DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and the gang belong to Joss Whedon and the people at Mutant Enemy.
SUMMERY: Alternate Universe - Tara and Xander are two of the recipients of an arts scholarship for postgraduate study at UCSunnydale, where Tara's mother has a boarding house and some very interesting tenants and neighbours. Soon after arriving the two become embroiled with the Slayer and the town's latest bunch of nasties.
NOTE: I owe the essence of the first couple of lines to a book I was re-reading last night, as I'm hopeless with first lines.
PAIRING: Willow/Tara
Artistic License
By ralst
Chapter One
I would have known Tara anywhere. She had her mother's features - expressive blue eyes and flawless skin - softened further by the feminine curves that enchanted her cheeks and full red lips. Still, I wanted to be absolutely sure, so I whispered in Mary's ear and she nodded in agreement. Her daughter was seated at the edge of the podium and was involved in a subdued discussion with a dark-haired young man who was seated to her right.
"She's lost weight," Mary whispered, a touch of concern lacing her words. Her own bout of illness and subsequent weight loss had left her gaunt and fearful for the health of others.
"She looks extremely healthy to me," I said. Mary sighed in relief. "You might have told me about her sooner."
She shrugged, and I could tell she didn't want to talk about it. I knew there had been some tension in her family and as a result she'd become rather secretive about her youngest child. I understood that as I also kept the turmoil within my own family private. Perhaps now that she was finally about to introduce me to her daughter we might talk more about her family and eventually mine.
Mary had become a second mother to me since I'd begun living in her boarding house not long after graduating high school. I suppose a good deal of her attentiveness could be attributed to Tara's absence and the void it left in her mother's life. The girl had been living in England while she attended university but had decided to take her postgraduate study in Sunnydale, to be closer to her mother. It was a decision that had left Mary nearly giddy with excitement and finally loosened her tongue about her youngest and most cherished child.
"I can't believe it's been almost a year since I saw her last," said Mary, whose illness had meant she'd been unable to cross the Atlantic for their usual Christmas and Easter visits. Her determination not to worry Tara had also meant she'd needed to feign pressing business to keep her daughter from asking too many questions or suggesting she make the journey back to America herself.
I glanced back to the man at the centre of the podium who was coming to the end of his speech. "Heads up, Mary, they're about to introduce Tara and the others."
One of UCSunnydale's first graduates had gone on to make a fortune in the adult diaper market and on the occasion of his death had bequeathed his entire fortune to the setting up of three arts based postgraduate programs. It appeared that, as a young man, he'd longed to fulfil his talents as an artist but had been unable due to a lack of money. Having produced no heirs, he'd decided to give other future artists the encouragement he'd so desperately needed. This had led to Tara's application for funding and return to California.
I watched as Tara and the others smiled their appreciation before shuffling to the edge of the podium to collect their certificate of sponsorship. It was a pointless ceremony as none of the three had actually done anything yet to warrant praise, but it was part of the faculty's determination to advertise the advantages of studying in Sunnydale. Considering the high death rate that also dogged the college I thought they'd need a lot more than good publicity to increase the number of applicants.
The assembled crowd began to clap and the recipients made their way from the podium and into the throng of people. "She looks tired," Mary whispered, her mothering instincts on full alert. "Are you sure she doesn't look sick to you?"
"No." I couldn't help but smile. "She looks perfectly fine. Or at least as fine as someone who's spent the last eleven hours on a plane can look." The young woman's beauty had been obvious even from afar and even the tinge of tiredness that clung to her weary frame hadn't been enough to detract from that. It had just been a pity her flight had been delayed for so long and mother and daughter had missed the opportunity for a reunion prior to the public ceremony - as that, at least, would have put Mary's mind at rest.
Tara shook hands with the Chancellor and other dignitaries before her eyes sought out her mother. When at last her gaze came to rest on Mary's anxious form a smile of untold warmth engulfed her face. She raised a hand in greeting and began a desperate shuffle towards where we both stood.
"Momma?" Tara practically sang the name as her body collided with her mother's in an embrace that while lacking grace, was full of love.
"Oh, baby." I didn't have to see Mary to know she was crying. The two just stood there, for what felt like an age, with their arms around one another and tears in their eyes. It was an emotional sight and as such left me feeling like a intruder.
When they finally parted Mary took a moment to observe her child and reassure herself that she was indeed well before turning to me. "Tara, this is Willow."
"It's nice to f-finally meet you," she said. "From everything that mom's said I feel as if I already know you."
I shook her hand in a somewhat formal gesture, relieved to find her palm as moist as my own. "Same here." I spared a glance at Mary. "At least as far as the pleased to meet you part." I lowered my voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "Although she's been rather stingy with the details."
Tara laughed. "Well anything you want to know, just ask."
