A Witch In LA

Chapter 5

“You are out and out evil.” Tara laughs as Faith hops in the seat beside her 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 slightly.

“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 hands 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 slightly 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 the beautiful blue eyes. “You are absolutely gorgeous. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Looking searchingly into the 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 growls out.

“Hmmm. Only if you want me to be,” Tara smirks slightly 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 slayers 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 slightly 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 slightly. “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 slightly at the touch.

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

“Soda.” Faith murmurs quietly.

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

“Of course she does.” Lorne smiles. “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.

“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, it 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. Tara can almost feel her heart reaching for the slayer. Swallowing slightly, she realizes she has fallen deeply in love with this woman, without even realizing it.

Easing her arm around the back of the booth, Faith leans in and in a quiet tones 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 feeling. 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-lovers name.

Faith hears the stutter, and she frowns. Feeling the anger starting to rise in her at the thought of the red head. 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 of the slayer and realizes there will be no talking the slayer out of her mind set. Frowning slightly, 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 slightly. Looking back at Tara she tilts her head slightly “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 slightly. “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 slightly. “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 slightly. 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 slightly 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 move her eyes up to look into the blue gaze and smirks slightly. 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 and the 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. “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 and 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 had 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.

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

“How about together.” Faith gives in and grabs the last wing, quickly finishing it off. 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 some how 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 out.

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 out.

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

Faith blushes slightly before grinning wickedly and leaning 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 out 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 out lowly before plopping back down.

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

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

“Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow.” Tara smirks slightly 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 out 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 out 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 flashes 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 mics 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 slightly sending a sidelong glance at Tara. “And do they get turned on at the drop of a hat?”

Lorne giggles slightly as Tara blushes. “Faith-y, sweety. 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 Bonnie Raitt songs, 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 slayers 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 in on top of the Bonnie Raitt.

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

“What songs do you know by Prince?” Tara questions 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 the 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 all 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, the two Kid Rock CD’s that I hadn’t picked up yet.” Faith murmurs shifting with the witch as she moved 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 murmurs 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 that, 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.