by Katharyn » Sun Nov 18, 2012 11:27 am
After the last couple of short parts... one that's about the length of those added together...
Title: Tara and Willow – Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda – Chapter Twenty-Five
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Absolutely, yes please. That’s why I write for this place, to engage in the discussion about the story.
Spoiler warning: Not sure why I am bothering, really, but Season 4 and Season 5 of BTVS.
Distribution: This story was written for Pens. Pens is its home. No archiving off Different Coloured Pens and the Kitten Board please. No conversion to eBook or other formats please. Enjoy it here.
Summary: Tara gets advice on dating and Willow finds reasons to be with Tara.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc. I am making no money from this series of stories however all original characters and situations remain my property. As this is a missing scenes and alternate reality fiction lots of scenes are new versions of those seen in the show, as such dialogue and situations are taken from the show. I’m sure you can tell which. All credit for those aspects goes to the original writers.
Rating: Occasional, tasteful, adult situations and contextual bad language. However by and large equivalent to the show.
Couples: Tara and Willow forever, that’s all I’m bothered about.
Text convention: Use of italics denotes either special emphasis if used for a single or a few words in a sentence OR first person thoughts if used for a whole sentence.
Notes: On redrafting I found that this chapter is a big fave of mine in the early section, just something about the interactions and the wanting ‘works’ for me. It’s also one of those ‘in between’ parts, I am sure you can slot it into the canon as not that long after Hush, but it’s one of those bits I promised about missing scenes – even though it moves the story along a little too. Truth be told, I’m too lazy to decide what episode it would be. It really doesn’t matter…
I did also realise that I already suggested Annie had been helping Tara get ready to see Willow, but this is a slightly deeper version than what to wear.
Thanks to: All those who give me little ideas. They’re great and – best of all – I get to go ahead and use them if I can work them in. Still looking to add Faolan’s puppie in somewhere… More!
It was possible she wasn’t exactly being the very definition of subtle, but Tara was coming around to the idea that the time for subtlety could well be in the past.
All this sneaking around wasn’t doing her reputation any favours either, nor was she she sure what Willow would think about that but… she’d sort of found herself out of options.
After all, what she was supposed to do? Look it up on some inter-website-thingy-mi-bob?
It might, one day, become a source of tension between she and Willow – even if it wasn’t yet. Assuming they had a future together – and she liked to believe they had even at this early stage – then there might need to be some sort of compromise over the power of the whole interweb-thing versus a book and actually talking to someone.
Of course, the interweb seemed like it might be easier and definitely less embarrassing.
That was all she was trying to do, talk to someone. Get advice face to face…
Annie being the person and the advice being… Well, one of those things she hadn’t had to think about all that much until she’d found herself – blessedly and surprisingly – in a honest to goodness relationship.
Her friend had helped dress her that first time they’d really met as well, even in silence. So… who else could she go to now?
Annie sighed. “Tara, I know you want something… why don’t you just, you know, tell me or ask me or whatever it is?”
“I’m that obvious?” she wondered, folding the clothes Annie had just taken from the dryer.
“It’s not that you’re helping,” Annie said, “you always do that when you’re around. But this time… it’s like there’s a pregnant pause.”
“Uh-uh. There’s no pregnancy,” she said, sighing at her inability to say something else. She didn’t want to be predictable and obvious, in fact she quite liked the idea of being mysterious if Willow was going to keep insisting she was beautiful.
‘Beautiful and mysterious’, surely that was the way to be. Instead she was here denying a pregnancy to her best friend just because…
“I’d hope not, any lesbian who can get preggers after just kissing a girl is waaay too unlucky to be around. And you’re not the type for asexual reproduction.”
Tara grinned, feeling a little more at ease and very deliberately she left some of the more intimate apparel alone in favour of taking on one of Annie’s nice tops to fold to within an inch of its life. And, bless her, Annie did her part by removing the offending articles and dealing with them herself.
She got it.
There were limits to what you were supposed to help with, even with your girlfriends… Hmm, she might need to reconsider that title now. Since she had another, different kind of girlfriend…
Didn’t she? Yes… the label was officially deemed ‘appropriate.’
“So, come on… out with it? I mean we’re nearly done here now.”
