Play A Duet With Me?
AN: This story has lots of music, all of which I recommend you look up and listen to. Also, thanks goes out to Chrmdpoet for tolerating and answering all the questions I threw her way.
"Momz, why do you have a drum set?"
Tamsin, Kenzi, and Bo were all sitting upside-down on their couch with their legs hanging over the back (as you do when you've nothing else to do) and munching on chips.
"Oh, those? I got those for when succu-face was sucking face. Figured I could play them to drown out the Tantric tango coming from Bo's room every night. Didn't really work out, though – guess it 'ruined the mood' and whatnot." Bo threw a chip at the human who only giggled when it bounced off her shoulder.
"But why keep them?" the Valkyrie continued. She'd yet to return to her snarky self of old and still looked to Kenzi for direction now and then, abundantly curious.
Kenzi shrugged. "I dunno," she muttered around a mouthful of chips. "I guess I just never bothered to get rid of them. Or sell them. I really should sell them…" she pondered aloud, eyes glazing over at the thought of the money she could make.
"Where'd you find them?"
"Some secondhand music store around the corner from the Dal," the human replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Why the twenty questions?"
It was Tamsin's turn to shrug. "Just wondering, I guess."
"Speaking of the Dal, are we ever going to get there or are we just going to lie around eating chips all night?" Bo asked the other two.
"Why, Bobolicious, getting 'hungry'?" Kenzi retorted, waggling her eyebrows.
The succubus rolled her eyes. "No, Kenzi, I'm not 'hungry.' I just thought it would be nice to go out for drinks."
"As opposed to staying in for drinks?" was the human's innocent reply. Bo threw another chip at her.
"I wanna go," Tamsin piped up.
Bo gave her a wary glance, but Kenzi looked delighted. "My widdle Tam-Tam wants to go drinking!" she crowed. Tamsin returned her smile, but in truth, drinking was the last thing on her mind.
...
It was easy enough for Tamsin to get away – Kenzi was busy flirting with Hale while they played doubles against Lauren and Dyson and Bo was taking the opportunity to grill Trick about her past. No one noticed when the Valkyrie bypassed the ladies' room door in favor of the one that led to the street.
It was early enough that the music store was still open. A handful of customers meandered around the shop, flipping through sheet music or examining various instruments and judging whether or not they were worth the price tag. The section Tamsin was looking for was near the back where there was a surprisingly varied selection. But none of the newer, still-shiny instruments caught her eye. It was the one on the lowest shelf she was drawn to most: the one with patches of varnish worn away, brittle and creaky tuning pegs, and a bow with obvious patches of hair missing. It was the most beautiful instrument Tamsin had ever seen.
The man at the counter (Fae, Tamsin noted – an Irish sídhe of some kind) simply smiled when he saw what she had chosen. "I'm glad it finally found someone," he commented as he threw in a new set of strings for free. Anyone else might have found the man's personification of an instrument to be strange at best and insane at worst, but Tamsin knew. Tamsin remembered.
The Valkyrie hid the instrument in the trunk of Bo's deathtrap of a car before returning to the Dal just in time to see Hale sink the eight ball, causing Lauren and Dyson to groan. "Me next?" Tamsin asked, the picture of curious innocence.
"Hey, what about me?" Bo protested, coming up behind Kenzi.
"Triples?" Dyson offered. "Me, Lauren, and Bo against Hale, Kenzi, and Tamsin?"
"Uh, how about we split the teams a little more evenly this time?" Kenzi protested, and the suggestion made Tamsin feel strangely relieved that Bo would not be caught between the two people vying for her affection. "Me, Tamsin, and Dyson against Bo, Lauren, and Hale," the human offered, and suddenly the Valkyrie wasn't so relieved anymore.
"You're on," Lauren agreed immediately, and Dyson's nostrils flared with a hint of jealousy.
It was the most competitive game of pool any of them had ever played and many rematches were demanded, but with the help of a few pints, the night ended in good humor. It was midnight when Tamsin, Bo, and Kenzi got back to the crack shack and three in the morning when Tamsin remembered to sneak down and get her prize from the car.
...
