Chapter Text
Mardi 9:20
It’s only the second day of the new semester and Lucas is ready to give it all up to go live in Siberia and hibernate in some cabin in the middle of nowhere. His alarm didn’t wake him up, he had to shower with icy water (note to self: call landlord), leave the house with wet hair, then he almost missed his bus and didn’t even have time to have breakfast.
So Lucas had to cancel his morning coffee with his friend Chloé across campus to go to his first lecture. He’s not even a coffee person but he desperately wishes he could have some now. Lucas usually would laugh in anyone’s face who dare tell him he should get up even a second before he absolutely needs to and if this was any other week of the semester they might not have cancelled. But he has learned the hard way that he’d rather die than be late to any seminar’s first session:
Last semester Basile was kicked out of a seminar for showing up five minutes too late in the first week. The professor turned out to be a general douche, so maybe he just didn’t like Basile’s face and decided to take out all his pent up anger on him. But it was truly a sight to behold. Basile looked like a scared little puppy, sneaking backwards out of the room with his tail tucked in. After the session, he tried to talk to the lecturer again and apologize, but was immediately rejected without hesitation. When Lucas tried to jump to his friend’s help, it looked like the lecturer was a second away from kicking Lucas out, too, so he retreated. And then suffered through the whole semester on an inhumane workload while Basile sent him pictures of himself lounging around in bed because he got to sleep in.
And that is the story of how Lucas had to spend his first semester without Basile, who, even if he tends to annoy Lucas and their friends to no end, is still one of Lucas' best friends and also – conveniently – one of the few friends he has in the biology department.
Lucas walks as slowly as he possibly can, willing time to go by quicker. The previous lecture won't end until 9:30.
He enters the unfamiliar building and looks around. From the outside it's an old building but the inside must have been recently renovated. He's never been to this part of the university, the science buildings being across campus. He finds the right lecture hall and sits down on the floor next to the door, hearing dull noises from the lecture that is currently taking place there. He looks at his watch. 9:25. He really should have bought himself a coffee. He yawns loudly, not bothering to cover up with his hand.
Lucas looks at his cell phone and texts Basile.
Lucas: Already there, do NOT be late
Basile texts back seconds later.
Basile: I would never!!!!
Lucas sighs contentedly, stretching his legs out in front of him. As part of their studies he and Basile have to take a few seminars and lectures that don’t have anything to do with biology. So they chose media theory which seemed like a good idea at the time. Arthur, who studies French literature, told them that there are no additional requirements in that course.
He scrolls through Instagram for a while. There’s nothing new, or at least nothing interesting, a motivational quote from Daphné, a sunrise from Arthur, various posts by famous actors and musicians he follows, a few memes. Nothing exciting.
Lucas is on the verge of putting his phone away to pass the time by staring holes in the air when he receives a new push notification.
srodulv - journée 1
Lucas sits up. A broad grin spreads on his face without his permission.
Srodulv is the stage name of Eliott Demaury, lowkey one of the most beautiful men Lucas has ever seen. Yann, Basile and Arthur like to make fun of Lucas for being obsessed with a YouTuber of all things and Lucas absolutely resents that. Eliott is an artist, guys!, he has yelled on more than one occasion.
So maybe Lucas has a (small!) healthy crush on him.
He enthusiastically taps on the notification. He quickly gets his headphones out of his backpack.
The video begins with a time lapse, the main building of the University of Paris can be seen in the foreground, a tall old building with white marble columns in front of the steps that lead to the entrance. The camera is set up in the middle of the square, which, at first, is deserted, but slowly the sky gets brighter and more and more people appear, walk past the camera, walk into the building or stop and talk to each other in front of it. Eliott talks about the beginning of the semester in a short voiceover. Then the time lapse ends and the next clip is of a radiant Eliott walking down the street. It’s still dark. Eliott happily talks about his classes (without going into too much detail, he never does.) One of Eliott’s best friends, whom Lucas has seen in the videos before, is next to him.
“Sofiane and I are determined to upload more videos this semester. As you may know, Sofiane is my slave and always likes to drag all my equipment-“
Sofiane calls out a “Heey!” and slaps Eliott’s shoulder and Eliott just laughs.
“So we thought that you could just join us for the first week. We actually have all of the same courses this semester!”
