Title: Courage to Change
Rating: PG - Will change eventually, but they start off little kids. Not much with the naughtiness at 10 years old
Summary: Let us flip the buffy verse around. Willow leaves Sunnydale at 8. why? Read. Tara comes to Sunnydale at 10! Why? Again read! We are throwing Tara into Willow's original place when Buffy arrives. We are changing the lives of characters that arrive later in the buffy story by introducing them to Willow before they get to Sunnydale. Eventually Willow ends up back in California, after a mess of adventures and danger at such a young age. Just in time for her twenty second birthday and a war to break out from The First. Should be interesting. Oh and by the way, I'm taking some ideas from the cartoon "Avatar: Last Airbender". No characters, just some basic ideas. Why? You already know the answer! Read.
Disclaimer: Buffy and characters not mine. Avatar ideas not mine.
Finally: Reviews! Ask questions, compliment, suggest, or just plain tell me I suck. I don't care. It's fun to write and these two girls make me believe in love. You can't hurt me! But every review is read and appreciated. Enjoy!
I am back to give you a short and small chapter. I have missed my story so much. I'm sorry it took so long to write so little, but in September I lost a family member to suicide. It has been a difficult couple of months. I am already in the works of the next REAL chapter but until it's finished, I hope you enjoy a little bit of our wonderful Tara and how she is doing! Thank you all so much for reading and taking he time to review my story. It gives me a little bit of a smile these days.
Chapter Six: Magic
"Would you be my friend?" Those five words had forever changed Tara. Moving to this town had changed the world she lived in, leaving Donald Maclay Sr. had changed their family, but Xander had changed HER. He had given her something she never thought she would have, real friendship. And the last three years had been amazing. It didn't matter about popularity, or being picked on. She always had him by her side no matter what. They shared everything.
"Baby girl, it's almost time to go to the shop. We have some light inventory to take today, and then we're going out school shopping," Crystal Maclay popped her head around the door frame ,her lips curving into a beautiful half smile. Tara was brushing out her long, honey blonde hair and her mother thought it might be time for a trim. The young girl turned to her mother and gave her the exact same smile back, nodding her head.
She set down her brush and reached for her calendar, bright blue eyes lighting up. She wasn't excited for school, though she loved to learn, she could do without the other kids. No, her smile was for Saturday, two days away. Looking back to her mother, "Can we g-get Xander's present too? I think I know what I want to get him."
Crystal's lighter blue eyes shined for her daughter, and once again gave her thanks to the Goddess for bringing such a wonderful friend into Tara's life. The stutter her daughter acquired from years of mistreatment had disheartened Crystal, knowing it was because of constant fear of people. Hearing it disappear told her that Tara wasn't afraid anymore,"Of course baby. Now I've got to go try to get your brother out of bed without the world ending." She disappeared around the corner, but as Tara was about to collect her outfit for the day, her mother popped back in the doorway, "Have you seen the crowbar? Might need it on Donny to pry him off the bed. Seventeen year olds right?" Tara giggled at her mother and received a wink before steps could be heard going towards her brother's room.
The youngest Maclay was overjoyed at the thought of Xander's thirteenth birthday. She wanted to get him a starter tool set he had been eyeing. The young boy had become a bit of a tinkerer and builder since they had become friends. He even tried to build a small bookshelf for Tara's spell books when the truth about her family came out. The shelf didn't hold anything over five pounds and was completely crooked, but he had painted it her favorite color green with the word "Magic" in blue. Xander had said "matches your eyes" and she couldn't get rid of it.
She remembered the day clearly when he had found out about her magic. Xander had only been her friend for a few months, and it was always terrifying when he seemed to get closer to the family secrets. The only friend she ever had, and he was always able to make her smile. He couldn't find out. He probably wouldn't stay, or he might be like daddy. Her father had actually been a good Christian man and held wonderful family values and morals. He had been a wonderful father to Donny and even excited about his new little girl. Until the magic.
Donald felt betrayed by his wife for not only possessing powers of the devil but for keeping such a secret from him for so long. He became a hard man after finding his wife teaching Tara how to float her stuffed kitten. Tara was only four and Donny was eight. After a two week disappearance, their father came back. Crystal had never seen him so angry or drunk. That's when things got bad, and Tara never understood it. Magic didn't seem like a terrible or evil thing.
