A WITCH IN LA

BY

KINETIC-KID

Rating:             NC-17 (As is the Norm)

Disclaimer:       Definitely no money being made.  All characters belong to Joss Whedon and ME.  I own nothing except whatever characters I may make up for this story.

Distribution:     Oh yeah, anywhere, anytime.  Just make sure I get credit and let me know where it is. 

Spoilers:           Pretty much everything up to Season 6 Tabula Rasa then quickly AU.

Feedback:         Please, Please, PLEASE.  I live for feedback.  I get irritable and upset if I don’t get any (feedback that is… won’t go into the other ‘any’ SNORT) and I might not continue writing.  Of course, if you don’t like the story and think it sucks you may not want me to continue!

Pairings:           W/T (previously) T/F, B/S (They are NOT in the story a lot – so please think about giving it a chance)

Auth Note:        This is more of an Angel/Buffy crossover.  I’m taking BtVS the way it happened up to Tabula Rasa - then goes AU.  Everything is un-beta’d - so any and all mistakes are solely mine!  Sorry in advance for any screw-ups.

Summary:         What would happen if after the Tabula Rasa Spell when Tara left Willow, Tara decided she needed to leave Sunnydale?  Where would she go?  What might be different?

Differences:      This is going to be mostly based in the Angel Universe – so there are some definite differences to mention.  They didn’t have enough evidence to put Faith away.  So, she’s living with the AI Team, working at getting her life in order.  I never really thought the Gunn/Fred hook-up worked.  I thought she was just way too much of a brain for him.  But I also didn’t like the idea of her and Wes either.  So who knows what will transpire with those three?  I didn’t much care for the Connor story line and will leave him out completely.  We’ll see what else might end up happening.   I will definitely be playing with the timelines of the Angel Universe.  I know this, so sorry if it makes anyone angry.

Chapter 1

Tara sighs as she packs the last of her bags before glancing around the dorm room.  “Time for me to leave.”  She whispers to the empty room.  Just as she’s ready to open the door, she jumps slightly as there’s a knock.  Shaking her head and slightly smiling to herself, she opens the door surprised to see Buffy standing there.

“Buffy, c-come in.”  Tara murmurs quietly, opening the door further.

“Thanks, Tara.”  Buffy walks in to the room and looks around in surprise, seeing the bags packed and the room emptied of everything but the furniture that was provided.  Turning to look at the blonde, she frowns slightly.  “Where are you going?”

Tara looks down, her hair covering her face before whispering quietly.  “Home.”

“Why?”  Buffy almost growls out, thinking about the backwoods’ rejects that had come trying to take her away.

Tara shakes her head slightly.  “The semester’s over, and I can’t really stay here, Buffy.  Not now.”  Glancing up briefly Tara looks back down.  “W-why are you here?”

“Because I’m an idiot.”  Buffy grumbles quietly.  “Tara you’re family.  You can’t just leave.”

“I have to, Buffy.  I-I can’t b-be around her.”  Tara sighs before sitting down on the edge of the bed.  “For my own p-piece of mind I need to leave.”

“What about college?  What about the fact you want to teach?”  Buffy kneels before the blonde.  “What about your family here?”  Buffy whispers the last.

“Dawn has you back, now.  She’ll be fine.”  Tara feels tears gathering in her eyes.  “I’ll try and keep in t-touch with her.”

Buffy hops up onto her feet, surprising Tara and making her look up watching her pace back and forth in front of her.  “I can’t let you go back to your family, Tara.”  Buffy growls angrily, glancing at Tara. 

“I don’t have much of a choice.”  Tara murmurs quietly, looking back down at her clasped hands. 

“Maybe you do.  I understand why you can’t stay here.  Not after what Willow did to you.”  Buffy sighs slightly thinking about her best friend.  “I still can’t believe…”  Buffy sits down beside the witch.  “Answer me this, do you really want to go back home?”

“NO.”  Tara states almost vehemently.  Thinking about the abuse, physical and mental she had gone through at home, she shakes almost in terror.

“Give me two days?  Let me see if I can figure something out?”  Buffy almost begs. 

“Why do you care Buffy?”  Tara states quietly, not meanly just a question.

The question hits Buffy hard, even knowing that Tara didn’t mean it to.  “Because I should have been a friend to you.  You were there for me when mom died.  You helped take care of Dawn when I was gone.  She considers you a mother figure.  I should have been by to talk to you after that fiasco with the mind wipe that Willow did.  Not counting the fact when she changed Amy back into a human, you can’t find one without the other being there.”  When Tara flinches slightly at that, Buffy groans.  “I’m sorry.”

Tara shakes her head at the slayer.  “No, no.  It’s not your fault.  I just can’t stay in this town.  Running into W-willow.  It hurts.  I need to leave and try and make a life for myself.  Why are you here Buffy?  Why did you show up today?”  Tara looks up for the first time making eye contact with the slayer, looking intently at her.

“Dawn.”  Buffy whispers quietly.  “She was crying this morning telling me you were leaving.  I didn’t realize you were planning on doing it today.  Thank God I didn’t wait too long and you were gone.  You’re family, Tara.  I won’t let you go back to your Father.  Do you have to leave the dorm room today?  I want to make a couple phone calls.”

Tara sits there slightly in shock watching the slayer.   “The dorm room is mine until the end of next week.  Buffy…”  Tara shakes her head slightly, trying to figure out what’s going on.

“Please.  Give me two days.”  Buffy looks pleadingly at her.  “You don’t want me to follow you home and drag you away, do you?”

Tara chuckles slightly.  “No, I guess not.  You have two days, but I’m leaving after that.”

“Thank you.”  Buffy whispers softly, lightly placing a hand on the witch’s shoulder and squeezing gently.  Walking towards the door, Buffy stops turning around to look at Tara.  “You’re family.  I haven’t always acted like it, which I regret deeply, now.  But you are sister and mother figure to Dawn.  I would love for you to consider me a sister, also.”  Buffy stops here, seeing the tears forming in the blonde’s eyes. “Even if you can’t stay here, in Sunnydale, I want you to know we are here for you.  Family.  Your chosen family.”  Buffy quietly opens the door and walks out.

Sitting in the silence of the room, stunned, Tara looks at the closed door.  Wondering what the slayer has in mind, knowing in her heart that anything would be better than going back home at this moment, as long as she didn’t have to stay here.

***

“Dawn, can I speak with you for a moment?”  Buffy questions looking into the living room, seeing Willow and Amy curled up on the couch together talking quietly, with Dawn sitting in the chair, turned slightly away from them.

“Most definitely.”  Dawn snarks giving the two women on the couch a dirty look. 

“It isn’t going to do any good being upset at them, Dawn.”  Buffy whispers as they walk into the kitchen.  “Willow’s decided she wants to be with Amy.” 

“Why would she decide to be with Amy when she had Tara?”  Dawn hisses out.  “I can’t stand the woman.”

“I know.  Neither can I.”  Buffy sighs heavily looking out the window over the sink.  “After Tara left, and she made Amy human again, I guess she thought Amy was the perfect person for her.  Thought having someone to do dark magic’s with all the time without giving her any grief is what she wants.”  Buffy starts to run dish water in the sink to clean the dishes. 

“Stupid.”  Dawn mumbles before looking at her sister.  “Did you see Tara?”  At Buffy’s nod she looks worriedly at her sister.  “Were you able to talk her out of it?”

“No.”  Buffy whispers gently.  “She’s going to leave one way or another, Dawn.  She can’t stay here.  It’s too hard on her.”  Washing the same plate over and over again, Buffy glances over at Dawn and smiles softly.  “I got her to stay for two more days.  Maybe we can run by there later and you can spend some time with her?”

“Please.”  Dawn cries silently.  “Too bad we can’t get Willow to leave town and keep Tara.”

“Dawn.”  Buffy shakes her head and quickly dries her hands, pulling the teen in against her.  “She’s a grown woman.  But there is something I’m going to do.  I need to make a phone call.  Can you make sure that neither one of the witches disturb me?”

Dawn looks at Buffy with a confused look.

“I’m going to call Angel.  See if he’s in need of a witch.”  Buffy smiles slightly as Dawn’s eyes light up.  “She’s planning on going back home, Dawn.  No matter what, we can’t let that happen.”

“No.  That’s not going to happen.  God, Buffy they abused her!”  Dawn cried out almost silently. 

“How do you know that?”  Buffy looks at her sister shocked.  Knowing in her heart that the woman had a terrible life with her family, but not knowing what exactly happened.

“I overheard her and Willow talking one night when they thought I was asleep.”  Dawn whispers looking down at her shoes.  “Both her father and brother beat her.  Broken bones beat her.  Put her in the hospital.  Some movie they were watching brought it up and Tara finally broke down, telling Willow about it.”

Buffy feels her heart constrict in pain, realizing that Tara would rather go back to that than stay here around Willow.  Running her hands down Dawn’s hair, Buffy pulls her a little tighter against her.  “We won’t let her go back there.  We’ll figure out something.  Why don’t you play lookout for me and I’ll take the phone out on the back porch?”

Dawn nods her head, pulling away and wiping the tears off her face.  “Tell Angel I’ll actually be nice to him, if he’ll help.”  Dawn whispers seriously looking at Buffy.

“I will.”  Buffy smiles sadly, knowing that Dawn never cared for the vampire, and that this was a big concession for her.  Watching Dawn go stand in the kitchen doorway, Buffy grabs the cordless phone and walks out the back door.

Quickly dialing Angel’s number, she chuckles at Cordelia answering the phone.  “Hi Cordy, this is Buffy.”

“Buffy, what are you calling for?  We hardly hear from you.”  Cordelia asks in an almost nice way.

“I’ve kind of got a little problem that I need to talk with Angel about.  Is he there?”  Buffy listens quietly as Cordelia yells for Angel.

“Buffy?”  Angel picks up the phone.

“Hi, Angel.  How are things?”  Buffy asks the vampire as she sits down on the concrete step.

“I’m fine.  Why are you calling?” Angel gets right to the point, knowing there’s a reason for Buffy to call.

“Well, I know you don’t really know what’s been going on here lately, but let me give you a quick run down…”  Buffy quickly explains the situation to the vampire, letting him know that even Dawn would appreciate any help he could offer.

“I didn’t realize.”  Angel shakes his head thinking deeply.  “We could always use an extra hand around here.  Wes has some magical abilities but another person would be a great help. And it isn’t like it would be a hardship her living here.  One more person in this hotel is nothing.  If she is willing to come here, let her know she has a place to stay and a job.”  Stopping for a moment Angel asks quietly.  “Do you need any help?”

Buffy smiles at the offer.  “Thanks Angel.  But no, I’m okay.  Just be prepared that Dawn will probably want to come and visit with Tara being there.  That is if Tara will go for this.  I’ll talk to her later and see what we can do.  Thank you for your help.”

“No thanks necessary, Buffy.  I wish I could do more.”  Angel smiles sadly at the thought.  “How are things with you?”

“They’re getting there.  Still not quite up to par.  But doing better.”  Buffy frowns, thinking about Spike.  “Angel, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”  Angel replies, wondering at the seriousness of her tone.

“Do you honestly think Spike is capable of love?”  Buffy quickly asks before chickening out.

“Buffy?”  Angel’s shocked voice comes over the phone.  “Why would you want to know that?”

“Please Angel, just answer the question.”  Buffy pleads quietly.

“When he was turned, it was a little strange.  I don’t know if it had something to do with Drusilla, but he’s always been different.  And I guess in his own way, yes he is capable of love. How else would he have spent roughly 150 years with Dru?”  Angel clenches his hand tightly.  “Is there something…?”

“I don’t know.”  Buffy whispers.  “I know it isn’t fair to talk to you about this, but things are a little strange right now.  He says he loves me.”

Taking a deep, unneeded breath Angel looks up to the ceiling.  “It’s possible, Buffy.  But be careful.  I don’t have any say in your life, but he is my grandchilde.  He was almost as vicious a killer as Angelus was.  So keep that in mind, okay?” 

“I will.  It’s just that he’s helped out so much the last year.  It’s like he wants to do good.”  Buffy shakes her head, wondering if she should give the bleached blonde vampire a real chance. 

“It’s a possibility.  He wouldn’t be the first vampire that changed.  It just doesn’t happen that often.  Sometimes the human host can re-exert itself over the demon.  It’s not a soul being returned, but more of the way the human was before coming to the forefront.  Kind of like the demon keeps all the memories of the host.  Just take care of yourself.”  Angel worriedly tells the slayer. 

“I will.  By the way, how is Faith doing?”  Buffy questions quietly.

“She’s doing better.”  Angel chuckles at that.  “Still the Dark Slayer, still the attitude, but not on self-destruct mode anymore.  She’s helping out on patrol and keeping up with helping around the hotel.”

“Good.  She’ll always be a little rough around the edges, but I hope she does well.”  Buffy smiles slightly.  “Tell the group I said hi.  I’ll let you know when Tara will be getting in, so maybe you can have someone pick her up at the bus station.”

“Please do.”  Angel nods and smiles as he hears Buffy whisper goodbye before hanging up. 

***

“Be sure to keep in touch.”  Dawn hugs Tara to her tightly.  “And if any of them give you any hassle, tell them I’ll come and kick their asses.”

“Dawn!”  Buffy reprimands her sister before chuckling quietly.  As she watches Dawn release the witch, she’s surprised to find a pair of arms wrapped around her.  “Tara.”  Buffy softly says her name before hugging her back tightly.  

“Thank you for this, Buffy.”  Tara whispers quietly. 

“It’s what family does.”  Smiling as Tara finally releases her and steps back, Buffy reaches out and brushes the hair away from the blonde’s face.  “We love you.  And I’m sure the group there will love you, also.  Give them time.  They’re a little different.”  Buffy smirks slightly.  “Cordelia’s a bitch, or at least she used to be.  Angel said she was better, but who knows.”

“Hopefully all will go well.  Can’t be any worse than my family, right?”  Tara grins lopsidedly at the two women.  “I appreciate your help.  I’ll write, Dawnie.  And I know you’re planning on spending some of your summer vacation there.”

Dawn smiles hugely.  “You better believe it.” 

Buffy smiles at the two and wraps her arm around Dawn’s waist, as they call for the boarding to LA.  “Take care of yourself, Tara.  Please, if you need anything let me know.”  Buffy watches as a little of the light that had been missing in Tara’s eyes flashes. 

“New life.  Changes.”  Shaking her head and smiling genuinely at the two Summers’ women.  “Thanks for the chance.”  Turning to see the bus loading she looks back at the two women.  “It’s exciting in a way.  You two take care of yourselves.” 

Buffy and Dawn watch as Tara climbs on the bus, carrying her small backpack while her other luggage is loaded below.  Waving to her as the bus pulls out, they slowly turn to walk back home.

“I think this will be good for her.”  Dawn whispers.  “Being away from Willow and the Hellmouth, around new people that she doesn’t have any kind of a history with.  It’s like a whole new start.”

“I think so, also Dawn.”  Buffy smiles, rubbing her hand over her sister’s hair lightly.  “Want to stop and get something to eat?”

“As long as it isn’t the Double Meat Palace.”  Dawn rolls her nose up in disgust.

Buffy laughs before shaking her head.  “No, no Double Meat.  Lets go.” 

***

Angel stands quietly in the background at the bus station, waiting for the bus from Sunnydale to unload.  As he watches the people, he sees a blonde woman, with blue eyes carrying a backpack step down off the bus, glancing around nervously.  Wondering if this could be Tara, he slowly walks towards the woman.

“Tara?”  Angel questions softly, hoping not to startle the young woman.

Tara looks up quickly to the tall vampire, realizing that this must be Angel.  “Angel?”  As he quirks his lip up slightly and nods his head, Tara relaxes.  “I only have a couple bags.” 

Angel watches her walk towards the luggage that is being off-loaded and starts to pick them up.  “Here, let me.”  He offers reaching down, grasping the two bags, looking back up into the blue eyes that seem to show so much pain and hardship, but underneath he sees a strength warring to get out.  Nodding his head to himself he smiles softly.  This woman will do.  “Lets go to the hotel, get you introduced to the group.”

“Okay.”  Tara whispers quietly, following the tall vampire.  As she sits down and he closes the door behind her she watches him put the luggage in the back before sliding in behind the wheel.  “Thank you for letting me s-stay here.”  Tara looks up briefly before looking back down at her clasped hands.

“Oh, I’ll put you to work.”  Angel smiles softly.  “We can use all the help we can get between Cordy’s visions and Fred who’s not quite with us.”  At Tara’s questioning look he chuckles quietly.  “Our group is a little strange.  Cordy was given visions from Doyle before he died… long story. Fred - actually Winifred but she prefers to be called Fred, we just saved her from Pylea and brought her back.  Brilliant woman, but being a slave for roughly five years kind of cracked her a bit.  Then there’s Wes, an ex-Watcher, Gunn, a street tough that is just a normal guy and Lorne, the host of Caritas, a bar.”

“Charity?”  Tara questions, chuckling quietly.  “Isn’t that kind of a weird name for a bar?”

“Yeah, it’s more of a Sanctuary.  It’s a demon bar where the demons go to relax, no fighting.  It’s a karaoke bar, so be prepared to sing.”  Angel grins slightly at the witch. 

“Sing?”  Tara’s eyes widen slightly. 

“Yes, at one time or another, we all have to sing.  And trust me, no one is worse than me.”  Angel sighs slightly.

“I don’t know.”  Tara shakes her head slightly.  “I’m not much of one for b-bars.”

“You’ll like it.  It’s homey in a demon way.”  Shaking his head at that thought he smiles slightly before continuing.  “Then we have Faith, our slayer.”

Tara frowns nodding her head slightly, looking out the window.  “I sort of met her briefly.”

“You did?”  Angel glances over at the woman as he pulls in front of the Hyperion.  Seeing her frown slightly he shuts the engine off and turns towards her.  “How did you sort of meet her?”

Tara shakes her head slightly and smiles.  “Buffy was kind of having an out of body experience at the time.  Faith was in residence.”  Opening the door, she quickly grabs her backpack smiling.  “No time like the present, I guess?”  Tara turns towards the door to the hotel, feeling the latent demon energy coming from it.  “If you want, I can work on doing cleansings of the hotel to help with the left over energy.”

“Could you?  I sometimes think we draw more demons here because of that than anything.”  Angel quickly grabs her bags out of the trunk and walks up to the door, opening it for her. 

“Yes, I’ll need a few ingredients for the cleansing.”  Tara looks down, her hair shifting forward to cover her face as she walks into the hotel. 

“Just let Wesley know.  If he doesn’t have it, he’ll get it.”  Angel suggests quietly looking into the hotel, seeing the gang spread out.  “Looks like most of the gang is here.  Lorne’s probably at his bar.”

Walking down the steps he’s followed by Tara.  Glancing up she looks around quickly, seeing the different people scattered around the room. 

“Gang, I want you to meet Tara Maclay recently from Sunnydale.  She’s going to be staying with us and hopefully helping out with the magic side of things.”  Tara looks up, stiffening her resolve to meet these people with her chin held high.  Swallowing hard she makes herself make eye contact with each person.

“Tara, over by the weapon cabinet is Charles Gunn.  Behind the counter is Cordelia and beside her is Wesley.  Faith is the one standing on the stairs.”  He stops looking around.  “Did Fred go back up to her room?”

