Gone Away

Teasing

When Willow woke up, the sun beamed through the slightly open window, lighting the room perfectly with the early mornings light. Tara's room. She would never get used to calling it her room.

Very sluggishly, she sat up and looked around the room. All the boxes littered the floor, and it made her feel wrong. Like she didn't belong there. Like this wasn't her home anymore. And she wasn't just talking about the room. But, she shook her head and got rid of that ugly thought as she looked down to study the bed spread closely. But when she heard the familiar sound of the door opening, her head shot up to watch the doorframe intensely.

In came Tara in a particularly happy mood, judging by the extra bounce in her step, and the way she swung the bag in her hands.

"T-tara?" Willow was paralyzed with disbelief.

"Morning, Darling." Tara smiled as she leaned down to plant a sweet, soft kiss on the redhead's forehead. " I slipped out while you were sleeping. I was in the mood for some nice bagels." her signature crooked smile spread and rested across her face to mid with her puppy-like eyes. "Sorry you woke up alone. How long was I gone?"

A year and six months.

Willow, still paralyzed, opened her mouth to speak, but the words didn't come out.

"Honey?" the brunette asked, concerned. "What's wrong? did you have a bad dream?"

Now Willow could move. And she did only one thing. She dove across her bed to where Tara was sitting and tackled the other girl, but careful to avoid hurting her in any way. Taking possession of Tara's lips with her own thin, trembling ones. To an outsider's view, it would seem wild and predatory, but to Willow it spoke the depths of her longing, and her everlasting love for the other woman that she thought she'd never, ever get to express again.

Only when oxygen became an immediate issue did the redhead pull back, but she kept her forehead pressed to Taras' to keep a short distance between them.

It was when Willow pulled back that Tara noticed she was quietly sobbing, and those beautiful green orbs of light were puffy and red. In an immediate response, her hand flew up to cup and gently caress the hacker's face, with any tear away with the flicker of her thumb. "Hey," she attempted to soothe her girlfriend's sobbing, but it only made her cry harder and burry her head in the brunette's chest. "Shhh," she gently coed again, stroking the long red curls and playing with the ends.

When willow's frame started to Slowly stop shaking, Tara tried again. "What's wrong, love?"

Willow lifted her head up to meet her soulmate's eyes and whispered, "You're dead."

Tara looked puzzled, "Dead?" She looked down and back up. "I don't...feel dead."

Willow's voice shook again. "Are you real? is this real?" her eyes went wide with fresh pain that Tara had never seen before. "Oh god, I can't handle this if this was a dream! Tara, please! please be real!" She was practically yelling as the tears fell again.

Tara leaned over and pressed her lips tenderly to Willow's once more, willing her tears to stop falling. "Willow," she breathe when they split. "I'm here. I'm real. And I'm not goi-"

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Willow shot up from her bed, ripped away from her dream rudely. Her eyes yet to open, but she was still sobbing. When they did open slightly, she was greeted with Buffy standing over her bed, a shellshocked, but ecstatic look plastered on her face. "Willow!"