Title of Story: What's an Angel, without her Wings?
Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Couple or Pairings?: Tara/Willow (Obviously), Anya/Xander (Because they make me smile.) and eventually Buffy/Faith (It's just so interesting.)
Rated: Teen.
Warnings: There is some violence, some mature themes, eventually there will be cursing, oh and evil heavenly beings who are power corrupt.

Disclaimer: If I owned Buffy; Tara would still be alive, Anya would still be alive, Buffy and Faith would be together, and I would magically appear in every episode with my handy dandy sidekick Kyra... okay, I would be the sidekick. Unfortunately, it belongs to Joss Whedon and he has done a marvellous job at it. Please don't sue me... All I have is ten bucks and some stuffed animals.

Authors Note: This takes place during the time where Willow and Tara are seperated, before Xander's wedding so him and Anya are still together and nobody who I love is dead.

Special Thanks To: The one girl who I willingly let shove me around and virtually beat me senseless with a grin on her face, Kyra. She is the Dahlia in my story and nobody could ever replace her... Or they would feel her wrath if they did. She is undeniably evil and quite enjoys this fact. I love her like a sister and she loves me like a punching bag... Odd relationship. Ah yes, and I dedicate this to my beloved little cousin who is the Caelum to my Tara, minus the not being able to speak and being abused by heavenly forces. However, she is my little angel and gives me a reason to smile everyday. Love you both!


What's an Angel, without her Wings?
Chapter One: A Heart's a Heart.

"Willow, I-I've decided th-that I need to b-be more supportive tow-towards your pr-problem." Tara shook her head quickly, that sounded too much like her girlfriend was a drug addict, which she wasn't, even if a magic addiction was the same level of seriousness to a witch as a coke problem was to certain people. It still didn't sound right to her, she had to rephrase it somehow if she was really serious about getting her redheaded witch girlfriend back. "Will. Take me back? I'm so sorry about everything." Now that sounded like she was all to fault, which as much as Tara had felt like that for the first few days of moving back to her own individual place. She wasn't all too blame, Willow had a legit problem, it was perfectly understandable her leaving. "Willow, I know that neither of us is at complete fault, but I think we both had prob..." Her train of thought was interrupted by the slap of feet against the pavement, normally it wouldn't phase her, but at three in the morning? Something wasn't right.

"Get the child, Balthos!" A loud growling came from the darkness that was only a few feet away from Tara, immediately she felt a chill run down her spine, this could be nothing but bad news. Looking up at the area between the darkened trees, the obvious location in which the voices were coming from, she braced herself for the worst to pop up on her and scare the living hell out of her. Instead, she got a small blonde child running out of the forest area, her small legs moving too quickly for her body to carry her properly, her feet tripping over themselves as she ran away from some unseen creature behind her. "Get the vile thing before it escapes!"

The loud growl shook the trees violently as the girl tried to run past Tara, tripping over her own bare feet and smashing into the pavement full-force, her face ramming up against the gravel in one grinding motion. "Quickly, before everyone and their blood brothers find out about the pure one, we do want first dibs on her pretty little neck, right?" Tara felt sick to her stomach, they weren't demons like she had initially thought, but they weren't exactly little bunnies that only wanted to love the girl. These vampires were just as dangerous as any demon could be, and Tara was the only one in a three block radius that could help save the girl. Immediately bending over to pluck the small girl off of the ground, Tara pulled the child behind her back as the vampires came into her sight. Nasty little bothers they were, their eyes bloodshot and faces lumped up, they wanted this girl and they were prepared to take her with or without Tara's permission. Well, she had something to say about that.

"Stay b-back." She spoke softly as she held her hands out in front of her, a ball of energy forming in her hands almost instantly, sort of like a immediate reaction to the impending danger. Muttering a soft incantation, "Phasmatis tergum." In her head, the two big bad vampires flew backwards into a tree, smacking against it painfully and sliding down the bark. Tara had a huge smile on her face as she turned around to give the little girl a high five, not remembering until the little girl pointed wildly back to the trees, that simply smacking a vampire around only left them incapacitated for a few moments. Obviously, they would get back up after.

