𝐇𝐎𝐀𝐗 | tvd & reign oneshots

- 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝.

I hadn't slept in a week, I was weak, I was awake/My brother had a huge debt that he had yet to pay/Threatened by the owner/Forced to play poker/That's when Mr. Francis Valois walked into my life...

God, I hate myself.

*****

Won't you stay till the AM?
All my favourite conversations are made in the AM

It wasn't meant to happen, it was just a chance encounter. Lola had to pay off her brother's debt, and Francis just happened to be at the tavern, grieving in wine and poker after the disastrous breakup with Mary. It was laughable, how they both ended up in their current predicaments. The housemaster didn't want the money, he wanted her. No, he didn't want to murder her, though Lola thought that might have been better.

While the housemaster and one of his guests were haggling over the price of who would be taking Lola to bed that night, they heard a voice from the doorway.

"Four times, then." All of the guests at the inn turned to see none other than the Dauphin of France himself.

Lola couldn't decide whether to be alleviated or astounded.

"Perhaps the owner of the celebrated Burgundy House is not afraid of a simple wager?" the prince continued good-naturedly. Lola glanced over at him, worried about the outcome. No, she shouldn't let the future king of France pay for her brother's messes. However, as he looked over at her, his eyes seemed to be gleaming. She knew; spending all your life trapped in a palace wasn't nearly half as reckless or threatening as this was.

"One cut of the cards. Four times the debt, plus the girl if I win."

"And if I win; the debt is forgiven...and the girl is mine." Francis challenged.

The owner grinned, that shit-eating grin on his face. Nonetheless, he didn't speak but rather flipped over his first card, indicating that the games had begun.

While he lost the first round, the dauphin was not losing heart. "Double it again," he persisted, even when the housemaster's wicked grin had only grown wider and Lola's mood only became more anxious. "Though I don't know why you'd risk it, isn't it easier to just take the money instead?"

"If your gallantry is as easily inherited as your lovely inherited money, why not make it sixteen times the debt?" the master responded dryly.

The tension in the room was at an all-time high as the patrons watched the two men play. The housemaster dealt a queen and stepped away from the table, that cunning smirk making another appearance. Much to his surprise, Francis took the next card. Lola held her breath as he flipped it over...the king.

The housemaster sighed in defeat as he heard the applause of the patrons. "Well played," was what he finally settled on as a response.

"Luck of the draw," Francis replied leniently, holding out his arm for Lola. "Shall we go back to my rooms, my lady?"

"Wait." The older man stopped the two, beckoning to the prince. "You look like someone I know."

He and Lola looked at each other for a moment, but before the master could say anything else, Francis had already jumped in. "I'm told I look like the Dauphin of France....only taller."

With that, he and Lola retreated to his rooms for the night, unaware of the housemaster's gaping expression.

-

"Thank you again, so much, for what you did," Lola said. That night, they were in his rented quarters, chatting over a glass of wine. "To make such an enormous wager based on nothing but chance."

"Well, it's safer than fighting our way out," he joked, gratefully taking the bottle she offered him.

They stayed up and conversed till the wee morning hours. Francis rather found Lola's presence comforting, as they connected so naturally, having nothing to hide from each other; their scars, insecurities...nothing. It felt like forever that they spoke about their families, loves, lives, and decompress over a shared flask of wine and a deck of playing cards; giving not a damn about the time. It was insane; they'd both grown up in the French court and gotten their many scars on the same ground, yet neither of them had ever truly noticed one another until this night.

When they finally woke up in the morning to the distant sounds of bells tolling, their arms wrapped around one another, Lola quickly got out of the bed and grabbed her coat. "Thank you, again," she hurriedly told Francis. "I'd best take my leave now, and thank you again, so sorry for the inconvenience-"

"It was no imposition," he answered. "It was...good...to talk to someone I didn't have to hide from for a change."

"What's wrong?" Lola asked, seeing the melancholy look in his icy blue eyes. "You know you can tell me."

He paused. "To everyone else, I'm a young man who has everything; money, freedom, and a world at my leisure to explore. Yet, when I think of all that, I only feel...emptiness. pathetic, I know."

Instead of feeling repulsed, Lola took one step closer. "It's not...because I feel the same way. We're a pathetic pair, aren't we?" she chuckled.

For a second, she was breathless as he looked into her eyes. The next thing she knew, his lips were against her. It wasn't an unwelcome move, but it certainly took her by surprise.

"But Mary-"

"Is no longer a part of my life. Like it or not, she's made her decision," he countered. "I'll never see her again."

"Or me," Lola realized. "After today."

As he dove in for another hungry kiss, he stopped abruptly. "I can't ask you to-"

"Give up my virtue?" she concluded for him. "Don't worry, I've known a man before."

This escapade would be one they'd both come to potentially repent later, but it was a spur-of-the-moment thought.

Francis missed Mary, oh so much.

But she wasn't here; she was with his brother.

And there was Lola.

And he'd learned, that the best way to ignore passion, was to give in to it.

*****

Whee. What did you think? Leave a comment or a vote!
I hate these two together, I just found the last sentence from "All For One" in the Alex and Eliza series that I was literally obsessed with and decided to write some shit for it. Plus, it would've been fun to see their inner thoughts without all the scene cutting—so, there you have it, this fanfic. Kinda went with a TVD thing, too... with the last few sentences? Yeah.

Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep dreaming.

-V

Update: I am entering hell.

WHAT HAVE I DONE.