Author: JustSkipIt
Rating: NC-17
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.

About a year later...

Tara sung quietly as she drove. Traffic wasn't as heavy as she suspected it would be tomorrow or the day after but it was heavy enough to require her attention. The phone rang and she quickly hit the button to silence the ring and answer the phone. "Hello?" she whispered.

She could hear Faith's bellowing laughter even before the other girl spoke. "If you're trying to keep a secret, you're shit at it."

Tara laughed. "No one's trying to keep any secrets, Faith."

"I hope not because answering your girlfriend's phone in the middle of the night is a dead giveaway."

Tara laughed again. "It's 2:30 in the afternoon."

"It is?" Faith yawned loudly. "Man, I have been on nights way too long. I woke up and it's dark in my apartment and I thought it was 2:30 in the morning."

"Do you call Willow at 2:30 in the morning a lot, Faith?" Tara finally glanced over at the subject of her current conversation. The redhead had her seat leaned partially back and her head tilted to the side, sleeping quite deeply considering that Tara was now carrying on a full telephone conversation.

The blonde could hear her friend moving around her apartment and the distinct sound of her pulling out a coffee mug. "Actually yes. I always have strange hours and she ... well, she used to not sleep very much."

Tara reached over and brushed a few wisps of hair from her lover's forehead. "Still doesn't."

Faith's words cut into Tara's thoughts. "Hey look, I have to go to work in a few minutes."

"I thought you were coming to dinner tonight?"

Faith blew out a long breath. "I was but half the officers in the department have the flu so I got called for a double. That's what I was calling about. Can you tell Red and the folks, I'm sorry and I'll catch up with everyone this weekend?"

"Sure, sweetie. Be careful tonight." Tara waited for Faith to hang up and then hit the disconnect button. She glanced again at her lover and grinned as she brushed the same wisp of hair from her forehead. It always bothered Willow when that hank of hair got in her eyes and they always went through the same conversation of Tara suggesting that Willow go get a haircut and Willow insisting the her hair was perfect in spite of the irritating eye-hank issue.

The stubborn woman in question was sleeping after a very long night spent working on an important project. Tara smiled, though, as she thought about the girl's work habits. When they had reunited-a process which had taken many many hours and days and even weeks of talking and sometimes crying and other times shouting about where they had gone wrong the first time, not to mention catching up on everything they had missed-Willow had proclaimed that she would no longer be a slave to her research.

And she had been true to her word. She was still dedicated to her research and her job but her new position allowed her extensive latitude in choosing her own work hours and locations. In fact the new position was a part of Willow's motivation for seeking Tara out when she had, one year earlier. The redhead had been fielding offers from five or six research institutions throughout the country. She had finished her Master's studies and then continued conducting research with her professor and mentor but it was time to move out on her own. Opportunities were understandably wide open for her but, as she explained to Tara, she had to find out if there was any chance for them before she could even begin to decide which job to take.

Willow genuinely realized that her immersion in her studies was a big part of the cause of the failure of their relationship so many years earlier and she was determined to never allow this to happen again. She wanted Tara to always know how important she was. That vow resulted in a very different work ethic for Willow. While the redhead was as driven and brilliant as ever, she also now understood how to stop working. Although she sometimes worked in the middle of the night while Tara slept, she rarely brought her work home with her otherwise. She worked, always being as considerate as she could be of Tara's schedule and Tara's commitments. If Tara worked on the weekend or had evening shifts, Willow would stay home during the day and go to the office in the evening to mimic Tara's schedule. It wasn't that they were inseparable as both had individual interests and friends but it was clear that her relationship with Tara was Willow priority as it had never been before.

But Willow had never had a high need for sleep and Tara frequently woke in the night to find herself alone in the bed. Other times, she knew that Willow was awake but stayed in bed just to snuggle. At first the blonde felt uneasy when she woke in the night to find herself alone in the bed. She always went looking for her girlfriend.

