Title: Stone Pillow
Pairing:Xander/Tara
Rating: R?
Summary: Willow was the one standing by the window and not Tara. Sometimes people do very strange things after funerals. Still just 200 words. Xander finds dreams can be as hard as nightmares.
Disclaimer: My dog owns me I own nothing.
He doesn’t know why she keeps coming back to him, but he does know why neither of them tells anyone they’re together. There’s no point in making a big announcement. It’s impermanent. So he loves her without words; without the obligation of the words, and he waits. Spike probably smells the sex but isn’t talking, just sending them pitying, annoyed, envious looks.
Giles gathers up more girls, too young, not good enough, marked for early death. Giles doesn’t understand Xander’s dirty looks. To Xander the girls are potential replacements. Besides, resenting Giles' Parade of Pretty Potentials is better than hating Willow for leaving them or being jealous of her place in Tara’s heart.
He used to have fantasies of two women in his bed. Now, he tries to crowd out Willow’s memory so there’s only one. He never dreams that it will last, that’s crazy. He didn’t need the First wearing Willow to tell him that.
His new fantasy- they survive the First, someday Tara asks him to be the guy who fills the turkey baster. He leaves, but a child he helps to make gets Tara’s love without the sticky silly-string tangle of grief; that’s his possible dream.