Xander was too important. So she never told him. When he came over, she hid her magic books and her supplies, and when he asked where her mom worked or where she hung after school, it was always the same avoiding answer. Mrs. Maclay owned a local shop, and Tara helped her out after school with inventory. This worked up until that evening. Xander had walked home late Sunday afternoon after staying the night. He only lived a couple buildings down, in one of the only houses on the block (most were apartment buildings like Tara's). About a half hour after he left, Crystal called her daughter for some magic practice in the backyard. The day was slipping into a peaceful night and dark was starting to settle. To Tara's delight, her mother was teaching her to create tiny lights. Tinker bell lights as she called them.
Apparently, Xander had forgotten something and came back to get it. When he didn't get an answer at the front door (Donny being out with friends) he turned to the giggles he heard coming from the back. As he made his way through the gate to surprise his new friend, he watched in awe as she conjured little flying light after little flying light. They just popped out of her hands in mid air as she said words that made no sense to him.
Tara saw the tiny lights floating around them and could not wipe the smile from her own face. Her world was always so magical, and though her mother did not have much to give throughout their life since the start of her father's abuse, she would still always be the best mother in the world to Tara. Even Donny had grown to appreciate all his mother's efforts through the last few years. She worked full time at the shop, always had dinner ready (most of the time home cooked), never missed a Saturday morning breakfast, and what really had Donny's attention is that his mom never missed any important game or event in either of their lives. Tara had no idea how she did all of it, but she would forever thank the goddess for their mother.
Crystal smiled down at Tara with pure pride and love. The older woman would never get tired of seeing her daughter's smile at their little world of magic and wonder, but her heart soon fell heavy as she realized they were not alone. Another energy had arrived in the vicinity, and it was full of confusion. Her hand quickly gripped Tara's shoulder in an attempt to stop the flood of tiny lights that now dotted the darkened back yard and the night sky from the young girl's magical words. Tara's blue eyes found her mother's staring toward the back gate in fear.
The entire world this ten year old had finally begun to build with a semblance of normalcy seemed to shatter at the sight of inquisitive brown eyes staring at her as if she grew another head. He slowly took a step forward and Crystal began to panic. She could easily fend off a child, but how could she intentionally harm a young boy, especially one with such a good heart as Xander. It was her husband all over again, except this time it may not just be home that Tara had to be afraid of. He was at Tara's school, on her street. A memory spell could help, but it was an abuse of power and would also require a dark energy. One that she swore she would never touch, nor ever bring her children near.
As Crystal tensed herself, ready to decide in a moments notice, Tara's world slowed down. Flashes of her youth when her father was drunk and angry, of her mother singing her to sleep so she had a chance for a dream instead of a nightmare, of the small spells they did together in silence, of Donny watching from the sidelines as he lied to his father's face about what they were doing. It all came back to Tara.
What neither of them realized, in what could have been the longest minute of Tara's ten years, was that Xander had come up to them. He now stood two small feet from Tara, as he reached out a small hand to one of the little lights in the air. Grasping it within his fingers, he brought it down to look at it. His face a mixture of confusion and amazement. As he opened his hand again, the light buzzed in circles around his palm.
At that very moment, the Maclay women were forever changed, and Xander began his own destiny toward the man he would someday become. His chocolate eyes met with frightened sapphire, and he smiled sadly, looking down again at his hand.
"Don't be afraid of me, please?" Xander's eyes held a sorrow no young man should ever know, though his face still held its saddened smirk and courageous features, "It's been 2 years in the dark. I understand. This light, it's magic right? It's... It has to be why I like you." Tara gave a look of confusion and hurt at the prospect of only being liked for her magic, though thankful he wasn't angry.
At seeing this, Xander hurried on, his eyes bearing everything he felt, "I got scared and lost after Will was taken. I don't know what I would have done if you had said no. When I asked if you'd be my friend? You've become my light, my best friend. Because you aren't afraid of the dark. You just say a few words and make the dark go away. Out here..." He stated as he finally pushed the tiny ball of light upward into the air once more. Xander then found her eyes once again, as he pointed to chest with unshed tears, " and in here. I didn't know you could do magic, but I've always known that you ARE magic."