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number1yisuchongfan · 6 months ago

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The Concerto🎻🎶

Summary:

I promised you that first night, and I made a vow to you that I swear I can achieve for you before I cross that line, so let me keep it before I must leave. Goodbye, my friend, I hope I didn’t disappoint you….

Who’s-Who Character Guide:

Norm MacLean - Jayce Talis

Thaddeus - Viktor

Veronica - Sky Young

Bud Askins - Cecil B. Heimerdinger

Chet - Sheriff Marcus

Lucy MacLean - Caitlyn Kiramman

Hank MacLean - Cassandra Kiramman

Stephanie Harper - Mel Mededra

(Monty might, lowkey, be Maddie Nolan?)

Word Count: 5.8K • Rating: Teen • Chapters: 1/1

(Read on Ao3 Here)

“Can you hand me my wrench, Thad?”

A hum to his left, and cool steel was soon pressed into Norm’s waiting palm and the minute his fingers wrapped itself around the flat shaft, he went to work tightening up some loose bolts on their newest prototype for a HexGem-powered robot’s chassis. They hadn’t decided its purpose yet, all they had the general idea of it being to help with unloading heavy and dangerous items from boats and airships, but who cared about the nitty gritty at the moment?

“I don’t get how you could lay on the ground doing that all day,” Thaddeus mused to the air, leaning back in his chair with his ankle resting comfortably in Norm’s own empty chair, a cup of coffee in his hand. “I’d much rather be outside working with my hands on something else. Something real.”

“Well, once I’m done with these last few tweaks to this hunk of junk,” Norm gritted, tightening a bolt a bit tighter and huffing at the squeaking that erupted from the metal body. “We can work on your agrochemical theory of HexTech I promise, we’ll go to the countryside and everything.”

“That’s not what I meant, Norm. I meant going out to eat somewhere and working on anything else but this,” Norm used his feet to roll himself and the dolly he was using to keep his head and back from the cold concrete floor below out from underneath the robot, his brow raised. “The Distinguished Innovator's Competition can wait for a few more hours. It’s not for another week.”

“I know it can but this is the first time I’m sure nothing is going to blow up,” Norm huffed, sitting up with a grunt as Thaddeus looked out their lab’s giant glass windows with a small smile. “What are you smiling about now?”

“Oh nothing,” ‘oh nothing’ my butt…

Norm got up on shaky legs as he grumbled at that nothing response, tossing his wrench and stained leather gloves onto their shared desk all while Thaddeus watched, sipping his coffee still with that smile that meant nothing good was going to come out of his mouth. “You just have some oil on your cheek, better clean it before it stains your skin black.”

“What?” Norm gawked as he bolted to their lab’s mirror with an urgency he normally only left to coffee-induced panic attacks before deadlines and hungover depressive episodes, quickly cleaning it away with a handkerchief that he really did hope didn’t make it any worse.

The other man made a noise, a mix between a chuckle and an exasperated sigh, as he watched Norm readjust his tie and fluff up his hair in the tiny, cracked mirror. The main door opened with a loud creaking, light footsteps following meaning Veronica, their assistant (and Norm’s close friend), was here with more coffee and reports for them both. “How are the both of you? I hope it’s not too tiring or stressful with the robot or anything, it looks great so far.”

“It’s so far steady and should be ready in time, Miss Chey. The HexGem hasn’t rejected the casing we made for it so it doesn’t burn through the metal of the golem,” Thaddeus smiled with a glint in his turquoise eyes as he met Veronica’s own honey-brown, Norm tried not to let his jealousy pike up as he went back to his mirror to readjust his ascot some more. “Though, that ass over there is refusing to do anything but work, practically had to beg this guy to go out for a bite.”

Veronica snorted loudly, smiling brightly. “You should’ve seen him before he was younger, he’d overwork himself to the point he’d vomit from the stress it took on him.”

“It’s not my fault that my father put a lot of pressure on me at such a young age, Veronica,” Norm said with a pout, fixing his hair one last time before turning around to grab his waistcoat. “Now, I'm craving something Ionian with a kick, maybe Pallasi?”

From the furrowed brow he got from Thaddeus and the confused glint, he hadn’t got a clue what he was saying. “Noodles, Thad, do you want noodles?”