“I… I want to take Willow out.”
“After you already made out for like, more than an hour? Are you sure she’ll respect you in the morning if you show her a good time out on the town?”
“I told you about making out with her just to stop you asking!” Tara complained, but in good humour. Now was the time in her life to have a best friend to tell these things. It was… it’d felt good – but little embarrassing – to be able to tell Annie how she was feeling.
It felt good not to be teased about it and to see that her friend wasn’t just happy, she was excited for her.
“Asking why you had a big, silly grin and I wanted to know what it was doing that – just in case you had some sort of muscle spasm and needed help. So… Anyway, you want to go out with her. So go out, what’s the problem?”
“I - ” Was it really that simple? They’d met a few times on campus, but that wasn’t what she had in mind. She didn’t just want to meet Willow, she wanted to date her.
Although she was starting to realise that wasn’t the limit of her ambitions either. Which was why she had some of these questions.
“You don’t know where to go? I mean, I guess lesbians go on dates the same sort of places as everyone else right? Dinner, movies… back seat of the car at the lookout… Oh, no, you don’t need a view or steamy windows. Steamy dryers and laundry rooms are more your speed.”
“Oh, ha ha.”
Annie looked around, taking in where they were – in the laundry room - with an expression of mock horror… “Oh, wait… You cornered me! You’re trying to flip me – and not just ‘flip’! Other four letter words beginning with F.”
“Stop it!”
Annie was laughing and it took her a few moments to recover enough to start talking again. “I’m sorry, really, I am. But is that it? You did the biggest load of laundry I’ve had since the start of the semester with me because you need ideas? Oh, girl, we’ve got to get you speaking up sooner.”
“No,” Tara said. “That’s all – I know where I want to take her.”
“It’s dinner and a movie, isn’t it?”
“Is that bad? Is it boring?” she wondered. She’d been hoping for ‘classic’ at worst, leaving them to be the fresh and new part. She and Willow.
“Depends, what do you think?”
“I’ve never done dinner and a movie in the same night,” Tara admitted.
“Oh… yeah, you’d never been kissed,” Annie teased her. “I’m sure she’ll love it. If you pick the right movie and the right restaurant… I mean, that can be a deal killer. Never mind respect you in the morning, you won’t get a goodnight peck.”
“Y-you’re not going to worry me about that,” Tara told her. “So you can stop it right now.”
“Okay, okay, so you’re unflappable… so what is it if you already know all that?”
“I…” How to put this? “I don’t know how to get ready.”
“What for?”
“For… a date. The date. Our date. Mine and Willow’s, I mean.”
“I figured you didn’t mean me and you, but how do you mean? Get ready how?” Annie asked, clearly confused. Yeah, they’d been through her wardrobe before so… She was just going to have to explain.
“Well, the things that you – that a girl does – that I would or, you know, should do to get ready for a date… I mean, you pick something out to wear, that’s fine, you helped me with that. But… other stuff. I mean… You know?”
“You mean… like… getting ready?”
“I guess.” Here she was, blushing again. Was it all that she did these days? Blush? Was that what it was to have a friend you hadn’t known since you were kids? To have a girlfriend? Just end up blushing when everyone realised that you weren’t worldly and it wasn’t anything – or not much – to do with coming from Montana?
“You know this stuff, Tara. You do. You’re not stupid. You’re the most unstupid person I know, including me. See, I had to make up a word to explain how ‘unstupid’ you actually are.”
“It’s not so much the… knowing, it’s more I don’t want to miss anything and – I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“But you did,” Annie said, taking another top from her. The last one that needed folding. “So… lets get to it. Tell me what’s bothering you. You don’t want to miss anything and you don’t want to… what?”
“Give the wrong impression.”
“Ahhh,” Annie exclaimed. “Now I see.”
“You do?”
“You think that if you take care of those things she’ll think you’re expecting more than she’s willing to offer or that you’re… what? Easy?”
The blush must’ve been all the answer that Annie needed. “Easy? Easy? Tara… you’re about as easy as you are stupid. That – if you’ve not gotten it – is not at all.”
“Thanks, I think.” On the other hand, she didn’t want to be hard work…
“Yeah, it was a compliment. Kind of. Now… let’s see. You honestly don’t know this stuff?”
