AUTHOR: teeth (all lowercase)
STORY RATING: PG to NC-17
CHAPTER RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own these characters. I’m just borrowing them for a sec.
SUMMARY: Willow/Tara “workplace romance” & "friends to lovers" AU. This is gonna be a little slowburny but it’s worth it. Hopefully.
FEEDBACK: Yes please but be nice. I'm not really a writer. I just write what I wanna see.
SPOILERS: None. I made all of this up.
NOTE: Almost nothing remains from canon. Family dynamics are pretty different. I won’t explicitly mention parental abuse, but it is heavily implied to have happened before the events of this story, so take that as your warning.
First chapter is a little short but the rest will be longer, probably. I'll try to update weekly but I also might forget.
Thoughts in italics.
Chapter 1
Willow looked in the mirror, trying to psych herself up for her big day. She finally got a job after months of applying everywhere in the city. She wasn’t really sure what they did at this place. Something about typing? They hired her on the spot, transparently admitting they just needed “butts in chairs”. Not a huge self-esteem boost, but money is money.
Stupid Willow. Coming out when no one’s hiring. “Should I get a job first? Noooo, no, they’ll take it really well.” Yeah, right.
She quickly ran a brush through her hair and adjusted her collar on her button-up shirt, wishing she had asked about the dress code. She threw on a sweater and briskly walked downstairs, very carefully avoiding eye contact with her parents. If she left now she’d be an hour early, but she couldn’t stand another second in that house. She silently got in the car and started her long commute.
This is gonna suck.
“Good morning, Willow,” said Willow’s new boss as she walked in. Was her name Samantha? Sally? Sarah? Why don’t they wear name tags here? “You’re early. You can’t clock in until 7.”
“I know. Just getting ahead of traffic!” Willow replied, trying not to seem too nervous. She settled on stiffly holding her hands to her sides like a robot and breathing as little as possible. It’s hot in here. Why is it so hot in here?
“Alright. Well, since you’re here, I might as well introduce you to your supervisor. Go to her with questions about your job, and come to me with questions about payroll, benefits, whatever. Legal stuff. Otherwise don’t bother me because I don’t know anything about what you do. Cool?” Samantha/Sally/Sarah reached into her pocket. “Oh, and here’s your temporary badge.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Willow said as she clipped it to her shirt. “When do I get my permanent one?”
“Ask your supervisor.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Don’t be,” her boss smiled. “We’re happy to have you here. Hold on just one second. TARA.”
“Here, I’m here, I’m coming!” shouted a voice Willow couldn’t see yet.
“Thank you, dear,” the boss shouted back. “Tara will be your supervisor. You’ll get along. You’re both dressed very… weather-unconsciously,” she said with a smile.
Willow suddenly remembered the concept of weather and realized she probably looked ridiculous with her three-layer outfit in 100 degree heat. Duh, that’s why I’m hot. “Oh, well, you know what they say. Fashion before function! Not that I think I’m fashionable. Or that I care about fashion at all. Really I just don’t have that many clothes, and I—”
She stopped in her tracks as her new supervisor approached. Her hair was light brown, barely below her shoulders, but still covered most of her face. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a long-sleeved tie-dye shirt. She looks hot. No, not— I mean— temperature. She looks like she’s too warm. Do I look like that? Do people think that when I wear a lot of clothes? She should wear fewer clothes. I mean— oh boy. No. Not like that. Willow released the breath she’d been holding since she got there.
“Hi. Willow? I’m Tara. Your new s-supervisor,” Tara smiled politely. “Um, don’t get too used to me though. I’m… My schedule is changing soon, I’ll be w-working evenings, so… s-so you’ll only be on my team for a few m-months.”
“Nice to meet you, Tara,” Willow said. She should be nervous, but she’s not anymore. Just really, really hot. “So, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know what to do. Like, at all.”
“Oh, um… No problem. That’s h-how all of our new hires feel,” she replied. “Here, I’ll show you where you c-can sit. Um… I get my own desk, b-but you don’t, so it’s k-kind of first come, first served. B-but…” Tara looked down nervously. “You can s-sit near my desk. For today. So I can sh-show you what to do. But it— it might not be open every day.”
Willow smiled. “That sounds great! Where do you sit?”
“In the b-back. I’ll walk you there. It’s the one with the um… The one with the c-cats all over. Cat statues. You can’t miss it.”
“Cats! I love cats! The animal. Not the musical. I mean, the musical is fine. I don’t think about it too often. I heard the movie was bad but I can’t see how they could’ve messed it up because the musical is all about the spectacle. So just have spectacle and you’re all set. I didn’t see the movie. But my parents have a cat. I mean, I have a cat. I live with them. That sounds really lame but I have a job now so it’s not that lame. Not that I judge anyone who doesn’t have a job. This is my first job. At 22 that’s probably a little embarrassing so I can’t judge anyone,” Willow didn’t know why she couldn’t stop talking, but by the time she finished her tangent, they had arrived at their desks. “Sorry. I like your cats. A tasteful amount of them.”
Tara giggled. It was the cutest giggle Willow had ever heard. “Y-yeah, I like cats too. The animal. The m-musical was fine. I like S-Skim— um… Skimbleshanks.”
“The railway cat!” Willow blurted out. “That’s the best one!”
“H-he has a good song. It’s my favorite. So um… Right. Your job. Basically, you t-transcribe these phone calls. For the hard of hearing. Um… It sounds hard, but it’s really not. They’re conversations and most of them are s-slow. Don’t be scared!” Tara quickly added, seeing how overwhelmed Willow looked. “It’s super easy. A-and you get a lot of training. Two weeks. It’s um… s-self-paced. So you just log in and do the classes. And there will be some t-tests that you send me and I’ll grade. A-and then you’re ready for calls.”
“Are you sure it’s easy?” Willow nervously tugged at her sleeves. “It sounds hard. I’m not really good at… things.”
“Oh, it’s really easy. The h-hard part is doing it for 8 hours a day. B-but calls are slower now than when I was on ph-phones. We hired a lot of people. So you don’t get that m-many,” she reassured. “You’ll be f-fine.”
“Have you seen The Ring?”
“What?”
Willow realized that train of thought only worked in her head. She felt unqualified to explain her own reasoning to somebody else, so she decided to not even try. “The Ring. It’s a good horror movie. Or so I’m told. I don’t like being scared alone so I haven’t seen it. But um, I want to. And I’m off at 4:30. So I was hoping you’d do me a favor and watch it with me if you’re also off at 4:30.”
“I’m off at 3 today.” Tara tucked some of her hair behind her ear.
“Oh.”
“But y-yes. I mean, I haven’t s-seen The Ring. And I’d— I would l-love to. I’ll meet you in the b-break room after your shift. I hang out there a l-lot.”
“Okay! Yes! I mean…” Willow didn’t want to seem too eager. “Yeah, sure, that works. Um, I still can’t clock in. Too early.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. Y-yeah, definitely don’t start working off the clock,” said Tara. “Want me to show you where they keep the free snacks?”
Willow smiled. “Yes, please.” Maybe this job won’t be so bad after all.
That's a cool boss - not very helpful, but cool! That is good because I can't imagine such a boss will react uptight when employees start dating each other.
I'll highlight a couple for elaboration
Although I guess that Willow's salary is lower than Tara's I hope that she could afford half the rent. That girl desperately needs a new home!
I wanted to hug her and tell her everything will be okay. I guess that Tara wanted that too but gave only those small gesture of physical comfort out of fear that she would further overwhelm or even scare Willow otherwise.