Closed Mon Amie

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis returned from the pitch after an extra practice he had taken by himself. The latest Gryffindor practice had been a bit embarrassing, as he had missed several goals. Louis had decided today was a good time to work on his aim. He hummed to himself as he headed back to the castle. He decided to sit down in the sunlight for a bit, there was no rush to return to the school. He dropped down onto the grass and sighed softly, closing his eyes briefly. He knew he couldn't stay out here very long, he would have to go back and get out of his sweaty Quidditch robes. But for now, he could take five minutes.

 

[Rene Tofilau]

Rene had been headed back to the pitch, too restless about the upcoming finals to sit still, and decided he might go ahead and check the team brooms one more time. Apparently he never knew when someone was going to be messing with them...

He slowed when he spotted Louis, peering down at where he was sprawled on the grass with a bemused smile. "Working hard or something, aye?" He asked, giving Louis' leg a gentle kick.

Honestly, things had been a little tense with Louis lately, and not just because he was about to face his team out on the pitch. "Surprised you have time to practice, thought you'd be going out on dates and stuff," he said a little more pointedly than he'd meant to, crossing his arms.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis grunted as René kicked his leg, opening one eye to look at him. He weakly kicked back, but didn't really try and missed anyway. He sighed, sitting up a bit and running a hand through his hair. He was glad it was René who was approaching him instead of Caleb. At least things with René weren't weird, he knew where he stood. They were friends like always. At least... that was what he thought. Louis frowned at the tone René used when asking him about dates. He blinked at his friend. "Are you mad at me?"

 

[Rene Tofilau]

Rene grimaced at Louis' question, immediately wanting to backpedal and deny it. How pathetic would it be for him to complain that his friend hadn't sent him any roses? Especially when it was a friend like Louis who was clearly using them to ask a bunch of people out, something Rene wasn't interested at getting from Louis. Though, that was another thing too. Why did Louis seem content to hit on everyone, even Caleb, and yet not him? "How come you didn't send me a rose?" He blurted out, continuing as he got a bit more heated. "I mean, I don't care or anything but I feel like you've probably sent one to everyone, and you've hit on or kissed pretty much everyone in our year too except me. How come? You even did it with Caleb, and I don't think I'm ugly or anything, right?" He said hotly, faltering as he ran out of steam. "Am I? Wait no, don't answer that, ugh." Rene covered his face with his hand, wondering if it was too late to just back out of the conversation and run away. Louis was on the ground, he'd have a head start.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Even though Louis had picked up on something weird in Rene's voice that made him ask the question in the first place, he still didn't really expect René to actually be mad at him. He had expected the Hufflepuff to laugh and deny it quickly. That wasn't the case. Louis sat up, frown deepening. "Wait, you're mad you didn't get a rose?" He asked, though then René kept on talking and Louis' eyes widened. He blinked at his friend a few times, resisting the urge to laugh at the absurdity of this conversation. He knew René wouldn't take it well. "René, you're far from ugly." He said. "You're like, annoyingly handsome. It's quite frustrating when I think people are looking at me and I see they're watching you instead." He added, trying to keep the tone light. He hesitated for a brief moment. "René... are you in love with me?" He asked, wincing. He didn't want this drama again after Caleb. "Because, I am sorry... but I just see you as a friend. A very handsome, nice friend. But... that's why I didn't flirt with you." He scratched his neck. "You're like my brother." He said, only then realizing how painful that would be for René if he really was tragically in love with him. Louis couldn't help feeling bad. "Sorry."

 

[Rene Tofilau]

Rene blew out a huff of air when Louis spoke, frowning. "It sounds stupid when you say it like that," he said petulantly, aware how childish he was sounding. This is why he should have just kept his mouth shut but at the same time he was tired of feeling like he was Louis' secondary friend; like an afterthought.

He forced himself to roll his eyes at Louis' following barrage of compliments, annoyed that he could feel it soothing his ego despite knowing Louis was likely just taking the piss. That was until Louis' next question, which had him nearly choking as he spluttered in response. "What?! No! I mean, yeah you're like my brother too-" He said hastily, hands raised as if to ward the idea off. "-Just like Caleb is," he added, trying to defend the his own line of questioning. "And you flirt and kiss him so you know. I just wanted to know why him and not me, I'm not in love with you, geez," he hissed, scrubbing a mortified hand down his face. Trust Louis to turn this into being all about him.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis sighed as René admitted it sounded a bit silly. But he didn't want his friend to be sad. "I was going to send you one, but I hit the limit when I tried to send a rose to Celia to apologize. She was pretty mad at me." He admitted. "I didn't really think about how it would make you feel. I'm sorry René, you're one of my best friends."

