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sandersidesbigbang · 3 months ago

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Where the Wild Wildflowers Grow

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Roman and Remus Crowfeather had been borrowing in the witch's house since before they could remember. With no parents or others of their kind they were alone, which was fine because they had each other. They looked after each other, they didn’t need anyone else.

And of course, that was when a rather annoying brownie fae who went by Vee (and nothing more, supposedly) came into their life. Another tiny resident in the house was certainly an adjustment to the twins, and despite the brownie’s friendship with the bean who owned the house, they were able to remain hidden.

That was until, one fateful day, an exiled leafman arrived at their door seeking shelter and safety. The twins had never met someone like Janus before, but he had sustained injuries they couldn’t heal and bore a curse they couldn’t break - even with Vee’s help. So in the end they have to break the one law they knew of their people and turn to Patton and his partner for help. Luckily for them, the witch isn’t exactly the squishing type.

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| Ao3 |

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Warnings: injuries.

Pairings: Roceit, background Logicality

Word Count: 9326

Notes:

Hello everyone!!!! This is my fic for the @sandersidesbigbang !!!!

I'm so excited about sharing this one with you guys! It's a very cute little fic about little tiny borrower guys :3

Huge thanks to my beta reader

@edupunkn00b

And of course a HUGE thank you to the wonderful artists who worked on this with me: @nonsensicalollie and @glacierruler ! You guys should absolutely go and check out their works!! (I'll update these links to go directly to their works once they've posted!)

Please leave a reblog and a comment if you enjoyed this fic! I'd really appreciate it <3

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“You can’t go out in that,” Remus said, looking him over and putting his hands on his hips. Roman gasped.

“You of all people can’t tell me I can’t go out in this,” Roman said, glaring at him as he tugged on the cut of red fabric he had fashioned into a cape, longer on one side. He personally thought it was really pretty, and he’d spent ages in front of the shard of smashed mirror he had managed to retrieve a few weeks ago getting it perfect, and now Remus was telling him he couldn’t wear it?

Remus huffed, glaring at him, “You can wear it, but you’ll fall straight on your face as soon as we go out, you know that right?”

“No, I won’t,” Roman protested, crossing his arms, his tail swishing behind him in annoyance.

“Suit yourself,” Remus shrugged. “We’re just after food today,”

“Nothing fun?” Roman asked, hopping up onto the little ladder they had built and scrambling up to peek his head out of the little mouse hole they used to check the hallway - the easiest way to check whether the bean was home, since his shoes were there. “I think we’re good,” he said - the bean’s favourite pair of shoes were gone, which meant he was probably out-out and not just in the garden - there had been a few close calls with that before.

“Okay - I mean hey, if we find anything fun we can go for it,” Remus shrugged, before tugging Roman off to the network of ladders and tunnels they had built in the walls to head towards the kitchen. Roman itched to check out the casting room - but he knew it would probably be a bad idea when they were just after food. Still… It was so tempting as they ran past the vent that led to the bean’s casting room - where he did all of his awesome witchy magic and kept his most fun little trinkets and knick knacks. Roman thought they were quite lucky to borrow from a witch, there were so many little things they were able to take - they could’ve gotten a lot less lucky, at least. Not only that - but from what Roman had seen the bean seemed quite kind - enough that Roman thought he might have a chance at talking his way out of being squished if he was found.

He didn’t want to risk it though.

As he cast his eyes over the room he noticed something odd - that wasn’t usually there, was it? He wasn’t sure why it was there, or what it was. Maybe Remus would be interested.

“Hey Ree - look at that,” He says, grabbing Remus’ tail to stop him before pointing through the vent, Remus sighed.

“Kitchen first, and then whatever you’ve seen, ‘kay?” he said, giving Roman a look. Roman pouted - usually Remus was so much more open to fun stuff - but followed anyway.

The kitchen was full of good spoils today. They had managed to get into one of the cupboards and now Roman’s bag was filled with whatever he could fit, Remus’ pack was equally filled with snacks before he was urging them to go back. As Roman ran across the counter back to their opening in the wall, something caught under his foot and he fell, landing straight on his face. Remus turned back to him with a smug look, because he had in fact just tripped over his cape.

“What’d I tell ya?” Remus said, crossing his arms and looking down at him. Roman huffed.

“That if I wore the cape I’d fall,” He said.

“Straight on your face, yup, and what happened?”

“....I tripped and fell on my face,” He said, upset.

“Mhmmm,” Remus said, “Come on, up you get, we can’t hang around and you wanted to check out the magic room, remember?”

Roman grumbled and whined but finally stood up, brushing himself off and collecting the crumbs that had fallen from his bag when he fell before hopping back up the stack of books into the plant pot that they could use to climb back into the secret gap in the walls. Quickly they made their way back through the tunnels to the magic room.

The room itself was always a bit of a mess. The bean lived in what seemed to be organised chaos, with jars and pots of things all over the place, bowls of crystals,jars of sea glass, jewellery, trinkets, bits and bobs of all shapes and sizes. They had an altar set up at the back of the room, and Roman knew that they used it often to talk to deities and do all sorts of things he didn’t understand. He passed a lot of time watching the bean go about their bean things, Remus didn’t approve of it, but he never got caught.

Next to the altar was a large plate that Roman had never seen before. On top of it sat a small pot of honey - small enough that he and Remus could easily lift it together and enjoy it for days - a bowl of what looked like milk or maybe cream and a bunch of fruits and nuts and berries - it looked practically like a feast to Roman.

“Look,” he said, pulling his brother down to his level so he could see too, “Over there, by the candles, you see that plate?”

“Oh - oooh yeah,” Remus said, eyes widening a little, “That could feed us for a week!”

“Going for it would be dangerous,” Roman pointed out - Remus hummed.

“Yeah… and it’s in the magic room - that’s…. It could be meant for someone else.”

