Disclaimer: The characters belong to Joss Whedon and all his buddies.
Thanks again to all the reviewers who spur me onward!
 
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Chapter 3: Of Pride and Gluttony
 
Willow and Tara had returned to their room that night, both lost in their own thoughts. Tara found herself losing her battle of wills with the chocolate muffins. She had finished one on the way home, and now was sitting cross legged on her bed eating a second one. She practically groaned at the flavor. “Willow, seriously, you have got to have one of these. They are pure chocolate happiness.”
 
Willow boggled a little at how Tara could be eating another of those enormous muffins. “Did Xander hog all the pizza again tonight?” she teased.
 
“Not really. I’m just having a major chocolate craving, that’s all,” said Tara. Although now that Willow mentioned it, she had eaten plenty at dinner. Must be recovering from that cold I had last week or something. She shrugged inwardly and continued her love affair with the muffin.
 
Willow had flopped on her bed and opened a spellbook. “There has to be some way of figuring out if Glory is still in town or not. I wonder what would happen if you modified a standard locator spell. She doesn’t seem to show up on standard ones because she’s not a mortal being.”
 
Tara frowned a bit. “Maybe you shouldn’t be altering spells too much,” she said as gently as she could. “Some of these things are pretty delicate, and the goddess alone knows what would happen if you changed things.”
 
“Yeah, but a locator spell is nothing,” Willow replied. She couldn’t believe Tara would worry about a little spell like that. “In fact, I’m going to try it.”
 
“Are you sure?” Tara said doubtfully.
 
“Piece of cake!” chirped Willow. Cake, thought Tara. I could go for a carrot cake right about now.
 
Willow got out a map of Sunnydale and a few other odds and ends. Because she was looking for a hellgod, she took a few lines from a different chant meant to summon demons. Tara raised her eyebrows and said, “I dunno, Willow. That looks d…dangerous.”
 
“Tara, relax! I’ve got this,” said Willow confidently. She lit the candles around the map and scattered some herbs. She began chanting in some bastardized Latin, and the map began to glow. A small spark of light flew over the map, circling, spiraling inward. Then suddenly with a flash it landed on the map, which promptly burst into flame.
 
Willow shrieked and jumped back, grabbing for a blanket. Quickly she threw it over the flaming map and smothered the blaze while Tara opened the window, gasping for air. Both girls coughed as acrid smoke filled their lungs. Tara muttered a quick spell to produce a gentle breeze to blow the smoke from the room before it set off the fire alarms and sprinklers. Willow picked up the blanket to find that the burning map had made a black rectangle on the carpet. “That could have gone better,” she sighed.
 
“Are… are you okay?” coughed Tara.
 
“Yes, I’m fine. I must be tired or something. There’s no reason why that shouldn’t have worked.” Willow just couldn’t understand how that could have gone wrong. My powers are stronger than that. Must be the late hour. I’ll have to do it again when I’m fully awake. Shouldn’t be a problem in the morning.
 
“Maybe we should go to bed, ok baby?” said Tara.
 
“Sure. Let me just clean up this mess,” said Willow. She uttered a spell and the burnt map vanished, the window closed, and the blackened carpet was restored. See, no problem.
 
Tara always felt a little uncomfortable when Willow used magic so casually, but said nothing as she climbed into bed. Willow snuggled next to her, kissed her goodnight, and both of them drifted off to sleep.
 
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Tara woke around three in the morning, and found herself unable to fall back to sleep. She quietly got out of bed without disturbing Willow, and moved over to the desk, turning on a small reading lamp. She had originally gotten up to read or something, but the bag of muffins was sitting there, calling her name. One more wouldn’t hurt. Besides, Willow can have the other three. She quietly took out one of the big muffins and started eating, looking over her psych notes in the mean time. Then, without even realizing it, she started on a second muffin, still reading her notes, completely absorbed. She reached into the bag again, and started on a third muffin. Half way through she became aware of what she was doing. There had been six giant muffins in there, and now there was one left, and her stomach was starting to ache slightly. Pig out much? I used to have more self control than this. I’m not even hungry! But even as she thought this, the last of the muffin in her hand found its way to her mouth.
 
