#clouis
hello friends! i’m super curious – so please indulge me i know there are common universes that people usually always put clouis into: after season 4 AU, high school AU (guilty), modern AU, etc etc. but is there a certain AU that you always wanted to see, but never could find it?
i’ll go first: i’ve always wanted to see/read a mulan AU for clouis. maybe it exists, maybe it doesn’t, but i’ve never seen one for them! i think the idea fits them SO well and it has the potential to be both fun and sad
okay, here it is! my old & short ficlet about older, married clouis ♡
~
It’s been two years since she said “I do” to the love of her life and what an amazing two years it’s been. The days pass by like dreams—soft around the edges, numbingly sweet, her chest tight and full of something like cotton, ready to burst at any given moment. Her heart beats so hard it hurts, and a pleasant, hazy fog clouds her mind whenever his lips are on hers or when he’s simply holding her—even his smiles do this to her.
She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to the way he makes her feel.
Two years of being husband and wife. Two years of them in their relaxing solitude.
And then the dream-like bubble popped.
“Do you ever think about having kids?” Louis asked one night.
They were cuddling underneath a large throw blanket on their couch, watching some new family sitcom on television. She couldn’t remember what it was called, but Louis wanted to see it, so there she was.
Clementine reached for the bowl of popcorn balanced in the space between them, her pulse quickening. “I don’t know,” she spoke slowly, her words treading on thin ice. “Do you?”
Louis nodded, his eyes trained on the television even though a commercial was playing. “All the time.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “All the time?”
“Pretty often, yeah.” He looked at her while he grabbed fistful of popcorn. “I saw this cute baby today and I thought about how cool it’d be to be a dad.” He brought his fist up to his mouth. “Made me think about us having a kid of our own.”
“Oh.”
That was the only word she could say. It felt like her throat was closing. How does she tell him without breaking his heart?
He chewed and swallowed his popcorn and then joked, “You sound very enthusiastic about the idea of starting a family with me.”
“Um.” Clem gulped. “I don't… think…”
Watching his smile fall was painful. It stung like a harsh slap across the face.
“Shit, Clem, do you not want kids?” Louis frowned. “We never really sat down and talked about this. I mean, it’s fine if you don’t! I’m not trying to pressure you or anything—I just always thought…”
“Wait, Louis, slow down.” She held up a hand and he stopped talking. “I never said I don’t want kids. I was going to say I don’t think I’m ready to have a baby just yet.” She avoided his eyes by playing with the loose stitching on the blanket. “I doubt I’ll be ready anytime soon.”
He responded with an “oh” of his own.
A moment of silence passed. The air was charged with an uncomfortable tension as Clementine fidgeted in her spot, straightening out her legs and scooting a hair away from Louis.
Maybe I’ll just go to bed, she thought.
Louis spoke before the atmosphere got unbearable. He took a deep breath. “It was wrong of me to just, assume, like that. Ultimately, it’s your decision. I’d never pressure you into doing something you’re not comfortable doing.” His eyes searched hers. “You know that, right?”
“Yeah. I know.”
The conversation started and ended that night. Louis didn’t bring up having kids again, and Clem never asked. There was an unspoken agreement between them that went on for months. They avoided the topic in all forms of conversation, skirting around the subject if it dared rear its head.
If they didn’t acknowledge the elephant in the room, it’d eventually go away, right?
Wrong.
—
A.J invited them to his eight grade fundraising event.
Each class was selling a different product, ranging from baked goods to homemade jewelry to raffle tickets to original art. Families showed up in droves, crowding the gymnasium and filling it with noisy chatter.
Lee, Clementine, and Louis stood amongst the chaos, each with a brochure of the fundraiser in their hands.
“A.J said he would be at the art booth…” Lee said, turning the brochure on its side, studying the simple map made up of shapes portraying the tables. “He’s closer to the back, near the bleachers.”
“Oooh, the baked goods table has Nutella brownies…” Louis murmured, still reading the brochure.
“Hey, focus.” Clem reached for his sleeve and pulled him along to keep up with her and Lee’s pace. “We’re here for A.J.”
“I know, I know! But some of these kids used to be my students so I wanna keep an eye out for them.”
“You still teach piano twice a week, Louis?” Lee asked and stepped out of the way of a passing family.
“Yup. Wednesdays and Thursdays.”
