Tumgik
#lykmc updates
princessofpatras · 3 months
Text
Chapter 14 is up!
20 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 3 months
Text
Sneak Peek of LYKMC Chapter 14
Auguste didn’t emerge from his room again until Friday evening. Laurent was curled up on an armchair in the library with a book in hand when Auguste clamored down the stairs in his boots. He always made so much noise. Laurent had grown used to a quiet house in his absence. It was still jarring every time Auguste crashed through the house like he wasn’t afraid to be heard.
Laurent caught a glimpse of him through the open doorway as he dashed through the foyer—just a tall blur of denim and worn black leather, and a flash of tousled golden hair. He might have been wearing the same clothes as yesterday, but it was hard to tell. Ever since he’d found it in the attic Auguste wore that motorcycle jacket like a second skin.
He heard the front door burst open—
“Auguste.”
—and close again.
“Uncle,” Auguste said, sounding chastised. “I was just heading out.”
“Where are you going?” Uncle’s tone was smooth and light, but slippery like ice. Laurent sensed the danger in it, even if Auguste did not.
“Just out with Jord,” Auguste answered as Laurent crept up out of his chair and peered around the doorframe.
Auguste’s back was to him, one hand still gripping the handle of the front door. Leaning against the back of the couch in the living room with his ankles crossed was Uncle, regarding Auguste over the rim of a glass of wine he was swirling beneath his nose. He looked comfortable, like he’d been lounging there a while, staring out the entryway to the foyer just waiting to catch Auguste on his way out.
“Jord? Now, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.” Uncle didn’t seem to see Laurent across the hall. His eyes were on Auguste. “Is everything all right between the two of you?”
“Yeah,” Auguste said brightly, “everything’s fine.”
“Will you be home for dinner? I’ve invited Torveld.”
Auguste hesitated. “I don’t think so, sorry.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Give him my best, though.”
“I will. I know how fond he is of you boys.” Uncle raised his wine glass to his lips. As it caught the light from the window and flashed a red wink, his eyes flicked to Laurent.
Laurent ducked back behind the wall, heart exploding in his chest. Auguste and Uncle were still talking in the foyer, but he could no longer make out their words over the drum of his own heartbeat.
By the time his pulse had slowed enough for his heartbeat to retreat from his ears, he heard the front door close. The following silence that crept in like the tide told him that Auguste was gone.
“Laurent.” Uncle’s voice was calm; he did not shout his name, but Laurent flinched as though he had.
He emerged from the library, reluctant to part from the wall which shielded him, but too afraid to ignore his uncle. There was nothing to be gained from stoking his anger; better to face the punishment he was about to receive for eavesdropping than to add disrespect and disobedience to his list of sins.
When Laurent lifted his gaze and mustered the courage to look his uncle in the eye, he did not see the anger he’d expected there. Instead, his uncle’s eyes were bright with mischief. He tapped Laurent under the chin with his knuckle and offered him a conspiratorial smile. “Your brother always looks so guilty when he lies.”
Laurent blinked back his confusion, like trying to adjust his eyes to a sudden change in the light. “You just let him lie to your face,” he said slowly. “Why?”
“My dear,” Uncle said with a twinkle in his eye, “if I revealed every time I knew he was lying to me, I would only be helping him learn to hide his lies.”
Something shifted uneasily in Laurent’s stomach. Does he know when I’m lying too? Uncle had risen to his feet as he was speaking and was now standing very close to Laurent, his head bent to his level. The thick, sour scent of red wine on his breath was suffocating. Laurent angled his face away, searching for clean air, but Uncle’s wine glass appeared under his nose.
“Have some wine, Laurent. You look pale.”
Laurent took the offered glass and slowly raised it to his lips, trying not to inhale through his nose. He usually liked wine; especially the fancy reds Uncle would let him try when they were alone. He didn’t know why this particular glass was so repulsive to him. He took a small sip, careful not to grimace as it went down.
Uncle did not take the glass back when Laurent tried to hand it to him. He stared at Laurent with a mild expression, quirked an eyebrow ever so slightly, and waited. Laurent looked down into the burgundy depths of the glass in his hand. Before he had a chance to lose his resolve, he tipped the contents into his mouth, draining the glass. He had to fight against his gag reflex to swallow it.
Satisfied, Uncle took the empty glass from his hand, set it down on a side table and smiled at him. A warm flush was creeping up Laurent’s neck and onto his cheeks.
