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Lucas was surprised to find that he wasn’t worried about people seeing him hold hands with Eliott as they walked into school. All he felt was pride. Pride in the way that Eliott reached for his hand without thinking, pride in how it felt to have people looking at them, pride in how he didn’t even care if people were looking at them because they were disgusted by them. Fuck them if they felt that way.
Lucas saw Daphné and Emma heading towards the common room a bit ahead of them and he froze. Eliott looked down at him in concern, probably wondering if he had freaked out about the fact that they had made it pretty clear that they were in a relationship. He burst into panicked laughter and gestured towards the girls.
“The foyer.”
Eliott nodded, clearly not comprehending. “You want to go to the foyer?”
“No, Eliott, the
foyer
. We just… left it like that.” Amusement and fear were mingling in his brain, and could be heard in his voice as well. Eliott’s eyes cleared of their lovestruck haze, taking in Lucas’ words.
“Shit. Should we try to stop them? Get there first?”
Lucas shook his head, at a total loss for any logical course of action. “We’re running out of time,” was all he said, watching the girls get closer and closer to seeing their beautiful disaster. Daphné and Emma were stalled for a moment, just as they reached the door, by Imane and Alexia, who had come from the other end of the building.
Gripping Lucas’ hand tighter, Eliott took his next steps at a run, pulling Lucas behind him. They made it to the foyer the moment Daphné went about opening the door, stunning the girls into silence. It seemed that Manon hadn’t told them about the new developments in their relationship, and Lucas wasn’t sure if they had seen his Instagram stories or not.
“Hey Lucas… Eliott…” Daphné said in surprise. “What are you doing here? Together? I thought you painted the mural with Yann, Arthur, and Basile on Friday, Lucas?”
Emma raised her eyebrows and looked between the two of them, even though they weren’t holding hands anymore. She had clearly seen his Instagram posts, though it seemed Daphné hadn’t. Lucas glanced at Daphné’s hand on the door handle, trying desperately to think of ways to keep her out of there. “I did… but we didn’t finish. Eliott’s more of an artist than any of us are, so I figured we should finish it together.”
“Well let’s see what you guys are working with,” Daphné said, trying to be helpful, opening the door before Lucas or Eliott could stop her. She walked in a few steps before freezing where she stood. Emma, Alexia, and Imane hurried in after her, surely wondering what had elicited such a reaction.
“Holy shit,” Alexia said under her breath. There was something that looked like admiration in her eyes. Imane looked at Lucas sharply, and he got the feeling that she had put together some pieces in her mind.
To be quite honest, the mural looked even worse than it had before Friday. Not only had they failed to cover the entire thing, but there were also large planes of mixed paint all over the wall in the shapes of particular body parts. In short, they were completely screwed.
“Eh, care to explain Lucas?” Daphné’s voice was still cheery, but Lucas could hear the strain in it. She was clearly doing her best not to freak out, much like he was.
“I’ve got a bad idea,” Eliott whispered in his ear when the girls weren’t looking, and before Lucas could answer him or Daphné, Eliott stepped forward and pretended to scrutinize the mural.
“What about this needs explanation?” Eliott asked in disbelief. “Obviously, there is inspiration from Jackson Pollock in the splatter paint technique. Then you can quite plainly see the Monet influence of impressionistic quality in the… other parts.”
“Other parts? The ass marks on the wall, you mean.” Emma tried to maintain a straight face, failing miserably as she turned to laugh into Alexia’s shoulder. Eliott scoffed, “Clearly you missed the point of the piece. The combination of abstract expressionism with impressionism is really powerful.”
Lucas had never loved Eliott more than he did in that moment. Even though he was pulling this analysis out of his ass, he sounded genuine enough that, if Lucas didn’t know why the wall looked like
that
, he might have believed him. Eliott shot Lucas a small smirk, which Lucas worried he wouldn’t be able to return without drawing too much attention.
“Oh,” Daphné said slowly, “I guess I didn’t realize you had put so much thought into it. It will look better when it’s finished though, yes?”
Lucas nodded, perhaps more exuberantly than necessary. “Yes, of course. You can’t rush art, you know?”
Daphné’s eyes were narrowed slightly, but she gave him a thoughtful shrug in response. Alexia spoke in a hushed voice. “I’m guessing it was Basile who put his ass on the wall?”
“What? No!” Lucas exclaimed without thinking. Emma raised her eyebrows, looking at the mural then back at him. “It must have been you, then. For one thing, it’s about your height, and for another, I know for a fact that it’s not Yann’s. I suppose the second one could be Arthur, it looks like it was someone taller.”
Lucas didn’t know how to respond, and clearly Eliott didn’t either. His bad idea had only worked to a certain extent, it seemed. Though it was better if the girls just thought they had outlined various body parts for the sake of art rather than what actually happened. He was pretty sure Imane knew the truth, but was endlessly grateful she hadn’t said a word about it.
