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evabellasworld · 3 years

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Storm of the Republic

Chapter 28

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

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Summary: When Tup murdered General Tiplar during a battle, Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex dispatched Ahsoka, Fives, and Yara to solve the mystery that was plaguing the Clone Army. Meanwhile, Senator Padme Amidala contacted Commander Fox, Commander Tori, Riyo Chuchi, and Dipper to help her continue investigating the death of Palpatine, suspecting that Dooku was behind the evil plot. But when Dooku send an ISB agent to stop them, the team had to race against time to search for the truth, which could alter the course of the galaxy.

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Bulldozing through the jungle, an Imperial officer was seated on the transport, recording a list of crates inside the inventory. There were 6 crates of Angel’s Heart that were collected from the mines, and he had to make sure that everything was accounted for. The last thing he wanted was his superior giving him a demerit for his performance at work, or worse.

The Empire isn’t like the Republic. Everything has to be in order, otherwise, he would have to pay the price for his failure. As harsh as they are, the officer thought the Imperial is more organised and fair, unlike the previous administration. Back then, Aaron was stuck as a clerk for 27 years. He hoped that his last boss would notice all the effort he had contributed, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, his deserved position was given to the boss’s son, leaving him disappointed. Most of his friends also had a higher position than him. While they were enjoying life with a higher salary, Aaron had to get by with his husband and two daughters back home. He always dreamed about pampering them with whatever they want, but that only happened once a year.

After this, I’m going to treat them to a steakhouse tonight, he smiled to himself, as he peeked through the Angel’s Heart. And I can finally get the makeup palette Lia has been saving up for months.

The soft pink crystal was shaped exactly like a heart, reminding him of Valentine’s day. It was common for Aaron to see the Angel’s Heart crystal in a fancy jewellery store, but he wasn’t sure why the Empire would want a huge crate of them. To him, they were just there for the pleasure of the eye. There’s no healing properties from the Angel’s Heart at all.

I hope everything goes smoothly this time. The last time I transported these to HQ, we had to deal with raiders.

Unfortunately, that was only a dream. Before Aaron could sit down, the transport braked abruptly, causing him to fall on the metallic floor. “Ouch,” he yelped, as he got up and rubbed the side of his face. “What’s going on up there?”

“Sir, we have a pregnant woman crossing the street,” the B1 battle droid reported to him. “Should we fire, sir?”

Aaron shook his head. “No, don’t open fire. I’ll see what I can do for her.”

As he stepped out of the vehicle, Aaron saw a dark-skinned woman strutting in front of him, cradling her baby bump with one hand and carrying a sack with the other. With a tattered hood, he noticed her feet were adorned with worn-out slippers, prompting him to approach her gently. “Excuse me, but do you need help?”

Odd Eye widened her eyes as she turned towards the Imperial officer, realizing that she was dealing with someone who was flesh and blood. “Thank you for your kindness, but I can handle it myself.”

“I can help you,” he insisted, keeping a safe distance from her. “You’re pregnant and you look like you’re struggling to walk.”

“Are you sure about that, sir?” her voice shook, hiding her hands behind her. “I’m sure you have a lot of things to worry about right now.”

Aaron shook his head as he offered his hand. “Don’t worry about me, miss. I’ll be alright, I promise.”

With a hint of hesitation on her face, Odd Eye took a deep breath and held his hand as they crossed the muddy road together. He was kind, just like Erhan.

She never expected that an officer who worked for their enemy was helping her. She wondered if he was happy with his current job, given that the Imperial didn’t treat anyone with kindness and compassion. Her shoulders slumped as she thought about his fate in Imperial’s grasp.

“Thank you for your help,” said Odd Eye, as they reached the other side of the road. “You’re too kind, sir.”

“No worries miss, I’m glad to help,” Aaron gave her a warm smile. “Though I don’t mean to pry, but are you currently living with your partner?”

She frowned, her head hanging low. “He’s not here anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied. “I’m sure he was a great man.”

“He was a decent man,” Odd Eye sat down, nestling her bump. “My partner was overjoyed by the news. It was too bad he would never get to meet his son.”

He nodded, pressing his lips together. “I bet you miss him very much. It must be painful to carry your baby all by yourself. I mean, I can’t imagine being separated from my husband and my two kids. It’s the saddest thing you could experience in life.”