Then the amusement drained from Uncle’s eyes, and he expelled a deep sigh. “I worry about your brother. He’s not well. You saw how he was last night. I just wish I knew who he’s really seeing when he goes out. I hope he’s not putting himself in danger.”
Laurent chewed his lip, momentarily forgetting how much Uncle hated that habit. “There must be something we can do to help him.”
“Torveld is attracted to you.”
The words hit Laurent like a slap, blindsiding him. It was not even a statement he could deny. His uncle had seen them together at his birthday party. He looked down at his hands, where he began picking at a tender hangnail.
Uncle said, “He will try to come on to you this evening at dinner.”
“I won’t do anything to encourage him,” Laurent scrambled to say, “I promise. I’ll tell him I don’t see him that way.”
Uncle clicked his tongue. “That would be rather awkward. I’ve given Torveld my blessing.”
“I … don’t understand.”
Was the room spinning just a little? Laurent wasn’t usually this much of a lightweight. Maybe it was because he’d skipped breakfast again. He tried to take a step backwards and stumbled. Uncle placed his hands on Laurent’s shoulders to steady him.
“All you need to do is play along,” Uncle said. “That is, if you’re sincere about wanting to help your brother.”
17 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 5 months
Text
so while working on lykmc ch13 today I accidentally turned what was supposed to be a very brief Damen/Laurent scene into over a thousand words. send help
15 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 14 hours
Text
LYKMC Ch.16 Sneak Peek
Laurent’s rage was a cold thing; a dead weight he dragged behind him through the shadowed streets of Arles like a corpse. It made no noise, offered no insights. It wanted only to be still and fall apart—to lie down and rot. But he dragged it onward, scraping down the sidewalks toward the one place it wanted least of all to go; home.
The house was dark when it came into view. Only the lamppost out front remained on; a lighthouse beacon burning through the dark. This way to shore, it screamed, this way to wreckage! So that way Laurent went. Home. There was nowhere else to go.
A shadow grew from his feet, stretching out in front of him on the driveway. Laurent glanced over his shoulder just as the roar reached his ears, and saw a single round light like a fallen star shooting down the road right toward him where he stood. He stepped out of its path just in time to avoid being struck by the motorcycle as it careened to a stop, tires squealing as they skidded against the asphalt in the place he’d just been standing.
The rider killed the engine and ripped off his helmet, releasing a spill of shaggy hair that dimly reflected the yellow lamplight. “Jesus! I almost hit you!” Auguste exclaimed, the wide whites of his eyes glittering faintly. “What the hell are you doing skulking around in the dark?”
“Shhh!” Laurent hissed, glancing back toward the house. The windows remained dark, no sign of life behind the glass.
“Ohh, I get it,” Auguste said, dismounting clumsily. He lowered his voice to a loud whisper, his teeth flashing proudly as he grinned. “You snuck out!”
“You’re drunk.” Laurent could smell the alcohol on him from six feet away.
“Did you go to a party?” His brother took a wobbly step toward him, reaching out with a gloved hand. “C’mon, you can tell me.”
Laurent dodged his hand with a backward step. “Yeah, Auguste,” he said dryly. “I was at a party.”
“Cool,” Auguste said awkwardly, his excitement all dried up. He scratched the back of his neck, the leather of their father’s jacket creaking as he moved. “Did you have fun?”
“No.”
Silence fell between them like a curtain. Nicaise’s ring was burning a hole in Laurent’s pocket. It took all his conscious control to resist the urge to touch it; to close his fist around it.
He crossed his arms and looked his brother up and down, from his wrinkled jeans to his greasy hair to the dark bruise staining his jaw. “You look like shit.”
Auguste let out a breath of laughter, looking down at himself with a shrug. “Yeah.”
“What are you doing here?”
“What am I …?” He blinked in confusion. “I’m coming home.”
“I thought you lived with Jord now.”
“Laurent, I—”
“Or aren’t you planning to move in with your new girlfriend and her fiancé?” He expelled a sharp laugh, throwing his head back to gaze up at the winking stars. “What a fucking mess.”
Auguste’s brow furrowed. “I’m not dating anyone. Where did you hear that? Did Damen say something to you?” The tension in his brow suddenly released as something appeared to dawn on him. “Have you been spying on me?”
“Do you think she loves you?” Laurent said. There was a tightness in his chest, behind his ribs. He pushed his words through a constricting throat, and they cut like shards of shattered glass on their way out. “You’re nothing to her. You’re a plaything. And you’re too stupid to even see it.”
He turned away and started down the stone walkway, leaving Auguste to work through the anger and confusion that battled for control of his face.
