A Question About Categorization

I’m curious how others deal with the question of gen fic.

I know, I know…that’s not really a question. Just hear me out.

The trouble with categorizing things—any things—is that there are always gray areas. Take my most recent piece, In the Time of Wolves. I’ve labeled it ‘gen fic,’ though the pairing in the fic is obviously Willow/Tara. They were together at that time in the series. In fact, the scene that I’ve written tiles neatly between two scenes of the episode, Forever, the first of which presents the couple in bed for sleepy reasons, not sexy reasons.

The issue I have is whether their togetherness in the series actually turns the story from gen fic to a ’shipcentric piece. The way I assessed that was by asking myself whether Tara could be replaced by another character who has a close friendship with Willow without changing the nature of their relationship or drastically altering the story.

I think that swap could be made rather easily. I’d have to change the location the scene takes place, or at least the location within Willow’s room for many of the characters. Giles obviously wouldn’t be sacked out in bed with Willow were their relationship similar to the one we see in canon. But ‘wow’ wouldn’t this piece be cool if Tara’s role was played by Giles? I could see it easily without altering much of the narrative at all and it’d be a nifty story.

That says to me that this story has much, much less to do with Willow and Tara’s relationship than the actual focus of the plot, Joyce’s passing. Of course how they react to Joyce’s passing will affect how they cope with one another, which will doubtless affect their relationship. However the same can be said for any pair of characters within the series, regardless the nature of their relationship. Xander’s scorn of Spike’s attempt to leave wildflowers at the Summers’ home obviously affects their relationship.

Anyway, that was the rationale I used and I’m not sure it’s right. Would anyone else like to weigh in?