Louis felt pretty relieved when René said he was also like a brother to him. Though a small part of him also felt disappointed. "Right, sorry. It kind of sounded like that," he said. He felt his stomach sink when René brought up Caleb. Louis had been working very hard not] to make that comparison. "That's different." He said quickly, scrambling for an argument to explain just why it was different. He opened and closed his mouth, at a loss. "It's different! Because... Because..." He trailed off, looking off into the distance as a feeling of panic rose in his gut. What he needed to say was that Caleb was also like a brother to him, that the kissing and the flirting had just been jokes. But he couldn't get his mouth to say the words. Instead, he thought back to the way Caleb's hair looked when the sun was shining on it. The stupid way he laughed when Louis said something funny but he didn't want to admit it. The way he always felt his mood lift when Caleb was nearby, even when he was being a grumpy jerk. Louis let out a string of curses in French and covered his face in his hands. "Oh f*ck." He said, peeking through his fingers at René. "I think I'm in trouble."

 

[Rene Tofilau]

Rene was somewhat mollified by Louis’ apology, suddenly aware of how much he really just needed to hear Louis acknowledge that they were friends. Cool girlfriends and captain badges aside, he still sometimes felt like he wasn’t nearly cool enough to be hanging around with guys like Caleb and Louis.

“Yeah well… Thanks. You’re one of my best friends too,” he said, indignity giving away to bashfulness and Rene resisted the urge to shift shyly, though he did drop his arms from where they’d been crossed sternly across his chest, watching as Louis mentally chased his own tail for a moment. “Different?” He prompted, eyes wide as Louis panicked. He didn't know a lot of French but he knew enough from hanging around a Frenchman to know he should probably be blushing at some of the words Louis had just said. “Wait so like…. You… And Caleb?” He boggled, trying to piece together what Louis wasn’t actually saying out loud. “No way, bro.”

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis stared at René in mute horror for a moment. He then groaned, covered his face with his hands again, and flopped back into the grass. “I don’t know!” He wailed when René asked him about him and Caleb. “I think- maybe? But oh f*ck. I basically turned him down already. I told him we should be friends when he- oh merlin.” He said, sitting up again in a rush, hands moving down to fuss at his clothes. “Maybe- maybe I’m wrong? But you just said Caleb and I tried to say he’s like a brother too but I just kept thinking about his shiny hair and his nice smile and-” He stared ahead for a moment before slapping his chest. “And I feel it here.” He said indignantly.

 

[Rene Tofilau]

Rene sat down tentatively next to Louis, hand hovering a moment before patting him lamely on the knee, watching his hysterics bemusedly. “You turned him down?” He asked, eyebrows raised, trying to shove down the hurt after they had told him repeatedly at the start of the year they’d just been messing around. Maybe Louis had. Or thought he had. “His shiny hair,” he repeated blankly, trying to picture Caleb in his head. Sure, his hair was shiny but not in a way Rene had ever noticed.

“Dude,” He said flatly as Louis motioned to his heart. “Are you freaking because you feel something? Aren’t you French, isn’t that like, your job?” He said incredulously, his previous jealousy at feeling left out of the pair’s relationship quickly diminishing as he watched Louis writhe on the grass. Maybe some things were better to left out of.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down and order his thoughts. He looked at René gratefully as he sat down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, he kind of let me know he… you know, liked me. And I was just kind of messing around with him so we just- we decided to stop.” He said, realizing with a pang that he really hadn’t talked to Caleb as much since then. He missed him. “I promised I wouldn’t flirt with him anymore.” Louis said, anguished. “How am I supposed to do that?”

He groaned as René misunderstood. “Of course I feel things.” He said impatiently, swatting at him. “But I- I don’t usually feel this.” He said, hoping René would understand without him having to put a word to it. He pointed at his heart again, prodding himself in the chest. “You know?” He asked pleadingly, hoping he wouldn’t have to say more.