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#creativitwins fanfiction
lovelylogans · 7 months
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the parent trap
the masterpost
“So,” Remus says slowly. “If your Dad is my Dad…”
“...and your Pa is my Papa…”
Remus stares at the seam of the wedding photo, made whole again after more than a decade. His Pa, Patton, familiar with his cowboy-handsome, weather-beaten face and his dimpled grin and his big, calloused hand resting over his new husband’s, even if Remus has never seen him look this smitten ever. 
“And we’re both born on October 11… then, Roman. You and I are… like… brothers.”
And his Dad—Janus—smiling coyly, handsome in the way of magazine models, so completely a stranger to Remus with just this scrap of a photograph to serve as any way to know him, really know him. The way Roman knows him. The way Remus has been dying to know him all his life.
“Remus,” Roman breathes out, disbelieving. “We aren’t just brothers. We’re twins.”
Remus wonders, in a daze, if seeing the opposite life he could have had is as strange for Roman as it is for him… if they’d just been switched at birth, it’s the life Remus could have had, knowing his Dad instead of his Pa, but then…
But then it clicks.
“Roman,” he says, turning to grin at his brother—his brother! “I have a completely perfect, totally awesome idea!”
or: it's a parent trap AU for @tss-storytime with fanart by @tastic-in-its-finest!
warnings: pranks and practical jokes, smoking, drinking, brief mentions of underage drinking (in the context of a child trying a sip of wine), sibling rivalry and bonding, please let me know if i've missed any!
pairings: janus/patton, logan/virgil, brief patton/male oc
word count: 80k
notes: a few notes before we begin: first, thanks so much to morgan for their fanart for this fic!!! it's so cute, please like and reblog and do all that fun stuff!!! second, thanks to the folks over at the big bang for organizing this whole event—i know firsthand how complicated that can get, and you are so appreciated!!! this is technically a '90s au, but a '90s au in terms of the fashion and lack of social media/cell phones, not any of the homophobia. i hope you all enjoy!!!!
chapter one: prologue Across the world from each other, two very different families help two very similar boys pack their bags.
chapter two: welcome to camp walden! Welcome to what we like to think of as the most beautiful spot on God's green earth—Camp Walden.
chapter three: en garde The boys come to blows. (With practice épées, but in their minds, it’s equally as serious.)
chapter four: riposte The boys come to blows. (With words and stitching.)
chapter five: black card The boys come to blows. (With a temporary reversal of gravity, oodles of chocolate sauce, and finally, some semblance of adult interference.)
chapter six: isolation station The boys spend a great deal of their time considering coming to blows. Until suddenly, they don’t want to fight at all anymore.
chapter seven: operation augustus The realization of having an identical twin does quite a bit to spur some out-of-the-box levels of creativity.
chapter eight: let's get down to business! The boys begin to plot. Camp Walden trembles in fear.
chapter nine: to defeat… the family civil divisions of napa and london respectively! The boys plot. The world all over ought to be trembling in fear.
chapter ten: domine dirige nos Remus spends a great deal of time weighing the most British way to say hello. He’s going to have to repress throwing in a what’s all this then, guv’nor? the entire time.
chapter eleven: eureka! Roman spends a great deal of time weighing the most American way to say hello. He thinks he probably shouldn’t come right out of the gate with howdy, y’all!
chapter twelve: a wench in the works This absolutely was not in their multitude of blueprints!
chapter thirteen: riding is magic and friendship is power and love is everything to everyone Roman gets to meet his pony. He should, by all rights, be much more excited about it, but someone had to go and ruin it for him.
chapter fourteen: in which virgil attempts to hold a poker face (and fails miserably) Virgil curses being so observant.
chapter fifteen: all of my change spent on you Remus has a particularly fun run-in. Well. Fun for him.
chapter sixteen: so your sons have swapped places and are in foreign countries This particular subject was not covered in the parenting books.
chapter seventeen: hopped off the plane at lax with a dream of civil reconciliation with my ex-husband Remus plots. Grandfather aids and abets. Janus panics. Logan suffers them all.
chapter eighteen: small world and getting smaller Janus is officially the father of the two most troublesome twins in the galaxy.
chapter nineteen: you got me tripping, stumbling! sinking, fumbling! Patton makes a splash.
chapter twenty: the queen elizabeth the second the second The twins attempt to revive the past. The parents wish to change it.
chapter twenty-one: i said a boom chicka boom! Logan’s swept off his feet. As is Maddox, in an entirely different way.
chapter twenty-two: i said a boom GO TO YOUR ROOM The twins’ plots bear oh-so-satisfying fruit.
chapter twenty-three: where dreams have no end A hello, a goodbye.
chapter twenty-four: the concorde(ance) A goodbye, a hello.
chapter twenty-five: epilogue Two very similar boys help their two very different families assimilate into one.
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Text
Squish
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Things may be better, but Roman still struggles occaisonally. Remus is happy to help him out.
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| Ao3 |
Written for: This Prompt
Warnings: Some self dep, mainly Roman thinking badly about himself again. overstimulation. vague reference to past self harm.
Pairings: Creativitwins, Roceit
Word Count: 1481
Notes:
Hello!!
Darkside Roman fic!
Thank you to Oatmeal for the prompt here on my Tumblr (feel free to leave a request yourself!), I did write this on my train ride - I just forgot to post it yesterday, haha.
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Roman stood before his mirror. The floor length one, in his room, with ornate golden carvings around the frame. The mirror itself looked like something that belonged in a king’s chamber in a palace, not Roman’s bedroom. His room may be ornate, his red canopy bed was beautiful, with a carved wooden headboard and translucent red drapes. His desk was mahogany, also elegantly carved and looked like something straight out of a vicotorian drawing room, his plush red rug created a nice centrepiece to his room and his closet was full to bursting with clothes he would probably never actually get to wear, bis room was ornate, but it wasn’t fit for him.
A beautiful, elegant room, fit for a prince. Roman didn’t feel like he belonged there.
His tail had been the last thing to come through, he was pretty sure, and now it swayed behind him, brushing over the ground repeatedly in a way that irritated him to no end. He thought he should be used to it by now, after his week spent in the imagination. Which he didn’t remember most of, but Janus had reassured him that nothing bad had happened, he hadn’t hurt anyone – he, apparently, had actually been kind of cute. And he’d somehow gotten Virgil to join them for movie nights, too, he wondered how exactly he’d done that with his dragon brain.
Dark wings spread behind him, the bloody red of the scaley skin making him cringe away from his own reflection. Red was his colour, the colour of passion and love, romance. Red was also the colour of anger, of fire burning brightly, hurt, pain, distruction. When he was a Prince, the red meant love, a bright spirit, now…
His wings twitch and Roman reaches around himself to – what, try to get them off? He’d already tried that more than enough and all it did was hurt, there was no point, he was stuck like this now. His tail started to thrash behind him without his permission, he hated how out of control it was, he couldn’t stand how it moved when he was irritated or upset – it made it practically impossible to hide what he was feeling and the way it dragged against the hardrood floor of his room made him want to scream-
“Roro!?” His bedroom door slammed open, making his wings flare out in surprise. He whipped around to face his brother in the doorway, forgetting once more about his tail and only remembering when it slammed into the mirror, sending it crashing to the floor in shards. The golden carved frame was ruined, the mirror itself now only showing a fragmented reflection. Roman stared at it in shock, wondering if this reflection was more accurate.
“Oooh- that’s not good,” Remus said, “Sorry Ro – did I scare ya?”
“No- no, it’s- it’s fine I was just…” Roman trailed off, looking back at the mirror, “Focused.” He settles on.
“What? On admiring yourself?” Remus giggled, coming over, “Janny wanted me to come get you, you’re missing dinner.”
“I am?” Roman asked, looking at his twin with a frown, he thought dinner was still a few hours away.
“What’s going on in that silly head of yours, Ro?” Remus knocked on his skull like it was a door, and Roman winced away, batting halfheartedly at his hands, he hadn’t noticed Remus come over, “Oh c’mon, I can basically see your thoughts crowding up in there.”
“Just- leave it, it doesn’t matter,” Roman tried to wave him off, “I’ll be down for dinner soon.”
“Oh no, nope, absolutely not,” Remus said, shaking Roman lightly by the shoulder, “You only say crap like that when something’s really wrong, now what’s got my lil’ bro so upset?”
“Remus-“ Roman huffed, he was going for a warning tone, trying to get his brother to back off, though he was pretty sure it sounded a lot more pathetic than he was intending, “Just-“
“Nope, get, now, sit down, go on,” Remus practically shoved him back towards his bed and Roman’s tail curled around his feet as he was pushed to sit down as he continued to weakly protest. Once he was down, Romus practically threw himself on top of him, putting all of his weight on him. Roman hated to admit that it did help, even if he had to shuffle around so he wasn’t squashing his wings.
“There, better?” Remus asked, already knowing that ‘being squished’ as Remus called it, tended to help quite a lot, Roman nodded weakly, “Now, what’s the shit bothering you?”
“My stupid- stupid brain,” He huffed, looking up at the canopy of his bed, “I feel like- like all this stuff – it’s not -it’s not mine – it’s like I don’t- I don’t feel like I- I deserve it-“
“Deserve it?” Remus says, “Why the fuck wouldn’t you deserve it?”
“I don’t – because, because I’m hideous – because all I do is cause pain? I just- I hurt Patton and Logan, I hurt Virgil – I definitely hurt you, and I probably hurt Jan and I just-“
Repetitive, insistent tapping on his cheek drew him back out of the spiral he was descending into, Remus was frowning at him.
“Tell your brain to fuck off, Ro,” Remus said, bapping him on the forehead, “You’re cool as fuck, you haven’t hurt Janny or Virgin, you haven’t hurt the others nearly as much as they fucked you up, and yeah, being isolated from you hurt like a fucking soap bath but that wasn’t your fault-“
“I know that but – but this-“ he pulls at one of his wings again and Remus slaps his hand away.
“Is really fucking cool,” he finishes Roman’s sentence, “Literally, you can fly – and you can set shit on fire, how is that not cool as fuck?”
“And I’ve told you that- that doesn’t matter – it’s – it’s – dragons are evil,” Roman said, dragging his hand over his face, his claws leaving the lightest marks on his own skin, “They’re meant to hurt people destroy things, hoard gold, I don’t want to be a greedy, prideful, nasty creature.”
“Yeah, and we’ve told you every time you say this that you’re not any of that shit,” Remus said, pulling Roman’s hand away from his face so he doesn’t hurt himself any more. Roman whined, before coughing smoke right into Remus’ face and immediately panicking.
“Mm!” Remus said, “Thanks Roro,”
“What?”
“The smoke?”
“Yeah uh – why are you thanking me?”
“Cause’ it smells good?” Remus tilted his head, “Like free perfume.”
Roman can’t help the snort of laughter that escaped him. He should’ve known that Remus would enjoy smelling of smoke. Of course, something like that wouldm’t have upset him, he was Remus for goodness sake.
“Y’know Janny would say something poetic about how dragons were strong and awesome again if he heard this, right?” Remus poked him in the side and Roman batted his hands away again.
“Yeah yeah – I know – it’s getting better though, I swear.”
Remus hummed, flopping down properly on top of him, “These spirals not happening so often?” He asked.
“No – it’s just – sometimes it all starts to bother me – it’s like –“
“You’re feeling loads of things all at once and you feel like you’re whole body is gonna explode?” Remus suggests, “Like there are ants crawling all over your skin and you can’t get ‘em off?”
“Yeah- um- something like that,” Roman nodded.
“Is the squishing helping?” Remus asked.
Roman took a long, deep breath, “Yeah, thanks.”
“Awesome ‘cause if it didn’t I’d have to crush up all your bones.”
“…Thanks, Ree,” Roman shook his head with a fond smile.
“You feeling good enough for dinner?” Remus asked, “’Cause I think Janny’s made pie, and he’s gonna get worried ‘cause we’ve been gone so long.”
“I… I think so,” Roman nodded. Shoving Remus away so he could get up. He waved away the mess from the mirror and now that spot felt far too empty, but he wouldn’t let it bother him right now. His tail still dragged over the hardwood floor, but it didn’t bother him so much now. Remus grabbed him by the arm and dragged him downstairs.
“Sorry we’re late!” Remus yelled as they arrived in the dining room, “Roro was having a crisis again.”
“Is everything alright?” Janus looked up with concern clear in his expression. Roman smiled.
“Yeah – it is now,” he said, taking his seat.
“Mhm, I helped,” Remus said proudly. Janus chuckled.
“Thank you, Remus, I presume you did an awful job?”
“As always,” Remus nodded with a grin. Roman couldn’t help but smile as he settled into their company, finally able to relax now that they were both here.
When Roman returned to his room later that night, he found a new mirror in the old one’s place, this one was just as ornate, but made out of black marble.
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Tags: @full-of-roman-angst-trash @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess @glacierruler @roseianxiety @bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti @scalesfeathersnfur (if anyone wants to be added, let me know!)
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candied-peach · 5 months
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ao3: "gold and green in his ivory tower" rating: T warnings: platonic creativitwins, insecurity, touch starvation, crying genre: hurt/comfort description: Roman's not having a good day. Remus intervenes. (prompt from @oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat : "If you're still up for prompts, may I suggest something with the twins? Perhaps Roman is having a very insecure day, and once Remus finds out, he hugs his brother and squeezes the life outta him (affectionately). Bonus points if Ro is touch-starved?")
Roman huffs an exasperated breath, rubbing his ink-stained cheek and trying to blink away tears that burn the corners of his eyes. The blank page in front of him glares at him, and he winces. He has no ideas for the next video. No good ideas, anyway. His trash can pays testament to that. Crumpled and torn pieces of scribbled-on paper make his stomach cramp.
Logan's going to be so disappointed in him. He already scarcely sees the use in Roman to begin with. Or at least, it feels that way. It stings, but he understands. They just...clash. And normally, that's okay. Normally he's got at least one useful idea. But this time-
Roman's vision blurs and he slumps in his chair, letting his pen carelessly drop to the desk. It's pointless. He'll just have to fake it in the meeting. The meeting that's in- he squints at the clock and his face pales. Ten minutes. He can do this. He can. It will be fine.
It's not fine.
Oh, he's bullshitting his way through. Trying to come up with something on the fly, but his brain feels painfully squeezed dry, like a sponge wrung out far past its lifespan.
"And that's why I thought we might enjoy doing a performance for the video," Roman concludes, his forehead sweaty. He swallows, glancing around at the sea of uncertain faces, and his heart twinges. 
"I don't know," Virgil says doubtfully. "I mean- what if Thomas messes up?"
"Then we can do another take," Logan suggests. "Unless you wanted to do this live, Roman? I do not think that a live performance would be the best of ideas."
"I-" Roman stalls. He hasn't thought this far ahead. "I don't know," he finally says weakly, knowing they are the wrong words, but not knowing what else to say.
"Well, it's an idea," Thomas says, and the doubt in his voice makes Roman feel like he's cracking apart at the seams. It's not good enough. It's not good enough and he knows that it's not good enough, but he doesn't know what else to say. Sorry guys, my creativity just wasn't up to snuff this week! He can't say that. He needs to do better. He needs to be better. He needs-
He needs a hug.
But he can't have one, especially not now, so Roman swallows hard and tries to tune back into the discussion. Patton's gesturing animatedly about some kind of kid show, and Roman doesn't have the heart to remind him that they've already tried out puppets, there's only so much in that arena they can discover. 
It's almost too much. Janus and Remus keep looking at him, especially Remus, and his brother is unnaturally quiet. That's never a good sign, and Roman keeps casting him sideways glances when no one is looking. Remus looks innocently back, eyes guileless and green, as he fidgets in his seat.
"I'm stealing Roman," Remus finally announces to the room, popping up and seizing Roman's elbow before he can react. "Bye for now!" And he sinks out, dragging Roman with him into Remus's bedroom. Roman wrenches his arm free, glaring at the other side of Creativity.
"What are you doing?" Roman demands. Remus eyes him.
"What's wrong?" Remus asks. Roman freezes.
"Nothing," he immediately tries to deny, and Remus scoffs loudly.
"Might not be Janny but I know that you're full of shit," he sing songs. "Come on, Ro Bro, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me-"
"I don't actually really have any ideas," Roman blurts out, breathing heavily. "Not- not this week, I just-" He sighs and glances down at the carpet stained with things he doesn't want to think about. "I'm a failure," he whispers.
"Nah," Remus says. "You're just a little burnt out, that's all." Roman's head jerks up as he stares, wide-eyed, at his brother.
"What?" Roman says dumbly. Remus nods, eyes glittering.
"Burnt out like a candle thrown into a hurricane," he says. "That's all. Just gotta tell the others you need to rest up for a while."
"They need me," Roman objects. Remus rolls his eyes- literally, making Roman's stomach turn.
"They do," Remus acknowledges. "But they need Roman. Not Creativity."
"I don't get what you mean," Roman says, a little stiffly. Remus grins, and his teeth are a little too sharp in the dim light.
"You're part of their fam-ILY or whatever the fuck," Remus says, flapping one hand. "Come on, Ro. You're more than what you can do, you know." Roman blinks in surprise. 
"You-" Roman trails off. He isn't sure what to say. Remus is surprisingly perspicacious. Not that he should have expected anything less. He knows his brother is more than dork jokes and over the top threats. Remus thrums with the vibrance of possibilities, no matter how dark or strange.
"Can I have a hug?" Roman finally asks in a small voice. Remus's grin widens.
"Thought you'd never ask!" He crows, and flops on top of Roman, driving him to the bed. Despite the 'oomph' of breath leaving his lungs, Roman enjoys the pressure of his brother sprawled across him, wrapping him in a warm, shockingly well-scented hug.
"Janus made you bathe today," Roman mutters. Remus makes a face.
"Yep," he agrees. "I'm not letting you go until you feel better, by the way. You're stuck with me."
Roman is okay with that.
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A Prince and His Subjects
Title: A Prince and His Subjects
Summary: Or five times the other sides were a simp for Roman and he never noticed. Meanwhile Remus suffers as he tries to protect his brother.
Warnings: none, no smut but there are spicy implications.
Pairings: LAMP, BROTHERLY CREATIVITWINS
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            Roman always thought that he wasn’t anything special. Yes, he had his own special abilities and magic. He was confident and extra confident on good days. He was brave and kind. Yet, Roman felt as if he was no different nor did he stand out. He tries to with his prince role but he knows he doesn’t always have to put on the costume. He was just Roman. Thomas’ Creativity, Ego, and Passion. Nothing more and nothing less. That’s what he saw and thought of himself. Of course, there’s his big tower of insecurities but he’d rather not address them. To him, Roman is just Roman. The prince isn’t aware that his subjects, or rather the other sides see so much more. Remus does and he gags every time. He’s glad they’re treating his brother nicely but they could be simping less. A lot less.
1.
            It’s another slow day with Thomas free for the day so that left the sides with not being needed in a meeting for the day or until their host summons them. In the Mindpalace, Patton called everyone together to do some cleaning since the common area had become a mess. The place was used for many movie nights and sleepovers during the past few weeks. So, now they stood in the messy common area. There was trash on the couch, books on the coffee table as well as abandoned coffee mugs and empty cookie plates. There’s probably something behind the couch where Remus pops up to join them.
“Okay, everyone! Are you guys ready to clean?” Patton asks, grinning. “I know it would be easier to snap the mess away but it’s also tricky since we don’t know exactly where those things go.”
Roman nods, always eager to help with a little cleaning. He doesn’t look like it but he does like organizing things so they match and look neat plus the extra space is satisfying to him.
“I’m ready, Padre!” he grins, doing his usual royal pose.
Patton claps happily.
“Good! Has everyone decided what they’ll handle?”
“I’ll clear up the books. I apologize for leaving so many of them here.” Logan volunteers.
“That’s alright, Lo. We know you can’t put your books down. If you want, you can leave the book you’re currently reading here.” Patton replies.
Logan blinks and smiles small, his cheeks slightly pink.
“Ah. Thank you, Patton.”
“Of course! Okay, who else is doing what?”
“I’ll handle the cobwebs, dust, and the trash so Princey doesn’t whine about dust allergies.” Virgil answers, taking off his hoodie and tying it around his waist.
“Please do vanquish every speck of dust. I refuse to sit through another movie night with watery eyes.” Roman huffs cutely, feigning a pout. He does appreciate Virgil taking him into consideration.
Virgil chuckles, averting his gaze with a light flush.
“I’ll vanquish all of them, Princey.”
Remus rolls his eyes at that as Patton nods.
“Good! Roman, Janus?” Patton asks, turning to them.
“I’m going to rearrange the furniture back to where they were. We haven’t moved them since the last sleep over as well as reorganize the movies.” Roman volunteers. “Plus, this place is majorly due for redecorating.”
Patton giggles at that.
“Have fun, Ro! Oh, and don’t strain yourself!”
