********
TITLE: Family Confidential
AUTHOR: Laragh
CHAPTER RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise belong to Joss Whedon, FOX, ME and a whole host of other entities, none of which are me.
SUMMARY: The promised sequel to
Hacker Confidential. How are Willow, Tara, JJ and all their family getting on 4 years into the future?
SPOILERS: Perhaps minor references to the show or stealage of dialogue, but mostly just spoilers for all of
Hacker Confidential . If you haven’t read that...well, you really will have no idea what’s going on lol.
FEEDBACK: Yes please
Chapter 31 ********
“Can’t we just...send a text and tell them to send him out?”
Tara pulled the car into park against the curb outside the large two-story, wooden-panelled house that Anya and Xander had lived at for as long as they had known them. She kept her grip on the steering wheel and shook her head.
“Willow...”
“What?” Willow asked, closing her eyes and clenching her teeth, “Last time we saw them, my pants were around my ankles.”
Tara threw her fingers up from the steering wheel in exasperation.
“And my breasts were on display for all to see.”
“Don’t remind me,” Willow scowled, before dropping her head into her hands, “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
She forced herself to snap the handle back on the car door to open it and stepped out onto the pavement with a deep inhalation to boost her confidence as she walked towards the large porch that Xander had built onto the house a few summers previously after building cribs for both JJ and Alex and had gotten a taste for construction.
She had just started to poise herself when she saw Tara fall into step beside her and any conviction she had in the situation left as the blonde spoke.
“We’re visiting your dad and Michelle on our way home.”
Willow snapped her head around to her wife and started to whine.
“Tara!”
Tara kept her gaze forward and her tone clear.
“Willow, we have to. I can clear the air with Alice tomorrow at work, who I’m sure has already warned Jesse to never mention it again and you can have a word with Buffy. I highly doubt Angel is ever going to make a remark about it, either will Brian because Becky would kill him, and she’s already caught us in much more compromising positions anyway. I don’t want it to be awkward any time we’re around your father. JJ will pick up on it.”
“Fine,” Willow grumbled with a sigh, “For JJ.”
She looked up then and caught a sidelong smile being shot in her direction. She felt her heart melt on the spot.
“And for you,” she quickly amended, feeling an emotion she could only describe as ‘lovesick puppy’ as she looked at the blonde in wonder, almost tripping up the step on the porch in the process, “How do you do that? How does your smile still have that effect on me after 10 years?”
Tara moved to stand behind the redhead as they arrived at the large blue door and pressed a finger against the doorbell as she leant her head down just slightly to whisper in her wife’s ear.
“Magic.”
Willow held back the shudder that threatened to go up her spine as she felt Tara put a hand on her hip from behind and braced herself as the door swung open.
“Willow, Tara!” Anya greeted as enthusiastically as she normally would, “Hi.”
Tara smiled in recognition and Willow offered a small wave as they walked over the threshold. Before Anya had even closed the door behind them, she had piped up again.
“Just so you know, I forgive you for not appreciating my surprise party, even though I sacrificed an entire billable hour at work planning it. I’m happy you enjoyed your evening of orgasms,” she said brightly, reaching out to pull Willow’s hair aside and smiling over at the other blonde, “Those are good work, Tara.”
Tara blushed and Willow swatted Anya’s hand away, self-consciously gathering her hair around her neck again. She thought about arguing the point for a second before deciding it was futile and sighing. Tara put a hand on Willow's shoulder and gave it a squeeze before forcing a smile towards Anya.
“Thanks for the thought, Anya. It was sweet.”
Anya smiled in satisfaction of acknowledgement of her deed but changed her attention from responding when she saw her husband come into the hallway through the kitchen, with a lack of children behind him.
“Did you leave the boys outside alone?” she asked in disbelief, walking over and hitting the top of his arm, “They could fall off the swing or eat the sand or a paedophile could scale the wall! Xander!”
Xander opened his mouth to speak and explain that he’d just come in to grab the boys’ mittens but Anya was already marching her way to the backdoor so he just shook his head and sighed, giving the other women a feeble smile.
“Do you think she’d find it funny if I got the paperwork to legally change her middle name to ‘Hysteria’?”
“No. I, however, would find it hilarious,” Willow snorted, “But her name’s hard enough to pronounce as it is.”
Xander chuckled quietly, keeping his gaze down and a somewhat awkward silence filled the small hallway for a few moments before Willow realised where exactly south of his eyeline the man was looking, and specifically, at whom.
“Hey!” she shouted, although not loudly, stepping in front of Tara to act as a visual-blocking-device, “You stop that right now, Alexander Harris.”
