The Glitch 2.0

“So this is what she’s been doin’ this time, when she disappeared on Tuesdays and Thursdays?” Faith asked curiously, surprised, as the entire group settled happily onto the beat up sofas of the bronze. Anya had ‘work’ that evening, supposedly, which Buffy and Faith had conveniently not heard when Xander said so, so the Zeppo was catching up with Willow and Buffy as much as he could while they waited for the band to finish setting up on stage. “I mean, didn’t think she’d have it in her, yanno? She gets a little… you know… withdrawn and stuff when a lot of people pay attention to her.”

“Supposedly, when nasty-breath-boy from my Lit. class met her at the pizza place, he was there with his tutor. The guy’s the band’s drummer.” Dawn nodded, shrugging at the supposed ‘shyness’ of their friend. “They ran into each other at school, and she’s been hanging out with the band. She says she gets along with the guitarist really well.”

“They’re opening with her song, right?” Faith asked, and was instantly shushed by both Willow and Dawn as the lights changed and opening chords rang out, catching the attention of the majority of the audience. Even Xander quieted down, watching curiously.

“Rain… falls… down… blurring everything around me.”
But You…

The opening chords, and the haunting initial lyrics sounded a great deal like Evanescence, surprising most of the group there, except for Xander, who thought it suited the moody girl. She’d been in the Summers house for a week or two, and in the times he’d seen her while there, she seemed to either be angry, shy, or Faith-like.

“Clouds above… but only one with a silver lining…”
Just you…
“Words and time are lost to me…. Now I’m falling endlessly… And only one thought does remain with me!”
It’s you…

“Only you!” A face among the shadows…
“Ever you…” an illness and a cure…
“Forever you…” tormented by my passion…
“You…” I refuse to be ignored…

The chorus had rung out with surprisingly haunting guitar riffs, and Taunie cradled the mic in its stand in front of her. In the background, the normal singer for the band provided the background voice, gently strumming or hitting on her bass guitar as she did so, adding to the song.

“Still trapped in… my tortured infatuation…”
With you…
“Still I’m torn… my two sides continue warring…”
Over you.
“And words and time are lost to me… I’m still falling endlessly… But your thought remains with me!”
It’s you!

“Only you…” Your face among the shadows…
“Ever you…” my illness and my cure…
“Forever you…” torment me with my passion…
“You…” I refuse to be ignored…

It seemed to be fairly popular with the crowd. Most of the high school kids were cheering, and even the bartender, who saw countless bands come through the club, was paying a bit of attention as he poured drinks. Willow though, almost absently, that there seemed to almost be a kind of haunting magic to the girl’s voice, possibly drawing people more into the song.

“Words and time are lost to me!” Only you…
“And I’ll stop falling endlessly!” Forever you…
“And yet that thought remains with me!” It’s ALWAYS you…

Another guitar riff sounded out, and the boy that she’d supposedly become friends with stepped forward, striking out an echoing solo on his instrument. Willow glanced briefly at Dawn and Faith, a bit surprised. It was a very different style than Oz’s with Dingos Ate My Baby. For the next chorus, both Taunie and the original singer sang together, before the girl continued with the end of the song.

“‘Only you… Your face among the shadows…
Ever you… My illness but not my cure…
Forever you… tormented me with passion…
You… I’ll no longer be ignored!’”

“And though a piece of my heart is lost,” Lost to you
“I won’t be a fool,” You play me like a fool
“I’ll wipe away my sorrow” You poisoned me
“And as I turn away,
I know that in the end,
My indifference to the pain… Was all… for…
You.”

A small silence followed the drifting end of the song and the background instrumentals, before the crowd cheered and applauded again. Nataunia slipped easily away from the mic stand, letting the original singer step forward and the rest of the band meld into their next song of the set. It was significantly less haunting, though still with a slightly darker quality to it overall, and let the audience dance more than her melodies had. As she made her way over to their table and seats, ducking a few people that tried to talk to her, Faith noticed a slight strain on her features.

“Oh my god that was so awesome!” Dawn gushed as soon as Taunie had made it over, taking a seat and the water they’d had waiting for her. Buffy absently congratulated her, smiling. “That was so awesome! Wasn’t that awesome? It was awesome!”

“It was mad wicked, T.” Faith agreed with a smile, nodding, and watched the girl a little more carefully. “Ya got some pipes on ya Taunie. Where’d ya learn to sing like that?”

“It’s just kinda… there… I guess.” Nataunia scratched at the back of her neck and blushed, uncomfortable with the praise and attention, and glanced around at where the dance floor was crowded with bodies. “I guess you guys liked it?”

“It was wonderful. You should really sing more often.” Buffy enthused, lifting her glass in cheers, and Xander even offered semi-enthusiastic agreement. Dawn bristled a little, and Taunie blushed again as she caught Willow’s bewildered expression. “You said you wrote that, right?”