Standing up, she wrapped up the one remaining muffin and put it on top of their fridge, the better to resist eating it. She turned off the light and got back in bed next to Willow, burping quietly and rubbing her very full stomach. I’m going to have to start a diet tomorrow I think. Rolling over, she put an arm around Willow and went back to sleep.
 
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Willow woke the next morning and rolled over, smiling at Tara. Tara’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled back, leaning over for a long good morning kiss. “How did you sleep?” Willow asked, stroking Tara’s long hair.
 
“Ok, I guess,” said Tara. “Had a major case of the midnight munchies though. I managed to save one of the muffins for you.”
 
“I guess I’d better get up and eat it before it vanishes,” Willow grinned. They both got up then. Their room didn’t have much space for appliances, but they had a mini-fridge and a coffee maker. Tara started the coffee, while Willow went out to the rest room. Willow returned to find Tara sneaking a corner off of the remaining muffin. “I saw that,” she joked.
 
Tara started guiltily. She really hadn’t meant to hog them all, but they were sooooo good. “I think I had enough anyhow. I should have some fruit or something healthy.” Tara found a full bag of grapes in their fridge and sat down with them while Willow enjoyed her muffin. “So, what is the Saturday agenda?” Tara asked as the grapes steadily disappeared.
 
“I want to do more research into spells to locate Glory,” Willow began. “But I really need to write that paper for my philosophy class, since it’s due Monday.” Willow frowned. Schoolwork could be such a chore sometimes.
 
“I have to study for my psychology exam on Tuesday, so I suppose we could be study buddies this morning,” said Tara, realizing that she was at the bottom of the bag of grapes. She looked, and realized she had eaten every single one, without pause, and without really noticing. She casually crumpled up the bag, hoping Willow wouldn’t notice.
 
Willow, however, had been opening her laptop and getting out her philosophy books. “Study buddies it is,” she said as she settled down at the desk. Tara opened her notes and her text and started studying on the bed.
 
After a little while, both women found themselves distracted. Tara couldn’t stop thinking about food. The grapes were ok, but maybe I should get something a little more substantial from the cafeteria. Willow found her thoughts running to magic. There has got to be a way to use a spell to make this paper go faster. This is going to take all day, and I’ve got more important things to do. Still, Willow felt a little guilty about using magic to enhance her schoolwork, as if that was cheating somehow.
 
After a few more minutes, Tara found she could resist no longer. She grabbed her wallet and said, “I’m going to run down for a bagel or something. Can I get you anything?”
 
“No, that muffin was enough for me,” said Willow. “Are you feeling ok? You seem awfully hungry today.”
 
“I feel fine. Must just be PMS munchies or something,” Tara said, shrugging her shoulders.
 
“Well, hurry back!” said Willow brightly. Tara smiled and went down to the cafeteria. She had fully intended to get a bagel and go back upstairs. But then she noticed the special – waffles. I loooove waffles, she thought. She grabbed a tray and got a waffle with whipped cream and strawberries. She added orange juice, some yogurt, a fruit cup, and at the last moment, a sticky cinnamon bun. The cashier’s eyes widened a bit, but she said nothing as she rang up the tray full of food. Tara took her tray over to a table by the window and dug in. Oh man, is this good.
 
The moment Tara left, Willow dug out a spell book that she had gotten a while back. Giles had vaguely disapproved, as some of the spells were on the edge of black magic. But there was an extremely useful spell for extracting information from a book that seemed just the thing. I’m still reading the books, she rationalized, and I’m still coming up with the thoughts. It’s just like speed reading! She reread the spell and then opened her philosophy books, spreading her hands across the pages. She closed her eyes and chanted as the words seemed to flow off the pages and into her fingers. Her mind was flooded with words, images, and ideas as the contents of the books were downloaded directly into her brain. After a few minutes she opened her eyes and gasped. Wow. That was intense. She felt a little dizzy, but when she caught her breath she realized that it was all there, in her mind. Everything she needed to know for her philosophy paper was right there.
 
