Rating: M15 Adult themes, sexual references, silliness
The remains of a bucket of fried chicken pieces lay heaped in a bowl on the table. The vegetables had been shared out. The ice cream was about to join the list of casualties. Xander, Anya, Buffy, Dawn and Willow sat around the dining table, nearing the point of pleasant satiety. Tara was safely tucked away upstairs. Dawn had been very quiet all evening. Xander and Anya were not sitting together but seemed civil enough.
Willow carried away the empty dishes, taking the opportunity of a moment alone in the kitchen to gather her courage. Not-quite-Willow is not quite going to do it tonight, she thought. She took a single deep cleansing breath. That’s your cue, Willow. Enters, stage left.
“I wanted you all here tonight to tell you something important,” Willow began. She glanced over at Dawn for a moment. The teenager’s expression was unreadable. “I know it’s something – someone we don’t talk about a lot, but she’s on my mind all the time. I’m talking about Tara.” Willow looked around at the suddenly pained faces looking at her. “I know she meant a lot to all of you, but to me she was my – my world, my everything.”
“I wasn’t there for the funeral, and even apart from what happened to me in England, I want you all to understand that I haven’t properly said goodbye to Tara yet. In fact, I think it’ll probably take me a lifetime to say all the things I needed – need, to say to her. I guess some of you are waiting for me to do what I have to do, get over it, get back on the horse and date again. I can’t do it. I just – can’t. That pretty much gives me a choice; I could be a sad lonely lesbian spinster for the rest of my life…”
“That would be a cliché,” Dawn put in. Heads turned in her direction. “We’re doing some Media Studies stuff at school.”
“Thank you, Dawn,” Willow whispered. Aloud, she continued: “I don’t like that choice. That’s why I’ve done something you guys might be, um, disturbed by.”
Willow looked around at a table of blank looks. “I’ve made a bot,” she said simply, and lowered her eyes. She sat down quietly at the table and waited for a response.
“You know Will,” Xander was first to respond, “All of us are here for you if you need someone to talk to...”
“I know, I know,” Willow said, “You’ve all been super nice and supportive but, like I said, there are things I have to work through, to say, that I could only ever talk about with one person. No counsellor, no shrinks. I’m sorry.”
Buffy reached across and took Willow’s arm, squeezing it gently. “Whatever you need, Will. Whatever helps, is okay by me.”
“Have you forgotten who designed these – bots?” Anya pointed out.
“The irony isn’t lost on me,” Willow agreed, flatly. “In fact, I think the leg is from the actual Warren-bot. I found it at a garage sale the other week. It was what, um, inspired me, if that’s the word, to do this.” She paused. “Would anyone like to see – her?” More blank looks. “Tara!”
From upstairs came the sound of a door opening, there were light footfalls on the stairs, and Tara entered the dining room. She was dressed in the same clothes as that morning. The “bot” looked around the table and nodded to each person in turn. “Hello Dawn, my you’re getting tall. Buffy, thank you for being such a good friend to Willow. Xander, you’re Willow’s best friend from childhood, and a carpenter. And Anya, you’re Willow’s employer. I’m very pleased to meet you all.” Tara managed a forced lopsided smile and sat down at a spare seat at the table.
Xander turned pale, swallowed nervously. He looked at Willow and said; “Um, Willow, can I talk to you in private?”
“You can talk in front of her, it’s no problem,” Willow replied breezily, a broad smile fixed on her face too.
“Ah, okay. It’s just that, y’know, he who deserves to burn in Hell for eternity…”
“Warren,” Anya put in.
“Thanks, Ahn. Okay, Warren’s original design was for a – bot that would be accommodating in a one-on-one kind of way, it was, um, how do I put this?”
“A sex-bot,” Anya again.
“Oh, um, yeah, so he did,” Willow said, blushing. Suddenly inspired, she said in a high voice, “Tara’s strictly a walking and talking bot. I – I didn’t have any spare, um – parts. Down there,” she gestured vaguely below her waist, “she’s like a Barbie doll.” Tara beamed and nodded reassuringly.