Tamsin made sure no one was home when she took the instrument out of its case. It had felt right in her hands when she'd first picked it up, and it felt much the same now, calmly acknowledging her presence and long-forgotten passion stirring its way to the surface. She replaced and tuned the strings with the ease that came of countless repetition. The instrument seemed to vibrate with anticipation as the Valkyrie lifted it to her chin, and her own fingers trembled as she lowered the bow.
The first notes of "The Butterfly" were clumsy, stumbling one after the other as slim fingers attempted to regain a rhythm unpracticed for decades. Tamsin kept the pace slow, caring more about precision than tempo for the time being. Soon the notes ceased to waver and each one took new life, jumping from the strings with casual grace. The smoother the notes became, the faster Tamsin played, memories lifting from the fog to spiral through her body and into ever-surer fingertips tapping out an age-old dance.
The easy air became a jig, and Tamsin made the transition without falter, her hands sure and dexterous as they evoked laughter and light woven into sevens-and-threes. The Valkyrie let her eyes drift shut as the triplets and trills fluttered around the room with the joy of being set free. Even after the last note had leapt forth and taken its bow, Tamsin kept her eyes closed, letting memory and music awaken in her veins.
Only when the room had returned to complete silence did Tamsin open her eyes and smile at the well-worn violin she still held ready. She had just lifted the bow to begin a new song when she heard the door to the crack shack open and Kenzi's voice shout her name. Sparing the instrument one last fond gaze, Tamsin returned it to its case and its hiding place, her heart all the lighter for reclaiming her music.
...
The Happy Sunshine Gang was playing triples at the Dal again when Bo commented, "You know, I wish I could play an instrument."
Tamsin nearly spat out her drink. Did the succubus know? Tamsin had played a fair few times since she first bought the violin, but she had made sure each time that she was the only one in the crack shack. Had she screwed up?
"What brought this up?" Kenzi asked her with a frown.
Bo sighed, leaning against her pool cue. "I dunno. I've just been thinking about it since those Light Fae musicians had their trad session here last week." Tamsin inwardly sighed in relief, glad that her secret was safe, though she still wasn't exactly sure why she wanted to keep it a secret.
"Any instrument in particular?" Lauren asked.
The succubus shrugged. "Guitar? I grew up in the sort of town where it was rare not to be able to play. I guess it's just the music I know best."
Dyson grinned. "You're in luck, then: you happen to be playing pool with one of the finest guitar players the Light has ever seen." His pronouncement made the rest of the group roll their eyes, but the shifter didn't seem to care. "Hey, Trick!" he called. "Isn't there a guitar around here somewhere?"
"There should be one in the back," the Blood King replied.
Dyson rested his pool cue against the wall and jogged to the back room, returning a moment later with a guitar slung over his shoulder. There was no one left in the bar to either entertain or annoy, so Dyson dropped down on one of the sofas and began to adjust the tuning pegs. By the time he was satisfied that the instrument was ready, Bo had taken the seat next to Dyson while Lauren and Hale sat opposite. Kenzi and Tamsin stood behind the siren and the human, resting their elbows on the back of the couch and looking on with amusement as Dyson handed Bo the guitar and attempted to show her how to play a D chord. When the shifter put his arms around Bo to guide her, it was Lauren's turn to purse her lips in jealousy.
Bo gave up a half-hour later, feeling that C, D, and A were enough to start with and complaining that the steel strings hurt her fingers. "All right, expert," she teased Dyson, handing him back the instrument. "Time to prove yourself."
Dyson gave her a lopsided grin and obliged with an old Irish tune. Over the next several hours, he played a myriad of both modern and traditional music, and the more alcohol the group consumed, the more they began to sing along. Hale was the only one who could get through all the verses of "Rattlin' Bog" in one breath and Lauren and Kenzi surprised them all by acing the high notes in "Danny Boy."
"Wait, wait, I've got one," Dyson slurred after finishing a round of songs from the nineties. "And none of you are gonna know it."
"Wanna bet, D-Man?" Kenzi challenged. "Someone here's gotta know it."
"No, no, it's all in Irish, and nobody here but me speaks Irish Gaelic."
"I do," Trick called over from the bar, and Dyson made a shooing motion in his direction.
"What's it called?" Tamsin asked with deceptively innocent curiosity (she was getting quite good at it).
"'Dúlamán,'" he replied.
