maude delacour-dupont

Guy let his eyes remain closed for a while after they broke apart. Their foreheads were nearly touching–not quite there. How poetic, he thought. Nearly and not quite there meant more between the two of them. He finally opened his eyes to see her looking back at him. His chest twitched. “I hope you never think that I don’t love you. I’m always going to be in love with you. Even after you move on to something better…” He forced a smile, and then tucked a chunk of her hair behind her ear. “Years later, I’ll see some newpapers talking about Maude Maëlle Delacour-Dupont and her almost equally successful husband. Talking about what a power couple they are. And you’ll have everything. And it’ll hurt. But you’ll deserve it. You’ll deserve all of it.” 

“Deal.” he said quickly, about to extend his hand in a mock-agreement before he retracted it slightly. “I’ve gotta warn you though, the shield isn’t yours, you are the shield’s.” 

She chuckled softly. “Fine. Deal.” She held out her hand and accepted his, shaking it firmly. “See you on Tuesday, Mr. Rogers.” She gave him a rather flirty wink before turning off. 

His eyebrows raised. “And what a name it is,” he nodded, sounding almost impressed, even though he honestly thought it was a bit of a mouthful. Then again, who was he to judge? His name belonged in the fifties. Plus, the accent was hot. “Oh, I’m just Leonard. Or Leo, or whatever you want to call me.” That was his usual response to people asking his name, but this time, he emphasized the last bit. “Do you… want to be addressed with your full name? Or can I just call you Maude?”

And what a name it is. She couldn’t help but smile at those words. “It suits me, don’t you think? But, Leonard, you can call me just Maude if you’d like.”  Maude was always one to call others by their full, proper first name. The only exception she had ever made was one problematic Gryffindor boy. “So,” she said, shaking the thought of Guy from her mind, “what should we dress you up as?” She eyed him up and down thoroughly, thinking of any and all ideas. 

Guy closed his eyes and shuttered at her touch. He knew it was a bad idea–a very, very bad idea. He placed his hands on her hips anyway. If he had any strength at all, any care for what was reasonable and what was best for him, he would have walked away. He would have resisted it all. But he was dumb, and he’d probably never learn. He nudged his nose against hers. He’d come back again and again and again, like a wounded dog that never could fully recover. He didn’t reply. He only kissed her. Soft, very very soft, like he believed it was only the dream of a kiss. 

His touch was soft, but powerful. It had a way of removing all her inhibitions, all her fears and doubts and insecurities. It was more intoxicating than a drug, and probably more addictive too. To kiss him was to become a new person. She didn’t have to be the stone cold Maude who only cared for herself: she could be a normal and vulnerable sixteen-year-old school girl with a crush on a hot quidditch player. She wanted the kiss to linger forever, but as she sensed it ending, she allowed her fingers to entwine in his hair as their faces parted. She was at a loss for words, her light green eyes looked upwards into his, silently begging for him to speak. 

He rolled his eyes again before she started walking towards the costume booth. He couldn’t help but check out her arse as she walked ahead of him, fairly certain that was her goal when she started walking different. His cheeks puffed in a sigh before he started following her. He really didn’t have any intention of getting into a costume, but he could tell her that once they were closer to the booth. He caught up to her to ask in her ear “So, does this sexy maid have a name?”

Maude smiled, both at the feeling of his lips so close to her ear and at his question. What was in a name? If you were to ask Maude, everything. Her mother had once told her that she and her father spent the entirety of her pregnancy making sure they picked the perfect name for their daughter and heir. “Maude Maëlle Delacour-Dupont,” she spoke rapidly and in a thicker French accent than she usually donned. “And yours is?”

gabriel laughed, easily understanding her. “too bad. i’m sure there are many here who’d love to see you cleaning a few things,” he implied, grin mischievous. “you sure you want to drink so much? it’s a time to let loose, sure, but no one likes someone too hammered – no matter how pretty they are,” he said, not being a big drinker himself. honestly, he kept to wine – and that was only when he was home or it was a holiday.

“Including you?” She asked with the rise of an eyebrow at his implication about her cleaning. On paper, Gabriel was the kind of guy she should be all over: attractive, wealthy, French. They had a lot in common, if nothing else. “You don’t like people when they’re too hammered because you, unlike most of the student population here, have standards. Luckily, I’m not drunk and very pretty.” 

There was a look of sheer amusement painted across Xan’s features at this point, “Only maybe once or twice, teenage hormones make you think about weird things.” He teased. “You enjoying yourself tonight? I’d offer to get you another drink but it seems as if you’re having some trouble already.”

Maude couldn’t help but laugh at the horribly cringe-worthy image. “You’re disgusting,” she said with a shake of her head. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes and take another drink of her martini at his comment. Sure, she wasn’t exactly known for holding her liquor well, but she knew her limits. She spoke unconvincingly, “Having a blast, clearly.” 

Guy chuckled. “Well can you really blame me for saying ‘shit like that’? Pretty obvious that I’m not exactly at your level.” He shrugged. Sure he had the looks, but he was never all that smart. Only enough to know he wasn’t smart enough for her. He was going to find some ultra smart, ultra successful man who’d be able to keep up with her. She wasn’t the kind to take on a trophy husband, and that’s all he could really offer. “Don’t say that,” he said, quickly. “Don’t say loved and cared, like it’s past tense. I still currently, presently, love and card about you.” Guy locked eyes with her. He swallowed hard, hoping that it would strengthen his words. “Not knowing if you want me to mostly.”