“Hey,” Auguste called out as Laurent was climbing the shallow steps up to the door, halting him. “Were you there, in Eden? The club. Was … oh,” Laurent glanced back to see a look of horror take hold of his brother’s face. “Was Torveld there?”
Laurent did not answer, just walked into the house and closed the door behind him, remembering the need for stealth only just in time to press the latch in gently. With numbness in his heart, he seemed to float up the stairs on muscle memory.
Once in his room, he hid Nicaise’s ring in his jewelry box, tucking it into a small velvet-lined box that held another ring—a gold band with a blue sapphire that matched his earring. After a moment of hesitation, he reached under his collar to grab the pendant of Saint Michael and pulled the necklace off over his head. He dropped that into the box too, and locked it back up before returning it to its hiding place amidst the shadows under his bed.
A knock on his door sent a jolt through him. “Laurent?” His brother’s soft call was muffled through the wood. “Can I come in?”
Laurent didn’t panic; he’d locked his door. He still had a few seconds before he would have to answer. He rushed over to his desk and taped the jewelry box key to the underside of it—where he’d been hiding it since the day Auguste tore his room apart—then took one last glance at his bed to make sure the box was fully concealed.
Auguste’s fist was raised when Laurent opened the door; poised to knock again. He lowered it when Laurent motioned for him to come inside. In the overhead light, Laurent could see the flush staining Auguste’s cheeks and creeping down his neck.
“Laurent,” his brother began when the door was safely shut. “I know I seem … I’m not mad at you, I promise. Please, just—has Torveld behaved inappropriately with you?”
Laurent leaned back so that he was almost sitting on his desk and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “What do you mean ‘inappropriately’?”
“Has he,” Auguste said haltingly, clearly fighting to keep a grimace off his face, “you know … made you feel uncomfortable, or touched you anywhere he shouldn’t be touching you, or—”
“No, Gus. Jesus,” Laurent pushed up off the desk and crossed to his bed, where he began moving the remnants of his homework off the bed to the nightstand. “Why would you ask me that?”
Something in Auguste’s eyes hardened, and he placed his hands on his hips. “So I didn’t see Torveld kissing you at that club?”
“What? You’re delusional. I haven’t been to any club.”
His eyes narrowed, searching Laurent’s face. “Are you lying to me?”
“No,” Laurent snapped, “I’m not fucking lying to you.”
“Hey, watch it,” Auguste said, throwing up his palms. “It’s just something I thought I saw. And … something Kastor said.” His brow furrowed in thought. “He said it was you who told him I was with Jokaste. How did you know that?”
“Intuition,” said Laurent, straightening his spine.
“Intuition?” Auguste scoffed. “You expect me to believe that?”
He pursed his lips and shrugged. “Honestly? No.”
Auguste shook his head. “Why did you tell Kastor? How did you even get in touch with him?”
“I didn’t. I told Uncle.”
“Uncle.”
“I told him what I suspected, and he tracked your phone to the club. We were worried about you. You’ve been acting strange, not like yourself. Drunk at all hours, getting into fights, disappearing for days on end,” he said with a blistering look that made the color in Auguste’s cheeks deepen. “Uncle must have told Kastor. Maybe he was trying to stop it before it got out of hand. To protect you.” Or to protect himself.
Laurent suddenly recalled something his uncle had said about Damen. He is circling too close to our walls.
“Why is Jokaste so interested in you?” he asked Auguste.
7 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 4 months
Text
Chapter 13 is up!
19 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 8 months
Text
hey guys, no lykmc update today as chapter ten is not finished. 😞 i will leave you with a snippet by way of apology (and also because i completely forgot to post one last week).
LYKMC Ch.10 Sneak Peek:
“Twenty-five dollars?” Lazar complained. “That’s exorbitant!”
Laurent shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”
“You quite literally do.”
Laurent leaned back, resting his elbows on the cold metal accessibility bar that ran along the wall and pretended to consider that for a moment. “You’re right. I’d forgotten. That will be thirty dollars.”
“What?” Lazar’s mouth fell open. “You can’t do that! It was twenty-five a second ago!” Pallas put a soothing hand on his boyfriend’s arm. In his other hand he held a red plastic solo cup, identical to the one in Lazar’s hand.
“I think Lazar deserves a discount for his athletic prowess today,” said Pallas, beaming at Lazar. “He won the game for us almost single-handedly.”
