Synfic: Waltzes on Floorboards

[loyalrebel]

Malik knew that he was not a good man, not in the way that the holy men in their worship houses said people needed to be to get in to whatever heaven did or did not exist (he was not convinced there was one, and was even less convinced of the existence of any god above). He had broken too many of the laws in books and didn't feel guilty about it to be good.

He was not good with words, not the ones in this country anyway, and worse at times with voicing feelings that weren't anger or pity at those who crossed him but showing was easier even if it was occasionally clumsy after so long out of practice.

The first falterings at trying to get Leo to catch on that he wasn't going to leave had been full of little pastries and shiny new tools to replace worn ones.

Carlota (Charlene outside of home because America was full of people who didn't like names they had trouble pronouncing. They called him Mark and it chafed every time.) had been harder, more language between them, but between more gifts and being willing to let Paola make a mess of his shirts more than once so she could get a chance to sleep it had been figured out.

Clumsy steps between the three of them became a dance they could do in their sleep, the cracked husk Malik's heart had become after what had happened bloomed again.

A year in he'd pushed the furniture in the living room to the walls (adding scratches to the already worn floor) after buying a record player and an exceedingly fancy cake from a bakery. There were flowers, and candles in jars because showing was easier than little words that everyone said.

Malik dragged them both in to dances on the hardwood floor, the shuffle of feet eventually joined by their children drawn by the promise of frosting and it was good.

Malik wasn't always a good man, but the warmth in his chest when he brushed his lips against Carlota's fingers in the early dawn or lazily wrapped his arm around Leo's waist as they watched the others sleep when their own darkness came was.

They may have been three but all the best songs were waltzes anyway, even if they were done on scratched floorboards in slightly cramped apartments.