“Someone else? But we’re the only ones that tiny here!” Roman protested, who else could the little plate possibly be meant for. “Maybe the bean figured out there were little people here and wanted to leave stuff for us?”

“A bean wouldn’t do that,” Remus rolled his eyes, “They want to kill us, remember? Squish us like all of the little bugs they find.”

“The spiders? I think they’re just scared of spiders,” Roman pointed out, “But we’re not spiders, or bugs.”

“Hm - you wanna be squished like a bug? With all your insides and everything?” Remus asked, raising an eyebrow and making Roman wince.

“Well - no - but they’re out right now, and you said it yourself, this could feed us for a week!” Roman said, excited, “Is it not worth the risk?”

“Well… yeah, let's go for it,” Remus grinned, going to push open the vent only for Roman to scream as something grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts - hoisting them off the ground. Roman shrieked.

“What are you two up to?” Said what looked to be a very disgruntled fae, holding the two of them up to eye level - the creature was bigger than them, maybe a little under twice Roman’s height. Roman thought they resembled a squirrel, with large ears and little whiskers, plus a large bushy tail curled around his legs with fluffy dark brown fur - Roman squirmed, trying to get free. It seemed Remus was trying to do the same.

“We were just - looking -” Roman said quickly. The fae raised an eyebrow, Roman smiled awkwardly.

“At?”

“The plate of berries and honey on the table -” Roman admitted - he was pretty sure he’d heard somewhere that it was a bad idea to lie to fae, though Remus gave him a look like he’d just doomed both of them, so he wondered if it would be a better idea to have just shut up.

“Those are for me,” the fae said, frowning at the two of them, “Not you.”

“How do you know?” Remus challenged.

“They’re offerings, is that not obvious?”

“Well we’re the ones who live in this house!” Roman said, “How were we to know they weren’t for us to borrow?”

The fae huffed, seeming annoyed - at least that’s what Roman thought the flick of their tail meant, “The two of you aren’t the only folk who live here,”

“Well we’ve never seen you here before,” Roman said, Remus gave him a look which very clearly told him to shut up, but he’s pretty sure he had dug his own grave at this point already, why not keep digging?

“Just because you’ve never seen me doesn’t mean I wasn’t there, but I’ve only been here a few weeks, that’s why,” The fae rolled their eyes, “House magic keeps us concealed when we don’t want to be seen, you two on the other hand, are really loud .”

Roman huffed, turning his nose up, “Well we don’t have the help of some fancy magic.”

“You could at least keep your voices down,” the fae argued.

“The bean can’t hear us, that’s all that matters,” Roman huffed.

They went back and forth for about five minutes before Remus butted in.

“So this is a great argument and all but like - can you put us down?” Remus said, “As much as I’d love for you to rip my shirt-”

“Shut up,” Roman said, before he could get any further with that sentence. The Fae looked unamused, but put them down anyway. With no care or grace, but at least Roman stood on his own two feet again.

Once he had recovered from being hoisted into the air, Roman looked up at the creature in front of them, who stood with their arms crossed looking just a little menacing, “So… what’s your deal, anyway? Are you some sort of house spirit?”

“I’m a brownie ,” they corrected them gruffly, speaking like it was obvious. Roman honestly might’ve preferred being eye level, they were so much more intimidating looking down on them like this.

“Like the food?” Remus asked, tilting his head.

“What? No - obviously not, do I look like a cake to you?” they spread their arms, Roman tried so hard not to giggle, he failed.

“Well no, that’s why I had to ask,” Remus said, crossing his arms, “So what’s a brownie then?”

“A type of faerie who guards and looks after a house in return for offerings, which you two were about to steal-”

“Borrow,” Roman quipped, the brownie just gave him a look. Roman decided to shut up pretty quickly after that.

“-though my relationship with the humans who occupy this house is a little abnormal for a brownie.” they finished with an irritated look in Roman’s direction.

“We won’t take the offering,” Remus said eventually, after some consideration, “We didn’t know what it was, honest.”

“Are the two of you really that naive?” they asked, Roman shrugged.

“We’ve never really left the house before…” he admitted.

“...And we don’t get close enough to the bean to hear his ramblings either so - yeah, kinda.” Remus finished.

The brownie seemed to hesitate then, before sighing, “Wow, okay, guess you two really are stupid-”

“Hey!”

“- I was going to say I can help you, but… well after how rude the two of you have been, I’m having second thoughts.”

“You’re the one who hoisted us into the air,” Roman said, “Besides, what did you mean when you said your relationship with the bean was ‘abnormal’ anyway?” Maybe he shouldn’t have mocked the faerie’s voice when quoting him, but he’d already done it now.

The brownie sighed, “My apologies,” He said, though he didn’t sound apologetic at all, “That is none of your business.”

“Hey! This is our house!” Remus said, “We’ve been here our entire lives! You owe us answers.”

“I owe you nothing,” The faerie hissed, Roman elbowed Remus harshly.

“Shut up ,” Roman whispered, “Debts and stuff are a big deal to fae! Nothing’s actually been done to incur a debt from any of us!”

“You would do well to listen to your brother, little borrower,” The brownie said, still looking vaguely upset about the idea that they owed the two of them anything. Roman was glad Remus listened to him and backed off for once.

Even then, though, Remus turned on him, “How the hell do you know that?” He asked. Roman sighed, hand coming up to rub his cheek.

“I… eavesdrop on the bean’s conversations with his partner sometimes,” He admitted.

“You what? ”

“I make sure they can't see me! I stay safe and everything it’s just - interesting.”

“The ‘bean’ - as you refer to him - is quite unlike others,” the brownie said, deciding to sit down in the vent passage, Roman sat too - because he found the faerie being shorter than him was even more disconcerting than them being taller.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that even if the two of you were discovered, I doubt you would be in danger.”

