#but if i wanna make it loop I'm gonna have to copy the previous ones you know how it is

[black-and-yellow]

What I got so far

Using Danny as a reference (10 points if you know which video) but idk whether I'll keep it as jim when I do the lineart or if I'll change it to Louis.

[im-an-anxious-wreck]

Memories Aren't Important... Right?

Chapter Five • Roman

Word count: 3646

MAI...R? chapter collection

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Roman looked up from where he had been writing on his laptop as Remus walked into the living room.

Remus stood several feet away and crossed his arms, chewing on his bottom lip, eyebrows knit together in worry. "So…"

Roman absolutely loved having his brother back, but it still threw gold for a loop whenever Remus addressed him.

"Yeah, Re?"

"You… you use neopronouns."

"Yes, I do. What about it?" Roman raised his eyebrows in question.

"Would… I mean… you wouldn't think I was just trying to copy you if… maybe, I don't know… if I also… maybe sometimes… used a neopronoun for myself?"

Roman felt his raised eyebrows drop and eyes soften. "I wouldn't think you're copying me at all. Use whatever pronouns make you feel the most comfortable, Re."

Remus visibly relaxed. "Okay. Thanks. I— maybe… I don't know, if you felt like it, you could use he/she/chaos to refer to me? I know that's a lot but—"

"Three isn't really a lot, but even if it was, I'd still use all of them. Your pronouns are important."

"I— thanks, Ro."

"Of course! Oh, I do have a couple questions by the way."

"Yeah, shoot, Ro-bro."

"Are you still using Remus? What about gendered terms? Like brother, Mr, etc. Also, do you want me to only use he/him around the others 'till you've told them?"

"Still using Remus." Remus tapped the side of her thumb against chaos' collarbone in a self soothing manner. "Brother is fine, maybe switch it up with sister sometimes? I… I think I'm bi-gender so both would… yeah. As for telling the others… maybe don't say anything quite yet. I'm gonna tell them in the next few days, and I think I'm going to tell Patton tonight, but I don't know about the others. I don't even really know them. It's just…"

"A lot?"

"Yeah."

"It's alright, I completely understand. And there's absolutely no rush in telling the others. You tell them on your own time."

"Could— nevermind."

"Yeah?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if… maybe you could try using them, just so I could hear them, but that's obviously stup—"

"That's not stupid at all!

"So something like, one time, Remus brought home a possum, despite me telling her not to, but chaos did anyway, and he had to take the possum back after it almost bit her."

Remus gave a watery laugh. "Yeah like that. Also I remember that. Mom was so mad."

"Hah, when was she not?"

"True.

"Hey, can I ask you something, er— two somethings actually."

"Of course."

"Did I come out to you before I lost my memories?"

"You did as pan, but not as bi-gender, or that you use she/chaos pronouns in addition to he/him." Of course, maybe Remus had known that stuff about himself and just hadn't told Roman because they were no longer on speaking terms, but Roman wasn't about to say that.

"Oh, okay."

"What was the other thing?"

"Do you wanna help me get ready for my date tonight? I have absolutely no idea what to wear," Chaos pouted.

"Oh! Of course I'll help! I'm not saying I know what Patton's wearing, and I'll make sure y'all are dressing on the same level… but I'm also not not saying that." Roman winked, making Remus huff and roll her eyes.

…

"Okay, so first of all, you absolutely have to wear something sky blue."

"Isn't that Patton colour— oh, I see."

"Yes, exactly. Now do you wanna dress more like a teen rebel, or a proper gentleman?"

"Well, I was thinkin—"

"A bit of both?"

"Yeah, then why did yo—"

"Just testing you!"

"...What?"

"Blue sparkly stud, or dolphin cuff?"

"Both," They both said at the same time.

"...Okay, if you just know what I'm going to say, then why am I even here?"

Roman laughed. "Okay, okay, I'm done. I was just messing with you. You've always chosen both slash all whenever you could, so it's pretty easy to guess when it's choices like those."

