Claude pushed his way into the coffee shop, feeling its warmth gently wash over him with the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans. Also, because he is Claude- and Claude can never be completely content with something, mentally judging the tacky decorations and the generic music playing softly in the background.

"Hi! Welcome! Are you here alone or meeting someone?" A cheery brunette woman with a perpetual smile and a nametag that read 'Paula' asked. "Uh, meeting someone." He replied, nodding in a vague gesture towards the private booths where he knew Hannah would be waiting impatiently. "Ok sure thing sweetie! I'll be there to take your order in a minute." And with that and a wink, she was off.

Claude spotted Hannah straight away, impeccably dressed (as usual) in a pencil skirt and tight blouse showing off her, uh, assets. The bleached hair that was so platinum it was nearly white was also a huge give away, done in the trademark braid she had been wearing since Claude had met her. "Oh Claude, I'm so glad to see you arrived. Finally." She sniped and gave a Claude a look. "Hannah. As always it's a pleasure." Claude gave a small smile as he said this – They may bicker a lot but she did mean a lot to him. She was the closest thing he had to a friend, and even he knows how pathetic that is. Claude considered himself to be a decent bloke, but the truth was that he failed in any and all types of social interactions.

"So… why did you want to meet me?" Claude pretended like his heart wasn't pounding with nervousness, he was Claude he reminded himself, he didn't get nervous. "Well there's bad news and good news, what do you want first?" Fuck. So there was something wrong, he knew it! Work had been slow lately, and his paintings were only selling for the bare minimum if at all.

"Bad news." The air was closing in around him, suffocating, he struggled to remain calm, this was the end of his career, he could feel it.

"Claude I'm going to be brutally honest with you, your work just isn't getting a lot of interest, sales are substantially down. Nobody wants a painting that depresses them. We're really going to have figure out whether it's a good idea for me to continue representing you. I'm sorry." Claude's mind was going a hundred miles a minute trying to comprehend what the blonde had said… His paintings- depressing? He liked his paintings, the monochrome of it all, the desolate landscapes, the sort of haunting loneliness they expressed but he didn't consider them 'depressing'. And what was he going to do without Hannah representing him? He would have to get another job – a 'proper' one! He wasn't really qualified for anything besides painting... What the fuck was he going to do with his life? He could barely afford paying the rent as it was. "Oh." He finally managed to croak out, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose, looking up at the blonde woman.

Hannah offered a sad smile, "I really am sorry Claude." He bristled a bit at that, he didn't want her sympathy "Don't be. It's not your fault after all, it's mine. I'm the one that failed."

Hannah sighed at that, Claude could be- no, scratch that- was incredibly self-depreciating when he wasn't be a sarcastic asshole. "Just let me give you the good news too, okay?" When Claude didn't answer she continued "The good news, Claude, is that I have found someone that wants to commission a portrait from you. Maybe this will be your saving grace."

Claude was stunned; someone had actually requested a painting from him? But wait- "A portrait!?" Claude spluttered, "I don't do portraits, especially not of actual people!" A disdained look quickly spread along his face, his lips curling into a grimace.

"Tough shit. The person who wants this painting prefers to stay anonymous, but has a model picked out already. Who- as a matter of fact, will be joining us soon!" Hannah beamed as she said the last part; she was all for forcing social interaction onto Claude (it made up for all the times he ever implied that she was old).

"No, Hannah, seriously! I don't know how to paint people! And the model's probably horribly boring and old!" Alright, Claude knew he was whining and that it was pathetic, but he really didn't like talking to new people, and especially painting them. "Looks like you're going to have to learn then. And don't worry; this is actually a professional model, so he'll at least be professional."

As soon as the word 'professional' left Hannah's lips the café grew silent as a young man who looked to be in his late teens walked, no, strutted in, dressed like an utter – how does Claude phrase this politely?- tramp. Shorts that barely covered anything exposed lean, long legs which ended in heeled boots, and an off the shoulder t-shirt with the lettering 'YOLO' across the chest wasn't raking up any classy points, nor was the messy blonde hair. The oversized ray bans were unnecessary (it was raining for fucks sake!), and the icing on the tramp cake was the thigh high stockings.

"Oh. My. God. Who's that? Look at him! Look at those clothes! Why would anyone even think it's okay to wear that?" Claude snickered, feeling sorry for whoever had to deal with the obviously attention seeking male when he saw Hannah bury her face in her hands.

"…Hannah, no. Please, Hannah, tell me that's not the model… Hannah?" Claude's fears were realised when she nodded her head and whispered an affirmation, and the male made his way over to the table.

"Hannah! Hi! Oh, and you to- whatever your name is." The blonde said with a dismissive glance at Claude, leaning in to give Hannah an air kiss before plopping down in the booth beside Claude lazily.

"It's Claude. Claude Faustus." He informed icily, before asking whether the blonde would be as polite as to share his own name.

"Oh, you haven't heard of me?" The blonde looked a little disappointed, before immediately perking back up "Well Claude, I'm Alois Trancy" Alois said his name grandly, stretching out a few letters.