“I’ve never been on a date,” she reiterated. “And… I – I want it to be perfect, no matter what happens. I want to be perfect.” Even as she said it she realised how unlike her that sounded. It wasn’t the person she’d been or wanted to be.
“You mean you don’t want her to find fault with you?” Annie guessed, starting to pile up the folded clothes.
“Yes. I mean, no.”
“Tara, honey, she’s sucked face with you for the best part of an hour. I don’t think she could even see anything wrong with you, or if she did then she obviously doesn’t care anyway.”
“She – Willow’s a perfectionist,” Tara said. “I know that she’ll be preparing and probably researching and everything. She uses the interweb and electronic mail and everything and I don’t know what it says there.”
“And I’m your research?” Annie guessed.
She nodded, trying not to blush. Trying not to appear too needy.
“Okay, well… I’ll admit to having been on a few dates and going round the bases a few times and that – I guess – is the key, what base you want to get to?”
“Bases? There’s bases now?” Knowing the classic interpretation of the metaphor, she’d never put much thought into it since the homerun had never held any appeal to her.
“I think bases apply to everyone,” Annie told her. “So if you’re thinking about getting ready for a date, one of the first questions is how far do you want to go? The second question – well, that’s how far you think you are gonna go.”
“So… it’s not always the same answer?”
-------------------
Willow rested her head on her hand, gazing off into space while Giles droned. He didn’t mean to drone, but right now he – and the others – were pretty much drone city.
“Willow?”
She was conscious of her name being said, but her focus was elsewhere. The lips of a hot girl above all other things…
“Base, Willow?”
“Huh? No. Barely to second,” she murmured before she knew what she was saying.
“What?”
“Nothing. Nothing. Certainly nothing that meant – nevermind. You said something about bases, which is something I know nothing about…”
“Base,” Giles said, looking at her curiously. “Singular. A base. The base. The base that you told us about? Unless you’ve found out there’s more than one?”
Not first. Not the brush with second… And – what – she was going to have to redefine bases now? Was second still second? Was second something else? What about third? Third sounded a lot like… well, third. And what was a homerun? It’d been easy when she’d thought she was straight. It’d been obvious before. But now… one more wrinkle.
One more thing to think about. But right now they wanted to talk about something else. So… fine.
The base that Tara had told her about.
Tara…
It was one of those thing that just showed how right she was about Tara Maclay. All her instincts said one thing and then Tara went right along and backed them up by putting thoughts and words into actions.
Tara had told her about the paramilitary guys and about the fact that Diana had tracked them to their base – a house on campus. Even that she’d sent a creature in there to get information and – apparently succeeded.
The old Willow wouldn’t have been surprised that a beautiful succubus would’ve been able to extract critical information from some army guys because – hello – they were guys. You wave a bitch under their nose and…
But, that was the old Willow. Now she was a new Willow, with a shiny new girlfriend – they were actually going on a date soon – and she didn’t have to worry about that anymore. And she was looking forward to finding out just how shiny Tara really was.
Some time.
No pressure.
But… she hadn’t told her friends about Tara and her. They knew about Tara. They knew about her, obviously. Just not the combination of the pair of them. Why hadn’t she said anything?
There was more than one reason, but one was she hated the idea they’d be suspicious of her new girlfriend and her motives for earning that title. It seemed better that they didn’t know and not be any more suspicious…
The other biggie was that Tara was hers… Oz had always been there, on the periphery of the group and eventually he’d belonged to the group as much as any of them. As much as her or Xander or Anya…
Tara was outside of that. Buffy and Eddie were fumbling around – without the actual fumbles – at least as far as she knew – and they might get somewhere. Xander had Anya, more fool him.
Even Giles had Olivia on an occasional basis and that was good for him, after what had happened but…
Everyone else had been growing outside their original friendships, finding new things. Tara was her new thing, Tara was hers. And maybe there’d be fumbles. Maybe…
A girl could hope for fumbles, couldn’t she? She was ready for fumbling. Definitely. And maybe after that they’d decide just what base that fumbling really was? Enquiring minds wanted to experience the practical application first and then know the lesbian definition of bases.
