Discover Top Posts Tagged with #c: luc

Dec 2, 2025

TIMING: just before the Nov. 22 blackout LOCATION: Monica and Luc's apartment PARTIES: Luc @loveandluc & Monica @maybemonica SUMMARY: Monica saves Luc from the scariest threat in all of Wicked's Rest: a broken shower. WARNINGS: none!

Throwing her bag onto the floor, Monica flopped face-first onto the couch with a particularly dramatic groan. Agreeing to watch four dogs at once seemed like an absolute dream at the time, but after two hours of them running circles around her, every muscle in her body ached. “The money…think about the money…” she grumbled sleepily into the cushion. Not that money was ever going to be the solution to everything, but she had to start saving up if she wanted to build up some semblance of a stable life.

At least she had a place to stay now. An actual place! Gone were the days of her jumping from body to body, and in turn, from house to house. She got to come home every night and be herself — well, as much as one could be ‘herself’ in a stolen body. Monica tried not to think too hard about that point, which was definitely aided by the fact that she had a super awesome roommate. Even though she and Luc were still getting to know each other, having another presence in the flat was a good enough daily distraction. Maybe they’d even be real friends soon! Monica loved having friends.

As if on cue, she heard the sound of keys jangling at the front door followed by the click of the lock. Monica turned her head to the side so that she could actually see her roommate, her loose curls falling into her face. “Hi,” she said through her hair, too tired to care about how silly she probably looked. “How was school today, sweetie?” She said jokingly, hoping that her attempt at humour would land with the other.

—

When it came to the big things in life, like having the most wonderful parents or finding Sebastian, Luc was usually reassured in his belief that the whole ‘bad luck’ thing wasn’t actually a thing. Bad luck had been slightly more apparent in these last weeks with everything surrounding his then-fiance, now… something but… No one was always lucky or unlucky, just like Luc got to experience good things regularly - example, finding a roommate as nice and fun as Monica. Luc had been prepared to hunker down for longer in one of the icky bunk bed hostels since there was no way he’d manage rent all on his own when she had appeared like a guardian angel. Well, her ad, more accurately, had appeared. It had felt like a long shot, surely she’d rather want to live with another girl or at least someone who had a solid job and income but… they’d clicked. As much as two people could from a quick encounter.

And Luc really enjoyed living with Monica, whether just to talk about everything (once he’d finally fessed up to the whole deal with Sebastian) or just the two of them scrolling through Tiktok together for half an hour, Monica had deemed him worthy to live with. To continue to live with, even after all the nonsense. Luc had been genuinely honored.

After months spent coming home to an eerily silent London flat, Luc felt soothed by a voice greeting him every time that Monica was home. Closing the door behind him, Luc let the gym bag drop to the floor, the only healthy way for getting his emotions out these days, smiling at the exhausted form on the couch. “Weird. Some people started randomly throwing punches at the gym, it was super weird. Then they vanished outside. Hope they’re okay,” Luc mused, a thought occurring if maybe he should have checked on the strangers, alerted a staff member… Shifting his focus to Monica instead, he moved to crouch on the other side of the coffee table, putting himself in her partially occluded by curls line of sight. “Rough day?”

—

Monica was happy to see that Luc was in generally good spirits today. Not that he was one of those mopey adults. Far from it — he was one of the most positive people she knew, which was probably why they got along so well. But between the times he reminisced about his ex-fiancé and the way that strange things always seemed to happen for him, she sometimes wondered how long he’d be able to keep up his optimistic attitude. Too bad it wasn’t really her place to ask about it yet. Monica didn’t want to overstep her boundaries and ruin the good thing they had going on.

“It was actually one of the best days ever. Like I’m getting paid to watch and play with dogs? Yes please! But they had so much energy, and now I definitely don’t,” Monica said as she blew her hair out of her face, giggling when she saw Luc crouched to meet her eye level. Unlike her dance instructors at the academy or Estella’s (stinky) father who would constantly tell her to grow up, Luc indulged her childishness with amusement. He didn’t mind her bouncing around the living room under the guise of “choreographing”, and he didn’t make fun of her when she asked for help with her bills. (One of the only things she missed about not existing was not having to pay bills.)

