FIC: Opposites Attract III (1/2)

[Kimber <kacoe@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Opposites Attract III (1/2)
Author: Pat Kelly & Kimber
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Buffy/Tara Willow/Amy
Summary: The latest in our universe where Buffy and Tara have gotten
together, and Amy has been deratted and is currently
with Willow. Hope you enjoy our joint effort.
Spoilers: General Season 5, and our previous two parts. If you want to
refresh your memories, you may want to read them
again, here:
http://redrival.com/exquisite/wtara/opposites1.html
http://redrival.com/exquisite/other/opposites2.html
Disclaimer: All hail Joss and his army of Mutant Enemies. We do not own.

We make no money.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT III (1/2)

"We're only coming here for the weekend, right?" Amy asked the rest of
the group.

"That was the plan." Willow said.

Trekking deep into Breaker's Woods for a camping trip and a little
magick practicing didn't sound so bad when they came up
with the idea. It sounded peaceful, a way to escape for awhile and get
to know one another a little better. Maybe even learn a
few new things. Possibly some soul-searching. They were leaving it open.

One thing they didn't count on, was the heaviness of the camping bags.
Tents, clothes, food, snacks, magick supplies...only one
of them had super strength.

"Then how come it feels like we have enough for a year?" She looked back

and saw Buffy and Tara trudging a few feet behind.
"Hey Buffy! Can you handle some more weight?"

"Why don't you just say a spell to shrink the bag?" Buffy asked.

"I'm a witch, not Mary Poppins."

"I think you should talk to the Goddess. Make an appointment or
something. Get her to come up with spells that are more
practical." The slayer said sarcastically.

"I would, but I hear she's booked through the next millennium."

"Guess simple praying doesn't cut it anymore." Buffy whispered to Tara.
"She knows we're joking, right? The Goddess?"

"I'm sure she isn't offended." Tara smiled.

"Good, cause, I wouldn't want to end up a frog or a little, tiny -"

"Frog! Where?" Willow exclaimed frantically, turning around.

The redhead moved so fast, that the quick movement and the weight of the

bag knocked her off balance. By the time she
realized she was falling backwards, it was too late. First there was a
thump, and then she rolled down the small incline, stopping
right at Buffy and Tara's feet.

Willow closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then looked at the faces of
the amused blondes who were trying *not* to look
amused.

"Little help?"

"Looks like you've got it covered, Will." Buffy smiled down at her.
"Again, I'd have to give you a six...bad dismount."

"Buffy," Tara looked at her, "that's not nice."

"Thank you, Tara." Willow stuck her tongue out at Buffy. "At least *one*

of my friends is concerned for my well being."

"I would give her at least an eight. After all, there was the mention of

a frog and all." Tara smirked.

Amy walked up to the three of them and put her hand out to Willow.

"Okay, okay...enough pickin' on the frog fear." She helped her up. "We
should get going before it's really dark. Will and I have
to do the protection spell before the sun sets."

"Protection spell?" Tara asked.

"Yeah, so we don't get attacked by vamps on a snack run." Willow smiled.

"It was Amy's idea. That way we can kick back
and not worry about the slayage."

"Oh," Tara nodded, "well, that's cool." She watched Amy and Willow walk
ahead. "I could have thought of that." She mumbled
under her breath.

"Hey." Buffy put her hand on Tara's shoulder. "I heard that."

"What?"

"Tara, I have Slayer hearing...remember? What gives?"

They walked in silence for a few moments. "I don't know. It's not like
I'm jealous...cause I'm not. Not that way anyway. It's
just, well, Willow and I used to do spells together. You know, practice
and stuff? And we don't now. I miss it." She shrugged.
"This weekend was a good idea. Give us all a chance to build a
friendship."

Buffy linked her hand with Tara's. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I
haven't spent much time with Will because I've been with
you. Not that I'm complaining, of course, but still...it'll be nice to
be just us girls." Buffy stopped a moment and looked at Tara.
"I'm glad things worked out...between you and Will. I mean, that you're
still able to be friends after everything."

"I'm glad too. She's important to me, you know, in that witchy bond sort

of way. Plus, she gets my jokes, which is always a
plus."

"Hey! I get your jokes."

"Not all of them, but...you're getting better. It only took two books to

explain the karma thing."

"I think I'm vaguely insulted." Buffy pouted. "I think."

Tara leaned in and kissed her. "Better?"

The slayer smiled. "Much." She leaned in for another kiss, but...

