Brothers In More Than Name - Part 2 of 5

  Before we start, I do not own this fic. This is a fic a friend of mine gave me permission to post here, and I think it's pretty darn amazing. Enjoy!

Roman-centric fic (brotherly Remus, sympathetic Janus, post-POF, minor swearing)

“What the fuck,” Roman jumped at the new voice, and his eyes shot up only to narrow at the sight of Deceit. The side was flicking his baffled gaze between the twins, looking completely thrown off his element. “Seriously, what the actual fuck.”

“Oh hey, J-Anus,” Remus waved cheerfully and Roman felt his mouth quirk up at the name jab but he quickly stanched it.

“Don’t call me that,” Deceit immediately shot back, then turned his focus to Roman again. “What are you doing here? Why are you bleeding out on my counters?”

“I don’t need to answer you, snake,” Roman spat out, his whole body tensed up.

“Oh yeah, it’s a fantastic idea to not tell me what’s going on so I have no way of helping you,” Deceit droned, mock-looking at his nails as if he could see them behind his gloves. “I’m surprised you would trust Remus to patch you up.”

“I would trust literally anyone else over you,” Roman grumbled, moving to cross his arms, trying to hide a wince at the pain. Deceit seemed to move at that, beginning forward, but Roman shuffled away, only to knock his shoulder against a cabinet corner. He cried out, sucking in a harsh breath.

“Get over your hatred of me for one damn second so I can look,” the snake narrowed his eyes, but stopped in his tracks. Roman eyed him warily, opening his mouth to respond when Remus finally spoke up.

“Ooooh, I get it!” Remus exclaimed, causing the two to turn their heads to him. “Roman’s mad at you for buttering him up at the trial,” Roman flinched, and Deceit just glanced away. “Don’t worry Bro, not all of them were complete lies!”

“Remus, now is not the time,” Deceit glared at the other, and Roman just mulled over his own thoughts. He really hated this. He hated being so weak. And now the snake was the only one capable of helping him. Did he mention he hated this?

“Fine, just get it over with, Deceit,” Roman begrudgingly said, avoiding both their eyes.

“I already told you that my name is, Janus,” was all the other said, but Roman stayed determinedly silent, trying not to give any emotion away. Deceit sighed and sidled up to Roman’s side, inspecting his bloody shoulder with careful eyes. It was hard to really see anything because it was covered in cut fabric dripping with blood. The snake shuffled through the supplies before pulling out sharp scissors. “I’m afraid I’ll have to cut up your outfit even more, Roman.”

He didn’t respond, just nodded stiffly.

“Remus get to his other side, hold his hand or something,” Deceit said dismissively, causing a small flicker of anger to flare up.

“I’m not a child,” Roman finally snapped, glaring at the snake.

“I know you’re not a child Roman, I’m just trying to warn you because this will hurt like a bitch and I can’t have you squirming around and ruining my work,” Deceit shot back, and Roman could tell he was getting on his nerves. “This is going to hurt,” Deceit repeated in a softer voice, causing Roman to nervously shift his gaze down to his lap. “And moving will make it worse. So do whatever you need to make yourself more comfortable. Scream, cry, even hug Remus if you have to. Alright?”

“...Fine,” Roman said after a pause, mentally preparing himself for what was going to happen next. Remus shifted to Roman’s side, still staying silent after Deceit told him to stop. It seemed his brother listened to someone after all.

Deceit carefully took Roman’s injured shoulder, turning it slowly to get a better angle. Roman fought not to flinch, just turning away so he didn’t have to look. He shivered as he felt the cold metal of the scissors hit his skin, beginning to cut the fabric surrounding the wound. Goosebumps spread down his spine as Deceit continued to slide the scissors on his skin. Finally the scissors were set down on top of the counter with a small clang, and Deceit delicately peeled the fabric away. Some of it got caught in dried up blood, pulling at the skin, causing Roman to wince. Deceit mumbled an apology before finally peeling the rest away.

Roman glanced down at the wound and immediately felt sick. The cut went much deeper than he thought it did, and dried up blood was crusted around the entrance, which was still pink and raw. The fabric that hadn’t been peeled away was still bright crimson. Deceit sucked in a harsh breath at the sight of it, and Roman tensed his muscles as the side turned his shoulder a little more to get a better exam of it.

Deceit worked in silence, moving around Remus to wet a washcloth and bring it back over to Roman’s side. He flinched as the wet fabric touched his burning skin, then slowly let himself relax. It looked like Deceit was only trying to clean around the wound first. He carefully wiped around it until it was much more visible.

