Tw: Mentioned past abuse, minor physical violence

Remus was sitting in the living room. The tv was off and he had a smile on his lips because of all the cat pics Remy had sent him. They had been texting for a while now but there was always something new to say it seemed.

The duke was so nervous about talking about the usual stuff he liked but his friend had even told him they thought he sounded weird without his gross facts. It made his heart warm as he carefully told them all the things he'd been waiting to say but had been too afraid to mention around Patton.

Right when he was about to send a message about an underground cult in Russia his boyfriend's voice interrupted him when he called "Honeypie please get over here"

Remus quickly sent another text about being back soon before putting his phone in his pocket and walking into the kitchen. Of course he didn't ask why he'd been called over, he stayed quiet like he was supposed to.

"Who were you talking to?" Patton asked with a sweet tone while holding a knife.

It was too chop vegetables for dinner of course. There stood a pot filled with boiling hot water on the stove that was supposed to get filled with pasta soon.

"Remy" He responded while taking a piece of carrot and throwing it down his slippery gullet. He actually enjoyed the hacking stuff up part of cooking but he didn't want to make Patton mad by asking if he could take the knife.

"You've been talking for almost 2 hours dear" Patton put the knife down and opened his hand "Give me your phone"

"What?" He scoffed "Why?"

"So I can read through the messages silly" He replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Remus took a step back "What no? These are my private messages I don't want you reading them. That's kind of as weird as turning a fish inside out and then eating out" 

"Oh so you're hiding something from me" Patton's eyes got cold as he said it "We've been together for less than half a year and you're already getting tired of me"

"I'm allowed to have my privacy even if we're together!"

Before Patton could respond the scream of horror that Remus had as his notification signal went off.

"Go on check what it is" Patton said when he noticed that the other hesitated.

It was from Remy again. It was a screenshot of a theory about a cartoon secretly being super dark and gory. There was a text about how they'd seen it while scrolling on social media and it reminded them of him with a small black heart next to it. A platonic heart okay.

"Can I see?" He asked with a nice smile even though his voice was harsh.

Remus gulped before responding with "No" It was more about showing his boyfriend he didn't control him rather than not wanting to show the messages.

"Why are you so frustrating!" Patton exclaimed while slamming his hands down into the counter.

Remus jumped back as his heart beat faster. It was the first time he'd seen his boyfriend get angry. It was only a few seconds afterwards he felt the pain. He looked down at his right arm realizing the boiling water had splashed onto him. His skin seemed to be sizzling off leaving red spots behind.

"Oh dear" Patton gasped "That isn't good. Cold water usually help burns"

He grabbed Remus' wrist and forced him with him into the bathroom. The duke tried to inspect the burns with a curious smile while the other man filled the tub with cold water. He grabbed his wrist once more and forced it down into the cold water making him shriek from the shock.

"So so you should keep it in for maybe 5 minutes? Something like that" Patton said while patting him on the shoulder "You really need to learn how to be less defensive" He chuckled before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

A burning smell lingered from the kitchen and his eyes widened. Patton stood up abruptly and yelled "Ugh great now the food in the oven is burnt! This all your fault!"

Before Remus even had the chance to agree or object he got slapped so hard he saw stars for a moment.

Patton stormed out of the room leaving the other man alone to slowly accept that he'd been hit. He justified it as his partner probably thinking that since he liked it in the bedroom when he consented to it he probably liked it any time, even though this slap had hurt much more than the type he liked. He sank his forehead against the edge of the tub as his shoulders began to shake.

'At the first hit you should always leave' Roman had told him that and thankfully Remus had listened that time but It had to be different this time. Patton had to be different. 

Unbeknownst to him he'd accidentally left his phone in the kitchen. Patton carefully took out the batteries and threw them away, he was planning to lie about the phone being destroyed by the water.

He would make sure the only way Remus talked to anyone else was if he allowed him to talk.

Remus was too scared to shout instead he slammed his hand into the floor to make sound until Patton came back to look at what the hell he was doing.

"What is it cutie?" He asked while crossing his arms.

"You can't just hit me and expect me not to react to it! What the hell!!" Remus exclaimed. He was still sitting next to the tub.

"Hit?" Patton squinted as he said it "Oh nono I...what Deceit did to me...that was hitting. I would bleed and wake up with bruises and everything" Fake tears appeared in his eyes "I can't believe you're accusing me of this when I haven't even left a mark on you"

"You slapped me! I have a right to be mad at that even if you've been abused before!" Remus continued "Because guess what? I have to! Ok maybe not abused but-"

"Dear-" Patton interrupted

"No! I'm opening up here so shut up or I'll sew your mouth shut! Listen I've had partners who would yell at me so much I would stay in dreamday land for days because I couldn't stand being myself after hearing their insults and-"

"That doe-" He tried to interrupt once more but Remus spoke over while standing up.

"AND one time my ex boyfriend threw my things out of our apartment and into the staircase while yelling about breaking up with me and when I tried to hug him he- I think it was accidentally pushed me down the stairs and he left me laying there a-and my leg broke and I couldn't move so I laid there in the cold staircase the entire night until a lady helped me in the morning-"

"Well-"

"AND one time my past girlfriend gave me a black eye for just looking at another girl and she would scratch me till I bleed and twists my arms and guess what? I fucking packed my bags and left her...after like 3 months but still AND-and if you keep this shit up I don't see any reason not to do the exact same thing!"

Remus didn't like this. This wasn't like when he would wander back to Roman's and Virgil's house after yet another heart break and they would stay up the entire night to try and get him to talk about it so they could help him. Or when he quietly opened up about it to Remy and they took him out for some midnight slushies after comforting him.

