#virmus

A small toddler laid curled up in the arms of the snake boy, eyes half open and hands balled into fists around the small cape that the teen wore. A child, who looked maybe 10, was standing next to the other, looking down at the child. His arms were covered in a striped sweater and black surrounded his eyes. “Romulus…?” His purple and green eyes bore into the tiny child that was bundled up in Janus’ arms.

“Partly, but it’s only part of who he was,” Janus, after the stress of recently, didn’t have the heart to lie to Virgil. It wouldn’t help the situation, he had to keep his self control over the part of him that made him who he was.

A fond, yet weak smile came over Janus’s scaled face, “Dear Romulus… what to say to you?” He breathed, holding the child closer, who was sticking his tongue out and blowing raspberries at the pair in front of him, causing them to smile more. “You have his eyes… you have his name… when you came into the world you cried… and it broke my heart.”

~

Janus had been the castle of creativity at the time of the split, looking up at their king, who took the form of a teenager, the same age as the host none of them had met, Thomas. Sides grew alongside Thomas, though most weren’t the exact age as him and grew faster.

He had been standing there, with his counterpart, Morality, or Patton as he called himself. They were both looking up at their sickly king. “Your highness, you look *wonderful*,” Janus’s lie had slipped from his lips as he looked at Romulus, his usually cold, distant eyes full of soft concern.

Romulus had looked down at them, with the eyes that had been off for months. While his eyes used to be a soft, brown that constantly had a spark of mischief within them. His eyes had shifted as of those last months of his existence and were now heterochromatic as both Virgil and Janus’s were, one of a bright red and one of lime green, which now held a sickly, dull exhaustion to them, “Whatever,” was all the king had managed through the splitting headache that felt like he would tear in two.

Romulus let his eyes slip shut and as he did his form started to shift and shrink and tear. As it started, an unearthly scream left the lips of the splitting king, sounding like the desperate scream of a man who didn’t want to die. The loud, piercing scream soon increased in pitch. And in quantity. Janus had sprinted forward with an alarmed, concerned cry, falling to his knees by the king's side, but it was too late.

Now sitting on the throne were two toddlers, both looking remarkably like the now fallen king. One had the white swoop of hair that had been on the king, while the other had the smile. Both were still screaming and crying as Janus looked back at Patton with an alarmed expression that the moral side had never seen on Janus after that day.

Patton rushed forward from where he had been frozen in shock, kneeling next to Janus, his eyes soft with concern as he looked down at the small children. “I’ll take them- they’ll be safer with Logan and I-”

“Yes-” Janus paused and cursed under his breath, “No. I mean no. We won’t let you take both parts of the king. W-We take one… you take the other. If the king split… then he did it for a reason. They should… stay separate.”

Patton looked at the boy next to him, opening his mouth to argue, though before he could, Janus already scooped up the one with the white swoop of hair. “Take the other one,” Was the last thing Janus said to Patton in a long while as he sank down with the part of Romulus that would later be known as Remus.

~

“I’m dedicating everyday to you,” Janus murmured as he watched Remus, now known as Remus, run around the part of the imagination that belonged to the intrusive side. Remus by now had taken the form of a child, around maybe eight “Domestic life was never quite our style.”

Janus glanced at Virgil, who was sitting perched on a ledge with his knees to his chest, watching the small child with the protective stare of a parent. “When you smile… you knock me out I fall apart and I thought I was so smart…” breathed it’s way past Virgil’s lips.

~

“You will come of age with our young mindscape.”

Virgil and Janus watched as Remus grew up, into his own person. They watched as he was supposed to mature, as he made his own decisions on what to do. They watched him grow alongside them and Thomas.

“I’ll bleed and fight for you,”

Virgil was always there for Remus, there when someone or something wronged him and something needed to be punched or fought. He would go to great lengths to protect his little family. No one would hurt Remus or Janus and Virgil, at the time, would make sure of it. They were the only people he had.

“I’ll make it right for you,”

Janus tried his damn best to make the mind fair, to make the light sides see their side of things. He wanted a fair, equal life for himself, Remus and Virgil because the light sides screwed them over, made them feel like they were evil every chance they got. Janus always promised Virgil and Remus that someday he would make the mind right, but even now, Janus still hasn’t completed that promise.

“And if we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it onto you, we’ll give the rights to you.”

They tried to give Remus a stable home, but that was hard when Remus’ guardians were a pathological liar and a mentally unstable emo. They tried to lay a good foundation, tried to find a way to give Remus the same rights as the other sides, as his own twin, to be able to rise up in the real world, to be able to interact with Thomas. They still haven’t succeeded.

“And you’ll blow us all away, someday. Someday.”

As Remus grew into his immaturity, Virgil and Janus weren’t strong. They were blown away with what Remus did, shocked and slightly proud as Remus developed more violent tendencies. Remus had all he needed to survive in that unfair mind, but the pride slowly turned to unsettlement in his behavior. The lewd jokes, the imagery he would send the other sides and Thomas. Soon they weren’t as blown away by their trash child, only unsettled and even Virgil was starting to fear him.

~

“Ooooh-oo!” Patton softly sang to the small child in his arms, making the toddler smile the same bright and happy smile that used to dawn the king’s face, “Rommy, when you smile I am undone, my son!” He giggled at his own nickname for the small child, smiling down at him.

Footsteps approached the living room and Logan walked in, holding a gameboy as he sat down on the couch, looking up at Patton slightly behind his own thick framed glasses.

