Chapter Text
The Vampire Claudia Du Lac's Wedding Diary- Top Secret! Stay out of this, Louis!
June 15th, 2022
It's been too long, old friend! Great news, Madeleine and I are getting married tomorrow.
I would normally confess this to her, and will at some point, but I need your impartiality.
I tracked down my other father and invited him to the wedding.
This family (which is mostly Louis and me, and Uncle Paul and Aunt Grace come out here whenever they can but still—) is empty and haunted by my other parent, whoever he may be. Louis won't speak of him, always changing the subject or just fading into stony, empty silence. His presence has been marked by his absence.
My father's heart has been occupied by a ghost, leaving less room for me. Unfortunate, but true. Hopefully, my other father won't be like that. But you never know.
I had found his diary from the year I came along and the results were… interesting.
To paraphrase him, as he went on for a while.
~July 17th, 1987.
Lestat look me to the island (Kalokairi), again. We danced on the beach, kissed on the beach and …
So, naturally, you'd assume that Lestat is my father.
But the plot thickens.
~Turns out, despite saying he loved me, Lestat is engaged to someone else and he's gone back to marry her and I will never see him again.~
Poor daddy Lou, right?
There's even more.
~August 4th, 1987.
Armand showed up out of the blue this morning, quoting fucking Shakespeare. I can almost hear Lestat laughing his ass off at that. He's so empathetic and kind, and he helps. So I took him over to the island and…
August 11th, 1987.
I met a fascinating boy the other day. I took Daniel over to the island in his boat and he let me shit talk Lestat for hours before we…
~*~
"Claudia? You in here?" Louis knocked on the door to Claudia's room, sticking his head inside as she hastily closed her diary, throwing it into her coffin.
"Thanks for knockin', you may enter." Claudia grinned from the couch in her room.
"Much obliged, little miss." Louis bowed as he walked into the room.
"Louis, I'm a grown-ass vampire." Claudia rolled her eyes playfully.
"You're always gonna be my baby." Louis sat next to her.
~*~
If you could talk, diary, you'd be asking which one is my father. The answer is, I don't know.
'Which one did you invite?'
All three of them. They don't know it was me, they think Daddy Lou wrote them.
I don't want Louis' happiness to rest on me anymore, I've held that for far too long. If any of them can make him happy…
~*~
The sun set and two young-looking vampires chased the last boat out to Kalokairi Island, hoping their supernatural speed would help them catch it before it departed. But they both stopped about a foot short of falling in the clear waters of the Mediterranean as the boat sailed away, the last two seats having been taken by a pair of siblings fron New Orleans.
"Putain de mèrde…" The first, a tall, blonde frenchman, groaned and cursed, removing his expensive looking sunglasses.
"My thoughts exactly…" The other, a man with golden eyes that looked like he was a figure from a Renaissance painting with dark curls framing his face, replied, turning to look at him.
He raised his eyebrows in recognition.
"Lestat." The second vampire said darkly.
"Another fan, I see." Famous rockstar and vampire Lestat de Lioncourt drawled. "I have no autographs to hand, but if you have a pen I will sign— Don't I know you?"
"Of course you've forgotten me. How could I have thought otherwise…"
The second vampire felt the uncomfortable sensation of Lestat rifling through his mind, stopping once he found the correct memory.
"Ah! Armand! How could I have forgotten?"
"It has been over a century since you abandoned me and your theatre…" Armand replied stiffly, still bitter after all this time. "I am glad to see your career is thriving."
Lestat gave a slight bow. "Thank you."
Before the confrontation could get any more tense, a third man came rushing up, looking far older than the rest.
He stopped a few paces behind them and panted, clearly out of breath. Armand tensed when he saw him, recognising him in an instant. Lestat recognised him a moment later.
"Damn. Thought I could make it." The third man, an American in his seventies, said, turning to the vampires. "You guys going to Kalokairi too?"
"We are…" Armand studied him, taking in every detail.
"You're Daniel Molloy." Lestat interjected in surprise. "You interviewed the father of the bride."
"I made up half of that shit while high on drugs during the lowest point in my twenties and yet somehow 'Interview' became my biggest hit." Daniel replied dryly, the mysterious wound on his neck that he had for decades irritating him.
"Memory is a monster, Mister Molloy." Armand replied, having not dragged his gaze from Daniel since he arrived.
Daniel prickled under Armand's gaze, the old scar on the side of his neck burning as it had all day.
"Well, I know a guy who knows a guy who can probably get us a boat over tonight, if you need to get there now." Daniel scratched his neck beneath his wool sweater.
"You are too kind, Daniel." Lestat replied.
"And hey, aren't you that guy who claims to be the Lestat from my book as a gimmick for his band?"
"Excuse me, I am the Vampire Lestat." Lestat glared, fully serious.
"Sure, buddy." Daniel patted Lestat's shoulder with a slightly trembling hand.
"Don't antagonise the boy. We'll be sharing a ship later." Armand chastised.
"I'm not your fucking boy." Daniel spat. "Let's just get the boat over to the island."
