Pride Story 2019

A/N This is a modern AU story about two friends, Willow and Tara, when Willow and Rose (from the 2019 Buffy comic series) break up, Willow decides to ask Tara to the Pride parade. Would've been 2020 but Pride didn't exactly happen so. Oneshot hopefully but we'll see. Willow and Rose do break up in the comics I didn't make that bit up. But it's still just set in modern. No Hellmouth. Also mascara bit was inspired by real events.

Sunnydale, California 2019

"Tara- I-I." Oh my goddess why am I soo nervous? It's Tara, you know been-friends-forever kind of Tara. Willow shifted her weight from her now achy left foot, to the other one. The eighteen year olds were standing opposite each other awkwardly in the school hallway, Tara holding piles of books in front of her face, drenching her cheeks in hair. Willow was flailing her arms about all over the place and babbling of course because she was nervous and she really thought Tara might reject her at this moment. Which would've been completely awful given all the encouragement Buffy had given her.

What Willow didn't know was, Tara was unable to think coherently because her mind was absolutely squealing at the thought Willow might be about to ask her out. It'd been two years of longing, two years of waiting around for Willow to notice how desperately in love with the redhead she really was. It was all her adorable quirks, and habits, she was just a bundle of cuteness. Tara could swear every time she saw a flicker of red hair her heart spiked a little bit.

It all started in their Sophomore year of high school, when Tara had first realised her growing feelings for her friend...

They were sitting in homeroom, Tara and Buffy, just talking about- well Tara was trying to convince Buffy that history really was worth learning for a change. When Willow walked in, she was a little late but that didn't really matter because all Tara could see was that Willow had decided to add curls into her hair. And it wasn't one of those like 'I suddenly then realised how much I like girls moment' no, not one of those. Tara had always known how she felt about women, also known that she was different, yadda yadda, etc...

However, she'd refrained from telling anyone apart from Buffy, because she didn't like anyone and really there wasn't much point until it became relevant. And Buffy only knew because she'd caught her staring across the room one time, but that was a whole other story we don't need to go into. Then Willow had to walk in looking all pretty, her hair all done up and Tara was sure she had extra makeup on. Not that she was wondering at all why Willow had decided to dress up today, she was too absorbed in staring at her friend, well, shyly glancing every few seconds when she sat down next to them.

"Hey Will, what's up with um, the look?" Buffy asked questioningly using her index finger to rake a point over Willow's choice in outfit. Tara blushed a little bit as Willow started to explain, then she felt an overwhelming stupidity at realising she had dressed up as one final attempt to win over Xander, their other friend, and a guy whom Willow had supposedly been in love with since she was five.

"You l-look um..." Tara drifted into the air as her mind wandered, staring a little blankly until she felt a light poke from Buffy, who knew she was about to start drooling otherwise. She shot Buffy a look, slight eye daggers, "ow, um I mean nice. You look r-really nice Will." Tara managed to squeeze out and before she knew it, there was a crush laying dormant. Something Buffy was well aware of, because of all the looks she saw Tara giving Willow when they hung out, only this was the first time Tara herself had noticed.

Of course then there was the time Tara decided to be honest with Buffy how she felt about Willow, which with her nerves and her stutter certainly wasn't easy, and it went something a little along the lines of...

"Buffy, I-I n-n-need to tell you s-something." Tara had stumbled out, internally cursing herself for letting her words collide. Her stutter really was the bane of her life sometimes. Buffy looked at her kinda blankly, honestly Tara rarely had stuff to share she was surprised there was even something that needed sharing. Tara shifted her feet again, pressing her hands together in perpetual awkwardness, it was infectious. Buffy nodded along however waiting for the blonde to continue with whatever it was.

"I th-think-" Tara started, taking a deep breath and trying to avoid the blazing stare her friend was giving her, it wasn't the easiest thing to tell someone you have a crush on their best friend. "I think I-I like Willow." She finally revealed to her only other blonde friend, breathing a shaky breath on exit as she felt too nervous to look up from her curtain of hair.

