Erik
Erik had dropped Nina off at the primary school and now was running a little late for work. His boss probably wouldn't yell at him though, seeing Erik was never late.
Work dragged along, the tiredness taking over his body along with all the soreness.
His colleagues invited him for some beer after their shift was over, but he politely declined not wanting to do anything else apart from going home and sleep for a week.
The next day was luckily his day off, but he still had to get up early and drive Nina to school, as Magda enjoyed a small window of time for herself.
He got home and was greeted by his little girl running towards him, a doll in her hand.
'Daddy! I missed you', she said while being picked up and started pressing small pecks all over Erik's face.
'I missed you too, princess', he answered and spun them around, making her giggle.
'What are you doing?' - 'I'm playing with my doll! Will you play with me?', she asked sweetly and he nodded eager to spend more time with her.
He walked towards the kitchen, Nina still safely tucked on his arms, and kissed Magda on the temple.
'How was your day?', he asked, but she shot him a look that said it wasn't a very good one.
Erik nodded and excused himself to go to his daughter's room. They both played with the dolls a little, until she got tired and said 'Daddy, can we play with something else?' - 'Sure, what do you want to do?' - 'Let's pretend this is a beauty parlor!', she answered and scrambled to her feet to grab her children makeup and hair brushes.
Nina placed them all carefully on the bed and beamed at Erik, who promptly picked a brush and started working on her hair.
He made a braid that looked incredibly crooked, but she smiled when she looked at herself in the mirror and squeaked a 'thank you, daddy!', right before announcing it was her turn.
Erik was ashamed to say she didn't have to insist much to convince him to let her put makeup on his face. He sighed resigned, knowing every father went through that at some point, and stood still as Nina gently poked his eyes with blue eyeshadow.
When she was done, Erik looked at the mirror and had to hold back a laugh at how ridiculous he looked, and told her she had done an incredible work to make him look pretty.
'You always look pretty', she had said hugging his neck tight.
After that, Magda called them for dinner and he had already gotten the makeup out when he made his way to the kitchen with his daughter.
The mood was a tiny bit uncomfortable because Magda wasn't looking happy today, and Nina couldn't understand why her mommy wasn't paying much attention to her.
Erik proceeded to shower and get Nina ready for bed after eating, but his little girl wasn't feeling tired and asked sweetly 'Can we play more?' to which Erik had no choice but to say 'Of course'.
An hour later, it was past bedtime and she was still electric. Magda came to the room with a serious expression and said 'Nina, go to bed'.
Their daughter shook her head and said 'Don't want to', but Magda crossed her arms 'You don't have an option here'.
Nina promptly looked at Erik with sad eyes and a pout before saying in a very small tone 'I just wanna play with my daddy', and Erik melted inside.
'Of course, my love. We can play a little more', and looked at Magda wearily. Her expression told him he would hear about this and his wife left the room, going to their own and slamming the door shut.
Magda
The moment Erik shut the door to their bedroom, Nina hopefully already lulled into sleep, Magda stood up and put her hands on her hips. She looked sternly at her husband, as he carefully approached her, opening his mouth to say something.
"No. Don't even start. We're working on this together, Erik", she hissed, trying not to wake up their sleeping child next door.
"It was just ten-", Erik started and Magda knew where this was going, so she cut him off.
"Ten minutes? It's way past her bedtime and she has school tomorrow!" - "I thought we agreed on exceptions?" - "It's not about the damn exception, Erik!", she shouted, losing it for a moment.
She pinched her nose between middle finger and thumb, looking at the floor in front of her, while she tried to calm herself down.
"Look. I don't want to play the strict, not fun parent, so you can come along and melt at her pleading eyes", she said, still not really calm but at least quieter.
"You are not a bad parent, love" - "I am not. But you're making me look like one in the eyes of our daughter! God, Erik. What's up with you these days?", she asked and Erik sighed in frustration.
They both had this argument a lot these past few weeks, months, maybe even years. Every fight of them would end up with Magda asking what is wrong with Erik, wondering where her husband disappeared.
"Do you even love me anymore?", she asked, looking straight into Erik's eyes, searching for something in them. "Of course I do", came the answer promptly.
