Author: Shai
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Unfortunately neither Tara nor Willow are mine. Neither's anyone else in this fic for that matter!

The drive to the University dorms wasn't too long, and normallly would take just about 10 minutes, but Tara decided that there was enough time to stop and buy Sean ice cream, so at the very first turn, she parked her car, and the three of them got out, walking into the ice cream parlour.

Sean excittedly ran ahead, and began looking at the vast number of flavours on display, asking for a taste of every second flavour! Tara and Willow just stood there, smiling at the little kids enthusiasm. After 10 minutes of trying out enough flavours to actually make a scoop, Sean settled for 2 scoops of mint chocolate chip, covered in hot fudge, in a waffle cone with chocolate edging. Tara ordered for him, and handed him the ice cream cone.

Turning to Willow Tara asked, "And what will you have?"

Willow began to politely refuse the offer, "No thanks...I'm good, really not in the mood..."

"Oh rubbish!" Tara said, cutting off the redhead as she spoke."Do you have an allergy to milk made foods?" Willow shook her head. "Ok, do you not liek sweets and chocolates?" Again Willow shhok her head. "Good then!" Tara said brightly. "Now, are you gonna order, or will I just have to order for you and make you eat it?"

Willow knew that there was no way she was going to get out of eating some ice cream, so she peered into the freezer, looking at the flavours. Tara stood there watching her as she picked, and couldn't help but think about how cute the redhead looked with her nose scrunched up, trying to decide what flavour she wanted.

After a minute of deliberation, Willow decided on the gooey chocolate fudge. The man at the parlour handed her her cone, and Willow turned to Tara "Thanks Tara".

"You're welcome Willow" Tara smiled. She then proceeded to order her own ice cream, one scoop of honey nut crunch.

The girls now each with an ice cream cone looked back at Sean, who was eating his ice cream like eating ice cream would go out of style any minute! Tara looked at him and say "Hey! Slow down kiddo!" making Willow grin.

Five minutes later they were all done with their ice creams, and were headed back towards Tara's parked car. "Thank you" Willow said again, and this time Tara shot her a mock angry look. "Enough Will! I heard ya once!"

"She called me 'Will'!" Tara thought to herself. "Ok lots of people call me Will, so why am I smiling like an idiot right now?" she wondered as they got back into the car.

The rest of the drive upto the dorms was filled with Sean telling Willow and Tara about how he had show and tell at school the next day. "Can I take Willow?" he asked Tara, "No one in my class has ever seen anyone with real red hair!"

Tara started laughing so hard that she had to pull the car to the side of the road. Somehow the visual of Willow standing in a class full of children while Sean showed her off was infinitely amusing.

Willow on the other hand, was completely besotted with the sound of Tara's laughter. It was the first time that she's heard the blonde actually laugh, and realised that she already loved the sound. In fact, she never wanted to stop hearing it.

A few seconds later Tara got her emotions under control, and turned to the backseat to address Sean seriously. "No sweetie, you cannot take Willow to show and tell." Seeing the little boy start to look sad, she quickly added, "But tell you what...you can take my guitar to class, and show off the notes that I taught you to play! Hows that?"

Sean visibly brightened at that, and said "Alright!"

Willow asked Tara "You play the guitar?"

"Yeah...a little bit..." Tara said, drifting off.

"More than a little bit!" Sean exclaimed from the back. "Tara's very good, at playing the guitar and at singing! She sounds like an angel!"

Willow looked at Tara, and saw that the blonde was blushing. "I'm sure she does" Willow said, and got a sideways look from Tara, who gave her a slight smile.

What Willow saw there made her heart almost leap with joy. Tara hadn't been wearing her glasses at all that evening, and at the beginning Willow had noticed that the guard was still up in those blues. But now, seeing the look that she got, Willow realised that Tara's eyes were more open then she'd ever seen them, except for when Willow had secretly watched her wake up Sean the previous morning. She liked that Tara was easing up around her. "But why does that make me so happy? Willow wondered.

Seconds later they'd reached the dorms. "You guys wanna come up....I'll just take a few seconds to pack" Willow said.

Tara looked back at Sean, who nodded his head enthusiastically. "Cool" the blonde said, and got out of the car along with the redhead and Sean.

The trio climbed to Willow's single on the third floor, to find Buffy sitting outside her room, waiting for the redhead. Seeing Tara Buffy said "Hey Tara!" and then looked down at the little kid.

"I'm Sean, Tara's friend" Sean said, reaching out to shake hands with Buffy.

"Hey!" Buffy returned brightly, "I'm Buffy". Then she turned her attention to Willow. "Will, I've been trying to reach you all afternoon. Why is your cell off?"

"I left it here, why?" Willow said, pausing as she was unlocking the door.

"Oz has been calling me all afternoon, asking me why you're numbers not reachable. He's left six messages at my place!" Buffy said.

"Who's Oz?" Sean asked, looking up at Tara with the curiousity of a typical child.

Tara just shrugged her shoulders, as Buffy answered "Oz is Willow's boyfriend."