The day is All Hallow's Eve, and we find two young women inside a college dorm room. The one with silky wheat colored hair is sitting upright on a full sized bed, her gaze split between the room walls and her lap when biting her fingernails. The other young person has just arrived, and her short, burnt sienna hair is wild like a flame. She wears a large, knitted green sweater. When she sees her beautiful Tara's worried expression, her eyes soften and when Tara looks up to see Willow's tornado blown hair, she momentarily forgets her troubles, and upturns one corner of her mouth into a half smile. Willow sees her smile and starts to flush a little.
"I know, I know, I look like Medusa right now, but what's up? You look anxious. Is it your family?"
Tara laughed, "You look adorable."
She then got serious, "N-no, it's not my family... it's ours."
"As you know, I got back from my watercolor class at 3, and when I came back, I couldn't find our little kitten. I called her name and looked under the bed, and in the closet, nothing. I noticed you left the window was open from this morning, you don't think he could have climbed out? I'm starting to get worried because it's almost night already. And it's Halloween, who knows what could happen to Miss Kitty Fantastico? She could get stepped on or catnapped..."
Willow's mind churned, Where could Miss Kitty Fantastico be? But she needed to stay calm, for Tara's sake.
"No, nothing will happen to her. We'll find her, I promise. She's probably just sleeping somewhere weird."
She wrapped her arms around Tara whose brows were still furrowed.
"How can you know that?" Tara pleaded.
"Because we're two intelligent, resourceful, courageous witches, and when we're together, nothing can stop us."
Willow looked deep into Tara's bedroom eyes and gave a small reassuring smile and kissed her lightly on the lips.
Tara kissed her back.
"You're right. We can do anything together, especially magic. I'm pretty sure I have a finder spell in my books somewhere..."
Tara got up off the bed, and looked through her largest volume.
"Ah, there it is. Willow, did you bring the brush we used on Miss Kitty last night?"
"Yeah, I was going to leave it here so we would always have it on hand for her."
She unzipped her loaded backpack and pulled out the brush. There were black and white mats of hair. She handed it over to Tara.
Tara inspected the brush. "Perfect. Thanks, Willow. With this hair we can use it to locate her. If it works, it should lead us to where Miss Kitty is right now."
They sat cross-legged on Tara's bed, hands joined, and said the magic words. The mass of hair Tara had ripped out of the brush started to quiver, then began to rise. They kept chanting, and it rose to their eye level. All of a sudden, lightning flashed, and the hair plummeted to the ground. They ran to the window, and thunder and rain poured down, drowning their hopes along with it. Tara just watched, wide eyed at Nature's destruction outside.
"We have to go outside."
Willow looked at Tara in disbelief, "Tara, I know we have to find her, and we will, but it's thunderstorming, and this rain is coming down hard and fast. How will we even see in this downpour?"
Tara ignored Willow. "We have to go, Willow. She could be drowning out there and if I find her drowned body tomorrow, I–" She started to tear up. "We're going. Now!"
Tara grabbed Willow's hand and ran outside, wearing only her pink sweater, sweatpants, and slippers. Willow ran with her, all the while trying to convince Tara that this was not a good idea, and they'd only catch pneumonia in this cold. But Willow knew Tara was distraught, and no rational argument would persuade her against her emotions right now. They shielded their face with their hands above their eyes and called, "Miss Kitty Fantastico! Miss Kitty! Come out!"
They searched around the grounds and under bushes, all the while getting colder and colder.
A group of party goers that got caught in the storm, dressed as superheroes, ran past them, and Tara called "Have you seen a black and white kitten?! She has a white spot on her face and white legs and green eyes and, please tell me you've seen her!"
They just looked at her with skeptic expressions at her soiled slippers and desperate manner and kept going.
It was now 30 minutes, and they were absolutely soaked. They could still see lightning, but luckily it wasn't too close based on the thunder interval.
Tara shouted over the rain to Willow, "Let's recheck the bushes under my window and then we can check the main campus, and then..."
She looked at Willow, who looked so thin as she was soaked through with her hair pressed against her face. She noticed Willow looking back at her with sympathetic eyes that said, no more. Willow had her arms crossed and was trying to keep from shivering so much, but she was shaking and Tara realized that she was shaking too. Tara began to cry.
Willow put her arms around her, and said, "Shh, we did all we could. But now, we have to get inside. Your lips are blue and it's dark out here. We can look again tomorrow."
They drudged back inside, their arms around each other's shoulders. Each drenched step up the stairs to Tara's third floor bedroom felt like defeat and they walked in silence, their eyes cast downwards.
When they got into the bedroom, they stripped off their wet clothes on separate sides of the room and Tara said, without turning, "You can use the shower first."
Willow looked over at Tara, and said innocently, "We're both freezing, wouldn't it make more sense if we uh, went at the same time? It would save water and uh..."
Tara noticed Willow staring at her, and she turned her head slowly to look at Willow's face. They'd never been naked together before, and she felt herself blushing. "Okay."
After their pleasant shower, they felt a little better and changed into pajamas. Willow hadn't expected to sleepover, so Tara lent her a pair. They climbed into bed and as Willow's legs slid down towards the end of the bed, she felt something furry. A second later she felt some pain on her toe.
"Oww!" Willow jumped out of bed, and Tara looked at her puzzled. "Something just bit me! What on earth are you keeping in your bed?"
She pulled back the covers, and there she was! Miss Kitty Fantastico was looking up at them with half closed eyes and she sat up and yawned.
"There she is!" Tara exclaimed. "That must be why we thought the spell didn't work, because she was under there all along! She's so small, I didn't notice her figure underneath this heavy comforter."
"See, I told you we would find her, and we did!" Willow picked up Miss Kitty and handed her over to Tara. Tara kissed her on the nose and forehead and held her in her arms. Willow climbed back in next to her and stroked Miss Kitty's soft back. Miss Kitty started to purr.
Ring Ring Ring! Willow's cellphone on the bedside table went off. "Oh, shoot. I totally forgot in the midst of all this excitement. Buffy wanted to invite us to go with her and Riley to this frat Halloween party."
She looked at Tara in askance, and Tara gazed back at her with warm eyes, letting her make the decision.
Ring Ring Ring! Willow picked up the phone.
"Hi Buffy. - Yes, we're together at Tara's place. - No, we don't have costumes on - Wait, Buffy, I know I told you that we would probably be there, but a lot of stuff has happened this afternoon and we're just going to stay in. - No, it's resolved. We'll tell you about it tomorrow. - Have a good time tonight!"
When Willow put the phone down, she saw Tara, smiling at her. Tara turned off the light, and they snuggled close with Miss Kitty Fantastico on the pillow between them. It was a Halloween they'd always remember.
This is my first EVER fanfic so please let me know how it went! Especially if you have constructive criticism! Thank you for reading!