"Willow?" Tara rubbed her eyes sleepily as she stepped into the living room. She still felt disoriented but had woken up alone and been disturbed by Willow's absence.

Their relationship was still in a tentative stage of exploration. Willow was completing the documentation for her prior research project while making her temporary home in Sunnydale. She had accepted a very desirable job offer in San Jose but it was not scheduled to start until the end of the Summer. In the meantime, she was finishing the work for her prior appointment and traveling to visit Tara nearly every weekend or sometimes during the week. Initially she had stayed in a hotel, not wanting to pressure Tara in any way. But quickly they had agreed that it was silly for Willow to continue to stay in a hotel. This was the second weekend that Willow had stayed at Tara's apartment although, truth be told, her last stay at a hotel had not been marked by any actual time at the hotel.

Willow stood up quickly from her position in the armchair and set down her book. "I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep and was trying to read. I can come back to bed." She shifted her weight from the ball of one foot to the other and fidgeted to set the bookmark straight in the book.

Tara walked by her table, smiling as she saw the green carnations in the vase. She reached out her fingertips and brushed them against the flowers. When she reached the chair she reached out her hand to caress Willow's face. Willow leaned her face into the blonde's hand, shifting slightly to kiss her palm.

"Why couldn't you sleep, sweetie?"

Willow took Tara's hand in her own, brushing her thumb across the back of the blonde's hand. "Too many bruises from being pinched today." She grinned.

Tara giggled and gracefully dropped to sit cross-legged on the floor, pulling Willow with her. "You were the one who refused to wear green."

Willow pointed toward her face. "Green eyes!"

Tara tilted her head. "Well the bruises must be very bad to keep you awake." She leaned close and whispered in the redhead's ear. "Do you want me to kiss them and make them all better?"

Willow blushed and looked away for a moment. "More than I can even say. More than I could say."

Tara leaned close to kiss the girl. After a moment or two she laced her fingers together behind Willow's neck and pulled back. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"I'm ... nervous," Willow admitted.

Tara shifted into an exaggeration of the accent she had picked up England. "Worried that I'll be a terrible shag, baby?" She tried to show an Austin Powers toothy grin but wasn't wholly successful.

Willow tried to smile. "A little."

"And what else?"

Willow looked at her lap for a few seconds before looking back up. "I'm ... I'm scared that you'll be a fantastic, as you English say, shag."

Tara repeated Willow's words very slowly. "You're scared that I'll be a fantastic shag?"

Willow blushed and tried to take a step backwards but Tara kept her fingers locked around the girl's neck, making escape impossible. Instead the redhead looked to the side. "I've ... well I haven't been exactly practicing or anything. I mean not that it takes practice or anything and it was ok before. I mean it was great before. It was great before, right?"

Tara answered although she was still trying to decipher where Willow was going with this. "Yes, it was great before, sweetie."

"Oh. Ok. Ok, then. Well, I was saying that, I mean, and don't take this wrong, but, you know, and I mean, I haven't been practicing and I just don't know and if you... and..." She blew out a long breath and backed away again, this time, Tara releasing her. Willow sat on the edge of the hassock and picked at a piece of fuzz on her pajamas. "We agreed that, you know, whatever we did during the, you know, 'Willow's a stupid moron from moron-ville' time was ok. You know, that we wouldn't question each other about it or ask any questions or, well I guess that's kind of redundant isn't it, but that's not the point. The point is that you're totally a hottie. The hottest hottie from the land of hotsville and I'm pretty sure that every woman in England and every woman in San Jose is not congenitally blind or anything which means that they'll all have been after your hottieness and ..."

Tara had by now kneeled down in front of her girlfriend. She'd seen this type of thing before and always wondered if there was a point at which Willow would actually pass out or if she'd just continue until she said everything she had to say. "Willow." She got the redhead's attention and then leaned in for a gentle kiss.

