Sharing the Shiny

“You takin’ the books when you move out?”

Lestat looked back towards the voice and found it belonged to a handsome black man in a well tailored suit and shiny shoes. He was smiling politely, gesturing to the walls of books he had bought to cultivate the appearance of studiousness which he later learned Antoinette cared not a lick for. Lestat smiled back, turning away from the party and to better listen to the man’s thoughts.

“Unfortunately, they will have to be rehomed. Mayhaps even with a handsome man named…?” Lestat trailed off and the man’s mind bloomed open like a flower, refractions of Lestat in his mind and a burn of attraction shoved down just as quickly as it came. Just business, his mind said, just the books.

“Louis de Pointe du Lacs, I own the Azalea.” He held out his hand and Lestat wished nothing more than to press a kiss to the soft skin between the man’s thumb and forefinger. It would not be well received surrounded on all sides with what Louis referred to as Lily White Boys.

Source: Après la pluie le beau temps – Chapter 1, by WhimperSoldier – Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Adult, canon-divergence. This fic is amazing! Lestat only encounters Louis after he’d turned Antoinette, but of course he can’t resist Louis… I absolutely adore the way Lestat’s POV is written here, how the relationships (with Louis, with Louis’ family) and Lestat himself change quite drastically while feeling absolutely in-character.

They’re taking their time, the new Lestat and the new Louis; they have to learn how to walk, how to speak and touch and be together. They’re… Louis likes to think of it as courting, to grant it a modicum of class, but really, it’s dating; walks in the park, shopping, visiting museums. A movie, tonight—about a heist, or drugs, or maybe both, or something else entirely. Louis doesn’t remember, and it doesn’t really matter. It’s Lestat’s company that he looks forward to enjoying; his gentle hand caressing Louis’ in the dark of the theater, the walk back to Lestat’s apartment and the heated discussion (or argument) that will no doubt accompany it.

Source: Perpetual 1908, by shavir_light – Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Adult, post-season 2. As a sucker for the gentlest of gentle D/s, I just adore the way the new dynamic between a more open Louis and a much softer Lestat works.

Lestat, of course, objected to Louis’ gargantuan spending spree, and Louis had to reassure him it was all a loan, just until he got his finances back in order. The piano, though, was a gift. Lestat’s face went through about five different expressions when Louis told him this. He took so long to answer that Louis was almost worried he upset him, somehow, but in the end Lestat simply thanked him in a soft, small voice.

There was something immensely satisfying about buying these things for Lestat. It felt a bit gauche to admit, but Louis found that the role-reversal appealed to him. Beyond the ego-boost, which he didn’t really need, while helping Lestat settle into modernity Louis couldn’t help but think of the whole thing as caring for Lestat, as providing for him. And with his enormous funds, he felt like he understood now how Lestat could be so unbothered when spending money on Louis during their old life together.

Source: And the Knowing Is Sweet, Too, by shavir_light – Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Adult, post-season 2. This is such an amazing perspective – Louis reveling in the change in their dynamic but still completely unable to resist a softer post-shack Lestat, eager to follow Louis’ lead and please him. Because, as the author points out, Lestat shut himself away for 70 years while Louis fucked literally hundreds of men – so they’re both eons away from their old NOLA selves…

“Be serious, Louis,” Lestat interjected. “You’re going to go to the wedding of the man you love, who is marrying the man you hate, and you’re probably going to be there all by yourself. It’s going to be awful.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you would be an incredible motivational speaker?” Louis asked.

“I’m getting to my point,” Lestat argued. “I’m already going to be there.”

“Otherwise occupied…” Louis said under his breath.

“Why don’t we just… go together?” Lestat suggested.

Louis felt his mouth fall open slightly. “What? Like as each other’s date?”

“Pick your jaw up off the floor, Louis,” Lestat ordered. “You could do worse.”

“I’m not dating you, Lestat,” Louis responded. “Hasn’t anyone told you that ‘no’ means ‘no?’”

“I’m not asking you to date me, Louis,” Lestat said. “I’m asking you if you want to pretend to date me.”

Source: like you mean it – Chapter 1, by cherhorowitz8 – Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Mature, human fake dating AU. There’s a reason this trope is so popular – when done right, it’s lots of fun. And this one’s simply delicious, perfect rom-com material!

“What’s his name?”

Louis turns back, brow furrowed. “Who?”

“Your fledgling. That Armand made for you.” Lestat’s eyes are oddly bright. And Louis finally places what this expression is.

It’s the same look from the back of a truck on its way to Paris. The phantom of Lestat had looked at Claudia like this, as Louis promised that she would be enough. The expression is longing—a yearning to trade places with someone. Like a dog watching another dog be fed.

Louis doesn’t understand it, and he doesn’t have the time to understand. 

“Daniel,” he says. 

Lestat nods. The corner of his mouth twitches, like he tried to smile but failed. 

“Daniel.” His voice is soft around the consonants, but his lips tight. Then: “You should bring him to New Orleans. No better place to raise a fledgling,” he says with a fondness that hums with the memory of Claudia. “And I’d love to meet him.”

Source: Fledgling – Chapter 1, by thepettymusingsofmeat – Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022) [Archive of Our Own]

Adult, post-season 2. Misunderstandings that can be solved with one conversation irk me, but the rest of this is just so damn good – I love how Louis’ perspective is written, and Daniel’s POV is perfect!