“c’mon, megumi. tell me what’s botherin’ ya.” satoru pouts at megumi, his arm thrown around the boy’s shoulders. you watch the scene unfold with a tense smile.

megumi was exhausted from school, training and so much more. the teenager’s patience was wearing thin. especially with satoru almost pressuring him into telling you both what’s weighing on his mind. when all he wants is to be left alone at the moment.

the tone satoru’s using to talk to megumi only pisses the high schooler off more and more. it’s fatherly. like he’s still the little child satoru took in and cared for. it pissed megumi off, along with everything else;

“you’re not my dad, so stop fucking acting like you are!”

you freeze. satoru freezes. megumi freezes. time freezes. the silence was deafening. no one was moving. your eyes flicker over to satoru’s and your heart shatters in a million pieces.

satoru’s hurt. so hurt. it’s visible and he’s not hiding it — not hiding it like he usually would behind a wide grin. his blindfold and glasses aren’t there to hide the way his face falls either.

“i know.” satoru whispers. his voice lost its cheery tone, his eyes have lost their spark. the sorcerer slowly distances himself from megumi. a bitter chuckle leaves his lips. a futile attempt to hide his shaky voice, “i know.”

all you could do is stand there in shock. megumi doesn’t know what to do after his little outburst either. and satoru. . . well, satoru is the first one out of the room. you hear his breath hitch as he walks past you. you see his eyes twitch. the strongest, in tears.

⭐️ lestats work party, specifically armand and louis' conversation and armands thirstiness

this is gonna be stupid long im so sorry i just love this scene

Lestat suspects, as he does with most things, that it is a conspiracy by Armand to steal Louis from him. / “That don’t even make sense, Lestat,” Louis tells him on the drive to the museum. “How would that help him take me from you?” / “The holidays are an emotional time,” Lestat defends. He tightens his right hand on Louis’ thigh. “He must plan to seduce you during a vulnerable moment and destroy our family and every battle scar we stitched together in our marriage.” -- armand is literally trying to do exactly this

“You appear stunningly effervescent this evening.” / Louis giggles - you have to read effervescent in the voice od edward cullen bella this snail is... effervescent. and i use giggling very sparingly so i think i hoped it would make it more distinct that louis is kinda giggling twirling his hair blushing etc etc. he doesn't even think armand is serious about flirting with him which is what makes this even more funny to me like louis really thinks armand is just like that or doing a bit. and both those are also true but he’s mostly trying to cuck lestat and steal his baby mama

“It is hardly flattery. A curator must recognize inimitable art when he sees it.” Armand looks Louis up and down, not a gram of subtlety in his gaze or the way he licks his lips when his eyes catch on Louis’ waist. Lestat despises him, but he cannot fault him. Louis is a sight today. -- its so fun writing louis as ydkybtwmyb i'm sorry.... the main goal in writing lestat's pov was to write about louis w the level of horny down bad panting cartoon heart eyes jaw drop edward talked about bella when she wore an ankle length skirt energy. and since lestat is familiar w armands game he can see this

“Yes, a one of a kind beauty that few have the chance to truly see,” Lestat says, laying his accent on thick because he knows Armand hates it. Louis thinks it’s cute when he can’t say words like own or omelet without adding h’ in front—h’one, h’omelet. -- i think i was talking to my sister while writing this or right before and since french creole is her first language and she learned english mostly around the same age as lestat in this fic (17/18), her sort of inconsistency w h sound in front of o came to mind dfkjbvdf SUPER specific but yes.

"Armand wraps an arm around Louis’ shoulders as they walk. He says, “As I scrolled through Tik Tok yesterday morning while making my post-run chicken breast smoothie—yes, yes, I awake around 4:15am every morning so that I might run and rise into the new day with the sun, heavenly companion that she is—but on Tik Tok, you see, I watched a succinct review of a movie called Mississippi Masala, have you heard of it?”" -- i kinda think this is the greatest combination of words of all time idk like... i became obsessed w armand while writing this scene cause i had to get in his head and rly think about him to translate him to this au too and you couldnt pay me money to stop thinking armand is an avid tiktok user. armand is a 43 year old man with a letterboxd account a candy crush addiction and those games where you simulate cars getting into accidents in incredibly graphic and uncomfortable ways. and he’s just a little boy. mississippi masala i know bc we watched it in my south asian/american literature class in undergrad and that was one of my favorite classes so i rmr a lot from it :)

