Chapter Twenty-Seven

And a Summer place

A/N Willow and Tara make up I promise.

Sunnydale, the world without shrimp 2002

"I'd kill for him." Anya suggested, her hands flying to her hips in quick defense, pulling in her chin to protest her worthiness.

"You'd kill for a chocolate bar." Willow returned with a pointed stare, her eyes judging considerably. Anya's hands pressing further into hips.

And so Buffy decided she could kill the principal, because that's what slayers do, meanwhile Tara decided the wasn't just going to let Willow go into this unawares, she was gonna fight. Fight for Willow, with the little firepower and strength she had.

"I can prove my love with magic." Willow said with a smile on her face, a smile that had Tara folding her arms over and glaring intently. But Anya was skeptical.

"Yeah right, what are you gonna do? Use magic to make him into a girl?" The bare suggestion of this idea had Willow beaming, it was too much, she couldn't take this anymore. Tara grabbed Willow by the arm and pulled her firmly into the kitchen, the full force of being swept made her hair leap.

"What are you doing?!" Willow cried out, annoyed that Tara was distracting her from her plans for spelling RJ, she didn't have much time, she really had to get on with it if she was going to prove her love first.

"Willow, what are you thinking? Ok so yeah, you what turn him into a girl. Then what? We all go upstairs and go at it like bunnies?" Anya made a loud shrieking noise as the flippant bunny comment, even under a love spell, bunnies still got to her. Buffy gave her a sarcastic look of sympathy and so the main argument between them continued.

"I don't know, I just need to have him. And if he's a her then I can prove how much I love him. And you might like him more." Willow said, there was a slight tone of frustration in her voice as Tara's hands kept her standing at a firm parallel to the blonde. Tara's heart raced too quickly, she wanted nothing more than to just pull Willow in and not let her go, but that wouldn't achieve anything. So she let her go for a tiny second, long enough for her to slip away upstairs and set out her crystals, calling on Hecate. Tara would follow shortly once the others had stopped their quarrels and left to prove their own love worthy of RJ the amazing.

Tara walked past the feigning Dawn, she didn't have any magic, or weapons, what was she supposed to do to prove her love. She had nothing. She had life, she could give up her life, that would do it. She would prove to everyone that she loved him no matter what. So Dawn too made for the door. But Tara was still in relative normality, she wasn't gonna let Dawn randomly leave.

"Dawn where are you going?" Tara asked, gripping the teen's arm in an attempt to keep her inside the house. Dawn looked away from Tara and thought about it again, considering her options once more.

"I- There's something I have to do." She said firmly shaking Tara off and closing the door gently behind her.

"But Dawn..." Tara trailed as she felt energy rising from upstairs, Willow's chanting growing louder. Oh, no she's gonna do it, she's actually doing the spell. "WILLOW!" She called out as she walked into their bedroom, Willow was on the floor laying out a circle and chanting loudly, there were crystals floating all over the place, she was calling Hecate into being, that was never good. Neither of them had done a spell alone since Willow had gone black, this wasn't good. This was never good. They were supposed to do magic together, magic inspired by their love and fed with powerful forces. But this wasn't love it was lust, and it wore a terrible colour on Willow when it wasn't spiked with her own green tone.

The tears drifted down her face as she rushed forward to stop her girlfriend from making a terrible mistake. Silencing her spell in an action she'd never do but this time it was necessary. The crystals fell and annoyance rose from Willow as she stood up quickly, moaning about Hecate. Tara moved away, lying in a ball on the chair in the far corner of the room, she just let the tears dry on her face, it'd been years but it still hurt. This time Willow was actively choosing someone else and it burned with a fear of what more was to come.

Buffy ran past the window, Spike had stolen her rocket launcher, that was hardly fair he didn't even need to prove his love to anyone. She needed the rocket launcher, he didn't. They ran towards Xander's car, where Willow was sitting crossed legged on the floor with candles. What the? I know she likes magic, but um, hello. Bit busy here.

"What are you guys doing?" Buffy asked staring blatantly down at the floor and quirking her eyebrows.