Willow’s confusion and surprise seemed to increase, and Faith’s eyes narrowed a little at that. Dawn gushed that Taunie had said just that thing, and Xander excused himself to get another drink, now that most people were dancing, instead of ordering. “Yeah, well, mostly the lyrics. A while ago…. It’s no big. I kinda knew what I wanted to do, and the guys wrote the background stuff and helped to iron it out. Most of the time Lisa, up there on vocals right now, will sing it with the rest of ‘em doing backgrounds… but they wanted me to open for them with it. It’s just… been in my head a while. I uh… yeah… so… oh look at those people dancing. They’re dancing. It looks like they’re having fun, wouldn’t ya say, Dawn?”

“Is that why you acted like you got the heebie-jeebies when that boy called to ask you out?” Willow prodded gently, putting a shoulder on the girl’s shoulder.

“Eh, no. Not really. It wasn’t him… I just… um… I don’t like talking about that ex much…” Taunie said cautiously, looking around uncomfortably. Buffy was mostly quiet, watching on, and Faith looked a little concerned again. “Is it warm in here? Maybe it was the stage lights. I think I’m a bit warm, aren’t you?”

“He really hurt you that bad, T?” Faith asked, just as carefully as Willow had, and Dawn pouted a bit. Buffy swallowed, a little uncomfortable too.

“Um… no… I mean… yeah… I mean…” Taunie struggled and took a long pull of her water, looking trapped. “It was complicated. She didn’t mean to… well not the way she did… it’s not like… It’s just complicated.”

“It’s okay, Taunie-girl. We can drop it. Ya don’t have to talk about it.” Faith said, just as Dawn was about to ask something, and Willow was a little surprised by Faith’s intuitive moment. Dawn looked about to protest, and Faith frowned. “It’s okay, just drop it Dawnie.”

“Um, thanks.” Nataunia swallowed again, still blushing. After another tense moment of silence, one of them, she couldn’t tell who, suggested dancing, and the entire group ended up dragged out to the dance floor.

~

Willow had, more than once, attempted to broach the subject of sexuality with Taunie. It was usually mostly due to either Dawn’s obvious crush on the girl, or the one that Nataunia seemed to have on Faith sometimes. She’d, more than once, mentioned a girl that she thought was cute, or talked about the crush that Dawn had had on Faith before. Taunie had only ever given a passive response, never really rising to the conversation. Thus, the redhead hadn’t really even known that her apprentice liked girls until the conversation at the Bronze two nights prior. As she and the girl folded laundry, she kept glancing over, and knew that it had to be obvious.

“So… Taunie…” She started, and then couldn’t quite think of how to continue with what she wanted to say. They’d have to handle the Dawn thing soon enough, but more than that, she wanted to talk about if the girl liked Faith. Willow, at least, knew how much of a dead end that would be.

“You gonna say why you keep lookin’ at me like I’m gonna sprout a second head?” Nataunia asked casually, attention seemingly more on the shirt she was folding, then reaching for another. She didn’t seem to even look like she was paying attention to the conversation. “This is about me being gay, right?”

“So you are? Gay?” Willow asked, curious, and grateful that she didn’t have to initiate the subject of the conversation herself. Who knew how much babble this was going to result in, actually getting to that point without Taunie mentioning would have doubled that.

“Yeah. As the rainbow. You too, right?” The girl finally looked up and over at Willow, almost lazily, and the redhead blushed brightly and nodded. “Ya shoulda figured about me before we talked in the Bronze, yanno. I’m kinda obvious.”

“I tried, um, talking about it before… but… well… it either went nowhere… or I started making vowel sounds.” Willow hazarded, and leaned against the couch to look at the girl, instead of the laundry, and give her full attention. Taunie, however, continued at the chore. “But… you are gay…”

“Yeah. Covered that.” She answered, then snapped out a pair of her pants to get the twist out of the legs. “This about Dawn or Faith?”

“Both…” Willow giggled nervously, surprised at how upfront about it Taunie was being. “And… um… her… if you wanted to talk.”

“Not really.” Taunie sighed, and finally turned around as well, giving Willow her attention in almost resignation. “And them… well… don’t see how there’s a point to talkin’… but you’re a talker, so I guess we will. Sup?”

“You don’t think there’s a point?” Willow asked, eyes wide. “To talking about it I mean?”

“Yeah.” Taunie smirked wryly and shrugged. “I know I ain’t got a snowball’s chance with Faith. She’s in love, I get that. Pretty fucking obvious, from where we stand… but you can’t always help who you crush on… and she’s fucking hot. But hey, I accepted how things are. It’s not hurtin’ anything, and I can look all I want. I mean, yeah, if I had a chance, I’d probably take a roll with her… which that’s not something you wanted to know and I didn’t mean to say…” Nataunia’s face flushed brightly and Willow looked just as embarrassed. There was a brief moment of quiet as both of them tried to recover from that. “… but yeah… much as I really like her, and she’s fuckin’ gorgeous and an amazing person… I know it won’t happen. I dunno, maybe I’ll find someone else to jones after eventually. Just lettin’ it play out.”

