Black and Blue (Roman Angst)

bruised

Welcome to the book, this is also on ao3 but under a different pseudonym!! In this book however, I cannot emphasize enough that Roman does NOT have a good time until much later in in the book.

Tw // mentions of bruises. Mentions of burns,

Roman was bruised.

It didn't show on the surface if he could help it but Roman could feel the bruises crawling over his skin; they made his whole body throb in pain whenever he so much as brushed against something. They appeared on a regular basis, whether it be a slap from his mother, a hard punch to the gut from his brother or the familiar stinging pain of one of his father's cigarettes being put out against his arm.

His family had never made him forget how lucky he was though. They were financially stable, they lived in a large ornate house and Roman and Remus went to a good school. If he let anyone know about what was happening, everything would be ruined. His family couldn't afford to lose everything that they had worked hard to build up and they especially couldn't have Roman ruining everything by selfishly telling other people that he needed help. Roman knew that, so he kept his mouth shut.

He hid the bruises under cheap makeup - they were a selfish cry for help. He hid the burns under his long sleeves, they only proved how pathetic he really was. He hid the scars in any way that he could.

The stakes were too high to risk anyone finding out. Remus and his father were especially persistent in reiterating that to him. If any of his friends realised what was going on, the whole group would abandon him. His teachers would kick him out of school if they knew - if anyone knew then Roman would be taken away to someplace far worse than where he was now.

But despite his family's threats, Roman sometimes longed to be somewhere else, anywhere else than where he was now. A place where he could just be at peace and not worry about his family's actions. Where he didn't need to cake his body in awful makeup and his bruises could finally heal. But if Roman was being truthful, he doubted such a place existed. He knew better than to believe some fantasy that he had in the back of his mind. The bruises would never fully vanish as much as he willed them to disappear. They would only reappear days later in a vicious cycle of red, blue and yellow.