Work Text:
There they went again—always too close to the floor trying to wash away the pain and tears that they had caused.
Bronze helped his sweet Mop as they made their way over the cold tile pavement absorbing all the stress that was left in transparent pools of sorrow.
“How could you do this to me?” He asked, surprised and how his voice shuddered.
When he first brought to his Mops attention of how he knew what they did last Friday night they had claimed they just went to the library to read from the way they shook their head, frivolously avoiding what they had done.
The lies hurt more than his sister Violet's accusations of the affair between his Mop and the red haired human. He only came to the conclusion it was true after his brother Nox had defended Violet and described how the human and his Mop became one as they waltzed around the library together in a dance only done by lovers.
It was true he would occasionally leave his Mops side to hangout with his siblings, or his best friend Terrence, but he would never even consider cheating on them. He didn't even know love like that could exist until he met Mop.
Violet would always insist that he deserved better, saying dating Mop would turn him into an underpaid custodian but he ignored her. Mop had filled a hole in his heart but now that hole had grown deeper. Maybe Violet was right.
His Mop swung their long soaked hair back, in guilt. Their metal rod only grew colder within Bronze's clenched fingers.
Never before had he thought a Mop of all things would cause his heart to ache the way it did, yet here he was.
The Mop looked up at him from where they lay in his hands, wordlessly staring. Sometimes Bronze wished they could whisper reassurance into his ears, but even if his partner could speak there was nothing he wanted to hear from them. It was all too much.
Bronze slowly brought them to the ground, gradually peeling back their hair to see the start of their long slender body that he had danced with too many times. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I need to take some time to think for myself. This isn't goodbye but we need space to figure out if this will even work.”
Tentatively he brought his hand slowly to the Mops face, scraping off a stray noodle before planting a soft kiss on their base. “Goodbye for now.”
Bronze's heart sank as he walked away from the cafeteria, from his Mop, from his love. His chest tightening told him he was making a mistake but he truly knew this was for the best. A break. That's all this was. He wanted them back but was unsure if they wanted the same. Maybe with Bronze absent from the Mops life, they would just find someone else to hold him…
That's what the affair was about, wasn’t it? His Mop liked dragging their hair across the floor. They liked cleaning messes, even their own. They were hurting Bronze on purpose.
Bronze sighed. One day maybe they would understand what they were doing but Bronze had enough.
He slowly walked over to the Mop who was no longer his. “I had done some thinking…I needed less time than I had thought. I can no longer keep seeing you. This is goodbye.”
Maybe after all this time he could take the Broom up on their offer…Maybe love wasn't hopeless.