You And Me - A Collection of Les Twins One Shots

Oxygen

Breathing was hard. 

His lungs tried to expand but couldn't. His body shook in the aftermath of too much adrenaline pumping through his veins, his skin prickly with goosebumps, his mind clouded. There was static in his ears and black spots dancing across his vision. 

He could hear people talking around him, but not make out any distinct words or faces. 

His own heartbeat was the only clear sound, jackhammering away in his chest as though he had just run a marathon. 

Laurent was somewhere to his left, his arm pressed against Larry's and his brother's pulse was much too fast, trying to beat Larry's as though absolutely everything between them had to be a competition. Down to the last breath left in their lungs. 

Larry's eyes fluttered weakly and then there was something on his nose and mouth. He tried to fight it at first, but then a hand caught his wrist, gently guiding it away and before Larry knew it, he could breathe again, chest suddenly rising and falling with the sedative quality of a lullaby as fresh oxygen filled his airways again. He could breathe with ease again, a soft smile creeping onto his face as he simply lay there, cooling his throbbing cheeks against the hard floor. 

It wasn't until at least some of the fog had lifted from his brain and his chest had stopped shaking with his erratic gasps for air that Larry managed to get a grip on his surroundings for the first time since they had gone backstage. 

"Lau?" he rasped out, only then noticing that his voice was muffled by a mask. 

An oxygen mask. 

He pulled it off, rolling onto his knees and crawling over to where his twin was slumped against a set of stage amplifiers. "Lau?"

Lau's chest was still moving too fast. He looked pale, his head rolling lightly and Larry felt panicked as he grabbed his brother's face and shook it. "Hey, Lau? Laurent!"

Lauren't head snapped to attention at the fear in Larry's voice, the urgency in his name.

His lids were at half-mast, pupils sluggishly rolling.

"Everything okay?" one of the other background dancers asked. 

"Get someone from medical care," Larry snapped at the girl.

"'m fine," Laurent rasped, weakly trying to shove Larry's hands away. 

Larry grabbed the oxygen tank from where he had dropped it earlier, holding out the mask to his brother.  "You should have taken some. Why didn't you take any for yourself?"

Laurent just blinked at him sleepily and fuck, how long had Larry been passed out for Laurent to be gone this far? Larry swallowed, entangling his fingers with Laurent's cold ones. 

They'd never blacked out before, never been out of breath like this in their entire lives. The oxygen mask must have been there for emergencies, probably because someone had exhausted himself in a similar way before. 

"You need to take care of yourself."

Laurent's fingers were clammy against his own.

They twitched in his grasp.

He didn't have to say the words out loud for Larry to hear them. 

'I need to take care of you first.'

Larry blinked and bit down hard on his lower lip. He carded a shaking hand through his brother's 'fro and tugged on it lightly. He loved their job. He loved working with Beyonce. But nothing was worth seeing his brother like this. Nothing and no one.

"Just breathe, okay?" Larry said roughly, emotions getting the best of him now that he was too exhausted to keep the guarded front up around himself. He kept stroking a hand through his brother's hair and sat there, his other hand still entangled with his brother's as he watched the even rise and fall of his twin's chest. "Breathe with me." 

It was the easiest instruction.

They'd known nothing else since before they were born.