The Fallen Royalty

Chapter 4

Remy's intentions were futile.  He could have touched Roman sensually in anyway and still would have gotten the same rise out of them both.

But nothing had truly prepared him for seeing the sight before him. Both of them. The looks were audible as waves of slight relief and sadness flooded the hall.

True, they’d both lost someone so important, but they’d also lost each other. This is one of those examples of when time stops. Not from murder or the ability to take someones life away, but it truly knocked the wind out of the three.

Patton hated to go back to that moment, but soon found in a necessary thing to do in order to heal.

The calm before a bigger storm essentially. Nothing got better before once being worst.

He just had to bare through what is now, or die trying.

The hurt; the wrenching pain as he’d ran from the room, tears fogging his glasses; tears loud and vicious. Time stopped. Without warning. Patton ran, Roman froze, and Remy smiled.

Technically, no one would expect anything less. The party they were to attend stopped. The world only heard sounds of crying for long moments that felt like years it seems.

Love is a word that's thrown around.

Used in loose terms that hold no meaning. Patton had meant the love, intentionally falling in love, knowing, Roman felt the same back. Apparently that had been infatuation.

Infatuation is the gateway drug to a cruel world; a very harsh reality. Patton braved the storm. Avoiding when he could, but now he had to man up. Rise up to a better man than before; not let Roman have an inkling on his feelings.

He would not play this weak. He couldn’t.

Looking to him-while it hit him with an array of emotions- made him furious most of all. The audacity Roman had to give him that smile.

The one that would always swoon him back, hold him captive, as if he’d actually cared.

Roman had a daring smile to his lips, a trying one with an open invitation written into it. But that apparently hadn’t been how Patton took the look. Patton broke away from his servants, rushing to him. What took the older prince by surprise was when Patton took his hand, taking him back into the room he’d just came from.

“Don’t talk,” he set him down on the edge of the bed, not making eye contact as he began to pace every 10 or so feet, turn and do it again. “I do-” Roman tried before a pillow was thrown hastily at his face.

Patton looked as he felt; upset, “it’s my turn to talk, not yours, you had that chance.”

Roman flinched at the way he looked. Pale, unruly and unkempt hair hanging in curls, his glasses lopsided.

Nothing like the man he once genuinely loved. “Honestly I have questions…” Patton started, stopping towards the left of him, gazing to the bed next to him, “why? Why him, if you can’t give me a straight answer to the first question?”

Roman visibly slinked back at his tone of voice, terribly sad, you could say, guilty.

“I know you don’t really want a little excuse like this, but it’s the truth. I was seduced. He used something to trick me into thinking that he was you. It was you that I saw when I kissed him Patton. I didn’t realize until I heard him laughing and saw you crying. I was vulnerable. I let myself be vulnerable,” Roman got out, with the occasional glare from Patton, making him recoil.

“Well we both were in all technicality. Virgil and Logan left us vulnerable. But I don’t love you. You still did kiss him, whether you were in your right mind or not.” Tears hit Patton’s eyes, but he held them back, scared as to what guards he would let down if he did.

Roman looked away, scanning the room without consciousness, hoping to find anything at all. Anything he could use to convince his old love of true innocence. Nothing struck him with remembrance, for he should have been smart enough to know that Patton would have taken every part of him, and threw it all away.

Patton breathed heavily, chest moving up and down, as if he had to actually think about it to actually do it.

“Patton, I’m sorry.” He looked down to his hands, giving up, knowing there was more to the apology than the eyes could meet.

“Hi sorry I’m dad,” he couldn’t help but dad joke his way right now, whether it be because of the tears still in his eyes or the overwhelming emotions he needed to get out in some way. And for the first time in, it seems like forever, Roman gave a small smile, and Patton had to look away.

He could not fall for that again.

Sure, Remy was a known trickster, but why Roman and him? Why tear them apart? Did he want to be king, a prince, even a high place in the royal court? He would never truly know why.

“Where is he?” Patton shrugged, finding it the best way to carry the conversation. “Right now, or to me?” Roman asked, leaning back on his hands, one of them moving with the soft material.

“I guess you could answer both.”

“First, no, I don’t know where exactly he is right now, and two, I haven’t even talked to him since… you know.”

He tapped a foot nervously on the ground.

“Stop tapping Roman, it hurts my head.”

“Okay.”

“Now please elaborate on the, you know what? What’d you do, what happened after I left? And be honest Roman because I can read you like a book, I’ll be able to tell if you’re steering me wrong for the benefit of my health.”

“I broke out of whatever he’d casted over me. The spell or poison of sorts, I’m not sure, but it was a sobering experience if I’d ever had one. He left moments after, like he’d wanted you to know all along. It seemed like him being you to me was not about him liking me, it was about him taking us apart, and he succeeded. It worked just like he’d planned. I haven’t seen him since.” Patton seemed to ponder over the response, debating to take his word or fall back into his repressed mindspace.