"Hah, you just like pretending you're a know-it-all because you remember all of college and I don't!"

"Rude! First of all, I don't pretend, I actually do know it all," Roman joked. "Second, I was this way even before college, and third… um…"

"And third, you didn't think this far!"

Roman spluttered indignantly. "And third! ...Oh! Do you want my help or not?"

"Aww, Ro-bro, don't be like that. Of course I want your know-it-all stuck-up help."

Roman began walking towards the door.

"No, wait," Remus tried to say through chaos' laughter. "Wait, come back."

"Okay, okay, I won't leave." As if he'd just leave Remus when she'd asked for gold's help… wait, that's exactly what he'd stupidly done. That's why Remus had hated him for those difficult four years. So, that's why Roman was going to do everything in gold's power to keep Remus close, happy, and ignorant of the last four years.

It was selfish, Roman knew that, but gold hoped that it was, at least, in Remus' best interest too.

"Ro-bro? You good?"

"Um, yeah. Sorry, just thinking. Uh… oh, which of these shirts do you prefer with that skirt?"

…

Roman had gotten Remus sent off on his date and now wasn't really sure what to do with himself. Everyone else seemed to be busy… well, everyone but Virgil, but Roman didn't think he'd particularly appreciate Roman's company.

Although… he didn't remember them not getting along before and had only been a bit bitter towards Roman because he thought he should.

Hell, it's not like Roman had done anything bad to Virgil personally, even before Virgil lost some of his memories. Virgil had only disliked Roman because Remus hadn't liked gold —however, Remus' dislike of gold had been far more justified—.

Maybe it wasn't too late for them to truly start over.

Roman went downstairs to see if Virgil was in the common area, and saw him draped across the couch, scrolling through his phone.

"Hello, Virgil."

"King."

Oh, so they were starting out cold, were th— No, Roman had to be the bigger person if he wanted Virgil to at least tolerate him.

"You can call me Roman, you know."

"And you can call me never, ya know."

"Well, geez, My Scaredy Cat Romance, I'm just trying to be polite."

Virgil incredulously, but finally, looked at Roman. "Wait, what did you just call me?"

"Okay, okay. Not my best work, granted, but I just… feel like we got off on the wrong foot."

"I wouldn't know, I don't even remember meeting you."

"Ah, that's true, but I meant the time you do remember. I'm not even quite sure why we didn't get along before, let alone now. Besides, this is like… a clean slate. We can just— start over."

Virgil sat up and scoffed. "Just start over? How do I know you didn't deeply wrong me and are trying to use this as an excuse to bury whatever you did to me?"

"Well, at least as far as I know, I haven't done anything to wrong you." Which was technically true, Roman hadn't wronged Virgil directly.

"...Fine, let's say you're telling me the truth, why does it matter? Why do you wanna, I don't know, get along? Why not just ignore me?" Virgil asked much more calmly than Roman would expect. He seemed more wary than angry.

"Well… I'm tired of us not getting along, and this… this is our chance to start over. I'm tired of you glaring at me like… I don't know, like I murdered your whole family."

"...That was kinda Remus-esque, but I'll allow it. Go on."

"I just… I know we naturally throw the conversation back and forth, but I'm tired of it being arguing, maybe… maybe for once it could, at least partly, be playful banter? I just… want to be your friend. No rush, of course! I know I'll need to earn it, but I do, I do want to earn it. I wanna earn your friendship," Roman had known something of the sort before, but it surprised gold just how much he meant it.

"I… think I believe you. And… well, I suppose we could play a round or two of Mario Kart, just to see if you give bad vibes though. And I'll…" Virgil sighed. "I'll try to push aside my suspicion towards you and see if you still piss me off. However, if I get bad vibes or you cheat, I'm shocking you, not like a lot! Just like a little… I'm not even sure why I said that. Shit, wait, I'm just making it worse."

Roman gently huffed. "It's okay, Stormcloud."

"I— Okay… that one wasn't as bad."

Roman beamed. "Thank you!"