Xander’s head shot up, bright red and he started to shake it frantically.
“I, I, I wasn’t, there wasn’t, I, I...”
Tara blushed all over again and self-consciously covered her chest with her arms, even though Willow was still standing right in front of her.
“Get that image out of your head right now, Xander,” Willow continued sternly, “I’m serious, forget everything you saw last night! I can wreak havoc on your credit score, you know, it would just take a few clicks of the mouse!”
Xander threw his hands in front of him in surrender and flustered over his words for another moment before taking a calming breath.
“Okay, I just wanna say again that I’m very sorry what happened, did,” he said, keeping his gaze so far upward he was actually looking over their heads, “And it shall never be spoken of again.”
He shifted over to the staircase and lightly banged his head against the banister.
“Xander forget.”
Both women got small smiles on their face then and Xander got a hopeful look on his face.
“Xander forgiven?”
“Yes, you’re forgiven,” Willow replied, walking over and embracing her friend for a moment before pulling back and wagging a finger, “But I’m serious, don’t ever mention...”
“Mention what?” Xander asked with a winning smile and Willow grinned.
“Exactly.”
The three shared a smile for a moment before there was the sudden sound of footsteps thundering towards them and Alex and JJ ran up to them all, wearing jackets and hats; Alex throwing himself around his father’s leg.
“Mommy says you need to fix the swing ‘cause it broke and JJ almost fell off.”
“Are you okay?” Willow asked her son, dropping to her knees and checking his face for marks.
“I’m fine, I didn’t fall,” JJ replied irately, trying to squirm out of being touched, “Stop!”
“Hey, I’m just checking you!” Willow responded, patting down the boy’s arms as he continued to squirm.
Anya appeared through the doorway from the kitchen again and was about to berate Xander for her fears almost coming true when she noticed Willow’s actions and spoke to her instead.
“He didn’t fall, I caught him before the chain broke.”
Willow looked up at the woman and smiled.
“Thank you,” she said genuinely, before looking back at JJ and stroking some hair from his forehead tenderly, “I had to make sure my special little guy was okay.”
“I’m
fine,” JJ protested, clearly embarrassed to fussed over in front of his friend.
Willow relented in her fretting and straightened up, but held JJ’s head to the side of her leg protectively.
“Did you boys have a good time last night?” Tara asked, trying to alleviate her son’s discomfiture.
“We built a fort,” Alex exclaimed with a giddy smile.
JJ grinned at that as well and nodded excitedly.
“And the babysitter let us eat ice-cream in there!”
“Wow, she sounds very cool,” Tara replied to the two smiling boys, “Do you wanna go get your stuff, Jake?”
JJ nodded and slipped out from under Willow’s arm and started to run up the stairs. Alex pushed himself off Xander’s leg less than a second later and followed.
“Thank you for looking after him,” Tara said kindly, “We really do appreciate it.”
“Not a problem,” Xander said with a wave of his hand and a goofy smile, “I like having some man time with the two of them.”
“Yes, and I’m sure JJ appreciates some testosterone after living in your house of oestrogen,” Anya added.
“Hey,” Willow started in a defensive tone, “We’re–”
“Grateful he has such wonderful male influences in his life,” Tara cut the redhead off, shooting her a pleading look, “All of his uncles. And Ira, of course.”
“Xander is wonderful,” Anya replied with a smile towards her husband as the boys pounded their way down the stairs.
“Ready!” JJ announced as he jumped from the last step and landed with both feet firmly on the carpeted floor.
“Have you got everything?” Tara questioned, “Toothbrush, jammies?”
JJ nodded, shrugging his backpack on his shoulder. Willow patted the top of his head.
“Okay, say thank you!”
JJ looked up and offered Xander and Anya a toothy smile.
“Thanks Uncle Xander, thanks Aunty Anya,” he said sweetly before turning back to Alex and holding his hand up for a high-five, “Bye Alex!”
Alex slapped his hand against JJ’s, then turned it into wave.
“Bye!”
Tara waved at the other couple and moved to open the front door. JJ skidded ahead of herself and Willow onto the porch, before coming to an abrupt halt as Alex called out after him.
“Don’t forget the grass is lava!”
JJ’s eyes widened as he was reminded of the game of ‘Volcano Firemen’ that had taken up most of the morning. He instantly turned and tried to jump into Willow’s arms to prevent his foot touching what his imagination was projecting as molten liquid. Willow instinctively held her arms out for her son but Tara quickly intervened and caught the boy mid-jump.
