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Language:
English
Series:
Part 3 of I guess I like writing Lawrence/Tedesco
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Published:
2024-12-18
Completed:
2025-01-06
Words:
1,677
Chapters:
2/2
Comments:
30
Kudos:
285
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31
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1,824

Change with the times

Summary:

Tedesco wasn't always the vaping cardinal (until he was)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

No matter how many years go by, Tedesco always excels in finding Lawrence in forgotten corners of the Vatican. Even when Lawrence slips away from the crowd to try and hear God’s voice. Especially then, in fact. 

“It really has been a while, Sec- that is to say, Dean Lawrence.” Tedesco could not, in fact, have forgotten Lawrence’s title. The man is a polyglot, with an encyclopedic knowledge of decades’ worth of grievances. He knows precisely who Lawrence is. He always has. 

“I have been Dean for years,” Lawrence says.

“Ah, yes. Well.” Tedesco shrugs. “It wouldn’t be my primary complaint with the Holy Father, but I have missed your visits as Secretary of State. His Holiness has clearly decided to hoard you to himself and inflict Cardinal Bellini on the rest of us.” 

“Cardinal Bellini has been a worthy successor.” 

Tedesco lets out one of his more enigmatic laughs. It implies some sort of hostility- it always does- but Lawrence is too tired to try and decipher it. Then Tedesco pulls out a vape pen. Lawrence blinks once or twice to make sure his eyes aren’t lying to him. The pen is red because… well, of course it would be. 

In the past, Tedesco always struck Lawrence as someone who took up smoking just to have something to do with his hands. As Secretary of State, Lawrence would silently note how many minutes it took before Tedesco would clean his glasses, or open a letter on his desk, or wind his rosary around his hand. Tedesco’s clear favorite, however, had always been lighting a cigarette while making eye contact with Lawrence.

“That’s new.” 

“Not really. I’ve had it for… hm, half a year at this point? I like it. Less messy than cigarettes.” 

“Quite a lifestyle change, though.” 

“Well, am I not constantly being told to change with the times?” Tedesco sucks on his vape, exhaling smoke through his nostrils. There’s a berry-like scent that Lawrence can’t place. 

“What is that? Strawberry?” 

“The packaging said pomegranate. I’m not impressed by it. Then again, I’ve never been impressed by pomegranates.” Tedesco returns to his vape again, this time breathing smoke that drifts right into Lawrence’s face. He resists the urge to bat it away like a flustered child. 

“Then why did you buy it?” He asks, as though nothing had ever happened. 

“I choose to live in hope, Tomaso. Do you want to try it? I value your opinion.” 

“I know you do.” 

Lawrence also knows that Tedesco has settled on a script in his head. He’ll offer a hit off the vape and Lawrence- courteous, conciliatory, placating Lawrence- will refuse. Preferably while making a slightly appalled expression.  Lawrence grabs the vape from Tedesco and takes a hit from it himself. And, strangely, he understands the appeal for a millisecond or two. He breathes in and in, and his mind clears of thoughts. He might be able to speak to God again. 

Then Lawrence must exhale. The smoke doesn’t taste like much of anything to him. 

“Hm.” Tedesco just watches him, his face unusually blank. He holds his hand out, and Lawrence passes the pen back. Tedesco looks down at it, like he’s weighing whether to go back to smoking with it. 

Are you really that afraid of second-hand kissing me? Lawrence thinks. And very nearly says. 

Tedesco laughs again, but it’s really just his badly-disguised frustrated huffing. Lawrence is never confused by it. Tedesco pats Lawrence on the shoulder. 

“I’ll try to get your title right from now on, Dean.” 

Chapter 2

Notes:

what if I just use this to stash short fics with tedesco interacting semi nicely with people? what if?

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Soon after emerging in the papal vestments, their new pope takes a page from the late Holy Father’s playbook. Namely, Benitez makes a big show of his humility by refusing to receive pledges of loyalty from the papal throne. Instead he waits at the altar, embracing each cardinal in turn, speaking too quietly to be overheard. Every time Benitez threatens to speak too loudly, he’s overtaken by birds chirping through the broken windows. Tedesco half expects a dove to land on one of Benitez’s shoulders. Just to complete the nauseating tableau. 

Tedesco waits and waits, resisting the urge to take up his pen and carve right through the remaining ballots. He’d really thought they were going to use them all; it was going to be him and Lawrence. They were going to be at this for days on end before one of them pulled through. Tedesco wanted to win, but he wouldn’t have minded being a thorn in Lawrence’s papacy for years to come. 

