Willow fluttered her eyes open at the quiet sound of her alarm buzzing. She threw her arm out to stop the sound and sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes to try and focus them, then stretched her arms over her head, until her gaze landed on Tara's still sleeping form and she felt herself gasp.
Last night really happened, didn't it? Please don't tell me it was a dream...
Tara seemed to sense, even in her dreamscape, that she was being watched and she slowly opened her eyes, smiling when she saw Willow staring at her.
"Morning," she said lazily before a blush started to rise on her cheeks when Willow just continued to look at her, "It's rude to stare you know."
"You're just so beautiful," Willow replied in awe.
Tara frowned and stood up from her bed, shaking her head.
"Don't be silly."
Tara wandered off into the bathroom and Willow frowned as well, before following her, leaning against the doorway.
"What do you mean, don't be silly? We, um...last night did happen, right?"
"Of course," Tara replied, though slightly muffled by the fact that she had her toothbrush in her mouth, "At least I hope it did."
Willow's frown deepened and she moved to put a hand on Tara's arm.
"Tara...baby, look at me," she said and the brunette complied, "You're beautiful."
Tara dropped her head and sighed.
Why is she doing this?
She knew she was nothing special, but if Willow was willing to not only hang around her but actually get into a relationship with her anyway, she was more than happy to be a part of that. She didn't want the redhead to feel obligated to lie to her though.
"Will, I know I'm not," she said in a hushed, sad tone, "I don't know why you want to be with me anyway but apparently you do so...can we just leave it?"
Willow looked gobsmacked and quickly raised the brunette's head with her fingers.
"First off, it's what's in here that makes me want to be you," she said, placing a hand over her girlfriend's heart through her pyjamas, "And secondly, you are the most beautiful woman I've ever met in my life. The first time I saw you I was blown away by how gorgeous you are."
Tara shook her head again; it was one thing to think that Willow liked her personality, even she sort of liked her own personality, or at least the one she'd felt able to have since being rid of her father and brother's clutches...
I still can't believe that was only a week ago.
...the more confidant and easy-going one. Hell, sometimes she even thought she was a little bit funny and Willow seemed to laugh a lot around her, with her and never at her. But she knew she wasn't good looking. She'd been made sure she knew that plenty of times.
My hips are too big and I'm fat. Thunder thighs, that's what Donny always said. Huge calves. Stringy hair. Crooked nose, my eyes are too far apart. I'm a nice girl. Just an ugly one.
"Willow, stop," she said sternly, before pushing past the redhead and going back into the bedroom.
"No," Willow said defiantly, following the brunette, "And I really don't want our first fight to be just hours after we became girlfriends and especially not because you have some completely obscure thinking pattern and think you're not beautiful."
"Then stop saying it," Tara replied, gathering her clothes, "Please."
Willow walked over to her girlfriend and took her clothes from her hands, dropping them on the floor before pushing Tara back onto her bed and moving to lie on top of her.
"What are you doing?" Tara asked in a whisper, her breath quickening from the feeling of the redhead stretched out a top her.
"You. Are. Beautiful," Willow replied, punctuating each word with a kiss, "So very, very beautiful."
Tara tried to turn her head off to the side but Willow grabbed her chin and turned her back so they were looking at each other.
"And if you don't believe it yet – and that's a very big yet, 'cause I promise, baby, I am gonna make you believe it. But if you can't believe it yet, then at least believe that I think it's true. I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world. Okay?"
Tara searched Willow's eyes for any trace of dishonesty but saw only truth.
"You do?" she asked in a meek voice.
"I do," Willow confirmed softly.
Tara wasn't sure what to think. She couldn't imagine ever thinking of herself as beautiful, but Willow seemed to be genuine.
Maybe this is part of being in a relationship. I need to trust her.
"Okay," she said after a moment, smiling a small smile, "Thank you."
Willow beamed and leant down to kiss the brunette firmly. She felt Tara smile into the kiss and felt a hand rest on the back of her neck until the brunette's tongue ran along her bottom lip.
She wants to use tongues! Okay, uh, what do I do?! Don't spaz this up, Willow. Um, okay, just...
Willow opened her mouth and there was an awkward moment when Tara seemed unsure exactly what to do either until the brunette's tongue tentatively pushed forwards and connected with the redhead's.
"Mmhh," Willow couldn't help the loud moan that escaped her at the contact and started moving her tongue vigorously against Tara's.
Tara felt Willow start to eagerly duel with her tongue and reciprocated just as keenly until the need for oxygen became too great and they pulled apart, the smaller girl resting their foreheads together.
"Wow."
"Mmhhmm," Tara agreed with a lazy smile, running her hand through Willow's hair, "Can we just do that all day?"
"But we have our date!"
Tara's face lit up as she remembered.
"Oh yea. Our first date."
"First of many, beautiful," Willow smiled, before glancing up at the clock in their room, "But, uh, we've missed breakfast. And we can't leave 'til after lunch..."
"So we have some spare time?" Tara asked, following the redhead's train of thought, "Some...smooching time?"
Willow grinned before leaning down again.
"Oh yes."