“Well thanks, but I’d rather not take chances with my brother,” Remus said, giving a glare to the fae before grabbing Roman’s arm and pulling him back up to stand.

Roman protested, stumbling a little before looking back at the fae - who was watching with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on Ro - I don’t trust this guy one bit.”

“Rude,” the fae said, Roman tensed before sighing and shaking Remus’ hand off of his arm.

“What’s your name?” He asked, before doubling back, “Wait - I can’t ask that, right? Fae have a thing about names - uh - do you have something I can call you?”

Luckily for them both, the faerie only seemed to look amused by that display, “You can call me Vee, but that’s all you’re getting.”

“Oh wonderful! That’s a lovely name,” Roman said, grinning.

“It’s literally a letter,” Remus deadpanned, “You can call me Crow, if you have to.”

“And you can call me Feather,” Roman said, delighted by the prospect of this faerie being a potential new friend.

—-

Vee quickly became a regular in their lives. To Roman, it started to feel almost like having a very sneaky older sibling. The brownie’s magic was odd. It allowed them to freely travel throughout the house without using their tunnels and passages, some of which would be too tight of a squeeze for them. It allowed them to pass through walls and get into places that were locked, they were able to open things far too big for them and close them the same way, it allowed them to make no noise at all unless they wanted to be heard.

After the three of them got over the initial territory issues that came from sharing their spaces with each other, Vee became a staple in their life. Roman didn’t know how they had borrowed before, without the call outs and warnings from the brownie, without being let know when it was safe to come out. Vee would often open cupboards for them, or help them get up somewhere their ropes wouldn’t reach, sometimes they would even help out with their borrowing, finding useful things for them to take, though they would never take them themself.

Even more intriguing - to Roman at least - was the fact that the bean knew that Vee was there. Obviously he knew this from the offerings that seemed to pop up every few days. When Vee was feeling generous they’d even give the two of them a few berries or fruit slices from the plate, on special occasions they would let the twins dip theirs in the honey before Vee took it. Roman didn’t know where Vee took the honey - but they definitely didn’t drink it in the house. Honey didn’t affect borrowers like it affected fae, but Roman had never seen Vee drunk, so he must’ve taken it out of the house to drink somewhere.

Outside of that, though, Roman had occasionally spotted Vee interacting with the bean face to face. It was rare that it happened, and even rarer that Roman was there to notice (Vee preferred to keep to themself, in Roman’s observations). Every time he saw Vee talking to the bean, though, he had always felt terribly anxious, but it always seemed to end well. Roman didn’t know what it was, but the bean seemed to like - or maybe just respect? Vee. Was it because they were fae? Roman had no idea. That was probably the abnormal relationship they had mentioned the first time they had met.

It had been a few months since the twins had met Vee and quickly they had settled into a new routine. Despite Remus’ suspicions, having the faerie around had benefited them both greatly, they had all the food they could want, they had been able to expand their little home, they now had separate bedrooms (they loved each other, but the bunk bed they had made years ago out of lollipop sticks and cotton wool had been getting old anyway). Their home had been very cramped before, and now Roman had his own space to build and sew and decorate in. that didn’t get in Remus’ way so much. Roman felt they owed a lot to their fae friend, but Vee had insisted that their debt had been paid simply by welcoming him into their home and befriending him as they had. It seemed that to Vee that was a good deed in of itself.

That didn’t feel like enough, though, so when his pants snagged on a loose nail in a passage one day Roman offered to fix them up, and when he got stuck in a tunnel that was just a little too small for him Remus clawed at the edges until he was able to get free. They helped each other, whenever they needed it, and by the time a year had passed, Roman felt like the two of them had an older sibling. It was nice, in a way, even if Vee wasn’t blood - he wasn’t even a borrower - to have family.

Life was perfect, Roman thought, he couldn’t wish for anything more.

And of course that’s the moment where something more flies - or more like crash lands - into your life and changes everything.

—-

It happened so fast Roman barely remembered it. One moment Vee was giving him a boost so he could snag some berries from the fruit bowl. Next, the window in the kitchen smashed, making Roman scream and Vee subsequently dropped him onto the counter. Luckily he was fine - he’d managed to stick the landing - but what the hell?

“What in the great blazes was that?” Remus asked, sounding just as bewildered as Roman felt.

“Maybe someone threw a rock?” Roman says, staring at the shattered window in shock.

“I don’t think so… I don’t see a rock - wait,” Vee said, hopping down from the counter and running across to the opposite one, nimbly picking their way across the counter where shards of broken glass were littered towards something else in the mess that glittered. Roman couldn’t see well enough to tell what it was until Vee lifted something - or rather some one - out of the glass.

They were unconscious, and clearly injured. Once Virgil got them back to the twins so that they could get a closer look Roman could see much more clearly that part of their face was bubbling angrily with some kind of… Roman could only think to describe it as rot. Their eyes were closed, their skin was a golden brown and their hair was done up elegantly with the tiniest petal crown, but it was a beautiful blond that seemed almost iridescent. The wings, too, iridescent dragonfly wings that shimmered in a rainbow of colours whenever they were moved. One of the wings was broken.

Roman was… quite enthralled. This person (Pixie? Leafman? Bugfolk? Roman had no idea). Enthralled enough that Remus had to elbow him in the ribs to bring his mind back to the current situation.

“Oh- uh - goodness - he looks hurt - we should - a bed, maybe, and some bandages?” Roman said, looking at Remus, who rolled his eyes and sighed.

“We don’t know what this guy’s deal is, he could be staging all of this just to jump up and murder us with his magical powers later,” Remus said, staring judgmentally at the poor thing in Vee’s arms. Vee sighed.

“He looks to be a leafman,” they said, looking at the two of them, “A protector of the forest - I - couldn’t possibly tell you what he’s doing here in this state, but he’s probably looking for help.”