"Are you two coming, or are you gonna give Mother Nature a show?" Amy
stood about ten feet away with her hands on her
hips, smirking.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Coming 'mom'." She took Tara's hand and they
joined Amy.

***

Buffy was setting up the tents, Tara watching her closely. The spot they

picked was nice. Beautiful, in fact. Decent size clearing,
and a lot of light was getting through the trees, shining down on them.
Very quiet and serene. Flowers everywhere, too. If any
one of them had allergies, they'd find out soon enough.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" The blonde wicca was concerned.

"Yes. Positive." Buffy jammed the pole into the ground, and turned
toward her girlfriend. "Go do magick with them. I know you
want to."

"I don't...wanna get in their way."

"They want you over there. Go."

Tara took the not so subtle hint and made her way over to where Willow
and Amy were unpacking. Willow stood up, holding a
candle in her hand.

"Why does incense have to be so smelly?" She realized Tara was right by
her. "Tara! Great! We need a third, powerful wicca
to do this. And you fit the requirements. No, you're better than the
requirements, even."

"No I'm not..." She blushed.

"You are and you know it. With you we'll have super duper strong vampire

protection. If we didn't, it'd be like settling for a
bulletproof vest made out of cotton candy. Really won't do much
except...be eatable. You in?"

"Oh, yeah, you bet." Tara smiled.

"Cool. Hey, how about we go to a carnival next weekend?"

As Buffy watched them perform the spell, while trying to put up the
tents, she thought to herself that she was the one in the way.
Not Tara. There were three witches, but she was the only slayer. And
it's not like she could just call up another slayer. The only
one she knew of was Faith, and the girl was behind bars. She was glad
for that, mainly because she didn't want the brunette
coming after her friends again.

Plus, she remembered what Faith had said to Tara while Faith was in her
body (it was still her brain, and she got the memories).
Faith wasn't very nice, and Tara had been uncomfortable and hurt. She
wouldn't let that happen again.

She hoped Faith could serve her time and get redemption, even with
Angel's help, but she still had trouble believing her. Faith
had admitted to her acting talents when Buffy was chained to the wall of

the mansion. How could she trust or believe the other
slayer ever again?

The thing that really stunk was, as much as she wanted to stay away from

Faith, a whole other part of her wanted to work
things out. She still had large amounts of guilt, and a little piece of
her was destroyed when Faith switched sides. She may not
have shown it well, and that was her mistake, but having the other
girl's friendship meant a lot. She liked her, they had fun
together.

In their last conversation, Faith wanted to know how to make it better.
She sounded sincere, too. Yet, again, even though Buffy
wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to go to LA. There was doubt in
her mind. But what if Faith couldn't totally heal unless
they talked?

"This isn't why you're here. And thinking about it isn't going to do
anything." Buffy told herself.

'No, this is why you're here, remember?' Her brain was saying. 'To
figure things out. But you're right. Thinking about it
won't help. Action will.'

"Spell's finished." Tara said.

Buffy snapped back to reality, and smiled.

"So we won't be interrupted?" She had a small grin on her face.

"Uh...uh. uh..." The witch hadn't stuttered in a long time. "Nope. Well,

not as long as you get...the tents up."

"Trying. But I still don't want help."

"If you say so." Tara was quiet for a moment. "What's wrong?"

"Huh? Oh. Nothing."

"Buffy, you may have Slayer Hearing, but I have Witch Intuition."

"Really?" Her interest was piqued.

"Um... no. But I do have 'Tara Intuition'."

Buffy walked up to her. "And what makes you think anything is wrong?
We're here, communing with nature," She wrapped her
arms around Tara's waist, "and with each other. What could *possibly* be

wrong?"

Tara smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no...you're not going to distract
me that easily."

Buffy leaned in and kissed her cheek. "No?" Then her nose. "You don't
think so?" Then she finally kissed her lips, but pulled
away after a few moments. "How was that?" She whispered.

"That was...wow." Tara blushed and cleared her throat. "But you're still

gonna tell me what's wrong." She smirked and pulled
away from the slayer slightly. "You have 'worry face', which gives me
'worry face', and that's never good."

"Am I interrupting?" Willow walked up next to them.

"Yes." Tara said.

"No." Buffy said at the same time.

"Wow, déjà vu." She smiled. "Amy and I were wondering if you guys were
hungry. We put some logs on for a fire. I heard it's
supposed to be a little cold out tonight."

"Sure, firey fun sounds like my cup of tea right now." Buffy smiled.