Practical applications she was prepared for… Hands, fingers, lips or anything. Well, not anything but it was pretty unlikely Tara was that adventurous. Right? It was an adventure for both of them just to get to second or first or third or… damn, she needed to know this.
Maybe there was a ‘lesbian bases’ page online. Handy definitions to know and tell your friends. Wasn’t that what the internet was for?
Except… not telling her friends. Not yet.
“Willow…?”
Oh. Bases. Right. “No, just the one,” she said. “As far as I know. First and only…”
Everyone was looking at her and Buffy looked as if she was calculating something. Buffy… suspected. A tangled web might become necessary, because she knew she’d never – successfully – told a simple lie in her life. She really, really sucked at lying. Even in a good cause and she thought maybe this was one, keeping Tara just for her.
Just for a little while.
The only way to get through it would be to spin a complex web of deceit, based in fact but obscuring it to the greatest extent possible… It usually worked when no one cared enough to try and unravel it.
“Will?” Buffy asked quietly. “You okay?”
“Sure. Tip top. Why’d you ask?”
“Well, you have seemed… happy these last few days and now, what you just said – Willow Rosenberg, are you seeing someone?”
“Me? No… No. No. I’m just – I’m just not mopey Willow anymore. She nearly caused a lot of trouble and I know she was pissing all of you off.”
“You got that right,” Buffy said. “Well, I’m glad, glad you’re getting on with your life. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Talking of things to do, how are you and Eddie?” she suggested, spotting her opportunity.
“There is no me and Eddie,” Buffy said.
“Really? Because that guy is smitten, I recognise the signs.” That ought to do it.
Buffy’s eyes narrowed, suspicious of the diversion, but caught up in the expectations of others. “Signs… yes. I can recognise the signs too. Like when you try to distract me. It’s not difficult I know. You are seeing someone aren’t you?! You little hussy. Come on what’s his name?”
Willow shook his head. “There’s no guy,” she promised with absolute honesty. “Really. Hand on heart. There’s no guy.” The truth, on the other hand, was easy. Everyone believed her when she told the truth because of how she sucked at the simple lies.
“Ladies,” Giles said. “If we might return to the matter at hand rather than your boyfriends?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she and Buffy said at the same time and looked at each other.
“Then perhaps we could discuss the fact that there’s some sort of paramilitary group on campus?”
“Maybe it’s like the National Guard?”
“An appealing idea,” Giles said. “But not something we’ve noticed before.”
“But is it any of our business?” Xander asked. “After all, if someone – someone else I mean – is helping clean up the demons and the vampires on campus then… Why is that a problem? We could’ve done with their help when we had a giant snake to take down. I figure the army could blow up our school more effectively than we had to. Not that that wasn’t fun and all but they already have all the explosives. We wouldn’t have needed to make and steal it.”
“I’m with Xander,” Anya said, looking up from her book.
“And your opinion is really valuable,” Willow commented. “Thanks.” As if they’d all been waiting for Anya to weigh in.
“No, I mean… I’m with him. You can’t have him. Neither of you can. I thought you were still talking about boyfriends. No?”
“None of us want Xander,” Buffy said, a little impatient.
“Hey!”
“It’s true,” Willow agreed. “You’re unwanted.”
“Good. What about you?” Anya asked, looking at Giles.
“Me?”
“You don’t want Xander do you?”
“Anya,” her boyfriend said. “That’s just gone to a really very disturbing place and… I’ll answer for Giles. No… No, he doesn’t.”
“If we could all, please, just focus on the question at hand?”
“Remind me,” Willow said. “I’m… I’m in that disturbing place.”
“What’s disturbing about it?” Anya asked, seeming quite put out. As if they were insulting her by denying it. “Xander’s very appealing to gay men.”
“Okay… that’s enough, honey,” Xander said.
“Well, you are!”
Giles coughed. “For the record, that’s not a constituency that I’m a part of. Now if we can please get on?”
Buffy spoke up, blessedly ending the line of conversation that Willow realised she might’ve been inadvertently responsible for. “What did your source say, Willow?”
“They,” Willow replied, very deliberately leaving the gender out of the statement, “they got the information second hand. Sounds like it’s government though, as we all assumed.”