“What happened to his face?” Remus asked, reaching to poke at it before Roman slapped his hand away.

Remus pouted and Roman sighed, “Don’t just touch strangers -”

“Vee’s touching him.”

“Yeah, because he’s gotta be carried by someone,” He rolled his eyes, “Don’t touch strangers unnecessarily , and it looks painful, I don’t want to hurt him more.”

“And it’s not that you don’t want me to touch the injured unconscious guy you were just making goo-goo eyes at because you like him, huh?” Remus said, earning a shove.

“Stop fighting,” Vee said, frowning at the two of them, “Do you have room in your home for him? He needs somewhere to rest.”

Roman nodded quickly, “He can take my bed - I’ll sleep on the couch until he wakes up.”

With a roll of his eyes but nothing more, Remus turned and waved for them to follow. The three of them quickly made their way back through the tunnels back to the twin’s little home in the walls. When they arrived Roman rushed into his ‘room’ (clambering up a few steps built using old matchboxes) and pulling aside a curtain of fabric into the little cubby. He adjusted his mirror shard where it leant up against the wall since he had bumped into it in his hurry and quickly made his bed more neat, pulling back the sheet so that Vee could follow him in (he had to duck to fit) and gently place the other down on the bed. He shifted in his sleep, making a soft pained sound as the wound on his face rubbed against the pillow. Roman ever so carefully crept forward and adjusted him so he would be more comfortable and pulled the sheet up to tuck him in. Taking a deep breath, Roman turned to the other two.

“Okay, okay, out,” he said, shooing the both of them with his hands, “Into the living room, we shouldn’t crowd him, let him rest.”

“Yeah, yeah. Alright, bossy,” Remus huffed even as he backed out of Roman’s room and went over to flop onto the couch they had made out of soft fabric and wool scraps. Vee followed and finally Roman, with a second glance back at the sleeping leafman, pulled the curtain closed again and went to sit with Remus on their sofa.

—-

“What do you think happened to him?” Roman asked softly, Remus groaned.

“For like, the fifth time, neither of us have got a clue,” He huffed, “You’re gonna have to wait ‘till he wakes up and hopefully doesn’t try and kill us, which, by the way, is probably what’ll happen when he wakes up and thinks he’s been fucking kidnapped-”

“We can just explain-”

“ Especially considering the fact that he seems to have enough strength to break a window even though he’s tiny !”

“Again,” Vee said, interrupting the brewing argument with their stupid reason as they always seemed to be able to, “He’s a leafman , which means he’s strong, and he was probably flying pretty damn fast to break that window - even with a broken wing - which is impressive - but he’s also injured, he’s probably not gonna want to fight if he can help it.”

Remus sighed, “Fine, fine, but if he attacks you guys I’m running.”

“Both of us know you wouldn’t do that,” Roman rolled his eyes, Remus just huffed and crossed his arms, sinking into the sofa and not saying anything else.

—-

It was hours until something happened. Vee had disappeared back to wherever he disappeared to, with a request to call for him if something happened. Remus had gone to bed, which was understandable considering it was late - so it was only Roman left in the living room. He might’ve been nodding off if it weren’t for the fact that this man was currently occupying his every thought. He really hoped he was okay.

But just as he was starting to nod off for real, the curtain was pulled open and his eyes shot up to meet those of the stranger’s - well, the one he could open, at least. His eye was green, such a bright, vibrant green, like a luscious plant in the height of summer. It was also a little reflective, Roman noticed as he turned his head to look at him, a little like a cat’s, glittering in the fairylights they had strung up around the rooms.

“Hi,” Roman said softly - maybe not the best thing to lead with, the stranger looked surprised, but a small smirk crossed his face before he flinched at the pain that expression must have caused.

“Hello,” He said, very obviously trying hard to move his lips as little as possible, but Roman thought his voice was beautiful, “Could you tell me where I am?”

Roman immediately snapped out of his thoughts, even shaking his head a little, “This is our home, mine and my brother’s - he’s sleeping right now,” He explained, “Uh - in the wider world, we’re in the home of the witch bean, I think his name is Patton - but don’t take my word on that - me and my brother are borrowers.”

“....I don’t see,” He said, before huffing, “Yes.”

Roman frowned, because that was a little weird, but he persisted anyway, “Our friend - well, I kinda see them as an older brother but they’re not actually related us, it’s pretty complicated - anyway - our friend is a brownie and they’re the one who brought you in here after you broke the window - oh! Do you remember that?”

“Oh yes, totally remember -that,” He said, before sighing, Roman tilted his head at the sarcasm.

“Um… okay,” He said, “Well - you smashed the bean’s kitchen window, and we found you unconscious and hurt so we brought you in here to rest.”

“Wow-” He said, “I knew I was capable of that.”

“...right?” Roman didn’t know what was up with this guy - he seemed nice enough, he just spoke… strangely, “Are you okay? I mean - do you feel okay?”

“Well my face is totally fine, and my wing doesn’t hurt at all?” he said, before groaning, tugging at his hair, “I’m not sorry - fuck- I’m not sorry.”

“Okay okay - I get it!” he said, raising his hands.

“No - no- not - I meant that - no - I’m lying on purpose right now - oh my god ,” He wrung his hands, starting to seem more and more frustrated by the moment, Roman stared, not even sure how to interpret any of this, “I’m totally trying to lie right now.”

“Hey, woah,” Roman said, standing up and walking over to him, his tail swished anxiously behind him as he got closer, holding up his hands, “Take a deep breath, okay? Are you - are you being forced to lie?”

“No,” He said, but he practically melted in relief, Roman smiled - pretty sure that meant that he'd gotten this right.

“Gotcha, so, have you always been like this?”

“Yes,”

“Okay… is it a spell? Will it wear off?”

“I- It will wear off, it’s definitely not a curse.” He said, frowning a little, Roman nodded.

