Chapter Text
Louis de Pointe du Lac groaned as his alarm blared. Still clawing his way out of a deep sleep, he slapped towards his phone until he turned off the alarm. With a heaving groan he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. He quickly rinsed off his face then left his bedroom, shaking his head and smiling tiredly as he passed the open bedroom door next to his and saw clothes, books, and papers cluttering the floor and desk. He heard humming from the bathroom across the hall, which meant he had to get his butt in gear, fast. He ambled downstairs and began preparing breakfast. Soon, the sounds and smells of cooking filled the small kitchen. He grinned, imagining the smell wafting through the living room and upstairs.
His mother may hate how small his house was compared to the old family mansion back in New Orleans, but Louis loved it. With a decently sized backyard, large living room, kitchen and three bedrooms and two baths upstairs, it was small and homey. Despite only housing two of them, it felt fuller than his family home even when it was filled with the five family members and the housemaid.
And he bought it. On his own.
Sure more often than not he struggled to pay the mortgage but he did it with his own money.
He didn’t want to ever touch the money his Pa left him, not unless he had to.
And the only reason he would ever consider it was singing in her bathroom upstairs.
“Claudia! You’re gonna be late!” Louis called as he set a plate heaping with a veggie omelet, bacon, toast, and cut up fruit onto the kitchen table.
“I’m coming! Jeez. Can’t you give a girl a second to get ready?”
Claudia’s feet pounded down the stairs then she stomped into the kitchen, threw her backpack onto the ground and plunked herself in her seat. She’s been into braiding her hair lately, and pulled up the front half of it into an updo, the rest hanging down her back and a bit past her shoulders. Claudia always loved trying different styles and scoures the internet often for ideas.
She liked to joke that she put in enough creativity and effort for the two of them since Louis preferred to keep his hair closely shaved or simply let it grow until he felt like cutting it. Despite Claudia’s best efforts and countless pictures she tried to entice him with, he never got into trying different fades and styles. He loved to live comfortably, which is why he was always in jeans, basketball shorts or sweats and comfy shirts. Whenever Claudia bemoaned his lack of fashion sense he’d joke that not needing to dress up was one of the main reasons he chose a career where he can work from home.
“If I gave you all the time you thought you needed to get ready, you’d never leave the bathroom,” Louis chided but couldn’t suppress a smile as he gazed down at his thirteen-year-old daughter as she inhaled her food.
He reached out his hand, about to pat her head but sadly withdrew it. Claudia made it clear years ago that any of his touches ‘messed up’ her hair. And he didn’t want to risk sending her back to the bathroom mirror for another twenty minutes. Especially since she didn’t want to taint her perfect attendance record, despite her daily near tardiness due to the forty minutes of what she called her ‘primp and look check.’
Honestly, he didn’t see the difference. Yes, she tried to style her hair differently most days but otherwise she looked the same. She wore a teen outfit, sometimes jeans, other times a skirt. Sometimes a blouse, other times a colorful t-shirt. To him, it all amounted to the same look every day. Just different clothes.
But he’d never tell Claudia that or she’d once again accuse him of being the Fairy Godmother’s fashion nightmare.
“You finished your English paper?” he asked as he sat down across from her and dug into his own food.
“Uh-huh,” Claudia said, chewing on a piece of toast smothered in jam.
“Math was OK?”
“It was fine. I talked to Charlie and he helped me with the difficult stuff.”
“You mean, he instructed you and let you do it yourself,” he said severely.
Claudia rolled her eyes. “Of course! I’m not a cheater.”
“Didn’t say you are,” Louis replied. “Just that sometimes, even a good friend like Charlie can accidentally just give you the answer, to help you out. Or end the call,” he teased.
Claudia scrunched her nose at him and he scrunched his back.
What he wanted to say, and never would, was that Charlie was so infatuated with Claudia he’d do all her homework. Happily.
“Charlie knows I don’t want to be told the answer,” Claudia defended her best friend of three years. “I would get mad at him if he did.”
Now he really wanted to stroke her hair. He settled for a proud smile instead. Claudia may have inherited his propensity to forget himself and lose track of time, but she also got his determination to see things through herself. For Louis and Claudia, there was no point in trying and succeeding, or failing, at something unless you did it yourself.
“You got that meeting today right?” Claudia asked.
Louis's smile fell and he played with his eggs. He always tried to be honest with Claudia. Their relationship was built on them being completely open with each other. But she was also his daughter and some things she didn’t have to hear about. Especially relating to the stress of being an adult. Especially his career as a struggling author with two novels published professionally and two self-published with failing to modest sales and mostly lukewarm reviews. Ironic since he supplemented his income by writing book reviews for an online bi-weekly literary magazine.
And now his career might finally get the boost it needed as he was meeting a director to adapt his latest novel, The Flailing Heart.
“Yeah. Meeting the director,” he said tonelessly.
“Can’t believe they’re turning your book into a movie,” Claudia beamed and squirmed in her seat.