"I know that one," Trick called again.
As soon as Dyson looked over his shoulder to make some retort or another, Tamsin quickly whispered something in Kenzi's ear. Kenzi looked at her like she was nuts, but didn't question her request. "Wolfy, I bet you the next round of drinks that you are not the only person here besides Trick who knows the words to 'Doolywhatsit.'"
"You're on, K-Star!" the shifter accepted before beginning the opening chords. He had just opened his mouth to sing when another voice cut through the room.
"A 'níon mhín ó, sin anall na fir shúirí
A mháithairin mhín ó cuir na roithleán go dtí mé
Dúlamán na binne buí, dúlamán Gaelach,
Dúlamán na farraige b'fhaerr a bhí in Éirinn."
Dyson was so startled that he almost stopped playing as everyone stared at Tamsin. Trick even froze mid-wipe of the bar and gaped at the Valkyrie. Unfazed by their stunned reactions, Tamsin folded her arms and smirked as she continued to sing, the words tumbling from her tongue with smooth confidence. Recovering from his shock, Dyson joined in. By the time the second verse rolled around, Trick had made his way over and added his voice to the ballad. The others clapped along to the beat until the three Fae had reached the final note, singing the last words in unison. Then the rhythmic clapping became a burst of enthusiastic applause and a few cheers from Lauren and Kenzi. Tamsin turned to Bo to see what her reaction was and found the succubus gazing at her with the strangest look on her face – one that the Valkyrie couldn't interpret but made her heart stutter in her chest. She would have thought on it more but Kenzi chose that moment to wrap her in a hug and squeal something to the effect of "my baby Valkyrie speaks Irish!"
The concert finished a few songs later when Trick finally kicked them all out, insisting that he had to close at some point. Dyson was about to put the guitar away when Bo picked it up and asked her grandfather, "Can I take this home? I want to practice." He agreed with an affectionate smile that made Bo grin in response. The succubus chattered all the way back to the crack shack about how she couldn't wait to keep playing and how maybe Dyson could teach her, and every word made Tamsin's stomach twist just a little more (though that may have been due to the cocktail she drank containing both Bailey's and whiskey – she didn't have her indestructible liver back just yet). Duets for guitar and violin were spinning through her head (much as the world around her had begun to spin) and continued to do so long into the night. But the Valkyrie still couldn't figure out what kept her from revealing her skill to Bo, and until she could, her violin would sing alone and unheard.
...
Tamsin was so caught up in playing "Eanáir/Lord Mayo" that she missed the sound of footsteps up the stairs to the room she shared with Kenzi. Only the human's squeak-shriek of delight alerted her to the fact that she'd been caught, and she cursed herself for forgetting her Valkyrie training in favor of her music. "Momz…um…" she began, not really sure what to say.
"My widdle baby is a Riverdance prodigy!" Kenzi squealed.
"Momz," Tamsin whined before realizing that the term of endearment was probably not doing her any favors.
"That's why you were so interested in the music shop!" the excitable Russian exclaimed, bouncing a little higher with every word. "OMG just wait until Bo-Bo finds out!"
"NO!" Tamsin exclaimed, reaching out in a gesture that was both halting and imploring. The effect was diminished somewhat by the fact that her bow made it look like she was brandishing a magic wand. When Kenzi gave her a suspicious, questioning look, the Valkyrie fumbled, "I just…I don't want her to know yet, ok? Please?"
"Fine," Kenzi ceded, "but you have to play me a concert right now." She plopped down cross-legged on her bed and rested her chin in her hands expectantly.
Tamsin sighed. "What do you want to hear?"
"Anything! Everything!"
After taking a moment to consider where to begin, Tamsin closed her eyes and lifted her bow, starting "Eanáir" from the beginning and following with several more Irish reels. As Dyson had on his guitar, Tamsin played a combination of both modern and traditional songs. Many of the more recent pieces came from movie soundtracks, "The Kiss" from Last of the Mohicans; pieces of the Edoras theme from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; and the melancholy lullaby from Pan's Labyrinth being among Tamsin's favorites. She performed for Kenzi for two hours, and even then she had barely played a fraction of all she knew. She ended her impromptu concert with "The Butterfly," and Kenzi felt she could almost see the notes come to life and flutter about the Valkyrie in a swirl of joy. She had never seen the woman so at peace as when her bow and fingers slid along the strings of that violin, so worn and yet so vibrant. As tough as the Valkyrie wanted everyone to believe her to be, this side of herself that she was revealing to Kenzi was as much a part of her as her rough demeanor, and lost in her music, she was beautiful.