Despite her fatigue and the dull ache in her muscles, Monica predictably couldn’t stay still for her long. She turned onto her back, stretching her arms and legs far out with a dramatic groan, then sat up to finally meet Luc face-to-face. “Next time strangers start fighting randomly, please film it for me,” she mused with a smile, though it quickly faded with her next thought. “Unless they start fighting you. In that case, call me and I’ll come back you up.” She launched herself off of the couch with a sudden jolt of energy, punching the air as she made her way to their kitchen.

Scanning the counters, Monica gravitated towards the container of muffins that had been left out. Her fingers were inches away from prying the plastic lid open, the sweet scent of the blueberry muffins already taking over her mind. Man, did she love muffins. But then her eyes landed on the oven clock, and she figured the responsible thing to do would be to save her appetite for dinner. “Should we make something tonight? Since we’re both home,” she called out to Luc, as if she had to yell in their small apartment.

—

Arms crossed on top of the coffee table as Monica explained her exhaustion, Luc smiled. As an only child, he had always wondered what having siblings would be like and this had to come pretty close. Although media usually portrayed a bit more animosity between siblings than what him and Monica had going on, which was the bonus of not growing up together, he guessed? And they were both adults who would talk about their grievances instead of ever arguing, even though no such grievances had come up yet. It was the perfect set up, really. “Didn’t think anything had more energy than you,” Luc joked and as if to prove his point, Monica was on the move again.

Luc straightened out, laughing at her request. “I’m not going to film a fight, that’s rude,” he chastised softly, fondness for her increasing at the ensuing offer. Unwanted, the thought of Monica being presented during the last fight Luc had been a part of, where the strong man with the knife had almost caused so much damage, flickered to the forefront of his mind. Luc shook it off and thankfully, Monica was too busy bounding into the kitchen to notice his smile faltering. “Yeah, right back at you.”

Joining her in the kitchen, Luc’s eyes found the tempting box of muffins as well, mouth watering. He was starved after that bout in the gym but muffins were definitely not recovery food. The thought of cooking, though... With a low groan of disapproval, Luc opened the fridge and groaned again as he found it did indeed have enough materials to make a halfway decent dinner. No excuse, then. “Yeah, we should,” he sighed petulantly, closing the fridge. “Let me just rinse off first. If you start chopping onions, I’ll love you forever?” he called as he backed out of the kitchen, snatching up his bag en route to the bathroom.

The thought of a shower was a soothing one and Luc had already started to relax as he reached in for the controls to heat up the water before he got in. The knob turned and consequently popped loose, dropping to the bottom of the shower. “Damn it…” The shower started to creak and groan, water pouring from the shower head and then spewing from the pipe leading up to it, spraying Luc’s clothes with water. “Shit.”

—

Monica giggled, content with Luc’s wisecrack. “See? You already know me well because you’re so right! It’s a rare day when I find someone or something that I can’t out-energize. Buuuut, I guess I don’t mind being beat by some cute puppies.” She pouted ever so slightly at Luc’s answer, disappointed that he seemed to value decorum over entertainment. However, Monica's face lit up once again with his subsequent response. It was comforting to know that her roommate wouldn’t leave her for dead if she was in trouble.

“I don’t plan on getting into any fights soon, but if I do, you’ll be the first person I call! No take backs!” And Monica meant it — though she was rather poorly skilled in word binding, the fae in her still valued any sort of deal or promise. Luc had been nothing but trustworthy in their short time together, and she had no doubt that he’d make good on his word when the time came. Humming in satisfaction at this thought, she watched as Luc peered into the fridge. He didn’t look thrilled with the idea of cooking, but Monica knew that he was a way better adult than she was. If she could tell that a homemade meal was the responsible thing to do, then he probably did too.

