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“A stupid, backwoods hick such as myself.”
Chains rattled. Unfamiliar-sounding pleas and begs came out of his mouth.
“...It seems I’ve sold you short. Why don’t we start over?”
Montresor smiled. It made him feel sick.
“Nice try, fancypants. But when you cross me, you don’t get second chances.”
Duke.
The muffled sounds of conversation from Will, Ada, and Montresor brushed past his ears and he once again tried to plead with them and Annabel Lee. Montresor couldn’t stop laughing.
Duke!
“For the love of God, Montresor!” he shouted.
“Yes! Yes, for the love of-”
“Duke!”
Duke shot up in bed, yelping in pain as his head immediately collided with something hard.
“Aie,” he muttered, rubbing his throbbing skull and looking around for whatever shelf had suddenly materialized above his bed, only to find Pluto stumbling back, hand on his head as well.
Duke lit his lamp, adding a glowing light to the room along with Pluto’s already-lit one.
“Oww…” Pluto groaned. Duke's eyes widened and he grabbed his dressing gown from its hook, slipping it on and getting out of bed. He wouldn’t have been able to go back to sleep, anyhow.
“Merde, de- sorry. Sorry, Pluto,” Duke apologized awkwardly.
Pluto’s head jerked up as if he’d forgotten Duke was there. “Hm? Oh, I’m fine. S’alright.” He looked at Duke anxiously. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“...Alright?”
Duke wasn’t used to nightmares. And he certainly wasn’t used to sharing a room with someone who gave a damn if he slept or not. Had he been talking in his sleep?
Hoping the answer was no, Duke asked with a forced grin, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Pluto still looked anxious. Merde.
“It looked like you were having a night terror…”
“Oh, that?” Duke forced another grin and laughed. “That was nothing, don’t worry.”
Pluto grew quiet, his eyes scanning Duke’s face in a way that made Duke feel like all his darkest secrets were suddenly on display.
“Was it… about the wall?”
Duke froze, searching too long for some lie that would convince Pluto he was fine and finding he was too tired to come up with anything, not to mention the fact his silence was telling enough.
“Ah… yes,” he finally mumbled. “But vraiment, I’m okay.”
Duke tried to get himself to muster up some sort of annoyance when Pluto hesitantly stepped forward and pulled him into a hug but found himself wanting to do nothing but melt into the smaller boy’s arms.
“Merci, mon minou,” Duke whispered into the top of Pluto's head as he wrapped his arms around his and buried his face in his roommate’s surprisingly nice-smelling hair for a dead person.
“...What?”
“Thank you,” Duke repeated in English, letting go of Pluto to run a hand through his own curly dark brown hair. “It’s nice having a roommate I can trust not to kill me at any given moment.”
It was meant to be a joke to lighten the mood- Duke was never good with emotions like this that he deemed bad- but Pluto winced at his words and looked down with something that could only be called guilt in his eyes.
Duke frowned. “Pluto.”
“Mmh.” Pluto fiddled with his thumbs. “Can I-” He took a deep breath. “I need to tell you something. So you can- can actually trust me.”
It might have been selfish, but Duke’s first thought was Eulalie. They finally started dating.
Of course.
“It’s nothing bad! Or- you might think it’s bad, but it won’t… hurt you. Or affect you, I don’t think.”
Duke tried to shake the idea his brain placed into his mind, but it was stuck.
He likes Eulalie. And she likes him back.
It wasn’t a far-fetched thought, judging by the nervous stuttering and the deep blush on Pluto’s face. He was telling Duke something he’d hidden- he probably thought Duke would make fun of him (he would- once he got over himself and forced on another grin), but wanted to tell him anyway.
So Duke could trust him. Really, Duke would have preferred to never get the confirmation in the first place. He trusted Pluto enough already.
But they were something, him and Eulalie, and Duke would be okay with what he was certain Pluto was about to tell him. (He was good at guessing this sort of stuff.)
(Of course, he wasn’t always as good at seeing what was coming when he was near Pluto, seeing as he was nowhere near as put-together or sensible when the smaller boy was around- not that Duke had any intentions of reminding himself of that).
He’d always said that jealousy was an ugly emotion, one he’d never felt before- and here he was just guessing what was about to happen and already feeling it stronger than he’d ever felt in his life.
He wondered if Lenore knew, if Pluto and Eulalie would start going around holding hands now.
Duke didn’t think he could take that.
He felt anxious at the thought, something he’d never felt in life for anything (or anyone), but something about his black haired-roommate made Duke, good-under-pressure, death-defying Duke, feel scared. A different kind of fear from being trapped in a wall, but fear nonetheless.
Duke hated it. It felt uncontrollable.
“D-Duke?” Pluto’s voice snapped him from his thoughts.
“Huh? Sorry, continue.”
