"Xand!"
Xander looked up from the file in his hand and smiled as he saw Willow scurrying towards him.
"Okay, here you go, I's dotted and T's crossed," Willow said, handing over a collection of papers to Xander in the hotel conference room and bouncing on the balls of her feet edgily, "Full field report for the day."
Xander took the papers offered to him and nodded.
"Great. I'll read over it and make sure everything's okay, then you can go."
Willow's face fell slightly but she recovered quickly and forced a smile but Xander just laughed and slapped her back playfully.
"I'm joking, Willster, you're like a human pogo stick. Go, get out of here."
Willow contained a squeal of excitement but her entire face visibly lit up and she was about to thank Xander and run off when Jesse walked up to them, grinning.
"We got hidden accounts, we got secret notes to partners, we got everything! Warrant on the way as we speak. You really got the gold, kiddo."
"Uh huh," Willow nodded, her hands fumbling at her sides, "Great. Glad I could help. But, uh, I gotta go, so bye!"
Xander chuckled as he watched Willow pick up the small rucksack she'd brought with her from the side of the room and bound out the door.
"I wish I got that excited about going home," Jesse remarked with a smile and shake of his head.
"I think she's more excited about who she's going home to," Xander replied, thumbing through the papers in his hands.
Jesse sighed and nodded.
"Must be nice."
Xander turned his head and raised an eyebrow at his colleague.
"Did I just hear Jesse McNally, bachelor extraordinaire, say he wanted to settle down?"
Jesse scoffed.
"No," he replied, puffing his chest out in an attempt to regain his bravado, no matter how false he may have felt it might be at that moment, "I just meant Tara's hot. I wouldn't mind getting a bit of that."
"Dude," Xander replied, smacking the back of Jesse's head, "A little respect. And never let Willow hear you say that. Besides, I thought you went for brunettes."
Jesse grinned.
"I do. Like that Alice chick, Willow's friend from Boston. Now she was a fun night," he responded before deciding a change in subject was in order, "Hey, I got Sabres' tickets for Friday night, you wanna go?"
Oblivious to the discussion happening in the room she'd just left, Willow had made her way to her car and had just driven out of the hotel carpark and was going towards the highway. The sun had already set and Willow contemplated calling Tara to let her know she had left early but decided it would be fun to surprise her instead and turned on the radio to listen to for the ride home.
"Eugh," she groaned when she turned into the highway and saw there was back-to-back traffic, "I wanna be with Tara."
She dropped her head against the steering wheel in frustration but resigned herself to the long drive home. She was pleasantly surprised when the traffic cleared after only a few miles of tailback and happily sailed the rest of the way on the highway until she arrive outside back in Buffalo and pulled into her driveway, the house in complete darkness.
She made sure to close the front door as quietly as she could as she entered and kicked her shoes off in the foyer before tiptoeing up the stairs and into their bedroom. She smiled as she saw her wife calmly sleeping and walked over to the bed, climbing over Tara and leaning down to kiss her softly, enjoying the soft feel of the blonde's lips.
That was until she felt a harsh slap against her cheek, the force sending her flying off the bed.
"Jesus Christ, Tara, what the fuck?" she yelled in shock, holding her cheek as the light on the nightstand was turned on and she saw her wife sitting up in bed and looking at her, confused.
"Willow?"
"No, it's Santa Clause," Willow replied harshly, standing up, completely shocked by her wife's actions, "I didn't drive three hours in the dark just to come home and get slapped. Stupid me thought I might even a hug."
"Willow, I..." Tara blinked a few times in quick succession to try and focus her recently-slumbering mind before she realised what she'd done and a hand came up to cover her mouth, "Oh Willow. Willow, I'm so...I'm so sor-"
She cut herself off as a quiet sob rose from her throat and a few tears ran down her cheeks. Willow just absently rubbed her cheek before noticing her wife's distress and rushed over to her, no amount of anger overriding her concern.
"Don't cry, baby," she said, climbing back onto the bed and holding the blonde, "It's okay, don't cry."
Tara turned to face her wife, gulping down her sobs.
"You weren't supposed to be here...and I felt someone kissing me...and you weren't supposed to be here...I didn't know...and I just reacted...I'm so sorry..."
"Hey, it's fine, no problem," Willow smiled in reassurance, understanding now why she'd been slapped, "That's good, baby, it's good. I'd want you to slap someone else if they tried to kiss you."
Tara shook her head frantically.
"I'd never hurt you, I'd never hurt-"
Willow grabbed both of her wife's hands as she realised why Tara was getting quite so upset over this.
"Tara look at me," she said and released one of the blonde's hands, moving it up to cup the taller girl's cheek, "It was an accident. You didn't hurt me. You could never hurt me. You're not...you're not him."
Tara's breath was coming in heavy gasps as tears continued to flow down her cheeks. She'd never raised her hand to anyone before, ever and doing so even by accident had shocked and scared her more than she thought possible, a fear she'd had ever since she was little, that she'd somehow turn into her father swiftly rising within her.
It was a fear of hers that she had always been able to alleviate by reminding herself of the kinder things she had in common with her mother and that she was her own person who controlled her actions. But she'd forgotten all that in the moment and so was very thankful that Willow knew her so well and knew just how and what to remind her.
"You're my beautiful, kind Tara, okay?" Willow continued, gazing into the taller girl's shimmering blue orbs, "My wonderful wife."
Tara dropped her head and worked on controlling her breathing for a few moments, calming down considerably in the process. She looked back up into her wife's concerned eyes and started to feel completely stupid for her reaction and outburst.
