The Red Witch Outtakes
The Dry T-shirt Contest (or Operation Witch Love)
Summary: A story in which Twihard fan Dawn Summers attempts to influence a major decision for someone else.
Note: This idea came to me but won't quite fit into The Red Witch so I thought I'd write it anyway and post it as an outtake. So to repeat this never takes place in the actual story just a bit of humor.
Dawn was a smart girl she could read the lay of the land just as well as anyone else. So though no one came out and told her that her pseudo parents were not becoming a couple again she could see it clearly. She could also see Faith's attraction for the red head and she was not about to let the slayer interfere in her dreams of a solid family unit. Of course neither Willow nor Tara shared with anyone why they were not coupling up again so no one could actually blame Dawn for wanting what she'd had that summer during Buffy's absence back. Despite the fact that her sister was gone and so was her actual mother Joyce, having Willow and Tara and their love made her feel more safe and secure than any time after Joyce's passing. Buffy Slayer that she was couldn't give Dawn what she'd longed for. And her father was not coming back anytime soon So as she saw it her happiness, her family's happiness was up to her.
Dawn was determined and a determined Dawn was a Dawn on a mission obsessed with success and ready to do whatever it took to get it including taking down a Slayer. As Dawn saw it Tara and Will needed a reminder of why they'd been so happy together, Will more so than Tara. Tara mourned her love's death for months so it was unlikely that she'd forgotten anything. Will was the one away three years after Tara dumped her so damage control was necessary.
Her first plan was pretty simple and because it was so simple she had no doubt that it'd work, but she needed help. So Dawn spent quite a bit of two days convincing her friends among the Potentials, the ones who barely tolerated her, and the ones who barely spoke a word of English even after so long here to aid her. Most of them agreed if only to shut her up but Dawn didn't care so long as they did it and kept their mouths shut about why. Their mission: cockblock Faith. Keep the dark haired Slayer as far away from the red haired witch as possible. Which actually worked for a while until that night...
Kennedy in particular was eager to go along with Dawn on this one. Dawn was well aware of the Faith wannabe's obsession with Willow just as she was aware that Willow barely saw that Kennedy existed. Were it not for Slayer training which Will sometimes joined the witch would not even have Kennedy on her radar, but as Kennedy was one of the best trainees she knew at least her name. Still none of that worried Dawn as KenKen had absolutely no hope and so long as she pursued Will she'd keep Faith away and that was enough.
Of course that was before Dawn was introduced to the Kennedy effect.
Faith had taken the Potentials to The Bronze for an exercise in relaxation and letting loose because no one could be wound up and attack ready every moment of every day. Willow accompanied them to help keep an eye on things while the others were just too happy to have the multitude of teenage girls out of their hair for at least one night and refused the Bronze because that's where they were going.
Everything was going well at first everyone was dancing and chilling and Faith and Willow were on opposite sides of the room so far so good, right?
Kennedy took this opportunity to actively pursue or attempt to pursue Willow. Despite what Dawn could see were several let downs Kennedy continued to try, she was very persistent. She tried buying drinks and requesting dances, small talk and flirting (unsuccessfully though Dawn was too far away to hear). Until it became rather obvious at least to everyone else that Willow was on the verge of murdering the oblivious and annoying girl.
That was when Dawn noticed Faith standing next to her. Faith must have been there a while as she was very into what was going on at the bar.
"Time to save the brat and get Red outta there. Hold this for me Kid." Faith said to Dawn holding her a half finished cup of beer. Then she sauntered over to Kennedy and Willow and not speaking held her hand out to Willow who took it without a second thought. As they walked to the dance floor Faith glanced back at Kennedy giving her a clear 'you are wasting your time look', which the baby Slayer ignored settling for pouting all night long. The rest of the night Dawn watched her master plan go down the tubes as Faith and Willow danced wildly together on the fast songs (training had vastly improved Willow's sense of rhythm and style) and grinded together on the slower ones looking so hot that if there were any vamps there they'd start smoking just from the proximity.
They put on such a show that even though they didn't seem to notice all the men in the club and half the women simply watched them dance. Everyone else had to dance around the edges of the dance floor because those two dominated the center all night. And at the end of the night when everyone was walking home Faith had her arm around Will's shoulders and had her laughing and smiling the entire walk back. So it was time for a new plan. Obviously to Dawn keeping Faith away would do nothing if Willow wasn't made to remember how much she loved Tara so her next plan would work from that angle and Dawn had just the idea.
The next morning Dawn woke up very early in order to convince Tara to make her famous pancakes in order to give Willow a taste memory of the love Tara put into everything. She then used the rest of the time before the Scooby breakfast meeting to gather as many pictures of Willow and Tara that she could and strategically put them in a path leading from the front door to the kitchen. The very best one a picture of Willow and Tara dancing at Tara's twenty first birthday celebrated Scooby style, was placed just to the left of the kitchen arch at eye level. When Dawn was satisfied with her work she ran upstairs to get ready quickly.
When she came back down she saw that all her pictures had been removed and Buffy waited for her at the entrance to the kitchen with her hand s on her hips. No words were needed as Buffy's expression told Dawn clearly that her interference was not appreciated at all. But Buffy backed her up her stern look with a hissed lecture on Dawn minding her own business and leaving the witches to resolve their own relationship issues. This ticked off the teen as she thought Buffy would be on her side in all this, who didn't love Willow/ Tara?!