“Look at my son!” Patton exclaimed, holding up the toddler, who only smiled more and brighter.

“He’s not-”

“Pride is not the word I’m looking for!” Patton interrupted as he pulled the child back to his chest protectively. “There is so much more inside me now!”

~

Patton sat on a camp chair, watching Roman play sword fight with Logan, who didn’t see it as a game and merely as a way to practice sword fighting, though both were using wooden swords to duel. Roman looked about 8 now, a bandage over his cheek and one of his front teeth missing as he beamed at the logical side.

“Oooohh,” Patton sighed as he watched his boys, though his eyes were mostly on his pride and joy, Roman. “Roman, you outshine the morning sun, my son.” His eyes found the sky as he murmured that to himself, looking at the cloudless morning. To him, Roman really did shine.

Logan’s eyes were on the little boy he considered a brother, smiling very slightly at the happiness.

When you smile… I fall apart and I thought I was so smart.

~

“My father wasn’t around…” Virgil breathed as he stared at a picture of the man that Remus and Roman used to be. King Creativity. Known as the father of the mind. The first created. Someone he had never spent much time with

“My father wasn’t around.” Logan looked at Patton, across the field of the imagination, playing a game with Roman. Something Patton would never do with him.

~

“I swear that I’ll be around for you.” Patton promised Roman after he had come back from an ‘adventure’ with Logan in the nice, summery imagination that stretched around their portion of the mind.

“I’ll be around for you.” Janus breathed to the shaking form of Remus as the thunder clapped above the palace the dark sides resided in. He held him closer, a protectiveness to the hold.

~

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Virgil murmured as he stalked into the dark side of the imagination, holding a baseball bat in his hands with Remus behind him. Although he knew he was in no danger because he was with Remus, the place still freaked him out. This was supposed to be an adventure.

“I’ll make a million mistakes,” Logan murmured, sitting with a bleeding Roman who had gotten a face full of Logan’s wooden sword. He was gently disinfecting it as he murmured soft apologies, which from Logan, never really happened.

~

“I’ll make the world safe and sound for you..” Patton whispered to Roman as they sat on the couch, watching a horror movie that wasn’t really that scary. It was halloween and Roman was a smaller child, who had insisted on watching it.

“I’ll make the world safe and sound for you.” Janus said to Remus, kneeling in front of him after he had made yet another promise that the mind, someday, somehow would change. He didn’t know how, but he would change the mind one day.

~

“You’ll come of age with our young mindscape.”

Logan and Patton watched Roman flourish and his creativity skyrocketed, bringing idea after idea to Thomas throughout his short childhood. They watched as the child grew out of some, but not all of his childish, nonsensical ways. They watched him grow alongside Thomas.

“You will come of age with our young mindscape.”

Virgil and Janus watched as Remus grew up, into his own person. They watched as he was supposed to mature, as he made his own decisions on what to do. They watched him grow alongside them and Thomas.

“I’ll bleed and fight for you,”

Logan was Roman’s protector, the one who was always there to properly treat his wounds, the one who stopped him from being in grave danger. He fought for him and oftentimes bled for him, whether it be against Roman’s own creatures or a plant.

“I’ll bleed and fight for you,”

Virgil was always there for Remus, there when someone or something wronged him and something needed to be punched or fought. He would go to great lengths to protect his little family. No one would hurt Remus or Janus and Virgil, at the time, would make sure of it. They were the only people he had.

“I’ll make it right for you,”

Patton tried to make sure everything was perfect for Roman growing up, tried to make sure that nothing could cause him to think something was wrong, that everything was always fine, with both him and Logan. Everything would always be fine.

“I’ll make it right for you,”

Janus tried his damn best to make the mind fair, to make the light sides see their side of things. He wanted a fair, equal life for himself, Remus and Virgil because the light sides screwed them over, made them feel like they were evil every chance they got. Janus always promised Virgil and Remus that someday he would make the mind right, but even now, Janus still hasn’t completed that promise.

“If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it onto you, we’ll give the mind to you,”

Patton hoped that someday he could get Roman to take back the throne, to bring about the time that used to settle over the mind. He hoped everything he did made him turn out well and take back Romulus’ old spot on the throne.

“And if we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it onto you, we’ll give the rights to you.”

They tried to give Remus a stable home, but that was hard when Remus’ guardians were a pathological liar and a mentally unstable emo. They tried to lay a good foundation, tried to find a way to give Remus the same rights as the other sides, as his own twin, to be able to rise up in the real world, to be able to interact with Thomas. They still haven’t succeeded.

“And you’ll blow us all away, someday. Someday.”

And Logan and Patton were blown away by Roman, by how much he flourished and how much he grew. Logan could feel the jealousy and resentment boil up in him though, watching as Roman got attention and he didn’t and also the fact that they couldn’t be more different. Patton had been and always was proud of his boy, no matter what he did. Roman was his pride and joy.

“And you’ll blow us all away, someday. Someday.”

As Remus grew into his immaturity, Virgil and Janus weren’t strong. They were blown away with what Remus did, shocked and slightly proud as Remus developed more violent tendencies. Remus had all he needed to survive in that unfair mind, but the pride slowly turned to unsettlement in his behavior. The lewd jokes, the imagery he would send the other sides and Thomas. Soon they weren’t as blown away by their trash child, only unsettled and even Virgil was starting to fear him.