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As the wrought iron gate to Mr. Lioncourt’s home slammed shut, Lily pulled her coat closed and shivered.
It was an unusually chilly night for early spring.
The kind where each breath you took looked like a little cloud that had floated down from the sky.
She puffed out a breath into her hands and rubbed them together, wishing she had brought gloves. She had at least remembered to grab her coat on the way out earlier that evening.
They had discussed it in advance so Lily knew what the evening would entail if Mr. Lioncourt sent for her unexpectedly, but she hadn’t expected him to send such an extravagant means of transportation.
The fact that it was a horse drawn carriage was shocking enough, but it looked like it had plucked right out of a fairytale.
Now, Lily wasn’t a stranger to receiving lavish gifts from her clientele, but Mr. Lioncourt always seemed to go above and beyond.
Admittedly, there was something about him that still made her… wary. Truthfully, he had yet to give her any real reason to be, but there was still this air of strangeness about him.
He was an unusual man, with his bright, unsettling eyes, his oddly long nails, the soft waves of his even longer hair, the old fashioned way he spoke, and his truly uncanny ability to read people.
He mentioned that he had been a stage actor once and she could see that too in how carefully expressive he was and how subtly practiced so much of what he said and did appeared to be. Like he was wearing a mask fashioned to hide his true nature.
Which, she reasons, he was, as his interest in Louis had shown.
The man enjoyed women of all kinds, but she had noticed the way his eyes would linger on a particularly handsome man, not to mention the way he looked at and Louis, eyes all full of heat and longing.
And from all this, the only real conclusion she could reach was that Lestat de Lioncourt was just different.
But then again, she reasoned, all her clients had their quirks.
And it was easier to disregard his strangeness when he was not only charming, handsome and gentlemanly, but an uncommonly generous and proficient lover.
All in all, she supposes she can’t really complain.
“You set me up.”
The sound of that low, familiar voice pulled her from her thoughts, and Lily’s eyes flickered over to her companion.
Louis de Pointe du Lac stood behind her, a grim look on his face as his hand gripped the gate so hard his knuckles were turning white.
He was in quite a dark mood for someone who should’ve had a good night.
She’s honestly disappointed that he wasn’t as pleased as Mr. Lioncourt hoped he would be.
“I haven’t the faintest idea of what you’re talking about, love.”
“Lily.”
She turned fully to face him.
“You know,” she huffed, “I was doing a little somethin’ called my job. Same as anyone else.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and squinted at her from under the brim of his hat.
She mirrored his stance and continued, unfazed.
“And if I also happened to get you to spend the night the man you’ve been so taken with for months…?”
She reached out and flicked up the brim of his hat so she could see his face properly.
“Well, Louis, I don’t know what you’d call it, but I’d say that not only am I a professional, but I’d say I’m also quite a good friend .”
He scoffed and walked off.
Lily gathered her skirts and hurried after him, heels clicking against cobblestone until he slowed down and she fell into step with him.
Louis was silent as they walked, brow furrowed and lips pressed into a thin line.
He got like that when he was thinking too hard.
Louis really was a beautiful man, and brooding always did look good on him, but she much preferred it when he smiled.
And wasn’t it a damn shame that a real, genuine smile from Louis de Pointe du Lac was such a rare sight?
But it wasn’t lost on her that she’d been seeing it more since Mr. Lioncourt came around.
That alone was reason enough for her to agree to help the Frenchman.
“So…“ she began, carefully. “Will you be seeing Mr. Lioncourt again?”
He made a face at her, all sour like he’d just sucked on a lemon.
“Lily,” he said, tiredly, “You know I can’t.”
“Why not? You’ve been spendin’ all your free time with him for months.”
“That’s… different.”
“How do you figure ?”
“Well for one, we weren’t naked,” he snapped.
She smiled mischievously at that.
“Now, that’s a shame.”
He huffed and started to walk faster.
“You know how to pick ‘em though,” she teased, keeping pace with him. “That’s a handsome white man.”
He glared at her, but didn’t protest.
“And all that talk about my waist, what about his ? You’re not going to waste a waist like his too, are you Louis?”
Just to lighten the mood, she said that last bit in a poor but, rather funny in her opinion, attempt at Mr. Lioncourt’s accent.
Louis didn’t seem to agree.
“I got half a mind to stop talkin’ to both of you. After that stunt you pulled.”
She sighed.
He really wasn’t going to make this easy.
“Look Louis: he’s attracted to you. That much has been obvious from the start. But then he told me he had feelings for you. He was tryin’ to figure out how to make things crystal clear without scarin’ you off. He wanted you to know exactly where he stood, Louis. So yes, he asked me for help. Thought me bein’ there would put you at ease.”
“Yeah well, you sure didn’t have to tell him everything,” he grumbled.
“Louis, I promise you, he guessed most of it. You know how he is. I don’t know how he does it, but he just knows how to read people.”
“Right. And I’m sure the money helped loosen your lips…”
“I’m going to ignore that. Don’t be ugly, Louis,” she said, swatting his arm.
