Chapter Text
Valeria knows she's supposed to be sleeping right now. That if mama or papa catch her out of bed she'll be grounded. Probably for a whole two days, which is forever. She might not be allowed any of the pie mama made for papa cause he has what mama calls 'a giant sweet tooth.'
But the music traveling up the stairs and into her room catches her attention, has her curious. It's something slow and melodic, the words too muffled for her to understand. It sounds a little sad and it makes her eyes a little teary.
She sniffles quietly and rubs the wetness out of her eyes. She's a big girl. There's no reason to cry cause of a qqqqqq of all things. With a huff, she tiptoes across the landing, pausing every couple of steps to listen for any change downstairs. The music turning off or a call of her name or the sound of feet on the stairs.
Nothing.
She reaches the stairs without incident and plops down on the top step. Has to quickly cover her mouth before the giggles bubbling in her chest can give her away. She's being bad.
Scooching down a few steps, she's careful to keep her body in the shadows, close to the banisters, only peeking between them when the upstairs landing isn't in the way too much to see down into the living room.
A new song starts playing.
There's only a dim lamp on and in the middle of the room, slowly swaying cheek to cheek, are mama and papa. Their eyes are closed from what she can see. She can also finally hear the music clearly but can't understand the words the man is singing. They sound pretty.
Reminds her of the time she heard her bestest friend's mama talking on the phone. But better cause the singer doesn't sound angry.
Mama is rubbing her hands up and down papa's back and papa is running a hand gently through mama's hair and whispering something into her ear that has her smiling big and happy.
Valeria can't help but smile, too. Seeing mama and papa happy always makes her happy. Feels something big and warm and fizzy in her chest.
She sits and watches them dance for a bit before realizing that papa is singing along with the song to mama, mouth shaping the foreign words perfectly in time to the lyrics. She wishes with all her heart she could understand the words so she could know what's making mama smile like that. Maybe tomorrow she can ask all sneaky-like to listen to their grown up music and if one of these songs just happens to come on, she can ask what language it is. Have papa teach her the meaning of the words. Explain why it makes mama almost glow like the sun.
Grins to herself. Yeah. It's a perfect plan if she says so herself.
For now, she's content to sit in the shadows of the stairs and watch papa twirl and dip mama as the soft music continues, one song fading into another and another. Sits quietly until each blink lasts longer and longer and opening her eyes gets harder to do. Opens her eyes wide, forces the sleepiness back, and watches her favorite people for a few moments more before slowly crawling back up to the landing.
Tiptoes back to her room, closes the door almost all the way, and dives back under the covers. Snuggles Albert the Rabbit, a stuffed bunny she's had for forever, and closes her tired eyes.
Lets sleep pull her under. The distant sound of slow music follows her into cotton candy dreams.