Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

High school. Everybody said it was supposed to be the greatest time of your life, but, really, what was so great about it? Everyone’s going through puberty, the teachers expect you to be as responsible as a full grown adults while not even allowing you to go to the bathroom alone, and you were expected to map out the rest of your life before you even know what the fuck taxes are! And, on top of that, everyone’s always freaking out about soulmates. It was fair, even for the people who didn’t care about romance, they at least got to see color after they first met the person that the universe says is supposed to be the person you spent the rest of your life with. 

Of course, there were people who never got their soulmates, people who the universe just glossed over and, for teenagers who were watching their friends go around and find their soulmates, it was so easy to feel like they were those people and that they were broken for it, even if they had everything else that life could offer. 

Roman Prince was one such person, though nobody would look at him and think so. He was extremely popular, he starred in every single production that their drama department put on, and his parents were as loving and accepting as they could be, which was, unfortunately, more than a lot of other gay teenagers could say. Of course, he recognized how great his life was going, he knew that things were worse for a lot of people his age, especially those that also seemed to have feelings for the same gender or those who weren’t assigned the right gender at birth. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t yearn for a soulmate. He was still a teenager, after all, and, for those who actually do experience romantic attraction, there was nothing more obvious than a teenager seeking love. 

Honestly, during his senior year, it got so bad that it started to affect his grades. Not too poorly, it wasn’t like he was daydreaming to the point of failing all of his classes, it just felt like it sometimes. Like, in this instance, it meant he was getting a C on an English essay, a class that he prided himself on being able to get through without trouble. 

“A C?..” he muttered to himself as he got back the paper, recognizing that he was the one at fault for this. After all, his daydreaming had become a bit excessive. Therefore, it was also his responsibility to try and get this fixed and the first step he took to do so was going up to his teacher after class. 

“Mr Picani, I have a bit of an issue with my grade... I know it’s definitely not my best work, but you know me and you know that I can do better. I was hoping you’d give me a chance to fix it?” 

His teacher sighed and leaned back in his seat. “I do know you and I do know that you are usually a much better writer than this. Is something wrong?” 

“No,” he assured. “I’ve just been daydreaming so much lately, but, I promise, seeing a grade like this on my paper is really going to stop that.” 

Well... Roman did seem sincere. Mr Picani smiled and looked through his calendar. “Okay... I think if you come to my tutoring session this afternoon and work on some of the stuff I mentioned in my notes there, just stuff to get the paper to a higher level, we can see about getting your grade raised.” 

Roman let out a sigh of relief and nodded. “Thank you... I can definitely do that, I’ll see you then.” He walked out of the room and let his parents know he was going to be staying after school, taking the liberty of lying and claiming he wanted to stay to help a friend out with some history work, another decent skill for him. His parents weren’t particularly strict, but they had high standards for him, standards that Roman had been easily meeting all his life. He wasn’t going to tell them that he nearly sunk one of his best grades, especially not over something like daydreaming over his soulmate.

That afternoon, Roman went to Mr Picani’s classroom with the intention of being a good noodle and letting Logan help him fix his essay, stopping in his tracks as he saw who was joining them. 

Now, obviously, he didn’t just expect for it to be just the three of them, he expected there to be at least one or a few other students, but he didn’t know who it was going to be and he didn’t like who it was. 

Remus Duke. He was the one kid in Roman’s honor classes that made everybody wonder how on earth he was an honor student. He was rude, crude, and downright disgusting, and, more than anyone, Roman loathed him. It wasn’t like he hid it either, most of the time. He may have cared what the rest of the student body thought of him, but when it came to Remus, Roman just wished he would find the nearest bridge and- 

“Hey, Roman,” Mr Picani greeted. “Come in, take a seat, you’re right on time.” 

Remus glanced back at him and rolled his eyes before turning back to face Logan as he set his bag down, apparently having just gotten there himself. 

Roman may not have cared what Remus himself thought about him, but he did care what Mr Picani thought about him, so he stayed civil, taking a seat in the desk right next to Remus, though he did make a point to slide his seat away just a few inches. 

“You guys will have to excuse me, I’m kind of busy this afternoon, so it’ll just be you guys for the most part. All I ask is that you don’t break anything.” 

“Don’t worry,” Remus assured in that slimy, horrible voice of his that Roman absolutely hated. “The only thing I’ll be breaking is the ice between me and robo-geek here.” He reached over to hold Logan’s hand, the other quickly grabbing his wrist and holding it in a clearly painful position, judging by the satisfying way that Remus was wincing. 

“Abso-fucking-lutely not. I may tolerate your awful flirting, but Mr Picani has given me full permission to break you in half, if you so much as lay a finger on me.” Logan wasn’t particularly violent, but Remus wasn’t too great with boundaries most of the time and, as the only person who didn’t cry when he messed with them, Logan was usually on the receiving end of Remus’s advances. Fairly gracefully, too, but apparently, he drew the line at physical advances. 

Mr Picani shrugged and checked his watch. “I’m obliged to tell you to watch your language, but I did say that. Just don’t get him hospitalized, I have to go,” he said as he dashed out of the door, leaving the three teenagers on their own. 

Remus pulled his hand away and rubbed his sore wrist, impressed with Logan’s actions. “You do realize that that’s hot, right?” 

“While I usually don’t mind your verbal harassment, I’m going to have to ask you to stop for the sake of the one other person in the room.” 

Remus shrugged. “What’s Princey going to do? Kiss ass harder?” 

“God, I hate you,” Roman muttered. 

Remus snickered. “You make it so obvious, you might as well say it out loud.” 

“What we really should be doing is getting to work so we can all get out of here on time,” Logan reminded them. “You two can fight outside, not on my time.” 

“You got it, gorgeous.” Remus winked at him before getting his own work out of his bag, proudly placing his B- paper on the table. 

A B minus?! That was a few points higher than what Roman got! Roman bit the inside of his cheek and placed his work on his desk, subtly trying to hide the grade on top. 

“A C? Looks like Princey isn’t so perfect after all.” 

“Logan,” Roman began in a whining tone before realizing he was just giving Remus more ammo. “How do you deal with him?” 

Logan shrugged. “You learn to ignore it.” 

The three of them managed to get through an hour of working before Mr Picani came back, a heavy looking box in his hands. 

“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but I have some more boxes to bring in, full of old assignments that I’m finally going to hand back soon. Do you think I could get a hand?..” 

“Of course,” Logan said. “You two stay here and keep working, I can help him.” 

“Thanks, Logan.” Mr Picani smiled and put down the box before leaving with Logan. 

Roman sighed and kept working on his essay, trying to ignore Remus as best as he could. 

“You know, if you rearrange the paragraphs a bit, that paper would be top notch.” 

Roman rolled his eyes and turned so is back was mostly towards Remus. “Whatever, I don’t need your help.” 

Remus snickered. “That’s not what your grade says. So, what’s the real deal? You’re a star student, all the teachers adore you, what’s up with you letting your grades slip, Princey?” 

“That’s none of your business,” he muttered. 

“Oh, you think I haven’t noticed your little daydreaming in every class? Come on, everyone’s noticed you just checking out most of the time, I know it’s why you’re not acting like the perfect prissy boy you are.” 

Roman clenched his fists and tried to ignore him. 

Remus grinned as he realized he was getting on Roman’s nerves and rested his head in his hand. “Can I take a guess what you were thinking about? Let’s see, a basic bitch like you? I bet you were daydreaming about your future soulmate. Whoever the poor guy is.” 

“Shut up,” Roman snapped, his temper running short. “At least I know I’ll have a soulmate, I bet a freak like you doesn’t have anybody.” 

Remus shrugged. “What, you think that’s insulting to me? I’ve heard worse. I’ve said worse. It’s not my fault you’re such an insecure little-” Remus was cut off as Roman shoved him back and almost out of his seat, laughing for a second before looking back at him, confused with his stupid grin still on his face. 

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Roman asked, slowly backing away. 

“Well, I’m not going to hit you, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m not a child like you are, but if you don’t know what I’m thinking about, it’s not your business.” 

Roman huffed and turned back down to his paper, a bit distracted by the pen markings on the paper. Something about them looked weird. Unexplainably weird. He just shrugged it off after a few seconds and got back to work as Mr Picani and Logan shuffled in with a few more boxes. 

“Nice to see you haven’t killed each other yet,” Logan commented. “Keep that up.” 

“Yeah, Princey’s been surprisingly well behaved these past few minutes.” 

Okay, that was weirder than the pen thing. Remus wasn’t just taking the time to sell Roman out? He was covering for him? Roman stared down at his paper, knowing that if he even glanced up at Remus, he’d start staring in an attempt to figure out what was going on in that strange mind of his. 

“He’s not exactly the one I was worried about, but good job anyways,” Logan said as he and Mr Picani left again. 

Roman waited for a few seconds after they left before speaking. “You didn’t rat on me? I pushed you.” 

Remus shrugged, not that Roman was watching. “What would I get out of that? I won’t benefit from you getting in trouble, plus I know you’ll feel extra guilty if you don’t pay the price for the awful crime of lightly shoving me.” 

Right, of course it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart or anything like that. How could it be? It was pretty clear that Remus didn’t have a heart. “Well, fine, as long as you don’t blackmail me with it. It wasn’t much of an attack and you definitely deserved it.” 

“I know that.” Remus grinned and decided to take mercy on the other for a few seconds, looking back down at the sketches on his arm. He had a favorite pen, one that he knew was different colors only because it was labeled as such, and he loved doodling on his arm with it, partly to wonder what it may have looked like to people who could perceive the color and also to act as somewhat of an alarm in case he ever did meet his soulmate. It had always looked like everything else, just plain old black and white, but now, there was something off about it. And something off about his own arm. He couldn’t really describe it. 

It looked so incomprehensible that Remus just shrugged it off and assumed that it was just an illusion, that maybe Roman’s words really were getting to him, at least a little bit. After all, Roman was right. He may not have been obsessed over the topic, but he did wonder who his soulmate was and he did fear that he didn’t have one, seeing as his group of friends wasn’t even a group. It was just one person and it wasn’t even Logan. Actually, he could’ve called Logan his friend, but he was pretty sure Logan wouldn’t say it back. 

So, if that was his relationship with people now, when it was supposed to be easiest to just pull someone out of a crowd and befriend them, who was to say that he absolutely had a soulmate? Maybe he didn’t and he liked to pretend that he was okay with that possibility, but really, it sort of scared him. Apparently, it scared him enough to make him see things. 

Roman did his best to finish his essay as quick as possible, having Mr Picani read it over and approve it before leaving, driving himself home and focusing on just how grateful he was to have escaped that situation. An hour in tutorial was fine, but an hour anywhere near Remus Duke? It was giving him enough of a headache to make him start hallucinating. He even had to leave dinner early and go to sleep, in hope that he’d feel better in the morning. 

Chapter Text

The next morning, Roman was definitely feeling better, his head wasn’t hurting as he rolled out of bed and dragged himself in front of his bedroom mirror, the first step of his day always being to make sure he looked good as always. His task was interrupted by a yawn before he rubbed his eyes open and looked at himself, immediately being shocked out of his sleepy state. That wasn’t how the world looked last night. Well, it was, but Roman thought it was just some sort of weird hallucination! Was this... No, it couldn’t be color, could it? 

Roman stepped forward and reached out for his reflection, looking down at his arm and seeing that it wasn’t just the mirror, the sleeve that used to just be different shades of gray was now vibrant and bright, bursting with color. He gasped and looked around the room, almost overwhelmed by this early morning shock. This was color! Not only was this color, but it meant he’d met his soulmate! And it could only be one of so many people, he was a social guy, but he didn’t make a habit of going around touching everybody. No, that sounded more like something- 

Roman’s blooming excitement withered away in a second as he realized something. There was only one person he touched yesterday, at least only one person he made skin to skin contact with. But that absolutely couldn't be right, could it? No, he was Roman, he was the most popular guy in school, he was the star of the drama department and he was the squeaky clean, proud prep of their school. Of all the people his soulmate could be, it absolutely could not be Remus!

Remus was vile, awful, disgusting, whatever other synonyms for that he could think of. He was the opposite of Roman and he was the opposite of whatever kind of person Roman had ever thought could be his soulmate. Soulmates were supposed to be perfect matches, other halves, the person you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with, none of those were positions that Roman would ever let Remus fill. 

Wait, that was it! There was no contract, nobody saying that he had to accept Remus as his soulmate, he could just take the color and live his life as it was! Worse case scenario, Remus would bug him about them being soulmates but... God, that would be annoying. Okay, Roman could think of a solution for that later. Why would Remus want him as a soulmate, anyways? The two were so different, Remus absolutely had to be feeling the same way, no matter how much of an absolute catch Roman knew he was. 

Well, no matter how much he would hate it, Roman was wrong. Dead wrong. 

Remus saw the change almost as soon as he woke up that morning, after spending a few hours the past night simply assuming that he was finally losing his mind. He was overjoyed and immediately went around the room, looking at every little thing that he could. There were so many colors! Though, it was clear that, even without the ability to see them, he was drawn to the color green. He loved it, it suited him and it matched his eyes. 

His eyes! Oh god, he’d forgotten that his eyes were colored! He didn’t doubt for a second that brown eyes would look gorgeous, but anybody who had color was very open about the fact that they adored colored eyes and he had them! He just never had anybody to tell him what they were like, as laughably obvious as it was. He only had one friend and he didn’t care much about color, so neither of them appreciated just how gorgeous his emerald eyes would be. Now, all he needed was to know who exactly gave him that gift! 

It didn’t take long for him to narrow it down to two people, Logan and Roman, they were the only people besides Janus who even came close enough to touch him the day before, though he and Janus touched before, obviously. And... Surely, he must’ve touched Logan before at least once, right? He’d interacted with him so much and while he couldn’t remember a specific moment, he was almost certain that they’d come into contact before, so that only left Roman! 

Remus’s reaction to the realization was a lot different than Roman’s, not that either of them would have any clue as to how the other was reacting. Remus didn’t know much about Roman, but he knew that he was in love with the idea of soulmates, to the point where he let it affect his grades, so surely he would at least give Remus a chance. That wasn’t something he could say about everyone and he knew it, but Roman... Again, Remus didn’t know him and, from what he did know, he didn’t particularly like him, but they were soulmates, the universe put them together. Surely, Remus’s odd personality wasn’t bad enough to rip that bond apart. ... Right? 

Both boys went to school that morning with their intentions set. Roman would do everything in his power to avoid Remus and Remus would do everything in his power to make sure that he and Roman at least got to talk, even if it was just to verify that he was his soulmate. If he wasn’t, Logan was just as great, if not better. Logan was used to his antics, he just wasn’t the likely truth. 

Logan! That was Roman’s answer, he realized as he saw him walking to class. 

“Logan!” he shouted out, quickly making his way over to the other, ignoring the small crowd that turned to face him as he did. They quickly dispersed anyways, so the only person left staring at him in utter confusion was Logan himself. 

“What?” 

“I have... A weird, huge favor to ask.” 

Logan shrugged. He put up with Remus all the time and this was just Roman, how bad could this really be? “What is it?” 

“I...” Despite being certain that nobody was listening in, Roman looked around a few times before stepping a bit closer to Logan. “You have to swear that you won’t tell anybody...” 

Alright, now this was getting weird, but Logan could keep a secret. “What is it?” 

Oh, god, this was so much scarier with Logan that close, but he’d already flagged him down and gotten his attention, he had to go through with it now. “I think... I think Remus is my soulmate, but he literally cannot be. I am begging you to pretend that he’s yours, at least until I figure something else out for him.” 

“Oh, you see color?” Logan said curiously. “Strange. No offense, but most people don’t usually wear something with that much gray once they do, especially not the day after. I did always think it was strange that gray seemed to be your signature color, judging by how often you wear that jacket.” Everyone developed an attraction to a certain color before they could even see them. It was impossible to explain, but it was there and Roman was pretty damn sure that neither his color nor his jacket were gray.  

Roman closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There were two obvious issues here. “First of all, Logan, this is not gray. I’m... I mean, it has some white on it, but it is an otherwise red jacket.” 

“Oh...” Logan muttered. He’d forgotten about that. 

“Second, you already have your soulmate? Why doesn’t anybody know that?” he asked, struggling to keep his voice down. That was exciting for anyone and it was especially exciting since maybe Logan was in the same boat he was. Maybe Logan had been paired with some other prep or even a jock and was just hiding from it how Roman was. Maybe this swap would work out better than he’d imagined!

“We don’t really like to make a big deal out of it,” he said simply. “There’s no point in lying, so I might as well say it’s Virgil.” 

Welp, there went that idea. Virgil was Logan’s very obvious best friend who made most people wonder if they were more than friends. Sure, now Roman had a definitive answer to that question, but what he didn’t have was a solid idea for avoiding his own stupid soulmate! “I’m very happy for you two, but I seriously need some help here and I’m willing to do whatever it takes for you to help me.” 

Logan sighed and leaned against the wall, thinking. He didn’t particularly want to lie to Remus, not about something that big, but he also didn’t want to let Roman just go and crush his heart because he didn’t want to give him a chance. Logan was pretty sure that Remus only saw him as a fun outlet for his flirting, but between all of that, Logan actually started to care for him in a platonic sense. And he knew that this would hurt him. It would hurt anybody. “I will help you, but it will absolutely not be for your benefit. I’m helping you because Remus is a nicer guy than you think and he doesn’t deserve whatever kind of treatment you’re planning to give him, should I refuse this task. 