“As long as there’s some crab, I don’t care,” Thaddeus got up, slowly and carefully as he let his weight fall upon his braced leg with a soft hiss. Veronica, ever the doting person she was, was by his side in an instant with a soft smile and his walking stick (technically it’s a cane, but Thaddeus was ashamed to call it that) in her outreached palm. “Thank you.”

“Of course, Thaddeus,” Veronica purred with a smile, watching with a smile as both mechanics moved out towards the main door to leave. “I’ll do some diagnostics on your robot, Norm!”

“Thank you, Veronica!” Norm called out as Thaddeus pulled the heavy metal door shut with a grunt, leaning against his walking stick as Norm pulled on his waistcoat with a small huff. He really did like her, being his friend in all, but her infatuation with Thaddeus was always a sticking point. “I know this little pop-up near the Academy gardens that has the best Pallasi-Style Ionian noodles in all of Piltover, plus their tea-smoked yellow crab is to die for.”

𒊹︎> •~𐬾☢︎︎𐬿~• <𒊹︎

“Don’t you have anything better to do than waste away in the lab or in your rooms back at the instate outside of our work hours?” Norm asked, waving his chopsticks about as he watched Thaddeus peel and toss honey-brown egg shells into a tiny bowl the pop-up had offered him. “Like come to one of my family’s parties for once! You live in our home and you appear with me in the papers. People do ask about you and want to know the other half of HexTech for themselves.”

The auburn haired man scoffed at that statement, not believing the words for a second, and Norm pouted. “Sure, and embarrass your dad with the sight of a coughing ex-miner mingling with his son more than he has to? Sure, I’ll even wear a jester costume to make myself more of a laughing stock.”

“You wouldn’t embarrass him,” Norm tried to shoot back but he couldn’t lie even to himself. His father was a judgmental man, especially with those from the Underground, and Thaddeus even if hide his thoughts or feelings (which he did well), he’d still manage to get Councilorman MacLean gritting his teeth in frustration. “Or me. I’m sure they’d respect you, and I get awfully lonely…”

“Doesn’t that Bruce guy still attend? Why not dance with him? Or even the assistant to Professor L. Hawthorne?” Thaddeus offers up, and Norm watches as the other man soon after stuff his face with the honey colored tea egg and take a hardy bite.

“One, I hate Bruce and you do as well so why suggest him in the first place,” Norm looked away and towards where the chef, a bird-like Vastaya was slicing up root vegetables and searing them on the burning hot stone griddle. “And second, Chauncey Amada and I are exes. Despite what he says happened, I’m the one who dumped him and Lloyd really should’ve picked a better assistant than him.”

Thaddeus scoffed, wiping his hands with a napkin and smiling wolfishly. “If it makes you feel better, when I was TA-ing for Professor Askins before we met; I purposely failed him by switching his grades about.”

Norm gawked, a bright smirk adoring his square face with a bit of selfish joy at his ex’s misery dawning in his eyes as well. “That was you? He was mad about getting such an awful grade on his biochemistry final when I was dating him that he broke his hand trying to punch a lamppost outside my dorm. Why did you do it?”

“He took the last sweet roll out of the commissary before I could get it,” came the rather simple response, Thaddeus moving to pluck up a crab leg with his fingers (he had refused to use chopsticks for some reason) and suffered it eagerly into his waiting mouth.

“Really?” Norm blinked, his chopsticks rattling against the porcelain bowl as he dropped them.

“Simple as that.” Another slurp as Thaddeus sucked his fingers and palm dry off the crab’s juices and their marinade the crab had been soaked in. “Sweet Janna, this shit is delicious.”

“I broke up with him over that, and other reasons, but that was one of them…” There had been many factors, one being the fact that Chauncey was an asshole prick who would trash his lab and get drunk with his friends on their date nights, but another was that he was a tad violent. Not towards Norm at all, the worst he did was insult him when they broke up, but he’d punch walls and lamp posts that led to not having to pay for their repairs. “Thank you.”

“For indirectly helping you make the decision to dump his ass?” Thaddeus filled in the blanks easily, like he always did, while plucking up another hunk of crab meat with his long fingers.

“For that, yes,” Norm snickered, feet swinging under the table and his cheeks getting a bit blushed at Thaddeus’s charming grin. “But for also getting me out of the lab, I hadn’t realized how much I needed this until just now.”