Please don’t. Duke wished he could go back to ten minutes before when he’d just woken up, before Pluto stopped hugging him and started the conversation that felt like it was about to break Duke’s heart before it had even really started.
“Uhm, okay. Just…” Pluto picked at his nails. “It might surprise you. And it’s not… pretty.”
Duke forced another laugh. “Quoi? Eulalie est très jolie.”
Pluto’s somber expression was immediately replaced with one of confusion. “Eu- Eulalie? What about her? And she’s… trez jolly?”
Now it was Duke’s turn to be confused, and Dieu, he hated how quickly his mood lifted at the prospect of being wrong.
“Don’t you… like Eulalie? I assumed you were going to tell me you two were together.”
Pluto flushed a deep red. “I don’t want- I like someone- We’re just friends, really.”
He paused and brushed his pinkie against Duke’s for just a millisecond, pulling away immediately and coughing awkwardly.
“Don’t… worry. If-If you were worried!”
Duke grinned, practically feeling confidence seep back into his bones before remembering the reason he’d been worried in the first place. “Well, then, what did you want to tell me?”
Pluto took another deep breath, wringing his hands together. “You said you… trusted me, and I- I’m not really who you think I am. So.”
“...Minou, what’s wrong?”
Pluto fidgeted uncomfortably and accidentally (?) moved a bit closer to Duke. He opened his mouth to seemingly say something but quickly closed it and let out a tiny whine, shrinking into himself. For someone who was usually so anxious, he looked extra nervous at the moment.
“It’s just s-since you’re already getting nightmares from what Montresor- what happened to you, and I-”
Duke rolled his eyes. “Ohh, mon Dieu- Pluto.”He snapped his fingers in front of the smaller boy’s face to interrupt his obvious spiraling. “I’m sure… whatever it is you ‘need’ to tell me can’t be as bad as-” Liking Eulalie. Non, I think he likes me. “-As bad as what Montresor did.”
Judging by how much Pluto was practically shaking with anxiety at the moment, any talk of… whatever they were could be a conversation for another time.
“It’s my eye,” Pluto finally whispered after a quiet moment.
“Your-?” Duke inhaled sharply as his roommate pushed aside the bangs covering the left half of his face, revealing a long pink-ish scar trailing from the bottom of his forehead through the center of his eye. “Oh.”
Pluto quickly let his hair fall back down. “Just- before, Prospero saw, and I didn’t warn him. ‘Said it was ‘a ghastly scar,’ an’ all. I didn’t want you to be scared, too, or-”
Duke felt a wave of anger crash over him. “He said it was what?”
“...Ghastly?”
“Ohh la la, j’vais tuer cette petit connard-”
“Sorry,” Pluto mumbled, clearly not understanding Duke’s words, or that his anger wasn’t directed towards his roommate at all. “I- if you want to move back out, I under-”
“I- what- No!” Duke exclaimed, feeling a sudden urge to throw Prospero out a window and wrap Pluto up in every blanket Nevermore had to offer. “Do not apologize. I can’t believe he-” Duke sighed and massaged his temples. “Pluto, it's not ghastly.”
“You don’t have to-”
“I’m not lying!” Duke smiled, realizing any anger ha had was going to be misinterpreted and deciding Pluto needed cheering up. He was pretty good at that. “It looks dashing. And it gives you… character!”
Pluto breathed out a quiet laugh and Duke elbowed him gently as he continued.
“Prospero’s the ghastly one, really, for being such a- a-” Duke spluttered for an insult strong enough to use, making Pluto laugh again before growing quiet.
“Ah.. You can’t blame him. Bit of a jumpscare, when your roommate looks like… well.”
“Handsome?” Duke supplied.
“Ugly,” Pluto “corrected” with an eyeroll, obviously thinking Due had been joking.
“Well, I’ve been taking it quite well, so perhaps Prospero’s wrong,” Duke suggested.
Pluto shrugged. “I mean, he’s not the only one who’s said that. I know how it looks.”
He furrowed his brows angrily. “My father made sure of that,” he muttered quietly before slapping a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.
Duke stared in horror. “Your father did that to you?”
“N-no! Well, yes, but, I- that wasn’t what I meant!” Pluto stammered. “He would just… bring up the way it looked sometimes, you know? In a bad way, because it looks… bad… Really, he was helping me stay aware, I suppose… Duke are you alright?”
Duke wasn’t usually one to initiate hugs, but he’d never felt more sure a situation called for it, and Pluto certainly wasn’t going to ask for one, no matter how much he needed it.
“Listen, minou, I don’t know what happened, and you don’t have to tell me about it now, or ever, if you don’t wish to. But I certainly want to stay as your roommate.”
“Really?”
“I mean, the only other option is Montresor, so…” Duke ruffled Pluto’s hair, making the both of them snicker. “But even if that wasn’t the case, I would still want to, yes.”
“Pfft. Okay.”