All Roman was concerned with was that Logan would do it, unconsciously proving his point. “Great, you’re such a life saver,” he sighed, putting a relieved hand on his chest. 

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and looked up at Roman. “Just act like you haven’t talked to me, I’ll deal with him.” 

Roman almost laughed at that. “Are you sure? No offense, but you don’t seem like you’d be that great of an actor. I can help you.” 

“No, I can handle it. You don’t talk to me, being here would seem suspicious, now go.” 

Roman wasn’t sure of how much he trusted Logan’s words, but he was already doing him a huge favor here, the last thing he needed was Roman questioning him. “Alright... Thank you, again, I seriously owe you for this!” Roman smiled and walked off to his class, enjoying the world in color without the weight of it’s price weighing down on him. 

Logan rolled his eyes at that and kept walking, going to find Virgil. If anybody else needed to know about this, it was definitely him. 

He found Virgil in his usual spot, an abandoned classroom, and sat beside him, kissing his cheek as usual. 

“Good morning,” Virgil responded, taking off his headphones. 

“Good morning... I have to talk to you about something, nothing too bad.” 

Despite his reassuring clarification, Virgil was still terrified. “What is it?..” 

“You know Roman, right?” 

“Who doesn’t know Roman?” 

Right, of course he knew Roman. “Well, he’s Remus’s soulmate, but he’s seriously against the idea and he’s asked me to pretend to be Remus’s soulmate myself until he can figure something out. I’m not going to really date him and I won’t cross any boundaries that you might not be comfortable with letting me cross, but...” Logan hoped Virgil wouldn’t think he was crazy for this. “Remus really is a nice guy. He’s a bit obscene and has trouble respecting boundaries, but he seriously doesn’t deserve to be hurt in the way that Roman would hurt him without my help.” 

Logan seemed serious about that, more serious than he was about most things and that was saying something. It was definitely going to be a bit weird for Virgil to see, but it wasn’t like he could just tell Logan what to do If he wanted to help a friend, he wanted to help a friend. “I mean... I can’t really stop you. It’ll be awkward, but I trust you.” 

As obvious as it should’ve been for Virgil to react that way, Logan was still relieved. “Thank you... I’ll still make more than enough time for you, of course.” 

“Well, I’d hope so,” Virgil joked. “You’re my only friend and my soulmate, you’re kind of stuck with me.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Logan managed to smile at that, but honestly, it was words like those that terrified him. Now, it wasn’t that he didn’t care fr Virgil because he did, he loved him. He just wasn’t sure if he loved him enough. After all, it was like he’d been reminded earlier, he couldn’t see every color. It wasn’t that he was colorblind, he wished it was that.

Logan had spent hours researching colorblindness, but he didn’t find one that existed in a way that he saw, where the only colors missing were, to his knowledge, reds and pinks and oranges. He wasn’t missing any green, he could see the green that Remus wore everyday, he could see every other color of the rainbow, so he had no idea what was wrong with him. But if anybody would worry about him more than himself, it was Virgil. So, Logan kept it to himself, desperately hoping that he could hide it forever. 

“I think I should go find him... I’ll talk to you later?” 

Virgil nodded and tapped his lips, asking for a kiss. 

Logan smiled and gladly gave him a gentle kiss, lingering for a few seconds before pulling away and leaving. 

Chapter Text

When he got to school that morning, Remus only had one thought in mind: He had to find Roman. The other may have been avoiding Remus, not that he would know that, but it wasn’t particularly hard to find him as he took the longer, less crowded path to the drama room to hang out before class. 

“Roman!” he called out as he started jogging in his direction, glad that there were no classrooms in that hallway, no teachers to scold him. 

Roman turned back, his face going white as he saw Remus chasing him down. He was about two seconds away from running when he saw his savior joining them. 

“Roman, I really need to talk-” 

“Remus?” Logan asked as he approached them. “I was hoping I could talk to you.” 

“Oh, um..” Remus looked between the two of them. “Sorry, I really need to talk to Roman for a second.” 

Logan brought out his acting skills, feigning a look of disappointment. “Oh.. So, it’s not you.” 

Alright, that caught Remus’s attention. He turned away from Roman and looked at Logan. “What’s not me?..” 

“Um...” Logan knew he came across as the type of person who wouldn’t make a huge deal about soulmates and that was pretty accurate. “Well, I got color. I was wondering who else did.” 

Remus grinned brightly for a second before remembering that there was somebody else there. “Sorry, Roman, I don’t need to talk to you.” He grabbed Logan’s wrist and pulled him in the other direction, talking to him. “Isn’t this crazy? I could’ve sworn we’ve touched before!” 

Logan shrugged and gestured down at his arm, which was covered with his sweater sleeve even now. “I wear a lot of long sleeves.” Technically, it was Virgil’s sweater, but Logan wasn’t lying, he did wear a lot of long sleeves. 

Remus nodded, seeming to believe that pretty easily. “If I’d known it would’ve taken getting touched by you to find my soulmate, I would’ve been begging for that a long time ago,” he joked with a wink. 

Logan smiled softly. “I’m pretty sure you did beg for it at least once, I was just too sane to not go through with it.” 

Remus laughed at that and let go of Logan’s wrist, holding his hand instead. 

Logan let him link their fingers together, but his mind was elsewhere. He really hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake by agreeing to this. 

Roman felt like he’d just gotten rid of his biggest problem, but it wasn’t long before a new one took its place. He may have gotten color and gotten rid of Remus, but his daydreaming was probably worse than ever. It felt like he was only in each class for two seconds before the bell would ring, the rest of his time lost to his own imagination. After all, he’d just gotten color. A lot of teachers would’ve been merciful if they’d known about it, but to let a teacher know he could see color was to let a teacher know that he had a soulmate and without a name, it would seem like he was just covering up for his already awful habit of daydreaming. Even worse, if Remus heard about it, Roman would no longer be in the clear with him. 

But it was color! It was the thing Roman had been dreaming about since he was a toddler, even more so as he developed a taste for art and he couldn’t stop thinking abut how many things he could be drawing or painting now that this entire new world was opened to him! There was no way he could just get himself to stop and he knew that, which was why it was his first priority as he finished up his unfortunately fast day and went home, claiming he had homework to catch up on before locking himself up in his room. 

Once he knew he was safe and alone, he crawled under his bed and pulled out the large chest of art supplies that he kept stored down there. There wasn’t particularly much in there yet, not as far as color went, but he knew there were at least some things he could play around with. With his heart pounding against his ribs, Roman unlocked the chest and pushed it open, immediately scanning for something he could use without getting caught. Paints and chalks were definitely out and pencils... He could save those for a day when he was feeling less like absolutely tearing into a sketchbook. The last thing he wanted to do was literally tear through one. So, that left crayons! 

Roman pulled out a couple of the many 24 packs of crayons, leaving the bigger packs for a day when he wasn’t so excited that he was certain he’d snap a few, and a fresh sketchbook before looking for something, anything he could draw. After about a minute, he pulled up a chair to his bedroom window and looked outside, challenging himself to recreate what he saw as best as he could. It was definitely a bit strange when he was limited to just 24 crayons, but he made it work. It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely something he could be proud of, especially for his first time using color! 

Oh! There was a perfect place he could tack it up, right- 

Roman interrupted himself as he got up and sat back down. Right... Nobody could really know that he saw color. This was going to be tougher than he’d expected. After all, half of Roman’s personality was being showy, openly displaying the pride and joy that he called his art for anyone to see and now, he couldn’t share any of his new stuff! Sure, he could always make some new black and white art, but after all those years of not being able to see in color and being restricted to black and white, he wasn’t sure he could get himself to make more, at least not until he got his initial excitement out of his system. Instead, Roman sat and found a few more things around his room to draw, doing his best to figure out how every element of art would change with color. 

Of course, Roman wasn’t the only one with new things to enjoy. As soon as the school day ended, Remus managed to wait until after school to talk to Logan again, but the second that the last bell rang, he sped around the school until he found Logan in the library, with his well known best friend Virgil. As excited as he was, he was a bit hesitant to approach them, knowing that Logan was a quiet person. Who knew if he’d told even Virgil about his soulmate? Remus wouldn’t have put it past him, especially seeing who it was, and he didn’t want to put Logan in that kind of situation. 

He just became his soulmate that morning, he didn't want to already get rejected. And, look, Remus really wasn't one for overthinking anything like that, but if the universe was going to give him a built in partner or even friend, who was he to just gamble that chance away when other people had gotten rid of their soulmates for less? Maybe he should just go, he could talk to Logan-

“Remus?” Virgil asked from their table. “Are you going to join us or just stand there like a weirdo? Logan already told me everything.” Logan may not have told Remus everything, but he told him what he needed to hear and Virgil could understand that. 

“He... Did?” Remus asked, slowly approaching and glancing over at Logan for confirmation. 

“Of course I did. Virgil’s my best friend, I have no reason to hide anything from him. And you’re my soulmate, there’s no reason for me to hide you from anyone.” If only Roman could think like that. Remus wasn’t bad, he just had an odd sense of humor and atypical interests. 

Remus beamed and plopped down at the table with them. “Yeah, that’s me. You know, I always assumed you two were soulmates.” 

Virgil shrugged. “Honestly, considering what Logan tells me about the stuff you do, I’m not really surprised.” He didn’t mind that Remus liked to flirt with Logan. Logan made it clear that the flirting was just joking around, it wasn’t Virgil’s place to stop him. Did he get a little jealous? Sure, sometimes, but he ultimately knew that Logan was his boyfriend and his soulmate, even if he was doing a friend a favor by pretending to be someone else’s right now. 

Remus chuckled at his comment and turned to Logan. “So, like... Are we friends for now or what?” 

“That would be ideal,” Logan responded, trying not to be too quick. “I wouldn’t mind hanging out with you, but to say we’re dating...” 

“You don’t need to explain yourself, I get boundaries,” he shrugged. “You of all people should know I get boundaries.” Most people just started ignoring him the second he annoyed them, but Logan was smart enough to actually ask him to stop when he wanted him to stop. Remus wasn’t an asshole, that was all he needed. 

Logan smiled at that and nodded. “I know. The whole soulmate thing just makes everything weird.” He and Virgil were friends for years before they found out they were soulmates. Things were definitely a bit awkward between them for a while after that. 

“I’ll try not to make it weirder than I already am, then,” Remus said, playfully winking in Logan’s direction. 

Logan chuckled and grabbed his homework from his bag. “We’re just going to be working, if you don’t mind sticking around for that.” 

“Of course I don’t mind, how else would I have such fantastic grades?” Remus grabbed his own work and joined the two of them in their studying. It was a bit weird for him having Virgil around, but the two of them had just become soulmates, it wasn’t like he was going to expect Logan to just hang out with him alone right off the bat. That would be like if Remus-

Oh, wait! 

Remus pushed his chair back after a few minutes, grabbing his phone from his pocket. “Sorry, I forgot to tell Janus where I was going to be.” It had been a long day and it wasn’t like he’d been planning on joining Logan and Virgil, it was a choice he’d made only a few minutes before his last class had let out for the day. “I’ll be right back.” He stepped out into the hallway and called his friend, hoping he wouldn’t be too upset about his absence. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, Jay! Sorry, I forgot to tell you I was going to hang with Logan today.” 

“Oh, I figured, I’m already heading home.” Remus was usually Janus’s ride too and from school, but it wasn’t too far of a distance for him to walk. And after years of friendship, Janus had a pretty good sense of what days he’d have to take the initiative and walk himself home, one of those days obviously being the day that he met his soulmate. 

“Cool, I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’ll talk to you later.” 

“Don’t worry about it, just go have fun with Logan.” His tone my have been a bit sarcastic, but that was just his voice. Janus was happy for Remus, he needed somebody else to just kind of let him be as he was. And for it to be Logan, someone who had a reputation for knowing how to put up with Remus, Janus wanted to say he had absolutely no worries for them. 

There was just one thing. Logan and Virgil got along very well. Almost too well for them to just be friends. At least, that’s what his walking in on them making out in abandoned classrooms said. But, hopefully, that was just in the past. Just in case, he’d keep an eye on them, but Remus needed some love for right now and Logan seemed willing enough to give it to him. 

Remus smiled, unaware of everyone’s worries about his soulmate issue, and walked back into the library, spending the next few hours with Logan and Virgil before driving them all home. 

Chapter Text

In true Roman fashion, he ended up lost in his world until his mother came up to call him for dinner, thankfully staying outside of his room. Still, Roman jumped about ten feet into the air as he heard her calling and quickly responded before shoving his sketchbook and crayons in with his other hidden art supplies and pushing the chest back under his bed. He was still distracted all throughout dinner, something his parents misattributed to his usual spacing out, but at least it was a lot easier to control now that he got a little bit out of his system. 

After dinner, he figured it was too big of a risk to start creating again, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself and go to sleep once he started, so he actually got onto his homework and made a new black and white sketch, to be colored later, of course, just in case anybody asked him about any new pieces. It was weird. Roman was always so proud of his artwork. Even when it wasn’t quite perfect, he would just change whatever was bugging him or put it down and come back to it later, but he just couldn’t seem to do that this time. Nothing really felt right, not when he was imagining something in color. It wasn’t even a matter of looking incomplete, it just didn’t feel...Right. 

After a couple more frustrating hours, Roman decided to call it a night, figuring that he just didn’t get all of the coloring out of his system, and went to bed.

Being teenagers, it was only about three days before the plan started falling apart and, of course, the weakest link was the ring master. Roman was just so over continuing working in black and white and hiding his colored works, he was too ready to show the world, but he was even more desperate to make sure that his secret stayed a secret. Once again, he came up with a plan, this time one involving Virgil. 

“No,” he responded the second that Roman made his proposition. 

“Oh, come on,” Roman whined. “Logan already agreed to help me and I promise I’ll make it worth your time. I mean, your soulmate is busy tricking my soulmate into thinking that they’re soulmates, surely you need somebody else to hang out with,” he suggested with a slightly forced smile. 

Virgil stared up at him. “And whose fault is that, exactly?” 

“Oh, come on, that’s not fair!” He sat down beside him. “If you were Remus’s soulmate, don’t you think you’d be pawning him off onto somebody else?” 

“No, but even if I would, I would be dealing with the consequences of my actions like a big boy and not like a little kid who’s just had his crayons taken away.” 

Roman pouted and grabbed his backpack. “Look, I’m not asking you to spend all of your free time with me, I’m asking for you to just tell a white lie. And, in exchange, I made you something.” 

Alright, that got Virgil’s attention. But not because he thought he’d actually be interested in whatever lame gift Roman made him, he was just pretty curious as to what a prep like him thought he could make to impress- 

Virgil’s train of thought derailed itself as he saw the jacket that Roman pulled out of his bag. He loved his own well broken in dark gray hoodie, but the black and dark blue and purple patched jacket that Roman was offering up was definitely more than tempting. 

The look on the emo’s face said everything that Roman wanted to hear. “Logan won’t need to trick Remus forever, but you can keep this jacket even if something goes wrong. All you have to do is say that you’re my soulmate for now. I just want to color in public.” And Virgil was definitely a better candidate than Remus for being his universe-appointed true match. Sure, the whole emo or goth or whatever thing he had going on was far from Roman’s tastes, but at least Virgil was a respectable enough guy. He said things that didn’t freak people out and he wore clothes that, may have been all dark, but actually fit. 

This was a stupid idea. Virgil knew for a fact that this was a stupid idea and he was counting down the days until it all fell apart and everyone found out the truth. Roman managed to last about three days before being unable to handle the idea that people couldn’t see his art, surely this plan couldn’t last more than a couple of months. And he would be able to keep that pretty awesome jacket. 

“Say yes now and I’ll pay for you to get your hair dyed.” 

“Done.” 

Roman beamed and handed Virgil the jacket. “Alright, try it on. Let me know if you want me to make any alterations.” 

Virgil looked around to make sure the empty room was still empty before getting out of his usual jacket, taking a moment to mourn the potential death of an era, before pulling on the jacket that Roman gave him, though not without hearing a few unnecessary comments. 

“Woah, no wonder you always wear such a baggy jacket, you’re really hiding some guns down there,” Roman said, poking at one of Virgil’s biceps. “If this was what My Chemical Romance was describing in Teenagers, I might have to change up my style.”

Virgil smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch me. And, yeah, Logan suggested working out to relieve some stress and I can just do it at home, so it’s pretty chill.” Plus, he knew that Logan enjoyed the fact that Virgil could lift him up, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud. Instead, he put on the new jacket, pleasantly surprised to find that it was the perfect size: a few sizes too big. “I guess this is pretty cool...” 

“Great!” Roman cheered to himself. “Now, come on, we have to tell people that you’re my soulmate. You know we all know I’d gladly show you off.” He grabbed Virgil’s arm and began walking, stopping abruptly as Virgil’s lack of movement yanked him back. “Boy, you really are strong.” 

“Yeah, physical strength is something I have. Social strength is not. I’m not going to be meeting anybody until at least Monday.” He usually needed 3-5 business days to prepare before meeting someone new, but for a situation like this, he could jack the timeline up. Just this once. “You can wait one more day.” Technically, seeing as it was a Friday, he’d be waiting three more days, but only one school day. 

Roman groaned, but he supposed he couldn’t force Virgil to go with him, especially seeing as he didn’t have the strength needed to physically drag him there. “Fine. And I’ll take you to get your hair dyed whenever, just let me know.” 