“I would call you a godawful workaholic,” Thaddeus began, licking his thumb and thin lips with a broad tongue. “But I’m also one so that’d be calling pot calling the kettle black kinda situation. I just could tell you needed a break and that you weren’t gonna take it until you passed out, plus… I was hungry.”

“Then please eat more,” Norm offered Thaddeus a napkin before the man wet his hands in bright red saliva. “We have a kitchenette in our lab for that exact reason, and I’m willing to eat with you if that makes you more comfortable.”

The other man’s foot tapped against the cobble floor with a grit. “I take so much as it is, Norm— Living in your home, using your money to pay for medical expenses— and I don’t wanna take anymore.”

“But you aren’t taking that much,” Norm took Thaddeus’s (clean) hand, thumb grazing over each knuckle. The other man paused in stuffing another chunk of dripping meat into his mouth, sauce dripping down his chin as he looked between their joined hands and Norm’s gentle gaze. “You may live in my home and I may help you pay for your checkups and physical therapy, but it’s alright to need help with things like this. I have enough money and I care about you.”

Thaddeus thought for a moment, watching Norm’s eyes before pulling his hand away and grabbing another napkin. “… You’re too nice.”

“And you’re just so awful,” Norm teased, swinging his feet under the table, hands pulling away, with a rather kind smile covering his lips that he saw warm up Thaddeus’s flat cheeks as well. “… So? Will you come to the party before the Distinguished Innovator’s Competition? It’s hosted in the Academy Banquet Hall this year after all so we wouldn’t be going too far away from the lab.”

“Maybe,” Thaddeus tossed his used napkin into Norm’s empty rice bowl, those buck teeth falling over his thin bottom lip as he wryly chuckled. “Just some rules.”

Norm nodded, “of course.”

“I’m not wearing some fancy Piltovan shit that’s gonna show off my body,” Thaddeus began, fingers swiftly plucking up another chunk of crab and swinging it about as he talked. It flung sauce about in thin strings, sticking to the table and the taller man’s thick fingers. “And I ain’t gonna play whatever game your dad wants me to play at this party. I get to decide what I wanna do; not him.”

“My father isn't evil,” Norm assured teasingly, and tried not to get too defensive at the scoff he got in return. “I promise.”

“Good, and one last thing,” Norm arched a brow, watching as Thaddeus stuffed the chunk of warm meat into his mouth, chewing as he spoke. Norm cringed. “I’m not kissing any person’s ass.”

“Will you at least stay by my side during the night?” Norm softly muttered, his expression a bit glum.

Thaddeus went soft, shoulders relaxing as his tongue quickly lapped up the bright orange red juice that stained his lips and the corners of his mouth.

“I just… I don’t want to be alone when I’m drunk,” came the skittish response, Norm’s eyes awkward and a tad apprehensive. A few unspoken words hung heavy between. Around him.

“I uh,” Thaddeus scratched his jaw as he spoke, nodding. “Sure. I’ll stay right by your side… like I already do.”

“Thank you, you’re my hero, Thad,” Norm batted his eyelashes as he breathed out his thanks, a charming smile on his lips and his face in a kind expression of gratitude.

Thaddeus may be from the Undercity, and he may be a bit sickly looking with his sunken eyes and his ankle brace, but he was still rather strong. He had nice muscles and his subtle tattoos that peeked from under his shirt collar gave him this… look. A good look. A tough look with his scarred brow and his nice muscles.

It’d scare anyone off, I’d scare Bruce off and away from him for the night, if Thaddeus’s face wasn’t so soft. It was round, plump even with his hollowing cheeks, with kind blue eyes that sparkled and glimmered like their HexTech gemstones did when brought to life by their machinery.

Norm remembered that first night, in Professor Askins’s laboratory in the main Academy building, that night when Thaddeus had pulled him close to chest after Councilor Harper had caught them trying to break into the Dean’s office.

“Oh fuck, this isn’t my bedroom! I’m sorry, Normy, but I guess I got the wrong door,” Thaddeus had cooed, hand on Norm’s hip had been tight and his awkward smile kind in a way that had wormed itself into the young man. “Sorry Councilwoman…”

She hadn’t bought it. Obviously.

Though the thought that Thaddeus considered him worthy enough to even pretend to take back to his room was completely breathtaking, and it stole his breath at the time. And it still did now, two years later, and he found himself falling even more in love with this so-called hard to love man from the Undercity.

“I’m not, really.”

