You And Me - A Collection of Les Twins One Shots

Mine

Laurent was quick to make friends. 

He was personable and easy-going and he usually had a good handle on his emotions. He could talk to just about anyone about absolutely anything. His natural charm and open-mindedness made him easy to approach so naturally people were more drawn to him than to Larry.

When they were touring with Cirque du Soleil, Laurent did most of the social networking for the both of them. The crew there was nice enough. They usually went out together for dinner and drinks after a successful show or just lounging about in the hotel lobby du jour, playing cards or practicing new moves for the show. After a week or two Laurent was already a well-integrated and well-liked part of the group. It didn't come to a surprise. It had been this way ever since they were little, with Laurent making friends easier than Larry ever could, whether it was at school or at soccer practice or with a multinational group of strangers.

Larry was fine as long as he got to keep his personal distance. He was slow to warm up to strangers, not letting them in until he deemed them trustworthy. 

He never held it against his brother to hang out with others, but he did feel jealousy stir in his stomach whenever Laurent became a little too chummy with someone. It was a natural instinct. A gut reaction. Someone slung their arm around his brother's neck or god forbid, hugged him, and Larry's insides started churning.

He knew it wasn't fair to react that way. Especially given how little effort he put into making friends of his own. He knew he didn't have a right to protest, that his brother was a grown-up and an individual and that Laurent could very well hang out and have fun with whoever the hell he pleased. But even so, Larry couldn't deny how much he hated the sight of another person - especially someone Larry hadn't really warmed up to himself - around his brother. 

So when this guy from the Cirque crew started hanging out more and more with Laurent, Larry had tried to suppress his anger at first. The guy was from Croatia, probably in his mid-thirties with a laugh as bright as sunlight. He was one of the aerial acrobats of the show and a talented motherfucker at that. When Larry and Laurent had first seen his solo act they had both been in utter awe of the guy's body control and balance. It had been mind-boggling. The guy had been cheerful enough, approaching them the next day at breakfast, telling them about his background, about growing up poor and about getting handed from one foster family to the next after his parents and brother had died in a car crash. And Larry had almost wanted to groan in frustration because if the guy's talent hadn't already sparked an irreversible interest in Laurent, the story about his upbringing sure signed the deal. Because the one thing Laurent appreciated more than anything else, was somebody's willingness to build something for themselves with nothing but sheer talent and determination.

The two were practically attached at the hip after that. The guy - Jakov - wanted to show them some stuff on the tight rope and he even got Laurent to try the jungle bridge that trained coordination and motor skills after one of the shows. Laurent wasn't half-bad, of course he wasn't. He had great motor skills to begin with, so the tight rope was no real challenge for him.

Larry grumpily watched his brother laugh and grip Jakov's shoulder for balance and nearly fall and getting caught by the guy. All the while Larry's surge of possessiveness grew stronger and stronger in his chest. 

They had asked him to join. 

Laurent always asked him to join. 

But Larry didn't like the guy and he could be stubborn as hell if he felt the need to make his dislike known. He had been rude in his rebuttal, blowing Jakov off like the guy's skills weren't impressive, like it wasn't worth Larry's attention.