“This is going to hurt a bit, but it’s still bleeding so we’ll need to apply some pressure before cleaning it up,” Deceit warned, and Roman just nodded, tensing up. Deceit pulled out thick gauze and pressed it into the wound. Roman groaned, his whole body screaming at him to leave and get away from the pain. He barely held himself back, instead opting to shoot his injured hand out and clench at Remus’ arm. Remus’ eyes widened, and Roman almost thought he’d pull away, but his brother stayed, even shifted slightly closer.

Roman’s jaw clenched as Deceit applied more pressure, and his shoulder was suddenly exploding with pain, his insides coiling up into knots. He gripped Remus tighter, allowing himself to focus on the sting of his hand rather than his shoulder. Tilting his head back to rest against the wall, he grunted with pain, swallowing thickly as he tried to think of anything else.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, before Deceit shifted away, setting the bloody gauze down (the pile of bloodied gauze had grown significantly). The bleeding slowed by a substantial amount, only leaving behind inflamed, red hot skin. Roman panted, clenching his jaw as he tried to steady his breathing once more.

“Alright, I’m going to have to clean it now,” Janus warned and Roman nodded, his grip around Remus’ arm tightening. “This is going to sting,” he added, already pulling out a bottle of some cleaning alcohol and more gauze. Roman adamantly looked away, feeling more and more apprehensive by the second.

Roman flinched immediately as Janus made contact, eyes clenched shut. All the snake really did was pull his shoulder closer, but the pain came almost immediately after. The alcohol was poured into the laceration, and his world immediately exploded with white. His mouth opened with a soundless gasp, tears silently sliding down his face. And as his vision cleared he found himself buried in Remus’ chest, who surprisingly wrapped an arm around him carefully, holding him tightly. He gasped, wrapping his free arm around his brother as tightly as possible, surprised he wasn’t breaking his back at how tightly he was holding him.

Deceit poured more alcohol into the wound, and Roman couldn’t help the half-muffled scream that escaped him that time. He faintly heard Remus shushing him from above--petting his hair..?--but everything was becoming so muffled and the pain was getting more and more intense. He could only hear his own shallow breaths, and rapid heartbeat which was climbing higher by the second. His insides coiled up further, muscles tensing and his whole body growing hot. He could feel sweat beading across his neck, which only caused chills to move down his spine. It was almost as if his head was filled with cotton.

“Gonna pass ou’,” was all he could mumble before he slipped into the darkness.

<<<<<>>>>>

Roman seemed to be surrounded by darkness. Everything seemed heavy and muffled, like he could barely lift a finger. He tried to think back to the last thing he remembered.

Deceit.

The dark figure.

Almost dying.

Right, now he remembered.

He let out a quiet groan, blinking open his heavy eyelids slowly. His entire body felt like lead, sinking into what he figured was the couch below him. His ears were ringing slightly, but it was dying down by the second, and he could hear muffled voices coming from the kitchen. Roman looked at his shoulder wound, seeing that it was wrapped up with white bandages. He lifted his hands, which were both now wrapped tightly as well. And he looked down to see even more bandages covering his chest, which now had no shirt. He moved to summon one, but again, nothing happened.

Roman let out a quiet huff, opting to focus on the voices instead.

“-ou’re just gonna leave? Like Virgil?” he noticed Remus call out. He sounded...angry?

“Remus,” Deceit replied in a soft tone, one Roman had never heard before, “I promise I won’t leave you. My room may have moved, but that’s only because Thomas accepted me.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Remus murmured in such a low voice Roman could barely hear it. “So what? You’re just all buddy-buddy with the others now? Well, I’m afraid that they’re not so fond of me, so they’re gonna make you choose. Them or us.”

“What--” Janus started in disbelief, “I’m not picking anyone. I’m just helping Thomas. This is the whole problem, Remus. Everyone is so set on the fact that there are ‘dark sides’ and ‘light sides’ that they forget that we all share the same goal.”

“Well I hate to break it to you, Double Dee, but I’m literally the embodiment of all things evil. Thomas will never accept me, and neither will the others,” Remus shot back.

“Don’t talk like that-”

“Like what?”

A silence settled, and Roman could hear some shifting. He raised his head to get a better look, but the movement only jostled his chest, causing him to grunt with pain. He heard footsteps rush over, and he clenched his jaw to suppress any more noises.

“Lie back down,” Deceit started softly, delicately placing his hands on Roman’s chest and uninjured shoulder to push him back down. He groaned again, eyes clenched shut. “Here, take this,” he felt two pills drop into his wrapped hand while a glass of water was shoved into the other. He gratefully swallowed them down, relishing the cold water against his scratchy throat.

“Thanks,” he rasped out, taking a deep breath. He settled against the cushions, allowing himself to relax for the first time in what seemed like forever.