“No, she went to make herself some tea.”  Cordelia rolls her eyes slightly.  “Let me get her.”

As Cordelia brings Fred out Tara smiles slightly, seeing an almost kindred spirit in the woman. 

“And that’s Fred.”  Angel smiles gently at Fred.

“H-hello everybody.”  Tara looks again from one person to the other, surprised to see Gunn approaching.

Holding out his hand, he smiles.  “Nice to meet you, Tara.  Welcome to our dysfunctional family.”  

Giggling slightly Tara gently places her hand in his.  “Thank you.”

“Lets get you settled then maybe we’ll order dinner.”  Angel suggests heading towards the stairs.

Faith steps down looking at the blonde woman, trying to figure out where she knows her from.  Obviously Sunnydale, but not able to place her just yet, she shakes her head slightly.  “Here, I’ll show her the room I got ready.”  Faith holds her hands out to the vampire.

Angel raises an eyebrow at the slayer and hands the cases over to her.  “None of us are that great at cooking.  We can all pretty much toast bagels and heat up cans of soup.  Even occasionally they’ve been known to make sandwiches.  So we order out frequently.”

“If you want, I can cook.”  Tara offers quietly.  “Help earn my stay here, if you like.”

“Please!”  Cordelia exclaims.  “All this eating out is going directly to my thighs.  What I wouldn’t give for a good home-cooked meal.  These guys think a soda and a bag of chips is a meal half the time.”

Tara’s lip slides up slightly watching the woman throw her hands around while she’s talking.  So that’s Queen C.  She doesn’t seem so bad so far, Tara quietly thinks to herself.  “Of course, we will need to g-go grocery shopping and I need to s-see what cookware you have and will need.”

Angel chuckles loudly at that.  “That I don’t think is going to be a problem.  This hotel has an industrial sized kitchen with all the cookware there, from the looks of things.  Probably just needs a good cleaning.  I’ll need to switch the breakers on for that part of the hotel.  But to keep this group happy, I’ll do it.” 

Walking back towards the front of the hotel he grumps loudly.  “It’ll probably be a hell of a lot cheaper than buying take-out all the time.”

Giggling Tara looks down at her feet, before looking back up, seeing the slayer’s dark gaze centered on her questioningly.  “S-something I can help you with?”  Tara questions quietly. 

“I know you, don’t I?”  Faith looks at the woman, trying to figure it out.  At the blonde’s nod she raises an eyebrow.  “You gonna tell me, or do I hafta guess?”

Tara frowns slightly glancing down before making herself look up again.  “You were having an in-Buffy experience at the time.”

Faith frowns before realization dawns in her eyes.  “Red’s girl.  At the Bronze.”

“Was.  Not anymore.”  Tara clenches her jaw slightly before looking up at the stairs.  “You going to show me which room is mine?”

Faith frowns slightly.  “Yeah, sorry.  Come on.”  Faith turns quickly, walking up the stairs to the third floor, opening the door to a nice Suite with a king size bed.   Obviously the room had just been cleaned and fresh sheets and comforter put on the bed.  “Where would you like me to put these at?”  Faith looks towards the blonde, noticing for the first time the strength behind the sad blue eyes. 

“Just set them down there.  I’ll go ahead and unpack.  Not like it’ll take me that long.”  Tara looks at the two bags and her backpack she sets down on the bed. 

“Want help?”  Faith doesn’t know why she offers, but she feels compelled to make the attempt. 

“No, thank you.”  Tara smiles suddenly, surprised at the offer.  Looking at Faith, she looks slightly closer, seeing that she’s changed.  Just getting a surface reading from the woman she notices that she isn’t as angry. 

“Well, when you’re ready come on downstairs.  I think Gunn, Wes and Angel are planning on doing patrol tonight, leaving us girls here alone.”  Faith rolls her eyes slightly.  “Yay.  Queen C will give you the low down, I’m sure.” 

“Thanks, Faith.  I’ll be down in a few minutes after I unpack and freshen up.”  Tara watches Faith turn and head towards the door.  She sees the slayer hesitate, with her hand on the door knob.

“I’m sorry I was a bitch to you.”  Faith whispers quietly before walking quickly out the door, shutting it behind her.

Tara stands there slightly stunned, not expecting an apology from the slayer.  Shaking her head she smiles genuinely at the thought that she definitely has changed to apologize.  Looking around, Tara quickly unpacks and takes a shower before heading downstairs.

***

Chapter 2

Tara giggles at Faith and Cordelia snarking back and forth at each other.  Glancing up she sees Fred trying not to grin.  “Are they always like this?”  Tara questions quietly to Fred.

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe how much they go on and on.  Just watch when they really get going.  I usually go hide in my room.”  Fred nervously bounces in her seat. 

Faith glances between the two women, giving up on irritating Cordy for the moment.  “Did you get enough to eat?  Want anything else?” 

“I’m fine.”  Tara smiles briefly looking down at her plate, realizing she had actually eaten the majority of the food.  Something she hadn’t been doing with any regularity lately. 

Fred shakes and looks around nervously.  “I’m going to go back upstairs.”  She jumps up hurrying out of the room. 

Cordelia sighs quietly.  “Don’t pay any attention to Fred.  We’re lucky she’s even spending any time down here with us.  Up till a few days ago we couldn’t even get her to come out of her room.  Now she’s up to spending maybe a couple hours total a day down here.” 

“Yeah, haven’t been able to get her out of the hotel yet.”  Faith adds quietly, grabbing up the empty containers and throwing them in the trash.  “You tired?”  Faith questions Tara.

“No.  Not really.”  Tara shakes her head looking up at the slayer. 

“Wanna look at the kitchen?  I could show you so maybe you can see if there’s anything you need.”  Faith offers.

Cordelia looks at the slayer with a surprised look.  Faith was actually being pleasant.  Shaking her head at the thought she almost chuckles.  “Well, I’m going home.  Dennis is probably getting worried.”

Tara looks up at Cordelia.  “Dennis?”

“Yeah, my resident ghost.  He’s a sweetie.”  Cordelia smiles at Tara.  “I think you and I might actually get along.  Unlike some people.”  Cordelia snarls her nose up slightly looking at Faith. 

“You love me and you know it.”  Faith smirks at the ex-cheerleader. 

“In your dreams.”  Cordelia snarks as she leaves the room.

Faith grins watching Cordy leave the room. 

Tara shakes her head slightly at the two women.  “Do you two even try to be civil to each other?”

Faith looks at her with a raised eyebrow.  “What’s the fun in that?”

With a shake of her head and a small quirking of her lip Tara stands up.  “I guess none.  If you wouldn’t mind showing me the kitchen, I’d appreciate it.”

Faith nods, standing up and heading out of the break room.

Tara follows the slayer, glancing over the strong, compact body.  Shaking her head at the sudden feeling of longing working through her, Tara looks at the hotel.  “This hotel is quite beautiful.”

Faith slows down, looking at the ornate fixtures and scrollwork.  “I guess.” 

Tara tries to hold back a smile at the obvious lack of interest coming from the slayer.  “This must have been absolutely gorgeous back in its day.  If you care about that kind of thing.”  Tara chuckles quietly when she hears a grunt come from the slayer. 

“Oh, wow.”  Tara looks around as they walk into the kitchen, seeing the stainless steel appliances still looking almost brand new, if a bit dirty.  Seeing the pots and pans hanging over the prep table she grins before digging through the drawers and cabinets, seeing all the utensils they would ever need.  Opening the refrigerators and walk-ins she frowns slightly at the musty smell.

Faith leans back against the prep table watching Tara opening and closing the cabinets and drawers, smirking as she sees the witch’s nose twitch at the smell coming from the fridges.  As Tara finally takes a step back with her hands on her hips looking at everything, Faith raises an eyebrow.  “Well, what do ya’ need?”

“Food and seasonings for the actual cooking.  Everything needs a good scrubbing and disinfecting.”  Tara glances down at her clothes frowning slightly.  “I’m going to need to change into some old clothes.  I might as well get a start on it tonight.”  Looking up at the slayer Tara smiles crookedly.  “Can you point me in the direction of the cleaning supplies?”

Faith shakes her head in disbelief.  “You’re planning on starting to clean this up tonight?  It’s like 9:00.”

Tara shrugs her shoulders and grins.  “I don’t have anything better to do.”

Faith’s mouth twitches slightly looking at the blonde.  “Come on.”  Faith quickly heads out of the kitchen.  Glancing beside her as the witch keeps pace with her she has the urge to laugh.  “Go ahead and get changed.  I’ll get the supplies together.  Meet you back in the kitchen.”  Faith heads off down another hallway, leaving Tara standing there in surprise.

“Is that an offer of help?”  Tara whispers watching the slayer as she turns out of sight.  Quickly heading upstairs, Tara changes from her long flowing skirt and long sleeved shirt to an old pair of cargo pants and t-shirt.  Looking down she’s surprised to see how baggy they’ve become.  “Hmm.  Must have lost more weight than I realized.”  Pulling her hair back with a rubber band into a loose pony tail, she heads back to the kitchen.

Tara stops in surprise, seeing the slayer standing in front of one of the big double refrigerators scrubbing away.  Seeing the slayer wearing an old holey tank top and jeans that looks like they should have been thrown away about 50 washings ago Tara inhales silently.  Closing her eyes, trying to get the image out of her mind, she walks over and grabs the dish detergent and heads towards the sink.  Running the water in the huge sink, Tara squirts a good dollop of detergent in it before turning to Faith, while the sink fills. 

“You know you don’t have to help.”  Tara tilts her head, watching the slayer lean down, rinsing the rag out before glancing her way. 

“You going to do it all by yourself?”  Faith questions with a raised eyebrow.  “Figured you wouldn’t mind the help.”  Faith quickly leans back into the fridge, scrubbing the inside with the bleach water to cut through the musty smell and the small amount of mildew that had been gathering.  Stopping for a moment, Faith glances back at the witch.  “Did you not want help?”

Tara looks up from where she’s scrubbing one of the pots.  “No, I appreciate the help.  I wouldn’t even mind just the company while I clean.  I kind of miss having people around.”

Faith eyes the witch for a minute, really looking at her, noticing how the clothes seem to hang from her.  Trying to remember what the woman looked like before, Faith seems to remember soft feminine curves, not the skinny woman in front of her.  Wondering what made such a drastic difference in the witch, Faith narrows her eyes slightly. 

Tara feels Faith’s eyes still on her and she glances back at the slayer, seeing her look at her with narrowed eyes.  “Something wrong?”

“What happened?”  Faith bluntly asks, dropping the rag in the bucket and leaning against the refrigerator. 

“Excuse me?”  Tara looks at the slayer in shock.

“What happened to make you come here?”  Faith looks her up and down before looking in her eyes.  “Why does it look like you lost some serious weight that if I remember correctly, is a damn shame that you’ve lost?”

Tara blushes slightly at the last before glancing down at the sink, quietly contemplating whether or not to talk to the slayer.

“Never mind, ain’t none of my business no-how.”  Faith grunts out quietly before turning back to finish cleaning the refrigerator.  “Should I leave this open to air out?  Think that might help?”

Tara sighs quietly.  Turning to make eye contact with Faith she nods her head.  “Yes, it would probably help letting it dry completely.”  Looking searchingly into the closed off face of the slayer, Tara glances down to the floor. 

“You know, W-willow and I were a couple.”  Looking up she sees the slayer nod.  Smiling slightly Tara looks up towards the ceiling.  “I think you were the first one to realize.  When they fought Glory, she delved into dark magic to get back my mind.  Anyway, I’m sure you know Buffy died during the fight with Glory, Willow brought her back and to do that she used dark magic, again.”  At Faith’s questioning glance Tara shakes her head.  “It’s bad.  Opens yourself to evil forces, it can consume you.  It’s almost addictive like a drug.”  Tara walks over and hops up onto the prep table.  “She started using magic for everything, laundry, cleaning, research.”  Shaking her head, she looks down and picks at her pants.  “I tried to talk to her about the magic.  I’m assuming we must have had an argument, who knows what happened, but it was probably about the magic, anyhow she did a memory spell on me.”  Hearing Faith inhale deeply, Tara looks up seeing the compassion in the woman’s eyes and smiles softly.  “Needless to say after I found out later, I almost left.  She begged me to stay and promised she wouldn’t do any more magic.”  Feeling a tear start to slide down her face, she quickly wipes it away.  “She promised me to go one week without a spell.  She lasted roughly 12 hours.  She did another memory spell, fortunately this time it backfired.  Everyone’s memory got wiped and finally the crystal she used got broken, returning our memories to us.  I left her that night.”

Faith watches the witch intently, thinking about what she said.  “Sounds almost like rape.”  Faith growls quietly.  When Tara’s head jerks up looking at her in surprise, Faith shrugs her shoulders.  “Well it is.  She took from you without your permission.  You weren’t given a choice.  Can I ask you something?”  At Tara’s slight nod Faith frowns.  “You said something about getting your mind back, what’d you mean?”

Tara frowns slightly before clasping her hands tightly in front of her.  Thinking too much about this always gives her nightmares.  “Glory, Hell Goddess, sucked brains to maintain her own so-called sanity.  Needless to say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  Looking down at her right hand, running her fingers over the crooked index and middle fingers that didn’t heal right from where Glory had crushed her hand.  “I was insane for roughly six months.  Willow found a spell in one of the books and as a last ditch effort to restore my sanity and weaken Glory, she tried it.  Fortunately it worked.  But I would have rather she left me insane than to have dealt in black magic.”

Faith looks at the witch, shocked.  “Why would you wanna stay insane?”

“It wasn’t worth Willow possibly losing herself to the dark just to save me.”  Tara quietly states. 

Faith watches in stunned disbelief as the woman hops back off the table and continues washing the dishes.  Realizing this was the end of the talk, Faith frowns.  Thinking over what the woman said, she realizes that she was very serious about the fact to save Red, she would have been willing to stay crazy.  What the hell could be going through Willow’s head to rape her girlfriend’s mind like she did?  Faith doesn’t even consider the fact that Tara could be lying.  Her gut telling her that everything the woman said was true.  If anything she was possibly leaving the worst of it out.

“Should I clean out the walk-in freezer?”  Faith questions quietly. 

“It probably would be a good idea.  That way we can stock up on meat and other items that are freezable when they’re on sale.  Plus ice cream would be good to keep on hand.”  Tara glances up briefly looking at the slayer as she grabs the bucket of bleach water heading towards the walk-in.  “Thank you for your help, Faith.”

Faith looks up and smiles softly.  “It serves my own self interest, tired of eatin’ pizza, burgers and Chinese food all the time.” Grinning a little bigger she chuckles.  “The sooner this place is cleaned, the sooner we start gettin’ real meals.”

“Hopefully the refrigerators and freezers work okay after being off all this time.”  Tara contemplates the thought.  “Maybe we should have someone come in and check them out, make sure they’re running okay and don’t need any work.”

“Yeah, I’ll check with Fang and see if he has someone he can contact to look at ‘em.”  Faith opens the freezer door and heads in to scrub it clean.

***

Tara stretches as she wakes, feeling her body ache from the scrubbing she had done the night before.  Groaning deeply, she smiles realizing she didn’t have any nightmares and actually slept the night through.  “Maybe there’s something to be said for five hours of scrubbing pots and pans.”  Tara quietly chuckles before easing her legs over the side of the bed and heading to the bathroom. 

Heading down the stairs after taking a shower and getting dressed, she’s surprised to see a green demon with horns and… red eyes?   Seeing him talking to Angel, Tara realizes this must be the demon Lorne that Angel had mentioned the night before. 

Angel looks up from where he’s talking with Lorne and grins as he watches Tara head towards them.  Faith had already told him about them spending a good portion of the previous night scrubbing the kitchen.  As a matter of fact, he had already contacted one of his acquaintances to come out and check the refrigerators and freezers.  The Bonegi Demon that came to check them should be done anytime. 

“Oooh, you didn’t mention what a scrumptious morsel she was, Angel-cakes.”  Lorne giggles before reaching for Tara’s hand and kissing the top of it gallantly.  “You, sweet cheeks, must be Tara.  I’m Lorne, the Host of Caritas.”

Tara blushes at the demon’s flirting before smiling slightly.  “Hi.  And yes, I’m Tara.” 

“Oh, she’s just precious.  I want you to sing for me, sweet cheeks.”  Lorne smiles encouragingly at the witch. 

“I-I don’t think so.”  Tara shakes her head blushing even redder.  “I’m not any g-good in crowds.”

Lorne looks around at the empty hotel.  “There’s only us three here, right now.  Why don’t you sing me a little number?  I bet you have an absolutely gorgeous voice to go along with the rest of you.”    Seeing that Tara is about to refuse again, Lorne looks at her pleadingly, batting his eyelashes.  “Please?  I can beg.”

Tara giggles at the demon before smiling softly.  “What would you like me to sing?”  She questions quietly. 

“Whatever you would like.”  Lorne smiles encouragingly at the young witch.  “Just not Barry Manilow.”  Lorne slides a sidewise glance at the vampire.

Tara chuckles quietly catching the look Lorne slid Angel.  Thinking for a moment, Tara gets a wicked smile on her face before singing the Eagles’ ‘Witchy Woman’. 

Lorne chuckles as he hears her start the song, then his eyes widen as he listens and watches the witch intently.  Swallowing hard at the clips of so many different images he sees, he takes a deep breath.  As Tara finishes the song, he smiles and claps loudly.  “Oh, Sweet Cheeks.  You have definitely got to come to Caritas and sing on stage.”

As Faith walks downstairs she tries not to laugh at the song Tara has chosen to sing for Lorne.  As she listens, she’s surprised at how beautiful of a voice the woman has.  Seeing Tara blush at Lorne’s compliments, Faith fades into the background, not wanting her to feel more embarrassed.  ‘Why the hell do I care how she feels?’  Faith wonders momentarily, before forgetting the thought and watches quietly. 

“I don’t know about that.”  Tara looks down shaking her head while blushing. 

“Oh, honey.  You definitely should come.  Maybe you can talk Faith-y into singing for us again.  I would love to hear her doing a Bonnie Raitt song.”  Lorne shivers slightly to that thought.  “Oooh.  Just thinking about it makes me all tingly.”

Tara giggles watching the demon.  “I don’t know about that.  But I would like to hear her sing.” 

“Absolutely to die for.” Lorne grins.  “Angel-cakes can I speak with you for a moment?”

Angel nods his head and allows a small smile to cross his lips as he looks at the witch.  “I’ll be right back.  Don’t go anywhere I want to speak with you.”

“Okay.”  Tara nods her head, wondering what’s going on.  Walking towards the front door, she looks out on the day smiling at the sunny day. 

***

“So, what did you see that you had to drag me in here to talk about it?”  Angel gets right to the point. 

“Angel-cakes it isn’t that easy with this one.”  Lorne shakes his head looking at the vampire as he sits down.  “There’re too many variables.  Each thing she does it changes things.  I saw no less than ten different futures while she was singing, all depending on the choices she makes.”  Lorne turns a paler green.  “And I think I saw a future that would have happened if she hadn’t come to LA.  Not pretty.” 

Angel leans back in his chair, looking upon the demon broodingly.  “So it’s pretty much a crap-shoot.”

