Return to Catching Sunflowers in Bloom Chapter Eleven



Catching Sunflowers in Bloom
CHAPTER TWELVE

Author: MissKittys Ball O Yarn
Rating: PG-13
Feedback: Please leave feedback on the Catching Sunflowers in Bloom thread on the Kitten Board.
Disclaimer: We all know the drill... but I guess it must be said. I don't own anything even remotely related to Willow and Tara nor do I plan to get anything that resembles monetary gain for such creative musing. The great and powerful Joss owns all and I am not but an unimportant bug to be crushed (now that that's been said...)


And then it happened. That line in the sand did more than just blur, it was obscured completely by rushing waves as Willow brought her lips gently, but with clear intention against Tara's. Willow's mind stopped humming as more primal forces took over.

Inside a lavender scented, sunflower haze, she felt Tara's arms encircle her and Tara's hands tentatively touching her back through the material of her wet shirt. It was a light, hesitant touch but it was enough to encourage Willow to deepen the kiss. In a moment of blind boldness, Willow's lips parted slightly against Tara's and the tip of her tongue ran against Tara's bottom lip as if it had a mind of it's own. Willow felt Tara inhale sharply. She was assaulted with the momentary fear that she might have misread the signs, that she might have done something wrong. Willow pulled back with the intention of ending it there, but Tara didn't let her get very far. The blonde was already lifting her lips to recapture Willow's, as she pulled away. Tara was guiding her back down with the power of their connection. Willow followed her without question.

There was a feeling of late afternoon around them. Still warm, there was a richness in the air, tinged with the deep golden pink of emerging dusk. Behind closed eyes, visions of puffy, white, marshmallow wisps danced in Tara's version of the sky.

She never imagined a kiss could be this good. There was no rush, and everything felt so new and so real. Tara wanted the moment to last forever. Willow's lips were so warm against her own.. This was more than a kiss, it was an affirmation of something they both had known had been there from the very start but had been too afraid to acknowledge before now. Willow's hair was still wet and it dripped onto Tara's face. Tara reached up slowly, to tuck a dripping strand behind Willow's ear.

Willow had lost all track of time. It seemed as if they had kissed for hours, but she knew in her brain that it could only have been minutes. Tara's fingers grazing her ear, brought the red-head back from the depths. They looked at each-other for a long moment, their breaths intermingling in the warm evening air, Willow finally pulled back and slowly slid her body off of Tara. She was straddling Tara's legs, but she braced herself with her knees on either side of the blonde's legs.

They watched each-other silently, both feeling out the situation. This was all so new for them. Tara sat up. She was leaning on her hands. They were outstretched behind her and she braced the weight of her upper-body against them. Tara could feel her wet hair clinging to the back of her shirt. Willow had an adorable smile plastered across her lips and Tara couldn't help but return the smile with one of her own. There was a warmth between them that made Tara's tummy burn.

Neither girl was blushing when they left the stables. Exchanging short glances, they held hands as they walked to the house.


There was delicious tension between them for the rest of the evening. They'd had a taste of connection and now their body's hummed with the need to explore it. Which they would've been doing right at that moment if it wasn't for the fact that they were sitting at the dinner table with Donny and Odessa three feet away from them on either side.

The need to eat was proving to be a frustrating obstacle, especially since Tara was finding it hard to think of anything except Willow's lips. She tried to focus on something else, but nothing could take her mind of what had happened in the stables. She knew that the dinner table was a bad place to be having these thoughts and she could feel her cheeks turn bright red. She prayed that her mother and Donny didn't take notice.

Unable to sit still any longer, Tara got up from the table under the guise that she needed another napkin. She could feel Willow had followed her from the table and was now approaching from behind.Tara couldn't hold back a smile as Willow brushed up against her on her way to the sink. The red head was filling her glass with water. Tara looked at her mother and brother as they sat at the table eating their dinner. She was relieved to see that it was obvious that they were both oblivious to anything that was transpiring between Willow and herself.

Back at the table Willow pushed her peas around on her plate as she looked across the table at Tara. Over the rim of her own glass of water Tara was meeting her gaze. Donny was to the left of Willow, wolfing down his food like he was a hungry Ethiopian, but Willow only half noticed that he was even at the table with them, as all her attention was centered on Tara.

"Donny, did you..."

Tara's could hear her mother speaking to her brother, but the noise of the conversation wasn't entering the space around Willow or herself. Looking down, Tara stared at the food on her plate. She wasn't hungry in the least, but having nothing else to do she absently reached for the salt shaker in the center of the table. Tara felt a spark as the tips of her fingers made contact with Willows.

They had both reached for the salt shaker at the same time.They smiled at each-other as their fingers broke apart, neither taking the salt shaker, instead it lay forgotten in the center of the table.

The rest of Dinner was filled with small, seemingly innocent touches; a touch of the hand here, or a brush of the arm there. They had spent so much time without the physical aspect of their relationship, now that they had released it, there was no putting it away. To try, only proved to make it worse.

"Are you girls finished already?" Odessa asked. They didn't know it but She'd been paying close attention to the both of them this evening. It was apparent to her that there was something going on between the two of them. Odessa thought it best to excuse them from the table, before whatever was cooking between them started to boil over onto her good table cloth. She chuckled to herself at the inability all fifteen year olds seemed to have at managing any ounce of subtlety.

Tara brought the fork she'd been holding in the air to her mouth at her mother's words. She swallowed hard. Tara realized her mother must have noticed that neither willow or herself had taken an actual bite of food in over fifteen minutes.

"Yes," they said in unison.

"May we be excused?" Tara asked her mother. She didn't look away from willow as she did this. "Go ahead" her mother said. Willow and Tara didn't waste a moment, before they were out of their seat and scraping what remained of their dinners into the garbage. they put their plates next to the sink, and headed upstairs.


Tara, there's something that I need to tell you..." Willow said, as they entered Tara's room.

"Willow, I understand if you don't want to..." Willow's words had Tara unexpectedly reliving the moment right after their first kiss... right before Willow had freaked out and made an escape out the window. Tara didn't want Willow to feel pressured to do anything she didn't want to do.

Willow could feel Tara beginning to get the wrong impression. "I want to kiss you again... okay?" Willow said turning around sharply.She wanted to reassure her friend that there was no way that she was regretting anything about what had happened in the stables.

Tara was floored, she hadn't been expecting Willow to come out and say it like that. But, she was relieved that Willow didn't feel like going out the window again. Feeling suddenly shy, Tara lowered her eyes from Willow's. Instead, she focused on the necklace resting at the base of the red-head's neck. The stone sparkled against the dim light of the room.

Willow saw Tara's gaze move from her face to her neck. Without waiting for Tara to respond, Willow made a swift movement toward Tara. It took only 4 steps to reach her friend and on the fifth step she was effectively pushing Tara up against the bedroom door. Her body pressing lightly against Tara's, she brought her hands up , pressing the palms of her hands against the wood of the door on either side of Tara's shoulders.

They were pressed so close together that Willow could feel Tara's breath on face. Willow leaned in, bringing their lips together for a second time that day. Willow was tired of dancing around her feelings for the blonde. She wanted Tara to know for sure how she felt about her, so that there would no longer be any question about it. There was one other thing that Willow felt needed clearing up though. Willow pulled back, putting an inch of space between her and the warmth of Tara's lips... "Tara...?"

"Hmm...?"

"So that whole, "this was a mistake" thing... We're over that now, right?"

"Oh yeah..."


Continue to Catching Sunflowers in Bloom Chapter Thirteen


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