"Oh d-dear... Yes, we should run n-now." Tara grasped onto the little girls arm firmly but gently, pulling her along as she started to sprint back towards her place, hopefully they could lose the two vampires as soon as possible.

Her heart pounding in her chest as hard as humanly possible, both girls felt like they were on fire as they kept running full speed towards Tara's dorm room. The small girl kept quiet as she was pulled along, feeling very much so like a rag doll, her saviour groaning softly as she felt the pang of not exactly being a marathon runner, come to her serious disadvantage. "This is going to h-hurt in the morning." She huffed as she reached the staircase in her building, the girl stopping dead in her tracks, not being able to run any further. Tara spun around and looked at her, not knowing if the vampires were still after them and not wanting to chance that they were. "Hurry, sweetie." She begged, the worried look taking up in her eyes as she loosened her tight grip on the child's forearm. Tara wasn't one for interacting with children, especially such young children, but she remembered from her childhood that small children didn't like to be grabbed that way. She certainly didn't like to be handled like that.

"Can you keep going?" She asked, her soft side taking over for the frightened behaviour she was currently showing to the girl, if she couldn't keep calm, how could she expect the four year old girl to be brave at all. At the child's shake of her head, Tara slipped her hands underneath the girls arms. "I'm going to carry you, so hold on." There was no trace of the stutter in her voice as she knew she had to be strong, like an Amazon, something that she had always told Willow. Now it was her turn to follow her own directions, and be tough. Lifting the small girl up into her arms, she held onto her tightly and started to run up the stairs for her room, a safe place for them both to hide out until the big bad vampires went away and stopped looking for the small child. She hoped it would be soon.

Unlocking her door with almost the same frantic pace that she ran all the way from the park and to her apartment building with, she practically forced the both of them inside before closing it, locking it and setting the child down. Hurrying to the window, she looked outside in time to see the two vampires they were hiding from, running past the building that the two girls were in, and breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe for at least a little while. It was only about three hours until dawn set in and then the vampires would be toast, if they weren't hiding by then. As long as they didn't think to look in that particular building, all was fine and safe for the girls.

"Why do they want you, I mean you're just a kid, right?" Tara went back over to the door making sure that the deadbolts were in place and it wouldn't easily be broken into, in the short amount of time she did that, the little girl went over to the window and stared out it, obviously searching for any sight of the monsters she was running from a little over ten minutes ago. She kept silent still, not speaking a single word, and confusing Tara even more than she was. "What did they mean by pure, too?" She spun around to face the quiet girl, her eyes finally being relaxed enough to take in what she looked like, not just physical appearance, but how she was being carried.

It made her heart ache, brown and dirty almost burlap-sack looking fabric covered the girl like a makeshift dress, her ankles and legs all cut up by deep red gashes. She was filthy, grungy and obviously hadn't been looked after in a long time. She either had parents that didn't give a damn, or she just didn't have parents.

That's when she noticed the bumps alongside the back of her dress, what on earth could they possibly be. Taking a step further, it suddenly clicked in her head, something that made her get chilled down to the bone. There wasn't a possible way that they could be what she thought they were. Tara let out a soft gasp as the significant rips and tears on the girls dress revealed the off white color that the bumps were, proving that they were indeed a part of her body and not just some rocks slipped into the dress during their flight from the vampires. "Wings."

She took another breath, the look on her face switching between concerned and fascinated that this little girl had white wings, or what she could see was white wings. They were probably hidden underneath the rest of her torn and tattered brown paper bag dress, because she could only see the bumps upon her bruised and scratched back, nothing fluffy and silky smooth like the actual wings of what Tara assumed she was, were supposed to be. Stumbling and stuttering once more with a look of wonder on her face, that was amazing, and puzzling.

"Y-You're an angel?"