Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Chapter 14

Roman didn't much remember the next few days, but he remembered that Remus was helping him. He remembered throwing up. He was fairly certain he slept most of the time, but he could somewhat remember Remus and the others talking to him, or at him, telling him how he was doing.

He didn't enjoy being weak, and he didn't want to be seen as such. He began to get more coherent on the third day, being able to lift water to his with minimal help from Remus. Apparently, his fever had gone down a lot as well.

Remus stayed next to him the entire time, and the others checked on him frequently, bringing him makeshift blankets sewn from leaves and overall helping him. It was a Friday, that's all he really knew at this point

He still stayed as close to Remus as possible, not wanting to be left alone. Remus teased him slightly, but never left nonetheless

"Are you okay?" They asked, helping him walk to the water bowl

Roman nodded, closing his eyes for a few seconds.

He was completely back to normal on the Sunday, which was when Logan approached him with a question

"Roman, I have been learning some new magic. I want to know if ---- ------ ---- may help with ----- --" Roman stared blankly, only catching around half of the question asked

Logan paused "Ah. This magic will help with talking to each other, but it would connect our minds for how ever long it lasts. Would that be fine?"

Roman nodded, he had always kinda wanted to try mind magic. Logan extended a hand and Roman set his own on one of the claw-like fingers. They both closed their eyes and were dragged into different surroundings.

It looked like the forest surrounding the nest, and to one side was the nest. Roman looked the other way, seeing his palace. His still standing, not crumbling palace. Or... maybe it was crumbling. He realised that it was flickering between the two. He looked back to Logan's nest, realising that it was also flickering, not able to decide if his house was supposed to be there.

There was another thing, he was seeing the nest from Logan's perspective, and the large nest was small for once. It was still relatively big, but not the half-mile it usually was. He turned around, noticing Logan, him-sized Logan, behind him.

They stared at each other a few moments before Roman cracked a smile

"Y'know, you're not nearly as intimidating when we're the same height" he laughed

Logan looked confused at that statement

"You... find me intimidating?" They tilted their head slightly

Roman nodded "Yeah, you're like ten times my height. More than that, probably. Like, I'm not exactly scared anymore, but it's still pretty intimidating to think about"

Logan paused for a second "I had never thought of that, is there anything that we could do to make you less intimidated?"

Roman smiled "Not really, but thanks for the offer. Now, did you want to talk about anything in particular?"

They talked for a while, staying in the area between the minds, but one question was slightly more memorable

"How exactly did you get cursed?" Roman looked down

"That's... well, it's not really a long story, but it is kinda complicated. Are you sure you want to know?"

Logan nodded, and Roman laid down on his back, just wanting to look at the sky. The sky in-between mindscapes was full of stars and constellations that Roman only recognised from his late-night trips out of his house, and ones that he knew and could name and tell you the myths behind them. He started his explanation with a sad smile

"The first thing to know is that it was a fairly common type of curse back then. A sleeping curse, but always with a way out to avoid sleeping too long. The most common way out, unfortunately, was 'True Love's Kiss'. I, personally, do not have those types of feelings, and ultimately ended up spending years and years sleeping. It wasn't even my fault I got cursed, by the way, I was a baby when it got placed, and it was because of my parents making bad decisions. So, yeah. Got raised with the knowledge that one day I'd enter an extremely long nap, with the only way out being someone 'destined for me' to kiss me whilst I was sleeping. Not the most comforting knowledge in the world, if I'm being honest" he ended his explanation with a groan

He started to sit up, noticing Logan staring at him. He looked down, why wouldn't they be staring, he had just dumped a whole bucket of his trauma onto them almost completely unprompted. On Logan's part of the mindscape, it started raining

"I.. Roman, that is horrible. I am so sorry you ever had to go through that. No one in the world could do anything that could warrant that happening, and you definitely couldn't do anything like that. I am so sorry that this whole thing ever happened to you" Their gaze was sympathetic, and it took all of Roman's concentration not to start crying right then and there.

Logan slithered closer, arms offered in a hug. Roman accepted, managing to calm himself enough that the tears drew back naturally

The naga held him close, almost like the way he had seen one of his friend's parents do to them. He relaxed into the hug, finding it comforting, despite the coldness of the scales

After a few more moments of the hug, Logan posed another question

"Would it be okay to look at a few of your memories? It is completely fine if not, as they are personal, and I would understand, but I am quite curious on what life was actually like"

--

Logan had never felt stronger parental instincts in his life. The way Roman had explained it so nonchalantly, like it was normal to be raised knowing they'd either sleep several millennia, or have someone wake them up with a kiss.

It truly was horrendous that this was normal for them. He pulled them into a hug, and they reciprocated the gesture. He soon got an idea that might help him to see what other messed up stuff Roman would consider normal

"Would it be okay to look at a few of your memories? It is completely fine if not, as they are personal, and I would understand, but I am quite curious on what life was actually like" He pulled away from the hug slightly, looking down at the human. They may not have been as small as they usually were, but they were still shorter than Logan

"Uh, sure. Go- go ahead"

They started walking towards the flickering structure, and Logan realised how big it actually was. Considering the fact that it was proportionate to Roman at that moment, Logan had to do some quick calculations, but eventually figured out that it was just about 3/4′s of his height

They walked inside, and Logan looked around. He knew that minds tended to take the form of the person's home, and he was in wonder at what was once Roman's. They got to a corridor that was labelled 'Memories' and started travelling down it.

There were no memory doors or passageways for a while, until they got to the end of the hall and it split in two, each section labelled 'Then' and 'Now'. Roman started leading him down to the 'Then' section. There were memories everywhere now, labelled helpfully. Some doors lead to separate rooms, like a room labelled 'friends'. Another room was labelled 'parents'

Logan opened that door hesitantly, going towards a memory window. This one showed Roman as a child, smiling and laughing and playing happily, only for an older woman to come up from behind them, scowling

"Roman, I don't know how you ever think you'll attract a bride or groom with a laugh like that. You are a prince, act like one,"

Child-Roman looked down "Sorry, Mother" They weren't laughing after that

Logan went towards the next window. Roman seemed a little older in this one, and was sat in front of their parents already looking down as they scolded him

"We go out of our way to get you the best tutor in all the lands, and you refuse to pay attention?" Roman protested at that, but was silenced by a glare

"It is bad enough that you keep meeting up with those commoner 'friends' of yours, but now you insist on having the wits of a common man? After all we do for you?"

Roman looked down "I'm- I'm sorry, Mother, Father. I'll do better"

Logan's heart ached at that, no wonder Roman seemed insecure all the time...