Lorne nods his head and smiles apologetically.  “I can give you this much, she’s going to do a lot of good.  You having her come here is the right decision, no matter what.” 

Angel nods his head in acceptance of that peace of mind.  “Thanks Lorne.”

Lorne stands and smiles slightly.  “Do your best to get that beauty down to Caritas.  If we can get her to sing regularly, I’d be willing to pay!”  Chuckling he hums Witchy Woman as he leaves.

***

Faith quietly watches Tara standing at the front doors, looking out upon the day.  Slowly walking towards her, she smiles, realizing for the first time how beautiful the woman actually is.  “I was gonna fix myself some coffee, you want somethin’?”  Faith quietly asks the question and frowns as she sees Tara jump slightly.

Tara turns and smiles softly at the slayer.  “Thank you.  I wouldn’t mind a cup of tea.”  Walking towards the slayer, Tara shakes off the feeling that Faith was checking her out.  Knowing there was no way the slayer would even remotely be interested in her. 

Both women walk into the break room, Tara clicks on the kettle while getting down a couple mugs, handing one silently to Faith while looking through the tea bags before grabbing a Chamomile out and placing it in her mug. 

Quickly adding the water after the kettle clicks off, Tara smiles as she watches Faith add three sugars to her black instant coffee before sitting down across from her.

Faith looks up as Gunn enters with a couple boxes of donuts.

Gunn smiles at the new recruit and nods towards Faith.  “I know pretty much what everyone else around here eats, but I didn’t have a clue about you, Tara.  So I got a mix.”  Gently setting the boxes down, he sits down beside the woman.

“I’m not picky.”  Tara shakes her head smiling shyly at Gunn.

Standing up, Gunn grabs down some plates, handing one to Tara while putting the rest in the middle of the table.  Sitting back down he smiles as he watches the woman pick out a cream filled donut.  “Oh, here.”  Gunn reaches over and grabs a napkin.  “You might need this.”

Faith rolls her eyes watching Gunn flirting with Tara, wondering if she should give the guy a clue or just watch the show.

Tara smiles before whispering.  “Thank you, Charles.”  Gently taking the napkin away from him, she spreads it across her lap and delicately tears a piece of her donut before eating it.  Glancing up she sees Faith smirking and wonders why.  

Faith tilts the chair onto the two back legs until she’s leaning against the wall behind her, sipping on her coffee.  Watching Tara eat her donut, and the way Gunn was watching the witch makes Faith chuckle quietly. 

Tara raises an eyebrow as Faith chuckles.  “Is there something here that amuses you?”

Faith actually laughs.  “Yeah, there is.”  Faith admits with a twinkle in her eye, watching Tara intently.

“Care to share with us?”  Tara tilts her head questioningly. 

“Nope.  Not right now anyways.”  Faith shakes her head chuckling.   The blonde has no clue. 

Everyone turns as Angel walks into the room.  He nods his head and then looks questioningly at the smirking slayer.  Deciding to ignore the woman for now he quirks his lip at Tara.  “I just had the refrigerators and freezers looked at downstairs.  They have been charged and checked out.  He said give them twelve hours and they should be cold and ready to go.”  Tilting his head slightly he appraises the witch quietly.  “I heard you spent a good portion of last night and early this morning cleaning in the kitchen.”

Tara looks towards Faith questioningly.  Just seeing a raised eyebrow in response she grins crookedly at the slayer.  “Well I wasn’t the only one.  Faith scrubbed down all the refrigerators and freezers.”

“Yes, and that’s surprising in and of itself.”  Angel mutters imperceptibly.  Thinking how the woman never voluntarily spent time with anyone unless it was to try and piss them off. 

Faith frowns at the vampire before tilting forward on her chair and placing her cup in the sink.  Grabbing a donut she strides out the door. 

Tara watches in surprise as Faith walks out the door. 

“Ignore Faith.  She gets a little testy occasionally.”  Gunn smiles at Tara.  “Well, I guess that means tomorrow morning we need to go grocery shopping.  I’d be happy to take you.”

Tara nods her head and quirks her mouth shyly.  “I can make a list of the items we need.”

Angel watches Tara quietly before speaking up.  “Just let me know before you leave and I’ll give you the money to go to the store.  If you go by my butcher shop, he’ll probably give you a good price on meat.”

“Do you need me to pick up blood?”  Tara quietly offers. 

Angel looks up in surprise.  “You wouldn’t mind?”

Tara shakes her head and smirks slightly.  “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve bought blood from a butcher’s shop.  Just let me know how much you want me to get while I’m there.”  Looking around, Tara smiles apologetically.  “Do you have a notepad and pen I can borrow to make a list?  I actually wouldn’t mind talking to everyone to see what their preferences food-wise are.”

“This group isn’t real particular.  They seem to eat everything with equal gusto.”  Angel smirks slightly.  “Come with me and I’ll get you a pad and pen.”

Tara stands up to follow Angel out of the room stopping at the doorway, turning to look at Gunn she smiles.  “I would appreciate your help with the shopping tomorrow.”

“No problem.”  Gunn grins hugely watching her turn around and follow Angel.  “No problem at all.”  He continues to himself.

***

Wes smiles as he watches Tara do the cleansing around the hotel.  “I can already tell the difference in the energy.”

Tara glances at the ex-Watcher and softly smiles.  “I’ll probably need to do it at least a few more times to dispel all the demonic energy.  But I’m sure, given time, I’ll be able to get rid of it.”

“I can’t tell you how much help you will be.”  Wes grins as she finishes.  “If you need anything, let me know.”

“Thank you, Wesley.”  Tara smiles softly as she packs away the items she used.  “Is there anything food-wise that you like or don’t like?”  Tara glances up briefly making eye contact with the ex-Watcher.

“No, I pretty much eat anything.  Just don’t much care for sauerkraut.  Other than that I’m game.”  Wes watches as the woman picks up her bag of implements. 

“Good.  It looks like the majority of you guys aren’t picky eaters.”  Tara looks around, seeing Faith sharpening a sword.  “Thanks, Wesley.” 

Faith unconsciously sits down on one of the couches that’s in sight of what the witch is doing.  Sharpening her sword, she glances up occasionally watching the woman and Wes talk as she performs her spell. 

Tara walks slowly towards the slayer seeing Faith glance up briefly, Tara sits down beside the woman.  “I haven’t seen you since this morning.”  Tara quietly starts. 

Faith glances briefly at the witch before looking back down as she runs the whetstone across the blade.

“Is there anything you particularly like to eat, or maybe don’t like?”  Tara continues.

Shrugging her shoulders almost imperceptibly Faith grunts non-committally. 

Tara sighs quietly.  “Did I do something to make you mad this morning?”

Faith jerks her head up looking at the downcast features of the blonde.  “What would make you think that?”

“It’s just that after I made the comment about you helping out in the kitchen, you disappeared.”  Tara quietly comments on it as she understands what happened.

“Wasn’t you.”  Faith looks back at the sword.  Testing the sharpness with a thumb, she sets it down with the stone beside it.  “I like just about anything.”  Faith offers quietly. 

“Anything in particular that you like?”  Tara questions tilting her head slightly to watch the slayer. 

“There was this place in Philly I came across that made great cheese steak subs.  Steak, grilled onions, mushrooms and cheese piled high on this toasted sub roll that you couldn’t open your mouth wide enough to get in.”  Chuckling quietly Faith looks out upon the quiet hotel lobby.  “Half the toppings would slide out from between the bread before you finished eating it.”

“Sounds good.”  Tara murmurs.

“It was.”  Faith smiles as she stands quickly grabbing her sword and stone, glancing at the witch.  “Need any more help in the kitchen?”  Faith offers.

“I got all the pots, pans and skillets washed last night along with the plates.  I need to go back down and work on the bowls, cups, glasses and silverware.”  Tara curiously looks at the slayer. 

Looking down at her feet before glancing back up, Faith quirks her lips.  “Want help?”

“I won’t turn it down.”  Tara smiles thankfully at the slayer.  Looking down at her hands she giggles.  “I’m going to have dish-pan hands before I finish.”

Faith glances down at the woman’s hands, noticing for the first time her crooked index and middle finger on her right hand.  Frowning, wondering what caused it Faith starts to open her mouth before clicking it shut hard.  Realizing it isn’t any of her business and if the woman wanted to tell her, she would.  “I can wash, if you want.”  Faith nods her head towards the witch.  “I’ll meet you down there in a few.”  Faith turns on her heel, heading up the stairs.

Angel quietly watches the interaction between the two women, surprised at listening to Faith offer to help the witch.   Wondering at how the slayer seems to be reaching out to Tara he decides to keep an eye on them and see how she acts, Angel quietly slips back into his office.

***

Faith reaches the kitchen first, bringing her boom box with her.  She plugs it in, setting it out of the way and drops the stack of CD’s beside it.  Flipping it on, she grins as Seether comes over the speakers.  Realizing the witch probably likes something softer she figures she’ll enjoy it while she has the chance.  Starting the dish water, Faith glances around grabbing a handful of dishes that needs to be washed.  Gently setting them down in the hot water, Faith grabs another handful, unconsciously singing along with the song ‘Gasoline’. 

Tara chuckles quietly, watching Faith as she bumps and grinds as she sings along with Seether.  Walking in, Tara throws the extra towels she brought down to dry the dishes with on the prep table.

Faith stops singing when she realizes Tara is behind her.  “You can change the CD if you want.  Or put the radio on.”  Faith offers quietly.

“I like Seether.”  Tara grins at Faith.  “And you don’t have to stop singing on my account.”

Faith blushes lightly and turns away.  “I would have taken you more for ballads or soft instrumental shit.” 

Tara chuckles quietly.  “People always assume that.  I listen to pretty much everything.  Seether, Kid Rock, Aerosmith, some bands most people haven’t ever heard of.  Country, blues, rap, you name it.  And even ballads and soft instrumental shit occasionally.”  Tara tacks on the last with a sideways glance at the slayer.

Smiling and glancing at the witch, Faith smirks.  “If you promise not to pick on me about my singin’.  If you plan on pickin’ on me put country or some shit on that I don’t know.”

Tara chuckles loudly.  “Deal.  As long as you promise not to pick on me, either.”

Faith nods her head actually smiling fully for the first time in appreciation.  “You got a deal.”

Tara blinks in surprise at the dimples flashing as Faith smiles. Smiling in return Tara nods.  “Deal.” 

As the women relax, they both slowly start singing along with the CD’s while they wash the dishes.  Before long they’re singing loudly along with the music.  Occasionally laughter rings out as they change the CD and become more comfortable with each other. 

Angel hears the music and the two women singing with his enhanced hearing, walking slowly closer he stops at the top of the stairs and chuckles as the two women obviously are now just belting out the words, not even trying to actually sing.  Shaking his head at hearing Faith laughing, he smiles.  “Yes, obviously good things are going to happen.”  Angel whispers quietly before heading back to his office.

***

Chapter 3

Faith smirks as she sees Gunn look at her with disgust as he walks out of the hotel with Tara.  Deciding to tag along, Faith chuckles quietly at the obvious irritation crossing the tall man’s face. 

Tara glances up, seeing Faith and smiles warmly.  “Are you going with us to the store?”

“If you don’t mind my taggin’ along.”  Faith offers, completely ignoring Gunn’s obvious looks and watching Tara.

“No, that would be great.”  Tara smiles and watches Gunn open the door and Faith hop in quickly to sit in the middle.  Tara climbs in beside her and thanks Gunn.

Gunn gives Faith a dirty look as he climbs in behind the wheel. 

“So, what time did you guys get in last night from patrol?”  Tara asks to cover up the awkward silence. 

“Around two.”  Gunn answers smiling.  “There was a vamp nest in one of the bigger cemeteries.”

“They do seem to like the mausoleums.”  Tara offers chuckling as she looks out the window.  “I’m surprised you two are up this early if you didn’t get in till late.  I know whenever Buffy had a late or rough patrol she could sleep in till ten or eleven.”

“B?  I don’t ever remember her sleeping that late.”  Faith grins at the thought. 

“She would usually wake up if she smelled bacon cooking.  Seems food was a good motivator.”  Tara chuckles quietly. 

“I can understand that.”  Faith nods her head.  “Hungry is one of a slayer’s middle names.”  Faith smirks.

“One middle name?”  Tara questions the comment.

Faith laughs quietly.  Sliding a sideways glance at the witch, Faith smirks.  “HH factor.  After a good night slaying, slayers get hungry and horny.” 

Tara blushes lightly, turning to look out the window from where she had been looking at the slayer.

Gunn grunts and shakes his head.  “Damn, girl.  Do you think you could say that a little blunter?”

Faith raises an eyebrow looking at Gunn and grinning.  “Yeah, I could.  You want me to?”

Tara can’t help but chuckle at Faith’s comment. 

Faith smiles genuinely at hearing Tara chuckle at her comment before she leans back into the seat and crosses her arms, happy.  “What all we gonna need to pick up?”

“Everything.”  Tara grins pulling out a two page list.  “Everything from condiments to bread, buns, flour, sugar, meat, cheese, pasta, fruit, vegetables, milk, juice, coffee.  I came across this antique coffee maker, but it seemed to work fine when I test ran it with water.”

“Coffee?  Real coffee?”  Faith groans quietly. 

Hearing Faith groan, Tara laughs.  “Yes, real coffee.  If you like real coffee so much, why didn’t anyone ever buy a coffee pot?”

“Hell if I know.”  Faith growls lowly. 

“Probably because you’re the main one that drinks it.”  Gunn rolls his eyes.

“Well, I’ll make you a big pot of fresh brewed coffee when we get back.”  Tara offers grinning, ignoring Gunn. 

“Thanks.”  Faith smirks as she sees Gunn’s lip curl in irritation.

***

Tara stops outside the door that belongs to Fred.  Gently knocking, she waits a couple minutes then smiles softly as Fred opens the door, peaking out.  “Hi, Fred.  I just wanted you to know I’m fixing sausage gravy and biscuits with scrambled eggs for breakfast if you would like to come down.  It’ll probably be done in roughly 15 minutes.”

Fred nervously smiles before glancing up and down the hallway.  “I like sausage gravy and biscuits.”  Nodding her head she looks up briefly, making eye contact with Tara before looking away.  “I’ll be down.”

“Good.”  Tara smiles encouragingly at the woman.  “We’re using one of the big tables down in the dining room by the kitchen.  I’ll see you in a few.”

Quickly heading back down the stairs to the kitchen, Tara chuckles as she see’s Faith filling up a coffee cup and inhaling deeply.  Checking the biscuits, Tara smiles as they’re almost done.  Stirring the gravy, she looks towards Faith.  “Want to taste the sausage gravy?  I used a mixture of hot and spicy with mild sausage in it.”

Faith’s eyes light up.  “Sure.”

Tara pulls the biscuits out and sets them on the stainless steel counter before pouring the eggs into the skillet and throwing the cheese she had grated previously in with them.  Grabbing a bowl down and a spoon, she grabs a biscuit off the pan, tossing it between her hands to try and cool it down.

Faith chuckles watching the witch play hot potato with the biscuit.  “Here, let me have it.”  Faith reaches out and grabs it out of the air and quickly tears it into a few pieces throwing it in the bowl.

Scooping out some of the sausage gravy, Tara pours it over the biscuit and hands Faith the spoon.  Moving to the skillet with the eggs, Tara flips them. 

Faith licks her lips as she finishes the biscuit and gravy.  “Hope you fixed plenty of this.  I can probably eat a couple dozen biscuits with gravy.”

Tara chuckles turning to the slayer.  “I made four dozen biscuits and of course this big pot of gravy.  Along with the two dozen scrambled eggs with cheese.”  Turning and scooping the eggs out into a bowl, Tara grabs it and carries it out to the table before coming back in and scooping the sausage gravy into a big bowl. 

“Want me to do anything?”  Faith offers, setting her bowl down. 

“If you want to put the biscuits in that basket and put them and the gravy on the table, I’d appreciate it.”  Tara smiles as she turns to the refrigerator pulling out a gallon of milk and orange juice, following the slayer as she carries the other items out to the table. 

After setting the table, Tara smirks as Faith sits down and starts helping herself.  Looking up as the doors swing open, Tara watches as all the AI team, Angel included walk in and sit down.  Tara walks up to Angel.  “Would you like me to heat you up some blood?” 

“You don’t have to.”  Angel shakes his head.

“Angel.  Would you like me to heat some up?”  Tara puts her hands on her hips and raises an eyebrow.

Angel looks embarrassed for a second.  “If you don’t mind.  But I don’t expect you to wait on me.”

“That’s okay.”  Tara smiles softly before heading in and filling a mug with blood and putting it in the microwave she’d commandeered from the break room for now.  Setting down the warmed blood in front of Angel, Tara sits down in the last seat open by Gunn. 

Cordelia looks at the food surprised.  “This actually smells edible.” 

“Nice, Queen C.  Live up to your name.”  Faith growls as she scoops up another bite of gravy with biscuits.  “It’s great, Blondie.”  Faith glances across the table at Tara before narrowing her gaze on Gunn.  She had watched him hold back as everyone sat down and took the seat that would have Tara sitting by him. 

Tara grabs a biscuit and places it on her plate before looking for the apple jelly she had placed on the table.  “Gunn, could you pass me the apple jelly, please?” 

Gunn grins grabbing the apple jelly and handing it to Tara.  “Do you need anything else?” 

“No, thank you.”  Tara smiles gently as she separates the biscuit and scoops out a small amount of jelly, spreading it gently over the two halves of the biscuit. 

Cordelia finishes the eggs and biscuit that she had scooped out on her plate and drinking her juice, noticing everyone seems to be eating like there is going to be no tomorrow.  “Tara, I must admit.  This was very good.”

“Thank you.”  Tara blushes slightly as she finishes her biscuit.

Faith frowns, watching as the witch is obviously only planning on eating a biscuit for breakfast.  Slowly reaching out, Faith grabs three more biscuits, tearing them apart and placing them on her plate before looking at Wes.  “Can you pass the gravy, W?” 

Wesley looks up and grabs the bowl, handing it to Faith, as he finishes his eggs and cup of tea.  “This was quite delicious.  Thank you, Tara.”

“Good, yes good.”  Fred glances up before finishing her milk.  “Thank you.”

“Thanks.”  Faith mutters to Wes before scooping some more gravy over her biscuits.  Looking out over the table, she notices that the eggs are completely gone and from the looks of it, the biscuits and gravy wouldn’t make it.  Of course, if she cared to count, Faith knows she probably ate two dozen biscuits herself.  Looking up and seeing that Tara had finished her biscuit and was sipping her orange juice, Faith frowns again. 

“Blondie, you need to have some of this gravy.  Here.”  Faith doesn’t give her a chance and puts a biscuit on her plate and scoops some gravy over top of it. 

Before Tara has a chance to refuse, the food is sitting in front of her.  Looking up into the slayer’s eyes she notices under the thin layer of ‘who gives a shit’ that she can see worry.  Finally smiling Tara cuts up the biscuit before slowly eating the biscuit and gravy. 

Faith smiles as she looks back at her plate, finishing the food. 

Gunn grabs the last couple of biscuits and puts them on his plate before scooping out the rest of the gravy over them.  “Tara, I have to say this is the best sausage gravy and biscuits I’ve ever had.”