“I’ll be alright, Padre. I don’t just train to vanquish the Dragon Witch.” Roman grins, waving his hand to change the top half of his costume into a tank top.
            Roman used to be ashamed of showing his arms since they were covered in plenty scars but with some assurances, he found some bravery. Lately, especially on hot days, Roman can be found in tank tops or completely topless. It’s definitely not unwelcome. Roman trains a lot and works out for his Imagination adventures and because he likes keeping his body fit and toned so he’s got quite a pair of muscly arms as a well as a nicely toned chest. It makes the others minus Remus glance at him for a moment. Roman just blinks obliviously.
Meanwhile, Patton stops himself from getting any redder as he tears his gaze away from Roman and his arms before turning to Janus.
“What about you, Jan?”
Janus hums, stealing a second glance at Roman because he can and he’s the most shameless next to the twins.
“Hm, I suppose I shall assist Roman. Someone has to pick up the mess when he moves the furniture. Plus, there’s bound to be something interesting under the couch.” he answers, smirking at Roman.
Roman only smiles innocently at Janus and nods.
“Sure! I could use someone to watch my back in case I bump into something.” he chirps, the poor thing unaware of what was going on.
Virgil, having known Janus long enough to spot his schemes, squints and glares subtly at Janus.
That sneaky fucking snake. That was clever.
Remus nearly gags. He had been surprised when Janus admitted he was attracted to Roman. He’s glad his brother is getting love but also wished he hadn’t had to see stuff like this. He’s not the mushy gushy love guy here. He’s the gross, icky intrusive man. That, and his brother was just so innocent and dumb, more so than Patton. Remus wanted to keep him that way. Not that he cared, nope.
Patton just smiles, flustering more. He seems to know too.
“Alright, Janus. I’ll help Virgil with the dusting then I’ll take care of the dishes.” he nods, summoning a feather duster. “Remus, can you help clean too? You don’t have to handle soap.”
Remus secretly is relieved to hear that and looks around. Well, someone’s gotta keep an eye on Roman and make sure the others don’t make him uncomfortable by accident.
“I’ll clear out my stuff from behind the couch because if I don’t, Janny’s gonna make me do it anyways.” he huffs.
Janus chuckles.
“Perhaps you should stop bringing your things to movie night.” he teases. “We don’t need any more…toys.”
Roman tilts his head in confusion. He may handle romance but he tends to miss innuendos and the like.
“But we always bring our plushies to movie night?” he questions.
“Oh, those toys are okay. Remus can’t bring his toys though.” Janus grins, resisting the urge to ruin his innocence.
“Why? What kind of toys does Remus have?” Roman asks, even more confused.
Remus glares at Janus who has a smug grin on his face.
“Don’t worry too much about it, RoRo.” Remus intervenes.
The prince blinks.
“Oh. Okay then.”
Patton clears his throat awkwardly at that and summons his cleaning apron as well.
“Okay, let’s get cleaning, everyone!”
            With that, the sides went off to go do their tasks. Roman immediately went to the beanbags he left piled in the corner from the last movie night. He hums and bends down, scooping up the blankets on top along with the pillows, setting them aside. Then he picks up his Beast onesie and waves his hand to send it back to his room. With that done, Roman bends back down and gathers the beanbags, unaware of where Janus’ eyes were.
            Janus had followed Roman, waiting for him to move something so he can watch-help Roman pick up any items that had been hiding under the furniture. When he saw Roman bend ever so perfectly, he couldn’t help but smirk at the new view. Roman was quite toned, even from the back. The snake side’s eyes slowly travel lower and lower and…
Roman stands up and Janus hides his smirk.
“Good work, Roman. Oh, and you even found the missing TV remote.” Janus praises, taking that moment to pat Roman’s arm.
Remus squints.
Is the snake seriously feeling up his twin? Gross.
“Oh, thanks, Jan! Could you grab it for me? I need to move these.” Roman grins back at the yellow side.
Janus squeezes Roman’s arm and nods.
“Of course.”
Roman nods his thanks and waddles away with the beanbags.
Remus huffs and stands up from where he was looking for his things behind the couch.
“Really? Feeling up my brother in front of me? You might as well grope his ass too, you horny fucking snake.” he growls, huffing.
Janus merely chuckles and smirks.
“Tempting but we have cleaning to do, Remus. Besides, it’s not like Roman’s going anywhere anytime soon~”
Roman, who had returned just then, blinks in confusion.
“Where would I be going?”
Remus says nothing and glares at Janus.
2.
            Virgil doesn’t often wander into the Imagination, especially alone. When Roman asked him to come along for a walk, he couldn’t really say no. Roman had busted out what he dubs as the “princey pout” and Virgil was a weak side. So now, Virgil finds himself strolling along beside Roman in the Enchanted Forest. It’s nice and peaceful. Or as peaceful as Virgil can tell. Being the embodiment of someone’s Anxiety always reminds him that anything bad could happen. So, Virgil is still a little on guard. He tries to distract himself and glances at Roman.
            Roman is humming as he walks along, his katana sheathed at his side. He had assured Virgil that they’re not going to fight anything but he decided to bring it along. Just in case. Bright emerald eyes gaze at the forest path head, counting the little yellow daisies that dot the way. A blue jay then flutters from its nest and flies down to Roman with a chirp. The creative side smiles fondly and holds up his finger, chuckling as the bird perches for a moment. He takes that moment to pet the bird’s tiny head.
“Hello, little one. I see your injured wing is feeling better. Have your eggs hatched?” Roman asks, gently stroking the bird.
The bird chirps and shakes his head.
“Ah, I see. I’ll try to be here when that does happen.” Roman replies, chuckling as the bird hops and chirps happily.
Meanwhile, Virgil blinks out of his stupor.
“Huh. So, you can talk to animals, princey.” he teases, smirking slightly.
Roman smiles and lets the bird go, watching it return to its nest.
“I love my creatures, big and small, so I used a spell to give myself the ability to communicate with them.” he explains, waving to a passing rabbit.
Virgil hums at that.
“Or maybe you’re just actually a Disney prince.” he mutters.
Roman blinks.
“What?”
“N-Nothing, shut up!” Virgil flustered.
“Oh. Well…I guess we should just keep on walking then.”
Virgil sighs and nods.
Nice job, Virgil.
            As they continue to walk, neither notice the rustling tree branches behind them. Up above in the thick of the tree branches is Remus, watching them walk. He was going to jump down as a sneak attack on Roman but held back when he saw Virgil. Out of curiosity, he stayed back to watch them walk. Huffing, Remus hops to another branch to follow after them. Remus isn’t being overprotective towards his little brother. Nope. He’s just…making sure Roman is okay. Yeah.
            Meanwhile, Roman leads Virgil to big clearing in the forest. A beautiful lake sits in the center, shaded by the canopy above. Off to the side and further back is a beautiful cottage with lavender vines growing down the sides of the roof. Playful creatures like rabbits and squirrels scurry by. A small duck family lounges at the side of the pond. Dragon flies dance around and across the lake. There’s also a log to sit on nearby. This place is one of Roman’s favorite places to go when things are too much or when he wants to be alone. He then leads Virgil to the log bench.
“This is what I wanted to show you. One of my favorite places.” he explains, gazing at the water.
Virgil follows his gaze and watches some waterlilies float by.
“It’s…beautiful, Ro.” he replies, perching on the log bench.
Roman smiles softly, watching the ducklings splashing in shallow of the lake.
“I’m glad you think so. It’s where I sometimes go to unwind after a long day or just to think. Sometimes I come here to nap.” he smiles, chuckling.
Virgil nods along.
“Yeah? That sounds pretty relaxing. I don’t think I could nap out here. A bug might crawl up my nose or mouth or ears. Or I’ll somehow roll into the lake and die even if it’s shallow.” he replies, laughing too.
Roman chuckles again.
“That’s understandable but if you do ever want to give it a try, I’m here to accompany you. I’ll make sure no bugs crawl inside you or that you don’t roll into the lake. Or we could do other things.”
Remus, who had followed and watched from the branches, squints.
Virgil flusters, smiling shyly at Roman for a moment.
“L-Like what, Princey?”
“Swimming!” Roman grins, standing up.
“Oh.”
Virgil lets his heart calm down. Bless Roman, he’s just so damn innocent.
Meanwhile, Remus frowns and huffs.
“You really thought you were going to get dicked down by my brother, huh? Naughty emo.” he whispers, knowing damn well that Virgil can at least hear him.
Virgil does hear him, his head whipping to the side. He squints but sees nothing though he swears there’s glowing eyes in one of the trees and-
“So, do you want to swim with me, emo?”
Virgil looks back to Roman and nearly falls off the bench, his face reddening.
Roman had changed into a pair of swim trunks, giving Virgil an eyeful of his chiseled abs and toned arms. It doesn’t help that he’s got…quite the chest or a sexy-
“Virgil?”
Virgil jolts and averts his gaze.
“Uh, sorry, what?” he answers dumbly.
“I said, do you want to swim with me?” Roman asks again, head tilted in confusion.
Virgil flusters.
“Oh, uh, I’m good. Don’t want to ruin the eyeshadow and I’m too pale.” he replies.
It’s not a lie but he didn’t want to tell Roman he actually couldn’t swim or that he’ll combust, staring at Roman’s abs and arms.
Roman just shrugs and smiles.
“Okay then. I’ll just go on ahead.” he hums, turning around.
Once again, Virgil is blessed with the view of Roman’s backside. Damn, even his back muscles are hot.
Remus growls lowly and huffs.
“That’s not where his eyes are, Virgil.” he hisses.
Virgil jumps again and turns red, glaring at the eyes in the trees. Dammit, Remus.
3.
            Logan doesn’t often hang out in Roman’s room. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, no. It’s just…a little harder to function normally being in the same room as Roman. Especially in his bedroom. He’s Logic, after all. He’s not supposed to be feeling stuff…or thinking about…certain things.
            And yet, Logan finds himself outside of Roman’s room with some books under his arm. It’s a brainstorm session and Roman invited him over. The logical side figured that he could use the books as a distraction, so he didn’t have to look at Roman too much. Sighing, Logan stands tall and knocks at Roman’s door.
“Be there in a moment!” comes Roman’s voice.
The door then opens.
“Ah, I hope I’m not-oh.” Logan’s words die on his tongue.
Roman is back in his tank top and it seems he’s been experimenting with his makeup again. He’s always had the prettiest face despite all of them looking similar to each other.
“Um, Logan? What were you saying?” Roman tilts his head cutely and Logan has to clear his throat.
“Ah, I was saying, I hope I’m not late.” Logan stammers, adjusting his glasses.
Roman smiles.
“You’re right on time, Specs! Come on!” he chirps, taking Logan’s free hand and tugging him inside before shutting the door.
Logan lets Roman lead him. Even his hands feel strong.
“You wanna join me in bed?” Roman asks.
Logan nearly chokes but saves it with a cough.
“E-Excuse me?”
Roman plops down on his big, royal bed with some books piled in front of him and his beloved red binder.
“Do you want to sit here and brainstorm? It’s comfy and soft. It’s okay if you don’t want to. You can also take my desk chair.” he asks, blinking innocently.
Oh. Right. That’s what he meant.
Under Roman’s bed, Remus squints and huffs as he chews on one of Roman’s old boots. Even nerdy wolverine had naughty thoughts about his brother. Gross. It makes Remus summon a shuriken. Just in case.
Logan regains his composure and nods, clearing his throat a second time.
“I-I’ll join you, Roman.” he replies.
He then toes off his shoes and sits on Roman’s bed before setting his books down.
“Yay!” Roman cheers before grabbing his binder and summoning a pen. “So, do you want to hear what I have so far?”
Logan finds himself staring for a moment before refocusing and nodding.
“Of course.”
For next hour, he and Roman share ideas and thoughts. They wind up chatting a lot and talking about books they’ve been reading, upcoming things on Thomas’ schedule, and other little things. It’s nice and Roman cherishes the moment because it’s not often they can settle down and just talk without bursting into arguments. They’re working on arguing less though. It’s a…long process.
“Ooh, I’m so excited for Thomas to do the Crofters tasting video!” Roman then squeals.
Logan finds himself tugging on his tie for the millionth time this hour. Roman’s just so sweet. So bright.
They had moved onto video ideas and the conversation evolved into discussing already planned videos. Most of them were to be fun little shorts for Thomas to do as a break from his usual stuff.
“I agree though I wish we didn’t have to rank them. They all taste exquisite.” Logan replies, a small smile on his lips.
Roman giggles and Logan feels like he’s been blinded by the sun.
“Definitely! But I’m curious to see what Thomas’ opinion is. He only gets certain flavors and there’s probably a lot more he hasn’t tried.” The prince grins, bouncing up and down.
“Of course.” Logan replies before flustering and averting his gaze. “And I appreciate the fact you invited me into this video.”
Roman nods happily.
“I wanted to, Logan! Crofters was your thing first and I merely got inspired to try. Plus, it’s your turn in the spotlight, my dear nerd.” he winks.
Logan has to breathe through his nose to stay calm. Damn, that handsome prince and his handsome face.
“T-Thank you, Roman.” he manages to say a moment later.
Roman nods again and Logan takes a moment to calm himself down on the inside. The two then go back to talking and brainstorming. At some point, Logan found himself gazing at Roman’s face again as the prince was talking.
Logan couldn’t help it. Roman had such a pretty face. The scars made him look extra handsome. His eyes were just as pretty, sparkling like a pair of emeralds. If Logan looked closer, he could see that Creative spark in those eyes. He could see passion and wonder. Sometimes Logan wondered what the world was like through Roman’s eyes.
“Uh, Specs? Logan?”
Logan blinks and realizes he’d been ogling Roman for some time now. Oops.
“A-Apologies, Roman. I…got lost in thought.” he answers, face flushed.
Meanwhile, Remus who had moved to watch from his twin’s massive closet, rolls his eyes.
“You’re so lucky it takes more bullshit than that to summon Janny.” he hisses under his breath.
Back to the two, Roman just smiles and pats Logan’s shoulder.
“It’s okay! Anyways, I was asking if I could practice my makeup skills on your face. Thomas wants to do another makeup video and I want to be on top of my skills so I can help!” he replies.
Logan doesn’t mind makeup though he doesn’t wear it as often as Roman does. He’s not really that good with the art. Yet, he can’t find himself to deny Roman. Not with that smiling, pretty face looking at him.
“Sure, but nothing heavy, Roman.” he nods, a little flustered.
Roman perks up and claps happily, bouncing up from the bed.
“Oh, thank you, Logan! Wait there! I’m gonna get some stuff from the bathroom.” he squeals before dashing off to his bathroom.
Once the door clicks shut, Remus takes that time to slip out of the closet.
“Watch yourself, nerd. I could hear your nasty little thoughts from there.” he whispers in the logical side’s ear, holding up a shuriken.
Logan blinks, composing himself from being startled.
“What do you mean? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Remus squints.
“Uh huh. I saw you eye-fucking my brother.”
Then he sinks away while Logan is left standing there with a red face.
4.
            Patton loves to bake a lot. It’s calming and fun and he loves giving treats to everyone. He loves it more when he bakes with someone. This time, he’s baking with Roman which has him super excited. Roman is often busy in the Imagination, helping Thomas, or doing some creative work so he doesn’t always have time to do this kind of stuff. With Thomas having another slow day and things being quiet in the Mindpalace, Patton was able to invite Roman who happily agreed to join.
            And now here they were in the kitchen, utensils and bowls scattered around the counter. Flour covers the surface. Patton is in his sky-blue apron and Roman in his white apron. Roman also has his bangs pinned away from his face with a cute little hairclip that’s shaped like a crown. Right now, the two were mixing cake batter.
“Mm, I can’t wait to have these for dessert later. We deserve a little treat!” Roman grins, eager to have some cake after dinner.
Patton nods happily.
“We do! How’s your batter coming along?”
Roman holds up his red bowl.
“I think it’s almost ready!” he answers, mixing a few more times.
“Good! Mine’s almost ready too! Once we get these in the oven, we can work on the frosting and icing!”
Roman nods.
“Oh, I love that part!”
The two laugh and they keep mixing. Soon the batter is ready and they put it in the cake pans. Once that’s done, they place it in the oven to bake. After shutting the oven door and setting the timer, Patton moves and opens the cabinet to get more bowls while Roman gets the ingredients needed.
Patton then sees a problem. The rest of the big mixing bowls are on the top shelf of the cabinet and he can’t reach them.
“Oh dear.” he frowns.
Roman sets down the box of icing mix that he was looking at.
“Is something wrong, Pat?” he asks.
“Could you reach up and get those bowls for me, Roman?”
“Oh, sure!”
Before Patton can move aside, he feels something solid behind him and he blinks. He looks up and nearly squeaks. Roman’s pressing up against him, reaching up into the cabinets. Patton quickly turns away, looking at the counter instead. He can feel Roman’s chest behind his head.
Roman is much taller than him and Patton has no complaints. He’s…very strong too. If Patton leaned back enough, he could feel Roman’s chest against the back of his head and-
“One of the others must have put the bowls up here after movie night.” comes Roman’s voice from behind him. It makes him shiver as Roman’s basically talking in his ear.
Then the solid and muscly wall that is Roman is gone from behind him, now standing beside him instead with the bowl.
“Here you go!”
Patton blinks and hopes he isn’t blushing too much before taking the bowl.
“T-Thank you.”
Roman nods and goes to the other side of the kitchen with the icing box to read the instructions.
Meanwhile, Patton calms himself down. As he moves to put the bowl down, he feels something grab his ankle and he almost squeaks again. The fatherly side looks down and has to hold back another squeak when he sees Remus’ head sticking out of the sink cabinet.
“Don’t even think about it, froggy.”
Then Remus lets go and disappears under the sink.
Patton shudders at that and continues with baking, totally not thinking about Roman’s body against his earlier.
5.
            It’s another slow day in the Mindpalace. Everyone had been hard at work, assisting Thomas last week so this time they agreed to just chill out for the time being. They gathered in the living area and put on a movie though no one really paid much attention to it. Patton was doing a word search for fun, Logan sitting next to him on the couch with a book. Virgil was next to Logan, gaming away on his Switch. Roman and Remus took up the beanbags beside the couch, the twins doodling and brainstorming in a shared sketchbook. Janus sat at their feet, also reading.
Though Janus was getting bored. He’s already read his book and despite it being a mystery novel, the plot was predictable. He sets his book down and glances around before seeing Roman. He hides a fond smile as he hears him giggle at something Remus says.
Janus has heard from the others about their…encounters with Roman. He’s very tempted to try something to get Roman to…show off a little. He looks around some more and spots the thermostat.
Hmm…
Janus then grins and nudges Virgil’s leg.
“Fuck off, Janus.” Virgil huffs without looking up.
“Okay but you’ll miss the show, my dear emo.”
Virgil pauses his game and looks over to Janus.
“What show?”
“Just wait and see.”
Janus then subtly waves his hand to turn up the heat on the thermostat. It takes a few moments but soon it’s starting to get warm. Patton and Logan hardly noticing, being used to the warmth of the Mindpalace. Virgil is used to sweating in his hoodie and Janus himself likes heat. Remus already runs warm so he doesn’t notice much change.
Soon it’s even more warm and Roman is feeling a little uncomfortable in his costume. He loves it and all but the thick material makes it hard to stay cool. It’s why he has a different costume for his Imagination trips. Sighing, Roman sets his pencil aside and stands up.
“Oh, it’s just so hot in here! Sweltering!” he huffs. “I apologize but a prince must shed his costume!”
Roman then waves his hand and he’s now shirtless again.
Janus smirks. Lovely.
“Holy shit…Nice one, Jan.” a flustered Virgil mutters beside him, fist bumping Janus.
Janus nods, enjoying the view.
“Very.”
Patton squeaks, adjusting the sleeves of his cardigan around his neck as his face reddens.
“O-Oh my goodness…”
Logan nods, fixing his glasses as he flusters.
“Quite…”
Meanwhile Remus glares and huffs.
“I hate all of you.”
No one replies, too busy staring at Roman who had decided to fan himself for the moment.
Remus glares more.
“Hey! Quit drooling all over him, you fucking weirdos!” he growls, not liking how they’re ogling his twin.
Sweet, oblivious Roman blinks.
“They’re not drooling all over me. That would feel gross, Ree.” he frowns, head tilted in innocence.
Remus resists the urge to smack the others or knock Roman out just to spare him.
“Don’t-Don’t worry too much about it, RoRo.” he sighs, getting up to go check the thermostat.
Roman just blinks again. The others sure have been acting weird lately and he wonders if Remus knows why. He won’t tell him though.
“Oh. Okay then. Wonder why they’re staring at me…”
Oh, if only Roman knew what they saw.
