Hello all my lovely readers! So this is my first official Tara and Willow story that I plan on keeping. I have been sort of binge watching Buffy scenes with them for the pests few days. I've always loved this couple, and then when watching a scene with them at about 3:30 A.M. (Because honestly that's around when most of my best ideas hit me) I had this idea for a story for them. I hope that this story turns out to be a long one, or at least a decent 15 or so chapters. I may continue the story for a few more chapters after everything is resolved, but we'll see how everything goes. But first I guess I have to get started, so enjoy the first chapter! Reviews, compliments, and constructive criticism are always welcome!

172 days. That was the first thing that Willow's mind traveled to when she awoke that morning. The sun hurt her eyes, so she groaned and blinked a few times, laying back in her bed. She rolled over and once again looked at the spot beside her. The spot that for 172 days had been empty. The spot that for 172 days she had stared at every morning, hoping that eventually she would blink and Tara would be there, back in her arms, back in her life. But she knew it would never happen. She had tried, and failed, to save her girlfriend. No, Tara was more than her girlfriend. Tara was the reason Willow used to wake up in the morning. Tara was the reason that she could sleep at night. Tara was the reason she smiled, the reason she believed in love, the reason she had for living. But not anymore. Now, all of that was gone.

Now, all the light in Willow's life was dark. All the happiness was despair. All the love was anguish. And she knew that eventually, she would be forced to move on, accept that the only person she had ever truly loved was gone. And she dreaded waiting for that day. That day she would wake up and be able to accept that Tara was really lost forever. She dreaded that day where she would have to forget it all. "Willow?" Dawn's voice sounded from outside her door as the teenager knocked gently. When there was no answer, she hesitantly walked inside and saw the red head laying on her side, staring at the empty half of the bed. "Hey, Xander's here. He uh... Made pancakes," she smiled, hoping that it would cheer the older woman up. Instead, tears formed in Willow's eyes. "Pancakes... Tara used to make pancakes... And... And she would always make sure... Make sure that I ate at least two... Because... Because breakfast makes all things better... And..." Willow stumbled over her words and she tried to smile a little through her watery eyes, but her lips quivered and she broke down in tears, which made Dawn tear up as well.

She walked over to the bed and sat down beside the witch, placing her hand over the girl opposite her. "Willow... I... I know it's hard... And I know that... That you miss her... And I miss her too... But... But don't you think... Don't you think she would've wanted you to be happy?" Dawn asked. "How can I be happy when the only thing that made me happy is now gone?" it was a question that the younger girl didn't have an answer for. "I... I don't know," she whispered, wiping a tear out of her eye. Willow looked up at her and sat up, hugging her tightly and crying into her shoulder. Dawn hugged her back, a few of her own tears dripping down her face as well. Eventually, Willow regained her composure and she wiped her eyes. "Well, we better not keep Xander waiting, you know how impatient men can be," she faked a laugh and stood up, sniffling a few times and wiping off her face. Dawn nodded, not able to muster up any more words to say, and the two walked downstairs with fake smiles plastered on both their faces.

Darkness. It was the only thing that surrounded Liz. She couldn't tell where to go, but she kept running into things that weren't there. "Hello?" she called. Her voice echoed, though off of what she didn't know. When she looked through the abyss, she saw a small, floating light in the distance. "Hello?" she asked again, taking a cautious step towards the light. It floated closer to her until it was about four inches from her face. It was a small glowing ball, about the size of a cherry tomato. It floated around her head a few times, then started back the way it had come from. Deciding she had no better options, Liz followed. The light guided her through the darkness, and although it's light did not reveal the identity of anything around her, she no longer ran into hidden objects. Eventually, the light stopped in front of a door. The door was dark red, with a picture of a cat on it. Curiously, Liz opened the door, and as she did so the light disappeared.

On the other side of the door was a small but neatly kept bedroom. There were pictures of cats on the wall, and on the dresser were magic trinkets and spell books. A small photo of two girls was in a picture frame on the table beside the bed, their arms wrapped around each other and their faces plastered with smiles. It was clear they were more than friends. Liz recognized the red head in the picture. Well, she had seen the face. The name, she didn't so much as have a clue. "It's nice, isn't it?" a voice from behind Liz made her jump and spin around. It was the other girl from the photo. Liz had not seen her before. "Who are you?" she asked, backing up a few steps. The woman did not answer her. "It's exactly how I remember it," she sighed longingly, walking around the room. "Who are you? Why do I keep ending up in places like this?" Liz begged for an answer. She wasn't entirely sure what this woman wanted from her, and if it was a good thing or not. The woman laughed a little, but she didn't answer either one of the questions that had been asked. Instead, she offered a smile. "What do you want from me?" Liz questioned. Before the woman could answer her, Liz gasped and her eyes shot open. She was in bed, in her room, alone once again.