“It’s the right place for it,” Buffy said. “And Xander’s right, we could use the help… right?”
“At least until this Goddess came along,” Willow pointed out. “Maybe what we have now is overkill. The army, a Goddess of the Hunt and the Slayer?”
“I’m all for a quiet life for me,” Buffy said.
“Quite,” Giles added, “But one has to wonder whether the other two actually have the best interests of the people of Sunnydale at heart?”
“Well, we still don’t know anything about this Goddess,” Buffy said, “We’re really just piecing things together about her. But secret government agencies never did anything bad… right?”
They all sat and looked at each other.
“It may be that I can ask my contact to see what else they can find out,” Willow said. “You know, if they can get anything more.”
“Why won’t you tell us who it is?”
Because I don’t want you to know that I’ve already fallen for her. And when I say her name… I go off to a dreamy place and I wont be able to help giving it away.
“I just can’t,” Willow said. “I trust them though. I trust them completely, as much as I’d trust any of you. So… you can trust me on this too.”
“Of course we trust you, but it’s hard to know what help your contact will be if we don’t know who he is,” Giles said.
“He… They, look, I’ll see what else I can find out. You know, if I can make contact.”
“Sounds very cloak and dagger, Will,” Buffy said, surprisingly supportive of having secrets about this.
“You want me to, right?” she asked. Were they going to give her their blessing to go meet Tara?
“We do need to know,” Giles agreed and Buffy nodded.
“If you’re sure?” Buffy asked.
“It’s a tough job,” Willow said, “but someone’s got to do it.”
-------------------
Tara sat on the bench under the moonlight, wondering for a moment when she’d see Diana again but… not really that worried about it.
It was Willow she was due to meet. Meet, not ‘date’. It was an important distinction… she wasn’t ready for a date. Of the things she and Annie had discussed, putting perfume on was the only thing she’d had time for when the call from Willow came.
Perfume… It was expensive and it was delicious. But even though the moon was full, she wasn’t going to worry about werewolves or anything either. Those creatures were going to stay well and truly clear now that Diana had claimed the territory. Jupiter and Callisto had been scent marking on their mistresses behalf and that was supposed to solve the problem.
It’d taken ages to make their way around everywhere that the dogs needed to go.
And then - all at once - the lights went out. But not in a worrying and scary way.
“Guess who?”
By the voice and the shiver of thrill that ran through her when those hands had wrapped over her eyes, she only had the one guess she could make. “Willow?”
“Got me,” the other girl said. “What is that you’re wearing?”
Tara pulled at her top, but before she could try and explain that it was washday, Willow had clarified. “I mean the perfume… wow.”
“You – you like it?”
“I’m biased,” Willow said. “You’re wearing it and I’d say it was lovely if it smelled like you’d come from the gym without a shower - ”
“L-lovely,” Tara said.
“Don’t knock it! The idea of you fresh from the gym – Sorry, sorry… I – we said we weren’t going to say things like that but it just - You smell like you look, Tara. And you look beautiful.”
Tara pushed her hair back, well aware she was blushing and hoping Willow might – yes. The other girl kissed her softly, but lingering over it.
“You know, you don’t have to wait for me,” Willow said. “If you want to kiss me then… I’m very down with that.”
“I’m not waiting,” Tara replied. “I just… don’t want to be pushy.”
“How do you know I won’t like pushy Tara?”
Tara considered that one, wondering whether she really had that in her. Since Willow had fallen for her as she was – and ‘fallen’ was Willow’s own word – she couldn’t see past Willow liking her hesitant and a little reticent to go too far. But… if she might actually like her however she was then… Why not? She was ready to say the same about Willow.
“Push-up Tara might be fun too,” Willow said, winking. Both of them looked down though she had to concede Willow was talking gym again. Probably not, since her girlfriend’s eyes were firmly on her chest.
“Really?”
“In for a penny, in for a pound.”
She laughed, because it did strike her as funny. Willow had only just found out that breasts were attractive to her – outside her own – and now she was being all size queen about them? And before she’d had her eyes – let alone her hands – on them too? At leats not… properly. “No promises,” Tara said.