“Tonight?” Virgil had been wanting to dye his hair since he was thirteen, of course he had a color picked out. 

Roman shrugged. He didn’t have anything better to do. “I’ll see if my usual place even has any time slots for today and get back to you on that.” 

That was fair. Virgil would’ve been happy with some decent box dye, but if Roman was going to be paying for him to get his hair dyed by someone who knew what they were doing, who was he to argue? “Alright, I’ll see you then, Golden boy.” 

“Golden boy? Why do you call me that?” He’d never heard it, but Virgil used it casually enough that it had to be habitual. 

“Not for the reason Remus says, if that’s why you’re asking.” Remus overheard Virgil talking about Roman and made a deeply incorrect assumption about the origin of that nickname. 

“Why does Remus think you call me that?” he asked, though he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know the answer. 

Virgil shrugged. “If you don’t know, you don’t need to know. I say it because you’re blonde. You know that kid Patton, right?” 

“... You know Patton?” Patton was a sweet and chipper kid. The last person Roman would’ve expected to know him was Virgil. 

“He’s my cousin’s soulmate,” he said with a heavy sigh. “But, yeah, I call him Goldilocks. That was taken, so Golden boy it is, for you.” 

Roman was pretty sure that left more questions than it answered. “You call Patton Goldilocks?” 

“Yeah, I kind of said it on accident one day and he kind of laughed, so I guess he liked it and it stuck.” 

That would’ve been fine and well, but Patton wasn’t blond. Patton was a redhead. 

“I mean, it’s probably not the most fitting, his blonde isn’t really bright and gold like yours is, but it’s not like there’s a ton of blondes here. I would call you Rapunzel, but Janus took that nickname when he bleached his hair to match Patton’s.” 

Right, well Janus’s hair actually was blond now, so that made enough sense. You know what, no, this wasn’t the time for that argument. “Alright, well, I guess I’ll see you later, then.” He gave Virgil a quick smile and left the room, wondering if Logan knew that Virgil couldn’t see red either. Because, to be honest, he wasn’t sure that Virgil himself knew. 

Virgil didn’t know. And, therefore, Logan didn’t know. And it was one of the multiple things that was just wearing him down by the day. He thought he could handle the pressure of lying to Remus the way he was, that he knew he’d feel better if he didn’t subject Remus to the humiliation of finding out that they weren’t really soulmates, that he wanted to save him from Roman’s feelings, but he was wrong. He was feeling guilty, though not as guilty as he was feeling about Virgil. Most of the time, he was able to ignore the missing colors, but now that Roman had asked his permission to use Virgil as his own fake soulmate - not that he’d needed to, especially not when Logan himself was doing the exact same thing - he couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Would being around Roman more mean that Virgil would see the missing colors too? Or was his vision complete and it was just Logan who couldn’t see them? It was eating at him more than he cared to admit and it was why he’d spent that Friday afternoon alone in the library. Remus had quickly agreed to give him that afternoon of privacy and Virgil was off with Roman, getting his hair dyed, as Logan attempted to distract himself with a book, failing miserably and doing so more obviously than he’d like.

“Hey, are you okay?” 

Logan looked up at the stranger, knowing he was speaking to him, and tried to push down his miserable expression. “I’m alright.” 

The kid smiled at him and sat down across the table. “That was kind of a rhetorical question, you look kind of miserable. Sorry to just make myself at home here, I just always feel like a bad day is a little better when you have someone to talk to. I’m Thomas, by the way.” 

“Hello, Thomas,” Logan said through a sigh, realizing that this guy wasn’t going to leave. It was comforting and annoying at the same time. “You seriously don’t have to sit here with me, I was just thinking about some things...” 

“I know, but I wanted to. I mean, I can leave if you want, but if you need somebody to talk to, I’m already right here.” He shrugged. “I’m new to the school, so I guess you could call this my first weak attempt at making a friend.” Technically, he’d been there for a week, but people were so much harder to talk to in crowds. Plus, it was pretty clear that this guy needed a friend right now and there was nobody else around to fill that role. 

The offer really was tempting... Logan didn’t have anybody else he could unload onto, he couldn’t tell Virgil about his worries about their relationship because it would freak him out and he couldn’t tell Roman or Remus literally anything going on in his mind. “How good are you at keeping secrets?” 

“Pretty good, but it’s not like I have anybody I could spill to, anyways,” he joked. “I can keep a secret.” 

“Great because I have quite the story for you.” 

Logan proceeded to unload onto this seemingly friendly stranger, keeping the story just vague enough to not go on for an hour. He told him about pretending to be someone’s soulmate and why he was doing it and how having his own real soulmate hang out with someone who wore so much red was terrifying as well as why. He didn’t really mean to add that last part, but it was out before he could realize it, Logan going pale as it caught up to him.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to add that last part, there’s just been so much going on, I kind of lost control there..” 

Thomas gave him an understanding smile. “I mean, I can’t blame you. It sounds like a ton of stress. I’m surprised you haven’t broken down to anybody else before now.” 

Logan shrugged. “It’s not often that a stranger comes up and offers to just listen.” He might’ve been a bit better about keeping his problems to himself, but it was a particularly tough week for him, the cause of which being the one thing he wasn’t okay with unloading onto a stranger. 

“I’m glad I did, then. And, about the soulmate thing, maybe you shouldn’t stress about it so much. If this Virgil guy is as cool as you say he is and you two really get along that well, I’m sure he won’t get mad at you for something that’s not in your control.”

Angry? No. Stressed to the bone? Probably. “Thank you..”

Thomas nodded. “Do you, like... want my phone number? We could both use a friend, me because I’m new and you because... Yeah.” 

“Sure.” He’d already spilled his guts to this guy, he might as well officially befriend him. 

The two spent the next few hours talking about anything but soulmates, mainly sticking to the subject of school. 

It was kind of nice, actually. For the first time that week, Logan wasn’t stressing too hard and he wasn’t thinking about Roman’s god awful plan or about freaking out Virgil. It was just him and his new friend talking. A new friend... It felt like just what Logan needed. 

Chapter Text

For the next couple of school days, things went by fairly smoothly. At least, more smoothly than they’d expected. Roman introduced Virgil as his “soulmate” and managed to only barely screw up, having forgotten about the possibility of being asked how the two of them figured it out. It took a few moments of stuttering before Roman just said that he was in the library and they’d knocked over a few books and picked them up together. It was a cliche meeting story, exactly what people were expecting from someone like Roman, and it fit Virgil well enough, seeing as he and Logan practically lived in the library after school. 

Speaking of, it was weird for Virgil to not be able to hang out with Logan in the library as much. It wasn’t that Roman had some weird ban on the library for him, but the two of them were expected to be inseparable for at least the first few days or, for someone like Roman, weeks. And it wasn’t like he could just back out, he’d already let Roman pay for him to dye his hair an absolutely badass shade of purple, though it was a bit bluer than he’d thought it would be. It took about an hour of reassurance from Logan before he was alright to go out without worrying about people putting it together that his hair was too close to Logan’s main color, but his boyfriend had managed to ease his worries. Of course, he knew what Virgil didn't from what Roman said, that the shade of purple in Virgil’s hair was actually way more red than they could perceive. 

But that wasn’t the point, the point was that Logan was acting weird! Okay, well, Virgil didn’t figure that out immediately, but he did think he was acting kind of weird. The two of them couldn’t make as much time to hang out during school, but after school, hanging out at each other’s house, Logan was acting kind of... Off.

It wasn’t a bad off, which was why Virgil wasn’t sure what to make of it. After all, he knew Logan was at least under some kind of stress, if not from dealing with Remus, than from lying to him about something like that. So, it was pretty fair of Virgil to watch him and wonder why he was acting almost chipper. He seemed more upbeat than what would’ve made sense and Virgil didn’t like questioning his boyfriend’s happiness, but he was at least a bit curious. After all, what could’ve possibly happened between then and last week that was making Logan so happy that Logan didn’t want to tell him? It couldn’t have been some kind of surprise for Virgil, that felt too risky with everything going on. So... What was it? 

Virgil prided himself on being a good boyfriend for Logan just as much as Logan did, but he felt that he had pretty fair reason to be at least a little suspicious. He was sure it wasn’t too horrible, he trusted Logan more than that, but they kind of shared everything. So, of course, he had to ask about it. The two of them may not have had as much time to just hang out, with Roman stealing Virgil every afternoon, but Roman wasn’t in their lunch period and Virgil managed to wait until Remus left to go to the bathroom before turning to Logan. 

“Can I ask something weird?” 

Logan smiled and shrugged, a surprisingly nonchalant response. “I’ve been dealing with Remus or the past few days, it can’t be that weird.” 

“Okay..” Virgil muttered. “Um... You’ve been acting weird. Not bad weird, but you’ve been acting... Not like you. You’re almost upbeat and it’s kind of weird... Is everything okay?” 

Yes, everything was okay, everything was more than okay. Hanging out with Thomas was really helping to ease his stress, apparently more so than he’d realized. “Of course everything’s fine. Everything’s great, really...” 

“Really?” Virgil asked slowly, unconvinced. 

Logan nodded. “I’ve just been reading a new book series and I guess it’s made me more excited than I’d realized. I’d recommend it to you, but it is a crime mystery related series and I know how you feel about that.” 

A new book series in a genre that Virgil refused to read for the sake of not letting his anxiety ruin his day. That was either very convenient or too convenient. “Yeah, I don’t really read those.. Are you sure that’s all that’s going on?” 

One thing that everybody knew about Logan was that he had a talent for hiding his emotions, but even he couldn’t hide that one important moment from Virgil, that split second of panic in his eyes before he returned to his usual calm, cool expression. “I’m pretty sure. I have no reason to hide anything from you, I’d tell you if something were going on.” 

And that was usually true. So, it was pretty fair for Virgil to assume the worst. Maybe this charade had gone on for too long, maybe Logan had forgotten that Virgil was his soulmate and was trying to find someone who fit him better. It was pretty clear that he didn’t have those kinds of feelings for Remus, Logan seemed perfectly honest whenever Virgil had jokingly asked him about it and Logan had missed that tone, answering as if Virgil was actually asking about his feelings for Remus, so there had to be someone else. It was worst case scenario and Virgil really wanted to believe that Logan would never cheat on him, but it was pretty clear that there wasn’t just nothing going on. 

So, he did the most irrational thing he could think of and followed Logan that Thursday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, the two of them ended up at the school library and Logan sat down at his usual table. Their usual table... 

Before long, another guy showed up and sat besides him, someone who Logan was clearly very friendly with, judging by the smile that graced his face as he showed up. Virgil gritted his teeth and leaned with his back against the wall, sliding down and sitting there as he pulled out his phone, texting Roman. 

[Virgil: I need a favor, are you busy?]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Never too busy for you soulmate ;*]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Lol, I’m just teasing, what’s up?]

[Virgil: I wanted to surprise Logan with something tomorrow, but I don’t want to chance running into him. Can you call him and get him to hang out with you for a while? Anywhere is fine, you don’t go anywhere we go]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Aww, cute, I wish I could have what you two have]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Consider it done!]

A few minutes later, Virgil heard Logan excusing himself and turned to peek, watching as he walked away. It took a little while, but it seemed that Roman did manage to convince Logan to get out of there. He went back and grabbed his stuff, apologizing to the other for leaving so suddenly before walking out. 

Now was his chance. Virgil got up and took a deep breath before going and sitting with that stranger. Virgil may not have wanted to really start a scene, but he had to confront this guy now, before he was gone. 

“Excuse me, you know Logan, right?” he asked almost as soon as he sat down. 

Thomas gave him a mildly confused look, but still smiled, wanting to be polite. “Uh.. Yeah. I know Logan. Who are you?..” 

“I’m-” Virgil cut himself off, unsure of how to introduce himself. Calling himself Logan’s soulmate might’ve been a little much, it wasn’t like the two of them went around telling everyone about that. More importantly, everyone thought Remus was his soulmate. “I’m Logan’s friend. Virgil.” 

Thomas smiled a bit more widely. “Oh my god, you’re Virgil. Logan talks about you all the time. And..” He took a moment to look around before turning back to Virgil. “He told me about the soulmate situation... I know you’re his boyfriend and soulmate and he really seems to care about you.” 

Oh, great. It took one sentence for Virgil to feel like a complete and utter moron. “So... The two of you really are just friends?” 

“Well...” 

Ah. Here it was. 

“I’d be lying if I say I didn’t think he was really cool, but you two are soulmates and a couple and I swear, I totally respect that.” 

And, as fast as his blood pressure rose, it was back down to slightly higher than normal. “Okay.. I trust you.” 

Thomas nodded. “I’m sorry if you were stressing so badly about our friendship that it freaked you out or anything, Logan did mention that you’re kind of anxious.” 

“No, um...” His worries may have been a bit more sane now, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t at least a little ashamed of stalking Logan like that. “I kind of followed him here... He didn’t know. I didn’t know about you, but I knew that he was acting weird and I wanted to figure out what was going on.” 

Now Thomas’s smile was falling. Logan didn’t seem like the type to hide much from Virgil. If his existence was a secret, then maybe it was supposed to stay that way. 

And Virgil could understand that. He didn’t like it, but he understood. Logan didn’t have to share everything with him, especially not when it seemed like he was hiding Thomas because he was afraid of making Virgil more anxious than usual. “I won’t make you tell me everything he told you, it’s not like I don’t let him have friends. It’s just... I don’t know. It doesn’t really seem like him to hide something like this, but I get it.” Just as Logan didn’t want to make Virgil worry, Virgil didn’t want to make Thomas worry about anything between either of them and Logan. “Besides, talking to you really seems to cheer him up. I do like seeing him happy.” It just made him a little nervous when it came out of nowhere and meant that Logan was hiding an entire person from him. 

Thomas relaxed a bit at that and nodded. “That’s good... I mean, he hasn’t said anything bad, I just don’t really want to get between you two like that. You two are really good for each other.” 

“Thanks...” 

“Um..” Thomas checked his phone for the time. “I was going to go home, since Logan’s gone. Did you want to talk to me about anything or do you mind?” 

“Oh, no. I, uh...” He chuckled awkwardly. “I kind of expected the worst here and seeing that I didn’t get that at all, I should get going too.. It was nice and weird to meet you, though.” 

The two of them got up and proceeded to the entrance to the library before turning to face each other. 

“So, uh... I might see you around more often?” Thomas said, half asking. “I don’t know if you were going to tell Logan about this, but if you do, I think it’ll be cool to chat with you some more, he made you seem like a really cool guy.” He held out his hand for a handshake. 

Virgil, however, didn’t seem to notice, turning to look down the hall instead. “Maybe... I have to talk to him and I don’t know if he’d be weird about me talking to the other person he seems to like to vent to, but you seem cool too.” 

Thomas dropped his arm back down to his side, not thinking much of that, and nodded. “Okay. Um... I guess I’ll see you around school.” He walked away without another word, Virgil walking in the opposite direction as he did. 

He didn’t mean to ignore Thomas’s handshake, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t have gone well and he wasn't really sure why. Something about Thomas was trying to pull him in, to shake his hand or even to hold onto it and he couldn’t explain what the hell that was. It wasn’t like Thomas was his soulmate, he was pretty sure he was seeing in more than just different shades of gray, but there was definitely something. 

Maybe Thomas was just that kind of guy, just naturally magnetic or maybe it was Thomas hadn’t found his soulmate himself and it was like being around Roman before, where everyone wanted to be his soulmate, as the nice guy on campus. Either way, it was distracting and Virgil wished he could push it off of his mind, but once he started worrying about something, he didn’t stop. And worrying was bad for more than one reason. For one, it meant that the next morning, he screwed up one of his most basic everyday tasks and nobody bothered to tell him until it was too late. 

No, Virgil didn’t forget to put on pants or leave his jacket at home. If he had, he might have just buried himself alive, but if certain people were questioned, namely Roman, he would’ve said that that would’ve been preferable. 

Chapter Text

When Virgil got to school the next morning, he want about his adjusted morning routine, going straight to try and catch up with Roman and the rest of his friends, knowing that they were probably in the drama room. Unfortunately, it seemed that they’d migrated elsewhere today and Virgil wasn’t about to just wander aimlessly around until he found them, so he shot Roman a text, asking where they were. 

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: Art rooms! They all wanted me to display my awesome talents.]

[Virgil: And where is that exactly?]

[Sir-Sing-A-Lot: You’re by drama, right? I’ll go find you, as a good soulmate should ;*]

[Virgil: I’m grabbing a snack from the cafeteria]

Were they not in school, in an area where Roman likely was being watched closely by his friends, Virgil would’ve told him to kiss his ass, but that probably wasn’t the best idea, so he just started walking towards the cafeteria for a quick after breakfast snack, interrupted as Remus ran into him a few seconds later. 

“Oh, hey Virgil. What’s up? Roman isn’t in the drama rooms waiting for his true love?” he asked, fluttering his eyelashes at him. He and Roman were so mismatched in so many ways, yet so many people thought that they made a cute couple and, to Remus, that was obviously kind of hilarious.

Virgil just rolled his eyes. “He’s in the art rooms, apparently. Do you know where those are?” 

“Yep! Come on, I’ll take you there. I like the new look, by the way. Going red to match with Roman’s colors?” 

“What are you talking about?” 

Remus chuckled and pointed beneath his own eyes. “Your eyeshadow. Red looks a little weird with all of the purple, but you’re kind of making it work, it’s just another shade of emo.” 