“Good morning!” chirped a voice in the door. They all turned to see Manon arrive, bright smile on her face that might have looked more genuine if Lucas hadn’t known better. He still didn’t know what was up with her and Charles, but knew that it was nothing good. Her expression changed from happy to confused upon sensing the slightly uncomfortable atmosphere. “Is everything ok?”
Daphné was the first to snap back into the moment, face brightening once again. “Of course! Even better now that you’re here! We were just discussing the artistic intent of the mural. Don’t worry! It’s not done yet, I was worried at first when I saw it too.”
Eliott and Lucas exchanged a glance. Manon most definitely knew why the mural looked the way that it did. They never explicitly stated why they had been covered in paint, but Manon knew Lucas had been tasked with repainting the mural, even commented on his Instagram about it.
“Ohhhh,” Manon drew out the word, looking at the mural with wide eyes, “That makes more sense. I’d wondered how you two got so… messy.”
She shot Lucas and Eliott a sly grin, not realizing the implications of her words. Lucas saw the exact moment everything started to make sense in each of the girl’s faces and suddenly wished he and Eliott could rewind ten minutes and never come to the foyer in the first place.
Imane still looked unsurprised, which Lucas expected. She did look a little judgemental, though that was justified. Most people wouldn’t have done what they did in there; Lucas certainly never would have before Eliott. Alexia clapped a hand over her mouth and looked at Eliott, as if realizing he was there for the first time. Emma managed to look impressed, huffing out a disbelieving laugh and winking at Lucas, who chose to ignore her. Daphné looked utterly scandalized, causing Lucas to fight between feeling guilty and smug.
“You did not,” she said, voice deadly cold. Eliott opened his mouth, but no words came out. His usual confident demeanor had disappeared, leaving him looking a bit shy in a way that Lucas found extremely cute.
Daphné snapped in front of his face. “Forget about him. Look at me.” Lucas had no choice but to do as she said, trying to keep his face neutral. “Did you two fuck against the wall?
The common room wall
?”
“Well, you see--” Lucas stuttered before he was cut off by a whistle. Much to his horror, Arthur, Yann, and Basile were standing in the doorway, eyes on the mural. Arthur tipped an imaginary hat to Lucas, who tried to convey with his eyes that
now was not the time
. The boys were either oblivious or ignored him completely.
“When you didn’t respond all weekend I assumed something like this might have happened. Especially with your Instagram…” Yann trailed off appreciatively, coming to stand next to Lucas. Yann gave a surprised Eliott a polite nod.
Daphné’s eyes were alight with fury. “I cannot believe you! Is nothing sacred! You were at school, this is a
cultural space
--”
“Come on, chill out Daphné. They aren’t the first and definitely won’t be the last. Hell, I’ve done it here.” Emma shrugged nonchalantly, still looking more impressed than anything.
Daphné put her face into her hands. “But you didn’t immortalize your butt very visibly on the wall with paint, did you?”
“Well, no…”
“At least we know who the taller one is now though!” Alexia cut in. “We thought it was you, Arthur.”
Arthur put his hand to his chest. “That is the highest compliment I have ever received. My skinny ass has nothing on
his
.” He gestured vaguely to Eliott, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than there in that moment. Lucas couldn’t help but smile at his boyfriend’s shyness, grabbing onto his hand without thinking twice about it.
Everyone was eerily silent, staring between the two of them. As if Lucas’ tactile reassurance had rebooted his confidence, Eliott smirked, “What? Can’t I hold hands with my boyfriend?”
Manon met Lucas’ gaze briefly as if seeing how he would react. He couldn’t keep the smile from his face any longer, and he sensed her sigh in relief and happiness for him as the rest of the room let out shouts of excitement and approval.
“Now this is really unfair,” Daphné sighed sadly. “The hottest guy in school…”
“I know, I’m pretty lucky,” Eliott said, eyes on Lucas, though they were both aware it wasn’t him that she was talking about. Alexia even let out a small, “Awwww.”
“I promise we’ll fix the mural Daphy,” Lucas said sincerely. “We can come back this Friday if you want.”
“Oh no, no, no. You’ll fix it all right, but we need at least ten chaperones for the two of you.” She looked at them both pointedly. Lucas couldn’t help but laugh a bit as she continued, “Oh! Maybe we could make sort of a party out of it! Not like the Kiffance party, something smaller, more intimate. A cultural gathering.”
“That sounds perfect,” Lucas agreed, causing Eliott to whisper, “Kiss ass,” into his ear. He leaned into Eliott’s voice, resting his head on his shoulder and looking up at the beautiful face he got to kiss whenever he wanted to.
“They’re so cute it kind of makes me want to vomit,” Emma said to Manon, who laughed. Lucas shot her an unamused glare. “In a good way!” she amended, causing Eliott to laugh along with Manon.
This was what it was to live freely, Lucas thought. To be himself and to be unashamed. This was what he had spent so long being afraid of. It seemed so silly now, that he would have wanted to hide this. Things wouldn’t always be this easy, of course, but for now they were, and Lucas was the happiest he had ever been.