Willow was speaking as soon as Tara pulled away. "And that kiss means you want me to stop talking. Which I can do and I could do except for this worry that I have about ..."

Tara again cut her girlfriend off with an additional soft kiss. This time, however, when she pulled back, she placed two fingers against Willow's lips to keep her from speaking again. "Look sweetie, I ... " She started laughing, much to Willow's dismay.

"You're laughing at my pain?"

"I'm laughing at my choices. Either I'm rubbish in the sack in which case you trust that I was 'faithful' to you while we weren't together anyway or I'm a masterful stud in which case you spend who knows how long obsessing over where and with whom I got my masterful stud practice." She took a breath. "So it sounds like the best choice is a kind of mediocre shag."

Willow continued looking totally crestfallen for a few seconds. Then she started laughing and laughed harder as Tara joined her. For a few minutes both women laughed very hard. Finally they stopped laughing and Willow leaned forward, now lacing her fingers behind Tara's neck as the blonde had done earlier. "So you're thinking of a shag. I mean, it's a possibility?"

Tara smiled and leaned forward to whisper in her girlfriend's ear. "I'd say it's a very strong possibility."

Willow began to place very light kisses on Tara's neck. "Anything I can do to encourage it?"

"Mmm. That's a very good start." Tara began to run her hands along Willow's hips, gently urging the redhead forward and off the hassock onto the floor. When the girl complied, they quickly found themselves stretched out on the rug in front of the empty fireplace. Hands began to become bolder if not more dexterous and both girls gave little gasps, moans, and shudders as their skin became more and more sensitive to the ministrations of her lover. Willow was the first to slide a hand under Tara's nightgown and begin to lift it over her body and head but Tara's talented fingers were close behind in unbuttoning the redhead's pajama top and sliding it off her shoulders. She could feel Willow's warmth and wetness through her bottoms and trailed her fingers along the waistband. "I think these..." She slipped both hands into the loose fitting pants and slid them off as Willow lifted from the floor. "Must go," she gasped as she threw the offending garment across the room where it collapsed next to the couch and wasn't given another thought.

With no clothes to impede them, the women took turns exploring each other's bodies. Hands found breasts, nipples, the soft curve of a buttock, the small of a back. Mouths found necks, earlobes, the inside of an elbow or center of a palm and later much more sensitive, much more warm, much more wet destinations. Making love seemed to take no time at all and all the time in the world as they crested and slowed, crested and slowed over and over.

And finally, sometime around the sunrise they found themselves snuggled under the afghan someone had expended the considerable energy to pull down from the couch and drag onto them. "Sweetie?"

Tara could barely lift her head to look at her lover. "Yes?"

"I don't mean to disappoint you but that was not mediocre." The redhead smiled teasingly and winked just to make sure Tara knew she was playing.

Tara giggled quietly. "Not mediocre? Do I want to know who you have been practicing with?"

The redhead pulled Tara closer to her chest. "Thoughts of you only." She placed a kiss on the blonde's hair. "I love you, Tara Maclay."

"No more than I love you, Willow." She sunk deeper into her lover's embrace and both faded easily into contented sleep.

Tara took a deep breath and attempted to concentrate on the road. While her recollection was wonderful, she admonished herself for not paying more attention to her driving. She slowed to take the highway exit to Sunnydale and Willow stirred. "The pink rooster crows at midnight," the redhead mumbled.

Tara giggled. "I'm on to you, sweetie."

Willow raised the back of her seat and pouted. "You used to think it was cute."

Tara reached over to tousle her lover's hair. "I still think it's cute. I'm just saying I'm on to it now."

Willow took Tara's hand and gently kissed the back before turning it over and placing a kiss on the palm. "Did I mention how much I love you while I was asleep?"

"It was virtually all I heard."

Willow started. "Really?"

"No, silly." Tara laughed at her lover's gullibility. "You just slept although Faith called."