Virgil stopped for a second and pulled a mirror out from his bag, checking his eyeshadow. He didn’t go as heavy with it as he would’ve wanted to, but it was still black as ever. Maybe dark gray, if he was being picky. “Very funny. You picked the one morning I’d actually consider believing you.” 

Remus’s smile fell just the tiniest bit and he laughed uncomfortably. “Okay... I’m picking on you, sure but it’s kind of a legit question. I’ve never seen you wear anything besides black, what’s with the sudden change?” 

Virgil shrugged. “Joke’s over. I saw my black eyeshadow, you’re not freaking me out.” 

Remus’s pace slowed to a stop and he pointed at his own green shirt. “What color shirt am I wearing? Not the jacket, the shirt.” 

Virgil looked between Remus and his shirt as if he’d just asked him what his own name was. “It’s green. You always wear a ton of green, it’s your thing.” 

“So, you’re not colorblind. Virgil, what color do you think Roman always wears?” 

Virgil was catching the implications of what Remus was saying. But they didn’t make sense, he could see all the colors on a rainbow, all five, plus the shade of gray to, he didn’t know, represent that those without soulmates were still valid queers? It made sense for that to be Roman’s color. He may have been obsessed with the concept of soulmates for himself, but he never really put down anybody who was against it, even if it confused him a bit. “He wears gray, like the first color of the rainbow.”

“Uh huh...” Remus was beyond suspicious. It would’ve been one thing if Virgil couldn’t see green in addition to red, but for him not to see red by itself? It didn’t make sense. The concept of soulmates was one of the things that set humans apart from other species, partially because it was such a permanent decision made by a force that nobody could explain and partially because it was one of the things that could break the human body in a way that only the human body could be broken. Even if Virgil had been colorblind, which he apparently wasn’t, he should’ve seen red, he should’ve been able to see Roman’s distinct color. Unless he wasn’t his soulmate. 

Remus crossed his arms over his chest. “Virgil. Is Roman actually your soulmate?” 

And there it was. Virgil knew he was going to get some sort of chill down his spine, though he’d incorrectly assumed that it would’ve come from whatever was happening between Logan and Thomas. Nope. He’d been caught because of a mistake he didn’t know that he’d made, because of a mistake that he didn’t know he could make. But that missing color wasn’t really the issue right now. Remus was still looming over him, a knowing and almost angry grin on his face. 

“He’s not, is he?” 

Virgil hesitated for a second before shaking his head, knowing that there was no lying his way out of this one. “He’s not...” 

Seconds too late, Roman came down the hall, almost stopping as he saw Remus confronting Virgil the way he was. “Hey, what’s up? Back off of him.” 

“Ah, right on time,” Remus laughed. “Virgil here just let it slip to me that he’s not your soulmate. You know, you probably should’ve picked someone who could actually see red. And the fact that he can clearly see colors besides red says that he’s already found his soulmate and you really don’t have to be genius to figure out who that is.” Remus clenched his fists at his side, his pained laughter still slipping through his words. “I mean, it took a fucking while, but even I was able to put it together. If Logan and Virgil are the two who really are soulmates, then that means you’ve been lying to the whole school, haven’t you, Roman?” 

Virgil took the opportunity to dash out and Remus made no effort to stop him. He wasn’t the guilty party here. 

Roman laughed uncomfortably. “I... I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d find out anytime soon, especially not like this. I just needed time to figure out how to talk to you and I figured we’d be happier separate. Logan seems better for you than me and I mean, come on, look at us. I don’t like you and you don’t like me. Even I couldn’t believe that it was you, I thought it’d be better for you too if you thought it wasn’t me.” 

Remus scoffed as he looked back at Roman, rolling his eyes. “You fucking moron... I knew it was you.” 

Roman furrowed his eyebrows. He thought he’d been a lot better about hiding it, at least until Virgil accidentally let his lies slip. “How did you-” 

“No,” Remus interrupted, his voice raising slightly. “No, I mean I knew it was you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. Deep down, I knew it had to be you.” 

Immediately, Roman shut up. He was pretty sure Remus had realized it by now, but from the moment Roman laid eyes on Remus, he’d been hoping that it wasn’t him. 

“I mean... Look at you. Everyone thinks you’re the perfect little schoolboy, everyone falls for your stupid routine, even me.” Remus took a deep shaky breath. “From the moment we first had a class together, you looked so perfect and, it may not have been my thing, but I know perfection when I see it and I saw it. The more I learned about you, the more I thought I was right, the more I thought you were a perfect little gentleman. Perfect... Perfect grades, perfect skin, perfect hair, perfectly talented! You’re everything that I’m not, Roman.” 

By that point, Remus was yelling and Roman couldn’t tell if he was angry, sad, or just plain hurt. 

“You were so perfect and everyone loved you and I was the screw up who only managed to snag onto one friend, of course I knew it was you. People aren’t supposed to be as perfect as you or as fucked up as I am, I thought we were going to be the perfect couple and balance each other out, I thought you were going to teach me what it was like to be loveable and I was supposed to teach you that it’s okay to fuck up once in a while.” 

For a second, Remus went silent, letting himself shrink back down to Roman’s height, though his gaze never left Roman’s guilt ridden eyes. “I guess I was wrong about that. I sure as hell was wrong about you.” He took a few steps backwards, starting to move away from Roman. “You’re not perfect at all, it’s all just been a huge trick, bigger than the fun trick you played on me. I guess I can see past the smoke and mirrors and all that and now I know you’re just as fucked up as me.” Remus turned to walk away, not wanting to give Roman the satisfaction of seeing him cry as he left. “You’re just as fucked up as me.” 

Ordinarily, Roman would be upset and stuck wondering if that was true. Now, he was certain of it. 

Remus stormed off to find somewhere to be alone, running into Logan as he did. Logan, who apparently had been looking for him. 

“There you are,” he greeted, frowning as he saw Remus’s expression. “What’s wrong?” 

Remus crossed his arms over his chest. “I just talked to Roman. You, him, and Virgil, you’ve all been lying to me. Roman, I get. Virgil, I get. But... You?” Remus stared at him with hurt in his eyes, seeing the guilt starting to take over Logan’s face. “We may not have been friends, but I thought you at least liked me more than this.”

“I did. I do,” Logan assured, his voice saying that that much was true. “I just...” He paused and sighed. “You’ve been talking to Roman. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of excuses by now.” 

“I have, but I want to know why you thought this was a good idea. You’re so smart... Did you think I was too stupid to eventually find out?”

“No,” Logan said quickly. “No, I told Roman from the moment this began that you’d find out someday... But it was either this or let him hurt you immediately and he’s so selfish sometimes, I didn’t want you to walk away from that conversation thinking that you didn’t deserve a soulmate. You’re a good person, Remus. You may be a little unusual and others might disagree, but you are a good person and you deserve someone who’ll treat you better than Roman would. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but I thought I could be that person for you...” 

“But you don’t love me and you can’t make yourself love me.” 

“Platonically, yes. I do love you. I swear, I didn’t mean to hurt you... I was going to tell you soon.” Thomas was the one who’d convinced him to come to that conclusion, sure, but that didn’t mean Logan wasn’t also thinking about telling him sooner. 

Remus didn't have to look that deep into Logan’s eyes to know that he was telling the truth, but that meant that he didn’t want to be around him at all. There was only one guilty party here and Remus may not have wanted to let him see how emotional he made him, but he also didn’t want to let anybody else feel the weight of his emotions, especially not Logan. “I have to go.” Remus walked away and left, leaving the building and walking himself home. 

Soon after he was out of sight, Roman appeared, definitely looking at least as guilty as he should’ve been feeling as he saw Logan there. “Have you seen Remus? I need to talk to him.” 

Logan shook his head. “You don’t deserve to talk to him right now.” He turned and walked away from him, going to find Virgil and leaving Roman alone. 

Chapter Text

After he’d ran away from Roman and Remus, Virgil attempted to keep a low profile and walked into his and Logan’s usual hideout, not realizing that he’d been followed until he was there. 

“Virgil?” Thomas’s voice asked softly, the other looking up at him. 

“What are you doing here?” Virgil muttered. 

Thomas shrugged and sat down beside him. “I saw you walking and you looked pretty upset, so I followed you. What’s up?” 

“I fucked up,” Virgil quickly said. “I fucked up so bad. I...” He looked up at Thomas. “What color is my eyeshadow?” 

Oh... Thomas had a feeling he knew where this was going. “Red...” 

Virgil nodded and looked down. “I can’t... I can’t see it. I can see, like, every other color on a wheel or whatever except for red and, I guess, the colors around it. I didn’t know and I gave it up to Remus that Roman’s not my soulmate, but, more importantly, what the fuck does this mean for me and Logan? He’s my soulmate, I can see colors, why can’t I see these?” 

Thomas very badly wanted to help calm him down, to tell him that Logan couldn’t see them either, but that wasn’t his news to share. Instead, he grabbed Virgil’s hand, moving slow enough for him to pull away if he wanted to. 

But he didn’t want to. Maybe the day before, in a more clear state of mind, he would’ve pulled away, but now, panicked about both his slip up and Logan’s potential reaction, he let Thomas take his hand, squeezing it lightly and closing his eyes, trying to let his presence calm him. 

Thomas smiled and stared up at the ceiling. “Hey, Virgil, can you do me a favor and name five things you see?” 

“Give me a minute,” Virgil muttered, holding his head in his free hand. 

“Take your time. It’s just a grounding technique that I use when I have panic attacks.”

Virgil made a small noise of acknowledgement, taking a minute to try and get his breathing and heart rate down to a normal level before speaking again. “Okay... What was it again?” he asked as he ran his hand over his face. 

“Five things you see.” 

Virgil opened his eyes and looked around the room, stopping as he saw something on a poster. “I see a new color. A few new colors.” His grip on Thomas’s hand tightened as he attempted not to freak out, no matter how much he wanted to yank himself away at the implications. 

Thomas stopped staring at the ceiling and looked at Virgil, his breath hitching as he saw him. Virgil’s hair was bright and a vibrant shade of something that he’d never seen before, something that was definitely not gray. “I see new colors too.” 

Virgil looked at him and stared at his face for a few seconds, knowing for sure that human skin wasn’t that bright a minute ago. “There’s something new about your face. I don’t know what color that is, but it’s definitely a different color.” 

Now, Remus and Roman may not have seen enough color to realize what was happening for hours after their first moment of contact, but their contact wasn’t sustained. It was a fairly uncommonly known fact, the reason why Remus couldn’t have used that to determine that his soulmate couldn’t have been Roman. Thomas and Virgil, however, were different. Their contact may not have been sustained for long, but it was long enough for the universe to do it’s work, filling Thomas’s world with almost every color and finishing out what Virgil couldn’t see before. 

Thomas thought for a second and looked down at his wrist at the bracelet he always wore, which was a very bright color. “Did... Did this look like this before or was it gray?” 

Virgil looked back at him, blinking a few times at the bright color. “It had to be gray before, I didn’t even see that.” 

Thomas nodded. “This is my color accessory. I’ve always been told that it’s pink and pink is just red and white. It wasn’t exactly red that you were missing.” He looked at Virgil’s hair and chuckled softly. “I guess you kind of knew it deep down. That color in your hair is really pink.” 

Once again, Virgil grabbed his mirror and looked at it, seeing now that his hair was a pinker shade of purple, but it definitely wasn’t that pink. “You’re missing blue.”

Right on cue, Logan walked into the room, his face going white as he saw Thomas and Virgil sitting together. “Virgil... There you are.” 

“Yeah...” He looked between Logan and Thomas, putting away his mirror. “I met Thomas yesterday. He didn’t tell me about anything you guys talk about, but I think there’s something more important than that here.” 

“What color is my bracelet to you?” Thomas asked, holding his arm out. 

Logan hesitated to respond. He may not have known what color the bracelet actually was, but at that point, he did know two things. One: there was no way it was as silver as it looked to him. Two: whatever color it was, Virgil had to know it, too. “I’m not sure why it matters, you both know I can see color. I have for years and so have you, Virgil.”

Virgil shrugged, knowing that Logan was avoiding the question, but also knowing that he would’ve done the same in his shoes. But, at the same time... “How long have you known that you couldn’t see reds or pinks?” 

Logan opened his mouth to lie again, but he stopped himself, knowing that it was pointless by then. Whether Thomas had sold him out or Virgil found out on his own as Logan had feared for years, he found out. “I.. About a week after we found out. I got curious and checked out a few color wheels, but every time, there was just a patch of gray and... I don’t know, I didn’t know what it meant and I didn’t know how to explain it.” He sighed and held his arms cross his chest, shrinking into himself. “I... I researched for hours to figure out what it could’ve meant, but I didn’t find a single clue. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but what I do know is you are my soulmate and I don’t want you worrying about this.” 

Logan had clearly been freaking out about this and he’d been doing so for a couple of years. And Virgil had no idea. He felt like the worst boyfriend in the world. At the same time, Virgil wasn’t one to look at any kind of bright side, but how could he not when the answer to what was clearly one of Logan’s biggest worries was right here? “I think I know why you can’t see them.” 

Logan looked back up at him, curious and confused. “You do?..” 

Virgil nodded and stood up, grabbing Thomas by his wrist, glad that he seemed to catch on quickly enough, and pulling him over to Logan. “Try holding his hand. His color is pink. I know because I couldn’t see it a few minutes ago either.” 

Logan seemed to relax as he began to understand what Virgil was saying, but that didn’t mean he was any less apprehensive, definitely hesitating to grab onto Thomas’s hand. Almost instantly, he noticed a change in Thomas’s bracelet and it took all of his willpower not to just yank himself away and instead let the colors sink in. He watched as Thomas’s bracelet transformed into the bright pink that it had been described as and even as Thomas’s skin color started to change, a similar pink tinge showing up, though it was especially dark in his face. 

As he watched that happen, Thomas watched colors appear in Logan’s tie, deep shades of what were, he guess, blues. He glanced over at Virgil and saw that his hair really was leaning more towards the blue color than the pink that he’d seen before, though it was still a pretty even, purple mix. 

“Two soulmates,” Logan muttered as he pulled his hand away, shaking his head both in disbelief and in pure understanding. “Of course... It should’ve seemed so obvious, but I’ve never really heard many stories about it.” It was rare, but not unheard of, the idea of a person having two soulmates and it usually took the form of a trio, just like it was now. 

“I guess the answer was right in front of you all along,” Thomas hummed as he looked between the two of them. “Um... We probably have a lot to talk about now.. I know you two have been dating for a while and I get it if it’s weird having a third person, but it’s not like I have to date you, especially not immediately.” Thomas would’ve been lying if he said he didn’t want that with Logan - he hadn’t known Virgil enough to feel the same - but it wasn’t like he was going to pressure him, not after everything. 

Logan glanced at Virgil for a second before turning back to Thomas. “I think... We have a lot to talk about. Later would probably be best as class is starting too soon for us to get any kind of productive conversation done, but I think we should talk before making any final decisions.” 

Thomas nodded and looked between him and Virgil. “In that case, I’ll make sure to keep quiet about it until then.” Sure, he would’ve liked being able to go around telling people that he’d found his soulmate - or, rather, soulmates - but if Virgil and Logan wanted to stay quiet about it, who was he to decide otherwise? Besides, he wasn’t as bad about it as Roman seemed to be, judging by the stories that Logan had told him. He was just excited, as almost any other teenager or any other person would’ve been. 

Logan smiled sympathetically, knowing that this couldn’t have been that easy on him, before looking at Virgil and seeing a slightly more worried than usual look in his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked as he grabbed his hand. 

Virgil squeezed his hand and shrugged. “I don’t know... I’m thinking about this whole thing with Remus and Roman. We all kind of lied to the entire school and I’m not really concerned about making friends or whatever, but... What do you think’s going to happen?” 

That was... A very fair worry. The two of them may not have wanted to be a part of this, but in the eyes of the entire school, their intentions didn’t matter as much as Roman’s, so Logan really only saw two endings here. Either everyone would be focused on poor Roman and worried about how Roman was stuck with such an awful soulmate that he had to lie about it - because it was undeniable that he had to be a part of the plot - or everyone would be focused on how badly Roman fucked up and blame everyone involved, including Remus. Either way, Remus was drawing the short end of the stick and he seriously didn’t deserve that. 

“Logan?..” Virgil asked after a minute of watching his boyfriend stare into space. 

Logan snapped out of his trance and looked over at Virgil. The two of them were kind of invisible, minus Logan’s tutoring sessions, so the two of them would deal with some dirty looks or intrusive questions at worst. “Um... I’m sorry to ask this after everything, but would you mind of I still acted as Remus’s friend through this?.. Just a friend this time.” 

“Of course I don’t mind,” Virgil responded with a shrug. “You’re his friend and I may not like him, but he could use that right now...” Even if he probably didn’t want to see Logan right now. “Just be careful.” 

Logan nodded and leaned over, kissing Virgil’s cheek. “At least you won’t be alone when I go comfort him.” He smiled over at Thomas, who seemed understandably awkward as the two shared their soft affection in front of him. “But, for now, why don’t we get to class?” 

It was a very weird day in class for all five of them. Thomas felt awkward every time he looked at Virgil or Logan, as if just glancing in their direction would let the entire school know their truth. Virgil was slowly winding up with worry, waiting for the moment when their secret inevitably broke out to the entire school. Thankfully, despite acting as Roman’s false soulmate, nobody approached him when he was looking that tense. Logan was planning on how he could best help his friend, if Remus even allowed him to help him feel better. Remus, as he wandered the streets, was being left alone just as much as Virgil was, seeing that he was visibly seething with anger.

