Chapter 16
Buffy glances up for probably the twentieth time at the clock. Pacing back and forth she growls quietly under her breath. When she hears a whimper, she stops and looks down at a lightly shaking Phoenix. "Oh, Phoenix!" Buffy gently reaches for the puppy and picks her up, hugging her to her chest. "I'm not mad at you, Phoenix. Mommy's just worried about Tara. I expected her to be home over an hour ago." Buffy looks back at the clock again, mentally keeping herself from growling. "It's a little after midnight, I expected she'd be home before 11:00."
Looking down at the calming puppy, Buffy strokes softly over her back, smiling as Phoenix starts wiggling in her arms, barking. Setting the dog down, Buffy tilts her head as she hears a car pull out of the driveway, as the key slides home in the lock. "Damn dog has almost better hearing than I do." Buffy narrows her gaze on the dog. "No distracting me like that!"
Tara raises an eyebrow as she walks in the door, catching the last statement from Buffy. "She's distracting you?" Tara questions quietly, before turning and locking the door behind her.
"Yes. And not to sound like a total bitch, but if you're going to be this late, can you please call and let us know, so that way I don't think something decided to have you for dinner?" Buffy growls deeply, clenching her jaw tightly.
Tara turns and looks in surprise at the obviously angry slayer. "Okay, enough. Have I done something to piss you off in the last twenty-four hours?" Tara questions harshly, dropping her book bag on the floor and crossing her arms over her chest.
Buffy backs up a step in surprise at the harsh tone of the witch. Hearing Phoenix whimper, Buffy glances down at the puppy as she looks from one woman to the other. "Come on, Phoenix. Let me let you outside while Tara and I talk." Buffy strides out of the living room, Phoenix hesitating and looking up at Tara.
"Go on, Phoenix." Tara softly states to the puppy while following slowly behind the slayer. Sitting down on a stool, Tara watches as Phoenix runs outsides. Glancing up as Buffy walks back into the kitchen, Tara raises an eyebrow towards the slayer.
Buffy groans and runs a hand through her hair. "You haven't done anything, Tara." Buffy admits, opening the refrigerator. "Do you want something to drink? Maybe a cup of tea?" Buffy offers softly.
Tara watches Buffy, trying to figure the woman out. "Why the cold shoulder, Buffy?"
Tara questions, not answering her.
"Because I'm fucking PMS'ing." Buffy mutters, grasping a water and opening it. "It's me, Tara. It isn't your fault. This is something I've got to deal with on my own." Buffy sighs quietly. "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to be such a bitch to you for the last few days." Buffy looks with sad hazel eyes at the witch. "Hopefully you can eventually forgive me for it."
"Buffy…" Tara starts, seeing the sadness in the slayer's eyes, breaks her heart. "What is it, sweetie?"
"I can't, Tara." Buffy feels the tears coming to her eyes. "Please don't push me on this, okay? It isn't something I can talk with you about."
Tara stands, slowly walking towards the slayer.
"Don't." Buffy shakes her head, wiping her tears roughly away from her eyes. "You'll hug me and I'll end up bawling my eyes out. I can't do that." 'And I may be tempted to kiss you, and that I really can't do.' Buffy continues in her head. "Why don't you go to bed, Tara? It's late and you need your rest."
Tara searches Buffy's eyes for a few long moments. "Are you sure?" Tara questions quietly. As Buffy nods, Tara sighs. "I want your promise, that if I do something to upset you, you'll let me know."
Buffy sighs quietly. "Tara, it isn't you. You haven't done anything, and I seriously doubt that you could do anything to really upset me."
"Promise." Tara states adamantly.
"I promise." Buffy finally gives in before walking over to the door when she hears a whimper. "Come on in, Phoenix. It's time for all good puppy's, witch's and slayer's to go to bed."
Tara smiles sadly, as Phoenix comes running up to her. "Everything's okay, Phoenix. Mommy and Auntie Tara just needed to talk." Tara scoops the puppy up and holds her, scratching her behind the ears.
"Why don't you go ahead and head upstairs. I'll make sure everything's locked up." Buffy glances at Tara, watching her for a few minutes.