“Right,” Willow nodded in understanding, not risking any kind of heavy-lifting. She turned back towards the doorway to offer an explanation, “I, uh, threw my back out last night.”
Anya smiled and gave her a thumbs-up sign while Xander averted his gaze. Willow’s cheeks instantly flushed.
“No, not from that! I, I meant this morning. I, um, tried to, uh, carry a plant that was too heavy.”
“Not from what?” JJ asked in confusion and Tara cleared her throat.
“Well we really should be going,” she said briskly, forcing a smile towards the other couple, “Thanks again. You know Alex is welcome at ours anytime.”
Xander nodded warmly and waved, an action copied by both Alex and Anya. JJ waved back over his mother’s shoulder as she carried him to the car. Tara put his backpack on the floor of the backseat and strapped him into his booster seat before moving back into the driver’s seat as Willow was securing her seatbelt on the passenger side.
“Sorry for cutting you off back there,” Tara said as she pulled her own seatbelt across her body.
“No, it’s okay,” Willow responded, rolling her eyes to herself, “You know it only takes half a second for a fight to break out between us. I just wish she’d think about what she says.”
“Willow, it is good for him to have some boy time,” Tara replied softly, reaching over to take her wife’s hand and giving it a momentary squeeze before taking it back to start the engine, “It doesn’t take anything away from us as parents or how much he loves us.”
Willow rested her head against the headrest behind her as Tara flicked the radio on to a music channel and pulled away from the curb and drove forwards. Willow idly watched the road ahead, taking a moment to smile over at the blonde before leaning over and placing a lingering kiss against her cheek. Tara blushed as she kept her hands firmly on the wheel and looked over at the redhead curiously.
“What was that for?”
Willow reached over, careful not to obstruct her wife’s hands to drive and delicately tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear.
“For being the wisdom to my insanity.”
Tara rolled the car to a pause as they approached the junction at the end of the road and after a quick check around to make sure there were no other cars waiting on her to move, she leaned across the car and pressed her lips warmly against Willow’s for just a few seconds before sitting back against her seat and turning onto the next street.
“That’s for being the Willow to my everything.”
Willow beamed and reached out to softly caress the blonde’s upper arm, before looking over her shoulder at JJ.
“How would you like to go see Grandma and Grandpa little man?”
“Yea!” he replied enthusiastically, kicking his legs against the seat in excitement.
“How much ice-cream did that babysitter let you have?” Willow laughed at her son’s giddy demeanour.
“Three scoops!” JJ replied perkily, “Chocolate, vanilla
and strawberry!”
“Wow,” Willow replied, holding back a grin, “All that ice-cream, you’ll have to have extra vegetables at dinner to make up for it.”
JJ’s smile faltered at that.
“They were small scoops.”
“Oh, okay,” Willow responded, keeping her teasing up, “So no extra veggies?”
JJ shook his head insistently. Willow laughed quietly and settled back against the seat.
“Well we’ll have to see what delights Mommy makes us for dinner.”
“Oh Mommy’s making dinner now, is she?” Tara questioned with a quirked eyebrow, keeping her eyes on the road as they coasted down the streets of Buffalo towards Ira and Michelle’s house.
“Yes,” Willow replied wryly, “I threw my back out, remember?”
“Right,” Tara replied before lowering her tone a notch and grinning, “You know if you’re going to use that excuse you can be sure I’m going to work you enough that it could happen.”
Willow appeared to momentarily choke on air as her eyes widened.
“Tara!” she hissed, “I can’t believe you’re making with the spicy talk when our son is less than a foot away.”
Tara shook her head to herself and chuckled.
“And hasn’t a single clue what we’re talking about.”
Willow looked over her shoulder at JJ who was dancing his fingers along to the tune of the song that was playing from the radio and ignoring them completely. She shifted her shoulders back in her seat and allowed a small grin to form.
“Vixen.”
“Oh yes,” Tara replied with a lopsided grin, “Don’t you know it.”
“Very well,” Willow murmured and a quiet giggle passed between them for a moment until an even littler voice piped up.
“I’m thirsty.”
Willow lifted the arm rest between hers and Tara’s seat where they installed a mini-fridge after their first long-haul car journey with a 3-year-old JJ resulted in the interior of the car needing to be refurbished when he’d spat a warm grape-juice out in disgust, but frowned when there was only an orange in there.
“Shoot, baby we need to refill,” she said to Tara before looking over her shoulder, “Um, we’re almost at Grandma and Grandpa’s little man, you can get a drink there.”
“But I’m thirsty now,” JJ whined loudly from the backseat.
“There’s a bottle of water in my purse,” Tara said, gesturing down towards Willow’s feet.
