Author: JustSkipIt
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own Willow and Tara and the Buffyverse.
Summary: Continuation of Friendly Friends.
Feedback: Darn tootin! Please leave feedback on the Menorah Tales thread on the Kitten Board.

About a year later

Willow fluffed the pillows on her bed again and then went over to the desk to straighten her desk pad. She used her fingers to ensure that the pad was perfectly centered on her desk, that her notebooks were stacked from largest (on bottom) to smallest (on top), and that her 8 different colored pens were just up-desk of the notebooks and arranged according to the color spectrum, red on one end, violet on the other. Then she crossed to the window and looked out onto the street. No cars were coming and she looked at the time again. 6:42. It wasn't like she was late, like they were late. The movie didn't even start until 7:35.

It was just that she hadn't seen Tara, hadn't seen Faith and Tara she corrected herself, since yesterday afternoon. Yes, the Sabbath was a time for family and rest but it was 57 minutes past sundown so the day of rest was over and she still hadn't seen Tara today. She looked around the room once again then went into the bathroom to wash her face. She thought she'd seen a blemish, heck a zit, earlier in the day and hoped it was gone now. After a good scrubbing she went back into her room and looked out the window again. Seeing headlights, she picked up her jacket and exited her room, being sure to pull the door closed.

"Your friends are here," Willow's mother called up the stairs just as the redhead reached the top.

"I saw." Willow she bounced breathlessly down the stairs.

"Tara's mom is dropping you off at the movies, right?"

Willow sighed loudly. "Yes, mom."

"And she picked up Faith?"

Willow rolled her eyes theatrically. "Yes."

A car horn sounded out front and Willow started to pull open the door. "Your father will pick you up at 9:40 in front of the theater."

Willow started out the door before stopping and turning back toward her mother. "But we can light the candles when we get back right? Even though it's totally late?"

"Yes, darling." Shelia said more to Willow's back then anything else.

Willow leaned in through Tara's rolled-down window. "Hi, Mrs. Maclay. Thanks for taking us to the movies."

"Of course, Willow. Please get in before you freeze."

Willow quickly opened the door and climbed into the back seat with Faith.

"Hi, Willow," Tara greeted her friend.

"Yeah, hi, Red."

"Hi," Willow answered.

"Did we pick the movie yet?" Faith wanted to know.

A quick discussion between the three girls resulted in their choosing a romantic comedy staring Hugh Grant. Mrs. Maclay pulled over to the curb among the countless other cars similarly disgorging teenagers. "Willow, your father is going to pick you girls up?"

"Yes, ma'am," the redhead answered respectfully.

"Ok, Tara have a good night."

Tara walked quickly around the car to place a kiss on her mother's cheek. "Thanks, Mom." She started to walk away but instead turned back toward the car. "I love you," she whispered.

The three girls watched Mrs. Maclay merge into the traffic and drive off with a wave of her hand. "She looks good, T," Faith said as she patted her friend on the back and they began walking into the theater.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Willow enthused.

Tara looked at her feet for a moment. "You r-really thought so?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely!" Faith said. "No doubt about it. Is she feeling better?"

"She says so but...," Tara trailed off as they approached the ticket window, each girl pulling out money to pay for her own ticket.

Once inside the crowded theater and having had their tickets torn in half, Willow looked around. "I need to pee." Oh that's smooth. I need to pee? How about ‘excuse me?'

Tara giggled. "Me too."

"TMI, girls," Faith said laughingly. "I'll get the popcorn." They agreed on the size of popcorn and sharing a large drink before splitting up.

"Are you ok?" Willow asked as she held open the door. She wondered if Tara was worried about her mom or maybe offended that Willow used the word pee. "Do you think we shouldn't have come?"

Tara saw the worried look on Willow's face and looked quickly around the bathroom. No one else was inside and she quickly reached out to touch the back of the redhead's hand. "I'm here with my best f-friends. What could be w-wrong?" She attempted a smile but didn't really think that the redhead bought it.

The girls emerged from their stalls simultaneously and washed their hands. Just as they were finishing Cordelia and Harmony entered the room. The well-dressed pair didn't even toss an insult toward their nerdier classmates, insulting them by not even speaking. Willow watched them and looked at Tara to see her half-smile on her face. After looking at each other for a second, both girls started laughing and left the restroom.

