Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He's clingy, he's loving, he always initiates
Callin' and touchin', it feels like just yesterday
He wanted all four of my personalities
Now I don't recognize this

“Louis, I need you to put your phone down and focus.” Lily, his best friend and manager instructed him. “We have three days until the award ceremony and your acceptance speech is one sentence long.”

“I’ll get to it, I just need to-” 

“No, no more refreshing your Twitter feed for a glimpse of Lestat.” She snatched his phone. “You dumped him, remember? ” 

Louis huffed and picked up his pen which barely touched the paper when he slammed it back down. “Can you believe his deranged fans are saying that he looks happier now? Happier because he’s not with me? What kind of bullshit is that? They’re all wrong, Lestat is miserable without me.” 

Lily just stared at him. When did her leveled headed best friend become like this? She knew the answer… Ever since he had the misfortune of meeting Lestat on the set of a project last year, he hasn’t been exactly the same. She really believed this break up could help him get back on the right track. 

“You dumped him,” she repeated, waving his phone in her hand. “Stalking him online isn’t going to help you move on.”

“I ‘dumped’ him 19 times before,” Louis stated so matter of factly it concerned Lily. “So the 20th is the straw that broke the camel’s back? He shouldn’t have done what he did.” 

Louis refused to believe Lestat was going to walk away from him. Lestat couldn’t live without him, he told Louis as much. He had half a mind to walk out his door and head over to Lestat’s condo halfway across Manhattan and make him beg to be taken back. But how was he going to leave here without Lily stopping him?

“Lou, I love you, I really do,” She breathed out. “But can we not think about Lestat until after the Oscars? You’re nominated for best lead actor at 25 years old! We should be celebrating that.” 

“You forgot Lestat’s song is nominated, too? He’ll be at the red carpet and I don’t think I can handle seeing him there…” With a date went unsaid, but heavily implied. “I would bash his head with a microphone.” 

Lily just stared at him completely dumfounded. 

“But if I just go to him now and take him back,” He reached for his phone and successfully got it back. “We can avoid all of that altogether. Doesn’t that sound good?” 

Louis put on his Prada shades and favorite baseball cap. Then wasted no time exiting his own condo. He could hear his closest friend’s quick footfalls behind him, which made him widen his own strides. But Lily had longer legs and they both reached the elevator at the same time. 

“No.” She covered the buttons with her hands.

“Lily,” he tried to pry her hands off the buttons to no avail. “Back off.”

“No.” She quickly turned and covered the buttons with her back. “Go back inside.”

“Just let me see him.” He gritted out. “Once he sees me, he’ll act right. He’ll remember how much he needs me.”

“Do you hear yourself?” She snapped. “You’re obsessed with him, Louis. You need to act right.”

“Okay, okay, fine.” He puts his hands up in defense. “Let’s head back.” 

Lily lets out a sigh of relief and they take three steps back in the direction of the condo before Louis side-steps her and bolts down the nearest flight of stairs. “Sorry, Lily!” 

“FUCK!” She shouts before rushing over to the elevator. It felt like an eternity before it dinged open. She hit the option for the lobby praying no one else gets in and slows her down. Her prayer is heard because she reached her destination without interruption. 

As the doors slid open she caught sight of Louis making a dash for the exit. 

Louis was so close to the revolving doors, he could feel the brisk New York March air on his face. He made his way to the other side when someone, Lily he quickly realized, tackled him to the pavement. “Ow, what the hell?” 

“You did this to yourself,” she huffed. “Now get up, so we can finish that speech.”

Louis groaned from his place on the ground, “Get off me first.”

“What do we have here?” said the voice Louis was dying to hear and the very same voice Lily prayed they never had to listen to again. 

“Lestat,” Louis tried to get to his feet gracefully. “You’ve finally come to your senses?”

Lily watched a version of her friend that was a full 180 from the man she was pleading with to Lestat alone just moments ago. 

“What senses are those, Louis?” the blond man questioned. 