Before I could form a reply the young man from the podium sidled up to Tara and gave her a puppy dog look of devotion. He was a handsome boy with the kind of soft brown eyes that would make many a woman's heart melt. For a moment I wondered if Tara had been one of those women before banishing the thought to the back of my mind.
"Hey, Tara." He smiled over at Mary and me, and the cute puppy dog image was only reinforced.
"Xander," Tara welcomed warmly. "This is my mom and her friend, Willow." He gave me a little wave before introducing himself more formally to Mary. "I was telling Xander about the boarding house and how you might have a room he could rent."
Mary gave him the kind of assessing look I remember from our first meeting and after a second's hesitation during which Xander aged about ten years, she gave him a big smile. "Of course, you can have Cordelia's old room." She turned to Tara. "Did I tell you that Cordy was offered a part in one of those soaps?"
"Yes, mom."
"She's playing the illegitimate daughter of the show's transsexual go-go dancer," she explained to Xander. "Who was raised by a family of strict Mormons who don't smoke, drink or believe in sex before marriage."
"Now that's acting," I murmured.
Tara gave me a smile. "That sounds great mom. So, is it okay if Xander moves in straight away? Only the place where he was supposed to stay was burnt down last night in some freak accident."
"Sure dear."
"You were gonna stay at the Morrison place?" I asked Xander, my tone conveying the dismay I felt.
"Yeah." He shrugged. "Why, was there something wrong with it?"
Other than being run by a family of vampires who had nearly cost Buffy an ear the night before it had been the perfect little home away from home. "No, no." I took a deep breath and followed the others as they headed towards the car.
Buffy examined her new silk blouse, then dropped it unceremoniously into the garbage can - another sacrifice at the altar of slayerdom. Vampdust was bad enough but it generally came out after a trip to the dry cleaners. The same couldn't be said for the singe marks left by one of the flaming Morrison gang as he rushed for the exit. She smiled to herself. The sight had been oddly exciting but still not worth a designer shirt.
"And another one bites the dust," Dawn intoned from the doorway.
Buffy pouted. "Vamps have no consideration."
"They just don't appreciate how hard it is to find good clothing in Sunnydale."
"Ain't that the truth." Catching sight of a familiar vehicle passing in front of the house, Buffy crossed to the sink and began peering out the window. "I think Will and Mary are back."
"Really?" Dawn came up behind her sister and looked over her shoulder, a habit that annoyed the hell out of her shorter sibling. "Can you see Tara?"
"No," Buffy said, "but then I don't know what she looks like."
"Well, I might not be the college student but I'd say she'd be the one that isn't either Willow or Mrs Maclay."
"Smarty pants." Abandoning her vantage point Buffy made her way towards the front door. Stopping in front of the hallway mirror she gave herself a final once over, wanting to make a good impression on Mary's mysterious daughter. "Come on."
We hadn't even come to a stop in the driveway before Dawn and Buffy appeared in front of us. The Summers sisters were doing their best to look welcoming while at the same time refraining from giving the impression of mad stalker women.
"In coming," I warned. Mary smiled and the others looked up in mild horror. "Overactive neighbours at one o'clock."
Tara went to open her door but it was soon ripped from her grasp by Dawn's overly helpful tug. "Hi," the teen enthused, "I'm Dawn, you must be Tara."
"Er, yeah"
"We've heard so much about you, well, maybe not so much but what we have heard has been good." She stopped in her soliloquy to point out her sister. "That's Buffy, she's my sister, we live next door with our mom. I go to Sunnydale High, where Will and Buffy used to go, before it was blown up at least. Not that the explosion was all their fault or anything and Buffy did get the Class Protector award..."
"Breathe, Dawnie." I can't remember the last time I saw her this excited.
"Breathing is so overrated." The colour on her cheeks signalled Dawn's embarrassment but she still managed a friendly smile for both Tara and the nervously emerging Xander.
"Forgive my sister," said Buffy, "my mom smoked crack when she was pregnant."
"She did not!"
"It's the only explanation." Buffy persisted.
"Girls!" Mary's smiling rebuke was enough to end their harmless teasing and a hand to Tara's shoulder reassured her daughter that the newcomers weren't a threat. "Tara these are our neighbours Buffy and Dawn Summers. You'll no doubt be seeing a lot of them while you're living here."
"Oh, we're a permanent fixture," Buffy agreed.
I noticed Xander's eyes brightening at the news. It must have been a young man's dream come true to be surrounded by a house-full of beautiful young women, and he hadn't even met Anya yet. I know I would have been on cloud nine, if our positions had been reversed and I'd just wandered into a harem of potentially available beauties. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately I'd never found myself attracted to any of my friends, but I didn't think that would be a problem Xander would share.