“You have a family back home?” she looked at him, forcing a smile. “Are you close with them?”

“They’re the joy of my life. My family is the reason I’m still here, even if life turned gloomy. We always have each other’s back, no matter what.”

Odd Eye bobbed her head silently as she noticed Boil, Faven, and Hyewon infiltrating an Imperial Troop Transport, taking down the droids without a single sound, along with Thire and Stone taking on the second vehicle. Thire and Stone assisted the three of them, giving them a thumbs up.

They seem to understand the assignment. I'm impressed.

She then shifted her focus towards Aaron, who was showing her a picture of his family, which was taken in a professional studio. “Lia is my oldest child. We adopted her from a foster home when she was 2 years old. She likes makeup and fashion, and she wanted to be a stylist after she graduated from trade school.”

“That’s cool. What about your other daughter? What does she like to do?”

“Mika loves to sew dolls in her free time, especially creepy dolls. She likes them very much, even though it scares me from time-to-time.”

Odd Eye chuckled, watching Nygma pulling out a droid’s head from its sockets. “Well, it’s good she enjoyed her hobby. I would kill to make myself a doll like her too.”

“You have no idea what she’s capable of,” Aaron gleamed, as Odd Eye signalled Tarot and Draco to take on the first transport, without the officer paying attention at all. “She loves horror movies a lot. She doesn’t even flinch whenever she sees blood. It’s pretty creepy, if you ask me.”

“I see a bright future for your daughters, sir,” she praised, as she glanced at Cody stabbing a droid with a knife. “I have faith that they will thrive in the future. Say, may I know your name? You seem like an interesting person.”

“Aaron, my name is Aaron Koo,” the officer introduced himself, not knowing that Obi-Wan had slashed the enemy with a lightsaber. “What about you, miss? What is your name?”

Before Odd Eye could answer him, Aaron heard the blaster clicking behind him, causing him to turn around with his hands up. “Surrender, Imperial scum,” ordered Cody, pointing his weapon at his face.

“Take it easy, Codes,” Odd Eye stood up, holding out her hands. “He doesn’t mean any harm. He’s only doing his job, that’s all.”

“You heard the lady, trooper,” Aaron gestured towards Cody. “Drop your weapons. No one is getting hurt here.”

Reluctantly, Cody lowered his blaster as Obi-Wan and Mina approached them, putting down their weapons. “You’ll be safe with us, officer,” reassured Obi-Wan, before turning to Odd Eye. “You did a splendid job, commander. Well done.”

Aaron froze as he stared at Odd Eye. “You were going to kill me? After what I’ve done for you?”

“I’m sorry, Aaron, but you have a good heart, and I didn’t want to hurt you at all.”

“Please don’t do this,” he begged, dropping to his knees. “I still haven’t told you about my husband. I don’t want to die without saying goodbye to him. I love him so much. You would understand, miss, considering you’ve lost your partner without any closure.”

He’s right, thought Odd Eye.

“You’ll be safe with us, officer,” the Jedi kneeled towards him. “You have my words. We won’t let anything happen to you and your family.”

Aaron could only stand up with his arms behind his head as he saw Thire stepped out of the transport. “We have successfully taken over all the vehicles, general,” the Coruscant guard reported. “Permission we proceed with our next plan?”

“Granted, commander,” Obi-Wan approved. “Let General Gomez and General Almarez-Guttierez our status report.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

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b-raypokemontime · 3 years

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You Knelt Beside My Hope Torn Apart

@deathyless

"Have you ever thought about... you know....getting back into training and gyms and things?" Balia looked up at Miguel as she picked up the stick she'd brought and stuck it in the side of the Snowman she was building. Now that it was done she stood up, but she had a handful of snow in her pink be-mittened hands.

It was strange. She couldn't feel the cold through her mittens as she worked the snow into a ball.

"I was thinking about it. That as soon as Mika left I would too. I just had the Viridian Badge left you know." Miguel put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. "I don't know though... I don't know if I should just leave...."

Balia felt his emotions turn towards his dad and she guessed.

"You mean leave your dad?" she offered in a soft voice. He glanced up at her. She always wondered if he found it spooky how accurate her guesses could be. She tried not to show how much people revealed through their emotions. Balia dropped the snowball she had been planning on tossing at him in the face of the emotions rolling off of him. They'd been dating for a while. Almost a year ago was it? That he first asked her out? Wow. But anyway they had talked a little here and there about hard things. Including a little about their respective parents. Not a lot. But enough.