“The kind where you beg me to forgive and take you back,” he crossed his arms over his chest. 

“You’re mistaken, cherie, I am here for my piano tuner.” 

“Your piano tuner?” Louis sounded as confused as Lily felt annoyed; very. 

“Oui, that’s what I said.” 

Lily watched her best friend’s discrete hope demeanor turn into an ice cold sneer. She could feel his temper threatening to spill over. 

“Can you go up and retrieve it?” Lestat’s smug face made Louis see red. 

“Can I go up and retrieve it?” He repeated. “Why yes, of course. I’ll jus’ walk my ass right upstairs for ya stupid fuckin’ piano tuner.” 

“Merci-”

“Get the fuck outta my face, Lestat!” Louis shoved him. “Don’t come around here any more.” 

Lily could hear people start talking around them.

“Did he say Lestat?”

“Omg that’s Lestat!”

“Louis, too.”

“Loustat public fight!” 

She stood between them, “Louis, let’s go, you're drawing in a crowd.”

“Louis…” Lestat’s voice trailed off. 

Lily ushered her friend away before he experiences another relapse in his favorite drug of choice; Lestat de Liocourt. 

Chapter Text

My man on his willpower is something I don't understand
He fell in love with self-restraint and now it's gettin' out of hand
 He used to be literally obsessed with me
I'm suddenly the least sought after girl in the land

It was a new day, not that Lily left or anything because that would’ve been too risky, and she called in reinforcements; Claudia who is undoubtedly the most honest person in their team. Who also doubled as Louis’ stylist. Louis was still holed up in his room when she arrived. 

“You don’t have to say a thing,” Claudia said, hanging up more custom tailored suits since Louis decided the look they chose months ago no longer worked for the event. After prying out the why, it turned out he and Lestat coordinated their outfits-both in emerald green. Lily didn’t argue and messaged Claudia immediately. Which brings them to the present. “I saw thirty different angles of what happened yesterday on TikTok. And Twitter. And IG. Oh and the news… Did you know TMZ is still a thing? I didn’t.”

Claudia was nineteen and exceptionally talented for her age. She also tended to ramble and typically Lily found it endearing but today too much was going on for her to find anything endearing. 

“Yes, I did know,” the manager shook her head. “But now’s not the time to talk about news networks that are long overdue for their cancellations.. Louis needs help and quick.”

“Yeah,” She agreed. “We should’ve stepped in after the third time they got back together or even sooner than that.” 

“I have someone coming in about 45 minutes to talk to Louis,” Lily took a sip of her coffee, not allowing herself to get caught up on the should’ve could’ve would’ves of it all. “We need to break the news to Louis before Dr Molloy arrives."

Claudia gasps in mock surprise, “Did you get your client a shrink?”

“No, I got my friend a therapist.” she corrected the younger woman. “Someone, a professional someone, to force Louis on the road to recovery.”

“You got a therapist for who?” Louis’ voice came from behind, making them both turn to face him.

“You, Louis,” Lily closed the distance between them. “He’ll be here soon and you need to be on your best behavior.” 

“I don’t need—“ 

“Louis, for your own sake, don’t finish that sentence.” Claudia cut in, already exasperated. “Accept the help so we can move on with our lives and careers.” 

Louis slumped into his chair and pulled out his phone. Lily didn’t need to see his screen to know he was on Lestat’s socials. “One session. That’s all I’m doing.”

“Thank you, that's all I ask,” Lily sighed with relief. “You’ll benefit from an unbiased point of view.”

Louis didn’t see why he needed a therapist. He could get Lestat to see the error of his ways all on his own. Yesterday went badly on Lestat’s part, Louis was willing to hear him out but his stupid rockstar had to say the wrong thing. He needed to come up with a new plan quickly.

Louis scrolled on his Twitter feed liking posts that centered around ‘Loustat’: posts saying they miss their sightings as a pair, edits, and memes. Unlike The Vampire Lestat’s fans, his supporters were very sensible. They didn’t spread misinformation saying shit like they ‘haven’t seen Lestat this free in a long time.’ What did they know? Nothing. Louis could see beneath that shiny attractive exterior, he was aching for Louis. 