Tamsin gave a bow as Kenzi leapt to her feet in a standing ovation, cheering the way she might at a rock concert. "Where did you learn to play like that?" she asked, awed.
The Valkyrie shrugged almost shyly, her face flushing ever-so-slightly. "I picked it up when I was in Ireland in the late teens and early twenties. It was just something to do between battles."
"Damn, woman, I'd hardly call that 'just something to do'! You could totally bring the house down at Carnegie Hall!"
Tamsin scrunched her nose in distaste at the thought as she put her violin away. "Just…keep it to yourself, would you? I have a reputation to maintain."
Kenzi chuckled and wrapped her arms around the blonde. "As you wish, my fearsome Valkyrie," she teased, making Tamsin roll her eyes. "But mark my words, I'll have you playing at the Dal soon enough."
"You wish, momz. You wish."
...
Tamsin wasn't sure what she'd done to deserve such punishment as this, listening to Bo spectacularly mangle the chords she'd learned. It probably would have been less torturous had the guitar not been just-as-spectacularly out of tune. It was taking all of Tamsin's willpower not to wrench the instrument from Bo's hands and put an end to the atrocity, but a single turn of the pegs would give her away, and that was something the Valkyrie still wasn't ready to do.
Unable to tune the instrument, Tamsin tuned it out instead, letting her thoughts drift back to that night at the Dal when she'd sung along to "Dúlamán"– back to the look Bo had given her when the song had ended. She had yet to figure out what it was she'd seen in those dark eyes. All she knew was that it made her heart pound just a little faster. That look had made her feel…lighter. Singular. Meaningful.
It made her feel the way her music did.
The revelation so startled her that it took Tamsin a moment to realize that the current music (if it could even be called that) had stopped. The Valkyrie turned to see why and found Bo watching her with that same imperceptible gaze. They held each other's eyes for a moment before the succubus smiled. "Just give it up, Tamsin."
Tamsin shifted on her stool at the counter. "Give what up?"
Bo chuckled. "You've been wanting to come over here and tune the guitar since I started playing."
The Valkyrie opened her mouth to say something, but any and all words refused to align themselves, so she shut it again. She finally managed to cobble together "How did you know it was out of tune?"
Bo bit her lip and glanced aside. "I…may have messed with the knob things a little."
Tamsin laughed. "Pegs, Bo. They're called tuning pegs." There was a pause before Tamsin's next words came out as a whisper. "How did you know?" she repeated, and both women knew she wasn't referring to the guitar.
The succubus looked up at her again. "It was that day you were playing for Kenzi. I walked through the door and heard music, so I stood by the stairs and…" Bo took a deep breath, her turn to search for words. "When I realized it was you playing, I…it was just…Tamsin, it was beautiful."
Tamsin looked away this time, blushing. "Thanks," she mumbled, not really sure what else there was to say. Silence reigned again until Bo cleared her throat.
"So…you gonna come tune this thing, or what?"
Grinning and shaking her head, Tamsin slid from her stool and went to sit next to Bo on the couch. Taking the instrument from her, she easily tuned the strings by ear, and though she wasn't overly familiar with guitars, she knew enough to play a G chord to test the tuning. As on her violin, the notes were flawless.
When Tamsin handed the guitar back to Bo, the succubus took it with an expression that was almost shy. "You know," she began, plucking the strings nervously, "I may have lied a little that night at the Dal…about not knowing any guitar…"
Tamsin arched an eyebrow. "Oh?" she smirked, intrigued.
"I…may know one song…" Bo cringed, making Tamsin wonder what song she could possibly be so ashamed of. It didn't take her long to find out: all the succubus had to do was play the opening chords for the Valkyrie to groan.
"Really, succulette? That song?"
"It's better than 'Wonderwall,'" Bo protested.
"Good point," Tamsin ceded.
"Will you…I mean, I know it's a shit song, but…" Bo took a shaky breath. "Will you play a duet with me?"