The trio wandered off, in search of Daniel's guy who knew a guy to get them a boat.
The last ferry to Kalokairi sailed across the sea and Paul and Grace de Pointe du Lac watched the silver light of the moon across the water as the quiet boat made its way across.
They nattered and bickered as older siblings do. Grace fussed over her baby brother as usual, despite them being in their fifties and have long since moved away from one another.
"My mother needs a perch." Paul teased, trying to get him and Grace a seat
"Paul du Lac, I am one whole year older than you!" Grace laughed, sitting down and smacking his arm playfully. "And how dare you compare me to our mother!"
"Better than calling you a witch!" Paul sat next to her.
"Nuh uh."
Grace and her husband Levi lived in New York City and she ran a fashion magazine, and occasionally visited Kalokairi for shoots from her favourite photographer (Louis). Paul travelled up and down the country campaigning for better mental health treatment and providing outreach to Christian families of queer youth, so that no one had to go through what he and Louis went through in their younger years.
Kalokairi appeared in the distance, a small, out-of-the-way island, with a villa as its main feature.
"Hey, Paul. We're almost here!" Grace nudged her brother, who had drifted off in his own head for a moment or two.
He blinked, returning to the present moment.
The dock, rather simple looking, came in the view as they got closer and closer to the island, which loomed larger ahead of them.
A lone figure stood out on the dock, watching out for the long-running ferry beneath the moonlight with a cowboy hat on his head.
Paul and Grace dismounted, and couldn't have dressed more differently. Grace had styled herself to the nines, in an elegant sundress and shawl, with matching sunhat. Paul was dressed more casually, in a loose hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts.
"Now look what the tides washed in!" Louis de Pointe du Lac called out, playing up his natural southern accent.
"For one night—" Grace called back as she and Paul stood back to back, holding imaginary microphones up in their old pose.
"—And one night only—" Paul continued, getting a smile on his face.
"THE DU LAC DYNAMOS!" The three siblings all cheered excitedly, rushing to meet in the middle of the dock.
They paused and began doing their old chant that they had made up when they started their band ages ago, laughing like idiots the whole time.
While they all loved their separate lives and their personal space, for the de Pointe du Lac siblings, nothing in the world beat reuniting with one another and slipping backward ever so slightly to the hijinks of their teen years and their twenties.
"You're looking wonderful, Grace." Louis replied, giving his sister a hug.
"Says the brother who hasn't aged a day since he was twenty five." Grace teased. "I keep asking you, Louis, what's your secret?"
"The devil did that to him." Paul cut in as Louis smiled and rolled his eyes.
The lush landscape went past in the stillness of the night as Louis drove his siblings to his home, the loudest sound being the roar of an old engine as they trundled up a dirt path
"Exactly." Louis replied, a bitter taste in his mouth as he insulted his Maker, who had definitely abandoned him on the island years ago.
"Anyways, are there gonna be any singles at the wedding?" Grace swiftly changed the topic, noticing how tense Louis got when talking about that summer, as they got in Louis' car to drive them up to the villa..
"Looking for lucky husband three, Grace?"
"No! Not for me, for you and for Paul." She rolled her eyes affectionately. "And I'd still be married to Levi if you hadn't scared him off in the nineties."
"You know we don't need anyone else, sister. We're happy on our own." Paul replied.
"Look at what role models we've left for Claudia. A serial divorcée and a nomadic hermit!" Louis teased, earning a sharp look from Grace and Paul, something they inherited from their mother.
"So, when are the happy couple fleeing the nest?" Grace asked.
"Who knows." Louis replied with a shrug. "I never know what goes on in her head at times. I didn't expect her to want the big white wedding with all the trimmings and everything. I thought she and Madeleine would go off travelling for a while, but apparently they have plans for the hotel. I don't think they'll ever leave."
"Do you really want her to, Louis?" Grace asked. "I remember when the twins left home, I was beside myself for months."
"I want what's best for Claudia." Louis protested, before amending himself. "Of course I don't want her to leave."
The hotel and villa came into view and all Louis saw was the ever growing list of tasks he needed to do in terms of maintenance and how much they'd cost him, as well as a lovely young vampiress wandering the foyer, her red curls tied up in a messy bun.
"Madeleine! Meet my backup crew!" Louis shouted as he parked the car and helped his siblings out.
"Backup crew? Backup crew my ass!" Grace and Paul laughed as they climbed out.
"This is Madeleine, the other leading lady for the weekend's party."
"You must be Paul and Grace. I have heard plenty about both of you." Madeleine Éparvier said, offering her hand, but Louis' siblings pulled her into a hug.
"You're practically family now, marrying our Claudia." Paul insisted.
"Thank you." Madeleine replied. "Now I must go, there are things to plan for."
"Like father, like daughter, pickin' a French White…" Grace teased quietly once Madeleine had left
"Shut up, Grace…"
Louis squeezed his eyes shut in embarrassment, remembering how he'd rationalised his first great love affair of that summer years ago.
God, he was an idiot back then."