The Road Home
Summary: AU; everyone's human. Buffy Summers dodges family and friends to escape her wedding and make it back home, single. But when she returns to L.A., she finds herself stuck with a grumpy, homeless roommate without who, she soon finds, home wouldn't be home at all.
Disclaimer: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and all associated with it belongs to Mutant Enemy, Fox, Joss Whedon etc. I own squat.

A/N: Okay, guys. I've got too huge a guilty conscience to go off for a holiday without putting this chapter up. So you'd better tell me how it was, okay?

12. Rising

Tara woke to the smell of pancakes.

As she blinked in the morning light of the living room, where she lay on the couch with just Willow now, she wondered who was making pancakes at . . . seven in the morning?

She quickly threw the sheet off herself and padded softly to the kitchen door. Once there, she stood with her mouth open, amazed at what she saw.

"No, luv, not like that. See, you flip it this way so it's perfect on both sides."

A lean white haired man was standing behind Buffy and teaching her to make breakfast. As Tara watched, Buffy, clearly distracted by something (probably the guy, Tara thought with a smile) burnt a pancake and this made the snowy topped chef sigh.

"Here, let me show you how," And saying so, he leaned forwards and rested his left hand on her shoulder, his chin on her other shoulder and one hand snaked between her useless right arm and her side. Tara could see Buffy tense and stiffen and she couldn't help it: she giggled. The blonde pair whipped about and the pancake dropped onto Buffy's bare calf. As she howled in pain, Tara turned her giggle into a cough.

"Oh, man, sorry, Buffy!"

Will, she presumed he was, quickly turned off the gas and bent to look at the red skin on Buffy's calf. He looked back at her, rolling his eyes, and said, "Stop crying, 'Lizabeth. It's nothing." And saying so, he quickly got an ice cube for her.

Buffy, even through hisses of pain, managed to glare at him. "Oh, yeah? Says you! You've obviously never had a hot pancake dropped on your leg, have you!"

Tara was completely ignored as Will bent once more and rubbed the ice over Buffy's leg, saying sarcastically, "Yeah, well that's because I don't parade around the house, showing off my tan legs, wearing bloody boxers."

Buffy ignored the sarcasm. Sniffing, she said, "Yeah, well they aren't that tan; I haven't been to the beach in a long time."

Will couldn't stop himself from laughing. As he did, Buffy smiled, too.

Encouraged, she said, "Plus, I doubt your legs are tan."

Tara giggled at that, and the two blondes looked at her as though seeing her for the first time. Instantly, Will handed Buffy the ice cube and got to his feet, ready with a charming smile, ignorant of the glares Buffy was throwing him behind his back.

"Why, hello, there, pet," Will stuck out his hand and said with a roguish grin. "'m William Giles. And your beautiful name would be . . ."

Tara smiled at the charisma Will oozed. She placed her hand in his and said, "Tara McCl-Clay," stumbling when he turned her hand and kissed the back of it.

Looking at her from where he was bent to her hand's level, Will winked. "Didn't I say beautiful name, now, luv?" He was going to say something else, too, but the remnants of an ice cube hit him hard on the head. Whipping about, he asked Buffy, "What's wrong with you!"

Buffy stuck out her lip in a pout. Though she didn't know it, all Will wanted to do at that second was lean down and capture that lip with his own. She whined, "Help me up."

Acting as though she was a huge nuisance, Will easily picked Buffy from the floor and eased her into a chair. For a second, he was tender. "Comfy, luv?" But when she nodded, he scoffed, "Great, now you have an excuse not to make brekky. 'It's dangerous, Will, just like jogging!'" He imitated the lat part in her voice pretty well.

Mildly annoyed, Buffy chucked at him a peanut from the bowl on the table. "Meanie." She stuck out her tongue.

Will rolled his eyes again. Turning to Tara, who was watching the exchange amusedly, he asked, "I take it an accomplished lady like you knows how pancakes are made?"

She grinned. "Duh I do." And, grabbing an extra apron, she set off with Will to make breakfast.

In a little while, the table was laden with food and Buffy, injury forgotten, was stuffing her mouth with waffles and maple syrup and chattering away at full speed, too. Will shook his head at her, and Tara noticed the chemistry that seemed to surround the two. At one point, Will caught her looking at them and arched an eyebrow questioningly. She shook her head. Buffy, pausing in her criticism of Harmony's lack of professionalism, looked at the two with a quizzical look.

"What're you guys talking about?"

"Nothing," Tara assured her, "I was wondering where Will got that scar."

Will, finally having something he could brag about, grinned and said, "Buffy cries when a pancake falls on her." Leaning towards the blonde, he said, "Think, what'd you do when a broken bottle was slashed slowly across your eyebrow as you lay unconscious?"

Buffy stared at him. Tara shuddered, then Buffy whacked him on the nose with her fork breaking the silence. "Lie," She stated flatly. "Damned lie."

