If Felix Hates Awkward Situations So Much - Tumblr Posts

Consider also:

Oliver and Felix's first genuine compromise/the start of them working together occurs after Felix gets frustrated enough to brave the embarrassment of just confessing to his family that Oliver lied to all of them about his family, and also Oliver is now dangerous and may try to kill someone.

It turns out that facing his family in the aftermath of Oliver's (admittedly violent, at this point) removal is not as bad as Felix expected... it is worse.

First he has to deal with probably the most uncomfortable conversation ever with his father, wherein Sir James makes it very clear that he is Very Disappointed in Felix for being so gullible and foolish and bringing a violent liar into the family home and then grounds Felix for the rest of summer like a child. Then, as if that conversation weren't bad enough, he has to deal with the extremely humiliating silent judgement from the rest of his family, who all now clearly think he's incredibly stupid and won't stop looking at him or seeking him out to ask him how he's doing and look, it's horrible, okay?

Frankly, he'd rather watch Oliver murder people and/or get murdered by Oliver over and over than deal with that, again.

So after that excruciatingly humiliating experience - and after Oliver murders him immediately the very next morning, in retribution - Felix calls for a compromise: Felix will not tell his family about Oliver's again as a way of getting Oliver kicked out of Saltburn, and in return Oliver will at least wait till his birthday party starts to begin any future murder attempts, so as to give Felix a fair shot at coming up with a plan to stop him each day from here out.

From there, of course, it's an inevitable slipperly slope to character growth, discovering the joy of a friendship based on mutual respect and honesty, and eventually falling in love.

Consider, if you will: Saltburn Groundhog Day AU, with Felix and Oliver both reliving Oliver's birthday over and over.

At first, neither of them realizes they're in a time loop, so they do establish mutual knowledge of the First Birthday Party together before they discover that they're stuck reliving the same day.

After that, they'd both absolutely get worse for a while. Oliver gets creative and excessive in each new murder plot, while Felix gets downright mean in his attempts to have Oliver kicked out of Saltburn before he can commit any murder, while also tying himself in knots attempting to avoid the embarrassment of his family finding out that he/they were conned by a liar.

Eventually, Felix starts enjoying putting actual effort into something and getting one over on Oliver by working for it instead of just being rich and expecting his privilege to get him through any mildly uncomfortable situations.

And then he has to come to terms with how he has used his privilege, up till now, to justify being an incredibly lazy, casually cruel, and frankly pretty shallow person.

Meanwhile Oliver starts to realize that he had apparently been building up a lot of repressed anger over his whole life of wanting to fit in and have friends and just getting bullied or ignored by his peers, and while it was kind of fun for a while taking out that anger in increasingly violent and absurd ways on the Cattons, Farleigh, and/or various party guests who came to his birthday party and didn't even know his name, he also really likes knowing that everyone will still be alive the next day and no one will stay hurt, because he kind of hates the thought of actually hurting or killing anyone for real.

And then he has to come to grips with how, on the First Birthday Party, he would have killed Felix for real if not for this time loop.

And thus Felix and Oliver start the long, slow slogs of their respective personal growth journeys, as their days in the loop slowly setting into them just talking and hanging out and becoming actual friends. Actual friends who aren't lying to or manipulating or using each other.

Culminating, of course, in the day that they accidentally finally end the time loop, by Felix planning and surprising Oliver with the kind of nice birthday trip that Oliver was daydreaming about that very first morning, before the disaster of Prescott and everything that followed. Felix actually does something genuinely nice for Oliver to make him happy on his birthday; Oliver has a genuinely nice day with his best friend, and he realizes that he can value himself just fine without a giant birthday party full of strangers who aren't even really there for him anyway.

And then Felix gets them a hotel room so they can fuck all night without worrying about getting walked in on by a maid or party guests, and they both agree it's been the best day either of them can remember having in a long time.

(It's a little awkward when they actually have to drive back to Saltburn the next morning and answer questions about where they'd been all night, but... worth it.)