Title: Untitled Remedy
Author: S'rah/TheAgonyofBlank
Rating: PG-13
Summary/Notes: AU. Willow Rosenberg is a famous actress in her 20s living in Sunnydale. Tara Maclay is a somewhat famous writer who's just moved to Sunnydale. I used British English for this fic.
Disclaimer: Psht. Not mine.
Spoilers: There may be some from S1-S7... Only relevant difference is Willow has never met Tara, and Anya never died.
Distribution: Ask and you might receive. :)
Feedback: Please. Flames will be ignored.

---

Tara sat alone at the Espresso Pump with her laptop and a coffee in front of her and her bag on the bar stool next to hers. She had been here for about fifteen minutes now, but she had spent most of the time staring blankly at the laptop screen and racking her brains for good ideas. After a little while, an idea came to her head and she began working. Occasionally, the blonde-haired woman would pause in the midst of her typing to take a sip of her still-warm coffee, but mostly, her fingers danced gracefully across the keyboard as letters appeared on the screen one-by-one, each of them helping to tell the story she had to tell.

Tara Maclay was a somewhat famous author who already had two books about magick and witchcraft published; one of them fiction, the other non-fiction. Writing just came to her naturally, and she could write a well-written story about nearly anything in no time at all. She had just spent most of the morning and early afternoon finishing unpacking in her newly-bought three-bedroom house in Sunnydale and had decided to reward herself by going to the Espresso Pump to get a coffee.

"Hey... Umm... Excuse me, but is anyone sitting here?"

Tara's fingers stopped dancing across the keyboard as she was addressed, and the blonde woman tore her blue eyes away from the screen to face the woman who was speaking to her. She surpressed a gasp as her eyes met the greenest eyes she ever had the pleasure of seeing, and she opened her mouth to speak. However, words were surprisingly failing her, and she just shut her mouth again, trying to figure out why this woman looked so familiar to her.

"I guess so. Sorry to bother you."

As the woman with the green eyes turned to leave, Tara realized she didn't want her to go and quickly reached out and grabbed the woman's arm gently, before abruptly jerking it back as she felt a surge of... power? pass between the both of them. Is she a witch, too? That's some power she has there... Clearing her throat, Tara took her bag off the stool and replied with a slight stutter, "N-no. Feel free to take a seat."

"Oh, you sure?" the red-haired woman with the green eyes replied. Please say you're sure.

"Y-yes. It's no problem."

"Thanks..." the emerald-eyed woman replied, flashing Tara a bright smile as she took her seat and started on her slice of lemon-iced cake.

Tara smiled shyly in reply, and as a moment of uncomfortable silence passed between the two women, Tara lowered her head and turned back to her laptop, tapping her chin thoughtfully for a short moment before her fingers resumed the familiar yet different dance across the keyboard. She paid no attention to the red-haired woman next to her, who was curiously sneaking glances at her - and her laptop screen.

"What are you writing?" came the emerald-eyed woman again, and a slight pause ensued before she continued, babbling now, "Umm... Not that you have to tell me, 'cos I'm being nosy a-and what you write is your business, right? Sorry. I won't ask again. I'm babbling, aren't I? I tend to do that a lot - babble, I mean... It's a habit I-"

"Babbling's okay," Tara smiled kindly at the babbling redhead. Besides, you're sort of cute when you babble... Hang on there, Maclay. This is someone you barely know... You've got to stop hitting on people you hardly know... Making herself snap out of her thoughts, Tara decided it best to introduce herself, "I'm, uh, Tara Maclay, by the way."

"Tara Maclay?" Now where have I heard that before?! "I'm Willow. Willow Rosenberg."

"Oh! You're... the a-actress..." Tara stated rather lamely and shot Willow a sheepish look. So that was why the redhead had looked so familiar; she'd seen her once or twice in the occasional movie advertisement. Then she couldn't help but let out a giggle, "I never t-thought I'd meet an actress. Or that you'd live... here."

"Well, I guess you proved you wrong," Willow grinned cheerfully in reply, but in the back of her mind, she was still trying to figure out why the name Tara Maclay sounded familiar. That was when it hit her, and the actress exclaimed excitedly, "Oh! Oh! I know you! Not really, but technically, anyway. You write those books! Or, well, I've only read one, but they're both supposedly really good..."

"Thanks," Tara replied, a blush creeping onto her face.

