have an update actually. i hope that will suffice. i'll probably finish another one soon, although i guess the validity of that statement might come into question considering how long it took me to type this thing up. either way though, here you go. i had alot of trouble with the atmospheric quality of this, and also, i have come to the conclusion that i have no idea how to write in a stutter. it's necessary to tara characterwise, but i don't feel like i'm doing a very good job with it.

but ok yeah, here you go:

Night had taken over full throttle as Willow meandered home, desperately attempting not to allow the events of the day to smother her mind, like the blackness had all over town. It was past midnight on a school night, and even her planning to stay in public zones proved futile, as an unpopulated public place was really just a back alley minus the walls and smelly dumpsters. Even having Faith around now could almost be considering a blessing.

Faintly, a sound made its presence noticeable through its incessant grating. Willow shivered while the combination of night air and fear manifested itself as the feeling of tiny needles on the back of her neck. She was getting closer to her home, although her legs barely felt like they were moving at all. The redundancy of the grating sound remained, searing through Willow's brain. She checked around behind her path every few minutes, as she perceived the sound to be a signal of danger, but she never registered any threat beyond the original noise.

‘Look, OK. If there is anything there, you better know that I am close, personal friends with the...' Wait, no. Not the Slayer. Demons have sacred vendettas against the Slayer in many cases, and there was no way she was going to open that door. ‘Pope! You hear me? That's right! The Pope!'

If her father could hear her now. Oh man, he'd never forgive her, but now she was on a roll. ‘Do you guys even know how many crosses the Pope owns? And holy water. Don't get me started, because I'll--Ah!'

A figure burst directly in Willow's path, causing her to fly back, stumbling with a grand flop onto the pavement. Immediately, she pulled a cross out of her bag and held it in front of face, her eyes pressed firmly shut.

‘Will?' Buffy squat down beside her friend, whose eyes were squeezed together while her body shivered convulsively. She was sacred out of her wits. ‘Hey, Will. You OK?' Buffy laid a hand over Willow's hand, which was engaged in a white knuckle grip on the cross. She pushed the cross to face the pavement and placed her other hand on Willow's shoulder. ‘Will. Look at me.'

She slowly registered Buffy's voice and opened her eyes to see her just a few inches from her face. Despite her relief, her heart still beat at a marathon rhythm, reminding her of the terror she felt a hew moments prior. ‘Hi, Buffy.'

‘Is everything alright? Why are you out so late? And yelling about the Pope?'

‘Well, I was going home.' It took way too long for her to get that sentence out. She was still wigging over that noise and the dark and the alone and the Polaroid monster.

That was it. Something was officially up with Willow. And this something was new because she was so good this morning. She even noticed the shoes. Buffy assumed that ‘something' was of course just a euphemism for Oz, but she'd talk about it later. ‘I think I should walk you home.'

Willow nodded, feeling slightly more confident with a slayer at her side. She rose slowly, as she still felt shaky.

Buffy helped her up, but stopped her a moment to pull Willow's bag of stuff off the ground. She swung it over her should quickly and heard a crash as an object flew out of the bag, smashing into the concrete. Buffy clenched her teeth when she heard the noise, embarrassed as she turned around to see what she'd destroyed. ‘I think I broke your binoculars.'

‘Leave them. Can we run? The closer I am to fuzzy pajamas and my bed, the less I feel like I'm going to weep or explode or pee or any number of other unpleasant things.'

‘Sure thing, Will. Let's go.' She grabbed her friend's hand for support and led her home.

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Willow stumbled down the hallway, completely exhausted. Well, she was not physically stumbling per se, but her state of mind resulted in a feeling of having faltered with every breath and step. There was something about getting home close to one in the morning while scared out of her mind and then suddenly realizing that she hadn't done her physics or calculus homework yet. Usually resulted in morning time stumbling.

This was the kind of morning where orange juice and pancakes and tall, frosty glasses of milk were in order. With no such time however, Willow pulled a semi-green banana off the bunch and made out the door in a rush, stumbling like a pro. She'd regret the action around 2nd or 3rdperiod, but a least she was on time for school. Now she could go to the library and report, thus avoiding and extraneous questions from the gang concerning her behavior. She didn't think yesterday was anything special though. Her friends had nothing to suspect, especially since Faith would have no what she was she was talking about should she try to spite Willow.