“I don’t know much about curses… we can see what Vee knows later, if there’s a way to undo it,” Roman said, the stranger looked up, a glimmer of hope in his eye, “For now - what’s your name? I’m Roman!” he offered his hand to shake with a bright smile, the stranger hesitated before reaching to shake it.

“My name is not Janus,” he said, Roman grinned.

“What a lovely name not to have,” He chuckles, “It’s nice to meet you, Janus - oh! Would you like me to bandage your face?”

“Definitely not, my face is completely fine, it definitely won’t keep getting worse -” He said. That was… worrying, they’d have to talk to Vee about it tomorrow, see what he could do.

For now, all Roman could do was bandage it up, “Okay, come with me… we’ve got some things that might help just through here.”

Quickly he led Janus to the room of sorts that they used as a storage space for the bigger things they had borrowed. They had a jar - the smallest they could find, which was still up to Roman’s waist - of a sort of healing salve the witch had made. It had originally been for Vee, but they kept it here because all three of them knew the twins got in far more scrapes than Vee ever would, and besides, the three of them used this place as a sort of home base anyway. He grabbed some thread scissors and got to cutting some bandage from a roll they had borrowed - it was far too big for any of them to use in a way that was actually beneficial (though Roman had tried to make clothes out of it, it worked, but the texture wasn’t great), so he had to cut it down to size.

“Here, sit,” Roman said, pulling out a little stool fashioned from a bottle cap and gesturing for Janus to sit down, “I’m going to put some of this on it, okay? It might sting a little.”

“I’m not okay with that,” He said, whilst folding his hands in his lap and closing his eyes, leaning forward a little to make things easier. Roman marvelled at the trust Janus was putting in him for a moment, but he supposed this guy didn’t have much of a better option if this stuff on his face was going to get worse if it was left alone.

—-

“So… you can’t tell the truth?” Vee asked, glaring down at the other faerie creature in the room, “How odd.”

“He told me it’s a curse,” Roman said, looking between Janus and Vee, both of whom looked disgruntled. After Roman had given him those bandages the night before they’d both gone to bed, agreeing that it would be easier to get the others involved in the morning.

“Oh great, a curse,” Remus rolled his eyes, “Because we totally know how to fix that.”

“You do?” Virgil asked, looking at him in confusion, “I thought you two didn’t know magic.”

“We don’t, I was being sarcastic, dumbass.” Remus said, folding his arms, “But seriosuly - we gotta do something about your face, Mr. Glitter Sparkle, because that shit looks worse than it did yesterday.”

“No, it doesn’t, and I totally didn’t notice that,” Janus huffed, bringing his hand up to his face only to wince away.

“Don’t touch it !” Roman huffed, grabbing his hand and pulling it away, “You’ll hurt yourself - it might get infected!.”

“I’m totally fine,” Janus said, frowning, “And it’s not rot - and it’s definitely not gonna keep spreading until we find a way to reverse it.”

“And how in the blazes are we going to do that?” Roman asked, looking around at the other two. Remus face palmed and Vee groaned.

“I can… try some stuff, both for the curse and the rot, but I’ve got no clue if any of it’ll work, so just - don’t get your hopes up, okay?”

—

Whatever Virgil tried, it didn’t work.

He tried pretty much every spell he knew, every piece of magic he was able to perform, but nothing would lift the curse. The rot had been slowed down just a little by the bandages and the salve, but it wouldn’t last forever and Roman was growing more and more worried by the day - and more and more fond of Janus too.

“I know I don’t know you all that well,” Roman said softly one day as the two of them sat side-by-side on their little sofa, “But I… feel a large amount of fear when I think of what might happen to you if we can’t fix this.”

“Well - I totally don’t feel the same way, I have no regard for whether I get through this,” Janus said glumly. His wing was a whole other story, “But at least that magic salve of yours hasn’t bought us time.”

Roman hummed and nodded, leaning back on the sofa and sighing, his tail twitched anxiously by his feet. A few moments later, he shot up with an idea, startling Janus.

“Sorry - I had an idea,” Roman said, grinning. Janus just raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, “I… fear neither you nor Remus will like it all that much…”

—

“You want to reveal us ?” Remus practically screeched, making both Janus and Vee flinch, “Have I not - have we not - have I not told you the thing about the squishing and the guts enough times?”

“Ree please-” Roman said, trying to stay calm, “Look - nothing we’ve done so far is helping him,” he gestures to Janus, “ Except the salve that the bean gave Vee, so - so if that helps, maybe we’ll be able to convince him to give us more potent stuff? Or maybe he’ll even know the cure-”

“Squished! Like a bug! Do you want to know what it feels like when a fly gets swatted? Because I sure as hell don't!” Remus yelled.

“The witch wouldn’t do that,” Vee cut in, crossing their arms, “I would protect you guys, first off, and he wouldn’t anyway - the witch is incredibly kind to almost all creatures.”

“How would we even - communicate with it?” Janus asked, frowning.

“How -? I mean, we talk?” Roman said, rolling his eyes like that was obvious, Janus frowned.

“I realised it would be that easy,” Janus said, “Does it not speak another language?”

Shrugging, Roman shook his head, “No - I mean, I’ve always been able to understand him when he speaks to his bean friends when they’re here - sometimes he speaks in some other language when he does magic but I don’t think we’ll have trouble talking to him-”

“If you don’t mind being squished.” Remus interrupted. Roman groaned.

“If you don’t wanna go you can stay here and try and think up some other way to help Janus,” Roman said, glaring at his older brother. Remus grumbled for a second.

“Fine,” Remus said, “We’ll go along with your stupid plan, that way at least if he tries to squash us I’ll be there to say ‘I told you so’.”

