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Lestat is a liar.
A dirty rotten liar… that lies. He knows this… He is shady. He has secrets.
And for many years he has been able to keep one particular secret locked away– Okay, fine… for many years he has kept LOTS of secrets locked away. Particularly from those closest to him. (Most specifically, and importantly, Louis. This is all besides the point.)
Regardless… This dreadful secret has finally caught up to him in a most unfortunate manner, it seems. Suspended about five feet above the floor of the hotel room Louis had booked for them. Frustratingly only moments before Louis is due to arrive.
And he will find him here, frozen in the air, and he will surely have questions. Questions Lestat can probably avoid— give his most devastatingly seductive smoulder, take Louis by the hand… and then what? He very well can’t bring Louis into the air too… that would only create more questions. And he very well can’t come down. Not until he knows that the filthy evil little creature is gone… and that would require him knowing where it has even gone in the first place.
Which leaves him no other option but to remain where he is… and wait for inevitable, complete and utter humiliation to arrive in the form of one Monsieur Louis de Pointe du Lac.
—
Louis is unaware he is humming as he makes his way through the hotel lobby until it is pointed out to him by the girl at the front desk. “You seem to be in quite a good mood, sir,” she says with a cheeky little grin, as she hands him a key to the room. He wonders if she is the one who gave Lestat his key. He wonders if gears are turning in her head; dots connecting, sense being made of why might be about to go on in room 1301 once he gets up there.
He only gives her an equal cheeky grin back, and a wink, tapping his key card on the table as he wishes her a goodnight. The girl giggles and returns the sentiment, teasingly adding how she truly hopes he enjoys his stay.
Louis leans himself against the wall of the elevator as it ascends. Takes the brief moment to adjust his cuffs, and his collar. Smooth down the front of his shirt, and take a few steadying deep breaths. Always nervous— more than a century passed and he’s still always nervous meeting with Lestat, as if it’s the very first time all over again.
The elevator doors open and he steps out. Just a short walk and he will be there. They will be together again. After such a long time apart. (It’s only been a few weeks and they have called nearly every night between… regardless—)
Louis listens. Waiting for the beating of Lestat’s heart to reach his ears. Waiting for his own to sync with it. But when he finally does hear the familiar thudding… it’s fast and panicked. This causes Louis to speed the remaining steps to the room door. He smacks the key card against the sensor until it finally registers and throws the door open to find—
To find Lestat levitating in the center of the room.
He is not stretched out in a standing position. He is sitting (but on air) legs pulled up to his chest, and a look of— Louis isn’t sure if the look on Lestat’s face is one he’s ever seen before. Humility, perhaps.
Lestat swallows, licks his lips and says, “Hello, Louis.”
“Hello?” Louis repeats back, and Lestat nods. “Les… what are you— why are you—” He sighs. Because it’s really always something with Lestat, and he means that as affectionately as humanly possible.. but he means that nonetheless. “Why?”
“Well. You see… I just—” Lestat fidgets, causing his body to wobble in place. He dips a little lower, and immediately rises back to the previous spot. Louis can feel a brow arching, his stare hardening in confusion. Lestat sighs. “There was— o- or, well… there is– somewhere; though I’m not sure where– a… s- spider.”
—
Louis blinks up at him from the floor.
Lestat wonders if he can use the levitation— higher altitudes or something of the sort— as an excuse to why his face is most definitely turning bright red. He can feel it in the way his face feels like it’s on fire; like he is not only staring at the sun… but pressing his entire head right into the cursed death star.
“A spider?”
Lestat hesitates, and contemplates redacting his admission and lying. “Oui,” he confirms instead.
A long pause. A few more slow, taunting blinks as Louis stares at him with the oddest look. “Okay…” he finally says. “And?”
“And what?! You ask why I am… up here. I have told you. What more should I—”
“W- Wait,” Louis interjects, and damn him Lestat sees his lips twitch the slightest bit upward. “Wait wait wait… are you—” Lestat tenses his jaw, and waits for the humiliating blow. “Lestat are you afraid of— of spiders?!”
And Lestat wants to snort and laugh and chortle… and cycle through all the other forms of how one expresses humor. But Lestat feels so silly now, with Louis here, staring up at him, fighting off his own laughter. It’s like all the pride drains out of him— “Ou- Oui…” he quietly admits.
Instantly the look dissipates from Louis' face. “Hey, Les… it’s okay, you know. It’s okay to be scared of—”
“Oh my god, please do not repeat it again!”
Louis quickly throws his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay…” he says softly; kindly, even. “But baby… you have to come down.”
“I cannot come down Louis! It’s—” he sighs, because well it’s still so silly! “It’s g- gone! I lost sight of it and— and I can’t—”
“So… you’re going to just stay up there? All night?”
“I— No. I don’t know,” Lestat pulls his bottom lip between his teeth and contemplates options.
All options, however, swiftly go out the window when he looks back to Louis, and find him staring— not at Lestat, past Lestat. Up at the ceiling. “Uhhh… Les– Lestat. You need to come down. Now.”
Lestat feels his brows knit tightly together. “What is it Mon Cher? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s not a ghost…”
And. Oh. Oh…
—
Louis will tell Lestat later that he resembled a spinning disco ball, or a sparkly piñata after being violently swatted— the way he frantically twirled midair when he looked up to see the spider above him… just as the spider fell right onto his face, before quickly darting into his mess of untamed blond locks. Louis thought he was going to claw his own scalp off.
As he runs his fingers through the since washed (rewashed… and then rewashed AGAIN) curls, he thinks he might feel some spots that he may have clawed some of it off. A soft, affectionate smile spreads across Louis face and he moves his hand down to Lestat’s shoulder and tugs him just a little closer.
He’s asleep. Finally. And the spider is (hopefully) somewhere far, far away.
The spider could have been eternally far away but once Lestat had managed to fling it out of his hair, right into the path of Louis’ waiting foot, he had a change of heart and requested it just be taken out of the hotel room, not taken of existence. And Louis has never liked senseless killing… he was not going to pass up on a time of Lestat not wanting it either.
He grabbed a glass (Lestat pouted that it was one of the glasses he’d brought for wine, but he waved his hand nonchalantly and allowed Louis to use it anyway) and a piece of paper, and upon closer inspection… the spider was fucking massive. He will give Lestat that.
Louis shuddered as he scooped it up, and took it outside.
When he returned to the room he scooped Lestat up, and took him first to the bathroom, then to bed, where he held him– kissed him and assured him he was now safe… always safe with him– until he fully calmed down and finally their hearts were back to beating in sync.