"Okay." Tara looks up smiling at the slayer. "Want me to go ahead and take Phoenix up with me?"
"If you don't mind." Buffy nods, then silently watches as Tara leaves the kitchen. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Buffy locks the back door before going to the front door, double-checking the lock before turning out the lights and quickly jogging up the stairs.
"'Night, sweetie." Tara murmurs, gently clasping Buffy's shoulder before leaving to walk to her bedroom.
"Good night, Tara." Buffy slowly shuts the door to her bedroom, looking at Phoenix who's already curled up on her bed, starting to doze. "Mommy almost screwed up royally." Buffy murmurs quietly to the snoozing dog. "I guess I'll just have to deal with things as they come up." Buffy sighs as she slowly changes out of her clothes and into her sleep wear. Turning off the light she stops and rubs Phoenix's belly for a few minutes. "If I don't behave, Tara's liable to literally rip me a new one. And I really don't think it would be pleasant."
Climbing in bed, Buffy turns on her side and curls up in a tight fetal position. "I don't know if anyone's listening, but can you do something to help me out, here?" Buffy whimpers, looking through her window at the night sky.
Tara smiles at Anya as she walks in the store. Looking around, she notices there's no on there, so she leans across the counter and gives Anya a brief kiss. "I didn't ask, but am I working tomorrow?" Tara questions softly, as she walks towards the office to set down her stuff.
"No, I'll work tomorrow." Anya follow's Tara in the office, her eyes drinking in Tara's form. The week had progressed nicely, lots of hugs and kisses, some light petting. Nibbling on her bottom lip, Anya leans against the door frame watching as Tara pulls one of her books out of her bag.
Tara glances up from her book bag, noticing the pensive look on Anya's face. "What's wrong, honey?" Tara questions softly, setting her book down on the desk as she closes the distance between them.
Anya closes her eyes as Tara reaches up and strokes a strong thumb down her cheek. Reaching out to clasp the witch's hips, urging her to close the short distance between them, Anya smiles softly as Tara wraps both arms around her, hugging her tightly.
"Anya?" Tara questions worriedly.
"I'm okay. Just feeling needy." Anya admits, burying her face in the witch's neck. Inhaling deeply of the witch's scent.
Tara raises an eyebrow. Gently running her hands up and down Anya's back, Tara finally slides one hand up to cup behind Anya's head. Easing back to look in Anya's eyes, Tara notices the need and desire flaring in the brown eyes. Moving both hands to cup the woman's cheeks, Tara leans in and kisses Anya deeply. As she lovingly strokes her tongue over Anya's, Tara groans as Anya captures her tongue, sucking softly.
Anya whimpers as Tara ends the kiss. "Damn customers." Anya bitches as Tara chuckles and walks out to help the customer. Following Tara, Anya finishes re-stocking the shelves while Tara rings up the sale. Feeling arms wrap around her waist from behind, after the bell rings, Anya sighs quietly and leans back into the witch.
"Just needy?" Tara questions softly, stroking her hand gently under the ex-demons breasts. Grinning wickedly, Tara shifts her hand so her knuckles brush tantalizingly over Anya's breasts.
"Tara!" Anya moans Tara's name.
"How needy?" Tara nuzzles into Anya's neck, smiling as she hears Anya start to whimper. "I know I've been feeling more and more… needy, myself." Tara admits, her lip curling up into a smirk.
Anya groans as Tara finally cups her breasts, running strong thumbs over her aching nipples. When Tara starts to gently pinch her nipples, Anya quickly turns in the witch's arms, attacking her lips. As Tara opens her mouth, Anya quickly fills the invitation, battling against Tara's tongue strongly for a few long minutes. Finally easing away, trying to get control of her breathing, Anya whimpers as Tara starts nipping her way down her neck. "I'm gonna lock the damn door." Anya growls as Tara jerks away from her when the bell rings over the door.
Standing outside the Magic Box, Buffy watches the two women. Watching the obvious caring and attraction the two women have for each other, Buffy smiles softly, before groaning at the hot display, feeling an almost uncontrollable urge to jump in the middle of the two women. Closing her eyes, to get the thoughts out of her head, Buffy takes a few minutes, calming herself. Swallowing hard at the feelings coursing through her body, Buffy walks through the door, raising an eyebrow at the two women. "Good thing it was me and not a customer." Buffy grumbles quietly.
