You And Me - A Collection of Les Twins One Shots

L'enfer (Part 2)

Larry's awareness was shrouded with pain, but even amid agony, he felt a comforting presence next to him. Lau?

His senses slowly returned to him as he lay there, the steady bleeping of the machines and the heavy sting of antiseptics churning his stomach. He knew that scent and it brought a load of memories with it. Of nurses and their mom and someone crying, of Larry in a hospital bed with his head wrapped in gauze, asking for his brother. Laurent. Lau! 

The memories slammed home with the force of an eighteen-wheeler and suddenly Larry was back in that dark alley after their workshop, the phone pressed tightly to his ear as he listened to Lylah. A hooded figure. The flash of a gun in front of him and then pain. Agony. Panic. Death. He was dying.

Larry opened his eyes and regretted it instantly when the blinding neon bulb turned his pupils into pinpricks. A searing pain shot through his head and Larry's vision blurred with tears. It felt as though a wooden stake had been hammered into his middle. The center of his chest was radiating in a way that throbbed right up to his brain and into his eyes and Larry grimaced, his breathing picking up with discomfort. And that was when he suddenly noticed it. The thing sticking out of his throat. He gagged on sheer instinct, his throat convulsing. And WHAT THE FUCK. Why was there a piece of plastic lodged in his throat? He sputtered, hands flying up to try and rip the contraption from his throat. He was suffocating. They were trying to suffocate him.

"Larry, calm down, please!" a voice suddenly rushed out and suddenly he was enveloped by hands. Two palms settled on either side of his face and Larry's first instinct was to fight them because he couldn't breathe and there was a chunk of plastic lodged inside his body and why wouldn't they help him? But then there was a forehead pressed against his own, a soft brush of hair against his temple, and a presence so strong and familiar that it made him forget about the pain. "Larry, please. You need to relax."

Relax? Didn't his twin see the thing blocking his throat?

"It's there to help you," Laurent answered in a rushed whisper. "Breathe with me. Like this, okay?" he instructed softly before taking a deep inhale and then slowly releasing it through his nose. Laurent guided Larry's hand up to his chest so that he could feel the even rise and fall of his rib cage. "It's okay. You're okay. Just breathe with me. In... and out."

Larry took a painful, staggering breath through the tube and released it again, coughing a little. He repeated the motion, feeling dizzy from the lack of oxygen as his adrenaline levels sank and were replaced with a sense of reassurance. It still hurt, his lungs were still burning, and his vision was clouded with tears of pain, but Laurent was with him and that was all the comfort in the world he had ever needed. Laurent wouldn't allow anyone to harm him. He wouldn't just sit by and allow strangers to stick something down his throat if it wasn't necessary. Larry felt his muscles relax against the thin hospital mattress as his breathing rhythm quieted down to match the even pace of his brother's.

"That's it." Laurent's eyes didn't leave him once, one of his twin's palms cupping his cheek as he guided him through his panic. And even amid his misery, Larry frowned at the sound of his brother's voice... it sounded off. Something was off. Laurent gently brushed his thumb over Larry's cheek one last time before lifting his head and stepping back to give the hospital staff more room to work. And even with the unfamiliar faces of a nurse and doctor approaching him, Larry's eyes clung to his twin's. Laurent looked terrible. He was paler than ever before, and his eyes were red and puffy as though he'd spent the whole night crying. His hands were shaking and Larry's mind started racing. Had the robber come after his brother after he'd been done with Larry? Had his twin been shot as well? Suddenly the heart monitor picked up at an alarming rate again. No. No. What if the guy had hurt Laurent and his brother hadn't told anybody? He could be bleeding internally or... or...