Hearing that whispered request and meeting Bo's eyes, Tamsin finally understood what she saw. Bo was gazing at her with fondness – not the friendly, almost condescending fondness reserved for a close friend, but the fondness of wistful affection unnoticed and unreturned.
Oh, but if Bo only knew how noticed and returned that affection was. And now was Tamsin's chance to show her.
Eyes alight, Tamsin grinned at the succubus before leaping to her feet and sprinting to retrieve her violin. She all but flew back to Bo's side once she had it, standing by the couch as she laid the case on the coffee table and opened the clasps. She had the instrument ready barely moments later, and Bo adjusted the guitar in her arms as Tamsin lowered the bow to the violin. Gazes locking in confirmation, Bo tapped out the rhythm with her foot before looking back to her guitar and beginning the song, single notes alternating with plucked chords. Two measures later, Tamsin looked to her violin and called forth the melody.
The notes met and entwined like lovers uniting for the first time yet somehow knowing each caress and every kiss. A song both women had once found annoying and dull was evoked with new life and laughter that danced between them. Deft fingers manipulated respective strings to light the air with notes like wishes blown on dandelions and fireflies at twilight. And every so often, even lost as they were in the piece, Valkyrie and succubus grasped fleeting moments in which to gaze at each other. Tamsin savored Bo's easy smile as her hands commanded the strings of her guitar. Bo cherished the soft peace of Tamsin's expression as her fingers danced along the neck of her violin in time with the slide of her bow.
The song came to its inevitable end, and Tamsin's eyes met Bo's once more as the echoes wisped away. And then the spell was broken, Tamsin putting her violin back in its case while Bo leaned her guitar against the coffee table. Tamsin dropped to the couch, and she and Bo both propped their heads on their hands as they stared at each other.
"So how much longer before I can keep up with your Irish jigs?" the succubus asked.
Tamsin chuckled. "Unless you get fancy, most accompaniments only require a few chords, all of which you seem to know," she added with a wry grin, which Bo matched.
Silence drifted down again, but it was comfortable as opposed to awkward as each of them basked in the connection they had formed. Every chorded harmony between them had turned the desire to run away into one to run towards, leaping to the coda of tentative gazes meeting and bodies leaning closer.
"Tamsin…" Bo murmured, and the Valkyrie realized that the succubus's hand had drifted to her knee and was trailing up her thigh. "Play a duet with me?"
It was Tamsin who began the song as she pulled Bo to her.
The melody rang out in vocals: the soft sighs of lips finally pressed together that turned to whimpers of delight at the inquisitive press of tongues. Sharp gasps touched the air as fingertips slid beneath the hems of shirts to alight across bare skin. Ragged breathing sounded in tandem as succubus and Valkyrie kissed again and again and again.
Their heartbeats set the tempo to which their feet danced syncopated percussion as Bo and Tamsin stumbled up the stairs, eager to create loving crescendo and meet in glorious finale so long denied.
(Unbeknownst to them, Kenzi, who had in fact been hanging out in her room, videoed the whole thing on her phone, both to capture the best cover of "Hey There, Delilah" she'd ever heard and because she knew she'd be hearing a very different sort of music in the hours – if not days – that followed.)
Origin Story: On one of my first nights at college, my friend came over to my room with her violin, promising to teach me in exchange for me teaching her guitar. She already knew a little bit, and she did much better on guitar than I did on violin (one of my housemates commented the next day that it sounded like someone was skinning a cat). At the end of the night we played "Hey There, Delilah" as a duet, and while neither of us did particularly well, the violin/guitar combo really made the song sound great. Soooo much more of this is RL stuff, but I don't want to bore you. Also, the desire to call this story "Hey There, Valkubus" was overwhelming.
Track List:
"The Butterfly," by Máiréad Nesbitt/Celtic Woman
"Danny Boy," Celtic Woman version
"Dúlamán," by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha/Celtic Woman
"Eanáir/Lord Mayo," versions by Lúnasa and Joanie Madden
"The Kiss," by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, from The Last of the Mohicans
"Edoras," by Howard Shore, from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
"Pan's Labyrinth Lullaby," by Javier Navarette, from Pan's Labyrinth