Character(s)/Relationship(s) Lestat, Louis; Loustat, very tiny brief mention of Armand/Daniel at the beginning of the fic
Genre Romance/Vampire
Rating PG
Word Count 1,130
Disclaimer As this is fanfiction, I do not hold copyright to the source material(s) nor do I claim that I do. This is for free entertainment purposes only.
Summary Louis and Lestat reunite in modern Dubai. For the I Can’t Wait for Season 2 event week 4: Theme/Theories.
Warning(s) spoiler for Interview with the Vampire, spoiler for The Vampire Armand, brief mention of a suicide attempt
Notes When I saw IwtV Daily’s tweet, I immediately started brainstorming. I decided to do one fic per prompt and make them a series. I’m not sure I’d say I want all the little details to happen in the show, but the bigger things I want to happen were my inspirations for each fic.
The fourth week’s theme was Theme and Theory. There are so many theories, so it was a little hard to pick. I figure we’re definitely going to at least get a tease for the transition to TVL at the end of the series. I also nodded to a theory that some plot points could be shuffled around and so the present day is probably set post-TVA somewhere but that doesn’t necessarily mean that portions of TQotD or TotBT might have happened yet. I also threw in some smaller theories here and there that fit the story. In terms of theme, it seems like repeatedly the vampires seek each other out, and Louis and Lestat especially always find a way back to each other, etc… I’m not sure I 100% buy that Louis and Lestat haven’t seen each other in several decades in the show canon, but I decided to go with that here because it made for an easier fic to write and fit with the shuffled around plot points theory.
Anyway, I decided to post this early because I can totally wait for season 2 if that means everyone gets treated more fairly and I stopped participating in linking to these things on Twitter during week 3.
AO3 link
or read below
The Connection We Share
Louis’ final narration ended as all good stories did with a neat bow. Daniel untied it and after several probing questions, the final interview session finally officially ended. Goodbyes could wait until tomorrow since Daniel’s flight would not leave for several hours. Armand and Daniel disappeared to Daniel’s room with an invitation for Louis to join them. Louis declined and lingered in the room where the interview ended. It was the darkest hour of the night. The dim light inside the penthouse illuminated the tree and the rock garden so everything sparkled like stardust to a vampire’s gaze. The sun drew ever closer to the eastern horizon, a steady warning that not even immortals were wholly immortal. Yet, Louis found himself walking through the penthouse and out onto one of the balconies near his bedroom.
The night was hotter than any night in New Orleans. Dogs barked in the distance. Stars twinkled at the far reaches of the light pollution. Dubai spread out towards the horizon and the breeze blew Louis’ hair away from his face. Lights turned off across the city only for other lights to turn on. The streets were never empty even with pandemic restrictions still in place. Somewhere far away one of Lestat’s songs played so faint and distant that seemed more like a whisper of the mind.
The first time Louis hear the song was one of his visits to Night Island during the height of Armand and Daniel’s time there. The song played across the world from restaurants, shops, cars, radios, stereos, and boom boxes for the rest of the year. Mortals hummed and sang it to themselves while doing chores and walking their dogs even to this day. The song was a heavy metal ballad about a long-dead lover and a conspiring universe. The chorus was strangely romantic and a little cheesy, a true product of its time. Many mortals called it “the necrophilia song” jokingly. Louis leaned on the balcony railing and found himself humming along to it as it faded in the distance and a different song took its place.
After a short while, the song suddenly began again, this time acapella from a nearby street. The voice was unmistakable and drew steadily closer as a figure appeared in the street below. The figure approached the tower and disappeared from Louis’ view, but the song continued to draw nearer along with little noises as if feet alighted to various balcony railings. The song ended two balconies below Louis and then Lestat landed on Louis’ balcony railing with the Cloud Gift before dropping down to stand in the opposite corner of the balcony. Lestat’s hair shone in the ambient light like a high-end shampoo commercial and his skin was flush with blood. His bright leather pants were tight and he forewent the first half of the buttons on his shirt. He seemed corporeal like the vision of Lestat that Louis saw in Paris decades ago, but this Lestat looked as Lestat should look.
All sound around them seemed to fade. The cord connecting them stretched over a century and contracted to the mere feet between them. Their gazes never faltered from one another. Neither of them spoke for a long time.
