A/n: And here's where we reach the point of realistic human moral ambiguity. Not sure if you'd uncomfortable with this, or of I'm making mountains out of molehills.

Chapter Six (Yay! Ice Cream! and Spontaneous Magical Willow-gasm.)

"You're magic too?"

Tara spoke the words in that whisper that really wasn't a whisper, the kind that teenagers used in the library to purposely piss off the librarian.

"Um, I guess. Well, not guess, since I obviously am…so yes?"

Tara grasped Willow's hand, an utterly delighted expression on her face. "So not only are you some sort of super genius, you're a witch too?"

"Well, I wouldn't say genius," Willow preened.

Tara gaped at her, picking up the schedule and waving it around. "Not genius? Look at this! You take into account different factors most Watchers wouldn't even consider and made a schedule for saving the world, and you're a witch. That sounds pretty genius to me."

Despite the odd looks they were receiving from the staff, Willow broke into a huge grin. 'She likes my neurotic tendencies?

Tara rubbed her finger on the now purple ink, taking a moment to delight in finding another Slayer-helping witch, and another, longer moment to enjoy Willow's smile. Then she looked at her hand. Some of the ink had rubbed off on her skin.

That wasn't what made her stop.

The ink rubbed off into her skin was still purple.

"W-woah."

Willow cocked her head to the side. "What is it?"

Tara's eyes snapped back up to her, delighted blue eyes glinting with something else now, too. "What spell did you use?"

"Why does it matter?"

"The kind of spell always matters, Willow."

The hacker blushed, eyes wide. "Oh. Oh, I didn't know that. There's a lot I don't know yet, which kinda makes me mad, because for years no one knew more than I did. About anything. So if there are rules and stuff that I don-"

"Willow." Tara quirked her brow, and Willow was a goner.

"I really didn't think about it. You said purple, so I needed the ink to be purple, so I made it purple."

Tara stared at her, and that thing in her eyes had a name now.

Awe.

It wasn't a look Willow was used to getting.

"You didn't think about it?"

Willow shook her head. "Nope."

"At all?"

"No siree."

Tara shut her mouth and licked her dry lips, giving Willow a view of tantalizing Tara-tongue. "I thought you just used a glamour, t-to make the ink look purple." She held up her ink stained hand. "Glamours only fool the eyes. Touch, scent, stuff like that? Usually enough to break most glamour spells."

"And what I did?"

Tara held her stained hand out to Willow, palm up. Willow instinctively reached out her own hand to let her fingertips rest on those of the young Watchers. "You," Tara swallowed. "You physically changed it from one color to another."

She spared another glance to the paper in her other hand. "And," the corners of her mouth twitched with mirth. "Apparently changed it from ball-point to gel-pen."

The redhead pouted. "Gel-pens are shiny."

This awarded her with another lopsided Tara-grin. 'She's being defensive and it's adorable.'

"So how long have you been practicing?" Tara probed, taking another sip of her frappuccino.

Willow pursed her lips in thought for a moment. "I'd say about three months, give or take."

Tara lurched forward in her seat, choking on her drink. "Are you kidding?"

Distressed Willow eyes made their appearance. "Did I do something wrong?"

Tara shook her head violently. "N-no! Never. It's just," she locked eyes with the redhead. "I've been practicing my whole life, and I still have trouble with transfiguration."

Willow's jaw dropped. "So you mean I'm a nerdy freak with magic, too?"

Tara jumped in her seat, hands held up in front of her. "Nonono never!"

"…not a nerdy freak?" Willow asked shyly.

"Nerds are in this year," Tara winked conspiringly. "And I'll have you know I can get a bit freaky too."

Willow's eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline, and Tara froze at her own words. 'Oh god,' she thought with sudden horror. 'Everything is diiirtyyyy!'

Still, Watcher's constitution won out in the end, and Tara managed to recover with only a cough and the flicking of her bangs over her eyes. "B-basically, you're a lot more powerful than witches your level should be at. A lot more."

Willow flushed. "Oh no, I'm not anything special."

"Oh but you are," the young Watcher said, completely serious.

"But there's so much I need to learn! There are rules, right? Rules I don't know?"

"I could teach you."

The tiny, naughty, dirty part of Willow's mind thrilled at the idea of teacher-Tara, but she forced her overactive, 17 year old girl hormones down. "Really? You would?"

The hope and excitement in the redhead's eyes made Tara melt. "I've trained my whole life, so I think I'd be pretty qualified." She winked. "Plus, I taught Art how to be a Slayer, and she turned out fine."

At that moment, all three Slayers stumbled into the cafe, dirty and bruised.

"Caffeine!"

"Food!"

"Yay ice cream!"

Tara turned to the wide-eyed redhead sitting across from her. "I've been a witch longer than I've been a Watcher," she reassured quickly.

Art's roving eyes landed on the two witches and she grinned like a lunatic. "Ta'! Lookit! Cotton candy ice cream! And it's pink and blue!"

"It's eleven thirty, Artie."

"But it's Friday!"

Tara muttered the girl's full name under her breath warningly, causing the child to pale and Faith, who had heard, to snort into her overly caffeinated beverage.

The twelve year old quirked her brow. "Scone and hot cocoa, then?"

"Ooh," Willow interrupted. "Get the Panini sandwich!"

Tara observed as her Slayer cocked her head to the side. "Is it any good?"

Willow nodded. "Grilled bread, chicken, tomatoes," she listed.

"Onions?"

The redhead wrinkled her nose. "Onions are icky."

Artie nodded gravely. Mutual onion hatred was something she could understand. Taking a five dollar bill from Tara, she trotted off to the cashier.

"Ah dun geddit," Buffy said around a mouthful of chicken salad sandwich. "Wah jus 'appened?"