She listened, taking in every word. For most of her life, Maude never imagined she’d ever become romantically involved with anyone. She had her father’s empire to take over one day, and a dynasty of her own to build after that. She didn’t need anyone holding her back. And she especially never would have imagined she’d fall for someone like Guy. Maybe it had been his looks that initially attracted her, but over time she had grown to love his humour, his heart, and yes, even his mind. It was unfortunate that the only thing she knew about “love” was what she observed from her parent's dysfunction. She reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing herself so close to him that their noses brushed up against each other. She closed her eyes and exhaled heavily, living in the moment of his touch and presence in case it would be the last time he let her do so. “Of course I do,” she whispered. “I’m in love with you.” 

Leonard bit his lip subconsciously at her words before sighing, rolling his eyes with a smile. “I knew you were a maid,” he argued, running his hand through his hair. “I was just being a shit.” He gave a small shrug before giving a pointed look. “You’d look good either way, though.”

She rolled her eyes. She didn’t doubt that he actually knew what she was dressed as, but she still planned on giving him a hard time. “Mhm,” she said, sounding as if unconvinced. “Thank you.” She said in regards to his compliment. “You’d look better in a real costume. Come on. Let’s go.” She said, brushing past him confidently and heading in the direction of the costume booths, swaying her hips more than usual as she went to strategically make her short skirt sway ever shorter as she walked. 

Guy lifted an eyebrow. “Is that a come-on, Maude?” Though he was quite sure it was half yes and half no. More an opportunity taken than anything specific with him…right? “I don’t need to use lines on you,” he said. “Everything I say about you is true.” Besides, he knew that she’d see straight through all the nonsense, even if he wasn’t as genuine as he was with her. Guy frowned and shook his head. “I want everything to do with you. But thems the breaks. I just–I wanted to stop being such a disruption in your life, but…maybe I can’t help myself.” He sighed. 

“You always say shit like that,” she said, her tone clearly one of annoyance. “That you were a disruption in my life or whatever.” She looked off the side to avoid having to make eye contact with him. Sighing heavily, she continued in a less pointed tone: “My whole life is one giant disruption. You were the first person besides my cousin that I could actually count on. That actually cared about me. That loved me, even.” She finally willed herself to look up into his beautiful eyes. “So, if you truly can’t help yourself, what’s stopping you from kissing me right now?”  

Shiloh was happy to have found himself in such a pleasant interaction. He was anticipating an awkward night of shuffling through crowds and trying to pretend as if he didn’t scream his throat raw in the haunted house. “Great.” he chuckled a bit, “Just one huge sewer rat. Be careful though, he doesn’t cower as easily as the little ones-” he paused, “If there are any little ones.”

She chuckled lightly before nodding, pretending she was deep in thought of strategy. “Ahh, I see...” She smiled again, surprised that he was so easy to talk to. “As long as I get to borrow the shield I should be able to handle it.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but was again caught off guard. He was expecting some sort of insult, or at least an acknowledgement that he ‘misinterpreted’ the costume, but she didn’t. “If that’s the word you want to take from what I said, sure,” he shrugged, though there was a smirk on his face at the wink. “I’m not complaining.”

Maude’s lips tugged upwards into a content smile. She was a sucker for flattery. “Well, that’s what they say about a good French maid: they keep things clean all day so they can be dirty all night.” She shrugged. “Too bad I’m only a waitress.” 

Leonard was wearing his favorite outfit, actually. A black and red plaid shirt and jeans, and… they were probably a bit older than three years old, given he had bought them at a charity store last year. So he was a little weirded out that she called him out so accurately. Still, he didn’t let it show on his face. “Good guess, but no, I’m a muggle,” he responded. He then squinted, pointing at her outfit. “And you’re… a sexy waitress, right?” He was more than aware she was a maid, but he hoped his false ignorance would get under her skin.

Maude was most offended that his horribly cheap outfit was a “muggle” costume. As if her father (or any other muggle she had ever associated with) would ever be caught dead in such garb. At his waitress comment, she was about to reply that he much be the thickest person she’d ever heard of when she truly realized what he had said. “Sexy? Noted.” She took another sip of her martini with an exaggerated wink. 

“Hm. Sounds risky, but I’m up to the challenge.” Shiloh played along, forgiving the tone in which it was spoken. Considering his own ineptitude involving the English language, he had no room to judge. “What about Tuesday? I think that’s the next schedule catastrophe. Out near Staten Island, very exotic.”

She couldn’t help but laugh, pleased that he was still playing along. She also found his dig at Staten Island quite amusing. Maude had traveled to New York with her father an absurd amount of times, but she was clearly much more of an upper east side girl. “You know, I think I can make Tuesday work. So, who will I be battling?”

“The pleasure is all mine, mademoiselle,” he stifled a giggle in his throat as he straightened his posture. He had to admit that he faintly recognized Maude, mostly because he’d heard of her French background and found it comforting that yet another foreigner was nearby. “I guess we’re both catching a break tonight. Saving Earth and cleaning cabinets are tough in their own respects.”

“Well, maybe we can trade sometime. I’ll save the world and you can clean out my cabinets.” It was a weird sentence- beyond weird if taken out of context- and yet as soon as it left Maude’s lips she knew she had sounded flirtatious saying it. Oops. Oh, well.  “I mean, if you think you’re up to it.”