Roman didn't bother turning his head in the direction of his brother's footsteps.

"Re, what are you planning?" He asked. Remus' footsteps stopped short.

"Nothing." He said unconvincingly, dragging the word out.

"Re." Roman said, sighing in annoyance. "What are you going to do to ruin the last night of this already perfectly horrid coming of age ball?"

"I would've thought a lovesick idiot like you would've liked spending time with your precious Vee but anyway-" Remus cut himself off with a boisterous laugh. "Ro, you're face!" He yelled, laughing.

Roman put a hand to his face and grimaced slightly as he felt how hot it was. "Okay, fine, I'm blushing." He said. "So what? Tell me what you're planning."

Remus giggled and put something down with a thump. "So you know how your precious-"

"Vee isn't my property, he's a whole other person." Roman said a little sharply. He didn't know (nor did he care to find out) why he was being so protective over someone he didn't know.

"Fine." Remus said with an over-dramatic sigh. "Anyway, you know how Vee always runs away from you at midnight? Well, what if there was a way to stop him doing so?"

"Re, we're not locking Vee up." Roman said. Remus laughed.

"No, not that, idiot. We cover the steps in tar." Remus said like it was obvious. "His shoes will get stuck and then, boom, we find out who the elusive Vee is."

"No." Roman said simply. "You're not doing that to Vee."

"Why not?"

"First of all, he never goes down the palace steps-"

"Already got something to cover that." Remus said. He sounded like he'd been scheming. "You know, it's amazing how much of a life your silly tutor actually has." Blackmail. Of course.

"Second of all," Roman said, desperate to stop this stupid idea, "I don't want to lose Vee's trust. If he finds out I was involved in this idiot scheme of yours, he'll never trust me again. If Vee wants to stay secret, I'm happy to let him."

Remus groaned. "You're so boring, Ro." He said. "And don't worry, Vee won't think your part of this scheme. It has my name written all over it."

Roman paused. "Literally?" He asked.

"No, not literally, Ro." Remus said. Roman could hear the eye roll in his voice.

"Even so, you can't do that to Vee." Roman said. "He doesn't want people finding out who he is. It worries him, I can hear it in his voice. It worries him to even talk about it. I don't want to scare him or force him to show who he is." Roman twisted his fingers. He swallowed and took a breath. For once, he wasn't going to go along with his brother's hair-brained scheme. "We're not doing this, Re." He said firmly.

Remus groaned. "You're so dull, Ro." He said. "Don't you want to find out who this Vee is?"

"Yes." Roman conceded. "But on his terms."

There was a pause and the blurred shape of his brother shifted in Roman's view.

"Fine." Remus said eventually. "Fine, fine, fine." It seemed all he could do was repeat the word. "We won't cover the steps with tar to find out who Vee is."

There was another pause. Then, Remus spoke again: "I will."

Did that make sense? I feel like this made sense. But did it?
Bye,
Blaize