Untitled Remedy
by TheAgonyofBlank
Chapter 2
Author's Note: I apologize for the strange ending.
"I'll be right back - with dessert, too," Willow grinned cheerfully as she collected the last of the dinner plates, risking a quick and shy glance at Tara (that did not go unnoticed by her friends) before she excused herself, heading into the kitchen. The redheaded Wicca was terribly glad she had managed to get away from the blonde woman; she didn't think she could stand another moment sitting right next to such a beauty and resist touching her smooth skin... feeling her silky hair... or... Okay. Stop there, Willow. Don't need to fantasize about a woman you barely know; nope! Better switch seats with Buffy when you get back to the table. Sitting with Dawn and Anya will do you better good tonight. And she immediately busied herself with looking for the dessert. Where was it?!
As soon as Willow had left, an awkward silence descended upon the room. Each person could find nothing to say to the other, no matter how hard they racked their brains. A few more seconds of silence passed, and just as they all gave up on breaking the silence, a voice suddenly called out from the kitchen ("Dawnie!") and caused them to jump slightly in surprise.
"What?!" Dawn called back, her heart still beating wildly from the very-recent shock.
"Where's the dessert?" Willow asked loudly from the kitchen.
"In the oven!" Dawn answered just as loudly, before she added to those at the table as a side note, "I hope she knows where that is."
Xander, Buffy, and Anya snickered at that, while Tara couldn't help but grin.
"You see, our Wills... doesn't cook a lot. She isn't that great of a cook," Xander explained helpfully.
"That's an understatement. Xander's being nice," Anya stated.
Tara smiled with a quirked eyebrow, as though gesturing for them to further explain.
"Anyway," Buffy began and directed her next comment at Tara, attempting to start a conversation, "Willow was telling us that you write."
"Yeah, and she was also telling us how hot y-" Dawn began, but she caught the many death glares that were sent her way, widened her eyes in slight surprise and asked, "What? What did I say?"
"So, what exactly do you write about?" Buffy continued before Tara could react (by saying anything, anyway), sending one last glare to her sister and quickly breezing over the comment the littlest one had almost let slip.
"Witchcraft," Tara replied, not without a smile.
"Xander," Anya began as she found what she deemed a suitable and interesting topic, interrupting the conversation with a rather commanding tone, "Please tell me about the van you bought for me."
The silence was diminishing, and that was a good thing.
"Uh," Xander was unsure of how to handle this and decided to fall back on the simplest approach, "Ahn, honey, let's talk about this later. I'm sure Tara has many more interesting stories to tell and would rather tell them instead of listening to us talking about a van." ...that doesn't exist.
"No, I'd like to-" Anya paused as something suddenly dawned on her, "You're changing the topic!" Anya then turned to Buffy, Dawn, and Tara (who all wore looks of amusement on their faces) for support, protesting, "He's changing the topic!" She paused again, before adding with a short glance at Tara, "Besides, Tara doesn't mind hearing about the nice van you bought for me."
"I really don't," Tara replied honestly, chuckling slightly at Anya's directness.
"Well," Xander began, racking his brains desperately, "It's a... umm... A very nice van. Where's Willow?" Xander, again attempting to change the topic, called out, "Willow!"
"Hang on! I've almost got it!" came the reply.
"Glad she found the oven," Dawn joked, causing the four others at the table to giggle appreciatively.
After having had her fair share of giggles, Anya still refused to be deferred by this momentary change-of-subject and turned to Xander, questioning insistently, "What colour?"
"Huh?" Xander asked, pretending to be lost.
"The car," Anya sighed exasperatedly.
"Blue! Blue," was Xander's hurried reply.
"I don't like blue."
"Honey, it was the only one left. And it broke down as soon as I tried to drive it." Oh, that's really realistic, Harris. "But anyway, it's very spacious inside; you'll like it much better than the other-"
"Oh, so you mean we can have better sex in a bigger car?" Anya asked loudly and without embarrassment, then turned to the three girls at the table, "It's hard to copulate in a small car. There's not enough space."