Laurent hadn’t been there, but he’d heard all about it from Ancel. The RVAB varsity football team was down by three points for most of the game, but in the last ten seconds Damianos threw a perfect Hail Mary all the way across the field to Lazar who sprinted past the defenders and caught it in the end zone. The game had eaten up Damianos’s entire afternoon and prevented him from taking Laurent to the stable today.
“I think you should stop talking about football before I turn you away. And as you’ve so kindly reminded me,” said Laurent, “I make the rules, and I’ve just implemented a five dollar attitude fee.”
Pallas snorted, and Lazar let out a breath of disbelieving laughter. “You’re nuts. I’m not paying that.”
Laurent examined his nails. “Then you’re welcome to look for alcohol elsewhere at this Catholic school dance. Maybe one of the priests will give you communion if you ask nicely.”
He saw his victory in the way Lazar’s face fell. Without waiting for an answer, Laurent crouched in front of his backpack, which rested on the floor in the back corner of the bathroom stall, and pulled out one of the three liquor bottles he’d stolen from Auguste’s secret stash in his closet that he thought no one knew about. “Cash only,” said Laurent. His recent predicament with the concealer had gotten him thinking he ought to accrue some capital of his own. Cold hard cash that his uncle couldn’t touch.
Lazar grudgingly forked over a wrinkled twenty and two five dollar bills, which Laurent pocketed before pouring the liquor into his cup. Pallas stepped up with his cup next.
Laurent smiled at him. “That will be ten dollars.”
Pallas grinned at Lazar as Laurent poured a generous shot of vodka into his punch.
“You’re a stone cold bitch, de Vere,” said Lazar, but strangely, he was laughing. He and Pallas left together, and Laurent locked the stall door again once they were out. He could still hear their conversation as they walked past the sinks.
“I’ll give you ten dollars,” Pallas said. “It’ll be like we each paid twenty.”
Lazar cooed. “You’re so sweet to me, babe. How will I ever repay you?”
Pallas’s voice turned wicked. “Just bring that sweet-talking mouth over here, babe, and I’ll show you what—” The bathroom door closed behind them, sparing Laurent from any more of their revolting PDA, and leaving him alone in silence.
He had chosen a bathroom on the second floor of the school to set up shop, far enough from the gymnasium where the homecoming dance was taking place that no one was likely to stumble into it by chance. For a small cut of the profit, Ancel had agreed to help Laurent by subtly spreading the word among the students in the gym. He sent up the customers with instructions to knock three times on the last stall and pay in cash. So far, Laurent had already gone through almost a whole bottle of vodka and made a little over two hundred dollars thanks to Lazar and Pallas’s contributions, and the night was still young.
Laurent leaned back against the metal bar again and scrolled aimlessly through his Instagram feed on his phone. He wished he’d thought to sneak a folding chair in here or something. As it was, there was nowhere to sit but the toilet or the floor, and Laurent was not that desperate yet. His mind wandered as he scrolled, and he felt his mood turning bitter. He was still upset that he hadn’t been able to see Pyrrha today. Damianos had driven him to the stable yesterday afternoon as promised, but the whole trip had been darkened by Damianos’s mood. The Akielon had been uncharacteristically quiet and brooding, barely stringing two words together throughout the entire thirty minute drive to Acquitart. No doubt his brother’s betrayal was heavy on his mind. He hadn’t risen to any of Laurent’s petty jabs, and he didn’t even crack a smile when Laurent—who had been eating sour gummy worms in the passenger seat—threw one of the worms at Damianos’s face. “Here, to go with that sour mood,” he’d said, but Damianos had only brushed the sour dust off his face and scowled harder. He made for such poor company that Laurent almost regretted telling him of Kastor’s plans in the first place.
Those plans should have played out this morning, unless Damianos had interfered. I wonder which way he chose; his father, or his brother? To speak up or to stay quiet? Based on his previous observations of Damianos, Laurent suspected he already knew the answer, but the brute sometimes surprised him. Laurent wondered what he would do if it were his own brother plotting against his uncle. The thought brought him close to laughter. Auguste wasn’t much of a plotter, and he wouldn’t get far against their uncle. But if it were the other way around …
The bathroom door creaked open and let in a shuffle of footsteps. Dress shoes rang sharply against the tile floor, growing closer to the stall where Laurent was lurking. The shoes appeared in the wide gap under the door, black and polished to a sheen, just as three terse knocks rattled the door on its hinges.
“Lo? It’s me.”
