A Mistake and a Snake
It had been four days. Four days since Janus had made a mistake that he couldn’t wouldn’t admit to. Four days and the Prince he had insulted hadn’t come out of his room the entire time. Roman hadn’t shown his face the entire time.
For some reason I knew I had screwed up. Normal the insults I dished out never were mistakes, the insults never cause I... Guilt; after all, I wasn’t getting hurt, so why should he care? Self-preservation stepped on anyone that got in his way, and he didn’t care. But this was something odd. The last time I had insulted Roman to such an existent--So much that I had wanted to apologies, (But never had) had been the ‘mustache incident.’
That had caused a single day of silence from Roman, and five days where he ignored I. It was better than this. Four whole days without any form of communication, and this was from ROMAN. Roman who never shut up unless I made him. Roman who was the EGO, the full extent of pride and ego, part of Thomas that couldn’t SHOULDN’T be ignored.
It was clear Roman was bruised, and the only way to fix it was to tell him he was ... Sorry.
Oh this was going to be hard.
I took the long route, and almost didn’t knock. Then I heard the Lies.
God they were loud. So unnecessarily LOUD. Like thunderclaps in a storm, or hammers pounding on metal bars. They drowned out everything else that I could hear.
It wasn’t a secret that the Virgil could ‘heard fears’ and that the Duke could hear his own hemisphere, and the thought followed for I could hear lies.
Roman was DROWNDING in them.
The EGO was full of self-depreciating lies. I-- I felt bad. That-I wasn’t supposed to care about anyone else. I was Self preservation. I didn’t care about Roman anyone.
‘He’s right.‘
‘They don’t care. They shouldn’t, I... Laughed at Janus’s name, and he was right then. I’m the Villain. I’m the bad creativity, and I’m-‘ It was was to much noise. I couldn’t bear it. But for a new(?) reason. There was something else behind the fact that I needed to stop Thomas’ ego from bruising himself. It wasn’t self-serving. I actually cared... about Roman. Of all sides. The creative prefect prince of dreams and the actor; the good side if there ever was a good side, no, the prefect side. It couldn’t be fair, how could Roman ever care about ‘a slimy snake‘ when he was the hero.
‘Janus was right when he said I should have been a dark side. I don’t deserve to be a hero-Because I hurt the ones I love.‘
That was hard to ignore- In fact I couldn’t ignore it. I had snapped at Roman and it had bruised him. I learned a long time ago that words were often worse then swords. They were a poison that made a man destroy himself. and I had given Roman a lethal Dose.
I could only hope the antidote was enough.
I barely brushed the door with his glove when it swung open. He almost hit Roman on the nose. But I wasn’t paying attention to that. The prince looked, for back of a better word, like a raging dumpster fire somebody had filled with rotten strawberries and doused in chemicals. The usually well dressed regal prince looked like he lost a fight with Virgil (a racoon) and rolled through Remus’s room while covered in Velcro. Put simply Roman looked like shit.
Roman also immediately tried to close the door on me. resulting in me scuffing my boot. Also now my toe hurt.
“Ow?!“
“Oh-Sorry. I seem to mess everything up.“ Romans usually upturned face and cheerful voice were gone, there were bags under his eyes so harsh that it looked like he was trying to imitate Virgil - without using makeup.
“God-Roman what is-“ Roman lifted a hand, causing me to slow trail off.
“Stop. I get it. I screwed up, I’m a failure- No more talk. if you don’t mind-“
It took almost every inch of me to stop myself from laughing at the ridiculous statement. A swift flick of the wrist shut Roman up before he could finish, “Roman, that's not- Well that's kind of why I’m here. Not to insult you however. Care I come in?” Romans face went through several changes, first hopeful, and then a lie pounded into Romans mind, ‘Why would he care? He’s a liar and a monster. Like you.’ I suppressed a hiss at the lie, was that really what everyone thought of him? Romans face fell, and slowly emotion melted away, until it was a blank mask, void of emotion in a way Roman never should be.
You make it easy to think that way. You enjoy their fear too. Stop lying to yourself about it. You probably won’t change.
But Roman still slowly inched out of the way, giving a small amount of room for me to enter.
