New Paths

Willow coughs and her mouth opens and shuts a couple times as Buffy rolls away from the person she’d been making out with. It takes a few seconds for it to sink in that it’s a woman and Tara at that!



Oz allows a small smile to quirk at his lip as his nose twitches slightly from the obvious arousal coming from both women. Cocking an eyebrow at Buffy, he tilts his head slightly.



“Oz, this is Tara. Tara, this is Oz.” Buffy stands, helping Tara up, smiling as Tara extends her hand to the werewolf. “In case you’re not aware, he’s a werewolf.” Buffy explains quietly.



“Hi.” Tara blushes lightly and smiles at the slight redhead, shaking his hand, surprised at the cool gentle handshake.



“Hey.” Oz nods his head at her as he releases her hand and wraps the arm back around Willow’s waist.



“Willow, you know Tara.” Buffy slowly rocks back and forth on her feet, looking at her best friend, surprised at her lack of vocabulary.



“Hi, Willow.” Tara nods at the redhead, shifting to pick up her apple juice, finishing it quickly.



“You… her…” Willow shakes her head, blushing deeply.



“Tara and I are on a picnic, doing what most couples do on picnics, right?” Buffy raises an eyebrow, her lip turning up into a smirk as Tara’s eyes start to twinkle merrily.



“That’s true.” Tara agrees quietly, before chuckling. “Of course, she may b-be slightly confused, since you were d-dating Riley.” Tara tilts her head slightly.



“Oh. That’s true. Sorry, Wills. I broke up with Riley.” Buffy bites her lip to keep from laughing at the shock on the redhead’s face.



“I think you broke her.” Oz finally states, his eyebrow cocked at his girlfriend. Squeezing her waist gently, he tries to break her from the stupor she seems to be in.



“You… her…” Willow mutters again, her hand waving between the two blondes.



“Yes?” Buffy blinks, finally starting to get slightly irritated with her best friend. “Do you have a problem with my dating Tara, or a woman, Willow?”



Willow shakes her head, not hearing the light warning note in her best friend’s voice. “You don’t like women, what is this? Your try at something different? And what about Riley? You were all hot and heavy with him just last week, and now you’re saying you’ve broken up?? I think you better get your priorities figured out, Buffy. Because this just isn‘t like you! You‘re not gay, and it is SO wrong.”



Oz raises an eyebrow in surprise at his girlfriend, before his eyes turn to look at the lowly growling slayer. Shifting slightly to partially block Willow from Buffy, he looks at the slayer and shakes his head. “Don’t, please.”



Buffy growls angrily, a little louder before shifting her eyes to Oz, seeing the silent begging in his eyes, knowing that this would come down to him and her fighting, if Willow didn’t chill. And no matter what, Oz had been a good friend through high school, and she’d hate to have to take him down. Slowly nodding her head in acknowledgement, Buffy finally whispers softly, so that only Oz can hear. “Get her away from here and talk to her. I won’t put up with her talking like that in front of me or Tara, understand? If she can’t accept it, fine. But she won’t put either one of us down like that.”



Oz nods his head in understanding. “Come on, Wills. Let’s go get a coffee.” Oz urges the angry redhead away, not quite understanding why Willow was so upset. Never thinking that his girlfriend would be homophobic, but silently wondering if that might be it.



“Sorry.” Buffy mumbles, the anger still at the forefront as she watches Oz practically drag an uncooperative Willow away from them. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but I never would have expected her to have a problem with gays or lesbians.” Buffy shoves her hands in her pockets, staring after the two redheads.



Tara sighs quietly and places her hand on a tense shoulder. “Different people react differently, Buffy. She’s always known y-you to like men. And honestly, the way you and R-riley were… I never would have thought you would like women.” Tara explains quietly.



“I like you.” Buffy admits softly, slowly relaxing as she turns her gaze back to Tara, noticing the stutter was back, it having gone away the more they talked and became comfortable with each other. “I…” Sighing deeply, Buffy shakes her head. “That put a hell of a damper on things.” Buffy bitches quietly as she kneels down on the blanket, slowly closing the containers and packing them away methodically in the basket.



“Buffy, don’t let her ruin the g-good time we were having, please.” Tara begs quietly as she kneels beside the slayer, helping her pack the items, her head tilted forward so her hair covers her face.



