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“Alright, please don’t forget to bring her protective coat tomorrow, because we’ll continue painting!” Eliott tells the mother as he helps little Lisa put on her coat, her mom apparently still too busy chatting with her friend on the phone to pay attention to her five year old daughter. “I’m sure you’ll remember by yourself; smart girl!” he tells Lisa in a conspiratorial tone, gently ruffling her hair.
Lisa enthusiastically nods, repeating under her breath “protective coat, protective coat, protective coat” as if to engrave it in her mind.
Eliott smiles and waves at her as her mom grabs her hand and begins dragging her towards the door, still gossiping on the phone.
Eliott sighs. He still doesn’t understand parents these days. How can they not pay attention to their own children after spending the day apart from them? Of course it’s not the case for all of them, but it is becoming increasingly common these days.
He turns around to face his very messy classroom. Him and his student have been working all day on their end-of-the-year project: a ‘fresque’ painting a very very big sheet of paper on which they were painting savanna landscapes and animals they would later hang on the walls of the common room for the parents to see at the kermess at the very end of the year.. He was very proud of the work of his student, the colourful animals and plants coming to life with each messy stroke of the paint brushes and spongey paint rollers.
Little Margot is still sitting at one of the tables, the last one in the class. Her little face is adorably scrunched up in concentration, her tongue slightly peeking out of her mouth as she carefully paints spots on the back of the leopard in front of her.
“Last one here, huh?” Eliott stops next to her and picks up the scattered paintbrushes on the table.
She barely hums in acknowledgement, still too focused on her task. Eliott chuckles.
“Who’s coming to pick her up today?” He asks Maya, his assistant as she passes through the classroom with her arms full of paint tubes.
“I think it’s her uncle this time.”
Ah . The famous uncle. From what Eliott knows, he is the one to take care of Margot, following a tragedy with her parents. Margot appears to be very fond of him, though Eliott never got to meet him. The little girl was usually picked up by her aunt Emma, or various family members and friends - the school and Eliott always warned about who would pick her up in the morning. To be fair, the uncle apparently dropped her off every morning for the pre-school daycare, but was working at the time of pickup.
“Margot, sweetie, how about you put down the brushes and go clean up with Maya?” Eliott crouched down in front of her. “Your uncle is gonna be here soon, you’ll be able to hug him if your hands aren’t covered in paint.”
Margot looked up, her big bright blue eyes roaming over Eliott’s feature, seemingly thinking his proposition over, before gently putting down her brush in the water cup, carefully cleaning it by brushing it across the bottom and standing up, rushing to join Maya by the small sink in the corner of the room, excitingly telling her about the life of Larry, the leopard she just painted.
Eliott smiles and gathers up all the paint brushes off the table, precariously balancing them inside the paint water cup as he slowly makes his way towards the door to go clean it all in the bathroom sink.
He is so focused on his task, on not letting the paintbrush drop on the ground, his head bent down, that he doesn’t notice the sudden arrival of a man at the classroom door, and ends up crashing right into him, the water cup completely emptying itself on the man’s crisp white shirt.
Mortified, he immediately starts apologizing as he looks and up and- oh.
Oh.
Standing before him is the most beautiful man Eliott has ever seen. His white shirt is absolutely drenched in the blue-ish water, making it cling to his chest. A paintbrush must have defied the laws of gravity as the man sports a blue splatters across the right cheek, bringing out the impossibly deep blue of his wide opened eyes. The man - Margot’s uncle, Eliott surmises - looks a little bit out of breath, his hair wild and eyes alert. God, those eyes.
“Shi- sho- shoes!” Eliott manages to catch himself, blushing furiously as he realizes he’s been staring at Mr Lallemant for a tad bit too long. “Oh God! Oh no, I’m so so sorry, sir, I wasn’t looking where I was going, I’m so sorry, I was just- I-” He stops himself from rambling before he can make a fool of himself in front of this Adoni- his student’s care-taker, quickly looking over at Maya and Margot over in the corner. He signals slightly to Maya. “Can you watch over Margot for a second? I’ll accompany Mr Lallemant here to the teacher’s lounge so he can clean up.”
Maya looks over at them, smirks a little but nods.
Eliott turns around to face Mr Lallemant, who also seems a little lost in his head at the moment. Is he… staring at Eliott? He only snaps out of it as Margot excitedly yells “Lulu!” from across the room.
His eyes soften and he smiles sweetly at his daughter. “Hi sweetie! Can you just wait for me a minute? I’ll be right back, and then we’ll go home, alright?”
Margot shrugs, her face seeming a little disappointed, but she quickly recovers and turns back to Maya, continuing her story. Eliott gestures for Mr Lallemant to follow him, and leads him through the tiny school to the teacher’s lounge.
On the way there, Eliott starts to feel more and more mortified. “I really am so sorry, sir, i wasn’t looking where i was going, I was-”
“No, no, please!” Mr Lallemant interrupts him. “If anything it’s on me! I basically ran over you, i just- I was a bit late, got held up by my fucking boss and- oh god, I really shouldn’t swear in a kindergarten, huh?” He laughs softly, worriedly looking around them.
Eliott laughs as he opens the door to the teacher’s lounge. “I think all the children have gone home, so you’re fine.”
“I swear I’m usually more careful, especially around Margot.” Mr Lallemant mumbles, looking down at the floor, a pale red starting to appear on his cheeks.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” Eliott winks, and points him to the sink in the corner of the room.
Mr Lallemant mumbles as he starts rinsing his shirt as best he could, the stain apparently unwilling to wash off. “That’s just my luck... I was gonna bring Margot to that new ice cream place, and now…” He sighs.