Willow sighed as she walked into The Magic Box. She had nearly destroyed the building when she was under the influence of dark magic. Thinking about it made her sick inside. Buffy was sitting at a table reading a book, and Dawn was playing cards with Xander and Giles. "Hey Will," Buffy offered her a welcoming smile, which she returned briefly. "Anything new today? New demon or threat we have to face?" she asked, sitting down in a chair. "No, for today we are just taking the day off. No stress, no demons, no evil and no magic. Today we are just going to run the shop and act like normal people for a change," Giles responded. "Right... Normal," Willow answered distantly. "I know. I don't even remember what normal is anymore. Normal for us is off fighting hell spawns and evil nightmare creatures," Buffy sighed, tossing her book down. "Well today, normal is selling store products and being good business people. Any objections?" When no one responded to his question, Giles stood up, walked up to the door, and turned the closed sign to open.

Liz walked around her house, feeling pounding against her skull. She couldn't remember anything about herself. Nothing about her family, herself, anything. All she knew was that her name was Elizabeth Joanne Reynolds, and that she was 21 years old as of a week ago, thanks to the ID card she had found in a dresser drawer. A week ago. That was when she woke up in this house alone. No family around, no friends she could recall, no past memories of her life. No knowledge other than the ability to speak English and breathe. She had yet to be hungry, though she was pretty sure she was supposed to eat from what she had seen on a tv show she had seen earlier in the week. Another machine she knew how to use, with no understanding or memory of how she had learned. She liked the name Liz better than Elizabeth, so she decided that would be the diminutive she would go by. She felt the room spinning, and stumbled as she tried to walk. She kept getting trapped in different places in her sleep that kept hitting her at random times. Eventually she collapsed on her bed, once again going unconscious. This time, she wasn't in a dark room. Instead, she was back in the bedroom that she had met the new woman in. However, the woman was not in sight. Liz walked around and when she passed in front of the mirror, her reflection blurred. Within a few seconds, instead of seeing herself, she could see a room that looked like the inside of a store.

There was a tall woman with dirty blonde hair sitting at a table. At another table, two men and a teenage girl were playing cards. And sitting in a chair alone was a red headed woman. There were a few other people walking around, but her focus remained on the five. As her eyes rested upon each one, she could hear a voice in her mind telling her their names. Buffy, Xander, Rupert, Dawn, and Willow. She had seen all five of these people before in previous dreams, but she had never been in the same room with them, and she had never been able to put any name to the faces. As she looked at Willow, she could feel her heart surging with pain, almost enough to make her cry on the spot. The rest of them had that same pain, but it was much heavier and much more unbearable in Willow. It was pain that Liz could put a name to- grievance. But for who? The woman she had met in the room? Was that woman dead? Was that why she could see her and no one else could? And if she was, what did any of it have to do with her?

They didn't look at her. In fact, she didn't even think they could see her. She walked up to Buffy and stood in front of her, but she looked at Liz like she was looking through her. "Why am I here?" Liz asked no on in peculiar. "Dawn, did you say something?" Buffy looked as if she had heard someone. "No, why?" the teenager questioned. "Uh, nothing. I just thought I might have heard... Never mind. I'm just not used to this whole "normal" thing, that's all," she explained. Liz walked around some, looking through the shop. Throughout the store were tons of spell ingredients, amulets, trinkets, anything and everything you could possibly associate with magic. She watched Repurt give someone their purchase in a bag with "The Magic Box" in bright letters on the front.

The store name was an unfamiliar one to Liz, but she still felt like it rung a bell. Just as she was about to try to communicate with Willow, she woke up again. And she again had a massive headache. Why did she keep seeing people in her sleep? Why didn't she remember who she was? Who was the mysterious woman she had seen who was the only one who seemed to see her as well? And if that woman was dead like she suspected, did she need help? Did she expect Liz to be able to give it to her? She looked around her room and saw a laptop on the dresser. Deciding she needed to find the store for herself, she searched directions to the magic box and printed out the map. It was only about a forty-five minute drive from where she was. Then again, she didn't remember if she had a car. She walked downstairs and though she had tried already, she again looked around in every room, not sure if she wanted to find anyone there or not. She sighed when the results turned out the same and made her way down into the basement. There, parked in the middle of the room, was a black, 1967 Chevy Impala. "Hm. Whoever I am, I have good taste," she mumbled to herself. Letting herself in, she started the car, opened the basement door, and started the drive to the shop.

So what did you think? I hope that you all liked this story so far! I actually had to shorten this chapter and I'm going to make what I had written after this part of chapter two, otherwise this chapter would not have had a very good cliffhanger and it would have been like 6,000 words haha. Anyways, hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, I hope you guys liked, please review with your opinions and any kind of response you had!

Ciao!