“Thanks, Charles.”  Tara finishes eating her biscuit and gravy, feeling her cheeks heat up with the compliments she’d been given over the breakfast that wasn’t much work. 

Angel quietly sits watching the people that work for him and help save the world.  Watching the obvious flirting that Gunn is doing.  Pretty much everybody else was chowing down, except for Faith, not that she wasn’t eating, by his figuring she pretty much is eating half of the food.  But for some reason she seems to be paying an inordinate amount of attention to Tara.  Frowning slightly he contemplates the slayer.  Shaking off the thoughts running through his head, he finishes his blood and watches as the rest of the group gradually leaves one by one.  Leaving Tara, Faith and himself the last ones sitting at the table.

Angel stands up and takes his mug into the kitchen, placing it in the sink as he quickly follows the rest of the group out.  “Guys meet me in my office.”  He demands, quickly walking to the door, as Cordy, Gunn, Wes and Fred enter his office.  Closing the door, he works his way to the desk sitting down he laces his fingers together, and looks from one person to the next until he’s looked at every single one of them. 

Leaning back in his chair he shakes his head.  “I’m going to say this once, and only once.  Tara was kind enough to offer to fix food for you guys.  The least you lazy asses can do is help clean up afterwards.  She isn’t a maid and I’ll be damned if you’re going to treat her as one.  Get out of here.”

Cordy frowns and looks at the vampire.  “Why aren’t you telling this to Faith, also?  I mean she ate the majority of the food.”

Angel looks in surprise at Cordelia.  “You are not that clueless, are you?”  He questions in a low, rough voice.  “Faith scrubbed out the refrigerators and freezers by herself.  She helped Tara wash all the dishes and pots and pans and everything else down there in that kitchen.  She helped set the table this morning and brought out the food.  So tell me, should I tell her to get off her lazy ass?  Seems to me she’s the only one that’s helped.”

Cordelia’s mouth opens and closes the whole time Angel is ranting at her while Wes, Gunn and Fred have the good grace to look ashamed. 

“I’ll even be willing to bet Faith is helping Tara clean up now.”  Angel stands up pacing back and forth.  “I don’t care how it happens, but if you guys are willing to eat the food that you so obviously enjoyed, you need to help clean everything up afterwards.  It’s only fair.  If you guys want to split it up between you, go for it.  If you want to alternate cleaning up, that’s fine.  I don’t care.  But I do NOT expect Tara to be the one left with clean up.  Understood?  I‘ll be willing to bet they probably have the majority of the cleaning done by now, so I suggest at lunch time you guys don‘t offer, you just do.”  As everyone nods even Cordelia, he sits back down.   Flipping open a file he glances back up at the group.  “What are you guys waiting for?”

After the group leaves the office, closing the door behind them, Angel chuckles quietly. 

***

Faith watches as the rest of the group walk out the door, leaving their dishes on the table.  Growling low under her breath, she shakes her head.  Pouring herself another cup of coffee, she watches as Tara starts gathering the dirty dishes, picking them up before taking a handful into the kitchen.  Bitching about inconsiderate co-workers, Faith stands up and quickly gathers the rest of the dirty dishes and follows Tara.

Reaching around Tara to place the dirty dishes in the huge industrial sink she’s running the water in, Faith reaches down grabbing the wash rag, accidentally brushing against Tara.  “Let me wipe down the table.”  Faith growls quietly, enjoying the brief contact more than she would have thought. 

Tara’s surprised at the close proximity of the slayer but smiles her thanks.  “You don’t have to, you know.”

“No, but it ain’t right you cookin’ and havin’ to do the cleanin’ on top of it.”  Faith shakes her head before going to wipe down the table, grabbing the empty pot of coffee and her cup.

Tara watches as Faith walks back into the kitchen.  “Would you like some more coffee?”  Faith’s eyes light up, making Tara giggle.  “Give me the pot, Faith.”  Tara takes the pot from her rinsing it out before readying the coffee machine.  Setting the brew function, Tara turns to see Faith already elbow deep in water washing the dishes. 

Grabbing a towel, Tara starts drying the dishes and putting them away.  Glancing at Faith, Tara smiles softly.  “What would you like for lunch, Faith?”

Faith glances up from the pot she’s scrubbing to look at Tara.  “I ain’t the only one that’s eatin’ here.”

Tara grins wickedly.  “Maybe not, but you’re the only one helping clean up.  Gives you an in with the cook.”

Faith chuckles quietly before laughing out loud.  “Payback’s a bitch.”  Shaking her head she smiles before commenting “I don’t know.”

“Would you like me to make some Cheese Steak sandwiches?”  Tara offers leaning on her hip against the sink facing the slayer.  “I’m not going to guarantee they’ll be as good as the ones you had in Philly…”

“I’m sure they’ll be great.”  Faith shakes her head facing Tara.  Frowning looking at the witch’s fingers, she hesitantly reaches out, running her hand over them.  Looking back up into surprised blue eyes, Faith whispers.  “How did that happen?”

Tara frowns looking down at her fingers before glancing back up.  “Glory again.  She crushed my hand.”  Tara answers quietly.

Faith reaches down, gently clasping the hand bringing it up to inspect the fingers, seeing the scars.  Running her fingers over the scars, Faith frowns.  “Did this happen at the same time…”

Tara swallows and nods her head.  “Yes, she thought I was the Key and crushed my hand when I wouldn’t tell her who was.  After crushing my hand she sucked my sanity away.”

“You’ve been through hell, literally.  And you‘re still willing to help.”  Faith quietly states, continuing running her fingers over the witch’s hand.  “What did you go through in your life to make you so strong?”  Faith asks seriously finally looking into blue eyes.  

Tara looks at the sorrow filled eyes of the slayer and uses her words back.  “Went through hell, literally.”  Tara whispers before glancing down watching the strong hand of the slayer.   The hand that is used to beating, crushing and killing, that is now gently holding and caressing hers. 

Faith nods and swallows before gently raising the hand to her lips and placing a gentle kiss on the fingers.  “I get that.”  Faith murmurs as she releases the witch’s hand and turns back to finish scrubbing the dishes.

Tara stands there in stunned silence for a few moments, a tingling sensation in her hand from where the slayer had kissed her fingers.  Silently contemplating the now silent slayer, Tara tilts her head watching her.  Deciding for now not to question the slayer about what just happened, Tara turns to dry and put away the dishes that had built up in the time of her contemplating the silent slayer. 

As she’s putting up the last of the dishes, she watches Faith rinse out the sink.  “How many sandwiches do you think you’ll be able to eat?” 

Faith smirks glancing up at the witch.  “Why are you askin‘?” 

“Oh, I just thought I’d be sure to make enough.”  Tara tries to hold back a grin glancing out of the corner of her eye at Faith. 

“Hmmm.  Almost sounds like you’re sayin’ I eat a lot.”  Faith’s lip quirks up in a half smile. 

“I wouldn’t say that.”  Tara’s eyes twinkle as she makes eye contact. 

“No, you wouldn’t.  You’d just hint to the fact.”  Faith chuckles quietly.  “I could probably eat four or five.”

“Good.  That’ll give me an idea of what to cook.”  Tara watches Faith. 

“Would you like help?  I’m handy with a knife.”  Faith tries to keep a straight face. 

“I’m sure you are.  The thing is are you good at slicing?”  Tara feels the laughter trying to break free.

“Slicing, dicing, stabbing.  I’m a regular veg-o-matic.”  Faith starts laughing. 

Tara can’t help but laugh with her.  “Actually there’s a slicer.  I just need to take it apart and clean it thoroughly.  It’ll probably make short work of slicing the rib roast baking in the oven.”

Faith looks up surprised.  “You were planning on the sandwiches anyway, weren’t you?”

Tara quirks an eyebrow at the slayer.  “Maybe.”

“I believe you are a very wicked witch.”  Faith appraises the woman grinning.

“Probably.”  Tara smirks slightly.  Turning around, she walks over to one of the other tables and uncovers the equipment there.  Tilting her head at the slicer she frowns.  

“Here, let me.  I’m pretty good at mechanical things.”  Faith offers walking over beside the witch.  Making sure it’s unplugged, Faith starts tearing it apart and taking the pieces over to the sink to wash.  “Do you have some Vaseline?  We’ll probably need to grease the gears.”  

“I have some upstairs.”  Tara nods her head as she runs some fresh dishwater over the parts. 

“I’ll get this you go ahead and get the Vaseline.”  Faith finishes taking the slicer apart and sets the pieces in the water before shutting the water off and taking the rag back over to the slicer, wiping it down and continuing to wipe down the table.  Looking over at the boom box, Faith grins and throws in Kid Rock’s ‘Cocky’ CD.  “Can’t believe the witch knew all the words to this CD.  She definitely ain’t the sweet innocent that she looks sayin’ them kind of words.”  Faith growls the words before singing and dancing in place to the music as she washes the parts.

***

Tara quickly heads down the stairs from her room when Angel stops her. 

“Tara, may I talk with you for a moment?”  Angel tilts his head towards his office.

“Yes, sir.”  Tara follows Angel.

Angel shakes his head smiling.  “Don’t sir me.  Just Angel, please.” 

“Sorry.”  Tara looks down briefly before looking back up making eye contact.  “What did you need, Angel?”

“I want to apologize for the rest of the group here.  There is nothing I can say, but if anything like this morning happens again, please let me know.”  Angel gets straight to the point and smiles apologetically at the witch.

Tara looks in surprise at Angel and smiles in appreciation.  “Thanks Angel.  Is that all you wanted?”  At Angel’s nod, Tara stands up.  “Well, I better get back downstairs.  Faith being left alone for too long in the kitchen is just a recipe for disaster.”

Angel opens his hearing up and chuckles quietly.  “Actually she seems to be singing and the lyrics are… You ain’t never met a mother… oops sorry.”

Tara chuckles. “Kid Rock.  That’s also the title of the song.”  Tara smiles then frowns.  “Damn, I missed the song ‘Lay it on Me’.  I’ll have to kick it back.”  Tara jumps up and heads out of the office, leaving a confused vampire sitting in his office alone.

“You are definitely not quite what you appear to be, are you Tara Maclay?”  Angel chuckles quietly.  “But I have a feeling it’s going to be interesting having you around.”

***

“What do you think you’re doing playing this without me being here?”  Tara growls before running over to the CD player and starting it over again, interrupting the song ‘Picture’. 

Faith jumps slightly at the witch growling loudly at her before grinning.  “Well it took you long enough to get back.  If you had come back right away you wouldn’t have missed your song.”

“Angel’s fault.  He knows better now.”  Tara states before laughing.  “Here’s the Vaseline.” 

Faith finishes drying the last piece and walks over to the slicer.  Opening the jar of Vaseline, she generously coats the gears before closing the jar and setting it aside.  Looking over the parts she puts them in the order that they need to go in.  Quickly putting the slicer back together and making sure the pieces are snug, Faith turns and grins at the watching witch.  “Moment of truth.”  Faith plugs the slicer in and flips the switch.  As the blade starts spinning, she chuckles.

Tara watches as the slicer starts up and the blade starts whirring.  Grabbing Faith, Tara hugs her tightly to her before releasing her.  “Looks like we got a slicer!  You’re a genius.”  Tara smiles hugely at the slayer, before turning the slicer off. 

“All I did was clean it.”  Faith shakes her head slightly. 

“Faith, I know you did more than that.  The slicer didn’t work before.”  Tara smirks at the narrowed gaze coming her way. 

“You knew it didn’t work?”  At Tara’s nod Faith rolls her eyes.  “It had a couple loose wires.  I reconnected them.” 

“Figured as much.”  Tara grins.  Looking over at the huge mixer, she plugs it in and flips it on.  Frowning she looks at Faith.  “Could you look at this, see if you can get it working.  I saw the loose wires on the slicer, so I hoped that wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Yeah, I’ll look at it.  Anything else you want checked out?”  Faith walks over to a supply drawer she remembered seeing some tools in.  Grabbing out a couple screwdrivers she heads over to the mixer.

“I think that’s pretty much it.  The refrigerators and freezers are working, the stove and oven works.  The deep fryer works.  One thing good about gas appliances, not a lot to go wrong with them.  You have the slicer working and the coffee pot works.”  Tara grins.

“Yes, the most important thing.  Coffee.” Faith looks up grinning from where she’s just finished with the last screw and pulls the casing off the mixer.

Tara grabs the couple pints of strawberries out of the refrigerator, cleaning and slicing them.  Adding sugar she covers them and throws them back in the refrigerator. 

Faith glances over as Tara puts the strawberries back in the fridge.  “What’s that for?”

“I bought a couple pound cakes.  Thought we could have strawberry shortcake later.”  Tara glances up eyes twinkling.  “And if the rest of the group helps clean up, they might get some, too.”

Faith grins.  “You are very, very evil.”

“Wicked witch, remember?”  Tara reminds the slayer of her earlier statement.  

“Okay, wicked witch.”  Faith glances back down looking at the mixer.  “Looks like this thing is fried.”

Tara comes over to stand beside the slayer and sees the scorch marks and burnt wires.  “Good thing there wasn’t enough of a connection when I plugged it in, with my luck I would have started a fire.”

Faith shakes her head.  “We were both here we woulda unplugged it in plenty of time.  Want me to take this thing out to the dumpster?”

“If you don’t mind.  It isn’t any good.”  Tara looks at the attachments.  “Do you think we should keep the attachments?”

Faith shrugs. “Don’t know.  If we got another mixer that they fit with, they might come in handy.  But with this thing being so old, would they have changed?”

Tara shakes her head.  “I guess we’ll keep them.  It isn’t like we don’t have the room for them.” 

Tara turns off the boom box as she follows Faith upstairs, knowing the meat would need another couple hours cooking before it would be done.

***

Tara walks up to Angel’s office door and knocks before poking her head in.  “Can I speak with you for a minute?”

Angel leans back and slides the folder onto his desk waving her in.

“Should I try and set up standard times for meals?  I know things happen, but if everyone knows the roundabout time food will be ready…”  Tara smiles crookedly at the vampire.  “Of course it doesn’t matter to you.”

Angel chuckles quietly.  “That’s true.  Breakfast and lunches there shouldn’t be much of a problem with.  Most problems happen later in the day and around dinner-time.  And let’s not forget the middle of the night.  So if you want to set times, I don‘t see a problem with it.  If they can‘t make it, they‘re on their own.”

Tara smiles slightly.  “Isn’t that the way it normally is?”  Looking up her eyes twinkling she looks at Angel.  “So, what did Lorne see when I sang for him?”

Angel looks at the witch with surprise then shakes his head actually laughing.  “Should have known better.”

“I am a witch, Angel.  I knew of his abilities when he touched me.”  Tara leans back against the wall, waiting for an answer.

Angel sighs quietly.  “Actually, it seems there isn’t anything clear cut.  Just that it was definitely the right thing to bring you here and that you were going to be a big help.”

Tara raises an eyebrow at the vampire, watching him quietly.

Angel feels uncomfortable, and shifts slightly, not used to that feeling.  “Honestly.  He said there were at least ten different futures that he saw, all depending on your choices.”

Tara nods her head quietly.  “I don’t know what Buffy told you about me, but I decided I’m not going to be a door mat any longer.  I need to take control of my life, my future.  I’m doing it now.”  Standing up straight she smiles, to lessen her next statement. “I suggest you ask before doing something like that again.”

Turning to walk out of the office, she’s stopped by Angel’s hand on her shoulder.  “I’m sorry.  It won’t happen again.  And just so you know, I appreciate you.”  Angel pulls his hand away.

Tara nods her head smiling.  “Thank you, Angel.  I’m not one to hold grudges, in case you’re worried, at least not over something like this.”  Looking up at the vampire Tara grins.

Nodding his head in appreciation of the statement he watches her walk out across the lobby.  “There is definitely more to you than anyone realizes.” 

***

Chapter 4

Faith growls under her breath as she watches Gunn sitting down by Tara.  The last couple weeks, Faith realizes that she’s been feeling more and more protective over the woman.  And for some reason Gunn seems to piss her off as he seems to be around her whenever possible.  Faith doesn’t even realize that she’s doing the same thing.  The two women had kind of gotten into a groove, Faith helping Tara out in the kitchen with cooking and setting the table while the rest of the gang took turns cleaning up afterwards. 

Tara is always helping out in the office and with anything they need help with in the magic department, occasionally going out on patrols and helping with the cases and research whenever possible. 

Faith watches as Gunn casually drapes his arm around the back of the couch behind Tara.  Watching Tara smile quickly at something the man said, makes Faith bounce on her heels before turning around and striding down to the basement and the workout room Fang has set up.  Stripping off her top, wearing just a tank top and jeans, Faith starts hitting and kicking the weight bag, thinking about the witch, while sweat starts pouring off her, not realizing she’s been working out for an hour straight. 

Angel smirks as he watches Gunn sit down by Tara, wondering if the guy was ever going to get a clue that the witch wasn’t interested in him.  Every time Gunn tries to maneuver things so that Tara and he are alone, Faith usually pops up.  Thinking about it, Angel looks around and sure enough across the room, Faith is standing silently watching the two.  Angel shakes his head at the slayer.  Having spent the two hundred plus years watching humans, Angel knows Faith cares for the witch, but for some reason hasn’t acted on her feelings.  Watching Faith take off, he quietly follows her and watches while she destroys the heavy weight bag that he had specially reinforced. 

“Feel like talking?”  Angel finally decides to say something.

“What’cha want?”  Faith does a quick spinning kick, splitting the bag open.  “Fuck!”  She growls angrily before bending over with her hands on her knees, panting heavily. 

“Why don’t you take tonight off?  Maybe take the convertible and see if anyone wants to go to dinner and a movie with you.”  Angel suggests as he throws her the keys to his car. 

“What?”  Faith looks at the keys she caught on automatic before looking up at the vampire. 

“Ask Tara out to dinner and a movie.  The group can eat take out.”  Angel calmly suggests before turning and heading back upstairs.

Faith slowly walks over to a chair and sits down looking at the stairs where Angel had disappeared.  Looking back down at the keys in her hand she thinks about what Angel said.  “Ask her out on a date?”  Faith whispers quietly to the empty room.  “Oh, fuck.”  Faith closes her eyes, finally realizing she is jealous of Gunn because she likes Tara. 

Faith thinks for a moment more and realizes she more than likes the woman.

Contemplating this new revelation, Faith groans quietly.  Is the witch even interested in her?  Faith wonders looking down at the keys before taking a deep fortifying breath and stands.  “No time like the present to find out.”  Faith growls before quickly running up the stairs.

***

Tara smiles at Gunn as he tells her about his first meeting with Angel.  Glancing up she sees Faith watching them from across the room before she spins around on her heels and heads out of the lobby.  Tara frowns slightly at the maneuver, wondering what caused it.  Seeing Angel silently walk after the slayer, Tara decides he’ll probably take care of it.

“So, Tara.  I was wondering.”  Gunn starts quietly smiling at the witch.  “Would you maybe like to go out this Saturday?” 

Tara blinks in surprise at Gunn.  “Ummm.  Charles, I like you.  You’re a really good guy and sweet.”  Tara finally realizes that all this time Gunn had been flirting with her and she hadn’t even realized.  Blushing at her own denseness she smiles softly.  “Charles I like you as a friend.  Unfortunately, you aren’t quite what I look for in a date.”  Tara tries to say diplomatically.