"So, is that a new book you're working on? Actually, don't answer that, because I said I wouldn't ask again, and I did... And that's not very nice of me..." Willow allowed her voice to trail off, and a small frown crossed her face for a moment. She then fell back to eating a bit more of her cake.

"N-no, you're nice," Tara smiled encouragingly, causing Willow's cheeks to flush red, "And yes, this is a new book I'm working on. I heard that, you know, Sunnydale's an interesting place to live in. Lots of weird stuff happens here, or so I heard, anyway. Is that true?"

"Er," Willow began, not sure what she should tell Tara. After all, telling her, 'Oh, yeah, my friends and I see vampires all the time' would be kind of freaky. "Definitely weird, from an outsider's perspective, I think. Did you just move here?" Because there was no way Willow would not have noticed if this beautiful blonde had been here for a while... Then again, she had just returned from her most recent movie production the day before, so the blue-eyed woman could have moved in ten weeks ago, and she wouldn't have known.

"Yes. Last week," Tara replied, "I just got everything unpacked and where I want them."

"Oh," Willow said, and then, with a hopeful tone, continued, "So, you're pretty much free tonight?"

"Um-"

"I just wanted to invite you over for dinner at my place. But if you're busy, that's fine."

"I'm free," Tara replied softly, "I'd love to join you for dinner."

"Great. I'd love to have you," Willow replied, and then paused for a moment before correcting herself, "Uh, I mean, have you over. Not have you, have you." Goddess, Willow, you are such a dork! Who could make such a mistake? No one - except for yourself.

"It's okay. I got it," Tara smiled. She is so cute!

"Right. Here... I'll write you my address..." Willow said as she got out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down her address and handed the piece of paper to Tara, asking, "You know where that is?"

"Yes."

"All right," Willow smiled happily, finishing off the last bit of her cake. "I'll see you around... seven?"

"Seven's good. See you," Tara smiled.

"Yeah. See you," Willow replied, giving Tara another smile as she turned to leave.

---

"Wills, I hate to break it to ya, but I don't think your house could be any cleaner than it already is," Xander informed his best friend of twenty-three years, giving her his trademark "relax; you'll be fine" smile as he fluffed up one of the pillows on the black couch. He and the rest of the Scoobies had been helping Willow tidy her place up ever since she'd called them to help her out earlier in the afternoon, and he knew it was safe for him to assume that he wasn't the only one getting tired of all this cleaning.

"Yes. Xander's right. Why do we have to help Willow clean, anyway? It's not like she's paying us. And why can't she clean all this herself?" Anya, seeing no problem with being her usual and direct self, enquired.

"Hello? Standing right here?!" Willow exclaimed heatedly.

"Well, you should at least give us-"

"Both of you, don't you even dare continue that argument, or I'll... do something. Something bad," Buffy said helpfully with much emphasis, interrupting Anya and managing to prevent the two women from arguing. She wasn't in the mood to hear anyone argue tonight, because frankly, she was sick of all the arguing that went on daily. Turning her attention onto Willow, Buffy continued, "Besides, Will, what's up with the cleaning? I mean, you never do that when we're over. Why does this woman get the special treatment?"

"This is a real guest, Buffy," Willow said, rolling her eyes when she received a mock-shocked look from Buffy, "Come on. You guys are like... my old, young, good friends. This is someone I just met. She just moved into town, so I thought, you know, it'd be nice if she had some friends. Plus, it's better if she doesn't think of me as a slob before she even knows me."

Buffy snorted at that, and Xander and Dawn wore amused looks on their faces. Anya just folded her arms across her chest and waited for the conversation to go on.

"Oh, goddess," Willow, simply choosing to ignore her dear friends and look at the clock instead, exclaimed loudly with a hint of panic in her voice,"It's five-thirty! You guys! We haven't even started with the cooking! And I need to take a shower before Tara comes over!"

"Willow, calm down," Dawn said reassuringly, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, "Look, we can do the cooking for your Lady Love. Just relax, take your shower, and if you're done quickly, you can help cook, too."

"You're right. Calm down, and take the shower," Willow repeated, sending Dawn a smile while blatantly ignoring the younger girl's referral to Tara. As she rushed upstairs to take her shower, she paused long enough to say, "Thanks, guys."

Xander made sure Willow had left before he turned his attention on Dawn, making a small face, "You know, you really shouldn't have told her she could cook if she was early from the shower." He noticed Dawn was giving him her usual "it's not like you can do any better" look, and he added, "Don't give me that look; at least I know I can't cook. Now, Wills, she thinks she can cook when she... can't, really."

