Big surprise, only not: Kennedy had a Thing (tm) for geeky witches. Or, well. One in particular. As far as she knew. So new-book-day meant she pretty much had to come down and see her geeky witch, right? On top of all the other reasons (as for example, lunch) she could list that she was prepared to argue were totally solid ones?

It was a great way to dispel the lingering touch of annoyance, definitely; Constance hadn't been satisfied with just pestering her with questions, apparently, because when Kennedy had stopped to pick up her mail on the way through town to get burgers and fries for lunch there had been a few college catalogs in there too. And she thought she was unsubtle with the hinting. Said catalogs were still tucked under her arm when she showed up.

"Sooooooomeone's in happy bookworm mode," she commented, leaning against the door.

"What kind of demon?" asked Kennedy, who was more interested in that than the botanical illustrations but wasn't addressing the mucus-y thing in the presence of food. "Like, one that's into gardening?"

It could totally happen, right?

"I'm okay," she added, coming over to give Tara a quick kiss before she got the food unpacked somewhere away from the books. "Hungry, but that's a given, and also feeling the need to tell you it's hot when you get geeky."

"Only stating the obvious," Kennedy told her, "but if you think it's hot, hey, bonus for me."

She made a face at the catalogs she'd brought in with her, shoving them aside into a corner as she opened up takeout boxes and snagged herself a bite of deep-fried potatoey goodness.

"Good morning so far?" she asked, holding out a french fry for Tara.

"Constance is a pain, and in other news water is wet," Kennedy replied, rolling her eyes slightly. "So... more or less normal? She's on this whole stupid we-need-to-think-about-your-future kick though, and it's..."

Distinctly trending away from fighty pursuits, which Kennedy didn't like at all.

"...I don't want to," she finished lamely.

They were all good schools, if not Ivy League (at least Constance had no illusions about her charge's academic ambitions), but Kennedy had noticed that not a single one of them was anywhere near the West Coast.

"Yeah," she conceded, even though she knew it wasn't so much about getting in on her scholarly merits as it was having the right connections to do so; that was a touchy subject. "The vote of confidence is nice? The part where it's not what I want to do is where the suckage comes in."

As was the part about leaving. Therein lay mass amounts of suck, though the unspoken implication that she might as well start giving up on the idea that she could be the next Slayer bore ample resemblance to a black hole itself.

Kennedy gave her a helpless look; she hadn't given serious thought to a single other career option since she was six years old, and the question had her off-balance.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe I'll go off and hunt demons on my own, or... or find something that'll let me help people out somehow. But this?" All too aware how obvious she'd just made it that she hadn't given this much thought at all, she reached out to tap the edge of the brochure Tara had picked up, looking exasperated. "It's like she wants me to just throw away everything I've been working for since I was little, no big deal."

Her voice turned petulant, and she was very much the spoiled brat in that moment. "I can't do that. That's not fair."

"I think she does?" Kennedy ventured; Constance had been less and less willing to divulge any information whatsoever on that front lately, and she didn't get why. "But I don't know. Sitting in lecture halls and doing term papers so does not rank anywhere on my list of interesting things to do, and I just..."

Her shoulder slumped. "I don't want to think about going anywhere."

And there was that thing they hadn't been talking about again. It kept popping up from time to time. Like a game of slow-motion demonic Whack-a-Mole.

Kennedy would have refused to let her apologize, anyway.

"For you to end up wherever I do?" she asked, sounding almost like a kid again in her uncertainty; she cast a quick glance over at the brochures in all their full-color, glossy, gold-leafed, opulence and wished she hadn't just given herself the reminder of how it was a long shot at best. "Yeah. It could totally happen, right? We can make it work. We always make it work."

That didn't sound half as confident as most of her declarations did.

"This is dumb," she finally decided. "Depressing ourselves like this and letting the food get cold."

"You don't," blurted Kennedy, abandoning her burger to reach out and pull Tara into a hug.

And maybe she was hanging onto this part of her life this stubbornly so she didn't have to face up to the reality that she really would have to find something else to do with herself in the long run, but that didn't mean she couldn't want this, too, did it?

"You never do," she insisted. "Don't even talk like that, okay?"

"Maybe I want you around even then," Kennedy insisted, and she'd thought she was over it but once the words were out of her mouth they sounded a little scary... and she hated to admit it, but Tara was right. She'd never been the type to put everything on hold for a girl before, and if it came down to a choice between that and doing what she needed to do?

"When it comes down to that, we'll see where we are, okay?" she tried, her own voice a little thick. "God, I don't have to go anywhere yet. We've at least got until then..."

Three years and maybe a reality or two to the side.

"Yeah," Kennedy echoed. She used to measure their relationship in weeks, because months seemed like a long time and that was scary; when had she started measuring it in months because weeks seemed too short? "I mean, it's not like we're gonna go home and never see each other again or anything, plus I can totally come back and visit, and..."

She trailed off with a strained laugh; one of the reasons she loved Tara was that earnest optimism of hers. "And right now we have books and burgers, and I was thinking we could do a movie in my room tonight or something, and we should enjoy all of that. 'cause... now."

Kennedy turned her head to brush a light kiss against Tara's cheek.

"I think we can even pull off a mindless movie with cute animals. And chocolate, and snuggles.. Call it a date and we're good, yeah?"

"A girl's gotta have hobbies," Kennedy pretended to defend herself. "I spoil because I love. Is that so wrong?"

Kennedy grinned. "Score. So it's totally not pushing my luck to try and convince you to stay the night, either?"

Kennedy was so not counting down on a daily basis yet.

"It's only polite to ask," she countered, teasing.