Willow looked down and noticed with some shock that the books were now blank. It was if the words had been completely erased from the pages and implanted into her mind. She guiltily closed the books, and put them in the bottom of her desk drawer. Tara really doesn’t need to see that. It’s only going to worry her. Willow then turned back to her computer to start writing.
 
She was a very fast typist, having been a computer geek for most of her life. But she found herself growing impatient with how long it was taking. Buoyed by her recent success, she tried another spell – one meant to allow a person’s mind to control a device. Her eyes went wide and unfocused as she placed her hands on the keyboard and they seemed to somehow merge with it. She formed sentences in her mind and was pleased to find them appearing immediately on the screen. Way better than typing! she thought excitedly. She found it took very little effort to keep up the spell, and the thoughts were forming on the screen almost as fast as she could think them. She felt a rush through her whole body as the magic flowed through her, like adrenaline or something. She couldn’t wait to show this trick to Tara. Where is Tara anyway? she wondered. Oops. Delete that last thought! She smiled as the words ‘Where is Tara anyway?’ vanished and the sentences of her philosophy paper started flowing again.
 
By the time Tara came back an hour later, Willow was halfway done with her philosophy paper. “Hey, Tara, where’ve you been?” Willow asked without pausing in her magically enhanced writing.
 
“I…um… ran into someone from class and was chatting,” Tara lied. Truth be told she had finished the whole tray of food, and had felt a bit sick afterward. She had gone to the drug store for some antacid, and had ended up grabbing a bag of chips to munch on as she walked back home. She popped another antacid tablet into her mouth now, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
 
“Well, I decided to do this spell to enhance the laptop, and it works great!” Willow chirped. Tara came and looked over Willow’s shoulder. Her eyes widened as she saw the words of Willow’s paper appearing on the screen without Willow visibly moving her fingers.
 
“That’s… pretty impressive,” Tara said uneasily. “But shouldn’t you be saving the magic for really important stuff, sweetie?”
 
“This is so I can have more time for the important stuff,” Willow explained. “Besides, it’s hardly tiring at all, and it will get this all done so much faster!”
 
Tara frowned slightly, but said nothing. She really didn’t feel like starting a fight with Willow right now. She finished the water and went back into the fridge for another. She looked over the contents of the fridge – some leftover Chinese of unknown age, some apples, a few yogurts, some cheese and some jelly. She grabbed an apple along with her water, and sat down to study some more.
 
Around noon, Willow sat back and removed her hands from her keyboard. Her head ached a bit from the continued magic, but she smiled. Her paper was done, proofread, and seemed like pretty decent work, and it had taken her probably half the time it would have without the magic. She stretched and stood up, turning to look at Tara, who was still studying, but was now surrounded by a half a dozen apple cores.
 
“I know an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but I think all the doctors are probably all in Venezuela by now,” quipped Willow. She suddenly felt a little dizzy and leaned against the wall for a moment to steady herself.
 
Tara jumped up, concerned. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
 
“Nothing, just a little dizzy, that’s all. I haven’t eaten anything all day since that muffin, must be low blood sugar.”
 
“Are you sure it wasn’t the spell? You were using it for a long time, and that can be pretty draining,” said Tara.
 
Willow shook her head. “No. I’d know the difference. The spell was nothing.” Willow straightened up and smiled, trying to put Tara at ease. “I could use some lunch though.”
 
“I’ll come with you,” said Tara, whose mouth had started watering again at the mention of lunch. “I’m getting sick of psychology at this point anyhow.”
 
“Do you want to try that new Mexican place?” asked Willow.
 
“Sure!” said Tara. The restaurant in question was about a five minute walk from the dorm, and soon they were sitting in a booth munching on tortilla chips. Mmm. These are really good, Tara thought as she steadily downed chips without pause.
 
“Where are we on the whole Glory thing, do you think?” asked Willow. She snatched the last chip seconds before Tara finished the basket. “And do you think you could save me a chip or two?”
 
