norelationtoatticus:

Ok, so in canon Laurent learned to be an expert swordsman for Damen. (so he could avenge Auguste and kill Damen….shhhh). But I love the idea that in au land where Auguste lives and Damen has a chance to court Laurent properly, Laurent still learns to be an expert swordsman…for Damen.

Picture it exactly like Laurent described: “Thank you, I know exactly how it would have been. You and Auguste would have been slaping each other on the back and watching tournaments, and I would have been trailing around tugging at your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise.”

Picture smol child Laurent having the most hopeless, sappy, heart-eyed crush on older, very dreamy visiting dignitary Prince Damianos. Damen spends the whole trip with Auguste, the two friends laughing and sparring and watching tournaments and chasing girls. And when Damen leaves, little Laurent decides that the best way to catch Damen’s eye is to beat him at his own game, to be so good at the things Damen is interested in that Damen will have to pay attention.

So he trains in secret (because Auguste would certainly suffocate laughing if he knew the reason for Laurent’s new found interest in swordplay) until he becomes the untouchable swordsman we all know and love.

And then, a few years after that first meeting, Damen comes back to Vere for another visit. Laurent, a young man now, stays distant at first and waits for his moment.

One day, while Auguste busy is in meetings, Damen goes to the training area to swing his sword around. Laurent, all coiled cat grace, leans against the doorway and watches Damen with a self-assured smirk. “Care for a partner?”

Damen laughs. “You?”

“Scared?” Laurent asks as he lifts a sword off the wall. He’s going to win.

Damen grins and allows it. He can entertain the little brother.

But when they begin, Damen realizes that the little brother can fight. The shock of it, the thrill of it, is ecstatic. As Laurent evades and parries, Damen starts to feel like they’re both whirling around each other in a ballroom instead of a training yard. He is giddy with it.

The fight ends when Damen puts Laurent on his back in the dirt. Laurent, breathing furiously and pinned beneath Damen’s body, realizes that his training failed. He failed. 

But Laurent watches as something hungry flares to life in Damen’s eyes. Laurent can’t help but smirk up at the prince who is holding him captive.

He may not have won the fight, but he certainly got Damen’s attention…