"Then you better start to fucking show it", she hissed, before she walked to her side of the bed and climbed into it, turning towards the wall as Erik approached his side.
They fell asleep without even an inch of their bodies touching, where they were joined so intensively just yesterday. Now it was cold around them, the air thick of unspoken suggestions - none of them not daring to talk about separating, but both thinking about it.
The next morning, Magda ignored her husband, hoping for at least one romantic gesture that day, but already starting to lose hope when he left for the bathroom without any form of apology.
Charles
Charles walked into the flower shop on time today, not having to bring David to school. He sat down behind the counter and started looking into his calendar, to check if he had to make some special bouquets for today. Then he started working, setting up new flowers, going through his stock and putting some pretty flowers together, until the first customers started to walk into his shop.
Erik
Erik had taken Nina to class as he always did on his day off, and was now driving around chewing on his bottom lip.
He felt bad for the fight with Magda the night before, and he felt even worse that she didn't feel loved anymore.
It was true that he wasn't warm towards her very often, and her words were stuck to his brain now, - 'Then you better start to fucking show it' - and as he drove back home and saw a small flower shop, he thought that maybe he should.
Romantic gestures didn't come easy for him, but when they did, it was on the spur of the moment. He was instantly struck by inspiration now and then, and today, he wanted to bring his wife flowers.
He parked the car across the street, and crossed in a light jog, before opening the door and hearing a bell playing over his head to announce his entrance.
'I'll be right there with you', came a british voice and Erik just nodded even though he couldn't see where the voice came from.
There were two other customers in there and he walked around, inspecting the flowers in awe. They were all absolutely beautiful, well kept and arranged in good taste.
It wasn't far from his house or Nina's school, and he could easily walk the distance to the shop, so he wondered how he had missed it before.
A few minutes later he still had no clue of what to buy, and a shorter man came walking towards him with a cheerful, charming smile.
'How can I help you?', he asked rubbing his hands together, and Erik took in the jaw-long hair and beard that needed a trim.
He looked up to the brightest pair of blue eyes he had ever seen, and was at a sudden loss of words. That was a gorgeous man.
'I uh, wanted to buy flowers for my wife', he said finally and the other man nodded.
'What kind?' - 'I have no clue. I know nothing about flowers' - 'Well, it depends on what you're aiming for. Romance? Seduction? A get-better-soon wish?'.
Erik cleared his throat before answering 'More like an apology' - 'Oh I see. Let's find you something then, Mr…?' - 'You can call me Erik', his last sentence made the other man smile widely and friendly 'I'm Charles', before he turned around and cocked his head so Erik would follow him.
Charles
Charles walked around the shop, fully in his element of colors, shapes and meanings.
"Roses are always good to express the love for another person", he declared, showing Erik his selection of differently colored and shaped roses. Erik got closer and took a look at them, while Charles continued speaking.
"As for the red roses, they are more aiming for seduction and romance, but are also connected to the heart of the other person's body. I would mix maybe three into the bouquet, not overdoing it in that department, if it's supposed to be an earnest apology."
Erik nodded, pointing and dark red roses and Charles got three out of the bucket.
"How big should the bouquet be?" - "Uh, I don't know." - "Well, how much money are you willing to spend?" Charles watched as Erik got his purse out and looked inside, silently calculating the money.
"Well, uh.." - "Have you fucked up royally or is it just a small thing?" - "I guess, it's, ah, not that bad." Charles laughed at that, the sound filling the small shop and causing Erik to look up at him. He wasn't embarrassed at that, he always had no filter for his mouth or actions.
"Tell you what, my friend. You'll go with a small bouquet, because if women nowadays seem to tend to love small presents more than being spoiled. If it's not enough, you can come back tomorrow and I'll make you a bigger one for free", he suggested and Erik nodded at that, smiling at him while showing all his teeth. It was kind of cute - his smile.
"So, how about some carnations to mix with the roses?", he then went on, shaking the thought about Erik's smile and walking towards the section of white and pink colored flowers.
"I like those. How about the purple ones there?", Erik said, pointing at violet carnations.