“I’m content with not a ‘no’. But… I hate myself right now.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked you here for more than just to see you which is totally, totally great and definitely high on my list of things to do – see Tara, right on up there, but not why I called at this precise moment.”
“Well, why don’t you just tell me, then you don’t have to feel bad anymore, when I give you what you want.”
“If you can.”
“I – I pretty much will.”
“But you shouldn’t because, what I’m going to ask you isn’t about us – it shouldn’t be about us. If I knew you but I wasn’t kissing you every chance I got then I’d still be asking. And I’d probably be thinking ‘I want to kiss this girl too, why can’t I kiss her’ but I’d still be asking whether I was kissing you or not and - ”
Tara silenced Willow initially with a finger over her lips and then replaced it with her own lips. Just briefly. Just to break the loop of babble and release this wonderful girl from its grip.
“Cool,” Willow said with a happy smile. “I talk about kissing you and it happens. That’s very cool.”
Okay, not what she’d actually had in mind in terms of cause and effect, but Willow was right. It was pretty cool and that was something she hadn’t been called so often that she could be blasé about it now.
“What was it you wanted to ask me?” she asked, running her finger tips over Willow’s hand and finger, enjoying the thread of energy that ran between them wherever they touched.
“Well, you said that Diana had discovered some thing about the army guys?” Willow said, looking ashamed of herself again. Now Tara understood why, at least. She just didn’t happen to think it was worthy of shame.
Diana hadn’t told her that this – or anything else - was a secret. Nor that she shouldn’t share it with people who were – and had been – doing their best to protect this town. In what world was she going to deny them the help that they might need to keep that going? To keep them all safe?
“There was a suc-succubus that she sent into their house, I mean, that’s where they entered their base. She… well…”
“I guess she did what succubus’ do,” Willow completed for her. “Is it succubus’ or succubi? I guess that depends on how they feel about girls. Because – bi? See what I did?”
“I see and I guess she did, yeah.”
“Can you, maybe, without getting into any trouble, tell me what she said?” Willow asked, looking pretty sheepish. “I mean, if you want to and there is anything you’ve not already told me which was – you know – plenty but…” She shrugged.
“You want more?” Tara asked.
“You’ll get to know that about me,” Willow remarked. “I always want more.” With that comment she kissed Tara on the cheek again and brought her lips down her neck, along the deliciously taut muscle there. “See?”
“Am – Am I being pumped for information?” Tara wondered.
“Not yet, but… give us a few dates and we might get there. Pumping – I mean.”
Both of them were blushing at that point and while Tara hated that quality in herself, she did find it appealing in the more confident Willow.
“Can’t believe I just said that.”
“I can’t believe you said that either.”
“I’m a dirty, dirty girl,” Willow grinned, suddenly very okay with it anyway.
“Their base, it’s under the house. There’s more than one entrance,” Tara started, not as ready to get into just how ‘dirty’ Willow was. She was just hoping for dirty enough, she supposed. “But that’s how those ones, the ones who work or study on campus get in there. Some of the students and TAs are actually army. There’s navy, airforce, some marines. But mostly army.”
“Okay,” Willow said, encouraging her.
“Some of the professors and lecturers, they work for the army too, but they d-don’t call themselves army. None of them do.”
“Oh?”
“No, they call it ‘The Initiative’.”
“Against the supernatural?” Willow wondered.
Tara shrugged, belying the fact that the army guys might very well have an issue with her too… Both of them, maybe, but definitely her. “I-I guess.”
“So they… what? Run around capturing vampires and demons and things?”
“They try, they look for better ways to catch them, yeah.”
“But not, kill them?”
Once again with the shrugs. She didn’t know. She hoped not, because she really didn’t want demon hunters wandering campus looking for the next demon to ‘pop a cap in’ or whatever the phrase was. On the other hand… why bother if the point wasn’t to eliminate them as a threat to everyone else? All the defenceless people out there? It wasn’t like there was some demon nature reserve to move them back to.
Was there?
“Didn’t they know?”
“Sometimes they did what they had to, she said, but usually they shocked them or something, took them back to the labs.”
“What happens then?” Willow wondered.
“I don’t know, sorry. I mean, I don’t know because she didn’t know because he didn’t know… They get taken to the lower levels of their base and no one sees them again.”
