"I knew you'd come around."

Katherine glowered at Roman. "Shut up."

Standing in front of the Roy headquarters was bad enough. She was still in the process of recovering from a hangover and she had to tolerate the most annoying Roy kid on top of that. If she had a gun, she'd shoot Roman first so that he wouldn't open his mouth, and then turn the gun on herself. God that... that sounded a little like Romeo and Juliet. Nevermind the shooting herself part, just shoot Roman. And Kendall. And Shiv...

"And stop being the best person in the metaphorical room? You fucking wish, Odessa," Roman paused, frowning. "Oh yeah, looked you up on Wikipedia. Wanted to jerk off to your picture but you are surprisingly awful to jerk off to. Why do you go by Katherine? Both names are shit, but someone's grandma is definitely named Katherine. My grandma, probably. Actually, her name is Helen, but..."

When Katherine didn't respond, Roman prattled on. "Is it because of your mommy issues? You should be lucky you have hot mommy issues ━ like, your mom's super hot. Maybe after all this she and I can have a little thing and pop out another Montague. You mind looking after a brand new sibling?"

Her fists tightened. "Oh, fuck you, you fucking creep."

"Of course you want to fuck me. You wanna fuck me so bad, don't you?" He grinned. "How about we have that freak child? Half Roy, half Montague... like Frankenstein's monster. Hopefully it won't have a stick up its ass like you do."

Roman walked off, towards the clean cut glass and brutalism that was Waystar headquarters. Not at all the Americanized Greek architecture that made AGM headquarters. She hated the AGM headquarters. It looked too frilly and lavish, and somehow as boring as a museum, both things that did not help to strike fear into the hearts of Roy blood. 

The only thing remotely interesting was the large ceiling art of Atlas holding up the sky. She always caught herself craning her neck to stare up at Atlas's tortured face, imagining herself in the titan's place. Katherine knew what it was like, to be forced to hold so much responsibility and expected to never exhaust or snap. Running on pure expectation and fear that her entire world would crumble. She bruised and bled for it, to ultimately receive nothing. 

"Holy fuck ━ Kath?" 

She hated the way her stomach tightened in her body, listing off several curses in her head. Katherine turned to see Jude gawking at her from the side walk, with a mixture of confusion and suspicion on his face. She was equally puzzled to see him around the area. And without a hat to obscure his face to avoid paparazzi snapping pictures in his face. Fuck, that was the other thing; they loved Jude and the mess he brought along with him. They would have a field day alone seeing two Montague children outside Waystar headquarters. 

"What the hell are you doing here?" She asked, as he walked over. 

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Jude scowled. "I was walking past because I have a charity fundraiser to go to. See the suit underneath?" He gestured to his suit beneath his coat, though he was lacking a tie. "She said that I shouldn't waste her money with transport and that I should walk like every other person."

Does their mother not know what a paparazzi magnet Jude was? She let out a scoff, but Jude wasn't letting Katherine slide. "Now talk before I tell mom what you've been doing."

Mind scrambling for an excuse, she opened her mouth to prattle out some generic lie that she too was walking by. That is, until Roman Roy decided to join the party and instantly made her lose all credibility. On her brother's face, confusion turned to horror, his eyes widening and shifting his gaze between Roman and Katherine like he was seeing them in a new light. A light that Katherine would rather die than be in. 

Repulsed, Jude stepped back. "Jesus, Kath, you know mom's gonna kill you. And then me...and then Liz."

Fuck, fuck, fuck. "She doesn't have to know! Jude, I do a lot to make sure you're safe. More than mom and Liz. You owe me."

Roman had a sleazy grin on his face. "I don't know about you guys, but I really wanna meet your maker. You think she has time for me?"

Jude glared down at him. Trust that a Roy would try to ruin her chance. The fact that Roman was the shortest one between the three was the only thing that held her back from punching the guy. Katherine wrapped her coat tighter around herself. 

"Just do this one favor for me," She hesitated. "I'll owe you one, I guess."

He glanced away for moment. "Okay. You go do the charity fundraiser for me. Bring your little boyfriend too."

Her right eye twitched at the thought. "He's not and never will be my boyfriend."

"And," Roman spoke up, indignant. "I don't remember owing your brother shit. I don't wanna be around a bunch of make-a-wish kids."

The younger Montague glanced over at Katherine with a sour look, before glowering at Roman. "Do you shut the fuck up? Ever?" He looked back at her. "Why you're hanging around this clown, I don't know. Couldn't it be Shiv? I don't remember Shiv being annoying."

The mention of Shiv elicited a look of discomfort on Roman's face. His mouth twitched with a silent wince, and he lifted a hand to scratch the back of his head like his skin was crawling with fire ants. Katherine had never seen anyone look so uncomfortable in their own body like that. 

Jude sighed, having not noticed Roman's reaction. "I'll keep your secret. But we're gonna get in trouble. She always finds out, sooner or later." 

She let out an exhale of relief. "She won't find out. I'll protect us."

