**Katharyn: Ooooh... schweeet! I got your first "YOU ROCK" ... I >am< a vixen
**witchbitchwillow: Yes, I hereby decree you can have a teacher like that at your school. Ummm ... let me know if that actually workd, okay? Then I'll get people to pay me to make similar decrees about THEIR schools *G*
**Karzia: LOL ... I wonder how many of those I could wrack up in this thread alone
**TX: Sorry this took so long ... but here it is. And a cheery 'tra la la' to you, too.
Here it is ... The Good-God-Sass-Are-You-On-Crack Vignette.
Series: Vignettes
Number: 7
Title: Addiction
Author: Sassette
Feedback: Can be sent to
pink_overalls@yahoo.com Summary: An addiction storyline for Willow – but y’know, >my< kind of addiction
Spoiler Warning: Vaguely set early fifth season
Disclaimer: I didn't create these characters. I do, however, love them, and as they reside in my heart, they belong to me. I'm not making any money off of them, though.
Rating: PG-13
Addiction
Part 7 of the Vignettes Series
by Sassette
“Baby?” Tara’s voice drifting through the doorway to Willow’s ears. Willow blinked twice, turning her head towards the entryway as she laboriously pulled her attention away from the computer screen. “Should I, uhh w-wear the brown sweater thing, o-or the blue, umm… t-shirt?”
“Irrelevant,” Willow called cheerfully from the bed, a smile crossing her face as she turned back to the laptop. It was open in front of her where she lay on her stomach on the bedspread, her chin propped up on one hand and her legs crossed behind her. “You look great in both, honey,” she added, scrolling the screen with an idle finger.
“Okay …” Tara said slowly, drawing out the word. The faint sound of Tara dressing in the other room faded completely as Willow lost herself in the words on the screen, and she was completely still but for the movement of her eyes and the idle kicking of her feet.
“Oh, and w-we’re out of, umm … milk,” Tara said, peeking around the doorway with her shirt in her hand, smiling fondly at Willow as she spied the look of concentration on her face. It was so cute how Willow focused so completely on her studies, so very immersed in learning.
“Uh-huh,” Willow said absently, nodding awkwardly against the hand holding up her chin.
“Should we pick some up on the w-way to Xander’s? Maybe?” Tara asked, tugging the shirt on over her head and dropping it into place.
“Inefficient,” Willow said absently, tapping the space bar once.
“Oh, right,” Tara said, shaking her head and shutting her eyes. Watching Willow was distracting, and she has found Willow-watching wasn’t conducive to logical thoughts and actions – like the time she’d been staring at Willow while Willow was doing Scooby research and had found out later she had agreed to watch Dawn because Buffy and Riley had plans and Mrs. Summers had to work late.
Of course, that had actually turned out to be a fun evening, but still – she and Willow had had their own plans, which they then put aside to watch Dawn.
“We’ll , uhh, pick it up on the way, ummm… back, then?” Tara asked.
“Acceptable,” Willow said with a firm little nod, looking over at Tara, then back to the computer screen.
Tara’s eyes narrowed briefly as she looked at her lover. “Umm … baby? W-what are you doing?” she asked slowly.
“Oh, umm … me? Well, of course me, because – hey – it’s not like you’ve got another ‘baby’ around here, right?” Willow said quickly, her attention gained as she fiddled with her laptop briefly. “Just, y’know, homework. I’m study girl. Yup – all about the learning.”
“Sweetie?” Tara said, strolling over to the bed and pulling the laptop to face her, lightly smacking away Willow’s hands as she tried to stop her. “Irrelevant? And, umm … inefficient? Acceptable?” she murmured, glancing at Willow with an unreadable expression as she tried confirm her suspicions about Willow’s activities. “Have you been, umm, reading Janeway/Seven fanfiction again?”
“Who, me?” Willow said, her eyes wide before she furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, shaking her head vigorously and waving her hand as if to dismiss the thought outright. “Oh, well, of course not – see?” she said, pointing out the document that was clearly open on the screen. “That’s homework.”
Tara looked at the screen carefully, laboriously going over the words on the screen. “Honey, running it through your, umm, the … uhh English to Latin program and then, ummm… reading it in Latin w-was a nice try, but see? There’s no w-word for ‘transporter’ in, uhh … Latin.”