After he stepped in Roman swiftly shut the door, and he also immediately spun and looked at me, “Well?”
“I’m- I am... I’m sorry.“ The words left a bitter taste in my mouth, but as he continued the taste disappeared. “I shouldn’t have called you your brother, or a dark side. I shouldn’t have ever insulted you like that and- Honestly-“ That word was even worse to chock out, “I don’t want to hurt you. Or any of the sides.“ The last part was just to save face. I loved insulting Virgil after he betrayed us for the light sides, then again wasn’t I doing the same thing?
“Thanks I-Wait what did you say?“ Roman looked about as confused as I felt.
“I-“ I could finish the sentence. Because Roman had collapsed.
I wasn’t big on getting touched, but I still lunged to catch the now asleep prince. Given the dark circles around his eyes, I could assume he just needed sleep, but good God he was heavy. I dragged him over to his bed and kind of let him flop onto it. After making sure he could breath I sat next to the sleeping beauty.
He somehow managed to curl up into a ball, and rest his head on my lap. I couldn’t move, Roman just looked so... peaceful.
He just ran his hand through Romans hair and let him sleep. “There we go. Just sleep my prince.“
It took four hours, before Roman woke up, and he was extremely flustered.
“I-Um. Were you sitting there for four hours?“
“No?“
He blinked, clearly skeptical of my tone. I hung my head. Why was it so hard to lie to him? “Yes.”
He sighed, “Well. Um. I haven’t really-”
“Slept? at all?“ I hissed.
He hung his head, “Well. yeah. but you and Virgil do it all the time.“
“I am the incarnation of Deceit, and you think I’m healthy?“
Roman started to say something, but his words were interrupted with a yawn. “I need a nap-another one.“
I immediately stood. “Alright- I should-”
“Wait, can... can you stay? I“ Before Roman could finish I heard another lie, duller, also a fear, but a lie no the less. I was fairly curtain that if Virgil had been hear he would have heard the next statement like a scream. I don’t need him for the nightmares. I can sleep without them.
That somehow changed my mind. It also relieved me a bit, that I wasn’t the only cause of his problems-How can you think that you selfish bastard? He is unable to sleep and it’s a GOOD THING?
I quickly nodded. “Yes- Of course. If you need.” The words came out annoyingly jumbled, I took a breath, “I can as long as you need.”
He smiled, slowly dragging himself back onto the bed. “Janus? Why did you come?“
I could lie soooo easily, JUST SAY PATTON MADE ME! But an ungodly honestly answered, “I couldn’t let myself lie to you like that. I couldn’t... make myself not care.”
He blinked, “Why?” Why is he asking such personal questions!
I still answered truthfully. You can make it a lie if he doesn’t feel the same. he’ll believe that more than he would the truth. “I care about you.“
His eyes were wide, and I almost bit my forked tongue off. “You do? Honestly?”
No going back, “Yes.“ I looked away, scared of the rejection I was sure was coming.
I heard Roman rustle on the bed, and then go still, but he didn’t reply, and I wasn’t looking. Until I felt lips brush my cheek, and my eyes flew open. Roman had-What? WHAT? WHAT?
The idiot had the audacity to pull away and SMILE. I wanted to slap him. Don’t lie. You want to kiss him.
I did, I really did.
So I returned the favor.
This was a much more effective way of shutting Roman up.
He let out a sigh, and slow flopped back onto the bed. I hadn’t even realized we had moved. A small part of me was reminded that Roman hadn’t slept in roughly four days. “You need sleep. A lot of it.”
“I don’t want to. I might dream.“ The creative prince looked away for a second, so vulnerable. Any other side I would have insulted of laughed at, something other than say what I spoke to Roman, “I’ll be here to help. The nightmares can’t fight us both.“
He streched, trying to reply but his speech was silenced with a yawn. “Maybe. Are you sure it’s fine?”
I almost lied. “It’s perfectly fine, Roman.”
The half asleep flirt smirked, “Maybe another kiss would help.“
i wasn’t going to say no, and Roman barely had time to murmur ‘Thank you’ before he was asleep as I pulled back slowly.
All I could do was smile, “You’re not welcome.“