It was after twenty minutes of scrolling, Lily approached him with an older man to her right. “Louis, this is Dr. Daniel Molloy. He’ll be leading your session today.” 

“It’s good to meet you,” Dr. Molloy extended his hand and Louis accepted. 

“Likewise.” He replied with a short nod. 

“Should we go somewhere more private?” The therapist asked. 

Lily thanked all her lucky stars that Louis insisted they hold the session in the living room with her and Claudia present. 

“So, Mr. du Lac,” the older man started with an even tone that could almost be described as bored. Almost. “Your manager here told me you’re experiencing some difficulties with a recent break up.” 

“We’re not broken up. Lestat plays games that’s all.” Louis corrected him with a half shrug. “Just Louis, please.”

Daniel wrote something down and Louis raised his brow. “Ah, games. What kind of games?” 

“You know, acting like he doesn’t want me. All this self-restraint is just petty.”

“I see,” his pen danced across his notebook again. “So, Louis, playing hard to get. Is that something he does usually?” 

“No,” Louis sighed. “The opposite actually. He used to never leave me alone. There wasn’t a second where I was alone with my thoughts. Every morning I’d wake up to my screen filled with messages from him.”

“How many messages are we talking about?” 

“A hundred.” 

Everyone in the room stared over at Louis in silent shock. Lily had questions of her own, but didn’t want to interrupt. 

“You’re telling me you used to receive a hundred notifications from this guy every day?”

“More like every hour,” Louis shrugged like it was a normal thing to experience 100 messages an hour from a significant other. “Text messages, voice memos, calls, video calls.” 

“That’s 2400 notifications.” Lily reached for his phone and opened iMessenger. Louis wasn’t exaggerating. No matter how much she scrolled up there were messages upon messages just Lestat himself. Her best friend would react to a few messages with an emoji. Just an emoji. What was this dynamic? “I try not to judge, Lou, but this is insanity.”

“Louis, mon cher, I was counting the hours until you woke… My sleeping beauty..” Claudia read with an obnoxious french accent. 

“Where did he find the time?” Daniel snorted. 

“He’d make time.” Louis didn’t like all this interrogation. “He liked doing it.”

“You liked getting them? I mean all that attention from your rockstar boyfriend must be nice.”

“No, not really. Not at first,” Louis let out a short laugh. “But Lestat insisted he’d be the first person I talk to when I wake and the last before I go to sleep. Then it just got familiar.. Hearing from him all day.” 

“Now you’re experiencing withdrawals.” Dr. Molloy concluded with such finality it almost made Louis want to lie and say: No, I don’t miss his stupid face or soft hair or mischievous eyes. But he didn’t want to lie, Louis wanted things to go back to the way they were.

“Yes. I miss him and those fucking hour long voice memos he used to send me at 3am while he was working on a song. I miss those blurry pictures Lestat sent when he saw something he thought I might like and they were so ugly. At the same time I wanna wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze until his pretty blue eyes pop out of his face.” Louis started and he couldn’t bring himself to stop. His words spilled from his mouth. “Lestat is nothing without me, and he needs to see that. I am going to make him mine again.”

For a few moments after that no one spoke. The only thing heard was the movement of Dr. Molloy’s pen against his paper. Then suddenly he snapped his notebook shut drawing everyone’s attention back to him. 

“After that monologue that rivals any James Bond villain there is no other way to put this.. I think you need serious help. It’s going to be rough but the more time you spend away from Lestat, I can guarantee you’ll improve.”

Lily watched as Louis’ face hardened, rising to his feet, “You don’t get and you’ll never get it, Mr. Molloy. Our love is real.”

“Your love is toxic.”

“Get out,” Louis sneered. “I knew I never should’ve sat with you.”

“Louis, don’t be rash,” Lily tried. 

“I have a speech to write,” Louis got up and walked back in the direction of his bedroom.