Chapter Six: A Gymnast, huh?
After about a minute or so of awkward silence while Willow tried desperately to think of something cool and witty to say, she still had nothing. Tara looked like she was getting more and more uncomfortable with each passing moment.
"Say something! Anything!" mind-Willow yelled at herself, leading to her blurting out the first thing she could think of.
Tara blinked. She looked not a little confused.
"Massage oil?" she questioned politely.
"Oh goddess, now she thinks I'm weird, or that I'm coming on to her, or that I'm a weirdo who is coming on to her, and darn, Darn, DARN, fix this Willow, how you gonna fix this, how you gonna- gotta say something, to cover, gotta"
"Uh, Buffy and I were, um talking about it, earlier."
"About massage oil," Tara supplied, still looking confused, but now also slightly amused.
"Right!" the flustered red-head continued. "She,um, and then Sp… Oh! No, not.. I mean, uh, she kinda owns this self defense studio, and, yeah, she gets really sore, and I heard you work as a masseuse, so I was know, wondering if there, maybe, was a certain type of massage oil that would help her out, cause, you know, sore muscles just aren't very fun. Not that I've really had them all that often, since I'm not really 'Hey, let's go play some sports!' girl, but, I, well, there was this one girl I dated who was a gymnast, and, well, okay, shutting up now…"
A beat passed.
"I'm n- not actually a mass-seu-seuse. I think you might be thinking of Kara."
"Kara."
"Y- Yeah. Peters. She, uh, she's in classics 204 with Dr. Lewis?"
"Oh. Right." *STUPID!* mind-Willow shouted at herself.
Another beat passed.
"So… a gy-gymnast, huh?" the other girl asked shyly, a small, half-smile on her face.
Willow blanked for a second, then smiled back at her, saying everything she couldn't manage to say on her own through her sparkling green eyes. Tara's own face broke out into a full-fledged grin, and the two of them just sat there, no words needed. It was small, but it was a first step, and everything in life, just for that moment, was perfect.
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The Java Hut door buzzer rang as Willow waltzed, obviously in a very good mood and- singing?
"…ey, Hey, it's a beautiful day!"
Xander and Giles, looking up from where they were drinking their coffee beverages of choice, cringed.
The young woman, oblivious, slipped into the chair beside Xander and stole a drink of Giles' mocha. "Morning, Xander, Giles!" she perked.
Xander shook his head. "Willow Roseberg! How many times have I told you that drugs are not the answer?"
"Natural high. Yours truly has a hot date with a svelte and sexy blond. Where's Buffy?"
"Uh, sweetie, I really don't think that Buff feels that *way* about you," Xander put in.
"Not gonna ruin my good mood, Xand. Where's she at? I convince Buff to double date, and I get to go out with Tara McClay."
Xander clued in, "Ah. Otherwise known as Tara Mc Svelte, Sexy, and actually a lesbian blonde?"
Giles, who had been ignoring the conversation up till this point, nodded his head and pointed to where Buffy was finishing waiting on a customer. "Buffy's over there. Anya was busy, so she asked her to help even though she's not on."
"Buffy!" Willow grinned a wide, hopeful grin at her. "My best friend in the entire world, Buffy Anne Summers."
Xander shouted out an offended "Hey!", Giles shook his head and took a drink of his mocha, and Buffy gave a wry smile "Save it Wills. My hearing is really awesome, and this is a small room. I'll do it, but-"
She was cut off as Willow caught her in a hug. "Oh, thank you so much, Buff, you won't regret it, I promise! You're the best friend ever!"
Xander cut in to the kodak moment with another offended "Hey! Standing right here, guys!" at the same time as Buffy pulled back and finished "BUT you need to tell me when, where, and more importantly, *who*."
At that Willow broke all contact and look down to the floor. She bit on her bottom lip, her good mood broken. "Well, there is a slight catch…"