"Oh, no. We have to keep you away from matches. Remember?" Willow
smirked, then turned to Tara. "Did she ever tell you
about the time she burned down the gym of her old high school?"

"You what?" Tara looked to Buffy.

"It was full of vampires, okay?" Buffy looked over at Willow, who had
the most satisfied grin on her face. "Are we going to tell
embarrassing stories all night? Cause you know, there's a few I can come

up with on my own, Will."

"Shutting up now."

"I thought so."

"Okay...so, fire, marshmallows, songs around the camp fire...oh! And we
can't forget the witchy factor. Tomorrow night is the
full moon, you know. Great time for some spell casting fun. What are we
waiting for?"

***

"...but you *had* to see the outfit!" Buffy leaned back against Tara,
trying not to laugh. "I mean, it was something out of
Fredricks of Hollywood."

Willow pouted. "Yeah, well, are we forgetting that I didn't have much of

a choice in wearing it? Um, hello? Big evil, skanky
vampire me was trying to take over the town! We had to do something."

"I'm sure it was very brave of you, Will." Amy put her arm around her
girlfriend's shoulder.

"Why thank you."

"I'll bet it was really scary putting all that leather on at once. I
mean, a bunch of PETA activists could have attacked at any
moment and..."

"Hey! You're not being helpful, supportive girlfriend person."

"I'm sorry." Amy kissed her on the cheek. "But you're just so cute when
you get all flustered and defensive and babbley."

"I'm not babbley! Defensive yes, because my *supposed* best friend is
drudging up all the dirt on me. And what's with that,
anyway? You don't see me mentioning the whole kissing Spike thing, which

by the way, ewww...not to mention the whole
undead factor that you seem to be quite fond of and..."

"Okay, okay, okay...truce?" Buffy offered quickly.

Willow smiled. "Truce."

"But not before I remind you that it was one of *your* spells that had
me locking lips with Billy Idol."

"I admit that I was a little...irresponsible, but it didn't make you
kiss Billy Idol. He doesn't even live...oh."

"Let's play truth or dare." Amy said wickedly.

"How old are we?" Buffy asked.

"Hey, in my mind, I'm still eighteen. Consequence of being a rat for two

years."

"And whose fault is that?" She teased.

"I think she's just afraid, Will."

"You know what? I think she is too." Willow agreed.

"Don't be afraid." Tara comforted her with a small grin.

"I'm not afraid!" Buffy practically screamed.

Willow looked around the clearing. "I think you made the forest animals
afraid. Poor rabbits."

"We're playing. I'm going first." The slayer challenged them with her
eyes. "Let's get started. Willow," The redhead gulped,
"truth or dare?"

"Tr...truth."

Buffy thought long and hard, and her target was beginning to sweat. When

she was ready, her face gave nothing away.

"Did you enjoy your vamp double's affection?"

Tara and Amy stared at Willow.

"Her outfit, uh...no! I mean...she was evil and...no! It was...wrong,
confusing, disgusting, gross, and of course I didn't! Not even
when she -" She cut herself off, and paled.

"When she what?"

"My turn." Willow said quickly.

It was Buffy's turn to pale. "Just remember how much you love me."

"Uh huh. Truth or dare...Tara."

"Um, I uh," The blonde witch was fully expecting to watch Buffy and
Willow trade truths for at least two more turns. Now she
knew how Willow felt moments before. "Okay, I pick truth."

"Hmmm," Willow put on her 'concentration face'. She knew Tara fairly
well, but there was one thing that she was really curious
about. "Why don't you ever talk about your family?"

"My family," Tara ducked her head shyly, trying to find the words. She
could lie, but that wouldn't be fair to her friends. "I
haven't seen them in over two years. There was, um, a lot that happened
when my mom died. I was a freshman. I haven't been
home since." She shrugged.

Willow frowned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you talk about it. I
thought, well, I didn't know that...sorry."

"It's okay. I just don't talk about it much is all."

"When you were a freshman?" Buffy looked at her quizzically.

"Um, yeah. I'm a junior." She smiled down at her girlfriend. "You knew
that, didn't you?" Buffy shook her head no. "All this time
and you didn't know I was a year older than you?" The slayer nodded.
Tara gave her a little squeeze then. "Truth or dare,
Buffy?"

"Uh...truth seems to be on special tonight, so..."

"What's wrong? And you can't lie, either. Remember, 'Tara Intuition.'
Plus, I'm older."

"Why does it make a difference if you're older than me or not?"

