Title: Where Oh Where Could My Little Wiccan Be?
Author: Kimberly aka last_days_of_pern
Feedback: Pretty please, I'm not too proud to beg!
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Willow/Tara
Disclaimers: I don't own anything, please don't sue me.
Summary: Tara searches for Willow.
"Willow?" Tara mumbled out her lover's name as she woke up and realized said lover wasn't there snuggled up to her like always. Grumbling some she threw the covers back and started the process of getting her tired body out of bed, no small feat let me tell you (and no pun intended). Tara put her feet down on the floor, and after her sleep muddled brain had a short conversation with her feet she jumped back in bed, "goddess that's cold, darn hardwood floors." Leaning on her stomach over the side of the bed she located her cute kitty slippers (which were usually found next to a purring Miss Kitty, go figure). Squirming her feet into the warm slippers Tara put her feet back on the floor, satisfied that her feetsies weren't going to freeze she took a step.
Rubbing her eyes she looked over at the clock and saw that it was only seven a.m., on a SATURDAY! She and Willow usually never got out of bed till 10 on Saturdays, it was an unspoken rule, that was only broken when faced by appending apocalypses. Doing a quick (as her tired mind could) mental calculation to make sure there weren't any pending apocalypses she frowned and looked around the room, as if her small lover would pop out of the closet like a demented jack-in-the-box. Nothing happened. Grumbling some more to herself she went over to her door and pulled it open, peeking her head outside and seeing it was suitably deserted she walked out into the hallway, and then into the girls bathroom. Listening for a second she deducted that there were no showers currently in use. "Willow?" No answer. So Willow wasn't in the room, and wasn't in the bathroom, where oh where could she be?
With a few more PG rated grumbles Tara made her way back to her dorm room. Momentarily she thought about calling the gang, and the magic shop to see if anyone had seen Willow. But since they were up fighting a demon till two in the morning, which was only FIVE hours ago, she decided against it. She knew nothing bad, or at least she hoped nothing bad, had happened to her lover. No one came to the dorm room and took Willow; she would have woken up if something like that were going on, normally she was a light sleeper. Of course if Willow had left the room then something could have happened. But that seemed unlikely due to the sun in the sky, and the fact that Willow was a kick-ass Wiccan, who knew her way around a protection spell quite well due to the many Scooby hours she had logged in.
Deciding that she wasn't going to find her missing lover by just standing in the middle of the room Tara grabbed her bathroom bag and towel and went back into the bathroom to shower and do other morning bathroom type things. It only took her half an hour to shower and get dressed, and as soon as she was Tara left her room, thinking about which way she should go to find Willow. Right would take her to Willow's room and then the dead end at the end of the hallway, ok so if she went out the window and up the fire escape she would reach the roof…THE ROOF! Mentally smacking herself on the forehead (after all actually doing it would hurt, not to mention if anyone saw her they might start to question her sanity), and then turned to the right to check Willow's dorm room and then go up to the roof. Willow loved the roof, at night they would curl up on their sleeping bag and look at the stars, making up names for new constellations (they still needed to give the `pile-o-crackers' a new name), and half the time they would fall asleep curled up next to each other, under the stars (when no alien carrying meteoroids came shooting down to Earth that is).
Willow's room was as empty of red headed Wiccans as her own had been so she headed back out into the hallway, again going right. Finally after having a one sided battle with the window, and tearing one of her favorite skirts on an errant nail on the fire escape Tara made it to the top. And darn it, NO WILLOW! Grumble, grumble. She made her way back down the fire escape (narrowly missing a second attack from the `skirt-ripping' nail) she climbed back inside the dorm house and headed back to her room. After changing skirts she headed back out, turning left this time she made her way out of the building. When she first stepped out she squinted her eyes against the blaring sun (got to love California eight a.m. and it was already 85 degrees). Once her eyes settled into the bright light she headed down the path that would take her to one of their favorite picnic courtyards.
After the five-minute walk (and an attack by an angry squirrel) Tara found herself in the courtyard…no Willow. Going over a mental list of all the places a Willow might be found Tara made her way off campus. It being so early, and the entire lack of quality sleeping time, all added up to the Espresso Pump. Coffee would be needed after all, whether she found Willow there or not, if the search was to go on, she NEEDED her coffee. Walking into the almost deserted coffee house she found no Willow. Heading into the bathroom (just in case) she still didn't see her lover. So she did what anyone else in her case would do, she ordered a double of her usual to go.
Walking back out into the blinding sun (87 degrees now) she again found herself with the decision of which way to go. Left would take her to the Magic Shop, Xander and Anya's apartment, and Giles apartment. Right would take her to Buffy and Dawn's house, the many graveyards, and the park. Deciding that Buffy's house was probably her best bet Tara headed right. Lucky for her, Sunnydale is small, tiny in fact. It only took her 10 minutes to walk to Buffy's house. When she got there, there wasn't one sign of life inside, not one. So instead of knocking and probably waking Buffy (never good to wake a slayer so shortly after big slayage) and Dawn (teenagers just didn't rise before noon on weekends, universal fact), she grabbed the key from the fake rock (for emergencies of course) and let herself in. No one was up. Buff was asleep in her bed, Mr. Gordo tucked safely under her arm. Dawn was dead to the world, one of her mother's shirts held tightly in her hands. But most importantly, no Willow.