Monica grinned at his suggestion. Love her forever? Another deal! And what a great one to be a part of. “Yes, sir!” She said, raising her hand in a mock salute to his retreating form before reaching for the fridge door. She always found it funny how a little vegetable could make humans cry on command. Though she hated the stinging sensation that pricked at her eyes because of it, she liked pretending that she was in a sad scene in a movie. Perhaps the next time Luc needed to cry in an audition reel, she could just wave some onions in his face.

Organizing the onions on the counter, Monica was just about to reach for a cutting board when she heard a sharp clank come from the bathroom. She originally thought nothing of it — after all, she dropped things all the time. But a few seconds later, a loud creak followed and she swore she heard Luc quietly swear. “Um, everything good in there?” She shouted, looking up from the counter and towards the direction of the bathroom. The door was slightly ajar, yet she didn’t hear any response. “Luc?” She called out again to nothing but the hiss of running water, and a wave of panic suddenly washed over her. What if he had fallen and hit his head? What if he was lying face-down and unconscious in shower water? Her last roommate had died because of her inaction, and she was not going to let it happen again.

“Luc! I’m coming in!” Monica yelled as she practically sprinted from the kitchen down the hall, barreling into the bathroom door with perhaps a bit too much force. Her momentum sent her flying into…the wall? No, it was a body. Luc’s body! Luc’s body that was still standing outside of the shower and totally not knocked out on the floor. “You’re alive!” She exclaimed with relief, then confusion as she saw his exasperated expression. “What’s wr– oh!” Her eyes fell to the knobless shower. The clear source of the hissing noise, water was spewing in every direction from places that it very much shouldn’t be. “Um, that’s not good,” she said lamely. In that moment, another stream of water emerged, spraying Monica directly in the face. “Eek! Turn it off!” She said as she flinched, as if that wasn’t the obvious next step that Luc was also thinking about. “Maybe jam the knob back in?” With the sudden spray blurring her vision, she had no clue where the missing handle even was.

—

Under the relentless barrage of the stream of water, Luc had no way of hearing the worried question coming from the kitchen, although rising panic probably played a part in that as well. It had been going pretty good, his rash clumsiness hadn’t caused any major incidents and their apartment had gone unscathed… until, it seemed, right now. What had he even done? Turned on the shower? This was totally like a problem a landlord should fix, right? Yeah, this had nothing to do with Luc, this was just a matter of delayed upkeep or… something. If this was a movie, maybe it would have been the scene where Luc realized his untapped potential as like a superpowered individual with inhuman strength but nope, a tap had simply broken off and their poor shower had decided today was the day to crack under pressure.

“Please don’t,” Luc begged the inanimate object as he held out a hand, trying to keep the pressurized spray at the very least out of his eyes. If he could turn off the shower, it would probably be fine. He just needed to find the knob, stick it back on there and– feet almost swept out from under him as Monica appeared in the bathroom, it was all Luc could do to stay standing on the now wet tiles. Truly a feat that he hadn’t cracked his head on the bathroom sink. He’d actually tried that one, fifteen stitches and a concussion were about as fun as they sounded.

“Of course I’m alive, but I– yeah.” He directed Monica’s attention towards the shower at the same time she turned her gaze towards the horror, his arms braced against her shoulders after her very enthusiastic entrance. “It’s fine, I’ll… fix it,” he told her unconvincingly, hoping she might believe it a little bit more than Luc currently did. “We should definitely find the knob.” Releasing Monica, Luc moved to snatch up his towel, venturing closer towards the spray of water with the towel braced as a shield. “See if you can find it!”

Reaching the angry shower, Luc started to wrap the now soaking towel around the joints of the spewing pipes, happy to find that it helped with the aggression in which their shower was breaking. “Hey, that actually–” With an almost comedic plop, the showerhead decided to give up, releasing its grip on the rest of the shower and dropping onto Luc’s head. Lucky that they lived in a mediocre apartment with cheap and lightweight shower heads. Water now noisily streamed from the open pipe that was the showerhead and Luc turned a pitiful look towards Monica. “Sorry.”