"Cause, there's a rule." Tara looked to Willow. "Right, Will?"

"Uh, yeah...the um, older rule." She nodded. "Sure."

"So?" Tara looked down at Buffy.

As they waited for her response, it dawned on Willow what had her friend

preoccupied. She had seen that expression too
many times.

"It's Faith, isn't it?" She asked. "You're having psycho slayer
thoughts."

"Since I didn't really answer the question, does it mean I have to go
again?" Buffy tried to joke.

Tara frowned. "You want closure."

Her girlfriend nodded, and grabbed her hand. "I guess I didn't wanna
bring it up cause I know your experience with Faith has
been less than pleasant."

"Hasn't been very pleasant for any of us." Willow commented, anger
showing on her face. Her expression softened though,
looking at her best friend. "But I understand. You and Faith have things

left...unsettled. Closure would help."

Amy raised her hand. "I kinda missed out on the whole dark slayer
thing."

"Be glad."

"Maybe we should stop." Tara suggested, thinking the middle of the night

wasn't the best time to talk about such a touchy
subject.

"Yeah." Buffy said. She didn't have the energy. "Right after Amy and I
have a little chat. Truth or dare?"

"Dare." The witch said with confidence.

"I dare you to tell me that you really don't remember seeing anything
from your time as a rat. Sitting in that cage, great view of
Willow's bedroom...be honest now."

"That's not fair, Buffy." Amy glared, being caught off guard.

"We're waiting."

She stared at the ground. "I remember everything. I saw...everything."

Willow gasped. "You said -"

"Don't be mad. I said I had a crush on you in high school, and that's
true, but when I became four-legged, watched you and
listened to you in that cage, it became more than a crush. I fell in
love with you, and I couldn't do anything about it. It sucked,
but I promised myself when I got human again, that I'd tell you how I
felt and see what happened. Now I've got you, and I can't
believe it."

The redhead was speechless. She had tears. It was complete sappiness,
but it was the sweetest thing any of them had ever
heard. The fact that Amy thought all of that about Willow while she was
a rodent, didn't seem to matter.

"I give that a ten. What do you think, Tara?" Buffy sniffled.

She nodded. "I think I need tissues. That alone gives it an eleven."

"Okay, what is it with you guys and scoring every thing we -" Amy was
silenced by Willow's lips covering hers. What followed
was a rather passionate make out session.

The two blondes turned away, clearing their throats. When Willow
finished, Amy was struggling to remember how to breathe.

"I love you." Willow whispered. "That was nicest thing anybody's
ever...thank you so much."

"Shouldn't I be the one doing the thanking?"

"You tired, Tara? I'm ready to hit the hay."

Buffy stood up, and Tara wordlessly followed the slayer's example. They
rushed to their tent then, and Amy and Willow looked
on as they disappeared inside it. After a minute or so, Buffy poked her
head out.

"Night guys!"

***

Buffy and Tara lay side by side in silence. It was nice and cozy
and...very new. Like first time new. Which would explain why
they were under their respective sleeping bags with their hands at their

sides.

"This is crazy." Buffy finally said and turned to Tara. "We cuddle all
the time. We're never cuddle free. So why is it so hard
now?"

Tara frowned. "I don't know. Maybe because it's...an extended cuddle,
where there's sleep involved in the middle."

"You and Will, you used to...never mind. I'm sorry." Buffy turned again
and laid on her back. "It's none of my business."

"No, we did, I mean, you know...it was just different, that's all." Tara

shrugged.

"Different how?"

"You're not...Willow." She said quietly. "It's just different. Every
relationship is. Kinda like your relationship with Willow is
different from, let's say, yours and Faith's."

Buffy sighed. "I thought we were talking about us?"

"You want to talk to her."

"I didn't say that. I said I wanted to cuddle." She sighed again. "Oh,
who am I kidding? I just...argh! Why is this so difficult?
Why should I even care? I mean, she attacks my friends, holds my mother
hostage, steals my body, tries to kill my boyfriend,
gets into cahoots with the big, evil mayor snake and *still* I feel
guilty."

Tara blinked a few times at the rush of words and emotion that came from

her girlfriend. "Wow. That was Willow-babble
worthy." She smiled, but Buffy didn't smile back. "Sorry, probably not a

good time for jokes." She reached over and touched
Buffy's arm to get her to look at her. "You love her."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Willow?"

"Her too, but I mean Faith, silly. You love her, that's why it hurts so
much, that's why you feel so guilty."

The Slayer shook her head. "Nuh uh. No way."