THE END
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naminethewriter · 6 months
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What Dreams Are For - Masterpost
It is time for my biggest story yet, written for @sandersidesbigbang! Be prepared for a lot of confusion, angst and confrontations! Everyone has demons to face this time around and it's not going to be easy... I hope you follow along and enjoy what I cooked up this time 🤭
Summary: Dreams are weird. Especially when you’re metaphysical. There is a distinction between your own dreams and that of your whole. Even though Roman doesn't know at first that he's trapped in a dream, he does know that something is wrong upon waking in an unfamiliar room. He thinks he's in the Imagination but can't say for sure. Just what has he gotten caught up in?
Cast as the evil Prince and forced to act out the twisted storyline of Thomas’ dream, Roman, with help from Patton and Virgil, needs to figure out what is happening while constricted by what his hateful character would do and say which is not at all pleasant.
We dream for a reason. And as much as Roman likes to be the center of attention, this dream isn’t about him. Someone else is crying out for help.
Tags: platonic Dlampr, Intrulogical, Angst With a Happy Ending, Mystery Elements, Partial Mind Control, Sides are forced to stay in character which leads to some of them acting unsympathetically, mainly Patton and Roman
Story here on Ao3!
Chapter One: Wrong
Chapter Two: Rumors
Chapter Three: Unexpected Confrontation
Chapter Four: The Other Side
Chapter Five: Escalation
Chapter Six: Back To Normal?
This Story is currently on hiatus! I will return once more chapter have been written and are ready for posting.
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Epilogue
Many thanks to my Betas @edupunkn00b and @starlocked01! You are wonderful 💙💚
Just as great are @failingatfailing and @wolfy-do-art-stuff who did a collaboration piece for this story that you can find here! It turned out superb, thank you so much 💖 💙 💜
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On Death's Doorstep (pt 40/53?)
[<<First],,,,[<Prev],[Next>] [ODD Masterlist]
Word count: 1547
Rating: Teen
Pairings: Creativitwins
Warnings: suggestive clothing, alcohol, shenanigans, crimes
~~~START~~~
“ROMAN!” 
Roman jolted awake as their sibling threw themself onto his bed, causing him to bounce slightly. Remus didn’t seem to care that he’d been sleeping as she wiggled her way up until their head was on the pillow next to his.  
“What?” Roman groaned, their attempts to pull the duvet over his head hampered by Remus weighing the covers down.  
He used to have his own floor, so it was at least a little harder for Remus to bother them during their beauty sleep, but now he was staying in her guest room, and they could barge in whenever she wanted. Like when he was trying to sleep, for instance.  
“It’s midnight,” Remus explained, as though that meant anything.  
“So?” If Roman ducked a little, he could hide their face under the corner of the duvet.  
“It’s our birthday.” 
Oh.  
Their birthday.  
They’d forgotten about their birthday, what with everything else going on and all.  
Roman shimmied his hand out from under the comforter and held his pinky out to their sister.  
“Make a wish,” they said. She twined her own pinky with his and they both closed their eyes.  
This was their tradition, to make a wish on their birthday. They didn’t know when they’d been born, so they just did it at midnight.  
There were rules to the wish:  
It had to be lofty — too lofty to actually achieve, at least before their next birthday, anyway.  
It had to be selfish — no wasting it on anyone else.  
It had to be different — no wishing for the same thing every year.  
With those rules in mind, Roman closed their eyes and wished to be cast as the first gay Disney prince — his wishes were usually pretty similar every year, but he made sure they varied enough to follow the rules.  
“Roman?” Remus whispered after they had spent a few minutes in silence, eyes still closed.  
“Yeah?” He had almost drifted off again, but they fought to keep awake.  
“Can I sleep here tonight?” 
“Yeah.” They gave up on staying awake, but they thought he heard Remus whisper a thanks before they were out.  
The next morning, by unspoken mutual agreement, the two got dressed in their most flamboyant clothes and took full advantage of being two of the three people who could safely leave the building by hitting the town. They always preferred to be just the two of them on their birthday, which really worked out this year as Roman highly doubted either of their friends remembered — heck, Roman had almost forgotten, he could hardly blame Janus or Logan if they had forgotten too.  
The first stop on the birthday docket was their favorite cafe where their favorite baristas, a blue and pink haired woman named Jinx, was ready with their usual, plus two birthday cake pops.  
“Birthday pops for the birthday twins,” Jinx laughed as Remus snatched up her order hungrily.  
“Jinx, my love, I don’t know what we would do without you!” Roman pretended to swoon.  
“Die miserable, I’m afraid,” Jinx shook her head in mock sadness.  
“All too true!” Roman agreed. “Alas, if only I were in to women, and you attracted to men, we would be unstoppable!” 
“The gods are conspiring to keep up apart!” Jinx pretended to swoon as well.  
“Well if you ever get tired of flirting with Roman,” Remus rolled their eyes, having devoured their entire breakfast sandwich already. “I’m always available to be the other woman.” 
“Betrayed!” Roman cried dramatically. “And by my own flesh and blood no less!” 
Jinx laughed again, but valiantly attempted to sober up as another customer came through the door. “I still have to work, but you two paint the town red for me — or green, as the case may be — alright? Happy birthday.” 
“Goodbye, my beloved!” 
“Bye Jinx!” 
The two left the cafe, and once back out in the sunlight, Roman couldn’t resist twirling and allowing their scarlet skirt to flare around them. For just a moment, their spirits soared, then reality came crashing back on him.  
“We’re bad friends,” they observed glumly, the sunny weather no longer reflecting his mood.  
“Nah,” Remus waved his concern off. “We can’t exactly help anyone at this stage, and lying around feeling like shit isn’t gonna help anyone at any stage.” 
“You don’t feel bad that we’re treating ourselves?” 
“Nope! As Janus likes to say: self-care, bitch! They’d want us to be selfish today, as long as we aren’t getting in their way — which we’re not.” 
“A lot’s changed in a year.” Roman observed.  
“Hmm,” Remus agreed halfheartedly. “Maybe by next year we can overthrow the government!” 
“Please tell me that’s not what you wished for,” Roman begged — that sounded like a lot of work.  
“Nah, it’s what I wished for last year.” 
Roman stopped in his tracks to groan, but Remus kept walking, forcing Roman to rush to catch up.  
The second stop in their birthday outing was an occult shoppe in the mall that sold candles that Roman liked and oddities that Remus liked. Before and after the shoppe, they did some window shopping — also known as casing the joint, a birthday wasn’t a birthday if they didn’t commit some crimes — at the surrounding stores.  
In the center of the mall was a large, multileveled fountain. Roman and Remus spent over an hour and twenty-three dollars in dimes trying to outdo each other in terms of tossing coins into the fountain. Tosses were judged both on style and on distance from the fountain when the coin was tossed, bonus points were awarded depending on which level of the fountain the coin landed in. People sent them strange looks as they did this — while dressed in a flamboyant acid green bedazzled suit and a scarlet ball gown — but the twins hardly cared.  
They had lunch in the mall food court before heading back to their lair in order to suit up and rob the stores they had scouted earlier in the day. Coincidentally, the mall was the same one Thomas and Nico had been abducted from; the damage had been repaired, but Roman got some satisfaction in undoing those repairs.  
It was just a simple smash n’ grab, and with no heroes in the city, there wasn’t much resistance. With Dr. Frankenstein and Serpentine busy trying to infiltrate the government, the task of causing chaos throughout the city fell mostly on Gemini’s shoulders (there were other villains too, but Roman found most of them to be pompous jackasses not worth collaborating with), and petty crimes like robbing stores in the mall were encouraged. Roman ended up taking home a gorgeous ruby necklace that he would, unfortunately, have to be an idiot to wear in public any time soon; Remus got a large, glittering skull ring that she insisted on naming Yorick.  
They returned to their lair to stash their ill-gotten gains before returning to Remus’s their shared floor to pull off their third wardrobe change of the day. After grabbing a quick dinner at one of the food trucks that hung around the park, their final destination of day would be The Wrecking Ball, so Roman put on a pair of red booty shorts, a white mesh cut out top, leather harness, and a pair of white leather Prada boots he’d recently lifted.  
They met Remus, now wearing a pair of baggy black cargo pants, adorned with dozens of chains and spikes, six inch platforms, a thick leather collar, and a green crop-top that said in glittering letters WHORE,  back in the living room, and the two set out.  
The bar was packed by the time they arrived, the music blaring so loud that they could hardly think, their ears throbbing from the vibrations. The dance floor was packed, drinks sloshing wildly as bodies collided against each other to the beat — the DJ was keeping the energy pulsing, mixing Cher into Kylie Minogue into Britney and beyond. It didn’t take the twins long to find some marks to sucker into buying them drinks — a vodka cran for Roman, and a Dirty Shirley for Remus — before they abandoned their new suitors and hit the dance floor.  
They lost themselves in the beat, pickpocketing the occasional unsuspecting victim but predominantly just enjoying themselves, grinding against strangers and screaming the lyrics to Barbie Girl. Their drinks never ran empty — the club was packed and it was all too easy to bat their eyes and obtain another one. Roman felt like a prince when the DJ mixed Happy Birthday into the set-list for them, and he certainly auditioned plenty of handsome strangers for the role of prince charming.  
Roman wasn’t sure when it was that they managed to drag themselves back home, but even as exhausted as he was, they couldn’t help but notice a folded paper card lying on the kitchen island.  
Happy 23rd Birthday  -Janus 🐍 
Happy Birthday. There is a cake in your fridge, my apologies for not remembering sooner.   Regards, Logan 
Roman smiled and placed the card back on the counter. The cake could wait until tomorrow, when they could have their friends around them, and Patton, and Remy, Babs, Thomas, Nico. And maybe soon they could have another cake to share with Virgil… 
For now though, it was time for bed. 
~~~END~~~
Full disclosure, I did not write the clubbing scene because that is something I don’t know anything other than theory (I’m not a fan of loud, crowded places), my friend wrote that.
While I was waiting for my friend to read this chapter and fill in the club scene, I wrote the next chapter, so you’ll get that pretty soon :)
ODD taglist:
@royalty-of-all-things-snuggly @pixelated-pineapple @arsonic-knight @misunderstood-shadowling @lost-in-thought-20 @remy-the-lemon-berry @jinxcrafter @apinkline2715 @gothfoxx @donutsarepartybagels @xoaningout @meganmoneky14 @lunatatic
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edupunkn00b · 9 months
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Overruled Masterpost
Tumblr media
Chapter List - [ AO3 ]
Sanders
Obfuscated
Prosecution Rests
Conflict of Interest
Philosophy of Love and the Science of Attraction
History Lessons
Seven O'Clock
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always-anxious612 · 6 months
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When Imagination Takes Over (redone)
A/N: As the title suggests, this is a revamp of a fic I did a couple years ago. I normally don't post redos as I'm literally always revisiting and revising fics but I really like this one and I'll never pass up the opportunity to write these two interacting.
Description: the imagination is a very powerful thing that can create something out of nothing but thin air and a simple thought. But what happens when those thoughts are unwanted and a bit too persistent? In other words, it’s time for Roman angst once again, kiddos. Is anyone really surprised?
Pairings: brotherly Creativitwins
Genre: hurt/comfort
Warnings: Intrusive thoughts, paranoia, crying, panic attack, food mention, violence and injury mentioned but it doesn't actually happen just in Roman's head (let me know if I missed anything or if you want anything tagged!)
Word count: 2,955
            It had been quite a tiring day in the imagination. Roman had been busy all day trying to stop the dragon witch from terrorizing one of the smaller villages in his kingdom. After a long battle which he, of course, inevitably won the people insisted on having a feast in his honor; and well, how could Roman refuse such a kind offer. It would be rude of him to refuse, really. And sure, maybe the food in the imagination was…well, imaginary; and maybe it would just end up leaving him feeling emptier rather than fuller, but it certainly did taste as good as the real thing and Roman was famished. Besides, it would be distasteful to just leave and deprive the townspeople of his presence, not to mention their joyous celebration would have to be put on hold. What kind of prince would he be if he did that? A bad one, obviously; and he was anything but a bad prince. He wouldn’t stay long anyway, he reasoned. Just long enough to greet everyone and take a few bites of the meal. Surely it wouldn’t take that long....
In hindsight, he really should have known better. He never could seem to get away from conversing with all of his people. Who could blame him? They were quite good company, and they always had a way of convincing him to stay with them for “just a little longer.” By the time he finished celebrating with everyone and insisted that he really should be on his way, the sky had grown dark and was tinged with the fiery reds and pinks of the setting sun. So much for not staying long.
As he bid goodbye to the last of his citizens, Roman sighed dreading the thought of the long walk he had to get back to the mind palace. Silently, he cursed himself for staying as long as he did when he knew he’d be too tired and hungry to properly create a steed or anything to get him back home. The door to the imagination was still quite far off on foot. To be fair, he really had intended to only stay for a short while this time. He sighed again before shrugging off his regrets. What’s done is done he supposed.
Roman started to whistle as he walked, a merry tune to cut through the silence that draped itself over the landscape as he entered the forest. It certainly was much more…creepy than he remembered it being out here. Taking a deep breath, Roman shook off his discomfort, looking around to admire his creation instead. His whistling slowly faded as he looked around and tried to keep his mind away from the less than pleasant thoughts that kept floating around his mind. However, as the sky became steadily darker and the trees shaded the moon, Roman’s uneasiness only grew.
Walking a bit faster, he tried to block out the soft whisper of the wind through the trees that sounded like voices filling the air. It was just his imagination, He told himself, aware of the fact of how ironic that was. The hairs on the back of Roman’s neck tingled with the sense that he was being watched by something just out of sight. It—It was nothing, just his overactive mind. Those were certainly not footsteps behind him, no matter how much he thought he could hear a second step just a beat behind his. It was just his own boots stomping against the ground and kicking up the leaves. A momentary gasp escaped Roman’s lips as he thought he saw eyes glinting out from behind a tree, but no, wait. It was just the barely visible moonlight catching on the dewdrops of the leaves.
Get it together, Roman. He chastised himself, shaking his head. Creepy and horrifying things were Remus’s territory, and Roman knew his kingdom well enough to know he was nowhere near Remus’s part of the imagination. So, there was nothing to worry about, and that was that. He was just too on edge after a long day and a fierce battle. That’s all there was to it. There wasn’t really anything lurking in the shadows, waiting to jump him, it was just his own thoughts running around and making him jumpy. Roman took another deep breath as he tried to push away the thoughts that were plaguing him.
This was ridiculous. He wasn’t scared of the dark or the trees. He was a prince for crying out loud. He—Roman stopped in his tracks. He could have sworn—those weren’t footsteps behind him…were they? Drawing his sword, Roman carefully started back up, his mind racing, his body tense. Again, he heard a definite second pair of steps behind him, but when he whirled around, sword at the ready, no one could be seen. Gulping, he walked faster, just trying to get through the woods. The rational part of his brain screamed that he controlled this place—that he could make it stop, that it wasn’t real, but that part of his brain was starting to drown in his fear. He just needed to get home.
Roman picked up his pace, trying to keep his breaths even and his eyes ahead of him. It was darker now, the leaves above completely blocking out the moon. The breeze had disappeared, but the whispers of the trees had not. They were whispering words that Roman had to strain to hear, and even when he caught a few snippets, he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. But they were whispering.
Roman was running now, desperate to get out. Desperate to get home. He’d dropped his sword somewhere along the way and couldn’t clear his mind enough to summon it again. His thoughts whirled around his head, any semblance of rationale getting caught up in his panic. A flash of yellow eyes behind the trees caught his attention—a flash all too wary and constant to be dewdrops this time. The eyes followed him, moving alongside him and keeping pace with ease. Yet the creature behind the eyes remained completely silent even as Roman’s feet pounded loudly on the earth, cracking twigs and rustling leaves.
The footsteps behind him increased their pace as he increased his own. Roman could feel them gaining on him. He could feel it. He could hear it. Twigs snapping right behind him, leaves rustling against the ground just a second after his own stirred them up. He chanced a glance behind him, but there was still nothing there. There was nothing there, yet he could hear the steps getting closer. They were getting faster, even though he was going the same pace as before. He wasn’t going to be fast enough. The trees, the eyes, the footsteps. They were gaining on him. They were—they were going to get to him. He was too slow. They were too fast. Everything was too much. With a pained cry, Roman stumbled to his knees and curled into himself, covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut.
Logically, he knew he was in the imagination. Logically, he knew that he could stop this. It was just thoughts come to life. That was what the imagination did. And the imagination was his domain after all. He was the one that was causing all of these things to become real. But those thoughts were drowned out by his fear as quickly as they surfaced, and since when had imagination followed the rules of logic anyway. He was too disoriented to think rationally. Too tired to defend himself. Too scared to do anything other than curl up and desperately cover his ears.
Then there were arms around him, and he was shaking. It had caught up. Whatever was making the footsteps had caught him. Or maybe it was whatever had lurked in the trees, watching his every move. It had finally made its move and pounced. Or maybe the trees had finally had enough of him disturbing their home and had reached out to trap him forever in their embrace.
Roman gasped, trying not to cry as thoughts flew across his mind faster than he had time to fully process them. Thoughts of him decaying here forever alone. Thoughts of being torn limb from limb by the mysterious monsters in the woods. Thoughts of things he couldn’t see twisting their hands around his neck. Thoughts that he couldn’t manage to escape. Thoughts that swirled around him sweeping him deeper into his panic. But then he felt a gentle hand on his back. He felt himself being pulled into someone’s chest and felt the person begin rocking back and forth gently. This was…this was nice?
When nothing immediately tore him apart or wrapped suffocatingly around his body, he risked taking a shuddering breath. The hands around him tensed slightly before one of the hands came up to gently cup his head and press it to the scratchy fabric beneath his face. It took a while, but slowly, Roman relaxed and uncurled himself a bit. It took even longer for him to remove his hands from his ears, choosing instead to grip the figure in front of him and bury his face in the costume. Taking another shaky breath, he started to hear soft words of encouragement being muttered.
“It’s ok, Ro bro. I’ve got you. You’re ok. It wasn’t real.”
Remus. Roman tried to call for his brother, to assure him that he was ok now, but he only managed a whimper. Alright so maybe he wasn’t ok quite yet.
“Hey, it’s ok. I’ll get you out of here, k?” Remus promised, standing and hauling Roman up with him. Once they were standing, Remus draped Roman’s arms over his shoulder and pulled him onto his back before Roman could even protest.  He was too tired to argue anyway, and still too shaken to care much as he buried his face in Remus’s scratchy costume, not daring to look up at the surrounding darkness.
A few minutes later, they finally reached the door out of the imagination. Remus bust open the door and shook away Roman’s tight grip before tossing him onto something soft. The familiar glow of the fairy lights in his room immediately calmed him as he finally let himself breathe in full.
“You ok, Ro bro?” Remus asked, voice unusually quiet. “Those were—that was unusual for your side, huh?”
Roman shuddered at the thought of the dark forest and of the creatures lurking there.
“I’m—I’m ok,” He sighed. “Um, thank you, Re.”
“Ew, don’t thank me, you’ve never said thank you in your life,” Remus scoffed, tone shifting immediately as he plopped down next to Roman on the bed. Roman huffed indignantly, trying to shake off any lingering panic.
“Well, excuse me, for being grateful,” he tsked, rolling his eyes.
“You’re not excused,” Remus grinned, reaching over to flick Roman who quickly ducked away.
“You ruined the moment. We were having a bonding moment,” Roman complained swatting at Remus as he continued trying to flick him.
“Gross,” Remus gagged. Roman tsked again, pouting as he turned away. Remus just snickered, falling backwards onto the bed and not getting up. A short silence followed their bickering until Remus sat up and stared at Roman, studying his face uncomfortably closely.
“You know that it’s dangerous to be in the imagination after dark when you’re this exhausted Ro Ro,” He remarked, poking at Roman’s cheek. “I thought doing stupid things was my specialty.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Roman defended, pushing his brother’s hand away with another eyeroll. “I mean, I was busy fighting the dragon witch and then the people wanted to celebrate, and I couldn’t just refuse them, and—and…I guess I ended up staying a bit too long.”
“Please, ‘a bit too long’ my ass. If I hadn’t sensed something was up, you’d be caught in your own head until morning,” Remus pointed out, looking pleased with himself.
“You’re not helping,” Roman grumbled, glaring at his brother. Remus grinned and shrugged.
“Well, brother dear, if you’re ok, I have an appointment with a certain snake and a bag of rats.”
“A bag of—ok, I don’t want to know. It’s—yeah, I’m fine.” Roman replied, waving him off as Remus stood up. To be honest, he wasn’t keen on being left alone again, but he wasn’t about to admit to his brother of all people that despite his efforts, the thoughts still lurked in the corners of his mind. The dark corners of his room had never seemed to intimidating before, and he still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Sometimes, things from the imagination could leak out into the Mindscape. It had happened before, granted only when one of them had left the door open, but what if the thing in the woods was still here? What if Remus hadn’t shut the door all the way when they came back? What if whatever had been making the footsteps had followed him? He'd never know until it was too late. The thought of roots writhing up from the dirt and trapping him to the ground as they suffocated him flashed through his mind and he quickly tried to push it away. But what if it happened this time? What if whatever was in the woods would drag him back before he could reach his sword? What if the monster with the yellow eyes was waiting in the shadows for him to let down his guard? What then?
