The italicized part is all Anxiety, telling his story, just in case that isn't clear
Enjoy :)
__________________________

P.O.V.: Roman, First Person
Timeline: Flashback (cont.)

"Wha- What?" I stuttered. How did he know? Oh, who cares? Deny, deny, deny -

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Anxiety scoffed and leaned forward in his wheelchair with an amused smile.

"Now, Princey. We wouldn't be telling lies, now would we?"

"N-No."

Gosh, pull it together, Roman!

You.

Are.

An.

Actor!

"And I find it personally offensive," I started, "That you would accuse me of doing such a horrid thing. I mean, I understand we aren't on the best of terms, but come on! I just saved your life!"

"You're the reason my life was ever in danger!"

"Okay - first of all, why does a pair of headphones going missong put your life in danger? Honestly, that's just carelessness on your part," I ranted while I searched for an argument, "And why are you accusing me? Do you have proof?"

Anxiety smirked.

Oh no.

"Princey, what is my favorite color?"

"Purple," I answered automatically, not seeing the trap. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"And how - exactly - do you know my favorite color is purple?"

"Your socks," I answered, honestly, remembering the bright purple socks I'd seen him wearing when I snuck into his room. The best kind of lies are ones based on truth.  "Your socks are..." I drifted off, staring at Anxiety's socks which were very much not purple.

In fact, they were a light gray... But how?

Anxiety smirked at me. He didn't even bother to look at his socks, already knowing by my face what I saw.  He knew he'd won.

"That's real funny, Princey, because here's the thing," Anxiety said, leaning back all cliché like in his wheelchair, legs crossed. "My socks are purple."

Anxiety held up his pointer finger, continuing to explain.

"But the thing is... they only appear that color in my room, so the only way you'd know that they were purple is if you were in my room. But I would never let you in my room," Anxiety continued and my heart plummeted. "Which means you had to be snooping."

Okay, in my defense....

Who the heck has color changing socks?!

"So maybe I know that your favorite color is purple and that your socks are purple," I argued fruitlessly.  "That's not enough proof to accuse. Innocent until proven guilty," I answered, crossing my arms over my chest proudly. Wow, I'm good at this!

To my surprise, Anxiety laughed, not a real one, but a fake, mocking laugh.

"Are you so sure you want to keep lying, Prince?"

"I'm not lying."

"So are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm merely arguing my innocence," I dodged.

Anxiety shook his head at the ground. "Logic!"

Logan popped up an instant later, looking concerned and partly surprised to have been summoned. "Salutations, Prince, Anxiety. How may I be of assistance?"

"For right now? Stay right there," Anxiety ordered. "Morality!"

Patton was there moments later, eyes wide. "Hey, kiddos," he said after a moment.  "Everything... okay?"

Anxiety grinned and my heart sank. What did he have in mind?

"Morality, would you like to hear a story?"

Patton fell right into the trap with a small gasp. His eyes got really big and excited and he nodded vigorously.

Could he not see that this must be a horrible trap?! Why would Anxiety want to tell Patton and Logan a story?

"How about... a fairytale?" Anxiety asked, eyes momentarily flicking towards me.

Traptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptraptra-

"Okay," Patton said cautiously, starting to catch on.

"Let's make this interesting, shall we?" Anxiety's voice sounded odd, lifting out of its dark, sinister tone and... familiar, but I couldn't place -

HE. WAS. TELLING. THE. STORY. IN. MY. VOICE.

Oh no. Oh no.

__________

Once upon a time, in a not-so-far-away kingdom, there lived a Prince, who lived in an extravagant palace.

And this Prince was adored by all those whom he was surrounded by. As his ego continued to rise, the Prince grew prideful, and people bowing at his feet became expected.

For who would dare go against a Prince!

One day, this Prince decided one day, to hold a ball. He'd just finished his latest expedition and was celebrating the death of a dragon-witch.

