the elephant in the room | felix

Luc laughed heartily when the boy told him that (obviously) it was the elephant that was up. Then, as he said that he couldn't help but watch him, the younger boy's confidence retracted - he was smirking and wincing as embarrassment and amusement conflicted with one another. He wasn't sure which of the two he should feel. Was that flattery? This boy's Irish accent was distracting him somewhat. As well as the fact that he was pretty cute. Regaining confidence (which he admittedly only lost under a handful of circumstances), Luc cocked his head as the boy walked through the threshold, and replied "I'm Luc," while looking over at his dorm mate. He was aware that this was probably classed more as staring, but whatever. He couldn't help it, he liked assessing things - situations and encounters.

After all, he wasn't looking directly at the guy. He never did it like that. It was always just above someone's shoulder, at their eye level, that was the place he stared at while he drank in the situation and took stock... Suddenly forcing himself to snap out of the strange momentary daze he'd trapped himself in, Luc carried on talking as though he hadn't just left an awkward gap - "But you know that." He smiled dreamily, now recouping eye contact with Felix, though his eyes occasionally strayed to the glitter on those lips. He was curious, it was in his nature to be so, but he didn't ask. "Or so I hope..." He added with that grin. He wasn't usually one to bring up his family's fame, but for some reason, he felt a desire to impress. And, considering he didn't have an Irish accent or glitter at his disposal, he had to use other means.

Luc was pretty thankful Felix had decided to pay a visit. Although he'd found his classes fun so far, and met a few people who were interested in him rather than his family, he hadn't really got to know anyone yet - especially in his dorm. And he felt that Felix would be a good person to get to know, considering he had gained his interest already. You could tell that Felix was a performer, if not by that glitter, then by the way he composed himself, something which Luc wholly appreciated. His background in dance had taught him that elegance and grace could be acquired through strenuous training with an iron fist, but that it could also be an inherent characteristic to those who were fortunate enough. It wasn't like Felix's composure wasn't flawed in some ways - he wasn't a dancer, so it was forgiveable in Luc's eyes - but grace was certainly present.

Felix's nonchalance towards his background stung Luc slightly, initially - until he remembered that some students actually came for the educational advances in this school, rather than as a result of knowing that famous people's kids would be among the student body. Or for other reasons entirely. Either way, it was perhaps not necessarily guaranteed that every student would know the Oakley-Shaw family for their Hollywood prowess. He watched as Felix crossed the room to lean against his dresser, listening to him talk about stage make-up. Luc smirked as his dorm mate pulled a face, and gave him a cross-eyed, pouted-lips look in return, responding "You're telling me." Then, when Felix brought back up the topic of him, Luc smiled inwardly. "Well, you know I'm American and that I'm a celebrity, it's a start..." His eyes drifted suggestively to the family picture he had on his desk.

Making Felix laugh sent a flush of warmth through Lucas' chest. He always got this rush making new friends - it was just hard maintaining it with those friends, most of the time. But he felt pretty optimistic about this friendship. Luc grinned at the Meryl Streep comment, and reacted by wafting his hand around his face, mocking a blush - "You're too sweet." He decided not to mention that he'd met her before (albeit in passing). There was a time and a place for bragging, and this wasn't it - and the boy was kind of glad for that. Lucas loved his family, and he liked the fame, but sometimes it was just a relief to forget about it and be treated like a normal human being. Not that anyone bowed down and kissed his feet or anything. Luc knew, in fact, that some narrow-minded people out there wouldn't even touch him with a barge pole - and not because he was rich, famous and potentially snobby.

Lucas had never 'officially' come out as gay to the media (i.e. the world). But that was because the small minds behind the big news sources already had him down as a homosexual - because of his aspirations to become a dancer. At the time this presumption surfaced, just after he'd particularly detailed his passion for dance in a brief interview in late 2011, there was an uproar in the Oakley-Shaw household. The entire family already knew that Luc was gay, it was merely the press' quick-to-judge attitude that riled them up.

In an angry haze, Luc initially wanted to throw the self-righteous bigots completely off course by declaring that he was straight, just to make them look as stupid and wrong as they should feel. But, upon releasing he would have to act painfully straight for God knows how long to convincingly play that game, he decided against it. Stringing journalists along was all well and good, but being untrue to yourself was something else. So, later on that year, Lucas was caught on a date with a guy (somewhat deliberately) by the paparazzi, and that was that. It was over now, but the fact that the press had taken away his right to come out when he felt ready... It still made him want to throw things.

A little smile played on Luc's lips as the boy identified him. "I am indeed," he said, then responded to the request for a twirl with initial reluctance, raising his eyebrows. He liked that dancing was his identifier, his only niggling thought was that little elephant on the desk telling him not to be a show pony. But this was hardly anything, so it didn't count, Luc told himself as he stood up. He walked over to Felix, and pushed lightly on his chest, indicating that he should move back a bit to clear the dance-floor. Then, he stepped back in did a double pirouette, right there in his teddy bear socks. He'd have liked to have made it to a triple, but carpet was the worst material to dance on ever.

"Didn't doubt for a second that you would ogle," Luc grinned, shaking his head. He moved back over to the desk and sat down on top of it, his legs dangling off the edge. He swung his legs in and out of the space under the desk, as he listened to Felix, who was asking him if he had worked out what his speciality was yet. It was already narrowed down by the fact that they'd met in these dorms, only accessible to Flavin boys and their mentors. But Lucas did have in his head a pretty clear idea of what Felix did, just from being around him for a few minutes. Although it was possible he may just be an extravagant visual arts guy, Luc had it down that he was a performer - he could tell from early on that he was. The glittery make-up and composure. It was probably singing. Or acting. Lucas kind of hoped it was singing just because that would be pretty awesome.