This was pure burning anger eating him up from the inside. It was pushing at every last wound left by his past. It was reminding him of cold hands and hissed words and stinging cheeks.

Patton fell down on the floor as he backed as far away as he could while sobbing "Please n-no please stop y-yelling you're scaring me-e please don't hit me I'm begging you"

The duke's heart dropped as he quickly moved over to hug him "I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't mean to trigger you. I'm sorry. I promise I won't hurt you. I would rather bit off all my fingers and eat them than hurt you"

Patton slowly stopped crying and instead held onto his boyfriend. He slapped him again, hard.

"Don't you ever yell at me again" He hissed it out.

"I just told you not to hit me" Remus wanted to scream at him to stop but he didn't want to scare him again.

"I'm sorry they did that to you" Patton's tone was cold and calculated as he completely ignored what his boyfriend had said "Don't worry, I'll stay with you. I'll be the only one who will ever want to stay with you"

His lips grazed against the sensitive part of Remus' skin that was still red from being slapped. His hot breath went against his olive skin as he pressed kisses to his cheek and mumbled out praises.

"You're so pretty like his" He quietly murmured while wrapping his arms around his waist to pull his closer.

Remus met his eyes for just a moment. Patton had the same glint in his eyes as his ex girlfriend had had right before she gave him a black eye. It was the glint in the eye a shark has when it smells blood.

The duke wished he could say that he got up and took his things and left that day but he couldn't. He couldn't even get himself to move. Patton was supposed to be different, he was supposed to be good, the one that stayed. What if Roman didn't want him back this time, what if he didn't let him come back home.

Remus stared down into the ground while Patton kissed him on the lips. He loved this man right? He loved the man who'd just hit him right? He couldn't leave now because maybe it was just a one time thing. 

Maybe if he stopped being too much of himself everything would be fine.

.-.. .. .- .-.

it was a few days after the incident. The group had meet in a park to take a walk and just hang out. Everyone was there expect for Janus of course.

Remus had on a long sleeved shirt for once. On his right arm the burn marks had formed into bubbles. He'd pressed down on one really harshly and water and other weird goo had run out. Patton had told him to wear a shirt with sleeves after that so he didn't hurt himself by pressing on them more.

He was also much quieter than usual but the only one who noticed was Remy. They kept waiting for him to blurt out some new idea but his mouth continued to be shut. They knew that a quiet Remus was a sad Remus. The color practically disappeared from him when he was quiet, he wasn't even flapping his hands or fidgeting.

Finally they decided to try and make him talk "Hi gal, how ye doing?" They asked while swinging their arm around his shoulder.

"Well I've achieved my every day goal of looking like a mix between a gay hairdresser on halloween and a 70's porn star today so I'm doing fucking great" Remus lied while twirling his mustache "I was close to saying fucking fabulous but that would be too gay. How ye-haw doing?"

"Better now when I'm with you" They stack out their tounge and was about to lick him on the cheek but he stopped them mid air "Oh come on girl why you so boring. I'm just trying to do some good ol goofing, some inner joke time"

"The joke would have been funnier if you ripped out my hair and dug your fingers down into the bloody mess left" He mumbled in response.

Remy looked him up and down "Girl are you alright?"

"Nope! I'm all wrong like usual! y'know me and my disturbing wrong brain" Remus forced a grin as he said it.

"No seriously hun, something's wrong me and my sixth sense for that type of shit can tell"

"Did you know that in Swedish the word for sixth is sex, that gotta get awkward sometimes. And kiss like the mouth on mouth thing is pee for them. Weird fuckers those nordic shits are" He blurted out.

"Now you're just trying to change the subject"

"Watch me change the subject dork. 3 days after a human dies the enzymen or whatever that digests food starts digesting the body. Also it's a fake myth that fingernails and hair keep growing after death. The skin retracts without any water and that makes the nails and hair seem longer. FUN. DEAth right? So much fun!"

Remy took off their sunglasses and moved Remus head so they had eye contact "Look this is me being real as you can see by me not having my glasses on. What is up with you?"

"What's up with me? What's down with you? I'm just my normal disgusting self like always" He shoot his arms out as he exclaimed it.

He suddenly shot his head up as he realized Patton was occupied with talking with Roman. His expression changed in an instant, from being fake happy to a stressed out expression.

"Can I borrow your phone?" He whispered out. "mine's broken" Or so he thought.

"Course you can"

Remus took their hand and pretty much ran over to the nearest building. He hid behind the edge so that no one could see them.

He reached his hand out and Remy handed their phone over while looking at him weirdly. He quickly typed a question that had been pressing on his brain the last days. Fuck fuck why was it loading so slowly. He had to know but no one else could know he knew.

"Hey kiddo whatcha doing here?"

Remus tensed up as he heard Patton's voice. Why wasn't it loading. There was a choking kind of feeling growing in his throat.

"Em just wanted to like search something up" Remy answered.

"Oh what kind of exciting thing could that be?" Patton continued with a big goofy smile while walking towards his boyfriend. He placed a hand on his shoulder that felt like it was made out of lead "Give me the phone" He whispered.

Remus did as said and now finally the page loaded. He'd searched for 'Signs of abuse'.

Patton did an overly dramatic gasp but kept his smile up "Oh such horrible gore you've searched up!" He quickly lied "Remy I'm sorry I'll delete this from your history so you won't have to see it"

And with that the only way of Remus finding out if what was happening was really that bad or not disappeared. He nearly flinched away when Patton patted his head. He leaned closer and whispered

"We'll talk about this when we get home okay?" He was still smiling "It's a good thing you don't have work tomorrow"