“Woopwoop!!”, Sofiane shouts and Eliott laughs again. His eyes get all scrunchy, his gums visible.
“Hopefully we'll be able to post a video every day either in the evening or the next morning. So! Seven videos this week! I hope you are ready! We are definitely not!”
Then the clip breaks off and in quick succession Eliott has cut together moments that are supposed to sum up his day: A short clip from a seminar, Eliott and Sofiane drinking coffee, Sofiane filming Eliott eating his lunch, obnoxiously asking him if he can take a photo with him, other students waving enthusiastically at Eliott’s camera because they recognize him, Eliott standing at a bus stop, another time lapse from a Parisian street right at the bus stop (Eliott must have waited a long time), a tired Eliott on his way home, and finally a clip of Eliott drawing a raccoon stretching and yawning. He draws a speech bubble. The raccoon says, “Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow!” Then a big heart. His vlogs always end like this, a new small cartoon every time. Lucas is fascinated by how fast he turns a blank piece of paper into artwork. The credits roll, then the video ends.
Lucas first realizes that he is staring stupidly at his cell phone, smiling way more intensely than is probably socially acceptable, when the door suddenly opens beside him. People start leaving the lecture hall.
Lucas looks back at his phone, likes the video and quickly writes a comment:
lucament: That looks like a good first day! I'm looking forward to the videos :)
Nice, short, to the point, no fangirling. He is not like all the girls who probably only watched these videos because Eliott and his friends are hot, ok? At least Lucas convinces himself of that. Also he wants to appear calm and collected in case Eliott reads his comments – which Lucas knows he most likely does because Eliott isn’t famous enough to have his comment section be overrun by spam and trolls, thankfully. Eliott has almost 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, even more followers on Instagram. Eliott's instagram is varied: Selfies, little previews for his videos, but mainly, he made his following through those little cartoons, short relatable every day adventures of an adorable raccoon and its friends. Lucas feels understood.
Lucas has known for some time that Eliott goes to the same university as he does, but he has rarely recognized the buildings Eliott sometimes shows in his videos, because Eliott never seems to be in the science buildings and Lucas doesn’t have much to do with the media faculties. Now that he thinks about it, Lucas isn't even sure what Eliott studies.
“Lucaaaaas!” Lucas finally looks up from his phone and sees Basile running towards him. “You see? I'm not too late!” Basile raises both arms in the air and holds them towards Lucas. “High ten!”
Lucas rolls his eyes and indulges him. Basile cheers loudly and hugs Lucas briefly, only to push him straight towards the door.
“So I was just in the métro and I saw this woman. And she was like insanely hot. She was wearing like this black business suit and, like, heels that were, I swear, at least twenty centimeters. And obviously I didn’t do anything, but I swear, that woman was looking at me. We totally had a thing, it was insane. If i wasn't spoken for... dude. And then I almost missed my stop, right, and I was like fuck, no, I can’t do that to Lucas, so I ran and got stuck in-between the closing doors and, I swear, I’m going to have the most badass bruises on my shoulders tomorrow …”
Basile enthusiastically tells Lucas about his morning commute, and the professor, who is still standing in the front talking to a couple of students, gives him a dirty look. Basile ignores him and joyfully hops up the stairs and without hesitation heads to the last row and sits down. Lucas doesn’t like sitting in the last row. People who sit all the way in the back are almost as bad as people who insist on sitting in the first row. Lucas is a solid “I'm sitting in one of the middle-rows, a little to the side”-kind of man. Not directly in the field of vision of the lecturer and not so far in the back that he seems disinterested. But it's the first session, it's probably going to be very busy anyway and he does not want to argue with Basile about the optimal seating plan (at least not again).
While Basile is talking about heroically running to uni as fast as he could while being attacked by rabid pigeons, the last students leave and after a while the lecture hall slowly fills up again. Lucas “uh-huh”s whenever needed, but only half-listens to Basile’s ramblings.
They have to get up several times and let people into their row: the price of insisting on sitting at the side close to the stairs. Basile blames it on his weak bladder but Lucas knows it’s just so he can leave quicker when the lecture is over.
Just before ten o'clock – the hall is now full of people, there are only a few seats left – the professor finally comes into the room and it suddenly becomes completely quiet. Basile stops talking abruptly in the middle of his sentence.
