Roman sighed heavily, staring at the beige walls that plainly glared right back. The only remotely interesting things within view would be the accomplishments the school has acquired praise and rewards for. However, Roman couldn't understand the words, as letters always seemed to blur concurrently for him, which lead to him merely burning his gaze into the lamented documents. He was stuck in the office, again, it was nearing an hour after the last bell had rung, and he was left busy with nothing but his homework that he couldn't do without assistance. They had tried to call his mother, with no answer, which hadn't surprised Roman all that much. He didn't know why his brother wasn't there yet, the last couple of days he had shown up late, leaving Roman bored to death and the staff mildly irritated.

After what seemed like an eternity, his teenage brother swung open the front doors and Roman brightened, immediately hopping up from the uncomfortable chair they had dumped him in and scampering over. Remus ruffled his hair and gave a toothy, crooked grin. "Hey kid," He greeted, and Roman glowered, working to adjust his hair while Remus strolled over to the clipboard to sign him out.

"And you are?" A staff member working the front desk asks stiffly with a raised eyebrow while Roman grabbed his red backpack. It was given to him by the school, just like all of his school supplies so none of them are as cool as his classmates, like Sam who has a Paw Patrol backpack, or Lindsey who has an Ariel backpack with so many pockets, and even Emily has glitter pens! Roman didn't have glitter pens or a super cool backpack.

"Remus Prince, older brother of Roman prince," He answers, beginning to sign his name out.

"Are you eighteen years or older?" She interrogates with a frown, his name was listed under people qualified to sign Roman out from school, but he certainly didn't look eighteen.

"Totally," Remus says with a smirk. "Besides my names on the paper ain't it lady? If ya excuse me," He begins, tossing the pen down before snatching at Roman's hand. "I'm leaving, see ya fuckers!"

The woman gasped at such language muttering something along the lines of "teenagers these days are so rude". Roman puffed softly and pinched at his brother's calf, resulting in Remus flicking his head in response and the littlest one whining out a pained "Ow!"

"Don't dish out what ya can't handle," Is all the teen asserts as he leads the way down the street. 

"You're not supposed to curse! You deserved it!"

"And you're not supposed to pinch people," Remus counters smugly. "Now shut up or I'll let ya starve." As if on cue, Roman's stomach growled and he pouted.

"Ya want a burger or something?" Remus questions clenching Roman's hand a bit tighter as they arrived at a crosswalk. He watched the lights cautiously, and lingered for a few moments after the light turned red in case some idiot decided to run it, and then began to cross.

"Skippy meal?" Roman suggests hopefully, looking both ways before crossing with Remus, huffing as he struggled to catch up.

"Yeah, yeah whatever ya want kid," Remus waves him off, slowing down significantly as they got across. They arrived at a fast food joint by the name of "Skippy's". It was near their house and local park Remus often took Roman to, the kid had too much energy anyway, besides, it's not like they had cable. Occasionally, he'd give Roman his phone to watch if he truly wanted to shut the kid up, and boy did it do the trick.

As they walked in, Roman shuffled behind Remus a bit as they got into line, clinging to his shirt. It made it a bit hard to walk, but Remus was used to it, and easily dragged the kid along once it was their turn. After he had ordered the meal and they got their food, he had Roman hold his share while Remus held a bag of fries.

" Ya wanna eat here or the park?"

"Park!"

"Kay," Remus agrees. Roman contently sipped at his apple juice as he followed along the sidewalk, no longer needing to hold Remus' hand. There was less traffic as they headed into the darker parts of the city. Their neighborhood isn't the best, to say the least, and the park wasn't pristine or the number one spot for parents to take their kids, but it was what they got and every once in a while Remus and Janus would spruce it up a bit and keep it decent.

Once they arrived, Roman immediately dropped his small body onto one of the old benches and began tugging out his dinner for the night. Remus sat across from him and began texting his friend Janus to come along, he too often wants an opportunity to escape from his house and Remus gives him one every chance he gets.

"Janny coming?" Roman asks, dipping a nugget into honey mustard before nibbling at it. Remus bobbed his head and stole a sip of Roman's apple juice, earning a little giggle.

"Thief!" He playfully accuses, and Remus gives a faux gasp.

"Me? A thief? Never. I bought it, technically it's mine. I'm just such a nice big brother I'm letting you have it," Remus insists, sticking out his tongue as he nipped on his fries.

Roman only laughed further, his big brother is weird. He savored his apple juice and after a few moments, waved shyly at Janus who strode through the gate. Roman likes Janus, he keeps Remus' feet planted solely on the ground while also following along with pranks and fun activities. He's also absolutely glamorous, his hair is really long and pressed into coils that draped along his shoulders. His eyes are two different colors, one green the other brown. Roman found his skin the real show stopper though, as it's a dark brown but with lighter patches across his body. When Roman first met Janus, he was confused, cause Janus looks like a girl, but isn't a girl, cause he was born in the wrong body. Remus explained to him that there was a tragic malfunction in the baby factory, and they gave him a girl body instead, which made lots of sense.

"Sup Janny!" Remus chirps loudly, and Roman rummages through his bag, smiling as he tugged out a little toy that came with the kid's meal. He would have to add it to his bag of toys! He doesn't have many, Remus buys him a few stuffed animals here and there, Janus as well! On his birthday he even gets to pick out a toy from the toy store, but Remus says he has to hide his nice toys. One time he had a cool robot toy that was brand new in stores too! Remus got a deal on it, but one day Roman came home and it was gone. Roman remembered that day vividly because of the screaming match he and mom got into. Roman didn't understand why she wanted his toy so badly, he knows it's super cool but toys are for kids.

