– “WHAT ARE YOU GONNA WEAR TODAY?” RICKY ASKS HIS ROOMMATE while he starts digging through his drawers. he already thought grey was cool, now he thinks grey is 10x cooler now that he’s seen him hanging out with landon. landon’s cool and they seem like very good friends ! “ i’m trying to find an outfit that says ‘ i’m probably gonna get my ass kicked, but i’m still cool about it ’...you know, like rocky. ”
the 1 — and if my wishes came true, it would have been you. makeout in my car — love come to me, empowered by the living dream. i wanna be with you — i can’t take it, who i want’s right in front of me. someone to stay — i know how it feels being by yourself in the rain, we all need someone to stay. the only exception — and up until now, i had sworn to myself that i’m content with loneliness. fire on fire — but still, you take my breath and steal the things i know. there you go, saving me from the cold. // @gregcollins
– BE NICE, CLAIRE. she repeats it in her head like a mantra, because at the end of the day, one thing matters: she wants kass to be happy. and she knows the routine is getting old: kass likes boy, claire threatens boy, boy somehow disappears into thin air ( probably because he was a piece of shit to begin with. ) claire knows it FRUSTRATES kass, it’s obvious, but she can’t help but remember the guys she’s gone easy on – not that kass would know all of claire’s mom’s guys. but claire sees a similar kindness in kass, a hopeless romanticism, the way she will never stop setting herself up for a potential broken heart. it’s fearlessness, sure, but it unlocks an instinct in claire to want to PROTECT her because she’s seen what her mom’s been through. so even when she can feel kass getting angry at it, she can’t stop. and seeing grey leaving the building where their internship is located repeats the mantra: be nice claire. be nice.
“ grey ! ” claire calls out in a chirping voice that sounds unlike her own ( literally, so unlike her own she wants to double take and start over. who said that ? ) “ sorry, we haven’t formally met, ” she catches up to him and holds out her hand. “ claire. kass’s best friend. ” alright, so maybe there’s a vaguely threatening note in that, a slight raise of her eyebrows DARING him to say something less than amicable so she can give up on the pretense of being polite.
MOVING OUT IS WEIRD –– he’s never done it before. he packed to go to gallagher at the start of the year but he didn’t exactly move out of the family home back in quebec. once he’s gathered all his things from room 408 ( or 4o8, though he’s rolling his eyes at the thought ), he’s feeling a bit WEIRD. he loves rizo, jai… scott can go fuck himself, but the other two ? he’ll miss them a lot as roommates and he’s not sure he’ll be so lucky to get a two-out-of-three victory like this next year. then again, he had made some unexpected friends… max, grey, ellie, noah, asher, emmett, even aspen if he has to admit it, so there was always something to look forward to next year even if his roommates turned out to be scott-level-trash.
once he’s on the plane, he’s thinking about the party, the year, how he was supposed to be at blackthorne with his older brother, marc and yet neither were standing today. he had changed his mind about gallagher, though, something he’d keep to himself and not discuss with his father but he would be telling charles and elias about how he’s happy to be there and how he’s looking forward to the next year.
the dynamic back home is strangely different to when he left. after marc died there was such a shift in luc’s position in the family, going from the montagnier obedient golden boy to making it known he was no longer going to be taking his father’s orders and ensuring he stood up for his brothers instead of competing with them. and he’s not nervous often but once the front gates to their estate open up he’s wondering if he still has the resilience to stand up to his dad, whether charles and elias even need helping anymore and what’s in store for him over the next two weeks.
charles and elias rush out the front door to greet him, shaking the car vigorously ( much to the driver’s disdain ) until he steps out with a big grin on his face and they dive him to the ground. his mother, ameline, is next to come outside, she looks as radiant as ever and her smile is subtle but soft.
“ charles, elias… let him get inside first. ” and they’re off him instantly, elias helping luc to his feet. wandering up to his mother, luc’s happy to see her. he has a complex relationship with her, unsure if he blames her for the treatment against her sons, for marc, for always turning a blind eye and staying quiet — but she’s also so tender, comforting and she knows when something’s wrong every time. he didn’t think it was obvious he didn’t want to be home but she knew as she brings her palms to his cheeks for a moment before placing a kiss on his head, he almost feels better.
he’s not surprised his father hadn’t met him outside, he has to find him in his study. he looks older, which is weird since it had only been a year, but something had changed. maybe an extra few grey hairs or a wrinkle or two, luc can’t pin point it. the door is closed once he enters and luc had been stood in the spot he was many times in the past. whether it was him being praised, finding out a new target or simply learning about their business, luc was always stood in the same spot while his father sat at his desk.
