Lauri had always been a no-bullshit kind of person, Jonne knew. He'd met him when he was eighteen, and Lauri was a lot more shy then, or at least it seemed so, though he had still always been very to-the-point. That was one thing Jonne had always liked about Lauri; he was genuine and he was truthful no matter what. Honest. Which sometimes, Jonne would learn, could be a hard trait to find in people.

Lauri had his vices, of course; he had a bad habit of drinking too much, and could be quite a pain-in-the-ass at times. Sometimes they had to carry him, wait for him, look for him, have him throw up on their shoes...

But that had been a more recently developed habit; over the past five years or so. He had always drank and smoked pot and experimented with things like mushrooms and ecstasy, but as they started to tour more and play for more and more people he'd started dabbling elsewhere - cocaine, pcp, speed, even heroin for a bit. That had been quite a scary time, but Lauri had somehow managed to come back from it; at least a lot more than Kristian ever had. But on the other side, he had scared Jonne with it more than Kristian ever had.

But Lauri was humorous, Lauri was fun, Lauri was an asshole - sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a not-so-good way.

And Jonne loved him with all of his heart.

Even when he had to bail him out of jail at two in the morning. Even when he had to go looking for him, because they were in a strange city and it was time to leave and Lauri was nowhere to be found. Even when they were at the airport and Lauri realized he still had drugs on him just as they were about to go through security. Even when Lauri threw up on his shoes.

‘Cos, while there was certainly that side of Lauri - and there was no mistake to be made there - there was also another side of him that made Jonne laugh until his sides hurt. The Lauri who woke him up at six in the morning with some evil idea. The Lauri who held his hair back while he threw up, and helped him to bed. The Lauri who let him crawl into his bed at night when he was feeling lonely, and who wrapped his arms around him and held him until he felt like nothing bad could ever touch him again.

Because underneath all his bad habits - swearing and smoking constantly and drinking entirely too much and doing drugs and sometimes just being a fucking bastard to get along with - Jonne knew that Lauri loved him in return, with all of his heart, and that Lauri would never, ever lie to him.