Buffy blinks and stops what she’s doing, hearing the slight quaver in Tara’s voice. Reaching over, Buffy tilts up Tara’s chin to look in the slightly watery blue eyes. “I’m sorry, Tara. I shouldn’t let her idiocy bother me.” Leaning in, Buffy gently brushes her lips over Tara’s, sighing quietly at the almost silent sob that escapes. Wrapping her arms around the Wiccan, Buffy frowns as Tara buries her face in her neck. Gently running her hands up and down Tara’s lightly shaking back, Buffy places a kiss on the side of Tara’s head. “How come I get this feeling that there’s more to you being upset than Willow’s reaction?” Buffy finally whispers after Tara slowly calmed down.



Tara takes a deep breath and slowly nods her head against Buffy’s neck. “It r-reminded m-me a l-lot of m-my f-father’s reaction.” Tara stuttered horribly. “But with l-less y-yelling and h-hitting.”



Buffy stiffens in response to hearing those words, slowly easing back from Tara urging her to look up at her. “He hit you?” Buffy growls angrily, her eyes flashing at the thought.



Tara slowly nods her head. “Yes. H-he b-beat me and w-wouldn’t l-let me g-go anywhere b-but to school a-afterwards.” Tara admits quietly, the shame obvious in her eyes.



“He never should have laid a finger on you, Tara. Never.” Buffy shifts from her knees to sit down, gently urging Tara into her lap. As the Wiccan sits sideways across her legs, Buffy wraps her arms around her waist, and rests her forehead against the woman’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tara.” Buffy hugs Tara tightly to her. “I’ll talk with Willow after we’ve had time to cool down. Find out what’s going on.”



Tara slowly nods her head in agreement, shifting slightly to rest her arm around Buffy’s shoulders, unthinkingly having Buffy pressed against her chest with the maneuver.



Buffy stills as she finds her cheek pressed against Tara’s breast. Blinking in surprise at the contact, then as she becomes aware of how much flesh is there, Buffy bites her lip to keep from moaning and rubbing against the flesh. Running a hand from Tara’s side down to her thigh, Buffy squeezes Tara’s leg gently.



“Don’t let me end up r-ruining your friendship with W-Willow, Buffy. Good friends l-like you two, are extremely hard to f-find in this world. I don’t w-want to come b-between you.” Tara explains softly, slowly relaxing into the slayer’s embrace.



“Friendship is hard to come by.” Buffy agrees quietly. “But so is someone to love and spend your life with. And honestly, I’m not willing to give you up without a fight, Tara. I think there is something here that is going to be extremely special, and I want to see if I’m right.”



Tara inhales deeply at the slayer’s words. “Then, I guess we’re going to see if there is.” Tara smiles as she hears the light laugh come from Buffy.



Shifting her head up, she looks up into Tara’s blue eyes. “Back on a little more solid ground, now?” Buffy smiles softly as Tara grins crookedly at her. “God, I love that smile.” Buffy admits, lifting her hand to trace her fingers over the Wiccan’s lips. “Come on, let’s go ahead and pick up the rest of this stuff. I can put it in my refrigerator to have for later. What would you like to have? You can take any and all that you want.” Buffy offers as Tara gently eases off her lap.



“I might just take another pimiento cheese sandwich and a little bit of the fruit. I’ll have that for dinner tonight.” Tara finally murmurs after seeing the stubborn look crossing Buffy’s face after she had started to shake her head no to the food.



“You can walk me back to my room, so I can get rid of the majority of this stuff, then I’ll walk you to your room, how does that sound?” Buffy offers gently as she finishes tucking away the food containers, while Tara folds the blanket.



“Ummm.” Tara looks up nervously at Buffy, her eyes unconsciously flickering towards where Willow and Oz had disappeared to.



“They probably went to the Espresso Pump. We’ll be gone from the room well before Willow will be back.” Buffy explains quickly.



Tara nods and smiles tremulously at the slayer. “Okay. I guess I need to deal with it, if she decides she doesn’t like me.” Tara shrugs as she follows Buffy to her dorm.



“No. You don’t have to deal. We just won’t be spending much time around her.” Buffy explains softly. “It’s not like I see a lot of her, anyway. She’s usually out and gone with Oz, like I was out with Riley. I’m honestly waiting for her to say that she’s moving in with Oz. I know his parents made up their house with a section as an apartment with its own entrance for him. And they love Willow.” Buffy shrugs and smiles at Tara, opening the door to the dorm, allowing Tara to precede her in.