“ son, ” he begins, and for a moment luc isn’t sure what to expect, he’s focussing on not shaking, keeping his composure just a bit longer until he’s out of the room. he wants to hate the man in front of him. he does hate him. everything he’d endured and for what ? to have a dead brother and a damaged perception of what family was supposed to be. he’d learnt more at gallagher about what family was, what love was, than his entire life at home.
“ welcome home. ” that throws him off a bit. he nods, but remains silent. his father had never said anything remotely welcoming to him before and he’s not sure if it’s a test. after a moment of silence, his dad speaks again. “ well, how is gallagher academy for exceptional young women ? ” and just like that the anger is there, suffocating any fear or hesitance he had before and he snaps.
it had been over an hour and when he forcibly pulls the door open, charles and elias stumble down from their positions as they were listening through the crack. luc just steps over them and heads to his room, ignoring their calls as he does so. his throat is harsh, his heart still beating rapidly and he’s too warm for comfort as he tries to breathe. so much was said. gallagher. marc. gallagher. blackthorne. marc. their upbringing. marc. going in circles continuously until he’d ran out of things to scream. he stayed in his room for the rest of the day until leaving to walk their three dogs early in the morning.
they had a few animals, mostly dogs but his mother had a siamese cat called baroness that often clung to luc — she didn’t love the twins and his father didn’t love pets so luc was often just there for when she demanded attention from someone other than ameline. plus, he didn’t mind baroness sleeping in his room, whereas the dogs always moved too much. after a few days of silence between him and his dad, multiple dinners with an absent luc, his mother finally called an end to it.
ameline montagnier was not one to raise her voice. when she did it was frail and prone to break but that did not occur once when she was stood screaming at the male members of the family who were all sat at the dinner table. their father at the head of it, watching his wife, luc on the opposite end with his gaze low, and charles and elias awkwardly sat in the middle and wondering why they had to be present for it. when they’d tried to ask to excuse themselves, they were promptly shut down by an intense glare from their mother and they didn’t make another sound until she was finished.
luc still avoids his father where he can but he shows up to dinner, for his mother’s sake if nothing else. he’ll help his dad with the family business, bringing up suggestions and settling into the idea that he’ll be taking over once he graduates. he helps the twins with their techniques, shows them some things he’d learnt at gallagher and there’s a positivity and enthusiasm within them that hadn’t been there before.
he stays for almost the full two weeks and by the end of it he’s feeling weirdly cathartic. he watches silently as elias decides to shave his head, then even more silent as his mother finds out and cries. he had nothing to do with it, of course. definitely didn’t convince him to. charles wants to match his twin but their mother hides all the scissors and razors in the house — he attempts it with one of his knives and ends up looking worse than elias.
when it’s time to leave, his dad is outside with the rest of the montagniers to send him off and he places his hands on luc’s shoulders to tell him he’ll see him next year, excited to learn more about the gallagher school. his mother actually hugs him and the twins try to take him to the ground yet again to stop him leaving, annoyed he hadn’t spent the entire month with them.
unfortunately luc had already promised to meet @brandtmax in bali for a week and he’d much rather piss off his family than her. plus, he’s really excited to see her again, even though it hadn’t been too long since they were at gallagher. it’s such a contrasting week to his time at home, mostly just him falling asleep in the sun, relaxing, and taking what felt like a billion photos with max. he’s grateful to have a proper vacation, though.
then after bali he’s heading to ethiopia to meet @gregcollins. perhaps it’s an unusual vacation destination, but for grey and luc it’s where google told them to go for good coffee. they get flights to land at similar times and he’s smiling once he sees him waiting for him, in a coffee shop no less ! he can’t quite hide his excitement as he goes in for a hug, which is new for them, and he’s unsure if it’s too far as grey hesitates… but it’s kind of nice. plus it’s not just coffee they spend their time on, they go to the national park and hike around several different spots to find hidden waterfalls and just talk about whatever comes to mind.