Remus tilted his head, studying him for a moment before throwing himself back onto the bed, snapping into softer clothes and beginning to burrow into Roman’s nest of blankets.
“What the—" Roman muttered, pulled out of his thoughts at the motion.
“On second thought. It’s too comfortable here. Guess good ole Jan will have to wait,” Remus grinned, wiggling around to make himself comfortable.
“You don’t have to stay, Remus. I told you I’m all good,” Roman insisted, not really sure why he was arguing but feeling the need to anyway.
“Too late. You’re stuck with me for tonight,” Remus shrugged, conjuring up a deodorant stick and popping off the lid. Roman cringed slightly as he watched his brother take a huge bite of the deodorant.
“You—I’m really fine, though,” Roman tried again weakly. Remus gave him a weird look before rolling his eyes and sitting up slightly.
“Did you forget already? I can hear what’s going on up there Robro. I know that you don’t wanna be alone right now,” he said, poking at Roman’s forehead as he spoke. Roman paled, looking away. How could he forget that Remus could hear intrusive thoughts. He winced when he thought of what else he might have heard since they’d started getting along again.
“We can have a movie marathon like we used to. As long as I get to pick a few,” Remus suggested when Roman didn’t say anything, lighting up at his idea. Before Roman had the chance to answer, Remus had already grabbed the prince’s laptop and was pulling up movies to watch
“As long as you don’t pick anything with gore,” Roman gave in quickly, sighing softly. At this point, he knew Remus probably wouldn’t leave no matter how much he argued anyway.
“Boo, no fun,” Remus pouted, backspacing whatever he’d been typing in the search bar.
Roman only snorted before quickly running to the bathroom and getting changed out of his dirty prince costume. Instead, he put on some silky pajamas and settled himself beside Remus as his brother started the movie he’d picked, Frankenweenie. Roman glanced at Remus with a raised eyebrow receiving an unhinged grin in return. He knew Remus only picked such a tame movie for his sake; and he felt a wave of appreciation wash over him, almost drowning out the lingering fear that floated in his head. He settled deeper into the blankets and grinned softly.
“Hey, Remus.” he whispered, as the beginning scene began to play.
“Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
Remus glanced over at him and made a face.
“I thought I told you to stop that.”
Roman shrugged, pulling the blankets closer around him. Now that he was finally warm and the fear and adrenaline were fading, he felt the weight of his exhaustion hit him.
“Thought you should know,” he mumbled with a yawn, “You’re—You’re a good brother. I’m glad you’re back.”
Remus was quiet for a while—a feat in itself. Roman would have been worried about the abnormally long silence had he not been on the verge of falling asleep already. Instead, he simply let his head bump against Remus’ shoulder and let his eyes slip closed with another yawn. In fact, he had almost completely drifted off when Remus finally spoke up.
“You’re—You really think I’m a good brother?” he asked, voice unusually shaky.
“’Course,” Roman answered automatically sitting up a little, “but if you ever repeat that, I’ll murder you with my bare hands...and my sword.”
Remus snorted.
“You can try. Sounds like a good time,” he snickered reaching over to flick Roman’s head successfully this time.
“Rude,” Roman mumbled in response rubbing the sore spot on his forehead.
“You’re so sappy when you’re tired,” Remus cackled, noting the fact that Roman didn’t even try to get back at him for the flick. Instead, his brother just huffed, letting his head fall back against Remus’s shoulder. Remus rolled his eyes but let him get comfy again. At least he could no longer hear the swirling thoughts that had plagued Roman since he’d reached him in the imagination. As everything settled down again, Roman drifted off quickly. So quickly that he almost didn’t hear Remus’s next words.
“You’re a good brother too, Robro,” he whispered. “I missed you.”
Roman smiled. The thoughts didn’t come back that night.
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emoprincey · 11 months
Text
Becoming Brothers chapter 2 - School and Scheming
Chapter 1 | This is chapter 2! 
Fic summary:  Everyone knew Roman and Remus were twins – at least, that was what they told anyone who’d listen. In fact, the only people who knew they weren’t related at all were Roman and Remus themselves, and of course their single dads, Logan and Virgil. But when the boys realise their dads are falling for each other, they might have a chance to become real brothers, if only the grown-ups would stop being so oblivious. It looks like some matchmaking is in order…
Relationships: Platonic/familial Creativitwins, romantic analogical. 
Also posted on my ao3: stormofstarlight 
Word count: 4019 
Taglist for this fic: @iclaimedtobethebetterbard @star-crossed-shipper @theblackcatscratchpost 
Author’s note: Hello again! It’s been exactly a year since I posted the first chapter of this fic, which wasn’t planned at all. This is kind of a beast of a chapter so it took a while, but I’m really happy with how it turned out XD 
“Dad, you can let go. I’ll be fine!” Remus insisted, trying to pull away from Virgil, who’d pulled him into a hug just as they got out of the car in the high school car park.
Virgil sighed, and gave him one last squeeze before he pulled away. “I know,” he said softly. “I know you will, really. Have fun, okay? High school is big, and it might seem scary, but I’m sure you’ll do great.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Remus said, craning his neck to look around. He’d been here on the open day last year, but the school looked so different when it was full of people milling about. Most of them were bigger than him, and he could see groups of boys jostling each other, and gaggles of girls with identical haircuts and far more makeup than the rules on the website said was allowed. And now he was going to be one of them. In a black blazer and tie identical to everyone else, he was a high school kid now. And that wasn’t scary. At all.
The knot in his chest relaxed a little when he saw a familiar blue car pull into a nearby spot in the busy car park.
“Roman!” Remus called, waving when he saw Roman get out of one of the doors in the back.
“Remus!” Roman called back, dashing over to him with his backpack still hanging off one shoulder. He looked smart in his new blazer, and Logan must have done his hair this morning because his light brown locks were styled into a neat quiff. He probably looked smarter than Remus did with an untucked shirt – because even though Virgil had told him to tuck it in this morning he’d found that uncomfortable – and hair that got messed up the second the wind touched it.
“We’re in high school now!” Roman exclaimed, as if Remus didn’t already know that. “I can’t wait to start! I’m going to be in all the school plays, and I’m going to do guitar lessons – because they have those here – and maybe trumpet as well, and piano, and-”
“And before you do any of that, you need to go to assembly,” Logan cut in, with a fond smile. “You don’t want to be late on your first day, do you?”
He bent down to adjust Roman’s tie as he spoke, though Remus thought it already looked perfectly neat.
“Remember, you’re, getting the number fifteen bus home. The number will be on the front,” Virgil reminded the two of them, “and you’re both going to Logan’s house.”
“I know,” Remus said. “You’ve only told me fifty times today.”
“Just want to make sure you know,” Virgil chuckled, wrapping one arm around Remus’ shoulder in a little side hug, which Remus didn’t mind so much because it was just starting to sink in that he was going to be in a new place without his dad all day.
“You both have your water bottles, don’t you?” Logan asked, and the boys nodded. “Remember to actually drink from them, it’s a big day and you’ll need to stay hydrated.”
“I feel like we’re in class already,” Remus whispered to Roman, who giggled.
Logan furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, but Virgil elbowed him playfully and he seemed to relax.  
“You’ll never win against them,” Virgil said, with a small laugh.
“They are quite the double act,” Logan admitted. “Anyway, you two really should get to assembly now, I’ll see you both when I finish work.”
He patted Roman on the shoulder, kind of stiff and formal like he always was, but Roman surged forward and wrapped him in a tight hug.
“See you later, Dad,” Roman mumbled into the front of Logan’s shirt.
“Yes, I’ll… I’ll see you later, Roman.” Logan’s eyes glistened a little, and he wrapped his arms around Roman as well.
Virgil pulled Remus close again, and Remus didn’t try to pull away this time.
“I’m so proud of you, you know that?” Virgil said quietly.  
“I know,” Remus said thickly, because he did. No matter what his teachers had said at parent’s evening in primary school, or how long it took Remus to do his homework, or how many times he said the wrong thing in the wrong situation, Virgil always made sure to tell Remus how proud he was of him, and how well he was doing by just being himself.
“Have a good day, kid,” Virgil said, and he ruffled Remus’ hair one final time, then tutted at how he’d messed it up and tried to smooth it down again.
For a moment, Remus considered asking Virgil not to make him go. Maybe if he begged enough, he’d be able to stay home instead of going to a school full of loud kids who would probably make fun of him, and teachers who would say he didn’t try hard enough. But he knew Virgil had work. He’d stick it out, just for one day. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he was expecting.
So instead, he gave his dad the bravest smile he could, and nodded before he walked off with Roman.
“Remus, tuck your shirt in!” Virgil called after him.
Remus sighed – he’d been so close to getting away with it – but he did as he was told before he and Roman joined the busy crowd of people entering the building. The crowd was a lot bigger than Remus was used to. Even Roman looked a little apprehensive, and Roman always said he wasn’t scared of anything. Remus squeezed Roman’s hand as they walked through the doors, and Roman squeezed back.
The assembly hall wasn’t hard to find – it was just inside the main doors, and Remus had sat in there for a talk on the open day, so he remembered the way. It was already packed when they got there, and the first few rows of benches in front of the stage were already filled. Remus didn’t mind, though – he didn’t like sitting near the front anyway, because the teachers would always see him fidgeting and tell him off. He immediately made for the cool tiered seating at the back, but a teacher blocked his path and ushered him and Roman towards the fourth row back of benches.
“So, what are we going to do?” Remus asked Roman once they sat down. The hall was slowly filling with buzzing chatter as more students entered behind them.
“About our dads?”
Remus nodded.
“Well, we need to figure out how to set them up,” Roman said. “We can draw up a plan in the treehouse after school.”
Remus opened his mouth to say something else, but a teacher shushed him as a woman walked onto the stage. He recognised her as the headmistress from the pictures all over the website and the speech she’d given at the open day. She was definitely breaking the make-up rules, with bright red lipstick that matched her polka-dot blouse, but the rules never seemed to apply to teachers.
Remus tried to whisper to Roman throughout the assembly, but he kept getting looks from the teachers stood at the side of the hall. After a while, even Roman started to look annoyed with him, because the teachers probably thought he was being disruptive too, so Remus was quiet after that.
At the end of assembly, the headmistress called each student’s name, and directed them to a form tutor. Remus and Roman were both in 7C, and were pointed over to a smiley man called Dr Picani. Remus hadn’t thought that doctors could be teachers too, but Virgil had worked two jobs in the past, so he supposed it made sense.
Dr Picani made a show of counting the students’ heads before he led them down the corridor. The assembly hall was attached to what Remus vaguely remembered as the humanities building, and their form room was on the second floor. The walls were covered in brightly coloured displays, and graphics with cartoon characters – a few of which Remus recognised. He didn’t really understand what much of the writing in the displays meant, but there were a few diagrams of brains, which Remus thought were pretty cool. There was even a model brain on Dr Picani’s desk, cut open to show sections inside highlighted with different colours.
“This is a psychology classroom,” Dr Picani explained, when one of the students asked. “None of you will be able to take psychology until GSCE, but I do teach some history classes as well, so some of you might still have me as a teacher!”
Remus grabbed a seat at the front of the classroom right next to Roman – mostly so he could get a better look at the model brain, but also because Dr Picani actually seemed alright.
Dr Picani handed out the timetables, and Remus was relieved to see that his history teacher was listed as Dr E Picani.
“Hey, we have mostly the same classes,” Roman said, leaning over to compare his timetable to Remus’.
“You will do for this term at least,” Dr Picani told him, sitting down at his desk. “You’ll be in your form groups for all your classes, then after Christmas you might get split up into sets.”
Remus privately hoped that wouldn’t happen, but before he could voice that thought his attention was once again captured by the model brain. “If you’re a doctor, do you cut open people’s brains?” he asked.
He heard Roman make a grossed out noise beside him, but Dr Picani just chuckled.
“No, I’m not a surgeon. I have my Doctorate in psychology; I’m more interested in what people are thinking than how their brains physically work,” he said.
“I’d like to be a brain doctor when I grow up,” Remus declared.
 -----
Since form time had taken place during first period, their first actual lesson of the day was English. The school seemed difficult to navigate, but fortunately their English class was on the same floor as their form room.
Remus knew the teacher would be strict as soon as he saw her. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun, grey streaks in uniform lines as if even they had been placed there purposely. She surveyed the class from behind glasses that balanced halfway down her nose, her stony expression not shifting at all until a boy pulled out a chair from one of the desks.
“Ah-ah!” She called, her voice icy. “I don’t know how things worked at your primary schools, but in my classroom, we have a seating plan.”
And that was when Remus knew for certain that this class would be his worst nightmare.
The teacher picked up a sheet of paper from her desk, and began assigning students to their seats. The tables were set out in neat rows, with only room for two people at each desk. Remus hoped he’d get a seat next to Roman, but the teacher was clearly assigning the seating in alphabetical order, and their surnames were nowhere near each other in the register. It also meant that Remus’ name was one of the first ones to be called.
“Remus Blake; Remy Chen.” The teacher pointed to the desk right in front of hers.
That was just Remus’ luck. He had a sneaking suspicion that this teacher wouldn’t turn out to be as nice as Dr Picani.
“Miss, can’t I sit next to Roman?” Remus piped up hopefully. “We’re twins.”
The teacher pursed her lips, giving Remus a disapproving look. “That’s Ms Driscoll, to you. And surely if you’re twins, you’ll see enough of each other at home. It’ll be good for you to socialise with other people.”
“But we don’t live together!” Remus objected.
“I see,” Ms Driscoll pushed her glasses up her nose. “Mr Blake, are you and Mr Sanders over here really twins?”
Remus shrank back a little under her gaze. Nobody had ever called him Mr Blake – that title was for his dad. “Not yet...” he mumbled. “But we will be soon!”
Ms Driscoll laughed shortly, but she didn’t really sound amused. “Mr Blake, take your seat. You can stay behind at break for lying.”
Remus huffed as he sat down. Of course he’d gotten in trouble on his first day, and he’d really tried to behave himself.
The boy Ms Driscoll had reprimanded at the start of class – who must be Remy – sat down next to him.
“Is he really going to be your brother?” Remy whispered, leaning over to Remus with a curious expression.
“Yeah! We’re going to make our dads get married,” Remus answered proudly.
“That’s so cool!” Remy said, opening his backpack to take out a pencil case patterned with sunglasses. “I have a baby sister, but she mostly sleeps and cries. It would be cool to have a twin.”
“It will be,” Remus assured him.
“Mr Blake, Mr Chen,” Ms Driscoll snapped. “Did I give you permission to talk?”
Remus sucked in a breath. That was one of the questions teachers asked that he’d get into more trouble for answering out loud, so he shook his head.
Ms Driscoll nodded firmly. “Be quiet, both of you. Or you’ll be staying behind at lunch as well.”
Once Ms Driscoll had turned away from them again, Remy rolled his eyes towards Remus, and Remus suppressed a smirk at that.
The lesson dragged on, with Ms Driscoll scolding Remus every time he fidgeted. Roman ended up on the other side of the classroom, near the back, and when Remus turned around to meet his eyes Ms Driscoll tapped on his desk as if she was trying to draw his attention back to his worksheet.
His detention was just as boring as the lesson, perhaps even more so because he couldn’t listen to his classmates working, and all of Ms Driscoll’s attention was on him because he was the only one in the room. 
-----
Remus hoped he’d be able to scheme with Roman later in the day, but the class after break was a double lesson of biology, which ended up being just as interesting as Remus hoped, and he it was all he wanted to talk about at lunch. And after lunch they had another assembly.
By the time they got on the bus after school, Remus was exhausted. He’d taken the bus before with Virgil, but he’d never used a bus pass. The driver showed him where to scan it, and he managed to get a seat near the back with Roman.
The whole way back, he watched for their stop, even though he knew it was about twenty minutes away.
Roman’s house had a neatly mowed lawn and a dark blue garage door. They walked down the empty driveway to the front door, and Roman got out his key. He’d been proud when he told Remus that he’d gotten his own key to the house, because Logan wouldn’t be back until half past four and Roman would need to let himself and Remus in. That meant they’d be alone for an hour, but it was better than Remus going back to his flat by himself and waiting for Virgil to get home. Virgil usually finished work at seven, but he’d switched around his shifts so he could take Remus to school this morning, and he wouldn’t be done until after eight.
When Roman opened the door, the two of them dumped their bags by the sofa and headed out to the treehouse in the back garden. This treehouse had been their favourite hangout spot since they were kids. It almost felt like they had their own house, away from the grown-ups, where they could make their own rules. It even had proper windows and a door with a latch, which opened onto the small fenced balcony that the sturdy wooden ladder led to.
“Race you!” Remus called as soon as he entered the back garden, already taking off across the lawn.
“No fair, you had a head-start!” Roman whined as he chased after him, though they both knew that Remus was the fastest out of the two of them anyway.
Remus stuck his tongue out, then he climbed the ladder and hauled himself onto the balcony, with Roman just behind him.
The walls inside the treehouse were covered in drawings that the two of them had done over the years, from indecipherable crayon scribbles to more recent pencil drawings of castles and dragons. The chalkboard was still filled with plans for one of their stories – which they’d been struggling with, because Roman wanted the main character, a prince, to go on a daring quest and save his kingdom, while Remus thought it should be taken over by dragons.
As soon as they were inside, Roman made straight for the toybox, shaped and decorated to look like a treasure chest. “We can’t write about this on the chalkboard, Dad would definitely see it,” he said as he pulled out a stack of notebooks. After a moment of consideration, he selected a thick book with a pretty marbled rainbow cover, which the two of them had been saving to write something special in.
Remus pulled his green chair out from the small table in the middle of the room, and reached for the box of pens in the middle.
“You do the writing, I’m no good at it,” he said, shoving a few gel pens in Roman’s direction.
Roman pulled a face at that, but he took the glittery pens anyway and uncapped a red one, securing the lid neatly on the back end of the pen. “Now, we need a plan to make them realise they like each other. I think we should get them to go on a date.”
Remus wrinkled his forehead. “Wait, don’t people need to realise they like each other before they go on a date?”
“Not if we’re clever about it,” Roman said, with a conspiratorial smile. “Trust me, I saw this on Disney Channel. We just need to get them to go somewhere that people go on dates, leave them alone, and boom! They’re on a date!”
“Huh,” Remus said, watching as Roman scribbled something down in the notebook.
“Now, we just need date ideas,” Roman said.
“Ooh, how’s about a haunted house?” Remus suggested immediately. “Dad likes haunted houses, and it’s Halloween soon.”
“Not for a date.” Roman wrinkled his nose. “Dates have to be somewhere romantic... like a restaurant, or a ball!”
“Where are we going to find a ball around here?” Remus asked.
Roman chewed on the end of the pen for a second. “Maybe we’ll leave that one for later,” he said, making a note of it in the book.
They spent a while jotting down more ideas in the notebook, until they heard the sound of the back door opening.
“Boys? Are you out here?” Logan called from the garden.
Roman shot up from his seat and raced out of the treehouse, Remus following quickly behind him.
“Dad!” Roman grinned, launching himself at Logan and wrapping his arms around his waist in a hug.
“Did you have a good day at school?” Logan asked.
“Yeah, but our English teacher is horrible,” Roman complained. “She wouldn’t let us sit together, and she’s given us homework already, even though we’ve only had one lesson!”
“Have you done the homework?” Logan asked.
Roman paused. “No...”
Logan sighed. “Go into the dining room and work on it while I make dinner. You too, Remus,” he said, then he led them into the house.
“I can’t believe you told him, now we have to do homework!” Remus grumbled, but he was glad Roman hadn’t let slip about his detention. There was no way Logan would keep that a secret from Virgil, and Remus really didn’t want Virgil to have to worry about him getting in trouble on his first day of school.
 -----
Roman was done with the homework in no time, since it was mostly things they’d learnt in year six, but Remus struggled with some of it. He hadn’t quite gotten the material when they’d covered it last year.
“How are you boys getting on?” Logan asked after about half an hour, coming out of the kitchen wearing a plain blue apron, with a tea towel slung over his shoulder that he seemed to have forgotten about.
“Done!” Roman announced proudly.
Remus hummed. “I’m stuck on question five.”
Logan came over to take a look at his worksheet, and Remus angled it towards him.
“I don’t get the difference between a simile and a metaphor. They’re both saying a thing is something it isn’t, aren’t they?” Remus asked.
Logan considered that for a moment, then he sat down next to Remus. “I suppose they are, but try to think of it this way...”
By the time Logan had explained that and a few other questions Remus couldn’t get the hang of, the lasagne was ready, but Remus felt like he understood a lot better.
