Kathubs gave me Twillow + "That won't work. Try again."
This takes place, in a post S7 AU. Tara and Willow didn't get back together in S6, Tara didn't die, she worked with the gang during S7 – she was one of them after all – and left Sunnydale with everyone else. Willow had a brief thing with Kennedy, but Kennedy picked up that Willow was still totally in love with Tara and that she wasn't changing the redhead's mind, so she broke things off and they parted on decentish terms. After Sunnydale collapsed, Willow and Tara have seen very little of each other in the last few years.
And alright, that premise kinda got away from me. Be warned, I'm still very unfirm on Tara's voice/characterization, so bear with me on that front.
"That won't work," Tara told her as she looked up from her book at Willow, who was still standing by the table with her latte in hand. "You can try again if you want."
"Tara, all I asked was if I could sit here," Willow gestured at the seat across from her ex-girlfriend. "The room is kind of crowded right now and there's not a lot of seats to pick from." She'd only been coming here for the last week – the coffee was great, but the inside of the café didn't offer a whole lot of tables or chairs to work with. She hadn't even known Tara was living in this city, let alone that she would ever come here, but here the other woman was.
It had been a hard road for Willow to accept that Tara just wasn't interested in ever trying to make things work between them again, but by the time they'd left Sunnydale a hole in the ground, she'd had to accept it. And…
After I did that to her, manipulated her memories and her mind… Goddess, how can I blame her? It was just surprising that Tara didn't hate her, when Willow really forced herself to step back and look at what she'd done.
"I didn't even know you were here in this city." Willow finished.
"Oh. Okay. Yeah, you can sit down." Tara nodded, and Willow took the empty seat. Despite herself, Willow stared at Tara. The last few years had been good for her, Willow decided. She carried herself with the same confidence than she had that last year in Sunnydale, especially when she'd been one of the only people not interested in shunning Faith and had spoken up in the other Slayer's defense. She looked as beautiful as ever and-
Willow looked down at her latte. She didn't get to do that anymore. They weren't a thing. Even if Willow had been constantly comparing every girl she'd dated since Sunnydale to Tara – and none of her attempts at dating had lasted more than a few months.
"So…" Tara asked, her voice suddenly hesitant, "What are you in town for anyway?"
Surprised at the question, Willow answered after a quiet moment, "I – I'm trying to track down an ancient tome for Giles. It used to belong to the old Council, but it wasn't in the headquarters when it got, you know, all blown up. We've tracked it to this city, but we don't know any more than that."
"Oh. So you're not staying in town." Did Tara sound… disappointed? No, she couldn't. That was just Willow imagining things.
"Only for as long as I need to find this book. But it's been a week and I've still got nothing." Willow sipped at her coffee. "What have you been doing?"
"I'm working on my Master's Degree, in Comparative Literature and Mythology. And I'm help out sometimes with the local Council Affiliated Group. " The new Council as structured by Buffy and Giles and Xander and Willow herself, along with the others, was more like a franchise system than anything else – they'd help local groups of slayers or other people with magic and all that set up their own methods of fighting demons and vampires in town, provide what funding and information support they could, and all that.
Willow hadn't realized that Tara was part of the one for this town.
"That's good. I'm glad to hear it." And she was. Tara had always talked about how she wanted to get a Masters, maybe even a PhD and then become a professor. It was good to know Tara had started working on that.
"I'm actually," Tara started for a moment, then, "I'm due to give a presentation to some of the professors and any students that want to see it tomorrow. It's – it's open to the public, if you wanted to come?"
Okay, Willow was not imagining the hopeful note in Tara's voice there. But she had to be sure. She didn't want to intrude, if- if Tara didn't want here there…
"If you don't mind, I'd love to." Willow said quietly. "What time?"
"Twelve thirty," Tara gave her the building and what room she'd be doing it in. Looking at her phone, Tara stood up. "I have – I have to go now, but maybe after, we could… maybe grab a cup of coffee together? Catch up?" Again, Willow was hearing hesitancy, and again, hope. She was notimagining it…
"I'd like that." Willow told her, feeling something she hadn't felt in a long time, since those first few tentative steps in her relationship with Tara originally. "I'll be there, and I'll see you after."