Willow bent over and moved her own purse out of the way to reach Tara’s larger one, pulling it onto her lap and snapping the clasp open, seeing an unopened bottle of water lying next to her wife’s wallet. She took it out and twisted the cap off in her hand before handing the opened bottle into the backseat. JJ looked unimpressed.
“I don’t want water.”
Willow nodded, took the bottle back and shrugged.
“Guess you can’t be that thirsty then.”
JJ pouted for a moment before giving up and holding a hand out.
“What’s the magic word?” Willow asked and saw JJ stick his tongue out for a second.
“Abracadabra!”
Willow eyed her son warily and shook her head.
“Not what I was looking for.”
“It’s a magic word!” JJ protested, then frowned, “Momma, I’m thirsty!”
“Willow, please don’t dehydrate our child,” Tara commented with a momentary wry smile before sighing and looking into the backseat through the rearview mirror, “JJ, don’t sass your mother.”
JJ seemed like he contemplated rolling his eyes before thinking better of it and adopting an apologetic front.
“Please can I have the water?”
“Yes you can,” Willow replied, handing the bottle back.
JJ glugged the water gratefully for a few moments before wiping his mouth and holding the bottle out again.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Willow responded, screwing the cap back and dropping it back in Tara’s purse on her lap, “See how much easier things are when you’re polite?”
“Yes,” JJ reluctantly agreed and slumped back in his booster seat, arms crossed across his chest.
Tara watched as Willow settled into a similar pose across from her and sighed internally at the sullen looks gracing her two favorite people. She slid the car to a halt in front of a stoplight that was thankfully the last one before they turned off for Ira and Michelle’s street and pushed the button for the radio to turn it off, clapping her hands together loudly, making the other two jump in place.
She turned her head and looked between them.
“Come on, you two, cheer up. I don’t want to see grumpy faces.”
JJ and Willow both gave Tara the same unimpressed look and the blonde smiled at how similar they really were. She quickly checked to make sure the light wasn’t about to change and stretched back to look at her son.
“JJ, you had a wonderful day yesterday and this morning with Alex and enough candy to fill a piñata and we have a whole afternoon ahead of us where I’m sure we can find all kinds of fun things to do,” she said, passing a loving look to the boy before turning back in her seat and lowering her voice, focusing her eyes ahead as the light turned green but casting a second-long glance in her wife’s direction every few moments, “And
you should be smiling for a week after the things I did to you last night. And this morning.”
Willow blushed and grinned wildly and Tara made a sound of triumph.
“Smiles!” she exclaimed happily as she indicated onto the right street, “At each other, please.”
Willow looked back at JJ and offered him a wink to go along with the grin still plastered on her face. She pressed the button on her seatbelt to open it as the car stopped outside Ira and Michelle’s picturesque white, with a black door and window panels, semi-detached home. She twisted in her seat so she could push her arm completely into the backseat and held her palm up.
“Little five?”
JJ hit his hand against his mother’s and smiled sweetly. Willow felt a burst of warmth in her heart and took her hand back to kiss her finger before reaching behind herself again to press them to his forehead. JJ scrunched his nose and Willow laughed, moving one finger down to tap the tip affectionately until she heard her door being opened and turned back to see Tara offering her hand.
“Thank you,” she said as she swung her legs out of the car and let herself be pulled up.
Tara used her spare hand to push the car door closed before moving both hands down to Willow’s waist and looking at her intently.
“Okay, now remember; we are adults, we are married and there is no reason to be uncomfortable.”
Willow closed her eyes for a moment and nodded, taking a deep inhalation of breath. When she reopened the, she was about to repeat the mantra when she caught sight of JJ pushing his face against the window and pulling faces.
“Or we could deal with it like that,” she laughed, “Whaddya think?”
“Certainly a novel approach,” Tara replied with a small laugh in her son’s direction, before looking back at Willow, “But seriously...”
“We’ll talk, we’ll clear the air...” Willow responded with a definitive nod of her head, “Don’t worry, I’m with you 100%.”
Tara smiled and started to lean in for a kiss but they were disturbed as JJ started to loudly bang on the window with his fists. One look from Willow made him drop his hands and quickly sit back in his seat, looking quite patient.
“You’ve got the ‘mom’ look down,” Tara commented with a wry smile.
“Hey, that’s my patented ‘momma’ look,” Willow replied in mock-seriousness before moving her hands up to Tara’s shoulders and leaning up to press their lips together for a few seconds, then pulling back and nodding, “Adults, married, not uncomfortable.”
