Chapter Text
Logan sat in silence as Patton finished his tale. He stared down at the ground and silence settled around them. He could tell that the two creatures in front of him were waiting for him to say something, but Logan didn’t know how to respond.
Patton cleared his throat. “He looked for you, you know. For weeks. He had me ask around. He risked being found by going to your house. He didn’t give up until the trail went cold.”
Logan pursed his lips.
Patton sighed. “I don’t know what you convinced yourself of,” he said, “but he’s not the person you told yourself he was. He’s doing this to save his family, first and foremost.”
With that, Patton stood and walked off, likely looking for Roman.
“Lo?”
Logan looked up to see Virgil peering over at him. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking,” Logan said slowly, “than I need some time to think.”
“Alright,” Virgil said, nodding. “Go. I’ll make sure they don’t go looking for you.”
“Thank you, Virgil.”
Roman sat by himself, far away from the place where they seemed to be stopping for the night. He was exhausted, both from the fighting and the running. He wasn’t quite sure where he was, but he didn’t exactly care. All he could hear was Logan’s yelling, his accusations. All he could see was Dorian’s cold and hateful eyes as he stabbed Roman.
Is abdomen ached, and Roman put a hand over the scar. The fae healers had been good, but there had been nothing they could’ve done to prevent the scar. He was rather thankful that Patton didn’t have very many mirrors in his home. Roman didn’t think he could stand looking at it every day.
He jumped when something landed on his knee, but relaxed when he saw it was just Orin.
“Hello, little friend,” Roman said, trying to smile but failing miserably. “I would have thought you would have taken Logan’s side.”
Orin hummed and curled up on Roman’s knee.
“Oh, he has a right to be angry,” Roman said, resting his head against a tree. “I didn’t try hard enough to find him.”
Orin clawed at his knee, giving what Roman could only describe as a disapproving look.
“What? I didn’t. I didn’t even think to check the Night Forest. I didn’t try hard enough to ask other fae if they had seen him.” Roman sighed and closed his eyes.
Orin made a whining noise.
“I know! I know, there was no way I could've known, but I should have still tried.” Roman ran his hands through his hair. He could feel the tears pricking at his eyes. His hands were shaking when he reached up to rub at them.
Orin got up, then, and curled up on Roman’s shoulder, the machinery that made him up humming. Something about the noise was soothing, and he was warm, which Roman was thankful for.
For a while, all he did was sit there, staring up at the sky through the trees while Orin whirred and hummed on his shoulder. Then he heard someone walking towards him.
“I don’t really want to talk.”
“That’s okay,” Patton said, sitting down next to him. “You don’t have to. Just figured you’d want company. Well,” he smiled and waved at Orin, “more than you already have, of course.”
Roman nodded and closed his eyes. For a moment, the three of them just listened to the forest. To the critters scuttering around the forest, the insects that Roman still had yet to learn the names of singing their very loud song all around them.
“It’s okay, you know,” Patton said, “to be scared of him.”
Roman looked down. “He’s my brother.”
“He hurt you,” patton reminded him. “Really, really badly.” Patton reached over and took his hand. “Even if that vampire was right and he was being controlled, you didn’t know that five years ago. It was still his face.” he squeezed his head. “You can be scared of him. You can be scared of your mother. It’s okay.”
Roman felt the tears again. “I just...I saw that creature’s eyes and...and…”
“I know,” Patton wrapped his arm around Roman’s shoulders. “Believe me, I know. It’s okay.”
Roman leaned on his friend, finally letting himself just cry. He cried for the family he had lost, the father he still did not know the fate of. Even if he could free his mother and brother from whatever control they were under, there was no telling what would it be like after. He’d spent so long cursing their names, just being so angry at them, that he wouldn’t know what to do with this potential After.
Would he finally figure out what happened to his father? To Axel? Would he go and be king of the Day Kingdom? What would the creatures do, if they knew he was alive and left them at the mercy of the malicious Night Queen and her creatures? Would they welcome him back? Or would they drive him out of the kingdom entirely.
There were so many what ifs. So many possibilities that it was overwhelming. He wished he could just be a kid again. To sneak away with Logan and never look back. He wished he could get back the teenagehood his mother had taken from him. He wished he could just go back.
