Author: JustSkipIt
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own Willow and Tara and the Buffyverse.
Feedback: Please leave feedback on the Menorah Tales thread on the Kitten Board.
Note: Notice anything unusual?

About a year later...

Willow replaced the candle in the center spot and was silent for a few seconds. She turned to look at Faith and whispered, "Happy Hanukah."

Faith smiled and returned the greeting before hugging the redhead. When the two girls broke their embrace Faith looked around. "So I guess no chocolate and money from the folks this year?"

She was obviously teasing and was quite surprised as Willow reached into the sideboard and pulled a bag of gold coins, the traditional gelt, and a ten dollar bill from it. Willow handed it to Faith and a matching set for herself. "'The folks,'" she used air quotes around the term, "said Happy Hannukah also." She took a bite of one of her coins and teased, "They also said that cops are used to getting the donuts for free and they'd better join the rest of the city."

Faith reached over to playfully swat at her friend. As she did she patted her stomach. "Does this stomach look like I've been eating a lot of free donuts?"

Willow sat in a chair and smiled. "Hell no, but you've always had that amazing metabolism."

"Gee," Faith laughed, "I wonder why."

"I'm going clean the dishes," Willow announced after a few minutes spent eating the chocolate. She stood and picked up both girls's dishes and walked into the kitchen, followed closely by Faith who brought their glasses.

"I can't believe that we can eat fried potatoes and applesauce for dinner and consider that healthy." Faith set the glasses in the sink and jumped up to sit on the counter as Willow loaded the dishwasher.

"They're potato pancakes and it's traditional." Even as she explained, Willow smiled to herself. It was really great that she and Faith had such a close relationship. Even after all these years of Willow being at school while Faith stayed in Sunnydale, they were close enough to tease like this or to talk about any number of serious subjects. She saw Faith's glance out the window as she was drying her hands. "Do we have enough time to open presents?"

"For presents, the undead can wait," Faith said rubbing her hands together in mock gleeful selfishness.

They went back into the dining room and saw the progress the candles were making-about half-way melted. Willow picked up a box and tossed it across the room toward the brunette who caught it easily and shook the box with a smile. She opened the box and immediately let out a small squeal of delight. "Awesome, Red!" She quickly hugged Willow and then pulled the running shoes from the box, looking at the size and style. "Shox. These are totally great." She kicked off her current footwear and tied the laces before standing up and bouncing on the new ones.

Not expecting Willow's reflexes to mirror her own, she pulled the redhead's present from under her jacket and handed it to her. "Thanks," Willow said as she ripped the blue wrapping from the box. When she felt the box, she assumed it would be the Star Wars box set or even Indiana Jones but she was pleasantly surprised to find the Colors Trilogy inside. She hugged Faith and set it on the sideboard. "I didn't know you listened that well," she teased.

"Both of you always talked about how much you loved those movies," Faith said as she picked up her jacket. "You sure you want to go out tonight?"

Willow grabbed her own jacket and nodded. "As long as you do most of the heavy lifting." She locked the front door behind them and lightly touched the mezuzah on the way out.

"Here," Faith said as she handed over a small black gadget. "It's a stun gun. We're going high-tech." She took a moment to show the redhead how to hold the item and how to set it off and then they started toward a cemetery. "So where are the folks this year?"

"England."

"England?"

"London."

Faith watched Willow closely. "Are they going to see her?"

"They said something about calling her." Willow shrugged. "Why shouldn't they? I mean she's almost like their daughter if you think about it."

"What about you?"

"Are they going to see me?" Willow asked with intentional obtuseness. "They'll be home in a week and we can spend the rest of break together."

"You're an idiot." Willow didn't respond. She knew that Faith was trying to get her to respond so she didn't. "Why don't you call her?"

Willow stopped and leaned on a headstone. "And say what?"

"How about 'hi?'"

"I'm not calling London to say, 'hi." Willow said "hi" in a tone of voice that made it clear she thought it was completely out of the question. She stopped leaning on the headstone and continued walking, not really paying attention to where they were going. Faith could handle that by herself; Willow was really just along for the company.