Roman and Remus put their schoolwork away, and set the table while Logan got the lasagne out of the oven. Remus noticed that when he dished it up he left one portion to the side.
 -----
By the time Virgil arrived, it was almost nine o’clock. Remus tackled him with a hug as soon as he got through the door.
“Hey, kid,” Virgil said tiredly, and he squeezed Remus tightly. “Thanks so much for looking after him,” he said to Logan.
As Remus pulled away, he saw Logan smile. “Don’t worry about it. He was no bother at all, I even got him to do his homework,” he said, sounding mildly pleased with himself.
Virgil pulled a face. “What kind of teacher gives you homework on the first day of school?”
“That’s what I said!” Roman exclaimed, and Virgil ruffled his hair.
“Anyway, sorry to dash off so soon, but I need to get Remus home before bedtime, and get some tea,” Virgil said.
“Ah, I thought you might be hungry, so I left a portion of lasagne for you,” Logan said.
“What?” Virgil blinked, looking at Logan with something between surprise and awe. “Lo, you didn’t have to do that.”
Logan shrugged. “It was no trouble. The recipe serves four anyway, I’ll go and warm it up for you,” he said, and disappeared into the kitchen.
Virgil continued watching the doorway Logan had gone through, a distant look and a small smile on his face, until Remus tugged on his hand.
“Dad, I need to tell you about my day,” he said. Well, he’d tell Virgil almost everything. He didn’t want the detention brigning up.
They relocated to the sofa, so Remus and Roman could tell Virgil all about the big school. After a few minutes, Logan came through with a plate of lasagne which he passed to Virgil to balance on his knee. Virgil gave him a big grin, and he kept smiling when he looked down at his lasagne and Logan went to sit down himself.
Remus knew Logan didn’t usually let anyone eat meals in the living room, but maybe he’d seen how tired Virgil was and decided to make an exception.
“This is really good,” Virgil said through a mouthful of lasagne. “Thanks so much, Lo.”
Logan smiled, but he raised an eyebrow. “Virgil, table manners.”
“I’m not sat at a table. Checkmate,” Virgil smirked, but he didn’t talk with food in his mouth for the rest of the evening.
When it was finally time for them to leave, Remus gave Roman a big hug.
“See you tomorrow,” he said.
Virgil and Logan were standing a bit awkwardly by the door when Virgil cleared his throat.
“Thanks again. Um, you know, for dinner,” he said, rubbing his arm.
“I told you, it was no trouble,” Logan said. He patted Virgil’s arm and nodded.
Virgil nodded back, and put an arm around Remus. “Right then kid, let’s go.”
For the whole drive back to their flat, Remus thought about how nice it would be to never have to leave Roman for the evening.
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tastic-in-its-finest · 5 months
Text
Strike Midnight
Ao3
For the @tss-october-ghostwriters event, the prompts transformation, full moon, midnight, ancient, and a little bit of magic were used :)
Warnings and tags: Minor violence, tw blood, mentions of murdering/killing, and animal attacks
Summary: To improve an imperfect world, he does what needs to be done. Roman, a human, hunts the feral and out of control monsters in his path while sparing the misunderstood, along with his twin brother Remus.
However, it's hard to hunt a werewolf when it turns out to be your own brother.
Written by: @tastic-in-its-finest, for my lovely Giftee @edupunkn00b
...
He searched every corner and crevice yet couldn’t find it. Roman checked almost every burrow, climbing many trees of the dark and deep thicket of the forest to survey the area. He knew he wasn’t trying as hard as he should. He wasn’t desperate enough to cannonball into a lake just yet. Yet the ancient bracelet he was trying to find seemed unreachable.
He was given instructions by Janus, a snake deity, of which surrounding area to look, and bribing them with the sweet ‘rewards’ to come with it.
He could try to enjoy the rewards, if not for him, then for his brother Remus. He didn’t hate the Janus, harboring only a slight dislike for him since he’d met him, but they bonded over theater and a love for drama. And he wasn’t about to let his brother down, who was enthralled with any ideas Janus had in mind, even if they were clueless of their prize.
He took a short break to wait for the impending sunset, in the middle of a semi-open clearing with rocks nearby, he could mentally hear Janus scolding him. Where is he meant to find this anyway? Janus didn’t tell them too many specifics to find the bracelet; like a key hidden under a rock.
Well, what did he have to lose?
Looking under one, two, three stones, and the fourth, much larger and stuck in the ground. He pulled harder, and harder, before it popped out and he almost decked his beautiful face. It isn’t stuck to mud however, a shiny silver pendant, or bracelet somehow found itself lost. The bastard who stole and threw it away knew where to hide it. It was the exact description he needed.
“Eureka,” he whispered, drying the wet and dirt, wearing the ancient bracelet, golden, fabulous, the smell of metal grazing his wrist, quite charming, preparing to speak with Remus about his discovery.
A hesitant twig broke close, near one of the large bushes. Roman felt eyes prying the back of his head. He wanted to think Remus was attempting to scare him, poorly, but Remus knew better.
The handle of his sword proved a sturdy grip, seethed in his lightweight holster for now, he waited.
“Show yourself!” He yelled, as he swung his sharp sword out and a fast figure tripped him down, standing unfazed in front of him dark and stormy. A sharp face he found all too familiar these days.
“You.” He pointed his sword, finding the means to pull himself up while looking at the unimpressed emo nightmare, V, short for vampire, held an black spider web umbrella one-handed, big enough to cover him completely.
“You’re too easy sometimes… princey,” Roman glared, remaining serious, yet slightly relaxing the tip of his sword towards the vampire's turtleneck.
“What sort of a nickname is that?”
The pale emo grinned, “If you don’t want to be called a prince, don’t act or dress like one,” the vampire gestured towards his favorite red sash over his hunting clothes.
“Should I call you a dark and stormy knight then, cause that’s exactly what you are,” with layers upon layers of black and gray clothing in the hot grueling sun.
“Real original of you.”
“It’s the only thing I can call you, unless you give me a name.”
“In your dreams.”
His name was not V, but he was called Virgil. Stuck in an open area, one of his many obstacles, he ran into him, all of his stamina diminished, the sun already tiring him. The extremely skilled and dangerous monster hunter, his sword resting near his side, ready to strike him at any moment, “What’s your play vampire?”
“Why does it matter to you?”
"My brother will be here any minute. I'd hate for him to kill you before I do,” he playfully tapped him, but Virgil internally wondered if he was being serious or not.
"Lower your sword, then we can talk," Virgil tried to put the most nonchalant voice imaginable, he cringed when he croaked the words out. The hunter listened.
"...Have you been stalking me?"
Virgil couldn’t help but laugh, “Don’t flatter yourself, you’re not the only reason I’m out here,” he stepped forward, looking distantly behind Roman. The side dense area of trees were difficult to traverse by, more difficult with an umbrella no less, however, he could make a run for it, only, a sharp and cold blade tapped and pressed the tip of his bicep before he could move forward.
He blinked rapidly, “You want to do this now?”
“We don’t have a truce at the moment,” The hunter flashed a cocky grin, stance in the ready. He was testing him, always, but Virgil never wanted to believe he couldn’t be. Didn’t think he noticed the wooden stake slotted near his sword holster. Make sure he never touches it.
“Cocky, princey,” Virgil looked into the deadly rays of the sun, the dark umbrella his only protection, assessing his situation. He put his hood up.
From what he could gather, it was a pure coincidence they met again. But Roman was ready to defeat him this time, defend his honor and beat his brother to the kill.
He took the first swing, missing by an inch, another, another, and another, the monster ducked, shielding the blow meant to strike his face as his back sizzled from a lack of protection. The vampire hissed, scratching Roman’s cheek, burning and painful.
Backing away, Roman got stunned by such a violent reaction, furthermore, V remained in defense. Taking a chance, he kept stepping forward, swinging fast, failing to kick his chest, and swiping his legs from under him with a katana. The fiend stumbled into the grass. He tried stomping to the side of his pale face yet rolling out from under him, swiping at Roman’s spine, getting a hard grip on his hands, flipping him onto his back as his hood fell off.
Groaning in pain, pushing himself up, the monster tried kicking him to the ground while he was vulnerable. Roman ducked, slashing the torn Umbrella. Hissing, cowering and retreating from the sun, Roman rushes forward and trying to pin him to the tree, his head hit it too hard, knocking him out cold.
Roman leaned on the tree, catching his breath, the vampire lucky enough to be left in the shade of the leaves. Seething his sword, somehow without a trace of vampire blood, in his holster, fitting the wooden stake in his hand.
Standing over V, blissfully unaware of what could be a stake about to be driven in his heart, turned Roman’s stomach. He gripped the stake, he could do it, rid the world of one more evil. Yet he blanks trying to search for an evil deed V committed. He isn’t feral. This wasn’t honorable, it felt so wrong. He would have hated to be murdered this way.
The stake is slit in its rightful place, along with neatly folding the umbrella. Leaving after his slight distraction.
Remus is having the time of his life. Swinging upside down on trees, squeezing his bum into every burrow, and cannonballing into a lake to find an eensie weensie ancient trinket bracelet thing and the magic to neutralize the strengths of those who weld it. He was given sort of clear instructions by his close friend Janus, an idea of the whereabouts, and the sweet long morningstar to come with it.
Like any good friend, he lamented on a large stone, reeking of wet dog, cuddling his stick and staring at his reflection in the water, throwing small stones that emerged in the water at himself. It was going to be hard to earn his trust back, after what he did. One bracelet and he can have his weapon back instead of using a sad and sharp stick to murder monsters when he needs to, and of course, Janus’ unconditional love that he cherished more than anything. If only he could see how hard he is trying now.
Echoing through the thicket, a low whistle drew his attention, a call to warn him of his twin's return, in case Remus tried stabbing him.
“Back so late?”
“I have what we need, let's go,” Roman’s shoulders were unusually tense, Remus didn’t question it. Pulling out a large map to guide them out of the unfamiliar area.
“Want to make time for hunting feral werewolves or Rougaros?”
“Well, if only he thought about that on a night other than a full moon,”
“Boo, you’re such a bore. We can do both.”
Roman gasped, feigning annoyance. They crowd the map. Only a few paces north to reach Umbra, a magical spirited place, reachable by oak trees where Janus resided most of his time. The journey was easy however long it was, hopefully they could get back to do some proper werewolf hunting.
The confusing fuzziness began to emb. The bark was rough on his pounding head and scarred back, the tingling burn on the side of his face slowly reconstructing the skin, remembering how he ran away and the umbrella broke.
The hunter is nowhere in sight, he waited, and nothing came of it.
Virgil huffed, moving the umbrella folded neatly in his lap, flexing the panel, a large obnoxious ripe in the fold, great.
Moving along, he couldn’t believe the hunter let him go with only a mild headache. It could have been much worse. Dying wasn’t too far of an option. Probably sparring him out of pity, he wouldn’t doubt it. Virgil just wanted to leave the clearing.
His boot clinks, glaring down, a round metal bracelet under his foot. He reaches down, probably something the prince owned. He tries it for himself, a sudden wash of drowsiness and fatigue traveled from his arm, a scary amount of relaxation as he couldn’t see sharper or hear farther, he yanked it away shrieking.
He’d rather not touch it ever again, but maybe he really wanted to get back at the hunter, maybe repay him for not killing him, as pathetic as it sounds. He pocketed the bracelet and avoided touching it as he squeezed through the bushes, following an obvious trail left by its rightful owner.
The sunset started, yet the sky wasn’t fully darkened. Remus’ watch going off and being silenced immediately to watchfully and carefully listen to any howls from werewolves, ready to use his long stake for one they both heard close by. Whilst his brother preoccupied himself, Roman read the map, not surprised if they’ve been walking in circles for the past hour.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Remus took a peek over his shoulder.
“Of course,” he sighed, “We have a long way to go,” Remus held a manic grin, mussing, “Not too far, we can run there.”
“Too risky,” folding the map in his pocket, preparing to traverse first through the tight narrow trees, sticks stabbing his torso, through the rough patch then another path, passed the building, and arriving at the tree, Roman imagined it all going perfectly, hating chopping through the bark. A high pitched whistle turned his attention.
Remus froze, a finger over his lip. Roman stops moving, confused. While it might have been funny to see Roman become frazzled and get attacked by whatever growled in his ear, Janus would chastise him, and Roman would never forgive him. Roman looks petrified, a hand easing down, reaching for his sword.
Remus turns his head around, a black threatening wolf stalks behind them, big, with human eyes, a werewolf, staring at Remus through the trees, a far enough distance where they can run, the closeness of the trees restricting their movements, they decide to run.
Roman is ahead, breaking and hurting his arms as he hurls himself out of the forest.
Remus can’t breathe, he feels the warm breath and slobber on his legs, fighting, fight to get out, he jumps getting yanked by his leg, a sharp and tight bite on his ankle, he kicks its snout shouting, shielding his face, the long jaw chewing on his tough leather jacket, with no weapon but a stupid stick.
“Roman!” He punches, punching as hard as he can until Roman finally stabs it’s head. The wolf whimpered and cried, scattering away into the darkness.
“Are you ok?” Roman kneels down.
“Where were you?!”
“Remus-“
“You watch me get mauled by a wolf and ask me if I’M OK?!” Roman didn’t know how to respond.
“… Are you?” It quieted, Remus never got so frustrated before, it felt off.
“Sorry. I’m fine, check for bites,” Remus prompts his arm, rolling up the sleeve, Roman finds nothing but a tear in his jacket.
“All good, but your leg…” ominously, his boot is torn, notably a sliver of skin, Remus shrugs, pulling off his boot, no need to roll his socks, exposing a long nasty fresh bite on his ankle.
His heart sunk. Was— was he about to turn? No, no, they had until midnight, reach the Umbra and Janus will cure him before he feels anything.
Remus pushes his boot back on, unable to walk properly, letting Roman support his body with his arm on the path.
“Stay calm. You’re going to be fine, I promise,” it was beginning to turn dark.
Doubt seeped in.
“How much longer?”
“Just a bit, past the building, near the tree.”
Remus starts laughing, “Imagine me turning and ripping into your face, blood everywhere, then both of us wouldn’t make it with Janus’ stupid pendent.”
“Don’t think like that,” Remus was silenced for a moment, giving Roman time to check his wrist for the bracelet. All the rest is bare skin.
He lost it.
“… I don’t have the pendent anymore.”
Remus starts to laugh hysterically, Roman jostles him, “Hey, it doesn’t mean anything. Who cares about the pendent, we need to get you someplace safe.”
He hurries his pace, and Remus goes uncharacteristically quiet.
Numb, unconsciously going from zero to hundred, to hearing every chirp, creak, snap, Roman’s booming echoing voice and his own, to utter nothing. His ankle hot flashes every now and again, aching, throbbing, and in need of rest. Remus should have suggested Roman cut off his ankle in favor of ridding him from turning into.. a werewolf, slowly starting to accept that to be his reality, and how unsafe Roman would be once he does.
He needed to get away from him, away, run, limp as fast as he could.
Remus gently loosens his grip then pulls away from Roman, “Remus! What are you doing?”
He couldn’t let Roman get hurt, or bitten.
Roman holds him in a tight embrace, Remus scratches his face instead, straying away from the path running and half limping, going through a narrow path to lose his trace.
Roman covers his bleeding cheek, regaining his focus and chasing after Remus, weaving through the deep forest, his footsteps getting further away, lost to the wind of the woods. He continued forward. Sighting the large building in the distance, reaching the gate and the entrance to the abandoned boarding school from the map, left slightly ajar, pushing through and closing behind him, an air of death and a bone chilling cold, as if something invisible watched him, the place abandoned for years.
The caved in roof glowed the full moon's light on Remus, curled into himself stomach growling, he is a physical ball collapsed in the room, barely holding himself together. Roman slowly whistles, and kneels, rubbing a comforting circle on his back. Remus looked up to him, his eyes more navelly green and sharp, but he smiled a toothy sharp grin upon seeing him, contracting in pain again, shriveling.
He shushes, calms him down, doesn't let his emotions get to him. They can prevent this from happening.
The door creaks open. He can hear Remus’ breath hitch, the animalistic panic in his eyes, no, he rubs more circles and stares at a surprised and concerned figure, in all black and gray, a broken umbrella in his hands.
He’s going to kill that vampire.
He rushes as fast as he can to not disturb Remus any further, “V, what are you doing here!?”
“I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” V backed into the loud door cowering, the bracelet held in his hand snatched from him, “You had this?” Roman couldn’t believe it.
“Leave now,” Roman couldn’t stress enough how in much in danger he was there.
“I wanted to-“
Roman grabbed his neck scruff, pulling out his stake, “Go, I mean it or I will make you!” V’s eyes widened, about to protest or argue.
A large crack interrupted the room, turning around, Remus’ hand was covered in fur, nails sharpening into claws, ears pointing and morphing, screaming in agony, Roman couldn’t look away. Roman lets go, stepping closer, V holds his shoulder, preventing him as his clothes ripped and his back arched of brown fur, except for a silver streak.
(Wolf?) Remus growled, he couldn’t recognize him, and he was stalking towards them as if they were a fresh meal.
“Truce?”
“Truce.”
Wolf Remus snarls and bites the air, they dodge out of the way. Roman held the handle of his sword, but he didn’t feel the urge to pull it out, even with a hungry, feral, and vicious wolf lunging at him, he used his fists, barely able to miss Remus from biting him, scratching him instead. He’s too large, it’s too easy to let him overpower. He couldn’t hurt him, but he needed to defend himself, he took out the stake… he couldn’t do it.
V pushed Remus from attacking Roman again, but dazing him for a bit, “Look, I know that’s your twin, but you are going to need to wake up right now or he is going to have to live with the fact that he murdered his own brother!!” V yelled, bringing all of his attention to him, toying with Remus, giving Roman time to readjust his focus.
Virgil jumps out of the way of Remus’ lunge on the opposite side of the room, letting one of the twins think over his options, to which they barely had any left. He had no inkling of what to do, other than distract Remus until morning, his stamina during the night was exponentially better, yet he could tell he was already losing his focus and Roman would be bit, skilled hunter or not.
At that moment, he remembered the numbness and tingling feeling of the bracelet, making him more powerless than he’d remembered in a long time. It seemed him and the hunter had a similar idea.
“V pin him down!!” Roman waved the bracelet in the air, along with gaining the wolf’s attention. Virgil sprints towards the doorway, gripping his abandoned umbrella, jumping on the wolf's back and blinding him with its leftover remnants. He wiggles and snarls trying to throw him off, a hand on his snout, torso, lightly stepping on his leg and balancing himself.
Roman rushed over, pinning the furry pastern, sliding on the jewelry, holding it in place until it took effect. His escaping efforts faded into slow breathing, enough Virgil removed his blindfold and respectfully removed his strong hands and feet from pinning him, almost lulled to peaceful sleep. It took a long time but then he stopped moving into a slumber.
V and Roman shared a deep breath of relief as they waited until morning.
During the night, Virgil and Princey were careful to make a makeshift bed for the werewolf, they debated keeping watch, neither were too comfortable with watching the others sleep and letting the other watch over them, collectively deciding to stay up most of the night.
Virgil zipped up his jacket, needing to leave early to avoid the sun and any prolonged interact with the twins bound to end in despair, seeing the Prince succumbed to sleep either way, he tiptoed to the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Prince stared at him, somewhat close to the exit, standing up.
He sighed, “I have to leave before the sun rises, since someone ruined my umbrella,” the hunter blushed in embarrassment, “I apologize for that.”
V couldn’t stop thinking, if he didn’t intrude, he never would have caused such a butterfly effect.
“Look, I feel like a major jerk. Here,” Roman thought he must have been glaring. V rummaged through his pocket, he pulled out a lavender paper colored roll, “What’s this?”
“Wolfsbane bandages, it’ll heal your wounds and his so.. yeah,” V awkwardly walked to open the door.
“V, or, whatever your name is, thank you. Don’t let me catch you,” they shared a smile, the dark of the night beginning to lighten.
“Yeah,” he mumbled.
He probably was going to regret this.
“My name… is Virgil,” he noticed the hunter's eyes widen before softening again, mentally assessing the name and accepting it.
“See you around.. Virgil.”
He gave a military salute, “See you Princey.”
He closed the door behind him.
The next day in Umbra
Remus felt completely fine, a sore throat and a headache, along with a few bruises cooled by the bandages the hot and mysterious vampire they’ve been hunting for months, given to Roman while he was out cold, were his only issues.
“You can’t move in your state darling. I know it’s going to be impossible. You’re the best couch potato I know, why don’t you stay for a few days?” Janus tried convincing him to remain hostage in Umbra, surprisingly Roman agreed.
The calm and alluring waves of Umbra smoothened his muscles, the hot chamomile tea mixed with potion infusion Janus brewed eased his ribs, and Roman checked on him every now and then while he laid on bed rest. Roman didn’t talk much about what Remus did as a werewolf, his memory went blank, he barely remembered that he had even gone inside the boarding school without one of Roman’s passing comments. But he knew did remember Roman happy to see him awake.