Norm shook his head. “You are to me.”

𒊹︎> •~𐬾☢︎︎𐬿~• <𒊹︎

“A dance, Dr. MacLean? I notice you look quite alone over here and looking awfully bored tonight,” came a grating yet familiar voice to Norm’s left, a large gloved hand coming over his shoulder to lightly grip it. The short man gulped, hand on his champagne flute tightening as the women around him and who once been talking at him giggled and cooed to each other.

Norm’s eyes looked up, steeling his face the best he possibly could as that filthy palm ran down his back and to rest on his hip. “I’d rather not share a dance together right now, Officer Du Bois. Maybe later.”

“Oh? Do you have another dance partner in mind?” Bruce asked with genuine surprise it seems, his hand moving to fiddle with his tailcoat’s golden chain that connected his pocket watch to his coat, playing with the chain. “I don’t see anyone else asking for a dance with you.”

“Well, he’s just taking his time. He's a rather busy man with all his work in the lab and such,” Norm gently knocked the hand off his waist with a flick of his hip, sipping on his flute as he moved away towards the other women with a fake smile to the older Enfoncer. “I’m sure you’d understand.”

“But—”

“You’re just going to have to wait for it, Officer,” Norm turned his back, tailcoat fluttering and swaying with his rather dramatic turn like a pair of powder blue wings dipped in gold.

Bruce glared at him, harsh and full of dismay at the rejection, though didn’t follow and soon scoffed, walking away as Norm let out a deep, shaky breath.

Fine, see if I care! The gesture said.

“Who’s the lucky man?” One of the women, a tall cat-like Vastayan woman with a feathery headpiece moving about with her giggling, asking with a shrill giggle. Her long tail swayed about and curled around his heeled boot. “And when is he going to make an appearance tonight?”

“Yes, who is he? Oh please tell us, Dr. MacLean!” Another woman, a slender human woman who had traveled all the way from Noxus and wore a beautiful dress adorned with gold and rubies, pleaded with a pout of her golden lips.

“He should be here any minute, like I said to Officer Du Bois,” a long sip from his flute, his eyes shutting for a moment, “he is a rather busy man.”

The women pouted. Some more footsteps and another hand landed upon his shoulder, but this time, Norm didn’t fret over this touch.

“I haven’t seen Thaddeus yet,” Chet bent forward to whisper in his ear, his tall guardsman hat under his arm and his white gloves pristine. “Are you sure he’s actually going to come tonight? I know he hates this kind of event and stuff…”

“He’ll come. He promised me,” Norm assured, trying to seem polite from the growing sense of worry fuming in his gut at possibly being stood up once more. “If he doesn’t show up in a few more minutes, could you go to our lab and see if he’s in there?”

Chet nodded once, “of course.”

The younger man pulled out his keys, swiftly handing them over to the Deputy Sheriff of the Piltovan Police Department with a tight-lipped smile. “Just be quick with it.”

Chet nodded once more, leaning out of his space and nodding to a few of his officers standing near the entrances as they made their ways out of the Banquet Hall and down the Academy halls for the missing scientist.

“So?” One of the women asked, her thin brow raised. “Is he coming soon?”

“He’s on his way…” Norm began, looking about the room and especially towards the main entrance for the Grand Banquet Hall, gulping as less and less people moved through his golden doors. “He just got a bit lost.”

“Oh, Norm,” the Vastayan lady whispered, tail tightening while looking about the other women as her clawed, slender hand laid upon his shoulder with a pitiful expression. “That’s what men say to let you down easy.”

“Well, you don’t know him like how I know him,” Norm pulled away, freeing his boot, sipping from his flute once more as he turned away with yet another flick of tailcoat. Is this why Thaddeus didn’t want to come?

The pitiful stares, the demeaning looks, the lustful stares at his body wrapped tightly in clothes he didn’t have any choice in choosing for the evening. Norm moved easily and as elegantly as a bird despite being a bit buzzed, smiling the best he could and quickly disposing of his flute and picking up another from a passing waiter with a golden tray.

Norm looked about, trying to ignore all the stares and gazes upon him as he walked about the vaulted banquet hall, as his dark boots clicked on the patterned and polished black marble flooring below until he found himself at his sister’s side.