"Ok," Faith said, "then how about, 'can I see you?' or 'I still love you' or 'I was wrong' or 'you were wrong?'"

Willow chuckled. "You were wrong. That would go over real well." She kicked at the ground. "Plus which, she's probably moved on with her life. Probably has a new girlfriend." She looked up expectantly at the brunette.

"Excuse me," Faith said as a vampire stepped around the side of the mausoleum they were nearing. "Hey ugly!"

"Who? Me?" the obviously stupid vampire answered as Willow laughed.

Faith also laughed before stepping forward to trade punches with the large demon. After a few punches to his face and one shot to her ribs, she got tired of the activity and quickly dispatched him with a stake to the heart. She tucked her stake back into her waist band and turned back to Willow still breathing heavily. "You asked me. No, begged me, made me promise, that I wouldn't tell you anything about her social life."

Willow crossed her arms across her chest and sulked miserably. "You've done a great job at that."

"Yeah, I know," Faith said as she now kicked at the ground. "I've done as good a job at not telling you anything about her social life as I have not telling her about yours." Willow scrunched her eyebrows as if trying to decipher what Faith was telling her. "Yeah, you two are so alike. She made me promise the same thing."

"Are we patrolling or what?"

Faith breathed out heavily and reached into her back pocket. "I got you something else for Hannukah." She handed a small card to the redhead.

"An international long distance card?" Willow tried to hand it back. "Very funny."

"I'm not being funny," Faith protested as she impatiently tapped her stake on the headstone of a very fresh grave. She looked at it. "Mr. William Johnson who died yesterday of neck rupture, please come out so we can move on with our night." She and Willow both plopped down on their butts and crossed their legs. Seeing that Willow was still extending the card, Faith took it from her hand. "You are stupid."

"You're kind of insulting tonight considering that it's a best friends's bonding night here," Willow accused.

"What happened, Willow?"

"You know what happened." Willow began picking blades of grass and carefully splitting them apart.

"You tell me."

"Didn't she tell you?"

"Stop massacring the poor grass," Faith said impatiently as she reached over and knocked a handful of shredded green from Willow's hand. "She told me what she told me but you haven't." She stood up and paced around the grave. "What is with this guy?"

Willow also stood up and kicked at the fresh dirt. "It was stupid."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Faith laughed at her own joke.

"Thanks for making this easy," Willow kicked harder at the dirt. "Hey Bill!" she yelled, "we're waiting here." Faith crossed her arms and looked expectantly at her friend. "We were at this party. My party. And she wasn't having fun."

She looked up to see Faith nodding her head.

"And Ant was there."

"The hot research girl?" Both girls paused as the dirt began to shift slowly. "Go ahead. This won't take long." Faith pulled the stake from her waistband.

"I didn't say she was hot but yes, the other researcher." Willow blew out a slow breath of air. "And she got this crazy idea that something was going on with the two of us and she got really crazy."

"That doesn't really sound like the girl I know," Faith said. It wasn't accusatory-just observational. "Here he comes," she said pointing at the top of the vampire's head and one hand starting to poke through the soil.

"Well she was really going off that night," Willow continued. "She said that if I loved her I would leave the party and leave school and come home with her."

"Why didn't you?"

Willow kicked at the dirt, knocking a large mound into the emerging vampire's forehead. "Oh, sorry." She laughed at herself as the words left her mouth. "I don't know. I didn't want to be controlled like that. And I was really pissed that she would accuse me of something like that. Like she thought I would cheat on her."

"Dude, you are taking forever!" Faith shouted. "Which you wouldn't."

"Which of course I wouldn't." Willow answered quickly. "And she left. And I thought 'hey, she'll be outside for a few minutes and come back in' and I thought I'd go out in a few minutes and we'd both have time to calm down."

Obviously frustrated with Mr. Johnson's progress, Faith reached down and grasped the collar of his suit jacket and pulled straight up. As soon as his chest was freed, she thrust the stake into it and watched him crumble.