"Yeah... he can't take care of himself anymore." He let out a tired puff of a breath. Balia felt frustration and anger rise in her on his behalf. She went over and gently took his hand. She should have felt the warmth of it through his gloves.

"I.... haven't expressed my feelings much about your Dad. Because he's your Dad and I have some... intense feelings about Dads not acting like... Dad's should. Given... my own blood father... But I'm going to say this now... I think he could take care of himself, he really wanted to. Losing someone you love is too painful for words. But so is being let down time and again by someone who you're supposed to be able to count on. His pain, doesn't justify him giving up on you and Mika. And that's what he did. He gave up on everything and everyone. And just because you're used to this doesn't make it okay. There's a point at which you have to realize that his choices, are not your fault. They're his. And choosing to do something good for yourself is not bad. Your wishes and needs are just as important as anyone else's." She watched his eyes watch her's. As if searching for something. As much as her empathic powers could help her guess things. People's thoughts were something she refused to read.

"Where... do you learn this stuff from? That nice Step-dad of yours?" Balia smiled a little, going up on tiptoe. She could smell the hint of smoke on him and the cologne as she leaned in to kiss him.

"No. I just pull this out of my ass." that got him to chuckle, and she thought it must have been somewhat because he never heard her swear. It was just so unlike her. But seeing Miguel smile was well worth it. She didn't think she'd ever feel this way about anyone again. It made her wonder... should she tell him now? She was an honest creature. And not telling him would be lying. It was... just hard to find the right time and the right words. And it was kind of dangerous for anyone to know.

"Okay. I'm ready to get out of this cold.. are you? We've got time before I have to-"

"Balia? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"Because you're crying."

"What? Why would I be crying I'm not-" there was a click. And then a sound that shattered her heart in pieces. The sound of muffled gasps and screams. Of crunching snow as someone hurriedly ran off. And another as Miguel sunk to the snow below them and Balia herself dropped to the ground beside him.

"Upset..?" Miguel's eyes were frantic and his face was pale. But not from the cold. There was blood in the snow and on his jacket. Blood on her hands as she tried to keep pressure on his wound. But it wasn't helping.

There were people standing around. Just standing there watching her struggle and scream on the inside. Someone was even recording with their phone, she heard someone snapping pictures. She screamed at someone to call for help. Get an ambulance, Anything! She wasn't a nurse.

"Miguel! Miguel stay with me! Please stay with me!" she begged. Balia could feel his life force slipping away, and yet she couldn't do anything! She had the power to make it all go away. To heal his wounds in an instant and save his life, but then her secret would be revealed. And she would never be able to have a normal life again. He might revile her and cast her off.

"Please! Please keep fighting! Mika needs you still Miguel! And I love you. I want to see you succeed! I want to help you and cheer you on as you live and thrive in your own life. I want to be a part of it- Please?" there was so much blood. So many people. Too many people. Too many emotions. She was fighting not to freak out and expose herself a different way.

His eyes were turning glossy. There was a rushing in her ears. His mouth was moving, but she couldn't hear what he was trying to say.

His eyes rolled back in his head and his breathe rushed out of his lungs. She didn't just cry, she keened. Trying to hold herself in as much as she could as her new hopes and dreams shattered around her in a million pieces. Though clouds were gathering and the people watching her were starting to burst into tears. Though they didn't know why. Didn’t know they were caused by the intense grief that a Goddess right in front of them was feeling.

Morganna was there. With her paw on her shoulder. Miguel's Pokémon were too. Balia'd failed them. She'd failed everyone. Mika, but most of all Miguel. She pulled his cold hand up to her tear streaked cheek

"Miguel... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I could have... I know I could have saved you..."

Balia awoke in her bed. There was the light on her nightstand. On like it always was. There was a folded up scarf next to it with a sunflower locket that needed a new chain. And there was Morganna in the doorway of her room. Rain was rapping on the windows and roof vigorously and Aragh was snoring at the foot of her bed.

[Bad dreams again?] Morganna asked as Balia got out of bed and reached for her robe.

“Yes... but also a memory.” she said, tone somber as she wiped at the tears on her face.

