Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  Curveballs in life were no surprise to Roman.  

  He was used to the way things would twist and turn into a convoluted mess that often made him question his decisions in either positive or (mostly) negative ways. He was no stranger to the sinking feeling that followed each revelation, how the rest of the world seemed to be drowned out by that one thing he wouldn’t stop thinking about. 

  It had happened with Virgil after the two had broken up and he had left. Roman functioned on autopilot, not leaving his apartment and only getting out of bed when necessary. He had never experienced something so dark before, and often felt foolish for being so lost in his own mind after something as common as a breakup. But he never thought too much on that part. He honestly never thought too much about anything, content in letting his mind go blank and fuzzy with numbed silence.

  But in the year since Virgil had returned and the two had begun living together, Roman had almost forgotten that sinking feeling. They had fallen into a rhythm, helped even more by the school year giving them both time to themselves and lunch breaks to spend together. Some days, Virgil hung out with Remy and Emile on weekends, while Roman lounged around Logan and Patton’s house or spent time with his brother in an attempt to keep the frail patchwork of their relationship together. After all, Remus had been there at Roman’s lowest moment, and while they had glossed over most of their conflicts in life, getting through the one that had stopped them from talking had been important, and had helped Roman to start picking himself up and eventually buy his house. So yes, Roman had almost forgotten how it felt when a curveball zoomed past him.

  Until his father called him at 4am one Tuesday morning, telling him that his mother had suffered a heart attack in the middle of the night. 

  “Ro? Is everything alright?” Virgil asked, voice quiet and hoarse from sleep as he sat up in bed to see Roman hunched over the side of it.

  Roman slowly hung up the phone and stared at it in his lap, taking a few seconds before replying just as quietly:

  “My mom’s dead.”

~ + ~

  Remus had discovered a long time ago that his favorite way to cope was to get stoned and play guitar. 

  He had taken lessons as a kid, hated it right off the bat, then began to enjoy it when he got cool calluses on his hands that made them feel all bumpy and made climbing trees way easier. He eventually stopped lessons, but still played every now and then out of either boredom or…well, when he was high. He’s started limiting how much and how often he smoked when Janus had talked some sense in him, something about how he couldn’t really afford to lose anymore brain cells. 

  But now he felt like he had a valid reason. He could easily explain away the red eyes with the hard truth. That the funeral that had taken place a couple hours prior was harder on him than he’d care to admit. Crying wasn’t his thing; he left that to his overemotional twin, who cried enough for the both of them during the entirety of it and was now upstairs shaking hands with distant relatives and family friends like he hadn’t had a strained relationship with them for years. And then there was Remus, plucking mindlessly at the strings as the smoke coming from the glass pipe on the coffee table dissipated into the room.

  “…Seriously? In Mom and Dad’s basement?”

  Roman still sounded like he’d been bawling, something that made Remus grimace as he sat up and set the guitar aside. “Just like the good ol’ days,” he answered with a sigh, lifting the pipe as an offer to Roman who looked at him like had two heads.

  “I’m a teacher.”

  “Teachers get high too, Romeo.”

  “Irresponsible teachers. And teachers who do it where it’s legal.”

  Remus rolled his eyes. “It’s a special occasion. Shouldn’t count.”

  Roman opened his mouth to argue, but thought about the current events and decided to let it go. He didn’t want to get into an argument with his brother at their mom’s funeral. Their dad was already going through enough. With a loud exhale, he moved over to the chair next to the couch and plopped down. “Everyone’s leaving. They wanted to say goodbye before we’re thrown into two weeks of family lockdown.”

  “It was your idea, dipshit. You’re the one who took two weeks off work and told me ‘It would be better for Dad if we helped him go through Mom’s stuff and the shit in the attic, blah blah blah’.” Remus shot back, doing a dumbed down impression of Roman as he stood from the couch and climbed the stairs to the rest of the house.

  It baffled Roman how the two of them could go from playful back and forth in one conversation to heated tiptoeing around a fight in another. But with the situation at hand, he didn’t think too much on it. It was a hard time for all of them, and focusing on Remus’ coping strategies was not something he wanted to do.

  The sound of the door opening after a few minutes of silence had him bracing for either Remus’ annoying voice or a random family member who was about find Roman sitting in a smoky room, which was definitely not a conversation he wanted to have. 

  “Guess you got tired of all the fake smiles and sympathy?” David Prince looked visibly exhausted in his suit, tie already loosened the second he walked in and a hand shaking his gelled salt-and-pepper hair out of its place. He stopped for a second to examine the room before shaking his head, leaning against the wall as he spoke to his son. “Looks like when your brother was in college in here.”

  Roman chose to ignore the way that had been phrased, knowing full well that the second he’d gone off to dorm life that communication with his family had been scarce. “Everyone leaving?”

  His father nodded and crossed his arms while he spoke, clearly uncomfortable in the attire and ready to just relax in his own home. “Virgil wanted me to tell you that Vanessa canceled her trip until you’re back home.”

  “What? No, she didn’t have to do that.”

  “He said that she wanted to spend time with everyone. That includes you.”

  Roman just nodded, letting himself stare out into the blank space of the basement. “Well, thanks for telling me.”

  David hummed in acknowledgment and turned for the stairs again, pausing to add, “It’s good to have you back home, Romeo.”

  Roman groaned, putting his head in his hands. “I played Romeo one time, and it was over a decade ago. Can’t we let it go?”

  “Hmm…nope. Sorry, good sir.” He smiled and cleared his throat, looking up to the door before returning sight to Roman. “I’m surprised you came at all, really.”

  “…What? Why?”

  David allowed himself a deep breath before answering. “You’ve got a new home, new family and all that. You’re off doing your own thing and never made an effort to see us.”

  Roman pushed himself up from the chair, joining his father at the base of the steps. “Of course I came. It’s not a question of if I care or not. She’s my mother and I’m clearly sad she’s gone. I guess it’s just weird to see how we just have to move on.”

  “I don’t think I get it. How you could just leave all of us without so much as a phone call every now and then.”

  “Can we- not do this right now?” Roman pleaded, already feeling near tears once again.

  David relaxed a bit and took a step up. “Sure thing. I’m ordering pizza for dinner. Do you want anything specific?”

  “No. Anything’s fine.”

  “Alright. I’ll come get you when it’s here.”

  With that, Roman returned to the silence of the basement and the comfort of the chair he had been sitting in. He didn’t understand how his dad could be like that. He had made a good career, had a loving relationship and a family who he loved to bits. How could his father brush it off as though he’d abandoned everyone? Looking around the walls of the basement, they wood panel was covered all over with childhood photos of vacations, front yards in summer, and every dumb pose his mom could come up with. It was weird to see those pictures, two identical boys with matching grins that were faked beyond belief. Every picture was a lie. Every single one had fifteen minutes of fussing and bickering and fighting until the four of them stood still for half a second to frame the illusion of a happy memory.

  And now here he would be staying for the next 336 hours. Covering the bad feelings with a thin sheet of fake happiness yet again.

  He just hoped as he climbed the stairs to get away from the smoke that this time wouldn’t lead to disaster.

Chapter Text

  The first evening in the Prince household was tense.

  Pizza had been eaten in the living room with rarely a word out of the three men, flipping through sports and the news with none of them able to be happy with anything that was on. They had all gone to bed not long after, with David off to his bedroom while Roman and Remus returned to their childhood rooms that their parents had turned into guest rooms after the former had left for college and after the latter had dropped out and moved out. 

  Nothing felt the same to Roman. Everything looked so different, the walls repainted to shades unlike the red he had preferred as a child and all of his things he’d left behind packed into the attic, away from sight. How the hell was he supposed to get through the next two weeks if every day would be like this one?

  As it turned out, quite easily, since the following morning everyone was significantly less tense and the three of them ate breakfast with jokes and gentle bickering between the twins. Roman had forgotten the times like this, when the family was able to get along without the tension and dancing around the bumps in their relationships. When they were able to laugh together. He could almost see his mom shaking her head through her laughter at one of Remus’ crude jokes.

  “Remind me again why we have to go through this shit?”

  Roman rolled his eyes and flicked on the light, boxes and garbage bags of random stuff filling the space in front of them. “Because I told Dad we would help him clean stuff out of the attic. He doesn’t need to be climbing up here with his bad back. He’s already got one hospital bill to pay…” He mumbled that last part, but Remus still caught it and turned away to begin digging through a box.

  The younger twin pulled out a pair of quads, followed by another. “Hey look, our old skates! Huh, mine’s missing a wheel.”

  “Remember that time we were pushing each other down that giant hill on the street? You had to turn to miss a car and hit the curb. Mom made us stop skating then.”

  Remus laughed and nodded at the memory, tossing the skate back into the box. “So donate? Or are we gonna go try to recreate that awesome day with skates half our size?”

  “Donate,” Roman agreed as he pulled out a pen and marked the box before putting it into a corner. “Alright, time to do that a million more times.”

  “We’re gonna die up here.”