“That’s good, right?” Willow asked.
“Better than them running around hurting people,” Tara agreed, nodding.
“Hmm, but… Did you ever hear of a secret government agency running around collecting dangerous creatures and doing good things with whatever they found out?”
“I b-bet they’re trying to keep people from panicking,” she said. That was the thing that made most sense. It was why the Maclay’s had kept themselves to themselves as much as possible for years and years, so that people didn’t overreact and… do something unfortunate. People were still people, for all that they thought they were more civilised than in years gone by.
“People are still people,” Willow said.
“I was just thinking that!”
“Well, I wouldn’t go out with someone who wasn’t a smart cookie,” Willow said.
“We’re going out? I mean, we are – kind of out – out here, I mean, but…” She shrugged, letting go of the mote of frustration she’d been carrying around when it came to she and Willow.
Willow grasped her hand, squeezed it reassuringly. “We are – we definitely are. In fact… I want to go out with you… tomorrow? Tomorrow night? Seven maybe? You know, if you want to?”
“I- I have a late class and need a little time to get ready…”
“How about seven-thirty?” Willow asked, “Personally I don’t believe it, but if you really think you need time to make yourself even more beautiful then…? Just know that I won’t get in the way of your delusions.”
She smiled and blushed, that was just what Willow made her do. “Seven-thirty would be really good.”
Of course now she had to put more of – or all – Annie’s advice into effect, she had no idea just how far they might go… but the way they were talking, the way she was feeling and believed Willow was… another of those bases might be getting involved. One they’d not visited so far.
It was such an imposition having someone who wanted to be with you… after all, what would she have done with her night if she hadn’t? Trimmed her nails, read a book and maybe watched a little TV in the common room? Which reminded her.., she needed to do something for Annie, to thank her for the advice.
Cookies, perhaps?
“Wear something… Oh, wear what you like,” Willow teased. “But I thought we might go somewhere we’ll get served? Like at a table…”
They’d had the same idea? Dinner and a movie? Movies hadn’t been mentioned, but… “A restaurant?”
“Maybe with a candle… I like candles.”
Tara couldn’t let that one go, because she had a sudden flash of understanding. “You’re one of those people who likes to melt the wax into the flame, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but… I think they’re probably super-romantic to look across too… I never tried, but I figured that I could hold your hand over the table and just say to the world, ‘yeah, I’m out with the hot girl and I’m holding her hand.’ It’s a little ambition I have. Playing with wax hadn’t even crossed my mind. Much…”
“I’d like that,” Tara said. “I’m already looking forward to it. But… can I ask you something?”
“We’ve been through this, Tara,” Willow said, just pretending to lose patience with her.
“Okay, but… What will you do with what I told you? About Diana and the army base?”
“I’ll tell the others,” Willow said. “It’ll help decide on what they want to do. Why, was there something else?”
She shook her head. No… not so far as she knew. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t more she hadn’t been told. “I just wondered… W-Will you tell them who told you?”
“Do you want me to?” Willow checked.
“They don’t know about me, do they?”
“They know that you helped Buffy, with the ring and all. They know about you as a person but… they don’t know that we’re all with the smoochies.”
“Oh.”
“I just figure that its not their business who I’m kissing, not until you’re ready to meet them and I’m ready to share you. You’re too wonderful to let other people have a look in yet.”
“All this stuff you say,” Tara said.
“All of it true… Do you know, I’ve never met a succubus. What are they like?”
Tara didn’t hesitate, even though it was one of those things that she wouldn’t have thought she’d ever say, but even this limited time with Willow had changed her at least that much. “Sex on legs.”
“No, Tara, we’re talking about the succubus, not you,” Willow winked.
“Is that what you think of me?” she asked, feigning hurt feelings. In fact… Wow…
Just wow. She was sex on legs?
“It’s what I want to think of you… We’ll have to see won’t we?”
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If I wanted a little pussy, I've got my own to play with.
Chance in *Chance*
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.
. So, nothing could make this anymore perfect in my eyes.
.
!
!!!
....and I love it ! She will have to set the pace for their physical relationship. I just hope she doesn't go to fast for Tara.
?