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TITLE: Hacker 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: AU, set in contemporary setting. A lot of W/T fluff and some semblance of a storyline.
SPOILERS: AU fic, so at most minor references or pieces of dialogue
FEEDBACK: Yes please
Chapter 5********
Previously:Quote:
Willow sucked Tara’s bottom lip into her mouth, smiling internally at the memory of their first kiss - and the many subsequent kisses that had followed that afternoon – and how even four years later the touch of Tara’s lips on her own electrified her. She was about to push her tongue forward, to deepen the kiss when something was brought down between her and Tara’s faces, separating them. She glanced to the side and seeing who it was that had put what she determined to be a newspaper between them, rolled her eyes and grabbed the paper, throwing it in the trash.
“If you can’t be nice with your paper, Becky, you shouldn’t have a paper at all.”
“Hey, I hadn’t read that!” Rebecca Hardy, a brunette English teacher in a middle school and Willow’s roommate for the first two years of college, exclaimed, frowning when she glanced in the trash can and saw her paper had coffee and a half-eaten Egg McMuffin on it, “Not cool.”
“You should know that I don’t like getting my Tara-smoochies disturbed,” Willow replied, indignant.
“Yea. We lived together for the first six months you two dated. I’m well aware of the phenomenon that is pissed-off-horny Willow.”
The former-college roommates smiled at each other and Willow jumped up to give the brunette a hug.
“Good to see you. We haven’t met up in ages.”
Tara stood up as well to give Becky a quick hug before grabbing the blanket from the picnic basket and laid it out on the grass.
“I know, it’s my fault. I’ve been crazy busy with mid-terms coming up and stuff,” Becky explained as she sat on the red blanket, “But I’m glad you suggested this. It’ll be nice, the whole gang together. Although, Tara, I guess you see Alice most days at work.”
“Sometimes,” Tara smiled, “She works a lot of different cases.”
Alice Kenter was a fellow social worker who had been with the DCF a couple of years longer than Tara had and they had become friendly almost straight away when Alice helped Tara with her very first case; a reformed drug addict mother who was determined to stay clean for her newborn son but was having some difficulty with her support network. The two had bonded over their empathy for the woman who had clearly had a rough start in life but was trying her absolute hardest to be a good mother. An after-work drink one night had turned into a string of get-togethers and dinners between the two social workers, Willow and Becky.
Brian Green completed their group of friends, he was the newest addition, having come to the gang a year and a half ago when Willow had her brief job at Starbucks. He had been the other barista and helped her as much as he could and after Willow was fired and a failed attempt at asking the redhead out, they had remained friends and he settled happily into the group of girls, despite his protests sometimes that he needed to find ‘guy friends’. He still worked in Starbucks as he did his masters degree in Business.
Brian and Alice chose that moment to walk up together, both sitting on the blanket, Brian’s holding five Starbucks cups, held in a cardboard container.
“Arriving together?” Tara asked with a quirked eyebrow, “Something you’re not telling us?”
“We met on the T,” Alice replied, running a hand through her mousey-brown hair, “And like I have time for a relationship. I don’t know how you manage it.”
“I know what you mean,” Brian added, “Work, school, work, school, I don’t even have time to remember my own name.”
“It’s Brian,” Becky teased, “Brian Ignatius Green. Mr. Big.”
Brian blushed at both the mention of his middle name and the imposed nickname Becky had given him when she had learned it. He decided to change the subject and put the coffees in the middle of the blanket.
“I stopped by work on my way. Mocha for you, Willow,” he said, handing her one of the cups, “Caramel Macchiato; Becky…Cappuccino for you, Alice and a Triple Latte for Tara.”
There was a chorus of ‘thank yous’ and Willow pulled the lid up on the picnic basket.
“And I brought food. We have cheese, crackers, salad, carrots and celery with ranch and watermelon, strawberries, grapes and jell-o. Oh and I have chocolate! Have to have chocolate.”
“Oh thank god, food,” Brian said, eyeing the basket, “I’m still a poor student. There’s only so long I can survive on ramen noodles.”
Willow giggled and handed him one of the paper plates she had brought. In the process, Becky noticed a glinting on the redhead’s hand and grabbed her hand, holding up her ring finger.
“Uh, what is that?!”
“Oh that?” Willow asked, acting nonchalant, “That’s my engagement ring.”
Brian dropped the plate he had been handed, which luckily had no food on it yet and looked between Tara and Willow, his mouth hanging open. Alice grabbed Tara’s hand and upon seeing her ring, started shrieking excitedly, causing a few strange looks from passers-by.
“When did this happen?” Alice asked when she calmed herself down a bit.
“Last night,” Tara said, showing her ring to the group.
“How did it happen, how did it happen?!”
“Jeez, Brian you’re the biggest girl of all of us,” Becky scoffed at the excited man.
“Shut up, two of my best friends are getting married, I get to be excited!”
“You do get to be excited,” Willow agreed with a grin, smiling at Tara.
“Tell us the story,” Alice asked, taking a bunch of grapes and settling herself comfortably, “I can’t believe you’re getting married!”
“Okay,” Tara started excitedly, “Willow was acting really nervous all night, you know, more than her usual jumpy self but I figured she was worried about getting a job or money or something. So anyway, I’m getting ready for bed and I get under the covers-”
“Ooh, awesome,” Brain said under his breath, but Tara heard and scowled at him.
“You will not be getting any of those details,” she said pointedly, before lapsing back into the story, “And Will tells me she wrote me a poem-”
“Aww!” Becky and Alice said simultaneously, making Willow blush.
“And she reads it out, about the first time we met and stuff and the last line is ‘Will you marry me?”. But at the exact same time as she says it, she turns off the lights and the same words are written on the ceiling of our bedroom in glow-in-the-dark stars.”
“Who knew you were such a romantic?” Becky smirked, hitting Willow playfully on the arm.
Willow joined one of her hands with Tara’s and brought it up to kiss her knuckles.
“And she said yes,” she continued the story, gazing into blue eyes, “And I put the ring on her finger. Then she gave me the most beautiful speech and asked me to marry her too. Then my ring went on and well, like Tara said, you’re not getting any other details.”
“Oh I’m so happy for you,” Alice said, leaning forwards and wrapping an arm over both of her friend’s shoulders in a hug, “What’re the plans? When’s the wedding?”
“We haven’t talked about it yet,” Willow replied with a smile, “But Tara wants big and white so we’re having big and white. And that might take us a while to save for, but it’ll be perfect, no matter what. I’ll make sure of that.”
“Of course it will,” Brian interjected, “It’s you two! You’re like the best couple in the world.”
“You didn’t think that when you tried to ask Willow out,” Becky pointed out, teasing her friends being one of her favourite pastimes.
“Well, I hadn’t met Tara until after the asking,” Brian retorted, “And I definitely did not know that Willow was gayer than Christmas.”
“Uh…”
“Oh shush, honey, you are,” Tara soothed when Willow seemed like she was going to contest that point, “It’s a good thing.”
“So…you have any venues in mind yet?” Alice asked.
Willow was about to say no when an idea struck her.
“What about here?” she asked, turning to Tara, “We had our first kiss here and kind of had our first date, unofficially…remember with the boat and everything?”
“Of course I remember. I’d love to marry you here. Can we do that?”
“Another teacher in the school got married here last year,” Becky said, “You have to get a permit but it’s all very easy apparently. And you have to keep it small.”
“We don’t know many people anyway. Just you guys and a few people from work,” Tara replied, “I don’t think our families are exactly on the agenda.”
There was a bit of an awkward silence as Tara’s last sentence hung in the air. Everyone was aware of Willow’s parents being absent since she came out and that Tara didn’t get on with her father, though Willow was the only one who knew why, the blonde preferring to keep her abusive past private. The silence was broken as Alice raised her coffee in the air.
“Well, here’s to Willow and Tara, spending their lives together and being happy.”
“And to the amazing bachelorette party I’m going to throw,” Becky winked.
Willow raised her coffee as well, keeping her gaze fixed on Tara.
“To finding the love of your life and knowing they love you back.”
Tara felt her heart swell at Willow’s words and scooted closer to the redhead, cupping her cheek and leaning down to kiss her fiancée’s lips gently. They stayed kissing as the other three looked on with cheesy grins on their face, before looking at each other and hitting their cups together.
“To love.”