Their shared suffering - ELU

Anger

"I am a boy of the night,
a Child of the Moon."

Lucas Lallemant usually wasn't known as being hot-headed or anything like that.
He was known as a calm, gentle, and considerate guy, who loved nothing more than calm conversations and solving problems in a civilized way.

He enjoyed a lot of things.
Spending time with his friends, going out for drinks, and dancing until the end of the night.
He also enjoyed living and making beautiful memories with his boyfriend of two years, whom he loved dearly.
Eliott Demaury was similar to him, in loving the quietness and ease of communicating calmly and gently.
But Lucas had the feeling that there was one thing that they had in common despite being very different from each other - their shared suffering.
Eliott was suffering from bipolar disorder and Lucas had his own set of problems he needed to sort out.
It wasn't until the people in his day-to-day life started picking up on those problems before Lucas himself noticed that he needed to do something about the situation.

"Mon amour, I'll see you after school, yeah?", Eliott asked and Lucas nodded.
"Ouais, you will. I'll be back as soon as possible", Lucas smiled before giving Eliott a quick peck on the lips.
Then he grabbed his backpack and headed to school.

At school, he sat down on his chair and took out his notes for math class.
But focusing on anything had become difficult these days and he quickly zoned out.
20 minutes into the lesson, he rested his head on his arms, slowly drifting off to sleep. And even though Yann tried to get him to pay attention, Lucas slept through the first two lessons.

"Are you serious, Lu Lu? For how long do you want this to continue?", Yann asked as he was putting his books in his bag, shaking his head slightly.
Lucas sighed. "Look, I don't know, man. It's-", he began, but his math teacher called his name.
With an apologetic smile, Lucas turned around and walked back to the front of the classroom, waving Yann to go and wait for him.

"Lucas, I wanted to talk to you", his math teacher began.
Lucas pressed his upper lip down onto his lower lip, trying to brace himself for what was about to come.
"The other teachers and I have noticed something very alarming. You've been falling asleep in my class, but not only in mine but also in almost every other class you have. You don't raise your hand in the lessons anymore, you've gotten very quiet and reserved, so reserved in fact that I'm afraid that you fear the contact with others. In conclusion, we have no choice but to call your father and invite him to a parent-teacher meeting. We don't know how you're supposed to get through this year and we're worried that the stress is too much and after the meeting, we'll see what the next steps are. Fact is that something has to be done, otherwise we don't know if you can continue going to this school anymore", his math teacher said.

Lucas furrowed his brows.
"Pourquoi? Why are you doing this to me?", Lucas asked in shock, his eyes were starting to get wet. But he bit down on his lower lip, trying to force the tears to go away.
"Because we're afraid that you can't handle the stress, that it's too much for you. You need a break, Lucas", his math teacher explained to him.
Lucas didn't want to hear it anymore.
He turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door on his way out.

"And? What did he want from you?", Yann asked.
"He said that he wants to talk to my dad, that he's noticed alarming things, and that if nothing gets done, they'll kick me out", Lucas said dryly, his entire face felt as if it was on fire. He wanted to cry so badly, but he didn't allow himself to.
"Don't worry, things won't happen without you being informed about them. Trust me", Yann said as he pulled Lucas into a tight embrace.

At the end of the day, Lucas quickly hopped on his bike and made his way back home.
He and Eliott were living in an apartment, it wasn't that big but it wasn't small either, it was just perfect for both of them.
Lucas' dad sent him a bit of money every month and with Eliott's income at the Video Club, they lived quite comfortably.