“Mr. Louis!” A young voice shouted above the babble of the crowd.
Louis stopped abruptly. “Speaking of piano lessons…” He looked to his right, and standing behind a long wooden table was a young boy, waving his arm in their direction. “Milo!” Louis exclaimed and waved back. “Be right back,” he quickly said to Clem and Lee before jogging over to the excited kid’s table.
Clem smiled to herself when Louis raised his arm for a high-five and they happily slapped their palms together.
“He’s real good with kids, huh?” Lee’s deep voice broke her out of her reverie.
“He is,” she agreed, admiring her husband in his tan knit sweater and dark denim jeans. “He’s been good with kids for as long as I’ve known him.”
“A.J liked him from the moment they met.”
“I remember.”
“That definitely helped him earn my approval.”
Clementine fixed her adoptive father with a look of disbelief. “Good to know A.J was the deciding factor and not, you know, the way I felt about him.”
Lee chuckled. “I said it helped.”
The pair watched as another kid—a girl with thin blonde hair and a toothy grin—ran up and patted Louis on the arm, grabbing his attention. They also high-fived and started into a conversation.
“Okay, he might be a while,” Clem said. “Let’s just go to A.J’s table. Louis will find his way over to us eventually.”
“Alright.”
It took some maneuvering through the sea of families, but in the end, they came across A.J standing proudly behind his table, an art display assembled behind him.
“Dad! Clem!” A.J called out once he saw his family. He made his way from around his table and enveloped them both in a hug.
“Hey, goofball,” Clem greeted. “Your setup looks great.”
“It really does. I’m so proud of you!” Lee rubbed his back.
A.J beamed at them. “Thanks guys.” He glanced over Clem’s shoulder—which he surpassed in height at thirteen. “Did Louis not come?”
“He’s here,” Clementine reassured him. “His old piano students grabbed him before he could make it over here.”
“Aw man, I’ll never see him now.” A.J’s face was crestfallen.
“Is he that popular?” Lee asked with a hand on the young boy’s shoulder.
“Yeah, he kinda is. Half the kids here had him for piano in sixth grade. They’re all gonna wanna say hi.”
A low whistle blew past Lee’s lips. “You’re married to a celebrity, Clem.”
She rolled her eyes with a playful smile.
“Let me introduce you to my friends!” A.J brought Lee and Clementine over to meet his eager classmates.
Watching A.J associate with his schoolmates was sweet. There was a genuine camaraderie in the jokes they cracked and the laughter between them—Clem was glad he got to experience that. Pride swelled in her chest. He’s grown so much. From a quiet, lone child to a self-assured, talkative young teen, it’s like there were two different A.J’s.
“Hey, thanks for ditching me back there.” A familiar voice had her turning around and coming face to face with a pouting Louis.
“Sorry, we thought you’d be a while.” Clem rubbed his arm, consoling. “At least you found us.” Her eyes found a grey plastic bag clutched in his hand. “What is that?” She pointed at it.
Louis lifted the bag. “There’s quite a few things in here.” He reached in and pulled out an origami potted cactus. “Milo’s table was doing these cool paper crafts, so I bought this cute little cactus.” He grabbed another origami craft that looked like a skull. “I got this for you because I know how much you like collecting weird stuff like this.”
Clementine took the origami from him and inspected it. “This is cool.”
“See?” He smirked at her before digging in his bag again. “I also got a bracelet from Ashley and Erica’s table. They’re selling handmade jewelry.” The bracelet in his hand was made up of black beads with a single blue bead. “It’s supposed to calm you down or something.” He took out a Ziploc baggie. “I got my brownies from Imani’s table. There’s also chocolate chip cookies in here for you and A.J, and I know Lee is one of the five people on this earth who likes oatmeal raisin cookies, so I got him some too.”
“Goodness, Lou. Did you save anything for the actual parents to buy?”
“What? Of course! It’s a fundraiser! You’re supposed to buy stuff, that’s the point!”
—
(i’m so sorry it ends so abruptly but that’s because i literally stopped writing it right there )
would anyone be interested in a short drabble about clouis being adults and married (modern au) that i wrote in, like, 2019? its just collecting dust in my google docs
(HS AU) ❤
“Yknow I’m here for you..”
“Always.”
“' .”
“ ' .”
“ .”
