YOU PROMISED ME FOREVER -- Sequel to "DIFFERENT"

3 -- PEACE FOR SOME

Warning  --  mention of suicide

Larry woke before Laurent, which was unusual.  Last night he had held him close, as they cuddled together on the sofa, until Laurent fell asleep.  He was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.  The girl, Christina, had done a job on him, and while Larry was slightly cross at her for putting his husband through so much, he rightly concluded that Laurent was a big boy, and could deal.  And he did, much to his credit.

So he would let his love have the luxury of sleeping in, being so exhausted after such a physically and emotionally draining day, he obviously needed and deserved the rest.  The children were already up, watching T.V. in their pyjamas, as it was a Sunday, and the morning cartoons along with daddy's chocolate chip pancakes, was their Sunday treat.  

"Daddy !", they both greeted Larry as he rounded the corner into the living room.

"Babies !"  he returned their greeting in kind.  He loved this time with his children.  He loved his husband, and he also loved their dynamic and their co-parenting, but alone time with his children ?  Not much could beat it.  Maybe alone time with Laurent, but it was a pretty close race, he had to admit.  

"Watcha watchin' ?"  

"Spongebob !"  Spongebob was a classic as far as Larry was concerned.  He wasn't concerned, however, about the children getting up to watch cartoons at the weekend, as he and Laurent had set the parental controls on the T.V., so nothing unwanted would be seen by such innocent eyes when their parents weren't around.

"Daddy, we havin' pancakes, please ?"  Kayden asked hopefully, his huge brown eyes wide with anticipation.

"We sure are, thank you for asking so nicely. You wanna help me ?"  Larry asked, as Kayden gave his answer, lifting his arms for his daddy to pick him up.  Larry kissed his Princess on the cheek, ruffling her large fro, so similar to both her father's, as he picked up his young Prince.

"Oooff, you're getting heavy, boy !"  Larry groaned happily under Kayden's weight, laughing and tickling his tummy as they walked towards the kitchen to prepare their weekend treat for the rest of the family.

"Larry !  Larry !!  Can you come here, please ?"  There was an urgency in Laurent's voice, an anxiety that Larry very rarely heard.  He put Kayden down, asking him to go join his sister to watch the cartoons for a minute, that they would all have pancakes after he had talked with papa.  He ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, almost running towards their bedroom door.  

"What is it ?  You sound worried, my ....."  he trailed off once he saw what was in front of him, unable to finish his sentence as he stood, open mouthed, in the doorway, watching what was on the large computer monitor on Laurent's desk.  

"Look at this !  This is what she did yesterday !  And there are others, worse, videos of me "manhandling"  her, they called it, out of the studio.  Just look at it, Larry !"  Laurent was beside himself, he was so upset.  He guessed there would be some fall out, but he, personally, was trending, hard.  These videos with tens of thousands of views, and all for the wrong reasons.  As Laurent paced back and forth, watching the continuous loop on the screen, Larry walked over to his side. 

"Don't do this, Laurent, please.  It's not worth your sanity.  You know how this works.  You did everything you could, right ?  They always misconstrue things, always show everything in it's worst possible light."  Laurent nodded, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes following the images of himself hauling Christina out of his studio.  The footage was far from flattering.