Through the Fire (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 14: Ready

"You can't just drop by my dorm whenever you want.  You don't own me."

"Oh yeah?"  Larry laid Shauna down on her narrow twin bed and kissed his way south on her body until his mouth found the first leaf on her flower tattoo.

"Yeah," she gasped, but still kept talking trash.  "My man could've been here."

"You don't have a man."

"You don't know what I have."

"I know everything you do.  I got people watching you."

"You're such a liar!"  Shauna giggled and shivered as Larry's tongue dipped lower.  But her forehead wrinkled thinking about what he said.  She had to admit it was strange how he happened to find her dorm room when she never told him which building she was in.

He laughed to himself as he expertly pushed her thighs apart and studied her confused face at the same time.  For all her big talk, sometimes she was so easy to fool.  He liked that about her.

So far no one had figured out they'd been sneaking around sleeping together for weeks and they were getting comfortable with their creeping.  Mostly Shauna smuggled in and out of his room in the middle of the night when Gabby and Laurent were too wrapped up doing their own thing to notice.  But this time Larry thought he'd switch it up.

They kissed and Shauna arched her back.  Then he moved back up to her eye level.

"You ready for me?"

She nodded.

"You sure?"  It was more of a statement than a question since Larry was already burying himself deep into her.  They both whispered each other's names as they found their rhythm.

Honestly, Shauna wasn't sure of anything anymore.  Larry was leaving to go on tour soon and she certainly didn't want to fall for him.  She wanted things to stay casual and fun between them, but lately she was having a hard time containing her feelings.

She locked her heels at the small of his back and pressed her face into his neck breathing hard.  Larry held her tighter against him.  The next thing he knew he felt something wet on his chest.  She was crying.

He lifted up and looked down at her, his voice laced with concern.  "What's wrong?  You okay?  Did I hurt you?"

Embarrassed, Shauna blinked rapidly trying to hide her face and pull away.   "No, I'm fine...sorry...I'm okay.  Really.  I'm fine...," her voice trailed off as Larry refused to let her go.

He rolled over and pulled her on top of him.  She laid her head on his shoulder while he kissed her eyes and rubbed her back.

His feelings for her were scattered in different directions, too.  He hadn't expected any of this to happen.

"Shauna, I know I'm leaving, but...maybe when the tour is over we can—"

She put her fingers to his lips.  "Don't make promises you can't keep."

****

Laurent watched Gabby strip the sheets off the bed wearing a racerback wife beater knotted above her waist and a pair of short shorts that he liked.  When she finished she put them in a basket and headed to the laundry room, cheerfully blowing him a kiss on the way out.  Ever since he told her about the Beyoncé tour three weeks ago she had been nothing less than happy and excited for him.

She threw a surprise party for him and Larry the day they signed their contracts.  And while they wrapped up the final shooting on their movie, she'd helped him shop for everything he needed for the trip to New York where the concert rehearsals were going to be held.

Part of him was glad she was being so supportive, but in the back of his mind it bothered him that she didn't seem sad he was leaving.

He called after her.  "Babe! You seen my kilt?"  He opened the closet and pulled out his luggage hoping to get an early start on packing the tons of clothes and shoes he always traveled with.

"I think it's in the top of the closet!" Gabby yelled from the laundry room as she loaded the sheets into the washer.

She poured in a cup of detergent, closed the lid, and pressed the start button then slid the empty basket over underneath the dryer door.  She was unloading Larry's clean towels and linens into it when a pair of pink panties tumbled out onto the floor.

Gabby held them up dangling them suspiciously between the tips of her fingers.  They definitely weren't hers.  She dug around in the basket until she came up with another article of female clothing that didn't belong to her either—Shauna's Charlie Brown t-shirt.

Laurent had just found his kilt when Gabby stormed back into the bedroom.

"I'm going to strangle your brother!"

"Why?  What'd he do?"  Laurent appeared inside the closet door doing his best to look genuinely puzzled.  But it was hard for him to keep a straight face because he already knew the answer.  His twin telepathy had told him that Larry and Shauna were hooking up when they first began.

"He—," Gabby stopped short.  There were open suitcases all over the floor and Laurent had started putting some of his things inside.  The reality that she had been attempting to avoid was staring her right in the face.  He was leaving in three days.  He's leaving.  Her hand fluttered to her mouth.

Laurent followed her eyes and saw the stricken expression on her face.  That's when he realized she'd been holding in her feelings all the time. And now she was about to break down.

"Gabby," he embraced her and pulled her head to his chest.  "Baby, it's okay.  I'm coming home in a month."

Even though after a month rehearsing in New York he'd only be back for one week before they had to fly to Europe to kick off the six-month world tour, he wanted to say anything he could to make her feel better.

She choked back tears. "I'm sorry, Lau.  I said I wasn't going to do this."

"Don't say you're sorry. I'm gonna miss you, too.  And I'll be thinking about you every day."  He lifted her chin.  "Tu es mon seul amour (You are my only love)."

Gabby wanted to smile for him, but she couldn't.  Instead, she kissed his chest and looped her arms tightly around his neck as if somehow that would hold him.

He spoke softly into her hair.  "The time is gonna go so fast. We'll be back before you know it."

Gabby closed her eyes.  She never knew she could feel this attached to another person. Irrational thoughts flooded her mind.  She wanted to crawl inside one of his bags and go with him.

Laurent was leaving and, no matter how strong she tried to act, she wasn't ready for it.