"There are different kinds of love, Buffy. There's a bond between you
two that's been there since before you were both born.
You can't change that, even if you wanted to. You're like...sisters in
arms. It's a slayer thing. You said that to Willow once, and
it's true."

Buffy took a few moments to think over everything Tara said. "I guess
you're right. I feel responsible for her, like...like a sister.
The whole Slayer thing, it's hard to deal with, hard to understand
sometimes, even for me. Faith got it, she knew how I felt, and
that made me feel..."

"Less alone." Tara smiled at her.

"Yeah. Something like that." The Slayer shrugged. "But even though
she...I mean, I don't feel lonely with you."

"That makes me happy. But you should go see her."

"I've been thinking about it, but..."

"But what? You're only making it harder than it really has to be. Either

you want closure and want to forgive her or you don't
and you want to make her suffer some more. Either way, you know you want

to see her."

"Even after everything she's done to me and my family and friends, I
still want to see her. How crazy is that?"

"That's not crazy, Buffy. That's love. Unconditional."

***

"You think Buffy will be okay?" Amy asked as she got into her sleeping
bag.

"Yeah. I mean, Buffy can handle things. Sure she's new, I mean, so am I.

Granted I have a little bit more experience with stuff
like this, but I'm sure she'll be fine. You think she'll be fine? Maybe
I should go check on her, give her a few pointers? Wait, no
that would just be...creepy..."

"Will." Amy smiled at her girlfriend. "I meant with the whole Faith
thing. Not with..."

"Oh." Willow blushed. "I thought you meant...never mind."

"She seemed really, I don't know...disturbed by it or, conflicted."

"Yeah, well...she really trusted Faith. They slayed together and
everything and she turned around and stabbed Buffy in the
back. Well, not literally. Buffy did the stabbing but still, she turned
all Dark Slayer on the Scoobies and that's not cool. We
accepted her and she ran off with the Mayor to try and take over...not
to mention the whole killing a human thing and trying to
dust Angel."

"I really missed a lot...didn't I?"

Willow nodded. "Yeah, bunches even."

"Care to fill me in?" Amy said as she snuggled up to Willow. "Bedtime
story?"

Willow smiled at her girlfriend and kissed her forehead. "More like
nightmare story. You sure you wanna..."

They both froze when they heard a sound come from outside the tent. It
was like branches breaking underfoot and someone
moving through bushes.

"What was that?" Amy whispered.

"I dunno." Willow sat up and started to look for the flashlight. She
froze when the noise came again, only this time it was louder.
"Okay, whoever's out there...this isn't funny." She found the flashlight

and clicked it on. It didn't work. "Oh great. I should have
known." She rolled her eyes. "That better not be you Buffy, cause if it
is I'll, I'll...well, I'll have to think of something really mean
and witchy to do to you," Willow grabbed for Amy's hand, "*after* I stop

shaking that is." She added as an afterthought.

***

"Tara?"

"Hmm?"

Buffy rolled over on her side. "How did we get from cuddling to psycho
slayer talk? Did I skip a chapter or something?"

The blonde witch chuckled. "No."

"So?"

Tara opened one eye. "So what?"

The Slayer smirked. "Do I get an invite or would you like to sleep alone

on this cold evening?"

"I thought only vampires needed invitations?"

"Tara!"

"Hey, how come your hair's been getting darker lately? Do you dye it?"
The slayer glared. "Okay, okay." She smiled and
unzipped her sleeping bag. "I invite you, to um, cuddle."

Buffy slipped into the sleeping bag and zipped it back up. She put her
arm around Tara, who snuggled down and put her arm
across Buffy's stomach. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Tara gave Buffy a little squeeze and looked up at her. "You let the cold

air in."

Buffy opened her mouth for a witty retort, but a scream cut through the
air, stopping her. She sat up immediately. "That was
Willow!"

***

Tara and Buffy ran outside to see Amy and Willow shaking, staring into
the night. The blonde witch accidentally stepped on a
branch, causing the frightened couple to jump and face them. Willow
looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

"Sorry." Tara apologized guiltily.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Buffy asked, scanning the darkness.

"We heard a noise, and we came out here." Amy began to explain. "We
couldn't see anything, but the flashlight wouldn't
work..."

"But you put new batteries in before we left, Will. Didn't you?"

The redhead nodded. "I figured it was just our imaginations, the woods
are scary at night, at least to me. Getting told ghost
stories as a kid about men with hooks, an evil Tinkerbell, and tree
people can really affect you later in life."