Tara’s eyes widened as she realized that she had eaten nearly all the chips. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me today! Sorry about that. I didn’t realize I was hogging them.”
 
“No worries, we can get another basket,” said Willow.
 
“Better not – I need to save room for the main course,” Tara replied, looking over the menu. When the waitress returned she ordered a double chimichanga platter with a side of guacamole. Willow ordered a more modest quesadilla plate. The waiter left, and they returned to their discussion.
 
“Glory is just such an unknown,” Tara began. “Really hard to even know where to start. I mean, Buffy can barely put a dent in her.”
 
“Maybe we need some sort of spell that could enhance Buffy’s powers even further,” Willow mused. “That way, she could at least defend herself better.”
 
“That sounds scary,” Tara said. “What if it backfired? Or what if she couldn’t control it and hurt someone she didn’t mean to? You could end up doing more harm than good.”
 
“But I’m a practiced witch, Tara! I know what I’m doing.” Willow couldn’t believe that Tara was doubting her this way.
 
“I know,” soothed Tara. “But the Slayer is already something mystical and out of the ordinary. A lot of spells are written assuming a normal human subject. Buffy is many things, but a normal human is not one of them.”
 
“But if this could help her, we should try it!”
 
“Willow, please, please promise me that you won’t do anything to Buffy without discussing it with her and Giles first,” pleaded Tara. “Promise me? Baby?”
 
Tara’s pleading eyes touched Willow. “Ok, I promise not to do any unauthorized spells on the Slayer. Besides, Giles would probably revoke my Magic Box privileges if I did.”
 
The food arrived at that point, and they dug in. Tara was amazed at how good it all tasted. She thought about all the other food she had eaten that day and debated taking half of this home for later. I’ve really got to quit binging today. But then she reasoned that it would probably taste better fresh than as a leftover, so she might as well eat it now rather than waste it.
 
Willow continued discussing magic while they ate. “There are just so many things I want to try,” she said as she started on her quesadilla. “It seems like there should be a bunch of ways that I could use magic to help the Scoobies.”
 
“Need to be careful, though,” Tara warned. “There are always consequences for the big stuff. There really isn’t any free lunch, you know.”
 
Willow refrained from rolling her eyes. “Do you ever wonder if you’re being overcautious, honey?” she said as gently as she could. “I mean, I know your family was a little weird about magic, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use our talents.”
 
“I never said not to use your talents,” Tara replied. “Just… make sure you’ve thought it all the way through, that’s all. I think you’re an excellent witch. I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”
 
“No one will get hurt, I promise you,” Willow said warmly, reaching across the table to take Tara’s hand. They locked eyes and smiled at each other. Then Willow happened to glance at Tara’s plate, which was nearly empty. “Was it good?” she asked, a bit incredulous. She couldn’t believe that Tara had eaten all that so quickly.
 
Tara picked up her fork to finish the last few bites. “It really was delicious,” she said. “We should come here more often, now that we know it’s good.”
 
They continued eating, letting the conversation lapse a bit while they did. Willow finally put her fork down with about a quarter of her quesadilla uneaten. “I’m stuffed,” she pronounced.
 
Tara hesitated, then said, “Can I have the rest then? Seems a shame to waste it.”
 
Willow shrugged, and Tara speared the remaining piece with her fork, downing it in 4 bites. She stifled another belch as Willow called for the check. “You’d better slow down today, hon,” said Willow. “You’re going to eat us out of house and home pretty soon.”
 
“I guess I am a little ravenous today,” Tara admitted. “Just keep your fingers away from my mouth and you should be fine.”
 
Willow chuckled, and fished out some cash for the bill. Tara dug some out of her wallet for the tip, and they both made their way out into the sunlight. When they got back to their dorm, Tara asked, “How are things coming on your paper?”
 
“I’m all finished!” Willow said proudly. “I just need to print it out and it’s all set.”
 
“Wow. That was quick,” Tara said. “I feel pretty confident in my psych as well. What should we do for the rest of the day?”
 
“Well, I really want to work on a few of these new spells,” said Willow, eagerly looking through the pile of spellbooks.
 