Gunn sits there looking stunned at the witch, not believing that because he was black she wasn’t interested in dating him.  “You didn’t come across as having a problem with dating a black man.”

Tara’s eyes open wide in realization of what he thinks.  “Oh, Charles!!  I didn’t mean it that way.  I thought you knew.  But then why would you know?  I haven‘t exactly gone around telling anyone.”  When Gunn looks at her with a confused, hurt look, she sighs quietly.  “I‘m sorry Charles, I should just say it.  I’m gay.  If I wasn’t, trust me I would love to go out on a date with you.”

Gunn’s eyes open wide in shock then he blushes, thankful that because of his skin tone it isn’t noticeable.  “I’m so sorry, Tara.  I didn’t realize.”

“Charles, it’s not your fault.  I’m just used to everyone knowing.”  Tara shrugs smiling crookedly at him.  “Everyone that knew me in Sunnydale knows I’m gay and I honestly didn’t even think about it when I came here.”

“I feel like an idiot.”  Gunn starts smiling as it really hits him.  “My thinking you weren’t interested in me because I’m black and it’s because I’m male.  I don’t know which is worse.”  He jokes before laughing. 

Laughing with him, Tara shakes her head.  “I do like you as a friend, Charles.  And if you ever want to go out as friends, I’d feel privileged.”

Gunn nods his head.  “I guess friends it is.”  Standing up he smiles down at the witch. “I better get to sharpening the axes and knives.  It’s that time of the month again.”

Tara smiles as she watches Gunn go to the weapon cabinet and start grabbing out the more used items.  Shaking her head and chuckling to herself, she stands looking around the hotel, trying to decide what to do.  Heading into the office and grabbing down one of the Magic books, she slowly walks upstairs to her room.  Leaving the door open, she moves to one of the chairs she placed by the window, setting the book down on the side table, she opens the window for a breath of fresh air before sitting down to read up on different spells.

***

Faith stops outside Tara’s room, looking in the open door.  Quietly watching as the woman pushes a stray hair behind her ear before turning the page of the book she’s reading.

Taking a deep breath, she knocks lightly on the door and watches as Tara turns to look.  Seeing the smile cross the witch’s face, Faith feels her heart skip a beat.  ‘Oh, yeah.  I got it bad.  How the fuck didn’t I notice?’ Faith thinks to herself.

Tara turns at the light knock and smiles as she sees Faith standing in the doorway.  “Faith, you don’t have to knock.  Come on in.”   Tara watches as Faith smiles almost shyly. Tilting her head she watches her walk slowly in the room.  She sets the book down on the table and pulls her legs up to tuck under her while she watches Faith walk towards her. 

“Umm.”  Faith shifts from one foot to another, wondering how to ask Tara out.  Looking down at her hands she growls lowly.

“Is there something wrong?”  Tara questions, watching the completely out of character way that Faith is acting.  “You can sit, if you want.”

Faith shakes her head and glances up looking into worried blue eyes.  Taking a deep breath, she clasps her hands behind her back and holds contact with Tara’s eyes.  “I was wonderin’ if maybe you would like to go out to dinner and a movie tonight.”

Tara’s eyes widen slightly as she looks into the slayer’s scared, warm brown eyes.  Scared?  Tara blinks a couple times before having to ask.  “Are you asking as friends or something else?”

Faith swallows and glances down before looking back up.  “Somethin’ else.”  She whispers quietly.

Tara feels her heart swell at the obviously worried slayer.  Being around the woman, Tara has come to realize she cares for her deeply, but never thought that the slayer would, or possibly even could, return the feelings.  She’s been taking the time they spend together as friendship and nothing more, just sending the angry young woman her calming influence.

Realizing that she was starting to go off to her own little world, Tara slides her legs out from under her and gracefully stands to walk up in front of the slayer, who is now looking down at the floor and mumbling quietly to herself.  As she gets closer, she realizes the slayer thinks she might have screwed up their friendship.

Shaking her head slightly, Tara hooks a finger gently under the slayer’s chin, urging her to look up.  As Faith’s soulful brown eyes make contact with hers, Tara smiles gently.  “I would love to go out with you tonight.”

Faith’s eyes widen as the witch’s words sink in.  “I didn’t fuck up?”  Faith asks incredulously.

Chuckling quietly Tara shakes her head.  “No, you didn’t fuck up, Faith.”  Gently running a finger down the slayer’s cheek, Tara smiles softly as Faith unconsciously presses into the caress.

Faith smiles feeling relief at the witch’s words.  “Where would you like to go?”  Faith asks huskily watching Tara’s blue eyes, seeing the strength that was now so much a part of the woman that was just hinted at when she came here little less than a month ago. 

“Anywhere would be wonderful.”  Tara smiles gently, before frowning.  “I better figure out something for dinner quickly.”

Faith shakes her head.  “They’re gonna eat take-out.  Fang’s orders.”  Faith smirks slightly.

“Angel?  What?”  Tara looks confusedly at the slayer.

“He practically ordered me to take you out on a date and threw me the keys to his car.  I guess he got tired of watchin’ me stalk you or somethin’.”  Faith lips twitch up in a half smile.

“I’ve been wondering if it was coincidence or on purpose that every time Gunn was around, you showed up.”  Tara raises an eyebrow questioningly at the slayer.

Blushing lightly, Faith glances down.  “Maybe sort of on purpose.”

Tara chuckles quietly.  “Well, I have actually been asked out today by two people.”

Faith’s head jerks up and looks at Tara with a worried look in her eye.

“I didn’t realize Gunn was hitting on me.”  Tara laughs self-consciously.  “Needless to say I don’t think you have to worry about him hanging around me much anymore.”

“He asked you out.”  Faith mutters and at Tara’s nod she growls lowly, before the rest of what the witch said sinks in.  “You told him no?”  Faith looks back up surprised.

“Yes.  I almost made an idiot out of myself.  The way I phrased it made him think it was because he’s black.”  Tara rolls her eyes at her own stupidity. 

“You would never turn someone down because of that.”  Faith shakes her head, knowing the witch would never even think to take that into consideration.

“Thank you.”  Tara smiles quietly.  “But needless to say I explained that I was gay.  Now everything’s fine.”

“You still haven’t been to Caritas.  I know it isn’t necessarily a great place to go for a date, but they do have good food.”  Faith offers hopefully. 

“He wants me to sing again, doesn’t he?”  Tara groans.

“Maybe we can do a duet or somethin’.”  Faith offers with a twinkle in her eye. 

“Wonder if he has Kid Rock on the machine.”  Tara giggles lightly. 

“We could sing ‘Picture’ it would be a good song to sing.”  Faith suggests watching as Tara laughs.  Reaching up, Faith gently pushes a stray hair off Tara’s face.

Tara stops laughing watching as Faith’s eyes darken slightly.  Reaching up, she runs her thumb over the full bottom lip of the slayer.   Allowing herself to wonder what it would be like to kiss those full lips.  So many times, she had to make herself stop thinking about kissing the woman. Unconsciously running her tongue over her own lips, she hears Faith groan.  Glancing up from where she’s been mesmerized by the slayer’s lips, Tara swallows at the look of pure hunger on the slayer’s face.

Faith reaches up and runs her hand through Tara’s dark honey blonde hair.  Cupping behind her head, Faith leans down the short distance to brush her lips over Tara’s.

Tara returns the kiss, gently pressing her lips against Faith’s before pulling away briefly to look in the slayer’s eyes before wrapping her arms around Faith’s neck and tilting her head going in for a deeper, exploring kiss.

Faith groans and opens her mouth the slightest amount in invitation as she feels Tara’s tongue gently run over her lips. 

Tara feels her knees weaken slightly as she gently eases into the slayer’s mouth, slowly stroking against her tongue before wrapping a hand in the dark tresses, pulling her in for a tighter fit.  As Faith takes control of the kiss, Tara groans loudly as she sucks on her tongue.  After a few minutes of battling, both women pull gently away panting.  Tara swallows hard before opening her eyes. 

Faith watches silently as Tara finally opens her eyes, seeing the dark blue eyes staring back at her, Faith growls lowly before pressing a quick hard kiss against the pillow-y soft lips, before pulling away.  “I need to take a shower.”  Faith huskily whispers.  “I kinda destroyed Fang’s heavy bag earlier.”

Tara nods her head slightly before reaching out and pulling the slayer’s body in tight against hers before kissing her again.  Her tongue searching out it’s mate, strongly flicking her tongue against Faith’s before mapping out the inside of the slayer’s mouth, groaning as she feels Faith run her hands down her back, placing her hands low, pulling her body in tighter against her.  Finally pulling away and resting her forehead against Faith’s, Tara plays with the hair she finds her hands buried in.

Faith groans quietly at the pressure of the witch’s body pressed against hers.  “How did we go from talking about Kid Rock to a serious make-out session?”  Faith hoarsely gets out.

“Couldn’t resist.”  Tara whispers out.  “It’s been driving me nuts wondering how your lips would feel pressed against mine.”

“Then why did you wait for me to make a move?”  Faith growls lowly.

“Not sure you were interested in me as more than being a friend.”  Tara breathes out lightly.  Pulling back to look in Faith’s eyes Tara smiles sardonically.  “You do run hot and cold occasionally.”

Rolling her eyes, Faith chuckles quietly.  “Probably because I didn’t realize I wanted more.  Guess that means I owe Fang.  Shit.”  Faith grumbles.

Tara chuckles at Faith.  “We’ll need to get him a new heavy bag at least.  Why did you destroy it?”  Tara questions tilting her head slightly.

“I didn’t know at the time why, but I now realize I was jealous.”  Faith mumbles quietly looking down. 

“You don’t have a reason to be jealous.”  Tara whispers.  Gently cupping the side of the slayer’s face, she urges her to look up.  Looking in her eyes Tara shakes her head.  “I would never give you a reason to be jealous.”

Faith smiles gently at the witch before placing a gentle kiss on her lips.  “Let me go get showered and changed.  Did you want to go to Caritas?  We don’t have to if you would rather go elsewhere.”  Smiling shyly, Faith whispers softly.  “They have great wings, and they have this sauce that would probably give me an ulcer if I wasn’t the slayer.”

Tara giggles at the slayer and shakes her head.  “Caritas is fine.  I wouldn’t mind getting cleaned up either.”  Running her hand down the slayer’s cheek, Tara purrs quietly before leaning in and kissing along Faith’s jaw line to nibble up behind her ear.  “Taste good.”  Tara murmurs before sucking the ear lobe in her mouth. 

Faith growls deeply at the witch’s ministrations.  “Blondie, unless you want me to throw you on that bed right now, you might want to stop that.”

Tara smirks to herself, thinking that probably wouldn’t be a bad thing.  Finally deciding that it would be best to go a little slower, Tara pulls away and rests her head against the slayer’s strong shoulder.   Taking a deep breath, she steps back and nods towards the door.  “Might want to go now.” 

Faith smirks.  “Definitely not the shy witch, are you?”

“No.  And if you don’t get out of here, you may be the one thrown on the bed.”  Tara growls the words quietly.  Tara realizes that yes, she’d loved Willow.  She and Willow had definitely been physically compatible.  But there was something about Faith that literally had her wanting to pounce on her.  After all this time, the talking and getting to know each other, Tara feels like she knows Faith better than probably anybody else does, knows that even though neither one of them has talked about it, that she was abused and worse as a child, also. 

Faith grins at Tara and glances over at the bed before looking back with a raised eyebrow. 

“Go, Faith.”  Tara narrows her eyes.  “I’m having a hard enough time fighting my own desires.  Don’t make it worse.”

Faith’s eyes open wide in surprise before realizing that though the witch obviously wanted her, she also wants to take her time.  “’Kay.  See you in an hour?”  Faith offers backing towards the door watching Tara.

“I’ll be ready.”  Tara agrees quietly, watching Faith.  The strong body moving silently and strongly backwards.  “Go, Faith, please.”

Faith watches as the passion flairs deeper in the witch’s eyes and inhales deeply at the dark blue eyes.  As the smell of arousal hits her nostrils, Faith groans.  Feeling her own body urging her to finish what they started, Faith growls before turning and slamming the door behind her as she heads to her room. 

Tara walks to her bed and collapses on it, trying to get her traitorous body under control after Faith left.  “Goddess, what is happening to me?”  Tara moans looking up at the ceiling, her body aching to be touched.  “I know it’s been roughly five months.  But I have never known my body to act this way.”  

Reaching up, Tara runs her hand gently over her breast and moans at the feeling.  Shaking her head, she quickly pulls her hand away and stands up to take a shower.  “A cold shower is exactly what the doctor ordered.”  Tara mumbles as she grabs a pair of flare legged jeans and a blue short sleeved button-up shirt out of the closet to wear.  Heading into the bathroom, she flips the cold water on before stripping and jumping in, almost crying out as the cold hits her overheated body.  “Shut up, body.”  Tara grumbles, before proceeding to clean herself and get ready for her date.

***

Faith whistles as she finishes dressing, smiling at the thought of the witch.  “Damn, girl is hot.”  Faith shakes her head in disbelief.  “And can she kiss.”  Faith growls lowly.  “I ain’t never gotten that turned on by just kissing someone.  Damn.”

Looking over at the clock she realizes she’s already used up the hour and quickly grabs the keys putting them in her pocket before grabbing the cash that she hasn’t used.  Not much to spend money on here, except clothes, Faith thinks to herself grinning.  Room, board and meals, can’t beat it.

Quickly heading down the hallway to Tara’s room, she smoothes a slightly sweaty palm over her newest pair of jeans and double checks to make sure her tank top is tucked in.  Taking a deep, steadying breath she knocks lightly on Tara’s door.

Tara hears the light knock on the door and glances at the clock quickly finishing putting on a light layer of lipstick before she opens the door and smiles at the slayer.

Faith bounces on her feet slightly before settling down and quirking her lip at the witch.  “Ready?”

“Let me grab my purse.”  Tara walks over to the dresser grabbing her purse before walking back to the slayer standing in the doorway.  Tilting her head, Tara grins crookedly at the slayer. 

Faith smiles back, then realizes she’s blocking the door.  “Sorry.”  She whispers before stepping back to let Tara out of her room.

Tara chuckles quietly.  “I wouldn’t think you would be so…”  Tara stops trying to think of the word.

“I ain’t never been on a date before.”  Faith explains quietly.  

Tara looks at the slayer, shocked.  “You’ve never…”  Tara sees Faith shaking her head she sighs quietly.  “Well, we are a pair, aren’t we?”  Tara grins.  As Faith’s dimples appear, Tara groans under her breath.  “Let's head out before I decide to kiss you again.”

Faith chuckles before smiling even bigger.  “I don’t see nothin’ wrong with another kiss.”

“The problem is it won’t be just one.”  Tara growls before turning to head down the stairs.

“Still don’t see nothin’ wrong with it.”  Faith chuckles following the witch.

Tara stops and turns around quickly.  “Are you wanting another kiss?”

“Hell yeah.”  Faith growls and then groans as Tara pulls her in for a quick passionate kiss before releasing her.  Blinking her eyes at the blonde, Faith shakes her head to get her bearings.  “Fuck me.”

Tara grins and raises an eyebrow.  “Soon.  Very soon.”  Before turning around and leaving a stunned slayer standing at the top of the stairs.

“Damn girl.  Were you like this before?”  Faith asks as she hurries to catch the witch halfway down the stairs.

“Not so much.”  Looking with mischievous eyes at the slayer, Tara grins.  “I mean there wasn’t the quickness that we have happening between us.  Before it took time to develop, but even then it was never to this degree.”  Tara smirks before heading out to the main staircase to walk down them, seeing Angel lurking by the front counter, smirking at them.

“I think Fang’s been listenin’ in.”  Faith growls deeply. 

Angel raises his hands.  “I can’t help it.  It wasn’t like you were being quiet or anything.”  Angel smiles slightly.  “So everything is good?”

“Very, very good.”  Faith smirks before sliding her eyes to the witch, watching her blush. 

“Figured as much.”  Angel chuckles and actually laughs as he watches Tara blush darker. 

“That just isn’t fair.”  Tara looks at him with narrowed eyes.  “If it wasn’t for your help in this matter, I would be thinking very seriously about hiding your blood.”

“His help with what?”  Cordelia asks coming out from the break room, looking at the witch.

Tara looks at Faith and raises an eyebrow, silently questioning if she wants everyone to know or not.

Faith smirks before wiggling her eyebrows at Cordelia.  “Hooking me and the witch up so we can get hot and heavy with each other.”

Cordelia’s eyes grow wide and she looks from one woman to the other before narrowing her gaze.  “Ha, ha, funny Faith.”

Tara shrugs her shoulders and grins.  “She’s actually telling you the truth, more or less, Cordy.”  Turning to look at Faith she smiles.  “Ready?”

“Better believe it.  Thanks for the use of the wheels.”  Faith smiles at Angel, before grinning as she feels Tara lace their fingers together.

“Don’t wait up.”  Tara smirks at Angel. 

Cordelia stands there stunned watching the two women walk out of the hotel before looking back at a silently laughing vampire.  “You have got to be kidding me.”

Angel shakes his head.  “Nope.  Those two are hell on wheels now.  It’s going to be fun to see what kind of mischief they get up to together.” 

“But… gay?”  Cordy raises an eyebrow.

“Tara is.  Faith pretty much swings whichever way she wants to, from what I can figure out.”  Turning serious for a second, Angel looks in Cordelia’s eyes.  “There’s a very good chance that something serious is happening with those two.  If you haven’t noticed, since Tara came here Faith has been a lot more easy going and not so moody.”

Cordelia stops and thinks about it for a moment.  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.  But why?”

“I think Tara’s soul calls out to the hurt and angry soul of the slayer, calming it.”  Angel glances out at the darkening sky.  “If I would hazard a guess, I would say Faith could very easily fall in love with Tara.  If she knows what love is.”

“Damn.”  Cordelia whispers quietly.  “I’m glad someone has a chance at happiness.”  Cordelia quickly turns on her heel and heads back to the break room.

Angel watches her leave and sighs heavily.  “Me, too.”  Angel agrees quietly before walking into his office and gently shuts the door.

***

Chapter 5

“You are out and out evil.”  Tara laughs as Faith hops in the seat beside her before starting the vehicle and heading towards Caritas. 

“Why?”  Faith grins with a quick sidelong look at the witch.

“Cordelia.”  Tara explains with the one word.

“I realize I haven’t been irritating her lately.  Seemed like a good time to start again.”  Faith smirks. 

“Uh, huh.”  Tara raises an eyebrow before shifting in the seat so she’s partially facing the slayer.  Sliding her arm across the seat, Tara gently runs her fingers through Faith’s hair, smiling softly. 

Faith glances over when she feels Tara’s hand in her hair.  “What’s that smile for?”

“You.”  Tara tilts her head looking at the slayer.  “Do you have any idea how absolutely beautiful you are?”

Faith blushes lightly and shakes her head.  “I ain’t beautiful.”  Glancing over making brief eye contact, Faith turns to watch the road again.  “Look in the mirror and you’ll know what beautiful is.”

“I don’t think so.”  Tara shakes her head looking down. 