"Yeah, I guess we should keep the making out to the office." Anya states quietly before leaning back in and placing a soft kiss on Tara's lips. "We will continue this later. I hope."
"Count on it." Tara murmurs quietly, watching Anya grin and wink before walking towards the office. Turning her gaze on Buffy, Tara blushes lightly. "Sorry."
"Uh, huh." Buffy states non-commitally. "I was wondering if you maybe felt like Chinese tonight. I was on my way home from work and thought I'd just drop in, instead of calling." Buffy looks around the shop, looking everywhere but at Tara or Anya.
Tara glances over towards Anya who's standing in the office doorway. When Anya shrugs and smiles, Tara smirks at the shop-keeper. "Dawn should be getting here soon. Chinese sounds good to me, if you want to see if it sounds good to Dawnie…"
"She's always up for Chinese." Buffy smiles briefly. "Would you like to join us, Anya?" Buffy questions quietly, glancing briefly at the slightly disheveled woman.
Anya raises an eyebrow at the slayer before glancing towards Tara. At Tara's nod, Anya smiles. "I would love to."
"Good. I stopped on the way here and picked up an extra menu, I didn't know if you had one here or not." Buffy pulls the menu out of her back pocket, unfolding it and setting it on the counter. "I'll see what Dawn wants, we can pick it up when I come back to walk you home." Buffy nods towards Tara.
"I drove today." Anya looks from Buffy to Tara, sensing the slight tension that still exists between the two women. Sighing at their stubbornness, Anya finally continues. "We can pick up the food and I'll drive us to your house. You can just call with what you and Dawn want." Anya offers softly.
"That would be great." Buffy smiles after a slight hesitation. Starting to dig in her pocket for money, she looks up as Anya walks her way and places a hand on her shoulder.
"I got it." Anya looks in Buffy's eyes, before heading over to the bookcase. "I thought of a couple other books that might have information about different orbs in it last night, so that'll give me a chance to looks through them this evening." Anya frowns when her backs turned to Buffy, having noticed the sadness lurking in Buffy's eyes.
"Thanks, Anya." Buffy glances towards the door, smiling as Dawn walks in.
"Hey!" Dawn chirps as she practically prances into the shop. "What's up?"
"Talking about dinner. Chinese, what do you want?" Buffy grins as Dawn's eyes widen, and a look of utter joy crosses her face.
"Menu!" Dawn calls out looking around, running over to the counter when Tara waves it at her. Picking up a pen, Dawn grins at Tara as she slides a notepad towards her. Quickly writing down her selections, she turns back to look at Buffy. "Where's Phoenix?"
"At home, I haven't made it there yet." Buffy admits. "Tara, can you put me down for a large order of sweet and sour chicken, along with a large order of beef and broccoli?"
"Consider it done." Tara smiles as Buffy walks towards the door.
"See you two later. Coming with?" Buffy turns her gaze on Dawn.
"Might as well. You having dinner with us tonight, Anya?" Dawn questions walking towards Buffy.
"Yes, I am." Anya smiles as Dawn grins hugely.
"Good. See you guys in a few hours." Dawn practically bowls Buffy down in her excitement as she leaves the shop.
"Be careful." Buffy admonishes softly before quickly following Dawn out the door.
Anya turns a raised eyebrow towards the witch. "Definitely acting skittish."
"You're telling me." Tara sighs sitting down on the stool behind the counter. "As long as she doesn't go back to her one-word answers and ignoring me, I guess I can deal."
Anya feels the urge to bang both women's heads together. Pulling down a couple books, Anya places them on the table before looking over at Tara. "Do you still want to leave things as they are?"
Tara glances towards Anya, before nodding her head. "For now. Honestly, right now, I don't really want to think about Buffy. It's kind of driving me insane, wondering exactly what's going through her mind."
Anya raises an eyebrow at the witch. "Why don't you read her aura?" Anya questions quietly, sitting down.
"I don't do that unless I have a very good reason." Tara explains softly, before standing and grabbing her book out of the office. Sitting down beside Anya, Tara flips it open to the chapters she needs to study.