Buffy spat out her water; Dawn coughed; Tara stared in surprise; Xander turned beet red and stammered, "A-Anya, we've talked about this before. Remember private lives that our friends would rather not know about?"
"Yes," Buffy agreed with her best guy friend, getting up from the table to get paper towels from the kitchen to clean up the mess she had made.
"Really, Anya," Willow began with slight distaste as she brought in the dessert - wonderful apple pie, "I'd think you'd have learnt all this by now... What with not being a venge-" Willow stopped herself in time and corrected, "What with being in the U.S. of A. for... what now? Six years?"
"There's nothing wrong with being open and honest about everything," Anya shot back sullenly, and then brightened, "Hey - we could even trade sex tips." And before anyone could stop the ex-vengeance demon, she was on a roll, "Like Xander and I, we find it best to do it somewhe-"
"Anya! Stop!" Buffy nearly yelled. She knew she wasn't the only one who preferred not to hear about Anya and Xander's overly-active sex life; Tara was wearing a look of both embarrassment and amusement on her face - as though she couldn't decide whether she was more disturbed or amused.
"Okay, okay," Anya backed off, turning her attention back onto the pie that was now in the middle of the table, "Shall we eat pie, then?"
"I made it," Dawn piped up, speaking for the first time since the conversation about the van. The girl decided to put herself to good use and sliced the pie into as equally-sized slices as she could manage and handed one slice on a plate to each person.
"It's really good, Dawn," Tara complimented the girl as she sampled some of the yummy goodness that was apple pie.
"Yeah, better than what I can attempt to make," Willow murmured softly and inaudibly, glancing over at Tara.
"Thanks," Dawn, who hadn't heard Willow, grinned as she started on her own slice, before silence fell upon the room again as everyone fell to eating their pie slices.
"Oh, Buffy," Anya started as she realized what time it was - 9p.m., "You need to go..."
Buffy raised a quizzical eyebrow as Anya made strange gestures with her hands.
"...Oh, right," Buffy finally caught on. Anya was helpful at times, whether anyone wanted to admit it or not, "I need to go see those friends of mine."
"Uh, what kind of friends, Buff?" Xander questioned, slightly worried. After all, the way he read it, Anya's gestures implied that Buffy had to see an orgasm friend. He thought Buffy would tell them if she ever had a boyfriend - or just an orgasm friend. Then again, she hadn't told them of Spike those years ago...
Dawn let out a sigh. Sometimes Xander was a little slow on catching onto things.
"Those friends of mine who don't like getting tans," Buffy said, putting a lot of emphasis into her words. She didn't want to have to go into more detail than that; Tara would probably think they were all crazy, and she didn't want to scare her best friend's prospective girlfriend away.
"Oh," Xander understood.
Tara was now the only one who didn't know exactly what was going on, but if Buffy needed to see a friend of hers, then she should definitely go. After all, it was never nice to keep a friend waiting.
"Buffy is strange," Willow commented lightly, jokingly, as the Slayer took her hasty leave.
"Buffy is nice," Tara corrected gently, smiling.
"Buffy's tried to kill me," Anya said, and then at Willow, Xander, and Dawn's looks, she corrected herself, "Metaphorically, I mean."
"Um," Tara began, clearing her throat, "Is t-there anything you guys would like to... uh, tell me?" She had noticed some strange behaviour that went on throughout the evening.
"Nope! What? What's there to tell? Is there something to tell?" Willow babbled, her hands flailing all over the place.
"I was just asking," Tara smiled reassuringly and took one of Willow's hands in hers to calm the redheaded Wicca down.
"Oh..." Wow... She should just hold my hand some more... No, wait... Where's the hand going? Willow frowned slightly as Tara let go of her hand, and for a moment she did nothing but frown, before she slowly and tentatively reached out and took Tara's hand again.
Tara smiled.
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