Well looky here, something new has come into my . This is part of my modern AU series "Say Nothing Of It", which you can find over on my AO3. Bossuet and Joly's first meeting as kids! Yay!
Just so you're not horrendously lost:
Felicién Laigle, 13
Mathieu Joly, 11
Okay then, read on!
~~::.::~~
Felicién smiled up at the school nurse as she finished treating him. He'd been at the school for two years now, so she had come to know him quite well. It was all down to his luck – the amount of times he fell, or got pushed, or was just generally in the wrong place at the wrong time, meant he spent almost as much time in the nurse's office as he did in lessons.
Today, he'd been on the wrong side of a door as someone opened it, and had broken his nose. He was currently sat with one hand holding an ice-pack to his nose, the other clutching a bloodied tissue from the resulting nosebleed.
"You just wait here a moment, dear. I'll call your parents." The nurse, Mme Patenaude, smiled kindly.
"Thank you, Mme." Felicién said. Mme Patenaude nodded and left the room to tell the receptionists to call his parents so he could go home. Felicién's eyes skimmed over the familiar Health and Safety posters around the room, some with medical protocol, one that had the human skeleton – the reason he managed to pass that section of his Biology exam, considering the amount of time he'd had to sit and stare at it – and the window that looked out onto part of the school grounds.
His pensive silence was broken as the door opened again, and a teacher – he thought maybe one of the Maths teachers – came in, leading a boy with her. He was shaking slightly, his eyes a little wide and his breath slightly gasping, and his strawberry-blonde curls were stuck out in all directions like he'd run his hands through them frantically. The teacher guided him over to a chair just over from Felicién and sat him down. The boy's hands worried and tugged at his tie.
"Now, Mathieu. Deep breaths, in for 1...2...3...4... out...2...3...4..."
Felicién watched as the teacher counted breaths for the boy – apparently Mathieu – for a few minutes, until he nodded shakily and dropped his hands into his lap. He still clasped them together tightly, wringing them slightly, but he wasn't shaking. The teacher smiled at him, then looked briefly around the room, catching sight of Felicién.
"Do you know where Mme Patenaude is?" she asked.
"She's gone to call my parents." Felicién replied. "She'll be back soon."
"Alright. I've got to get back to my class, so I'll leave you here, Mathieu. Is that alright?"
Mathieu nodded, his eyes flickering over Felicién, an emotion caught between worry and curiosity sparking in them. The teacher smiled again, and with a quick farewell, left. For a moment, Felicién and Mathieu just looked at each other. Felicién was still clutching the ice-pack and tissue, and most likely had bruises starting to come through around his eyes. Mathieu was sitting very still, his hands gripping together tightly enough for his knuckles to go white. He was the first to speak up.
"So, broken your nose, then?" he asked. Felicién nodded gingerly, and grinned sheepishly.
"Someone opened a door on my face." He explained. Mathieu scoffed slightly, his eyebrows raising. "Things like this happen a lot. I'm very unlucky."
"Obviously." Mathieu murmured. He cleared his throat, and smiled. "I'm Mathieu Joly. I'm in Sixième."
"Felicién Laigle, Quatrième." Felicién responded. "Good to meet you."
The two talked for a few more minutes until Mme Patenaude returned, telling Felicién his mother was on her way to pick him up. She recognised Mathieu – he was brought in, or came himself, quite regularly – and smiled as she noticed the lack of tension in his shoulders, the way he'd relaxed around Felicién. Felicién called a cheery farewell, making a promise to catch up with Mathieu soon, and left.