  Roman chose to ignore his brother as he directed himself to the next box.

~ + ~

  Looking back on old things was weird when you didn’t remember them.

  For three hours, Roman and Remus combed through box after box, finding old photos, toys their parents hadn’t given away, old clothes to be donated, and even a few boxes just containing old receipts their mom had kept for some reason or another.

  “I think Mom was a hoarder,” Roman said, digging through the receipts. “All of these are from the nineties. No wait, here’s some from the late eighties…” He pulled another handful of receipts back, something different at the bottom of the box catching his eye. “Hang on, there’s something else in here.”

  “It’s your adoption papers,” Remus joked, moving away from the box of toy cars he had been playing with. 

  Roman rolled his eyes and grabbed the stack of papers, pulling them out of the box of receipts to examine closer. “We’re twins, idiot.” He unfolded one of the papers in the stack, noticing the format and clearing his throat to read it carefully:

July 23, 1992

To Sherri, Forever,

  Thank you for curing me of the boredom to an otherwise mundane staff meeting. Principal Jefferson tends to ramble, thank you for distracting me by sharing Roman’s affinity to stuffed bears over bunnies. I’m glad you chose Bridgeview. Welcome to the family.

  Mr. Wallace

  The twins stared at each other in confusion, before Roman returned his gaze to the letter. “Mr. Wallace, why does that name sound familiar?”

  Remus snapped his fingers and crossed the room to dig something from a box, returning with a photo. “Second grade teacher. He and Mom taught at the elementary school until we moved here before third grade.” The picture was of the twins, their parents, and a man only somewhat recognizable to Roman standing next to their mother. 

  He shrugged and flipped to the next letter.

January 2, 1998

To Sherri, Forever,

  Happy New Year! I couldn’t really say it around everyone, but you looked unbelievable-

  Roman felt his stomach drop when he finally understood, flipping to the next one. 

March 15, 2003

  
  And the next.

August 6, 1990

  “Shit,” Remus sighed out, grabbing a letter from the stack to skim through. “Mom had a lover?”

  “Keep quiet, Dad might hear you,” Roman whispered quickly. “This guy was there under our noses for our entire childhood. What if that’s it?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Roman sighed in annoyance, flicking his eyes between the paper and his brother’s face. “What if that explains all the stuff that happened growing up? Like…remember our seventh birthday? Mom said she missed her flight, but she was gone for the entire next week?”

  “Dude, how do you remember that?” Remus asked, handing the paper back and sitting on a flattened stack of empty boxes.

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged and started going through the whole stack. “There’s no reason to bring this up. It’s only gonna make Dad more upset.”

  Remus pulled the stack away from his brother, letting himself look through it. “No way! If this is the way to figure out all the weird shit that happened, then we oughta- wait a second…oh fuck,” Remus whispered, his eyes widening as he scanned the letter in his hands.

  “What?” Roman asked, turning away to start stuffing the receipts into a garbage bag as Remus read it out loud.

April 10, 1990

To Sherri, Forever

  I can understand the reason to keep this quiet, but that doesn’t mean I can understand why you don’t want to change things. The test was clear, and you know as well as I do that I would make a great father for the boys. But I will respect your decision nevertheless. I just wish, in another world, you and I would be together to raise our children like the happy family I imagine to have.

  Sam

  Roman didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. The sinking feeling had shifted to something stronger, like he’d been pulled further out to sea by a current and thrown to a drop off without a life jacket in sight. After recalling how to moved, he dropped the garbage bag and turned around.

  “…Fuck,” He copied his brother, the two staring at each other with identical looks of shock.

  There was no way they could ignore these letters now. 

Chapter Text

  “Okay…so, Mom had a lover who just so happens to be our biological father…and our second grade teacher…and for some reason, her and Dad moved us to another city before third grade started. And she never told us or Dad anything about us not being his kids.”

  Roman nodded along to the recap from Remus as he hung off the edge of the bed, his head pounding from the blood rushing to it. The sudden intake of information still had him reeling and he had thought laying upside down would help him process it all faster or drown it out with the pressure. It didn’t look like Remus’ room anymore, just like Roman’s room didn’t resemble his own, but he noticed his brother had pulled down some of his old posters to slap onto the walls. Maybe he needed something familiar in order to fall asleep. Roman didn’t blame him.

  “Yep. So what now?” Neither of them had a single thought as to where to go from there. Do they just forget about everything they knew? Do they tell their Dad? 

  Suddenly, Remus hopped off the bed and snatched the letters from the nightstand. “Now we find the guy.”

  “What?!” Roman followed his brother off the bed. “Are you nuts? We’re not turning our two weeks here into an international manhunt!”

  “Why not? Sounds like a better time than watching Dad sadly watch home movies.”

  While he could agree with his brother on that front, Roman shook his head. “We both promised we’d be here for him, and that’s what I’m gonna do.” There was a beat of silence between them before the younger twin shrugged his shoulders and pulled a joint from his nightstand. 

  “Suit yourself, Romeo.”

  Roman rolled his eyes, stepping out of the room and trailing down the hall to his own. The flurry of life-altering events was dizzying and he just wanted a day to gather his thoughts and balance out the emotions in his head. He was sure, however that, he’d only have a few hours at most before Remus would beg him to reconsider, so he plopped onto his bed and did the only thing he could think of given the situation.

  “Hey, Ro. Everything okay?”

  Virgil’s voice was music to Roman’s ears. It may have only been a few days, but he missed him and having someone else to talk about something else other than the secrets uncovered was a relief. “Hello, my love. Everything’s…fine,” he hesitated, debating on sharing everything but firmly deciding to both not worry Virgil and not risk his father overhearing his phone call. “We’re helping Dad close all of Mom’s accounts and get all of her affairs in order.” The awful side of Roman’s mind laughed at his word choice, while the rational side cringed. “The attic was full of so much of our stuff that I’d totally forgotten about.”

  “Trip through memory lane, huh?” Virgil hummed, a distant loud ringing in the background as Roman lifted his wrist to check the time.

  “Shit, I’m sorry. Two days here and I already forgot about school days. It’s a curse. I can call back later.”

  “No no, it’s fine. Lunch time. Patton and Logan will want to talk to you anyway. Hang on a sec.” Roman listened to the sound of a door opening and a mumbled conversation until the call got louder. “You’re on speaker, say hi.”

  “Hey guys!” Roman called out, the clattering of the phone loud and making his ear ring so much that he had to pull it away for a second. Then his brain caught up to speed and- “Wait, where’s Janus?”

  The delay of the phone gave a chorus of greetings before an answer to his question. “He called out today. Told Patton he had some stuff to take care of and would be taking some vacation time. He told us not to worry, but it’s sort of hard not to with all the stuff going on.”

  Roman nodded along to Virgil even though he couldn’t be seen, absent-minded thoughts dwelling on the reasoning for Janus’ absence. Maybe it was just personal stuff, but curiosity always did get the best of the drama teacher, and anything to take his mind off of current events was a blessing. “Alright, well, I’ll let the three of you enjoy your lunch. Can you check in on my sub every now and then to see if she’s alright?”

  “Of course, Roman. Please tell Remus we said hello.”

  “Is that Uncle Roman?!”

  Nathan’s excited voice flipped Roman’s mood in a matter of seconds. “Is that my favorite nephew?!” There was more clattering over the other end of the line before Nate’s voice became clearer.

  “Hi! Are you and Uncle Remus okay?”

  Roman smiled at how caring his nephew was, the love his friends were sending him and his brother really warming his heart. “Yeah, we’re alright. Though you know he’s definitely driving me nuts.”

  “Kiddo, you should really be eating lunch with your friends.”

  “Funny, Dad,” Nate joked to Patton, sighing into the phone. “Did you hear that, Uncle Roman? Dad thinks I have friends.”

  Roman chuckled. “Hey, Nessa’s your friend!”

  Nathan groaned. “She’s hundred of miles away!”

  The soft knocking on his door interrupted the first undramatic conversation he’d had in days and Roman sighed, turning over on his bed to glance in the direction of the sound. “Hey, I’ve gotta go. I think your uncle is done being annoying.”

  “Bye!” Nathan exclaimed, the shuffling of the phone indicating a new possessor of the phone. 

  “I’ll call you tonight,” Virgil said quietly, using the voice he always did when he showed his feelings.

  “Looking forward to it, my dear,” Roman replied with a smile. “I love you.”

  “Love you too, Ro.”

  The click of the line ended his smile as he reluctantly stood from the bed and opened the door, coming face-to-face with Janus.

  “What are you-”

  “Remus told me what’s going on so I came by. He started going all Private Eye on me over the phone on my way here.”

  Roman rolled his eyes at his brother’s antics and returned to the security of his bed. “So you came by to comfort him? Why are you at my door then?”

  “I came here for both of you,” Janus corrected, leaning his cane against one wall as he stepped through the door so he could lean against the other with his arms crossed. “He told me you don’t want to look into this. I really think you should.”

  “Why? So we can get a better glimpse into the fact that our mom lied to us and altered our entire memory our whole lives? What the hell will that achieve?” He sighed and put his head in his hands. “Besides, I don’t want Dad to know about this. It’s just too much at once and he doesn’t deserve it.”

 Janus sat on the end of Roman’s bed and watched him, providing an ear for him until he’d finished talking and resting a hand on his shoulder. “I think it’ll be good for the both of you to look back. If you don’t you’re just going to speculate on what was real and what wasn’t and Remus is going to drive himself mad trying to piece things together. You both need the closure or you’ll both crack. And maybe eventually you’ll get to a point where you can both talk to your dad.”

  Roman considered Janus’ points, and cursed just how easily he’d persuaded his opinion to change to be level with Remus’. “…Alright. But we’ve got to go somewhere else to look into it. We can tell Dad we’re going to get Mom’s bank information closed. He’s bad with that kind of stuff so we needed to do that this week anyway. Two birds, one stone and all that jazz.”

  Janus nodded and Roman stood, helping the other up and tossing him his cane as they traveled down the hall to his twin’s room.

  “Hey! Get up, Waluigi. We’re going out.”

~ + ~

  “You’re going out?” David looked up from the video of the boys’ fourth birthday to see their grown, present day counterparts putting on their shoes.

  The oldest of the two nodded, zipping up his jacket. “Yeah, Janus is gonna drive us over to the bank to close Mom’s accounts and get all her information for you.”

  “Oh, well thank you Jan. Saves an old man from all the confusing bank stuff.”

  Janus smiled and pulled his keys from his pocket, glancing between the moving screen and the boys’ father. “It’s no problem at all, Mr. Prince.”

  “When will the day arrive when you begin to call me by my first name?”

  “That would be the day that the southern politeness drilled into my head as a child magically disappears.”

  David laughed and stopped the VCR, the blue screen luminating the dim room. “Hey, how about we do a movie night? Home vids, some booze, ice cream- oh! You could invite the other boys. Oh wait- Patton can’t have alcohol, right?”

  “Actually, Pat’s gotten to a point where he’s comfortable to be around others who are drinking. AA has done well for him.” Roman sounded extremely proud with his statement, the happiness for his friend radiating through. “I’ll call them after school ends and ask, but I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

  “Perfect,” David said with a grin, relaxing further into his recliner. “Well, I’ll be here when you get back.”

  “If you start to keel over and die, call us,” Remus said, all four of them cringing as soon as it was out of his mouth and in the air. It was a normal kind of thing for him to say, but even he knew when something was just a bit too soon.

  “Sure thing,” was all he managed to respond with as the three of them left, leaving him alone in a big, quiet house for the first time in…way too long. For decades, he’d always had Sherri there reading quietly or knitting something while they watched the news when he really just wanted to watch football.

  Part of him was happy to finally have his freedom back. He could do whatever the hell he wanted now, having been returned to his bachelor lifestyle he’d almost forgotten. He no longer had to worry about the stress and struggle of maintaining a family. He didn’t have to fret over how one wrong move, one wrong word, could topple the whole image and ruin the faux-perfection he and Sherri had carefully crafted.

  He could relax.

  But could he? His wife was gone. He couldn’t get the rushed images of that night out of his mind, or the sinking feeling he’d gotten when the doctors had given him the awful news. He had to essentially tear down the aspects of her life, cancel her magazine subscriptions and memberships to the gym, close her accounts, deal with copious amounts of government bullshit that had him tearing his hair out.

  And all the while, he was still handling the heavy weight of grief, and seeing Sherri in his sons’ faces. Each smile, each quick-witted comeback, each sarcastic remark reminded him of his wife. So while he had the opportunity to relax in his new bachelor life, he didn’t want to. He wanted the three separate answers to his questions he used to always get. He wanted dismayed complaints whenever he flipped to ESPN. He wanted bickering over who’s turn it was for dishes.

  He wanted his damn family, his entire family, back.

  The sound of Janus’ car pulling out of the driveway reminded David of just how alone he’d be now. In two weeks he’d be truly, utterly alone, with only the comfort of memories and old videos to get him through the days.

  As he pressed play on the VCR and listened to the tape whir, two small boys and a smiling mother on the screen had the man in tears for the hundredth time that day. David Prince was bitterly alone, and he was sure that two weeks from then would be even more painful than now, when his children left yet again and he had the house to himself for good.

  He just wished with every power that they both left on good terms.

Chapter Text

  Even though he’d been there hundreds of times before, Roman still had a hard time navigating the tidbits of Janus’ apartment.

  It wasn’t even a large space, just a standard two bedroom that he’d gotten so Remus wouldn’t have to sleep on the couch during times when he was too high to take himself to his own place or it was just late and he didn’t want to drive. Still, Roman didn’t quite understand where he kept most of his things. His utensils were stored in the cabinet marked for cups, plates in the spice cabinet, and a secret spot behind the butter in his fridge that had extra cans of soda so Remus wouldn’t chug them all in a matter of hours. It threw him off every time he walked in, and no matter how many times he stopped by, he could never remember where anything was.

  However, he didn’t really have to, because Remus knew the ins and outs of Janus’ place like the back of his hand.

  “What are you looking for, Romeo?” Remus pushed past his brother and crawled onto the kitchen counter, reaching up to grab a random bag of chips from behind a shelf. “I’m sure whatever it is I can find. Jan thinks he keeps his stuff in secret places, but I can get to it all no problem.”

  “That’s because you’re nosy as hell and love to snoop until you find everything you want,” Janus huffed as he entered the kitchen with his laptop, taking a seat at his small table and gesturing for Roman to take the seat next to him.

  “And that’s why it wasn’t hard to find your drawer of toy-”

  “The stupid’s falling out of your face again,” the debate teacher bit back at the younger twin, clearly trying to hide his embarrassment as he logged into his laptop and opened up his browser. “Okay. Let’s start with Google. Now, what’s the guy’s name again?”

  Roman watched Remus hop off the counter with the chips in hand and step right behind Janus to look over his shoulder. “Sam Wallace,” he answered, voice muffled by the food in his mouth. Annoyed by his brother’s gross habits, Roman kept his eyes glued to the screen as Janus typed the name into the search bar along with their old elementary school. In an instant, there was a plethora of results with the name in question, some entirely unrelated but most focused on various schools with a matching name and faculty members with somewhat similar names, until- “Right there! That’s the right school.”

  Janus clicked the link, watching as the site loading to annoying school colors and a bulletin board of announcements for upcoming closings and spirit week. He scrolled down a bit before a picture caught his eye, the description proving his thought. “That him?”

  He looked much older than he did in their old picture from the attic, but it was most definitely him. "Yeah, that’s him.”

  “So what now?” Remus asked through another crunch of chips, making Janus cringe and jerk his shoulder back to smack the man behind him in the stomach. 

  “Now you shut the fuck up while I find his faculty email and look for his Facebook page.”

  “Why are you doing that?” Roman was confused. They’d found him, why did they need to get his email and social media?

  Remus actually swallowed his food before talking this time, much to Janus’ satisfaction. “So we know where he lives and can go find the guy, Romeo.”

  Roman groaned. “Again, we are not going out to find him. Isn’t it just enough to get to the bottom of Mom’s affair and put it to rest?”

  Clearly, Remus was confused by this, stepping out from behind Janus’ chair to take a seat in the empty one across from his friend and brother. “No! If we find him, we can ask him why he ultimately ruined our childhood. Don’t you want that?”

  “He didn’t ruin our childhoods.”

  “Oh really? It’s because of him that Mom and Dad fought all the time. It’s why Mom was gone so much and missed the good times. Do you remember in first grade when Mom would “forget” to pick us up so Mr. Wallace would drive us home?”

  It took a few seconds, but Roman vaguely recalled a spacious backseat with his brother and a somewhat faceless man in the front, asking them about their day while his younger twin babble about learning times tables with marshmallows or the two of them drawing with chalk during recess. He remembered stopping in their driveway and saying hello to their mom as they walked through the front door before being told to go play upstairs. He felt like there was something else to it, but didn’t worry too much about remembering. “…Okay. We look into this. But we’ve gotta hold the stakeouts in another state for after we leave Dad’s house.”

  “You’re no fun.” And Remus left it at that, letting Janus work his searching skills in relative silence for the rest of the afternoon. The irritating tension between the twins was sickeningly familiar, but hadn’t shown up quite like that since high school. Since reconciling a few years back, the two had been nearly back to the tight-knit bond they’d had as kids, save for a few sibling spats. But this was more emotional and it made Roman uncomfortable to think that maybe they hadn’t gotten all of their issues out of the way after all.  

  At some point they moved to the living room since sitting at the kitchen table was making Janus’ hip ache, and the twins sat on either side of him on the couch as he flipped through every social media he could find. After a while of that, they tried to look through their mother’s email, but couldn’t seem to get her password, so they decided to table that for another day. 

  All the while, Roman tried to ignore the subtle glances between his brother and his friend that made this stomach turn. He knew Janus still obviously had feelings for his brother, a fact that was evident by how much he put up with on a daily basis. And he knew that Remus clearly felt the same way, though was wasn’t sure if he just hadn’t thought it the right time to confess or was just to damn stupid to even know himself. Either way, watching their wordless looks and the way his brother would “casually” scoot closer to the debate teacher as they all stared at the laptop made him more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. However, he just chalked it up to watching his friend and brother subtly flirting being gross to witness and left it at that. He didn’t need anymore boxes to unpack anyway.

Chapter Text

“We need to stop by my place before we head back to Dad’s,” Roman mentioned from the front seat as they pulled out of Janus’ garage. “I’ve got some things I need to grab.”

Remus smirked and briefly unclicked his seatbelt to lean forward next to his brother’s ear. “Are you sure you just can’t go longer than a couple days without swapping spit with your boy toy?” Roman twisted his arm to push his brother’s face back, grimacing from the warm breath on the side of his neck.

  “Hey! Seatbelts in my car!” Janus barked while keeping his grip on the steering wheel as his eyes juggled keeping attention on the road and shooting daggers at the man in the backseat through the rearview mirror. Roman did little more than roll his eyes at his idiot sibling, turning his phone over in his hand as he thought about if he should let Virgil know they would be stopping by soon. Scrolling to his recent messages, he couldn’t help his smile from the last exchange of “I love you”s in their previous conversation. The warmth that Virgil provided was a comfort Roman appreciated through the mess of the last few weeks. 

  “I guess the whole gang is here,” Roman muttered upon arrival, the two additional cars guaranteeing presence of the Roberts-Hastings family as well as a vehicle he didn’t recognize, which only meant one thing….

  “Where’s my favorite niblings?!” he called out the second he stepped through the door. The distant sound of a video game pausing fell on his ears, followed by the rumbling of two pairs of shoes thundering against the wood floors. 

  “Please never call us that again,” Vanessa requested jokingly, trying to stifle a laugh. 

  Nathan ran ahead to wrap Roman and Remus into a tight hug. “How are you two doing?” he asked softly, watching as the twins offered their best appearing insistence that they were alright. Nate’s tired eyes let them know, however unfortunate it was, that he related to their inner grief. He didn’t really even need to say anything to be understood by the trio of adults still crowding the front door.

  Janus leaned his cane against the wall next to the door and shoved his keys into his pocket. “Where’s the dream team?” he inquired casually.

  Vanessa smiled, gesturing for them to follow her down the hall towards the kitchen. The sound of idle chatter grew in volume until they rounded the corner into the room. Patton and Logan were sat at the kitchen island, enjoying what appeared to be a cup of tea while Vivian and Virgil putter about the room, stirring a pot on the stove or chopping vegetables. Roman’s heart felt slightly less heavy at the sight of his partner. After days of living stuck in the past and revisiting the things that almost hurt worse than his grief, seeing his future just as clearly was a great comfort to him.

  “Might you all have room for three more?” Roman asked with a grin. He watched his friends light up at their presence and Virgil’s face become more relaxed at the sight of Roman. He quickly crossed the room to bring him into a warm embrace. 

  Roman thought back to when they first started dating, when Virgil had an intense disdain for public displays of affection. The progress the two had made in the last year often overwhelmed him with pride. Tightening his grip around his boyfriend’s waist, he watched as him and his sister shared a brief look. It was almost as if they could have an entire conversation with their eyes without ever having to open their mouths. 

  “Perfect timing, actually. We were just discussing Vivian’s new business venture,” Logan replied. Roman internally sighed in relief, knowing his best friend was more than willing to keep the attention off of the twins for the time being. 

  Vivian set down her glass of wine and grinned. “I’ve got a month-long press junket for one of my client’s new book release,” she announced with pride. The others clapped in celebration despite already having heard the news. Roman cheered in joy and offered a hug, which she happily returned. “Thank you, I’m very excited about it. Well, except…” she trailed off, meeting her brother’s eyes again for another silent conversation.

  “Vanessa,” Virgil answered. “It’s an entire month, and Viv doesn’t want to stress her out by making her follow the same schedule as her and her client. On top of that, it’s overseas, and Nessa isn’t too fond of open water, especially in an airplane for several hours.”

  Taking a second to process the issue, Roman responded casually, “So we’ll have her stay here. I mean, if she’s okay with it. We’ve got the space for sure, and if any schedule problems happen I’m certain we won’t have any issue helping her keep up with her homeschool material.” 

    The Maloret siblings grinned at the drama teacher, only the oldest’s was full of gratitude while the younger’s alternatively almost made Roman melt from the love he could feel him portraying in something as simple as a smile.

  Sometimes, even after everything, seeing Virgil so at ease would make Roman’s stomach twist with giddy affection, but the sickeningly sharp pang of heartbreak would remind him of the years in between having and losing him. The years full of booze and tears and an insistence from Virgil’s father to leave things be before he put his son into what he called a “no win situation” for anyone. 

  As the conversation changed to details involving Vanessa and her stay, his mind wandered to his boyfriend’s parents. Without a single phone call since Virgil’s last visit, sometimes Roman wondered how long the silent treatment would last between him and his father. Mrs. Maloret called often, happy to catch up with her son as well as his newfound family. She’d sent them all personalized gifts for the holidays, including the Roberts-Hastings trio, and often extended an invitation to the group for theoretical family dinners if they’d ever find themselves in the New York area.

  Not a single real plan would ever fall onto anyone’s calendar, however, as empty invitations crumbled to dust at the roadblock of Mr. Maloret and his current disdain for anyone other than Vanessa and Vivian on special occasions.

  Maybe it was the recent loss, but Roman couldn’t effectively quell the secret rage he felt for that man any longer, despite the smile he forced onto his face.

~ + ~

  Nightstands were a sacred thing in the Prince-Maloret household.

  They had specific sides of the bed that was established as early as the start of their relationship that they’d almost immediately returned to at their mend, sure, but they had unspoken rules about the respective nightstands on either side. Their nightstand was their own, a place to put important documents, mail, or other personal items they preferred to keep with themselves for one reason or another.

  Which is where Roman found himself twenty minutes later. Rifling through his own stack of drawers in search of…something, for sure. Of course, he forgot what he was looking for at first, resulting in a small trance of thumbing through the piles of old mail and trinkets before getting back on track.

  “Ro? Can I come in?” came Virgil’s voice muffled by the door. With a noise of agreement, the secretary stepped into the room, closing the door again behind him and taking a seat next to Roman on the bed. “Looking for Narnia in there?” he joked quietly, earning a gentle chuckle in response.

  “Too many outfits for it to be in the back of our closet.” The silence that followed was palpable, and Roman shut the drawer opened after placing the documents he’d grabbed back into their place.”

  Virgil picked up the other’s hand in his own, keeping his eyes trained on the hold. “…Are you okay?”

  The question didn’t just sound like he was looking for a thinly veiled agreement that all was alright in the world. It was looking for the cracks to show, for Roman to drop the brave facade.
  
  “Mom had an affair.”

  “…Wow…I wasn’t expecting tha-“

  “With our second grade teacher.”

  Virgil’s face fell. “What-“

  “Who’s our biological father, apparently.”

  “Whoa whoa, let’s take this one step at a time.” Virgil squeezed Roman’s hand when the other began unintentionally gripping his own slightly too tight at the revelation. “Does your dad…?”

  Roman shook his head. “Not a clue. We found her letters from him in a box of some old receipts. They said something about tests results  and us being his kids. They were seeing each other behind our backs, Dad’s back, and acted like nothing was amiss.”

  Virgil took in the information with wide eyes. “Wow…I can’t imagine how difficult that is…”

  “I guess we both have parents who leave the important things hidden.” Roman said it before he really thought about it, instantly cringing at the slip until Virgil sighed.

  “This isn’t about me-“

  “That doesn’t matter. He’s so petty for not calling you, and believe it or not your happiness is very important to me,” he said as he watched Virgil’s frown travel up from his mouth to his eyes. “I know you miss him. I…I only got a fraction of the time I could’ve had with my mom, and…yeah, it’s been eating at me ever since I got the call that she was gone. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Virgil looked into Roman’s eyes, and pulled him into a gentle kiss. “I love you,” he whispered against his lips.

  “And I, you, my dear. Very much so,” he returned, moving up to press a kiss to Virgil’s temple. “Dad wants to have a movie night tonight. Home videos, junk food, the whole thing. You and all the other’s presence is requested in the Prince household.”

  “What about-“

  “I was thinking we can bribe the kids with pizza and whatever streaming service they choose. You know them, they’ll probably stay up trying to undeniably beat each other at Smash Bros.”

  Virgil couldn’t help the laugh that followed. “Watching them play any game together is entertainment in and of itself.”

  “Remy and Emile are also invited to movie night, but there will be alcohol present so please warn them beforehand.”

  “Always,” he replied with a soft smile, giving him one last kiss before standing and exited the room with a click of the handle moving back into place.

  Roman watched his boyfriend leave before yanking at the bottom drawer of the nightstand and sifting through even more papers until the quiet sound of a box falling out to his line of slight. He grabbed the box with one hand and opened it with the other, displaying a simple silver ring shining in its place.

  “Not yet,” he mumbled to himself. Placing the now closed box into his pocket, he slid the drawer into place again and left the bedroom to rejoin his family.

  Soon, he thought, but not yet.

Chapter Text

  The smell of burning popcorn yanked Roman out of his trance as he hurriedly stopped the microwave. He opened the door, pulling the slightly scorched bag from it and pouring the pieces into a bowl. He left the charred bits for his deranged brother, who had taken a liking to burnt popcorn since his childhood. 

  Roman carried the now full metal bowl over to the basement door. Careful not to spill any, he made his way down the steps to return to the lively conversation occurring among the group. 

  “I almost forgot how similar you two looked like as kids,” Patton mentioned with a chuckle, pointing at the television displaying a grainy tape recording of the younger versions of the Prince twins. Logan nodded in agreement from his spot next to his husband.

  “Speaking of kids-“ 

  “Lo, I’m sure they’re fine. We were the same age when we would be left to our own devices. Besides, Ness and Nate are smart. I trust them.”

  Logan sighed quietly. “I know you’re right, and of course I trust them as well…it just doesn’t do much to comfort me right now.” 

  Roman set the popcorn onto the coffee table and returned to his spot between his father and Virgil. David was quick to address the group once everyone got comfortable in their sears.

  “Look at us! Junk food, my boys,” he said excitedly, gesturing to the group composed of the Princes, Virgil, Janus, Patton, Logan, Remy and Emile, “our honorary girl,” he smiled in Vivian’s direction, who held up her glass of wine in a mock toast to him, “and our old reliable VCR!”

  “That thing has definitely seen better days,” Remus commented.

  David waved it off and hopped off the couch to glance around the stack of VHS tapes, choosing one near the bottom and carefully prevent a Jenga tower situation. Ejecting the old tape and replacing it with his selection, he returns to the sofa with a grin.

  After the initial static at the start of the film, the view of a stage came in to place, and Roman’s heart started to beat a little faster.

  A man in business casual attire stood in front of a podium, the hushed sound of kids talking just barely auditory over him speaking into the microphone.

  “And finally, the Bridgeview’s Teacher of the Year award goes to a faculty member who has shown brilliant leadership with our students.”

  “Oh my god,” Roman couldn’t help but say.

  “This year we are delight to acknowledge, our beloved first grade teacher from group three, Mrs. Sherri Prince!” 

  Sam Wallace looked just the way he did in the photo they’d found in the attic. Not nearly as older looking as he did during their Google investigations. Watching their mother thank him with a hug before accepting her award made both Prince twins’ stomachs flip in the worst way possible.

   “Little shaky on the camera work there,” Janus teased.

  David chuckled, “I was surround by eight year olds, they kept bumping me.”

  Sherri, on the screen, held on to her award and approached the podium, just barely tall enough to reach the mic without needing to adjust it too much. “You know, I hate to admit this,” she started, causing Roman to feel like he’d stopped breathing remembering her voice that way, “but when my husband asked me to marry him, I didn’t say yes…I mean, I didn’t say no either. But when I looked at him, down on his knee, all that I could get out was ‘Oh…probably’.” The audience chuckled.

  Roman was having a hard time concentrating on his mother’s speech. Sam was off to the side of the stage, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the truth, and the more he thought about it the more his head hurt.

  “The truth was I was scared to have kids after the heck of a time my parents had raising me. I didn’t think I was going to be a very good mother…but somehow, he convinced me. And I’m so very glad he did.”

  Remus picked up the remote from the coffee table, pausing it before hopping up from the couch. “Bathroom break!”

  “Aw, c’mon, popcorn’s gonna get cold!” David protested as his youngest son bolted for the steps.

  “Back in a spliff,” he responded, shutting the basement door behind him.

  Roman began to aimlessly scroll on his phone, before the curiosity hit him. “What made you pick this one, Dad?”

  “What do you care? You’re glued to your phone anyway.” His tone was dismissive but not angry, though it did do well in irritating Roman.

  “Fine, it’s off,” he mumbled in return, pocketing his phone.

  David looked upstairs after Remus then glanced over at Janus. “Hey, do you think all the Sherri talk upset him?”

  Janus shrugged, but shook his head. “I’m sure he’s just tired. It’s been a long week,” he offered.

  “Shit, I just realized, the popcorn seasonings! He probably thinks we forgot about them. I’m just gonna run up to the kitchen really quick, don’t go anywhere!”

  The room was eerily silent for a few moments, before everyone fell into casual conversation. Aside from Roman, who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the screen. 

  “You think I should go check on Remus?” Janus asked him after a while.

  “He’ll be fine,” Roman replied flatly.

  “Okay...will you?”

  “Sorry…it’s just…particularly, this was not a good day.”

  “Today, or this tape?”

  “They’re more similar than I’d like…I guess it’s just a little weird to watch her.” He took a breath and crossed his arms over his chest. “Am I at acceptance yet?”

  The sound of the door and creaking footsteps caused the two to look in Remus’ direction, who was holding a laptop with an expression that Roman was a little unnerved by. “Where’s Dad?”

  Janus was quick to respond. “He went to get the popcorn seasonings for you.”

  “Is that Dad’s laptop?” Roman asked.

  “The letters stop in two thousand three, so I checked her email-“

  “How’d you get the password?”

  “SDRR, Sherri, David, you, Remus,” Remus recited. “But listen…November seventh, two thousand three, to Sherri, forever…I know your move to Florida is a clear signal you want nothing to do with me, regardless of what little it does to change the fondness I have for you and the boys…but I will respect David’s wishes. This will be the last letter I write to you. If only we never had to write these damn letters at all.” He was almost seething by the time he finished, looking up to watch Roman’s face fall.

  “Dad knows?!”

  “He’s known the whole time!” Remus responded, incredulous. 

  The remainder of the group, half of which had no clue what was going on, looked on in horrified silence until the noise of the basement door opening knocked them out of their daze.

  “Crisis averted! Seasonings are here and- oh,” David stopped on the last step and looked at the laptop in Remus’ hands, Roman’s shared look of anger with his twin. “Did I miss something?”

Chapter Text

  The calm atmosphere of the basement almost immediately shifted everyone into a feeling of unease, watching Roman and Remus glare at David with what could only be described as confusion and pure rage.

  “Seriously, what’s going on?” he asked again, looking between both twins for an answer. Instead, Remus read the email he’d found out loud again. David turned pale as a ghost, nearly dropping the various seasonings in his hands while he stepped off the rest of the stairs and placed them on the coffee table. “Who told you about this?”

  “We found his letters for her in the attic,” Roman answered, voice tight. “They weren’t subtle with any of it at all.”

  David’s tense sigh did little to alleviate the brothers’ defensive stances, but before he could form the words to explain he cast a glance to the rest of the group in attendance silently watching it all unfold. “Upstairs,” was all he could manage before turning completely around and disappearing up the steps. Remus set the laptop down and followed his father and older brother up to the kitchen, closing the basement door behind him.

  “Okay, what the fuck is going on?” Remus all but shouted. Roman considered telling his brother to calm down, but his own anger could not be quelled enough to even attempt to do so. “You knew? You knew this whole time?”

  “…Yes. I knew your mother and Sam-“

  “He’s fuckin’ Sam now?!” Remus shrieked.

  “Let me speak!” David released another frustrated noise. “I knew they had something between them. But you need to understand, he and I were friends. Close friends. College roommates, even. Best man at our wedding…the three of us had such a history. Spring breaks and holidays, practically joined at the hip, like how you all were in high school. Your mother…” 

  He turned away, pulling a tissue from the box on the counter behind him to dry the tears that threatened to spill. “The both of us were having problems after we graduated. I got a job while she went to graduate school. Things were tight financially and I was rarely home. Sam had a few classes with her around the time, they started spending more time alone together. I didn’t even notice anything amiss. They saw each other off and on, Sherri would end things when she’d have more faith in working things out between us. We went to counseling not too long after she got pregnant with you two, and everything slowly got better. She told me all about her and Sam, and we got a paternity test.”

  “And that’s when you decided to keep your children in the dark for the rest of their lives?” Roman accused.

  “No! Your mother didn’t want you to know…because the first few years after you two were born, the two of us got distant again. She’d gotten her degree and was gearing towards working in a middle school, but Sam had other plans. He’d gotten a position at the elementary school in our area and she’d decided to join their staff. That’s when the pattern came back. They’d sneak around, we’d miss counseling appointments, and she’d go out of town for days or weeks at a time.”

  Roman went back in his mind to the days spent in the back of a car with his brother, getting home to a whisper of a greeting from their mother and an insistence for them to go play in their respective rooms. The hushed words said between his mother and the man in the hall. The chaste kiss they shared that he just barely noticed before scurrying up the rest of the stairs.

  “Sam wanted her to divorce me and tell you the truth. I know just how much she cared about him, but she’d always promise me that they were over, that she loved me and you two and our life. He’d always been sporadic in his decision making, and he had his own demons he refused to face. Sherri eventually chose me, chose us. That’s the tape I was trying to show you. That was the day she chose our family!”

  “By telling a sea of faculty members that she didn’t want to marry you or have kids?!”

  “Okay, Roman I think that’s enough,” Remus interrupted, keeping his eyes on his trembling father.

  The older sibling looked between his family with wide eyes and doubled down. “No! It’s not enough! We can’t keep acting like our childhood was totally normal! I can’t keep acting like you both didn’t check out on parenting me by the time I was in middle school! Like I didn’t have to go no contact for years and barely anything even changed from it!”

  “That’s not-“ David started.

  “I don’t care that it’s not the point! I’ve just been trying to make it through this so I can go home- my home! To a place where I feel included! Like I wasn’t just dismissed after the golden child nearly died and left you with the spare dramatic kid you couldn’t stand!” 

  Roman froze, the horror of knowing he said something he shouldn’t have flipping his stomach in an unpleasant way. However, he felt the grounding squeeze of someone holding his arm, and suddenly Virgil was at his side. He would’ve been incredibly grateful if he didn’t have tears falling down his face at rapid pace. 

  “We’re all gonna head home. Let me know if you need anything. Seriously, call me.”

  The rest of the room was silent, but the tension could be cut with a knife. Roman nodded and Virgil whispered, “I love you,” into his ear before disappearing around a corner.

  “You think that Mom and Dad just forgot you existed?” Remus asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “I spent my middle and high school years getting compared to Roman, the smart, confident charismatic thespian who everyone adores! Any time I showed interest in something weird all I heard was, “Roman wouldn’t keep a possum spine in his bedside table to defend himself from burglars”, “Roman wouldn’t hotbox his room”, “Roman wouldn’t have a job stuffing dead things”. I couldn’t fucking stand it! You’re the goddamn golden child!”

  David shook his head, “No, I love you both equally! You’re my boys. Trust me. Please. Sam would’ve broken your heart…he broke your mother’s so many times.”

  Remus paused for a moment only to wordlessly leave the room. David and Roman shared one last look before the latter followed suit. He trekked to his room, moving to the side of the hall as Remus strapped his guitar to his back and pocketed a small pipe on his way to the front door. Roman let him go, opting to return to his bedroom and mindlessly scroll social media. He couldn’t help but find the profile they’d found before, with the older man who looked so much more alive in the photo from the attic. Most of his profile was hidden to the general public, but Roman could see the resemblance between him, his brother and the man. 

  Anger surged through him again, the longing to throw something almost costing him his phone before attempting for what felt like centuries to calm down. Once he’d finally reached a normal level of rage for the situation, he skimmed his contacts before sending a text.

Hey I need a favor when you get home

Roman didn’t have to wait long at all to gain a response from Remy.

I’m not driving, it’s too dark what’s up? :p

I need you to get an address for me

:0 Crime????

Roman couldn’t help but laugh. He called Remy and pressed the phone to his ear.

  “Be gay do crimes?”

  Roman snorted at the greeting. “Be gay do crimes,” he confirmed. 

  The twins had been so worried about their dad- about David- and how he might react to the news about their mom betraying them. Knowing that he’d been in the loop as long as he did fueled the fire of hate in the both of them, which only served to stoke the flames between the two of them. They wanted to wait, have time for their crumbling family to stabilize before they acted.

  Roman was tired of the curveballs. Tired of waiting.

  “I need you to help me find someone named Samuel Wallace.”

Chapter Text

  The guitar strapped to his back bumped against him every few steps. The crunch of gravel under his feet was loud in his ears as he walked across the old parking lot to the small playground. Remus was glad that kids never went outside anymore as he poked the bowl of the pipe down and pulled a lighter out of his other pocket to take a quick hit. No thoughts of cops or passersby even worried him, hell he actively encouraged someone to intervene.
  
  Give him something to think of, something to do to get rid of the problems that barely fell away when he exhaled the trail of smoke. 

  The swing set was completely abandoned by the time he arrived. A mother walked with her child back to their car and Remus took a seat on a swing after twisting the chains over and over the support bar to make it higher for his tall ass to fit without hitting his legs on the ground repeatedly. He stared at the pipe for a long while, just barely swinging enough to occupy the idle part of his body.

  Goddamn, he thought, Why isn’t this shit working? I just got it…fuck.

  Pocketing the old pipe with a frustrated groan, Remus yanked his guitar from behind him and started to mindlessly pluck about the strings. He let his mind wander to everything bothering him as he channeled it to longer melodies. Soon, he just felt like crazy person banging on an instrument. He didn’t mind it too much, the chaos humming in his brain much like a microwave with a fork stuck in it.

  “I thought we went over this,” he heard a voice somewhat sarcastically call from behind him. Remus didn’t have to look though, only choosing to pause his strumming to listen to Janus approach and take a seat on the adjacent swing. “Busking in the park won’t get you anywhere in this town. Not enough people.”

  Remus barely offered a noise of acknowledgment towards the man, not even caring to ask how he'd had found him. He had some kind of Remus GPS that nobody understood. He often referred to it as his “Terrible Idea Detection".  He pulled the strap over his head and set the guitar gently on the ground out of the way of his swinging. “I used to swing the shit outta these when we'd come here after school. Remember when my mom thought I was gonna go too high and fall?”

  “Remember when you did?” Janus supplied with an easy chuckle. “You fell face first and ate mulch, then told Patton it was delicious so he’d eat it too.”

  “It worked.”

  The two laughed a little to themselves, gentle swing between the both of them. “…I know you have a lot of things to think about…with your mom and dad and all…”

  Remus’ smile fell, eyes diverting to the way he scraped his shoes against the mulch in his path. “I just want to know why they kept it all a secret for as long as they did…why they waited until Mom wasn’t around to give her side of the story. They can’t just keep things to themselves like that then mention it when it’s no long relevant.”

  “That’s actually exactly what parents do. At least, what divorced parents do, from my experience.”

  “I just want to know why they stayed together. After all that.”

  “They loved each other?” Janus provided, only earning an eye roll from Remus.

  “I guess not enough to not cheat,” he mumbled dejectedly.

  Janus kept his eyes on the park in front of him, looking about the worn down playground that desperately needed a remodel. He recalled so many fond memories from their childhood, from a time before they got older and everything got so complicated. “Hey…” he started quietly, unsure if he even got Remus’ attention until he finally looked in his direction. “I know things are sorta blowing up in your face right now, but…I really want you to know I’m here. For you- both of you,” he corrected quickly, still not maintaining eye contact with his friend.

  “Thanks, Jan.” Remus’ voice was tight in his response, but Janus didn’t have time to question it. The younger Prince sibling slowly reached out to take the other’s hand into his own. “I uh, I don’t know if this what you were…wanting, I guess…”

  Janus bristled at this, pulling his hand away. “I don’t want anything that isn’t reciprocated.” He stood from the swing almost immediately, grimacing in pain and reaching for his cane when his hip popped, sending a wave of pain down his leg. “Anyway, I came here to find you for a reason,” he snapped. He gave no room for Remus to speak, filling the dead space so he could avoid the inevitable turn down. “Roman got Sam’s info. Wants to take a drive to go find him.”

  “He wants to drive all the way to Ohio? Now?” Remus tilted his head in confusion.

  “I don’t think either of you want to be at your dad’s house right now anyway. Besides, the sooner we go the sooner you two can get your answers. Might help you both out.”

  “Unless we kill each other before we get there.”

  “No fighting in my car. That’s all I ask.”

```````

  The twins didn’t fight in the car.

  They fought at every gas station and every rest stop, even the motel they briefly checked into to get a bit of sleep before getting back on the road. The bickering would escalate to screaming matches only to quell it the second they returned to the vehicle. 

  By the time they made it to the Ohio state line, the two had fought until their throats hurt, arguing about everything from their family to petty things that didn’t matter, like the A/C or radio choices. 

  Entering Columbus, the trio felt the tension ease up just slightly. Though, the gentle rage that boiled between the brothers did little to alleviate their anxiety with each mile passing.

  “How did Remy get his address anyway?” Remus asked out of nowhere.

  “Don’t ask me, I’m sure he wouldn’t tell me if I asked.” Roman’s stomach flipped once they made it, a nice two-story house greeting them with no car in the driveway. The three were quick to exit the car, all of them extremely grateful to be out after over an entire day of unexpected travel. “Okay…how are we gonna do this?” 

  “I have an idea.” Remus didn’t wait to hear a request to hear his plan before skipping to the door and quickly tapping on it. 

  Roman walked alongside Janus to the door. “Does he think he’s gonna get welcomed with a hug?” 

  “Glad you think so highly of his thoughts. He’s either about to scream or punch. My money’s on the latter.”

  “You’re genuinely ambivalent to this, huh?”

  Janus shrugged, trailing up the steps of the porch. “I have to be his bail-out.”

  “Ever since high school.” Roman knew the statement was a low blow, but he couldn’t bring himself to care just then. Nothing mattered in that moment, just the silence that followed his brother’s knock.

  Until that is, the door opened, revealing a young girl behind it. Her hair was a bright ginger, tied into two low braids that hung over her shoulders and the rest hidden under a flipped cap. Freckles haphazardly dotted her face and arms, and she glanced between the three men with a confused expression that looked frighteningly similar to the Prince boys.

  “No solicitors, sorry,” she said, her tone final, ready to close the door before Roman stepped forward.

  “Wait! I'm sorry, we’re looking for someone named Sam Wallace, I guess we have the wrong address,” he replied. The disappointment was impossible to hide in his voice.

  The girl furrowed her brow. “That’s my dad.”

  The three stared at the girl, each one going pale at the declaration.

  He was real. He was here. 

  He had another kid.

Chapter Text

  Roman and Remus weren’t sure what part to feel terrible about. The fact that their biological father moved on from them, or the fact that he never even bothered to contact them, or that he just had another family to replace them altogether.

  “Is…he here?” Janus asked timidly, picking up the conversation for the brothers who were trying to process it all.

  “No, sorry. He’s out of town on a meeting right now. Won’t be back for a few more days.” She stepped out onto the porch with the three and shut the door behind her. “Can I ask what you need?”

  Roman cleared his throat. “Sorry, this is Remus and Janus, I’m Roman…our mother-“

  “They were friends in the past,” Remus interrupted for Roman, who looked at his brother with a look of What the hell are you doing? “She passed away recently. We thought we ought to deliver the news personally.”

  “…Shit.” She cringed and immediately shook her head. “Sorry- uh, for your loss. I get it. I mean my mom left so I guess not completely. Her and my dad were only really together for me so they split when I got to middle school. Damn, sorry I haven’t even- I’m Reagan.” She gave a halfhearted wave, revealing a grin that looked eerily similar to the twins. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Remus turned away and stepped off the porch just as Roman moved forward. “Has your dad ever mentioned anyone named David Prince?”

  Reagan thought about it for a second, only to reply with, “His old college buddy? Yeah, he’s brought him up a few times. Especially lately. I want to start a gap year in September but my dad is all like, “No, September is when your college career starts, you have to go! That’s what people do!” Ugh! Civilization, you know?” Her tone was mocking towards her father and Janus couldn’t contain a small chuckle. “I’ve actually thought about peacing out entirely. Going off the grid, seeing what that does. Go camping, abandon society, y’know the fun shit.”

  “Yeah, sounds like a good idea.” Roman looked over to his brother, who had walked away to take a seat on a stump out in the front yard, his back turned to the trio on the porch. With a sigh, he traveled down the steps and across the grass. Janus and Reagan followed, the latter pushing her hands into her back pockets.

  “Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine,” Janus confirmed, “He just doesn’t do too well with change.”

  Remus barely registered what was being said, only glancing over to look straight at his brother. 

  “What now?”

~*~

  The beginning of their journey home appeared to be calm.

  At first.

  After leaving a message with Reagan, and loading themselves back into the car, Janus set their destination back home and made it to the interstate.

  Magically, the fighting only started an hour in.

  “Why do you have to have your fucking seat pushed all the way the fuck back?! You’re not that tall, bitch!” Remus screeched from his spot in the backseat behind his brother.

  “I dunno, how ‘bout go fuck yourself?” Roman replied, tone flat. “I barely have it pushed back!”

  “When’s it my turn in front?!”

  “When I die and you’re the older brother.”

  “How ‘bout we fix that?” Remus unbuckled his seatbelt and surged forward, ignoring Janus shouting his demand for the man to put his seatbelt back on to attack his brother. Roman turned around to fight back just as Janus hit his brakes, changing lanes to approach an exit for a rest stop. 

  Once he pulled into a space and parked, Janus jumped out of his seat, yelping quietly in pain as his hip popped when he stood. “That’s it! I’m not taking you two anywhere until you work your shit out! So here’s what we’re gonna do.” He took a deep breath and reached into the trunk to grab his cane. “I’m going to go get some snacks at the vending machine and take my medicine. You two are gonna go sit in the grass. Yell, fight, talk, I don’t care! Figure it out!"

~*~

  The twins spent five minutes sitting in a patch of grass, looking anywhere but at each other.

  Talking through their issues was the one thing they were notoriously shit at. Growing up, they’d often ignore each other after an argument, only to never speak of it and move on as if nothing happened. The only exception had been after Virgil had left Roman, when he’d hit a low he was sure he’d never escape. They only talked about just enough to move forward. They’d carefully ignored the other problems, and that was fine.

  Until the two began to hate each other again, and they sat in a field in Ohio.

  “…I’m tired.” Remus said quietly after a while. Roman didn’t have time to question him. “I’m tired of being the failure kid.”

  “You’re not the failure kid,” Roman reassured.

  Remus rolled his eyes. “Of course I am. I dropped out of college, I hotboxed the basement more times than I could count, I stuff dead things for a living. I’m not successful or talented, I’ve never had a storybook romance…I’m too fucked up in the noggin’ for love.”

  “I’m sure there’s someone who would disagree on that part.” Roman noticed that now, for some reason, talking about his brother and Janus no longer came with that odd heavy weight he’d felt before. 

  “…I’m not good enough for him. I’m gonna fuck it up, then I’ll lose my best friend and I can’t do that shit, Ro. He’s always been there for me. I can’t be in a world where there’s a chance that’ll just disappear.”

  Roman looked at his brother and slowly lifted his hand to wipe the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I got so upset that Mom and Dad gave you more attention.”

  “Hey, cut it out with the apologies. You’re gonna make two crybabies.”

  “Re, shut up. You almost died and I acted like a total asshole because of my ego.”

  Remus just stared at Roman. Soon enough, his own tears began to fall. “I missed you. Mom and Dad missed you.”

  Roman choked up at the mention of their mother. “…Do you think we’ve been using this…the Sam thing…do you think we’ve been trying to make Mom the bad guy?”

  “…Shit, way to dice out the heavy hitter questions.”

  “I’m serious.” Roman rose to his feet. “Dad was so calm about it all. He’d known for ages. They were still together. Happily together. Did we focus so hard on this so we had an excuse to treat her like a villain?”

  Remus paused for a beat, jumping up from the ground and wiping the dirt on his jeans. “We need to go home.”

  Roman nodded. Walking into the rest stop’s building, the twins returned to see Janus pocketing his medication container as they began to choose their snacks. The older Prince twin took a once-over of the state maps covering the wall. He picked one up and inspected the weathered paper. He felt a light bulb go off in his head as he unlocked his phone and typed an address into his GPS.

  Quickly, he snapped back into the conversation between his brother and friend. “Can you drive me to the closest car rental? I’ve got somewhere I need to stop before I can go home.”

~*~

  The house looked like it had a fresh coat of paint put on it since the last time he’d seen it.

  However, after the hours and hours of driving he didn’t quite trust any of his senses as the obscene amount of caffeine overtook every fiber of his being. The ringing of the doorbell was grounding enough for him to take a deep breath and focus.

  When the door opened, the sight of the man with grey hair made his stomach turn in an unsettling way. 

  “Hello, Mr. Maloret. We should talk.”

Chapter Text

  The Maloret household felt like a moment stuck in time.

  Which moment that was, however, Roman couldn’t quite pinpoint. While the outside of the home had a fresh coat of paint on it, the inside was filled with shelves of old everything. Books, trinkets, framed photos of diplomas, degrees, and the Maloret children in varying ages were scattered about. The wallpaper reminded Roman of the stylings of the twentieth century, though it remained quite sturdy with no signs of peeling.

  Roman barely had time to take it all in before the sight of a small woman entered the room. “Oh my goodness, it’s so nice to see you sweetie!” She approached Roman with a bright smile, earning one in return from him as she pulled him into a hug. “Is Virgil with you?” she asked, eyes hopeful. He immediately felt bad for the shake of his head.

  “He’s not, I’m so sorry, Mrs. Maloret.”

  “Uh-uh, it’s either Helen or Mom. You two both need to visit together sometime. Oh! You two and the girls should come to Thanksgiving this year. Your family is more than welcome, too.” Her kind words combined with her smile was enough to soothe Roman’s anxieties. He politely turned down an offer of tea or coffee with a thanks before ultimately following Virgil’s father into the living area. It looked just the same as it did when he’d last been there to help his boyfriend pack his items. Even his father sat in the same place as he’d done in the past, with the same unamused glare that asked for explanation. Mr. Maloret was truly a man of few words, and from Roman’s experience, those few words could sting.

  The drama teacher remained standing, the higher ground giving him room to breathe. “I’m sure you weren’t expecting to see me anytime soon-“

  “No, I was waiting to hear from you. I just didn’t expect you to show up unannounced…again.”

  “I had a good reason.” Roman’s voice was tight. “We lost my mother recently,” he started, holding up a hand when the older man opened his mouth to offer apologies. “We found out some troubling things about her, when she was alive. My brother and I went through decades of secrets in a matter of days and I tried so hard to hate her for it. It made me realize how I felt about you.” He paused when he felt the rhythmic buzzing of an incoming phone call, but ignored it to maintain his train of thought. “Virgil’s spent a year trying to talk to you again, and all you’ve done is send him to voicemail. Vivian and Vanessa are being punished for a decision made by myself and your son. Hell, you told me years ago not to put Virgil into a “no win situation”, when that’s all you’ve done for the last dozen months!”

  “Hold on, that’s not-“

  “I’m not done,” Roman bit, the frozen expression from the other nearly making him pale at the sight. “I realized I don’t need your approval. I’ve been trying to think of something I could do to make you like me. To make you see that I’m a good enough person to be with your son. God, I love him so much, and you denying him because of me absolutely kills me to see. He’s my family.” He took a slow breath, making a point to look the man seated on the couch in the eye. “We’ve made such a beautiful life together already. And soon,” he paused, fumbling in his pockets before pulling out the small box. “We’ll have that, hopefully for the rest of our lives. And whether you’re there with us, or sat here alone wondering why your kids and grandkids have no relationship with you…that’s entirely up to you. But I won’t let Virgil continue to believe it’s his fault. That’s all I came to say.”

  If Roman wasn’t so terrified, he would’ve been impressed with the lack of reaction he’d gotten out of Mr. Maloret. He was so glad he’d had his chance to say his peace, and he barely stuck around long enough to exchange a few more pleasantries with Virgil’s mother and return to his vehicle. The adrenaline hit him like a bolt of lightning by the time he made it to the interstate, his grip on the wheel tightening as he rolled his window down and turned up the radio so loud he couldn’t form cohesive thoughts. He felt so liberated, knowing a year’s worth of pent up rage had finally been released.

  Returning home felt like a breeze now.

~*~

  Janus hated driving at night.

  While the interstate was much less busy as the time crept closer to the A.M., with only semi-trucks and the occasional amateur racer going double the speed limit that filled him with overwhelming panic every time they cut him off, the settled dread of a passing deer or a car without lights causing an accident was enough to keep his grip tight on the wheel.

  “Jan, it’s like eleven. We should get a motel,” Remus muttered tiredly, one side of his face squished up against the window in an attempt to get comfortable. “I should call Roman. Check if he’s alright.”

  “I think you should let him do his thing. He said he’d be back in a few days, anyway.” Janus kept his eyes glued to the road ahead. “We don’t have motel money. I’m a teacher with a teacher’s salary.”

  “…Alright, then I’ll drive,” Remus responded, as if it were the simplest answer.

  Janus, however, gave him a look of outright fear, and Remus sat up better in his seat. “Look, you’ve driven for way too long. You either let me drive, or we sleep in the car at a rest stop. Your call.” He paused, waiting for a reply that never came. “Jan, I’ll be careful. I promise, the second you feel unsafe, we can pull over. You can trust me.”

  In any other circumstance, Janus’ heart would be doing tiny somersaults at the declaration of care, but the downright fear overshadowed it enough for him to barely register much more than the urge to pull over and hand him the keys.

  After much internal convincing, he popped on his hazards and pulled over to the side, making enough space to allow him and Remus to switch spots.

  Doors closed, seatbelts clicked, and Remus swiftly moved forward to look at his friend, the wide-eyes staring back at him in wonder as the two slowly raised their lips together. 

  Soon- or way later, neither could tell really- they both pulled away, but not far enough from each other to speak louder than a whisper.

   “I do trust you,” Janus assured. The giddiness filled up in him the second he saw Remus smile like he’d won a prize.

  And for the first time in far too long, Janus felt comfortable enough to fall asleep with someone else behind the wheel.

Chapter Text

  It was evening when Roman finally made it home days later.

  The only cars in the driveway were his own and his parents’, which let him know that Janus had either gone home alone or with Remus in tow. He silently hoped his brother was  here. Despite all that had transpired in the last few days, he’s still rather not have to speak to his father by himself.

  The front door was unlocked, thankfully so, and Roman quietly slipped in and gently shut it behind him. The house was quiet, aside from the muffled sound of someone speaking in the living room. After kicking off his shoes, he followed the noise to its source, only to find David and Remus sitting on opposing sides of the room, watching the television with laser focus.

  “…But somehow, he convinced me. And I’m so very glad he did.” Roman watched his mother clear her throat, the wavering smile and her trembling figure holding her award up at the podium. Only now was he reminded of her prominent stage fright. He felt guilty for overlooking it before.

  “If I didn’t have my boys, I would never have known the joy of watching them grow and learn the world around them. I may never have made it as a teacher, if I didn’t learn the important things my kids taught me. I live everyday with pride in my heart at everything they do.” 

  The trio in the living room all silently wiped their own tears. The way Sherri smiled in the direction of the camera David was operating, holding up her award almost like a toast. “This is for my boys!”

  The grainy sound of applause faded until the blue screen replaced it. Nobody dared move or speak for what felt like an eternity. 

  Until David leaned towards the coffee table, picking up a scrapbook and opening the front page. “After that tape, we took you two out for dinner and talked after we put you to bed. Sherri didn’t want to be with Sam anymore, but she told me living so close to him, working so close to him made it impossible. So, I decided to be the bad guy. Even though it was her mess, I wanted to protect her. We moved, got new numbers, did everything we could. You have to understand, we had decades to talk about it. We worked through it. Your mother…she just didn’t want you to look at her differently.”

  Roman took this moment to step fully into the room, though the other two barely even acknowledged it as a surprise that he’d returned. “We didn’t find Sam. He was out for something,” he supplied, unsure of what else to say.

  “I got him up to speed,” Remus responded. He followed his brother over to the couch, each brother sitting on either side of their dad on the couch. 

  David flipped a couple of pages in the book, before coming to a photo of the family during their roadtrip when the twins were in their teens. “I miss taking pictures like this. All of us getting into a pose that your mom picked out while you two bicker the whole time leading up to it.” He smiled softly at the next page, the photos of their random stops littering the space. “I know you both don’t like this so much…but every picture in this is evidence of us…and I guess I just miss that, a lot.”

  The boys were quiet for a second, before Remus nudged David’s arm. “I remember when I was a kid and got put in time out for not listening. I wrote her a note that said ‘I hate you’ but instead of getting mad, she laughed at me because I spelled ‘hate’ without an ‘e’.”

  Roman chuckled. “I hat you?”

  “Yeah,” Remus replied with a similar laugh.

The next page of pictures were of the boys’ fourteenth birthday. A group photo, consisting of the twins, Janus, Logan, and Patton all mushed together for a caught moment of smiles, and suddenly Roman wasn’t so against the reminders of his past. “I miss when we’d pretend to fall asleep in the car, and Mom and Dad would carry us in the house. She’d kiss my cheek goodnight and whisper that she loved me.”

  “How ‘bout her on half a glass of wine?”

  “Out cold before late night news.”

  “I miss afternoons at the park.”

  “I miss smoking pot,” Roman blurted, watching his twin’s eyes light up.

  “You do?”

  “I do, actually.”

  “Dude, let’s go,” Remus answered, gesturing to the basement.

  Roman shook his head. “I didn’t mean like right now-“

  “Ah, ah, I don’t wanna hear this,” David warned, half-joking.

  Remus shrugged and leaned back into the couch. “Fair enough.”

  The three were quiet for a moment, turning the pages of the scrapbook until they came across the boys’ graduation photo. The last time they’d all be together for quite some time. None of them knew what was coming, the years of isolation and separation with no explanation, the certain secretary that would change their lives…the years of hell that would begin their chance to know each other again.

  These were followed by many pictures of David and Sherri Prince with their sons and their friends, all showing proud parents hugging their children.

  “I miss Mom,” Roman said quietly.

  “…I miss Mom,” Remus agreed, tone just as soft.

  David flipped to the last page, another family photo.

  The last family photo.

  “I miss…us. I can see her in your faces. In how you laugh.” David sighed, brushing off the tears that accidentally fell onto the pages. “I miss your mom more than anything.”

  The brothers both scooted a little closer to their dad. “…What do we do now?” Remus asked weakly.

  He was met with unfortunate silence. Roman just let the question rattle in his head for a while.

  “We move forward, I guess.”

  The three Prince boys stayed frozen in place, as the combined dam of their emotions finally broke. The tears rushed faster than they ever did before, but none of them attempted to quell them. The grief for the wife, the mother they lost, felt like a tidal wave  that finally caught up to them.

  The exhaustion that followed the sobbing felt like a warm welcome, and for the first time since that phone call from the hospital regarding the news of his mother, Roman slipped into a peaceful sleep.

  We move forward, I guess.
  
  One step at a time.

Chapter Text