When Tedesco’s name is called, he’s a little surprised by how sturdy Benitez appears. At the last conclave, the late Holy Father had looked a bit fatigued after the interminable meet and greet he had ordered. The man shouldn’t have been so surprised. Yes, it had all looked very egalitarian. But also, yes, it had to have been draining to come up with bespoke words of comfort for every man that approached. 

Then again, Benitez had proven to be very good at speaking extemporaneously. So maybe this isn’t draining for him at all. 

Tedesco kneels to kiss Benitez’s ring (still Benitez’s cardinal’s ring, but that would change in a matter of days), and their pope isn’t humble enough to stop him from doing it. But then he pulls Tedesco to his feet and embraces him. The room is silent, anticipatory. It reminds Tedesco of lions stalking their prey in nature documentaries. 

“Your Holiness, I think half of this room expects me to punch you in the face.” He whispers this  in Spanish. It was comprehensible to a number of their brethren, yes, but they’d be using their knowledge of other romance languages to decipher it. If they wanted to be busybodies, well, they would have to earn it. 

“Do you plan to do so?” Benitez says, smiling faintly. He’s speaking in the same language, his voice hushed as well. 

“Of course not. I just wish I could smoke right now. It’s been a long day”

“I wouldn’t mind if you did.” 

Tedesco scoffs. “And have everyone scuttle off to the press and speak off the record about how I blew smoke right in our new pope’s face? No, thank you.” 

“I don’t think you would do that.”

“Yes, but that’s what they would think they saw me doing.” It’s something Tedesco would do, after all. Just not to their pope. The Holy Spirit had guided their hands as they voted, so God meant something by Benitez’s election. Only time would reveal the exact nature of God’s message. 

“You went from smoking cigarettes to using a vape, yes?” Benitez doesn’t wait for a confirmation. “I always worry that people with vapes find themselves unexpectedly isolated. Offering cigarettes is a great way to break the ice and find reasons to linger with someone.” 

Tedesco just blinks. He tries and fails to find fault in what Benitez just said.

“Is that to be a part of your papal agenda? Remind the faithful to return to their cigarettes? Please say so when they introduce you on the balcony, then. It will cause a sensation.” 

Benitez laughs, and Tedesco is inexplicably proud that he’s the only cardinal that’s made their new pope laugh during this long, tedious process. 

“No, no, no.” Benitez sighs and his expression turns inward. “No, I need to tend to the wounded and the dead. That’s my first priority.”

“Right. Yes. Of course it would be.” 

It could be so easy- in the face of disappointed numbness- to forget what had just happened. But then Tedesco listens to the wind wafting into the Sistine and remembers why they’re here, why the conclave is ending like this. He can sense that Benitez is remembering, too. 

“Well,” Tedesco says, “you’re clearly better suited to that particular task than I am.”

“But…?” 

“But eventually the dust will clear.” Tedesco resists the urge to brush some of it off his robes. “Right now people need to be treated in hospitals, the streets need to be cleaned, the faithful want steady words of comfort and so on and so forth. Pretty straightforward tasks. Eventually more complex tasks will be expected of you.”

Benitez’s expression doesn’t change. “And are you someone I can count on to provide clarity and support in such moments?”

“Oh, your Holiness. I have never been faulted for keeping my opinions to myself. If you want guidance I’m only a phone call away.” 

“Then expect to hear from me. Even if we end up disagreeing, I would prefer to have a cooperative relationship.”

“I can tell that you do.” Tedesco tries to sound sardonic, but he almost sounds admiring to his own ears. 

They stare at each other for seconds that feel like minutes. Like hours. When Benitez had had his little chat with Tremblay, Tedesco could have sworn he saw Benitez mouth the words ‘ I’m sorry it ended up this way .’ If so… does Benitez dislike Tedesco so much that he refuses to offer consolation? 

Or does he (rightfully, it so turned out) understand that Tedesco would see it as pity? 

“I should have spoken to you in Spanish more often,” Tedesco blurts out. They’d made small talk in the dining hall, while waiting for buses. Always in English. Benitez’s voice had sounded insubstantial and wispy, like it had been created from incense smoke. It had been enough to make Tedesco dismiss the man as a potential threat. He realizes, now, that he should have paid more attention to Benitez’s blessing over their first meal. 

“Why do you say that?”

“You just get a better sense of a person when they speak in their mother tongue.” 

“And how do I come across?”

“How else? Strong, determined. The qualities of a leader.” Tedesco shrugs, like this means nothing. Like every member of the curia is as persuasive and unflappable as their new pope.

“Thank you, your Eminence.” 

Benitez- Innocent- embraces Tedesco once more and then they part. Tedesco returns to his seat even more confused by Innocent than he had been before approaching the altar. 

Notes:

in the book Benitez really does do a meet and greet with every cardinal after putting on the papal vestments. oh to be a fly on the wall when he talked with Tedesco...