“Exactly,” Tara smiled before gesturing towards JJ, “We better let our son out of captivity before he tries to mark his territory.”
Willow giggled and turned to open the backseat door. JJ shot out of the car like a rocket and went straight up the pathway to ring the doorbell of his grandparent’s house. Willow took a deep breath and slipped her hand into Tara’s between them and shot her an uncertain smile before pulling them down the same path and meeting JJ at the door, which swung open just a second later.
“Grandma!” JJ exclaimed excitedly as he threw himself around Michelle’s leg.
“Oh hello, JJ,” Michelle greeted warmly and reached down to ruffle his hair but didn’t quite connect as JJ scurried off further into the house. She took her hand back and awkwardly wringed it with the other as her gaze fell on the other two again, “Hi girls.”
“Hi Michelle,” Tara replied to her aunt with a slight smile, “We just thought we’d come and...say hi.”
Michelle stepped aside to allow them in.
“Of course. You’re always welcome here. Come in.”
Tara stepped forward into the house; Willow following through their conjoined hands. They lingered in the foyer as Michelle closed the door, then followed the older woman as she led them into to the living room, where JJ was sitting on his grandfather’s lap on the sofa and was looking at Ira with wide-eyed wonder as the man waved his empty palms in front of the boy.
“Where'd it go?!?”
Ira chuckled and reached his hand behind JJ’s ear before snapping his wrist back to reveal a quarter. JJ grabbed the quarter and inspected it thoroughly, then started bouncing on Ira’s lap in excitement.
“Grandpa, how’d you do it, how’d you do it?”
Ira shook his head and leaned into his grandson conspiringly.
“Ah, Jacob, a magician never reveals his secrets.”
JJ fell onto the seat beside Ira as he continued to hold the quarter in awe. It was only then Ira noticed the others standing around the doorway and quickly stood, shifting in his spot and coughing uncomfortably. Willow sighed as the obvious blanket of tension descended on the room and Tara gave her hand a comforting squeeze.
Michelle looked between the girls and her partner and knew a tricky conversation needed to happen so she decided to help by giving them the room.
“JJ, you know I was just making bread, do you want to help me knead the dough?”
“Sure!” JJ replied enthusiastically, jumping down from the sofa and running over to Michelle as she led them out the door, “Is it banana bread?”
The sound of their voices became less and less as they got further away until there was nothing but silence between the three adults. Ira eventually cleared his throat and gestured with his hands.
“Sit, please.”
Ira retook his seat on the sofa and Tara sat in the armchair next to her that was opposite him. Willow instinctively sank down onto Tara’s lap but when to jump up straight away thinking it might be a slightly too much an intimate position to be sitting in given what exactly they were there to talk about but felt the blonde’s hands on her hips keeping her firmly in place.
More awkward silence followed for a few moments before both Willow and Ira spoke at the same time.
“We jus–”
“I’m–”
Willow cleared her throat and nodded at her father.
“Go ahead.”
Ira shifted in his seat and clasped his hands together on his lap.
“I just wanted to apologise for intruding last night. I do hope you can forgive me.”
Willow’s eyebrows shot up and she glanced over at Tara, who looked equally bewildered, before regarding her father again.
“For...forgive you?”
Ira nodded.
“Yes, for using the spare key to let everyone into your house and infringing on a private moment. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t quite aware of all that was going on; Anya just contacted me and asked if I had the key because she was planning the surprise. You kids are always so nice in making sure we old fogeys are included in all your get-togethers, and you normally have a gathering for Tara’s birthday anyway so I really didn’t think anything of it. But I know the key is for emergencies only and I do profusely apologise. I hope this won’t cause an issue between us.”
Willow blinked a couple of times in surprise.
“Um, no, no, not at all,” she reassured, before her eyes became wary, “We thought things might be uncomfortable because of...what we were doing.”
Ira blushed lightly and cleared his throat.
“Well, Willow, those are images I certainly don’t want in my head but having an issue with the fact that you have a healthy marriage would make me–”
“Mom,” Willow interjected sardonically.
“A bad father,” Ira continued, choosing to ignore his daughter’s remark and shooting her a look, “Which is something I vowed I’d never be since you let me back in your life.”
A slow smile spread on Willow’s face and she moved off of Tara’s lap and walked over to her father, leaning down to hug him and kissing his cheek.
“Thank you, Dad.”
Ira reached for his daughter’s hand and gave it a squeeze before she started to walk back to Tara.
“Maybe we can even look back on it and laugh someday.”
“Uh huh,” Willow nodded as she retook her place on Tara’s lap, “Or we can pretend it never happened and never speak of it again.”
