More to Love (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 18: Serious

"...and now she won't even call me back."  Laurent licked some batter off a spoon and finished telling his long, drawn out, over-dramatized version of how he hadn't heard from Stacey in two days.

Krystal nodded sympathetically and slipped a pan into the oven.  "She's just going through some family stuff right now, Lau.  I bet she'll call you tomorrow."

"You think so?"  He looked at her with the adorable face of a lost angel fallen from heaven.  Laurent could be totally and completely charming when he wanted to be.

"Awww, sweety.  I'm sure of it."  She patted his back consolingly and he draped his long body contently across a bar stool watching her move through the kitchen.

"Hey, baby, I'm home!"  Just then Larry charged excitedly through the front door.  Ever since their romantic night together he and Krystal had hardly been able to keep their hands off each other.  He'd been thinking about her all day and he couldn't wait to see her.

But he rounded the corner to the kitchen only to find a version of his own face staring back at him from across the breakfast bar.

"Lau?"  Larry looked taken aback.  "What are you doing here?"

Laurent went over and put his arm around Krystal's waist and leaned his head against her shoulder smiling innocently.  "We're making cookies.  We're besties now."

A flicker of annoyance crossed Larry's face.  Laurent always did this!  Every time he felt like he wasn't getting enough attention or that Larry was spending too much time with someone else he had to come insert himself in the middle of things.

Larry turned his eyes accusingly to Krystal.  "You invited him over?"

She stifled a laugh.  It always amused her to watch them do their twin bickering over absolutely everything.  "He dropped by.  He's worried about Stacey."

"Yeah, I'm worried about, Stacey."  Laurent parroted, staring dead at Larry with a pleased look in his eyes.  He knew full well he was invading Larry's little private slice of paradise, but he didn't care.  He was feeling neglected.

Krystal went over to Larry and disarmed him with a kiss and warm pastries.  Larry reluctantly relaxed his shoulders and plucked a cookie from the plate she was holding.  He could see that Laurent had already worked his manipulative magic on her.

Two hours later after they'd all watched a movie and played a card game together, Laurent finally left.

Larry breathed a sigh of relief and dug inside his backpack for something.  He came out with a pink-and-white striped Victoria's Secrets box and handed it to Krystal.

She accepted it with a smirk on her face.  "What's this?"

"Now that Lau's gone you can try it on and see."

"Why?  So you can take it right back off of me?"

"Ummmm...,"  Larry pretended to think hard for a second before answering.  "Oui!"

Krystal squealed as he chased her to the bedroom.

****

Laurent left Krystal's apartment still feeling a bit empty.  He missed Stacey.  He'd pretty much cut out all his other female "friends" since he'd been seeing her.  And even though he could surely call one of them up, he didn't want to.  He had a better plan.

"Just a second!"  Stacey yelled.  She turned off the flame on the stove before running to the front door and yanking it open.

"Lau?"  Beyond surprised, she cracked the second screen door without opening it all the way.

"Why don't you call me back?"

"I was going to.  I just...I had some things...,"

"What things?"  He demanded, then suddenly his gaze shifted far downward as a tiny head with curls like Stacey's popped out the door.

"Mommy, who's this?"

Laurent squatted down to the little girl's eye level.  "Hi. I'm Lau."

"Low?"  She tittered, clinging shyly to Stacey's leg.  "That's a funny name."

"What's your name?"

"Charlie."

Stacey pulled her back inside and ushered her into the next room.  "Charlotte, honey, go finish watching cartoons.  I'll be there in a second."

When she turned around Laurent was standing inside, too.  He was so tall he almost seemed to brush the ceiling in the antique home.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a daughter?"  He cocked his head to one side.

"You want me to be honest?"  She wrung a dish towel between her hands.

"Yeah, I do."

"Honestly, I wouldn't ever bring any guy around her unless I knew he was serious about me.  And I don't know that you are."

When Stacey unexpectedly got pregnant in high school, she and Sam had made a promise to always put their kid first whether they were together or not.

Laurent was quiet as he looked around the inside of the neat row house.  It was small, but compared to where he and Larry grew up it was a palace.  He wondered if Stacey even knew that or if she thought he'd always had a fancy lifestyle.

In that moment he realized there were so many things he needed to share with her about himself and to learn about her.  Things that went much deeper than the surface.

Tired of waiting, Charlie burst back into the room.

"Mommy, can Low come watch cartoons with me?"  She grabbed his hand in her tiny one while clutching a doll in the other.  "Pleaaaaase!"

Stacey stood firm, but her voice was shaky.  "Lau, I mean it.  If you're not serious then you have to leave."

Laurent nodded.  "Guess it's a good thing I'm serious then."  He leaned down and kissed Stacey deeply, caressing her face with his free hand.

Then he swooped a laughing Charlie up onto his shoulders and went to go watch cartoons.