Three's Company

 

Following Willow’s outburst and Buffy’s threat Tara watched the seemingly antsy Slayer as she asked or rather demanded an update from Giles then moved deliberately away from the open chair in front of the table to go around to the far side where she seemed to sit nervously while Giles relayed what he had discovered and the worried witch thinks, “Buffy has been acting more and more strange all week. Like this afternoon when she practically ran from the cafeteria claiming she had a paper due when I know for a fact that all her work for the week was done and that girl never rushes to get ahead in any of her classes. Now, she won’t even sit by us. I wonder if she is regretting what we did last weekend now, but no – that can’t be it – she’s been flirting with us as much as we do with her, and it’s not a lot but she seems to enjoy it. Oh, oh no – it’s not regret! Oh, shit, I know that look she’s been wearing all day – that’s frustration! Oh boy – I have to talk to Will.”

With the meeting ended and the group no closer to being able to deal with Glory, though they now understood that she had to have a human host in order to even survive in this dimension, Buffy heads off to patrol telling her housemates she would see them at the house but not to wait up for her. Zander gathering everyone to give them rides home gets them all in his car and they all agree to meet tomorrow for a movie night discussing movie choices during the ride to the Summers’ residence.

Once they were home the girls find a note from Joyce explaining that Dawn was staying the night at Janice’s house and that she would be in L.A. picking up a new shipment for the gallery and to expect them home around dinner time or 6 pm tomorrow, that she had left money for pizza on the counter.

Setting the note back on the counter with tomorrow’s pizza money, Tara says quietly, “Um Will, we need to um, talk about Buffy.” as her girlfriend dishes up ice cream for the two of them and asks, “What about Buffy, Baby? I mean we just saw her so I know she’s not hurt or anything and we had lunch with her this afternoon, and well she ran off to do that paper and that was a little unBuffy-like, but, but she seemed to enjoy lunch. So what’s up with Buffy?”

Taking the dish Willow hands to her to sit at the counter taking a bite of the cold treat Tara waits until Willow is sitting beside her then tells her, “I think, well – um I think Buffy m-may be going through withdraw.” And before she can explain what she means her girlfriend exclaims, “No way! Buffy doesn’t do drugs, she would never do drugs, she doesn’t even drink beer anymore after that whole – whole cave-slayer drama, and-“ Stopping as her lover kisses her soundly Willow blushes softly at her over-reaction saying, “Oh, sorry.” as Tara chuckles at her then explains, “Not withdraw from drugs, Sweetie – withdraw from US.” and Willow looking surprised to say the least grunts, “Huh.” to which her girlfriend can only nod her head ruefully.

Eating her ice cream as she watches her lover’s face break into a huge grin Tara sighs inwardly thankful that she wasn’t the only one of them who wanted the Slayer to join them again before smiling back and saying, “She thinks it was only a one-time deal but we both know that we would be happy having her join us again sometime, right Love?”

Nodding animatedly the excited redhead says, “Happy yes, ecstatic, overjoyed, really, really freakin’-“ and stops to suck on the spoon Tara has placed to her lips as her girlfriend chuckles again saying, “Right, so now we need to make sure she knows that, Sweetie.”

Pulling the spoon out of Willow’s mouth so her lover can talk, Tara scoops herself another bite hearing, “Weeell, we have the house all to ourselves again tonight, sooo-“ causing the blonde witch to laugh out loud at the lusty woman she loves.

Emptying their bowls and licking the spoons they each move to rinse them off as Tara tells her, “Ok, here is what we should do, Will. When Buffy gets home she’ll go straight downstairs to her room so she doesn’t risk seeing either of us while she is so horny from patrol. Well, won’t she be surprised when she discovers us in her bed waiting for her.” and Willow bounces excitedly on her toes nodding to exclaim, “Locked and loaded!” which again sends Tara laughing as the move to begin setting up their surprise for their horny, frustrated friend.