“An even better idea!” Ira agreed, placing his hands on his thighs, “I presume you’ve come to this arrangement with the others?”
“Some pending, but yes, that’s the plan,” Tara spoke up, “We don’t like that, um, part of our lives shared.”
“Yes, understandably,” Ira replied, flustered and clearing his throat for the umpteenth time, “I should make some coffee, would you like some coffee?”
Tara mouthed ‘sorry’ at Willow who just answered with a smile and shook her head to say it was okay before standing.
“Actually, Dad, we should go. We just popped in to make sure, you know, that we were all okay.”
“Yes, well, all okay on my end,” Ira smiled a slightly embarrassed smile, “I’m glad you called in.”
Willow smiled at her father as she took Tara’s hand and helped her up before all three walked into the kitchen where JJ was sitting on the floor and intently watching the clear screen of the oven as Michelle wiped the counter clear of flour.
“Hey JJ, we’re leaving,” Willow called to her son and the boy spun around in place and pouted.
“But Grandma made banana bread.”
Tara walked over and scooped him up in her arms and grinned at him.
“What if Mommy makes hot chocolate instead?”
JJ looked down towards the rising bread he helped create and frowned. Michelle saw his uncertainty and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll drop you some banana bread over tomorrow, JJ, how does that sound?”
JJ brightened at that and nodded.
“Okay,” he agreed happily before blushing and moving to whisper in Tara’s ear, “Mommy, I gotta go.”
“Okay,” Tara replied in an answering whisper, “You can do that by yourself.”
JJ nodded and Tara put him on the floor. He scampered off straight away so the adults were alone and Michelle threw the dishcloth in her hand over her shoulder, then spoke.
“I don’t know if Ira said, but we’re very sorry–”
“Oh we’ve agreed to pretend it never happened,” Willow cut Michelle off with a series of nods to herself, “We know everyone’s hearts were in the right place and as far as anyone is concerned, we were fully clothed at all times.”
Michelle looked momentarily surprised but nodded her head in acceptance and understanding.
“Right, of course. Understood.”
The sound of a toilet being flushed rang from the downstairs bathroom then and JJ appeared back in the kitchen, standing between Willow and Ira near the doorway.
“So we’ll see you soon,” Tara said as she gave Michelle a brief hug before walking over to her wife and son.
“Yes, soon,” Willow nodded as JJ ran over to Michelle and gave her a hug, “I can’t wait to have some of that famous banana bread.”
Michelle smiled over at Willow as she embraced JJ and kissed the top of his head before the boy ran back to stand by his parents. Ira bent down to his level.
“It was very nice to see you, Jacob,” he said warmly and moved as if he was going to shake JJ’s hand but instead used the same sleight of hand movement as earlier and snapped another quarter from behind the young boy’s ear.
JJ’s mouth hung open in shock as he took the offering. Willow laughed and put her hand on the back of her son’s head to start leading him away.
“Come on, before he tries to saw you in half.”
“I haven’t perfected that one yet,” Ira joked as he slowly straightened up, a hand against his lower back for support, “These old muscles aren’t great at bending anymore.”
“I keep telling you that you should come to my Pilates classes with me,” Michelle said as she walked over and put a hand on Ira’s upper arm to keep him steady as they all walked towards the door.
Willow watched Ira get a terrified look on his face and snorted.
“Oh please tell me if he does. I want pictures. Many.”
Ira rolled his eyes.
“Oh yes, I’m sure it would be hilarious to see your old dad doing that downward facing dog lark.”
“That’s yoga,” all three women answered simultaneously, then laughed.
Ira cracked a smile but tried to remain stoic.
“There are far too many women in my life.”
“You should be counting your blessings,” Willow retorted, “But we shall leave you in one-woman peace. Bye guys.”
Ira opened the door to let the three out.
“Bye. Make sure to put those quarters in your piggy bank, Jacob.”
“I will!” JJ called back, waving with one hand as Willow held his other and walked him to the car, “Byyyeeee!”
Ira and Michelle waved them off until everyone was settled in the car, the house door closing as the engine revved into ignition.
“Now aren’t you glad I made us come here?” Tara asked as she started the short two block drive to their house.
Willow laughed.
“Yes, Tara, my perfect wife, you are a fountain of knowledge and insight,” she replied with a dramatic flourish of her hands, “I place all future decisions in your wonderfully capable hands.”
Tara grinned slowly and tapped her fingers against the steering wheel.
“I don’t even care that you were being sarcastic.”
Willow laughed again silently and reached across the car to put a hand on Tara’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze.
