Work Text:
In the spring of 1962, they purchase a greystone in Chicago.
The city's animated night life, as well as the recent change in legislation, attracted them. It has two extra bedrooms, one which they furnish to serve as the guest room. For a few months, only a wooden cabinet occupies the spare, where Louis puts Claudia’s diaries on display.
Armand doesn't mind. He had no plans to use it for anything else.
Louis goes in and out often, hands always hidden behind his back or cupped around something small and secret. They don't discuss it. One night, he leaves the door cracked open in his hurry to meet a client. Armand, helpless against his own curiosity (or stupidity), peeks.
Pristine white gloves resting atop the cabinet. Shining loafers, not yet broken in. A red dress laid out, with gilded buttons and a high collar.
He softly pulls the door shut.
It's confirmation of what Armand already knew: that Louis thinks of her often. That he’s waiting for the day she walks through their front door and tries those clothes on and nods at herself in the mirror.
Armand is content to wait by his side. However long it may take.