Spindle Wood (COMPLETED)

Chapter 41

"Remus?" Remus hunched his back at the knock on the door. "Remus, can you come out? Roman's worried about you."

"No he's not, he's fuming!" Remus called back. "And he's right there with you."

There were muffled words from the other side of the door before a much harder knock. "Re, let us in!" Roman demanded.

"Screw a deer, Ro, I'm not letting you in. Or Virgil."

Remus' door didn't have a lock on it. He knew it, Virgil knew it, everyone knew it. It was only a matter of time before Virgil suggested they just... walk in.

Remus rocked himself forward and stood up off the floor, all in one clean motion. Haphazardly, he shoved everything in his room from Janus into a desk drawer. Letters, flowers, little tokens of affection and loose jewels, all scattered together and quickly shut away.

The door opened just as he closed the drawer. He didn't move. He wasn't going to even look at his damn brother.

"Remus-"

"You can guess where I was, I'm not telling you where, no, you're not going after him and yes, I will fight you if I have to." Remus interrupted, glaring at a wall. "You might be magically stronger than me, Ro, but I can still take you in a physical fight."

"We're not going to fight you, Remus." Virgil's voice sounded further away. If Remus had to guess, he was using the 'let the family talk about it' tactic. Fat lot of good that would do.

"We're worried, that's all."

Remus couldn't help but laugh at that. "Sure, sure, worried." He turned around and leaned against his desk. "Worried about what, exactly? That I'm happy? That I'm spending time with someone who actually cares for me?"

"He doesn't-" Roman looked like he was tired of all this. "He doesn't care for you, Re. He doesn't even care about you. He's the Lord of All Evil. You really think he can care about people?"

"Janus cares about me more than you two do." Remus snapped, almost enjoying the shiver of disgust a name sent through his brother. "At least he actually respects my space."

"He doesn't respect you, Remus." Virgil snapped. He was leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed in a defensive manner, and glaring at Remus with all his might. "He doesn't have enough respect for peace treaties, what makes you think he'll have respect for you?"

Now, how could Remus explain that? It was stupid to try and explain that Janus, Lord of All Evil, Scourge of the Dark Lands and just all around bad guy made him feel safe. He wouldn't even be able to find the words.

"He makes me happy." Remus said. "I feel happy around him."

"You don't know what happiness feels like!" Roman snapped, finally losing his cool. Finally.

"Yeah and who's fault is that?!" Remus hadn't wanted another shouting match with his brother but he'd be damned if it didn't feel good. "Janus helps me, understands me. He makes me happier than I've ever been in my damn immortality! Why do you two get to be happy and I can't be?!"

'Because we're normal'

Remus knew Roman wanted to say it. He just had to bait him enough.

Roman opened his mouth to retaliate but closed it without saying a thing. Without looking at Remus, he turned and marched out of the room.

Something inside Remus snapped, sending a spread of cold through his chest. This had gone too far now, hadn't it?

"Hey, Lo!" Pat yelled, dodging through the trees to get to his friend. Logan looked up and smiled at him.

If you had asked Pat in that very moment what the most beautiful thing in the world was, he would've said 'Logan's smile'.

"Pat, good day." With little grace, Logan slid down from the rock he was sitting on. "How are you?"

Pat shrugged, clasping his hands and swinging on his heels. "I'm good." He said, dragging 'good' out as far as he could. "You?"

Logan shrugged. "Adequate, I suppose." He smiled again. "Better now you're here."

Pat giggled and grinned. "Aw, Lo." He laughed, silently wondering why his face was so warm. "Anyway, um, I was wondering if maybe we could practice dancing again?" He shrugged. "It's just that I haven't really gotten better and-"

Logan held out his hand towards Pat. He smiled. "All you had to do was ask." He said.  With a nod of his head, he gestured towards the clearing. "Shall we?"

Thanks to Chumpey06, you get another flashback. Enjoy, I guess.
Bye,
Blaize