“They must be n-nice people.” Tara looks inquisitively at Buffy. “How did he b-become a…” Tara looks around, not finishing the question as she realizes there’re quite a few people in the area.



“His little cousin is one, hereditarily, and he bit Oz.” Buffy explains quietly.



Tara blinks in surprise at Buffy. “Does he run loose, or lock himself up?” Tara questions curiously.



“We used to lock him up the three days a month, but he ran off to Tibet and studied with the monks. With meditations, herbs and trances, he’s pretty much got control of his wolf side. He does have a cage that he’ll lock himself up in, if he feels the least bit worried that he might change.” Buffy explains as she unlocks the door to her room.



Tara looks around the room curiously, having never been in it, smiling at the disorganized, slightly messy side to the almost clinical, obsessively neat side, knowing immediately that the neat side is Willows. Slowly moving to the messy bed, Tara gently sits down on the edge, watching as Buffy works her way through the sandwiches, setting aside the two pimiento cheese sandwiches.



“What fruits would you like?” Buffy looks up, smiling at Tara before looking back down to move the partially eaten fruit salad with the pimiento cheese sandwiches.



“Anything is fine.” Tara tilts her head, watching Buffy as she works through the fruits, each move economical, with the least amount of fuss.



Buffy looks towards Tara, grinning for a moment. Grabbing a grape, she aims and tosses it gently towards Tara’s mouth, chuckling as Tara opens and catches it, chewing on the fruit.



Tara grins at the slayer’s playfulness.



Buffy finishes giving Tara the rest of the grapes, the raspberries and her fruit salad. She then split up the cherries between the two of them. Quickly placing the rest of the items in the mini-refrigerator that she and Willow share, Buffy grabs a bag to place Tara’s items in, so she doesn’t have to carry around the big picnic basket. “I would say we can hang out here for a while, but I don’t want to chance Willow coming back and there being a confrontation.” Buffy smiles softly at Tara.



“That’s fine.” Tara quirks her lip at Buffy, before standing to walk towards her, stopping in front of the slayer to study her for a moment before leaning in to gently press her lips against Buffy’s. “Thank you, Buffy.”



Buffy raises her eyebrow questioningly at the Wiccan.



Tara grins crookedly at Buffy. “For being a kind, understanding and wonderful person.”



Buffy blushes and shakes her head. “I’m not any of those things, Tara. I’m just me, I screw up and do stupid stuff. More often than not I hurt the people I love, without meaning to, and I’m also a pain in the ass a lot of the time.” Buffy admits quietly.



Tara chuckles quietly, and tilts Buffy’s face back up from where she had been looking down at the floor. “You are.” Tara reiterates softly, before pressing another quick kiss to Buffy’s lips, before easing away. “Let’s go to my room. I wouldn’t mind talking…” Tara trails off and wiggles her eyebrows. “Some more when we get there, where we don’t have to worry about being interrupted.”



Buffy growls quietly, her eyes lighting up with the thought. “That sounds like a very good, very serious plan to me. What are we doing still standing here?” Buffy urges a laughing Tara out the door and quickly out of the dorm.



***



Oz slides his gaze towards his girlfriend, seeing the straight line of her lips, and the clenching jaw, along with the almost stomping walk, knowing that this isn’t going to be an easy conversation. “Should we go somewhere private?” Oz finally questions softly.



“What? Why? To talk about my best friend getting all freaky with a WOMAN?” Willow yells the word, her hands flying in the air as her face turns red. “Buffy doesn’t like women! She’s all with the men. I bet she put a spell on her.” Willow narrows her eyes dangerously as she thinks about it. “That’s what it is! Tara put a spell on Buffy to make her like her. We have to see Giles and find out if there’s something we can do to get rid of it!” Willow quickly picks up her pace, a new plan coalescing in her mind.



Oz quickly catches up to her, gently pulling her to a stop and turning her to face him. “No, Willow. You know she didn’t place a spell on Buffy. What is the real problem? Are you homophobic? Or is it something more than that?” Oz questions softly, his eyes searching Willow’s eyes, trying to decipher what’s really setting his girlfriend off.



“It’s wrong, Oz. That’s all that’s bothering me. Two women being together is WRONG!” Willow snarls, her eyes flashing in anger before she turns again to walk down the street.



Oz shakes his head in disbelief and quickly catches up with Willow, seeing something else in her eyes when she’d made her comments. “She’s not stealing her away, Willow. What is the difference if Buffy is with Riley or Tara? Honestly Tara seems more in tune with Buffy than I ever thought Riley was.” Oz explains quietly, having seen the two women together, seeing a togetherness and a rightness to them being a couple. Something he hadn’t seen between Buffy and Riley.



