WARNING: Mention of not wanting to live, crying

"Hey! Roman!"

Roman looked up. It was Aaron. Roman sighed and grabbed his bag, ready to leave if Aaron gave him any bullshit.

"Roman! Wait!"

"What?"

Aaron stopped short, nearly running into the bench that Roman was sitting on, and started twisting his hands. "I heard about what happened. With the note in Remus' locker."

Roman sighed. "Aaron, if you're going to apologise to me, don't. I wasn't the one who received the note, I just did something about it. How did you even know about that?"

"It's all over the school." Aaron said, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know who started talking about it but I heard it from Sam who said he heard it from Logan's sister, Rose, who said she heard it from Eric, Snow White's son, and I don't know who he heard it from."

"Aaron?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you seen my brother at all? Today, I mean?" Roman asked. Aaron bit his lip and shook his head. "Shit. I need to find him." Roman stood up but turned back to Aaron. "You'd better not pass this on. Actually, tell Janus or Virgil about this, if they haven't heard it already. Cause if you don't, you're no worse than the person who started the rumour."

Roman caught Virgil by the shoulder. "Virgil, have you seen Remus?"

"What? Why?"

"It's important, just answer the damn question." Roman snapped. Virgil opened his mouth to retort but thought better of it.

"Yeah, last time I saw him, he was with Jan."

"Where? Where with Jan?" Roman asked, panic etched across his face.

"Near the edge of school. At the end of campus, by the gate."

Roman shot off in the opposite direction.

"Remus! Re!"

Janus looked up, an arm held protectively around Remus' shoulders. He waved at Roman, signalling him over.

"I don't know what's wrong with him, Roman. I just noticed that he was scrubbing at his eyes on the way to class and I asked if he was alright and then-"

"I'm pretty sure I know what happened." Roman said, crouching down next to Remus. "Re? Hey, Re. Come on, look at me. Come on, look at your older brother."

Remus sniffed, wiping his eyes. "We're the same age." He said quietly, letting out a shaky laugh.

"I'm still older." Roman said stubbornly. "And anyway, it's my turn to be the older brother." He looked at Janus. "Is there anywhere here that we can go? Where we won't be found?"

Janus bit his lip, looking around the campus. "Yeah, I know a place. Come on."

"Up here." Janus said as Roman coughed on yet more dust.

"You know, I've seen a lot of dirty and abandoned places but this wins the prize." Roman hissed. Janus rolled his eyes.

"It used to be Peter Pan's old hideout, I believe." Janus said, jumping down into the dirty tree base. "But then he went to London with the Lost Boys a few years after Wendy, Michael and John left. And I found it a couple of months ago. It's been where I go when I feel distinctly un-Princey ever since."

"And it's completely cut off from everything?" Roman asked as Remus jumped down, thin tear-tracks in the dust coating his face. Janus nodded and checked his watch.

"I'd better go. I'll try and stop the rumours spreading but I can't promise anything."

"Thank you, Janus." Roman said sincerely. Janus quirked a smile and climbed back out. Roman looked around, trying to find a place to sit Remus down. There were faded red and purple hammocks hanging all around the room, straw rugs with blue and red arrows painted on them covering the floor and a big curtain separating the main part of the hideout from what Roman assumed used to be Peter's.

"Hey Ro?" Remus asked, sitting cross-legged on the ground like a child, dust smudged across the faint tear-tracks on his face. "I don't want to live here either. But I don't want to go back to the Isle. I don't want to live anymore, since we can't live anywhere."

"Hey, hey." Roman said firmly, kneeling down next to Remus. "Don't talk like that. You can't die. Where'd I be without my baby bro?"

"Twin." Remus muttered, sniffing. "But where are we meant to live, then? No one wants us here and we can't go back to the Isle, we're hated there too. Face it, Ro, we're outcasts here and on the Isle. And here, our mother means nothing. We're lower than the lowest here."

"So what? So fucking what?" Roman asked. He sighed and put an arm around Remus' shoulders. "We're outcasts, sure, but we're not lower than the lowest. And this is just a stupid rumour and a half-baked note. It's nothing important."

"But it is!" Remus pushed Roman away and hugged his knees to his chest. "You weren't there this morning. People were whispering and pointing at me. They really thought I didn't see. And it's not just that. People hate me, Roman. They hate me here. I don't fit in and that's what people hate. It's not you. You're almost an Auridon citizen. And I'm going back to the Isle when this trial period is over."

"No you're not." Roman said firmly. "You're not. If I stay here, you stay here. And if you go back to the Isle, so do I. We're sticking together until the very end, got it?" Remus shrugged and put his head on his knees.

"I guess." He mumbled.

"Who was it who was muttering and pointing? D'you know who started talking about it?"

Remus laughed shakily. "Who d'you think? Same person who put the note in my locker. Daniel Charming. Not very charming, is he?"

Roman's hands curled into fists. "No he's not. And neither will he look very charming when I finished with him."

Yeah, I love angst. You remember in my last book where I said this was gonna be pretty light-hearted? I lied.
Bye,
Queenie