Monday

"Hey, Willow!" Tara's voice rang out, almost unheard over the ring of the bell and the clamor of the students.

The redhead's head snapped towards the source of the voice like a well-trained terrier. "Tara?"

The sandy-haired Watcher was grinning at her lopsidedly, brow quirked in lieu of a hello. Willow eyed the messenger bag at her hip. "I didn't know you were a student!"

Tara rolled her eyes. "Not really. I'm a Watcher, remember? High paying job, Council education, etcetera." She winked. "It's part of my cover."

Willow giggled. "Cover? What, are you playing secret agent now?"

"But shh, you mustn't tell anyone," Blue eyes twinkled in delight. 'We're bantering! Love a good banter. Hadn't had one in a while. Artie's a snarker.'

"No, but really?"

Tara shrugged. "The Council is all with the, 'Get close to the other Slayers,' and whatnot."

"So am I your ticket in?" Willow teased.

"Oh yes," the young Watcher said in all seriousness. "This is all actually a spy movie. I seduce you for information and various reconnaissance related stuffs."

The two girls stared at each other silently, defiantly, almost nose to nose.

Willow was the first to break down in giggles. "Okay, okay! You win."

"I have mostly free periods during the morning, so I technically don't even have to be here till around lunch."

"Oh. Did the Council set that up, so you can help Giles with demon-y research?"

Tara grinned cheekily. "That too. Mostly because I'm a smarty."

"Me too! Well, I'd have lots of free periods too, but then there're these things that I want to learn, and-"

"Wanna find an empty classroom with me?"

"Wh-" Willow stared. 'This is so sudden! I wanted to woo her with my witty, geekish charm!' she swallowed. 'Maybe they do things different in those British schools? Okay, calm down Rosenberg! You can do this!'

"You know? To work on your magic?"

'Fuck!'

Willow blinked, finally realizing how close she was to reenacting a cliché Harry Potter PWP. "Yeah, sure! I have a free period right now."

'Liar!'

"Oh yay!" Tara bounced on the balls of her feet happily.

"Boobies!"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I-I said Scoobies! The library! Where we have Scooby meetings! It's usually empty around this time of day. 'Nice going, Rosen-perve! You said the inside thing on the outside!'

"Let's do this?"

"Let's do this!"

"I can't do this!"

Willow slumped backward, fwumping her head on the table as Tara looked on despairingly. Four hours had passed, their efforts proving fruitless. Whereas a normal person would have given up by now, something inside Willow snapped. Whether it was her natural drive for knowledge, or the almost instinctual desire to impress Tara, she didn't know. All she knew was it was making it difficult for her to just give up.

Until now.

"I'll never get any better at this rate," she said morosely.

"Welllll," Tara dropped her head next to the redhead's. "You have only been doing magic for three months. Most people would say you're really advanced." She turned her eyes away from Willow's pout and stared at the ceiling.

'Huh. Two girls sprawled on a table in an empty library. I think I've read this one.'

"Besides," she continued. "This session wasn't about getting stronger." She propped herself up on her elbow, bangs falling over one eye. "You're plenty strong already. This was to help build control. Once you can control the magic you have, then we'll work on mastering all sorts of spells."

"But I can't!"

Tara leaned down closer. "You can. Just…focus your mind a little."

"Have you met me?" Willow asked pithily.

"Okay," Tara sat up on the table, hauling Willow up into a seating position too. "This should help, but I'll tell you right now, it might feel weird. Never done this on anyone before." She placed two finger's on the redhead's forehead.

"Wh-"

And then Willows vision went blue.

Optimum

Synaptic

Transmission

Achieved

Seconds, minutes, hours later she shot up on the table, gasping, not even realizing she had lain back down, before slumping over again in a boneless heap.

"Whu wassa-?"

Why was she having trouble speaking? Why, when everything in sight was so clear, so crisp, when the very lungfuls of air she sucked in seemed so cool? Why when-

- so- many- things-

-seemed so obvious?

Tara bit her lip. "J-just a little boost, to help you focus. I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, I should've a-asked for p-permission-"

"Tara," Willow placed her hand on the other girl's knee. "Whatever that was," Amazing. "It helped."

"I probably shouldn't do it often, though." It was true. Though having no malicious intent, other witches would consider Tara's little stunt a Bad Thing. "Energy transference like that end in nose bleeds for everyone."

A trick she had learned from observing a black magic dealer or two on various Sentinel cases, the spell was modified by Tara herself. Rather than invading the other person's magic, taking it, and forcing your own in, this was another act entirely. Not black magic. Just Tara. Tara-magic, freely given with nothing in return. The euphoric side-effect was still there, though. That was one kink she never managed to work out of it.

"Oh," Willow said breathlessly. "Guess we shouldn't use that for studying, huh?"

"Right-o," A beat. "Can we not say anything to Rupert about this spell?"

Willow squirmed, though whether from the intensity of the blue-eyed girl's gaze or the sticky wetness coating the insides of her thighs she did not know.

"O-okay."

'Yep. Definitely no mentioning this spell to Giles.'

"You wanna continue the lesson?"

"Oh you go right ahead," Willow nodded. Well, more like she jerked her chin in an attempt to look like she didn't care and failed miserably. "I'll just…sit here…and listen. And sit. Here."

"Okay." With an awkward smile, Tara hopped off the table and turned to face her. "Let's start from the top. Personally, I think you'd do well to start off on daily meditation and-"

Willow listened with half an ear, trying not to rub her thighs together or make some sort of spectacle of herself. In doing so, she did not notice how the sandy-haired witch's nostrils flared, or the blush on her cheeks as she subconsciously licked her lips at the scent.

'Do Want!'

As to which girl thought that is something I cannot say.