a/n: hey! love you all for supporting me on my little breaks <3 also i listened to only by leehi (pls go listen, it's so good) while typing this and I felt like I was writing a k-drama 😭
enjoy!
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missing the peace he'd felt with bruce, he ran to his other comfort. the valley. it was so quiet and tranquil there, serving as a safe haven for vance and his thoughts.
recently, he's had enough time to think about a lot of things. he was in his head a lot, which might not have been ideal, but what else could he do? his father had started to leave him alone a little bit, but that didn't exactly ease vance's nerves. it made him wonder what would happen next.
switching over to the situation with bruce, anderson agreed to only allow bruce over to tutor vance, and it could be no longer than 2 hours. he had tutoring later that day, but for now, he wanted to enjoy the valley.
he noticed a lot of flowers he hadn't seen before. they were all so lovely, so beautiful and elegant. much like his mother, he thought. he wanted to not think about her, but he remembers when she was all he had, so that's going to be difficult.
as butterflies and leaves breezed past him, he stared up at the blue sky, wondering if it was peaceful up there. not that he wanted to go, but he'd always been curious since he was little.
what did the blue sky hold behind the fluffy, white clouds? vance wanted to know.
vance stayed for another hour or two, not too concerned about his father, since he had gone out before vance left the house. hopefully he was sober. lord forbid he gets in a car crash or harm some innocent civilian.
when he got home, he was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face waiting on his front porch steps.
"bruce?" he walks up to him, standing in front of him.
"hey." bruce smiles. recently, they've dropped some of the french words that they use to talk, just to let vance get used to english.
"what's wrong?" vance tilts his head in confusion.
"rien, tu m'as juste manqué. en plus, tu as du tutorat." bruce admits, standing up. vance looks like he's processing that response for a moment before he pulls out his keys to unlock the door.
("nothing, just missed you. plus, you have tutoring.")
bruce was a little early, but maybe he just didn't wanna run into anderson. who could blame him?
"missed you, too." vance replies after they're inside. he locks the door behind them, sitting at the kitchen table.
"est-il ici?" bruce asks, whispering.
("is he here?")
vance shakes his head, watching bruce relax. anderson stressed other people out, not just vance.
"alright." bruce smiles.
they go over some old words, vance slowly getting better at using them. the new words were a little trickier, moving into adjectives. vance already knew pretty. he wouldn't forget that night bruce called him pretty.
after an hour had passed, bruce could see that vance was getting tired, so he saved the rest for next lesson.
"tu as des devoirs!" bruce exclaims as he puts his papers and book away.
("you have homework!")
"quoi?" vance squints, confused. he wasn't assigned any homework this week.
"devoirs d'anglais." bruce hands vance two pieces of paper, some of the words vance recognized, some he was still trying to grasp.
("english homework.")
vance groans, setting the paper on the kitchen table. bruce just smile, unaffected by vance's attitude.
despite pining after the boy, bruce sometimes wondered what it would be like to only like vance as a best friend. no feelings, no strings attached, just two people from two completely different environments who find peace in each other.
bruce sometimes wished he would stop thinking.
"je devrais y aller maintenant." bruce grins softly.
("i should go now.")
"dois tu?" vance frowns. the house was quiet and lonely, and he wasn't sure when anderson would be back. that calmed him, while also scaring him.
("do you have to?")
bruce nods, sighing. "ma mère veut que je sois à la maison avant 17h."
("my mom wants me home before 5.")
it was 4:30, and while bruce's house wasn't too far away, he didn't wanna risk possibly disobeying his mother. if he showed up at 4:59, she was still likely to get mad at him.
vance nods, understanding. he was gonna have to wait until his father got home to see what would the rest of the day would be like. would he pretend to go study at the library? or would he stay holed up in his room, waiting for someone, anyone to text or call him.
as bruce reached for the doorknob, vance stops him.
"wait." vance says, making bruce turn around.
the eye contact they make almost feels heated. vance's blue-grey eyes burn into bruce's brown ones, and he looked like he wanted to say something. bruce couldn't help but look down at his lips.
eventually, they snapped out of it. vance hands bruce the pencil he left on his table, smiling awkwardly.
"tu l'as presque oublié." vance purses his lips.
("you almost forgot this.")
"oh... merci." bruce laughs nervously. vance nods, pretending he doesn't see bruce's face turn a bright red.
bruce leaves, and as soon as the door is closed, vance thinks to himself.
what was that? did he have feelings for bruce? how couldn't he have noticed before? that eye contact made his stomach twist and turn. he thinks it's called butterflies.
god, what would his dad say if he knew?
vance was startled out of his thoughts by a car door slamming outside, and he rushes to his room. he grabs pierre, rocking back and forth, just thinking to himself.
"je crois que j'aime bruce, pierre..." vance says to the bear.
("i think i like bruce, pierre...")
and at first that scared him, but he found himself giggling.
vance liked a boy. who would've thought?
well, maybe his mother. she would've told you she knew since he was little if you asked her.
would she be happy for him? he wanted to know. but now, he had to pretend to be asleep so his father didn't bother him.
・❥・
HIII! I MISSED YOU ALLL SO SO MUCH. I HOPE Y'ALL GOT EXCITED SEEING THE NOTIFICATION FOR THIS CHAPTER 🤭🤭 So! Vance realizes he likes Bruce! Do you think it's too soon, or is this perfect? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to vote 💕
amour, august
(love, august)
YOU ARE READING
~ summer child ☆
Romancevance auclaire is not from here. he lived in france for the first 14 years of his life, until he is forced to move in with his father in america after his mother suddenly lost custody of him. vance is now forced to go by vance hopper, and be around...
