Im new here, and decided to post what I've got of my fic to see if it was worth continuing. Actually, will keep writing it anyway, and just not post it if its not. Hehehe.
Anyway, here it is
Title: Different Ways To Save Someone [working title]
Author: Gabsy
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. All belong to the evil genius that is Joss and whoever else-but none belong to me. *pouts*
Pairing: Willow and Tara (who else!)...maybe some others along the way.
Summary/Notes: This is an AU fic...based in a universe where Willow and Xander started with the Vamp slaying before Buffy got there, around their first year of Highschool (Buffy arrives their second year). Willow, Xander, Giles and Buffy all have their gang...though things are different. Tara arrives for her final year of HS with them all (will be explained why she is in final year of HS when she should be starting collage)....all will come out in the fic, gradually, however. Sorry if I've just confused you.
Feedback: Would love it. Feeds my ego
JJ-anyway, this is my first Willow/Tara fic...wanted to do one awhile before this but wanted to wait untill i'd had a bit of practice on other fics. Sooo, any comments/oppinions...whatever, would love to hear them. Everything helps.Dedication: As ever, this is for Chelley. You're always there for me, sis, and without you, I'd never have the confidence to write these fics, let alone put them up for people to read.
Chapter 1:
Taking a deep breath, Tara stepped through the doors of Sunnydale High. Holding her gaze to the floor, she walked as inconspicuously as she could along the hallway, praying like mad that she wouldn't do something stupid, like drop her bag, or bump into someone.
'Okay, Maclay-get yourself to the office, then to class. Don't be late, otherwise you'll walk in and everyone will stare at you. Don't make eye contact. Don't look in anyone's general direction. Don't look up. The floor is good. Continue l-looking at the floor. Oh, crap. L-looking? I'm stuttering in my head. Not good.'
Heading to the end of the hallway, where she knew the admin office was, Tara tried her hardest to make herself invisible. She'd managed it at her old school. Well, unless Donnie had done another stupid, law breaking stunt, then she'd be the talk of the school. Even then, though, no one would talk to her. They'd notice her, or talk about her, but not bother talking to her. Rolling her eyes, she couldn't help despising her old school mates at times. 'They'd notice me when my brother did some new, lame prank. Would they notice the black eyes, or spilt lips or bruises though? Nooooo.'
Not that she was complaining, she preferred no one noticed. If someone did, they'd call her father. Her father would then yell at her, saying she had been putting family affairs on other people. Then more of these 'family affairs' would occur. No, people not noticing her was how she operated. She'd get through this last year of school by staying out of other peoples way. Then, she'd get a scholarship and get away form her father and Donnie as soon as possible.
Reaching the Admin Office door, Tara tried to stop her thoughts. Sure, she comes across as shy and quiet-but try telling her mind to act like that. Once again taking a deep breath, Tara walked into the office and hesitantly stepped up to the desk.
The bored looking secretary looked up at her.
"Yes?" She asked, her voice hollow.
"I-I'm Tara...T-Tara Maclay?" Tara hoped that would be enough, and she wouldn't have to talk more. No such luck. The secretary looked at her, waiting for her to continue. 'Damn.'
"I'm n-new. I n-need my t-time table." 'Please, just give it to me and let me go.'
"Right." The secretary finally spoke, looking Tara up and down. "Your father rang, gave us your details." she paused, leant to the left of her desk and opened a draw. Pulling out a piece paper, she handed it to Tara. "Here's your timetable. You'll need to go to the library to get your library card." With that, the secretary looked back to her computer.
Sighing, Tara turned and walked out of the office. Closing the door behind her, she took a step forward, looking down at her timetable. As she had hoped would not happen, she collided with someone.
"Hey, damn it!" An extremely loud voice proclaimed, as Tara dropped her bag. Turning bright red, Tara thanked the goddess that her books didn't fall everywhere. Suddenly she paled as she realised she was now gonna have to have a confrontation. 'Damn it!'
"I-I'm s-s-so sorry." She managed to get out. "I-I didn't s-see y-you." Wanting to roll her eyes at her cursed stuttering, Tara finally looked up.
"Yeah, I figured as much! You know, why the hell don't you look where you're going!?" The brown haired, impeccably dressed girl half yelled at her. Tara noticed a flock of similar dressed girls standing behind the brown haired one, all of whom were smirking. Tara lowered her head, effectively shielding her face with her hair. 'Why'd I have to be such a klutz?!'
"I-I...w-w-well... I-I," Tara was panicking, which made her stutter even more pronounced.
"W-w-w-w-well?" The girl cruelly mocked Tara.
Tara felt her face flush even more, partly with shame, and partly with anger. Anger at herself for her stupid stuttering.
Tara looked up desperately, trying to get the girl to understand how upset this was making her, when she noticed the cocky look on her face fade away.