When suddenly Buffy was rushing forward and pulling her into a big hug, sighing like a mad woman and clutching Tara close. "Ohh I'm so glad you finally realised, oh my god, I can set you up, this is going to be amazing, and awesome and-" Buffy stopped rushing through words when she saw the sad look on her friend's face, clearly she wasn't exactly jumping for joy. Why though, why's she so upset? Buffy thought to herself as she tried to console a now crying Tara.

"Buffy, she's in love with Xander remember. What is she going to think of me?" Tara wept into her lap, the blonde's hands were now trussing through her hair as she tried to console her very gay friend. She didn't know what to say, it was hard to know what to say. She'd kinda forgotten the 'Willow kinda has to be gay to like her back.' She was just so used to love being easy, it really wasn't fair Tara had to go through pain like this.

Then this happened...

"BUFFY!" Willow almost screamed down the phone at her best friend, having only just woken up extremely early on a Saturday. She rubbed her eyes, leaving the redhead - whom she called her best friend - in suspense of an answer because she ultimately was still asleep and kinda not in the mood for Willow's extreme babble about Xander right now.

"What?" Buffy replied in a moody voice she rarely used, but she liked her sleep when she could get it and being disturbed was really mean. She could hear Willow's excitement deteriorate severely on the other end of the line and give a slight irritated hint of a sigh before answering.

"I'm over Xander." She said bluntly, thinking about him for a slight second before wiping him from her mind, she was totally and completely over him now. Self, we are over this guy, yes he's still your best friend but no, we're not into him like that anymore. Willow thought she still needed convincing but this was a start, officially telling her best friend that she was moving on, looking for someone else, anyone else. We should start looking around tomorrow, make mental note. I guess that was the mental note.

"WHAT! Oh my god Will, this is crazy good news." Buffy cried out, the sudden shock of this revelation of Willow's. And it really was great, now Willow was freed from her crushing burden - pardon the pun - they could go on boy hunts together, when her and Angel were having yet again another break. Wait, no, Tara. Now could be their chance, remember to call her after this and tell her, or maybe ask Will to call her. Yeah that's way better. "Will?" Buffy asked and having a resounding grumble of reply from her friend she was satisfied she had her attention and carried on, "why don't you call Tara and tell her?" So even though Buffy had been aroused and dragged way too early from her well needed sleep, she was hatching a plan for her two best friends to get together.

"I already did." Willow replied proudly, brightening up, even though her whole body was racing, total babble mode. But she refrained for a second to let Buffy ask how it was.

"Well, what did she say?" So the conversation continued from there, Buffy still concealing Tara's feelings from Willow out of loyalty. And Willow babbling along as per her usual. However over the next few days lead Tara to decide she was going to get a jump on this crush thing of hers. So she thought it was about time she left the closet and started a new gayer identity.

It had been a rainy, sort of rainbow kind of day when Tara handed Willow a small ensemble of tiny flowers arranged to spell out 'I'm gay' in little pink daisy's, she'd worked hard getting it all right but somehow it made the message clear. She wanted to make sure Willow knew who she was and it was kind of a hint that there might be more than friendship between them. It was now just ironic though because from then on Willow owned a flower pot spelling out 'I'm gay' which never seemed to lose its shape.

Beyond this she'd look on it fondly and chuckle about how right it'd been, Tara pressing her lips to certain spots on her neck.

"Tara I know that it's summer and we're graduating like tomorrow, but would you maybe wanna go with me to Pride?" Willow reeled out, too fast for Tara to process that this was actually happening so it took a few moments for her to realise what Willow was asking. Willow looked carefully at the blonde girl in front of her, she's not saying anything why's she not saying anything, does she not wanna go, oh no have I upset her, I hate it when I do that. Even though she is a really pretty crier and then I could comfort her, aww. Willow rambled to herself inside her head, then somehow words were coming out of her mouth and she just couldn't stop herself.

"Or not, you know, you don't have to, I just thought you might want to, because we're both gay and we can dress up in rainbows but if you don't wanna go then I'd totally understand, I could ask Buffy and dress her up in rainbows, not that I think she'd like that very much but-" Willow instantly stopped talking when she felt a gentle finger pressing against her lips. Tara's finger. The redhead's eyes instantly flickered downwards and connected with a matching set of blue ones. She could get lost in those eyes for days but right now she was very much resisting the urge to kiss the finger currently laced against her wanton lips.