After a quick stop at her locker to dispose her books, Willow made her way to the library. Right in front of the door, she noticed Tara walking by perpendicular to her direction. Her heart shot up, whacked her epiglottis and landed somewhere around her pelvis. Before Tara might notice her, Willow ducked into the library and immediately regretted it. In reality, Willow had been up half the night considering the notion of Tara under the guise of doing her physics homework, but even then after stepping into the library, Willow believed her regret must been stemmed from the evasion of her mission. She closed her eyes and pushed her head back against the door behind her. Why did intense things have to be so incredibly intense sometimes?

‘Willows? Everything alright?' Giles was standing behind the counter. He seemed a little concerned but just confused for the most part.

‘Huh? Who me? I was just um, relieved to see the library. You know me, books are like roller coasters. Only the kind where I don't lose my cookies. Fun and cookie-less.'

‘Alright.. I think.' He looked down at his books for a minute, recalling what he'd been doing before. ‘I have been researching various symbols which are manifested after a demon is conjured, although without any other information as to the specific witch or specific demon, this is all quite fruitless.'

‘Have you talked to Buffy?'

‘Not since yesterday afternoon. Has she anything to report?'

‘That's more of a Buffy-question. I was just thinking that she might have run into the beastie last night since she went out patrolling.'

‘Well if you see her, do tell her to stop by.'

‘Sure thing. But for now, I should head to class. The Roosevelt Administration awaits.'

‘Oh, um, yes. American History. Quite right. Goodbye, Willow.' He was reading again before he even finished the sentence.

Willow waved and headed out the door. The hallways had cleared up to a more manageable population as she headed to class. She thought it strange that no one was in the library, but she decided not to take her blessings for granted as she'd avoided having to explaining her lack of initiative concerning to the Tara investigation. Plus, she had to do double explaining to Buffy over the whole midnight run-in they'd had. Luckily, Buffy didn't do any inquiries at the time, probably because Willow could barely get a sentence out anyway.

It was time to try to push this out of head. Again. Just because it was second semester of senior year, that didn't mean she should slack. Besides, FDR was interesting, and she'd gone to class on way more taxing days before. Once she'd begin to focus it would be easy forget about stuff. Stuff meaning Tara.

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Tara sat in the back of a half-full classroom with her notebook laid open in front of her. Since it was senior first period study, Tara reasoned that a half-full room could be considered a good turn out. Most likely, only complete geeks came to this study. Figures.

She looked at the page the notebook had been open to. On it was a sketch of the symbol she had drawn upon before her first day at Sunnydale High. The intention was to focus one's inner strength and confidence. Tara had figured that she'd need it for starting somewhere all new. At the very least, she was thinking that it might quell her stutter. It didn't seem to work. Well, that wasn't; when she had been near Willow, she felt more at ease. Granted, she was nervous at the same time, but this was a different kind of nervousness than she had felt when, say, that weird boy in the lunchroom approached her. She knew that she was attracted to Willow. That was a given. Beyond that though, something was there. It wasn't necessarily something she could define and she supposed that it was entirely possible that she had fabricated it out of her own attraction. But still, maybe not.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period, and Tara packed up her stuff, heading out the door. Since she had a little while before her next class, she decided to roam the hallway in an attempt to find her locker. In theory, it existed, since her schedule had indicated its number and combination, but she had yet to actually see this alleged locker. The main problem was the numbering system. Every time she felt on track, the row of lockers would randomly gain or lose fifty digits.

She was lost again. It was beyond her as to why such a small town should have such an obscenely large school. Then again, she was from what one might affectionately refer to as a Cow Town, so her perception of large could have been a little skewed. A map of the world had hung down in the last three classroom she had walked by, so Tara deduced that she was likely in the Social Studies wing. If this school even had wings.

She noticed a new patch of lockers to examine and headed in their general direction, shoving her eyes down to evade any hallway gawking at the new dork. She heard a snicker behind her, so she sped up to get away. As a result, Tara went careening into a student who had just turned the corner.