“Should we go to the Magic Box?” asked Tara.
 
Willow thought for a minute. “I think I want to work on it here for a while, so that I know what to ask Giles when we see him next.” Plus Giles is all paranoid and will just say no, because he doesn’t understand that I can handle this. I don’t need his permission anyway.
 
“I think I’m going to go for a walk for a while,” said Tara, changing into sneakers. “I really need to work off some of the extra calories I scarfed down today.”
 
“Do you want some company?” asked Willow. “I should probably get some exercise too.” But it would be ok if you said no because I really want to try some of these spells…
 
“Only if you really want to,” said Tara. She could tell when Willow really wanted to do something that didn’t involve Tara, but was being too kind to say so. Willow’s aura tended to change color a bit when that happened.
 
“Well, I guess I do sort of want to do some spell research,” Willow admitted.
 
Tara came over and kissed Willow deeply. “You just be careful. I need you in one piece with no smoking eyebrows or anything, ok?”
 
Willow put her arms around Tara and kissed her back. “When you come back, maybe we could do something… else,” she purred.
 
Tara laughed. “Then this is going to be the fastest walk on record!” With those tantalizing thoughts, they separated, and Tara left for her walk.
 
Willow flopped on the bed with her latest spell book. Some of the chants were really a pain, being written in ancient bastardized versions of various languages. She was fairly proficient in Latin, and was usually able to figure out most of the Romance languages. Even some of the demon tongues weren’t that bad, provided they were written clearly. But this book had some spells that probably required multiple heads to pronounce properly.
 
Willow blew the stray hairs off her forehead and contemplated. A translation spell! she thought suddenly. I just need a spell to translate the words I don’t know. Piece of cake! She went through her bookshelf until she found the right tome, flipped it open to a spell designed to ‘make clear that which is obscure in wording’. That sounded like exactly what she needed – the demon languages were pretty obscure. She looked through the list of ingredients and was pleased to find she had them all. She sat on the floor with the spellbook she needed translated open in front of her. She cast a circle of herbs around herself, and sprinkled some more on the book itself. “Make clear what is hidden, make known what is unknown,” she chanted. She felt the magic flow through her fingers and into the page. She watched excitedly as the words on the page shimmered, rearranged, and became perfectly understandable English text.
 
“Yes!” she exclaimed. I really don’t see why Giles and Tara are always so twitchy about my magic. I’m a natural it seems. She picked up the now translated spellbook and started looking through it to see what sort of spells it contained. There were spells for summoning various demons, spells for binding enemies, spells to render enemies unconscious, or inflicting various temporary afflictions on them. Most of the spells in the book seemed to require someone to inflict the spells on. Not something I can really do in a dorm. Bummer. She kept flipping through, hoping to find one new spell she could try.
 
She looked out the window and saw a squirrel scampering along the branches of a tree. Maybe just a little test… She concentrated her will on the squirrel, and muttered one of the translated spells, meant to freeze an enemy in place. “Like a stone or statue be,” she finished, as the power left her. The squirrel stopped, almost comically, with one paw in the air, on the edge of a tree limb. It was frozen there, unmoving. That is so cool! Imagine doing that to a vampire or a demon or something!
 
A group of girls came walking across the quad at that point, their path taking them beneath the tree that was the current focus of Willow’s attention. At the same time, there was a sudden gust of wind. It shook the tree, causing the frozen squirrel to drop, right onto the head of a long-haired brunette. Willow’s concentration was broken, and with it so was the spell. The squirrel came back to life, to find itself tangled in the co-ed’s hair. The girl screamed “Get it off me!” in utter panic as books and purse went flying. She shrieked again as the squirrel bit her hand, then finally disentangled itself and scampered away. “It bit me! Oh my god! What if it had rabies?” The girl’s friends tried to calm her down, picking up her things and leading her off in the direction of the campus health clinic.
 