She'd put her mind to what kissing Tara would be like, kissing Tara, Tara-lips, lips of Tara. I bet she's super soft on me. With Rose it was sweet but nothing really sparked, they'd dragged out their relationship but now it was over, the only person who'd been on her mind was Tara. She couldn't believe herself for being so stupid, Tara had been in the corner this whole time, always there. And there had always been a warmth about her that Willow admired and felt deeply. Then one day it just snapped and Willow watched as Tara looked up from between her hair and had decidedly become a beautiful butterfly, blossomed from her shelly cocoon.

Now you're probably all wondering at which point this Rose person came into being and how Willow had come out, well that was in Junior year when the new girl arrived and took Willow's fancy...

Rose was cool, she had purple hair shaved on one side and a pierced eyebrow. Willow'd never seen anyone quite like her in their small town, Rose was from the city, her dad having been transferred again. And she dressed almost always in black and was a complete 'hotty' according to Xander. Much to the annoyance of his now girlfriend Cordelia, having bullied him relentlessly for years, she'd decided his kissing was good enough to put up with.

Willow instantly became smitten with Rose and developed more than a little crush, but her coming out still took a while to occur, she was nervous, not sure if she should be coming out at all, she didn't quite know what her orientation was just yet but she knew she liked Rose a lot and she was a girl and in order to be able to express her feelings properly she needed to tell her friends. Buffy could help her plan yet. She wouldn't tell her parents until she was absolutely and she had a girlfriend to show off. That might surprise her mom and make her take a bit of notice for once.

So there they all were, in Ms. Calender's computer classroom, after she'd gotten sick Willow had taken over most of her classes and was free to use this one during the lunch hour. Buffy, Xander, Tara and Cordelia who'd been dragged along on the promise of a make-out session in one of the supply cupboards - were all sitting in front of the whiteboard, PowerPoint presentation up on the screen and Willow standing in front of her friends/makeshift class. She did a lot of waffling and pointing at certain diagrams and images before finally reaching her last slide that read as the following:

'I really like the new girl Rose and I think I'm kinda gay and I don't know what to do about it.'

In classic Willow fashion she then held her face in her hands as Buffy ran forward to give her a hug and a slight smirky glance at Tara before realising Willow liked Rose. After lots of hugs and rounds of yay, Xander dragged Cordy into the promised closet and Buffy left for her lesson, Willow and Tara had a free period so they stayed back. Willow was pottering around the classroom tidying up a little as Tara sat on the other side of the desk.

"Willow?" Tara had said softly, peering up into those sharp green eyes she loved so much. Willow mumbled back and turned her head to give Tara a weak smile, she was still nervous about Rose. "What is it about her that you like?"

Willow paused at the question "Oh I don't know, she's pretty I guess." There wasn't much going on it Willow's brain other than, I like Rose, I like Rose. She hadn't really stopped to think of a reason, to which Tara chuckled a little at the girl's innocence, she loved to tease even if they were just friends.

"Just pretty? Will I think that might b-be the thinnest excuse I've ever heard." She said, looking over at the redhead who blushed a little and went back to her tidying with a grin and a cheeky smirk plastered on her face.

"I just like her ok." Willow ended their interaction, to which Tara had a saddened but hopeful expression on her face. Even though Willow liked Rose, doesn't mean they were going to get together. And now Willow was gay too, she stood much more of a chance. That was until Rose said yes to Willow's idea of a movie date and they got together. Tara got left, and there were countless nights in the following year as to which she could be found crying down the phone to Buffy. She'd been the shoulder to cry on for too long now, she had to do something, for her own sanity as well as Tara's.

So the minute Willow and Rose decided it wasn't going to work between then Buffy jumped right on the case. By this point Tara had been strung along for two years and was in process of pretending to herself that she was moving on from Willow. But deep down the redhead still had her heart. Buffy had been subtly suggesting to Willow over the course of a couple of weeks that she really should go to Pride, her and Rose had blown off the one the year before because Rose wasn't out to her parents and she thought they were kinda lame anyway.