Lucas gives him a puzzled look, Basile returns it.
“Please don’t tell me we've found another asshole who doesn’t allow people to talk”, Basile whispers, leaning back in his chair.
The professor introduces himself. Lucas checks his watch, 9:58. Professor Mathieu. Media theorist. Focuses on oral cultures before the invention of the printing press.
“I thought this’d be about, like, the discovery of television and we’d just watch a bunch of movies.” Basile’s voice is low and filled with dismay as he sees the lecture program. “We’re not even talking about the 20th century until the last session??”
Lucas rolls his eyes, but he admits, he would very much love to get up and run out of the room right away. "Maybe we should have read the course description," he sighs, resigned.
At that moment Lucas’ cell phone buzzes, lying on the slightly slanted table in front of him. At first he just wants to turn the phone around, give the professor a chance despite the disappointing agenda, and listen as he talks about mnemonic patterns. But then he glances at the notification and sees that it comes from the YouTube app. Eliott answered him.
srodulv: Merci!
Lucas has to pull himself together, not to make an ungodly sound. Basile would tease him until the end of time. He screenshots the notification, unlocks his phone and taps on the YouTube app to immediately like the comment (and maybe so the notification doesn’t disappear from the notification center, do not dare judge him).
“Are you okay?” Basile squints at Lucas display and he quickly turns the phone over.
“Hmm? Yes, yes”, he mumbles to himself and looks forward again.
Professor Mathieu is talking about the academic essay that all those who want to attend the lecture must write. A session log of any session the students connects with that needs to be connected to a relevant text that is not part of the course reading list. With footnotes. Five pages. Lucas feels like running out of the hall again, and it’s not difficult to see that a lot of the students feel the same way. Basile groans the loudest.
“I’m going to murder Arthur”, he whispers under his breath.
Just then the door of the hall opens and someone hesitantly enters the room. He is tall, skinny, wearing a brown bomber jacket, dark jeans, a giant backpack. His hair is brown, messy and looks chaotic in a way that must be intentional. Something Lucas can’t say about his own hair. But most importantly, it’s Eliott.
Lucas can’t take his eyes off him, watches as Eliott closes the door behind him as quietly as possible, gives the professor, who completely ignores him, an apologetic look and then scans the hall for a vacant seat. Lucas looks away quickly when Eliott seems to be looking in his direction. Although Eliott, of course, doesn’t know who Lucas is and probably wouldn’t even recognize anyone in the sea of faces if he wanted to. Finally, Eliott finds a seat a few rows in front of Lucas, slightly in the middle. The professor finally does give him an annoyed look as some students have to get up to let Eliott through. Eliott lowers his head, sits down quickly. Lucas can only see the back of his head, but over the next ten minutes he watches as Eliott slowly takes off his scarf, then his jacket and finally takes a notebook out of his bag to make as little noise as possible.
Basile is already playing a game on his phone, ignoring the lecture, completely resigned, and ignorant of Lucas’ predicament.
Because every chance that Lucas had to focus on the lecture is now completely lost. Lucas stares at the brown haired head not far in front of him, sees that Eliott takes notes every now and then, sees that Eliott actually listens.
The lecture feels about ten hours long and Lucas is almost grateful, soaking up every second that he can stare at Eliott.
Mardi 11:30
When the lecture is over, everyone starts to clear their things off the small tables and the first students leave the hall, Lucas is almost sad. Basile has long jumped up and is on his way down the stairs. Lucas is glared at by the students next to him because he’s obstructing their way to freedom. Quickly Lucas jumps up, grabs his backpack and goes to stand next to the wall. Eliott is gone, the row he was sitting in almost empty. Lucas looks around. Basile is standing at the bottom of the stairs, waving his hand to him, and Lucas gives him a subtle wave, grateful that he can pretend like he was looking for Basile.
“That was the biggest waste of time”, Basile says, "I can not study biology and be forced to read texts about people who can’t talk! What does that have to do with anything?”
Lucas grunts in acknowledgment.
Lucas and Basile leave the hall. Lucas automatically turns right to get back to the main entrance – and stops dead in his tracks.