Roman rolled his eyes, but still, with Remus’ approval, he turned to Janus and offered his arms. Realising seconds later that he had just offered to carry the leafman, Roman found a blush overtaking his face - even more so when Janus took the offer. Roman understood - the rot had been making him more and more tired as the days went by, it was now covering half of his face almost entirely and spreading down his neck. It seemed to be sapping his energy more and more the longer they left it. Carrying him would get them where they needed to go quickly, it was purely practical. Though, Roman’s face did heat up a little as the faerie snuggled into his arms.

“Alright lovebirds, if we’re gonna do this stupid plan then lets go,” Remus said as he marched out of the door.

—

Being the only one here who had actually interacted with the bean before, Vee went up first.

The plan was to have Vee explain the situation and introduce them, and if the bean reacted well the other three would come out too. Roman could feel a tightness in his chest as they crouched behind a bowl, just barely peeking over the top. The bean was sitting at his desk, working on some kind of writing with a large raven feather quill in hand, with which he was tapping his chin. The three of them watched Vee scurry across the floor of the casting room and deftly hop up onto the desk. Despite knowing that the bean already knew Vee, Roman felt his heart skip a beat as the brownie caught the bean’s attention. He put down his quill and smiled, turning to face him. Roman had to strain to hear their conversation, but luckily the room was quiet.

“Hey kiddo!” Said the bean, who was loud and hardly difficult to hear at all, Remus had to bite back a giggle at the look on Vee’s face at the address, “How’re you doing? You don’t usually come out like this? Everything okay?”

The bean’s immediate concern had Roman relaxing just a little bit. The bean wouldn’t squish him - he didn’t even think that in the first place, but it was still a bit of a worry - his clear concern for Vee settled that worry a little bit.

“Actually -” Vee started, taking a deep breath, Roman could see the way he was stood up straight, the way his tail was bushed up, he was clearly nervous, maybe the bean had picked up on it too, “I - kind of - need your help, with something… um- consider it in return for a favour.”

Both Roman and the bean seemed to share in their surprise. He shared a look with Janus, who had a similar look on his face - favours were a big deal to fae, taking something without knowing what you may have to give in return. Fae wouldn’t offer favours unless the situation was dire, the bean seemed to recognise that too.

“...Of course, kiddo, what’s going on?”

The explanation of the situation was lengthy, starting with Roman and Remus’ residence in Patton’s house, which he really didn’t seem all that surprised by, and ended with Janus and his curse. The last point of his explanation did seem to surprise him, but after a moment’s consideration he asked if he could meet them and Vee waved them over. That was their cue.

Roman adjusted his hold on Janus before hopping down from the table on which they stood and making his way over. He turned back and rolled his eyes when Remus didn’t follow. Groaning, Remus gave in and hopped down after him. The bean watched them in what looked like awe as Roman tossed a rope up to Vee - who began to hoist him up until he was standing on the desk in front of the bean. Roman had done his fair share of watching and eavesdropping, but the bean looked so much bigger up close, with fluffy golden hair decorated with a little band of crystals on string. Delicate looking - or as delicate looking as something so massive could be - silver rimmed glasses perched on his nose and he could imagine that his rounded face would be inviting if Roman wasn’t so tiny in comparison. He was a giant - and that only became more clear the closer he got.

“Woah!” he said, “Hello there.”

“Hello,” Roman said, eyes flicking between Vee and the bean just as Remus pulled himself up onto the desk using the fishhook he kept on his belt to use as a grapple.

“If you squish us, bean, I’m gonna ruin your life from beyond the grave,” Was the first thing Remus said upon standing up.

“...Okay well, good thing I’m not gonna squish you then, huh?” He chuckled awkwardly, “Yuu can call me Patton! It’s nice to finally meet you two!”

“Finally-?” Roman asked, frowning, that made it sound like…

“Oh! I’ve known there were borrowers in my house for years now,” He waved his hand, making Roman shift his stance so as not to be blown over. At least the bean - Patton - looked somewhat apologetic for it.

“You - you have?” Roman squeaked.

“How?” Remus yelled, crossing his arms.

“Well - the two of you aren’t exactly quiet,” Patton said gently, “And… not exactly tidy either - it wasn’t hard to figure out - now, who’s your friend here?”

“This is Janus,” Roman said, carefully setting Janus onto his own feet. “He’s a leafman - I think that’s what Vee called him anyway - um, he’s cursed.”

Janus nodded, before giving a small wave and a smile - as best he could with the rot on his face at least.

“Cursed?” Patton looked at the four of them, “I guess that’s what you need my help with, huh?”

“And definitely not this too,” Janus said, gesturing to the side of his face almost encased in rot now.

“He can only speak in lies,” Roman cut in when Patton looked confused, “That’s the curse - but we’ve all tried everything we know - even that healing salve you gave Vee that one time - but we can't fix either, and his wing is broken too - can- is there anything you can do?”

“I’m… not sure,” Patton said softly, “I’ve never treated rot before, but I’ll try my best, don’t you worry! And I know someone who can put your wing right as rain, kiddo, so don’t worry ‘bout that until we get this sorted.”

Janus nodded slowly, “I trust you - but I don’t want this stupid horrible rot gone, so I don’t want you to do what you can.”

His words seemed to take a moment to process, but Patton seemed to figure it out eventually and nodded quickly, “Got it! Okay - you three make him comfortable over here, I’m going to go grab some supplies.”

"And you say we're loud," Roman mumbled as Patton got up and moved around the room, bumping into multiple objects and pieces of furniture on the way and making all sorts of noise. Vee just gave him a gentle shove in retaliation for the jab and Roman smiled, "Okay, make this place comfortable he said, we can do that, right?"

