Twitterpated

Not Again

TW: Cursing. Fear mentions. Slight chase

After Janus gave him directions to the place he was almost certain Virgil would be, Roman padded down the long halls in search of him. The house was cool, nearly cold, but it felt nice as he sunk down from the lifeless stares of the portraits. He was fairly sure they were Virgil's ancestors when he got to the last painting.

It was wider than the others, with four people. The adults gazed out at him as if in disgust, even though he knew they couldn't see him. There were two children, a boy and a girl, who seemed less upset. The boy was about nine, looking to be at least three years older than his sister, with a half-smirk that Roman could not misplace. That was Virgil, alright.

But who was the girl? He'd never seen Virgil's sister or even heard of her for that matter. Of course, he'd only moved here a few years ago but that wasn't the kind of thing you overlooked...

A soft meow sounded from a few doors down, and his head snapped over before he walked to it. In the doorway of an unused room was a long tabby cat that Roman recognized as Virgil's emotional support animal. As soon as Roman was in her line of sight, a rumbling Missy threaded herself in and out of his legs.

"Aww. Heya, Mindy. It's wonderful to see you." He crouched down next to her, smiling softly. She pawed at his hand.

"You were close. It's Missy, though."

The tall figure that spoke stood in the door at the end of the hallway, causing Roman to stand alert. Missy trotted over to the shadow, climbing onto his shoulders with ease. After a minute of Roman staring at the silhouette in terror, the shadow started laughing.

He stepped forward so the sun shone on his face. "Calm down, Princey. It's just me," chuckled Virgil. "Didn't expect to see anyone on this side of the house and wanted to practice spooking people."

"So you can terrorize the little kids down the block?" Roman crossed his arms and glared at him.

"Yeah, actually. You're about as tall as them." He smirked.

Roman put his hand to his chest defensively. "Doth thou want to take this into nature?"

Virgil blinked. "Did you... did you just say Cash me outside in Shakespeare...?"

The other scoffed. "Shakespeare isn't a type of speech."

"No. That's verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs-"

"God. What a smartass."

"Oh, shuddup. What are you doing here?" 

"I was actually going to ask you that. What happened after I blacked out?" Roman seemed to sink into himself a bit, and Virgil let the slightest frown tug at his lips.

"... Well, c'mon. We can bring you up to speed in one of these rooms."

"We?" asked Roman, but quickly nodded when Missy mewed at him. "Correct. My bad."

"Your bad indeed, Princey. Now get a move on. Pip pip! We don't have all day, gov'na!"

"Did you just- what was that british accent- ACK!"

He squeaked and hit Virgil's back as the other threw him over the shoulder that Missy wasn't on. "You're too slow."

"So... then we brought you here and Re and Jan got some clothes that looked like they fit you and everything and... yeah..."

Roman nodded and messed with the carpet they were sitting on. "... Thank you."

"No need to thank me. I was just doing what any-" he was cut off by the other again.

"Seriously. You could have just left us there. And now you hurt your hands." He shook his head. "I would probably be in the hospital- no, a ditch- right now if it weren't for you. And as for Re... I... They would've...  Thank you."

"Hey, are those tears? Ro, it's okay. Nothing happened to you and-"

"No. I'm fine. It's alright." He pushed himself up and looked around at the fancy room. "I... I can get going now."

Virgil stared at him. "In that condition? I don't think so. You'll kill yourself."

"Yes, Virgil. I'm going. It's fine."

"Roman Duke, listen to me."

They started down the hall, Roman always ahead despite Virgil's long strides. Out-running people was his specialty, after all. "Princey!"

He darted into a living room, down another hall, through a large piano room, and finally into the kitchen. Remus's head snapped up from where he was practically holding Janus. "Ro? Are you okay??"

"I wanna go. Now." Roman started toward the door, picking up his bag on the way.

"Now?" He took a step away from Janus and looked at his brother incredulously.

"Now. You can stay. But I'm leaving."

"No. I don't trust you alone. Not again." Remus picked up his backpack and waved bye to the other two in the room. Patton waved back at him and Roman, while Janus nodded at them.

"Okay. Let's-" Virgil ran into the room, a panting mess. "-go! Now!"

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