"Hello Remus, Roman," Janus greets the two, nodding at each brother before lounging on top of the table, glancing down at Roman's meal. "Looks yummy, make sure to each your apple slices too," He reminds Roman, and he nods his little head, tugging the bag open with a bit of a struggle at first. Janus often tries to get him to eat healthy when he can, Roman didn't mind, he isn't picky but some textures make it difficult to eat. Luckily, apples are a favorite of his.

"You're such a mom," Remus teases, popping another fry into his mouth.  Janus eyes the bag in his hand.

"Is that all you're eating?"

"It's all I can afford," Remus snorts out. Scowling, Janus tugs off his backpack. Opening it, he was quick to toss Remus a bag of chips and an energy drink. Grinning wildly, the teen accepted the treats with ease, and Roman all but squealed as Janus set a pack of gummy worms on the wooden table as well.

"Candy!" He squeaks, eagerly yanking the bag up, hugging it to his chest. "Thank you!!!"

"I'll pay ya back," Remus claims, but Janus smirks haughtily at him, earning a small glare.

"No you won't, and if you try, I'll use it to buy more shit for you," He says, ruffling Roman's hair as he practically vibrated in place. The little kid never gets candy, well, unless he answers a question right in class, but he rarely does.

"Don't eat it all at once," Janus warns. "And finish your apples before eating them," He continues. Roman only nodded, a large grin spread along his face as he swung his legs, clinging to the bag of candy as if someone was going to take it away.

Remus titters at his friend, picking up the little toy Roman got. He doesn't know what kind of animal it is, but it's wearing a tutu and can twirl. "Wow, they certainly spent some money on these things," Remus sarcastically quips, twirling the little toy. "Was is it? A monkey?"

"I think it's a bear," Janus says with a shrug.

"Dunno, m'toy," Roman whines, reaching for it and Remus rolls his eyes and hands it over.

"Yes, your highness."

Roman beamed and puffed out his chest and Remus smirked. "Uh-huh! I'm a prince!" Roman contends.

"Oh forgive me, your highness," Janus croons, dramatically falling onto one knee, bowing his head before Roman. "I didn't greet you properly did I?"

Roman giggles at the little game and clenches his fingers into fists before shaking them excitingly. Remus watched the action and his smirk softened into a smile. He was glad Roman felt comfortable enough to stim in front of the two of them, he knows his shitty teacher has talked to him about how it's "distracting" or something ridiculous like that. It wasn't his fault she lost her train of thought by seeing him wave his hands around. She shouldn't be an elementary teacher if she's that easily detoured then.

"Don't give him any ideas, " Remus snorts.

"You started it."

"Well-"

"Ree?" Roman asks, interrupting their tiff. "How do you become a prince?"

Remus huffed as Janus grinned at the question and humorously shoved him before plopping down next to his brother. "You're already a prince."

"But we don't live in a castle," Roman pinpoints bluntly.

"Yeah but castles and money don't make you a prince, princes are supposed to be charming and kind, and eager to help others," Janus clarifies. "Princes are brave."

"I'm brave!" Cheers Roman, bouncing in place.

Remus sniffled a laugh at that. "Oh yeah, the bravest." Janus elbowed the teen in his side for the sarcasm and rolled his eyes as Remus burst into a fit of high-pitched hyena like laughter.

Roman pouted a little, but Janus just ruffles his hair once more. What is it with older people ruffling his hair? Roman can't wait until he's tall and can do it to them! "Ignore your brother little prince."

"God Jan, when did you get so soft?" Remus jokingly mocks and Janus goes pink in the face before crossing his arms and huffing.

"Shut it."

Another round of the horrendous laughter had Roman giggling as well. He decided to slide off the bench, setting his bag of candy down, offering the rest of his fries to Remus. "Ree, I ate all my apples, you want my fries?"

As his stomach growled, a single bag of fries not being nearly enough for the growing teen, he gladly snatched it away from his little brother and shoved a handful into his mouth all at once, earning a disappointed sigh from Janus and a giddy grin from the youngest of the three. Roman headed towards the playground, deciding to play on the swings, kicking his legs as he did. He clung to the chains holding the swing to the bar—however it creaked dangerously loud and the sound alone had Remus' thoughts spiraling, and he watched him closely while Janus tapped his fingers on the back of his knuckles to keep him within reality.

"Ro's fine, stay with me Ree," He mutters quietly, and the teen huffs.

"I'm here, I'm here, don't worry 'bout it," He complains and Janus rolls his eyes.

"Excuse me for caring for you."

"Ew don't say that," Remus says, mocking disgust and Janus playfully wiggles his fingers at him.

"Oooo Affectiooon~" He sings, making a silly impersonation of a ghost noise.   Remus shoves him away, earning a little laugh from the shorter teen.

"Ree! Ree! Push me!" Roman demands with a laugh of glee and Remus grinned, his eyes crinkling as he stared at his little brother with pure fondness.

"Aren't you too old for that?" He taunts but Janus snickers.

"Remus sometimes I push you on the swing. Roman is hardly too old, honestly, you're never too old, now do as the prince demands!" Janus commands, nudging Remus who chortled and hopped up.

"When did you get so bossy?" He teases as he heads over to Roman, dodging the overgrown roots in the ground. He hopped over a particularly large one and carefully slid behind Roman and grabbed at the swing, earning a loud squeak, and then a squeal as Remus pushed him, causing him to go flying up.

"Don't act like you don't like it," Janus purrs with a smirk, and Remus winks.

"Hell yeah, I do."

Luckily Roman was too entranced in tilting his head back and giggling as he was rocked back and forth as Remus pushed his swing to hear their conversation with seduction behind their tones. He liked the park and was always sad when they had to go home.

The park felt like home with just Remus and Janus. He liked the park. He didn't like home.