Warnings : Sympathetic Remus, Logan, and Dragon Witch; Morally gray Deceit and Roman; Unsympathetic Virgil and Patton

Prequel to : Hidden Love, Secret Love, and Love Revealed

--------------------------------------

Remus dangled from his tree within the imagination, hanging upside down above Hope while pouting. She barely even acknowledged him as he rambled, flipping absentmindedly through her book. It wasn't that she didn't care, she just knew the basics and that's all she really needed to remember.

"And then! And then!" Remus failed his arms slightly. "When I show up again everything's destroyed! I spent days keeping Logan from the library so I could do it and they broke everything!"

Hope hummed softly in sympathy, hearing Remus huff. She did glance up when he had finally fallen silent, the anger still obviously there. Then came a resigned expression and he tumbled from the tree, landing perfectly fine beside Hope.

"It's just, I knew no one else was going to remember, y'know? They never do, and for once I just wanted Logan to have a good birthday. One spent outside of his room where he could actually have fun instead of working at that awful desk of his."

"So then just snap your fingers and fix everything?" Hope suggested, as if it were the most obvious choice.

Remus groaned, flopping onto his back in the grass. "I can't," he whined, covering his face with his hands. "That area is devoid of any powers any of us have... That's why I spent days working on it!"

She sighed, setting her book down before reaching over to comb her scaled fingers through Remus's hair. "Then I can try to help this time. Or maybe just figure out something to do here. Logic likes the stars, right?"

"He adores them." Hope rolled her eyes as a lovestruck look flashed across his face.

"Then do something based off that."

She returned to her book, missing the falter of Remus's smile. And neither heard the retreating steps of a certain logical side.

-

Remus sauntered back into the mindpalace, his chat with Hope not at all helping his mood. He did feel slightly better, but it wasn't by much. The walls were brightly decorated, hurting his eyes and the smell of chocolate cake filtered through the home. This soured his already bad mood as he made his way to his room.

He supposed his gift to Logan would still be alright, he'd kept it on his bed. Remus could always just make certain to avoid Patton and Virgil next year if he ever wanted to give Logan anything.

Music started playing downstairs as he opened his door, barely glancing back as Patton climbed up the stairs, quite possibly to get Logan himself. Remus took a deep breath, letting the door close softly behind him. He slumped against it, feeling unusually drained. He'd been feeling that a lot lately, it seemed.

Remus jolted as someone cleared their throat, banging his head against the door in the process. He hissed, reaching back and looking up at whoever dared to intrude the privacy of his-

Remus's thoughts froze when he saw it was just Logan. He huffed lightly, leaning back a bit more carefully against the door. Logan joined him, and they heard Patton pass by, calling downstairs that he couldn't find the logical side.

"What're you doing here, Lo? You should be out there celebrating your birthday."

He felt Logan shrug, the side leaning lightly against Remus. "Why would I want to spend my birthday with people who obviously don't care?"

"But they do care-"

"No they don't, they didn't even remember until they saw you sneaking off to the library." Remus fell quiet. At least he tried to keep Virgil and Patton in a good light. "I saw what they did to all your hard work and all... And I'm sorry you spent all that time on it just for it all to be destroyed. I'm sure it looked lovely once it was all done."

Remus smiled slightly. "It was. I was so excited, it had everything you would have liked. Everlasting coffee, a space theme, new books to add to the shelves. The streamers all formed the dozens of constellations you've told me about over the past few years. And so much more..."

"It certainly does sound amazing." Logan hummed softly, reaching down and intertwining their fingers. "Much better than the party they decided to throw at the last minute, it's too much."

Remus snorted lightly. "Seems a bit too little, if you ask me."

Logan rolled his eyes, smiling. "True." He rested his head on Remus's shoulder. "While I was waiting in here for you to get back, I found the gift you were planning on giving me."

Remus stiffened slightly. "You did?" He felt Logan nod. "Do you... Do you like it?"

"I haven't opened it yet. I wanted to wait for you."

Remus huffed softly, turning his head to plant a gentle kiss to Logan's temple. "Logan my love, I will never understand you."

Logan's cheeks heated up as he nuzzled Remus's neck lightly. "I just thought it was wrong of me to open it without you there to see my reaction. Besides, you make everything better."

"Sap." Remus mumbled with a chuckle, holding his hand out. The present disappeared from the bed and instead rested in his hand, and he held it out for Logan. "Well go on then, I'm here now."

Logan opened the gift, a grin appearing as his eyes sparked in excitement. Remus felt as if he were falling in love all over again, watching as Logan picked the small object out of the box.

A silver necklace pratically glowed, an infinity symbol with tiny deep blue and green gemstones embedded into the charm. He held it up slightly, the light catching onto the gems and shining to the wall. Remus grinned, reaching over and tilting the charm slightly, the lights changing ever so slightly to show Hydra.

Logan smiled, pressing a kiss to Remus's cheek. "See? Much better than whatever they could have given me in a short amount of time."

Remus's smile fell. "Still, it would have been nice to have a small party in the Library..."

Logan was quiet for a moment, before an idea popped into his mind. He got to his feet and held a hand out for Remus, smiling and ignoring Remus's questioning look. "Come on, I've got a great idea."