"Locator spell, human variety. Almost done." Was the listy reply, as Willow flicked her gaze to Buffy then back to her candles. When Xander and Spike had gotten back, Willow had followed them out into the car as they searched for Buffy, and Tara was left alone in the house, she couldn't bring herself to move. Her mind had turned into a downward spiral as soon as Willow had left, thoughts rushing in and out, heavy doubt and suspicion rising through her and she was scared. Really properly scared for the first time in months. The summer was a heavy one but they'd been together.

The train horn blared loudly, to Dawn it was nothing. Sound had become meaningless, there was only love. Love and RJ. The two existed in two sided harmony - not Harmony harmony but the happy kind. She lay on barren track waiting for the inevitable death that would take her. As the car pulled up in the gravel they gang clambered out in search of their teenager. And she was theirs, she belonged to all of them, they were a family. Even Spike in a weird way, they stuck together.

But Buffy was still in competitive mode no matter the danger. "You realise that Anya's probably seducing RJ even as we speak." She said as Willow stood in front of her, yes they'd found Dawn and it was all very important life saving stuff but there was still a love race to win and their ex-ex-demon friend was still on the loose.

"My god, you think so." Was the straight reply, and it prompted a resume on the very argument Xander was very much trying to avoid at that moment.

"Well, I wouldn't put it past her. She's recently evil you know." Buffy said, referring the last week when Anya may or may not have set off that big spidery demon thing that may or may not have ripped out the hearts of twelve frat guys on the UC Sunnydale campus. And Willow did know, she'd seen the bodies. Then the alive bodies once they'd come back from hell and the insanity of death.

Then there was another sound, another blare of train horn in the background, bringing Buffy back to the reality of the situation and muffling what Willow next. "Well, so am I. Why should I miss out?" Seriously though, I was totally more evil than her, I could fly and my hair changed colour, it was super evil. I killed a guy. Myself. That's really not something I should be proud of. Tara wouldn't approve. And in a split moment of clarity Willow realised what she'd done and the spell broke for her. Tara. Oh my god what have I done? What the hell was I thinking? He's a boy. An actual male and I loved him. Well, I did love Xander that way, and Oz. Anyway not the point. Tara, where is she? I didn't even notice her. She must be in pieces. Oh my poor baby. But then Buffy was running and there were trains coming in either direction. "BUFFY!" Willow shouted before staring as her best friend ran towards certain doom and a lovesick teenager.

It was one cargo train after another for the running slayer, as she sped towards her sister. The clashing of signal horns and the jump from the rails shook Dawn into reality. But she still had fire left to fight. "What were you doing? What is this?" Buffy shouted as Dawn scrambled to clean the dirt off her jeans.

"It doesn't matter." Dawn cried in retaliation, she could never compete with Buffy, and now her plan was utterly quashed and ruined and he'd never know how much she loved him. She couldn't explain herself to buffy, none of it mattered now, she'd lost her chance, her love was lost unto him.

"This is a plan, you steal RJ by being trisected?" Dawn felt like arguing, her tired bones ached and she wanted bed and a big pot of ice cream to dive into. But Buffy was still shouting, demanding she explain her actions, her plan.

"What, am I gonna compete with you?" She thought Buffy was pushing too much, for something she should understand, she should feel towards him. But not like she did, no, she was meant to be his forever. "You're older and hotter and have sex that's rough and kill people. I don't have any of that stuff. Um, but if I did this, then his whole life he'd know that there was someone who loved him so much they'd give up their life." Dawn explained, her voice softening as she talked through her rummaging thoughts. It was good to hear it out loud, it still sounded rational to her.

"Dawn." Buffy cooed, trying to get through the barrier of fake love.

"And it would be true... forever." Dawn interrupted, looking down sheepishly at her feet as she came to her senses. It had sounded ridiculous but part of her still thought Buffy might still want to win.

"No guy is worth your life, no ever." Buffy argued, eventually true love had worked over the magic. Dawn was her sister, she was her guardian, she had to protect her from being killed apparently. And protect her from giving her life to unworthy causes, or at all. But Buffy had always been strong in that department, fending off Spike, killing Angel, letting Riley leave. She had a past of giving up guys that owned her heart, each for a different reason. Dawn was still so young, she didn't understand love just yet. But she would, one day. "Dawn, I would give him to you in a second if I could. That's how much you're scaring me."