Pulling into the parking lot, Faith quickly turns the engine off and turns looking at Tara.  Lifting her chin gently she looks into beautiful blue eyes.  “You are absolutely gorgeous.  Don’t ever doubt that.” 

Looking searchingly into Faith’s dark brown eyes, Tara smiles softly.  “Only if you believe you’re beautiful.”  

“You’re going to be a pain in the ass, aren’t you?”  Faith grumbles.

“Hmmm.  Only if you want me to be.”  Tara smirks before leaning in the short distance and kissing her softly.  “Now, do you believe?”  Tara whispers quietly as she pulls back out of the kiss.

Looking in Tara’s eyes, Faith sees the truth looking back at her.  Smiling she nods. 

Smiling beautifully Tara runs her hand down the side of Faith’s cheek.  “What do you do to me?”  Tara murmurs quietly before leaning in and brushing her lips over the slayer’s briefly. 

“Whatever it is, I have a feeling you’re doin’ it to me, too.”  Faith growls before pulling the witch in for a brief, but deeply passionate kiss.  “Let's go in.”

***

Lorne glances up from where he’s talking with a Fyral Demon and grins widely.  “Oh, my.  Sweet Cheeks and Faith-y have come to visit.  Come, come ladies.  I have a booth for you.”  Lorne quickly ushers the two chuckling women to a booth in the corner.

“So where’s the rest of the gang?”  Lorne questions as he sits down beside Faith looking from her to Tara and back.

Tara grins slightly.  “Come on, Lorne.  What do you see?”

Lorne looks confused at the witch.  “What, you two are here by yourselves?”

“Yes.”   Faith answers winking at Tara. 

Lorne’s eyes widen slightly and looks at Tara surprised.

Tara tilts her head watching Lorne, realizing this was something that he hadn’t seen.  “Lorne, Faith and I are here on a date.  This wasn’t one of the possibilities you saw?”

Lorne shakes his head, then his eyes widen even more.  “You knew?”

“Yes.  I let Angel know if he pulled anything like that again, I wouldn‘t be happy.”  Tara states seriously.

Lorne nods his head.  “I have this feeling that all the possibilities I saw before just went out the window.”  Grinning he raises an eyebrow.  “Is there a chance?”

Faith chuckles quietly before eyeing Tara silently. 

“Bring over the menu and let me look at it.  Then we’ll decide.”  Tara rolls her eyes before grinning.  “And bring the real food menu, also please.”

Snapping his fingers, Lorne has a waitress instantly at his side.  “Get beautiful over here the human menu and the song menu.  What would you two like to drink?”

“Cola would be good.”  Tara smiles before reaching across the table, running a finger down Faith’s hand, unable to keep from touching the slayer.  

Faith feels her hand tingling from where Tara is running her finger up and down and glances up at the witch.  Turning her hand over slowly, Faith gently clasps Tara’s hand in hers smiling at the touch. 

“Faith-y sweetums.  Would you like something to drink?”  Lorne watches the tender way the slayer is acting, honestly surprised.  Knowing the change is due mostly to Tara and partly to Faith wanting to change.

“Soda.”  Faith murmurs quietly.

“I think she might want some of your killer wings, too.”  Tara quirks her lips. 

“Of course she does.  She never leaves here without eating at least four dozen of them.”  Lorne nods to the waitress, smiling.  “Why aren’t you two sitting on the same side?”  Lorne questions curiously.

“Because the witch can’t keep her lips to herself.”  Faith smirks.

“You weren’t complaining.”  Tara raises an eyebrow.

Lorne snorts back a laugh.  “I have got to get you up on stage.  I want to know what’s going on with you two, if they‘ll let me see.” 

“It’s funny how powers only let you see certain things, isn’t it?”  Tara questions quietly.  “Sometimes they show you just enough to make something seem totally different than what it is.”  Making eye contact with Lorne she shakes her head.  “I’m not so sure I would want to know.  There’s a very good possibility it only shows part and leaves out the most important thing.”

“You have a point, Sweet Cheeks.”  Lorne smiles slightly before hopping up.  “Time to get this party going.”

Tara shifts around to see the stage and frowns.  “If I promise to keep my lips to myself, is it okay if I sit by you?”  Tara turns back smirking at Faith.

Faith chuckles and nods her head.  “You don’t have to keep your lips to yourself though.” 

Tara slides out of the booth and sits down beside Faith, leaving a little distance between them.  Glancing up, Tara sees the waitress approaching and smiles as she’s handed both menus and the sodas are placed in front of her and Faith.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.  Faith’s wings will be up in a few minutes.  Please let me know when you’re ready to order.”  The waitress quickly turns and heads over to another table. 

Faith leans closer to Tara, flipping open the food menu.  “They have different wings, if you want some.  The burgers are good, also.” 

“Faith.”  Tara whispers quietly. 

As Faith looks her way, she sees Tara’s deep blue eyes, watching her intently.  “Yes?” 

“I don’t know what’s happening between us, but I have this very serious urge to kiss you senseless right now.  And I can honestly tell you, I’ve never felt this way before.”  Tara breathes the words more than says them.   She can almost feel her heart reaching for the slayer.  Swallowing slightly, she realizes she has fallen deeply in love with this woman without even knowing it. 

Easing her arm around the back of the booth, Faith leans in and in a quiet tone starts talking.  “I want you to know me.  Everything about me.  You may not want to know me after I tell you.”  Shifting closer, she leans her forehead against Tara’s temple.  “You’ve opened up something inside me that I had given up on ever feelin’.  How do you do that?  How can you make me want to talk to you, to want to feel and care?” 

“I think you wanted to open up.  You want to feel love and be loved, Faith.”  Tara whispers quietly.  “And as for what happened in Sunnydale, I would like to hear your side of things.  I only heard W-willow’s side.”  Tara stutters slightly over her ex-lover’s name.

Faith hears the stutter, and she frowns, feeling the anger starting to rise in her at the thought of the redhead.  Looking into Tara’s blue eyes, Faith promises her.  “If she comes here and even thinks about harming you in any way, I’m gonna kill her.”  Seeing the witch is about to argue with her, Faith growls and shakes her head.  “Not open for discussion.  She comes here, she better be on her best behavior is all I got to say.”

Tara looks into the angry brown eyes and realizes there will be no talking the slayer out of her mind set.  Frowning, she raises her hand and gently runs a finger between Faith’s brows.  “Easy, love.  She doesn’t have any reason to come here.  And honestly, she doesn’t want me anyway.  So she would have no reason to cause me harm.”  Shifting her hand to cup the slayer’s cheek, Tara smiles as she watches the anger bleed from the slayer’s eyes.  Brushing her thumb gently against the slayer’s skin, Tara watches as Faith’s eyes shift to look at her lips before looking back up.

“She’s stupid.”  Faith whispers hoarsely.  Looking into the deep blue eyes of the witch, Faith can’t understand how the redhead could do what she did. 

Just then the waitress sets the wings down on the table, along with a basket of bread and stack of napkins, having waited but afraid the wings would get cold.  “Sorry for interrupting.”  She looks apologetically at the two women. 

“S’okay.”  Faith looks up smiling.  Looking back at Tara she tilts her head.  “Did you see somethin’ you liked?”

Tara smirks at the phrasing before wiggling her eyebrows slightly, making Faith chuckle.  Glancing back up at the waitress she smiles.  “I’ll need a few more minutes, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem, just flag me over when you’re ready.”  She nods to the two women before heading off to check the other tables.

Tara reaches for one of Faith’s wings and raises an eyebrow as Faith catches her hand lightly. 

“They are extremely hot.  You might want to try some other ones.”  Faith suggests quietly.

“These smell great.”  Tara smiles softly.  “It shouldn’t kill me to try one.”  As Faith releases her hand and sighs quietly, Tara chuckles to herself. 

Faith shakes her head and grabs the bread basket putting it closer to the witch.  Faith watches as Tara takes a bite out of the wing, chewing slowly and closing her eyes grinning before quickly finishing it and grabbing another one.  Faith blinks in surprise as the witch eats down six of them quickly.  “They can’t be as hot as normal with the way you’re sucking them down.”  Faith growls pulling her arm from the back of the booth and grabbing a wing to eat and swallows, surprised at the heat, figuring they weren’t hot.

Tara chuckles loudly.  “Faith, sweetie.  I grew up in Texas.  These have a bite, but I’ve had hotter.” 

Faith rolls her eyes and smiles.  “Are you ever not going to surprise me?” 

“Hope not.”  Tara’s eyes twinkle merrily as she grabs another wing.  “Maybe we should ask for some more wings.”

“I’m just happy to see you eating without me forcing it on you.”  Faith quirks her lip up slightly. 

Tara narrows her eyes at the slayer.  “All those times you insisted on something additional, you were doing it on purpose?”

“Yep.”  Faith answers and grins unrepentantly at the witch.  “You still have weight to gain back, but you’re lookin’ more…”  Faith hesitates eyeing the witch.  “Filled out?  Still not as curvaceous as you were if my memory serves me right but I‘m workin’ on it.”

Tara shakes her head and sighs heavily.  Looking for the waitress, she waves and smiles as she heads towards them. 

“Did you decide?”  She asks grinning.  The two women had been so absorbed with each other, that they didn’t realize half the clientele had been sneaking peaks at them the whole time. 

“Can you bring two more dozen of these wings?”  Tara smiles as she grabs another wing. 

The woman raises an eyebrow in surprise and nods her head.  “I’ll put the order in right now.  Is there anything else you would like?”

Tara looks briefly at Faith.  “You want something to go with these wings?”

Faith grins.  “I could use one of your double cheeseburgers with the works and fries.”

“Consider it done.”  The waitress smiles before turning to put the order in with the kitchen.

Faith half closes her eyes watching Tara eat the wings.  Unconsciously she runs her tongue over her own lips as she sees the sauce at the edge of the witch’s lips.

Tara turns and looks at Faith’s half-lidded gaze.  Seeing the heat in the eyes, Tara swallows hard.  “What?”

Faith moves her eyes up to look into the blue gaze and smirks.  Debating for a minute, she glances around the bar and realizes they were garnering quite a bit attention between the people and demons in the bar.  Snarling slightly, Faith turns her look back to Tara and changing her snarl to a smile, she reaches up with a thumb and gently wipes the sauce away.  Smiling she looks at the sauce before sucking her thumb in her mouth, grinning around it.

Tara groans quietly and looks up at the ceiling.  “Goddess, save me from this wanton creature that is bent on driving me insane.”

Faith chuckles at the witch.  “Personally, I think you’re trying to drive me insane.” 

“Maybe we should pay attention to the entertainment for a while.”  Tara murmurs quietly, dragging her eyes away from Faith actually tuning in to the demon singing on stage and winces slightly at the warbling tones.  “Or maybe not.”

Faith holds back her laughter and reaches for another wing.  Silently the two women work their way through the wings and just as they finish, the waitress brings them some more sodas, wings and burger that were ordered. 

Faith looks from her burger that she’s about ready to take a bite out of to the witch.  Setting it back down on her plate she asks.  “Would you like some of my burger?”

Tara looks down at the burger with wide eyes.  The thing had to be almost six inches tall.  “I don’t think I could fit it in my mouth.”

“Take it in sections.  Would you like some?”  Faith grins engagingly at the witch.  “Or at least try a bite?”

“Hmmm.”  Tara thinks about it for a second before smiling.  “I’ll try a bite.”

Faith cuts a section out and holds it up to the witch, grinning. 

“Smaller sections, I think.”  Tara smirks slightly at the food.  “Maybe the top half then the bottom half?”  Tara suggests.

Faith takes a section and holds it up and grins as Tara gently takes it between her teeth and chews, watching the slayer intently before swallowing.   Faith groans quietly and just pushes the plate to the witch.  “Feed yourself, this is getting a little too much for me right now.”

“We probably should stop with the teasing.”  Tara murmurs quietly, looking down at the plate before looking into Faith’s brown eyes. 

“No, not stop.  Maybe cut back for now.”  Faith watches as Tara finishes the other section she had cut for her.  As Tara pushes the plate back in front of her, Faith smiles before pushing it down to make it more manageable, picks it up and takes a huge bite out of it.

Tara shakes her head and raises an eyebrow.  “Why didn’t you do that before cutting me a piece?”

Chewing the food in her mouth and quickly swallowing it, Faith mutters.  “Not as much fun.”  Before taking another bite.

Tara looks back upstage at the demon singing and smirks.  “What kind of demon is that?”

Faith looks up and shrugs her shoulders.  “Don’t know, but she’s right up your alley.”

“My alley?”  Tara glances sideways at Faith.  “You wouldn’t be interested?”

Faith grins.  “You’re the only one I’m interested in.” 

“Oooh, good answer.”  Tara smiles.  “I don’t have enough hands anyway.”

Faith chuckles quietly glancing back up at the demon that has to have at least six breasts.  “At least she sings halfway decently.”

“That she does.”  Tara works on another wing before sighing and pushing the plate towards Faith.  “I’m finished.”  Grabbing up a wet wipe, Tara cleans her hands good before picking up the song menu, looking over the songs offered.

Faith watches Tara as she finishes her burger and pushes the plate aside while grabbing the rest of the wings, pulling them closer to her.  “Find anything interesting?”

“Depends.  Do you want to sing together or separately?”  Tara questions, flipping the page. 

“Do I have to sing at all?”  Faith questions hopefully.

“Yes.”  Tara glances up briefly, eyes twinkling mischievously.  “So?”

“How about together.”  Faith gives in and grabs the last wing, quickly finishing it.  Debating with herself to order something else to eat, while wiping her fingers and hands. 

“An actual duet song or just sing a song together?”  Tara watches Faith roll her eyes and nods her head.  “Okay, it doesn’t matter.  How about old school rock and roll or something brand new?”  Getting a frown this time Tara sighs.  “Aren’t you going to help me out somehow or another?”

“What’cha got so far?”  Faith finally asks.

“Well, he does have ‘Picture’ on the machine.  I was also thinking ‘Every Rose Has a Thorn’ by Poison, ‘Broken’ by Seether, ‘Jesse James’ by Cher.”  Here Tara looks up grinning. 

“Don’t even.”  Faith growls gruffly.

Shrugging Tara looks back down, trying not to laugh.  “Hmmm.  ‘Proud Mary’…”  Tara trails off as she hears a snort come from Faith. 

“We’ll sing ‘Picture’.  There I helped.”  Faith grumbles quietly. 

“You know you’re cute when you get aggravated?”  Tara whispers quietly, flipping the list closed and pushing it to the top of the table. 

“The Slayer is not cute.  The Slayer is a kick ass bitch.  Remember that.”  Faith growls loudly with narrowed eyes.

“Mmmm.  Cute, gorgeous, beautiful, hot, sexy, a great kisser and a kick ass bitch.”  Tara stops and sighs dramatically.  “The perfect woman.”

Faith blushes lightly before grinning wickedly and leans in to whisper in the witch’s ear.  “You’re going to need to add spectacular lover to that list.”  Pulling back, she watches as Tara’s eyes darken to a midnight blue.  Inhaling deeply, Faith closes her eyes and groans loudly.  “Note to self, dark eyes equals extremely turned on witch.”  Faith mutters quietly before inhaling deeply again

“That is so not fair.”  Tara growls before quickly standing up and moving to the other side of the table again.  “Distance might be a good thing, or we’re going to go back to the hotel so I can see how good of a lover you are.”

Faith quickly slides out and digs some money out of her pocket throwing it on the table.  “Let's go.”

Tara chuckles at the immediate response her words caused.  “Sit back down, Faith.  We’ll sing for Lorne then we can leave.”

“Oooh.  Did I hear the magic word?”  Lorne looks from one lady to the other.  “I was afraid you two were planning on leaving before treating us.”

“I’m all for leavin‘.”  Faith growls lowly before plopping back down. 

“Faith, stop pouting.”  Tara looks up at Lorne.  “When do you have an opening?”

Lorne claps his hands and grins.  “Oh, right after this one.  What song?”

“’Picture’ by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow.”  Tara smirks at Faith.  Tara watches as Lorne walks up to the stage.  Looking at Faith, she grins slightly.  “You know this is something that I would never have even considered doing, let alone actually doing it a short while ago.”

“You’re stronger, more confident.”  Faith whispers quietly.  “You’re becoming the woman you should have been all along.” 

“Thank you.”  Tara accepts the compliment, seeing the truth in Faith’s eyes.  She glances up as she hears Lorne on stage.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen.  It seems we have a special treat for you tonight.  We have two lovely young women going to come up here and sing a duet for us.  I have a feeling all of you have noticed them by now…”  Lorne trails off laughing as quite a few heads turn towards Faith and Tara’s table.  “And can I just say these two are absolutely scrumptious.  But to get on with the singing, here is Faith and Tara.” 

Tara and Faith look at each other grinning before walking up on stage.  “Thanks, Lorne.”  Tara whispers as she accepts one of the mic’s from him and watches Faith accept the other one.  Tara watches as Lorne smiles encouragingly at them before quickly walking off stage to go stand by the bar, watching them intently.

“Are you ready to do this?”  Faith growls quietly and at Tara’s nod she looks over and gives the queue to start the song.

Lorne watches as Faith starts singing, seeing glimpses of the slayer fighting for the greater good, being a warrior to be reckoned with for many, many years to come with Tara by her side.  As Tara starts singing the other part, Lorne reaches for a chair and sits down heavily.  “Oh, my.”  Lorne whispers quietly.  Seeing a different future from what he did when the slayer sang.  Saw the two fighting and loving side by side.  Champions of the PTB.  Then another image flash of Tara being killed and Faith going after the creatures that did it, succeeding on the suicide mission delivering the death blow as she collapses and dies.  As they both start singing together, Lorne presses his hands against his eyes and groans as image after image fly by him, hundreds of images, things that happen just because they turned left instead of right, stayed home instead of going out.  Simple choices that can make huge differences in their lives.  But one re-occurring theme through all the images is that the two are together through it all.  Meant to be together, balancing each other, loving each other throughout time.  If nothing else, he realizes they are meant to be together.  

Lorne finally gives up and just listens as the two women finish singing the song.  As everyone in the bar starts clapping and yelling for more, he quickly heads up to the stage.

“Absolutely wonderful.”  Lorne gushes as he accepts the mic’s back from the two women before leaning down and kissing each one on the cheek.  “You most definitely need to grace us with your presence again, ladies.”  He smiles before turning and introducing the next singer.  Quickly heading off the stage he works his way over to the two women, who are sitting back down quietly talking. 

Tara glances up as Lorne sits down.  “Are you okay?”  She questions seeing the unsettled look about him.

“Yes, I am.  But I’ll be damned if I’m ever going to try and read your future again.”  Lorne exclaims waving a waitress over for a drink.

Tara raises an eyebrow questioningly at the demon. 

He quickly downs his drink handing the empty glass back to the waitress before turning and looking at the witch.  “The number of possible futures I saw was unbelievable.  The only re-occurring theme that was in each and every one of them was you two are together through it all.”

Faith frowns slightly.  “What were some of the futures?”

