[fic] now i can't trust myself with anything but this
Madison is maddy_d and is used with some permission and great love.
Perfect moments don’t happen in real life…this was a perfect moment.
He could see Maddy out of the corner of his eye, hitting the play button on the boombox in the corner. The sound of synthesizers filled the room as he slowly lifted his arms and waited for the pain.
His newly made muscles, atrophied by recovery and renewed by physical therapy howled in protest. It was a dull heat in the deep tissue, an old friend he was used to greeting. The enemy, however, the glass and sand scream of his nerves being crushed by muscle and sinew somewhere deep in his body, was nowhere to be found.
Lifting his head, he stared at both hands held high over his head, grand and proud as he stood in the middle of the basement floor.
“Baby? You okay?”
Setting his jaw, he snapped one arm out to the side, fingers finding the Latin hand with perfect muscle memory. Again, his muscles warned him against overdoing it…but the nerve was quiet, sleeping.
The war was over.
Instead of answering, Rico started dancing. The hips and feet still knew where to move, how to touch the floor. The upper body remembered, but the parts were still rusty, still unsure. He was reborn on the hardwood, an infant finding his legs for the first time all over again.
This infant, however, didn’t crawl or walk…he glided and flew with a power his sister and his fiancée didn’t have and never would. His toes rocked on the clouds and the balls of his feet launched him into orbit with every tour jete he executed.
His final jete landed him directly in front of Maddy, cheeks flushed and face straining with the force of his smile as he offered her his hand.
“I don’t know this dance.”
“It’s a cha cha cha. Fake it.”
“I can’t!” she giggled, even as she slid her fingers through his and let him pull her forward.
And for the first time since they had first come together, she danced while he made magic happen.
Perfect moments don’t happen in real life…this was a perfect moment.
He could see Maddy out of the corner of his eye, hitting the play button on the boombox in the corner. The sound of synthesizers filled the room as he slowly lifted his arms and waited for the pain.
His newly made muscles, atrophied by recovery and renewed by physical therapy howled in protest. It was a dull heat in the deep tissue, an old friend he was used to greeting. The enemy, however, the glass and sand scream of his nerves being crushed by muscle and sinew somewhere deep in his body, was nowhere to be found.
Lifting his head, he stared at both hands held high over his head, grand and proud as he stood in the middle of the basement floor.
“Baby? You okay?”
Setting his jaw, he snapped one arm out to the side, fingers finding the Latin hand with perfect muscle memory. Again, his muscles warned him against overdoing it…but the nerve was quiet, sleeping.
The war was over.
Instead of answering, Rico started dancing. The hips and feet still knew where to move, how to touch the floor. The upper body remembered, but the parts were still rusty, still unsure. He was reborn on the hardwood, an infant finding his legs for the first time all over again.
This infant, however, didn’t crawl or walk…he glided and flew with a power his sister and his fiancée didn’t have and never would. His toes rocked on the clouds and the balls of his feet launched him into orbit with every tour jete he executed.
His final jete landed him directly in front of Maddy, cheeks flushed and face straining with the force of his smile as he offered her his hand.
“I don’t know this dance.”
“It’s a cha cha cha. Fake it.”
“I can’t!” she giggled, even as she slid her fingers through his and let him pull her forward.
And for the first time since they had first come together, she danced while he made magic happen.