“As I was sayin’, you know how he is. All mysterious, talkin’ in circles and half-truths. Or French. Heard him speak Italian too once or twice.”
She leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially.
“I think he’s one of those mentalists or somethin’ like that. He can have you tellin’ on yourself before you even realize it. The rest of the time he can just… I don’t know, figure things out? Said it had somethin’ to do with body language and tone of voice and the faces people make.”
“Hmm.”
“And I know it’s so at odds with how he is most of the time, but there’s still somethin’ so earnest about him. Maybe that was just more of his mischief but somehow… I know he meant it. I think he’s been in love with you all this time.”
At that Louis jerked away so violently that hat fell off and he nearly lost his balance.
“Lily, don’t—! Don’t tell me that shit !”
“Now, Louis—“
“I mean it!” he hissed, “I-I can’t know that. I can’t. I-If he was just curious or if he knows himself and it was just about blowin’ off steam then maybe, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But now you sayin’ he thinks of me like that ?”
“Louis, just calm down—“
“It’s bad enough that the friendship is ruined, now I can’t even look at him in the eye or speak to him ever again.”
“Well now you’re just bein’ foolish. You can!”
“No, I can’t !”
“Why?”
“Because I-I… I feel the same . Or I’m starting to? I-I don’t know. I just… I’ve never felt so much for any one person. I don’t know what it is about him, but I want to be with him, all the time. And when I’m not? All I do is think about the next time I get to be.”
He took a shaky, steadying breath and swallowed.
“And I-I want him too,” he confessed.
“Lord help me, but I do. I want him, bad . I didn’t get enough earlier and I feel like I’m gonna die if I don’t get another taste but it’s too much Lily. I can’t take it. I-I can’t fight it.”
“Who said you had to?” she said gently.
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Lily reached out to cup his face in her hands.
“Listen to me Louis: you can be discreet. Me and the girls at the Fairplay hear things. I know there’s plenty of other men in town, of all shades, like you. Men who go about their lives keep up appearances, hell some are married, and no one is the wiser. Why, you’d be surprised!”
“No. No. No , I can’t do this,” he shook her off and backed away.
“I can’t deal with this right now. I-I need to go home and be with my family. Help Mama plan Grace’s wedding, spend time with my sister while I can, look after Paul, make sure he don’t hurt himself, I-I need to take care of them.”
“But what about you? You do so much for everyone else, why not have one thing just for yourself?”
He shook his head.
“Louis, that man is lovesick over you. He just wants you. Wants to take care of you . He just wants you to be his companion. That’s it. But you already are! He even called you his companion heart .”
Louis flinched at that last bit, like he’d heard that before.
“Listen: if you feel the same, then let yourself have this, Louis.”
“No,” he murmured, “Just… let it alone, Lily.”
She sighed and bit at her lip, trying to think up a way to salvage this night.
Louis just looked so dejected and in the state he was in, she knew he’d either run off to confession or try to drink himself to death so he could forget everything that happened.
After a beat she spoke up again.
“Fine. But on one condition.”
Louis glanced at her warily.
“…Which is?”
“You have to promise me you’ll think about it.”
“Did you not hear what I just said?!”
“And did you not hear what I just said? All I’m sayin’ is that you should think about it, not that you had to do anything. Just think on it. Think about how you feel about him. What you want. What would make you happy.”
“Lily—“
“Can you just do this for me? Please?”
“…Fine,” he whispered, looking so utterly defeated.
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek before pulling him into an embrace.
He stood stiffly for a moment before his body sagged and he melted into her arms.
She could feel his hot tears against her neck.
“What am I gonna do, Lily? I feel like I’m suffocating.”
“Oh, Louis…”
She ran her hands over his back in comforting circles.
There was just something about him, her sad, beautiful, troubled Louis, that made her want to do what she could to ease his pain.
Maybe that was why she had felt so compelled to stick her nose in his business.
She guided him over to a bench and sat with him as he wept into her shoulder.
After a long while, he settled and stood to retrieve his hat and straighten his rumpled clothes. He helped Lily to her feet and offered his arm, and she looped hers through his, smiling fondly.
They continued back towards the Fairplay in a comfortable silence with Lily occasionally interrupting it to make a comment or to tell a funny little story to distract him from his melancholy.
When they had arrived, she gave him another quick peck on the cheek and went to the door.
“Goodbye Miss Lily,” he said, flashing a smile that was genuine, but didn’t quite reach his eyes.
He was still so unbearably sad, still so worn down by life and his circumstances, but she could see a little spark of hope in him. And she knew from experience that was more than enough.
Sometimes a spark was all you needed.
“Goodbye, love.”
He nodded and made it a few steps down the street, before she called out to him.
“Louis!”
He whipped his head around, eyebrows raised and Lily grinned.
“Come see me when you’ve figured things out. Tell me all about it.”
Louis pursed his lips, trying not to smile back and nodded once more.
“Sure.”
She smiled fondly as she watched him walk away.
Maybe, just maybe, Louis would realize he did deserve a little happiness. No matter how long it takes, somehow she just knows he’ll be alright in the end.
She just hopes that she’ll get to see it.