And Roman... Well, no. No pause after that. Roman knew that he didn’t deserve anybody’s sympathy right now, he knew that he’d screwed up. Virgil may have been the one who let their secrets slip, but Roman was the reason they were keeping such big secrets in the first place. He may have had accomplices, but this was his fuck up to bear, even if he couldn't bare to be honest about it, not just yet. 

Chapter Text

After school, Remus went to his unofficial home: his friend Janus’s house. He absolutely didn’t live there and Janus’s dad loved to jokingly remind him of that all the time, but Janus was probably the only person who could make his shitty mood any close to better and he really needed that if he was going to be as pissed at Roman as he deserved to be while appearing as unbothered as he preferred. Still, he didn’t really feel like hearing jokes about him not actually living there, so he snuck directly into Janus’s room and waited for him to appear, glad that he wasn’t kept waiting long. 

After being friends with Remus for so long, Janus wasn’t too shocked by his sudden appearance, but he was a bit surprised. “Hey, Remus. You don’t usually bother breaking in, is something up?” 

“I have to talk to you,” he said, partially avoiding the question. 

That alone gave Janus enough of an answer. “Yeah, no problem. What’s up?” 

Remus sighed and sat up to face his friend. “Alright... So, you know how Logan has been saying that he was my soulmate and how Roman was saying that Virgil was his soulmate?” 

Ah. Janus knew where this was going, but he was pretty sure that was the last kind of impression that Remus wanted to see. “Yeah. what about it?” 

“Well, as it would turn out, they’ve all been lying to me,” he said with an uncharacteristically low amount of fire. “Roman was so upset about the fact that the universe paired us together that he got the other two to join in and lie to me. And everyone else, I guess.” 

Janus sighed and sat down beside him. “I’m really sorry to hear that...” 

That was... Way too calm of a reaction. Remus shot up and looked at his friend, betrayal in his eyes. “Did you know?!” 

“No,” Janus quickly reassured. “No, I didn’t know at all... I had kind of a hunch, but I thought I was just feeling overprotective... I mean, Patton and I are complete opposites, yet we were able to get along and start dating pretty quickly. The fact that Logan wanted to stay so distant was kind of off and the fact that Virgil was just letting Roman drag him around to be with his friends was weirder. But those were pretty small things, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I wasn’t, you know, related to Virgil. Or if Patton and I weren’t so different.” A punk and a pastel prep together. They weren’t too different from Remus and Roman, though people weren’t afraid of approaching Janus. At least, not for the same reasons. 

And Janus may have had a tendency to lie and manipulate in order to get his way with people, but he wouldn’t do the same thing with his own friend, especially not with such a big thing. “Right... Of course you didn't know.” Remus sighed and laid back down, staring up at Janus’s ceiling. “I just feel so stupid. I knew it was Roman and I always felt so tied to him, but the second that Logan said it was him...” The second that someone seemed like they actually wanted to be associated with him. 

“I wish I could say I was surprised that someone could do this, but if I thought anyone would do this, it would be Roman. I am kind of surprised that the other two agreed to do something like that, though.” 

Remus shrugged. “I’ll bet anything that Roman paid them or something. At least Virgil. Logan said he just didn’t want me dealing with Roman’s bullshit and I kind of believe him. Still a shitty thing to do, but I can’t really be as mad at him...” Still a little upset, but not nearly as pissed off as he was about Roman. “He didn’t even have the guts to say it to my face.” 

Comfort was definitely not one of Janus’s strong suits. He didn’t know what else he could do besides sit and let Remus get everything off of his chest. “Are you going to be okay?” 

“I don’t know... I probably won’t gouge his eyes out at first sight, but that doesn’t mean I won’t want to.”

“As long as you don’t get yourself expelled I guess,” Janus said with a shrug. “Let me know if you need anything. As long as you don’t need me to help you bury a body or anything, I’ll try to be help.” 

Remus tutted and sat up. “If I were to hurt him, I wouldn’t kill him. He wouldn’t be getting off that easily.” If that look on Roman’s face whenever Remus walked off was any sort of indication, then the guy had to be feeling at least a little guilty about what he’d done. Then again, it could have just as easily been some kind of facade. Considering what Remus knew now, maybe that would’ve been more in character. 

Janus looked at his phone and hummed in thought. “I was going to go to the mall with Patton later, but why don’t you and I go do something instead? You’ve been thinking about getting a new piercing, right?” 

Remus seemed to return to his normal self just a bit at the idea, grinning as he sat up. “Yep. I’ve been wanting a tongue piercing for forever.” He’d put it off because he didn’t think Logan would like it too much, but that didn’t really matter now, did it? “Are you going to do anything?” 

“Not this time, but I don’t think my dad will mind going with us anyways.” Remus’s parents didn’t get too upset when they saw that their son managed to modify his body again, but, besides the fact that tattoo shops scared them both, they didn't approve and wouldn’t give consent themselves, so Janus’s dad took that role for both of them. 

The two of them headed out to the living room, where Janus’s dad was just reading a book, and Janus grabbed his car keys. 

His dad looked up at the sound and smiled as he saw Remus. “I see you managed to sneak in again.” 

Remus shrugged. “It’s what I’m good at.” 

“You’re free, right?” Janus asked. 

His dad checked his watch, pretending to think. “Yeah, sure. I don’t have a life outside of my one and a half children. What are we doing today?” 

“I’ve been meaning to get a tongue piercing and I’ve had a long day,” Remus said. 

“Right, nothing like punching a hole through a muscle with blunt force trauma to drown your sorrows,” Janus's dad responded sarcastically, though he still got up.

“That's a little unfair. Its not blunt force trauma when they use an actual needle,” Remus quipped back, though he got the point. He knew this wasn't one of his smartest ideas. “You'll still come with us?”

“Yeah, why not?” his dad shrugged. “It's definitely not the worst way to cope with a bad day and, besides, I know you, Remus. I'd rather take you to a tattoo shop than let you go home and do the job yourself with a sewing needle and some good luck.” 

Remus chuckled at that. “You underestimate me. I wouldn't need any kind of luck, just some elbow grease.” 

“My god,” Janus's dad said, shaking his head with a smile. “As long as Janus is driving.” 

“Already got my keys,” he said as he headed to the door. 

The three of them went and it wasn't much of a hassle to get Remus's tongue pierced. He may not have gotten an actual body piercing before, but he'd dealt with multiple ear piercings, this wasn't too bad. Plus, the healing piercing would give him something else to focus on. 

“So, you're staying over for dinner, right?” Janus's dad asked on their way back. 

“Is that even a question anymore? Of course I am.” Remus said with a smile. “My parents know I'm here, it's fine.” 

“Of course they do. If you're not there, you're here,” Janus added, keeping his eyes on the road. 

“Kind of like Patton?” Remus asked, half teasingly. “Speaking of, he's not upset that you had to cancel, is he?” Remus kind of liked the little puffball. 

“Of course he's not. He just wants to be sure you’re okay.” Patton wasn’t a huge fan of Remus, he was too intense for his tastes, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care for him at least a little as a friend. One skipped date was more than worth it. 

Remus smiled at that. “Let him know I said thanks.” 

Janus’s dad looked between the two before settling on Remus. “So, now that we got your piercing, do you want to talk about what’s up?” 

He abso-fucking-lutely did not. He wanted to just store it inside and let it fester until the moment that he got to unleash his emotions onto Roman again, though getting a piercing did kind of take the edge off. “Maybe later?” he said questioningly and questionably, knowing damn well that later would never come. 

Janus’s dad wanted to push more, as parents did, but, for one, Remus wasn’t actually his kid. Second, he knew that Remus probably spoke to Janus earlier, judging by the look on his son’s face, and as long as he was talking to someone, that would be enough for now. “Alright, I’ll drop it. But you have to help me in the kitchen to make up for it.” 

Remus grinned and shrugged. “If I must.” 

Remus actually really liked cooking and he was good at it, when he wanted to be. At first, he only liked helping out Janus’s dad in the kitchen because it was the one time he was allowed to handle a knife, even if he was only allowed to slice through vegetables and such, but over time, it grew to be one of his favorite and most calming hobbies. It was meticulous, but messy, and there was so much room for him to do his own thing with spices and such that he just kind of loved it. He wasn’t particularly great at it, due to his insistence on ignoring timers and just using his own senses to figure out when the food was done as well as his absolute lack of precision when it came to anything besides chopping and measuring, but he liked it. And, best of all, there was food at the end! 

If Remus was quiet when he was eating, then he was silent as a mouse when it was his own cooking, besides the occasional hum of approval. Nothing tasted better than knowing you worked hard on a somewhat delicious meal and it managed to cheer him up enough for him to stop thinking about brutal murder and revenge until even afterwards, though the bowl of ice cream that they all had after dinner did help. 

After eating, Remus was completely sated and, while he sometimes wished that he could stay there all the time, he went home and made a bit of small talk with his parents before heading off to his room for the night, though his unpleasant feelings all rose back up as soon as he sat down on the mattress. 

No. He was not letting those feelings take over his world, at least not anytime soon. That would have basically been the same thing as letting Roman win. This is what Roman wanted at first, to make Remus feel like he was anything less than worthy of other people’s affection. Well, if there was anything that that afternoon had taught him, it was that that was wrong. And he was going to cherish that memory and use it as fuel against his anger and pain as long as he could. It was a strategy that had worked in the past and he sure as hell wasn’t going to stop letting it work now. 

Chapter Text

Roman slept about as well as one would assume Remus did that night, which is to say that he barely slept at all. He wished that this didn’t eat at him like it did, but Remus had a talent for disturbing people with his words and Roman had more than enough reason to be disturbed by what he’d heard. And he’d just seemed so hurt by the entire thing. Roman had assumed that Logan was overthinking when he’d made the suggestion to let Remus down easily by giving him a fake soulmate, but, as much as Remus tried to hide it, he couldn’t disguise the fact that he was hurt. Not only that, but Roman couldn’t even think about how he must’ve felt when the truth apparently was that obvious to him. 

For once, thinking about his once seemingly brilliant idea made Roman feel... Bad. More than bad, it kept him up all night with only a few patches of sleep when even his own guilt wasn’t loud enough to drown out just how tired he was. And it was that guilt was the one thing that kept him awake as he had to get up for school the next day. 

Of course, Roman being Roman, he was able to pretty easily hide his distress from his parents and even from his friends, though it was kind of tough letting them know that he was going to be on his own for a bit before going off and trying to find Remus. And, while it had been easy to lie to everyone else’s face, he couldn’t really do that with Remus, not after all the lying he’d done to him already. Here it was, the guilt showing on his face and he could tell that Remus could see it too. 

It was clear as day. But Roman was an actor and after all that lying that he’d already done, how could Remus even think that he was being sincere right now? “You keep running into me. Stop that.” 

“No, um...” Roman fidgeted with his jacket and looked down at the ground. “I wanted to find you. I was looking for you.” 

Remus laughed a bit. “That’s a first.” 

“I’m serious. I wanted to apologize.” He looked up at Remus, trying to be as sincere as he could be. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have done what I did.” 

Remus looked at him expectantly. “Okay?.. And?” 

“And...” Roman wasn’t sure what Remus wanted him to say. He’d apologized, he kind of thought that would be it. “And I’d like to make up for it by getting to know you?” 

“Ooh, what a prize,” Remus said through a laugh. “Now that you feel bad about getting caught, you think it might be nice to grace me with your presence and treat me like a human being before I blab to the whole school?”

“Not, that’s not-” 

“Well, don’t worry about that. I don’t plan on telling anyone.” And make it easier on Roman by doing the hard work? Not a chance in hell. “I kind of doubt that Logan and Virgil are going to go along with this stupid lie much longer.” 

He was right. They weren’t exactly going to throw Roman under the bus, but neither of them had plans to keep helping him, especially Logan. 

“Just leave me alone.” Remus turned to start walking away. 

Roman pouted and caught up with him, walking beside him. “Wait, just listen to me. Logan was right. What I did to you was cruel and I wasn’t thinking and I want to try and make it up to you.” 

“But it took getting caught for you to figure that out? Really? You think I’m going to let go of it like that?” Remus asked, walking a little faster. 

“I didn’t think you were big on holding grudges,” Roman muttered. 

“Oh, I’m usually not.” Remus stopped walking for a second. “You’re just special.” He smiled at Roman and booped his nose before letting his expression fall and continuing to walk. “Everyone’s got their limits, Princey. You just managed to hit mine on the bullseye.”

Roman sighed and thought for a second before letting Remus go. Maybe this was going to be tougher than he thought... He was going to need help. 

After being called in to help with tutoring at the last minute, Logan wasn’t able to talk to his two soulmates about how their relationship was going to work, but that didn’t mean they didn’t all want to hang out with each other before school, which was exactly where Roman found them. 

“Oh, there’s three of you now...” he pointed out as he popped his head into the room. 

Logan rolled his eyes, far from over any of what had happened. He and Remus weren’t exactly joined at the hip, but Logan didn’t need to be his closest friend to know that Roman really hurt him. “What do you want?” 

“I need to talk to you...” 

“May I ask why? We aren’t exactly friends.” 

“Yeah, speaking of friends,” Virgil began, “What do I tell yours? They keep asking me stuff about you.” 

That was another problem for another time. “Just tell them to ask me, but Logan, I do need to talk to you. It’s about Remus... Please?” 

That got his attention. “What about Remus this time?” 

Roman shrugged and hugged the door frame a bit more, tapping his fingers rhythmically. “I need to talk to him and he won’t listen to me... I want to know how I can start making this up to him...” 

Logan wasn’t sure there was a way to make up something like this. And, even if there was, he wouldn’t know it. He enjoyed spending time around Remus, but neither of them knew the other that well. “Look... I’d consider me and Remus to be friends, but I don’t know him particularly well. If you truly want to make it up to him, I’d suggest talking to a better source first.” Someone who actually knew Remus. 

And someone who no doubt wanted to break Roman’s face. “No. No way,” he argued, shaking his head. “No, Janus would kill me if I tried to get near him.” 

Logan shrugged and looked back down at the book he’d been reading. “Well, whose fault is that?” 

As much as Roman wanted to whine and argue until Logan gave in or at least agreed to warm up Janus for him, he knew that Logan was right. And that Logan had the patience to be more stubborn here. 

“You can close the door behind you,” Logan said, cold as ever. 

Roman sighed and did just that, going to try and figure out where Janus could be. 

Unfortunately, he was interrupted with something that most people would’ve considered more important, which was the class bell. That was just great, now Roman would have to wait until- That was it! He had lunch with Janus! ... Which meant he had no excuse to avoid him. Roman was terrified of Janus, but he was terrified of not being able to fix his own messes even more. He sighed and walked to class, both dreading and counting down the minutes until he got released to lunch. 

“Hey, Janus...” 

Janus would look over at Roman and immediately frown. “What do you want?” 

“I want to talk to you about Remus... I feel awful about what I did and I was wondering if you could help me at least get him to talk to me. I don’t need him to forgive me, I just want him to listen to me for a minute.” 

Janus would glare at him for a few second, giving him the staredown the drew an honest statement out of anybody who had the misfortune of receiving it. “You’re serious?” 

“Deadly so. I feel so awful about what I did, I couldn’t sleep last night and I know that’s not even close to what he has to be feeling, but that’s exactly why I want to fix this, I know he must be feeling awful... That wasn’t what I wanted.” 

“Maybe you should’ve thought a bit harder about that before you decided to trick him like you did. But I’ll help you. Not for you, for my friend. But, if you even think about hurting him ever again, I will end your life. Got it?” 

At least, that was the idealized version of the conversation that Roman had mapped out in his head. Janus was Remus’s best friend, a lot of people knew that, Roman didn’t doubt for a second that Janus would help him if it meant helping his own best friend feel better. Plus, his soulmate was Patton, the nicest little puffball in school. He highly doubted that their relationship didn’t have at least a few rocky moments. 

Still, Janus wasn’t exactly approachable and Roman knew that before he even stepped into the cafeteria, taking a deep breath as he followed the crowd inside and setting off on his mission. After grabbing some food, Roman headed to where he always saw Janus sitting and found him and Patton exactly where he expected. Roman’s fingers were drumming nervously as he walked up to the two of them, though he made sure that he wore a smile that absolutely didn’t show it. 

“Hey, Janus. I know we don’t really talk, I’m Roman.” He moved to sit down, though Janus was quicker to block the seat. 

“Sorry. Seat’s taken.” 

Judging by the look that Patton shot him, Roman was pretty sure that was a lie, but he wasn’t about to argue, instead taking the next seat down. “Okay... That’s fine. I just need to-” 

“I’m busy,” Janus said, turning back to face Patton as he spoke to Roman. “Can’t you see Patton and I are having a conversation? You know, soulmate things?” 

Roman sighed and let his smile fall. “Of course you know...” 

Janus shrugged, refusing to face Roman. “Saves you the trouble of having to admit your big bad secret.” 

Roman frowned a bit and leaned forward, resting his weight on his elbows. The table wasn’t empty, but Roman’s feelings were getting too big to hide and nobody was close enough to hear their conversation. “Look, I get it... I hurt your best friend. I’d probably feel just as angry at me if I were in your position. Hell, I don’t even have a best friend. I try so hard to be the cool, popular kid that everyone likes, but I got so caught up in that image that I forgot how to be nice... Remus is right, I’m not perfect and I shouldn’t pretend to be. I don’t need the perfect soulmate. I don’t think there is such thing as a perfect soulmate, but if there were, it definitely wouldn't be me.” Roman sighed and dropped his head onto the table. “I was such a stupid jerk... I can’t blame you or Remus if you never want to forgive me.” 