"Tree people?"

"Evil Tinkerbell?" Tara questioned.

"Tell them." Amy said, trying to calm her girlfriend down.

"My cousin told me about NeverNeverHell where Peter Pan was a -" Willow
started.

"No, about what happened to the flashlight."

"Oh. Right." Willow smiled sheepishly. "Something ripped it right out of

my hands, and it made me fall." She frowned and spoke
to Amy in that innocent, 'little girl' voice. "I coulda hurt my bottom."

"I would've made it better. Maybe I should just check..."

Buffy cleared her throat. "Focus?"

"Focused." Amy swore.

"Did you see it?" The two witches shook their heads.

"Whatever it was, it's gone now." Tara said, looking around. "We should
just try and go to sleep."

"You sure?"

"It's still in the woods, but it won't come back tonight."

Buffy had come to trust Tara's internal, maybe magickal, radar.

"I'll go searching in the morning. Will you two be okay?"

"Think so." Willow told her, and Amy nodded in confirmation.

"You need us, we're the next tent over." She stared at her friend, and
gave her hand a squeeze.

"Night, Buff."

***

The couples' separated, and as they re-entered their tent, Buffy let
Tara get in the bag first, as she zipped up the front of the
tent.

"Maybe it was Spike messing around. He could have followed us out here
and just decided to be an asshole." She said, liking
that explanation a lot.

"Protection spell remember? Vampires can't get anywhere near this
clearing."

The slayer frowned, slipping in beside the witch. "I was hoping it would

be something easy."

"At least we ruled out something."

"Uh huh. And how many species of demon are there?"

"I guess that really doesn't help."

Buffy laid her head on Tara's chest.

"How can you just...tell things sometimes? Magick?"

The blonde started brushing the other girl's hair with her fingers
without even realizing it, trying to think of the best way to
explain.

"Ever see Good Will Hunting?"

"Movie with Matt Damon and Ben Whatshisname?"

"That's the one."

"Yeah. They were nice pieces of eye candy."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. For guys though, they aren't bad."
They both grinned. "Anyway, do you remember that scene
where Minnie Driver asks Matt Damon how he could do all that math and
stuff?"

"Uh...yeah."

"He told her that it's like those piano players who just know how to
play without really needing to be taught. He could always
do math, learning came easy, he just knew. Not an exact quote,
but...what I'm trying to say is that I've always been able to feel
things. I don't know why, or what it is, I'm not even describing it
right, but it's always been there. Do you understand at all?"

"Kinda...a little...well, more than I did." Buffy looked at her without
lifting up her head, and could see upset-ness in Tara's face.
"But I don't need to. You've got a gift, you're special, and I'm with
you. That's enough for me."

"Willow used to talk about you all the time before we met each other.
She wanted me to like you, and understand just how
important you are in her life. She told me how great you were, how nice,

and how much you do for people. But, and don't get
me wrong, cause I think Willow's the coolest, she didn't do you
justice."

The slayer raised up slightly, just so she could accept her girlfriend's

kiss.

"Does that mean you like me?"

"Oh, I think it means I love you."

"Even better. I love you too." She reclaimed her pillow. "Goodnight,
Tara."

"Have good dreams, Buffy."

***

"Will. Come back here. I'm cold." Amy pouted.

Willow was currently poking her head outside the tent for the fourth
time since they got back. She could swear she'd heard
something again. She turned back to her girlfriend and frowned. "But..."

"No buts, Will. Now come on. You're letting the skeeters in."

"Okay, since you look so cute when you pout and everything. How can I
resist?" She zipped the tent up and crawled in next to
Amy in the sleeping bag. "Better?"

Amy smiled down at her. "Much." She kissed her forehead. "Night, Wills."

"Night, Ammers."

***

Tara rolled over and stretched. She opened her eyes to find...nothing.
She was alone. "Buffy?" She called out. No answer.

She got up, dressed and opened the tent, blinking in the sunlight. "Wow,

bright."

"Usually is in the morning."

Tara turned around to find Buffy standing behind her. "Hey. You were
gone."

"Yeah, I figured I'd look around. See what the bumpy thing in the night
was, but I came up with nada. Guess bumpy things in
the night like to creep around, you know, at night."

Tara smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

Buffy walked up to her and gave her a hug. "Good morning, by the way."
She noticed that Tara was a little stiff. "What's
wrong?"

"You, you were g-gone. I was worried." She looked down.