His eyes blared open, blinking ever so slightly to a ruined ceiling laying on the floor. Remus was running, his ankle throbbed, he found a gate, then…
“Remus?” Remus was running away from Roman, he was about to turn into a werewolf.
He hummed in response, the blankets enfolded with his naked body were ragged but warm.
“How are you feeling?” he tilted his head.
Remus grinned, “I’ve never been better.”
...
7 notes · View notes
egret-orchids · 5 months
Text
i think this is called self indulgence at its fucking finest but. sanders sides fic. why not. also i do NOT understand the american school system lmao so if theres any inaccuracy i apologise-
also this ends on a cliffhanger so. might make this a series.
a solution to the problem (au)
-> word count: 489
(cw: mentions of abuse- only one sentence or so, though)
Roman was fine. Yeah, totally fine. It wasn’t like today was his first big performance of the semester, or that he’d had yet another argument with his uncle. It totally wasn't like he had heard that maybe, just maybe, he'd finally run into his estranged twin brother after literally a decade.
Shifting his backpack (vibrant crimson with gold stars, as embarrassing as that was for a senior) over to his right shoulder, Roman walks briskly towards his locker. He twists the four dials and inputs the combination. Roman shoves his running trainers and a few spare books into the tiny metal box that was his locker. He wishes he'd had time to grab a cup of coffee before he left, but it was either he bolted as soon and as fast as possible or be left with yet another purplish-black mark on his collarbone. Roman sighs as a weird combination of a maniacal cackle and yell echoes from the nearby bathroom. Just another day in the life, he supposes.
The first period of that day- English lit, unfortunately- passes strangely quickly, and Roman finds himself mulling over the new information on...- who was it, Charles-fucking-Dickens?- after the class, so lost in his thoughts that he almost walks straight into a guy taller than him with black-rimmed glasses and a cat-eared hoodie who he recognises from higher-level history. Roman hastily apologises and continues on his way down the stairs to get to, no surprises there, math.
There's a new kid in his math class. Roman ends up sat next to him. He doesn't know the guy's name, and makes no effort to communicate or make eye contact, instead trying to focus all his attention on attempting to understand the weirdly intricate complexities of trigonometry.
Key word: trying.
The new guy keeps flicking tiny balls of paper at his ear and God, it's annoying. Roman eventually turns to shut him down with a glare. The guy smirks. "Oh, so it takes nine balls of paper to get your attention now, Roro?" he says, his tone teasing, but not mocking. Roman finds that smirk infuriating. And that nickname. Only his best friend calls him that now, and Virgil's off sick today.
"Don't call me that," Roman mutters harshly, "seriously. Don't."
The new guy sighs dramatically. "Come on. What, are you President Perfect or something?" he replies, "Also, dude, call me by name!"
Roman rolls his eyes. "What is your name?"
The new guy chuckles and mock-bows. "Remus. Remus Palaez."
Roman nods slowly. He finally meets this guy's eyes, and they're hazel, kinda like his, which is funny.
Remus's jacket is black and looks really similar to something Virgil would wear, funnily enough. The t-shirt under it is some green alien on a black background. Remus's hair is a darkish brown, the light making it appear golden. Remus rest his head on a hand, smiling slyly.
"Funny how we look so alike, hm?"
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sluggerbot-2-5 · 2 years
Text
How I Met Your Brother
Pairings: Dukexiety
Warnings: mistaken identity, accidental kissing, swearing, innuendo.
Summary: Roman drives to spend time with Remus and to drop off some if his clothes. While waiting for him, he meets his boyfriend.
Or
How Virgil met Roman.
Word count: 800
Ao3
Remus
Hurry up, it's fucking cold.
Why don't you just sit in the car with the heat on?
I'm not wasting anymore gas on you.
Does that mean you won't be taking us out to lunch?
'Us'?
Yeah, I wanted you to meet somebody.
I'm really not in the mood for people.
Aw, come on. I thought you loved me
That's debatable😑
He shivered as a small breeze passed. The car wasn't gonna be any better if he just sat inside and Remus wouldn't be able to spot him easier. He opened the car door a rumaged through the inside for a jacket. Unfortunately, he forgot his at the house. He eyed the garbage in the backseat. He thought and hesitated before another breeze blew by. He grabbed it and hurriedly opened the bag. "What does this little rat have that isn't vile?"
He pulled out a black and white varsity jacket covered in patches. He never thought he'd see his brother in anything like this until he took a second look at the art and patches on it. "Ah, that makes sense." It was kinda cool. And it was thick, so it would do. He put it on and pulled out his phone. He looked good and decided to take a couple photos and sent one to Remus.
Hey
I kinda like this, I think I might keep it.
Take it off.
No❤️
Fuck you
I'm cold
Roman laughed as Remus began to rant about how he was tarnishing it. 'Sacrilege' and whatnot.
Then someone pushed his arm aside, moving the phone from in front of his face and grabbed either side of the collar on the jacket.
He couldn't get a thought in before there was a soft feeling on his lips. He froze and leaned more into the car.
They moved their hands to the back of his neck and pulled themselves closer so their arms wrapped around. They licked his lips and pulled off with a smile. Their smile slowly fell as their gaze fell to his lips. "When did you shave?"
"Uh..." he took a moment to breathe. "recently?" Was all he manged to get out.
"You don't remember?"
I can't remember anything right now. The heat in his face successfully warming him up faster than the jacket.
He giggled at his silence and let go. He pulled out his phone and leaned on the car with Roman. "So when do you think you're brother's gonna get here?"
Roman paused. He thought back to the conversation between him and Remus. Oh. Oh. Oh shit. "Um...now?"
He tilted his head and looked around. "Where is he?"
"In front of you."
He furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at him.
Roman gave an awkward smile. "Hi, I'm Roman. Remus' twin."
His eyes widened upon realization. His jaw dropped and he covered his mouth before exclaiming "Oh shit!" He took the beanie he had been wearing and pulled it over his face. "Oooh my god."
"I'm assuming you're the person Remus wanted me to meet?"
He nodded his head, still covered by the beanie. "Virgil. Remus' boyfriend."
"Yeah, I kinda got that."
He groaned, embarrassed. He continued to mumble curses and profusely apologize.
Roman laughed. "It's okay, really."
"Noo. Oh my god, Remus is gonna kill me."
"You'll be fine. I know my brother. If anything he's probably gonna think it's funny."
He did in fact find it very funny, as Virgil found out after telling him the whole story.
"You did wha-ha-hat?!" Remus laughed, sat on the bed. He tried to speak between fits.
Virgil groaned in his hands, trying to hide his face. "I did it because I thought he was you!"
"You thought I shaved?!"
"Shut up!" He said playfully punching him.
"Ow! Okay, I'll stop." He finished laughing and leaned back on his hands. "Man, that explains why you guys were acting so weird when we went out." Roman took them out because he felt so bad. "I mean, seriously. How did you not know?"
Virgil was slightly pissed. "You're the one who decided not to tell me that he looked. Just. Like you!" He shoved him back and started to beat him with a pillow.
"There's a few key differences." He chuckled. "The hair, the voice, I'm 10 times as handsome, my dick is hu-."
Virgil threw the pillow at Remus' face. "More like 10 times as annoying. He's like a diet version of you."
"Exactly. Nobody likes diet."
Virgil scoffed. "You are such a pain in my ass." He chuckled.
"Is that an invitation?"
"Far from it." He got up and walked out of their room.
"Wait, Vee. Come back. I love you!"
"Fuck you!" His attempt to sound angry failed as the smile could be heard in his voice.
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Dragon Quest
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Roman is missing and Janus enlists Virgil and Remus' help to find him. Together they end up on a quest through the imagination, ultimately leading them to... a cuddle pile??
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| Ao3 |
Next Chapter ->
Warnings: none (that I'm aware of, but please lmk if i need to add any)
Pairings: romantic roceit, platonic anxceitmus, prinxiety and creativitwins
Word count: 2519
Notes: Yes, this is the dragon hoard cuddle pile fic we've been waiting for. Unfortunately, that will be happening in the second chapter, which I have not written yet because I'm tired and running low on creative juice. I promise I'll get to it soon though! Keep an eye on this one :D
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“Remus!” Janus called as he walked into the common room. Just as he expected, within the next five seconds there was a hole in the ceiling through which Remus was hanging upside down by his tentacles. 
“You called?” Remus asked, “Whassup?”
“Have you seen Roman?”
“Uh… don’t think so! But I’ve been in the imagination with Bessy all day-”
“I’ve definitely seen him in the last three days.” Janus interrupted, “And it’s totally not starting to worry me.”
“Ooh-” Remus said, wincing, “You’ve looked in his room?”
“Obviously not.”
“His imagination?” Remus suggested.
“I searched for four hours, but I couldn’t find him in the kingdom or the forest, or the dungeons, almost got killed by a pack of kobolds.”
“Jeez, you good?” Remus asked.
“I’m not fine, I’m more worried about Roman right now,” Janus said, waving him off, “Any other suggestions?”
“The subconscious?” Remus said, frowning.
“We would’ve felt it if he went there,” Janus shook his head, “And Remy visited yesterday, they would’ve said something.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Remus nodded, “...The light sides?”
Janus frowned, why the hell would Roman go up there? Last Janus checked he was still very much avoiding Patton and Logan. Besides, his room was still here, it’s not like he’d gone back properly. 
“He could just be visiting Virgil?” Remus suggested, probably seeing the look on Janus’ face, he dropped down from the ceiling to stand properly on the floor. 
“Perhaps…” Janus sighed, “Do you think we should summon Virgil and see if he knows anything?”
“Eh?” Remus said, shrugging and wandering off towards the kitchen, “Go ahead, I’ma make a sandwich.”
“Don’t you dare,” Janus said, “You know what happened last time you made a sandwich? I’m not having any more fires.”
“That was Roman!” Remus yelled, “Last time I made a sandwich was with the sentient condiment slime!”
“Which is better how exactly?” Janus said, raising an eyebrow, they stared at each other for a moment before Janus sighed, “If you can promise the mess wont leave the kitchen, you can make a sandwich.”
“Fuck yes!” Remus grinned, “Promise!”
Janus rolled his eyes, “I’m going to search for Virgil.”
“Lemme know if you find Ro!”
—-
“...Janus?” Virgil said through the crack in his door, looking a little perplexed, “The hell are you doing up here?”
“Have you seen Roman?” Janus asked, Virgil’s expression immediately morphed from confusion to panic.
“No?” Virgil said, opening his door properly, “Isn’t he with you guys?”
“Neither Remus or I have seen him for multiple days.” Janus explained, “I am totally not starting to get slightly frantic and I was wondering if he was with you for some reason.”
“I uh- no I haven’t seen him, but- I can help you guys look-if you want?” Virgil said, putting his hands in his pockets, “I mean- maybe?”
Janus shook his head, "Absolutely not, I don't want your help whatsoever, it's not like you've known Roman longer than we have or anything." 
Sighing, Virgil stepped out of his door and closed it behind him, "Where's Remus?" 
"Making a sandwich and hopefully wrecking my entire kitchen, why?" 
"Because he can navigate the imagination better than we can- if you've looked around the mindscape then he's probably in there," Virgil said, leading the way down the hallway. Janus would have suggested sinking out, but he suspected Virgil needed time to mentally prepare to go downstairs. Despite Remus' invitation, Virgil hadn't stepped a foot in the darkside's mindscape since he'd left.
"I've already checked the imagination." Janus said, possibly a little too haughtily. 
Virgil turned to stare at him for a second before sighing, "His imagination is infinite, dumbass, you couldn't have checked it all, and you wouldn't have found him, especially if he didn't want you to, which is why we need Remus." 
Frowning, Janus followed Virgil back downstairs where they found that Remus, luckily, hadn't completely destroyed the kitchen.
"Hi Vee!" Remus called, waving before he shoved half a sandwich in his mouth all at once. Janus winced.
"uh… hey Remus," Virgil said, narrowing his eyes at Remus, "What- is that?" 
"PB&J!" Remus grinned, waving the second half of the sandwich - which was dripping jam and something that looked far too runny to be peanut butter onto the floor, "With pickle juice!" 
That would be it. 
"Disgusting! Anyway," Virgil said, turning back to Janus, "Is there any reason you can think of that he might have gone off to hide?" 
Janus shared a look with Remus, who shrugged. Janus sighed, "Not that I noticed… Did anything happen at the last meeting?" 
“Other than Roman having grown horns out of nowhere? Not really,” Virgil said, before his eyes widened, “Wait- that’s probably it, isn’t it?”
“Whatever do you mean, Virgil?” Janus asked, confused.
“Remember how when I got mine I basically took over part of Remus’ forest?” Virgil said, crossing his arms.
“Some of the webs are still there!” Remus said, grinning, “I made some funky spiders to fill them!”
“Right, and Remus went off and hid in a la- ohh…” Janus said, realising what Virgil was implying.
“So, if we can figure out where Roman’s beastie would be likely to hide, we could probably find Roman there too,” Virgil said with an exasperated sigh, “Seriously you didn’t figure this out yourself, Jan?”
“I feel as though I’m being unnecessarily mocked because I was worried about my boyfriend’s disappearance,” Janus said, crossing his arms with an annoyed huff. Virgil sighed and waved him off.
“‘Kay well if Ro’s a dragon then he’s probably in a cave somewhere,” Remus said, before gasping, “Oh! He has this big mountain range where all the dragons in his imagination live, he’s probably gone there!”
Virgil shuddered, “Are the other dragons likely to try and eat us?”
“I guess we’ll find out!” Remus said, grinning.
“I suppose we don’t want set off as soon as possible, then?” Janus said, raising an eyebrow, “Virgil, will you be coming?”
“Sure why not,” Virgil said with a sigh, “I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“Hooray!” Remus cheered, chucking the rest of his sandwich onto the side and running off. 
—-
Virgil didn’t know what to expect when the three of them walked through the big red and gold doors to the imagination, but it certainly wasn’t to have his outfit changed, his hoodie was replaced with a long hooded cloak featuring the same patchy style. He’d gained what seemed to be arm guards that ended in fingerless gloves as well as a loose grey tunic and tight black trousers. He was also a little surprised to note that he had multiple weapons concealed on his person as well as a bow slung over his shoulder. Virgil didn’t have a single clue about archery, but whatever, at least he wasn’t Janus.
“You look like a victorian woman!” Remus said between snorting laughter whilst Janus crossed his arms over an elegant-looking black and gold bodice with a white off-the-shoulder shirt with long white gloves replacing his yellow ones. Not only that, but he also sported a loose cape jacket and a bell skirt that stopped just above his ankles, where Virgil could just about make out what looked like riding boots under the mass of ruffles. Janus sighed.
“Looks like we’re on a quest,” Janus said, sounding like he couldn’t be less excited about the fact.
“Yay!” Remus cheered, medieval knight’s armour clanking as he raised his Morningstar to the sky. 
“Wonderful,” Virgil deadpanned, “Will one of you explain what the hell this is?”
“This hasn’t happened to you before?” Janus asked, seeming mostly tired.
“...no?? Usually my clothes don’t randomly change into something else when I go into the imagination?” Virgil said, throwing his hands into the air. 
Janus sighed and shook his head, whilst Remus leant on his Morningstar and shook his head at Virgil.
“It’s basically like, y’know when Roman does daydream mode?” Remus said, Virgil nodded, “It’s like that but even more… daydreamy, and in the imagination, we call it quest mode.”
“More or less, we have been assigned roles, and while it totally matters if we don’t go along with whatever storyline we are presented with going forward, there will be a storyline that will likely lead us to Roman.” Janus explained, crossing his arms over the corset. Virgil couldn’t help but notice how much jewellery Janus was wearing compared to the rest of them, a gold bar necklace, a silver chain that housed what looked like a ruby pendant, and earrings, bracelets and rings. Virgil was only wearing a black choker with a small silver moon pendant and Remus was wearing no jewellery at all. 
“So we’re heading for the mountains but looking out for whatever this storyline is on the way?” Virgil asked.
“Basically, yes.” Janus nodded, “I have no idea how easy it’ll be to climb a mountain in this dress, though.”
“We’ll figure that out when we come to it.” Virgil sighed, “Remus?”
“Mmh?” Remus said, turning from where he was attempting to shove one of the whimsical forest mushrooms into his mouth.
“Don’t eat that,” Virgil sighed, “Do you know which way we gotta go?”
“Oh yeah,” Remus nodded, spitting out the mushroom and standing up, “North.”
“...Which way is north?” Virgil asked, crossing his arms. Remus rolled his eyes and pointed down the path that seemed to lead them through the woods, which were much more fairy-like than Virgil remembered. If this was some fantasy quest like Remus had described, Virgil wouldn’t even be surprised if they were in some kind of fairyland. 
“We totally shouldn’t stick together,” Janus spoke up the moment Remus went to leave the path.
“You don’t say,” Virgil said, taking a knife from a holder on his arm guard and flipping it mindlessly from hand to hand, “And don’t go off the path, Roman’s told me enough about fae lore to know that, at least.”
—-
They had been walking for maybe an hour - Virgil was finding it difficult to tell the time - before the trees around them began to thin. Once the three of them were free of the forest completely Remus excitedly pointed out the mountains they were headed towards in the distance. God that looked… far. 
“You think we should’ve packed like… food or something?” Virgil asked, frowning. He wasn’t tired yet, not from just an hour’s walk through what was really a fairly peaceful forest, but the hilly fields and river valleys didn’t look like they’d be much fun to traverse. 
“It totally wouldn’t have been wise.” Janus said, taking a few deep breaths, “How on earth did Victorian women wear this every day? This dress totally isn’t incredibly heavy.”
“Jan just doesn’t like dressing like a girl,” Remus said, “Sexist.”
“I’m not sexist, you dunce,” Janus huffed, “I definitely have qualms about ‘dressing like a girl’ These clothes are just… incredibly practical for the amount of walking we have ahead of us.”
“Awee poor Janny, stuck in a big poofy dress,” Remus taunted, “This armour’s all hot and sticky but you don’t see me complaining!”
“Yes, because ‘hot and sticky’ totally isn’t something that you’ve mentioned you enjoy being multiple times in the past,” Janus huffed. 
“Guys shut up,” Virgil said, raising a hand, “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Remus asked, Virgil glared.
“If you shut up you might- woah!” Virgil yelped, jumping back as something swept down from the sky and snatched Janus - who didn’t even get the chance to so much as yelp - up far too quickly for him too see more than a red, white and gold blur. Once he’d realised what had happened, though, Virgil shaded his eyes, squinting up into the sky to try and get a look at the kidnapper. He could make out what looked like dragon wings, though they were much smaller than any of the other dragons he’d seen in Roman’s imagination before…
“Was that fucking Roman?” Remus yelled, gesturing wildly at the sky. 
“I don’t- that was- that happened too quickly for me to tell!” Virgil cried in confusion. 
“Welp we’re fucked, there goes the brain cell,” Remus said, putting his head in his hands in what Virgil was pretty sure was mock sorrow.
“Wait hold up- Roman has wings?? ” Virgil said, "Also excuse you! I have a braincell!"
“Uh, yeah Virgil, he’s a dragon, haven’t we gone over this?” Remus asked, raising an eyebrow at him. 
“You never told me he has wings!” Virgil cried, throwing his hands up into the air before sitting down on a large outcropping rock, “What the hell are we supposed to do now.”
“Uh, duh, we go follow them?” Remus said, gesturing his hand in that direction.
“It’ll take us hours to walk!” Virgil yelled, head in hands, “What if that wasn’t even Roman that took him! What if it was that- I don’t know- that Dragon Witch character he created ages ago and Janus is actually in trouble?”
“Woah dude, ok first of all no-ones gonna get hurt here, this is Ro’s imagination, so it’s not even fun like mine, Jan has object impermanence plot armour bullshit like Logan does too,” Remus said, picking his nails, “So even if that wasn’t Roman, Jan’ll be fine, and if it was or not we should still go after them because of the storyline Janus mentioned earlier, remember?”
Virgil shook his hands out, “Yeah, yeah, you’re right, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s gonna take us forever to get there.”
“Hey look,” Remus said in a mocking tone as two horses trotted out of the forest, “Horses that I totally didn’t just summon because I can do that too!”
Virgil eyed the horses suspiciously, “They’re not gonna like, attack me or- i don’t know turn into the demogorgon or something, are they?” He asked as Remus swung himself onto the back of the armoured black and white seemingly innocent shire horse. 
“Find out!” Remus cackled, “Now c'mon or you’ll be left behind!”
He thought that he’d rather potentially be attacked by a demon horse than be left totally alone in the imagination, so he - begrudgingly - climbed onto the back of the Andalusian and grabbed onto the saddle, suddenly realising that he had never ridden a horse in his life. Luckily the mare didn’t seem much bothered by his nervousness as she leaned down to graze the grass at her feet. 
