"How have you lived here your entire life?"

Remus shrugged. "I could ask you the same thing about Auridon, Blondie."

"What d'you mean?"

"Well it's all clean and sunny and it's just not what's normal. For me, anyway."

Janus looked around. "But at least it isn't a concrete maze." Remus laughed slightly.

"Yeah, I'll give you that." Remus looked over at Janus, who's eyes were wide in trying to take everything in, and couldn't help a small smile quirk the side of his mouth. This was the boy who was in love with him. "But I know my way around here and that's probably one of the most important skills here. Along with quick reflexes."

"I guess it is important- woah, look at that." He pulled on Remus' hand to get him to stop and look at a wall covered in graffiti. "This is awesome."

"Yeah, guess it is. Ro drew most of this."

"Roman did this?" Janus asked, tearing his eyes away from the wall to look at Remus who nodded.

"Most of it, like I said. He wanted to paint everyone's stories here so there's Pride Rock from Scar's story... and there's the flower from Gothel's... and there's the shell necklaces from Ursula's... and Jafar's staff there... and..." He trailed off as his eyes fell upon the apple off to the side. It looked too perfect, too red, to be a real apple but it was an exact copy of the one their mum had had. Remus had helped Roman draw that when Roman had started this project, that was before Roman had gotten so obsessed with Auridon. The sight of a simple drawing which two 10-year-olds had spent an hour or so on brought up a lot of mixed feelings for Remus.

"Rem? You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He took one last glance at the wall before tugging on Janus' hand. "Let's keep moving. You don't want to be stuck on the streets when night time comes."

"Blondie... why are you hopping?"

It had been a couple of hours and they'd just reached the barrier.

"Well, I'd got a stone in my shoe." Janus explained, leaning against a wall and starting to undo the laces of his shoe. "But you seemed so worried and were trying to get here so urgently that I didn't really want to ask to stop because I didn't want to be rude."

"But isn't hopping along weirder and more time-consuming than asking someone to stop for a minute just to take a shoe off and put it back on?"

"Ah. Didn't think about that."

Remus laughed in disbelief. "And this is why you're not Cinderella's son, Blondie."

Janus laughed slightly, looking around at the invisible barrier. "How d'you suppose we'll get out? Because apart from barging into-"

Remus ran into the barrier side-on and got catapulted backwards, stumbling and landing on his butt.

"Apart from that, we're kinda screwed, aren't we?"

"Ow." Remus hissed, getting up and rubbing his shoulder.

"It's not broken or anything, is it?" Remus shook his head, rolling his shoulder back slowly.

"No. Just hurts. But you're right." He sighed and looked at the barrier. "We're pretty fucked. What's this thing made of, anyway?"

"Magnetic energy."

"Huh?"

Janus shrugged. "Magnetic energy." He repeated. "It holds onto any energy it can from a blast and then repels it when the blast stops. For example." He picked a rock up from the ground and threw it with all his might at the barrier. The rock hit the barrier and flew back, nearly hitting Janus in the head and breaking in two on the wall beside him. He made a little 'hm' sound with a half-smile and sat down on a crate. "This place is nuke proof, bomb proof, you name it, the barrier repels it."

"Guess it's to stop the villains getting out, huh?" Janus nodded. "So how do we get out?"

"We can't." Janus said in a small voice. "That's the whole point of this barrier. To keep people in here. We're not getting back to Auridon, Rem, not unless someone comes for us and finds us."

"Well... what's stopping them?" Remus asked, sitting down next to Janus. "I mean, you're the best friend of probably the most powerful 16-year-old in all of Auridon. We will get out. I promise."

"No. We won't. I will. They're not going to let you out, Rem. I just know it."

"Well, if they try and separate us... I'll hitch a ride to Auridon in no time. It'll only take five more years til the next census." He tilted Janus' chin up so his hazel eyes could meet Remus' green ones. "Promise you won't forget about me in five years?"

Janus smiled gently and leaned forward, kissing Remus softly. Remus' arm wrapped around Janus' waist, pulling him closer. Janus pulled back when they were both out of air and nuzzled his head into Remus' shoulder.

"I couldn't forget about you in five hundred."

Fluff? Angst? Queenie fluff? Queenie fluff. And yes, can you tell I'm stalling to try and give you a decent length story? You can now, ha ha...
Bye,
Queenie