Patton started humming, then, a song Roman knew well. It was something Roman had hummed to himself for years, something he’s known his entire life. He supposed that living with Roman for five years, Patton had learned the song. Roman hadn’t realized he’d sung it so often.
The song relaxed him, though, enough that Roman stopped crying and slumped against Patton, who rubbed his shoulder. “Let’s go back,” Patton said gently. “You can lie down and I’ll get the food.”
“I’ll help…”
“No, you’ve had a long day...er, night.” Patton gently nudged Roman off of his shoulder. “Come on, get up.”
Roman sighed, but he allowed his friend to help him to his feet. Orin dug his claws into Roman’s shoulders, but he didn’t mind. The pressure was a nice feeling, a nice way of grounding him, reminding him that someone was there.
They walked back to their camp, where Virgil sat alone in front of a fire, his wings spread out as if he were warming them. He looked up. “Glad you could join me.”
“Where’s Lo?” Patton asked as he and Roman sat down opposite of Virgil.
“Hunting,” Virgil said.
“Ah,” Patton said, pursing his lips. “Well, I’ll be back with my own food.” he left, patting Roman on the shoulder as he went.
Both Roman and Virgil watched as Patton disappeared into the forest again, leaving them alone. Neither of them spoke to each other. They didn’t even look at each other for a long few minutes.
Eventually Orin got up, stretched, and started flying around. He was getting slow, which Roman knew meant he needed to sleep. All of them needed to, it seemed.
“Go find Lo, Orin,” Roman said softly. “He’ll make sure you get some good rest.”
Orin flew around Roman’s head once, disrupting his hair, before flying off. Roman smiled a little as he watched. It was nice to see the little dragon so active after so long.
“You care about Orin a lot, don’t you?” Virgil asked.
Roman glanced up at him. “Yeah, he’s been in my life as long as Logan has. Longer, I guess.” he sighed. “He’s family.”
“Logan? Or Orin?”
Roman blinked and looked up at the Avian, who was peering up at him. He sat slouched, his hands in his pockets, as if his wings were weighing him down.
“Both, I suppose,” Roman said with a shrug. “At least they used to be.”
Virgil nodded and looked down at the fire. “You know,” he said after another moment, “I heard a lot about you. For a long time I just kinda pictured you as your brother.”
Roman winced at that. “He hates me that much?”
“Not Dorian,” Virgil calirified, “Remus.”
Roman’s head snapped up. That was one brother Roman hadn’t thought about except when his dreams starred him. “Remus? How?”
Virgil shrugged, his wings lifting slightly at the movement. “All the stories I heard about him was that he was kinda selfish. He didn’t really care what anyone else thought, especially of him. Didn’t he streak through the kingdom one time?”
Roman rolled his eyes. “Please. I’m not that bad.”
“If you say so,” Virgil said. “It was mostly the selfish part that reminded me of you.”
Roman wrapped his arms around his legs and propped his chin on his knees. “Think of me what you will,” he muttered.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Virgil said.
“Then what is your point?”
Virgil sighed. “My point is that Logan talked about you like you were the center of his world, even when you were a stupid selfish teenager, and if you break his heart again by waltzing back into his life like this, then I’ll personally fly you to the tallest, coldest mountian in these lands and steal your clothes.”
The threat didn’t really land with Roman. Despite the fact that he had no doubt Virgil could make good on it, he didn’t really blame him for being over protective. Logan had that effect on creatures.
“I don’t plan to break his heart,” Roman said. “As much as I would like, I do not plan on capturing it ever again. He has made his feelings for me clear. Five years has changed us both, and we are not the teenagers we once were. Besides, my first focus should be on saving my family and my kingdom. I am only glad that he has you and now Orin to look after him.”
Virgil blinked a few times, as if that was not the response he was expecting to get.
“Well, good,” he said. “He doesn’t need to go through that again.”
Roman nodded in agreement.
“Glad we’re on the same page then,” Virgil said, standing. He turned to leave, but Roman found himself stopping him.
“Virgil!” He called, and the Avian turned around to look at him, making him shrink back. “Um...could you stay? Until Patton gets back? I...um...I just...don’t know this forest or the creatures in it.”
Virgil looked at him for a moment, frowning, before slowly sitting back down. “Yeah,” he said, “sure.”
Roman nodded and they both fell back into silence, watching the fire dance in front of them.