AN: Hey guys, this is my first ever Buffy fic and i know it's not exactly original to rewrite the parts of Season 6 that end up with Tara dieing. But i haven't seen it done quite this way before, so stick around and see what happens. I know bits of this chapter are pretty similar to Entropy, but just the one conversation and if you haven't seen it then it won't matter and the stuff after this will be completely different. So enjoy, leave lots of reviews and we'll see where this goes.
Chapter 1
"Willow" Tara seemed almost surprised by Willow's presence outside her class but not entirely, Willow supposed that the blonde was able to feel her presence, as Willow could sense Tara's.
"Hey" Willow smiled shyly at her ex-lover causing Tara's stomach to flip over and a warmth spread across her cheeks. A few years ago she would have run away if someone as beautiful as the red-head had walked up to her.
"Becoming a bit of a habit, this. Us, after class" She teased Willow, the lopsided grin that tugged at her lips, even hinted at flirting. Three years ago she never would have flirted with anybody, she owed Willow a lot.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Willow denied, a blush creeping across her cheeks that blended far too closely with her hair for Tara's liking. But it was cute anyway.
"She's just a friend" Tara offered, wondering when the tables had turned between them, wondering when she had become so secure and Willow so insecure. She still wanted to believe that their relationship was salvageable, but that would depend on Willow.
"Oh, well, friends are good. I mean I have friends" Tara saw a Willow-babble starting and knew she needed to stop it before it became full-blown, because Tara knew she'd never be able to keep up her facade against a Willow-babble, the girl was just too cute.
"Yeah, they are. I promise though, she really is just a friend" Willow nodded.
"I really should go" she gestured wildly towards the door, away from the awkward conversation unfolding between them, Tara didn't blame her.
"Yeah, me too. Class" she supplied "Maybe we could get coffee sometime" Tara felt herself cracking, she needed Willow in her life, and she could tell Willow needed her, and she didn't want to place too much importance on herself but maybe she could help Willow out of her magic problem. She might be the only one who could.
"Coffee would be nice. As friends, of course. You can bring your friend if you want, I guess I could bring Dawn, because you know three's a crowd and all that stuff"
"Willow" Tara interrupted again, smiling in spite of herself at Willow's speed-talking "I'd really prefer if it's just us. It'd be nice to catch up. I've missed you" Tara bowed her head slightly worried she'd overstepped their carefully constructed boundaries, but the smile that lit up Willow's entire face made any over stepping worthwhile.
"So..." Tara added, dragging her eyes from Willow's before she got lost in the emerald orbs.
"Yeah, coffee. Tomorrow afternoon?" Willow suggested.
"Sure" Tara agreed, her eyes meeting Willow's again "Oh shoot. I have to research for my ethnography for sociology"
"Oh" Willow's face fell and Tara wished she hadn't already made plans with her research partner for the next afternoon, but she couldn't very well cancel.
"I promised Dawn we'd go to the movies on Friday night. This has been kind of tough on her and I don't want to cancel on her. She hates seeing us apart" Willow swallowed hard and Tara could tell that if it was hurting Dawn it was hurting Willow a million times more. It hurt everyone, even Tara.
"How about Saturday?" Willow suggested, her voice cracking slightly. Tara had planned to work on her piece for her art class, but Willow probably couldn't handle any further rejection.
"Sure" She agreed, she really needed to get to her next class but Willow was fragile and any small thing could be perceived as rejection by her.
"Can we do brunch?" Willow begged.
"Whatever you like" Tara agreed smiling, the Willow standing before her was starting to remind her of the woman she fell in love with, not the one who had messed with her memories on more than one occasion.
"Thanks" she bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet, Tara knew why she wanted to meet early, the idea of waiting another two days to see her love was too long. Tara smiled, willow could be like a little kid sometimes.
"Well I have to get to class" Willow added still bouncing on happily in front of the blonde.
"Yeah, me too" Tara agreed turning from the pretty redhead before she could act on the impulse to pull her into a tight hug and never let go.
Tara couldn't focus that afternoon as she continued through her classes, even the small interaction with Willow brought her back in tune with Willow's magical presence and even halfway across the campus she could sense Willow's movements, and even her emotions, probably because they were unusually strong, even for the excitable witch. It was happiness mixed with nervousness, maybe that was why Tara could sense her so easily; because Willow's feelings were so close to her own.
Buffy slipped into the empty seat next to Tara just as the witch's last lecture of the day began. Although sharing a class with the slayer wasn't quite the same as sharing a house with her and her younger sister she couldn't dare hope that she would ever be back living in that house. Instead she cherished each moment she got to spend with her friends, the one's she'd inherited from her relationship with Willow, the red-head had given her everything. The life she'd always wanted but never thought she'd have. A demon girl from the country didn't deserve to be blessed with such good people, not that she was actually a demon, Willow had helped her see that too.
"You look happy" Buffy observed.
"Yeah" Tara agreed, it was the best she'd felt in a while, since the singing perhaps, maybe the day she'd had her memory wiped by Willow, before the crystal got broken, she'd been falling in love with Willow all over again.
"You talked to Willow?" Buffy surmised.
"We're having coffee" Tara admitted shyly.
"That's good, right?"
"I hope so"
"She's really trying, Tara. But it's hard. I think she needs you, there's only so much I can do for her" Buffy told her sadly.
"Yeah, I Know. I just don't want to get hurt again. I love her so much Buffy"
"She loves you too" Buffy reminded.
"She's got a funny way of showing it recently" Buffy sighed, something had been going on with Willow the last few months, and it had hurt all of them, but no one more than Tara.
"She wants to make it right. Give her a chance" It was Tara's turn to sigh, she'd already decided as much, she'd give Willow a chance, but she was going to take it slow. First they would get Willow's magic completely under control before she could even consider going back to the way things were.
Tara forced herself back to the lecture at that moment, her eyes falling upon the artistically posed naked woman displayed at the front of the class. She looked at the way the hips and thighs were accentuated, as was the custom in paintings of that historical period and her mind slipped back to Willow. The painting's weren't really Tara's taste, she preferred Willow's small frame, and the way she could fold the young witch against her and wrap her completely in her embrace. It occurred to her that Willow would probably love the painting, she remembered being insecure when she and Willow had first started dating. She wasn't skinny like Willow, she had hips and thighs, her body wasn't toned like some of the other girls she saw. She wasn't particularly pretty and she didn't understand what Willow saw in her. The first time they'd made love Tara had been reluctant and while she was happy to lavish attention on Willow the moment the red-head had tried to slip her hand beneath Tara shirt the blonde had pulled away. When Willow had finally found out what was wrong she'd spent ages trying to reassure her partner that she was perfect just the way she was, that she wished she was as beautiful as Tara. She'd lavished attention on every part of Tara after that, muttering affections about each body part as she reached it causing Tara to blush and writhe beneath her. She smiled at the memory of how things had once been, she wanted the woman who'd instilled confidence in her back, she wanted her Willow.