They were still laughing as they spotted Faith across the room and walked over to take the drink from her. As they arrived they heard another voice. "Hey, Faith. Hi, Willow, Tara."

Faith was the first to greet their visitor. "Hi, Jimmy. Hi, Frank. Where's Cordy and Harmony?"

Willow glanced at Tara to see the blonde starting to laugh again and quickly looked away to keep herself from joining in. They both noticed Faith giving them a strange look but she didn't say anything.

"So, that was a really great shot you made Wednesday night to win the game," Jimmy said.

"Thanks. I was in the right place at the right time." Faith tried to blow off the compliment.

"I wish I'd be in the right place at the right time for 24 points and 7 rebounds," Frank teased.

"You guys looked good," Faith disagreed.

As the three ball-players discussed their games from the week, Tara attempted to blend into the floor. She couldn't play sports to save her life and even though she went to the games to see Faith, she just couldn't get excited about something as mundane as a basketball game. She smiled as she thought about the best part of every game-Willow sitting next to her carrying on a running commentary. It didn't matter the subject-the game, her classes, why is the foul line called the foul line?-it seemed Willow could go on and on forever with her questions and theories. It was Tara's favorite part of high school. Her favorite part of ... anything.

"And we're only on JV," Jimmy was saying as Tara tuned in to the conversation again.

"Yeah, when was the last time a Freshman made varsity?"

Harmony's voice interrupted the speculation. "Are you guys ready to go in? We want to get good seats." Again neither girl graced Faith, Tara, or Willow with so much as a glance.

"Well, we'll see you around school," Jimmy said as he took Cordelia's hand and began walking into the theater.

"Bye. Enjoy your movie," Frank added.

"That was a s-surprise," Tara said, nodding her head at the foursome ahead of them, as the three girls started into the theater.

"They're nice guys," Faith said, "Is this row ok?" All three girls sat down near the center of the row. "They just have terrible taste in chicks." She winked and Willow and Tara both laughed.

The movie turned out to be not very good. It was formulaic, predictable, and the acting and writing were downright bad. Actually, Willow decided that it would have had to been quite a bit better to be bad. As it was, terrible was the best rating she could give it. By the end of the movie, she'd assigned it a 4.0 for acting, 3.0 for writing, 3.0 for directing, and 9.0 for atmosphere for an average of 4.75 out of 10. And really, how much credit could you give a movie because every once in a while Tara laughed or smiled at something on screen or because their hands kept brushing together as they reached for popcorn? Faith occupied herself by tossing popcorn toward Cordelia and Harmony, a few rows in front of the former-French Hens.

"You're going to get us kicked o-out," Tara whispered.

"How would that be punishment?" Willow joked.

Tara laughed, finally turning to face Willow and give her a full-smile, happy to see Willow return it. "This m-movie is pretty terrible isn't it?"

Someone behind them shushed them and Willow finally blushed before looking back at the screen.

When the final credits rolled, Faith stood up and stretched. "Well, that sucked. Is Pop coming to get us?"

Willow looked at the watch on her arm as they walked into the lighted lobby. "He'll be here in about ten minutes."

"Hey is that new?" Faith grabbed Willow's arm and lifted the watch for Tara to see.

"W-wow," Tara said as she looked at the complicated watch.

"I got it last night. It has a built in compass with bearing and cardinal points, time to the 100th of a second, glows in the dark, alarm, stopwatch, and countdown timer. Oh and it's waterproof." Willow quickly punched buttons to show off her watch and all its complex functions as she spoke.

"You planning to rob a bank?" Faith teased.

"Maybe she's going to take up mountain climbing," Tara joined in.

"Well you know that the brain bowl competition is fierce," Faith suggested. "Hey there's Ira."

"I wish you wouldn't call him that," Willow said even as she laughed at their good-natured teasing about her gift. When they arrived at the car, Willow quickly climbed in the front seat and the other two girls climbed in back. "Thanks for picking us up, Dad." Before she had even stopped speaking, she turned to look at the girls in the back seat. "We're going to light the candles, ok? Mom said that we could wait until after the movie even though really it should have been like 3 hours ago."

"Exactly how long ago?" Tara asked.

