"What?" Willow asked in confusion, before realisation crossed her features, "Oh. Right. Come on, then."
They both giggled as Willow pulled them off the bus, stepping into the square of the small town that was located just five miles from the school. There was a small pond directly in front of them and a large stand off to the side that detailed the layout of the town, with a map. They were pretty much the only people around, with only the odd other person walking the streets.
"Can you read this?" Willow asked, looking up at the stand, "I can make out the streets and stuff but...is that a park?"
Willow pointed to a patch of green that was on the map and Tara peered at it closely.
"Yea, that's a park...and that's the town hall," Tara replied, pointing at a building near the top of the map, "And that looks like a string of cafe's and stuff...a church...there's some shops, but it looks almost all residential."
"Well that's okay," Willow shrugged with a smile, "We can just walk around and save our money for another day!"
Tara stiffened as the redhead said that and sighed.
"Um, Willow?" she asked, sitting them both down at a nearby bench, "You should know...I'm, um...I'm not exactly what you might call flush with cash. My Dad has money, obviously, the tuition fees for our school are huge, but um, he's not one to share. The only reason I have anything in my wallet at all is 'cause I saved everything my mother ever gave me before she died."
Willow frowned profusely as Tara spoke. She'd only heard snippets about Tara's father and life back home, but she was very sure she didn't like it. She saw the brunette look at her as she finished speaking, then look down and realised she must've misinterpreted the frown.
"Well don't you be worrying about little things like that," she said quickly, wrapping an arm around her girlfriend's shoulder, "'Cause your my girl now, and I take care of my girl."
Tara snapped her head around, wide-eyed.
"No, Willow, that's not what I meant, I just meant I can't afford to-"
She was cut off as the redhead put a finger against her lips and couldn't resist giving it a small kiss, which Willow smiled at.
"I know what you meant. And we don't have to do things together that cost money. All I'm saying is that you're not allowed to worry about it. Money's so...look at all the girls in our school. They're defined by it, by how much they have, how much they can spend. Tara, my parents send quite a hefty allowance into my account each month and I have a trust fund for when I turn 18 and I'm not telling you this because I'm trying to be snobby but just to let you know that money isn't something I care about. I haven't spent any of my allowance money in months. It's all just sitting there. And I've worded this very longly...which isn't a word actually, but anyway, very long and very awkward and what I'm really trying to say is...is what's mine is yours. So, yeah. Now, I think a walk in the park is very much a first date-y kind of thing."
Willow pulled the brunette up by their still entwined hands and walked back over to the map.
"Okay...so if we're this big red star, then we just go up there, and...okay, I got it. Come on, baby."
Tara could only gape after her girlfriend, in shock from the speech she'd just made.
How can someone be that kind and generous and warm-hearted? She's an angel. She's my angel.
Willow stopped when she felt that Tara was dragging behind and turned to her girlfriend. She was about to question what was wrong when the brunette suddenly grabbed her cheeks and kissed her fiercely. She almost tumbled backwards at the unexpectedness but quickly steadied herself and held onto Tara's hips as she responded just as eagerly, neither of them caring that they were standing in the middle of a small, but still very public town or who might see them. They stayed kissing for several long moments until Tara pulled back, looking down shyly as Willow just gulped.
"What was that for?" Willow managed after a moment, her cheeks flustered from the kiss.
"'Cause you're amazing," Tara answered honestly, looking up to meet the redhead's gaze, "Just thought you should know."
"You're amazing, too, baby," Willow replied quietly with a smile, "And I know it's only been a day and stuff, even though it feels like forever, and I know this is technically only our first date even though we've basically spent every moment together over the past week but anyway...I think we're kinda amazing together. This, um...this feels, really, really special. And, uh so concludes the cheesy portion of our date. Geeky and cheesy down, hehe."
Willow chuckled nervously, as if she was embarrassed by what she had said and Tara smiled at her in reassurance to let her know she felt the same, before turning the tone more light.
"So if the geeky and cheesy portions are finished, what's next?"
"Oh well," Willow replied, biting her lip, "Um, I guess that leaves the romantic part!"
Willow suddenly dropped the brunette's hand and ran off, leaving Tara standing in the middle of the town square, completely confused.