Swallowing his irritation at the nickname, Laurent unlatched the door and pulled it open to reveal Ancel in a slim-fitted emerald suit with a sheer white lace shirt beneath his jacket. Adorned with fake gold and glass gems, he looked like a cheap whore.
Laurent himself did not have a single piece of jewelry on his person. He had dressed plainly for the dance in a classic black tuxedo with satin lapels, for once in total compliance with the dress code—aside from the makeup on his neck that covered his bruises. The employee at the store had been right, it was a perfect match. It blended in seamlessly with his skin, showing no hint of the discoloration underneath.
Ancel tucked a loose strand of silky red hair behind his ear and grimaced, not meeting Laurent’s eye. “So,” he spoke to the wall behind Laurent, “there’s a slight hiccup in the plan.”
The hiccup stepped out from behind Ancel, all dressed up in a little black tuxedo, and decorated in blue. The bow tie snaked around his delicate neck, the bruise that stained his cheek, and the handful of glittering teardrops that dangled from his ear—blue, blue, blue. And his eyes, the bluest Laurent had ever seen, glared out of his round face like two deep wells of contempt.
“I know what you’re doing,” declared Nicaise, “and I’m going to tell your uncle.”
21 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 3 months
Text
ok people I’m making this post to hold myself accountable:
I’m going to post chapter 14 on sunday
11 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 3 months
Text
chapter 14 is so fucked up. and the story arc that this chapter is setting up? Very Fucked Up. not that any of the previous thirteen chapters haven’t all been extremely fucked up. but. well. im losing my mind a little about what the next handful of chapters are going to bring. so. there’s that to look forward to. or to fear.
12 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 7 months
Text
Seven sentence Sunday Saturday
Thank you @altruistic-meme for tagging me to share seven sentences from a current wip! Here are seven from the next chapter of LYKMC. (I cheated a little, it’s nine sentences but it’s seven if we don’t count the dialogue 🤫).
(Also, don’t worry, you’re still getting mainly Laurent’s pov in ch. 10, but it jumps back and forth between Laurent and Auguste).
“Do you really have no idea?” Each word sounded like it caused Berenger more pain than the last. There was a war written all over his face—emotions Auguste didn’t understand battling for control of his features. His eyes searched Auguste’s face as though some answers might be hidden there. But Auguste had no answers, only questions upon questions, and the way Berenger was looking at him made the hairs on the back of his neck tingle. Auguste could feel his defensive walls beginning to rise.
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. The wood beneath him complained with a creaky groan. “I know there’s bad blood between you two, but I never understood why.”
12 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 7 months
Link
Chapters: 10/? Rating: Mature Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - High School, Catholic School, Catholic Guilt, Modern AU, Auguste Lives (Captive Prince), Teenage Rebellion, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse, Therapy, Homophobia, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jokaste is a journalist, Auguste survived the war, Slow Burn Summary:
“He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him” (Daniel 2:22).
In the span of one year, Laurent lost everything; his parents, his best friend, his brother, his innocence. What waited for him in the shadow of his grief presented itself as love. It takes Laurent three years to figure out that it’s not. He teeters now on the cusp of revelation, nudged along by Auguste’s return from war and by a budding romance, but will it be enough to pull Laurent out of the shadow?
AKA: A coming-of-age story in which Laurent is a good catholic boy, until he isn’t.
18 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 7 months
Text
for anyone looking for lykmc updates, I am still working on chapter ten! I haven’t abandoned it, I promise. it’s about 70% completed as of this morning
16 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 5 months
Text
I have an important and time-sensitive question for my lykmc enjoyers!!
Would you guys be interested in a little bonus Christmas chapter to be posted on or around Christmas?
It would be set in the past, a de Vere family Christmas, and would basically just be a little prequel to lykmc! I’m thinking of titling it “The Ghosts of Christmas Past”. But I haven’t moved beyond the planning stage yet bc I don’t want to take time away from lykmc ch13 if there’s no interest in this bonus chapter, so now is the time to tell me if you’re interested!
I’m making this a poll so the shy may answer anonymously, but feel free to also leave a reply! I love to hear from you guys <3
7 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 6 months
Text
finished writing an absolutely devastating scene today :)
7 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 6 months
Text
to my lykmc enjoyers, you guys are so not ready for chapter 12. I think it’s the most insidious thing I’ve ever written
12 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 23 days
Text
LYKMC chapter 15 is up!!!
5 notes · View notes
princessofpatras · 23 days
Text
at long last, chapter 15 is just about done!!! I’m just going to do a read-through for typos and flow before posting. prepare yourselves
4 notes · View notes