We are forever
A/N Ok so I'm totally rewriting this, because the first version wasn't good enough. I think as Willow and Kennedy were sort of on their first date I thought it'd be more apt to have Willow and Tara on sort of theirs. Set somewhere in S4E17/18. Bottom half is the same because I thought some of you might still want it. Might add the memory with Xander to my memories story at some point.
*Flashback* Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2000
"Tara?" Willow said out of the blue, quietly, not quite expecting a response. Tara looked up at the sound of her name being called, she could always tell when Willow was speaking anyway, a little spark would fly through her. They were sitting on her bed in her dorm, the odd flakes of books spread around them as they looked for new spells to try out.
"Yeah?" Tara replied, her voice small, only just breaching sound level. Willow had a puzzled look on her face, that of insecurity and an inkling of uncertainty. They were on the edge of a relationship without perfectly diving in, they needed to take a step into the open and define their relationship for what it was.
"What are we?" Tara looked over the redhead between the curtain of hair between the air and her. "I-I mean this thing, between us, I mean what we did. So are we together?" Her eyes flickering upwards as her nervousness set in, the same nerves she'd had when she'd asked Oz to be her date. But like tenfold. This is special, we made love, like really made love. I did things, things to her body I've never done before but I still don't know if she wants me. For all the time.
"A-Are you asking?" Was the shaky answer, as Willow inched further Tara took a deep breath. Willow peered into her with those sharp green eyes that melted her. Tucking their hands in together.
"What do you say?" Willow returned as Tara reached over and crashed their lips together before replying, she didn't want her stuttering to ruin it. She was the sweetest, kindest, most adorable girl in all the worlds, and she was asking her out. She's asking if I want to be hers. Oh wait Tara stop kissing, you need air.
"Sorry." She said plainly, pulling herself from Willow in an attempt to justify the swift action she'd just taken. But then she had a concerned look on her face and Tara realised 'sorry' probably wasn't the best answer to give at first. "No Willow, I mean yes, yes of course I would love to yours, I am yours. You didn't need to ask sweetie." Willow blushed slightly and internally kicked herself for second guessing her girlfriend. Oh my goddess, she's my girlfriend now, I have a girlfriend. Girlfriend. Tara is my girlfriend. Hello people of the world, this is Tara, my girlfriend.
Tara giggled, she could practically hear Willow's inner monologue by the multitude of different faces scouring across her lips. "Yes Wil, I am your girlfriend. It's amazing." They leaned in for another short, sweet kiss, until Willow needed to speak and therefore break away. Tara gave a slight whimper, but with the puppy dog eyes from Willow she gave in.
"Hey, you didn't stutter, the last couple of sentences." She said, realising there'd been no jumbled words for the last couple of minutes. She was proud, she knew how hard it was for her girl to verbalise sometimes if she was anxious. Not that she would be here but- oh it doesn't matter brain. Willow didn't exactly know why Tara stuttered, but it was just something she knew Tara would tell her in her own time.
"My heart doesn't stutter."
*Flashback* Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2000
Maybe we could go somewhere? Out, like together? The words were still swimming around in Tara's brain all the next day, she'd been sitting in class thinking about how Willow wanted to take her on a real date. I'm date-worthy. Me! Thanks mom, I know you must've had something to do with this, with her.
As they walked towards the Bronze arm in arm, they had bright smiles and stole tender glances at each other as they entered the flickery door. It was its usual dark space shrouded in people. Willow had told the gang they were studying together so hopefully none of them would randomly turn up and intrude, well not likely anyway. They had cans of soda to sip on as neither one of them was going to brave trying to get some beer, Tara could probably pass for twenty-one if she really wanted to but they weren't really fans of the idea after Willow's little beer splurge over Oz, and Tara's father's drinking habits.
"So we never really did talk about coming out did we?" Willow asked cautiously, she'd been refraining from asking Tara this for a while now, to make sure she wasn't overstepping her bounds. Tara had a nervous sort of can-we-not-talk-about-that look on her face so Willow changed her words, "maybe not coming out, but I'd quite like to know how you realised, that you're gay I mean? I mean I'm assuming you at some point did realise this and I'm not just a big shock to you. Oh this is coming out all wrong-" Willow's babble was briefly paused as Tara's hand graced hers, bringing it to her lips and kissing it tenderly. The blonde was not ready quite yet to be as overfriendly in public as she would be in the privacy of her dorm room, but this was ok.
"Willow. Stop talking." She replied before taking a relieving breath and recounting her story. "I-I kinda realised when I first saw you, but I think it'd always been there. With l-liking g-girls I mean. I never looked at the boys, just ignored them I-I guess." She looked down, a little embarrassed, but Willow's firm grip on her hand seemed to settle her a little, she looked up through her hair and gave a gentle smile. "I know you were different Will, it's ok." She could feel the little anxiety and not-being-accepted feeling roaming around the redhead's brain.
"Yeah, I had no idea, looking back a bit there were a few signs though." Willow replied feeling slightly better and more all-knowing about Tara, she figured she wanted to know absolutely everything about her girlfriend. Girlfriend, still can't get used to that. I can't wait until I know her whole backstory, backwards.
"Really? You, like what?" Tara said, sipping bubbling soda and hiccuping a few times to get used to it. Willow giggled at that, she always wrinkled her nose when she almost sneezed, and somehow it stopped, she'll have to teach me the spell.