Louis smiled thinly, wishing he hadn’t put his phone on speaker when he got the call. That’s what he got for trying to cook and look over Claudia’s history essay at the same time. “There’s no guarantee that will happen. Lots of books get picked and then fall into the Hollywood vault.”
“I know, I know. But lots of books are getting turned into movies and shows now. So you got a better chance.”
“Maybe.” He frowned. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”
“Of course not! You told me not to.”
“Not even Charlie?” he asked pointendly.
She rolled her eyes. She’s been doing that a lot more since she turned twelve. “Not even Charlie. I’d never break a promise, Daddy.”
Louis's heart swelled. Claudia stopped calling him that when she was eight and decided she was too mature for such ‘babyish nicknames.’ Now, she only called him Daddy if she wanted something.
“You still didn’t tell me who the director is,” Claudia said, trying to make her tone as innocent as possible.
And there it is.
Rather than feeling hurt, Louis was amused by her latest attempt to needle information about the movie out of him.
“OK, fine I’ll tell you.”
Claudia froze, then dropped her fork and leaned forward eagerly.
“His name is James Rain.”
As he expected, Claudia whipped out her phone and immediately typed in the name. She frowned. “Nothing.”
“Oh wait. Maybe it was Ben Lucky.”
“Ben-,” Claudia stopped typing and glared at him. “Combining the names of my dead childhood rabbits. That’s just cruel.”
Louis chuckled, covering his mouth to try and stifle the sound as Claudia threw a napkin at him.
“Why won’t you tell me?” Claudia demanded.
He shook his head. “Nope. Not until I got a contract in my hands. As soon as you get a name you’ll google ‘im and I don’t need all that info in my head when I want to focus on the meeting.”
“Fine,” Claudia huffed.
The doorbell rang and Claudia yelped and shoved the last of her eggs into her mouth, drained her orange juice and leaped up. “Love you!” she called out as she dashed to the door.
“Love you too,” Louis called back.
“Hi Claudia. Your hair looks really nice today,” Charlie’s voice carried from the front door.
“Thanks Charlie.”
Louis shook his head as the door closed.
Smitten. Completely smitten. It was obvious to both Louis and Charlie’s parents that the boy had fallen for Claudia as soon as he saw her their first day in sixth grade. Louis knew as a dad he should be protective but honestly, if Claudia ended up with Charlie he can rest easy. Charlie was the sweetest kid Louis ever met, had a strong sense of justice just like Claudia, and would do anything for her. His parents were good people too.
It would be great if Claudia fell in love with Charlie and they got married in the future.
He wanted that for his baby girl.
A loving husband, kids, a good job.
Things he still didn’t have. Was still struggling to have.
He had Claudia. For him, that was enough.
And this meeting which may or may not finally launch his writing career.
Louis sighed and pushed back from the table. He had to get ready and leave soon. It will take over an hour to take the train from Long Island to the meeting place in Manhattan since he didn’t want to drive and deal with parking.
Maybe he should take a page out of Claudia’s book and actually primp for his meeting. No need to look like the absent-minded, bookish man he actually was, living forever in his basketball shorts and comfy washed out shirts. He already cut his hair last week to give himself a sharper look, so he just needed to shave and get dressed.
Two hours later, wearing his best dark grey suit which rarely saw the light of day, he stood in front of the cafe he was meeting the director at.
“Hey, you’re early.”
Louis jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder and he smiled up at the man who may be changing his whole life.
“Daniel. Glad you’re here.”
Daniel Molloy chuckled and hefted his laptop bag higher on his shoulder. Wearing black slacks, a grey shirt with a black suit jacket and a mass of curly black hair, he still looked as put together and professional as he did when he interviewed Louis a month ago. But after talking for almost four hours, Louis felt connected to Daniel who was just as nerdy as he was and preferred to sit at home in sweats and a good book. He thought he made a nice connection with a fellow bookworm, and was delighted when Daniel called him five days ago, hoping to spend more time discussing their favorite non-fiction writers. But when Daniel told him he set up a meeting with Armand, Louis's happiness at making a new friend was replaced with fight or flight anxiety.
Which, based on the way Daniel eyed him, Louis was doing a poor job of hiding.
“No problem,” Daniel replied smoothly. “This place OK? I figured a cafe would be more comfortable than a bleak studio office.”
“This place is fine,” Louis assured the journalist, relying on his years of playing the perfect du Lac heir to hide his nerves and smiled. “I still can’t believe you set this up.”
Daniel waved his hand dismissively. “I didn’t do anything. After I read your book and our interview I really felt you’d click with Armand. All I did was share your book, which is amazing, and Armand leapt on it.”
“Leapt on it?” Louis asked skeptically.
“Well, leapt may not be the right word. Armand does like to keep his emotions close to his chest. But I’ve known him a long time and I could tell he was really interested.”
“I heard he’s very..discerning,” Louis said carefully. Which is why he didn’t tell Claudia who he was meeting. Bad enough he googled the famed and nit-picky director himself. Armand already had an Oscar nomination under his belt and he was barely thirty-five!
