Hey! I absolutely love your writing and was wondering if you could something with Damen constantly talking about Laurent where he works and Laurent sounding too good to be true so none of his coworkers believe him (or the roles reversed)?
The thing is, Damen isn’t crazy.
At least, Nikandros thinks he isn’t; they’ve been best friends for over twenty years, and he knows Damen is usually a very realistic person, if naive and optimistic. Apart from that, Damen has no trouble getting people into bed. He’s never wanted a serious relationship, and he’s always enjoyed sleeping around, and it’s never really been a secret.
Which is why Nik doesn’t understand why he’s making Laurent up.
From other people, people who can’t get a date, he gets it, but from Damen?
And what’s even worse, Damen is refusing to even tell him that Laurent is made up! Nikandros has always been in on his lies before, however few of them, so this is an entirely unprecedented situation, and he doesn’t know how to deal with it.
“So,” he asks, carefully. “How’s Laurent?”
Damen smiles blindingly up at him. “Good. He just got a promotion at work.”
“Right,” Nik says dubiously. He clears his throat. “And, uh. Where is he?”
He’d come over to Damen’s in an attempt to finally get this to stop; after Damen had told him they’d moved in together, he knew this had gone too far.
“He went back to Vere for a couple days,” Damen says sadly, eyes flicking back to the TV where they’re watching a football game. “To visit his brother.”
“Oh,” Nik says. “Right.”
He wonders if it’s time to talk to a psychiatrist.
*
“You don’t bite your pens,” Nik says with a frown, when he takes one from Damen’s coffee table to sign one of their work documents.
“What?” Damen asks, looking over. “Oh. No. Laurent bites things when he’s nervous.”
Nik squints at him. “Right.”
*
“What the fuck, Damen?” Kastor asks, when Damen takes off his shirt; Nik and Damen go to the gym together regularly, and, sometimes, Kastor joins. Nik turns around to look at what he’s looking, and catches sight of telling scratch-marks down his friend’s back. “Who did this?”
Damen grins sheepishly. “Oh. Laurent. He has sharp nails.”
Nik is beginning to think Laurent is not made up, but a very hostile cat.
"Right,” he says.
*
“He’s making Laurent up, right?” Lazar asks, squinting; they’re all huddled outside of Damen’s office, watching as he talks to ‘Laurent’ on the phone, grinning so widely his dimple’s showing. “There’s no way this guy is real.”
He just can’t be; from what Damen’s told them, Laurent just keeps sounding less and less like a real person; apart from the fact that he seems to be taken straight out of Damen’s every fantasy and dream, he just cannot be real; he’s too much of a contradiction, too many unanswered questions, a person like that simply does not exist.
“We all think so,” Pallas agrees. “But why would he do that? He’s never done that before.”
“He’s stopped sleeping around.” Nik says, because that’s the weirdest part of this. “I think this might be a serious problem.”
“Someone has to ask him,” Pallas says.
“We can’t just tell him,” Aktis says. “Let’s invite him and Laurent over. When he doesn’t show, we can try to talk to him about it.”
Nikandros nods.
*
Laurent, evidently, doesn’t show; Damen tells them he had a migraine, and then begins babbling about how kind and great and gorgeous his boyfriend is, so no one really has the heart to tell him he’s making it up.
So they don’t.
They just go along with it, and continue inviting him and Laurent to things, to which Laurent never shows.
Until he does.
*
“I’m sorry I’m late.” The blonde doesn’t have a single drop on him, despite it being pouring outside. “I couldn’t get out of work.”
“They need you there,” Damen smiles widely up at him, and gladly accepts a kiss on the lips; Nik’s, Pallas’s, Lazar’s, and Aktis’s mouths are hanging open. “Guys, this is Laurent, Laurent, these are - why are you all staring like that?”
Nik can’t bring himself to close his mouth.
“You’re Laurent?” he asks, strangled.
“Yes?” Laurent raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow, and Nikandros doesn’t know how, but he already fits Damen’s contrite description so well he cannot possibly be a hired actor.
“You exist?” Lazar asks.
Damen frowns at them. “Why wouldn’t he?”
“We - we thought you were making him up!” Pallas exclaims. “You - it was all too suspicious!”
“Suspicious?” Laurent asks.
“Yes!” Nik says defensively. “You never showed up to anything, you’re literally taken out of Damen’s dreams, and you’re - you don’t seem real.”
Laurent’s other eyebrow raises. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Before Nik can say otherwise, Laurent continues calmly. “I never showed up to anything because I’m Vere’s ambassador in Ios and my work is crazy, I assure you I’m not literally taken out of Damen’s dreams, and I am real.”
“Also, there are pictures of him all over my desk.” Damen points out coolly.
“What?” they all ask.
“You have some very poor observational skills for a private security company,” Laurent remarks mildly, and Nik can only stare blankly.
----------------------------------------------
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