Lucy was dressed in an elegant flowing cobalt blue dress that was lined with Ionian pearls and Noxan gold, a cut in the side showing of her long leg, her ceremonial sword and leather adored scabbard from her old fencing days and her embroidered pinet heels, along with a fluffy stole boa made from the wool of a Targon Erbrok.

Her husband, Monty, a slender fox-like Vastaya with a sharp tail and a long snout, was comfortable holding her close as they talked to some Freljordian ambassadors.

“Ah, Dr. MacLean! The creator of HexTech!” One of the ambassadors, a tall ginger man with a thick beard and a heavy gut, purred, large hand landing on his shoulder with such force the small man gulped. “You are much smaller than I would have thought.”

“Co-Creator of HexTech, actually, my business partner, Thaddeus, is on his way to the party and I’m sure he’d love to hear your praise as much as I do,” Norm replied easily with a well-practiced smile for the ambassadors. Lucy smiled at him, lips curled up in her grin to show how much she cares about Thaddeus’s mention as he spoke, though the ambassadors seemed confused.

“And why have I never heard of this Thaddeus before, Doctor?” The other ambassador, a muscular woman in a tight pale dress that showed off her muscles, inquired.

“He’s a very private man naturally. He just… prefers it this way,” Norm explained with a swoon he tried to suppress but couldn’t, swishing his flute about and looking down into the amber reflected back to him. “He’s not into the limelight unlike myself and he tends to get anxious due to his background from the Undercity.”

“The Undercity? Where is that?” The male ambassador asked, confusion clear on his stocky, square face, thick brows furrowed.

“The more industrial part of Piltover,” Lucy swiftly explained with a lilting smile, looking to her baby brother with a look of surprise in her eyes at Norm actually bringing it up at such an event. “He used to work as a miner near the Cliffs and then as an assistant to Councilman Askins for his industrial robotics skills.”

“Ah, makes sense you would turn to him for help with HexTech then!” The male ambassador hollered out, patting the short man’s shoulder so roughly the champagne in Norm’s flute almost spilled out all over his powder blue suit. “He must be very smart then. You must show us him whenever he arrives so we can see if you are correct about his genius.”

“Incredibly so,” Norm replied with an awkward laugh he hoped to Janna he sounded natural in any manner. “And I will, as soon as he arrives, Ambassadors.”

They both nodded and laughed among themselves in another language, bowing with large, boisterous smiles, and soon left to mingle with others. Which meant his sister’s lovely stare was now on him. “What the heck was that?”

“I was simply answering their questions, Lucy,” Norm replied simply, sipping from his flute as Lucy shook her head and Monty’s ears perked.

“You know you can’t say that shit about the Undercity at these kinds of events,” the fox-like man snorted, tail flicking about and his pawed feet scratching at the marble floor. “What would your daddy say?”

“Oh he’d curse me out from even uttering it’s name I’m sure,” Norm sighed to himself. “But I don’t care. Thaddeus is important to me and I won’t have him forgotten by people no matter how much he wants to stay out of the light,” Norm looked to Lucy, brow raised, “so why did you ‘correct’ me? Thaddeus is from the Undercity and doesn’t try to hide it.”

“Like Monty said,” Norm rolled his eyes as his sister tutted him, snarling to himself at such a response. “What would Dad say if he heard you saying that?”

“I don’t care,” Norm gritted out.

Lucy shook her head, clearly exasperated as she took his flute away from him and passed it to Monty to hold. “You have to care about this one thing.”

“Care about what?”

Norm was nearly spooked by the sound of his partner, appearing from behind him, and lost control of his breath when he turned around to look at Thaddeus. He was flanked by Chet, who was holding Thaddeus’s walking stick and handing it to the robotist with a tilt of his head. Chet quickly left soon after with a nod.

“Thaddeus! I’m glad you could make it,” Lucy outreached her hand, pearly teeth smiling as the auburn haired man took her gloved hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles in polite fashion. Norm bristled at the sight, while Lucy just giggled and gave him a playful shove. “Oh stop it with the politeness! Norm here was starting to worry.”

“I’m really sorry, I just lost track of time and then I missed my ride and… I hope I wasn’t too late,” Thaddeus laughed awkwardly at the playfulness as he looked down to Norm, taking his cane and adjusting his tie with a heavy sigh.