“Louis…” Lestat seemed to breathe. “I almost thought I might find a ghost.”
Louis stopped leaning on the railing and licked his lips. “That’s funny coming from another ghost.”
The breeze caressed Lestat’s hair. “Just before he flung himself into the sunlight, Armand sent me a vision of you to my mind. Your clothes and hair were so modern. I could not believe it. I thought it was a taunt or when I told him all that Memnoch showed me, I drove him mad.”
Louis’ eyebrows drew together. He glanced through the balcony door into the penthouse but it could not reveal why Armand never spoke of Lestat when they reunited after Armand stepped into the sunlight twenty years ago. Louis’ gaze returned to Lestat.
“Recently I saw a curious letterhead and heard a rumor of an interview between a vampire and a mortal in Dubai.” Lestat never once looked away. “So, I lurked nearby. I listened to your fanciful tales and to Claudia’s altered diaries. It was fantastic fiction worthy of the authors you admire, but for what?” Lestat paused. “Why do you call out to me? Did you want me to stop your tale? Did you want me to contradict it? Do you want me to keep you from making this desert your grave?”
“Can a ghost stop me?” Louis asked.
“I am as much a ghost as you are.” Lestat traversed the distance between them. “In the streets of Paris, in that blood-stained theater, in that moonlit courtyard, you looked through me just as you look through me now.” His left hand cradled Louis’ jaw much as it had in the church over a century before. His thumb ran along the faint stubble under Louis’ lips, following the same path he touched back then. “I watched your ‘ghost’ turn the Théâtre des Vampires to ash. It filled me with joy. Such a fitting funeral for our Claudia, for that life. Knowing that it was you, as you were, as you are, fills me with joy again.”
Louis reached up and removed Lestat’s hand from his face, finding it corporeal and as warm as any vampire’s hand could ever become. Noise seemed to return to the world. The sun drew ever closer to the horizon. Louis kept a tight grasp of Lestat’s hand. “I killed you.”
“It was a glorious, theatrical murder. Your eyes glowed with vengeance, with anger, with love.” Lestat smiled. “It was one of the most alluring things you’ve done.”
The pressure from the impending sunrise felt almost suffocating. Louis changed how he held Lestat’s hand, letting their fingers entwine. Lestat remained before him as glorious as Louis expected him to be and definitely not a ghost. Louis licked his lips and said, “This place is a coffin for anyone who wishes to step inside.”
“Are you inviting me in as a lover?” Lestat moved closer, leaving little space between them.
“Are you going to stay out here and let the sun roast you instead?” Louis asked, moving so there was no longer space between them.
They kissed. One kiss became two, and they reluctantly parted in the middle of a third. Louis kept hold of Lestat’s hand and led him from the balcony into the deep recesses of the penthouse where Louis’ bedroom lay enclosed by three interior walls fashioned in the shape of the three exterior walls of the tower. The room was lavish and comfortable covered in modern art and bookshelves. The sun pierced the horizon as the bedroom door closed behind them.
Not sure if I'll write anything or not. It'll depend on how hot it gets here and my confidence levels. Going to kind of give myself several options to work with and see if I'm feeling anything tomorrow
Relationships/Pairings
Louis/Lestat - hallucinations that are possibly reality, crashing the interview
Armand/Daniel - The push and pull of past and present, resentment and desire, how much changes and how much stays the same (a study)
Claudia/Madeleine - Falling in love, the fear of repeated mistakes, desire, what connects them together now that Claudia isn't a five-year-old, the push and pull of thirst, of desire
Scenes/Lines
Not completely sure what to do for this one because I read that amazing fic about the trial so now I am a crisis of confidence. Might be able to take the Loustat hallucinations vs. reality concept and use that here though
Outfit/Character Look
Claudia and the yellow dress re-imagined for post-war Paris.
Armand slowly morphing away from the black clothing to brighter styles
Theme/Theory
Nothing can ever be the same again even if some things stay the same
Memory is faulty, manipulated or not
Louis chose this strange penthouse set up, perhaps the penthouse is Trinity Gate (though this seems like a later season reveal)
Growing and moving forward despite committing the gravest sins against one another
Or perhaps despite healing old wounds will still reopen