#deathyless #aresite #Miguel #Yamask!Miguel #Mika #Mika Mention #The Ghosts That We Knew #Oh It Gave me Such a Fright #You Knelt Beside My Hope Torn Apart #Decided to post this now #It's long

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demaury · 5 years

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the best of me (chap.4)

“If anything bad happens I flush the rings, I leave my bestman spot to Baz, and I fly back to Paris.“

OR. Eliott and Lucas have never worked up the courage to actually make a move, and thus spent years dancing around each other without ever acknowledging their feelings. However, an engagement party gone a little too wild, an hotel room and a very bad idea might be all it takes to make everything blow up. (read on ao3)

Actively avoiding Eliott wasn’t something Lucas was very good at, specifically because he hadn’t tried to do so in years. Even back in high school, his attempts invariably failed to the point where he had, at least on one occasion, literally slammed head first into him in the hallway.

Back then it wasn’t exactly serious. The only noticeable moment where he had tried was during the week following the worst double-date he had had to this day. Lucille was still in the picture at the time and Lucas had somewhat let himself be talked into spending an evening with Eliott, Eliott’s girlfriend, and the girl he was dating at the moment — Chloé. All things considered, he could have never predicted the outcome of that evening. He certainly hadn’t expected Eliott, sweet Eliott, funny Eliott, charming Eliott, bouncy Eliott, to constantly snap at his girlfriend all through the night, until he could just not take it anymore and was forced to fake an emergency situation to get the hell out of there — something about his back-then-roommate Mika forgetting his keys. It wasn’t like he held Eliott accountable for the shitty night per se, but it was just that he didn’t get what his friend was still doing with her considering he had told him once that their relationship wasn’t going anywhere anymore.

Other times had included avoiding Eliott as to not cross path with his philosophy-major-boyfriend, and occasionally Macha, but those times had never included avoiding Eliott’s texts. That was a brand new feature, apparently. Five of them had been piling up onto each other through the afternoon, but he still hadn’t read any of them. “Later” in his books generally meant “as late as possible”, which is why he indulged into typical tourism activities by sneaking his way in the little group formed by Imane and Nola — what he hadn’t planned, however, was that Manon would be here as well. He had been too caught up in losing his sanity to remember about the awkward run-in with Manon earlier that morning, and it was only when he realized she seemed too invested in their trip to the Sagrada Familia to care about his business that he started breathing a little bit better.

What he anticipated a little too late was that playing tourist in a big city like Barcelona all the while riding a hangover in the midst of summer was probably not be anyone’s go-to adventure while on vacation, for plenty good reasons that involved his headache and his general state of tiredness. He allowed himself a time-out far from the crowd on the forecourt of the basilica while the girls eagerly took a spot at the back of the line of visitors.

He was tempted to join them after a while — God knew he could use a little bit of fresh air at the moment — but his laziness highjacked that particular thought and he dropped it, staying put in the semi-shadowy spot he had managed to find outside. He hadn’t been to Church in years, and hadn’t even entered one since his mom’s funeral. Frankly? He had never been a true fan and years later he still very much wasn’t. It was gloomy. Impressive, even, in the kind of way that made his insides twist painfully and the hair rise up at the back of his neck.

“Who peed in your cheerios?”

His eyes darted up to meet Imane’s quirked brow, and he shrugged it off as he pocketed his phone. “Charming.”

“You sure look like you’re having a blast.”

“I don’t like churches.”

She snorted, then perched herself next to him. “But you’re an architect. Don’t tell me that visiting the-” she paused to read the brochure, “’one-of-a-kind temple’ and the ‘fruit of the work of genius architect Antoni Gaudí’ doesn’t sound like the kind of nerdy things you like?”

Lucas gave her an unimpressed look. “Do colonoscopies excite you?”

Imane shot him a squinty look. “Oh, okay, nice. What’s with the long face? We’re in Barcelona till tomorrow morning, you could at least pretend you’re enjoying it and keep the long face for another day, what do you think?”

He rolled his eyes and wiped a drop of sweat running down his neck. “I’m having the worst hangover of my life, is all. And I got a stroke yesterday afternoon when we were chilling by the pool so I don’t think you’d want to be in my shoes.”

“I never wanted to be in your shoes in the first place, but yeah, you’re right, I definitely don’t.”

