Author: thisdroid
Word Count: 720
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TW: intrusive thoughts, crude language (it's Remus POV), past crime

Also, this takes place in a soulmate AU where the first words your soulmate says to you are tattooed on your skin. People find their soulmates when they exchange words and they match.
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Remus can't take his eyes off the note. One of his detention buddies slipped it into his locker earlier, returning the favor after Remus got him set up on a date: just five words, scribbled on a crumbled piece of notebook paper. A really important five words.

Pretty sucky weather today, huh?

Five words from the back of Patton Foster's shoulder, where they're usually covered by his shirt. Five words meant to help him find his soulmate. If Remus says them at for the right moment, Patton will love him forever. That's just the kind of person he is.

Just five words, and Remus could have the boy he's been crushing on since middle school, his brother's sunny friend who spends his weekends at the Humane Society. Patton of all people wouldn't question him. He'd accept it as fate wholeheartedly, the poor naive bastard. He'd give Remus flowers, would smile and kiss him and listen to him ramble. He'd never find his actual soulmate, because he wouldn't know to look.

He'd do his best to fall in love with Remus, even though his idea of fun is arson and criminal mischief. Patton would make his friends include him. Remus would never be alone again.

And it's not like he's ever claimed to be a good person, right? It's not hypocrisy. Everyone knows he's the bad twin, even his parents expect the worst from him. Why shouldn't he be the worst? Why shouldn't he take what he can from the world, get one speck of brightness to light his shitty existence?

(Why not make Patton love him, make him marry him, suck the life out of him like the disgusting parasite he is? Hasn't he always loved breaking Roman's toys? Doesn't he revel in destroying everything he touches, the worse twin, the funhouse mirror, the Hyde to Roman's perfect Jekyll--)

"Hi! Um, it's Remus, right? Roman's brother? You look a lot like him!"

Remus jerks his head up and wow, the universe really does hate him, because that's Patton right there. He's dressed in white and pastel blue and smiling nervously, probably taking in Remus' delinquent looks: his tattered leather, his piercings, the scar across his cheek.

(Remus towers over him. He could beat him up and there'd be nothing anyone could do about it, could bully him to goad Roman into a fight, make him pay attention for once--)

He doesn't respond, and Patton continues, rubbing the back of his head, "I'm Patton, one of Roman's friends. I noticed you got back from juvie, and it's almost lunch and you're still standing here and I dunno if your old friends are around 'cause they got arrested like a lot, so I thought I'd invite you to sit with us! You remember Logan and everyone, right? Usually we eat outside, but since it's raining we're staying in..."

Remus could say it. He could say it right now and no one would be the wiser, he has the perfect opening, he could say it—

Fuck that, though, he's decided. He's not gonna be the villain of this story. "Sounds great!" he says brightly, and something deep inside him curls up and dies. It's a clean death, though, an antiseptic pain. Like cutting rotten flesh from a wound. "I've always hated rain, anyway. Feels like piss from the sky."

"Now, mister, there's no need to be such a potty-mouth," Patton chides, somehow not disgusted, and oh, fuck, that's a pun and he knows it, look at that mischievous smile! "We're about to eat! That means we have to go wash our hands."

"I've washed blood off my hands plenty of times, germs don't stand a chance," Remus informs him. "Gotta do one thing first though, hold on." Patton nods, all serious like he's being supportive, and Remus crumples up the note and swallows it. "All done!"

"Gosh, I guess you are hungry!"

"Like the wolf," Remus confides, grinning darkly. "It's in my name and everything! Now c'mon, are we going to lunch or not, Pat In The Hat?"

Patton's eyes go wide as saucers. "That's the best nickname yet!"

"You've got a lot more coming," Remus promises, and throws an arm around his shoulders. "We're friends now, aren't we?"

Patton nods again, adorably certain, and Remus promises himself that it'll stay that way.