"Hmh, I'm afraid that wouldn't mix well with the color of the roses. But white, rosé or yellow ones should go", Charles answered and showed them to Erik, holding the roses in front of them.
"White it is then." Charles nodded and got eight white carnations out of the bucket.
"Okay, last thing I'd suggest are these", Charles then said, pointing at small white flowers. "They are called gypsophila."
Erik nodded approvingly and Charles took some of them out of the bucket, before walking back to the counter. He started sorting the flowers and rearranging them in a nice way, putting some green leaves between them.
"Do you want to write a card? It's just two bucks extra", he answered, pointing with his elbow at the small selection of flower cards on the counter. "I'm sure there are some apology cards on there. Or, of course, any form of romantic cards as well."
Erik
'Uh, next time', Erik answered about the cards. The ones that came ready felt too impersonal, and he didn't have a clue of what to write on the blank ones.
Charles nodded and finished up the last touches on the bouquet before holding it up so that Erik could see his handy work.
'Very impressive', he said with a small smile, and Charles reciprocated it 'Thank you'.
Erik reached out for it and held it closer, the smell of the flowers filling his nose 'I'm sure she'll like it. How much?', he asked and Charles picked a calculator, adding some numbers and telling Erik the total.
It wasn't cheap, but Erik was sure that man should charge more for his flowers. He had a great eye for the thing, and his work was good.
He picked the money out of his purse, - having to place the bouquet on the counter to do it - and then handed the cash to Charles.
Their fingers brushed and they both looked up at the same time, smiling.
'I hope she forgives you', Charles said pulling his hand away and Erik found himself answering 'Me too', as he picked the flowers one more time.
There was a small moment between them where they just looked at each other, and Erik was impressed at how good of a florist Charles was, and how good he was at dealing with clients.
'You hm… Own the shop?', he asked without knowing why he was attempting a conversation, when it was obvious he was supposed to leave now.
'Yes, I do-', Charles answered and seemed like he was going to say more, but the bell rang as a new customer walked in.
'Thanks for the help', Erik said and Charles grinned 'Always happy to save marriages', before Erik turned around and left the small shop.
On the outside, the street didn't seem so stuffed as that place had felt, and his senses weren't overwhelmed by the sweet scent of flowers. He looked at the bouquet again and was excited to give it to his wife. Charles certainly looked like he knew what he was doing, and Erik was sure Magda would like the unexpected gift.
He drove home, and got there just a few minutes before she had to leave. Entering the house, he heard 'What took you so long? You know I need the car!', coming towards him and sounding annoyed.
He held the bouquet and Magda stopped on her tracks when she saw him.
'I'm sorry?', he said pathetically, stretching his arm 'I do love you, Magda'.
Magda
Magda was startled by Erik's gesture, staring from the bouquet to her husband and back. A smile slowly began to raise on her lips and she started moving again, practically jumping into Erik's arms. She swung her own arms around his neck, laughing happily.
"You are so sweet", she beamed, feeling her husband's hands coming around her back and the bouquet almost tangling with her hair. The masculine scent of the factory paired with sweat and Erik's cologne filled her nose and she breathed in deeply.
"I love you too", she whispered and turned her head to kiss Erik's cheek. Then she let got and looked at her husband again, happy that Erik did seem to care about their relationship.
"Thank you, honey", she smiled and looked at the flowers again. "They are beautiful."
Charles
When Charles locked the shop for today, his gaze fell on the now almost empty bucket with red roses in it and he immediately wondered if the man from earlier - what was his name? Erik? - got his wife to forgive him. He surely did; Charles knew all about the wonders of flowers.
He walked back home, still thinking about Erik with his big smile and gentle eyes. Would he come back to Charles' flower shop? If his wife accepted his apology, then probably not in the near future.
Arriving at home was a shock. He was immediately greeted by screams and two weeping children. David ran towards him and grabbed a fistful of Charles' pants, looking up at him through blue, puffy eyes.
"What's going on here?", Charles asked and no second later, Moira came into the room looking exhausted and annoyed.
"I just had a little argument with David who didn't want to make his homework and destroyed one of Hannah's dolls." - "Why didn't you want to make your homework?", Charles asked with a stern voice, glaring at his son who immediately let go of his pants.