I obviously wasn't the only one to notice Xander's look as Mary was soon introducing him to the others and ushering us all into the house. "Willow, can you show Xander to his room?" She turned back to him without waiting for a reply. "I'll have one of the girls bring you fresh sheets, dear."
"Thank you, Mrs Maclay."
"Oh, call me Mary," she smiled over at Tara, "you're practically one of the family."
I wasn't sure I liked the family comment, at least not if it meant he and Tara were going to become an item. But I'd learnt long ago not to doubt one of Mary's forecasts and looking over at the beauty that was her daughter I doubted I'd have stood a chance anyway. "Come on Xander, the sooner we get you unpacked the sooner we can get to the Bronze."
"The Bronze?"
"Oh, you'll love it."
It took less than half an hour to have Xander unpacked and settled in his new home. His possessions seemed to mainly consist of comic books and brightly coloured shirts, but he assured me the rest of his belonging would be arriving soon, although I'm pretty sure they'll contain similar objects. The man's obviously a bit of a geek, with terrible dress sense - I like him.
Flopping back on the bed he gave me an inquiring look.
"What?"
"I've been wondering if I should take the subtle approach, which I usually mess up anyway, or just flat out ask." He tipped his head to one side in contemplation, although about what I had no idea. "I'm thinking sledge hammer."
"What in the frilly heck are you on about?"
"Women and their romantic status." I just stared at him. "Like, I know Tara's single but how about the rest of you? I mean, I don't want to go making a fool of myself by mooning over someone with a three hundred pound weightlifting boyfriend. And, well, I've never shared a house with so many...erm, so many..."
"Babes?"
"Right!" A stricken look crossed his face. "You're not offended, are you? I mean about me calling you a babe, 'cause I only meant it in the best possible way."
"I'm not offended." I think if I was straight I could fall for this guy in a big way, he's just so damn cute. "And to answer your question, I'm single but gay, Buffy's single but hung up on her ex and Anya, who you've not met yet, is single but tactless."
"Tactless?"
"She kind of talks first, thinks second."
"Oh."
"So that's three out of four possibles." Yep, definitely a straight guy's dream come true. "Assuming you're single, straight and unlikely to do anything I might have to kill you for." I gave him my best dead-man's stare. "A vague disclaimer's no-one's friend."
He gulped. "That's me, straight, single, non-threatening guy." His grin was so comically desperate I couldn't help but believe him.
I spent another couple of minutes trying to convince him that the Bronze wasn't really a Hawaiian shirt type of place, before leaving him to change while I went in search of the others.
The first person I spotted was Anya, who'd just finished another lucrative shift at the Magic Box and was anxious to relate the story of how she overcharged a trainee warlock for an enamel cauldron - not only does she love money, but thinks anyone still using a cauldron when there are perfectly good microwaves available at K-Mart is just asking to get fleeced.
"He was surprisingly tall for a human," she continued, "so I encouraged him to purchase one of our special Tibetan cloaks." Her face lit up in girlish glee and I suddenly remembered the dusty box of theatrical costumes that we'd found in the shop when Giles first bought it. "With the new profit share program I've initiated it will mean I can now afford to buy the aardvark I've had my eye on."
"Okay." We've all tried but none of us can work out her current aardvark obsession. As with everything else it is a peculiarity we'll have to learn to live with or else put on the list of things not to mention in company - it's a very long list. "So, Giles agreed to the profit share?" Since marrying Joyce during the summer he'd been uncharacteristically cheerful, but I didn't think he'd lost that many brain cells.
"Well, not technically, but it's only a matter of time." Having exhausted the topic of her day's work, she turned her attention to house business. "Has Mary's daughter arrived? I need to introduce myself and initiate a bonding experience so that in the near future I can borrow her clothes and or money."
"Ah, the wonders of friendship." I love Anya, I really do, but sometimes I have the strong urge to hide her in a cupboard when people come to visit. "I think Buffy and Dawn were showing her to her room."
"Buffy and Dawn!" Indignant Anya, not a good sign. "Buffy already has a best friend to share secrets with and talk about embarrassing infections and problems with panty liners..."
"We do not discu..."
"And the little girl is too young for a best friend," Anya overrode. "She should be in her room playing with plasticised facsimiles of oddly proportioned women."
"She burnt all her Barbies last year, remember? After you told that demon-teen how she used to dress them up in cellophane and stage beauty pageants in front of the GI Joes Riley left behind." She'd also attempted to burn off Anya's eyebrows with the curling tongs, but the less said about that the better. "Besides, just because they're friendly with Tara doesn't mean you can't be too."
"But she might like them better than me." Seeing the insecure side to Anya always makes me regret the times I've wanted to strangle her. "And I wanted Tara as a best friend, because then my best friend would be better than Buffy's and she couldn't look down on the poor ex-demon anymore." Then she says something to make me want to strangle her all over again.