“That’s actually… really mature of you.” Willow sounded surprised, and got Taunie’s tongue stuck out at her for the comment. “Sorry… um… you’re sure?”

“Yeah. That’s how… um… I’ve always handled it, actually. It’s not usually a case where anything’ll come of it anyway.” Nataunia shrugged again, and sighed almost sadly. Willow’s eyes softened. “So yeah, it’s no big. Like as I told you. Cool there?”

“What about Dawn?” Willow asked, still a little surprised at Taunie’s maturity about it. She wouldn’t have been able to handle it that way at the girl’s age, she still wasn’t entirely sure she would handle something like that with the same maturity. When the girl didn’t answer, Willow tried to prod her on by use of the Resolve Face.

“Ooh, big-bad Resolve Face. Fear-oh-fear.” Taunie taunted playfully, bringing a pout forward instead and laughing lightly at it. “Well… um… Dawnie kinda… gives me the jitters. I mean with the staring and giddiness. It’s… weird. I’m not really… um… used to… that… it’s not usually someone that likes me, yanno? I’m trying to, well, avoid. Avoiding is key. Avoiding, putting off, and sometimes running. Pretending it’s not happing too. That’s working really well for me. I’m buying stock in that company.”

Willow’s eyes rolled back in frustration and she had to suppress the desire to cover her face dramatically. It would figure that the girl would be insanely mature in one aspect, and then run like a scared child in the other. “Taunie…”

“What? What do you expect me to do? Sit her down and go, ‘ hey Dawn I don’t dig you that way because I want to have sweaty kinky sex with one of the Slayers’? Hells to the fucking no.” Taunie asked skeptically, and then her eyes widened and her face turned bright red. “Can we pretend I didn’t just say that?”

“I’m trying. I really am.” Willow was red too, and ducking her head to press her hands over her ears. “Oh Goddess it’s echoing in my head.”

“Divert! Divert, divert!” Taunie insisted, flapping her hands and still blushing brightly. Someone else entered the room, interrupting their embarrassed moment, and looked at both of them confusedly. Willow just took a look at Buffy, blushed again, and started giggling. “Buffy! The Slayer! It’s a Slayer, Willow! Look!”

“Ooookaaaay….” Buffy eyed between them, and chuckled a little. “Faith sent me in here to ask Taunie what it feels like to have her wings fondled… but I think I walked in on a bad part of the conversation, if the colors of your faces are anything to go by… so now you have to spill.”

“I was just… um… asking Taunie what her type was?” Willow hazarded, her blush renewed tenfold as she attempted to come up with anything so that they didn’t have to repeat what the girl had said to Buffy. “Um… you know, to double. Like, mentor apprentice doubling… we could go cruising for chicks.”

“Wills, you couldn’t cruise if your life depended on it.” Buffy laughed lightly, cracked up at the possibility of her shy, babbling friend attempting to go out and pick up girls, especially with Taunie.

“She wants me to tell you what what feels like?” Taunie squeaked, finally able to say something again, and her face was still red. Willow’s gaze shot to her in surprise, and she blushed lightly again, remembering how the girl had reacted. Buffy smiled and nodded. “Why the hell would you… why the fuck would she… I told her that I wasn’t fucking saying that again.”

“You explained it to her?” Buffy asked in surprise, then smiled broadly. “Now you have to tell me. We were sparring, and talking about how to train you in non-witchy combat, and it came up. Come on, Taunie… you can tell me.”

“You’re fucking kidding me.” The girl growled, folding her arms. Willow sniggered slightly, and Buffy pouted at her. After a moment of the blonde insisting again, she growled. “Fine! Come here… it feels like…” Buffy leaned forward, listening to the girl’s smirking whisper, and when she leaned back, her eyes wide, Taunie was still blushing, but she stuck out her pierced tongue and wiggled it a bit. Buffy’s face flamed brightly.

“Oh Goddess, I don’t think I want to know.” Willow giggled, still blushing, but unable to help laughing at Buffy’s face. “Why would you ask?”

“Seriously?” Buffy was still blushing, but stared at Taunie, who shrugged and rolled her tongue barbell in her teeth before turning back to chores. “Holy…”

“Yeah, whatever. Don’t worry Buffy, ain’t happening with me. I don’t do the blonde thing anymore. Way not my type.” She snorted, and heard Buffy cough in reaction. She looked over her shoulder at them, and saw Willow giggling lightly. “I’m into the cute redheads now.”

Willow, miraculously, somehow managed to trip while standing still, and landed in an embarrassed heap on the couch. It was Buffy’s turn to laugh as Nataunia giggled and returned to folding clothes, satisfied that the embarrassing conversations were over for the day.

TBC