Norm didn't mind his partner’s lateness now, gulping and taking a shaky breath, because holy…

Thaddeus was dressed in a rather dark outfit— a nearly black red velvet waistcoat embroidered with a flora design with matching high waisted velvet knickerbockers. His shirt was a lighter red (yet it was still dark enough that it came out nicely against his pale skin), cotton and tight around his forearms and biceps in a manner that was taking Norm’s breath away. Tied around his waist was a dark yet silvery sash that glittered about and shimmered in the hall’s chandelier light.

His shoes were plain, similar boots that he typically wore but clearly it had been polished lovingly and the silver accents shimmered. Around his neck, laid a white ascot— similar to one he wore when he was Professor Askins’s personal assistant and that first night they met properly— that held a tie pin, unlike his typical simple gold, was now a silvery one that was made to be similar to House MacLean’s emblem that held a bright blue crystal, one of their HexGems. Two wrenches holding the crystal in the middle.

Such a bold move for a man who hated to make them in situations like these.

Norm gulped tightly, pulling at his own cornflower blue tie to let some air into his throat and stop himself from choking out. Holy shit, I think I’m in love.

“You uh… you weren’t too late. More so fashionably late enough to not seem rude,” Norm slowly responded with a stutter, trying to calm his flushed face.

“That’s good,” Thaddeus’s walking stick tapped against the marble floor as he leaned against it, lessening the strain on his ankle brace. “I just wasn’t expecting all of…”

The scientist waved his hand about to the rest of the room, frowning before scratching at his stubbly chin. “This.”

“Well, I hope it isn’t too much,” Lucy quipped, fixing her stole boa with a gentle smile. “The Council really outdid themselves this year, didn’t they? It’s beautiful!”

Thaddeus hummed, nodding. “You could say that.”

“Would you like anything to drink? Eat perphaps?” Lucy motioned for two servers to come close, a smile on just face. Thaddeus huffed, hooking his cane on his arm, but still took a champagne flute and a tiny slice of bread covered in bright yellow caviar without much push back, stuffing his mouth with the hors-d’œuvre. “I’m glad, once again, you could make it. Whatever Norm did to make you come around I greatly appreciate it.”

Thaddeus thickly swallowed and Norm took a step forward, smiling up at his partner. “Well, all it took was some crab and some well-placed pleading for company.”

Lucy awe’d and Thaddeus shook his head when Monty barked out a laugh of his own. “I wouldn't call it ‘pleading;’ you more like… gently assured me it’d be worth my while and not a shitshow.”

Monty barked another bout of laughter out, slapping his knee almost at Thaddeus’s language while the two Piltovan around him awkwardly stared and chuckled along.

This might be a long night but, Norm thought as he gently hooked his arm around Thaddeus's own, smiling as sweetly as he could while chuckling. Those eyes landed on him, soft and gleaming, and did it make it worth all this embarrassment and anger he knew this night would cause him. As long as he’s by my side; I’ll be alright.

𒊹︎> •~𐬾☢︎︎𐬿~• <𒊹︎

“A dance?”

Thaddeus was sitting on a chair, nursing another flute of champagne in his hand, as Norm stood in front of him with an outreached palm. It was a risky move, truly, but Norm didn’t care much with how many glasses he’s had so far just tonight, and it seemed Thaddeus didn’t much mind either by that wry smile on his chin.

“I thought I was just here to provide security from that creep hitting on you and trying to get you alone,” Thaddeus seemed so perplexed by the hand offered to him, glancing between the palm covered in a black glove and the man who stood before him clad in powder blue and gold. “Not to actually dance.”

“Is that what I said while at lunch that day last week? I don’t remember saying anything like that,” Norm quirked a brow, tone teasing yet soft with affection was clear. “I distinctly remember calling you ‘my hero’ for agreeing to come.”

Thaddeus thought for a second, nodding his head as he curled his bottom lip to the side to bite at it. “I guess that’s right…”

“So will you? I'd love to enjoy our time here and give a big ‘f-you’ to the room and especially my father,” the younger man gushed, swiftly taking the flute and tossing it into a plant pot and taking the other man’s larger bare hand into his own gloved palm. He tugged the other scientist to his feet, playfully smirking. “I thought you’d love that.”

“Eh, that sounds fun…” Thaddeus doubtfully said, looking about the eyes that looked over at the buzzed young men that giggled out onto the dancefloor with furrowed brows and sneering mouths.