from there, the pair head to berlin and luc’s feeling optimistic about the rest of summer.
an overview of how landon spends his winter break up in new york. following exams, landon’s on the first bus out of roseville, and due to recent events, he barely says goodbye to anyone before he leaves. // @gallaghertasks, @gregcollins, & @emmettblack
landon takes another bus to new york, and for the first half of it, he sits in silence, staring out the window to see the countryside of virginia ( very 2000s coming of age film of him ) !
and in the second half, he finally looks at his phone, scrolling to the name emmett 🥵👑 ( because of course he hasn’t changed his contact name ). instead of wanting people to overhear the conversation, he goes into the gross bathroom in the bus, and the second emmett answers, landon crumbles and begins to cry. he doesn’t go into specifics, he knows better than to do that over the phone, but he tells him about cyrus and just that it’s hitting him hard. he doesn’t want to bother emmett over the phone, sure that he has other things to do, but he needed to hear his big bro/dad’s voice.
it helps somewhat— to just hear emmett’s voice and telling him that it’s going to be okay, that he’s going to be okay, and after someone bangs on the door because landon had been in there for a long time, landon wipes his eyes and leaves. for the rest of trip though, he does talk to emmett, and maybe he does smile a little bit!
his mom’s there at the bus station to pick him up, and he tries to put on a brave face for her, but she can tell by how his smile doesn’t reach his eyes and how tightly he squeezes her that something is wrong.
they make small talk on the way home, but it’s not the same, and addie puts her hand on his shoulder, and landon knows from that that he can open up to her.
so he does, when they get home. her husband is still at work, so landon tells her about cyrus and how it was rough on everyone. landon cries even more, and he wonders how the hell he can even cry anymore after that phone call with emmett. and when addie puts her arms around him, he cries even more. he knows that he shouldn’t have held these things in, and now that the tears have started, it’s like he can’t help it anymore. addie tries to comfort him, and it helps....kind of. it just shows landon that he does have people around him that care about him, something that he’s not used to having.
that night, he doesn’t join addie and jonathan for dinner. landon claims that he’s tired from finals and traveling, which isn’t a lie, but also the small crying session he had earlier definitely exhausted him. he sends a quick text to seb, saying he made it to his mom’s, but other than that, landon just goes to lay down and sleep.
his mom knows that something’s wrong when landon barely gets out of bed, barely is on his phone, barely does anything. she tries, she really does, stopping in before she goes to work and after she gets home. addie talks to him about her day, and he makes small conversation, and he hates it because there’s a small part of him that wonders if whether or not she regrets opening her home to him for such a long period of time especially over the holidays.
a few days later after christmas, @gregcollins shows up with coffees early in the morning. landon feels bad, considering he hadn’t really spoken or texted grey that much besides a few times, and he still shows up. it helps him feel better, seeing grey ( even though he might have stolen him from ella for a little bit, sorry ella ! ) and at first, all landon wants to do is lay in bed, but grey, who usually would have no qualms about that, suggests they do something.
addie overhears as she’s walking past the door, and she suggests to landon that they go ice skating in central park ( ty deanna, i’m just a wee floridian ). at first landon’s apprehensive, but then he thinks about it and going with grey, so for the first time since getting there, landon leaves the apartment.
it’s grey’s first time ice skating, and landon hadn’t been that happy in weeks honestly, and he tries to help grey figure out how to skate, but he was really struggling! fell down a couple times, sometimes taking landon with him but it was cute and wholesome uwu
it’s obvious the difference that being with grey away from gallagher makes on him, and when they go out to eat, landon is able to eat a few things and he posts things on his social media finally.
when they get back, addie definitely gives grey a little look basically saying thanks for taking care of her son and offers him to stay for a night if he wants!
so he does obviously and landon really needs that?? because nights have been the hardest for him and grey stays in his room and doesn’t ask questions, he’s just there for him and yes they do cuddle and landon falls asleep the quickest he has been able to in a couple days.
landon does feel bad for taking grey away from ella, so he tells grey he can go back to hers whenever ( and maybe it is because landon has a bad habit of pushing people away when he’s going through things ) but grey decides to stay for a little bit and basically landon’s slowly trying to get better and doesn’t want to think about gallagher until he’s on his way back for new years.