Virgil shook his head a little, before his eyes widened in shock. "Ha, ha… and by shock, I meant static electricity… obviously… yeah."

Roman, knowing full well that Virgil had weather manipulation, and emphasis on the electricity powers, said, "Oh, really. That's weird, because here I would've thought that you'd use your weather powers to shock me, but I guess you don't have enough control to do that."

"Wha— hey! Of course I do. W— wait, you know about my powers?"

"Yep! Sure do, Water Drop."

"Okay, I guess you're not so bad if I shared that with you…"

"I mean, sure, but also you have purple eyes, and just about everyone knows what that means, but besides, you shocked me when we first met, so I don't really know how good of a test me knowing about your powers is."

"Hah, fair enough. Oh, I know, how'd I get my powers?"

"Um… let's see, weather manipulation… and your last name is Storm… probably a family power, but! Your electricity is far more developed and stronger… could just be you're extra good at that, perhaps because you're sparky and likely to commit arson— I mean, start fires."

"Hey!"

"Or, could be an accident made the electricity part of your powers stronger, oh, say, getting shocked by lightning?"

"I… I mean, yes, you're completely right, the weather manipulation runs in my family, and I'm especially good with electricity because I was shocked by lightning, but you didn't already know that. You just kinda guessed and deducted all of that, so it's kind of cheating, like, obviously I didn't tell you that myself."

"Heh, yeah. Fair enough."

"But… fine, I'll admit, begrudgingly mind you, that… it was rather impressive… or whatever."

"Thank you! …Or whatever.

"Oh, since I'm just such a chivalrous person—"

"And the moment is ruined."

"Hey, what I was going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, was that I'll let you pick your character first in Mario Kart."

"...Mario Kart?"

"Uh, yeah. You said we could play it together."

"Ohh… oh yeah. That's Right."

Roman just rolled his eyes. "So, what character do you wanna be?"

"Hmm… Yoshi."

"Excellent! And I'll be Princess Peach."

"...Wanna do a few challenges?"

"Ooh, bring it, Snowflake."

"Okay, that's just rude. Just for that, the third round is blindfolded."

"Wait, you do mean both of us, right? Not just me… right?"

"As hilarious as that would be to watch, no. We'll both be.

"Oh, second round we're switching characters."

"Like just choosing different ones or I play the one you had, and you play the one I had?"

"Second one. You'll play Yoshi and I'll play Princess Peach."

"Why don't I get to choose any of the challenges?" Roman asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Probably because you're literally pouting right now."

Roman realised gold was sticking his bottom lip out and gasped, dramatically putting a hand to gold's heart. "I was not!"

"You totally were!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Nuh-huh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty! …Can I go home now?"

"Hah, did you just quote Megamind?"

"You know Megamind?" Roman asked.

"Hell, yeah, I do."

"Wanna watch it after we're done with Mario Kart?"

"Absolutely! I mean… just 'cause there's nothing else to do."

"Mm, of course. Do you like popcorn?"

"Fuck, yeah, I do. Especially if there's M&M's to go with them."

"No way."

"Oh, come on, don't be a prat now. It's not that weird."

"No! I mean like, 'no way, you like that too!' I always get a bag of them to dump in my popcorn, home or at the movie theater."

Virgil snapped both hands and then did finger guns. "Ay, me too."

"Remus always says it's gross, but that's fair because he's mildly allergic to chocolate."

"Oh, yeah, that'll do it. Wait, does that mean that you're also allergic to chocolate?"

"Actually I'm not! Identical twins have about a sixty four percent chance of having the same allergy, but I don't share that one with Re."

"Huh… that's interesting."

Roman suddenly clapped his hands together. "Oh, hey, we should do a round where we're not allowed to use any power-ups."

"Ooh, good idea."

…

After Mario Kart —Roman winning three matches and Virgil winning two— they decided to make supper before starting Megamind.

They actually were… actually somewhat getting along? Sure their banter walked the line between mean and playful and sure, it did kinda dip towards the mean side more than it probably should, but it was an improvement! At least they were talking now.