Eliott feels terrible. It’s his fault - whatever Mr Lallemant says. He feels even worse now knowing that he may delay, or even take away, Margot’s ice cream outing with her uncle.
“Wait a second” he says, going to his locker on the opposite wall. He starts sorting through the mess inside it. “I’m pretty sure I had a sweatshirt around here I could lend you. Don’t want to take away her ice cream from your little lady. Ah ha!” He exclaims as he finally finds his black zip-up hoodie, brandishing it proudly as he turns around to face Mr Lallemant once again.
A lovely shade of pink is now tinting Mr Lallemant’s entire face as he looks directly at the floor. “N-no, it’s okay, really, I- It’s okay, I’ll just- I-” he stutters through his words.
Eliott moves back to go lean against the sink right next to Mr Lallemant, extending the hoodie towards him. “Oh no, please, take it. It’s the least I could do.”
“I don’t wanna bother you” He blushes even more, looking decidedly at the floor. A few strands of hair are falling in his eyes, the harsh neon light doing nothing to hide the softness and shine of it.
“Oh please, really, it’s no bother. It is actually very selfish of me. I feel awful about ruining your shirt already, knowing Margot’s can get her ice cream would make me feel a hundred times better.” He nudges the hoodie a little closer to Mr Lallemant.
Mr Lallemant looks up at him, a little teasing grin pulling at his lips. “Well then, if it makes you feel better…” He grabs the soft fabric from Eliott’s hand, pulls the sleeves over his arms and zips it up to the middle of his chest.
Oh God. The whole thing is way too big on him, engulfing his form completely, the sleeves falling a few inches lower than his hands. He’s ador-
“Thank you Mr Demaury.” Mr Lallemant says as he pushes the overlong sleeves to his elbows.
“Oh God, no, please, don’t call me that. It’s just so weird, even the kids call me by my first name.” He laughs as he extends his arm. “Please, call me Eliott.”
Mr Lallemant shakes his hand. “Alright then. In that case, please, call me Lucas.” Mr Lal- Lucas’ hand is warm and soft in Eliott’s own. So small, too.
After maybe a second or two too long, Eliott releases his hands, and his eyes flick to Lucas’ face. “Oh, you- you have a bit of…” He rubs his own left cheek. “A bit of paint there…” Lucas rubs his left cheek in return with the damp paper towel in his hand. “No, not- the other one” Lucas finally starts rubbing his right cheek, but that only makes the situation worse, smudging and spreading the blue paint all over it. Eliott chuckles. “Wait, here” He grabs a new piece of paper towel, running it quickly under the tap.
As he approaches his hand from Lucas' face, he suddenly realizes how close they both are, and what he is doing, and immediately pulls his hand back, feeling his face getting real warm. “I mean… can I?” He quietly asks.
Lucas nods, prompting him to continue his movement and carefully clean Lucas’ paint off his cheek. Both avoid the other’s eye.
Suddenly, Lucas stumbles backwards a bit as Margot comes crashing into his legs, clinging to him. From the corner of his eye, Eliott can see Maya dashing around the corner, probably in pursuit of the little girl.
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes, a bit out of breath, “I turned my back for two seconds to put away some paint, and I think she was very excited to see her uncle.”
All three adults chuckle as they look down at Margot.
“Lulu! I missed you!! You weren’t coming back…” Her little face scrunches up with a frown.
“I’m sorry, princess” Lucas says as he bends down to pick her up, balancing her on her hips. “Hi, love!” He boops her tiny button nose with his free hand. “How was your day? Did you have fun?”
Margot nods excitedly. “We painted! We’re making a… a f…”
“A fresque.” Eliott helps her out quietly.
“A fresque! But Lulu, you can’t see it for now!”
“Okay, okay!” Lucas chuckles softly. “When will I be able to see it then? I gotta see your art!”
“At the kermess , on June 27th.” Eliott answers for her.
“The kermess , huh?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun! Their art from the whole school year will be exposed, there will be food, games… the whole thing.”
“I’ll make sure to have my Saturday then, I definitely can’t miss that.” Lucas locks eyes with Eliott. Eliott can feel Maya’s eyes on him.
Maya discreetly scratches her throat. Eliott tears his eyes away from the blue oceans he was looking into to stare at her questioningly. She just smiles back at him, a knowing look on her face.
Lucas looks back at his niece, jiggling her a little on his hip. ‘No, what do you say we go get some ice cream, princess?”
Her eyes light up with excitement and she lets out a high-pitched “Ice cream!”, throwing her arms around her uncle’s neck, making the adults laugh once again.
“Alright then, say goodbye before we go get your vest.”
She turns around in his arms to widely wave at both Eliott and Maya. “Bye Eliott! Bye Maya!”
“Bye bye, Margot.” Maya smiles at her, slowly pulling her phone out of her back pocket.
“Bye Margot, see you tomorrow! And don’t forget your protective blouse so you can finish up Larry.” Eliott gently reminds her (and Lucas at the same time) as they pass by him on their way to the door.
Eliott watches uncle and niece leave, and as they get around the corner, he hears Margot’s little voice ask “Lulu, do you like Eliott? You were looking at him a lot…”, followed by a weird strangled sound coming from Lucas. Eliott feels his cheek warm up a little.
Once the pair has disappeared, he turns towards Maya, and finds her staring at him, a smirk pulling at the corner of her lips, phone in hand and thumbs ready to type.
“What?” He asks.
“Nothing.” The smirk gets bigger, accompanied by a discreet little wiggle of her eyebrows before she drops her eyes to her screen and walks away, typing.