Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Chapter 10

It was a Tuesday. That didn't seem all too important, but to Roman, it was one of the only things he could have the same after he fell asleep. Roman didn't know exactly how long he had been there, but he knew that it had been fifteen days since Remus had started talking to him. He was in no ways an expert in their language, but at least he knew their names now

Yellow was named Janus, Blue was named Logan, Frog was named Patton, Spider was named Virgil, and then there was Remus. Roman had started to warm up to them in the two weeks they had been 'talking'

It was mostly just them teaching each other their languages, but Roman appreciated the lessons, especially since Remus was surprisingly patient with him. They did sometimes do some unsettling (and vaguely horrifying) things, but they never seemed to get annoyed at him for not understanding.

He knew how to count to ten in their language, and Remus knew it in English, which he counted as a win. He knew how to say some basic words and questions, like 'hello' 'what is happening?' 'what' 'why' 'goodbye' and such other words. He knew the word for human as well, but that was just about it

He and Remus were sitting in his house, trying to figure out more language, when Remus randomly turned to look at him

"Do you know how long you were asleep?" They accompanied the question with hand motions and such to help him figure out the meaning. After a few seconds of puzzling out the meaning, Roman nodded, looking away slightly.

Would they even believe him if he told them? The only one of their species that even existed back then was Remus', they probably suspected a few centuries at most, would they really believe ten millennia? Remus pushed for the number and Roman looked towards him with a sad smile before turning away

"What is the word for ten tens?" he mumbled, and Remus answered

"What is the word for ten hundreds?"

Remus answered, slightly more hesitantly this time

So, now he knew the word for thousands, he looked up "I have been asleep for ten thousand years" Remus' tentacles turned a slightly paler, more grey colour, curling in on themselves.

Roman didn't know what that meant, but he didn't think it was good. He looked away from them, and brought his knees up to his chest.

He started thinking again. Did his parents mourn for him, when they realised he may not wake up in their lifetime, or did they only mourn for the loss of a royal bloodline? Did his friends mourn for him, or for the fact that they no longer had someone that would give them money, or would buy them something? He wasn't dumb, no matter how bad he was in school, he knew why they were friends with him. They only ever called when they wanted something from him.

He stayed friends with them still, he was so desperate for a reason out of the palace that he couldn't care who he was with or what the reason actually was. Now that there was barely a palace to return to, he kind of missed it..

He blinked back tears, looking back towards Remus, who morphed a hand out of black slime and made the sign for 'wait here/one second' before running out to the others and growing back to full size. Or usual size anyway, he wasn't too sure if shapeshifters had a limit on size

They were talking, and Roman tried to puzzle out what they were saying, but they were speaking in hushed voices, in a language he could barely understand anyway, so all he could make out was his name.

He looked away, feeling hot liquid stream down his face. He wiped his eyes angrily, he shouldn't cry, he was a prince, he needed to be strong. Was. Was he even a prince anymore? He wasn't sure

Remus climbed back in, for some odd reason using the window instead of the door, and although they had a few extra eyes than a couple minutes before, they didn't look very different. They muttered something that Roman couldn't decode, before forming into a more humanoid shape and opening their arms for a hug.