But Willow loved rainbows, she loved being able to be goofy and silly and herself whilst getting to spend the day just well, being proud. So she really really wanted to go, and Buffy being Buffy had been giving subtle hints she should ask Tara, their other gay friend.

"You really think Tara would wanna go with me Buff?" Willow said down yet another early morning phone call, this time however they'd already been up about twenty minutes, enough time to calm Willow's raging nerves. Now Buffy didn't exactly want to tell Willow about Tara's crush, because she really believed it was up to Tara to make the final decision on whether she still wanted Willow. And to get Willow's hopes up after hinting would be downright cruel so she left it with a nice smile, which she then realised Willow couldn't see and instead replaced it with some calming words.

"Trust me, you're Willow, how can anyone not fall for Willow?"

"I'd l-love to go t-to Pride with you." Tara replied softly, her stutter coming out in flashes of nerves. She smiled one of her sweet half smiles as Willow brushed a chunk of her hair behind her ear. Willow couldn't quite believe all her worrying had been for nothing, Tara had said yes. She'd actually agreed, and she said she'd love to, ahhh, panic. Mass gay panic. But where they going as friends or is this a date? Oh I don't know, I don't wanna assume and then massively mess it up.

"So it's a date? I can come by yours and pick you up, presumably with someone else's car?" Willow said, her nerves returned as a little tremor settled into her hands. Tara's kind eyes looked up, she hadn't known whether this was date thing or not but the idea that Willow wanted to treat it like one, made her little gay heart so happy.

"Y-Yes please." She said shyly avoiding the redhead's eyes now, there was a little fear instilled in her that this may all be a quiet dream. But as they went to leave for possibly the last classes of the year, their hands brushed mildly, a tingle running through both of them as they glanced back at each other. However now Willow wasn't looking where she was going and there may have been a rather extreme collision with an annoyingly place soda machine, but she figured it was probably worth it for the smile on Tara's face.

As soon as Tara got to class she called Buffy over to sit next her, she was almost too beside herself with excitement to contain the grin on her face. "You said yes didn't you?" Buffy asked as soon as she sat down. Tara stopped smiling and shockingly looked round at Buffy, her mouth gaping slightly.

"You knew." She said with a pointing finger, swatting her friend on the arm and then bumping together as she let out a giggle. Willow-thoughts made her giddy, Willow-anything made her giddy, woah I might need to sit down to realise this is happening. That last part may have been out loud though and Buffy interrupted her thought giddiness, "you are sitting down." Tara made a quiet 'oh' sound as she smiled happily and then was again interrupted by the teacher handing out work and telling everyone to be quiet. No one lets me finish.

Willow stood anxiously outside the house, it was large and oak furnished exterior with large beams supporting the porch. She stood on her heels, shuffling nervously. They'd agreed that Willow would come over in the morning so they could get ready together, she was holding a plastic bag in one hand a single rose in the other. As they had clarified that this was in fact a date, she thought she was entitled to get her date a rose, a symbol of love. But now she thought about it, maybe rose wasn't the best kind of flower to start with given her past relationships, but she thought the sentiment might show through.

She was nervous, really nervous, so she'd started up biting her nails again, which stopped her having to cut them so really was it a lose-lose situation? Willow thought not. Having stood and waited for an appropriate amount of time, she reached forward and rang the doorbell that would alert Tara to her presence outside the door. After a few minutes and a few clattering noises later, the door opened to reveal a very smiley Tara. Who was adorning a very rainbow tie-dye shirt and a worn out denim skirt. She ushered her hands around for Willow to come in, who then followed the blonde swiftly up the stairs to her bedroom.

Willow had been here a few times before, a couple times to study and for a few group sleepovers with Buffy. They'd never exactly been alone in Tara's room before though. The room was mostly covered with bookcases and shelves but there was the bed in the centre and a skylight over a small couch that sat on the back wall of the house. They sat side by side on the couch, Willow handed Tara the rose, placing the thorn free stem - Willow checked - in Tara's delicate fingertips. She admired it, twirled it over in her hands, the redness of the petals catching the light perfectly and she gazed slowly from it back to Willow's eyes.