Did she just...did she just leave me? Well what the hell am I supposed to do now? Where did she even go? She mentions romance and then just runs off? She...she must've finally realised she's way too good for me. Daddy and Donny were right, I am good for nothing, why would she ever want me? She clearly had a lapse in judgement last night. Probably felt bad that I was having a nightmare and then didn't want to hurt my feelings when I kissed her. Stupid, Tara, why did you do that? I don't even know what time the bus back to the school is. I guess I'll just have to wait here.
Tara walked back over to the bench nearby and sank down onto, tears coming to her eyes and falling down her cheeks as her thoughts overtook her.
How many hours did I get? 14? 14 hours of pure happiness. 14 hours of being her girl. More than I deserve. What am I gonna say to her whenever she gets back? Will she still be my friend? God, please let her still want to be my friend...I don't think I can cope if I couldn't at least be her-
"Baby, I'm ba-hey, why are you crying?"
Tara looked up and saw Willow drop something on the ground before she was sitting beside her, as close as the small bench allowed and was pulling her head to her shoulder. She felt warm lips kiss her temple and reassuring words being whispered in her ear.
"It's okay, honey, I got you. Did something happen? Did you meet some other girls from school or something? If they said anything to you, I'll...well, I won't kick their butts 'cause I know you have that whole anti-violence thing, but I will, I will give them some very choice words about staying the hell away from my girlfriend. And I'll steal their laptops and put a virus on them so they lose all their work and get yelled at."
Tara raised her head off of the redhead's shoulder, looking at her with vulnerable but hopeful eyes.
"G-g-girlfriend? You still want me to be your g-girlfriend?"
"What?" Willow asked, bewildered and surprised at the reappearance of the brunette's stutter, "Of course I still want you to by my girlfriend. I'll never not want you to be my girlfriend. Tara, what happened?"
"You l-left," Tara replied, her eyes still somewhat helpless, "I thought...I, um, I t-thought you d-didn't w-want t-to be with me anymore."
"Oh, baby," Willow replied, cupping Tara's cheek and picking up the item she had dropped, which the brunette could see was a bunch of roses, "I just went to get you flowers. 'Cause, you know, we were starting the romantic part of our date? There's a little shop over there, see?"
Willow pointed off to the side and saw a small building, with a variety of different bunches of flowers in a display in the front.
"I'm sorry I just ran off like that," Willow continued after a moment, "You know me, act and go, the whole thinking part comes later. I just thought romance and then I saw the flowers and I thought 'I should get Tara flowers 'cause she was all romantic earlier with the telling me nice things in German' so I just went. I didn't...I didn't think it'd ever upset you like this."
Willow watched Tara take in her words, thinking to herself how low the girl's self-esteem must actually be. Earlier, when she'd had deep issue with being told she was beautiful and now that she'd be so quick to think that everything was all her fault and that Willow wouldn't want to be with her. She vowed to herself that she would do everything in her power to help the brunette realise what a wonderful, special girl she was, then pulled her girlfriend into a tight hug and whispered in her ear.
"I don't know who hurt you but I promise I never will."
Tara stiffened momentarily.
Does she know...? No, she can't know about that. She saw the bruises when I arrived, but she believed my hiking story. She can't know about them. She just knows Daddy's strict and I don't get on well with Donny. That's all she needs to know. I don't want her to think I was weak. I'm not weak with her, I feel strong. I feel like she's healing me.
She relaxed into the embrace, feeling silly that she'd started crying and jumped to such gross conclusions and feeling more confident in the fact that Willow still wanted to be with her.
"S-sorry for," Tara paused and took a deep breath, determined not to stutter, "Sorry for ruining our date."
Willow pulled back from the hug and shook her head with a smile.
"You didn't ruin anything. You got a little upset 'cause I was a spaz, which is probably something you should get used to, me being a spaz that is, 'cause you know, can't change the habit of a lifetime. And I got to give you a hug to make you feel better. And I think you probably need a kiss too, so..."
Tara felt her heart warm as Willow leaned forwards and placed a small kiss on her lips before pulling back and thrusting the roses towards her.
"These are for you."