He huffed, then adjusted the glasses up his nose. “Got any vacation plans for the rest of the summer?”

“Family trip to Morocco next month,” she said with a sigh. “Sofiane’s mom and mine are calling every day to make sure we’re still in. Honestly I’m about to lose my mind. Never thought that my family and Sofiane’s hitting it off would be such a pain in the ass,” she grumbled.

Well, that was at least one thing he wouldn’t have to worry about, he refrained himself from adding. It was one those thoughts that dampened the atmosphere when in fact it was really no big deal. Sure, sometimes he felt bad about his family situation, about not being in speaking terms with his dad, about his mom being dead and all, but it wasn’t like he could do something about it.

“The perk of being single,” he shrugged instead.

“How many are there?”

Lucas pondered the question. Well, objectively, it wasn’t that bad. He didn’t have to share his attention, he didn’t have to try so hard to make someone else’s schedule fit with his own, and he wasn’t stuck with a bad lay for boyfriend — it did happen before.

“I do what I want. Counts as plenty,” he shrugged.

“Now you just sound like a three year old.”

“And you sound just like Yann,” he retorted. “Celibacy isn’t a disease. Have you seen how Manon is thriving ever since she’s single?”

“Yeah but that’s because she’s got a thing for pedantic, controlling and slightly neurotic douchebags,” Imane waved. “You just like to sabotage your relationships.”

He gaped at her, offended. “What do you mean, I sabotage my relationships? I got cheated on twice, thrice if you count sending nudes to your ex while in a relationship!”

She sighed and shifted a little bit more towards him. “Are we doing this again? Frankly, Lucas, you don’t know what you want, and it’s starting to show. You got pissed at Kevin for dragging out making you meet his family and six months later you got pissed at Maxime because you felt like ‘meeting the in-laws didn’t just feel right at the moment’…”

“We were barely a month into the relationship,” Lucas interrupted.

“… You vetoed every single apartments you visited with Benjamin until he dropped the idea of the two of you moving together…”

“He didn’t make millions, how did he even plan on going through every rant?”

“… and then you got mad at Will because it didn’t seem like he wanted to stick around…”

“He ended up cheating,” Lucas snapped. “You can’t put this on me.”

Imane took off her sunglasses long enough to spare him a scowl, then she sighed. “Whatever things they see in you is beyond my understanding.”

The rest of the afternoon rolled around quickly. Quietly, in a way. The girls excitedly commented their trip inside the Basilica while they were getting ice-creams and they celebrated with a round of selfies featuring Nola’s fake engagement ring, that Alexia had made out of the neon-pink straw from her watermelon smoothie. Later they did some shopping in a gift shop before getting back to the hotel just as Lucas’ headache had gotten unbearable all over again — he was also positive he had gotten a sunburn on the back of his neck, which was the cherry on top, really. His only thought as they rode the elevator up to his and Nola’s floor was to fall flat on his bed and take a well-deserved nap before dinner — so much that he almost missed the moment Nola called him in the deserted hallway, once the elevator had gone to the last floor with the rest of the girls.

He turned a curious face on her and she seemed embarrassed for a second, tucking a strand of her sandy-blond hair behind her ear a couple of times. “You’re not- uh, you’re not mad about Yann proposing, are you?”, she said, sounding rather hesitant.

He frowned. “What?”

She took a step or two closer, a small crease between her brows indicating that she was sincerely worried. “I mean, you’d tell me, right?”

It was kind of a shitty position, if he was being honest at least to himself. What was he supposed to say? That he wasn’t mad about them being engaged while still thinking it was a shitty idea? “What makes you think so?”, he asked, hoping that his attempt at deflecting had been somewhat smooth.

It seemed to be, considering that Nola didn’t appear to notice. “I don’t know, you look a bit… grumpy, ever since you got here. And at first you gave your ticket plane to Alexia last minute, so it kinda looked like you wouldn’t come at all,” she confessed, then before he could say anything she rambled again: “‘Course, I’m not judging, I know what it’s like, to be completely overworked, because, you know, hospital life and stuff but-”

Lucas winced to himself. “Look, Nola, it really has nothing to do with you. Or with the wedding, or with Yann. Okay?” he smiled, perhaps a bit tightly. “He’s my best friend, of course I want him to be happy. I’m just a bit off and all that summer heat makes me sick.”

