Separated

Adopted

Roman sat in the office, excited and nervous all at the same time. Today was the day. He was finally getting adopted. It had been a hard year adjusting to his rambunctious little brother not running around, and not having random animal facts spouted out at him at infrequent intervals. Valerie had gotten adopted a few months after that day, so Roman had retreated into his shell, becoming much less outgoing and confident. The older boys had all apologized, save one, but Roman hadn't spoken directly to them since that day. He didn't forgive them, or himself, for what had happened to his little brother. I know being adopted is a good thing, but he didn't want to go with them. And now... I'm finally leaving this place after seven years.

"Alright, that's all that needs to be done! You now have legal custody of Roman Prince, or I should say, Roman Picani. Have a wonderful day!" An adoption worker, this one nicer and female, waved at the two men as they left the room, Roman following close behind. These were his new dads, Emile and Remy Picani.

"Well Roman, how does it feel that you have a forever home now?" Emile asked his new son after they got in the car, beaming at him.

"It feels... I don't know... kinda weird honestly. But in a good way! I just wish my brother were here with me." The last part he said softly, staring at the ground. Remy and Emile exchanged looks, they had been told about Remus earlier that day, when they first decided that they wanted to adopt Roman. Emile turned back towards his new son.

"Oh Roman, we'll help look for your brother. The orphanage gave us the address of the couple, but they've moved since then. But that won't stop us from doing everything we can to find him, okay?" Roman smiled up at his new dad.

"Yeah. That's great. Even if he does like his life, I want to find him and see him at least once more. I still feel awful about the day." Roman said. Both dads smiled and the three drove off to their house.

*                    *                    *

Remus sat on the couch, though you wouldn't know it was him if I hadn't told you. He was much skinnier and taller, dressed in almost all black with a few patches of green. Most importantly though, he wasn't reading weird animal facts, or drawing, or even listening to music. He was just sitting there, staring at the wall.

"Remus!" His "mother" yelled. "What are you doing staring at the wall? Do something useful and clean your room or something!"

"I'm just thinking Rachel." he spat out her real name like it tasted bad.

"You aren't thinking about your brother are you? You know he didn't love you! If he had, he would've tried harder to keep you there, and he wouldn't have made you cry that day!" She yelled back at him. These fights were common in their household. After the first few weeks of being gentle about how they talked about Roman, they gave up and started planting seeds of doubt about how good of  a brother he really was.

The first few months, Remus had retaliated, but now he saw no point. He had had those words repeated and beat into him so many times that he almost really believed them at this point.

"Remus! Your friends are here!" Joe Duke called up the stairs at his son. Remus shot his "mom" an angry look before walking down the stairs and to the front door. When he got there, he saw a boy with pastel purple bangs and another with heterochromatic eyes.

"Hey Virgil, Dee." He said to the brothers at his door. They nodded in return and the three of them left the house without a second glance.

"So, where we going today?" Virgil asked, turning to Dee, who was the oldest by a year.

"I was thinking we could visit a certain Thomas Sanders and see what he's up to." Dee said with a malicious smile forming on his face.

All three walked down the familiar path to the park, and, like always, found Thomas, who never learned to avoid the place. The moment they got there, he looked up, clearly scared by the three other boys.