“I was being sarcastic, sarcastically. Like a double negative.”
“Ohhh,” Tara replied, chuckling as she pulled into the driveway of the house they’d called home for 6 years, “So you meant what you said?”
They opened their car doors simultaneously and exited; Willow opening the backdoor to let JJ out before a tantrum started again and grinned sweetly across the roof of the car as Tara collected JJ’s overnight bag in her hands.
“Yes.”
Willow grabbed their two purses from below the passenger seat and slammed the door shut as Tara appeared at her side and bumped their shoulders together playfully as they walked towards the door where JJ was already standing.
“Well tough, I didn’t marry you to have a dictatorship.”
Tara handed JJ’s overnight bag to him and used the keys in her hand to lock the car and open the front door. JJ didn’t need to be told to unpack his bag and ran straight for the stairs. Willow dropped their purses by the coat-rack before grabbing Tara’s hips and pushing backwards so the weight of their bodies closed the door. She grinned.
“You’re right; we’ve got a much better system of democracy and quid pro quo of sexual favours.”
Tara wrapped her arms around Willow’s neck and crossed her wrists at the top of her back.
“I prefer to call it ‘gentle nudging’.”
Willow waggled her eyebrows.
“You can ‘gently nudge’ me later if you like.”
Tara left one hand splayed out on the back of her wife’s neck and brought the other one down to trace her jawline.
“Do I have to be gentle?”
Willow shook her head and took the tip of Tara’s finger between her teeth as it started to graze her lips and let out a low moan that vibrated through her teeth and against the blonde’s finger before digging her teeth in lightly and watching Tara’s cheeks flush lightly until a quiet and inquisitive voice called up from between them.
“Why are you biting Mommy?”
Willow nearly jumped back in fright and retracted her mouth speedily.
“I-I wasn’t biting,” she said quickly, pursing her lips and kissing Tara’s fingertip, “Kissing. I was kissing. Mommy hurt her finger. I-in the door.”
“Yes,” Tara nodded in a somewhat shaky voice, lowering her hand to his level, “Will you kiss it better, too?”
JJ shrugged and kissed his mother’s fingertip. The two women exchanged a look of relief and Willow dropped to knees so she was at her son's height.
“Hey, I have an idea; since Mommy’s making hot chocolate, why don’t you go pick a movie and we’ll have a big family snuggle day?”
JJ nodded excitedly at that.
“Any movie?”
“Any movie!” Willow confirmed enthusiastically, pushing JJ towards the living room, “We’ll be there in a minute!”
JJ disappeared into the living room to start to riffle through DVDs and Willow straightened up with a sigh.
“How is always so quiet when I’m potentially getting caught doing something naughty but can be heard 5 blocks away trying to make cereal at 6am on a Sunday morning?”
Tara moved a hand up and slowly traced a straight line down the bridge of her wife’s nose.
“Maybe because I can distract you into deafness with just my finger.”
Willow inhaled deeply as Tara’s finger moved along her lips again.
“Maybe because I know there isn’t a single part of me, inside or out, that that finger hasn’t touched.”
Tara caressed the soft plumpness under her finger before her lips quirked up in a half-smile.
“We are very dirty for an old married couple.”
“Hey, we are not old,” Willow defended, pulling Tara to her by the hips again, “We have always been flirty and I happen to love that about us. And it’s not my fault you’re so sexy that I can’t stop with the naughty thoughts.”
Tara moved her hand back around to meet the other on Willow’s neck.
“When did I ever say I wanted you to stop?”
Willow pretended to look off in thought for a moment before grinning.
“Oh wait, you didn’t.”
“Never,” Tara replied with playful growl before moving to splay her palms out on her wife’s cheeks and pulling her in for warm kiss, then letting the redhead’s lips go with a grin, “I like this idea of a family snuggle day.”
“Mmhh, yes,” Willow replied happily, “You’re making hot chocolate?”
“And...popcorn?” Tara asked and saw her wife nod eagerly, “Butter or salted?”
Willow’s eyes darted back in forth for a moment before she jumped in place excitedly.
“Oh, oh, make both, and then mix ‘em together and then every bite we eat will be a surprise!”
Tara laughed and nodded.
“As you wish, my love,” she replied with a loving smile, “You go get your body ready to be cuddled.”
“My body is always ready to be cuddled,” Willow responded, popping another kiss on Tara’s lips before moving towards the living room, “Okay Jakey, what have we got?”
Tara started to walk into the kitchen as she heard her wife and son talk animatedly in the other room and turned one of the rings on the cooktop on to a mid-level setting, retrieving a saucepan from the cupboard beneath, letting it heat on the stove as she got the ingredients for the hot chocolate.