—

Wiping the water from her eyes with the back of her hand, Monica blinked a few times as Luc turned her to the direction of the shower. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely not good at all,” she repeated, the shock temporarily stopping her from forming a coherent thought. How had Luc managed to yank off the handle? The very handle that sometimes got stuck and refused to budge, even when she used both hands.

She found it in her to nod despite how unconvincingly Luc uttered his next words. “You will! We will! I will not let my precious roomie struggle on his own!” She said with seriousness, hoping that her own confidence would make up for his lack of. Considering the possibilities she had imagined before busting into the room, a broken shower and some water on the floor was going to be amateur work. Probably.

Monica watched as Luc approached the spewing water with his towel, and she got to work with her assigned task now that the spray was somewhat less aggressive. She scanned the floor for the missing piece, but didn’t notice anything besides the fact that the growing puddle of water was slowly inching towards the bathroom door. “Uh oh,” she muttered, immediately biting her tongue. “Um, I mean, nothing here!” She backtracked, not wanting to give Luc another reason to worry. She wordlessly grabbed the hand towel from the sink and placed the pathetically small barrier on the bathroom threshold. That would have to do for now.

“I seriously don’t see it anywhere! How is that even possible?” Monica started to say as she turned her attention back to Luc, just as the shower head decided to drop from its perch. It clattered in the tub, but not before hitting Luc’s head on the way down. “Oh my god, are you okay?!” She yelled out, perhaps a little too loudly for the size of the room they were in, and scrambled over to her roommate as quickly as she could without slipping. Once again, fate had to choose that exact moment to start spraying water wildly from the pipes.

“Should we call the landlord?” Monica asked after seeing Luc’s pitiful expression, but she only had to sit with that idea for a few seconds before realizing how bad it was. “No! Nevermind.” He would absolutely kill us, is what she mentally added. There was no point in even trying to stay dry at this point, as both her and Luc were soaked from head to toe. “Okay, you know what…” she began, though she was already moving before getting her full thought across. In an instant, she yanked back the shower curtain and climbed into the tub, moving to grab the shower head that had washed into the corner. “See, we’ll just put this back on. Somehow. And then we’ll lo– Luc!” Monica squealed with delight as she held up the shower head in one hand and the missing knob in the other. “Look!”

—

If not for the very time sensitive issue of their bathroom slowly but surely flooding, Luc would have taken at least a solid minute to grab Monica and hug her, most likely in one of those theater-esque dramatic ways with a twirl and everything. His moms had never really chastised him for when things went a bit sideways, whether something broke or he got hurt or things got otherwise a bit messy, but Luc had always been able to tell that at one point they’d gotten tired. Anyone would have, really and sweet and supportive as they were, it wasn’t enough to completely keep Luc’s insecurities at bay. That he was a bother, that he caused problems for everyone else. Sebastian had been a fresh breath of air, taking literally everything in stride and never so much as flinching. So while Monica had, understandably, been a bit shocked at the way their bathroom threatened to become an aquarium, she had barely hesitated to then jump in and help. Make it her problem, too.

“Yeah. Yeah! We got this!” Hopefully. Monica tried to prevent the spread of the damage and Luc bit the inside of his cheek, trying to come up with a different solve for this problem yet coming up short. Dang it. Monica was looking desperately for the handle but to no avail and it didn’t help that Luc’s very mild head trauma distracted her. “It’s fine, I’m fine, keep looking,” he shouted back, also a bit too loudly since the water was noisily rushing down around him.

