Author: eklipsej
Rating: PG for now... will up that if necessary.
Disclaimer: All Buffy characters were created by and unfortunately belong to the creators of BtVS, other characters that might pop up are mine.
Feedback: I would greatly appreciate feedback. I've lurked and lurked and this is my first fix, not counting several false starts and dead ends. I'm really kinda just testing the waters, so if it's working or not working, please let me know!!!! jmdmabutas@hotmail.com
Summary: Willow and Tara have a few run-ins with each other...
Note: Thoughts in italics.

Willow sat at a table in the Chicago O'Hare airport, her eyes darting between several sheets of paper, a few wrinkled-looking different-sized napkins, and her computer screen. Occasionally she scribbled viciously on one sheet of paper, made an erasure on another sheet, rearranged the placement of the napkins on the table, and scribbled some more. After a few minutes of back and forth, she anxiously tapped the keys to her laptop, then frowned before picking up her pencil and began the process of scribble-erase-rearrange-scribble all over again. The redhead was so caught up in her work that she didn't notice someone speaking to her until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Willow let out a small squeak and turned quickly, causing carefully arranged napkins and papers to be shuffled about, some falling to the floor in the redhead's clumsy attempt to keep from jumping out of her skin. Taking in a deep breath she leaned down to pick up the paper product collection on the floor and tried to calm herself, it would not do, after all, to yell at a perfect stranger, a perfect stranger who was actually still trying to talk to her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you..."

Willow, having rescued her papers and napkins from the floor, looked up to find out who had disrupted her highly locomotive train of thought, and found herself staring into eyes so blue they were almost white.

"Sorry, I just wanted to ask if I could sit here." Willow shook her head clear and looked to where the person speaking was pointing, the end of her table. Willow had occupied the first empty table she could find before spreading out her work materials, and the table she had chosen was long, meant to seat six. She had been taking advantage of the extra working surface, her diagrams and notes were migrating slowly over the table as time passed, but there was still space at the end of the table for someone to sit. Willow looked around and to her dismay most of the other tables were taken as people from the gate waiting areas moved to the airport food court, their flights delayed or cancelled due to inclement weather.

"I, uh, that is, yeah, ok..." she trailed off, shrugging and turning to return her assorted papers and napkins to some sort of order. Willow's thought process was once again disrupted, this time by the sound of laughter coming from the other end of the table. Willow frowned, and took the time to get a good look at this busybody invading her space and laughing at her.

By most people's standards, the girl sitting at the end of the table was very pretty, but not much about her really struck Willow as special. Her hair was somewhere between dirty blond and light brown. She was of slightly above average height, average weight. The only things really that stood out about this girl were those ice blue eyes that Willow realized were staring at her curiously. Quickly she frowned and turned back to her work.

"Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to laugh." The girl said.

"What?" Willow's head shot up. Again, she looked into those eyes. They were so unnaturally blue, and didn't really seem to fit. Willow squinted, and just around the border of the other girl's irises she saw faint outlines. Contact lenses, this girl was wearing colored contact lenses to make her eyes look blue. A shame, Willow always thought blue eyes were so pretty.

"I didn't mean to laugh." The girl repeated herself, pointing to the tabletop in front of Willow. "It's just, that... that's a lot of stuff. What is that?"

"Oh. A project." Willow responded as her attention began to drift back to her work. She really needed to get this particular part done and sent as soon as she got home.

"Um, project? Like a collage? Or maybe found art?" The girl asked, trying to stifle a giggle.

"What? Art? A collage? No, why would I be working on a collage with napkins and a computer? Well, okay I guess you could make a collage with digital pictures or like a really cool graphics program. But still, why would I..." Willow's train of thought drifted as she frowned, letting her eyes flicker up then down to the napkins still in her hands. Something was not right.

The girl laughed again. Counting the giggle, that was three times that this girl had laughed, Willow was not a happy camper. She had been laughed at often enough growing up to know the difference between someone laughing at her and someone laughing AT her. And she had interrupted Willow's train of thought three times, and kept talking to her. Couldn't interrupto-gal tell that Willow was a very busy woman?

Apparently she could not, because she asked another useless question.

"So, what is that stuff then?"

"Computer code. Different sections." Willow responded, as she moved some napkins around, her frown deepening. She needed to concentrate. She had been so close before but something was missing. "Subclass, loop, array, queue, print commands." She continued, raising a different sized napkin each time. "Shouldn't have let Buffy help me pack, why would you put pens in check-in luggage. And I went to five, no six, different stores in this stupid airport and they only had blue, black and red pens. That's not nearly enough colors." At this point the redhead was mumbling.

The girl at the end of the table laughed again, causing Willow's growing scowl to further deepen. Seeing the expression on the redhead's face, the intruder apologized again.

"Sorry, it's just... the different sizes represent different computer thingies?" The redhead nodded but did not speak. Her attention was now focused on scanning the ground under and around the table. "Isn't that kinda, you know, insane?"

Willow did not raise her head, but her scowl turned into a pout as she got more agitated. "Well, it makes more sense with pens..." She said more to herself than anyone else.

The other occupant shrugged, and began eating her sandwich. Willow breathed a sigh of relief; hopefully this woman would not try to speak to her with her mouth full. Her eyes drifted to the floor near the table next to hers, and found what she was looking for by the table leg, but as she reached out to grab the wandering napkin, another hand beat her to it.

Taking the proffered napkin, Willow mumbled her thanks.

"Y-you're w-w-welcome." Willow eyes shifted focus from the napkin to the owner of the soft voice, and found that said voice belonged to a mouth only half-lifted in a shy smile. Willow smiled at the shy stuttering blonde as they both began to straighten up from the floor.

"Thanks again." Willow repeated before turning to her table. She stopped when she felt a soft touch on her elbow. Turning back, Willow tilted her head, and looked into sparking blue eyes that hinted of laughter. Willow's green eyes followed the blue ones as they drifted to the napkins, papers, and laptop on the table then reconnected with her own.

"I'd say it's more... quirky." The blonde smiled and shrugged.