"Okay, so just follow my lead, okay? You were right what you said earlier, the simpler we make it the better. Plus, you always get a little tongue-tied around parents anyway so it won't be suspicious if you're quiet," Willow said as she and Tara walked the few blocks from her house to the Summers residence, noticing the brunette dropped her head down in embarrassment at her words, "Hey, it's not a bad thing. So you're a little shy, I think it's cute."
Tara raised an eyebrow at the redhead but seemed pleased at the admission and straightened up as they stopped outside Buffy's house.
"Here we are," she whispered quietly.
"Come on," Willow replied, walking towards the front door, "Sooner it's over with the sooner you can stop stressing."
Tara let out a low laugh and smiled at Joyce as she opened the door. Joyce, used to her daughter's friends coming and going from her house at all hours stepped aside and nodded towards the stairs.
"Buffy's up there. But I heard two sets of lungs screaming at each other about ten minutes ago so you might walk in on a fight, just so you're warned."
"Nothing we're not used to. We just came over to borrow a book," Willow lied, before rubbing her thumb along a petal of a rose that was part of a bunch displayed in a vase by the door, "These are pretty."
"Oh thank you," Joyce said, smiling wistfully at the flowers, "Of course, they were supposed to lessen the blow of the 'I don't think we should see each other anymore' card that accompanied it. Dating is a hard game at my age."
"Um, speaking of dating..." Willow replied, seeing an opening, "Could we talk to you in the kitchen for a second?"
Joyce nodded and walked down the hallway to the kitchen, gesturing for the girls to sit on the stools in front of the island.
"Well, of course. You two aren't in trouble are you?"
"No, no, nothing like that," Willow was quick to reassure.
"Good. Well then, speak away. You know I'm always here to listen."
"We know. Which is why we thought we would come to you first..." Willow paused momentarily and looked to Tara to make she was still okay with it. When she got a confidant smile in response she took the plunge and linked her fingers with the brunette's, resting their conjoined hands on top of the island, "So, you've known me and Tara forever practically. You know, like we pretty much consider you our Aunt Joyce."
"Definitely," Tara added, feeling slightly dazed since Willow had grabbed her hand, but unsure why, "You're, ah...like a, um..."
"Part of our 'choose your own' family thing we got going on," Willow finished, looking at her friend strangely, "So we just wanted to throw it out there, you know, just to tell you...me and Tara are together. You know, together-together. More than friends. Girlfriends. Lovers. Lesbian, gay-type lovers who-"
"Yes, Willow, I understand," Joyce cut the redhead off before she went into any more detail and smiled at the two girls in front of her, "You're happy?"
Willow nodded and Tara forced a smile, her head still spinning as that thing her head was trying to tell her earlier started to push itself front and centre of her mind. They were interrupted as a loud beeping came from the redhead's pocket. She pulled out her cell and jumped up excitedly when she read the message.
"There's a package at my house, it must be my new LED display! I've been waiting weeks for this; you can program it to say whatever you want in cool, neon-y flashing lights! I gotta go, but, um, thanks, Joyce for being so cool!"
"No problem, Willow, enjoy your new toy."
"Oh I will."
Willow gushed out her words and went to leave before seeing Joyce looking at her expectantly. Realising what the older woman was expecting, and overwhelmed from her excitement over her new gadget arriving to think of any kind of censorship, she leaned over and kissed Tara squarely on the mouth.
All at once, the brunette's mind finally gave way and the thoughts that had been sitting on the sidelines made themselves very clear. She liked this. She wanted this. She wanted Willow.
Willow, uncharacteristically unaware of what had been going on in her own mind, felt an electric jolt go through her body as soon as their lips touched and almost jumped back at the shock. A stronger feeling, she wasn't sure quite what it was yet, made her stay kissing her friend for another second or so before pulling back.
"I, um...I gotta go," she said, turning around and rushing out, almost colliding into Buffy on her way.
"Hey, I thought I heard your voic...okay, bye, Willow!" Buffy yelled as the redhead scarpered as quickly as she could, "Jeez, is she training for track or something?"
"One of her computer contraptions came in," Joyce responded, smiling at her daughter as she sat down on Willow's recently-vacated seat, "She and Tara were just telling me about their good news."
Buffy's looked towards Tara, who managed a weak smile, her head still reeling.
"Oh yea," Buffy said, clearing her throat, "And, uh, what...what have you got to say about that, mom?"
"I'm happy for them. And I'm happy for you, too."
Buffy's head shot up and she looked at her mother, dumbfounded.
"Oh what?" Joyce laughed, "You think I didn't know? I'm not completely blind, Buffy. And it would be nice if perhaps Faith could come over for dinner someday. One that doesn't involve pizza boxes and soda cans."
"I'll just, um, get that book Willow wanted."
Tara got up and left the kitchen before the other two had much of a chance to respond. She ran up a few of the stairs for appearances sake, knowing Willow didn't really want to borrow a book, before going back down once she felt enough time had passed. She went to the front door and opened it, going to leave. Just before she shut it behind her she saw Joyce and Buffy, still in the kitchen and oblivious to the fact that she was watching, embrace warmly, Buffy laughing and looking the most relieved Tara had ever seen her. She smiled at their interaction, thankful Buffy had gotten what she'd needed out of their little charade. The only problem was, she'd gotten a hell of a lot more out of it than she'd ever expected.
"Hey baby girl. You've been coming and going all day today, busy?"
"Yea," Tara nodded at her mother, dropping her keys on the rack, barely remembering having walked back from Buffy's, her mind in a complete daze, "Busy."
"Hey, what's wrong, sweetheart?"
Julia Maclay saw the lost, almost desperate look in her daughter's eyes, a look she'd never seen in her before and put a hand on her arm comfortingly. Tara bit her lip and looked like she was about to burst into tears, so Julia wrapped her arm fully around the younger girl's shoulder and guided her into the living room, sitting them both down on the sofa.
"Have you ever felt like your entire world's been turned on its head?" Tara spoke up after a few minutes, "Like you thought you knew yourself and your life, but you just don't?"
"Hey now, what's brought this all on?"
Tara brought her thumb up to her mouth and started biting on the skin around it, before sighing.
"So you know Buffy was struggling to tell Mrs. Summers about Faith, right?"
Julia nodded, she and Tara had always been close and her daughter had always come to her with problems, so she was almost always well-versed in the goings on of both her and her friends.
"So anyway, Dawn found out and there was all this drama, but long story short, me and Willow agreed to pretend to be dating to kind of..."
"Scope out Joyce to see how she felt about the whole issue?" Julia guessed.
"Exactly. And she's perfectly fine with it, as it turns out so Buffy really worried for nothing."
Julia pulled Tara more into her embrace and placed a kiss on her temple.
"Something tells me there's a major part of that story missing."
"As soon as..." Tara stopped and sighed, trying to collect all her thoughts and voice them in the right way, "When Dawn suggested we pretend to be dating, I felt funny about it, and I thought it was because we'd be lying to Mrs. Summers. But there was something nagging at me, saying that wasn't it, there was something, I dunno, more to the whole thing. But it all really happened so fast that I didn't really get time to register what I was feeling or what was happening. Until she kissed me. You know, just a quick peck 'cause Mrs. Summers was watching and we were supposed to be dating and all. But it was like...a revelation or something. I mean, I don't know how I could've not seen it before, but..."
Julia stayed quiet, sensing what was coming but knowing Tara needed to say it out loud.
"I have non-friendship type feelings for Willow. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her."