Chapter 17: The Picnic (part 1)

Years of training honestly couldn't have prepared her for this moment. Tara skidded to a halt halfway into the park and brought her hand up to smooth down her hair. She could have taken the bus, but what was the point in that? The park was only fifteen minutes away on foot(if she sprinted), and it was good to take a could look at Sunnydale during the daytime.

It was pretty. Deceptively so.

She observed groups of children run past happily, the young woman in her smiling fondly at their antics while the Watcher went'This half will live to see 25, this half will not.', an annoying, cynical habit borne of years learning demon fatality statistics.

'So it's true then,' she mused. 'Watcher-dom really does turn you un-fun and over clinical. Ooh, lookit me! I'm Wesley!'

Willow popped out from behind the tree. "Hey! You're here!"

Tara leapt back in surprise, though she did manage to keep her 'Gah!' internal and therefore dignified. "Willow! Hi!" She looked around. It seemed that, while in thought, she had cut though the playground, across a relatively large field of grass, and over a grassy ridge to where she and Willow had planned to meet.

The two stood awkwardly under the tree, not at all sure about what to do next. "Sooo…"

"O-oh! Right!" Tara spread the checkered blanket out, and motioned for Willow to sit by her. The redhead plopped down, and Tara scooted closer. "I figured we could eat, hang out, t-talk mag-mmmfp!" Her sentence was interrupted by the soft press of Willow-lips, and she sat there momentarily stunned before she got her lips moving, kissing back gently.

Willow pulled away, finger twirling in her own hair. "Sorry. I just wanted to do that again…"

"Don't be sorry," Tara breathed. "And please. You're welcome to kiss anytime."

"Anytime?"

"Well okay, not anytime. 'Mouth full of food' is to definitely be avoided."

Willow perked. "Speaking of which," she hefted the basket onto her lap. "Ta-da! You want tuna, chicken salad, egg salad, PB&J…"

"PB&J!" Tara blushed. "Ah, I- I mean, the peanut butter and jelly one sounds good."

"Excited much?" The redhead joked, handing her the wrapped sandwich and letting her fingers linger when they touched Tara's.

The blond witch smiled. "Haven't had one since I was a kid."

Willow choked, wide eyed. "You're kidding!"

Tara shook her head with a smile. "Nope. I mean, don't let what you see on TV fool you. We do have peanut butter in the UK but," she smiled. "PB&J? That's venturing into 'oh god I grew up too fast, I missed you sandwich' for me."

The redhead shook her and smiled, unwrapping the chicken salad sandwich she had chosen. "Ah, yes. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the epitome of childhood," she pursed her lips. "Sometimes I totally forget you grew up over there. I mean, you don't have an accent or anything."

"I guess you can take the girl out of Alabama, but you can never take the Alabama out of the girl."

"Don't tell me you're gonna start drawling now, are you?"

"Aw, shucks lil lady!" She tried, really. But the giggles soon overcame her, and Willow snorted.

"Oh god that was awful! Normal Tara voice! Normal Tara voice, please!" she poked the other girl in the ribs. "Or some UK-speak."

"'UK-speak'?" Tara snorted. "Afraid not. Don't have the accent, and have always failed trying."

"Wow, even after all these years?"

Tara nodded. "Yup! Though if you need someone to do a bit of Welsh, I'm your girl." She bit into her sandwich and let out a moan.

A moan that made Willow wonder if pushing her up against the tree would be a proper way of making her repeat that sound.

"Oh god, it's the crunchy peanut butter, too!"

"You like crunchy peanut butter?"

Tara swallowed again. "Love it."

"Me too! All my friends hate it, and I'm all 'Well if you weren't too lazy to chew!' and stuff."

Tara paused mid-bite. "Too lazy to chew?"

"You wouldn't believe the conversations I have with Xander or Buffy," she deadpanned. "But me? A strong supporter of mouth exercise, thank you very much!"

Tara ducked her head shyly and scooted closer. "I-is that so?"

Willow opened and closed her mouth, a little unsure at what to say. The whole 'mouth exercise' bit had not been part of her mental script. "I, uh, guh."

Tara smirked. "You did really well on that revealing spell earlier this week." Willow blinked, the change in subject coming from out of nowhere.

"Thanks, I guess."

"If you want," she offered. "We could practice that a bit more if you want."

"An invisibility spell?"

"Well, no." Willow deflated. "Not yet a-anyway," Tara tried to backtrack, noticing Willow's disappointment. "Speaking from experience, it's best to learn how to undo a spell before actually doing it, so if something goes wrong, you'll know how to fix it."

Willow chewed her lip. "That makes sense, I guess. So, what invisible thing are we gonna un-invisible-ize?"

A slow, steady smirk crossed Tara's features. "Me."

WTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWT WTWTWT

It…it hadn't turned out badly at all, actually. The older Slayer had shown her around the town, pointing out spots where demons liked to congregate, or places good for a quick snack while on patrol. Artie bounced behind Faith, one hand shoved in her jacket pocket, the other holding onto the cardboard-paper-cone thing that held her cotton candy.

The two Slayers had just walked around after Tara had left. Well, Faith walked. Artie continued to do an awkward little march, leg stiff and bouncing on the balls of her other foot before actually setting it down.

Step, bounce.

Step, bounce.

She hummed happily, taking another bite out of her cotton candy. It was green and watermelon flavored, which was kinda weird and strange because she had always thought the only two cotton candy flavors were 'Blue' and 'Pink', but it was also pretty awesome.

(Artie knew that 'Blue' and 'Pink' were not actual flavors so much as they were colors, but that's what they tasted like. The blue one tasted, well…blue, and the pink tasted pink)

"So…" Faith tried to break the silence. "How many vamps have you dusted, kiddo?"

"Oh," Artie lowered her cotton candy and pondered for a moment, eyes moving back and forth as she thought about it. "None."

"…you're shitting me, right?"

The way Art jumped at the loud crash and growl from a nearby alley answered the question for her.