Of course there was room for improvement, but Roman was quite happy with where they were at the moment. It was a start.

"You make me wanna chop onions," Roman teased.

"What, to make me cry? Jokes on you, they actually don't."

"Ugh, lucky, but no, I was gonna say so I could hide my tears of joy from laughing at you."

Virgil gave a weird, almost hiccup-like, laugh. "That doesn't even make sense."

"You don't make sense!"

"Well, you got me there, but at least I don't smell like you!"

"Hey! What's wrong with the way I smell?"

"Come on, you smell like… roses, honey, and chamomile, or some shit."

"Humph, it may be a bit floral for your taste, but at least I don't stink."

"Are you saying I stink?"

"Wait, no! I didn't say or mean to imply that. You smell just fine! Like lavender."

"Well, that makes sense. Lavender helps with my anxiety. Okay, but really talk… how do you even smell like honey? Do you drizzle it on yourself?" Virgil jokingly asked.

"Hah, no. It's an ingredient in my hydrosol spray."

"Oh, hey, mine's a hydrosol too. I didn't know you could add honey though."

"I hadn't either until I saw someone talk about it online and I was like 'hey, that's a good idea'."

There was a small pause before Virgil asked, "So, how's being a theatre nerd treating you?"

"Okay, you know what, I'll take nerd because that's just calling me smart, and two, how do you know I do theatre?"

"Wait, you actually do theatre? I was just joking. You do seem like the pretentious theatre gay type though."

"...I don't know whether to be offended or flattered by that."

"Both. Both is good."

"Wait, you know The Road To El Dorado too?"

"Yeah! Of course I do." Virgil's face lit up. "Okay, wait, I have another burn, what kind of roles do you usually get in the theatre? Tree three?"

"Oh, ha ha. Well, if you must know, my favourite and best role that I've gotten was Prince Charming from In The Woods."

Virgil started snort laughing and struggled to say through his laughter, "Oh, that's— so you! Amazing, you're e— even just as pretentious."

"Pretentious? That's a big word for Elmo."

"Hey, you prick! Just 'cause you don't know what it means, doesn't mean that—"

"I know what it means! If anything, you're using that word, but I don't think it means what you think it means."

"Wha— Princess Bride too! Do we just know every movie the other does?"

Roman huffed. "Probably! Copycat."

"Copycat! How dare you. These are all movies I saw before meeting you, even before I met you for the first time."

"Oh, yeah? How do you know that?"

"Because I wouldn't be able to remember them otherwise!"

"Oh, yeah. Good point."

"Shit! Princey, you gotta stir it!"

Roman turned back to the pan gold had left on the stove. "Ah, shoodle doodle! Fudge, I burned it."

"...Shoodle… doodle?"

"Nuh-huh, we're not gonna just blow past you calling me 'Princey'."

"Ugh, I just blanked out and forgot your name, okay? And we had just been talking about you playing Prince Charming and I was imagining you in a prince costume."

"Wait, why were you imagining me in a prince costume?"

"Uh, 'cause it was funny? Why do you think?"

"Well, if you weren't distracting me, I wouldn't have burned supper!"

"Well, if you had been paying more attention—" Virgil was cut off by the front door opening.

Janus and Logan stopped to stare at the mess in the kitchen.

"Dare we ask what happened here?" Janus asked.

"I…" Roman looked around at the flour all over the cabinets and floor, the burned flour in the pan, and the flour covered popcorn making stuff. "Actually no, no you don't want to ask."

"That's what I thought. Anyway, fortunately, we brought pizza."

"Oh, thank god." Virgil sighed in relief.

"But, I think you two should clean up all this flour before you eat."

"Aww, but Jan," Virgil whined.

"Virgil," Janus mimicked back.

Logan stood there awkwardly for a moment before he said, "I'm taking my supper outside. I'll just eat on the outdoor table."

"Ah, I think I'll join you. You two can come get your pizza when you're done."

After Virgil and Roman heard the back door shut behind Janus and Logan, they were right back to arguing.