"It's beautiful, thank you, I love it." She said without a stutter, which was just of how in awe Tara was of this girl right now. No one had ever tried to woo her before, and now that it was Willow her heart started beating uncontrollably fast in her chest. Willow was caught up looking into Tara's eyes, the pretty blue pearls were shining at her like shimmering treasure at the bottom of the ocean.

"I love your eyes." Willow said without thinking, now Tara was blushing and tucking hair behind her ear. She only did that when she was nervous, the redhead had astutely noticed one of those days when she was gazing across the room. It had been a new hobby over the past month, but after she discovered just how nervous and tingly Tara made her feel on the inside she just couldn't help it. Then Tara wasn't saying anything a slight panic came over the other girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry was that too much, I do really really like your eyes though, their so blue and round and I kinda love them. But I'm sorry, I'll stop talking now-" Willow would've continued babbling if she hadn't been interrupted by the blonde's quiet contemplative gaze and response.

"I-I, don't know what to s-say Will, I've liked you for so long and now you're saying these things to me, and I can't quite believe its real." It was quite long a sentence for the shyer one of the pair, but she meant it, she really hadn't known how to respond and she was hoping Willow would continue down this path of concentration.

"You've liked me for so long?" Willow questioned peering across the couch, in quiet disbelief, she thought maybe Tara liked her a little bit, but for so long, that's long, that's crazy, I never thought to check whether she liked me. Wait! So long, that means maybe even before me and Rose, oh no and she had to go through all that, oh my god. What have I done to her? This is awful, what I've put her through. "Tara, oh I'm so sorry, all that time with me and Rose and the flaunting ourselves in front of everyone, and you liked me all that time, and-" Then Willow felt Tara's gentle palm rest against her own, fingers entwining, the tingle between them flickering again. So she stopped talking, babbling really, because she had to, her touch was so soft, it defied words.

"Willow really it's ok. You weren't exactly mine." Tara said reassuringly, squeezing their hands ever closer but looking down, a little embarrassed at what she'd just said. And a little disheartened, but Willow did seem to really care. Maybe this was a good sign? Willow let out a careful 'oh' sound, internally putting herself down, that Tara didn't like her at all and that this whole 'date' wasn't a date at all and they were just friends. Tara having realised she must have said something to discourage her date, because Willow seemed to be retreating pulling away from her slightly. Loosening her grip on their hands.

"Oh no, I didn't mean." Tara piped up, pausing slightly to resurvey her thoughts. "You weren't to know how I felt and you were just enjoying your relationship, I know I would've done the same, if I h-had you I mean. Oh no-" Tara started again, burying her face in her hands embarrassed, her cheeks flushing in bright crimson, a very similar shade to red hair that belonged to her date.

"Tara look at me," Willow said gently, tugging on the blonde's hands until they peeled slowly from her flushed face. "I asked you on this date ok, I can't say it's been that long for me, but don't get me wrong you've always been my friend, but about a month ago, I just, I looked at you and you lifted your head up to me, and you caught the light in such a beautiful way, and it was like I was seeing you for the first. You're beautiful Tara, and I kinda would like you to be mine, so I thought we could do this together and maybe then I could ask for a second date and then maybe you would wanna be mine." Willow waffled on, her hand absentmindedly cupping the other girl's cheek. Her skin was warm and flushed with heat, Willow thought this might be the moment to lean in and kiss her, and her head had already started predicting what all the possible scenarios could be. Suddenly remembering her bag, leaning nicely against her leg, Willow jumped up excitedly. Breaking the gaze between her and Tara's eyes and tipping the entire rainbowy contents onto Tara's bed, giving her a quick glance and mouthing 'sorry.'