Boots clicked on the floor, Norm’s laughter gentle and kind as he pulled and tugged at those larger hands so they rested on his hip and the small of his back, while Norm’s own hands locked behind the taller man’s neck.

The music had slowed, the lead violist’s notes high and the rhythm it brought and seemed to flow through the younger bones so deeply moving him on each step he took.

“People are watching their Golden Boy dance with a slumprat.” Came through to Norm’s ear as Thaddeus matched his step with each low and high of the orchestra, matching his movements as he took the more traditionally masculine role of such a dance.

“Who cares about that?” Norm was twirled, on the tip of his black leather boot and the gold tipped tails of his vest twirling about with him as Thaddeus spung and soon dipped him down, voice in his ear heady and tight.

“Your dad is watching his son flaunt about with a dirty trencher, that’s who cares.” The quick twirl that lead to Norm outreaching his arm to the vaulted ceiling above as Thaddeus brought him to his chest was sickeningly tender, almost loving as the concerto sounded as though his own thoughts and Thaddeus’s own were mashed together, hand on his hip right.

“I could care less what he thought of me,” Norm brought his hand up, knuckles so gently running over Thaddeus’s chin as he plucked and spun about and soon dipped once more, an undignified sound leaving his throat as the violin fluttered and flitted about, the piltovan horns matching with enthusiasm, the drums booming off the stained glass windows. “All I care about is your opinion.”

A shift in the music matched the scoff from his partner, near violent in its change as Norm’s boots landed back on the ground and the hand on his hip tightened. Thaddeus spun them about, the short man’s feet only barely leaving the marble as he spun out and quickly pulled back in. “Councilwoman Harper is watching too.”

“Like I care.” Thaddeus’s hands couldn’t leave his back, his hips, and his waist, as he once again spun them about and dipped them forward to each lilt and flutter of the violin like the most beautiful dance of will-they-won’t-they a drunken dance like this could produce. “Fuck her.”

More spinning, so much it was making everything but that flustered grin and gleaming turquoise eyes that watched his every move with bated breath bleary and unimportant, the music growing and growing and growing.

It was like that first night, that perfect night, when they had been floating up in Askins’s lab, smiling and dancing about practically with their eyes falling on each other’s glowing eyes and floating hair.

That night had been perfect, bones full of electricity, and oh this joy that had filled him at that moment now took him in such a moment as now, his forehead pressed again Thaddeus’s breast pocket as large hands gripped at his waistcoat and fluttered him about to the sound they filled their soul and room.

The space between the hot, stuffy almost and full of cotton while their ears rang and their breaths shook with the force of it all.

“I…” Norm tried to begin, stepping away with a shaky palm, reality crashing in on him as he looked around Thaddeus to where his father was watching on with a glare, to where Stephanie was watching on with Lucy and Monty and chatting among them, to where Bruce was staring at him with fire in his dark eyes from near a pillow. All the gazes of the room were on him now, the ringing getting worse. “I-I shouldn’t have…”

The hand on the small of his back and hip left, a heated breath that reeked of sweet champagne and fish eggs came over his flush-red face. “I get it. You regret this…”

But you really don’t… I don’t regret it. I loved it! Why can’t I just say that?!?

Norm tried to speak, but nothing but a trembling squeak came out that sputtered into a pathetic whimper, his eyes watering and his hands trembling.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Thaddeus, oh sweet Thaddeus, brought his palm up to wash his tears away with a broad thumb, hand coming around his back and resting between his shoulder blades as he brought him back towards his family. “Everybody makes mistakes when they’ve drunk too much.”

Norm wanted to squeak, to exclaim at the top of his lungs he didn’t regret the dance, or anything this night has brought between them, but still. Nothing came out. Pathetic really.

“Sorry about that, Councilman MacLean,” Thaddeus calmly stated, handing Norm’s trembling hand to his father as he bowed.

“I think it’s best if you leave, Thaddeus. Before you ruin this night and destroy my boy’s reputation more than you’ve already done.”

Norm gawked at those words, looking between his father, who glared with daggers at the other man, and at Thaddeus, who shut his eyes as he scoffed and walked away with a click of his walking stick and a heavy frown.

But…

The young man wanted to say something, to make sense of all of this, but still. Nothing came, nothing was heard, and all he could was watch the crowd part for Thaddeus, as if a sea was opening to let the man go, letting go walk a shameful route for embarrassing such a high family with his mere presence, his existence.

How pitiful.

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