Snapping back out of his thoughts, he heard Felix offer up the clue of a 'certain scene'... It didn't really help. Luc broke out his confused face to show this, then said, "First of all, I don't really have many friends yet..." - he pulled a solemn face, sniffed and wiped a dry eye - "And my guess is... hmm..." He furrowed his brow, seemingly deep in thought, until it was broken with sudden realisation and a chuckle at his slowness. "Oh, man, I was thinking singer but then I realised you said scene... so you're an actor!" He smiled proudly. "...But I want to see this scene, he continued, "Even though... err, I nearly got it wrong..." He grinned cheekily with his tongue between his teeth, then nodded with raised eyebrows, not exactly knowing what to expect, but looking forward to it all the same.

Luc stopped swinging his legs and did a brief little dance when he was told he was right, wiggling from side to side with head movements to match. A lot of people had told him that he was like a hyperactive three-year-old in a seventeen-year-old's body, what with is over-active imagination and random outbursts, and he had always agreed. It was just who he was, he was used to it, and therefore everyone else would have to get used to it too. C'est la vie in Lucas' eyes. He liked it when things moulded around what he wanted - it made him feel secure, but obviously that was read by everyone else as selfish, so he always tried to keep that on the down low.

The boy watched quietly as Felix went into 'the mode'. He fixed his shoulders, and then his hands and hips aligned in position. It was then that Luc frowned a little, wondering what role the guy was trying to assume. And the adjustment of legs and his 'bust' kind of made it click, and Lucas broke into a grin as he found himself on the receiving end of Felicia Marina's purred voice and fluttering eyelashes. As Felix regained his normal Felix-ness with ease present with the best of actors, Luc let out a delighted laugh and clapped a couple times, three-year-old style.

Lucas was just about to ask which film or book the character was from - and/or whether he was impersonating a female classmate of his - when Felix spoke up himself to explain. Safe to say, Luc couldn't really hide his surprise. He obviously hadn't been watching correctly or something, or maybe it was the lack of 'dolling up', as Felix suggested. Nevertheless, for a moment his hands remained clasped together, his mouth popped open a little, his eyes widened and his eyebrows raised. Then he said, "Wow," and chuckled, releasing his hands and unconsciously bringing both to either side of his face.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that." Luc laughed heartily. Of course, it was not at the idea of Felix in drag, but at his own reaction to it all - sometimes, that three-year-old inside him could be pesky in its naïveté. Once he was done laughing at himself, he hopped off the desk and jumped onto his bed instead. He kicked off his shoes (pretty much literally - one of the perks of living sans parents), shuffled up a bit towards the headboard and crossed his legs, making way. He then patted the space next to him for Felix to sit down on, rested his elbows on his knees, and then his head upon his hands.

From this unflattering position (not that he cared. YOLO), Luc cocked his head a little and began seriously, "So..." He dragged out a pause to give it all a feeling of serious suspense, and then continued - "...Does that mean you can you give me a makeover?" He broke into that grin again. To top it off, Lucas made sure he worked his eyelashes as he spoke, just like his friend had mere minutes ago. Then three-year-old him broke out again and then he burst into a small fit of giggles.

(( ABBY I SWEAR I JUST CANNOT. I squealed when I wrote the latter half. ))

As Felix joined him sitting on the bed, shaking it a little and calling it flimsy, Luc snickered. It was nice to have met someone who had had got on with so instantaneously well. Now, he was seeing a positive of the school's initiative to group kids together in the way that they did.

Luc made an embarrassed face at Felix's remarks about his complexion, face, beauty... He liked it usually, but from Felix it felt different. The way he was saying it was so thickly laden with melodrama that he didn't know any which way to take it, until the other boy friend laughed, and Luc avoided saying anything really about it by laughing with him.

He instead decided to pick up on the phrase Felix had used, because Lucas had heard his mother refer to it too, "the face that launched a thousand ships". He had little knowledge of literature - his mum tended to pass that onto Benji rather than him or any of his other siblings - but enough interest in it to mentally note key quotes and phrasings.

"Greek mythology, huh?" Luc piped up, peering down at Felix over his balled up fists pushing on either cheek, supporting the weight of his head. He could remember that it was of that genre and that some girl was so beautiful as to get all the guys running to her, but that was roundabout where his interest petered out. He liked the stories more than anything.

It suddenly dawned on Luc that Felix had just complimented him (if ever so expressively) and that meant he should probably do that social norm thing of denying it and/or thanking him, then returning the favour. He began by laughing lightly, if not slightly awkwardly, at the possibility of his beauty. He still felt strange receiving the compliment, even though he'd had similar from other people, even media people.

"Thanks, bud... Oh, and I-- err, I meant to say, by the way," Luc said as he distracted himself, looking away and rubbing his eye has though it were itchy (it wasn't), "Your lips, the glitter isn't messy--" he paused and looked up at Felix with a sheepish smile. He even allowed his gaze to fall to the other boy's lips briefly as he continued, "It's only slightly there, nice and spread out." Luc unconsciously moved a hand over to his own mouth, tracing his lips with his fingers in a circular motion to indicate what he meant. Boy, was his confidence fluctuating right now.