Fanders' Fiction

You Don't Need to Remember (Royality)

Roman's eyelids fluttered open, and he grunted, the sound coming from his throat before he could even think about making it. His eyes flicked to the blinking light of the alarm clock, the time reading an agonizing 2:46 a.m. For a split second, the poor Prince was confused about and quite upset with the fact that he had been awoken. Then the question hit him: what woke him up? The answer, fortunately, came to him mere seconds later as a soft whimper sounded from beside him. All frustration was wiped from his mind as he turned, wrapping his arms around Patton.

It wasn't a fairly common thing for Roman to sleep in Patton's bed, despite the fact that they were boyfriends. Roman was quite aware of how prolonged periods of time spent in Morality's room tended to affect him, but he just couldn't help himself. Ever since Patton had expressed his fears of the nightmares plaguing him in the night, Roman had made a habit of sneaking his way into his boyfriend's room to lie with him. Each and every morning, when the time started to get to him, he'd return to his room without Patton ever having been the wiser. It was specifically for moments like this.

The soft whimpers quickly turned into whines as Patton tossed and turned, his face twisting into an expression of fear and sadness. Roman's heart constricted, pain making its way to tighten on his throat as he watched, helpless, as Patton lay prey to his mind's tricks. He hated that this was happening to him, but with the ever-increasing stress Thomas was feeling, the amount of pressure he was feeling to try and continue to be a good person was too much for Patton to handle. Roman took a breath, knowing he wouldn't be able to do anything for Patton if he, himself, was panicking.

Slowly, calmly, he raised his hand to Patton's head as he tightened his grip on his boyfriend. Roman let his hand lightly comb through Patton's hair, his heart lifting slightly when the whines started to return to simple whimpers. Roman pushed down his impulses to get excited with his small victory, and instead put all his attention on Morality. Without really planning a melody, Roman began to hum a quiet song, the tune thankfully echoing softly around the walls, surrounding Patton with the sound of a calm voice. The notes he hummed were instinctive and he took a short second to thank Thomas for having such a wide range of musical gifts.

Roman continued his humming for what felt like minutes, one hand combing through Patton's hair and the other trailing up and down his boyfriend's arm. Every now and then, the whines would return, but Roman quickly blocked them out, raising the volume of his hums. Once Patton was relaxed and the whimpers had faded, Roman took a moment to simply look at him, joy filling his entire being when a ghost of a smile made its way onto Patton's face. He tightened his grip, ever so slightly, before releasing Patton and falling asleep again, his eyes refusing to leave his boyfriend before everything faded to dark.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Patton's arm flung out, hand reaching for his glasses he'd left on his bedside table. He sighed, almost dreamily, as he thought back on his dream from the night before. The remnants of a nightmare lingered with him, but he couldn't remember anything about it, his only memories coming from the dream it had shifted into: Roman singing on a stage, the spotlight on him as he reached out and pulled Patton on the stage with him. Knowing how frightening his nightmares got, even though he wasn't aware of why it had changed, he welcomed the sudden deviation.

He glanced around the room, pushing his glasses up his nose as he allowed himself to bask in the simplicity of the memories he kept hidden away in his bedroom. While Patton found the fact that the other Sides couldn't visit him in here rather unfair, part of him felt overjoyed at the idea that he was in charge of keeping the memories safe. Patton glanced at the alarm clock on the other side of his bed, surprised when it read 6:29 a.m. He pulled his cardigan off the chair beside his bed, tying it around his shoulders, before standing and making his way into the shared mind space for all of the Sides, his mind set on one of the cookies he had baked the night before.