Janus started to smile and turned back to face Roman. “Do you really mean all that or are you just saying it?” 

Roman looked up at him with a pouty face. “Of course I mean it... I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.” 

Janus nodded. “Then you won’t be mad when I ask you to get out of my face and never try talking to me again.” 

Roman wasn’t sure if he was way more surprised than he should’ve been or not surprised at all, but either way, it hurt. 

“Janus,” Patton chastised quietly. “He seems really genuine. Maybe it’ll help Remus feel better.” 

“I’m not his ticket into Remus’s good graces,” Janus argued back. “If he wants to fix things between the two of them, he’s going to have to actually put some work into it.” 

Unfortunately, Patton could understand that. He didn’t have all of the details on what Roman had done, but whatever it was, he definitely shouldn’t have been treating Janus like any kind of shortcut back into Remus’s good graces. Still, Roman seemed pretty clueless here, he could at least use a tiny nudge in the right direction. “At least promise you’ll talk to Remus about listening to him... I know what he did was awful, but he seems so sincere about this.” 

“If he screws up again, it’s on me. I’m not going to be responsible for my friend getting more hurt than he already is.” 

“Janus...” 

Janus glanced at him for a brief second before looking away. “Don’t give me those eyes. If you want to talk to Remus, you go ahead, but I’m not bailing Princey out.” He nodded towards where Roman had been sitting before, though he was surprised to see that he was gone. “I guess he got the message...” 

Patton frowned a bit. “I was going to tell him that I’ll try to talk to Remus about listening to him...” 

Janus rolled his eyes. “Don’t. He’s not worth his time.” 

“That’s your opinion. And I respect your opinion, you know I do, but if Roman really is feeling bad, then what sense does it make to let them both suffer when we could be helping them both get past this?”

Janus knew that Patton was making sense, but at the moment, he didn’t care much about making sense. He cared about protecting his friend. “We can talk about this later.” 

Patton sighed, though he knew Janus’s mind wouldn’t be changed that easily. “I just worry about him...” Contrary to popular belief, Patton didn’t only stick around Janus himself, he didn’t mind being around Remus. Sure, he wasn’t too comfortable around him at first, especially not alone, but Remus had learned to tone himself down and Patton had learned to trust him, mainly for Janus’s sake. And now, he was worrying about Remus for his own sake. 

After talking to Janus failed about as badly as Roman expected, he left the couple to their own devices and sat in the quiet hallway outside of the cafeteria, sitting alone and eating his lunch, continuing to brainstorm ways he could actually get Remus’s attention. Unfortunately, it seemed that he’d used up all of his creativity in getting out his urge to create colorful art... As in, color that he wouldn’t have had without his connection to Remus. Man, he really was a jerk to him. Roman couldn’t have imagined what he would feel like if somebody did that to him. Then again, before he’d considered it a good idea, he couldn’t have imagined anybody wanting to do that kind of thing to him. He had a lot to fix here. And, for the first time in a long time, he didn’t have anybody backing him up. 

Chapter Text

After school that day, Roman started working on resorting his priorities, switching from focusing on his art to focusing on fixing his major fuck up. At least, that was his plan at first. It was only about an hour before he got distracted by the constant buzzing of his phone. He tried to ignore it, he really did, but holy crap, the least he needed to do was put his stupid phone on silent! Roman groaned and grabbed his phone, about to put it on silent when he saw the top few messages. All of them were from a group chat with his younger drama friends, a separate group from his usual popular drama friends, to be specific. Honestly, it was his preferred group of drama kids. Not to be rude, but the seniors were all so snarky and annoying, especially when they were actually talking about anything to do with drama, everyone else was pretty cool and- Wait, off topic. He had a task to complete and he couldn’t do it if he didn’t figure out what everyone was freaking out about. 

[Roman! Seriously, everyone’s spreading stupid rumors!]

[Are they rumors? You know we’ll still love you if you tell us that they weren’t]

[We won’t judge if you were lying about this] 

[Talk to us!!!]

[We know you’re on your phone, we see you’re online]

[Guys, what if he’s embarrassed?]

[He doesn’t have to be embarrassed!]

It was just an endless rain of messages and Roman didn’t have time to scroll back and figure out what was happening. 

[Roman: Sorry, I have homework, unlike you heathens]

[Roman: What are we talking about? What rumors?]

[Roman!!]

[There he is!]

[People are saying you were talking to Janus about your undying love for Remus]

[No, they were saying that he told him he wishes Remus was his soulmate!]

[No! He literally said that he felt bad about lying about Remus not being his soulmate, pay attention!]

Roman felt his heart drop to his stomach. He didn’t want that to be his first reaction, but the reality was that he still lied to everyone in school and, as much as he wanted to talk to Remus and fix things up between the two of them, he was still kind of afraid of the repercussions about telling such a huge lie. Still, it was pretty clear that these rumors were spreading and they were spreading fast. He wasn’t sure how somebody managed to overheard his conversation with Janus, but apparently, someone had and now, Roman had no time to figure out what was the best way to react now. 

After a few more seconds of letting himself panic, Roman paused and took a deep breath. He couldn’t blow this opportunity. He wanted a chance to show Remus that he could be a better person than he had been and this was the start of a chance to do just that. 

[Roman: It’s true. Remus is my soulmate and I was an idiot and lied to everyone about it, even Remus himself. Logan and Virgil helped, but I swear to god, you guys better not mess with them over this] 

There was a moment where the chat went silent and Roman couldn’t have been sure what caused it. Were his friends shocked that some silly high school rumors were actually true? Were they shocked that their own friend could lie to them like that? More importantly, were they just shocked that Roman could pull off such a cruel scheme? 

[Woah...]

[Seriously?]

[Omg, I thought we were all joking]

[That’s kind of a shitty thing to do] 

Yeah, that last one was more than deserved. It still hurt, but Roman knew that he couldn’t argue against it. 

[Are you alright?]

[Roman: Um... I’m not really the person who you should ask that.]

[Roman: I mean, don’t bother anybody else about this, I just mean that I get that it wasn’t fair that I was the only person who got to be alright, if that makes sense?]

[Roman: I know it was a really shitty thing. It took me too long to see it, but it was and I seriously want to make it up to him]

[Roman: That’s why it took me so long to get back to you guys]

[No offense, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’ll hold a grudge]

[Roman: He apparently is. I mean, I kind of seriously deserve it, but I can’t even get him to talk to me] 

[Hmmm]

[Hmmmm]

This time, Roman could sense everyone trying to think about a way to help him, or at least the few people who responded with hums of thought, but this was his burden to bear, this was his fault. 

[Roman: You guys seriously don’t need to help me, this is my problem. I made Logan and Virgil help me keep him away, I should probably get him to talk to me by myself]

[No way! You clearly need help]

[No, he won’t talk to you on your own]

[Hey! Maybe since you had people help you get him away, he’ll feel better because you’re asking people to help you get his attention?] 

Roman doubted that. Sure, he would doing that anything was a good idea after how Remus reacted to him, but the last thing he wanted to do was to make it seem like he wasn’t even willing to win Remus’s attention back on his own. He wasn’t taking the easy way out of this and he wasn’t going to make this apology seem anything less than completely personal. 

[Roman: I appreciate the offer, but this is really my mess to clean up. I made people help make it and now I have to clean it up on my own] 

[Aww.... Okay]

[You seem really serious about this]

[Let’s leave him alone for now, he needs to build up his gay juice to fix this] 

Roman laughed at that and scrolled through the other group chats and text messages he had to, seeing that everyone was yelling at him about this same juicy gossip. In another situation, he would’ve talked about it, but this wasn’t just his story and the last thing he wanted was to accidentally get the wrong message across about Remus and accidentally encourage anybody to try and help clean up his mess. Instead, he sent a message to every group chat letting them know that he wasn't going to talk about it and that he didn’t want anybody talking to Remus about it before deciding to call it a night on his scheming and getting on with his night, though the last thing he would’ve described it as would’ve been calm and peaceful.

In the morning, Roman woke up and got ready for school, distracted as usual, though this was one of the first mornings in a while that he wasn’t distracted by the new color in his life. He contemplated the different ways to catch Remus’s attention all the way to school and even as he got there, going to spend some time with his younger drama friends, though they didn’t seem nearly as up and loud as usual when they saw him coming down the hall. 

“Hey guys. Why’s everyone so calm this morning, you guys are always causing a riot,” he said as he sat with them. 

All of them turned to look at a particularly guilty looking freshman, Ally. 

“I was just trying to help...” she muttered, playing with a piece of her hair. 

One of the others rolled her eyes and turned to face Roman. “She tried to talk to Remus and he got frustrated and yelled. We told her that she shouldn’t and she probably wasn’t the only person in school bugging him about this, but she didn’t listen.” 

“I thought if I caught him early enough, it’d be fine,” she said, shrugging. “I guess I was wrong, he seemed really irritated.” 

“Roman.” 

Speak of the devil, Roman turned to face Remus as he stared at him from down the hall, his glare almost piercing through him. 

Remus simply nodded behind him, which was more than enough prompting for Roman to quickly dismiss himself before following him. 

The two cut through a crowd that did little more than stare at them as they passed by and headed into an empty classroom, Remus making sure to keep them out of view of the stupid door window. 

“What? So, I don’t talk to you and you get the entire school to try it instead? Do you know how many DMs I’ve gotten since school let out yesterday? Is this your way of saying that I should’ve listened to you before you let everyone else, literally everyone else, deal with me for you?” Remus began, clearly beyond frustrated at that point. “I’m sick of having to ignore all of these people.” 

Roman sighed and nodded. “I get it, I’m lucky enough to be in group chats with most of these people that I can just ignore...” He looked up at Remus, trying to seem as sincere as he was. “I promise you that I did not do this on purpose. I was just... I was talking to Janus yesterday about how I could get your attention and I guess somebody overheard and spread the word.” 

Remus rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to believe Roman, but he did seem sincere, at least about this. “Whatever... Just get them to leave me alone.” 

Roman nodded and stopped Remus as he turned to leave, grabbing his shoulder. “Wait, um... I... I really want to talk to you about everything. I really do want to make things up to you and mend things between us... I know it won’t be easy, but I know that what you went through, what I put you through, it couldn’t have been easy and I’m willing to do whatever to show you that I mean this.” 

That much, Remus was pretty sure he still didn’t believe. “I’m not going to be a part of your pity party here. You humiliated me in a way that you could never understand and the only thing that could make me feel better is if you never talked to me again.” 

Roman really didn’t want to do that, he seriously wanted to keep pushing and somehow get Remus to talk to him - not to forgive him, that seemed like an impossible goal, but to at least know that Roman couldn’t have been more apologetic. But if he just kept pushing and pushing until Remus blew up at him, there never would’ve been any kind of chance at that happening and Roman knew at least that much. So, he nodded and began to leave, his head hanging in defeat. 

Remus watched him for a few seconds, wishing that he could’ve just shut up and watched him leave, but he couldn’t help but to ask. “That’s it? That’s all it took to get you off my back?” His words may have been a cry of relief, but his tone was beyond frustrated. 

Roman looked back at him and shrugged. “I figure bothering you will only make things worse in the end... If you want me to leave, I’ll do that, I said I was willing to do whatever you wanted.” 

“I want you to make sense,” Remus said before he could think. Remus loved chaos, that was no secret, but he loved chaos that he caused or that at least he could understand. Roman... Remus thought he could understand him, he seemed like such a basic guy on the surface and here he was, being an actual three dimensional being. Sure, Remus was exaggerating his expectations a bit, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t surprised right now. It didn’t seem like much of a Roman thing to just agree to leave him alone, just because he asked enough. 

“I don’t get you,” Remus said after a few seconds of contemplating. “You spent all of that time desperately trying to make sure that I never found out that the universe wants us together and when I do find out, you feel bad enough to chase me, but only until I say I’ve had enough. You’re not a perfect Prince, your actions make no sense, what even are you?” Remus asked, almost laughing through his frustration. 

Roman could understand that. He knew he put up a perfect persona and he could understand why his actions were so shocking to Remus, though he wished that they weren’t, but the truth was that Roman was just... Roman. “I guess I’m just... human?” he responded with a shrug. He knew it sounded like a stupid line, but what other explanation was there? He was just a teenager trying to survive high school and trying to make the stupid mistakes he’d made better. 

Still, it sounded stupid. It sounded so plainly obvious that Remus laughed again, nodding a bit. “Yeah, I... I guess you are. This is so stupid...” He turned to walk out of the room. “Well, since you clearly don’t know what you’re doing, why don’t I make this easy for you? You can go back to your popular life where your friends forget all about this and adore you again. I’ll go back to being a loner. We tell people that we just don’t want each other. ... Everyone’s happy.” 

No, everyone wasn’t happy, that much was obvious. Roman wasn’t perfect, but he could hear the pain in Remus’s voice. It wasn’t fair that he had to get rid of this special bond just because Roman made a few mistakes and, not only that, but Roman wasn’t going to be content until he could at least show Remus and himself that he wasn’t just a quitter who took the easy way out on everything. If they really didn’t work out, it wasn’t going to be because Roman didn’t try.

Chapter Text

Of course, Remus and Roman themselves weren’t the only ones dealing with the consequences of one loud mouth’s actions. All throughout that morning, as well as the evening before, Virgil and Logan had been receiving way too much attention, both in the form of random messages and people actually coming up to them and acting like they were friends. Even worse, Roman hadn’t let either of them know that the word was out, so they were both caught by surprise just as much as Remus had been and neither of them was actually prepared for that kind of social interaction. 

When Virgil had arrived at school that morning, he’d deeply hoped that people would remember how much he’d kept to himself before he started pretending to be Roman’s soulmate and that they’d leave him alone at least in person, but that hope was quickly crushed mere minutes after he’d walked into the school. 

“Hey, Virgil!” one of Roman’s senior drama friends called out, having waited for him near the main entrance. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you. I don’t know if you heard the stupid rumors going around, I know a bunch of other people said you weren’t responding to their texts either, but how are you doing? I can’t believe people are actually saying that Remus could be Roman’s soulmate. I mean, could you imagine?” It was phrased as an almost concerned comment, but it didn’t take much to see that she was really trying to get the truth out of him. 

So, Virgil just shrugged and shoved his hands deep into his hoodie pocket, walking off. “I don’t really want to talk about stupid rumors.” 

And that was only one of at least five different people that came up to him to talk, though he started losing count when he started trying to out pace them, hoping to get to the sanctuary that was his and Logan’s usual meeting point. Unfortunately, between the sheer amount of theater kids and Virgil’s distinctive style, it was hard to lose anybody for more than a few minutes before somebody else would come up and try to talk to him and he thought he was going to lose it when- 

“Leave him alone,” a familiar voice demanded, stepping behind Virgil and blocking other kids from getting to him. “Can’t you see he doesn’t want to talk about it? Why don’t you get your hot gossip from somewhere else?” 

Remus may not have wanted anything to do with anybody for the time being, but he wasn’t the only kid in school that people feared. 

Virgil was glad for once as Janus showed up to save him, feeling his presence almost physically push away the other kids. 

“Go, talk to Roman if you’re so curious, it’s his life.” 

Virgil turned around and saw that the kids were actually walking away, sighing with relief. “Thanks...” 

“Don’t mention it,” Janus assured. “I just saw them bother you and I couldn’t let them continue.” Especially not when it was really his fault... 

The day before, after thinking over the issue a bit longer, Patton decided that there was no way that Roman was going to be successful without Janus’s help and he started talking to him about it again not long after, as they were on their way to Janus’s car to go home. 

“I just don’t understand why you can’t help him...” Patton said sheepishly. 

Janus sighed. “Are you talking about the Roman thing? I told you, that’s all on him. He was the one who lied about his soulmate, Remus isn’t that bad and he chose to hurt him. He has to pay for the consequences on his own.” 

Patton pouted and grabbed Janus’s hand, trying to up his cute factor to convincing levels. “Please?..” 

Were this not his best friend, that would have worked, but Janus was just as stubborn as Patton was adorable, if not more. “No. He should’ve thought of this before he started his stupid plot and broke Remus’s heart.” 

If either of them had been a bit less determined to stand their ground, they probably would’ve seen that other student standing there sooner. Instead, they only noticed her as they drove by a few minutes later, as she stared at them as they passed by. 

“... You don’t think she heard...” Patton began, trailing off before he could finish his sentence. 

“Let’s hope not,” Janus responded with a sigh, though now, it was clear that she’d heard and understood perfectly. 

Of course, he would’ve helped Virgil either way, Virgil might not have liked him much, but they were cousins, Janus would always look out for him. This was just a little extra incentive. 

Virgil nodded and turned, feeling a lot better as he left and made his way to his sanctuary. 

As he showed up, he saw that Logan and Thomas were already there, the former furiously twisting away at his Rubik’s cube while the latter watched, clearly unsure of what to say. 

“They get you too?” Virgil asked. “Janus had to yank me out of a crowd and we all know I’m not a fan of his.” 

Logan huffed. “Yes and I’m not very happy about it either. I can’t believe everyone found out that Roman lied to the entire school and their first instinct was to bother us about it instead of Roman himself, assuming he’s actually going to bother showing his face here today. We all know how desperate he was to keep his secret,” Logan said, clearly frustrated by the situation. 