“Remus?” Virgil said, awkwardly grabbing the reins. 
“Yeah, Virgin?” Remus called, having already started his own horse forward, “Are ya coming?”
“I uh- I don’t know how to ride a horse-” Virgil said, Remus rolled his eyes.
“Dumbass, it’s imaginary,” Remus said, “You can do whatever the fuck you want, you don’t gotta do it right .”
“Oh,” Virgil mumbled.
“Left-brained sides, I’ll never understand you dorks,” Remus mumbled as he urged his horse to continue walking. Virgil did the same - surprised to find that it actually worked - and together they set off to follow the speck in the distant sky that was Janus and probably-Roman.
Virgil really hoped that Janus, at least, was having a good time, wherever he was right now.
----
| Next -> |
Tags: @full-of-roman-angst-trash @reptilianrapscallion420 @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess (if anyone wants to be added let me know1)
I'm also going to tag @doteddestroyer because you seemed to have a vested interest in this fic in particular. hehe
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if you're going my way, i'll go with you - chapter 12
Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: All the sides, character!Thomas, minor/background OCs Rating: Teen & up Relationships: Creativitwins Warnings: This chapter is just purely angst without any happy ending, because it is a flashback. There is: language, lots of references to child abuse, a minor burn injury, a death threat, getting kicked out, being forcibly separated from loved ones, a few instances of misgendering from the evil dad, and one (censored here, uncensored on ao3) use of the f slur. Word count: 2250
Read on AO3!
My writing masterpost
start - previous - here - next - masterpost
NOTE: This chapter is a flashback, taking place 5 years & 4 months before where we're at in the main story! Check the warnings. If you don't want to read this chapter, you will not miss out on any plot.
note 2: the correct pronouns are used for roman in the narration of the chapter, even though neither he nor remus knew about that yet, bc it feels better that way. there is still a bit of misgendering from the evil dad.
-
Chapter 12
Remus waited, lying in the dark with his eyes open, listening intently until he was absolutely certain both his parents were asleep for the night and they weren’t waking up. Silently, he rose from his bed, arranging his pillow beneath the covers so that, at least at a glance, it would look like he was still there beneath the covers. Ever so slowly, he eased open the window, its glide smooth and silent thanks to all the times he’d smuggled in supplies to grease it. The climb from his window to that of the room next to his was easy; he’d done it thousands of times, always careful not to make a sound, replacing the screens of each window behind himself. It was a slow process, taking care to maintain absolute silence, but he’d streamlined it over the years and now it took closer to five minutes than fifteen. He had to use the windows, because Ro’s door creaked, and their parents knew that it creaked and kept it that way on purpose, so there was no secret greasing to fix that.
Ro was pretending to sleep, and was remarkably adept at it for a six-year-old. But as soon as Remus pried open the screen to his room, he bolted upright in bed, waving with both hands and grinning wide, eyes big and bright in the moonlight. Remus gave an answering grin, but didn’t speak as he climbed through the window, dropped silently from the sill to the floor, and replaced the screen. He padded to the bed, avoiding the floorboards that would creak, and climbed into it. “Hi, squirt,” he breathed.
“Hi,” Ro whispered back, beaming from ear to ear and climbing into Remus’s lap. “I wanna hear a story!”
Remus put his arms around the tiny child, cradling him close against his chest. “Yeah?” he murmured, trying very hard not to cry as Ro nodded eagerly. Ro was warm and soft and solid and real, and as close to safe as was possible here in his arms, and tomorrow—
Tomorrow, that would probably not be the case.
Remus smiled down at Ro and kissed the top of his head, reaching over to grab the hairbrush off his sidetable. “Sounds good,” he said lightly. “What kind of story?”
Ro wiggled happily. “A happy one. With lots of heroes.”
“You got it, kid,” Remus whispered, and took only a few seconds to think before launching into a story that was soft and comforting and full of good things for the princess at its center. Even after he’d brushed all the knots out of Ro’s hair and put the brush back, he didn’t stop talking, simply inventing more and more nice things for the princess to do, from a tea party to a parade to a pillow fort, until Ro’s breathing slowed and gentled and his little limbs went limp and heavy with sleep against Remus.
Remus carefully put Ro down in the middle of the bed and laid down beside him, curling protectively around him and holding him close. Ro nestled into Remus’s hold easily and instinctively, gripping onto his pajama shirt with his little hands.
Remus bit the inside of his lip hard, blinking away the tears once more. He began running his hand through Ro’s hair, his other arm still curled around the child, holding him close as he kept a close eye on the clock on the other side of the room.
When five-forty-five ticked past and the window began to threaten the first tricklings of dawn, Remus pried himself away from Ro, pretty certain that he was ripping his own heart clean out of his chest and leaving it in Ro’s tiny hands. “Love you, Ro,” he murmured, bending to kiss his forehead.
Ro, who was an incredibly light sleeper, shifted and rolled over, blinking up at him sleepily. “Love you,” he echoed, smiling. “Happy birfday.”
Remus forced a smile. “Thanks,” he whispered. “Go back to sleep now, mmkay?” 
“Kay,” Ro responded obediently; his eyelids drooped closed as Remus kissed his forehead again.
Remus waited for just a moment more to be sure Ro had gone back to sleep before he climbed out the window and back to his own room, stifling hot tears all the way. In his room, he pulled out the crumpled, smudged piece of torn notebook paper in his pocket, and dragged out his prepared backpack from under the bed. He ran over the checklist on the paper one last time, then pulled out the lighter hidden under his mattress and carefully, carefully burned the list. It singed his fingers at the end; he clenched his teeth until the initial pain subsided to a duller throb. He couldn’t risk running cold water or seeking out burn cream right now.
Even though the list was gone, he looked through his backpack one more time. He zipped it up, slid it under his bed, made sure it wasn’t visible from the door or standing next to the bed, and finally climbed into his bed just as the sun peeked through the window. He hid his face in the pillow, telling himself it was to block out the light and not at all to stifle the silent sobs he couldn’t hold back any longer.
The moment he managed to get his tears back under control, he focused on swallowing down the rest of the long cry that he wanted and did his best to act like he was asleep. It helped that he was exhausted; he actually thought that he might have dozed off for a bit, though he wasn’t sure.
Regardless, the noise of footsteps in the hall was enough to bring him to full consciousness and leave him tense and stiff beneath his blanket. He heard his dad use the restroom, shuffle back to his own room, and return a moment later to the bathroom, probably this time for personal grooming.
Remus closed his eyes, breathed deep, and forced himself to relax in a mockery of sleep, even as he heard his dad walking back down the hall.
There was no noise of the door opening, of course; Remus had lost “having a bedroom door” privileges long ago. The footsteps came to a stop right next to him.
“Get up,” his father said, roughly pushing at his shoulder.
Remus sucked in a breath, as if being startled awake, although it was barely even acting. He rolled over onto his back and pushed himself up on his elbows in one motion. “What—?” His voice faltered at his dad’s glare.
“Get dressed and come outside in the next five minutes,” was the cold answer he received.
“Can—” Remus swallowed, sitting all the way up. He’d known this was coming. He’d thought he could do it, thought he’d said his goodbyes.
He’d been wrong. He could stand most things. Not losing Ro.
“Can I say goodbye to Ro?” he asked, voice coming out small and timid. It would hurt. It would hurt so badly to see him again, and Remus knew he wouldn’t be able to handle it. But leaving him was even worse.
His father’s face darkened. “No. I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“It’s my birthday,” Remus pleaded.
“If you really loved your sister, maybe you would have thought of that before you tried being a little [f slur] under my roof,” his father snapped. “I don't want you anywhere near her.”
“Danni’s a girl,” Remus protested reflexively under his breath. And it had been years since he dated her, anyway.
“What was that?” his dad snapped.
Wow. A warning. He didn’t usually get those. Happy fucking birthday to him.
Remus bit the inside of his cheek and didn’t say anything, staring at the ground.
That seemed to satisfy his dad. “Outside,” he repeated. “In four minutes.” He turned on his heel and left.
Remus took in a raggedy breath, scrubbed the fresh tears from his eyes, and changed lightning-fast into the outfit he’d laid out last night, pulling his backpack from under the bed and slinging it over his shoulders. He slipped the most important things into the secret pockets he’d sewn into the insides of his jeans and the lining of his coat: the key to the apartment he’d put down a down payment for last month, lying about his age so he could sign the contract; the card to his (secret) bank account, where he kept the money he earned at the (secret) part-time job he skipped school for; the shitty old phone he’d saved up for (in secret) and bought secondhand; and his driver’s license, the only one of these items that his parents even knew about. There was a decent bit of cash already sewn into his coat, too. In case his dad wouldn’t let him take the backpack with him, he should still have the essentials. He left the phone his parents had given him—new and expensive and completely under their control—on his desk and stepped out into the hall. He was pretty sure it had been only three minutes—he had gotten very good at keeping track of time.
But his dad was standing at the end of the hallway with his arms crossed, so Remus couldn’t slip into Ro’s room for one more goodbye. He shouldered his backpack a little more firmly and trudged down the hallway.
There was a soft creak of a door, and Remus froze.
“Remus?” came a little voice.
Remus’s dad’s face darkened, but he didn’t say anything or move.
It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair, Remus’s heart had already broken today, this was too much, he couldn’t do it—
He stilled his face and turned. Ro was standing there in his pink pajama set, rubbing his eyes.
Remus took a few steps back down the hall, knelt, and hugged Ro close. “Go back to bed, squirt,” he said gently, pressing a kiss to his temple.
Ro clung to his shoulders as he tried to pry away. “Where are you going?”
“I dunno,” Remus admitted, and couldn’t quite keep the faintest tremor out of his voice. When Ro looked distinctly more frightened, he added, “On an outing. I’ll see you later. Go back to bed now, okay?”
Ro hugged him tightly. “Okay…”
“Good.” Remus pressed another kiss to Ro’s temple and whispered in his ear, “I’ll come back for you. Promise.” He sucked in a breath and got back to his feet, watching Ro cast a nervous glance at their dad and scamper back to his bedroom on tiny, silent feet.
Remus blinked hard until the tears blurring his vision went away, turned, and followed his dad out of the house. He got into the car on the passenger side without protest when his dad pointed at it. As the car pulled out of the driveway, Remus caught a glimpse of Ro’s face and two hands, pressed against his bedroom window and staring out at him; his small face was scrunched up in abject misery.
Remus set his face, shoving down the answering stab in his heart, and stared straight ahead through the windshield. Just a couple of months. Just enough that he knew his new job would work out and he’d have enough money to feed and clothe Ro, and then he’d come back and figure out some way to get him away from them.
Both he and his father were silent during the car ride. Remus had no idea where they were going; it didn’t really matter. He’d been under no illusions about what would be happening today. His parents had made it all too clear how eager they were to get rid of him at the first opportunity.
His dad drove without speaking for almost an hour, all the way out of the suburb and across to the far end of the city, until the buildings they were driving past were ones Remus had rarely seen before even though he’d lived in Sandersville all his life. At last he pulled up to the curb. “Get out.”
Remus swallowed, mouth dry, and unbuckled his seatbelt, dragging it out as long as he could.
“Don’t come back,” his dad added.
Remus rolled his eyes, opening the door of the car. “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
“If you come near your sister, I’ll kill you.”
Remus clenched his hand where it clutched the side of the door. He couldn’t even tell if he was meant to take that literally or not.
He swallowed back the sick feeling in his throat. Say it. Say it. He could say it now. He had to say it now. While he still had the chance.
He turned back to face his father, voice quiet but steady. “I hate you.”
There was silence for a heartbeat. Another. Remus could feel his hands starting to shake in spite of himself.
“I don’t care,” his dad said.
Remus felt the words like a blow to the chest. He let the car door fall shut and watched, almost numb, as his father did a u-turn and drove away. The car turned a corner and vanished from sight.
Remus’s legs gave out from under him and he collapsed to sit on the edge of the sidewalk, pulling his knees to his chest and shaking all over, staring into the distance with unfocused eyes, breath ragged and harsh and loud.
It was not quite eight o'clock on the morning of his eighteenth birthday, and Remus Kingsley was all alone.
-
Taglist (ask to be added/removed!): @the-sympathetic-villain @just-a-little-anxious @your-local-crackhead-gremlin @remy-the-lemon-berry @midnightstorm-underthe-moon @crazydemigod666 @did-he-just-hiss-at-me @virgil-is-verge @simplestoryteller @oblivionartworks @so-youre-a-rock-with-issues @emoprincey @theblackcatscratchpost @biwithapie @poettheythem
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iceshard1011 · 2 years
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Chapters: 5/10 Fandom: Sanders Sides (Web Series) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders Characters: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, On the Run, Brotherly Bonding, slight body horror, Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Sleep Deprivation, Blackmail, Panic Attacks, Angst with a Happy Ending, Whump, Near Death Experiences, Violence, Blood and Injury, Mild Language, Road Trips, Found Family, Established Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Eventual Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Eventual Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Kid Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders Are Siblings, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Angst, lovers to enemies to friends to lovers, cliché as fuck, roman stans come get your juice, i hurt a lot of characters in this fic but my bias wouldn't let roman get away unscathed Summary: “Heard talk on the news. You and your brother going missing, running from the police with seemingly no motives, all that…. It’s interesting.”
Roman finds a new ally.
4k word fic below
Roman lost track of how long he crouched in the back alleyway, trying to stop his chest from burning and his vision from swimming.
When he could breathe without feeling like he was either going to throw up, faint or both, he uncurled his legs and pressed the back of his head to the building he was leaning against.
He was so distracted with his shaking gasps that he didn’t hear the quiet footsteps passing the alleyway and then backtracking.
“I wouldn’t be outside on a night like this if I were you.”
Roman leapt up in terror, his fight-or-flight senses screaming. The person jumped too. Hidden in the shadow of the building, Roman followed the light of the overhead lamp to someone around his age, dressed in a hoodie and jeans and definitely not an agent. They looked just as baffled as Roman.
“Where am I?” was the only thing Roman could think to say before this person’s common sense kicked in, and they fled.
They looked around with a slight frown. “Uh… a back alleyway.” They squinted through the lamplight, their eyes a startling blue. “What drugs are you on?”
Roman grit his teeth. “What city am I in?”
The person blinked as if their brain was buffering. “You’re in Christchurch.” They glanced around the empty streets, seemingly distracted from the crazy-looking idiot hiding in an alley. “You should get indoors. Tonight could be dangerous, with the full moon and all.”
“What, you and your gang of emos out here summoning demons?” Roman snarked, emerging into the lamplight.
They glanced back at him, and recognition lit up in their eyes. “You’re Roman Parata.”
Roman hesitated, suspicions suddenly back on alert.
“Why do you care?” he said slowly.
They pushed their hands into the pockets of their hoodie. “Heard talk on the news. You and your brother going missing, running from the police with seemingly no motives, all that.” They shrugged, looking far too relaxed. “It’s interesting.”
“What do you want?” Roman demanded.
The person mulled over their following words, studying Roman like he was some sort of puzzle. Finally, they tilted their head in consideration. “About that wolf –”
Roman didn’t let them finish, shooting forward and burying his hand in the front of their hoodie. He pinned them against the side of the building, his other fist clenched and raised for their face.
“What the hell do you want?” he snarled, careless of how their eyes widened and immediately held up their hands in surrender.
“Hey, hey! It’s okay,” they said, quailing away from his threatening punch. “I know what you’re going through. I have one too.”
Roman hesitated. “One what?”
They swallowed. “He’s my boyfriend. He got bit three years ago. We’ve made it work.”
Roman slowly pulled back. They didn’t immediately run for the street, even as Roman uncurled his hands from their hoodie. What were they saying? In the back of his mind, some dark corner that he had never wanted to acknowledge, Roman had wondered if there were somehow other werewolves running about the country. Ones who went around biting idiots who were stupid enough to get too close and on the run from the police and FBI, too.
He had never imagined he would ever meet someone who knew about them.
“How…. Did you follow me?” Roman asked, wary of the trust he was aching to latch onto.
The person rubbed the back of their neck, which was enough of an indication that perhaps Roman should have knocked them out.
“You’ve been all over the media,” they said again. “Normally, we wouldn’t care, but… hopping motels and being spotted in fuel stations, and the dates matching up… It made too much sense. When we found out you were in Wanaka, we agreed we’d try to find you. Janus and I can help.”
Roman scowled. “Why would you want to?”
The person sighed heavily, turning his guilt-ridden expression to the ground.
“Because Janus is the one that bit your brother,” they said in a whisper.
Roman stumbled until his back thumped against the other side of the alleyway. The person held out their hands placatingly.
“Listen, it’s… let me help. My name’s Virgil Rawiri. I was a university student at Otago. I majored in psych.”
Roman let the useless flow of words wash over him, giving him a chance to catch his breath and simultaneously keep track of where this kid was.
“I stayed in student housing with my boyfriend. I was just like you. I know what you’re going through. You don’t have to do this by yourself.”
Roman looked up, and… Virgil – what was this, the nineteenth century? – crouched in front of him. Roman studied him, taking in his earnest expression and hunched shoulders.
“So… y-your boyfriend,” he started.
Virgil nodded. “He’s a werewolf.”
Roman glanced around the street, wondering if a huge wolf was suddenly going to burst out from the shadows and lunge at his throat.
“He isn’t in town; it’s not safe,” Virgil said. He stood up and glanced anxiously over his shoulder. “We’re too close to the Feds here. Come with me.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Roman asked, ragged.
Virgil hesitated. He sighed, running a hand through his violet hair.
“Honestly, from your perspective, you probably can’t,” he said, and what did this guy want? “It’s our fault your brother got turned. We’ve technically been…” he screwed up his face, “stalking you across the South Island. There’s not much spelling out trustworthy in those actions, I guess.
“But we’ve had our run-ins before. We know how to miss them. We know how to stay hidden and safe.” His gaze softened. “And I know what it’s like to shoulder this sort of thing alone.”
Roman blinked. He hated the sudden lump in his throat. When did that get there?
“My best friend sold us out,” he said and startled slightly at the sound of his own quavering, thready voice. “He’s working with the FBI. I’m a three-hour drive from where I last saw Remus, and the last I was with him, he was being shot at.” Roman blinked his suddenly stinging eyes. He dug his hands into his hair, fighting another wave of anxiety. He swallowed the sobs that were forcing themselves up into his throat. “I don’t know what to do.”
Virgil gingerly sat beside him. “Let’s try something,” he said, his voice low and calm despite the way Roman was now gasping for air.
Utterly unfazed by a stranger having a breakdown in front of him, Virgil began to talk Roman through an odd breathing exercise, coaxing him to take timed breaths.
After a few minutes, Roman sniffed and sighed, wrangling himself back under control. Jesus, how often was he going to lose it in one night?
“That’s a good technique,” he croaked.
“Yeah, well, I can tell when a panic attack has been building,” Virgil said with a wry smile. “Comes in handy, huh?”
Roman surprised himself by smiling back.
Virgil stood up and held out his hand. “Come on. Our motel’s a few blocks away.”
Roman, with no one else to hold onto, took Virgil’s outstretched hand.
Virgil moved swiftly and quietly across the dark streets, still empty in the early hours of the morning. Roman followed his lead when he ducked out of sight from stray cars that passed down the road or avoided the light from overhead lamps.
Roman was vaguely surprised that Virgil wasn’t a werewolf; the way his eyes darted about like he could hear any tiny movement or the way he moved almost silently. Even his heavy-looking combat boots barely made a sound against the pavement. Perhaps those tendencies came with living with a wolf boyfriend for years.
The motel Virgil and his partner had been staying at was no flashier than any of the cheap one-nighters Roman had been in. It made him feel slightly comforted about all the rickety beds and cold rooms he’d spent his time in.
Virgil buzzed them in and walked through the lobby with a friendly nod to the night guard at the desk, who smiled like Virgil was an old friend and paid no attention to Roman’s dishevelled appearance. Roman followed him up a few flights of stairs, and as he was beginning to wonder if he was about to be murdered, Virgil opened a dorm door into a clean little apartment reassuringly void of dismembered body parts and knives.
“Oh,” he said, releasing the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “This is nice.”
Virgil had moved over to the two couches and began to pack a charger and water bottles into a waiting backpack.
“What, were you expecting a slaughterhouse?” he asked over his shoulder.
Roman didn’t answer.
Virgil shrugged one shoulder. “Eh, fair enough.”
Roman glanced around the motel, trying not to be too invasive.
Virgil seemed to pick up on it. “I’m going to meet with Janus at dawn, then we can go looking for your brother, okay?”
“Won’t… your boyfriend be confused when the full moon passes and you’re not in the motel?” Roman asked.
“We plan things ahead,” Virgil said. “We talk it over before Janus transforms. The next town, the next motel we meet, and so on. We make a stash of food and clothes somewhere on the outskirts of town before the full moon, where he can return to before we catch up. We can’t stop moving for long.”
