Oh God. This is so good the only thing I can do is Laurent descriptions.
Laurent had a mind that took in problems, faced them, quantified them and then, steadily, solved them.
- - -
There was delight in seeing Laurent explore himself, a young man who was sweet, teasing, unexpectedly earnest. Having made the decision to let Damen in, Laurent had not gone back on it. When the walls went up, it was with Damen inside them.
- - -
Laurent was like the edge of a blade, but sometimes he was like this.
This novella is 8k words and I probably highlighted 6k of them. Gimme, gimme.