"Sorry," she managed in a whisper, "For slapping you and freaking out."
"I'm sorry I scared you," Willow replied with a small smile, "I was trying to be all cute and romantic. And I really wanted a kiss."
Tara leaned forwards and placed a warm and gentle kiss on her wife's lips.
"There you go," she said with a small joke in her voice as she tried to let her embarrassment dissipate, "How come you're home? I wasn't expecting you 'til tomorrow night."
"I got my part of things done today," Willow explained, knowing she couldn't go into detail, "Everyone else is still in Syracuse but I asked to come home early since I really would've just been sitting around."
"I told you you'd do great," Tara replied proudly, "Your first big undercover job."
Willow smiled shyly.
"Hopefully my last too. I mean, it was kinda fun, but I'm more at home with all my own computers and stuff, you know? And home with you."
Tara reached out and cupped the redhead's cheek, but pulled away when Willow winced, still feeling a slight sting.
"Sorry."
"It's fine," Willow dismissed it with a wave of her hand before getting a cheeky grin on her face, "Actually, it hurts. Really, really badly. You might just have to make it up to me and distract me with some...nice feelings?"
Tara grinned and dropped her head into Willow's neck, kissing the skin there.
"Nice feelings like this?"
Willow gave a murmur of approval.
"That's a very good start."
She tilted her neck to the side to give the blonde more room and kicked the blanket down to the end of the bed so she could roll on top of her wife.
"Hey there, sexy," she said, moving her lips to kiss up the taller girl's throat, "Wanna have a good time?"
"Yes please," Tara replied eagerly and breathlessly as their clothed bodies instinctively grinded together.
Willow moved her lips to cover Tara's and felt two hands tangle in her hair as they began to kiss slowly but passionately. Tara's ends eventually started to drift down when she felt an overwhelming urge to feel some skin and pulled at the end of her lover's shirt, whipping it over her head and throwing it on the floor.
Willow too let her hands begin to explore and ran them down the blonde's sides, towards the waistband of the boxers she was wearing as pyjamas.
Don't be wearing panties, don't be wearing panties, don't be wearing panties, don't be wearing-
"Ah, yessss," she hissed when her hand instantly came into contact with hot wetness, "Oh baby..."
Tara dragged her teeth along her bottom lip as her wife's fingers explored her core and groaned in frustration when she felt Willow remove her hand from her boxers.
"I want you naked," Willow said in response to the groan and quickly went about divesting the blonde of her clothes, standing up and shaking herself out of her jeans and panties as well so they were both naked and climbing back on top of her lover with a grin, "That's better."
Tara moved her hands around the redhead's body and firmly grabbed her butt cheeks as Willow teased her by just barely brushing their lips together over and over again.
"Willow, please," she mumbled, trying to capture the smaller girl's lips fully.
"Please what?" Willow replied, sticking her tongue out and running it along her lover's bottom lip sensually.
Tara thrust her tongue out of her mouth as well, hitting it against Willow's for just a second but the redhead just pulled away with a smirk and a shake of her head and the blonde knew what her wife wanted to hear.
"Please fuck me."
Willow grinned and snaked her hand down the taller girl's body, swatting her thighs apart and letting her fingers circle the blonde's entrance. Tara thrust her hips and groaned when she felt two nimble fingers enter her a second later, her hands moving to clutch Willow's shoulders tightly.
"Slow," she muttered, her eyes closed, "I want it nice and slow."
Willow slowly dragged her fingers out and thrust them back in again before dropping her head so her mouth was just above Tara's ear.
"How about slow...together?"
Tara grinned and opened her eyes, then manoeuvred them onto their sides and shuffled their bodies as close together as possible before letting her own hand slip between them.
Willow could feel her arousal slipping out onto her thighs as she felt her wife teasingly run her fingers along the hairs on her mound and moaned loudly when they finally sank into her wetness.
"Ahhhh...Tara..."
Tara wasted no time in dragging her fingers down and plunging them inside her lover. Willow cried out and dropped her head into the blonde's neck as they both started thrusting, deeply and slowly inside each other.
"More," Willow moaned after a few minutes and gasped when she felt three fingers enter her on the next upwards thrust, "Yessss..."
Tara turned her head into Willow's neck and began sucking on her pulsepoint, feeling a throb against her lips as she did so. Both girls moaned and started to instinctively move their fingers a little faster before Tara used her spare hand to turn the redhead's cheek towards her and kissed her softly.
"Ugh," Willow grunted, her eyes fluttering in pleasure as she felt her wife's fingers start to hit against her sweet spot, "Baby, yes..."
She grabbed onto the back of the taller girl's neck as their hips thrust towards each other.
"I love you," Tara breathed as she felt herself close to her breaking point.
"I love y-mmhhh!" Willow crushed their lips together before finishing her sentiment as her orgasm washed over her suddenly.
Tara followed with a series of shudders a moment later and their kiss began to slow gradually as they both came down from their high until their lips were just resting against one another.
"You," Willow finished in a murmur a moment with a lazy smile, her lips still only millimetres away from Tara's, "I love you."
"M'too," Tara mumbled sleepily before gathering her strength and removing her fingers from her lover to throw her arm around the redhead's waist and cuddle them as close together as possible, "I'm really glad you came home early."
Willow followed suit and grabbed the blanket to cover them again before wrapping her arm around the blonde and sighing contentedly.
"How could I not when you're the one I get to come home to?"