After ten minutes both girls felt more relaxed and comfortable, they had slipped into easy chatter and had started face painting rainbow flags onto each other's faces, laughing and joking with each other. Having both restrained from applying anything other than basic makeup, it was now time to add more, because Willow thought it would be a fun bonding activity to do each other's before the parade. It was now time for Tara to liberally apply mascara to Willow's usually red lashes.

The redhead herself was sitting in Tara's armchair - one that belonged tucked under her dressing table, but she'd let Willow move it. Tara picked up the bottle and unscrewed the cap. She brought her knee between Willow's and sat on the other girl's lap, an action which was tremendously brave of her and she absolutely would be freaking out right now if it was anyone else. But this was Willow.

Willow on the other hand, was completely freaking out. Oh my god, she's sitting, she is sitting on me. That's really sexy, do I think Tara's sexy? Maybe I do? I do like her, oh now with the mascara she's hovering just above my face, I can feel her breath against my skin. Don't make a sound, because if you get caught letting a groan come out of your mouth, you're seriously dead and you'll have ruined your chance with her. If I leaned up right now I could kiss her really easily, no Willow wait for a better moment. You can't screw this up. Tara was still only inches from her face but she'd finished up using the mascara and they were about ready to leave. But she hesitated for just a couple of seconds before leaping off of Willow's now very warm body. But then again, it was May.

It had been about an hour of walking around, hand in hand - Willow was paying attention. And remarking at how incredible it all looked and how many different flags they could spot. Some even Tara didn't know what they represented but she was accepting what you chose to identify as, a truly kind soul. Willow was enjoying the gentle stroking of Tara's thumb up and down her own, not that the blonde recognised that this was happening at all, and just kept looking around in slight awe.

That was when Willow suggested ice cream, and ten minutes, a very long queue and some sunblock applied they were walking away from the parade and down towards the beach. It was sunny weather and neither of them was particular cold, in fact Willow thought she may boil over at any moment. But she was pulled out of her thoughts when Tara started pulling her towards the sea, both sets of hands clutching desperately as the warm enough waves lapped over their bare ankles. And over their heeled sandals.

The water was warm and as Willow licked at her ice cream cone, she didn't think she could possibly be any happier, as she looked over at the blonde girl, sorry woman. Gripping on her hands, her fingers gently caressing. Now was the moment, the perfect moment. Tara had just finished the bottom of the cone and had a nice smattering of chocolate across her lips.

Willow pointed towards her, bringing her thumb up to wipe it away. Now she was gently caressing her thumb against Tara's bottom lip, the blonde responded with a slow kiss to her thumb tip. Their eyes met deliciously, silent words passing between them as they both felt the pulling urge towards each other. Their eyes flickering shut as their lips met in a chaste kiss. One that had their foreheads leaning together and their noses nuzzled up against each other. A perfect kiss, so light it barely registered but the memory stayed forever.

Then Tara couldn't contain her longing anymore, crashing together - they kissed with fiery passion. The blonde sucking on Willow's lower lip as she let out a strained moan into the other girl's throat. Kissing this intensely was new to Tara, she'd never had much experience with kissing but this seemed perfect. The sun was setting, a deep orange hue setting over the horizon, they were ankle deep in the waves and had just had ice cream. The vanilla taste still lingering in her mouth as she slipped her tongue against Willow's a deep feeling of warmth settling over the pair of them. This was true happiness.

You know that chair I mentioned, well you've not seen the last of it, in the few weeks of summer that it took their relationship to fully blossom, which included lots and lots of smooching, tended to happen in that chair. Willow on the bottom, Tara curled up on her lap, dropping her head to rest on her girl's neck, every so often pressing a light touch of lips to the skin. But generally kept her head on her shoulder nuzzling the redhead lightly. Their hands sat entwined as they both glanced up at the skylight, the pale moonlight creeping in over the perfect sunset and they both new this was heaven.

"Willow?" Tara said in a whisper, her voice sweet and bubbly. "I love you." It was the first time. The first 'I love you' in a long line to come but this night was their love, a hazy shade of orange that warmed and drifted between them, it had brought them together eventually, however long-windedly. Willow turned to Tara and smiled beautifully, her lips slightly parting as she let Tara press against her.

"I love you too."