“Yeah,” mumbled Roman. “I know the feeling.”
Virgil finished packing the rest of his belongings and slung his bag over his shoulder. Roman held his tongue while Virgil handed his keycard back to the night guard and guided him down to where his car had been parked at the back of the motel. It was a cute little white four-by-four jeep that distantly reminded Roman of the cars in Jurassic Park.
It made him wonder what had happened to their own car, if it was still parked outside the lake-side cabin or if it had been taken as evidence. He tried not to think about the changes they’d made to Remus’ truck and how the efforts to avoid detection hadn’t been enough.
Finally, after Virgil had chucked his bag in the back and gestured for him to get into the passenger seat, Roman asked the question that had been swirling around in his head.
“So, were you stalking me the moment the Feds caught us in Lake Tekapo?”
Virgil laughed, shocked, and shook his head. “No, we lost track of you when you left Timaru. I can never sleep during full moons – I went to get something to eat. It was sheer dumb luck that I ran into you.” He smirked. “Glad I did, huh?”
Roman absentmindedly watched the street they drove down. Virgil’s headlights barely lit up the road ahead, most of the town already illuminated up by the bright, round moon above. It made Roman feel sick. He needed something to think about before he worked himself into another tizzy.
“How do you guys afford all of this?” he asked, glancing at Virgil. “We started to struggle after a month. I can’t imagine doing this for three years.”
“I’ll pick up a job every so often at a different town for a few months under different names,” Virgil said like it was nothing. After this long, Roman didn’t blame him. “Heavy makeup and hair dye can do wonders for employers who don’t care about the government finding out about a nobody who will take just about any ridiculous shift they’re asked of. Helps pay for fuel and a bed here and there.”
Virgil turned onto State Highway 76. “Mostly, we have a few houses scattered about that Janus’ stupid-rich parents left for him before they died. They’re still under his family’s name, so they can’t be sold.”
Roman frowned. “And… food?”
“Usually, on full moons, I can spare some cash for a meal,” Virgil said.
“And… any other day?”
Virgil shrugged. “Janus is hot and I’m sneaky.”
Roman blinked. He took a minute to process. “You steal it?”
Virgil looked like he was biting down on a smile. “You’d be surprised how many people will let things slip for a few minutes of conversation with a very distracting individual in suggestive clothes.”
Roman wrinkled his nose in distaste.
Virgil shook it off. “Janus thinks it’s hilarious. It’s good enough for me. We usually get a few good laughs and a stack of meals out of it.” He shrugged again, then smirked. “I guess we’ll have to be working double time if we’re going to get enough food for both of you as well.”
Roman jolted. “Oh, no, you don’t have to –”
Virgil hummed. “I’ll just leave you on the side of the curb to fend for yourself, then?”
Roman paused, shooting Virgil a doubtful look. Virgil caught his glance and rolled his eyes.
“What did you expect, idiot? That the moment we found your brother, I was going to leave you high and dry?”
Roman scoffed, amused despite himself. “Asshole.”
Virgil laughed. “We can get you food from somewhere that’s open twenty-four seven. I’m willing to bet you haven’t eaten in a while.”
Roman thought back. He’d fallen asleep for two days, woken up to Remus transforming, been arrested, had two panic attacks, and been taken in by a complete stranger. “It’s… been a few hours.”
“Just a few?” Virgil said, amused.
Roman folded his arms over his chest, pouting. “In my defence, I haven’t had much time to relax.”
Virgil raised an eyebrow, looking far too entertained. “Exactly. So that’s what you’re doing now.”
Roman paused. “What?”
Virgil shot him an exasperated look like Roman was being deliberately stupid. “I’ll get you something to eat, I’ll tell you what Janus and I have learned, and you can take a breather.”
Roman curled his legs up onto the seat, fidgeting with his hands. “You’d really do all this for a couple of nobodies?” He rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t there, but I’m willing to bet that Remus practically shoved his hand into Janus’ mouth himself.”
“Yeah, well, Jay can be pretty aggressive, wolf or not. It was probably a bit of both.” Roman huffed with a soft laugh. “Exhausting looking after a moron.”
“Absolutely.”
Roman didn’t pay attention to where Virgil took them, but he took the food Virgil bought him. Still, he only barely paid attention as he slowly munched on the wrap. Virgil was silent as he drove down the dark streets.
Roman quietly thanked Virgil when he finished, feeling slightly ill from his suddenly full stomach. Virgil hummed absentmindedly. He was rubbing his thumb against the steering wheel, looking deep in thought. Roman glanced over at him, not wanting to pressure him but trying to make it evident that he would listen to whatever Virgil had to say.
“Janus killed his alpha.”
Roman blanched. Of all the things he had been waiting for Virgil to say, that had not been it. Virgil bit his lip, looking embarrassed.
“It’s the dumb term used for the werewolf who turns another. Janus killed the werewolf who bit him because he was feral and malicious.” He noticed Roman’s uncertain look. “Janus isn’t like that. And neither is Remus.”
“You haven’t met my brother.”
“If he’s anything like you, I’m sure he’s nothing to worry about.”
They arrived in Diamond Harbour a few hours before sunset. Virgil parked off the side of the road, overlooking the bay surrounded by mountains. It was still and empty, the water barely rippling, a perfect mirror to the starry sky above.
“I’m guessing they didn’t give your phone back,” Virgil said.
Roman hesitated. “I forgot to grab it before I ran out.”
“What do you remember about any notes you took down?” Virgil asked, slipping out his phone and beginning to scroll through it.
Roman tried to remember everything he had noted down. Virgil nodded as he talked, making Roman think that he had at least got some things objectively correct.
When Roman finished, Virgil sat forward, kicking his feet onto his seat and shifting comfortably. He told Roman he was right about a lot of what he had recorded: ordinary wolves could eat around three kilograms of food a day – that was doubled for werewolves. They tended to get doubly aggressive and feral without food, which could lead to losing any remaining humanity they may have left if kept up for an extended period. It rarely ever happened, but that was what had happened to the wolf who had bitten Janus.
Virgil said that the closer it got to each full moon, the most primal animalistic the bitten individual would become. He’d seen Janus gaining a bigger appetite and getting rather protective over odd things like his next meal or his favourite jacket. More often than not though, Janus had gotten far more physically affectionate than usual.
Roman had scoffed at that. “Remus isn’t affectionate.”
“You’d be surprised,” Virgil had said with a knowing smile.
Werewolves were territorial, apparently, but not the way Roman had been thinking. Roman honestly didn’t believe much of Virgil's words about werewolves forming pack bonds. Roman didn’t want to be cliche, but Remus had to be as close to a ‘lone wolf’ as possible.
But he sat and listened and took in what Virgil told him. He was grateful Virgil would even tell him anything. At one point, he had jokingly brought up vampires, which Virgil had scoffed at.
By the time the sky was beginning to grow lighter with the steadily approaching dawn, Virgil had read out everything he had learned from his and Janus' past three years of coping.
Janus hated dog treats. He attacked anything that looked remotely threatening, including but not limited to leaves, rocks, and frogs. His behaviour depended on his emotional state in the weeks prior to the full moon. Sometimes he hated being stuck indoors, so Virgil would drive them to remote parks or forests for him to let loose in.
The pair of them had done well to (and Roman hated the word just as much as Virgil seemed to) ‘train’ Janus’ wolf to avoid people and not attack wildlife. He was nearly silent as a wolf, which Roman immediately envied. More often than not, Virgil said he tended to enjoy resting throughout the night, but he was always exhausted the next day.
Virgil had stressed how important the following day was and how sometimes Janus seemed particularly grouchy, whether he was hungry or tired or a little extra achy from the transformation.
He’d also recounted, albeit with a queasy expression, how the myth of silver hurting werewolves was steeped in truth. Anything, even the mere contact with anything silver, could cause a wolf severe pain and injury.
“They’re impervious to normal bullets,” Virgil said. “Their thick hide can’t be broken by regular guns or blades. Aside from that, they’re still remarkably similar to normal wolves on the inside. They can still get burned or poisoned.”
Roman thought back to the first full moon when Remus had stuck his nose under the bath water to blow bubbles purely for entertainment.
“Can they drown?” he asked, mostly joking, but Virgil answered with a severe frown.
“They can hold their breath for an insane amount of time if nothing is inhibiting them. I swear to god, I thought Janus had drowned swimming around in a lake once, but he popped up with, like, five fish in his gob.
“Falling is a little complicated; it depends on how high they fall from or what the ground is like. But I wouldn’t go testing it. If they encounter anything silver, you have to remove it quickly and cleanly. Once all traces are gone, their bodies will heal… but they’ll still be fragile and vulnerable for a bit.”
Virgil spoke as if he had first-hand experience, which Roman couldn’t even begin to imagine. Still, he listened with rapt attention, trying to memorise all of it despite Virgil's assurance that he didn’t have to worry about doing it alone.
The first rays of sunlight streamed over the horizon, spilling out onto the calm harbour. Virgil yawned. He opened the car door and climbed out, stretching.
Roman followed, shivering at the sudden biting cold air. He joined Virgil sitting on the bonnet of the car, watching the sunrise with a sleepy expression. Roman folded his arms, trying to adjust to the temperature change after leaving the car's warmly heated confines. The curved bay stretched out in front of them was beginning to brighten the calm, still water.
He timidly nudged the toe of his boot against the damp dirt.
“Hey, Virgil?” he asked, avoiding eye contact, but when Virgil didn’t answer, he forced his eyes up. Virgil was watching him patiently, and Roman distantly wondered what he had done to deserve such a godsend. “Thank you.”
Virgil looked away, a slight breeze flushing colour into his cheeks. He leaned over to kick Roman lightly in the side. “We’ve got your back.”
There was a distant laugh, and Roman’s senses were immediately on alert, but he forced himself not to jump. It wasn’t like he had forgotten that other people in the world existed, but perhaps the night had felt so long that Roman wasn’t prepared to go on pretending to be an average member of society.
Virgil didn’t seem as disturbed. He leaned back onto the car with a soft huff of a laugh. “Oh, would you look at that.”
Frowning, Roman followed his gaze.
Someone around their age was heading over to them, gloved hands slipped casually into his black dress pants pockets. The black jacket over his shoulders did not look warm enough, but he was barely shivering as he fixed Virgil with a dangerous smile.
Roman didn’t bolt or prepare to throw hands with the stranger only due to the impossible company he was keeping, whose cackling felt like it was echoing off the mountains on the other side of the harbour.
He was dressed in clothes that weren’t his, and he was filthy, and his hair was even wilder than usual, but Remus was grinning like it was any other day.
Unbidden, Roman’s feet carried him away from the car towards his brother.
“How the hell did you get here?” he shouted.
Remus’ attention was pulled from who Roman could only presume was Janus and narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“Walked?” he asked, stopping as Roman stumbled towards him.
“We’re at least three hundred kilometres away from Lake Tekapo!” Roman cried.
“And I’m a fucking werewolf,” countered Remus like Roman was stupid. “What’s your point?”
Roman leapt forward, curling his arms around Remus’ neck.
“I hate you,” he laughed.
Remus shoved him off. Virgil and Janus were murmuring behind him, their fingers subtly linked together.
“Glad you’re in one piece,” Roman breathed as sudden worries flooded his mind. “You’re not hurt, are you?” He fumbled about Remus, lifting up his arms and trying to work out if all the dirt was covering up any bullet holes the agents might have landed before he got away.
“I’m fine,” Remus grumbled, batting his hands back. “Get off me.”
“Sorry for being concerned,” Roman sniped back.
“You don’t need to be, dumbass,” Remus snapped, dodging around Roman and walking for Virgil and Janus. “Again, I’m a goddamn werewolf.”
“You’re not indestructible, Remus,” Roman said, recalling Virgil's words about silver bullets and feeling nauseous.
“Yeah, right,” Remus scoffed over his shoulder.
“Remus, seriously –” Roman started.
“Do you ever get sick of your own voice, Roman?” Remus threw over his shoulder with an eye roll.
Roman opened his mouth to protest, but Remus was already talking with Janus and Virgil. He closed his mouth, hurt.
Whatever. If Remus wanted to be an idiot about this, that wasn’t Roman’s problem.
Except it absolutely was his problem, Roman admitted to himself with a heavy sigh. Remus would get himself killed before long.
Roman was beginning to think that a good night’s rest was a long time coming.
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naminethewriter · 5 months
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What Dreams Are For
Chapter Three: Unexpected Confrontation
Masterpost | First | Previous | Next | Ao3
Story Summary: Dreams are weird. Especially when you’re metaphysical. There is a distinction between your own dreams and that of your whole. Even though Roman doesn’t know at first that he’s trapped in a dream, he does know that something is wrong upon waking in an unfamiliar room. He thinks he’s in the Imagination but can’t say for sure. Just what has he gotten caught up in?
Cast as the evil Prince and forced to act out the twisted storyline of Thomas’ dream, Roman, with help from Patton and Virgil, needs to figure out what is happening while constricted by what his hateful character would do and say which is not at all pleasant.
We dream for a reason. And as much as Roman likes to be the center of attention, this dream isn’t about him. Someone else is crying out for help.
Content Warnings: Fighting, both physical and verbal, Insults, Partial Mind Control
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After only one and a half days, Roman has to admit that being a crown prince is less glamorous than it was depicted in fairytales. He mostly did either extremely boring paperwork or had tedious meetings with annoying nobles. It’s exhausting and he can’t wait for lunch which he will be having with both Patton and Virgil. Hopefully, they’ll have more information by then and could work on a strategy for getting out of here.
For now though, Roman has one last meeting to attend. Walking from his study to the drawing room is a nice change of pace and he enjoys the fresh air as he passes through a courtyard. If he didn’t have an entourage of two servants and his butler, he would have stayed a bit longer, but being punctual seems to be an important part of maintaining his image so he presses on.
Or he would have if not for the person entering his line of sight in that moment.
Dressed in his signature colors of black and green, Remus is staring right at him. Same as Roman, he doesn’t look much different from his usual appearance with the same brown hair and white streak, though it looks just longer than he keeps it in the Mindscape. His eyes are also the same piercing red that used to send a shiver down Roman’s spine.
As he takes in his brother’s appearance, Roman feels a burning anger rise up, alongside with deep annoyance and hatred that he could never truly feel for his twin, even if he had wanted to.
Every fiber of his being tells him to close the distance and hit Remus square in the face.
He hates feeling this way.
Yes, he doesn’t like Remus. They’re opposites, after all. But he never hated him.
He’s his brother.
He could never hate him.
This version of him seems to disagree.
“What are you doing here!” he demands, teeth gritted. “You are not to leave your wing.”
“Oh my, Your Royal Highness! What an honor to meet you out here!” Remus mocks, completely ignoring his words.
“Do not test me, Remus. You were ordered to stay put.”
“By whom? You? You can’t tell me shit.”
“You are as vulgar as always. Go back before I call my guards.”
“Oh, please do. I haven’t had a good tussle in days, I’m gonna lose my edge like this!”
Roman is fuming. Their argument has gathered a crowd of servants and workers alike that stare at the fighting princes. There is no way for Roman to dismiss all of them and have a one-on-one conversation with Remus and if he doesn’t leave of his own volition, he fears their confrontation is going to turn physical very soon.
Though he might be able to use that as an opportunity.
If he could touch Remus, then maybe he would be able to use their connection to break the hold the Imagination or whatever has on them.
Still, he would rather not have to trade blows with his brother.
“As long as the King is away, I have the highest authority in this castle, Remus! So, if I say you are not to set foot out of your wing, you will not set foot out of your wing!”
“I am so sick of you acting all high and mighty, Ro-bro.” The nickname that Remus had once used as a sign of their closeness now drips like poison from his lips.
“I have earned my position! Maybe you should have thought about your reputation when you had your little tantrum!”
“Is that what you’re calling it now? Me reasonably rejecting your fucking stupid policies is a ‘little tantrum?!’ Fuck off!”
“If you were capable of a proper discussion, I might be willing to hear you out. However, if you continue to just throw profanities around, then there is no point to giving you my very valuable time.”
“Oh! I am so sorry I am wasting your precious time by daring to disagree with you, oh perfect and infallible Crown Prince Roman, hero of the people! How dare I have an individual thought and not just nod along to whatever you say and sing your praises!” Remus presses his hands over his mouth in a very obviously mocking fashion and Roman can’t hold himself back anymore.
He closes the distance between them in a few steps and grabs Remus by his shirt. His mouth opens, ready to yell at his twin even louder, but in his mind, Roman pushes to connect his creative energy with Remus’.
As they do, a pulse wave emits from them and everything around them freezes.
Yes! It worked! He and Remus are in control!
“Ro?” Remus’ unusually subdued voice brings Roman out of his internal celebration. He focuses on Remus’ eyes and instead of the same relief he thought he would see there, there is hesitation and resignation. Only half a second later, Roman feels his control of the situation start to slip away again.
“Re! Help me control it! We can fix this, together!”
“No, we can’t, Ro.”
Roman furrows his brows, both in confusion and concentration on upholding their link.
“What are you talking about?! Of course we can! We’re creativity! We can do anything here!”
“Not right now, we can’t. This isn’t our creation.”
“Then whose is it?!”
“It’s—”
Remus is cut off by their connection shattering. It’s like they both receive an electric shock, and they flinch apart. Additionally, there’s a loud buzzing jumping around in his head, so for a moment, Roman doesn’t notice that his body had used his lapse in control to shove Remus to the ground and start berating him further.
“You are a failure, Remus! And that is solely your own fault! If you had listened to me, none of this would have happened! But no, you just had to open your mouth, didn’t you? I told you this would happen, that everyone would turn their back on you and still you couldn’t help yourself, could you? It’s almost as if being the biggest disappointment imaginable was your life’s mission!”
Roman tries to stop himself from talking further but his mouth keeps spitting insults and his hands have drawn his sword, pointing it at Remus’ chest and stopping him from getting back up. His brother glares at him from the ground, teeth gritted. The people around them watch and whisper but none of them dare interfere.
“Nobody cares for you, Remus,” Roman hisses, leaning down towards him and talking quieter though he can probably still be heard rather well in the otherwise silent courtyard. “I tried my best, I really did, but how do you expect me to love you if you continue to screw up over and over again?”
“What’s going on here?”
For the second time in two days, Roman wants to cry as he sees Patton coming towards him. He knows neither he nor Remus are in control, knows that Remus knows it, too, but the look in his eyes, of hurt and anger and hatred… He doesn’t want to see it anymore.
“The Second Prince left his wing against orders and refused to return upon Crown Prince Roman’s command,” Roman’s butler explains to Patton as he reaches the twins. The Royal Advisor sighs before stepping forward and lightly pulling Roman off Remus.
“I understand you trying to enforce the rules, Your Royal Highness, but you didn’t need to intervene yourself,” he scolds. At least, that’s what his words imply but his voice doesn’t hold any harshness. “I will make sure he returns to his wing, please continue with your day and leave this to me, alright?”
Roman clicks his tongue quietly but nods, sheathing his sword. He glares at Remus one more time before walking away.
“Roman! Give back what you stole from me!” his brother calls, still on the ground. Roman stops in his tracks. He stole something?
“If you wanted me to leave you alone you shouldn’t have messed with what’s mine first,” he scoffs at his brother, crossing his arms.
“I didn’t do anything. Especially not something that would make it seem like I’m copying you.” Burning anger flares up in him again and Roman is about to draw his sword a second time when Patton steps back between them.
“Stop it! This conversation is over, Prince Remus. Crown Prince Roman has work to do and you’ve held him up long enough.” He turns to Roman and motions towards the castle. “Please go now, Your Royal Highness.”
He hesitates for a moment, the anger is still there, urging him to get at least one hit in, but Patton’s firm eyes stop him and he turns to leave again.
“Fucking coward,” he hears Remus mutter behind him. He ignores him and moves forward.
“Now, I understand that staying inside isn’t all that exciting, Prince Remus, but you cannot ignore Royal decrees just because you feel like it!” Patton starts lecturing and Roman is sure that he won’t stop berating him for a while.
He feels a sense of satisfaction rise in his chest at the thought. It’s an ugly feeling. And an unjust one.
Remus had simply gone outside.
Roman had been the one to attack him, shove him to the ground and draw a weapon on him.
And all he gets is one sentence that could hardly be called scolding while Remus is most likely going to get an hour-long lecture.
If he were in control of his body, Roman thinks he would probably be shaking. He feels sick to his stomach.
At least he got some information out of their confrontation:
Remus is indeed here.
He and Roman disagree on politics which has led to a falling out it seems, not only between the princes but also between Remus and the rest of the court.
He stole something from Remus after he ‘messed’ with something of his.
It isn’t much, but it’s something to work with.
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With this chapter I would like you to appreciate once again the incredible art that @failingatfailing and @wolfy-do-art-stuff created for this story! It depicts both Roman and Remus as they are perceived by the citizens of the kingdom. Their two posts are here and here! Please give them some love 🥰
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