"Hey." Buffy lifted her chin with her finger. "I'm right here." She
whispered.

Tara looked at her with sadness. "I know, but...that thing last night.
It wasn't...I mean, it's not...it's not normal." She shrugged.
"But I guess that goes without saying."

"Is this one of those 'feeling' things? Like you know it was dangerous?"

Tara nodded. "I just don't want you to get hurt. Any more than you'd
have to, you know, being the Slayer and everything."

"Hey, guys. What's up?" Amy walked up from behind them. She saw the look

on Tara's face. "Uh oh. I'm interrupting, aren't
I?"

Buffy smiled. "It's okay, Amy. Just give us a few minutes?" After she
walked away, Buffy turned her attention back to her
girlfriend. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being so worried about me, but I'm okay, really. It's just part of
the job description, I guess. Looking for evil things in the
woods. Most people run in terror, I go chasing after the damn things."
She smirked, which made Tara smile. "That's better. I
missed that this morning."

"What?"

"Your smile." Buffy kissed her softly. "I really wanted to be there when

you woke up because it was our first time spending the
night together, but, duty called. You understand. Don't you?"

Tara nodded. "I do. Besides, there will be other nights."

Buffy got a mischievous gleam in her eye and pulled Tara close. "Ooh,
promise?"

Tara leaned over and whispered in Buffy's ear. "You can count on it,
Slayer." Then she removed herself from Buffy's arms and
walked towards where Willow and Amy were preparing breakfast.

Buffy stood there with a shocked look on her face for a few moments, and

then followed suit.

***

"It's official. Amy is the Queen of Pancakes." Buffy said, rubbing her
stomach with a small burp. "Excuse me." She blushed.

"My subjects were more than happy to sacrifice themselves to your
stomach." Amy said with a smile.

"You should take over IHOP. You could change the name to AHOP." Willow
said. They all looked at her, Amy the only one
smirking. "Amy's House of Pancakes?"

"What's the original name stand for?" Tara asked.

"International House of Pancakes."

"Oh. Then that was funny."

"I thought so." Willow huffed.

"It was, Will. We just didn't know that the letters meant something.
It's our fault for being ignorant when it comes to restaurant
names." Buffy explained.

"And the exact words to The Flintstones theme song." Tara said. "Don't
know that either."

"Yeah, what are the words?"

"Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern stone-age
family," Amy began to sing.

Willow joined in.

"From the town of Bedrock, they're a page right out of history, let's
ride with the family down the street, through the courtesy of
Fred's two feet, when you're with the Flintstones, have a
yabba-dabba-doo time, a dabba-doo time, you'll have a gay old
time!"

The two singers burst into giggles, and for a minute, the listeners just

stared at them like they were strange, but then they started
laughing as well. Willow got control of herself first, and looked at her

friends.

"Are you laughing at us?"

"No." Tara shook her head. "But it's obvious you watched a lot of Hanna
Barbara." She felt a new wave coming on.

"Then what...?" Amy asked.

"'Gay old time'?" Buffy pointed out. Their faces were blank. "Think
about it."

Willow paled, while Amy added her own laughter to the mix.

"But that's not what they meant." The redhead said, insisting.

"We know. It means happy." Her girlfriend said. "But the situation is
just -"

"Well, there you go. We're happy, aren't we?" Buffy asked. "Completely
happy. And we're just having one hell of a gay old
time."

"Uh," Tara was smirking in her own unique way, "you know, I always
wondered about Fred and Barney. They s-spent a lot of
time together, d-didn't they?" She was nervous about how her joke would
go over.

Willow broke into a grin, and nearly fell because she started laughing
so hard. Amy had to catch her. The four people's sounds
of amusement echoed through the woods, and in response, a loud shriek
resounded off the trees.

"I think that's my cue to go searching again." Buffy said after a
moment. "Wider area this time."

"Maybe you should stay here." Tara suggested. "Let it come to you."

"We already had this talk, remember?" Buffy said softly.

Willow and Amy started cleaning up, letting their friends' converse.

"It just...it doesn't sound very nice."

"They never do."

Tara figured that compromising might work.

"What if you get hurt and we don't know? If you really need to go, let
us come with you."

Buffy shook her head. "I'm not putting anyone in danger if I don't have
to. I don't want you going for the same reasons you
don't want me going. I know you could probably take care of yourself,
and you know I can usually take care of myself, but it's
a 'girlfriend concern' thing."

"What am I supposed to do? I wanna feel useful, and I'm gonna lose my
mind."