A snort came from the Roy. The Montague siblings saw the amusement on his face. "Oh, wow. This is really, like, wow. Is this how it is between you Montague types? She shows her panties for someone and you have to swoop in? Stewy, me. Who's next? My money says Ken-doll."

Something snapped inside her. She didn't waste time drawing her fist back and punching Roman's face. Roman made a noise between a grunt and a yelp, stumbling back several steps. His hand had flew up to cradle his cheekbone, with a small cut from Katherine's rings. She grabbed his coat with a fist, yanking him into her space and sneering down at him. 

"Watch your mouth, you fucking prick," She snarled. "And remember your place. You need me, yeah? So grovel and fucking act like it. You have no idea what you're talking about, and you have no idea how much I know of the dirty things you're up to. So lets show me a little respect. Don't ever fuck with me, you got it?"

Again, Roman seemed too comfortable being on the receiving end to consequences. He managed a small smile. "Got it, mommy."

Just like that, he found a way to flip the tables. Disgusted, Katherine shoved him back and turned back to Jude, who was tense for some reason. "I got this. Where is it?"

Jude stirred from his visible uneasiness with a faint flinch. She frowned. The way he wavered bothered her. "I'll text it to you. Just..." He paused, like he was trying to build the courage to say something. "Yeah, I'll... see you later, Kath."

He walked off, leaving Katherine alone with Roman. Her eyes were set on her brother's fading frame, weaving into the crowd and disappearing entirely. His expression had stuck with her, making her anxious. Why did he look at her like that? Like all her efforts of protecting him, year in and year out, were for nothing? 

She smoothed out her pantsuit, turning around to see Roman on the phone. Was he trying to get out of this? Katherine opened her mouth to spit out another threat, but he hung up before she could think of anything. In her defence, threatening people was hard. Particularly people on her level. 

"You're doing this with me," She said, straightening. "No fundraiser, no deal."

"Calm your tits, I just called for transport to get there," He lifted a hand to touch the cut. "Hit me like that again and I'll get hard. Can't exactly jerk off out here, y'know?"

"You're disgusting."

"Yep, that's me. Disgusting," He glanced away from her, with his hand tugging on his ear. "So, what's the stupid event about? I already have a gala thing to go to tonight. Connor's being fucking annoying about it."

"No idea, my brother hasn't texted me yet. When is your ride gonna get here?"

"Fuck if I know. By the time we get there, those kids are gonna be dead."

She shot him a withering look. "It's got nothing to do with the make-a-wish foundation. How are you and my brother the same age? You look older but you're simultaneously way younger. Are you thirty one or thirteen?"

His smile was strained. "Don't spank me, mommy." 

Defaulting to gross sexual comments. What was the point in having any kind of interaction with a future sex offender? Was he even capable of any shred of human decency? After punching him, even she felt like she should at least talk to him. Although that was proving to be in vain with his obvious effort of trying to ignore it. She wrung her hands, her gaze flitting around restlessly. This morning has already gone to shit. 

"So if you didn't fuck Stewy, then who did?"

That was one way to get someone out of their head. Katherine blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Well, you said I was wrong. Which is... whatever. So if it wasn't you, was it your beefcake brother?" He shrugged. "All I'm saying is to not, like, underestimate me. Sometimes there is stuff going on in my head. I'm smarter than you think."

Katherine narrowed her eyes at him. But before she could respond, a sleek and black car pulled up in front of them. Roman moved to get in first, fishing his phone out of his pocket once more. With an anxious glance around her to make sure no one was taking pictures of her, she quickly got in after him, sitting across from his seat. She checked her own phone for any new notifications. Relief calmed her down a little when she told the driver the address Jude had finally texted her. 

[At 8:49am] Jude: make sure he doesn't know about it.

A little too late for that. She glanced up from her phone to see Roman grinning down at his tablet, letting out a snicker. He met her gaze and turned his tablet to show her the unexpected: someone's bare ass spread to show their anus. Jesus fucking Christ, of course this sick little fuck is sadistically gleeful about a leaked picture of that kind.  

"Jesus ━ a little warning, Roman?" She grimaced, lifting a hand up to shield her gaze from having to look at the picture any more than she had to. "What the fuck am I looking at, anyway?"

"A liberal politician's asshole, that's what. Can you believe this shit?" Roman mused, turning his tablet to face him again. 

She froze. A democrat? This was a leaked picture of a liberal politician? Panic started to set in. The car was suddenly too fucking hot to breathe in and she was going to rip her hair out and scream until she passed out if that was a picture of Richard Schiller's gaping maw of a hole on that tablet. All her efforts to maintain a good image of the family so that Liz's husband could skip and pick daisies in his campaign ━ gone.

Fuck.

Roman, unaware of her sudden silence, grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts. "I gotta stop by at work. Shiv is gonna explode when she hears about this. Her girl power candidate is never getting those votes."

Katherine's shoulders relaxed. Not Richard Schiller's exposed ass, thank God. She turned her phone off and glanced out the window, at the New York landscape. Where possibilities seemed endless, and her own fate so certain.