She poured a small amount of water into the pan and added cocoa powder and some sugar, stirring it all together until it formed a kind-of paste, then added enough milk for the three of them. She continued to gently stir the mixture with one hand as she added a dash of vanilla extract, then left it to heat as she retrieved two packets of microwave popcorn from the cupboard above her, taking them from the plastic packaging and placing one in the microwave, turning it on.
It didn’t take long for the sound of popping kernels to begin to ring out as Tara dipped her finger into the saucepan to gauge the temperature and then brought it up to her mouth and sucked the tip to taste it.
Deciding it was suitably warmed and tasted as good as ever, she gave it a final stir and moved the saucepan to a cool ring and turned off the stove before getting out two heavy black mugs and one plastic one that looked similar without being as heavy.
The microwaved dinged to indicate the first bag of popcorn was done and Tara went over to take it out; the bag almost slipping from her fingers as an errant burst of steam burnt her fingers but managed to grab the bottom and leave it on the counter without any casualties. She put the second bag that contained the buttered popcorn in the microwave and set it to the same setting as before, then went back to preparing the hot chocolate.
She filled the three mugs with the creamy liquid, stirring an extra spoon of sugar into one before topping each with a squirt of whipped cream from a can she took from the refrigerator and finished them off by crushing a single Oreo between her hands across all three, speckling the cream with flecks of black cookie. She washed her hands and got a tray to put everything on as the microwaved beeped again.
She gave the bag a minute to cool down this time and got two bowls out; one large, one small and put everything on the tray before bringing the two bags of popcorn over. She followed Willow’s wishes and poured a bag in either side of the large bowl to mix them, then took a few scoopfuls and put them in the smaller bowl, before lifting the tray and carrying it all into the living room where JJ was sitting cross-legged on the floor and Willow was sprawled across the sofa as movie trailers played out on the television.
“Popcorn!” JJ said excitedly as Tara placed the tray on the coffee table and knelt down beside it
“Popcorn!” she confirmed and handed him the small bowl, which he took and then lunged for the hot chocolate, reaching for the closest one to him, but Tara moved his hand over, “That one’s Momma’s. Here, this one’s for you.”
She helped him carry the plastic mug back to where he had been sitting on a cushion and he lay down on his stomach, his popcorn and hot chocolate in front of him. Tara smiled at him affectionately before lifting the mug JJ had tried to grab before and shuffled on her knees over to Willow. The redhead eyed the mug suspiciously as she took it between both hands.
“Why is this one momma’s? What’s in it?”
Tara smiled down at her wife.
“All of my love and devotion.”
Willow narrowed her eyes some more.
“Uh huh and really?”
Tara bent her elbow on the armrest by Willow’s head and leant her head down to rest on her palm, keeping her face straight.
“Arsenic. I figured I’d just collect the insurance money now and be done with it.”
Willow rolled her eyes and punched the top of her wife’s arm lightly.
“Shall we try third time lucky without the sarcasm?”
Tara chuckled to herself and dropped a kiss on the bridge of the redhead’s nose.
“Extra sugar, like
always,” she said, poking Willow’s shoulder as she emphasised the last word before throwing her eyes over her shoulder, “I think he had enough yesterday for the rest of the month. Now scoot up so this snuggle day can commence.”
Willow pushed herself up into a sitting position as Tara turned around and got her own hot chocolate and the bigger bowl of popcorn for them to share. She put the bowl in Willow’s lap and sat behind her, stretching out so the redhead was lying between her legs and sighed happily.
“What are we watching?”
“Little Mermaid!” JJ replied excitedly, as he slurped and munched, kicking his legs behind him.
“Oh good,” Tara replied, running her hand down Willow’s arm, “I kinda have a thing for redheads.”
Willow cuddled back into her wife’s embrace and felt warm kiss press against the top of her head.
“You okay?” Tara whispered in the smaller girl’s ear as the movie finally started playing on screen.
Willow threw a piece of popcorn into her mouth as she smiled up at her wife and answered honestly.
“Couldn’t be better.”
That was a very nice morning after! Can't wait to see them face the rest of the day after! Very fun update!
W/T smoochies and making love is just so pleasurable to read. Especially when they think about each other only not caring if the they themselves don't get anything right away, they get pleasure from just pleasing their woman.
RAWR
Time for the reprehensible blow job gag by the straight guy 
I know I'm alone in this sentiment. hence the tumbleweed.
I’ll let my imagination figure that one out 
I'll join the crowd and say I'm so excited!