"Yeah, well maybe a few times I looked at girls and thought they were pretty." Willow blushed as all the silly little things came back to her. She leaned closer to Tara, taking in fresh vanilla smell. "Ok, alright, so once I was at Xander's and we were talking about what we wanted our lives to look like, we were about twelve so it was a little overachieving, you know. Well, he was talking about his wife, back then he wasn't so thinky about all that. And it was the word. Wife, I just liked it. More than husband, I still do. I guess now it makes sense though."
Tara chuckled a little as Willow's confession, the redhead was looking down but with a smile plastered across her face. As she glanced up slowly, there was a blue glint of reflection in her green eyes, the kind Tara had seen when they'd first met, the spark of love. It was undefined and free to run around their minds as they let their lips touch so softly, but they were parting. Before Willow knew it, she was looking over her shoulder to where another certain blonde was calling her name.
"Buffy, hi. We didn't expect to see you here. I thought you and Riley were patrolling." Willow and Tara quickly recoiled from their slight embrace and recovered, Willow wasn't ready to spill all yet. She needed to be ready, needed to know truly how she felt before Buffy found out, or she'd think it was just a phase.
Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2003
They walked towards the Bronze before slipping inside, the air was a murky burgundy as usual. Hands still entwined as they took a seat in a dark depth of the club. After ordering drinks, and settling into a booth, because they're classy - well according to Willow anyway. The pair of them sank into the night. It'd been a couple of hours playing footsies under the table and sipping on orange liquid with little paper umbrellas. Tara's was only orange-lemonade but she was allowing Willow a free night, so the redhead had gin and orange juice.
"So what is it sweetie? What is it that you love about me?" Tara said sheepishly as Willow began to smile, her brain racking through all their time together, everything they'd been through for this moment of happiness. Good job neither of them had a gypsy curse huh. Willow dipped her head shyly, letting the long red hair she'd been growing flush across her face in a gentle curtain.
Taking Tara's hand as the blonde's lips sealed around her straw, "well, you Tara Maclay." Willow paused before brushing her hair away behind an ear, she wasn't the nervous wreck of a child she'd been in high school anymore. She was a woman, a woman with a whole other woman that loved her unconditionally, now was the time to be confident. Tara smiled, she knew this would probably be a long speech because Willow never used her last name unless she was being serious or flirty and right now was a mix of the two.
"You Tara Maclay," she repeated after clearing her throat and gaining Tara's full attention. "You're kind, so kind to everyone and that makes you special, different. You care so much about everyone, and it's not like life has treated you all that fairly." Tara looked down, slightly embarrassed by the mention of her past as she sipped slowly. But Willow continued, gripping her hand tighter making her look back up into those big green Willow-eyes. "I love the way you sleep with your arms all wrapped around me, your very strange obsession with England, ohh oh that one time you managed to make a pancake shaped like star."
Tara giggled, dropping her straw she reached across the table and wrapped her lips around Willow's, cupping her cheeks with both hands. It was too late for anyone else to notice the perfect moment happening between them. They broke apart slowly, lips lingering for a short second as their scents combined in a melting perfumy mess.
"Ok, now you totally owe me, I just said so many nice things, I want to hear the nice things back at me please." Willow said with a slight pout, pushing her bottom lip out as she missed the pair usually attached. Tara smiled, Willow always knew how to get a smile out of her, it was impossible not to. Her Willow was delicious looking and very stubborn when she wanted to be.
"Ok pouty," Tara said with a flicker of flirty confidence in her voice as she gazed at her girlfriend, half in awe at the utter muppet before her and half like Willow was maybe just a little tired and with the alcohol, they might need to be getting back home soon. "You're sexy when you pout silly. And I do quite like how jumpy you get about frogs, despite how much you hate them. And I love that you love me so well even though you don't have to." She looked down again, her fragile confidence breaking as she felt Willow's hand cup her cheek, wiping away any free-formed tears that'd collected under her eyes.
"Baby listen to me, I want to, I love you because its the easiest thing in the world. I fell into you, and I've never wanted to get out. And look at you, you're like super hot." Tara stifled a giggle as she let Willow scoot around the booth and hold her, their arms coming together in a tight hug as they let their lips collide again. This time it was less chaste, their inhibitions loosened into a heavy petty session as their hands wandered a little too far for being in public.
"Sweetie maybe we should go home?" Willow mumbled a short 'no' sound into Tara's lips, "to our bedroom," Tara continued, "that we don't have to share tonight." Willow finally caught onto what she was saying and shuffled out from the shoulder she'd been nestling her chin on as they'd kissed. She just wanted to be close to Tara, her energy and smell, the feel of her, it was all so overwhelming. Overwhelming but wonderful, she could stay in her own Tara world for years. Neither of them had been able to stand being apart, they needed touch, be as close as two people could be without ruin. And they had been, but she'd ruined it, pushed Tara away and chosen Buffy over her, it'd been a wrong corrected. But it was still a wrong and she felt guilty. That she'd put her friends in that position, it was unfair.
They picked themselves out of the booth and walked towards the exit, leaving an odd tip for no one on the table out of habit and swaying together as they walked, casually bumping each other as they went, too tired. Stopping every so often for the odd kiss and quick 'I love you' the pair of them completely unaware of the danger about to befall them, blunt innocence completing the action as they walked slowly home. In truth most of the tiredness was act, but neither of them knew and therefore they were dreary and in love and it was the happiest day of their lives.