Lorne shakes his head looking at the slayer.  “Faith-y sweet-cheeks, I could tell you, but what would be the use?  If you decide to use Sure deodorant instead of Secret one day it makes a difference.  But the one main thing is you two fighting and loving side by side through it all.  You may have thought you knew your soul mate before.”  Lorne whispers looking towards Tara.  “But she wasn’t it.”  He looks towards Faith and grins.  “A true soul mate will do everything within their power to protect you.  They will love you as you are and given a choice they will always choose to help you over anything else.”

Faith smirks sending a sidelong glance at Tara.  “And do they get turned on at the drop of a hat?”

Lorne giggles quietly as Tara blushes.  “Faith-y, sweetie.  You have no idea.”  Lorne grins before standing up, pushing the money on the table at the two women.  “Dinner is on me.  Any time you two wish to sing, dinner and drinks are on the house.”  Lorne starts humming under his breath as he walks up on stage.

“He shouldn’t have said that.”  Tara smirks at Faith.  “You’ll eat him out of business.”

“Is that any way to talk to your soul mate?”  Faith growls out before chuckling.  “Would explain the way I feel, wouldn’t it?”  Faith comments seriously, looking into Tara’s blue eyes.  “How I want to be beside you every minute of the day?  Even before today?”

“How whenever you’re near I smile, and my heart jumps a beat.”  Tara whispers, looking in the beautiful brown eyes of the slayer.  “Should we be nice and sing another song or two?”

“He’s got this thing in his head for me to sing a Bonnie Raitt song, who the fuck is she anyway?”  Faith questions clearly mystified.

Tara chuckles quietly then it turns into outright laughter.  “How about we come back some other time and we’ll sing for him.  I’ll introduce you to Bonnie Raitt, we’ll need to go to a shop and pick up some other CD’s that I want, also.” 

Faith smiles standing up.  “Anything you want, babe.  There’s a music store on the way home that stays open late.  And since we got free meals, I feel guilty about our date.”  Faith winces slightly.

“Don’t feel guilty.”  Tara shakes her head as she stands up, running a hand lightly down the slayer’s arm.  “I had a wonderful time, and I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for you.”  Seeing Faith smile, Tara grins in response.  “Let's go check out this music store.”  Tara turns and waves to Lorne as they head out. 

***

“Okay, I’ll give you Queen, Poison, Aerosmith and Motley Crue.  Rock and Roll - classics.  Good music.  But who the hell is Sister Hazel?”  Faith grumbles looking at the CD’s Tara’s putting in their basket.

Tara smirks grabbing a Bonnie Raitt Greatest Hits CD adding it to the collection.  “Oooh.  Gotta have this.”  Tara throws a couple Prince CD’s on top of the Bonnie Raitt.

“Prince?”  Faith groans and slumps her shoulders.  “You’re tryin’ to kill me here, aren’t you?”

“What songs do you know by Prince?”  Tara questions before working her way down the aisles.

“I don’t know off the top of my head.”   Faith rolls her eyes.

“’Little Red Corvette’, ‘1999’, ‘Purple Rain’, ‘When Doves Cry’, ‘You’ve Got the Look’ - which he wrote for Sheena Easton.”  Leaning in close to Faith she whispers.  “Some of his early stuff is really funky.  ‘Bitch’, ‘Dirty Mind’ and all kinds of songs that are great.  Trust me, you’ll like more of them than you realize.”  Tara chuckles before placing a quick kiss on her cheek before pulling away.

Shaking her head, she watches as Tara works her way through the CD’s randomly picking them out and occasionally putting one in the basket she’s carrying or setting it back down.  Tilting her head watching the blonde, Faith smiles softly watching as she pushes some hair behind her ear before reaching for another CD.  Walking up to the blonde, Faith wraps her free arm around her waist and places a quick kiss on her neck. 

“Hmmm.  Did you find the ones you were looking for?”  Tara questions as she continues browsing, enjoying the slayer’s arm wrapped around her waist, leaning into the warm body. 

“Yeah, picked up 3 Doors Down and the two Kid Rock CD’s that I hadn’t picked up yet.”  Faith murmurs, shifting with the witch as she moves down the aisle.  “You gonna pick up any softer stuff?”

“Maybe.  I wouldn’t mind picking up Michelle Branch’s Spirit Room to replace my old one.”  Tara admits quietly. 

“What happened to the old one?”  Faith looks up and grabs down a Rolling Stones CD grinning before flipping it into the basket.

“Sunnydale.”  Tara answers with the one word before looking at the basket that’s almost over flowing.  “Maybe I’ll wait.  I think we’ve done enough damage tonight.  That’s probably a couple hundred dollars on music.”

“Probably.”  Faith agrees grinning, before heading over to the right aisle and grabbing the Michelle Branch CD Tara wants and throwing it in the basket.  “Ready, babe?”

“We don’t have to get it right now.”  Tara looks into the basket before looking into brown eyes twinkling happily at her.  Unable to resist, Tara closes the distance between them and places a soft kiss on the slayer’s lips.  “Let's go home.”  Tara whispers as she pulls back.

“’Kay.”  Faith agrees smiling.  Quickly walking up to the checkout counter, Faith digs in her pocket for the money.

“You’re not paying for all these yourself.”  Tara opens her purse pulling out her wallet watching as the CD’s are rung up. 

“But I was supposed to take you out tonight.”  Faith growls quietly. 

“And you did take me out tonight.  But that doesn’t mean you have to pay for music that I want.”  Tara explains.

“Like we both won’t be listening to it?”  Faith rolls her eyes. 

“My point exactly.  So let me pay for half.”  Tara grins as the slayer frowns realizing she’d been tricked. 

“You’re one sneaky damn witch.”  Faith growls before handing half the money to the clerk as Tara pays the rest.

“Possibly.”  Tara giggles quietly, before following Faith. 

***

Chapter 6

“What are you wantin' to do?”  Faith asks as they walk into the hotel.  “It’s still early.”

Tara smirks and sends a sidelong glance at the slayer.  “Well, I’m sure there are some things I can think of.”

“I want to talk to you first.”  Faith mutters quietly looking down at her feet as she slowly walks across the lobby. 

“Faith.”  Tara gently places her hand on the slayer’s arm, pulling her to a stop.  Looking deeply into the dark eyes, Tara smiles softly. “Let's talk, then.  Do you want some coffee?  We can make some and bring a thermos up to the room.”

Faith nods her head smiling briefly.  “Sounds good.  Want to go fix the coffee now?”

“Sure.  Let's go.”  Tara smiles before running her hand down the slayer’s neck and shoulder till she clasps Faith’s hand in hers.  “What time is it anyway?”  Tara murmurs.

“Probably a little after 11:00.”  Faith answers smiling.  “Early yet.”

“I wonder what the rest of the gang is up to.”  Tara looks around at the empty hotel.

“Queen C is probably home being pampered by her ghost.  Fred is probably hiding up in her room.  The guys are probably out patrolling, if Queen C didn’t get a vision.  We don’t have any other cases right now.”  Faith runs down the list grinning. 

Tara smirks, as they walk into the kitchen.  She gets out the coffee grinder and turns to look at Faith with her head tilted.  “Do you want flavored or regular?”

“Hmmm.  Depends.  You goin’ to join me?”  Faith questions, hopping up on the prep table to watch the witch.

“You might be able to talk me into having a cup.”  Tara smiles as she glances at the slayer. 

“Okay, what would you like to have?”  Faith leans back on her palms, swinging her legs watching Tara intently. 

“That’s definitely a loaded question.”  Tara looks at Faith raising an eyebrow.  “But I personally think Vanilla Hazelnut wouldn’t go amiss tonight.”  Quickly putting the beans in the grinder, Tara smiles as she watches Faith out of the corner of her eye.

Faith quietly watches as Tara makes the coffee.  As Tara walks towards her after she puts the coffee on to brew, Faith straightens up slightly, seeing the gleam in her eyes. 

Walking towards Faith, Tara eyes the slayer before coming to a halt in front of her.  Placing her hands lightly on Faith’s knees, Tara glances down before easing them apart so she can snuggle in between the slayer’s thighs.  Placing her hands behind the slayer’s waist, Tara grins.  “What are we going to do while the coffee’s brewing?”

Faith growls before swooping in capturing the witch’s lips in a heated kiss.  Wrapping her tongue around the witch’s, battling for long moments, Faith groans as she pulls back, panting heavily.  As she feels Tara placing small wet kisses down her jaw and neck, Faith arches into the caresses.  Running a hand up over the witch’s shoulder to bury it in the woman’s hair, Faith urges her back up, flicking her tongue against the witch’s repeatedly, before sucking her tongue gently.  Hearing her groan, Faith nibbles on the tip before releasing it completely. 

Tara pants as Faith finally pulls back.  Leaning her head in against the slayer’s shoulder, Tara presses her body closer against Faith’s.  Realizing she has her hands resting against the skin of the slayer’s back, Tara groans, flexing her fingers.  Hearing the last gurgle of the coffee pot, signaling it was finished brewing, Tara rubs her face against the shoulder she’s resting on before nibbling on the skin briefly.  Taking a deep breath, Tara pulls away looking into the slayer’s dark brown eyes and smiles, running a hand down her cheek and placing a chaste kiss on her swollen lips. 

Faith growls as she watches Tara turn and get a thermos out to pour the coffee into.  Hopping down from the table, Faith grabs the bag of CD’s and the thermos while Tara grabs a couple coffee mugs.  The two women silently make their way up to Tara’s room.

Tara stops a couple steps inside her room as Faith follows her in.  Turning she gently shuts and locks the door before walking over to the bed, setting the coffee cups down on the nightstand.  Turning she watches Faith kind of shift from one foot to the other.  Tilting her head Tara smiles softly for a moment.  “Why don’t you set the bag down on the table and come pour us a cup while I get more comfortable.” 

“Ummm.”  Faith’s eyes shift from the coffee cups to the bed and nods her head in agreement.  “Okay.”

Tara smirks as she turns grabbing a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts to put on.  Quickly heading to the bathroom, she chuckles as she hears Faith grumbling quietly behind her.

Faith watches the closed door for a moment before taking a deep breath and filling the two mugs with coffee.  Setting the thermos down, she quickly unties her boots and slides them off, placing them near the door.  Not knowing if the witch wants to sit on the bed or move to the chairs, Faith paces silently back and forth.  As she hears the door to the bathroom open, she stops and watches as Tara walks out, groaning at the long legs on display, over the hips finally starting to take shape again to the tantalizing breasts and feels her heart beating strongly as she reaches the deep blue eyes, her heart literally skipping a beat. 

Tara watches as Faith appraises her body and lets out the breath of air she had unconsciously been holding.  Walking slowly towards the bed, Tara sits down, her back against the headboard while crossing her legs watching Faith quietly, for long moments.  Reaching over for a mug of coffee, Tara smiles.  “Would you like to borrow a pair of shorts?”

Faith looks from Tara’s pink tipped toes all the way up the long lightly muscular legs, slight hips, waist, chest and dark honey blonde hair to the classic features.  Bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet she glances down at herself and smirks before answering.  “No, I think its better that one of us keeps some kind of barrier between us for now.”

“Is my wearing shorts a problem?”  Tara questions while sipping the coffee, enjoying watching the rogue slayer.

“Not a problem as much as a distraction.”  Faith growls quietly striding over to the two chairs and picking one up to place it at the end of the bed before grabbing her cup of coffee.  Sitting down and propping her feet up on the bed smiling, Faith sips her coffee.

“Well that’s no fun.”  Tara raises an eyebrow at Faith. 

“If I climb in that bed with you we won’t be talkin’.”  Faith grumbles.  “And we really need to talk before we take this any further.”

“Faith...”  Tara sighs quietly watching the slayer’s body language.  “Where do you want to start?”

“I guess the beginning.”  Faith stands up to pour more coffee in her mug before offering some to Tara and at her nod, she tops her cup off. 

“Can you at least shift the chair down here beside me, if you aren’t going to sit with me on the bed?”  Tara questions quietly.  Watching Faith with a hopeful look in her eye.

Faith turns to appraise the witch for a moment.  Having to grin, she looks to the other side of the bed.  “Can you keep your hands to yourself?”

“How about I promise to keep them to non-erogenous zones?”  Tara offers a compromise.

Faith chuckles quietly, before repeating. “Can you keep your hands to yourself?”

Tara eyes widen slightly and she laughs.  “What about touching your hand?  Will I be able to do that?”

Faith considers for a moment, narrowing her eyes trying to see a trap, but gives in and smiles.  “Okay.”  Slowly walking around to the other side of the bed, she climbs in gently so as not to spill her coffee before stretching out beside the witch.  Plucking at the comforter for a moment, she smiles sadly as Tara grasps her hand gently. 

Tara knows that Faith is having a hard time getting started and as she runs her thumb over the slayer’s calloused, weapon roughened hand, she leans her body closer to the slayer.  Setting her coffee cup on the nightstand, Tara shifts slightly so she’s partially facing Faith.  “My earliest memory was my mom teaching me about being a Wiccan.  A White Witch.  How to balance myself, to never take my powers for granted and to never abuse them.”  Tara smiles at the remembered happy times.   Slowly frowning she looks down where she’s clasping the slayer’s hand.  “The memories of my mother are some of the happiest memories of my life.  Except for when she died.  My second earliest memory is my father beating me black and blue.  He said it was to beat the demon out of me, since that’s where my magic supposedly came from.”  Smiling sadly as she feels Faith shift closer and clasp her hand strongly, she shakes her head.  “When my brother Donnie was old enough, my father taught him the proper way to beat the demon in me.  To beat me.  I can’t tell you how many times I ended up at the hospital because of bruises, broken bones and one time because of the internal damage I took because they decided that they’d add their feet to the fists they normally beat me with.”

Faith growls deeply, quickly setting her cup down before shifting up against the witch, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.  “Where are the bastards?  I’ll fucking teach them to beat on a woman.”

Tara sighs heavily, feeling a tear slip down her face.  “It’s a long time ago, Faith.  At least as far as I’m concerned it is.  It isn’t worth my possibly losing you to go after them.”  Tara smiles softly as she feels Faith running her hand down her shoulder.  “I graduated high school and earned grants and scholarships to go to Sunnydale.  I met Willow at an on-campus Wicca meeting.”  Tara goes on explaining through meeting, falling in love and ultimately leaving the redhead, finishing with coming to L.A.

Faith nods her head while lightly running her hand up and down the witch’s back in silent support, thinking heavily.  “I’m gonna hafta call B and tell her thanks.”  Faith mentions sincerely.

“Dawnie’s going to be coming to stay for a week here soon.  The last time I talked they were discussing her coming in roughly two more weeks, before school starts.”  Tara smiles at the thought.  “Buffy said something about having Xander drive her and Dawn up so she can visit for the day before heading back the following day.”

“She’s leaving the Hellmouth unguarded for a night?”  Faith questions surprised.

“Not exactly.”  Tara shakes her head slightly glancing at Faith out of the corner of her eye.  “Spike will be watching it while she’s here.”

“Do I even want to know?”  Faith growls quietly.

“I’m not sure.”  Tara shakes her head remembering the brief conversation with Buffy about Spike, how she cared about him, but was confused because he was a vampire without a soul.  “I’d rather not even discuss it.  I’m not sure…”  Tara trails off frowning. 

“That’s okay, you don’t hafta say anything else.”  Faith realizes it isn’t something that Tara feels comfortable with discussing.  Tilting her head to rest against Tara’s, she inhales quietly.  Thinking of her own life, trying to figure out where to start when she feels Tara shift her head and place a kiss on her cheek. 

“Whenever you’re comfortable, love.”  Tara whispers quietly.  “If you want to wait, we can wait.” 

Faith shakes her head before smirking.  “If I want to get more smoochies, I need to tell you my story.”

“You can still have smoochie action.”  Tara grins crookedly at the slayer.

“I know you say you don’t care and it won’t make a difference, but I gotta tell you.”  Faith stops and hugs her before pulling away to stand up and get her coffee cup, walking around the bed to the thermos filling it back up.  “Do you want some more?” 

“Just a little.”  Tara watches as Faith pours some more coffee in her cup before pacing back and forth sipping on her coffee.  Tara waits patiently for Faith to start.  Picking up her cup she takes a sip as she watches the troubled slayer.  Knowing she needs the time to get everything straight in her head before telling her, Tara silently waits.

“I never knew who my father was.”  Faith starts out, pacing slowly across the room, finally having gotten up the nerve to talk about her life.  The life she’s never talked to anyone about before.  “My mother was a whore and a drug addict.”  Faith takes a sip of her coffee, not looking at Tara.  “My earliest memories was diggin’ around for enough change to get a bag of chips from the corner store for dinner.”

Tara winces in pain for the slayer, but having a gut feeling that this was the least of the problems with her life.  Patiently waiting for her to continue, not wanting to interrupt, Tara watches her with loving eyes.

“When I was thirteen my mom’s johns started noticin’ me when she brought them home.”  Faith finishes off the coffee and sets the cup down before she crushes it in remembered pain.  “I always tried to stay in my room and not get noticed, but I didn’t hear her come in one night and was eatin’ a can of soup that I had been given by one of the tenants that felt sorry for me.”  Faith stops pacing clenching her hands tightly and looking up at the ceiling.  “The john offered my mom twice the amount he was going to pay her for me instead.”

Tara inhales, her heart aching for the dark haired woman in front of her.  But somehow knowing in her gut that this is what had happened to her with no embellishments.

“When she realized she could get more money out of prostituting me out, that’s what she did.  After a year of bein’ a whore for my mother, I ran away from home.  I lived on the streets stealin’ what I had to, to survive.  Occasionally sellin’ my body if I had to.”  Faith finally gets up the nerve to look Tara in the eyes, seeing the compassion and love coming from the witch, she feels a sob start to work its way up her throat.  “Roughly a year later my Watcher found me and took me in.  She was more of a mother to me than my own mother ever could have been.  Unfortunately right after I was called we ran into Kakistos, a very old, very nasty vampire.  He literally ripped her to shreds.  She was always going on about Buffy, that if anything should happen, I needed to get to Sunnydale.  After I watched what he did to her, I ran.  I hopped trains and hitchhiked my way from Boston to Sunnydale.”

Tara watches as the tear Faith had been trying to hold back, finally works its way down her cheek.  Slowly standing she walks up to the slayer and wraps her arms gently around her waist.  Pulling her into a comforting hug, Tara runs her hands up and down her back.  Feeling the sobs start to work up and out of the slayer, Tara pulls her into a tight embrace, rocking her back and forth while Faith finally cries, letting her anguish and hurt start to work its way out. 