Tara let herself back out of the house and put the key back under the obvious fake rock. Noting to herself that she really needed to get a pair of sunglasses she headed off in the direction she had just come from, next stop; Magic Box. Tara arrived at the magic store just as Giles was getting there to open the door for the day (Anya didn't come in till 11 on Saturday). "Hello Mr. Giles." Tara stated politely, getting a brusque British nod in return. "Have you seen Willow?"
Giles gave her a little frown, "Not since last night no…why?" It's never good to start the day with a missing Scooby, just through you off for the rest of the day…nope never good at all!
"She wasn't there when I woke up…no biggie, I'll just keep looking for her."
"Oh…well…yes…do let me know when you find her."
"Of course." Tara gave a little Wiccan wave and set off to look at the last place on her little mental list. Xander and Anya's place. It was highly doubtful that Willow would be there, but she didn't know where else to look. Grumbling to herself about the glaring sun, stupid heat, and darn dogs not on a leash, she walked her way to the apartment building that housed the ex-demon and her boyfriend. Again due to Sunnydale's whole lack of size she was there in just five minutes. Good thing they didn't live in the city, she would need a cab for the search, could get expensive. She walked up to the door and heard cartoons from inside. Remembering how much Xander talked about cartoons, she figured he was up watching them as he had done since he was little. Since he was up in fact, she didn't feel bad at all about knocking on the door. A dark head popped out just a minute after she knocked. "Hey Xander."
"Hello my Tara sized friend." Xander greeted grinning, he opened the door to allow Tara to enter. At which point she saw Anya sitting on the couch under a blanket that was pushed up at one site, probably where Xander had been before he answered the door.
"Have either of you seen Willow?"
Xander looked at Anya, then back at Tara, "Nope. Loose her again?"
Tara grumbled a little under her breath. "Yes."
Xander broke out into one of his Xander grins. "Her room?" He would never forget the time Tara spent four hours around town looking for Willow when she had been right down the hall in her own room finishing up a paper for class.
"No." Tara grumbled. She wouldn't forget the incident either.
"Espresso Pump?" Anya suggested.
"Been there."
"Magic Shop?" Xander tried.
"Done that."
"Summers' house?" Anya asked.
"Alls well sleeps well."
"Huh, sneaky little Wiccan." Xander grinned. Willow always beat him at hide-n-go-seek when they were little; she always had the best hiding spots where he could never find her.
"Yup, even tried the roof, no Willow…where oh where could my little Wiccan be?" Tara asked in an over (comically so) sad tone, causing Xander to snicker. Anya, being a really, really old, and out of date ex-demon, didn't see the humor in the question asked to the theme of `where oh where could my little dog be'. Tara just grinned at Anya's confused look, and decided that Xander could explain the humor, she had a girlfriend to find. "Well I'm going to go…and look." Tara grumbled with a smile on her face. Xander and Anya both said their goodbyes and Tara left.
Once outside the apartment building, she once again, was faced with the `which way?' decision. She was starting to get grumpy, all this looking and no finding…no fun at all! Mentally going through eeny meeny miny moe she picked right. Might as well check the park. Maybe Willow wanted to watch the birds playing birdie hopscotch. Again thinking about the need for sunglasses, and thankfulness about the smallness of the town Tara journeyed on to the park, with the pond, and birdie hopscotch. Tara thought back to the first time Willow had done this (ok the second time, the first time she freaked out) at that point in their relationship it was quirky, cute even. Now it was grumble worthy. Grumbles, which she promised herself she would share with her missing lover once she was un-missing. And, she really needed to get Willow to switch to decaf, maybe that way she wouldn't have so much energy for these little escapades.
Tara made her way to the bridge (the one over the pond, at the park) and looked out. From there you could see the whole park, except for the few trails that led off into the woods. And it was from there that she spotted a little red dot, just barely visible from the other side of a tree. Ironically enough, a willow tree. Walking over to it, she hoped the red spot was her lover's head. As it turned out, it was. Willow was sitting there in the grass, under the tree, reading a magic book. Willow looked up as Tara stood in her light. "Hi." Willow said happily.
"Grumble…grumble." Tara said with the cutes little frown. There she had shared her grumbles (literally) and now it was time to drag Willow home for snuggle time (best time of the day). Tara held out her hand wordlessly and Willow happily took it. Together they walked hand in hand back to Tara's dorm room. Once there she called Xander and Giles to inform them that she found her wayward lover. Once the notifications were done Tara grabbed her pj's and changed back into them, then pulled Willow into the bed, and pulled the covers up over them. Tara laid her head on Willow's chest, and listened to the comforting rhythm of Willow's heartbeat. "Love you."
"I love you too Tara." Willow stated placing a kiss on top of Tara's head. Mentally planning where she would go next time. It was fun to play the game with Tara; her lover always found her, as kids Xander had always given up to quickly. With a wicked little Wiccan smile Willow fell asleep, her love firmly wrapped up in her arms.
THE END.