Willow winced, then immediately shook her head. “Well, no, ‘cuz … I mean, that’s Latin homework! It’s … trans … like ‘across’, and ummm … porter, like the guys – y’know, the guys with the doors. So, it’s a homework assignment about the guys with the doors going >across< the threshold, umm… into their master’s house, so ummm ... you’re not even remotely buying this, are you?” she finished weakly, a sheepish expression on her face.
“Well,” Tara said, her lips quirking into a smile. “My Latin isn’t umm… very good, but I, uhh, think ‘commissum absentis’ could roughly mean ‘away mission’? And, umm … well, ‘Janeway’ is kind of a, ummm… giveaway. See?“ she asked, pointing out the very incriminating and very clear word in the middle of one of the paragraphs.
“Traitorous proper names,” Willow grumbled, her eyes narrowing at the screen.
“And‘septum di novem’ is pretty, umm … o-obvious, too. Though, isn’t ‘di’ ummm… Italian?” Tara asked, her brow furrowing.
“Well, it’s a rough program,” Willow said defensively, then let her head drop down onto the mattress. Quietly, she banged her forehead against the bed a few times, the springy surface bouncing it back until she just let it fall, then cautiously peaked up through her hair and looked at Tara. “Am I in trouble?” she asked quietly.
“Well, you promised,” Tara said, a little frown forming on her face. “You promised a w-week with no fanfiction, and it’s been, w-what? Six hours?”
“But –“
“No ‘buts’ Willow,” Tara said sternly, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest. “This computer is turning off,” she went on, powering down the laptop as Willow sat up.
“But Janeway and Seven just beamed down to a hostile alien world all by themselves, only to find the transporters are offline and they can’t get back on Voyager!” Willow explained quickly. “I have to find out what happens.”
“When w-would the Captain and >one< crewman – and a, ummm… insubordinate one at that - >ever< go on an aw-way mission, uhhh… by themselves?” Tara asked incredulously. “And I, ummm … I can’t believe I just, uhh… asked that,” she went on, shaking her head. “If this, ummm… if it goes on, I’m … I’m going to take the computer, umm… hostage.”
Willow’s face fell as Tara watched, and she felt her heart clench. Her feature softened at the thoroughly disheartened and chastised look on Willow’s face. “It’s not the computer’s fault,” Willow mumbled, picking at the bedspread nervously.
“Willow, w-we talked about this,” Tara said slowly. “This is cutting into your school time, and your, ummm… Scooby time … and ‘us’ time. Don’t you w-want more ‘us’ time?” she went on, a slightly hurt look on her face.
“Well, it’s, umm …” Willow started, before falling silent, a frustrated look on her face as she shook her head. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Try,” Tara urged gently, covering Willow’s hand with her own.
“Well, last year when I was, umm … really confused,” Willow started softly, peeking up at Tara, then looking back at Tara’s hand covering her own. “Buffy was off with Riley all the time, so I couldn’t talk to her, and Xander was always with Anya or trying to do job-y type stuff, and I couldn’t talk to you, because you were a big part of all the confusion bits. So I ended up doing the research thing, and I found these really neat stories …” she trailed off.
“And they, ummm helped? They helped you out?” Tara asked softly, her eyes wide.
Willow nodded slightly. “They kind of … I mean, it was like … I didn’t feel as, umm … lost. After I found them, I mean. Because it was – they were there, and I was here, and everything was all mixed up, but they were so clear, y’know? Girl meets girl, girls fall in love, and things are good. And, umm …” she started to continue, then stopped, a blush crawling up her face.
“What?” Tara said, ducking her head to try to meet Willow’s eyes with her own.
“The, uhh … spicier ones were, umm … kind of a, ummm, ‘how to’?” she managed to get out, her voice soft but full of embarrassment.
Tara blinked once, then twice, then again as she wrapped her head around the idea. “You read these stories to, uhhh… figure out how to, ummm … m-make love to me?”
Willow nodded.
“Okay,” she said, turning the computer back on. “H-how do I send these writers a, ummm… thank-you email?”
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I Think The Hellmouth Tastes Like Chicken -- Autumn