“How are you feeling?” Deceit asked, looking so concerned it alarmed Roman.

“What do you think?” He huffed, inwardly reminding himself not to fall for anymore of Deceit’s lies. The snake narrowed his eyes, already looking annoyed with Roman, so he counted it as a win. His gaze drifted towards Remus, who looked more or less worse for wear. Roman didn’t really comprehend what he and Deceit had been arguing about in his dazed state, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly worried (which was stupid because Remus was well...Remus).

“Your abilities still aren’t working?” Remus asked, and Roman sighed then shook his head.

“When I woke up I tried to summon something, but nothing worked,” He bit the inside of his cheek, eyebrows furrowing in thought. He had no idea why this was happening, or who that shadowy figure was.

“Well something must’ve summoned that thing, and I know I didn’t,” Remus leaned back against the coffee table in front of the couch. “And if you didn’t, then who?”

Roman shook his head in thought, then blinked. “Well, when I created the Dragon Witch I gave her some summoning powers to make her a more worthy opponent,” Deceit immediately sputtered at what he said, causing some sort of embarrassment to swell up.

“You gave another creature the power to summon?” Deceit cried, standing up and beginning to pace. “And someone who was literally created to be your nemesis? Why?”

“W-well at the time I thought it was a good idea. Plus, I only gave her a little power. Like summoning a couple cronies or potions,” Roman stammered out in haste to defend himself. “She shouldn’t have been able to create such a skilled swordsman.”

“That’s not the point. It doesn’t matter how careful you were,” Deceit whirled around to face Roman with a scowl. “The point is that you were reckless enough to do that, just to make your little ‘hero’ quests a little more interesting.”

“If I knew I’d get a lecture from you I would’ve asked Remus to just leave me there,” Roman grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest (which immediately hurt and he quickly suppressed a whine and put his hands back down).

“You are unbelievable,” the snake glowered, pinching the bridge of his nose with a gloved hand.

“Alright, alright. We get it, Roman’s an idiot and I was the smarter brother all along,” Remus cut in, waving a hand through the air. Roman balked at that, but Remus quickly continued, “The only reasonable choice is to find the Dragon Witch, right?”

“That’s not a bad idea-”

“That’s a terrible idea-”

Roman and Deceit spoke at the same time. Deceit stared at Roman again with a disbelieving gaze. “You aren’t seriously taking Remus’ idea into consideration?”

“Why are you so against it, snake?” Roman shot back with narrowed eyes. Deceit only made a series of unintelligible noise whilst waving his hands through the air.

“You are injured. You can’t heal. You can’t summon,” the snake finally managed to get out, “And you think it’s a good idea to go on a quest to find the infamous Dragon Witch? Who would rip you apart without a single thought? Wow, you’re completely right, it’s a fantastic idea! Mwah, mwah,” Deceit huffed disbelievingly while slowly clapping his hands.

Roman scowled up at him, “Well if you have any better ideas, I’d love to hear them!”

“Literally anything else, like-” Deceit gasped comically, “Oh! Going back to your friends and actually getting help from people you trust.”

“No-”

“Why don’t I just go with him?” Remus piped up, causing both Roman and Deceit to whirl their heads towards him. The dark side just shrugged, his gaze lingering on Deceit before narrowing just a smidge. “I can still summon stuff. I’ll protect Roman, and we can sort this whole mess out,” he then grinned largely and put his hands behind his head, “Plus, it’ll be a good brother-bonding experience! Isn’t that right, brother dearest?”

“Uh, sure,” Roman hesitated, slightly surprised that Remus would offer that. But, it did feel good to see Deceit’s sour expression, obviously displeased with the two twins. Roman smirked up at Deceit, “Seems like a solid plan to me.”

“Well, when you both get killed, your ghost-haunting asses better not come crying back to me,” Deceit hissed, his yellow snake eye staring right through Roman, causing him to sit up straighter. The snake then looked towards Remus, gaze soften just barely, “And do be careful, not that I care at all,” he drawled out indifferently, but Roman caught the way he shifted nervously on his feet. Deceit then blinked, abruptly heading towards the kitchen. He came back a second later with the med kit, dropping it unceremoniously into Roman’s lap. “Remember to replace the gauze, clean the wound. You don’t want it to get infected.”

“Alright, alright, Mr. I-Don’t-Care-At-All,” Roman quipped, trying to get another rise out of him. All Deceit did was huff one more time before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room.

“I’ll take care of that!” Remus sang, taking the med kit and desummoning it, probably ready to use later. He looped an arm under Roman’s uninjured shoulder, and carefully pulled him to his feet. He stumbled for a second, but found his footing again. “Now let’s go find us a Dragon Witch!”



“Uhm, can I get a shirt first?”