Willow sat her seat up all the way and took a sip of her cold coffee. "Faith called? She's not cancelling is she?"

Tara stopped at the red light. "And a prize to the adorable redhead with a mind like a steel trap." She motioned toward the Expresso Pump and the liquor store next door. "Do you want a mocha and should we take a bottle of wine?"

"Well darn. I was really looking forward to seeing her and hearing about this Mr. Hottie-so-Hot." The light turned green and she motioned toward it. "No need to stop. Let's just get over to the house before dark."

Tara put the car into gear and pulled away from the intersection. "What did mom and dad say when you told them I was coming home with you?"

Willow giggled. "Oh you know. The usual, 'welcome,' 'we're so happy,' 'you're going to sleep in separate rooms, right?'"

"They didn't!"

Willow laughed outright now at Tara's indignation. "Of course they didn't. I mean they said the welcome and we're so happy parts but nothing about bedrooms."

Tara parked at the curb and cut the engine. "Well I'm glad to hear that." She leaned over and kissed Willow softly before whispering. "... because I don't plan to sleep apart from you in the near or distant future. I think I've had enough of that to last me for a very very long time."

"Mmm. Me too." She kissed the blonde one more time. "I love you."

Both girls unbuckled their seatbelts and got out of the car. A minute later they were greeted by Shelia and Ira on the front porch as the Rosenbergs greeted them with kisses and hugs and began to unload presents from the stack both girls carried. "Come inside, both of you. It's nearly sunset." Tara quirked her eyebrows at the statement wondering if her surrogate parents knew something about Sunnydale's unique population but realized quickly that they wanted to light the menorahs on time.

"What time will Faith be here?" Sheila asked as she set down the package of presents she was carrying and motioned to the girls to hand her their coats. "Should we wait for her to light the menorah or start without her?"

"She got called to work a double tonight. She said she was really sorry and Happy Hannukah." Willow finally extricated herself from her scarf and mittens and laid them on the end of the couch.

Sheila shook her head. "Well that's disappointing. I wanted all my girls here this year." She leaned over and gave Tara a sideways hug, making it clear that she had missed having the blonde with her for the past few years, then walked over to the end of the table holding the menorah. "Well, let's light this and then we can eat."

As the Rosenbergs gathered around the end of the table, Tara quickly crossed to her backpack and pulled out the menorah Willow had given her years before. She held it up and noted the smile on Willow's face. The redhead had confessed and professed that after their brief visit the night of Tara's book signing, the fact that Tara had kept the gift and even lit it during their breakup had given Willow hope above anything that they might reconcile. Arguing that it was the sign of their possibility Willow had alluded to the menorah's meaning: "Don't you see? It's a symbol of a miracle-that hope is never lost."

Tara smiled just thinking of that night-a night spent talking until the wee hours-the beginning of their renewed relationship. She admired Willow's courage in seeking her out. Although Tara had thought hundreds, maybe thousands of times about making contact with Tara, she had not actually taken the action. Even with Faith obviously urging both women to speak to the other, it was Willow who had finally done just that. The blonde quickly placed her candle in the menorah and held the other in her hand as she reached her free hand out to Willow.

Sheila and Ira smiled as they completed the blessings over the candles and noted the love-struck way Willow and Tara completed the blessing while holding hands. When the quartet had pronounced Amen on the offerings they hugged and wished each other Happy Hannukah. "Well, I usually like Faith to be here but she can have hers tomorrow." Sheila handed each girl a small bag of chocolate gelt. They smiled at the memory of this tradition.

"Thank you, mom." Willow kissed her mother on the cheek and then repeated it with her father. Tara also thanked them.

"Willow, come help me with dinner." Mother and daughter left the room and Tara watched the menorah as they began to melt.

Ira offered her a glass of wine and handed it to her. "How are you, darling?"

Tara smiled. "Good, Mr. Rosenberg. I'm very happy."