"You should stay here. If something does happen, you guys know your way
back. You can get help." The other girl still looked
upset. More so than she had mere seconds ago. "Come here."

She hugged the witch tightly, and they stayed like that for what seemed
like an eternity.

"I won't go far. And you'll be able to find me, right?"

"I'll try." Tara promised.

"Only if you think I'm in trouble, k? Please." She got a nod, and they
broke off their embrace. "I'm outta here, then."

Willow came running up. "Be careful, Buffy. I mean it. I've learned to
not argue, but if we lose you, you'll be missed. A lot." The
slayer smiled at the concern, but quirked an eyebrow at her friend's
extra worry. "Ever since I saw the Blair Witch Project,
well, Amy had to drag me out here. Not that I'm not enjoying myself. I
am. Except for that thing giving me the creeps and the
flashlight going whoosh -"

"Hurry back." Amy advised, stopping the redhead's babble.

"I'll be back by lunch." Buffy said with a reassuring glance in Tara's
direction.

"It'll be waiting on the table...err...ground. On the blanket that's on
the ground." Amy smiled. "There. That works. More
sanitary."

***

"Tara?"

"Hey."

"Hey." Amy walked up next to her and put her hand on her shoulder.
"She'll be okay, you know. She knows how to handle
herself."

Tara nodded and smiled. "I know."

"In the meantime, why don't you come over to the campfire? Will and I
brought some of our new spell books and there's a few
of them we'd like to try, but not without you, of course."

"Thanks. For including me, I mean. I know you and Willow, you have a
strong relationship from high school, and..."

"No, Tara. I'm the one who should be thanking you. For a lot of things
really, but most of all for being there for Willow. She
told me everything, you know...about Oz. I still can't believe he did
that to her. You're still special to her, you know?"

Tara smiled. "Yeah, and she's special to me too. I think, if I didn't
know her, I wouldn't be where I am. Not only with
witchcraft, but, with my life. She's helped me. More than she even
knows."

"Hey you two." Willow walked up next to them. "My ears are ringing. You
wouldn't happen to be having a pow wow about lil'
ol' me now would you?"

Amy and Tara looked at each other and smiled then looked away.

"Uh, guys, I was only kidding."

Amy put her arm around her girlfriend. "No worries, Will. Nothing but
good stuff here. Right Tara?"

Tara nodded. "Right. Hey, didn't you say something about doing spells?"

"Yeah!" Willow grabbed Tara and Amy's hands. "Come on, let's go."

***

"Come out, come out wherever you are." Buffy said to whatever might have

been listening.

She hated playing the hunter when she didn't have a clue where her prey
was or what it looked like. It could've been watching
her right then, and she would be completely unaware. So really, that
made her *the hunted*, not the hunter. She was the prey,
but sometimes it was necessary for a slayer to maintain a certain level
of delusion. It was a confidence builder. Made her think
she was in control.

How come that made her think of Faith? Because Faith told her she always

had to be in control. That she couldn't handle things
otherwise. It was true, but the dark-haired slayer had made it sound
like a bad thing. It wasn't a bad thing. It had gotten her far.
And where had Faith gotten? In jail, that's where.

"Okay, so maybe she went there by choice, but still." She said to
herself.

She was judging Faith without knowing anything about how she grew up.
She could tell the girl had been traumatized. The lack
of control probably wasn't all her fault.

"Enough about her, you're in a life-threatening sitch here, so get it
together."

'You could use her help.'

"Don't you think I know that? My brain is a pain in the ass sometimes.
It even makes me talk to myself."

'It's not just your mind. You've got generations behind you, and when we

see a sister in need, we want to help.'

Buffy stopped dead in her tracks.

"Who are you?"

'Slayers. We're with you always. Since your birth. We live within you.
But you only recently opened up the lines of
communication. You've opened yourself.'

"Great. In the movie, they didn't start going insane until they were
lost. Damn it, does this mean I'm...freaked now." She sat on
the ground. "Just stay put. No more walking. You think I'd have a better

sense of direction. Good thing I'm the only person
who doesn't know where she is."

There was another shriek. It sounded closer this time. Calming herself,
she concentrated on the noises of the forest, and waited
for the attack.


--
~~Kimber

"Lisa's Personal-Pit Pet" *eg*
a.k.a. The Light Lobster
Tourist number 2
List Gutter Lust Goddess (yeah, I've finally given into my fate)
Proud Member of the BtVS Writer's Guild - ~~Because Fic makes anything
possible.