The End Of Summer
folder
BtVS AU/AR › FemmeSlash - Female/Female
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
5
Views:
4,191
Reviews:
1
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
BtVS AU/AR › FemmeSlash - Female/Female
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
5
Views:
4,191
Reviews:
1
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Part Three
That night Buffy hit the raves again but found it all monotonous and overdone. The flashing lights and pounding bass quickly gave her a headache and she was on her way home within the hour. She found Tara on the couch with Cosmic in her lap purring contentedly as she read aloud from Siddhartha. "Siddhartha gave his clothes to a poor Brahmin on the road and only retained his loincloth and earth colored unstitched cloak. He only ate once a day and never cooked food. He fasted fourteen days. He fasted twenty eight days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks. Strange dreams were reflected in his enlarged eyes." Tara's voice was even and lulling as she spoke and Buffy found herself immediately entranced in the story of Siddhartha's journey. She sat cross-legged in the papasan chair and leaned back, resting her pixie-head on her crossed arms and closed her eyes as Tara softly spun a tale for her. Aware of her audience, Tara's voice kept its steady even tone long after Cosmic abandoned the girls in favor of a warm spot on their bed that the sun's last rays had kept toasty just, it seemed, for him. Tara read for two hours without stopping until finally the urge to use the bathroom overwhelmed her desire to stay as they were forever. She set the book down on the coffee table and Buffy opened her eyes, coming out of her trance-like state and stretching to loosen the muscles in her shoulders. After she had used the bathroom, Tara returned to the livingroom where Buffy had lit up one of her Ecstacy cigarettes. She puffed unsurely on it and apparently, finally decided she liked it and leaned back on the couch. The thick leather cushions enveloped her and she felt truly relaxed for the first time in a long while. Every now and then she would lift a hand to run her fingers through her cropped hair. Tara sat quietly on a mat and began her meditation, folding her feet and touching her fingertips just so. Her eyes closed with concentration. Buffy watched with interest. She may have listened to the story and enjoyed the herbal cigarette, but she was not ready to assume Tara as her guide in this, the end of days. There was still an answer she was looking for, she knew, and she was not yet ready to give up on the idea that she might find it in her raves and drugs. She glanced towards the mirror on the wall. Strange dreams were reflected in her eyes as well. Dreams of bombs falling, her loved ones burning; dreams of running and running and getting nowhere; dreams of finally dying here, far from home, the last of her kind left. Her kind which she had spent her life trying to protect from evil, only to find out that the true evil lay in their hearts and actions. So maybe there was something to all of this. Just maybe. Ignoring the pain in her joints, she took a seat beside Tara and folded her legs the same way. They sat like that for hours upon hours, until the moon had long since risen and Cosmic had returned to beg for his tuna fish. Buffy found herself calmed by the whole exercise. There was no great enlightenment or sudden solution to the pain burning in her body and soul at all times, but she felt rested and clean. They unfolded themselves and Buffy fed Cosmic while Tara straightened up the livingroom. "You know," Buffy finally said, breaking the silence. "Thanks for.. everything. My hair and all." Tara nodded and started working at the stove, making a homemade pizza for them. Buffy watched her quietly, really studying her for the first time. There, where she had not seen them before, were worry lines that rivaled her own. Her bottom lip was swollen from chewing on it, and there on her arm was a gash that looked as though it had been made with her fingernails. Buffy eyed her own scars and then the enlightenment came. Tara was not ignorant of the situation. She was as lost and tortured as any other, just better at hiding it. Something changed then and Buffy grabbed her arm gently. Tara tried to pull away, azure eyes wide and burning. Buffy laid her arm out alongside Tara's and compared their scars silently. Yes, she decided, they were more alike than she'd originally thought. And with that, the hatred faded along with the jealousy and bitterness she'd had towards Tara. Tara stared at the ground, not knowing how to react. Buffy had noticed and while part of her was greatful for it, still a bigger part wished she had not noticed and thus things would continue as they had with Tara playing the part of the Earth Mother--everything good and pure. Things would change now, certainly for the worse. And then Buffy kissed her. The world stopped moving then and it was just her and Buffy tumbling down together, holding on for dear life. Their tongues dancing together in their kitchen in time with the waves crashing just outside. Everything changed. Everything stayed the same. Everything spun. That night, they went to bed together again. They slept entwined again. And Buffy finally knew she was not Willow's stand-in.