Title: Singing Songs
Author: kbk
Disclaimer: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel" and all characters are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and various other people and companies. Not me. I make no money from this.
Rating: PG
Summary: Tara and her Mama, singing songs.
Notes: Because Amber Benson has such a lovely voice. And I love singing.
The thing Tara remembered most about her Mama was how beautifully she sang. She'd had lessons in school because her voice was so nice, but once she got married she had to do what her husband said, and he didn't like her to sing. So she just sang around the house, when nobody else was there: when her husband was working and the children were at school. But Tara always came straight home, while her brothers played with their friends, so there was an hour or so when it was just Tara and her Mama in the house. That was Tara's favourite time of day, because her Mama would sing for her, and teach her everything she had been taught.
Sometimes they would switch on the radio and dance around the room, singing along to anything they recognised, or just listening to anything they didn't. Sometimes it would be tuned to an Old Folks station, a mix of Bach and Sinatra and Doris Day, and one glorious Sunday afternoon the whole of Faure's Requiem. Tara didn't really notice when her Mama stopped dancing, but when she started running out of breath halfway through each line, Tara noticed. She noticed other things as well, and persuaded her Mama to go to the doctor. After that, neither of them really felt like singing any more. But they still listened, sitting in Mama's room with the sound turned down low. Though she wasn't supposed to, Tara sang at her mother's funeral. She just stood up and started singing, the few lines she could remember from the Requiem, and her voice was more pure and clear than she had ever heard it. That was the last time she sang for years. It wasn't until Willow that she had another reason.