"There a problem here?" an overly perky voice asked from behind Tara. Tara whipped her head around, to see a smallish blonde girl, dressed in simple green cargo pants and black tank top standing slightly behind her, on her left hand side. "'Cause I though you'd know better, Cordy, then to cause problems." The girls voice remained perky, but a hard glint of warning was on her face, making her seem slightly dangerous.
"No problem," the brown haired girl - Cordy - spat out. "We were just leaving." Cordy's features had paled a little. Gesturing to her little sheep, she turned on her heel and walked down the hall.
Tara was confused. 'Okay, how did this blonde girl make...er...Cordy...stop like that? Actually, not how. Why? Why would the blonde be interested in helping me out?
Stepping out from her place form slightly behind Tara, the blonde girl stepped in front of her, holding Tara's bag out for her.
"Here you go." She said, smiling slightly and passing the bag to Tara. "I'm Buffy, by the way."
"T-Tara. Tara M-Maclay." Tara looked up briefly, giving Buffy a hesitant smile.
"Well, Tara. I'm guessing you're new, seeing as I've never seen you before." Buffy looked her up and down, then continued, "And also 'cause you had a run in with Cordelia and her little Cordettes." Buffy looked at Tara's face more closely, noticing a fading bruise on the girl's cheek. Not that she'd say anything. She knew enough about bruises to know you hate been questioned about them.
"W-well, yeah. I j-just moved here. My d-dad decided t-to g-get a job change." Okay, not the complete truth as to why they moved. A job change could be interpreted as 'my brother is pretty much a juvenile delinquent, so we moved in hopes that he could go unnoticed by the police for awhile, at least.'. Yeah, 'course it could.
"Ah," Buffy nodded wisely. "I just moved here a few years ago-for the second year of high school. Mum got a new job, and, well...other stuff, but mainly the job." Buffy shrugged. 'Sure Buffy, getting called and scaring the shit outta your mom by burning down the entire school in your first year of High School played no part in it...' she thought almost shuddered at the memory of that day...
The bell rang, sending students scurrying. "So, what class you got?" Buffy quickly suppressed all bad thoughts and looked down at Tara's timetable.
"Oh…" Tara looked down at it, too. "Er... D-double biology, in r-room 54."
"Great! My rooms three doors down, I'll walk you!" Throwing Tara a casual smile, she led her down the hall. Tara followed, relieved to have someone show her where to go. Buffy talked about nothing in particular the whole way. 'Goddess,' Tara thought, 'this girl sure knows how to babble!'
"Oh," Buffy continued her rambling, "I'll meet you outside your classroom if you want, after class. Then, since it's break, I'll introduce you to my friends. How's that sound?" Buffy looked at Tara, waiting for a response.
"Th-that would be great," Tara managed. "I-I, er, have to go to the l-library, for my c-card..."
"Oh, that's cool," Buffy answered, "That's where I was taking you, anyway. My friends and I kinda... hang there. It can give some people the wiggins, but it's really private." Buffy stopped outside room 54. She turned her darkly eye-lined eyes to Tara's face.
"S-sounds great." Tara answered, "Th-thanks a lot. F-for showing me the r-room, and for saving me f-from that girl." She gave an impish grin.
"Hey, no problem. Just take my advice, stay away from Cordy unless you're with me-or one of the others." Buffy stopped talking when the bell rang again. "Crap-I gotta go. I'll meet you out here after, OK?"
"Yeah. Th-thanks a-again." Tara half smiled as Buffy turned on the heel of her black boots and walked off down the hall.
Despite her coming across as a little... dark... she could tell Buffy was a truly good person. Though that thought barely entered her mind as another took over it: 'Woah. Someone talked to me... huh...' Tara took a deep breath and walked into her class.
**********************
Willow sat down at the table in the middle of the library and started picking at her frayed, black denim jeans. Sighing, she looked around the book-filled room, wandering where the hell Buffy had got to. 'I swear, that girl doesn't even know the meaning of being on time,' she thought to herself, 'well, of course she knows the meaning of being on time. Just doesn't know how the frilly heck to actually BE on time. And where the frilly heck did I get frilly heck from? I mean frilly!? Sometimes I worry about myself. Especially now-babbling in my head.' Smirking at herself, Willow looked across the table at Xander. Sighing again as she took in the site of him. A pensive look crossed her features as she wandered why they'd stopped going out the previous year. Actually, no, she wandered how they'd let themselves date in the first place.
Having started dating the first year of high school, after being lifelong friends, she really did know the reason, but kinda wished they hadn't let it happen. They'd just gotten caught up in all the intense situations that had presented themselves. Vampires do that-cause intense situations. They'd gone out three years. All the passion and wild make out sessions had always stemmed from the late night vamp slayings, though. Then Buffy came, and, being the slayer, took some of that off their hands, and the passion and intensity was gone. All that was left was a deeply rooted affection for each other. A best friend/brother and sister kind of affection.