"Are you sure you didn't want to follow Cordy to LA? I could probably lend you the bus fare."
"No. I need to stay here with my friends and my business."
"You can't say I didn't try," I mumbled. "Come on, let's find the others."
Although larger than the other houses on Ravello Drive, Mary's boarding house was still relatively small and it didn't take us long to track down the hyperactive Summers sisters and their bemused audience. The excited way Buffy was describing the area and in particular the local dating scene, brought a smile to my lips. She'd been so down since the fiasco with Riley and Faith, and Spike's continued mooning hadn't helped. I could understand it, to a point, having gone through my own period of confusion in regards to my sex life, but at least I'd come to a conclusion and gotten on with things. Buffy seemed to have closed down - perhaps this was the sign that she was ready to open up again.
"Hey, Anya," Buffy called. "Tell Tara how creep-worthy Sunnydale men truly are."
"Their vocabulary is limited and they lack the stamina for anything beyond the casual intimacy of one or two orgasms." Anya stopped to consider. "But they are well tanned and the Neanderthals who inhabit the local Sunnydale gym and sauna have interesting bumpy bits and are willing to purchase many items of lingerie in exchange for minimal attention."
"I... I don't... I don't think." Tara had that deer in the headlights look that most people display on first meeting the ex-demon, but I have to give her extra points for the smile. She has a warm smile. "I'm not really big on dating."
"But you're pretty and have been living in a foreign country." Anya looked puzzled. "I thought having a foreign accent guaranteed you had dates? How else would boring people like Giles ever have sex?"
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
"And I triple that hey!" I looked towards Tara to explain. "Giles is a British friend of ours who recently got married to Buffy and Dawn's mom."
"Oh."
"Will you please, please, never mention Giles and sex in the same sentence ever again?" Buffy pleaded. "It's bad enough I caught them kissing the other day, but I refuse to even contemplate them getting all naked and sweaty."
"Buffy!"
"Ew! Sorry Dawnie." Buffy shuddered. "Anyway, who's up for Bronzing it tonight?" Dawn looked ready to agree before a 'never gonna happen' glare from her sister sent her into sulk mode.
"I'm in. I have a new dress I wish to display to the sweating bodies - of the non-Giles variety - at the club."
"Me too. I've already invited Xander and he should be ready any minute." I was actually beginning to wonder why he hadn't shown up yet, but presumed he was just a little intimidated at the prospect of interrupting six women in the middle of boy-talk.
"Who's Xander?" Anya demanded. "You haven't gone and changed teams again have you Willow? Only I have prior claim on all of the non-dead males in the vicinity." She stopped then to smile at the new arrival. "Unless Tara sees one she wants, but that is the only exception."
"No, I haven't changed teams!" Where's a good sword when you want one? "Xander's a friend of Tara's, who'll be staying in Cordelia's old room."
"Oooh!" She practically jumped towards the hallway. "Is he rich?"
"I don't think so." Tara looked nervous again.
"She's really quite harmless," Dawn assured her. "At least since she lost her powers."
"Powers?"
"Nevermind." Buffy gave her sister a dirty look. "So are we ready?"
Tara looked even more exhausted than before. "I-I'm not sure I..." She looked towards me as if I'd be able to provide an escape route before lowering her head to stare at the floor. "I'm a little tired."
Buffy was about to respond but her voice was cut off by Anya's forceful interrogation of a recently arrived Xander. The young man looked slightly ridiculous in his bright orange shirt and baggy cargo pants, but the fortitude with which he handled Anya's barrage was impressive. He answered her inquiries about his finances with honest apologies and managed to incorporate a compliment on her looks with a joke about Norwegian sunbathers in a manner that was both charming and slightly silly. His torment was finally brought to a close by Mary's arrival.
"Tara, honey, did you want an extra blanket?" Mary's pale blue eyes almost popped out of her head as she spotted the regiment of young people squashed into her daughter's room. "Oh dear." She put a hand to her chest. "I didn't realise the rest of you were still here."
"We were just about to head out," said Buffy, standing up from Tara's bed. She looked back at the other girl and for the first time noticed the tiredness surrounding her eyes. "Maybe tomorrow, if you're feeling rested, we could give you the Sunnydale tour."
Anya snorted. "That'll be a thrilling five minutes."
I would have agreed but I was too busy trying to think of a way to spend some time with Tara without the others hanging about. We hadn't really said more than a dozen words to each other but I could already feel a touch of excitement at the possibility of seeing her again. Living less than ten feet from her would at least make that highly likely.
We eventually said our goodbyes and after promising Mary that we'd be good, made our way towards the Bronze and a night much like any other.
To Be Continued