The meeting went well with many compliments to Tara for her cooking several from Willow thought neither of the two acted in any way but friendly towards each other despite the pancakes. After the meeting everyone moved to the living room where Xander stumbled upon the stack of pictures. The Scoobies passed them around laughing at the funny ones and awwing over the cute ones but neither Willow nor Tara had a magical 'I still love that woman and can't live without her as my lover' moment. So while everyone else bonded and had a good time looking at the old pictures Dawn sulked in her place on the couch.
Dawn's last attempt was more of a rebellious 'this is what I want' statement that didn't really go against Buffy's order as it was not a fully hatched scheme to push the two together more of an "I'm too stubborn to let it go completely thing'. So what was this grand idea? T-shirts!
Dawn found a vendor who was desperately trying to sell his wares so that he could flee the Hellmouth (that was a growing trend for Sunnydale residents everyone was leaving). Because of this Dawn was able to get a sweet discount on twenty yellow shirts with 'Team Tara' or 'Vote Tara' written on them in white over black letters. Dawn hurried back to her house during the scheduled break time for the Potentials and forced almost every girl take and agree to wear one that evening and all the next day. Kennedy was a holdout as she still had hopes for getting with Willow herself and she left the house after Dawn approached her. Four others also refused, two (one being Chao Ann) because they had no idea what Dawn wanted given the language barrier and didn't care to allow her to explain and the other two refused because they didn't really give a damn and the yellow clashed with their coloration.
Later that evening everyone who had a shirt wore it including Dawn herself (whose shirt had the picture of Tara and Will dancing on it) gaining lots of attention from the Scoobies including Buffy and Tara. Kennedy walked in after having been gone all day (and skipping a training session) wearing a tight green shirt 'the color of Willow's eyes' with 'Team Kennedy' in black ink and carrying a shopping bag. Everyone stared at her including Tara.
"What?" Kennedy asked the room with an angry tone to her voice.
"You do realize she's not interested in you right?" Anya spoke up honest as ever with no thought of being gentle with the baby Slayer. "You are a poor copy of Faith and if I was into girls I'd want to screw her too but not her copy."
"Hey" exclaimed Xander. "Standing right here! your husband!"
"Well I did say if I was into girls, I happen to love penis yours especially, but lesbians are better at oral sex. Maybe we can ask Willow to give you tips. I'd ask Tara but I think she's too shy." She said contemplatively. This comment had Tara's face the color of a vine ripe tomato.
"Sure why don't we ask Will! In fact we can ask her to demonstrate her technique while I watch hmm. Then she can show me what I should be doing because apparently I've been doing it wrong all this time!"
"Geez Xander no need to shout! But that is a great idea. Do you think Willow would agree? Maybe I should get a 'Team Anya' shirt?"
Xander stormed off angry at his wife though turned on by the thought of her with Willow and not wanting 'big Xander' to show it. (Maybe he'd get some great make-up sex out of this though he'd need to research before he tried 'that' again.)
Anya rushed off after her husband calling his name while silence reigned in the room they'd just left. Giles had taken off his glasses to clean calling out dear Lord in his mind, but now that it was over he couldn't help but laugh. He leaned against the wall next to him laughing deep from his belly and half the Potentials joined him as well as Spike. The other half including Kennedy just stood there with shock on their faces. Tara was even more red then she had been before her shirt showing that her blush went well beneath her collarbones. Dawn just stood there pale, the exact opposite of Tara and Buffy was torn between laughing and looking stern so she ended up with a very funny look on her face though she managed not to laugh.
Once he'd regained his composure Spike turned to Kennedy who still stood in the same spot frozen. "You might want to change duckie, Anya may not have said it in the nicest way but she was right."
At his words Kennedy seemed to unfreeze and turned away stalking toward the bathroom muttering under her breath. At this point Willow and Faith walked in returning from a quick patrol they took so Faith wouldn't be stuck with the potentials later. The scene they walked into had them both shaking their heads in confusion. Tara became even redder than she was though no one could see it with her shirt blocking the view and she quickly retreated towards the kitchen. Giles began cracking up again and followed Tara. Buffy lost her battle with the laughter and some of the girls began laughing again too as well as Spike. Dawn just huffed and crossed her arms staring at Willow who still looked confused.
At this point Kennedy returned having changed her shirt. She now wore a dark red shirt with large black letters lined with silver that read 'Team Faith Rules'. The four girls who refused Dawn's yellow shirts quickly went to Kennedy asking if she had more, not because they cared about the message but because the shirts were cool. Kennedy's shopping bag was apparently full of shirts not just the red ones but others too in plain solid colors or designs. The guy she and Dawn had went to was now giving them away so he could leave though Kennedy had to pay for the lettering.
Faith having secretly read Dawn's copies of the Twilight series caught on fast to the whole shirt thing (not that she'd cared for any of Bella's choices), but Willow who hadn't bothered to read any was able to put it together only by both the shirt's slogans and the look of outrage on Dawn's face at Willow's first appearance and Kennedy's shirts. The for potentials pulled their new shirts over their current ones pleased at the dark color. Some of Dawn's team yellow girls also went to Kennedy wanting the cooler shirt. Faith joined the throng forming around the Potential and got herself a shirt before they were all gone pulling it on before turning to Willow, who grinned.
Before she could say anything however Dawn huffed angrily and stalked off upstairs. Willow shrugged at Faith then followed the teen after asking Faith to send Tara upstairs. It was time the two of them talked to Dawn again about how whether or not they were together didn't change their love for her.