“How did this even happen?” Virgil asked as he went to sit beside him. “I mean, I didn't think I’d care this much, but I also didn’t think we’d have random people bothering us about it. It’s not like this was our idea, clearly.” 

“Some people don’t want to use their brains, they just want to hear the next juiciest gossip.”

As the two of them began ranting back and forth, Thomas moved a few seats away, giving them some space to let out their frustrations together. 

It was a bit weird, simultaneously knowing that it wasn’t a conversation for him and feeling like he should’ve been a part of the conversation, if not for any other reason than to help comfort them, but it was just a feeling that he was presumably going to have to get used to. Logan and Virgil had known each other for years. He had known them for less than a month. And it wasn’t like he was being treated like a stranger, but he wasn’t really more than a friend yet, which was okay, but... Things were complicated. Feelings are complicated. 

“At least not all of us are dealing with this stuff,” Logan said, glancing over at Thomas with a small smile. “I hope you realize how lucky you are that you aren’t associated with this entire debacle.” 

Thomas pulled himself out of his own thoughts and looked up, smiling. “Yeah... It sounds really frustrating.” Sure, there was a part of him that almost wished he was involved, just so he could understand what they were going through here, but he knew that would’ve been more trouble than it was worth, judging from everything he was hearing there. “At least you have this little safe space, it looks like nobody’s really willing to come in here.” 

Virgil shrugged. “Of course they’re not. I don’t really like my cousin all that much, but if Janus heard about them starting to come into our space to bug us? There would be hell to pay. And if anyone tries him-” 

“Thomas, did- Sorry, Virgil, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Logan began. 

Virgil simply shrugged. He was used to it and he knew it was always accidental. “What were you saying?” 

“I was just going to ask if Thomas had moved himself away.” 

Virgil glanced over and furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah, you were closer, what’s up?” 

“Um...” Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know... I guess I just don’t want to interrupt? You guys are talking about this and its not like I’d know how it feels to be involved, and you’ve known each other longer, I don’t know...” 

“Do you think we wouldn’t want you to talk to us about this?” Logan asked. 

Thomas nodded his head from side to side, as if thinking it over, before ultimately nodding. 

“Thomas, that’s stupid,” Logan said simply. 

“Yeah, Logan’s right, that’s stupid. You’re part of the team now, how are we supposed to get to know you better if we don’t talk to you about things?” Virgil added on. “Do you not want to talk to us?” 

Thomas shrugged a bit, unsure of how to respond. “I mean... Its not that I don’t, I just don’t want you to feel like... You have to?” 

“If I felt like I had to, I wouldn’t,” Virgil reassured. “And I’m sure the same goes for Logan. I know I’m not really great around new people, but you are our soulmate and I don’t know if we’ll end up all dating, but we should at least all be friends.” 

“Exactly.” Logan smiled softly. “I’m sorry we haven’t had time to talk this out though... We’ll figure out something soon, at least. And until then, why don’t we change the subject?”

“Yeah, like one of you can help me with my chemistry homework,” Virgil said, half joking as he pulled out some paper from his backpack. 

And that was something that they all could agree on. 

While Roman wasn’t getting nearly as badly harassed as the others, he was getting his fair share of stares as he walked through the hallways and he wished that he could’ve said just what everyone’s stares were saying, but just as expected, it seemed like the opinions were split. Some people were throwing him looks of pity, others were simply glaring at him, and some simply seemed interested in finding out what was going on, but nobody seemed brave enough to step up and talk to him and that was good, at least right now. As Roman neared the hallway he was heading to, he ran right into Janus and was quick to take a few large steps back, expecting Janus to react just as poorly as Remus had. 

“I’m sorry, I promise I didn’t do this on purpose, I don’t know how people-” 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but- Wait what?” 

“What?” 

“... What were you saying?” Janus asked, hoping he could get the blame off of himself. 

Roman looked up at Janus, suspicious. Janus was never one to stumble over his words like that, he was acting strange. “What were you saying?” 

Janus simply shrugged. 

“What do you know about the word getting out?” 

“I don’t know anything.” 

“What does Patton know about the word getting out?” 

Janus was a great liar. Patton hated lying. “Alright fine,” he sighed. “We were talking and some stupid kid was eavesdropping and got the word out.” 

Roman’s eyes lit up. “So it wasn’t my fault!” 

“Okay, don’t act like this wasn’t your secret that was getting out,” Janus argued through a frustrated laugh. 

“You have to tell Remus I didn’t do this!” 

“I don’t have to tell Remus anything.” 

“Janus!” 

And Janus wished nothing more at that moment than for Patton to have never had any kind of influence on his personality. “Okay fine,” he groaned. “But I am not covering anything for you, I’m not budging there.” 

“One less mistake is one less mistake.” Roman smiled and kept walking, letting himself into the “Nerd room,” as he affectionately called it. “Guys! Great news! Well, not all great, but kind of great.” 

Virgil and Logan immediately both glared him down and Logan stood up to give Roman a piece of his mind, stopped as Virgil pulled him back down to his seat. 

“What do you want? What could possibly be going great right now?” Virgil asked. 

“First of all, I want to say I cannot be more sorry about what’s happening today. I swear to you that I never intended for you two to become so harassed by so many people-” 

“And what exactly did you think would happen when they all figured it out? That they’d obey your every whim?” Logan asked, visibly frustrated. “Be realistic, Roman, this is a bunch of teenagers who want to know what’s going on.” 

Roman couldn’t deny that. There was a lot he didn’t think about before deciding to go through with this plan and now he was paying for it. Everyone was paying for it. “You’re right... And I’m sorry. But to be fair, everybody finding out was not my fault. Janus just admitted to me that he and Patton were talking and-” 

“Janus?! That’s why he was so nice to me,” Virgil said before dropping his head to the desk he was at. “I knew I should know better than to trust that guy.” 

“Don’t get mad at him... Like you said, this is my mess to begin with. I just wanted to say that I’m awfully sorry about what’s happening and if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.” 

Logan shook his head. “You’ve done enough.” 

Roman frowned, but understood that nothing he could do would help, stepping out of the room. He had to do something to fix this. And he had to do something fast. 

Chapter Text

As the day went on, the initial buzz of the drama died down just a bit, though to say that people immediately stopped bothering them was far from true. However, Ally was far from the only person that Remus snapped at and it wasn’t long before the message was received that he was not to be messed with and his presence around both Logan and Virgil protected them whenever he was available, though it didn’t feel like nearly long enough for either of them. Simultaneously, it felt too long for Logan as he attempted to plead his case to Remus and was met with silence. 

Either way, things were calm enough for everyone to get through the rest of the day without any major breakdowns, though Virgil had a bit of breaking to do. As soon as the last bell rang, he made his way out of the school and down to the school parking lot, where he found his cousin’s car and waited. The second that he saw Janus’s face, he stormed over to him, his stride broken for a split second as he saw Patton and his hair. Was his hair always that reddish color?... He wouldn’t have exactly known. 

Wait! No, not the point. 

“You told everyone,” he said to Janus. “You told everyone what was going on and then you came around and acted like some big hero for getting people away from me, like you didn’t know that was what was going to happen.” 

Janus closed his eyes and groaned. “Roman told you... Of course he did. Listen, I didn’t do it on purpose. We were talking about Roman’s bullshit and if I should help and someone overheard and blabbed to the whole school.” 

Virgil rolled his eyes, finding that hard to believe. “You’re the slimiest guy I know, do you think I’d believe you wouldn’t make sure the coast was clear before talking about something like that?” 

“Its my fault,” Patton interjected. “I was trying to tell Janus that I think he should help Roman out, I didn’t think anybody would be around...” 

And, fuck, Virgil wasn’t sure if he was using it to his advantage or if he was just lucky, but he found it so much harder to be mad at Patton. He knew Patton wouldn’t have done anything to cause this on purpose and, if he was being honest with himself, he knew Janus probably wouldn’t either. “I just...” He took a second to cool off and sighed. “People are idiots. I mean, its a lot better than this morning, but there’s still people trying to come up to me and Logan and ask what’s going on and I’m just tired of it.” 

“Aww, I get that,” Patton said with a sympathetic smile. “But I promise we’ll all do our best to figure out how to help. Trust me, okay?” 

Of course Virgil trusted Patton. He was a little weak about boundaries and he could be a little condescending, but he was a good guy. “Alright...” He sighed and turned, walking away and back into the school building, making his way to the library where Logan was waiting. 

“Where’s Thomas?” he asked as he noted the other’s absence. 

“I told him we needed to talk,” Logan replied simply. 

“Talk about?...” Virgil sat down beside his boyfriend and while he had a good idea what about, he was always too nervous to assume. 

“What does Thomas’s presence mean for us? We don’t need an exact answer today, but what are you open to as far as our relationship with him goes and what are you not okay with?” 

Virgil bit the inside of his cheek and shrugged. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t wondered about it, but he was always too afraid of the potential negative impacts on their relationship to seriously consider anything. “I just don’t want to mess up what we have... What do you want to do?” 

“Well...” Logan being Logan, of course he’d put some thought into this. “I’m open to dating him. And I’m open to you dating him. However, if this is something that would make you uncomfortable, the conversation will stop there.” 

“I don’t know...” Virgil muttered and it was the truth. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea of Logan and Thomas dating. He didn’t hate it, but he wasn’t sure he liked it either. “What if you like him better than me and decide you only want the one soulmate?” 

“Virgil, that’s preposterous. You have been my best friend for years, you have been my soulmate and my boyfriend for years.” He reached over and grabbed one of Virgil’s hands, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I know we're kids, but I have never once doubted that you are the person I want to spend my days with, I love you. And given the chance, I wouldn’t say it were impossible for me to form a similar bond with Thomas, but as uncomfortable as the idea clearly makes you, he and I will remain friends.” 

Virgil hated to admit it, but he knew he visibly relaxed at that. “I mean... I don’t hate the idea.” 

“You also aren’t in it 100% and that’s what more important. Like I said, the conversation will end here and we may revisit it if you give the word, but until then, things will stay as they are and I’m more than okay with that.” Logan would’ve been lying if he said he wasn’t somewhat interested in seeing Thomas, but he had to put Virgil’s discomfort first. It may have seemed a bit unfair to those who looked from the outside, Thomas was just as much a soulmate as the two of them were, but both he and Thomas knew and were okay with the fact that this was a possibility. It was better that they remained friends and remained civil than to force Virgil into a situation he wasn’t fully comfortable with and potentially ruin something that was years in the making. 

“I’m sorry,” Virgil muttered. “I know you like him, I just-” 

“I’m not hearing anymore of that. Your boundaries, your consent, comes before everything. The same goes for me and the same goes for Thomas. You haven’t done anything wrong.” 

Logan always did know what to say. Virgil nodded and leaned over, kissing his cheek. “Thank you... I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

As the two had their tender moment, Janus dropped Patton off at his house with a kiss before texting Remus to ask where he was. He made his way to his friend’s house and went up to the front door, smiling as his mom answered the door. 

“Hi Mrs Duke.” 

“Hey Jan, I haven’t seen you in a while, come in.” Remus’s parents may not have approved of his choice in clothing and the metal in his face, but they loved their son all the same and they loved that he had Janus as a friend. “Remus has been a bit... Not himself lately. Do you know anything about that?” 

So, Remus hadn’t told his parents about the situation. There were parts of Janus that were surprised, but most of him was sort of expecting it. “Yeah... Its just teenage drama stuff, its alright,” he said, shrugging it off. “I’m just here to talk to him.” 

“Oh, well, he’s obviously here,” she joked, referring to the overly loud music coming from the direction of Remus’s room. “You know, I’m usually not a huge fan of him blasting his speakers like that, but the poor thing has seemed so upset, I’m just letting it be for now.” Both of his parents knew that Remus wasn’t exactly fully open with them and they didn’t love it, but teenagers were going to be teenagers. 

“Yeah, I let him know I was on my way. I’ll go talk to him.” Janus gave his mother a quick smile before heading up to Remus’s room, letting himself right in as he clearly wouldn’t have been able to hear any kind of knocking over his music. 

The second that Remus saw who came through the door, the music was silenced and he sat up on his bed. “Hey, what’s up? What do you need to talk to me about?” 

Okay, Janus was not sure he could do this. Would it really be so bad for Remus to think that Roman was the one who let the news accidentally slip to the school?... 

Probably, yes. Roman had already dug himself in a deep enough hole, the least Janus could do was keep him from getting fully buried in it, seeing as he was the one handing Remus the shovel. 

Janus cursed the voice in his head that Patton had created and sat by his friend. “Well... I guess I should just rip off the bandage here.” He took a deep breath before speaking, keeping his eyes shut. “Roman asked if I could talk to you and get you to listen to him yesterday and I said no, so Patton and I argued about it and we got overheard and that’s the real way the news spread around the school.” Janus kept his eyes shut, expecting for Remus to start yelling his head off at him. When that didn’t happen, he peeked over at his best friend and attempted to read his expression. 

Remus wanted to be mad. He was at a point where he wanted to be mad at anything and everything, to have any reason to blow up and let out some of the pain he was feeling, but... Fuck, he couldn’t do that to Janus. He couldn’t risk blowing up at his best and essentially his only friend. Just as he had with Logan, Remus took a deep breath, but he stayed this time, having a slightly better handle on his emotions compared to before. “Fine. Whatever, it was an accident. A fucked up accident, but an accident.” 

“I cannot express how sorry I am. I know you had a shit day and people don’t know how to shut up, if I could fix this, I would.” 

“I know...” Remus sighed and flopped back onto his bed. “I feel like I owe Roman an apology now...” 

“You don’t owe Roman anything, you’re justifiably mad, this one mistake doesn’t change that.” 

Remus nodded a bit. “What do you think I should do?.. Honestly?” 

Janus sighed and thought over the question, wondering what he’d do. If it were him... “I don’t know that I’d be capable of forgiving them... But I’m not you, I don’t care about soulmates.” Even his bond with Patton wasn’t immediate. The two were opposites, even with Patton trying as hard as he did, Janus stayed more stubborn than he’d like to admit and their personalities clashed for a while before they finally found their sync. 

“But... I don’t know. I believe that Roman seems genuine. He’s stupid for what he did, but Roman seems pretty generally stupid outside of class. What he did was also awful and he clearly doesn’t deserve any kind of mercy that he doesn’t explicitly earn, so...” Janus took another second to come to his conclusion. “I don’t know. Its completely up to you and how you feel, I suppose. And I know that’s not the answer you’re looking for-” 

“Its the opposite of what I’m looking for,” Remus said through a small laugh. 

Janus smiled and laid beside his friend. “But that’s all I can give you. I hate to say it, but this is something you’ll have to figure out yourself. But whatever you decide, I’ll be with you.” 

“That is the most useless answer you could’ve given me,” Remus said, though he smiled as he did and grabbed his friend’s hand, getting his support. 

Janus gave his hand a quick squeeze and checked his phone as he felt it buzz. 

[###: This is Roman, I got your number from Virgil. I need your help.] 

Janus scrunched up his nose and began to block his number before he saw Roman’s second message. 

[###: Please, you owe me. I really want to fix things, I want people to stop bothering everyone]

And, as much as Janus hated to admit it, he wanted to help. Most of Janus wanted to just shrug it off and put the phone back down, spending more time with his friend, but there was too much of him that knew that Roman was trying to do good here and that he couldn’t do it alone and that, yeah, in a way, Janus did owe him after letting Remus presumably go off at him that morning. 

It took a few minutes of internal debate, but Janus eventually did message him back. 

[Fine. When do you want to meet?]

Chapter Text

After a while longer of comforting his friend. Janus heard Roman’s plan out, surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly as stupid as he thought it was going to be. It was actually an almost decent plan. And all it would require from Janus was a little troublemaking, something that he was very familiar with.

The next morning at school, the day began relatively normally. While most of the initial gossip had died down, Logan, Virgil, and Remus were all still getting their fair share of questions and their fair share of struck nerves as people refused to remember that they were people with their own lives and not just pawns in Roman’s mistake. And Roman saw this and he wished he could do more to stop these people, to draw the attention to himself instead, but all he could do was watch as he waited for his plan to go into action. At least then, maybe people would listen and start talking to someone who deserved to be bothered about this. 

When Remus walked into class that morning, it was with a mouthful of complaints and no Janus to spill it to, just Patton. Strange, Janus didn’t mention he was going to be missing school that day. Remus pouted and sat beside Patton. He liked him well enough, but he wasn’t Janus. 

“Long morning?” Patton asked as he sat down, strangely unfazed by Janus’s absence. 

“You don’t know the half if it,” Remus groaned, slumping down in his seat. “I mean, I swear, if one more person comes up to me and asks about Roman, I’m going to-” 

“Attention all students, attention all students,” Janus’s voice began over the loudspeaker. “This is a message from everyone’s favorite Roman Prince, delivered by yours truly.” He cleared his throat for dramatics before reading off the note that Roman had given him. “I know everybody has heard the rumors going around school and I feel like its only appropriate for me to clear them up myself. Anybody who’s interested in hearing the truth-” 

“Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?” everyone heard the assistant principal say over the speaker. 

Janus cringed as he saw him walking back into his office. He and Roman may have planned this in a rush, but things weren’t supposed to go wrong here. Janus spent every morning helping out in the front office, he could’ve sworn he was supposed to have a better clear window as the assistant principal left his office to get his morning coffee. “Sorry, this will only be another few seconds.” He was already going to get in trouble, Janus figured he may as well finish his part of the plan. 