Remus just shrugged and rolled his eyes, plopping down with his back to a tissue box. Roman huffed - Remus had always been stubborn - and looked around. The tissues from the box caught his attention and he grabbed a few of those, bundling them up, maybe he could use them to make a seat… he ran over to the stationary pot and grabbed an eraser, and then pried open one of the little storage containers on Patton's desk that contained an unorganised jumble of sewing materials. He grabbed a couple of fabric scraps and wrapped them around the eraser, stuffing the gap with tissue before grabbing a wad of sticky notes that was almost as tall as him to use as the back of the makeshift seat, repeating the same process before leaning it up against the tissue box. He picked Janus up again and placed him down on the seat with a grin, "How's that?" He asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"Absolutely terrible," Janus said, just making Roman's grin widen as he sat down next to him. The seat was only really big enough for two.

"Wow…" came a soft voice from above and Roman looked up to see Patton watching them with surprise, "That was-"

"I'm sorry!" Roman squeaked, "If I went overboard - you just said to get comfortable so I-"

"No, no hey! This is amazing!" Patton said, "I never would've thought to make a chair like that, you're very creative."

"Well- we kind of have to be when there's no furniture made for our size," Roman pointed out a little sheepishly.

"Still, that's very cool, though I wonder…" Patton started mumbling, words too jumbled to make any sense of them until he spoke up again, "Well - anyway, I’m glad you’re all settled, I gathered everything I thought might be helpful - I think we should start with the rot first.”

Patton’s first attempt - a spell in an odd language that Roman couldn’t even hope to understand - was a miserable failure, and so was his second attempt - a healing salve much like the one Roman himself had tried. He had said it hadn’t worked when they’d done it, but he had tried anyway to much the same results. After three more attempts - three different crystals - Patton sighed and sat back. Roman was fearing the worst, holding tightly to Janus’ hand without even realising he was doing it - though Janus was holding his hand back just as tightly, so when he did realise he thought it probably wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Okay,” Patton said with a soft sigh, “There’s one more thing we can try… I really didn’t want it to come down to this…”

“What is it?” Roman asked, eyes wide.

“If you hurt them…” Vee said, his tone dark. Patton’s eyes widened and he shook his head.

“Oh no no! It won’t hurt anyone,” He said, going over to a cabinet and pulling out a tiny vial, so small that they could barely see it from this far away, “It’s just… incredibly rare, and hard to get your hands on without hurting someone innocent, so… I try not to use it unless the circumstances are dire.”

Returning to the table, he placed the vial down in front of them. To Roman it was big enough for him to easily hold in both hands. The tiny, corked bottle contained barely a drop of softly glowing pearlescent liquid. It had such a warm and inviting aura, like it could be nothing but good. Roman walked over and carefully lifted the vial to look at it.

“What… is it?” Remus asked from behind them, looking at the bottle with a suspicious glare.

“It’s pure life magic,” Patton said, Janus perked up.

“Queen of the Forest totally isn’t the only one who can harness life magic,” He said, suddenly suspicious, “How did you get this?”

“A gift,” Patton said, raising his hands, “From the Queen herself - I didn’t steal it, or hurt anyone, if that’s what you mean, I swear - that’s why I barely have any - I can’t trust any witch who sells it.”

Janus relaxed a little and Roman walked back over and sat down with the bottle. Laying his hand against the glass, Janus sighed softly and relaxed a little more. It was like even the aura of the magic could calm him.

“You can drink it,” Patton said, “Maybe it’ll get rid of your curse too - take it slowly, though, I’m not sure what might happen if you drink too much…”

Janus nodded slowly, and then ever so carefully took the bottle from Roman, placing it in his lap. Roman watched, a little mesmerised, as the liquid magic sloshed in the bottle.

He removed the lid and Roman had no warning for the wonderful scent that would come from it, it smelled like a whole forest packed into a bottle, healthy, lush vegetation, soil wet from rains and flowers, so many flowers. Janus held tightly to the bottle and looked up at Patton.

“This is…” He said, frowning as he realised he would have to lie, “This is not sacred to my people - are you- are you sure I can have this?”

“Isn’t the purpose of this magic to maintain life?” Patton said softly, urging him to take it, “Wouldn’t your Queen heal you if you were still back home?”

Janus was frozen, as though someone had just hit pause. Roman watched him take a deep breath and let it out slowly as though it was in slow motion, “Yes,” He said, “She would.”

“See? You- wait-” Patton said, breaking the stillness of the moment as he remembered Janus’ curse, “Why wouldn’t she heal you? Isn’t her job to bring life to the forest?”

Tap, tap, tap went Janus’ fingernails against the glass of the bottle as he contemplated what to say to that. Eventually he took another deep breath. Roman reached to take one of his hands again and squeezed it gently.

“I am definitely a life they consider worth keeping in the forest,” Janus said, squeezing Roman’s hand, “That’s why they didn’t curse and exile me.”

“Oh sweetheart…” Patton said softly, “Well - you’re always welcome in my house, kiddo, and It’s my call what happens with that magic, and I say it should be used to heal you, okay?”

“They sound kinda like a bitch,” Remus said, crossing his arms whilst Vee nodded in agreement.

“Now there's no need for such strong language - but, yes,” Patton nodded, “I do agree with you, now drink up, before that gets any worse.”

“...Okay,” Janus said, softly, looking down at the magic again. Slowly he lifted the vial up to his lips and Roman reached to help tilt it back. Just a few sips of the liquid had the rot receding, leaving a dull grey mark where it had been on Janus’ skin but no other trace.

Without thinking, Roman reached to brush his fingers across the newly recovered skin. It felt normal, aside from the colour, it was as though nothing had happened to it at all. Janus stayed perfectly still as Roman ran his fingers over his cheek and down his jawline to cup his face before he realised what he was doing and pulled away with a mumbled apology.

“It’s okay,” Janus said softly, and Roman ducked his head further, gods above - that was weird, wasn’t it? Had he just wrecked everything? “Wait - Roman-”

Janus’ hand was on his face - turning his head to look up at him - both of Janus’ eyes were open now and Roman couldn’t hold back the soft gasp at the striking yellow colour of his other eye. Bright like the sun, or a buttercup, such a beautiful colour.