"So it seems." He sat on the couch and motioned that Tara should join him. "Willow has been much happier the past months. Her mother and I are very happy about that."

"I'm very happy too."

"Do you want to tell me what happened before?"

"No, sir. I don't think that's a good idea."

"Water under the bridge anyway." He replied. "Regardless, we should visit about your fund while you are home." He took a sip of his wine and patted the blonde on the knee. "We have plenty of time."

Tara was just about to answer when Shelia and Willow returned with platters of dinner and set them on the table. Tara and Ira joined them. Over their dinner of potato pancakes, applesauce, sourcream, and kugel, they visited about their travels and career progress over the course of the year. Although Tara had seen the Rosenbergs in England just before returning home sixteen months earlier, she had not seen them since returning to the country. All four had great happenings to describe professionally.

"I read your book and some reviews, darling. They were very complementary." Sheila commented.

"Yes. I was very pleased with them."

"Tara is working on a new book," Willow enthused.

"Your first was very ... " Ira searched for the correct word. "Illuminating?"

Sheila looked at her husband and laughed. "Ira can't decide whether he's relieved or disturbed that some of the poems are about Willow."

Tara blushed brightly and felt Willow pat her knee. "You know... I'm a writer. Right? I mean it's not all-all autobiographical."

Sheila laughed outright. "That's what I said but he's a scientist. He can't even imagine making something up and writing it."

Ira waved his hand as he spoke in the manner of a man who was used to having an audience of students. "It's a very beautiful book." He picked up his wine glass and took another sip as if ending the conversation.

Tara and Willow shared a glance. They had discussed Willow's parents' potential reaction to Tara's writing. The blonde was particularly interested given the fact that many of her recent poems also touched on some aspect of her relationship.

Fortunately Sheila changed the subject, laughing. "Faith's new boyfriend stopped me for the speeding the other day."

"You got a ticket?"

"No. He gave me a warning. He's quite a nice man and good looking."

"No mistake there," Willow agreed.

Tara crossed her arms over her chest and shot Willow a look. "Really?"

Willow put a kiss on Tara's cheek. "You have nothing to worry about, love." She started to stand up and gather plates. "We can clear the table and clean up since you cooked, mom."

Shelia handed Tara her plate. "Thank you, sweetie. Then we can open presents."

After cleaning the kitchen and exchanging presents with the Rosenbergs, the two couples watched a holiday special and then said goodnight. Both Sheila and Ira were very effusive in letting Tara know how happy they were to see her again and she let them know that the feeling was very mutual.

Tara stepped into Willow's bedroom and looked around with a smile on her face. "It's like the time capsule, Will." She noted and ran her fingertips along the stack of notebooks on the desk and the five colored pens lined up just next to the notebooks. Willow blushed but Tara turned and titled her head to the side. "You know, smart chicks are so sexy."

Willow laughed and stepped forward to wrap her arms around her lover's stomach. "Well, you know we spend a lot of time studying how to be so sexy."

Tara laughed and turned in Willow's embrace. "Time well spent in my opinion." She kissed her lover once on the lips and then on the nose. "Your parents seemed genuinely happy to see me."

Willow took a step back and pulled Tara by the hand to sit on the bed with her. "Of course they are." She laughed to herself. "I mean they never knew what we broke up over but they were pretty sure it was my fault."

Tara shook her head, wondering how long she would have to continue reassuring her lover. "It wasn't all your fault, honey. And we're back together now and going to stay that way."

"I know." Willow smiled as she hugged the blonde who yawned widely. "Why don't we get ready for bed. I'm going to read a little if you don't mind."

Tara smiled. "As long as you snuggle me, you can do whatever you want."

Lying in Willow's childhood bed a few minutes later Tara looked up at the press-on stars still on the ceiling. She nuzzled her nose into the redhead's neck, rewarded as Willow squirmed at being tickled. She was drifting to sleep as she whispered, "This is what I always dreamed about."