Pieces of Us: Living in Parallel

Chapter 9 - Roman: Pinky Promise

Summary: Roman has been keeping his magic a secret for far too long - he's used to at least having his brother to give energy to and heal. Now he has the chance to reveal everything he is of course going to take it. He didn't expect Patton to have a secret too.

After Turning Red finished the group went to their separate areas, Patton going into his new bedroom to unpack the three bright blue suitcases he brought. Roman stayed in the living room cleaning up... And contemplating.

It was super annoying keeping his magic a secret, he always had his twin to joke about his power with, but now he couldn't utter the words without worrying about someone overhearing him. So, the question Patton asked during the movie night stayed in Roman's mind. He would totally reveal his magic to Patton. He would reveal it right now in fact.

After Roman tried his hands from washing the dishes he marched to Patton's bedroom, the room right next to his. He knocked and poked his head through, admiring the Disney playlist playing lowly and marvelling at the plushie collection slowly building on the baby blue bed covers. "How's everything going in here?"

Patton gave a soft smile as he organised his textbooks, titled in a dozen languages. Spanish, Polish, French, Tagalog, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Russian and Urdu. It really was magic how many languages the twenty-three-year-old was proficient in. "Do you really understand all these languages?"

"I'm much better at speaking and listening than reading and writing, but yeah. It's my favourite hobby!" As Roman listened to the hum of background room he realised that although he knew the tune of the Disney songs playing – they were speaking gibberish to his ear. That must be the type of passive learning that got Patton to where he was. "Do you know where the nearest spice market is by the way? I can't handle making a curry with the Walmart spices, the extra price is worth the taste, I should cook some for you guys!"

Without asking Roman helped Patton with his current task, tackling the exploded suitcase on the floor by putting clothes into the wardrobe. "I think there's one in central? I'll totally go with you, exploring things is my favourite hobby." The pattern of grabbing clothes, grabbing a hanger, and hanging things up was monotonous but getting completed quicker with the extra help, the sound of the gibberish changing with every new song.

As Patton was humming and singing the lyrics, he kept on checking on his pinkie. The tell-tale sign of a small injury. A perfect time for Roman's magic power to strike. "Is your finger OK?"

"Oh, yeah, I think cut my finger on the zipper opening the suitcase." Patton giggled and smiled again, the suitcase now almost empty. But before the next suitcase could be opened Roman walked over, grabbed Patton's hand and looked him in the eyes. This would be the first time confessing about his magic without a jokey tone with someone outside his family.

"You know your question, 'if anyone had magic, would we reveal it to each other?'" Roman spoke lowly, almost in a whisper. Patton was silent, just giving a tilt of the head to show he was following along, as if he was decoding an entirely new language. "I would reveal it. I can't live without at least one of my roommates knowing."

Roman covered the pinkie with his palm, holding onto it tight for under a minute. More serious injuries took longer to heal but a small cut was easier. He knew the methods of healing like the back of his hand. When he let go, Patton's eyebrows furrowed and he inspected the injury site again, before looking up at Roman. "Believe it's a coincidence if you want to. I mean, it took me an entire year to believe it wasn't all coincidental myself. But it's magic."

"When did you get your power?" OK, Patton took this more seriously than Roman thought he would. He expected a laugh and then they'd continue unpacking and talking about the spice market. Roman definitely wasn't complaining though.

"Eighth grade. My brother was almost hit by a car." Patton sat, clutching his pinkie for a little before patting beside him. "It's not genetic though – my twin is literally identical to me apart from the magic stuff. He's the only one that actually believes I have magic." Patton's eyes had wondered to a picture on his desk, of him with a Mexican man around the same age, both men in the picture smiling widely and pulling funny faces.

"I got my power in third grade meeting my best friend Nico." This interaction was getting more surprising by the second, Roman even had to double take as Patton laughed. Was he thinking this was metaphorical still? "I can't believe I'm not the only magic person in the universe! We're going to be best friends, do you know any other magic people?"

Patton wasn't just super smart when it came to languages. He was smart, that's what got him into grad school, but he was magic too? Roman was in shock at this revelation. "You... actually have the magic power of communication?"

"Mhm! I can understand and speak all languages, apart from sign language and when languages are written. I'm working on those. And I can understand animals too – I can't speak to them though. Can you just heal everything or do you have weird limits like I do?" Patton jumped up to his desk, bringing out an old fluffy pink notebook decorated in unicorns. "I record everything in this book, keeping track of every language that comes out my mouth. I only hear English you see, but the other person hears whatever language they speak."

The book was dated years in the past, where Patton's handwriting was just misspelled scribbles, to modern day where just last week Patton could speak a Native American language by helping an old man cross the street. "I haven't been this organised with my magic to be honest. I found out a couple of years ago I could also bring energy to people if they're tired – are your arms aching from carrying the suitcases by the way?" Patton had sat down again and at the question he brought his arms out, an excited smile all over his face. Roman stroked his forearms gently and Patton's expression lit up more, gasping in amazement.

"That's awesome! I'm so glad I'm not the only one, oh my God!" Patton pretty much jumped on Roman in a hug. The weight would probably cause bruises but Roman could heal that easily. "Do you know what caused it? Maybe we're secretly related!"

"I'm pretty sure my parents would keep track of that, they were breeding like rabbits with the six of us." It was a fun thought, but it was unlikely he and Patton were related. All of Roman's siblings looked like Weasley children, with bright ginger hair and green-hazel eyes, while Patton had blond hair, large glasses, and baby blue eyes. He looked down at the scribbles in the book again. One thought kept coming up in Patton's scribbles – what caused him to have this magic power? "Let's find out what caused our magic though. That could be fun."