"There's a lot of farms," Tara commented as she looked out the window of the bus she was sitting in beside Willow, "Kinda of reminds me of Alabama."
"The Swiss are a farming nation," Willow replied knowledgably.
"Ah," Tara nodded her head, before turning to her girlfriend, "What else should I know about Switzerland? I didn't really pay attention on the drive here from the airport. Too nervous."
"Hmm..." Willow started, searching her memory, "Well, the country is over 700 years old...it has 4 national languages...founded the Red Cross...is notoriously neutral...oh, oh and the CERN! That has the Large Hadron Collider."
Tara's face crumpled in confusion.
"The what?"
"The Large Hadron Collider," Willow repeated, as if it was obvious.
Which to her, of course, it was.
Tara continued to look confused.
"What's the...Large Hadron Collider?"
"Are you kidding me?" Willow asked in disbelief, "Only the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator!"
Tara's face just remained blank.
"How could you have not heard of it?!" Willow exclaimed, then got an apologetic look on her face and grabbed the brunette's hand when Tara averted her gaze self-consciously, "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just been pretty big news is all. How scientists were trying to recreate the Big Bang?"
Tara heard the apology but was more focused on the fact that Willow was holding her hand until the redhead's words registered.
"Oh, wait. I remember reading something about that in the newspaper. They were afraid of the world ending or something?"
She left out the part where her father had wished that 'the wrath of God strike down any man who tried to justify his divine design'.
"Pffft, fear-mongering media," Willow said with a wave of her hand, "No, it was so cool, basically they pushed two separate beams of protons around this like 17-mile tunnel in opposite directions, all at the speed of light. Then it started smashing particles into each other and released this like, huge, and I mean huge amount of energy and that released all this stuff that made this kinda plasma thing and that formed protons and neutrons, which is like, basically matter. So like, if they could see how matter was made, then they could see how the world started and was formed and everything. See, they were looking to find the Higgs boson."
Tara's eyebrow raised.
"Uh...whose bosom?"
Willow giggled and shook her head.
"Boson, baby. With an 'n'. It's like this hypothetical particle, 'cause it's invisible, see, even with like scientific instruments and stuff. But anyway, they think this Higgs Boson is like part of the Higgs field, which basically fills the entire universe. So by finding it, it'll explain how matter, or well, subatomic particles, which is what makes up matter, really acquire mass."
"Okay..." Tara replied, following so far, "Okay, so I get the collider thing. Energy gets released and that forms matter...but I don't really get the um...the Higgs Boson and Higgs field thing. How exactly does that work?"
Willow grinned excitedly and squeezed Tara's hand as she gestured with her other one.
"Okay, so...right, let's say that we're backstage at a concert, okay? And all these groupies are there. Now, the room we're in, that represents the whole universe and all those groupies, they represent the Higgs field. You with me?"
Tara nodded her head in understanding.
"Great. Okay, now Cher comes into the room, yea? Cher represents a subatomic particle. So all these groupies start to cluster around Cher, 'cause she's Cher and she's awesome. Now, Cher starts to walk through the room, and more people start to surround her but others drop off because, I dunno, they realise they prefer Madonna or something. But anyway, the cluster of groupies surrounding Cher represents the mass that she's gained while she's in the Higgs field."
"No wonder she's so popular," Tara said with a grin, "But I get that. So if we know how the tiny bits of matter are formed, we can figure out how...pretty much everything is formed."
"Exactly!" Willow replied, leaning forwards and placing a warm kiss on the brunette's lips, before pulling back and scrunching her nose up, "I'm sorry. Quantum physics isn't really appropriate first date talk."
Tara smiled and shook her head.
"No, it was good. And now I know something I didn't know before. You know, I've still never taught you any German."
"Oh yea," Willow said, suddenly remembering their agreement, "Well teach me something now."
Tara got a secretive smile on her face and nodded.
"Okay. Deine Augen sind die Sterne."
"Is that telling me how to order a coke or something?" Willow asked, "You're gonna have to repeat it..."
"Augen sind die Sterne," Tara repeated, before her voice got more shy, "It means your eyes are stars."
"Aww, baby," Willow replied, blushing, "Screw the language lesson, keep telling me romantic stuff."
Tara giggled and squeezed the redhead's hand.
"Du machst mich so glücklich...You make me so happy."
"You make me happy, too, Tara."
Tara blushed and resisted the urge to duck her head, instead locking gazes steadily with her girlfriend.
"Dein ist mein Herz."
Willow waited expectantly for the translation and Tara blushed harder as she gave it.
"My heart is yours."
"Aww, Tara," Willow replied, pulling the brunette into a hug, "I'm yours, too. All yours."
Tara closed the hug and held on tight, thinking to herself that that was probably her favourite type of contact with the redhead.
Then again, her kisses...and holding her hand is amazing...and when she was lying on top me this morning...
A fresh blush rose on Tara's cheeks as that last thought entered her mind and she pulled back from the hug, glancing out the window with a smile.
"Wir sind hier."
"What does that mean?" Willow asked, biting her lip in anticipation.
Tara stifled a laugh and pointed towards the front of the bus, which had stopped.
"We're here."