You And Me - A Collection of Les Twins One Shots

Variant

A/N: Warning for COV-19 related content, mentions of hospitalization etc.

Larry isn't even with him when it happens.

Maybe later on, that's the part he'll blame himself for the most.

He's already been tested negatively and was waved through the security passage ten minutes ago and now he's waiting impatiently, tapping his foot against the linoleum floor of the airport.

None of this is new to them. They've been tested hundreds of times in the past year and a half, both at home and in the US and anywhere in between. It's become almost familiar now, the discomfort of a stranger poking at your nose, the watering of eyes and irritant feeling of a cotton swab shoved down your throat. It's a nuisance but it's necessary and since they are on their way back to Paris about to see their mom and other family members, Larry is grateful for the security measures at the airport. He doesn't want to take any chances.

So far everyone in their group has tested, but for some reason Laurent is taking ages.

"What's taking so damn long?" Larry murmurs more to himself than to the others.

Their friends don't bat an eye at him, knowing how impatient Larry can get and how 'well' he deals with his brother being out of sight for longer than a few minutes. They are all looking at their phones, still dead on their feet from the twelve-hour flight.

Only Eleni is throwing concerned glances back at the tent-like cubicles of the testing station.

Another five minutes pass, still Laurent is nowhere to be seen and Larry's patience is running out. He drops the duffle bag that is slung over his shoulder and abandons his luggage without a second glance back. Eleni calls after him, but he doesn't turn around. He's about to kick someone's butt for taking so long, either his brother's or the airport staff's, most likely both.

But as he gets closer his heart suddenly drops.

There's a commotion, a lot more people now buzzing around the cubicle than when Larry had been tested ten minutes ago. Some of them are speaking in hushed voices and even from afar, Larry can hear the slight edge of panic in their tone.

"Shit," Eleni says and Larry doesn't wait long enough for her to add anything else.

One second he's standing there with his mouth agape and the next he's moving, ignoring the sharp warning of one of the security guards as he pushes his way through the crowd toward his brother.

"Sir, you can't just--"

"I'm family," Larry says, easily spotting Laurent in the same white plastic chair Larry has sat in earlier. His brother looks about ten years younger suddenly, all swaddled in his grey hoodie and with the clean-shaven face and the afro. Laurent always looks young without the beard, but now he's looking at the medical staff with big wide puppy-dog eyes and something feels wrong about this, as though it's all some fucked-up joke.

Larry's worry further skyrockets at the sight of a few grotesque looking medicals clad in a white bodysuit like you know them from apocalyptic movies about zombie attacks or bioweapons.

There's security too, wrapping yellow tape around the entire testing station and clearing the area of travelers who started growing impatient in the line behind Laurent.

Larry has a growing knot of dread in his stomach long before Laurent looks at him to confirm it. "Lar... They say my test came out positive."

Larry shakes his head in denial. "No, it can't be. Mine was negative."

"Sir, we really need you to--"

"I'm his twin and I'm negative. It must be a mistake."

Laurent and him are always the same in everything they do. Larry doesn't remember a single moment of their lives where Laurent had been sick and Larry hadn't. Whatever one brother came down with, the other would eventually have a few days later, not only because their bodies were the same, but because they ate the same food, saw the same people, travelled to the same places and because they spent so much time together.