Luc let the idea of calling the landlord simmer for about as long as Monica did, a determined “no” leaving his mouth at the exact same time his roommate came to the same conclusion. And then she was joining Luc in the downpour of water and he grimaced apologetically, trying even harder to stem the flow of water with the soggy towel wrapped around the pipes. But then Monica was squealing and for a second he assumed the worst, that she’d somehow gotten horribly hurt, his bare feet slipping on the shower floor and almost sending him crashing to the ground if not for the firm grip on the pipes. “What? Are you okay?” Monica’s answer came in the form of a miracle - the knob for the shower presented in her hand. “Oh my god, you’re amazing!”

The soggy towel slumped to the ground when Luc let go of it, water once again spraying quite aggressively into his face but it was worth it. His hands fumbled with the knob for a moment or two, attention split between the task at hand and trying to shield Monica from simply getting knocked over by the force of the water. By the grace of god, it finally clicked into place and Luc turned it vigorously until the water simply stopped. He was heaving out breaths at that point, wiping water from his eyes to check on Monica, both of them dripping. “Thanks,” he breathed, grabbing his shirt and wringing some of the water from the material, which still clung uncomfortably to his skin.

—

The rush of excitement that Monica felt when she picked up the missing knob in her hand was the same excitement she imagined humans felt when they had first discovered diamonds. Or gold. Or anything super special and precious to them. Perhaps it was just a battered part of a cheap shower, but she had never felt more relieved to be holding anything in her life.

But one thing still stood between them and a dry bathroom, and that was actually getting the handle back into place. On one hand, Monica was glad that Luc was taking charge with this part. While she may have worked plenty of odd jobs in her lifetime, anything plumbing related was not on that list. On the other hand, she doubted Luc had any more plumbing experience than she did, so she watched nervously as he repeatedly tried clicking the part into place.

At least she wasn’t getting pelted in the face anymore! Well, that was only thanks to Luc taking the brunt of the spray. As much as she wanted to help, her height would do absolutely nothing in blocking Luc from the water, so Monica resorted to hovering behind her roommate like a scared, wet dog. Should she cheer him on? Or perhaps he would prefer silence? She didn’t have to contemplate for much longer as she heard the click of the part going into place. Stepping onto her tippy toes to peer over Luc’s shoulder, she watched as he aggressively turned the knob until finally, finally, the angry stream of water stopped.

For a moment, there was pure silence in the bathroom save for the drip of water and a gurgle of the drain. “Oh! Don’t mention it! I told you I’d have your back in a fight, didn’t I? ” She replied when Luc broke the silence. “And this was definitely a fight against water and plumbing. At first I thought you, like, totally fell in here. Then I thought you died. So anything less serious than that is such a relief!” Monica rubbed at her eyes, hopefully wiping water out of them for the last time today as she finally got a good look at the state of her roommate and their bathroom. Although her temporary towel dam had just prevented the water from breaching into the living room, the bathroom floors and walls were an undeniable mess.

“Soooo, we got the water to stop. Which is great! But, uh, this is still not very good, I don’t think…” she trailed off as she scratched her head, then ran a hand through her damp, knotted curls. The scale of the situation was finally starting to settle in, and Monica visibly shivered — whether from the wet clothes clinging to her skin or the daunting clean-up task ahead of them, she had no idea.

—

In the ensuing silence, Luc kept expecting something else to break, a step away from dramatically holding his breath (except he was already out of breath from keeping the shower from water boarding him so he settled for suspiciously eyeing the pipes). His quiet thank you was all he dared speak into existence but that’s where the importance of Monica came into play. Her rambling managed to deflate the dread of another incident and even had Luc carefully letting go off the shower tap - which didn’t randomly break again! Sighing in relief, Luc finally smiled, getting a proper look at his roommate and an immediate snort of laughter tore free from his throat. “Sorry,” he excused himself quickly, even though the adrenaline rush and relief of the disaster being averted didn’t quite allow him to stop laughing completely. “You’re just… so giving wet cat.”