“I understood you entirely,” Armand soothes. “And I naturally agree. Did you enjoy your winter wassail with cinnamon whiskey? Would you like to try the hot buttered rum? You will be pleased to know we used sustainably-sourced five-star Haitian Barbancourt for the recipe.” -- this was me trying to manipulate ppl into googling trader joe winter wassail punch and then buying it and discovering that its the best drink of all time. and it goes really well with cinnamon whiskey fr. ALSO haitian barbancourt rum is one of the very few relatively ethical caribbean rum it wasnt established until after haiti got independence and even tho there was still plenty of complications it is not slave rum. and since nola is little haiti and i assigned louis partially haitian at birth and he's really conscious of history and the history of slavery and the francophone world in particular i figured he would have an opinion on this

"When he consumed as much leftist social commentary on the Black experience in modern America as he could during the year of separation so that he might better unlearn his white liberal colorblindness, he found exceptional delight in an animated syndication called “The Boondocks,” and the mischievous comments and actions of the younger child hold a special place in his heart. He is reminded of one of the sayings now, a cutting witticism that gave Lestat chills the first time he heard it: game recognize game, and you looking real unfamiliar right now. Except, of course, as a recovering sociopath himself, Armand appears plenty familiar to Lestat." -- wait THIS is the greatest combination of words in the english language. the boondocks is the best show of all time BTW and i was watching it as an adult while writing this and i couldnt stop talking about it w everyone i was in discussino section at 10 talking to my students like Have you guys heard of the boondocks ? KALBSCHJVUYFIBDJSKANM and AND AND most importantly lestat would take it incredibly seriously and he would love riley and think that riley's voice matters he would be very easily convinced by hoteps is what im saying. and ykw good for them! if they deserve to scam money from anyone its lestat

"“That’s so true,” Louis nods again. Why is he always nodding with Armand? Lestat has never heard Armand say anything worth nodding about, unless he stood up to proclaim himself a stupid idiot bitch fucker. Okay, not bitch. Lestat is a girl dad. He doesn’t use this type of derogatory language towards women, even if the bitch in question is a man. Not that he needs to own a girl or woman to care about them. Of course, he does not own his daughter, she is her own independent complex self. Well, not independent, Lestat would hate to age up a black child—okay." - i imagine writing this scene is how beethoven felt when he was writing the sonata or whatever bc why am i reading over this like where is my nobel prize in literature. lestat is literally a #BlackGirlDad though. lestat and serena's husband exchange notes AWWWWWWWWWW except he's slightly more normal than lestat but creating reddit released its own share of horrors into the world so idk. but he’s literally a girl dad

"“Les and I talk about that all the time,” Louis continues. Armand chuckles at the mention of Lestat, like there’s some sort of inside joke between him and Lestat’s husband. “Like, when’s the last time you saw two black people in a relationship in a Netflix show? Never mind the prioritizing of lightskins over everything else. That’s a problem in Bollywood too, isn’t it?”" -- i've been accused before of writing poc dialogue unrealistically BUT IDK LIKE IF U DONT TALK LIKE THIS NATURALLY W YOUR FRIENDS THATS YOUR ISSUE NOT MINE LIKE.....??????? WHAT DO U WANT ME TO SAY....? also reformation lestat is literally conscious of his privileges as a white male on occupied chitimacha land that his black wife's ancestors were forced to till and the fraught positionality of his biracial daughter like what do u want me to say... and most importantly louis is god's most special lightskin after beyonce so he too is conscious of his positionality <3 most most importantly this is all a bit

"“It is as the Angolan revolutionaries said in the battle against western imperial aggression.” Oh, here he fucking goes, Lestat thinks, scowl deepening even further. Armand grew up in Cambridge with parents who immigrated to work guaranteed tenure at Harvard because they changed their fields forever; at least Lestat actually understood what it meant to go without food as a child. Armand raises the celery stick to the air like some red army soldier. “La luta a continua para sempre.”" i think poor white trash w theoretical access to social mobility in contrast to bourgeois man of color chafing against second class status despite their material privileges is soooo interesting. also be honest. doesnt armand as a second gen rice and mango kid make so much sense