"Poor guy never had a chance," Willow giggled. Faith fixed her with a look and then started walking again. Willow followed along. "But I guess it was longer than I though and I got outside and she was gone. So I thought she would be at the apartment but she wasn't."

"Right," Faith said.

"So I figured, 'ok, she's at home. I'll go home in a few days and we can talk.'"

"Except..."

"Right, except," Willow agreed. "Except that she didn't come home. She went back to North Carolina." The redhead ran her forearm across her eyes, attempting to press against her eyelids and will the tears not to come. "Because why would she want to come here? What did she have here to visit?"

"She was hurting," Faith said patting Willow's back.

"I know she was," Willow agreed, "but I thought we could work it out and she just wasn't even here."

The redhead's tears were flowing freely now but Faith pushed on. "Is that why you're so upset?"

"Fuck no. Sorry." Willow apologized quickly for her unusual profanity. "I mean she was right."

"About Ant?"

"What? No. I mean not about me and Ant." Willow bent down to pick up a handful of horse chestnuts off the ground and began throwing them at gravestones as they walked. "I mean I'm an idiot. Ant was interested in me but I was all clueless-girl. I didn't even know, not to mention being completely not interested."

"So what was she right about?"

Willow threw the last of her horse chestnuts and spotted a stone bench. She slowly walked over and sat down. "We did grow apart... I mean I don't know her like I did... when we were kids... and I let that... happen." She blew her nose on the sleeve of her jacket. "I just wish we could go back to like we were."

Faith bent down in front of Willow and placed her hands on the redhead's knees but didn't answer.

"Did you know she didn't even ask, I mean tell, me about the study abroad thing?" Willow looked at Faith who slowly nodded. She wiped her nose again and then took a deep breath. "We've spoken twice in the last year. One disaster and then she called to tell me about London." She looked around. "I mean how was I supposed to be supportive of her great opportunity when she's leaving me and leaving the country?"

"By being happy for her," Faith whispered.

"Now I'm taking relationship advice from you," Willow sneered. "Sorry. That was uncalled for."

"Damn right it was, Red."

Willow looked away from Faith's eyes and the brunette put her hand on the girl's chin to bring her focus back. "It's hard to remember a time when I wasn't completely in love with her." The redhead looked sadly at her best friend and took a breath. "I know that her favorite musician is Josh Groban, her favorite poet is James Dickey, she loves Strawberries but not Raspberries. She loves flannel sheets but she doesn't like slippers." The redhead smiled. "She's most ticklish behind her ears and she wants to have three children and I could tell you a hundred other facts about her."

Faith waited a few seconds before prompting Willow. "But?"

"But there's so much I don't know about her." She wiped at her eyes again. "I lie in bed some nights with hundreds of questions in my head: what is she doing? Does she miss me? What does she want from life? What are her dreams? Her fears?" She looked down at her shoes again. "What happened with Frank and why wouldn't she ever tell me?"

Faith waited a second, obviously waiting to see if it was a rhetorical question. "Maybe because it was miles from being important."

"But it was important," Willow pleaded, "it was important because it was something she wouldn't tell me. Something I wanted to know."

"I want to know how much my Sergeant makes a year. I want to know if Jimmy misses me. I want to know why my mom drinks so much and if she ever regrets it." Faith curled up her lips. "That doesn't make any of those things important or any of my business."

"Yes!" A vampire stepped around the corner of a mausoleum and smiled at the two girls. "I was hoping for a nice tender snack." He pointed his finger at Willow. "You look yummy."

Faith gave a bored look and sat down next to Willow on the bench. "I worked a 12 hour shift today," she told the redhead nonchalantly. As she did, she reached over, took the stun gun from Willow's hands and held it up just as the vampire reached them. She zapped him and handed the gun back to her best friend in one smooth motion before staking the writhing demon. "Do you want to go get coffee?"

Willow wiped her eyes on her shirt and nodded.

Faith stood pulled Willow to her feet and showed the telephone calling card. "Maybe by the time we're done you'll be ready to use this?"

"I doubt it." Willow answered.