"She's always like this when a pretty lady comes over... I just thought I might encourage her..." Dawn explained.

"Well, don't do that again," Anya said sensibly as she remembered the last time she tried Willow's cooking, "I don't want to eat her cooking again."

Everyone couldn't help but grin; they knew how true it was.

"Let's go a-cooking," Buffy said as she headed for the kitchen, "No time for us to waste, or our witch will get angry."

"And perhaps get even more spastic," Dawn added helpfully and jokingly as the rest of the Scoobies followed the two Summers sisters into the kitchen.

---

Not wanting to be late for the dinner (or anything Willow planned, really, she knew), Tara kept an eye on the clock as often as possible. A small frown creased her face as she held up different outfits in front of her, looking at the mirror and trying to find which outfit would be the right one for this evening. Finally, she settled on a blue top and a long, deeper-blue (compared to the shirt) skirt. She pulled her hair into a bun and then checked the clock one last time.

Six forty-five.

Perfect, she thought as she headed out of the door.

---

"It's six fifty-five! Six fifty-five! She's due in five minutes!" Willow exclaimed excitedly, and Dawn could have sworn that the redhead was on the verge of bouncing on the spot.

"See? That's exactly why I told you guys not to tell her when it's seven. It's not even seven yet, and look how excited she is already!" Buffy said knowledgeably, earning chuckles from the rest of the Scoobies and a glare from Willow that she easily ignored.

Knock. Knock.

"Oh, goddess! Is that her? That must be her! Do I look okay? Is my outfit okay? Do I look like a dork? Goddess, I bet I look like a dork. I think I need to go change-" Willow's excitement had turned into nervousness, and she turned in mid-speech and attempted to head to her room to throw something else on.

"Willow!" Xander said, stopping his best friend from going anywhere, "Your friend-"

"Lady Love," Dawn corrected and stuck her tongue out at Willow, who tried to say something in protest.

"-Right; your Lady Love is waiting out there, and you need to open the door for her," Xander said before Willow could say anything, and after a second of Willow not doing anything, he added and lightly pushed Willow towards the door, "Preferably before the vamps get her."

"O-okay," Willow replied meekly, and she turned the doorknob, pulling the door open.

Oh, good goddess. was the only thing that came to the redhead's mind when she saw the woman in front of her.

---

"Um, h-hello, Willow," Tara managed to choke out as the door was pulled open. She had been staring in awe at Willow for the first second - heck, she was still in awe - but she knew she had to greet her hostess. And it was always better sooner than later, right?

"Hey, Tara," Willow greeted in reply, a little breathless. A smile formed on her face and she stepped to one side to allow the blonde woman in, "Er, come on in."

"Thank you," came Tara's reply as she smiled shyly at Willow and what must have been her friends. She then glanced around the house and said, "Your house is beautiful..." Like you. "Very contemporary."

"Thanks," Willow replied and then fell silent.

"Well, Willow," Dawn began, trying to lighten the tension in the room, "I think Xander was right about, you know, before the va-"

"VAN!" Buffy jumped in, clapping her hand on top of Dawn's mouth quickly, preventing her sister from mentioning the vampires. The Slayer shrugged sheepishly in reply to Tara's amused look and explained, "The, um, van was, um... uh..."

"Broken down. The van broke down," Xander added helpfully.

"Van? You got a van?" Anya, coming into the room, asked curiously.

"No, um, yes; I'll tell you later," Xander replied.

"Um, before we got into the conversation about a certain van," Willow began with a lot of emphasis, speaking to Tara, "I was going to introduce you to everyone." She paused and then continued, saying the person's name whenever she pointed to one of her friends, "That's Xander, Anya, Buffy, and Dawn. They're all idiots, so don't listen to them."

"Hey! I resent that!" Xander said, pointing accusingly at Willow.

"Yeah! And after all the cleaning we've done for you and your friend-" Anya added.

"Lady Love," Dawn coughed, receiving a glare from Willow, a raised eyebrow from Tara (the blonde woman wasn't sure if she had heard quite correctly), and a smack on the arm from Buffy.

"-Without money or goods for pay!" Anya continued smoothly.

"Shall we have dinner, then?" Willow turned to Tara, ignoring most of what had just been said by Tara and Anya.

"Sure," Tara replied, and allowed Willow and her friends to lead the way.

---