Oh gods, Tara was close, but she had been here before. Several times, in fact, each closer to the edge than before. Willow would relentlessly drive her there, where they would teeter, the blood coursing through her veins, especially down there, then they would retreat. Would this finally be the time—?

Ding-ding.

Willow was driving her mad. The ringing in her ears—

Ding-ding.

Tara's eyes snapped open with a shock. This couldn't be happening. Without thinking about it, her hips continued to thrust forward against Willow's mouth. Perhaps her thighs against Willow's ears were muffling all external noise, because Willow continued to alternately tongue-fuck her and suck her clit, seemingly oblivious to—

Ding-ding.

The third time was the charm. "What the fuck was that?" Willow frowned, surfacing to poise just above Tara's wet core.

Tara groaned. "The doorbell."

"Who the frilly heck is ringing our doorbell this early in the morning?!"

"I swear to all the gods we acknowledge and those we don't that I haven't a clue." Tara doubted she'd be able to think clearly at the moment to even attempt to reason a guess.

"Maybe Mommy can't hear the doorbell in her room," Lily helpfully offered.

By this time, Xander was fully committed to interrupting the horror that was happening—apparently, still—in the kitchen. He fished his cell phone from his pocket and scrolled through his contacts list. Willow's cell phone was under speed dial 3. He thought he had their landline under one of their names…

The frustration was evident in Tara's voice. After just a second's hesitation, Willow dove back to her previous position and began ferociously licking. She pushed two fingers into Tara's entrance and began a steady, firm thrust.

Tara gasped as her lover switched to a light sucking. "Will! What are you—nnnngh!" Willow took a long pull on Tara's swollen clit, finally pushing her over the edge into gushing bliss.

Willow grasped at Tara's thighs to steady the blonde's shuddering as she replaced her fingers with her mouth. She kept her lips firmly attached to Tara's pussy, her tongue continuing to mine every last drop of cum from her lover.

Slowly, the blonde came down from her high. When her back uncoiled Willow got to her feet, her hands firmly grasping Tara's hips. Tara instinctively slumped forward into Willow's embrace, gasping for air, raggedly sighing in Willow's ear. It took Tara a moment longer before she raised her head, turning Willow's face to her to reward her with a much deserved kiss but stopped, laughing softly, when she saw the state of Willow's face.

Her cum was streaked across her lover's cheeks and chin. There was even some in her eyelashes. Willow grinned as Tara took hold of her by both cheeks and pulled her in for a deep kiss, tasting herself all over Willow's lips and tongue.

Ding-ding.

They pulled apart with a pop. Willow had a murderous look in her eye as she turned, clearly intent on confronting whoever was still leaning on her doorbell so early in the morning.

"Will, you can't—" Tara burst into giggles when the redhead turned to her, confirming her scowling face was still a mess.

"I'll just get rid of whoever it is."

Tara slid off the table gingerly, becoming uncomfortably aware that she was very... squishy down there. "Not looking like that, honey. I can stick my head out, just give me a moment to get myself together." She tested her balance and yes, still wobbly. "Maybe you can just see who it is. Look through the window first."

Willow wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she headed for the front of the house. She felt a little silly tiptoeing to her own living room window to peek through a gap in the curtains, but once she did—Shit! She hurried back to the kitchen, the previous scowl now a look of consternation and mild panic. "It's Xander! And the kids. Wasn't he supposed to keep them until tomorrow?"

"Xander? Yes, he was." Tara unconsciously tied her robe closed tighter around herself. "Are the girls—?"

"They looked fine. Maybe it's an emergency potty stop. Lily's dancing around next to him out there like she has to go bad. He's got his phone out. I think he's about to—"

Riiiiiing

"—try calling next! And why is he ringing the doorbell, instead of using the key we gave him? He better not have lost it again!" The phone rang faintly a couple more times from the living room before stopping. They only kept one of the landline phones on each level, mostly to keep the frustration of the cordless handsets going missing at a minimum as the various speaking members of their household, minus Tara, tended to walk around with them while using them.

"Will," Tara raised her voice slightly to interrupt her partner. "Focus. Do you really think Xander and the kids just opening the door and walking in would've been a good idea five minutes ago?"

Willow blushed.

Ding-ding.

Then her eyes widened in panic. "I can't kiss the kids like this! I gotta go wash up!" She turned tail and ran upstairs through the rear staircase.

"Oh for goddess' sake, Willow!" Tara hurried to the sink, wincing as she was reminded of her state underneath her robe, grabbing a dish cloth. At least it's clean, she thought darkly, as she ran it under warm water then did a quick series of swipes of herself, grimacing at the roughness of the terry cloth against her still sensitive area. She hoped it was enough to suppress her smell.

Ding-ding.

She quickly washed her face, taking a swallow of her now lukewarm coffee, then re-wrapped and tied her robe even more tightly around herself. She walked as quickly as she could to the door and opened it. "Xander. Hey."

"Mommy!" Lily tugged at the hem of her mother's thankfully calf-length robe. Tara bent down and scooped up her daughter and hugged her to her chest before stepping aside to let her friend enter.

Xander stepped in carrying Dani. As Kera walked in, Tara squeezed her shoulder. "Hi Mom!"

"Hi, sweetie. What are you all doing here? We weren't expecting you until tomorrow. Is everything alright?"

"You tell me," Xander muttered darkly. He did not meet Tara's curious gaze.

Tara was taken aback at Xander's uncharacteristic attitude. "Xander, is everything alright?" she repeated carefully, with more meaning.

Xander looked at Tara, her hair mussed, her lips slightly swollen and her eyes wide and bright. He found himself blushing, embarrassed for them both. "Yeah. Everything's good, Tara. The girls just got a little homesick is all. They just wanted to visit before we head to the zoo. And Kera needed some more books."