"This is your fault," Virgil said.

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Nuh-huh!"

"Yuh-huh!"

Roman sighed. "Well, can we at least argue while we clean? I for one would like my pizza to still be at least semi-hot when I get to it."

"Your pizza? It's our pizza."

"Psh, okay, comrade."

"Я ем пюре. С новым годом."

"Oh, shut up. Now you speak Russian too?"

"Да."

Roman handed some cleaning supplies to Virgil and the both of them got to work. "Ugh, show off," Gold complained.

"Pff, shut up, Princey."

"Oh, ¿dices me a cállate? ¿Especialmente cuando ni siquiera puedes seguir lo que estoy diciendo mientras hablo esté rápido? Puedo decir cualquier cosa que quiero ahora y usted no tendría básicamente ninguna idea lo que estoy diciendo. Si esto fuera una competición, no eso está, yo estaría ganando."

"...Okay, I'ma be honest, I only caught like tres words."

"Hah! That means I win."

"Please, if you knew what I said, you'd be devastated."

"Then why don't you tell me?"

"Um… because it's funnier if you don't even know what it means at all."

"Hey!"

Virgil laughed and chanted in a singsong voice, "You're pouting again!"

"You're just jealous that my face looks this good!"

"Oh yeah?" Virgil challenged. "Well, speaking of your face, the only reason your face isn't ugly, is because it makes me think of Remus."

Roman gasped. "Fiend! You take that back right now!"

Virgil stuck out his tongue. "Make me!"

"You little—" Roman swiped at Virgil, who laughed as he danced away.

"Catch me if you can!"

Virgil slipped on a bit of flour and stumbled forward, landing against Roman's chest, gold's arms immediately flying around Virgil to steady him.

"Whoah, are you okay there, Doom And Gloom?"

"Uh… yeah. Sorry, yeah, I'm good." Virgil pulled away from Roman slowly, most likely in shock. "Um, sorry again."

"It's alright, Stormcloud. Always happy to help a damsel in distress."

"Pff, whatever, Princey," Virgil murmured, not looking at Roman.

They continued cleaning, mostly in quiet, Virgil probably silent in embarrassment or awkwardness, but Roman stayed quiet because his stupid gay heart wouldn't calm down, and he was actively fighting a blush, if the warmness in gold's cheeks were anything to go by.

It took way longer than it should've, but they finally and mercifully finished cleaning.

"Okay!" Roman said, clapping his hands together once. "We finally got the kitchen cleaned up after that absolute disaster of a gravy."

"Wait…" Virgil looked at Roman, something akin to disbelief in his sparkling, wine coloured eyes. "You were trying to make gravy?"

"Yes." Roman pursed his lips.

"You didn't even put any butter or oil."

"Is… is that a necessary part?"

"Uh, yeah. Also, what were you going to put the gravy on? We hadn't even started any meat."

"Okay, listen, I was too busy bantering with you to think everything through."

Virgil snickered, his eyes lighting up to more of a neon purple now.

Roman huffed. "Oh, shut up, Moonbeam. I didn't see you trying to help or realise any of that before it was already burned either."

"Did you just call me… I— dude, that was the gayest shit ever. Moonbeam?"

Roman scoffed and rolled eyes. "What, are you homophobic now?"

"No, I'm queer as they come, but Moonbeam? That was just the gayest thing I've ever heard."

"I— okay, fair, but—"

They both startled when the back door opened. A few seconds later, Janus walked into the common area and looked around the kitchen wearily.

"Ah, so you two at least managed to get the kitchen cleaned. Now pray tell, why weren't you two done faster?"

"Uh…"

"Well…" Roman hesitated.

"You two argued the entire time, didn't you?"

"Heh…"

"Well… I mean, really it was more like…" Virgil paused momentarily. "Mean playful bantering! Yeah."

Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sure, let's go with that… Whatever, you're done now. Go eat."

"Race you to the table!" Virgil called behind him as he dashed off.

"Hey!" Roman exclaimed, chasing after him. "No fair. You got a head start!"

-

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