It cost the smooth voice he’d been using for the vibes, but whatever, he at least didn’t rush too much to be heard. “Anybody who’s interested in hearing the truth, go to the auditorium immediately so you can hear it from the one at fault himself, thank you.” Janus jumped up and slipped past the administrator as they scrambled for the microphone. 

“Please disregard that previous message. Everybody stay in class, there is nothing happening in the auditorium. Please continue on and have a nice day.” 

And, for a bunch of teenagers, that was a surprisingly effective end to the situation. There was a bunch of murmuring and muttering and a bunch of teachers failing to silence it, but almost nobody moved from their seats. Almost nobody. 

Patton glanced around the room and watched as his classmates buzzed with curiosity. Teenagers were like that, they were just curious. And, well, you know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat. Or, in this case, Patton’s perfect behavior record. 

As he stood up, the entire class turned to look at him in stunned silence. Patton was easily one of every teacher’s favorite kids, certainly he wouldn’t be the first to start the crowd out of class, right? 

Remus wanted to slam his head into his desk as he realized that Patton’s good nature influenced him too heavily as well. And his good nature wasn’t going to let Patton take the fall for this, at least not alone. He stood up with him and grabbed his arm, looking right in his eyes in a few moments of silence communication before running out of the room, seemingly dragging Patton behind him. Patton couldn't get in trouble from being taken out of his class like that, right? Yeah, that made sense. 

The two of them made their way down to the auditorium, ignoring every teacher that called after them, and burst in to find Roman standing on the stage, immediately beaming and waving as he saw who’d made their way there. 

Patton gave him a supportive smile and waved back, squeaking as a hand grabbed his free arm and pulled him down to a hiding spot. 

“Janus?” Patton and Remus asked simultaneously. 

He simply rolled his eyes and pulled Patton into a brief kiss. “You’re too good of an influence on me... You’re right, I had to help him.” 

Remus rolled his eyes light heartedly. “I’m still not happy about this, but I couldn’t let Patton get in trouble for running down here on his own. He’s a good influence on us both,” he said, playfully hitting his friend’s shoulder. 

Patton giggled a bit and looked around, making sure they were still alone before standing up and taking a picture of Roman where he stood. “I can’t do too much, but here’s my part.” Patton may not have been nearly as famous around the school as Roman was, but he was friendly enough to have more than enough people to show this to. He sent the picture with a few words about how the announcement was true and jokes about how everyone should join him before the three of them ended up suspended alone and it was about as effective as he expected it to be, about as effective as he needed it to be. 

Within a couple of minutes, students began flooding the room in a way that teachers had completely lost control over, either taking a seat somewhere, ready for a good show, or standing on the sidelines, ready to run, should the administration prove to be effective. 

As they did, Roman stood on the stage, nervously fidgeting with his fingers and with the microphone, wondering just how much trouble he’d be in for this. 

Within a couple of minutes, the drama department’s own Mr Picani - husband and soulmate to that of English department, simply known to Remy by every drama kid in school - came up to the stage, his late arrival explained by the clearly hurriedly made cup of coffee in his hands. “Roman, what are you doing buddy? You know I can’t keep you from getting in trouble here.” 

Roman knelt down to where he stood and shrugged. “I know and I don’t need you to help me out here. I know what I’m doing, I’ll take whatever trouble I can get.” 

Remy sighed, but he knew how stubborn Roman could be and he knew that there was no dispersing this amount of teenagers without some kind of major intervention or answers to their questions. He smiled and lazily reached out for the microphone, chuckling as Roman easily dodged his attempt to stop him. “Oh no, I did what I can... I guess I can’t stop you.” 

Roman smiled and nodded, thanking him silently before standing back up, feeling his heart drop to his stomach as he realized just how packed full the room really was. Roman had no problem putting on a performance for a full house, but this wasn’t some ordinary school musical. This was him, airing out his dirty laundry for the entire school to hear. But, as he scanned the audience and saw Logan and Virgil and Remus standing amongst everybody, he knew that this was exactly what he needed to do. Roman took a couple of deep breaths before clicking the microphone on and saying what he needed to say. 

“Good morning everyone... My name is Roman Prince, though from what I hear, introductions aren’t exactly necessary here,” he said with a weak laugh. “Um... I called everyone here because I need to tell the truth.” 

The night before, Roman had spent hours wondering how this would go. He wondered what exactly he would say, he wondered what would come first and what would come last, he wondered how much detail he’d go into, assuming he was given enough time to do so before being dragged off stage. He wondered so much that he hadn’t gotten the chance to really figure it out. Roman was on that stage without any kind of clear plan as to what he’d say, but there were a few things he knew for sure. One, he knew that he had to get everybody to leave Remus, Logan, and Virgil alone, none of them deserved the harassment they’d been receiving. Second, he knew that he had to prove himself to Remus, he had to prove that he knew what he did was wrong and that he’d do anything to fix this. 

Lastly, he knew that Janus would kill him if he ended up getting in trouble over a failed attempt at doing what he was supposed to do. 

And with that, Roman knew exactly what he needed to say. 

“I know everybody thinks I’m some kind of golden boy. Everyone thinks I’m just a teacher’s pet or an over the top drama student or... I don’t know, some stereotype of a goody two shoes. But, I stand before you to tell you that everybody was wrong. I’m a liar. And I’m an idiot. And I’m a jerk, I’m a stupid huge jerk. And... I mean, I’m a liar. I’m such a huge liar that I thought I was exactly what everyone thought of me, that I was too good to make mistakes, that I was too perfect to be human. And I’m such a huge jerk about it that I thought I was too good to be Remus’s soulmate.” 

There went a burst of noise as everybody turned into a buzz of gossip. 

“Hey, I’m not finished,” Roman said, hoping to interrupt before he lost everybody’s attention. “Come on, I’m getting in major trouble for this, the least you guys can do is here me out,” he joked, relaxing a bit as everybody’s attention turned back to him. 

“Yes, I am Remus Duke’s soulmate. And I made Logan Reid and Virgil Black lie for me, but they don’t deserve for everyone to bother them for information, none of them do. This entire plot was my idea, I thought I was too good for Remus, but the truth is he deserves a lot better than me... He deserves somebody who won’t hurt him like this and, Remus, I’m not doing this because I want you to forgive me,” he said, looking right at him. 

“I’m doing this because I know that you’ve been through enough, all three of you have been through enough and that has to end here. I cannot stress this enough, I need everybody to stop harassing those three. It isn’t fair on them. You guys have your truth now, you don’t need to hear anything more from them. I’m sorry that I lied to everyone and that I worked so hard on it that I had to drag two completely innocent people into it and I’m even more sorry that those two and the true victim of this entire situation dealt with it more than me.” 

Roman’s head snapped towards the stage door as he heard it open and the principal, vice principal, and counselors all began making their way up the stage, Remy grimacing and stepping backwards to blend into the crowd of students as he noticed the same thing. 

“Um, it looks like that’s everything I have time for. In summary, yes, rumors are true, stop harassing the people who I dragged into it, and thank you for coming out, now please go back to class.” 

Roman finished his speech right on time as the principal put a hand on his shoulder and escorted him off of the stage and to his office, letting him know that his parents were already on their way. As she did, the vice principal took the mic from him and called Janus, Patton, and Remus all to his own office. 

Chapter Text

The four teenagers all went or were escorted to the front office, sitting in the waiting area as parents were called. 

“I’m really sorry, Patton, Remus,” Roman began. “I really didn’t mean for you two to get into any trouble over this.” 

Patton smiled and shrugged. “Its fine, I knew what was going to happen when I stood up.” 

“Yeah and I only did this for Patton, to get him into less trouble,” Remus clarified. 

“If anything, its my fault,” Janus admitted. “I thought I was going to have a better clear window.” 

“No, I cannot thank you enough for what you did,” Roman said with a smile. “Now... I guess we just hope everyone actually listens to what I said...”

Remus shrugged and leaned back in his seat. He hated to admit it, but what Roman did was actually pretty cool. He never would’ve expected him to get himself into trouble or sacrifice his own reputation for the three of them like that. 

Before long, Janus’s dad walked into the room, a look of understandable worry on his face. “Janus, what- Patton? What’s going on?” 

Remus snickered and raised his hand. “I’m here too, you know.” 

He smiled and nodded. “Yeah, well... That’s a bit less of a shocker.” He let the secretary know who he was before sitting across from the four kids. “What are you guys doing here? Janus, why were you making random announcements?” 

Janus shrugged. “Its a long story...” 

“Its my fault, sir,” Roman admitted. “I needed Janus’s help and he was nice enough to help me.” 

His father didn’t recognize Roman at all, but he didn’t exactly look like a big trouble maker.

Before he could ask anymore questions, the two of them were called into the principal’s office. 

“I really hope he doesn’t get into too much trouble,” Roman muttered as he watched Janus walk off. 

“Janus is a big boy, he can make his own decisions,” Remus said. “If he thought this was a good idea, he’ll figure things out for himself.” 

“I guess you’re right.” Roman attempted to flash Remus a smile, but was completely ignored as Remus stared down at his pants and picked at one of the patches he’d sewn on. 

Roman’s dad walked into the room a few minutes later, his expression conflicted as he sat beside his son. “Roman, what’s going on? Are you alright? Don’t think your mother and I haven’t noticed you seeming distant lately, what is all this about?” 

Roman hadn’t even considered how he’d begin to explain everything to his parents. He’d never so much as gotten below a B average on his report card or anything worse than a slight reprimand from a teacher about his talking habits in class, now there was this. “I’m sorry... I promise I’ll explain everything to you and mom later today.” 

His father took his hand and gave it a supportive squeeze. “You’re such a smart kid... I’m sure you have a good explanation for whatever you did, but don’t think you’re getting out of this without any kind of punishment.” 

Roman just nodded, appreciating his dad’s reassurance and knowing that he wasn’t exactly going to get out of this scot free from any kind of angle. 

Janus and his dad walked out of the office a few minutes later, Janus’s dad looking a bit prouder of his son and the principal looking about as tired as anyone should after arguing with Janus. 

“Patton, Remus... You two are free to go,” she sighed. “All three of you please just head back to class without anymore issues.”

Patton beamed and stood up, immediately going over and kissing his boyfriend’s cheek. “Thanks, hon.” 

Janus coughed to hide a smile, though his dad’s snickering told him his attempt was unsuccessful. “Yeah, whatever, you did barely did anything.” 

Remus chuckled and went over, also giving Janus a kiss on the cheek. “Yeah, thanks Elle Woods.” 

Janus elbowed him in his ribs to push him away. “You can get suspended, for all I care,” he joked as they all walked out of the office. 

“Alright Roman, you’re up,” the principal announced, waving for him and his dad to follow her to her office. 

The two followed and sat down at her desk as she took a long drink of coffee. 

“Well, Roman... You interrupted class for everybody and encouraged everyone to meet you in the auditorium to clear up a bunch of high school rumors. You want to explain a little of that? This isn’t really like you, you really aren’t one to cause any kind of problems.” 

Roman shrugged a bit. “Its what I felt like I had to do. Everyone was bothering my friends for helping me with something, that wasn’t fair to them. And I needed to make it serious, I couldn’t just make, like, an Instagram post or something, this seemed like the next best thing.” 

“Roman,” she sighed. “You can’t just interrupt everyone’s day because of a bunch of dumb kids spreading stupid rumors.” 

“No, I know, it wasn’t just stupid rumors.” Roman sat up a little straighter. If he was going to get in trouble, he was going to get in trouble for exactly what he did. “I made a stupid choice and lied about my soulmate. People found out and started bothering everyone but me over it, that wasn’t fair, I had to do something.” 

“Aw, you found your soulmate?” Roman’s dad asked, upset that he missed this milestone in his son’s life. 

“Yeah, dad. I did. And I was stupid for not talking about it sooner and I’m going to fix that, I’ll tell you and mom everything today, I promise.” 

“Okay, well that doesn’t change what you did.” She folded her arms on her desk and leaned in. “Look, Roman, I like you, I’ve never had any problems with you. I wish I could let you off with some detention, but after the scene you made, I have to make some kind of example out of you.” 

Roman cringed, but he knew he couldn’t exactly argue. “Right...” 

“Go home today, then two days suspension and detention this Saturday so you can work on catching up on whatever work you miss. I think that sounds plenty fair.” 

Out of school for the rest of the week only to come in on the weekend. Great... But it could’ve been worse and Roman knew it. 

As he and his dad left the school, Roman was unsure if he was far more or far less prepared for this talk with his dad. In pure dad fashion, he at least waited until they were in the car and Roman was, in a way, trapped before speaking to him. 

“So... You mind catching me up here?” 

“Well... I found my soulmate. And... I lied about it. And people helped me lie about it. And they paid for it and I hopefully fixed it.” Roman shrugged. “I can get into detail with mom, but... Its a long story, I don’t want to tell it all twice.” 

And his dad could understand that. Roman seemed tired enough as it was, he at least needed some rest before getting interrogated again over this. “Alright... But your mom is worried, she just couldn’t leave her meeting too long. You’re clearly tired, I have to go back to work, you can get some rest and we can talk this out when we all get home, alright?”

“Thanks dad...” Roman smiled softly, glad that at least his parents were willing to work with him. 

The second that he got home, Roman went right up to his room and collapsed in his bed, taking the best nap of his life. 

By the time his nap was interrupted, he felt significantly better rested, which was great because it meant he didn’t feel like fighting anybody in classic “woken up from nap” fashion. But what woke him up? Roman sat up for a second and looked and listened around, groaning as he realized it must’ve been something settling in the house or something stupid like that. It was only about 4, it wasn’t his parents. Roman flopped back down and curled back up, attempting to go back to sleep when he was interrupted again by some kind of tap somewhere. 

That time, Roman was a little more sure that he’d heard something, getting up and looking around to see if anything had maybe fallen or something. By the time the third noise came, he realized it was coming from his window. Roman opened his curtains and looked outside, looking right down at Remus Duke where he stood on the ground, a rock in one hand as he waved at Roman with the other. 

“You weren’t answering your phone, Virgil gave me your address,” Remus explained as Roman opened his window. “Let me in.” 

Without thinking, Roman darted out of his room and down the stairs, almost slipping as he did, before making his way to the front door, opening it as Remus threw another rock at his window. 

“Oh shit, I thought you were ignoring me,” Remus explained as he saw Roman appear, shrugging it off and heading into the house. “You know you aren’t wearing any pants right?” 

Roman looked down and cursed as he saw his bare legs. “Shit, sorry. I just woke up from a nap... Um, come up, I guess?” 

Remus followed Roman through the house and up the stairs, waiting outside of the bedroom as Roman put on some pants before joining him inside. 

“So... What are you doing here?” Roman asked as Remus sat by his desk, hoping he sounded more casual than he felt. 

“Your stunt was cool. I really wish I could deny that, but it was cool. And you’re home, so I’m guessing you actually got into some trouble for it.” 

Roman nodded. “Yeah... Suspended for the rest of the week and Saturday detention.”

“Nice.” Remus smiled a bit. “You still aren’t forgiven-” 

“I know, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. I did something awful to you and I know I don’t deserve a second chance, but I would do anything to show you that I want to make this up to you.” 

“Okay. I mean, if you hadn’t interrupted me, I could’ve just told you that I was going to give you a chance, but I appreciate your groveling.” 

Roman laughed awkwardly and sat down on his bed. “Right, sorry... So, what does a chance mean?” he asked as he crossed his legs. 

“I don’t know, its your chance,” Remus shrugged. “You get my attention and if you lose it, you lose it, take that as you may.”

“Could I earn more chances?..” 

Remus pretended to think for a second. “I don’t know... I mean, I don’t know if you were aware of this, but I do consider my time to be precious. So... I guess its possible, but it wouldn’t be as easy as one good pickup line.” 

“I don’t expect this to be easy,” Roman clarified. “I know I haven’t really earned that, I’m just glad you’re willing to hear me out now.” 

“Call it a moment of mercy. You’ve dealt with enough that I at least know you feel bad about what you did, that’s a start, and helping out Logan and Virgil was a bonus.” 

Roman smiled as he heard that his plan had actually worked. “Is everyone leaving you alone too?” 

“Yeah, but I didn’t have it as bad as them,” Remus said, though he knew he was lying. The last thing he wanted to do was make it seemed like he owed Roman anything and that this was anything more than getting even with him. “So, you want to set up a date and time or...?” 

“Oh! Um...” In all honesty, Roman had never truly considered what things would be like if Remus had decided to forgive him, what dating him would be like, nor did he consider what exactly that would entail. “You know, I should probably wait to say something until after my parents come home and talk to me about this. I wouldn’t want to say something and have to reschedule because I got grounded.” Which was also true. 

“Alright, so text me when you figure something out. You have my number now, anyways.” Remus stood up and began to leave, pausing at the door. “I don’t really want this to be too public,” he said, glancing back at Roman. “After everything, I don’t really want people who don’t already know to know anything until I’m sure.” 

Roman hesitated for a second, not wanting to seem too eager to agree, but also not wanting Remus to think he was eager to hid him. “Alright... If that’s how you feel, I respect that, but just know that the second you want things to be a little more public, I will be happy and proud to do so.” 

Remus almost laughed at that. “You’re such a fairy tale guy... I’ll see you later.” 

And with that, Roman was alone once again, simply waiting until his parents got home.