“Yes she is! She’s trying to steal Buffy from me…” Willow turns on her boyfriend, practically snarling the words, before snapping her mouth shut in anger, her eyes flashing.



Oz raises an eyebrow at his girlfriend, silently waiting for her to say or do something else.



“Damn you.” Willow growls as she turns and stomps a couple yards away before crossing her arms across her chest and stares across the street. “If she has her, why would she need me anymore?” Willow finally questions after analyzing her own feelings and fears.



“You’re friends, Will. You always will be, as long as you don’t fuck up again, like you just did. You hurt Buffy terribly with your attitude, and she won’t stand for it. She is willing to fight, literally fight for Tara. Did she do that with anyone else? No. She argued and disagreed regarding Angel, but she never fought anyone over him.” Oz tries to explain. “I think she really truly could love Tara. But she needs her friends there to support her. It’s not an easy road, what she’s going to have to deal with. But she obviously feels it’s worthwhile.”



Willow slowly crumples as Oz’s words sink in, the tears slowly coming to her eyes. “Did I screw it up past the point of making things right?” Willow tearfully asks Oz, starting to sniffle as she realizes what a hateful uncaring bitch she had been.



“I don’t think so. But you might want to give it a little while for things to calm down. Then maybe mocha’s and muffins…” Oz suggests reaching up to gently brush a tear away from Willow’s cheek. “Maybe a huge apology to Tara, also.”



Willow sighs heavily as she steps into Oz’s embrace, burying her head in his neck as she cries quietly. “I was afraid that Tara was going to take my place. All I could see was how happy Buffy was, making out in the middle of the quad with a woman and so obviously happy and at ease… I haven’t ever seen her eyes light up like that. I’m so scared that she isn’t going to need me anymore.”



“Wills, she loves you.” Oz whispers, holding Willow tightly. “You’re best friends and have been through more in the last couple years than most people have been through in over thirty years of friendship. Just talk with her, explain what your real problem is. Give her a chance, my beautiful woman.” Oz strokes his hands softly over Willow’s back, smiling softly as Willow chuckles.



“I don’t know how you put up with me, but thank you.” Willow rubs her cheek softly on Oz’s shoulder.



“We’ve both screwed up, but we’re both willing to work out our problems. Just be willing to talk with her, okay.” Oz suggests softly, stroking a hand down Willow’s hair.



“Okay.” Willow agrees softly, her mind trying to work out a plan of action of how to apologize and talk to Buffy.



***



“Finn!” Maggie Walsh yells, looking at the soldier as he comes to attention in front of her.



“Yes, Ma’am!” Riley stares at a point over the Professor’s shoulders.



“We are heavy in vampires, but a lot of other demons we don’t have. I’d like you to make sure to try and capture as many other demons as possible, for us to test.” Maggie looks down at her clipboard flipping the pages as she looks down. “We haven’t been having much luck with the chip modifiers. It’s looking promising for the vampires, but with the differing physiology of the other demons, it makes it hard to find the right nerve endings to attach the chips to.” Maggie looks back up at Riley, frowning slightly. “Get your crew together and start gathering as many as you can. That’s all.”



“Ma’am!” Riley does a quick about face and strides out of the office, working his way out of the Initiative and up into the house his group used, calling the crew in for a meeting.



“What’s up?” Forrest asks as the rest of the group gathers around Riley.



“We’ve got orders to hunt out and grab as many demons as possible. NOT vampires, but all the other kinds we can come across. So, we’re going on a serious hunt, seek and capture mission. I want everyone to gear up and we’ll split up into two groups, search out the sewers, make sure you’re prepared.” Riley looks from one man to the other until he’s looked at them all. “Be back here in an hour.”



Riley turns and heads out of the room, jogging up the stairs to go to his bedroom, hesitating at the dresser as he looks at a picture of Buffy tucked in the corner of the mirror. Reaching up and pulling the small picture down, Riley tilts his head, considering the slayer. “Why couldn’t you just let me take care of you? With us being here, you could have stayed home, we would take care of the demons and evil.” Riley growls quietly as he looks down at the picture of the blonde grinning in the picture. “But no, you want to be in charge, you have to go out and risk your life.” Riley crumples the picture in his hand and tosses it in the trash. “So be it.”