"Told you, you didn't want your father to find out about that", Moira said and tried to soothe Hannah afterwards. Charles kept looking at David who started crying again and just stood there, his arms hanging to his sides.
"Go to your room and do your homework now, David. I'll expect you to be done before dinner and if not, I'm gonna draw some serious consequences out of that. You can always ask us for help, but not doing your homework at all will not be the way", he answered in a flat voice, making David runoff into his room.
They heard several sobs coming from behind the door, but both adults wisely decided against approaching their son now.
"We're gonna repair your doll, princess. Okay?", Charles then tried to calm Hannah down, taking her from Moira, so she could continue making dinner.
Moira
Moira cooked dinner as quickly as she could, watching from the corner of her eyes Charles sitting on the table with Hannah on his lap, while he tried to fix her doll.
It seemed like a rather difficult task to do with a child on his lap, but Charles was surprisingly doing fine. She couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips watching her husband and younger daughter. It warmed her heart to have such a beautiful family.
She was a little worried about David's behaviour earlier, but she knew that things weren't always easy with 6-years-old, and it was to be expected that he would concentrate his anger towards his little sister's things, being jealous of her and all.
Moira sighed hoping that phase would go away soon and asked Charles to move from the table so she could set it with their food.
Minutes later, everything was ready and she made her way to David's room, knocking on the door softly before opening. He wasn't crying anymore, and was sitting on his desk, back arched downwards as he coloured something on his notebook.
"How is homework?", she asked and he turned around with puffy, red eyes "Almost done", the little boy answered and Moira got closer to check on it.
"Here, let me help you", she said gently running her fingers through his dark hair, before picking a pencil and colouring the last missing bit.
"Thank you, mama", he answered and she grinned. "Of course sweetie, let's have dinner now", she told him, and David got up from his chair, walking towards the table and sitting next to his father.
Moira also set herself on her place and started serving food for Hannah, as Charles served it for David. It was a rather good day, and she smiled at her husband, hoping tonight he wouldn't have to work and she would get the opportunity to show him just how much she appreciated their lives.
Erik
Erik lay down in bed next to Magda, and she promptly scooted closer letting him wrap his arms around her warm body.
"Thank you for the flowers again", she said and he nuzzled her hair. It smelled like coconut, and it wasn't his favorite scent but it was familiar. It always reminded him of her.
"I'll try to surprise you more often, okay?", he asked and kissed the top of her head as she nodded.
They both stayed silent for a while just watching the news on the small television, until Magda turned around a little and said "I need you to pick Nina up in school this week, I wanna meet Francesca again" - "Again?" - "Yeah, she's my best friend" - "Okay, dear", he said knowing that she probably wanted to gossip to her friend about their marriage.
He knew Magda did that, and most women did too so it didn't bother him. At least this time she would have something nice to say about him.
"How about the day after tomorrow? I think I can get out earlier then" - "That's perfect, thank you" - "No problem. Have a goodnight", he told her with a yawn in the middle of the sentences.
"Good night, I love you", she said kissing his chest. "Love you too".
Charles
That night, Charles came out of his office in time, so Moira walked closer to him as soon as he stepped into the bedroom. She put her hands around his neck and pulled him closer, connecting their lips in a sweet kiss that soon got deeper. They let their tongues tangle and landed on the bed, undressing each other quickly.
When they lay together, naked and covered in sweat, Moira turned towards Charles and put her hand on his chest. She'd always been a cuddler after sex, which was fine for Charles.
What totally wasn't fine with him, was her question after she kissed his chest once.
"How about another one?" - "What?" - "Another baby." Charles looked down at her to see if she had been serious, but she just looked at him with determined eyes.
"Are you insane?", he asked and could watch her face crumble in hurt. "No, I'm not. I come from a big family, Charles. I want to have a big family."
"Two kids are more than enough. We can barely keep up with them and now you want another one?", Charles asked, trying to sound calm.
"Well, yes. They'll both be soon in an age when we can handle them better. And then they'll grow old so fast, you can barely blink and we'll have grandchildren!" - "This is ridiculous, Moira. I don't want another child."
