Title: Inner Light
Fandom: BtVS
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Tara, Willow.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 250
Spoilers: Late season four or early season five.
Summary: Tara needs convincing about how beautiful she is.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 411: Amnesty 68, using Challenge 368: Brush.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BtVS, or the characters.



Lying on their bed, Tara watches Willow, seated at the dressing table, brushing her hair, red as flame in the glow of the lamp on the nightstand. Smiling, she gets to her feet and walks barefoot across the room to stand behind her girlfriend.

“Let me do that for you?”

Looking up, Willow smiles. “Sure, if you want to.” She offers the brush.

“I do. You have such beautiful hair.” Slowly, sensually, Tara runs the brush through Willow’s hair, smooth as silk, repeats the motion over and over, until Willow is practically purring with pleasure. “My hair is so plain and dull. Sometimes I think I should bleach it, or maybe dye it purple.”

“No!” Willow reaches up to grasp Tara’s hand, making the brush pause. “Please don’t do that, I love your hair exactly the way it is, and it’s not plain; it’s beautiful, just like you.” She twists around to gaze imploringly up at Tara. “Everything about you is perfect, just the way you are.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I wouldn’t say so if I didn’t mean it. Let me show you.” Standing, Willow guides Tara to sit before the mirror and sets her brush aside, picking up Tata’s and beginning to stroke it through her girlfriend’s long, ash-blonde locks. “See how you shine? It’s as if there’s a light inside you, making you glow from the inside.”

“If there is, then you’re the one who put it there,” Tara whispers. “You taught me how to shine.”


The End