"You don't think this is a good enough reason?" Anya looks at Tara, surprise evident on her face.
"No. This would be more of an invasion of privacy." Tara frowns for a moment. "Anya… you know I love you." Tara starts softly.
"Yes, I do." Anya smiles gently at the witch, turning her chair to face her. "I also know you love Buffy. There's all these confusing feelings going on inside you, that's pulling you first one way and the other, right?"
Tara sighs deeply before nodding her head. "How do you know this?"
"You're not the only one, Tara." Anya runs a comforting hand down Tara's arm. "You're just getting a heavy dose because you live in the same household with Buffy. You can't help but be around each other. Because of this, you probably have a slight guilt complex going on because you feel like you're almost betraying our relationship."
Tara tilts her head down, running a finger over the page of her book. "Aren't I?" Tara finally questions looking up with sad blue eyes at Anya.
"No." Anya shakes her head, watching Tara intently. "Like you said, you love me. You love Buffy, and I love you. I'm on my way to loving Buffy, but it's hard when you don't spend much time with a person."
"Maybe I should move into your apartment, and you move into my room at Buffy's house. See what happens." Tara jokes quietly, clasping Anya's hand in hers. "And why is it that you always seemed so jealous of everyone around Xander, but this situation isn't bothering you?"
"Do you think she would go for that?" Anya questions, smirking. "I know I'm in deep like with Buffy. I also know that she is one hot woman." Anya wiggles her eyebrows, making Tara laugh quietly. "I also know I love you. I want to spend time with you… I want to make love with you." Anya whispers the last. "You are an absolutely wonderful, kind, caring, beautiful woman. With beautiful breasts!" Anya tacks on, chuckling. "As for the jealousy…" Anya hesitates, tilting her head. "I think it's the guy thing that makes me more jealous. They seem to have a harder time controlling their hormones, and are more easily led astray. Plus the fact that Xander has been in love with just about every woman he knows, it kind of had a tendency to rub me the wrong way." Anya admits softly.
"Plus you were a Vengeance Demon for scorned women, so that probably added to your disgruntlement with men. I'm surprised you even hooked up with Xander after everything." Tara smiles softly, before changing the subject slightly. "You have a thing for my breasts!" Tara smirks at Anya. "So, I love you. I love Buffy. You love me. You are in serious like with Buffy, that could turn to love. We both agree that Buffy is extremely hot and desirable. We also both agree that each of us are beautiful, caring women. We don't know what Buffy thinks, and NO we are not asking her." Tara narrows her eyes on Anya, seeing the look cross her face.
"Spoil sport." Anya grumbles. "She'd probably deny it anyway." Anya admits, sighing.
"Probably." Tara nods watching Anya for a few long moments. Wrapping her arms around the shop keeper, Tara gives her a long, warm hug. "You're a sweetie, you know that?"
Anya grins as she hugs the witch back. "I don't know about that, but if it means me getting more hugs, then yes, I am."
Tara chuckles, squeezing Anya once more before releasing the woman. "Let me get to studying, before the next lot of customers come in." Tara chuckles as Anya pouts adorably before sitting down and opening one of the books she's researching.
"Study, study, study." Anya gripes jokingly. "When do you graduate?" Anya questions as she starts looking through her book.
"Hopefully this year. I've been working extra hard to make up for last years…episode." Tara murmurs running a hand across her forehead. "Luckily, because of the extenuating circumstances, they're letting me test out in a couple classes, along with doing some other additional projects and reports." Tara nibbles her lip as she starts reading her chapters.
Anya looks at Tara, surprised. "Isn't that kind of unusual for that to happen?"
Tara looks up, smiling crookedly. "Yes. But, you forget, we live in Sunnydale. A lot of weird and unexplained things happen. They're a little more tolerant on the whole. Of course I had to do almost twice the amount of work in those classes, then I would have it I'd re-taken them."
"That's not fair!" Anya frowns deeply. "Do you need any help, someone to question you or help you with the projects?"
"Actually, the special projects and additional reports I've already finished. As soon as they gave me the particulars of what they needed, I started working on them. I just have to study for the actual tests, now." Tara sighs quietly. "And those will start in a little over a months time." Tara looks at the shopkeeper for a few moments. "You'd be willing to question me on the subjects I'm working on?"