"What?"

"Come on, Will. You know what time s-sunset was and you know exactly what time it is now," Tara started.

"Down to the 100th of a second," Faith added and noticed Willow's father smiling.

"So how late are the candles g-going to be?"

Willow laughed at her friends's teasing. "Three hours, 11 minutes give or take a few for pop's driving."

"Step on it, Pop," Faith suggested.

Ira laughed before teasing the girls. "You should all feel lucky that we don't have that ‘sees you when you're sleeping, knows when you're awake...' rule."

"Especially Faith," Tara joked.

"Hey, I scored 24 points Wednesday night," Faith argues.

"Which would be a real selling point if Santa Claus was a Sunnydale High girls basketball fan."

Faith reached forward to playfully smack Willow on the arm for her teasing.

Ira pulled the car into the garage and shut off the engine as the girls disembarked. "Thanks for the ride, Mr. Rosenberg," Tara was the first to say.

"Yeah, thanks."

Willow led the way into the house. "Hi, Mom. We're home."

Sheila met the group in the hallway and then walked back into the dining room where she had set up the menorahs. "Do each of you want to light one?"

"Of course they do," Willow said as she bounced over to the table. She pulled the center candle from each menorah and handed one to Faith and one to Tara, keeping one for herself. "Since it's the fourth night, we'll light four candles. You do this one first, then work this way." She used her finger to note the correct order for lighting the candles then took the Xeroxed sheets from her father and pointed at the correct blessing.

Tara smiled at Willow as the redhead talked. She just couldn't help it. Willow showed such enthusiasm for everything. Willow didn't consider herself religious, yet she seemed to take a great deal of joy and comfort from the rules and rituals of her faith. The first year that they had lit the menorah, Tara hadn't really understood it. But this year she saw that Willow was trying to share something that was important to her with her friends. Maybe even to share a little of her family with her friends. The blonde grasped Willow's hand and squeezed lightly before dropping it. She was surprised as Willow looked over her shoulder to smile and then wink at her.

When they recited the blessing over the candles, the five voices sounded true and enthusiastic. Willow was surprised to hear Tara so confidently reciting the blessing but maybe the blonde understood what it meant to her to share this ritual. Willow knew that neither of her friends had either the family support nor the money that she had and she just wanted to share a little of her own with them. She knew it could never make up for what they lacked but it was all she could think to do.

As the year before, Sheila gave each of the three girls bags of chocolate and a ten dollar bill and each again thanked her profusely before heading upstairs.

A short discussion resulted in the girls agreeing to watch Tomb Raider. Faith always lobbied for action adventure movies and anything where Angelina Jolie kicked serious ass was a big hit with her. Willow liked the way Angelina looked throughout the movie and she loved watching Tara watch it. The blonde always seemed very intense, biting her lip and leaning slightly forward toward the TV as if willing the heroine to prevail once again.

"Well, I should get rid of some of the popcorn," Faith declared as she lay down on her back and began doing crunches.

"Ever the jock," Willow teased.

"Hey, I've got abs of steel." Faith lifted her T-shirt and patted her stomach while smiling at the other girls.

The ribbing went on for a little while as the three friends teased each other regarding their interest in their own fitness, intellect, singing ability, or whatever else they decided to focus on. They'd been through this exact conversation many times before and would do the same many times in the future.

Once the movies started and Willow skipped the preview chapters, Faith continued her crunches, interspersing stretches into the routine. Tara sat on the edge of Willow's bed as the redhead leaned back between her legs. "Do you want me to braid your h-hair?"

Willow's eyes sparkled as she turned around. "Yes. Definitely." She jumped up and came back with the brush and rubber bands from her bathroom counter and handed them to Tara. "I'll do yours next?"

Tara nodded and then patted the bedspread on the side of the bed to indicate that Willow should lean against the bed once again. As she brushed the redhead's hair, she was amazed at how smooth it was. It sent shivers through her sometimes when she felt this whisper soft brush of hair against her fingertips or the back of her hands. I wonder if it feels this good to her when she brushes my hair? Tara knew she was blushing slightly and felt glad that Willow was watching the movie, not stealing glances like she sometimes did.

It took a long, wonderful time to finish Willow's hair and an even longer one as Willow returned the favor.