Faith desperately holds onto the witch as she finally cries, something she can’t ever remember doing.  Burying her face in the witch’s neck, Faith holds on tightly.  After long moments, as the tears slowly abate, she continues the story holding onto Tara.  “I was tryin’ to be big bad Faith when I came to Sunny D.  I shut myself off, didn’t really let anyone help me.  Buffy tried a few times to get through to me.  But she had her gang, and I know I was never a part of the group.  The Scooby’s were hers and hers alone.”  Faith shakes her head.  “Things started going downhill with Gwendolyn Post that was supposedly my new Watcher but was an ex-Watcher turned bad, later on the deal with me accidentally stakin’ Deputy Mayor Finch.  It really was an accident.”  Faith stops for a moment realizing that if at that moment, she had actually looked for help, things could have been different she shakes her head.  “Everything went downhill fast after that.  I tried to say B staked Finch, almost strangled Xander to death when he tried to help me, then I ended up workin’ for the Mayor.  I did actually kill a guy for him.  He helped Wilky with his plans for Ascension.  I held Red captive at knife point when she and the rest of the group came to the Mayor’s office.  Well, needless to say I poisoned Angel, B came after me when she found the cure was to drain a slayer of blood, we fought on the rooftop.  She stabbed me then I really more or less jumped off the roof and was in a coma for the next eight months.  When I came to, I realized B and the gang had stopped the Ascension and killed Wilky, but he left me a present, which of course you know about.”  Faith stops here loosening her grip on the witch before pulling away.  “If you hate me and want me to go, I will.”  She murmurs quietly looking at the soft features of the blonde, afraid to look in her eyes.  “Before you answer, I do want you to realize I was a hateful fuckin’ bitch.  I’ve changed, and if I could take back what I did I would in a heartbeat.  But one thing I really, truly regret now is the fact that you, a woman that didn’t even know who I was at the time, can even consider havin’ some kind of future with me when I treated you so badly in the one meeting you had with me.  You haven’t said one thing about that to me.  I really truly am sorry for that, it was just plain out and out cruel.  No reason for it.”  Faith stops inhaling deeply, looking down.

“Oh, Faith.”  Tara whispers pulling the woman in and placing a kiss on her forehead, finally understanding the depth of the hurt that was caused to this woman.  Never having anyone love or care for her, made her naturally shy away from it when it was being offered.  Thankful that their souls, that reached out for each other, was allowing her to open up so she can become the loving woman Tara knows she can be. 

“You know the rest that happened in Sunny D.  When I came here Wolfram & Hart recruited me to kill Angel.  I couldn’t do it.  I actually tried to get him to put me out my misery, but he wouldn’t.  B showed up, the Watcher’s Council goons showed up again tryin’ to kill me.”  Here Faith chuckles quietly.  “B actually saved my life that day.  I turned myself in to the police confessing to the murders.  But for some reason there wasn’t anything for them to go by except my confession, so I was eventually released.  I’ve been here ever since.”  Faith finally finishes.  Pulling away she finally gets up the nerve to look into Tara’s blue eyes.  “So, do I need to leave?”  She whispers quietly. 

Tara shakes her head and reaches up with both hands, placing them gently on the slayer’s face.  “Never.”  She whispers before leaning in and gently kissing the woman.  Pulling back she watches a soft smile cross the slayer’s face and her eyes lose some of the haunted look in them.  “Would you like to stay here, with me?”  Tara offers watching the emotions crossing the beautiful woman’s face.

“Sleep?”  Faith asks grinning a bit. 

“Maybe just for tonight.  But I won’t say no to some serious smoochie action first.”  Tara smiles at the slayer.  “Do you want shorts now?”

Faith chuckles quietly.  “Yeah, shorts would be good; I can wear my tank top.”  Faith eyes the witch for a few moments as she slowly walks over to the dresser pulling out a pair of shorts.  “But, just to let you know…”  Faith trails off watching as Tara turns to look at her, feeling the urge to go and kiss the woman, Faith hesitates a moment before quickly striding over to her and placing a firm kiss on her lips.

As Faith pulls back, Tara blinks a couple times to remember what the woman was saying before the kiss.  “Let me know what?”  Tara asks huskily.

Smirking Faith raises an eyebrow.  “I don’t normally wear clothes to bed.”

Licking her lips at the thought of the slayer naked, Tara shakes her head before grinning and replying. “Good.”

Chuckling Faith eases the shorts out of the woman’s hands and kisses her quickly on the cheek.  “Thank you.”

Tara smiles at the heartfelt words.  “You’re welcome.  Now go get changed.”

Tara watches as Faith walks into the bathroom, pushing the door gently shut.  Quickly turning on one of the bedside lamps, Tara walks over and turns the overhead light off before moving the coffee cups and thermos over to the small table.  Hearing the door open, she watches as Faith walks out and growls at the strong, muscular body walking towards her.  Looking up the muscular calves and thighs to the slight hips and tight stomach across the full breasts and bow shaped mouth, Tara feels her heartbeat pick up and her body tighten in appreciation. 

Faith watches as the witch’s eyes roam slowly up her body, feeling her own body react to the obvious appraisal.  Watching Tara’s eyes stop at her mouth, Faith quirks her lips.  “Maybe it’s not a good idea me stayin’ here tonight.”

Tara glances up finally making eye contact with the slayer and shakes her head.  “I think it’s a wonderful idea.”  Slowly walking towards the slayer, Tara smiles softly.  “Do you want to go back to your room?”

Faith shakes her head almost vehemently.  “No.  I would much rather be where you are.”

“Good decision.”  Tara murmurs as she stops in front of the slayer.  Looking into warm brown eyes, Tara reaches up and runs her hand over her cheek before threading her fingers in the woman’s hair.  Leaning up the short distance she brushes her lips over the bow-shaped lips of the slayer.  Easing the other hand up over the slayer’s arm and shoulder to cup behind her neck, Tara tilts her head before pressing more firmly against the lips in front of her and groans as she feels them part.  Eagerly accepting the invitation, Tara slips her tongue in to reacquaint it with the dark slayer’s mouth.  Slowly wrapping her tongue around the slayer’s, Tara eases in closer to the strong body standing in front of her before sliding the hand cupping her neck over her shoulder and down her waist to grip strongly and pull her in tighter.

Faith groans into the kiss as she feels Tara’s hand easing down her body and pulling her in more snugly against the witch.  Running her own hands down the witch’s side to slide around and cup her butt, sliding a thigh between the woman’s legs and pulls her tight against her.

Slowly pulling out of the kiss, Tara starts working her way across the slayer’s jaw to her ear, sucking gently on the lobe before nipping it lightly.  Smiling to herself as she hears Faith groan and push her body against hers, Tara starts working down the slayer’s neck, stopping and sucking on the slayer’s pulse point.  Moving both hands down to the slayer’s waist, Tara slides them under her shirt and runs them up the slayer’s warm muscular back, groaning as she feels it flinch and contract under her nails. 

Faith growls and tilts her head more, giving the witch better access before shifting one of her hands up and playing with the waist band of the shorts, slowly edging her fingers under the band and caressing the flesh beneath. 

Tara inhales and buries her head in the slayer’s neck, pushing against the hand caressing her ass.  Running her hands further up the slayer’s back, she works her thumbs to the side of the slayer’s breasts and strokes gently over the velvety hot flesh. 

Faith moans at the thumbs gently caressing the sides of her breasts.  Easing her other hand under Tara’s shorts, she gently kneads both ass cheeks while pulling the witch firmly against her and grinding her body slowly down on the witch’s thigh.  Leaning down and kissing the woman on the neck, Faith arches into the hands that slowly edged their way to cup her breasts and run strong thumbs over her aching nipples.  “God, Tara.”  Faith hoarsely calls out, feeling the pleasure shooting through her whole body at the touch.  

Tara pulls a couple inches away to look at the flushed body of the slayer.  Unable to resist, she pushes the shirt up uncovering the slayer’s breasts and leans down running her tongue around one hard nipple while lightly pinching the other one with her thumb and finger. 

Faith feels her heart stall at the caresses of the witch, feeling the connection shoot straight to her center, feeling it ache and swell in need.  Finally, after swallowing a few times, Faith growls deeply.  “I thought you wanted to take things slow.”

“Changed my mind.”  Tara mumbles against the breast she’s been licking before sucking the nipple in strongly and flicking the tip of her tongue over the rock hard flesh.   Closing her teeth gently around the nipple and tugging, Tara lets it pop out of her mouth before quickly reaching back up and attacking Faith’s lips.  

As Tara pulls away after thoroughly kissing her, Faith growls deep and low.  “Are you sure?”  At Tara’s nod in between nips down her neck, Faith shifts her hands and quickly picks the witch up striding the short distance to the bed and kneeling on it to gently lay the woman in the center.  Pulling back, Faith looks at the hungry gaze directed at her and closes her eyes as she feels the desire oozing from her and takes a deep steadying breath in through her nostrils and almost attacks the witch at the smell of arousal permeating the room.  “Damn!  You don’t know just how close you are to being attacked, wench.”  Faith growls stripping her top over her head before pushing the shorts quickly down her legs and crawls across the bed looking into dark blue, passion filled eyes.

Tara groans quietly as she watches the firm full breasts come into view before Faith quickly strips off her shorts, showing the neatly trimmed strip of hair, with the obvious desire glistening on the swollen lips and down the thighs.  Watching Faith prowl towards her across the bed, Tara smirks.  Slowly raising her hands she pulls her t-shirt off and groans as Faith quickly reaches out and grasps one breast in her hand while leaning down and sucking roughly on the other one.  Reaching up and pulling Faith in even tighter against her, Tara arches up into the slayer’s mouth.  Running a hand down her back to her ass, silently urging the slayer over her. 

Faith shifts her body before pulling her mouth away from the witch’s breast.  Looking up into the dark blue, almost black eyes of the witch she quirks a lip.  “Someone is a little more dressed than I would like them to be.”

Tara watches Faith’s lips as she talks, taking a moment to catch up to what the slayer is saying before making eye contact and raising an eyebrow.  “Well then you better do something about it, hadn’t you?”

Faith’s eyes flare with passion looking searchingly into the witch’s eyes.  “If I go anywhere near that area I won’t be coming back up for a very, very long time.”  She huskily states watching as the witch’s breath catches and her eyes get impossibly darker, dilated to make the black almost take over the blue. 

“That won’t do.”  Tara huskily gets out before burying both hands in Faith’s hair, pulling her down for an intensely passionate kiss.  Groaning as she feels Faith ease her body between her thighs, Tara shifts her legs wider open giving the woman room and jerks up as Faith presses her body down into her.  “Oh, Goddess.”  Tara groans as she presses up into the slayer, rotating her hips and closing her eyes at the intense pleasure she’s receiving just from this simple movement. 

Faith growls and buries her face in the witch’s neck, pressing back against the witch.  “Fuck me.”  Faith groans as she feels the orgasm working through her body quicker than ever before in her life. 

Tara can tell Faith is already on the edge and gently slides a hand between their bodies on the next rotation.  Tara closes her eyes at the slickness of the slayer and quickly presses two fingers inside her and starts a quick-paced stroking, grunting as her own knuckles come in contact with her clit through the shorts.  Settling her thumb in just the right spot and setting up a steady pressured rub against the slayer’s clit, gasping as she feels the slayer clench tightly on her fingers.  Feeling the flood of wetness soak her hand and Faith screaming out her name against her neck, Tara arches up grinding herself against her own knuckles as she climaxes.  

Pushing her hips down against the witch hard, burying her fingers deep inside her, Faith groans quietly.   Trying to catch her breath, her eyes pop open wide as she feels Tara’s fingers shift inside her, rubbing in a gentle but firm circular motion over the muscle inside her.  “God.”  Faith moans, her hips working with the witch’s fingers, feeling the slow build up as Tara gradually brings her body to a quivering, shaking mass of need.  “Tara.”  Whimpering into Tara’s body with her hips shifting in a more exaggerated circle, Faith pants heavily before biting down on the witch’s shoulder as her body releases, soaking her. 

Tara places kisses across the strong shoulder as she slows the motion of her hand down as the tremors work through the slayer’s body.  Feeling the tremors slow, Tara eases her fingers out of the warm haven and slowly shifts her hand out from between their bodies and wraps her arms around the woman, hugging her tightly.  Licking slowly up the slayer’s neck, Tara groans in pleasure at the slightly spicy taste of the woman as she laps up the thin layer of sweat. 

Finally getting enough breath to speak, Faith quietly moans. “Too heavy, need to move.”

“You’re fine.”  Tara shakes her head, tightening her arms around the slayer to hold her in place.  Running one hand up to thread through the slayer’s hair while the other one stroking down to the slayer’s hip, playing gently over the skin there. 

Shifting her body slightly, easing one leg over the witch and sliding her body so that it’s only partially lying across her, Faith inhales as her body shifts inside, sending another bolt of pleasure through her.   “My God, what did you do to me woman?”

Tara chuckles quietly, closing her eyes, sighing.  “Hopefully pleased you.”

“And how.”  Faith whispers before leaning over placing a kiss on the shoulder she had bitten, feeling bad as she sees the teeth marks in the fair skin.  “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”  Tara opens her eyes turning to look at the slayer.  Frowning as she sees the worried look on the slayer’s face, she reaches up and runs her hand gently down her cheek.  “What’s wrong, love?”

“I bit you.”  Faith hoarsely whimpers, running her fingers lightly over the reddened flesh.

“Hmmm.  Didn’t notice.”  Tara hums quietly as Faith strokes her fingers over her body.  “My attentions must have been elsewhere at the time.”  Tara smirks while watching Faith. 

Faith looks from the impression on the woman’s skin up to the smirking countenance and frowns.  “It had to hurt.”  Faith growls quietly.

Tara chuckles stroking her hand through the woman’s hair.  “Faith, with everything I went through with my life?  You could have drawn blood when you bit and it wouldn’t have hurt that much.”

“Damn it, Tara!”  Faith growls angrily, pulling away from the stroking hands.  “I could have seriously hurt you.  I don’t ever want to be the one to cause you pain.”

“Oh, Faith.”  Tara whispers quietly.  “It’s okay, really it is.  You didn’t hurt me.  You couldn’t hurt me.”  Tara tugs Faith down and pulls her close.  “Come now, love.  You’re fine.  My pain tolerance became quite high with the life I had.  I honestly didn’t even feel you bite me.”

“You didn’t feel that?”  Faith shifts, still keeping contact with the witch, but running her hand once again over the reddened flesh, still feeling bad. 

“Maybe the pressure more than anything, but it didn’t hurt.”  Tara smiles softly as she watches the relief cross Faith’s face, before anger comes quickly chasing it away.  “What’s wrong?”

“The shit you went through, I could really rip your family to shreds for what they put you through.”  Feeling the pain of not being able to help the woman makes her all the angrier.

“Faith, honey.”  Tara reaches up to run a hand between the slayers’s scowling eyes, sending her love and calming influence to the woman.  Smiling softly as the anger slowly fades from her eyes and face.  “If my life had been different, there would be a very good chance we would have never met.  So, the way I look at it, I should send the two bastards a thank you note.”  Tara smiles crookedly at the slayer.

“Yeah, and let me deliver the fuckin’ thing.”  Faith’s eyes flash angrily before slowly smiling at the witch.  Shifting her body to more lie beside the woman, Faith slowly starts running her fingers over the witch’s chest and stomach, caressing her gently before chuckling. 

“Hmmm.”  Tara hums in pleasure at the soft caresses, her eyes closed.  “What’re you laughing about?”  She questions quietly, arching up into Faith’s hand as she lightly scrapes her fingernails over her stomach.

“The fact you’re still overdressed.”  Faith smirks watching the emotions crossing the witch’s face, seeing the love and tenderness, the pleasure and the want.  

Tara quirks her lip up slightly and whispers quietly.  “What are you going to do about it?”

Faith stops her caressing for a moment watching Tara closely before asking.  “Is there anything that you don’t like?”

Tara opens her eyes to look into Faith’s serious brown ones.  “Anything I don’t like, as in when I make love, have sex, do the nasty, get vertical…”  Tara laughs into the slayer’s mouth that cuts short her descriptions.  

Faith growls quietly as she pulls out of the kiss.  “Yeah that was what I was asking.”  Faith smirks momentarily before eyeing the witch up and down.  “Do you like to be touched, caressed, kissed, licked, sucked on, fingers inserted into various body…”  This time Faith chuckles into the mouth stopping her narrative.

Tara shakes her head slightly as she pulls back away from the slayer before capturing the slayer’s bottom lip and suckling on it gently for a few long moments before releasing it and smiling.  “How about I just say I‘m open to suggestions?”  Tara smiles seeing the slayer‘s eyes darken immediately. 

“So pretty much anything will be a go?”  Faith huskily asks, and at Tara’s nod, groans and closes her eyes.   “Doing or being done to?”  Faith questions hoarsely, opening her eyes.

“Both.”  Tara answers quietly, seeing the flare of lust appear in Faith’s eyes. 

Faith leans in and kisses the witch gently but thoroughly before shifting her body up over Tara and slowly kissing her way down her neck, smiling as she hears the witch purr into the caresses.  Growling loudly as she feels Tara grasp her head firmly as she sucks on a nipple while flicking the other one with her thumb nail.  Capturing the nipple between her teeth, Faith nibbles gently before licking strongly over the breast to the other one, treating it similarly.  Feeling Tara arch her hips and rotate them in the air, Faith quickly shifts her body down, kneeling beside the witch’s hips grasping the shorts looking up at the woman’s eyes.  “You want this?”  Faith hoarsely asks and at Tara’s nod and darkening eyes, she groans and slides the shorts down the long silky legs.  Sliding the shorts completely off the witch, she shifts her legs apart as she slowly eases up kissing the pale legs on either side of her as she gradually works her way up to the woman’s thighs, seeing the fluid glistening tantalizingly.  Inhaling deeply of the witch’s earthy arousal, Faith reaches out with a shaking hand, slowly stroking her fingers gently up and over the witch, tickling her fingertips over the closely trimmed mound before kissing the thigh to her left.  Gently lapping up the fluid beneath her mouth, Faith closes her eyes and groans at the rich flavor before quickly licking up all fluids on both thighs. 

Tara squirms as Faith licks both thighs, feeling the blood pounding in her center, aching to be stroked.  “Faith, please.”  Tara cries out almost silently.

Faith comes out of her self induced trance of gently licking up the witch’s thighs and stroking her fingers over the short hairs on Tara’s mound to realize the witch has been rocking her hips looking for relief, while grasping the comforter on either side of her in a death grip.  “I’m sorry.”  Faith whispers before easing two fingers quickly but gently into the witch’s needy center before sliding up the short distance to quickly flick her tongue over the witch’s swollen clit.  Slowly sliding in and out of Tara, Faith drags her tongue up and over the pulsing clit repeatedly until she feels it starting to spasm faster and then sucks it gently into her mouth, setting up a steady suction while picking up the speed of her fingers, curling one up slightly to rub over the inner muscle to give the witch the most pleasure possible. 

“Oh, Goddess.”  Tara screams out loudly as she feels her body start shaking at the pleasure coursing through her from the slayer’s caresses.  Grasping the slayer’s head with both hands, Tara arches as she feels her body explode in a shower of lights.  Long moment’s later Tara collapses back on the bed almost passing out from the pleasure. 

Faith quickly starts lapping up the juices flooding from the witch, having a hard time trying to keep up and finally gives in to the inevitable that she can’t.  Smiling softly as she hears the hard fast pants of the witch slowly eases and the hands that were clasped almost in a punishing grip in her hair slowly relax.  As the witch releases her death grip on the fingers inside her, Faith slowly eases them out and places gentle kisses over the witch’s swollen sex before slowly working her way up placing alternating kisses and light nibbles along the witch’s stomach up over her breasts, sucking for a moment on the tender skin where it meets the ribs, leaving a bright red mark before working up along the witch’s neck to place a gentle kiss on her lips.  Smiling at the extremely sated look the witch is wearing Faith shifts to lie beside her, pressing her body softly into the witch’s side before glancing up at the clock and chuckling quietly before burying her face in Tara’s neck.