We Tried (afterparty)

[outsidethecircle]

[A couple hours after the trial there may be a note slipped under your bedroom door reading simply in very formal handwriting (actually it's very amazingly neat for someone of her age you might think it's the other Anna)--

I made sandwiches. They're in the lounge if you want them.

-Anna

Anna herself will be found in the study after seeing everyone has enough sandwiches. Where she very sulkily is drawing a boat.]

Comments

[toogoodforhim]

...Why...what?

[He can't understand why anyone here is taking him seriously.]

[defyingfrigidity]

Why wouldn't anyone take you seriously? You're a friendly, wonderful man. I can't see why others would shun you like that.

[He's a little awkward, but... hey, so is she. There's nothing wrong with that, eight?]

[toogoodforhim]

[He looks at her with shock for a minute, and then shakes his head with a smile.]

...You don't speak French, do you?

I was clumsy, and weak, and soft, and I always stumbled over my words. So pretty soon the other boys had a nickname for me: LeFou - the fool. It's just what everyone's called me ever since, when any of them remember my name at all. Even my be--

[His tone the whole time has been matter-of-fact. Not a Tragic Backstory voice, just...explaining a nickname. But he chokes on the word "best" before it can come out of his mouth, swallows it like a bitter pill.]

...my Captain. Called me that. It might as well be my name, now.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Even as he explains, Elsa just
Can't understand. Those were such... trivial things! To make someone an utter fool for something they have no control over like that...! And to the point that it's the only thing anyone calls him by anymore... it's equal parts disgusting and upsetting. And it makes her feel guilty, too, that she's just been calling him by this horrible nickname this whole time.]

I... I'm so sorry. All of that... there's no reason for it! It's ridiculous, too much for a man like you, and... [Again, that guilt.] I'm sorry I've been calling you such a cruel name this whole time.

[toogoodforhim]

[The name doesn't have the same negative connotations with it as a lot of things that Gaston do, because it was his "name" even before Gaston took pity on him and took him under his wing. He's not even sure Gaston knew his birth name.

When he sees the look on her face, he puts on a great big smile for her.]

It's fine, I promise! It's all I answer to, anyway.

[It's even the name that's on his headstone out in the graveyard.]

I'm not sore about it, I got used to it a long time ago. If everyone's going to laugh anyway, I might as well laugh with them.

[defyingfrigidity]

[She doesn't look entirely convinced, but... she can understand that, sort of. Better to just completely negate the tools people use to taunt you with and rub it in their faces that they can't hurt you anymore. Still...]

... I'd atill like to know your real name. If that's all right with you.

[toogoodforhim]

[He looks...slightly uncomfortable with this.

After all, if some of the people in the village that he'd lived in his whole life didn't even know his name... but these people had been nicer to him than anyone else.]

...Lafeuille. That's where the nickname comes from.

[defyingfrigidity]

Lafeuille...

[She's not french so the name doesn't flow quite as well coming from her, but she still says it. Committing his nsme to memory.]

That has a much better ring to it.

[toogoodforhim]

[It's...strange. To hear someone call him by his family name. He hasn't really had a family since he was fourteen, hasn't been called by his name since the other soldiers in the army picked up quickly on the name that Gaston always called him.

He almost wonders how he didn't forget his name, after so long going by his nickname. But Lafeuille was always buried in there, under years of being a footnote in Gaston's story.

He smiles.]

I like the way you say it.

...But, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to keep being just Lefou. For a while.