Ooops. Willow pulled back quickly from the window, ashamed at what had just happened. I hope she’s ok. I didn’t expect that it would fall out of the tree. Sheepishly she closed the spell books and swept up the herbs. As she was doing this, she started to think about the spell in a different light. Ok, so I probably shouldn’t have done that spell in that particular way. But I did learn something important! These spells require continuous effort. They’re not just ‘set and forget’ type spells. Now that I know that, I should be able to do more of these in the future. This is really going to be a big help to the gang. She continued tidying up the room, patting herself mentally on the back for her newfound skills.
 
Tara had set off for her walk with good intentions. She briskly strode across campus, enjoying the sun and the wind in her hair. When she reached the end of campus nearest to town, the air brought the scent of coffee to her nose. The Espresso Pump was right up ahead, and the aroma was heavenly. Coffee is pretty low calorie, and it will give me energy for my walk. She went inside, fully intending to order a small black coffee. But when she got up to the counter the caramel frappuchino looked so inviting that she had to order one, along with a chocolate croissant. She paid for her purchases and continued on her walk, finishing the croissant and starting in on the frappuchino. Whoever invented this should get the Nobel prize, at the very least, she thought. The main shopping drag was proving to be a poor choice of walking location, she found. Every other storefront seemed to be selling food. A chocolate shop, a café, a pizza place – they all seemed to scream Tara’s name as she walked by. She walked faster, trying to block the concept of food out of her mind. You’ve had enough today, Tara Maclay, she told herself firmly.
 
She finally decided that she had to get off the main drag and back to campus before she found herself in a restaurant again. She retraced her steps, slowing down unconsciously in front of various good smelling stores, but forcing herself to continue onward. She reached a small plaza near an office complex and breathed a sigh of relief. But then she heard a little voice pipe up, “Would you like to buy some cookies?”
 
Tara turned. There was a table set up to the side of the plaza with four little uniformed girl scouts and their leader, behind a pile of boxes of cookies. The little girls grinned appealingly at Tara, and she found she couldn’t resist. “Of course I’d like to buy some,” she said warmly. “Tell me what kind you have.”
 
The little girls, excited to make a sale, chirped happily about the pros and cons of their various wares. Tara ended up leaving ten minutes later with a bag of six boxes of cookies of various varieties. Oh well, it was for a good cause, she reasoned.
 
She started heading back to campus, but found she could not resist opening one of the boxes, just for a taste. This box happened to be chocolate mint, and she nearly swooned at the first bite. Curse these little scouts and their evil temptations, she thought. But the thought didn’t prevent her from grabbing another, and another. By the time she reached the dorm, she found to her dismay that the entire box was empty. Groaning, she threw the box in the trash on the way into the building, and headed up to their room with the remaining boxes.
 
Willow had just finished cleaning up when Tara entered. “Hey, what did you get?”
 
“I was accosted by a horde of cute little girls in uniforms. To my knowledge, there is no defense against such an attack,” said Tara, bringing out the boxes and putting them on the desk.
 
“Attack of the little green cookie monsters,” Willow joked. “Sounds like a bad B-movie or something.”
 
Tara laughed and moved over to embrace Willow. They shared a long kiss, then paused for breath, smiling into each other’s eyes. “What did you do while I was out battling the girl scouts?” Tara asked.
 
Willow swallowed and paused for a moment, not sure how much to tell Tara. Finally she said, “I used a spell to translate that new book I got. I was able to freeze a squirrel in its tracks!”
 
“Well, I’m sure that will come in handy against attacks by demon squirrels,” Tara said. “Any side effects?”
 
“N…no,” said Willow, nibbling on Tara’s neck to hide the slight flush in her face. “But it does require constant concentration, or else the squirrel starts moving again.”
 
“Mental note, don’t distract Willow when she is defending me against raging squirrels,” Tara agreed. Coherent thoughts were being drowned out by what Willow was doing with her hands and her tongue.
 
“Remember our post-walk plans?” Willow purred. Tara felt so good under her hands. Besides, there were better things to discuss than the minor consequences of spells.
 
“Mmm,” Tara agreed, capturing Willow’s mouth with hers. They guided each other to the bed, and the rest of the afternoon passed rather pleasantly for both of them.
 
TBC