He looked at her, both brows in the air. "Oh? What makes you so sure?"

She sighed and said, "You'd wake up and run away the first time the glass cut you. You, I know by how you treat Mr. Pointy, are a big baby. Like a wet kitty, yeah, that's what you are."

He narrowed his eyes at her, then sighed. "Okay, fine, you win," He grumbled. "It was a bloody humiliating bike accident but this!" His voice rose, "Does not leave this room."

A sleepy voice asked him, "What? Your big sob story?"

Apparently, their chatter had woken Willow. She settled into a chair and glanced sadly at the amount of food left for her.

"I have to eat this?"

Will grinned. "Not a morning person, are you?" He sipped his coffee and said, "You could, or I'll do it for you."

She looked at him, hard, and said, in a wonder filled voice, "How do you do it? How can you eat so much, and I know you eat all day, and stay so fit?"

Will winked. "Trade secret, Red."

Willow shrugged and tiredly dug into her food. By about this time, everyone else was done so Buffy and Will took their plates and Tara's and began to load the dishwasher. From behind the kitchen counter, they watched Tara and Willow talk and Willow's face light up with a smile.

"They're doing well, eh?" Buffy whispered to Will as he bent.

Straightening, Will hooked his thumbs through the waistband of his sweats and grinned. "Seems like it." He whispered back, then bent down to the dishwasher again.

Buffy sighed, watching the oblivious pair at the table with longing. She kept handing Will a plate idly and suddenly, she thought aloud, "I want that. I want that comfort, that ease, tha obvious hold they have on each other."

Will stood up with a frown. "Don't you already do?" He asked, hesitant.

She blinked out of her stupor and said, "What?"

He tilted his head at her. "You said you wanted something like what Red and Glinda do. Don't you already have tha' with your Roman prince?"

She had to frown before she remembered who he was talking about. "Oh. Oh, yeah, well I guess I do, but . . ." She faltered, thinking of how to explain it to him. "It's not the same." She ended with a plea in her voice, but neither knew to who she was pleading.

Will looked at her dryly. "Fear of commitment," He stated.

She gave him a sharp glance. "Not at all," She said, firm. "I just want something that'll stay like that forever."

He shook his head. "Nothing lasts forever, ducks. Better get used to the fact." When, in response, she handed him a dish, he complained. "Oh, come on, 'Lizabeth! Bend and do it yourself!" But nonetheless, he put the dish into the washer.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Nothing lasts forever, dear." Putting down the towel she was holding, she said, "That was the last dish."

"Amazing, isn't it? That we have to go to the same place to work?"

>

Tara smiled. "Yeah, but only for a while. This seminar is just about two weeks long."

"Yeah, plus you're psychology and I'm something so different!" Willow laughed, high on sugar as she drove to the University.

"What are you?"

"A girl." Willow giggled.

Tara shook her head, tolerant. "No, as in what do you do over at UCLA?"

"Hm? Oh, I take freshman chemistry."

Tara stared. "Chemistry?"

"Yeah. A bore, eh?"

"No!" Tara shook her head, laughing. "It's just, chemistry for me was so, so hard and to me, anyone who taught it had to be over forty and a genius and . . . well, you certainly aren't over forty, and—"

"I'm also no genius, believe me," Willow assured Tara. "If I was, I'd have thought twice before deciding to renovate both my bedrooms."

Tara chuckled. "It happens. Like once, I confused the date I was supposed to move into my new apartment on, and left my old one early. So I show up there, and the owner is all, 'What the fuck are you doing here!'"

Willow laughed. "Man, you're fun. I'm so glad you're going out with me for dinner tomorrow."

Shyly, Tara looked at Willow. "How was I to say no?" Her voice was soft and Willow smiled.

"You know, Buffy and Will set us up."

Tara frowned. "Huh?"

Willow nodded, taking a sharp right turn and apologizing to Tara with a look. "Buffy was alright alone but Will sent me, instead, and then refused to let us in at night, remember? Even though I know he's up till two . . ."

"Yeah, but Willow?" Tara was smiling amusedly now, and Willow felt a flutter of worry. "You had a key. You didn't let me in, as well."

Willow blushed as red as her hair. "Yeah," she muttered, "I didn't want to give up your company so soon." She sneaked a look at Tara, who was smiling happily, and blushed a deeper crimson if it was possible. Clearing her throat, she changed the subject. "Yeah, but have you thought of what we should do for Will and Buffy?"

Tara blinked, eager. "You've noticed it, too? Their chemistry?"

Willow snorted, unladylike. "I'm a chem. teacher, of course I'd notice it." As they swerved into the parking lot, she added, "Plus, it's so thick you could cut the air with a knife. The UST," she explained, "I'd be blind not to see it."

Thoughtful, Tara nodded as they left the car. She smiled at Willow inexplicably over the car. "Our blondes seem to be blind, then."

A/N: Sorry if it's small, I'll give a big chappie once I come back. Right now, packing ho!