Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Chapter 16

Roman spent the next thirty minutes or so gathering materials together for Remus to magically bond together to make a big parachute for them both. He was rather excited for this to happen; he had never been allowed to skydive before.

In less than an hour, the parachute was complete and everyone but him and Remus were preoccupied. He and the shapeshifter shared a grin and started to climb.

They got about halfway up before any of the other adults noticed what they were doing and came running. He got the main gist of what they were saying as he and Remus were being scolded on boring, safe, solid ground. It was stuff like 'what were you thinking?' and (to Remus specifically) 'I thought you were an adult, why are you encouraging the kid to do dangerous stuff?'

Roman didn't like that Janus said that. He was barely even a kid anymore, he was fifteen! He'd be sixteen by the next spring! He crossed his arms and looked away. He was sent back to his circle and Remus was sent out to hunt with Logan.

He went back into his house and pointedly refused to so much as look at the giants, all of which had agreed with Janus not letting him have fun. He was called out for food and he just turned his face further away from them

"Roman, come on, you need to eat!" Someone (it sounded like Virgil) called back in response

"No. I'm mad at you" He answered, looking back at them with a small glare. They looked back at him

"What, for not letting you fall to your death?" They scoffed. Roman stayed silent and unmoving. The adults sighed.

Janus relented "Fine, if you come out to eat, we'll let you do your 'skydiving' as long as you have proper --------- and safety --------- in place. Happy?"

Roman nodded and came back outside to eat. The food was rather bland, but he was used to it at that point. He did wish he at least had some bread with it though

The adults were watching him; they were definitely trying to be subtle with it, but he had grown up avoiding paparazzi, he could feel eyes on him from a mile away. He didn't mind too much, the adults were worried about him, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was the last of his kind, or because he was a child in their eyes.

Maybe both.

He wasn't allowed to be alone with Remus for a week after that, due to them both wanting to do dangerous things that the adults didn't want Roman doing. He still hung out with Remus but only with supervision and stuff. It was downright annoying

His period of being semi-grounded ended soon enough, and there was soon a night in which he couldn't sleep. He sat outside the house and stared up at the stars like when he first arrived. He had started getting used to these new stars

Remus slinked down to talk to him. Roman wouldn't admit it, but he still found Remus kinda unsettling. He figured it was just the way he stayed in a vaguely humanoid form of black slime with too many eyes, too sharp teeth, wrong proportions and large tentacles. Uncanny Valley and such.

"Hey Roman. Can't sleep?" Roman nodded and Remus grinned

"Well, do you wanna do something then? I had an idea earlier that I think would be fun"

Roman paused. Would that be wise? He couldn't see why not...

"Sure, what's your idea?"

"Well, you can't get out of the nest, right? Not without one of us, anyway-" He gestured to himself and to the sleeping giants "-and I just realised! I'm one of us! Do you think you'd wanna go anywhere?"

"I think I know where I want to go, but I'm not sure where exactly it is from here..." He explained his plan to the shifter, who used some magic to try figure out where they needed to go and so they went.