WhatWouldLaurentDo?

[ming85]

Eklaize let me paint her amazing comic and it cured my art block ✨ 🍑 (click for larger to see more details!)

(Check out her other capri art here, and my capri art tag is here)

[magiclamd]

I love this so much and that scene is so fucking hilarious

[rainydaydecaf]

Damen, in the first chapter of Captive Prince: Oh god, this is the most humiliating thing to ever happen to me…

Me: Don’t worry, honey, give it like three books and you’ll be into it

[sassyqueeny]

Her gaze... I think it comes so close to the way I imagine Laurent's sometimes...

Damn it she could have been saved, too, if she had someone like Damen...

[zombiecowboy65]

Killed two men with his hands tied behind his back all because some man touched Laurent . Oh Damianos of Akielos character of all time

[sassyqueeny]

How it should have been but not is

Auguste: Damen, I'm going to the training area for sword practice. Damen: Oh, wait... I'm coming! Laurent (stops reading for a second): Damen, new rule... I'm the only Veretain Prince you can say that to. Auguste: Nik please kill me!!!

[dranka]

Laurent in a short short chiton during an official meeting aka Diplomacy ✨

[evermoreriver]

Although I am not beloved, still let me love.

[zombiecowboy65]

Damen liking blonde twinks is so funny to me. You’ll be at ur lowest and then u wanna fuck a blonde guy fr

[overthinker-needs-to-overshare]

Hello, lover

Let's talk about the infamous “Hello, lover” and everything Laurent did afterwards. My personal interpretation is that, at that moment, Laurent was afraid both of being wrong about Damen and of being right about Damen.

If he was wrong about him (i.e., if Damen was only pretending to be an honorable man and to care about him), that would mean that Laurent had allowed himself to trust and love again only to be betrayed a second time. And thinking about that possibility must have been awful.

On the other hand, if he was right about Damen (if he really was the man Laurent had allowed himself to believe he was), that would mean he had enslaved, tortured, and humiliated a decent man, the kind of man his brother was. And at the same time, it would mean that he had found love in the very man who had killed his brother, the same man he had hated for years. Having used that hatred to keep himself alive for so long, the idea of losing it must also have been terrifying.

Consequently, Laurent chooses to assume that he was wrong about Damen and treat him like the monster he wanted him to be from the beginning. In fact, he tries to force Damen to become that monster by employing the cruel tactics he learned from his uncle. It is with this goal in mind that he:

- tells Damen that he only slept with him out of convenience and mocks him by repeating the words he said in a vulnerable moment (just as his uncle later repeats Laurent's words as a child when he asked not to be left alone).

- forces Damen to watch as prisoners are whipped, each lash reminding him of his own torture while his people (unaware of the true situation) applaud with approval (just as the Regent subtly reminded Laurent of his own abuse while correcting him in front of the Court and Council).

- chooses Isander (who looks slightly like Damen) to serve him, in order to remind him of his own enslavement (this backfired, though, because Damen just got jealous, lol).

- uses every opportunity to remind Damen that he hates him for killing his brother.

However, Laurent's plan to convince himself that Damen is a bad person who doesn't really care about him fails miserably, because despite everything, Damen continues to show that he is a good man and that he cares about him. For example, when he rescues and treats kindly the Veretian soldier who was being tormented by Makedon's men, or when he saves Laurent's life (again) in Marlas.

And then we get to this moment:

This is the first critical point in Laurent's change of attitude, because it is when he realizes that even he does not believe the theory of the ‘dishonest Damen’ that he so desperately tries to convince himself of. This is when self-deception begins to crumble irretrievably.

The second critical point comes when he confronts Jokaste and she accurately describes how Damen makes love. It's like hearing her say, “No, silly, he wasn't faking his gentleness, he's always like that.”

And the third (and final) critical point comes when Laurent is comforting Damen and asks him something like, ‘Well, then you just want to fuck me again, right?’. And Damen replies something like, ‘No, I want to marry you’.

And that’s when we get to this:

This is, for me, one of the most beautiful scenes in the Captive Prince books.

Here Laurent is desperate to be able to trust people again. In particular, he wants to trust Damen, he wants to believe that his feelings are genuine and not a ploy to manipulate him, as his uncle did. But he is too afraid to expose himself to that risk again. So, when he can no longer deny the evidence that Damen trusts him, despite everything he has been through, despite everything Laurent has done to him, he is genuinely astonished. He admires Damen's ability to continue trusting people and wishes he could do the same. Which leads me to find a second interpretation of his phrase, hidden within the first:

'How can I trust you, after what my own uncle did to me?

And to this, Damen gives the perfect answer. Because what he says about Laurent is also true of him. Damen is not false, as Laurent has feared all this time. He is true. He is probably the truest man Laurent has ever met, besides Auguste. And at this point, there is no doubt that if Laurent gave him his heart, he would treat it tenderly.

[solarmidnight]

How bad do you think it would've hurt Laurent to suddenly become older than his older brother? He wakes up on his 26th birthday and realises it's a milestone that Auguste never got to reach.

[judeid]

Based on canon

Inspo

[sassyqueeny]

"You and Auguste would have been slapping each other on the back and watching tournaments, and I would have been trailing around you tugging on your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise."

Or simply "How it should have been but not is..."

But I kinda love this scenario so I looked for a few fitting incorrect quotes

Damen(drunk, at a party outside in the middle of the night): Auguste, I need to tell you something... Laurent: I'm not Au... Damen: I think I fell for your brother... Laurent: *blushing* WHAT??? Damen: I'm in love with Laurent... But I promise you that I won't hit on him unless I get your approval. Laurent: ... Damen: Auguste, please say something... Laurent: Yes, that's fine with me! Go for it! Damen: Thank you, mate... I knew you'd understand!

[sassyqueeny]

How it should have been but not is

Auguste: Okay, Damen, truth or dare? Damen: Truth. Always truth! Laurent(complaining): No one really tells the truth there... Damen: I don't lie! Nik: Okay, then I have a good question... Damen, do you want to fuck Laurent? Damen: Laurent: Auguste: Damen: Okay, I better choose "dare"...

[caprifiles]

“I'm bisexual and confused. Not about being bisexual, I just never know what the fuck is going on.”

— Damen when Laurent kept him in the dark about all his political shenanigans, probably

[aravengirl]

laurent doesn’t wear jewelry because of his uncle. laurent doesn’t drink because of his uncle. laurent doesn’t have pets because of his uncle. all these small little things damen notices about laurent at the beginning are because of his uncle

[whatwouldlaurentdo]

Let's all go and murder the uncle

[rainydaydecaf]

I love when I'm reading a Captive Prince fic and Laurent says something to Damen that is SO very hurtful and unnecessary that I physically cringe back like "LAURENT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

And then right away I'm like "Ohhh good job author, you have NAILED his character" 😏