Kera took the prompt and ran upstairs, eager to get to her things now that they were finally inside.

"We were going to make you breakfast in bed, Mommy, but Uncle Xander forgot the key so we had to ring the doorbell," Lily offered helpfully. "Then we tried to call, but you didn't answer the phone!"

Thank the gods for that, Tara thought. "Sorry, I was in the bathroom and couldn't get to it in time." She smiled. "So, breakfast in bed? That's so sweet of you guys." She tentatively tried again with Xander, "You didn't lose the key, Xander? You know how Willow gets about lost keys. Last time we had to change all the locks."

Xander smiled tightly back. "Nope. Just forgot it. Probably sitting on the counter back home."

Tara frowned. "You sure everything's okay? How's—?"

"It's all good, Tare. Really."

Tara knew there was something not right with her friend but decided to ask Willow to handle it later. "Well, come on in. I was about to start breakfast, you guys can help since I'll have to make more—"

"We already ate at Breakfast Mmmporium this morning, Mommy! I had three pancakes all by myself!" Lily blushed, belatedly remembering her promise to her uncle.

"You did, huh?" Tara looked pointedly at Xander, her eyebrow raised, a half smile on her lips.

"But I didn't eat a lot. I didn't eat too much."

"Well, it's okay to have a little sugar in the morning, as long as it's not so much to give you a tummy ache."

Xander was reminded yet again of how dirty the English language could be in the right—or wrong context.

"Do you still want to help me with breakfast?"

Lily nodded, happy at not being scolded and not getting Uncle Xander in trouble for her slip-up. Tara let her slide from her arms, took Dani from Xander, and the group started for the kitchen.

A loud, high-pitched, excited squeal burst from upstairs. Tara smiled, wondering which of her girls had made it, not noticing Xander's face blanch. "Oh no," he gasped. "Kera…"

Tara realized the cause of Xander's panic and reached out with her free arm to grab him by the shoulder. "Xander, it's alright! See?" She motioned at the top of the stairs where Willow and Kera appeared, hand in hand.

"Daddy's home!" Kera announced her discovery proudly.

"Will," Xander sunk back, realizing several things at once.

Tara smiled again, happy that they had as wonderful and caring a man as Xander in what many would consider their odd family.

"Hey guys!" Willow was in a fresh t-shirt and pajama bottoms. Her hair was neatly brushed and her face had the pinkish hue of fair, freckled skin that had just been scrubbed hard enough to exfoliate. At the bottom step, she gave Lily a kiss and took Dani from Tara. "Da-da!" The little girl laughed, happy to play the game of pass-the-baby among her parents.

Tara noted the minty scent of her lover's breath and rolled her eyes. "Thanks. Xander said the kids got homesick. Can you get breakfast started? I'm going to go upstairs and freshen up."

It hardly seemed possible given her already ruddy complexion, but Willow turned even redder at her partner's request. She mouthed "sorry" as she turned to Xander and Tara headed upstairs. "Xan! Hey. I came in last night, surprised Tara. We were going to call today. Wow, you guys are up early. How were the kids?"

"Good. They were great," Xander managed. He was so relieved. So, so relieved. "Uh, sorry to just barge in this early in the morning. I hope this is okay, just dropping in. We thought we were going to surprise Tara with breakfast, but turned out, I forgot your key at my place."

"As long as you know where it is," Willow allowed. "And absolutely yes to being okay. I missed my girls! Not a problem to see them a day early. But were you planning to do anything with them today? You totally still can, and, you know, Tara and I can join you if you want, if it's not special uncle-nieces bonding time. Or you can leave them if they've been too much. We'll take them. Thanks, by the way. It's awesome you're doing this on your vacation."

Xander laughed. "Whoa, Willster. You know I wanted to take 'em. And I'm sure you and Tara have other stuff to do today." He blushed furiously as an image of what his best friend and her girlfriend had already done so far this morning flashed through his now unburdened, guilt-free mind. "I still want to take them today, if it's okay. We were going back to the zoo, we have two-day tickets, then maybe LEGOland to look at their seasonal display before it folds up."

Willow smiled teasingly. "You're skipping the hyenas at the zoo, right?"

Xander grinned at the light jibe at their high school days. "Absolutely."

Later, during breakfast as Willow and Tara had their pancakes, the girls juice and Xander coffee, Tara noted that whatever had been bothering Xander seemed to have resolved itself. She caught him beaming at her and Willow several times that morning, as Willow and the girls relayed their respective activities during the four days they were separated. Tara had very little to add. She had caught up on reorganizing and clearing out their basement but hadn't even started painting the den where Kera would be moving so that Lily could take her room and Dani take Lily's. Dani was old enough to not need the small nursery, which they were going to convert to Willow's office, so that room had needed painting, too, which Tara had done yesterday before Willow's arrival. That had prompted the girls staying with Xander so she could do the painting with them out of the house. Willow volunteered to stay behind for the day rather than go with Xander and her daughters to the zoo and park to help Tara finish Kera's room. Tara raised her mug to her lips and took a long, slow sip of her coffee to hide her smile at that. Willow openly leered at her partner as Xander helpfully looked up at the ceiling, concentrating on a dimple that could use some filling. Ever since Giles moved back to England after they defeated the First and Sunnydale collapsed into the sinkhole that the hellmouth had become, he had sort of stepped into Giles' roles as responsible male of their close-knit group. A side effect it seemed was taking on some of the older man's mannerisms which he now realized were pretty good coping mechanisms for dealing with raging teen—or now, at least, teen-like—hormones.