Author: JustSkipIt
Feedback: Yes, please. Please leave feedback on the Willtaralympics 2007 thread on the Kitten Board.
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own Willow and Tara and the Buffyverse. No copyright infringement is meant by this fic and I will not make any money from it.

Note - This piece takes place in the Shadow and Sunlight verse. It follows the completion of Water by a few hours. I highly recommend reading those works (in order would be S&S first, then Water).

Tara tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she drove, enjoying the rhythm with the background pitter patter of the rain on the roof of the black car. A sign read Nevada state line - 14 miles. She couldn't smell dawn yet so they could make another fifty or seventy-five miles tonight. And that was even assuming that they stopped again. The rain increased and she hit the windshield wipers to speed them up. It wasn't like a car crash would kill them--unless they burned up of course-but she didn't really think that being stranded in the desert hours before sunrise sounded fun.

Home. Willow wanted to go home and apparently family was waiting for them. She'd told Tara stories of her family: Angelus and Drusilla and Spike who she consistently called her idiot brother. And Tara did have to admit that she had enjoyed the last few days spent in her own hometown. But tonight Tara wanted to hear a different story.

"It's hard driving in this rain shower. Tell me the story of your best friend."

Willow sighed loudly.

Tara laughed. "I know you're tired, sweetie. But sighing? How cliche."

The redhead rolled her head weakly toward her lover and smiled. "I love the rain. So wet..."

"Your best friend..."

Willow laughed. "It was the first night of my death. I told you how I woke up to Spike and Angelus fighting. And Mummy fed me and then my brother and grandpapa made their bet. If I killed Buffy, Angelus won and if not, Spike would win. Did I tell you that he was going to set me on fire if I failed?"

Tara patted Willow's knee. "But he didn't."

"I was all flush with the blood from the pizza delivery guy. Buffy was out patrolling." She looked over at her childe. "You know, she did that every night. Cemetery after cemetery. All with the stakes and the poofing. Grandpapa used to help her but he got over it." She shifted in the seat and began to run her fingertips over Tara's shoulder. "I watched her go inside and she didn't sense me. Slayer powers?" The redhead snorted at the mention.

"I called her. Crying. Blah blah blah. Xander this. Xander that. He ignores me. He doesn't love me. The same thing I used to cry about every single day."

Tara lifted Willow's hand and kissed the palm. "Poor baby."

"I wasn't sure if her telling me to come over after patrol would be an invite so I rang the bell. Joyce let me right in. Said that Buffy was in the shower. Very sweet" She laughed. "I stopped at Dawn's room first. No need to play any tricks. I just closed the door and ate her." She closed her eyes at the memory. "She was nothing like the pizza guy. Maybe it was because she was the Slayer's sister but there was something in her blood. I've never had anything else like it. Sparks."

"Sparks?"

"I don't know how else to describe it. It was like everything glowed green after I drank her." She smiled at the memory. "I went into Buffy's room all warm from Dawn's blood. Sat on the bed and waited. I curled up on the bed with Mr. Gordo." At Tara's raised eyebrow she continued. "Stuffed pig."

"The Slayer had a stuffed pig? Very tough."

"She came back in from her shower. You know, all high-school cheerleader. One towel around her and another wrapped all turban-style around the top of her head and hair." Willow motioned weakly with her hand as if miming a turban. The truth was that the elder vampire was still exhausted from her session this evening and the fact that every time Tara got bored she reached over and caressed her oversensitive clit, inciting the good kind of spasms, did nothing to give her more energy.

"Buffy came over to comfort me. Sat down and rubbed my back, you know? 'I'm so sorry. Men are jerks. I would know...' She was talking about Grandpapa here. Let me tell you, everything with Buffy was about Buffy.”

"How sad." Tara reached over and rubbed Willow's thigh but not her center. "Go on, dear."

"Yes, dear. I pretended to cry even harder and she kind of hugged me. She was a bit homophobic to tell the truth so I could feel her kind of tugging up her towel with one hand even as she wrapped the other around my back. I mean, I'm there crying over Xander and she was worried that I was going to cop a feel or look?"

Tara bit back a snide reply.

"I was so tempted to give her a warning. To whisper that I would be the face of her death and greater than a Slayer. But I didn't want to give her a chance. I hugged her tightly and maybe it was too tight but she didn't seem to think it was strange. And she probably thought I was sniffling but I could smell her blood pumping just under her skin. So sweet and powerful." Willow saw the look on her lover's face and lifted her hand to her lips, gracing it with a soft kiss and a nip at the wrist. "My face shifted without my meaning it to so there was no more waiting. She screamed and tried to struggle when I bit her but I held her tight. I can still remember the way she fought me and there were moments that I thought she would win. But her fighting made her heart beat faster and it just fed me faster. I felt her arm fling out and her foot and then she was gasping: 'You moved my bag...'" Willow laughed cruely.

"That does seem a touch unfair."

The redhead laughed again. "Yes unfair but necessary. Otherwise I would be sitting here a pile of dust and you... Well, let's not imagine that path." She smiled affectionately at her childe and then used her own fang to pierce her fingertip. She held it out to the blonde as she finished her story. "Once she realized that I would win the fight went out of her. That and I'd sucked her dry. I lay her on the bed and put Mr. Gordo in her arms. On the way out of the house, I saw Joyce who asked if I was alright. She said I looked dizzy."

"I bet."

Willow moaned. She could feel her connection with her childe as Tara sucked even a small amount of blood from the tiny hole in her skin. "I was dizzy. It was like an acid trip, and believe me, I've eaten some trippin chicks. This was like that times 100. I could hardly figure out which Joyce was speaking so I just answered the middle one. Everything had like neon trailers and I lifted my hand and my fingers were glowing. I told her I had to go. Then at the door, I smiled and asked her to give Giles my regards."

"Giles was Buffy's watcher? Why didn't you kill him too?"

Willow smiled again. "I wanted him to get to think about it. About his failure. I had killed Xander, then left Buffy and Dawn for Joyce to find. I went back and killed Joyce a few weeks later just for fun but Giles is still there. Still at the library. We should go visit him sometime."

Tara looked at her lover and at the rain pouring harder on the windshield. "Have you ever seen those signs in the zoo 'don't feed or tease the animals'?"

Willow shrugged. "It's fun. And I'm evil."

Tara pulled the car off the road and parked it under a stand of trees, knowing they would slow the rain somewhat but not completely. "I know how you like the falling water..." A few minutes, Willow was demonstrating just how little she cared about the rain as she knelt by the car door, her hands behind her back and her mouth finally repaying Tara for her wonderful evening.