Xander breathed an audible sigh of relief. Buffy too looked less strained. Dawn simply stared, wide-eyed. Anya shrugged.
Tara broke the momentary silence. “Willow, would you mind if I went upstairs for a while? I need to recharge my batteries.” Willow nodded, and Tara looked around at the others in farewell. “She’s always kind to me. It was so nice to meet you all.”
There was silence around the table after Tara had left. Willow began to feel very awkward. From the upstairs bedroom there came a faint muffled squeak.
“I tell you what,” Willow said, rising to her feet, “I might just go up there for a minute and get Tara…connected. She might - need a hand.” Trying to hide her blushes, the redhead jogged briskly up the stairs to her room.
After Willow had gone, there was dead silence for several minutes. Xander eventually broke it. "Has anyone else just passed a sign that reads: 'Wigginsville City Limits', heading downtown?" A faint humming sound could be heard from upstairs.
"I'm already at City Hall," Buffy replied.
“I’m surprised at you all,” Anya objected. “I work with Willow, it’s obvious that she needs grief counseling, she’s always morose and unproductive at work. I say, if she needs to talk to a robot of her dead girlfriend, well fine, whatever it takes.”
Dawn broke her silence, rose. “I have homework. I’ll see you guys later.” She kissed Xander and Anya goodnight, hugged Buffy briefly, and left the room.
When Willow opened her bedroom door, she was greeted by the possibly unique sight of a vampire lying on her bed, stuffing a pillow into her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Tara turned and saw Willow, wheezed, and buried her head under the covers. After a minute, she seemed to recover; the blonde sighed deeply, sat up and grinned at her lover.
“This was worth it just to see their faces!” she exclaimed. “Did you see them? It was like: ‘oh, heaven forbid that the lesbian should get to experience any
pleasure!’ And what do they think lips, tongues and fingers are for anyway?” She rolled back onto the bed, wiggling her long fingers and displaying her curves suggestively.
“I better not stay up here too long; they’ll be expecting me back in a minute.”
“Oh, Willow,” Tara pouted, “Don’t you want to play with your Barbie doll? Don’t you want to dress me up? Or undress me?” This was accompanied by another lascivious wiggle of those enticing hips. Unable to resist, Willow climbed onto the bed.
“Mmm, I guess this shirt must pull off over your head,” Willow began, suiting action to the words, “and, oh my, Barbie has a bra.”
“You think I could stand walking around with those monstrous things bouncing around all day?”
“Hmm, and what about these buttons here? May I…?”
“Oh, please do…”
“Now, I’ll just ease these down and let’s see if we can get those troublesome panties off and…Great Goddess, what’s this?”
“Oh, no! What?”
“Hey, you’re no ordinary Barbie doll, why, you, you’re-”
“Say it, Willow!”
“You’re – Anatomically Correct Barbie!!”
“I am! And I’m all yours! Yours!”
“You mean it?”
“Yours and yours alone, my dearest Willow.”
“And Ken?”
“Oh, he’s my best friend, that’s all. Don’t tell me you were ever jealous of him? I could never think of him that way. Besides,” Tara continued with a gleeful wink, “I happen to know that when GI Joel comes home on leave, Ken always has a warm welcome for him.”
“Oh, Barbie!”
“Oh, Willow! You mustn’t stay, you should go downstairs, they’ll be waiting.”
“Downstairs?” Willow leered. “Is my Tarabot-Barbie trying to give me a hint?” the redhead slid down over her lover’s body, smothering it with lusty kisses.
“Mmmm, Willow,” the “bot” moaned, losing herself in the moment. “I’m, oh , I’m your…I’m your B- I’m…Ta-, I’m yours…ohhh…”
(To be continued)
Nope, I like Willow's bad idea better, and how else could Tara have said that cute double entendre line about going "back into the closet"?
at: 7/14/02 5:52:11 pm
Great update!
I'm not panicing, no sir....*faints*
I think it would be this way. And I'm glad Willow is being the way she is. They need each other, as always.
that ending was priceless. Hee.. Barbie "bot." 
I'm glad the scoobies all took it well. Or, seemed to, for Willow's sake. 