You And Me - A Collection of Les Twins One Shots

Guadeloupe

She wasn't proud of it or anything. 

In hindsight, it was probably one of the worst decisions she had ever made.

They had always been close, even for twins. Teachers had noticed and so had other family members. They hardly did anything without the other, be it homework or meeting friends or playing basketball in the backyard. They had their own language, their own little twin-speak made up of shared glances and cocked eyebrows and finger twitches. They moved and talked and slept in sync. Sometimes they shared thoughts and ideas, one of the few things that never failed to freak them out themselves. And then they started dancing together. It was for fun at first until they became good at it. She didn't get worried until Laurent dragged Larry along to those damn street battles. Larry had a quick temper and even with Laurent there to keep him in check, it was only a matter of time for them to get into trouble. 

She decided to split them up on the night they came home beaten and bloody.

It wasn't easy to send one of her boys away. It broke her heart to not have one of her babies around her anymore. But she told herself that it would be good for them. That it was in their own interest to become  independent and to make friends outside of their close-knit bond. 

Laurent was the more responsible one, the one who was less likely to get himself into trouble, so she decided for Larry to stay in Paris where she could have an eye on him while Laurent would spend the year with her family in Guadeloupe. It wasn't until they were at the airport and she saw her boys clinging to each other, fingers digging into each other's clothes until their knuckles turned white that she started doubting her own decision.

Larry cried the whole car ride home. He hadn't spilled a tear until Laurent had vanished from his sight to board that plane, too proud to show his emotions in front of his brother and now he just sat in the backseat with his chin dipped low, looking absolutely miserable as silent tears slipped down his cheeks. She glanced at him through the rear mirror, swallowing down her own pain at the look of misery etched into her baby's face. "I know it hurts right now, but it will get better, cheri."

Larry didn't say anything. He just locked his jaw and stared out the window, more tears dripping down his chin. He stared up at the sky, watery eyes searching the endless blue for the airplane that was about to take his twin away. She knew it there and then, already. That she had made a mistake. That this wasn't right. But she only pushed the gas a little harder and clung to her resolve.

Surprisingly enough, Laurent took much better to being away from his brother at first. She wasn't sure why she had expected for things to be the other way around, but she was proud of Laurent for the way he seemed to blossom and mature in Guadeloupe, finding passion in his heritage and the different culture there and his relatives and of course – as always – in dancing. Laurent had always been an artist at heart, expressive and creative and ready to soak up inspiration from anyone and everything, so this part, at least, didn't come to a surprise.

Larry on the other hand, wasn't dealing so well with the separation. He got into fights at school, often physical ones and he had bad mood swings which often resulted in more fighting with his siblings at home, or even with her. On one particularly bad night, Larry snuck out to roam the streets of their neighborhood in an effort to find a worthy combat. She wouldn't even have noticed he was missing, if her phone hadn't gone off ringing in the middle of the night.

"Oui?"

"Can I talk to him?"

"Laurent?"

"I feel like something happened."

That night, Laurent had woken panicked in his bed in Guadeloupe, yelling Larry's name and demanding to be put on the phone. Her sister had thought it was a bad nightmare at first. But being their mother, she knew how far the connection between her boys went. With Laurent being in so much distress, she had no doubt that something bad must have happened to her youngest. An hour after Laurent's call, Larry came home with a swollen eye and a couple of broken ribs. He had gotten into yet another fight, only this time he had been badly outnumbered with nobody there to smooth the situation over, nobody there to have his back.