Patton shoved Virgil round the side of the tower, over-balancing him. Virgil fell flat on his face. He sat up and glared at Patton, wiping a bit of soil from his chin.

Patton giggled. "Go get your prince." He said quietly.

"Pat, I swear to God I'll-" Virgil started.

"What?" Patton asked. "You couldn't do anything to me, bean pole."

Virgil sighed and got up. "Whatever. I'm not talking to Princey." He muttered.

"Why not?" Patton asked. Virgil gestured to his clothes.

"Hello?" He asked. "I look like a servant boy!"

"Virge, you are a servant boy." Patton said. "Even if you weren't born one. Now, go!" Before Virgil could say anything else, Patton ran around the side of the tower and disappeared from sight.

Virgil sighed and straightened his tatty waistcoat, looking up at Roman. Roman was sitting on the steps leading out from the kitchen, a clutch of grass in his hand.

Virgil ran a hand through his hair in worry. "I must be going insane." He thought. "I must be absolutely crazy."

Hesitantly, Virgil made his way over to Roman and sat down next to him. "Hey, Princey." He said quietly.

A small smile graced Roman's face. "Hey." He said.

"I thought you weren't going to come find me." Virgil said. Roman shrugged.

"It wasn't my plan to. I wanted you to be comfortable and if that meant never knowing you again, then that's a sacrifice I was ready to make." Roman said. "But then Re had the horrible idea of pouring tar down the stairs and then someone saw you and now here we are."

"So that was your brother?" Virgil asked. "I have to admit, yeah, it was a horrible idea."

"I tried to talk him out of it." Roman said. "But he's very stubborn."

"Must run in the family." Virgil said.

"Hey, I'm not that stubborn!" Roman protested. Virgil laughed.

"Yeah, sure." He said. "Anyway, how did you find me? My address, I mean, stuff like that."

"You'll have to ask Re about that." Roman said. "We tried to get it off the census records but that was going nowhere and then Re came in like 'I know where Vee is' and he was right. For once."

"Yeah, the census wouldn't be much help to you." Virgil said. "All my records are hidden away in my step-brothers room. Think he was planning on burning them."

"That's awful." Roman said. "Why would he do anything like that?"

Virgil shrugged. "I don't know. He doesn't really have a reason for doing anything. Unless you count hating me with a burning passion as a reason."

"Why would he hate you?" Roman asked, confused. Virgil shrugged again.

"I don't know. I guess... I guess I must've done something to hurt him but I can't for the life of me think what." He said.

"If you can't think of anything you did to hurt your step-brother, why are you so sure you did hurt him?" Roman asked.

"Because I must've, right?" Virgil asked. He brushed his fringe out of his eyes and looked at Roman. "I must've done something to him to make him hate me like this. Cause it's gotta be my fault, right? There's always a reason..."

"Vee," Roman said gently, "I don't think you did anything wrong. From just what you've said, your step-brother sounds like a vile, evil person. I don't imagine people like that need reasons to hurt others."

A ghost of a smile crossed Virgil's face fleetingly. He crossed his arms and looked up at the house. "Thanks, Princey." He muttered.

There is no reason to stretch this shit out to more than one chapter but I'm doing it anyway. Because pacing.
Bye,
Blaize