“I - I meant that,” He said, “It’s okay - Roman - I think- I think that broke the curse too!”

“It was that easy? Really?” Remus asked, throwing his hands up, “Seriously we’ve barely been here twenty minutes and you’re already fixed? I mean come on! Where’s the adventure! The thirty more chapters of nitty gritty suffering? He’s just fixed just like that?”

“It almost sounds like you’d rather I stay injured, Remus,” Janus said, raising an eyebrow. Remus groaned.

“I mean obviously it’s great you’re fixed and all but like - what a boring ending!” Remus huffed, “Roman didn’t even confess to his big gay crush on you while you were dying in his arms or anything! Talk about shitty storytelling.”

“Now now,” Patton said, taking the vial back from Janus when he held it up, meanwhile Roman was bright red and stammering from Remus’ comment, “It’s not all over yet - we still have that wing to sort out.”

Remus let out a loud groan and slumped back against the tissue box. Vee laughed and ruffled his hair, much to his displeasure.

“Wait, before that, can we uh - go back to what Remus said-” Janus said, putting up his hands.

“Which part?” Patton asked, tilting his head.

“The part about Roman and his ‘big gay crush’,” Janus said, doing quotation marks with his fingers, Roman groaned, curling up and hiding his face with his tail. Janus chuckled and carefully pushed his tail fluff out of the way, “Hey, why’re you hiding, darling?”

Roman choked and pulled his tail back over his face, “Embarrassing! Shut up! Wasn’t ready to tell you yet…” he whined, Janus burst out laughing and patted his head.

“And what if I had a big gay crush on you too? Would you look at me then?” Janus leaned down to whisper, making Roman squeak and stammer again.

“You- wait - really?” Roman asked, peeking up at him to see Janus’ beautiful smiling face and oh lord he was going to pass out.

“You two’ve been acting like you’re in love pretty much since he got here,” Vee pointed out, gesturing to Janus, “It’s kinda obvious and really really sappy.”

“...Am I really that obvious?” Roman asked, looking around at the others.

“Mhm,” Vee said, even Patton nodded.

“You’ve been making goo-goo eyes at him constantly since we found him.” Remus said plainly. Roman winced and his blush got stronger.

“I hope I didn’t come off as weird or - creepy or something,” Roman said awkwardly looking up at Janus, who smirked and leant forward to press a kiss to his cheek.

“You didn’t,” He said, “It was cute.”

Yep, this was it, Roman was dead. Right up until Patton coughed awkwardly to get their attention.

“As adorable as this is - we really do need to get that wing fixed up as best we can until my partner can look at it, okay?” He said, “Just so you don’t damage it any more.”

Janus sighed and nodded, gently nudging Roman to sit up so that he could use his shoulder to stand, “...Okay, who’s your partner?”

“He goes by Logic to strangers,” Patton said happily, “But he works with insects and small creatures all the time, I’ve seen him fix up injured bugs all the time, he’ll know how to help your wing.”

“...Right,” Janus said, not sounding sure in the slightest, “So what are you going to do then?”

“I’ll just put a temporary splint and some bandage on your wing to hold it in place for now, once Lo gets home later we can take another look at it,” Patton said, turning in his chair to rummage loudly through another drawer, “Aha - here we go, now, if you could turn around for me…”

—

Janus’ wing was finally starting to look healed three weeks later.

The time between them had been spent much the same as all of their other time. Roman had helped Janus adjust to wingless travel as best as he could, showing him around every nook and cranny, teaching him how to climb safely and getting him his own ropes and supplies. Janus was good at jumping and climbing anyway. He had been a soldier for the flower people before being exiled, so he made a very good borrower, even if he wasn’t really.

With Patton aware of their existences, their lives became harder and easier in equal measure. It was much harder to sneak around now, and while Patton was happy to give them anything they needed, it made their lives a whole lot more boring in Roman’s opinion. The actual borrowing was part of the fun - even eavesdropping had lost its appeal since Patton would be happy to have him as part of the conversation anyway. But - looking to the bright side, that had left him time to focus on other things. He had found a piece of graphite and gathered some paper scraps to draw on and started attempting to do some kind of art - he had drawn Janus once and decided he couldn’t possibly capture his beauty at all adequately and gave up despite Janus’ protests. Now he just stuck to drawing interesting things he had found.

After the checkup Logan had done on Janus’ wing today, he had announced that it was almost done healing and that they should start with some light physical therapy to get him using them again. They had spent hours on wing exercises - opening and closing them, little flutters, nothing that would get him off of the ground, of course. Though, with the disuse, Janus’ wings weren’t getting him off the ground anytime soon without practice.

So they kept practising, and a month later Janus was able to lift himself off of the ground, holding Roman’s hand and fluttering around him in a circle. A month after that he was able to fly like nothing had ever happened to hurt him in the first place.

Roman had been worried he might leave, but when he expressed it Janus had kissed him and called him silly. Why would he go back to a society that exiled and hurt him when he had a loving partner and family who cared about him right here?

Everything was perfect. Really perfect now, and maybe saying it so much would get annoying, but Roman really wouldn’t ask for anything more.

He knew he’d said it before, but he meant it for real this time. Now life was perfect.

With his brothers and his partner and Patton and Logan to protect them… now he really couldn’t ask for anything more.

Remus still wished there had been a little more action, though.

----

Tags: @full-of-roman-angst-trash @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess @glacierruler @roseianxiety @bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti @scalesfeathersnfur @oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat @littlerat2 @goldnskyart (if anyone wants to be added, let me know!)

#thomas sanders sides big bang 2024 #tssbb #tssbb2024 #thomas sanders sides big bang #sanders sides fanfiction

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