"No, I haven't."

"Oh."

"Alois! So good to see you! I'm so glad you could make it, and I know Claude has just been dying to meet you, haven't you Claude?" she glared at Claude slightly, getting her point across with a discreet kick to his shins under the table. "Yeah." Claude agreed, less than enthusiastically. Truth be told, he found Alois rather unbearable, and he had only known him two minutes.

Alois giggled and waved his hands around, saying that it was is absolute pleasure to meet the guy who was going to be painting him. And was Claude imagining it or did Alois really run his tongue over his lips as he said 'pleasure'?

The awkward conversion was momentarily paused when the brunette server came over to ask for their orders, a skim milk cappuccino for Hannah, a long black for Claude, and a "Diet water, thanks" for Alois. Claude turned to look at Alois sceptically as Paula wrote down the order, looking confused. As she hurried back to the kitchen Claude asked Alois just what the fuck he meant by a diet water?

And with a little huff Alois tried to explain to Claude that yes, there was such a thing as diet water, it was water that was lower in calories than regular water. Which of course turned into a debate about how there is no such thing as diet water, diet fizzy yes, diet juice yes, diet water however did not exist. And it maybe ended with Claude proclaiming "Well, whatever, it's not like I expected a ditzy model, of all people to understand such 'complicated' matters. Keep believing what you want to, idiot."

Which then proceeded to Alois gasping and flinging a bunch of insults back at Claude, which resulted in Claude slagging off Alois, which resulted in Hannah trying to calm them down and pacify Alois by saying "Oh, sweetie, of course diet water exists! And Claude, apologise."

This of course resulted in Claude getting moody and saying that he shouldn't be the one to apologise and listing a number of reasons as to why he was the one in the right, and therefore the model should be the one to apologise.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're an asshole?" Alois asked, and Claude actually had to let out a little snort at that, because yes, he had been told that multiple times, which he explained to the blonde.

Their drinks arrived then, and all was quiet for a few minutes, Claude could feel the caffeine beginning to pump through his veins and quickly excused himself to go have a quick smoke outside.

As he stood in the cold air greedily inhaling his nicotine, he started trying to figure out his thoughts. Obviously he was going to paint Alois. Money is money, and Claude is definitely lacking in that department. Although he didn't particularly like the kid, what with his odd clothes and brash personality (and who the hell think's there is such a thing as diet water?) he didn't exactly hate the kid like he normally did with other people. And, although Claude hated to admit it, he was gorgeous. Pale blonde hair that was messy in a delicious just got out of bed way, with electric blue eyes that sparkled with life and a lean form that was surprisingly curvy for a guy. He realised that the cigarette was finished and startled out of his reverie, oh god, he hadn't seriously spent the whole time thinking about the obnoxious brat had he? With a quick shake of his head he went back inside to join his agent and future model.

Hannah glanced at him as he sat back down, before announcing that perhaps they should try to get to know each other 'properly' considering "You boys are going to be working together for a while!" – Which Claude supposed was a good point. He was about to introduce himself properly and say the standard line of what he liked to do, and how he's glad to be working with Alois etcetera etcetera, when he was interrupted by Alois.

"Well you already know my name, um, I'm 19, I'm a model and Hannah represents me, and I like partying, and I know I'm going to be incredibly famous someday." And then he flashed Claude a grin and Claude kind of felt his breath be taken away for a little bit because when Alois smiled it was like nothing Claude had seen before.

"What kind of modelling do you do?" he found himself asking, racking his brain to think if he had seen the boy in any advertisements or art galleries. "Oh, nothing big- yet. At the moment I'm more just a private model, a few photographers have used me, and I was in a catalogue once, but that's about it. I've never been painted before though." And he sounded so sure of the fact that he would eventually be 'big' that Claude believed him.

As the men delved deeper into a conversation Hannah cleared her throat, announcing that it was time to leave. Before Claude could say anything Alois whipped out an expensive looking phone, fiddling with it for a few seconds before passing it to Claude "Here. Put your number in and I'll text you later about what times I'm free." After the deed was done Alois announced that he had to leave, and quickly slinked out of the café, hips swaying ridiculously.

As soon as Hannah noticed Claude's glare towards her she too announced that she had to go as well and quickly stood up to leave in a hurry. "Oh no you don't!" he frowned, asking for an explanation to what was going on.

"Well Claude I'd love to stay and chat, but I simply must be going! And I think it's pretty simple, don't you? You are a painter. Alois is a model. You need to paint Alois if you want to keep your job. Simple." And with that she strode out of the café, her heels clicking rapidly as she left.

Claude sighed and made to leave, quickly firing a text depicting an angry emoticon to Hannah, until he realised that they had both left him with the bill to foot. 'Bitches, the lot of them'

AN: Oops. Just take it. Ignore the fact it took over a year to update. I actually have legit personal reasons for once. Ignore that my writing is god-awful. Ignore the fact that I can't even remember the plot anymore. Shhhh. (However thanks for the support I've continued to get over this silly thing ilyguys)

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