I will always find you

Sunnydale

Seattle, WA
Beep Beep!! The alarm clock went off. 4am, not the best time to be awake. Willow wondered to herself why she'd booked such an early flight to go to a place she'd rather forget, but looking at Lily still fast asleep made it all seem worthwhile. "Lily, sweetie wake up we've got to get our plane!" She softly kissed her daughters forehead in attempt to wake her up.
"Mommy? What times is its?" The sleepy girl replied, barely managing to make sense with her lack of sleep.
"It's early darling, you can go back to sleep in the airport we just need to leave to make sure we're not late for our flight." Willow replied while quickly brushing Lily's soft blonde hair, which always seemed to make her happy. "There we go Goldilocks" she smiled.
"Yayyy," Lily tiredly replied, rubbing her eyes and clumsily jumping down from the bed to start getting dressed for her first flight.

***

"Mommy whys are there so many people?" Lily asked whilst being carried on Willow's hip, looking at all the people around in the airport.
"Well Lils there's lots of people because people like to travel and go visit family all around the world. But you can't just get to places fast in the car so we use planes to get there faster, does that make sense?"
"Is everyone going to Sunnysdale?" She questioned trying to imagine how big the plane would be if everyone in here would be going on the same one. This made Willow giggle, there were probably more people in here than she'd seen in Sunnydale in her whole life! Lily was so unbelievably innocent and had absolutely no idea what life in Sunnydale was like, or anything to do with the supernatural and she intended to keep it this way. There was really no need for Lily to find out, especially not when she was so young. Willow sometimes wondered if she'd inherited any magical abilities or the suchlike, but didn't want to push the matter as she herself hadn't done magic since the day she left Sunnydale and hadn't found any need to.
"No baby girl they're not all going to Sunnydale, only a few of these people I bet.  Some people might be going to England or New York or anywhere in the whole wide world!" Willow smiled and brushed an errant strand of red hair from her face before hearing the terminal for their flight over the tannoy. "It's go time!" She smiled and walked over to their terminal, with Lily still resting on her hip and carrying their bags in her other hand.
"Mommy I'm tiredddddd!" Lily complained, just wanting to be able to go back to sleep and not understanding why everything was taking so long.
"I know Lily bear we just have to be patient, and when we get on the plane you can go back to sleep for a little bit ok?" Willow replied trying to ease her daughters nagging, even though she too was exhausted. Lily just nodded and rested her head on Willow's shoulder, waiting for them to board the plane.
Willow was so thankful when they called for families for small children to board almost first. As much as she loved Lily, when she was tired she could get cranky, a trait she had, unfortunately, got from Willow herself. "Mommy I want chocolateeeee" Lily pouted once Willow had found their seats and got them both sat down.
"Well it's a good thing I brought some, huh?" Willow said, reaching into her bag and breaking off some chocolate. "That's it for the whole flight though, and you've got a lot so don't eat it all at once and get sick sweetie. I don't want you to be sick for our little holiday!"
"Ok Mommy I pwomise!" Lily replied breaking off a tiny slice and putting it in her mouth, before leaning her head against Willow's shoulder and settling down for the flight.
"Are you scared for your first flight?"
"Uh huh," Lily nodded "Everything's so big and there's so manys people!"
"Just wait till we actually get flying, that's the scary part but after that you can take the seatbelt off and go to sleep again if you want to." Willow comforted her.
"That's goods... Mommy where did you put Tare-bear? I wanna show her what it's like to be in the sky's! Mommyy will we see Momma in the sky's too, I thought that's where she was?"
"Don't worry I brought her along," Willow replied, handing her the stuffed bunny that she'd had since she was just a little baby. "And no baby girl, as much as I wanna see Momma too we won't get to see her, it sadly doesn't work like that. " Willow added sadly, stroking her daughters hair to try and help comfort both of them.
Lily pouted and leaned against Willow. "That's reallyyyy sad Mommy,"
"I know it is baby girl." Willow replied trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. With that the plane started to set off, and Willow could feel like grip of Lily's hand on hers tightening like a vice.
"Mommy I don't like it! I don't like it!" Lily complained, her ears already hurting from all the noises echoing around and the sensation of the plane taking flight.
"I know it's not great, but trust me this is the worst part. Remember, I've done this before and you're with me so we're gonna be fine darling." Trying to lighten the mood she added "Do you wanna talk to me about something fun to help you forget that we're even on here?"
Lily nodded and gripped Willow's hand harder, before starting to talk again.
"Can I have a pet unicorn?" Lily asked
"A unicorn? Baby girl they're like horses! I told you horses can hurt you!" Willow said, shuddering at the memory of her fourth birthday party.
"But they're so cuuuute and they're magical!" The little girl replied, pouting to try and convince her mother to let her have one.
"I don't think I can get one Lils, you know if I could I'd try but they're impossible to get!" Willow said, letting her believe that they were real for as long as she could. By now the plane had reached it's maximum height and was going steady. And hopefully Lily was still tired enough to go back to sleep.
"You're only saying that because you don't like horsies! You told me Momma knew how to ride, she'd have wanted me to have a unicorn!" Lily knew she could use the Momma card to get her way around anything, it was her Mommy's soft spot.
"Lily..." She replied slightly warningly. She knew Lily was trying to convince her and the more she kept pouting, the more she looked like Tara. And with going back to Sunnydale, it would just push Willow over the edge even more, knowing it could have been the three of them.
"Ok Mommy I knows." Lily sighed before laying her head on Willow's chest. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
Willow smiled at her. "Of course sweetie pie, I love you!"
"Love you too Mommy!" She replied, gradually getting more tired and eventually falling asleep.