_______________________________

Two days in a row? Willow made a mental note to start looking where she was going. If this kept up, she could seen be considered the class klutz instead of the class nerd. Better off avoiding alliteration. ‘Sorry about--' Willow registered who was in front of her. ‘Tara?'

‘W-Willow. Hey.' Her hair had fallen into her face during the collision, and she had opted to use it as a means to cover up her already burning cheeks. She got to her feet, and Willow did the same.

Willow smiled. ‘We have got to stop meeting like this or else I'm going to get a new bruise every time I see you. And that would be an awful lot of bruises.' Wait a second, Willow just realized that she implied something. Maybe Tara didn't notice.

Tara reasoned that Willow didn't recognize the implication of what she had just said. Although, maybe she just meant that she'd just like to hang out. Not impossible. She was that Willow was waiting for a response of some sort. Drawing a blank, Tara just nodded.

‘So, lost again?'

‘Only in the literal sense, really.' Tara smiled awkwardly. ‘I mean, an alignment of Mercury and Venus means that cosmically, I'm as centered as ever.'

Willow thought for a moment. It seemed like Tara had told a joke, but it would be rude to laugh had that been a serious comment. No, who would seriously refer to the alignment of Mercury and
Venus when trying to find their second period class? She laughed slightly and waited cautiously for an approval from Tara.

OK, Tara said to herself, funny is not very good on you. Cut to the chase. ‘A-actually, I'm t- trying to find my locker, but this system is completely beyond me.'

‘Oh, I can help you find stuff. I'm great at this school. I spend a lot of time here.' Willow blinked. ‘Obviously.' She took a step closer to Tara. At this distance, she could clearly see the pink tint that her cheeks had taken on. Definitely cutest thing of the day. ‘Well, since this is the sophomore wing in terms of homerooms, it's probably not here. Seniors are more in the English area. M, right? I bet it's near--' Oz's locker.

Tara watched Willow closely. She knew that a nerve had been hit, but she couldn't know what one. Either way, she felt guilty in having to stare at Willow's face. She looked stricken. ‘So, English wing? I th-think I can get there. Last period yesterday, r-right? Thanks, Willow. I sh- should go though. I don't want to make you late.'

As Tara half-ran away, Willow considered stopping her, telling her that it was no trouble to bring her to her locker, and skipping down the hallway together toward the general area of where Tara's locker would most likely be. It just didn't seem smart. The thought of Oz possibly seeing Tara and her together made her nervous. In fact, the thought of Buffy or Xander seeing Tara and her together was equally on the nerve-racking side of things. She knew they'd assume she was doing research on the whole Polaroid demon thing, and well, she probably would be doing research on the whole Polaroid demon thing. Just the same though, she wanted to approach Tara on her own time and not have to keep dealing with this running into her stuff. Darn high school. Just way too many kids within on spot.

[scylla]

OMG!! I haven't read your update, but just having one has made my day!

[spottiedottie]

That was fantastic. Thank you so much for the update. It's good to know that you're okay. More updates please=)

[Pixie]

Thanks for the update!

[Mini-ALF]

Many thanks for the update. I was starting to get worried that this story was lost forever...but all is forgiven.

Michelle

[Lonewolf]

Anonymityrocks: Very cool update, I liked how Willow was nervous at the thought of everybody seeing her with Tara, I like nervous Willow. Can't wait to read more, I hope we get some Willow and Tara goodness soon, wink, wink. Just kidding take your time, this fic is really good.

Lonewolf

[emily 'first']

Well done...As good as ever!

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vive,valeque.

[Jae]

Yay! Welcome back! I'm very very pleased you are continuing with the story, and I think you're handling Tara's stutter well, despite your note at the beginning of your last post. Anyhoo, can't wait for the next bit

[xita]

Oh, i like, it's starting to get really cute. I am hoping for an update sooner this time

[ForeverPiper]

Loved the update. Need more...

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Willow! Check you out! Witch-fu. -BUFFY

[Kel]

an update!!

i love your story, having willow and tara meet in high school is very cute.

look forward to more, lots more!

Kel