___________
Oh no, I thought.

This is NOT GOOD.
___________

And at this ball, the Prince talked to many of this subjects.  However, there was one subject in the corner, headphones on.  Offended, the Prince stormed over and verbally attacked the subject.

But instead of studying submissive, instead of falling to the Prince's will as all others did, the subject stood up for himself, defending his honor and putting the Prince in his place.

And the Prince didn't like that.

Furious and with hurt pride, the Prince pulled out a sword on this otherwise innocent subject.

The subject left the ball in an outrage, resigning that the Prince was as cold-hearted as he has assumed. The subject returned to his quarters and it was there where the subject took an innocent nap.

Meanwhile, the Prince was going door to door searching madly for this offender. After many tries, he finally found him, which at the point proceeded to demand an apology and refusing to acknowledge the sword he had thrown in the others face. The subject, now offended, refused to apologize to such a concieted jerk and promptly slammed the door in the Prince's face.

But the Prince could not bear to have his pride injured so.

Later that same day, the Prince broke into the offender's room and stole the subject's headphones which had offended him so.

He swiped the headphones and hid them from the subject, hiding them at a trunk at the end of his bed.
__________

Anxiety stopped his story, rolling his wheelchair backwards a bit. Anxiety cleared his throat and his voice returned back to normal.

"For the purpose of this story - just for a little visual - Princey, would you mind opening up the trunk at the end of your bed? Perhaps we'll find something very interesting inside," Anxiety added, putting off the air of a nonchalant persona, but his voice proving otherwise - darkening, ready to reveal what was inside.

Patton and Logan glanced nervously at each other. By now, they had certainly determined what this was all about. It's not like they had any idea prior of what I had done, though at least Logan has probably figured it out by now.

"Prince? The trunk?"

I was trapped. I couldn't refuse, that'd look bad. But I couldn't say yes either - then Anxiety would most definitely point out my lying to cover up and the headphones -

"Prince. Please open the trunk," Patton said quietly. I guess he figured it out.

...

I'm screwed.

Wincing, I walked over and pressed my hand to lock. Immediately, the lock clicked open. I backed away, shame written all over my face. They already knew what they'd find inside.

Anxiety rolled forward and there they were, right one top.

"Wow! Would you look at that!" Anxiety all but yelled, imitating me again, pulling his headphones out of the trunk, waving then around in the air triumphantly. "The Prince is also A THEIF - "

"Anxiety," Patton snapped, his voice low. "That's enough. You got your headphones," Patton's eyes were dark with disappointment and something else I'd never seen in them at I couldn't place...

Shame?

"I'm dissapointed in both of you - that you would fall to that level of cruelty because of your pride. We are all parts of Thomas - working against each will help no one."

Patton paused, collecting himself.

"The both of you are grounded."

Surely Patton wasn't... Serious? I mean, yeah he's technically the oldest, but seriously? Ground us?  Him?

I couldn't help laughing. "What? Are you going to lock us in our rooms for a couple of hours?" I teased, trying to lighten the mood. Or at least get Patton to stop looking at us all dissapointed like.

"No," Patton said, but he was still frowning, his face deathly serious and my smile faltered.

"You're gonna be locked in each other's."

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Phew. Sorry that took way longer than I expected.  These chapters have steadily have been getting longer and longer... Phew. This the longest chapter yet!

Once again, I got a lot of votes so I wanna do a little shoutout (maybe this should be a thing?)

So thank you to...

BluejaysMama (all)
FubukiSnow (9)
CinderAsh (all)
ElliottWantsToBattle (all)
princeyandhottopic (all)
Kettiene (all)
RachelWantsToWrite (9)
DBZLOVER1 (9)
NoCh1llPanda (9) (cool name btw)

(the () is what they voted on)

And lastly, I'm trying to get on some schedule to have SOME SORT OF CONSISTENCY XD

I'm thinking of uploading on Wednesday's and Saturday's? What are your thoughts?

-Max :)

P.S. I have been listening to BMC and I'm obsessed. Michael is adorable. Okay bye :)