Virgil sat at the table, picking at his fingers listlessly. He didn't seem to be in the room, he was staring into space and not really answering anything with conviction. Or at all.

Roman sat down beside him and gently placed his hand over Virgil's. Virgil jumped and stopped picking the skin off his fingers. He turned his head at stared at Roman with wide, frightened eyes.

"What's wrong?" Roman asked.

"Nothing." Virgil turned away and pulled his hand away from Roman's. He started picking at his fingers again.

"That's clearly a lie." Roman shifted closer. "What is it? Tell me."

"Nothing, love." Virgil tried to insist. "I'm fine."

Roman shrugged. "Alright." He leaned his head in his hands and kept looking at Virgil. Virgil glanced at him.

"What're you doing?"

"I'm waiting for you to tell me how your day went." Roman said. "Like what a normal married couple does. I think. I don't know how marriage works, this is hard."

Virgil smiled and shook his head. Roman grinned. There was the smile he'd been trying to get.

"My day was fine, thank you, love." Virgil laughed. His smile faded. "I'm worried about Pat."

Roman lifted his face out of his hands. "Why?"

Virgil shrugged. "In a year, he won't be Pat anymore. He'll be Prince Patton of Iredia. We won't have a Pat anymore." He shook his head and turned away, a hand across his mouth. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"How?" Roman asked. "We've protected him this far-"

"Yeah but what about now?" Virgil looked at Roman and he looked hurt. "We can protect him from Janus as best we can all day long but what about himself?" He shook his head like he was lost. "Love, how are we going to explain this to him? It seemed like we'd have loads of time to think up a way when he was 1 and 5 and 11 and now he's 15! 15, Roman! How are we going to explain to him that his whole life is a lie?"

Roman looked at his feet, mouth open, searching for an answer. Virgil sighed and his whole posture sagged. "Roman." He said quietly. "Help me."

"I don't know." Roman said. It was like a sudden snap, a lightning bolt almost, in his mind. "I really... don't know. I've been putting this thing off for so long because, Vee," he met Virgil's gaze, "I really don't know."

Virgil held his gaze for a few seconds before dropping his eyes to the table. "And this place..." he ran a finger over the grain in the wood, tracing every knot and line, "and us... Roman, what's going to happen to us? We managed to pull ourselves into some sense of a mortal family for Pat... what if it all falls apart when he's gone?"

"It won't." Roman promised. He didn't care if it was fake. He took Virgil's hand. "Virgil, I promise you right now, it won't fall apart. Nothing about you and me and Remus will go wrong. Not again."

Virgil swallowed. "You promised that last time." He said. "And look what happened."

Roman shook his head, shaking off bad memories. "I'm not proud of it," he said, "but it's over now. Look, this thing with Pat... I don't know how we're going to solve it. I don't know how we're going to tell him but we'll find a way. We always have, right?"

"What if we don't this time?" Virgil's look conveyed so much more than his words. A thousand emotions and thoughts he couldn't possibly put into words were in that look. And, somehow, Roman understood it all.

"We will." He said. All he seemed to do right now was fill the air with empty promises. "We always have. So we'll find a way. I promise."

Virgil looked ready to say something else when-

"Papa?" Both Roman and Virgil looked up. Pat was stood on the bottom step, pyjama top misbuttoned. "Do you know where my geography is? The one I got when I was 10?"

"Um," Virgil ran a hand through his hair, "it should be under your bed with the rest of your books."

"I've already checked there." Pat said. "Can you come help?"

"Sure, Pat."

Am I going to write a short story about how Roman and Virgil met? Yes
Is it going to include a line from this specific chapter but in a much more dire situation? Also yes.
Bye,
Blaize