She hadn't even used her added abilities and yet even taking a slower human speed as she pulled out every minor detail about the landscape, she could from her more hazy human memories she was still the first in her small class to complete the assigned topic and once again she receives more than a few resentful glares as she'd stood to hand it in.

She didn't mind. In her long life, she was used to that sort of treatment by now as she returned to her seat tugging out a clean sheet of sketching paper as she lets her mind drift.

"What do you think?"

Her mother's voice in her mind wasn't unusual but the inability to sense her thoughts was as Tara concentrated a little harder once she realized just how far her mother had gotten from the college campus as her hand continued its unattended sketching on the page under her hand.

"I-I don't know."

If Tara's heart could beat, she was positive it would have flipped in her chest at the sound of that particular voice in her mind.

"It would help if I knew a little more about who this is meant for."

Tara too was curious as to what her mother was up to as she lets her gaze drift over the many jewelry options spread in front of her.

Rings, necklaces, bracelets of all sizes, styles, and other varieties each one beautiful in its own way. Each one not what she was looking for, how she knew this she wasn't sure but none of the available options applied to her in any way.

"Just think of this like you're making the Holy Grail for a vampire. What would you want it to look like?" A man's voice jokes, "And make it pretty, Wills considering some poor vampire will have to live with it for a long time coming unless- I don't know their ring hand gets flattened by a brick or something." at that Tara rolls her eye fighting off a grin at his attempt at tension breaking humor although she can feel the tension in her shoulders loosen the longer, she listened to his humored tones.

"Xander, my love?"

Tara's knee banged hard against the underside of her desk at the sound of her sister's voice earning a low hiss that Tara was sure Adu herself could hear given she pause the playful scolding of her own reborn love to turn a concerned look her way.

"Willow are you okay?"

Tara could see her mother also looking her way across the table with Buffy on her other side. The Slayer mirroring Xander's concern while her mother regarded her with a more probing gaze. The pull of her bond with her familiar breaking her connection with her love for a sort time just enough for Tara to catch her mother's teasing "It's not nice to eavesdrop daughter."

Again, her giggle of laughter sounds from lips that weren't her own, or maybe they were considering Tara noticed a few of the closer seated human students around her glaring reproachfully in her direction as her hand continues to move without her own conscious thought guiding its directions.

Not that she needed to look to know that it was. Even after all this time every detail was as clear to her as the first time, she'd watched her love sketch out the delicate bit of jewelry.

"That—she deserves that."

The pencil in Tara's hand clattered to the ground in her surprise when another hand this one not her own points toward the sketch Tara was still attempting to recreate. Only some minor shading here or there left before she could consider it properly finished.

"What are you pointing at Willow? There's nothing here." Xander's voice once more his expression bewildered as he like Tara looked at the empty varnished wood of the aged tabletop. "Also, where did Anya go?" the rush of affection Tara feels at hearing such concern for her adopted sister's wellbeing was tapered somewhat with Tara's owe longing to be as close as he was to her own returned love at that very moment.

The page vanished from under Tara's hand reappearing in the space Tara was still watching in front of a smug-looking Willow. "Now it is."

"Vixen." Tara finds herself thinking earning a pleased shudder of pleasure from the listening redhead sharing her mind. Tara had to bite down on her knuckles to keep from laughing too hard when this time her teacher glared in her direction at the back of the class.

"May I be excused, sir?" Tara asks glancing at the clock on the wall showing only less than a full five minutes remaining.

"Of course, Amber. I don't see why not considering you're already finished for the period." The human man agrees pushing his glasses back up his nose as his free hand disappeared for a quick second under his desk. Tara guesses to check something on his phone before he glances up toward her again "Just remember next class will be bringing in a live model for the class to be practicing with so don't be late and no leaving early."

Tara noticed a few of the more hormonal males in her class snicker at the reminder. Again, she needed to bite down on her lip to keep from giggling. If only those teens knew it wasn't a human specimen the teacher had decided on but an animal one.

"No biting the puppy."

Apparently, the link with her love wasn't as dimed as Tara had originally thought "Of course, Mr. Kalderash. I wouldn't miss it." Tara smiles needed to remind herself to gather her things at a more human speed.

"Get back to ring shopping babe. I still have classes." It was so easy slipping back into the comforting safety of having Her voice in her head that Tara honestly didn't notice until it was too late that she was being followed as she breezed past the double doors out into the chilly night air.

Xander's phone lights up the same time Willow gives a panicked gasp when whatever connection she'd had with her vampire crush was suddenly painfully shut down.

"Anya?"

Buffy was closer catching Willow before she could topple out of her chair altogether while Gaea lets out a pained hiss of her own quickly changing back to her more feline form as she streaked toward the door.

"Anya…An, An baby, sweetie slow down- what do you mean it happened again?"

"The Initiative." Willow pants clinging onto Buffy's arm like a lifeline "They found her. Buffy, they found my Tara."