Nola pursed her lips a little and nodded. “Yeah. Okay, I’m just- I’m sorry.” She pulled a face. “I know I’m overthinking and all. It’s just that I’m always so busy, and I don’t have much time to hang out with all of you guys in the end. Meanwhile, Daphy’s always there and… well, even though I know Yann’s moved on from Emma, she’s just there all the time, just like Manon. So in the end the only one who isn’t there, well, it’s me… And you’re his favorite person on Earth probably.” She sighed and rubbed her arm nervously. “It makes me feel self-conscious at times. It’s stupid, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, really. I’m just- uh, I’m just gonna lie down a bit before dinner.”

She smiled encouragingly. “You’re right. You look a little pale. I see you later.”

He nodded and she walked past him with a small wave to get to her hotel room.

Once he found himself alone, Lucas searched his pockets to find the key to his own, which made it all the more difficult to ignore the fact that he hadn’t even checked his phone for the last couple of hours, because it was still opened on the conversation with Eliott, and that as soon as he’d unlock it all the texts he had not read since his “Is it later already?” from this morning would be marked as such. And since avoidance really was his only coping mechanism at the moment, he was just stuck being a coward.

He really needed to lay down.

Lucas didn’t know what was in the air tonight, or if there was anything at all going on in the first place, but right now he regretted leaving his hotel room.

Things were awkward. And not just regarding whatever situation he was in with Eliott. Thing was, he had expected that Eliott would say something about them not seeing each other all day. He had prepared himself for the puppy look™ and for the eventuality of being called out grumpily. What did he get? Nothing. When he started mumbling an half-hearted apology about napping and not seeing his texts, Eliott had shrugged.

“It’s fine. No big deal,” he had said as they walked inside the restaurant. Ever since, Lucas had been on the freaking edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was just something. The restaurant wasn’t the cause of anything weird happening, it was actually a rather nice place; they had two tables set on the terrace at the back, and they could make up the faint some of some jazzy music being played in a bar, a little further down the street.

The problem actually seemed to be within the group, for some reason.

The conversation was never picking up more than a couple of minutes on either end of the table, everyone going back to a kinda awkward silence in-between where you could just hear the silverware clicking against the plates. He couldn’t remember the last time something like that had happened — there sure had some hella awkward moments when Manon and Charles had gotten back together, but it had happened a lifetime ago. Usually at least Basile was up to entertain some kind of conversation, no matter how stupid it was, yet even him was oddly quiet. He was sitting close to the opposite end of the table from where Lucas was, but even from there he could see Daphné deliberately not talking to him, choosing to make conversation with Manon instead.

“What’s up with them?” Lucas enquired as he leaned towards Yann, who was sitting next to him.

He spared a glance and waved. “Don’t mind them. They’ve been in a crappy place for most of the afternoon. Apparently, Daphné’s real pissed about something.” He reached for his glass to take a sip of water. “For all I know in an hour it might be just good as new. Not worth the trouble to ask.”

Lucas let out a small snort. That was definitely an explanation, he thought as he went back to travel the food from one side to the other of his plate. It was a shame the heat and the remains of his hangover had put a lock onto his stomach because generally he liked everything that tasted a bit spicy and had shrimps in it, but right now he could barely bring himself to take a bite every now and then. A few seats away, Alexia was chatting with Eliott whenever he wasn’t entirely focused on whoever was texting him constantly since they had all sat down earlier. Lucas spared a casual glance in their direction when Eliott turned his phone for her to see some picture on display on an Instagram account.

Emma shamelessly peered above her shoulder. “No way, you scored the waiter from yesterday?,” she asked, eyes widening.

“Yeah”, Eliott shrugged casually as Alexia gave him back his phone. “I went back there to grab a drink this afternoon and we talked. He’s kinda cool.”

Arthur leaned forward, on the other end of the table, to get in Eliott’s visual field. “You do know that the concept of one night stands is based on the fact that there’s little to no conversations involved in the process, right?”

“Yeah, what happened to you being too romantic to bone someone at the back of a restaurant?” Emma snickered.

“I never said it’d be a one night stand,” Eliott snorted, shaking his head. He picked up his phone just as it pinged with another notification.

“And what do you plan on doing then? Bringing him back with you to Paris?”