She seemed to not like that as a final answer and turned away from his touch, giving him the cold shoulder. Charles let out a frustrated sigh and turned to his side of the bed. That was it with the intimcity for today then.
The next day, Moira had already left the bed and went to work early when Charles woke up. She had left him a note to bring the kids to school and daycare, making him start angry into the day. She knew way too well that Charles barely had the time to drop off one child before work and now he had David and Hannah to take care of.
First he would go to David's school, knowing that it's closer and his son needed to be there on time. When he pulled up with his car and went to the trunk to get the school bag, his son approached him shyly and looked at him with big eyes.
"Mrs Hudson wants to speak to you before my class", he whispered and Charles raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?" - "I don't know. She just wanted to."
Charles sighed and went to get Hannah out of the car, before locking it and grabbed his son's hand.
"Okay then, where to?", he asked and let his son guide him towards the visitors room.
Erik
40 minutes and two buses later, Erik went inside the factory getting ready for a long, long day at work.
He walked towards his boss' office, wanting to talk to him before he got too engrossed with work and ended up forgetting in.
He knocked on the door and heard a faint 'Come in', before pushing it open and getting inside.
'Mr. Lehnsherr, what can I do for you?', he asked nicely, and Erik attempted to smile and relax. He was a good worker after all, and even he deserved a break.
'I need to leave work earlier tomorrow', he said straight to the point 'My daughter needs to be picked from school. Is that a problem?' - 'Not at all', his boss said and just like that the conversation was over.
Erik nodded and turned around to leave, but then his boss shouted 'Wait! I actually need you to work extra hours today'. He sighed and listened carefully to his task before actually managing to leave the stuffy office and closing the door behind him.
He worked silently all morning, not wanting to participate on his colleague's conversations about women and sports.
When lunchtime came, he picked his phone and called Magda to let her know he would be late again. He apologized to her, and promised to make it up when he got home. She said she would wait up and they turned off the call.
For a minute there, while he ate his food he thought about how at first Magda would show up once a week to have lunch with him. He couldn't possibly make the 40 minutes trip back and forth during his lunch break, so she would come over to him and they would eat together, laughing silly and making plans for the future.
Sitting there alone, he found himself missing all those little things that meant a lot.
When Erik was done eating, he had just enough time to take a quick nap and recharge his batteries for the rest of the day. Somehow, he dreamt about flowers and wondered if that was some sort of sign telling him he should get them for Magda again.
Charles
Mrs Hudson had told him that he needed to come by after school for a longer talk about David. His son was drawing a lot of attention to him during class and the teacher wanted to discuss some things with him. She had invited Moira too, but Charles said that she would be at work. Charles was technically at work too, but he could easily take a break.
That's why he found himself at half past one in the school again, waiting for the teacher to approach him.
But no five minutes, a little girl walked up to him and tucked at his sleeve.
"Do you know where my papa is? He was supposed to pick me up", he asked in an innocent voice and Charles melted at her stare.
"Hmmh, maybe he's just running late? Why don't you wait here with me?", he smiled and she nodded, stretching her arms out.
Charles picked her up after one moment of hesitation and sat her on his lap.
"What's your name, sweety?", Charles asked her and put her hazel hair behind her ear.
"Nina. And you?", she asked with a smile, playing with the buttons of his shirt. He stopped himself from taking her hand away, already used to grabby fingers.
"That is a beautiful name", Charles smiled at her.
"Who are you waiting for?", Nina asked and Charles told her that he was waiting for his own son and his teacher.
They chatted for a little while, Nina telling him about her paintings, until he demanded to finally see them. She took them out of her bag and showed them proudly to Charles and he examined them.
"They are beautiful, Nina. Do you like animals?", he asked after seeing her drawings were mostly animals.
"Yes! But my papa doesn't allow me a dog", she pouted and Charles made a sad face.
"Sorry about that. You need to beg your father a bit more", he answered, hoping her father wouldn't mind that friendly advice.
Nina suddenly looked up and smiled brightly, not looking at Charles.
"Papa!", she exclaimed, but didn't make any movements that would signalise him to let her go.
That's when Charles looked up and saw a face he recognised. "Erik?""