Continuing to stare at Xander, she noticed, not for the first time, just how much he had changed from the guy she had been friends with before they'd dated. He had dressed a lot more spazzy - so had she, though. She had liked how he'd dressed, though. It had been cute. Now it was all black- for both of them. When they'd had their first vamp encounter, two weeks into starting high school, their brightly coloured clothes had been what attracted the vamps to them. Giles had shown up, thank God, ('God? Since when do I thank God for stuff?') him forever being the guy in the right place at the right time. Together they had all staked the four vamps. However, not only was that the night of their first vamp attack, it was also the night that Xander had pushed her up against the tree in her front yard and kissed her. She almost laughed out loud at that memory. She'd been so surprised; all she could do was squeak. Then the adrenaline pumping through her body had taken effect. She'd kissed him back.
After that night, the three of them, Xander, Willow and Giles had spent every night together, hunting vampires as best the could. Being only human, and one with the slight advantage of being a watcher, kinda limited their abilities. The dark clothes had entered their wardrobes, and the colour ones worn less and less. Sometimes Willow missed the cheery clothes she had worn...
However, it wasn't just their black clothes. Willow looked at Xander, looked at the way he sat, the way his face wasn't as relaxed as it had been. 'Having vamps jump out at you every night at three in the morning will do that to you.' She smirked.
He sat a lot straighter, so much more self-assured. His face didn't have the innocence to it it had once held. Though, she new hers was just the same. This look, the clothes, the ever present 'on guard' look in their eyes, had caused people to step back a bit from their mocking of herself and Xander.
They had always been picked on by people their age. After being in the midst of all the 'weird occurrences', and being caught in grave yards at odd hours, however, people started stepping back from them completely. Eventually people actually got a fearful look in their eyes whenever Willow or Xander looked their way. Especially after the spell that got screwed up. Willow almost laughed at the memory of it. Xander and Willow's doppelganger had gotten pulled forth somehow, and the two vamps had had a blast. They'd wreaked havoc on the Bronze, terrifying the hell outta the students there. It had happened just after Buffy had arrived, and it hadn't taken her too long to sort them out. Willow and Xander held their respective alter ego while she staked each, a grim look on both their faces. She smirked at the memory of her Vamp self-she had been incredibly skanky. Staking her had felt kinda good.
After that, everyone stayed the hell away from them all. They stayed in their Library, talking vamp talk and end of the world prophecies. Also having a bit of a laugh. Hell, they hadn't gotten passed their humour. No amount of evil vamps and impending death situations could stop that.
"Will?" Willow snapped out of her thoughts and noticed Xander was looking at her funny. "You ok?"
"Oh, yeah... just wandering where Buffy is."
"You know Buff...always late." Xander smirked. Willow, still stuck on previous thoughts, remembers how before, he had never smirked.
"Yes, well," Giles voice came from the behind the counter, "I'm sure she'll be here any minute."
"Yuh-huh." Xander once again returned interest to the book he held in front of him. Willow sat, listlessly staring at the patterns of coffee cup rings stained onto the wood of the table.
***********************
"OK," Buffy spoke, "This is the library-no ones ever in here but Xander, Willow and Giles. Giles is the librarian. He's cool. And my friends won't bite, either, I promise." Buffy almost started to exaggerate the 'bite' joke, but realised Tara wouldn't get it.
Tara managed a half smile in Buffy's direction and, taking a deep breath, tried to quell her nerves. She didn't do well with meeting new people. She was only able to talk to Buffy because she'd saved her from further embarrassment with Codelia. Letting out the breath slowly, Tara followed Buffy through the double swinging doors and into the library.
************************
Hearing the door swing open Willow spoke, "God, Buffy, take your time. Aren't you ever on time?" Willow lazily looked up, seeing Buffy walking through the door, and behind her blonde girl with her eyes facing downwards, her hair shielding her face.
"Yeah, yeah Will." Buffy jumped up on the counter, swinging her legs and kicking the wood with her heavy boots. "You should be used to my lateness! Only on time for movie nights and dates, you know that." Xander looked up from his book- An Extensive Look At Graved Paintings- and smirked at Buffy, about to make a comment about her lateness, and stopped.
"Who's the chick?" He asked bluntly, not bothering to take in her nervous stance. Buffy rolled her eyes, and pulled her green cargo incased legs up so she could cross her legs on the counter.
"Guys, this is Tara. She's new - Cordy tried to attack her." Xander nodded in understanding. Willow looked at the girl, trying to get her to look up, wanting to see her face.
"Tara, this is Willow and Xander." Tara finally looked up, her ocean-blue eyes nervously taking in the two people who were staring so intently at her. Her eyes locked with Willow's green ones and widened at the depth and intensity they held. She felt her breath hitch in her throat.
As Tara's eye's locked with hers, Willow couldn't look away. The blue eyes seemed to stare straight into her soul, and stir something deep within her.
inky
How can they call themselves parents if they treat their children this way? 
There's just one answer for them 
sorry my fault there's also 
and 
but if I could get an update ...
Alcy
. It's so lovely, and Willow and Tara are just too cute. Love sammi xx