"But I-I thought you wanted him, for you." Dawn said, pushing the tears out of her eyes as her throat jumped and coiled inside her.

"Nah. Well, yeah. My god that boy is hot." Buffy finally admitted, but she wouldn't push for him any longer. The love part of the spell had broken, Willow had realised her love for Tara would never be beaten. Buffy had realised Dawn was more important than anything, Dawn realised Buffy was probably right. And Anya, well Anya's a bit different. So they all piled back into the car and took off for Ravello Drive.

Xander and Spike had their backs to a shop window, crawling quickly to view clearly where RJ and some girl from the cheer squad were standing. They had a plan, a mission, formulated on their way back. The final solution they needed to break the spell and send everyone's brains back to normal loopy.

Xander turned to Spike with determination in his eyes and a spy-like quality from back when he was dressed as 007 himself for Halloween. "Now, you're sure you understand the plan?" He said pushing his manly dominance over captain peroxide before they'd have to settle into his apartment and make nice.

"I think I got it. Yeah." Spike replied sarcastically, one of his many talents. Even with a soul, the man retained his bad boy attitude and style, even though on the inside he was probably just like a tiny little bunny. Sorry Anya.

Then the competitive twins bolted towards the boy at full macho speed, Xander grabbing him by the waist and Spike pulling the letterman jacket from his person. As they dashed away again, RJ stared in annoyed disbelief and let out an angry 'ow' sound. His cheerleader date not seeming quite so impressed all of a sudden. Wonder why?

Willow rushed through the door first, she needed to see if Tara was alright. She couldn't believe how out of her mind she was, she wished she could say it'd been awful but that's not how love spells worked. She ran up the stairs two at a time, slowly followed by the others as they piled into the house. Buffy and Dawn went straight for the kitchen in search of some hot chocolate. Xander chucked the jacket on the fire, it would be fine there, plus then they could toast marshmallows and it'd be all homey. Spike tried not to get excited about the idea of marshmallows, but secretly the thought of squishy sugary goodness got to him. Anya had somehow returned to the house, but hadn't noticed where Tara was so had just started watching cartoons, knowing everyone would be back soon enough, they always were.

Willow found their room plunged in darkness, she couldn't see anything. There weren't any candles lit or lights on so she didn't noticed the sobbing, near lifeless body of Tara that was curled up half asleep in the chair. But Willow knew if her girlfriend would sit anywhere it would be there. So she dropped her coat on the bed and strolled over. Tara didn't even raise her head, she was curtained in hair, some of which was tear-stuck to her face.

The redhead smiled, even though Tara was so upset she still couldn't get over the love she had for her. She set her thumb along Tara's forehead, tucking the hair she found behind an ear. This was easy, familiar. As her hand wrapped around Tara's cheek the blonde leaned into her touch, she wasn't sure if this was a dream or some strange happening but she was taking all she could get. She knew it was Willow, no need to be able to see. Willow had a smell, a faint strawberry aroma, she always had, it was one of things she loved about her Willow.

"Willow?" Tara said softly, glancing upwards as her body began to untangle, Willow was being so gentle this had to be real. "A-Are you r-real?" Her syllables catching where they weren't supposed to, her stutter was a difficult habit to shake when she was upset.

Willow leaned down and pressed their lips together in tender togetherness that melted them. Words would mean nothing if this was a dream, actions were real. The kiss deepened, Willow didn't know how else to convince Tara that she was hers, forevermore. That their love wasn't some spell that could be broken or taken away, their love was a fated connection they would have forever. As their lips parted ways their foreheads caressed as the pair smiled. It made them giggle a little, deep kisses still made Willow giddy. "Real enough for you." She breathed out, catching the remains of shared oxygen as the air dried up.

"Oh yes."

"I love you, ok. No one else, not ever. Not in the way I love you." Willow confirmed in a soft whisper, consoling Tara's heart and evaporating some of the tears. But it words weren't quite enough proof for Tara, there were other ways of showing love to a person and she wanted all of them right now. "Forgive me?"

"Well, sort of, but I think you are going to owe me one Miss. Rosenberg, I'm expecting a big pay out for this." Tara said unexpectantly, slightly taking Willow surprised by her boldness but in the back of her mind she knew once Tara began being cheeky her heart was mended.

"I would expect nothing less of you darling."