Corrugated steel clanged as a boy in black knee-high boots landed on it with a thud. Laughing quietly to himself, Remus Queen wiped a trickle of blood from his bust lip and chuckled to himself again. Adjusting his green beanie, he slid down the steel and landed like a cat next to a boy dressed in red and black. His brother, Roman Queen, who jumped and looked up at Remus, glaring.

"Would you give me a warning before you do that? That noise is enough to scare away even mother." Roman hissed and Remus laughed.

"You really think anything could scare mother away from her 'kingdom'?" He asked and Roman sighed and shook his head.

"I guess not. Now sit down, I need to run over this plan with you." He said, grabbing his brother by the sleeve and dragging him down onto a box. Remus sighed and planted his chin in his hand, crossing his legs over to listen to Roman go over yet another hair-brained plan to escape from the Isle. If Remus had counted correctly, this next plan was to be the fifth one this month.

"If you're going to tell me another escape plan," Remus said, interrupting his brother, "save your breath. You've gone over all the possibilites already."

Roman glared at him. "Not all of them, yet. But this one is really good, just listen." Remus sighed and stayed silent, ready to listen to his twin. "Every five years, they have a census of everyone on the island, right? Right. So if we were to clamber into the back of the car without them seeing, when they get to Auridon, we'll be free."

Remus sighed and face-palmed at his brother. "Roman-"

"Don't 'Roman' me. I know exactly what you're going to say but this will work, Re." Roman insisted, looking over his notes with a feverish delight. Remus knew how his brother got when he was like this and he knew it was useless to try and tell him how this could go wrong but he was still going to try.

"Roman," Remus repeated, more gently, "there's one slight problem with that. They are 110% going to have someone guarding the car. I mean, the car's going to be made in Auridon, where they've got actual valuable things. They know that there are pickpockets here who don't even hide who they are."

"But that's just the thing." Roman said, the feverish light in his eyes not diminished at all. "They'll have two people guarding the car, one at the front and one at the back. If we can cause a disruption of sorts, one of these body-guards will go to break it up and the other will move to the front, to protect the most valuable stuff. That'll be our chance."

"Disruption?" Remus repeated. He got up and sighed, picking at a loose thread on his black denim waistcoat. "Roman, we don't have any friends here. The only people here who are decent to us are the people who basically worship our mother and... my exes. And you already know how that's going to go. 'Hey person who I cheated on, would you like to help me and my brother escape from this shit-hole to a better life?' That's stupid, Ro." Remus said, glaring at his brother patronizingly. Roman simply grinned.

"There's more than one way to cause a disruption, Re."

Remus moved the little packs of gunpowder from one hand to the other, giggling quietly to himself in spite of the situation. He couldn't believe he'd just stolen from the Captain Hook but it was worth it. Roman shot him a glare and shushed him, perched on a half-caved-in roof, surveying the street below him with green, searching eyes.

"You sure the car'll park here?"

"Re, I've been planning something like this for five years. I know where the damn car's going to be parked." Roman hissed before slapping a hand over his brother's mouth. "There." He hissed, pointing his other gloved hand at a black, sleek car that was winding through the narrow streets before parking nearly directly below them. Four people got out of the car, all of them identical in their white shirts and black trousers and blazers. One of them, a woman with a clipboard, motioned to a man and they set off towards 'Curl Up And Dye'. The two other men stood guarding the car, one at the front and one at the back as Roman had said. The car soon drew the attention of a huge crowd and they all jostled with each other to get a better look.

"Now?" Remus asked, getting his mouth free of his brother's hand. Roman shook his head and held up a finger, his keen eyes scanning the crowd. He caught sight of a boy with sandy blonde hair elbowing a girl and pointing at the car. Roman nudged Remus and pointed at them.

"Now." He hissed. Remus grinned, his eyes alight with green mischief, and chucked a little gunpower pack at the pair. It landed by the girl, letting out a loud crack and a puff of smoke, making her scream. Remus started throwing the gunpowder packs pell-mell, creating a smoke screen around the car and filling the air with screams and surprised yells. Roman nodded to his brother and jumped off the roof, creeping to the car, holding his arm over his nose and mouth to block out the smoke.

As Roman had said, one body-guard had disappeared into the smoke to try and find the cause of the commotion, leaving the back of the car open and free. Roman opened one of the doors and shoved Remus in before clambering in himself. They weren't seen.

Lying flat on his back under one of the seats, Remus started giggling.

"I can't believe that actually worked." He said, bursting into a fit of manic giggles. Roman shushed him but there was a look of pride on his face.

"What did I tell you?" He asked. Remus giggled again, wiping new blood from his split lip. "By the way, how did that happen?"

Remus giggled again. "Well, you see, there was this really cute guy and we decided to hook up. It was all going great until I found out he had a boyfriend."

"Ah, so the boyfriend beat you up. Makes sense."

"Yeah, but you should see him." Remus paused. "Actually, maybe you shouldn't. Couldn't really punch the guy. Think he was Oogie's son."

Roman was about to say something but the door opened and two people walked in and sat down. Roman pressed a finger to his lips and Remus mimicked the action, swallowing down more giggles.

"So?" A voice from above Remus asked.

"1,099, sir." A female voice from above Roman reported. "73 more than last time."

The car started with a slight jerk and was gone, winding back through the streets of the Isle. Roman and Remus locked eyes and both grinned. They were off to Auridon.

First chapter and, Holy Moly, is it a long one. I'm really excited for this story.
Bye,
Queenie