"Of course. I don't know if you have lists of questions already, or if I'll need to read what you're studying, but I'm willing to do whatever you need to help." Anya offers sincerely.
"Thank you." Tara smiles softly, placing a gentle kiss on the ex-demons cheek. "I may take you up on that."
"Please do." Anya grins happily at the tender kiss. "Tara?" Anya hesitantly questions.
"Yes?" Tara looks up hearing the hesitant note in the demons tone.
"Would you maybe like to come over tomorrow night?" Anya looks intently at the witch.
"Sure. Do you want to pick up a movie or something? You can come by the house after you close up shop and have dinner with us, if you want." Tara smiles as she watches the ex-demon.
"We can do that. But I was kind of meaning in a, would you like the stay the night, tomorrow night, kind of offer." Anya taps her finger on the table in nervousness. "Not that we have to do anything, I mean… I would just like to be with you."
Tara smiles at the uncharacteristic way Anya's acting. "So, you would like me to actually stay over tomorrow night. Watch a movie, maybe have some kissing action, see where it leads from there?" Tara whispers watching as Anya nods her head quickly. "I would love to."
Anya breathes out a huge sigh of relief, before smiling at the witch. "Thank you."
Tara chuckles quietly and runs a hand down the other woman's arm. "Anything you would like in particular for dinner tomorrow night? I need to go to the store tomorrow afternoon."
"Whatever you want to fix." Anya tilts her head in consideration for a moment. "You know that Chicken burrito shell thing you made a while back…"
"Chicken burrito's that I baked in the oven?" Tara questions, smiling as Anya's eyes light up. "I can make that for dinner tomorrow night. Maybe I'll fix some bean dip to munch on while it's baking."
"Mmmm. Good!" Anya smiles happily. "I should shut up, that way you can study, since you probably won't get much studying done tomorrow."
Tara chuckles. "Thank you, Anya." Tara turns her attention back to her book, studying quietly.
Anya frowns as she works her way through the book, mentally grumbling at not finding anything for more than one orb. Gently shutting the book, Anya slides it up the table before grasping the other book. Leaning her cheek on her hand, Anya slowly turns the pages as she continues researching.
Tara glances over at Anya, as she finishes reading the chapters, smiling at the look of concentration on the woman's face. Reaching up, Tara tucks a stray strand of hair behind Anya's ear. When Anya glances up, smiling softly, Tara feels her heart skip a beat at the sweet smile. Watching Anya turn back to the book, Tara continues to run her fingers gently through the woman's hair. Tara realizes how lucky she is to have this, surprisingly, understanding woman love her.
Anya re-reads over the information on a set of orbs that basically makes the person who has them invincible. Frowning deeply, she isn't even aware of Tara's scrutiny. "I think we may be in trouble." Anya slides the book towards Tara, glancing at the witch. "This is the only thing I've come across so far that is about a set of orbs."
Tara's eyes shift from the shopkeeper to the book. "The Orbs of Nezzla 'Khan?" Tara questions, bringing her hand down, reading the information on the orbs in the book. "Invincibility, super strength? So not a good thing. Especially for that sick bastard." Tara growls quietly.
"It's quiet tonight, why don't we close up shop early?" Anya states looking up at the clock, realizing that it was already 7:30.
Tara looks at the time, nodding her head. "You're the boss. Can I take this with us?" Tara questions from where she's still reading the information.
"Of course." Anya stands, putting the other book up before preparing the shop for closing, watching as Tara continues reading for a few moments before marking the book with a slip of paper.
"If he knows where these are, or has them…" Tara looks up with a hint of fear in her eyes. "This could be very, very bad."
"Yes, it could. But we do stuff to make the bad stuff better. We'll research and then try to either find them and keep them, or destroy them." Anya shrugs her shoulders. "We do what we have to."
Tara chuckles at the simplistic statements, realizing that's exactly what they did. Being afraid, or scared doesn't help. "Let me get my stuff together. Then we'll pick up dinner and head to the house."
Anya nods, watching as Tara walks to the office. "Time for dinner." Anya whispers quietly, smiling.