Chapter Text
He drew in another silent breath, then a third, regulating his breathing with a practiced force of will as he read the same question on his homework until he was able to comprehend what he was reading, until his anxiety receded to nothing more than the usual, almost-ignorable knot that lived in the pit of his stomach.
Lying beside Mr. Radcliffe’s piano, Pongo barked softly at a pitch that differed from the one some of his children were using throughout the house. Lily trotted into the room with her head held high with curiosity.
Curious in his own right, Carlos watched her survey the room, eyeing him in particular before she came over to sniff directly at his face. He laughed nervously, not used to being eye to eye with a dog, and gently nudged her nose away from his ear. “What’s the matter, Lily?” he asked, petting her head like he had when he’d been here the first time.
Lily whined quietly, her eyes still questioning something, and she licked his cheek before turning her face nervously away from him.
Was she worried he’d chastise her for how she’d shown affection?
“Hey,” he murmured soothingly. “It’s okay, Lil, you’re alright.”
Lily sighed, relaxing slightly as she lay down at his side and put her head on his thigh.
Carlos continued to pet her with one hand, picking up his pencil in the other as he asked, “What was that about, Lil?”
“She was checking on you,” Mr. Radcliffe observed shrewdly, and the way he was looking at Carlos said he’d caught the exchange with Annie.
Carlos looked guiltily at Mr. Radcliffe, then back at Lily, not sure who he was reassuring as he said, “I’m okay, I promise.”
Still absently petting Lily, Carlos put his pencil to paper and returned to his homework.
Carlos had just climbed into bed for the night when a knock sounded at his bedroom door. “Yes?” he asked.
Mr. Radcliffe poked his head into the room as Mrs. Radcliffe asked form behind her husband, “Can we come in?”
Carlos shifted nervously. “Sure.”
They came in together, shutting the door behind themselves, and Mrs. Radcliffe stood by the footboard as Mr. Radcliffe sat on the edge of the bed.
“Is everything okay?” Carlos asked, trying to maintain his calm even as his first thought was: had they already decided they’d made a mistake by inviting him into their home?
“We were going to ask you the same thing,” Mrs. Radcliffe said gently. “You do know we don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, don’t you?”
“You haven’t!” Carlos automatically rushed to assure them.
Mr. Radcliffe gave him a carefully skeptical look, asking frankly, “Did my smoking my pipe bother you, back in the family room?”
Carlos’ first instinct was automatically to rush to reassurances again, but given how they’d reacted a moment ago, he gave the question real consideration. After a beat of thoughtful silence, he came to the same conclusion he would’ve given anyway and said, “No, not really. I freaked out for a second because I don’t like cigarettes, but none of the reasons I dislike cigarettes apply to pipe-smoking, as it turns out.”
Both the Radcliffes relaxed, and Mrs. Radcliffe said, “Oh, that’s good.”
“For the record,” Mr. Radcliffe leaned in conspiratorially towards Carlos. “Anita agrees with you about cigarettes.”
“I do.” Mrs. Radcliffe nodded primly, pointing out, “They stink!”
Carlos smiled thinly. “They do.”
He knew that they’d meant to leave him on that note – an agreement, a light-hearted comment – but something must have flashed across his face, because Mr. Radcliffe’s expression fell into solemnity again as he probed carefully, “Cruella still smokes cigarettes?”
“Whenever she could get them, yes,” Carlos said hesitantly.
“They remind you of her,” Mrs. Radcliffe realized aloud as she sat on the edge of the bed behind Carlos.
He explained carefully, “The smell does, yeah.”
She tilted her head to get a better look at his face, asking softly, “Is there more to it than that?”
His instinct was to say “no,” to placate the adults and keep the conversation on safe, neutral territory if he could. But on either side of him was an earnest, kind, concerned person who wanted to listen to what he had to say – and it wasn’t lost on him that they understood the depths of Cruella DeVil’s cruelty better than most.
He began to scratch at his arm without meaning to – remembering the itch of healing burns – and he clenched his fist to stop when he noticed what he was doing.
Coming from the end of the bed, Dude – who had spent his day socializing with the Dalmatians – wormed his way past Mrs. Radcliffe and into Carlos’ lap as Carlos stared at him while whispering, “She burned me with them.”
“She burned you with the cigarettes?” Mr. Radcliffe repeated, processing slowly, and then turning his face for a second so Carlos couldn’t see the way his eyes blazed with anger.
Unable to look at them in any case, Carlos nodded.
“Oh, Carlos,” Mrs. Radcliffe breathed, and Carlos froze in surprise when she hugged him from behind.
Alerted by his master’s surprise, Dude growled a low warning at the back of his throat.
“It’s okay, Dude, calm down,” Carlos soothed quietly. “We’re safe here. They’re alright.”
And they were, Carlos became a little surer with every weekend he spent with the Radcliffes. They were alright. Roger, Anita, and Annie were alright people – good people – and he and Dude were alright – safe – around them, and in their home. In a home that he was rapidly coming to consider his own home, as well.
That first night, the open admittance and following conversation about his mom’s abuse had been an unintentional catapult into feeling like he really was getting a different family to call his own. He had a good mom now, and for the first time ever, a dad, and a sister the same age as him – a haphazard sort of twin, Mrs. Radcliffe had said once. He was quickly coming to adore them more than he had ever suspected he would.
Whenever he stopped and looked at it all – looked at what the Radcliffes and the newly-formed Isle of the Lost Division of Auradon’s social services programs had done for him – he was a little in awe, and he definitely couldn’t wait to see with the ILD – and, in his mind, Anita Radcliffe – did next.