He already worked himself up and didn’t need to make Claudia anxious too.
“He is,” Daniel replied, still bright and confident, which should have set Louis at ease but didn’t. “Which is why I thought your book would be perfect for him. But I don’t need to talk about it. Let’s head inside. Armand usually likes to get to places early so he’s probably already here.”
Daniel pulled the door open and beamed at him.
Swallowing his nerves, Louis stepped into the cafe. And spotted Armand immediately.
The director was hard to miss. It wasn’t just his cherubic face and brown skin and jet black curls. There was an aura around the man that drew people’s eyes to him.
Daniel nodded as he walked past Louis and stood beside Armand’s table.
“Armand, I would like you to meet my new favorite author. Louis de Pointe du Lac.”
Louis blushed, his face heating further when Armand turned a steady gaze on him.
“Pleasure to meet you,” Louis said and stuck out his hand.
Armand smiled and his whole demeanor transformed. Louis almost started as the cold and aloof beauty changed into someone warm and inviting.
“Pleasure to meet you, Louis,” Armand replied as he shook his hand. “I hope it’s not too early for you. I’ve always been more of a morning person. I know authors tend to burn the midnight oil.”
Louis chuckled as he and Daniel sat down, with Louis directly opposite Armand.
“I used to, when my daughter was a baby and kept wailing all night. But once she started school I had to be up to get her ready. I do work at night sometimes though.”
“You have a daughter,” Armand nodded. “It shows.”
Louis started. “How?”
“Well, your characters are all so, maternal. Caring. It’s what got me interested in your book.”
“It just fits the story,” he said, feeling a bit embarrassed that his mother hen tendencies actually seeped into his work. So much for emotional author detachment.
“I agree,” Armand said. “The world is filled with dystopian literature and films. People fighting to survive, sometimes at the expense of another. But not in your world. It’s all about rebuilding, nurturing. The truly good things in human nature. Even the title, The Flailing Heart , is poetic.” Armand shook his head regretfully. “As much as I love how critical recent art works have been of our world, and we do deserve it, it’s refreshing to have a story that’s built on the light of humanity, rather than the dark.”
Louis swallowed, shocked by Armand’s words. “I..gotta be honest. Most critics find my work…naive.”
“Idealistic,” Daniel cut in. “And in another’s hands, your work could be seen like that. But you rip into all the people’s emotions and their relationships in such a visceral way that it comes off as gripping. Which is what I wrote in our interview. And why I thought Armand might respond to your work.”
“As you said Louis,” Armand said, his smile a bit more subdued but still drawing him in. “Such a story could come off as naive. Idealistic, as Daniel calls it. But I think with your words, and my skills, we can create a real masterpiece.”
Louis's hands shook so he flattened them, unable to believe they'd gotten to this point so quickly. “Um. So. You serious? You want to do this?”
Armand nodded, his lips tipping up into a wider smile. “I very much would like to. I already have a small studio interested and I’ve worked with before. They value good stories and artistic films and are very supportive but low budget. You don’t need any CGI or special effects so that’s not an issue. We can move forward after we hammer out some key development details. One of which is how involved you are in the script.”
This was the next hurdle. Most authors were cut out once the book rights were purchased. They’d be lucky if they could even see the script, but their opinions were ignored anyway.
“I would like you working with our writers,” Armand stated. Louis blinked, unable to hide his shock. “I know it’s unorthodox.”
“I’m…a novelist, not a screenwriter,” Louis couldn’t help pointing out.
“Which is why you will only advise on one aspect. You won’t be in charge of structuring. As you know, we won’t be able to include every single detail and scene in your book. It’s possible we might have to condense some of the cast, as you have so many characters. The script will change things, but I hope not too much. And what’s important to me is we capture the essence of your story. And for that we need you. I want you to add your input in terms of the characters. That will be your main focus. The scriptwriters will handle the dialogue, structure and pacing. I’ll take care of the tone and message. That is my job, after all.” Armand beamed now and Louis couldn’t bring himself to say a word.
A movie. A real movie. Based on his book. Directed by the famous Armand. And he would be involved. Actively involved.
He swallowed, and nodded. “Let’s draw up some contracts and we’ll see.”
Armand nodded while Daniel clapped Louis on the shoulder.
He couldn’t wait to tell Claudia. She’ll scream for at least five minutes. Maybe ten once she googles Armand.
“I’ll have my agent send it to yours,” Armand said. “And I have the perfect person in mind for the lead role of Dale.”
“Who?”
“Lestat de Lioncourt.”
Louis frowned, some of his excitement dimming. “Isn’t he more of a stage actor?”
“He is. But he does take on movies and TV show roles he finds interesting. And I think he’ll find Dale captivating.”
Louis couldn’t hide the doubt from his face and Armand laughed lightly.
“Trust me. He’s going to leap at the chance.”
Louis smiled uncertainly. There was that word again. Leap. And again, he highly doubted it.