Plagiarism

Ch. 17

TW: Brief suicide attempt mention.

Roman stared at himself in his bathroom mirror.

He wondered if he was making the right decision. If letting Remus conduct his investigation was a good idea or not.

He scowled. Of course it wasn't. What would Remus think when he discovered the truth? That he was being a crybaby? A drama queen?

"Fuck." Roman spat, clenching his fists. He took a deep breath before exiting the bathroom.

His eyes widened when suddenly someone had grabbed him from behind and slapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't scream." The person hissed.

So Roman didn't scream.

He kicked and tried to bite at the person's hand. He stepped on their foot, causing them to curse and lighten their grip on Roman. Roman shoved the person away, causing them to fall to the floor.

Roman summoned his samurai sword and pointed it at the person. He faltered when he saw who it was. "Remy?"

"What?" He snapped, massaging his foot.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Roman yelled, making his sword disappear. "What were you thinking?! 'Don't scream' what the fuck?!"

"Shut up for a sec, babes. I think you broke my foot, jesus." Remy glared at Roman through his sunglasses. "That is no way to greet your best friend."

"What and 'don't scream' is?!" Roman exclaimed. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. "What are you doing here?"

"I noticed a lack of dreams and came to check on you. I was going to explain why I came into your room without permission before you fucking unleashed hell on my foot." Remy spat. "Like seriously, not cool."

"I thought you came here to kidnap me or something!" Roman defended. Remy opened his mouth to retort, before closing it.

"That makes sense, actually." Remy nodded. "So, are you okay?"

"What?"

"The reason I came here was to check on you, so are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Ugh, hun, I don't need to be Deceit to know you're lying." Remy stood up, frowning. Roman rolled his eyes. "Spill." Remy walked over to Roman's bed and sat on it.

Roman contemplated telling Remy about what he and Remus had been up to. "Y'know how...Remus has been missing for the past few days?" He began, making up his mind.

Remy's eyes widened. "What?!"

"Oh, guess you didn't know."

"Remus is missing?! Fuck, I noticed a lack of nightmares as well but I didn't--Fuck!" Remy ran a hand through his hair. "Do we have any idea where he is?!"

"No." Roman said.

"Whoa."

"What?"

"No--I've just never seen you so serious before, babes." Remy shrugged. "It was kinda hot. But also kinda suspicious."

"Suspicious?" Roman rose a brow.

"You see, Ro, I think you know more than you're letting on." Remy narrowed his eyes.

Roman huffed. Remy could read him like a book, as always. If he thought Roman was going to give up so easily though, he'd be wrong.

"It's a serious matter, can you blame me?" Roman crossed his arms.

"Still, even with serious matters I've never seen you like this. Like when Virgil ducked out."

"Virgil isn't my brother." Roman scowled.

"Yeah, but Virgil is, like, the love of your life." Remy smirked when Roman flushed.

"Why does this even matter to you?" Roman asked defensively.

"The two of you are my best friends. You're like my little brothers." Remy mumbled, looking away in embarrassment. "And it just sucks to think that while I was off partying Remus has been--" He took a shaky breath, furrowing his brow. "I suck as a big brother, apparently."

Roman pursed his lips, feeling guilty now. He was causing so many people pain because he couldn't handle his own. He was being such a coward.

"You really don't know where he is?" Remy asked, resuming his nonchalant persona.

Roman didn't answer, not having the heart to anymore. Remy scoffed.

"You're really not going to tell me, huh?" Remy asked. "Fine, babe, I guess I'll just find him mys--"

"I THINK LOGAN AND PATTON FUCKED!" Another Roman screamed as he came barreling through the door. He shut the door behind him, before freezing when he spotted the other person in the room.

Remy stared at Roman's clone, who stared back.

"Um," Roman mumbled awkwardly, glaring daggers at Remus.

"Remus," Remy said.

"No, I'm Roman!" Remus stammered.

"No, that's Roman," Remy said, pointing at Roman. "You're Remus."

"No...I'm Remus." Roman said. Remy stared at him for a bit, before bursting into laughter.

"You guys are terrible!" He exclaimed, doubling over. "And you call yourselves actors?!" He fell back on the bed, clutching his stomach in laughter.

Remus and Roman watched him in silence, exchanging glances.

"Breathe, Remy." Roman said, furrowing his brow.

Remy took a huge, gulping breath, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "What the actual hell are you two up to?" He asked, still smiling at the hilarity of the situation.

Remus glanced at Roman, who nodded. Remus explained the situation with as few words as possible. He explained how he had felt Roman's sadness through their empathy link.

"Aw, this reminds of when you two were kids! Before Patton..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

Suddenly Roman flickered. Roman cursed grabbing at the area over his heart. He fell to his knees, trembling violently.

Remy raced foward, eyes wide. "Roman!" He exclaimed. "What is this?!" He demanded, whipping his head towards Remus.

Remus ignored Remy, kneeling in front of Roman. "Hey, breathe." He said gently. "Match my breathing, okay?" Remus took slow, relaxed breaths. Roman took a deep breath, trying to match it. "That's it. Just breathe, Ro."

"You're really good at this, Ree." Remy said.

"Virgil had a lot of panic attacks. Deceit and I studied our ass off about them so we could help." Remus said. "Before he...y'know," Remus frowned, shaking his head. "Left."

"I'm sorry." Roman said, beginning to relax. "About what happened with Virgil."

"Whatever, I'm over it." Remus mumbled. "How are you feeling, Ro?"

"Shitty."

"What was that?" Remy asked.

They explained how if Roman ducked out for too long, he would fade entirely.

"Damn," Remy said. His eyes suddenly widened. "So when Virgil ducked out--?!"

"He tried to kill himself, yeah." Remus mumbled, pursing his lips. "I wanted to talk to him about it, but he was already talking to--" He cut himself off, shaking his head. "So, yeah. We need to find our culprit fast."

"This isn't smart." Remy grimaced.

"We know." Roman said. "That's why we left it out."

"You think we were gonna tell you?" Remus scoffed.

A/N:

Made this while in class. I know, I'm a bad girl.