Ficlet: Ride With Me Sometime

[beer_good_foamy]

Thanks green_maia for the tiny blue dragon!

Also, apologies to bruttimabuoni for this being a few days late. Oscar weekends tend to drag things out.

Title: Ride With Me Sometime
Author: Beer Good (beer_good_foamy)
Rating: PG13
Characters/Pairing: Willow/Tara
Timeline: Summer between s4 and s5
Word count: ~750
Author’s note: Written for femslash_minis’ round 68 and brutti_ma_buoni’s prompt “‘everyday can be fun too’, season 4-5 setting, cut grass”.
Summary: Tara has to work over the summer. Willow has some ideas on how to use the office equipment.

Ride With Me Sometime

"Willow!" Tara hadn't expected to meet her girlfriend in the park, but it was a welcome break from work. (And there’s that word again; still getting used to that, Willow actually being her actual official girlfriend, and still getting all sorts of butterflies inside every time she thought about it.) She instinctively looked around to see if they were alone and then turned the wheel, rolling up to Willow who, for some reason, didn’t run to meet her but just stood there leaning against a tree.

"..........?" Willow said.

"Sorry, what?" Tara shut off the engine and took off her earmuffs.

"Oh, I was just saying," Willow leaned back towards the tree, hiking one leg up coyly. "That's an awful big machine you have there, ma’m. What do you call it?"

Tara looked down at her vehicle and looked back up just as Willow tried to blow some bubblegum and accidentally spat it out instead. What the...? "It's, well, a riding mower...?"

"Ooooh." Willow smoothed down her skirt (since when did Willow dress like a 50s good girl anyway?) and sidled closer, running a hand over the bonnet of the (slightly rusty) lawnmower. "That sounds dangerous," she added with an odd grin.

Tara wasn't entirely comfortable with this discussion. It’s not like working for the Parks And Gardening Department over the summer was a life-long dream, and they did have a very high staff turnover with lots of unexplained disappearances, but... "I-I know you weren’t completely happy with me taking this job, but you know how my grant only covers the actual semesters, and if I want to stay in Sunnydale over the summer, I - “

Willow’s eyes widened. “What? Oh no, Tara, I didn’t mean - “ She took Tara’s garden-gloved hand and squeezed it. “I just... I wanted us to do all sorts of things this summer, and I may have planned a few things before checking with you, but... everyday can be fun too, right?”, she whispered and then took on that weird, pouty grin again. “I bet you just love to give rides to innocent wholesome girls like me on that big chopper of yours, don’t you?” She blinked rather enthusiastically with one eye.

“Um...” Tara couldn’t help but smile. “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to do that.”

“But you don’t live by society’s rules, do you, you mysterious, leather-clad hunk of a woman?” Willow danced her hand down the back of Tara’s blue (and cotton-blend) CITY OF SUNNYDALE coveralls in a very delightful manner, leaned her head against her girlfriend’s shoulder and let out a theatrical, shuddering sigh. “Driving around all day with a big rumbling engine between your legs... What are you rebelling against?”

Oh, right. They’d watched The Wild One the other night. Tara shifted an imaginary cigarette down to the corner of her mouth and tried to keep a straight face as she drawled back “Whaddya got?”

Willow grinned, and then somewhat clumsily hiked up her skirt, swung her leg over the mower and climbed aboard. “Oh no,” she gasped, stifling a giggle. “My parents will ground me if they find out I’m dating a biker. Please, don’t drive too fast.” She wrapped her arms around Tara and held on a lot tighter than mere security dictated as the mower coughed back to life, then whispered something in her ear.

“Actually,” Tara shouted back over the din of the old two-stroke engine, “I just remembered there’s some really tall grass over behind those secluded bushes that I should deal with. Wanna help me?”

Willow replied by doing something with her hands that caused the mower to lurch slightly, but the details of which were conveniently obscured by a cloud of blue smoke and flying grass as the lawnmower headed off at a dazzling three miles an hour.

Comments

[ceciliaj.livejournal.com]

So cute! Willow makes me LOL.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

She has that effect, doesn't she? Thanks!