Gluttony ficlet

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Title: Easy-Bake
Author: Beer Good (beer_good_foamy)
Pairing: Willow/Tara
Rating: PG13
Timeline: Early season 6
Word count: 591
Prompt: 085: Gluttony

"I go to bakeries all day long/There’s a lack of sweetness in my life" (Jonathan Richman)

Easy-Bake

(When Willow was six years old, she found her mother's secret stash of cookies and over the next three days ate them all, hoping Mom wouldn't notice.)

"Mornin', sleepyhead."

Tara awakes to the smell of coffee, freshly baked bread, bacon, eggs, pancakes, the aroma of orange juice mixing with the sun seeping in through the curtains. "Mmmmorng..." She blinks against the light, everything still a bit slow and syrup-y half-sleepy, before looking up at Willow who's balancing a breakfast tray that looks to be bigger than her, and a proud grin on top of it.

"Hungry?"

"Um... sure." Tara glances at the alarm clock: 8.13 AM. Then back at the loaded tray. "You baked? How long have you been up?"

"Little while. Scooch." Somewhat awkwardly, Willow manages to get under the warm covers without dropping the tray.

"Eee! Your feet are cold!"

"I guess you'll just have to warm them up then, don'tcha. Anyway - tadaa, your breakfast, ma'am."

"Any special reason I'm getting the full hours-to-prepare breakfast in bed?"

(Willow's mother had books saying cookies are bad for you, too much sugar, have an apple instead. Which only proved that Willow's mother didn't get the point of cookies at all.)

"I need a reason to spoil you now? Well, it's... the feast of, uh, Tuesday, does that count?"

"Absolutely. Tuesday's an important one." Tara grins and takes one of the coffee cups off the tray.

"Or, y'know, as some people call it..." Willow shrugs in mock casualness and butters a slice of bread. "Dawn-is-off-on-her-school-trip-and-Buffy's-chaperoning-and-we-have-the-house-to-ourselves-for-once-day. So I figure," she makes sure Tara sees her licking the melting butter off her finger, "we start off with a big breakfast to give us plenty of energy and then see if we can come up with something to do?"

And everything is so warm and so close and smells so good and feels so right and Tara can think of a few things.

"Oh no, you don't," Willow giggles. "Breakfast first, snuggles afterwards, missy. You'll ruin your appemmfff-" The china on the tray clatters as it gets pushed out of the way and one of the coffee cups falls to the floor. "Hey! Painstakingly prepared food here!" Then there's that wicked gleam in her eye. "Awww, look at that. You got bacon grease on your pajamas. I suppose they'll have to come off."

They quickly agree that most of the food will keep for a while.

(Eventually, her mother worked out a system. Willow could have one cookie after dinner three times a week if she'd done her homework and finished her vegetables. Willow tried to argue that getting the cookie – or even cookies – first would be a much better motivator. There was disagreement.)

Tara comes into the kitchen later, on a mission for ice cream. She gets the Ben & Jerry's from the freezer and quickly barefoots it back upstairs, humming to herself. She doesn't notice that the stove is cold, that all the pots and pans are still in the cupboards, that there are no bacon wrappings or orange peels in the trash, and that nobody has used the kitchen since last night. Nor does she notice (at the time) that when she gets back to the bedroom, the stains on the carpet and her pajamas are gone - as if by magic.

(The trick to stealing cookies: make sure there are always a few left in the jar, and don't leave any crumbs. As long as nobody catches you bending the rules, you can have all the cookies you want.)

Comments

[cmk418]

I love the way you show the entire relationship in just this moment. And the Willow backstory continues to have implications on her present life.

Incredibly well done!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I always thought that what little we know of Willow's childhood matched up very well with her development in the series; instilled with strict morals about how things should be, but little guidance on how to actually achieve it, she's never been handed power - so she learns to take it instead.

[bookgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Aw, just a good, sweet W/T moment. Thanks!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[riccadonna.livejournal.com]

Very lovely done! All that tenderness and delicious smells and passion, but just barely out of sight all that ruthlessness and darkness looming...

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I almost felt a bit sorry for letting the darkness bleed through a bit at the end, but hey, it's season 6. :-)

[angelus2hot]

Very well done!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[divadea.livejournal.com]

OMG, wow. This is such a great piece. Perfect voices. Absolutely believable. Just wow.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Wonderful story.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thank you, as always! :-)

[spankulert.livejournal.com]

Wow. Very well crafted fic. Thanks so much for sharing :)

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading and liking! :-)

Another stellar turn.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi,

one of the best W/T fics I've read in a long, long time. Lovely soppy moments, with a good dose of raw lemon.

I've realised recently that I've believed (actually probably for quite some time, without being able to vocalise it), that Tara should never have forgiven Willow - no matter how much she loved her - because what Willow did, especially in interfering with Tara's thought (but also with those of the others in her life she 'supposedly' loved) was, pretty much, unforgivable.

I've known too many people, a woman I loved deeply, who've gone back to abusers (though not Kaz - I hope! We lost touch very quickly after we split, so I've no way of knowing. Which isn't easy, let me tell you!), and suffered badly for it.

Whether, or not, it was a direct result of her decision, she certainly ended up paying a heavy price for it.

I'll get off my soap-box now and say that this was excellent stuff, though I should be used to that by now, of course,

I repeat, you are a fan-fic star!
Ray (kerkevik@btinternet.com)

Re: Another stellar turn.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot!

You know, I'm honestly torn on the subject. On the one hand, given how things turned out, they would both certainly have been better off if they'd never gotten back together. And yes, what Willow did was nasty indeed; whether it would count as "abuse" in a court of law is difficult to know, but it was definitely a betrayal.

On the other hand, this isn't real life. It seems there are very few things that can never be forgiven in the Buffyverse, as long as the sinner is honestly repentant and willing to make a change; a show dealing so much with ethics and morality has to have the opportunity for the characters to learn and improve from their screw-ups. I'm not sure if the way Willow's s6 arc is a fairly natural development of her character (IMO; I know there's disagreement on that) make her actions more or less forgivable, but she's certainly not the only character on the show to do things to her loved ones that might have given them cause to throw her out forever. Does Buffy, for instance, have any right to judge Willow on abuse of power after encouraging her to be her "big gun" just a few months earlier?

[morningafter2.livejournal.com]

I just found this fic, and I have to say, it's gorgeous. The twist at the end came like a left hook, out of nowhere and completely contrary to the feel of the rest of the story, but so right.

I love this.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot!