Cinders: An Intrulogical Story

Chapter 21

The kitchen door swung open, a very pissed off Roman and Patton entered as a bored Virgil slowly trailed behind.
Logan got up and bowed as they entered the room "Welcome home Sir, how was the ball?" Roman forced a smile "It was fine.".
Logan smiled back, knowing how much his entrance must of agitated him.
"You're filthy." Patton said, his face twisted in the most disgusted expression ever.
"Oh well, I thought that I should make myself useful while you were at the party, I've been working really hard all night." "Okay Jesus, nobody asked to hear your life story, just make us some dinner, I'm starving." Patton replied, showing little appreciation for Logan.

Virgil decided to interject "You could of just eaten at the ball, they had tons of food." "Don't be ridiculous Virgil, I couldn't pig out in front of the prince, no wonder he didn't even dance with you.".
Virgil became highly agitated, he was not in the mood for Patton's stupid insult games "First of all, I didn't want to dance with him, second, neither did you." "Well of course I didn't! Nobody got to when that stupid prince walked through the door!" They argued and argued until Roman finally told them to shut up.
Logan snickered a bit "Wow, another prince, I bet he was lovely." He grinned mischievously.

"Hardly, he arrived late and then rudely pushed through everyone to leave, I didn't get a good look at him but I bet he wasn't much to look at.
Any prince can catch a bunch of stares, it's like wealth, i practically comes with the title." Roman sat down at the table that was in the kitchen which was a weird thing to see, usually he'd act like you just threw acid on him if he was even asked to sit on sofa that was over priced and made by some foreign guy nobody has ever heard of, so it was weird to see him just sitting at the dirty little table Logan was forced to eat his table scraps at.
Logan smiled a bit, feeling a sick sense of joy from seeing Roman so jealous over all the attention he got, Roman noticed this and was somewhat suspicious.

"Tell me Cinder, what did you do all night?" Logan panicked until he realized the simplest answer was probably the correct one "Do you honestly care?".
Roman pursed his lips and thought for a second "You're right, I honestly don't." completely removing any sense of suspicion he had about Logan.
"It's really sad you couldn't go to the ball." Patton mocked, of course, he couldn't get what he wanted so now he was gonna take it all out on Logan, whatever, it was entirely par for the course.
"Actually" Virgil interrupted Patton "I know you're trying to make fun of him, but I actually wish he could of went with us, he would of made the whole night a lot more interesting.".

"Oh please! All he does is stand there and clean, I doubt he could of had anything useful to say, why would we invite him?!" "I don't know, you're useless and we still brought you.".
"That's enough out of you two! Go to your rooms! It's late!" Roman snapped, the two quickly shuffled out of there and Picani soon followed, he didn't wanna spend another minute in there.
Roman relaxed in his chair and face palmed, clearly tired from what happened that night.
Logan stared at him "Do you... need something?" He asked, prompting a groan from Roman.
"You don't realize how lucky you are." said Roman, Logan scoffed in disbelief "Yeah I'm so lucky.".

"Don't scoff at your superiors, I'm serious, being as totally unlovable as you means you'll never get married so you'll never end up being pressured into having kids you don't want or having kids and regretting it later— or even worse, marrying a man and getting stuck with a kid that isn't even yours.".
Logan stayed quiet, trying not to laugh, you'd think after so long of learning to contain his emotions he'd be better at stifling his laughter.
He just got back from an intensely romantic night with a prince and Roman wanted to talk about him being unlovable? This night was just getting weirder and weirder.
"I do everything for my kids and they are still complete failures! Patton is supposed to be the good one but even he's incompetent and let's me down! Then there's Virgil who I constantly have to try and slim down because of that stupid stress eating bullshit that I don't even think is real— it's awful.
Why are my kids so terrible! When I was a teenager my dad treated me much worse and i was still grateful and respectful to him because he knew what he was talking about! Why does no one ever just sit and obey!" this was one of the rare occasions when Logan was happy to not be considered part of the family, he dreaded to think about what kinda rant Roman would of went on about him, whatever he said though he'd probably heard before in a million other rants about him.

All of a sudden, Logan remembered a burning question he had always been too scared to ask, it probably wasn't a smart thing to ask but he was still curious never the less.
"Sir, can I ask you a question?" "Fine but make it quick." Logan tensed up "Did you... love my father?".
Roman paused, he looked down at the table as if he was recalling something, his face was one of contemplation with a twinge of hurt, not hurt by what Logan said, but the memories that Logan had inadvertently brought up.
"Your father was... a stranger to me, we were married for such a short time I never really got to know him, he was nice to me though...".
Dead silence filled the room, this was a really odd sight to see, sentimental Roman was a rarity, he was always either overly pompous or down right evil so to see him actually upset about something with out screaming was a sight to behold.

"You know Cinders, I know you might think I only knew one of your parents but I did meet both of them, it was a long time ago." Logan started to listen intently, Roman noticed his sudden interest in their conversation and sighed.
"He was interesting, reminds me a lot of you... such... bizzare features." "...thanks..." mumbled Logan.
Logan stared down at the table sadly, he muttered "I wish I could remember what he looked like... I think his death was so traumatic for me I blocked a lot of things about him out...".
"That's unfortunate... you look a lot like him." "I do?" "Yes, you have the same ugly broad farmer shoulders on you, no wonder you're built for manual labor.".
Logan tried his best to ignore the petty insult and focus on the nice comment, hell, it was probably the nicest comment he'd ever received from his step dad, although that wasn't saying much.
"I just miss my parents a lot." "Well, we can never feel too sorry for ourselves, no matter what happens just remember things can always be worse." Roman continued to contemplate, Logan thought he should savor the moment a little, lord knows he probably wouldn't get to see a thoughtful and quiet Roman again for a while.

"Loss takes it's toll but that's no excuse to stop your life, I've lost many things in my life, and you know what? I'm better off for it! Having nothing build character." Logan nodded, he didn't agree with his step fathers words but didn't feel like fighting.
"I'm done talking to you now, you're dismissed." he swatted the air to gesture for Logan to leave, Logan bowed and left the room, reflecting on what the heck just happened.
He just got to see a whole new side to his step father, remorseful and sad, it's not everyday your abuser just lets their guard down like that.

Remorseful or not, he was still an evil abuser and Logan didn't care how sad or shaken up Roman was about his dads death, he was an awful person who didn't deserve Logan's sympathy.
In fact, Logan wondered if that was just some sort of weird guilt trip or mind game just to get attention, this was roman he was talking about, he had done some far, far worse things for attention.
Picani snuck in through a window and grabbed logan from behind, checking around to see if anyone was listening.
"Soooooo? Are you gonna tell me about your little daaaate?" Cooed Picani.
Logan smiled and started yammering all night long about all the sweet little moments between him and Remus, so much so that the two of them hardly got any sleep at all that night.