It had gotten strangely easy over the years to just paste on a pleasant expression and pretend that you were enjoying yourself, no matter what kind of literal shit you had to muck through to get from point A to point B with amount of sugar cane C.
It kind of felt exactly like this.
He let the smile freeze on his face, as if he wasn'tbothered by Haiti's sudden presence in what was supposed to be the space that he shared with Caoba—Cuba alone. He could've forgiven an invasion if it had stopped there because now they were all each other had and goddamn it. But Haiti was never good at staying in his boundaries or maybe he was but just not when Borikén was around.
He just had to fucking push everything to Borikén's limit of patience and damn Caoba—Cuba for blinking and smiling at the bastard like it was normal.
…what if it was normal?
Yeah, it really felt like trudging his way through a quagmire of horseshit.
The pleasantries went about and he hardly remembered giving them, though he did remember that smug glance Haiti shot him and it burned underneath his skin like poison. Time passed and the moon rose higher in the sky and finally,finally Hati was getting up to leave.
Borikén stared down at his hands clenched in the fabric over his thighs as Haiti stood and stretched expansively, like he was trying to appear more of a man than his frame allowed. The Haitian feigned a heavy grunt and rolled his shoulders to ease away false pain. He then inhaled deeply and grinned at Cuba and it was pissing Borikén off.
"Be safe on your way back," Cuba said, "the overseers are drinking tonight."
"I'll be fine," Haiti waved a hand dismissively and smirked, "I'm quick on my feet and they know that I'm always, y'know. Around."
His smirk grew infinitesimally when Borikén's wide-eyed look of shock shot up to meet his.
Borikén forced his hands to unclench, splaying themselves open and claw-like over his knees as he turned that Pleasant Smile on Haiti and offered to walk back with him,just in case.
Both Haiti and Cuba stared at him in surprise before Cuba gave him an approving smile and he instantly felt guilty for his impure motives. Haiti glanced uncertainly between the two of them before agreeing with a superior sneer and a swagger to his step as he pushed his way past Borikén to the humid night air outside.