To at least make up for the laughing, Luc carefully shifted to grab for the only towel not currently soaked and/or on the floor to hold it out to Monica. Who raised a very valid but very disheartening point. “Yeah, agreed.” Without the steady stream of water filling the bathroom, the mess on the floor had slowly started heading for the drain but everything from the walls to the interior was dripping, too. “Lucky I’m a clean up pro,” he assured her, offering a comforting smile and playful wink. Monica’s help had been very much appreciated but this wasn’t her mess to clean as they weren’t her clumsy hands that had somehow dismantled the shower.

“Look, you go change, maybe order us some take out? This feels like a pretty good excuse to bail on cooking. I’ll dry this all up and talk to the landlord in the morning, no one touches the shower before then, deal?” Luc suggested, already working on ushering Monica away from the disaster site.

—-

At least Luc seemed to be in good spirits despite all of the chaos. Monica did not mind being a wet cat one bit. In fact, it made her burst out laughing too. “Hey! If I’m giving wet cat, then you’re giving wet puppy,” she retorted, dramatically blowing another wet curl out of her face. She accepted the sole miraculously dry towel from her roommate, ungracefully patting her face and hair dry before tossing it to him.

“A clean up pro! What an honour to be in your presence!” Not that she herself was bad at cleaning up, but her clean up jobs were always, admittedly, pretty half-assed. She would feel a tiny bit guilty about leaving Luc to clean up the bathroom, but Monica also really wanted to change into some dry clothes. Being soggy wasn’t fun! And somehow, she felt even soggier now than while in her blob form. “Well, I’ll always take an excuse to bail on cooking! And if you say so, but holler if you need me, okay?”

She carefully stepped over the strong little towel that was containing the water to the bathroom, letting out a big sigh of relief as she returned to the land of dry walls and floors. Once in her room, she changed into some sweats and tossed her wet clothes into a messy pile on the ground. That was a problem for future Monica. Right now, she had the very important job of providing post-chaos nourishment. “I hope Chinese is okay because that’s what I’m getting!” She yelled over her shoulder as she sauntered into the living room to look for her phone.

Now that she was surveying their apartment, it didn’t look too shabby. Yet things kept going wrong, like the blinds falling down, and their janky microwave, and now their exploding shower. “Luc, do you think the landlord is scamming us?” She asked in a serious tone as she wandered back to the bathroom, phone in hand as she finished up their order. “I mean, things keep breaking out of nowhere! What if the landlord is pranking us! Charging us to live here while he sneaks in and breaks things like a little mischievous troll?”

—

Oh, how grateful Luc was for Monica, that she was his roommate. One of those things in his life that seemed to combat the looming presence of bad luck, which seemed to be the theme with people in his life, actually. Without them, Luc just might have bought into it completely but thinking of his moms, of Sebastian even now, of the people he’d met already in this town and his wonderful roommate, it was hard to buy into something like a curse.

Even when the evidence was trying to stare you in the face by way of soaking wet walls and water dripping from your hair and clothes.

“Chinese is great,” Luc confirmed, taking a moment to simply plan. Electronics had malfunctioned back in London and caused similar catastrophes, like the standmixer that got batter literally all over the kitchen, or the oven that had decided to nuke their dinner once and cover the whole apartment in smoke and bits of ash. Luc really was a clean up pro. He just… needed some more dry things to get all this water off their walls.

“Hmm?” Luc replied distractedly, barely registering her question as his wet socks slapped against the wet ground. Gross. Monica’s face popped into the doorway, making Luc’s mood improve again instantaneously. And then plummet right back at her question. His laugh sounded a bit strangled and, tempting as it was to blame the whole thing on their mediocre landlord, Luc wasn’t a liar. He also maybe didn’t want to ruin Monica’s evening by telling her she’d moved in with a maybe-trouble-magnet. “You think so? I don’t know, maybe we’re just… in a slump. You know the good thing about slumps is that they usually mean that good luck is right around the corner!”

#wickedswriting #c: luc #thread: soggy chaos #//2 bbs <3