“Sending love letters?”

Eliott fired another… whatever, text or comment or god knows what, then set his phone screen down on the table and picked up his fork. “Shut up, we’re just talking.”

Lucas bit back any mean comment he could make at the moment and tried to focus on his plate. The conversation soon drifted back onto more pressing matters, starting with their return to Paris the following morning. His attention was slowly but steadily wandering away when, in the middle of a few chuckles around the table, he heard Eliott’s voice. “Nah, I was just thinking about staying a couple more days.”

“Really?”, Alexia said, thoughtful.

“Yeah,” Eliott nodded. “I’ve got nothing urgent waiting in Paris, which is, like, number 1 perk of being between two jobs, I guess?”

“That’s cool. I kinda wish I could stay too,” Daphné sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “Maybe we should organize a little-”

“Don’t tell me you’re staying for him,” Lucas scoffed, cutting her off mid-sentence as he pointed at the phone from his fork. It seemed to surprise everyone, starting with Lucas himself.

“Why not?” Eliott retorted, looking back at him. “He’s hot and he’s nice.”

Probably if you liked dummies who spent half their time posting stupid pictures of their abs on Instagram. He didn’t even need to see the picture from earlier to know he was just typically that guy. He had dated one of those, and all he could gather from that experience was that all the fucking clichés were true.

“He’s hitting on you!” Lucas exclaimed. “Of course he’s nice! As soon as he’ll have boned you he’s just gonna move onto the next one.”

Imane huffed. “Wow, really classy Lucas, even coming from you.”

Suddenly everyone was staring at him around the table, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. “Oh come on,” he insisted, “it’s practically part of the job description, right Em?”

Emma shrugged. “He’s not wrong. I mean, if he were into me, I’d-”

“Whatever. I don’t need you to tell me what to do, in case you haven’t noticed,” Eliott bit back.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, you just don't go around falling for people you met twice! How can you be so immature?”

“Isn’t that a Disney song or something?”, someone mumbled, somewhere around the table.

“Right,” Eliott huffed dryly, “because you're such an example of maturity when it comes to dealing with your stupid emotions and your fucked-up relationships.”

“Oh yeah? And what about it?”

“Guys-,” Yann tried from the other end of the table, but he was cut off almost instantly.

“You know what,” Eliott snapped, “you're right, next time I should just get down on my knees three minutes after meeting them the first time, thanks for the tip.”

“It's got fucking nothing to do,” Lucas shouted. “This was a hook-up. You're just physically unable to do that and everyone fucking knows it, and guess who’s gonna have to deal with you being all depressed when you'll finally figure shit out, like all the other times?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Daphné intervened, “don’t act like you get to have an opinion just because you slept with him once!”

Lucas’ eyes snapped to her at the exact same time he felt the ground was opening under his feet to finally, finally swallow him up for good. There was a deafening silence as soon as the last word had fallen out of her mouth, and for a second nothing happened, as if everyone was frozen into place. He could feel Eliott’s eyes on him and it took him an extra-second to muster enough courage to meet them. Frankly? He wished he never did. There was a whole bunch of emotions packed in those stormy-grey eyes, but none of which Lucas had ever wanted to see directed at him — and worse, no trace of surprise whatsoever. Before anyone could say anything, Eliott grabbed his phone, and stood up in a loud scrap of his chair against the ground.

Alexia spun around on her chair. “El-,” she tried, but Eliott blurted a ‘don’t’ as he strode out of the terrace and disappeared inside the restaurant.

The silence around the table stretched out for a while, or at least Lucas thought so, until Yann’s voice made its way to his ears and finally redirected his focus back on something else that wasn’t Eliott’s empty chair. It was only then that Lucas registered that everyone was talking all at once, yelling even, except for Yann who looked incredibly astonished. Right now he didn’t even care.

He didn’t care how Daphné had found out.

He didn’t care that Eliott apparently knew already.

He didn’t care about Yann’s hurt expression.

He just needed to stop thinking for a hot minute.

Lucas shook his head, and stood up after throwing his napkin on the table, then he stormed out of the terrace by the same door Eliott had disappeared through.

#skam france #elu fic #mine #*#eliott demaury #lucas lallemant #new updateeee #i thought i'd never get this one right #hope you'll like it!#👀🤗💕#*tbom

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