There, just a few meters away, stands Eliott. He has a small camera in his hand and holds it in Lucas’ direction. The moment Lucas’ legs finally allow him to continue walking, Eliott looks up from his display and their eyes meet.
Lucas tries to hide the panic that instantly heats him up. He walks on, risking a quick glimpse at Basile, but he stands off to the side and is busy staring at his cell phone, talking to Daphné if his face is any indication. Lucas’ eyes swing back towards Eliott. Should he say something? Smile? Tell Eliott he likes his videos? He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.
It feels like hours, but only a few seconds pass. Finally, Lucas can make the muscles in his face contort into something that hopefully resembles a small smile.
At the same moment Eliott opens his mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t film you, not you in particular, just the …” He wildly gestures towards the door. “I can delete it immediately if you want.”
Lucas is confused, not in his wildest dreams would he have thought that Eliott was filming him specifically. Why would he? “No, no, ‘s all good”, he laughs. Is he talking too loudly? Lucas blushes, looks towards Basile again. “I didn’t think you were…”, Lucas says. “Nice to meet you, I have to…” Lucas gestures vaguely in Basile’s direction.
Eliott grins broadly, his eyes are slimming, dimples forming on his cheeks, teeth so white Lucas might be blind now. Lucas desperately hopes his thoughts aren’t reflected on his face.
Before Eliott can say anything else, Lucas sets in motion and flees. He speed walks past Basile who doesn’t notice him and only stops when he reaches fresh air.
His thoughts are racing, he’s warm and cold at the same time. This is definitely not how Lucas had pictured his first meeting with Eliott.
Eliott had started posting videos at irregular intervals four years ago, when Lucas was 16. In the beginning they were short, sometimes just minute-long videos – aesthetic images of forests, sunrises, tourists at the Eiffel Tower, illuminated buildings at night, set to the tune of atmospheric-melancholic music. The recordings had filled Lucas with love for his hometown, had made him feel less alone – how could he feel so lonely, so alone in a big city where he has lived his whole life when he is surrounded by so much beauty?
Over the years, Eliott's short, randomly edited videos changed. They turned into full-blown short films, the video quality got better, so did the cinematography and the plots, and after a while Eliott himself appeared more often. While he was never seen at the beginning, and he always left the acting to other people for his shorts, his monthly vlogs are now (and Lucas would never ever confess this to anyone) the highlight of each month. They appeared, mostly, out of nowhere. Sometimes there was a vlog on the first of the months, sometimes on the last, sometimes randomly in the middle of the night on a Thursday. And these vlogs are never very personal, more of an update on Eliott's projects:
Eliott talks about the struggles of editing his new short film, how he’s doubting his vision. (Lucas wants to hug him so badly when he looks unhappy, which he does more often than not in these kinds of videos, when he's not surrounded by his friends, when he's not sticking to a script.)
Sometimes the vlogs incorporate excerpts from his lectures. Eliott always turns the camera on himself and makes a face to show off his boredom. (Of course, Lucas did not screenshot those moments to be able to look at them anytime, and they do not always put a big smile on his face, absolutely not.)
Sometimes the vlogs include funny little skits that aren’t worth their own videos. (Eliott is funny. Lucas thinks it should be forbidden by law to look this good and be funny.)
And of course, Eliott’s videos are full of other people, Eliotts friends: Eliott and his friends on the way to college, Eliott and his friends in a café, Eliott and his friends in a club, Eliott and his friends smoking possibly illegal substances.
Lucas needs to calm down.
So, when Basile still hasn’t come out after a few minutes, Lucas picks up his phone and texts him.
Lucas: Where are you? Next class starts soon, omw across campus
Basile doesn’t answer right away, so Lucas sets off alone. Out of sheer habit, he gets his headphones out of his backpack, turns on some music, and he almost immediately feels calm.
He has almost arrived at the science building when he gets a text from Basile.
Basile: I was waiting for you, did you just leave without me??
Basile: But look who I just met! Told him my friend Lucas would FREAK OUT if he met him hahaha
Basile attached a picture and Lucas stops dead in his tracks. It's a selfie. Basile looks into the camera, eyes wide open, mouth twisted into an O, as if in surprise. In one hand he’s holding the phone to take the picture, the other points at the man next to him. Lucas looks at Eliott’s smiling face and Lucas hates it.
He would like to strangle Basile.