Roman and Remus were both in the bathroom. They were wearing the same outfit in inverted colors. Roman was wearing a white suit jacket over a black dress undershirt and white dress pants with black shoes. Remus was wearing the same thing, but inverted. (Black jacket, white shirt, black pants, white shoes.) Their hairstyles were the same, and they might as well have been Ken dolls. They looked identical, and their father made Remus take off his fake mustache- then shave off the real mustache underneath. 

Roman walked downstairs with Remus. Lark- or, right now, Vanessa- was sitting downstairs, forcing polite conversations with Rachel Prince. Lark was wearing a white fade into black dress that goes up to their knees that goes with Roman's outfit. Their dark wavy hair swept to the side and spilling over their left shoulder just past their breast and a few strands escaping down their back. Their silver, slightly sparkly, eyeshadow and black eyeliner complimenting their gray eyes.

Charles Prince smiled, "Alright, you three are gonna be the focus of the press for a long while, so you can't slip up. Got it? Roman, here's what you'll say, memorize it before we get there," he hands Roman a stack of index cards.

"Y- you want me to memorize all of this in 15 minutes????"

"Is there a problem?"

"W- why didn't you give this to me days earlier- or even just yesterday?"

"Are you questioning me?"

"I- No, sir."

"You are a child, Roman. You don't have the ability to understand what I do. Now, memorize those lines, and don't mess up."

"Yes, sir."

Remus scowled. They're 17, geez.

Lark hooked their arm around Roman's as they walked to the nice black car, Remus climbing in after them. Roman spent the entire car ride reading and reviewing the index cards. He tried reading them aloud, but his mother yelled at him. 

It was a long ride, but not long enough. 

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Roman stood on the platform behind the podium, cameras and microphones in his face. The crowd that paid to be there was cramped and hot and was he sweating?

"Hello, everyone. If some of you somehow don't know, I am Roman Prince," The crowd laughed at him needing to introduce himself. God, Roman's smile hurt by now, "We're here because my family and I would like to introduce two people to the public. First, is my," Roman forced himself not to cringe and ignored the guilt sitting in his gut as he misgenders and dead names Lark, "My new girlfriend, Vanessa…" Deep breaths, Roman. You're not actually in a relationship, and Lark told you that they're okay. 

Lark stepped up next to Roman, their smile dazzling the room as it roared, asking them both questions. Lark just laughed and smiled as Roman tried to clear his head. Roman hates improv, it terrifies him. If he says the wrong thing he's in big trouble. It's safest just to script everything.

Roman fidgeted with the cards in his hands as he answered questions with answers he hoped both his parents approved of, Lark helping out occasionally.

After about an hour, give or take a few minutes, he managed to get the flow of questions to die down enough to move on.

Roman threw up a laugh through his smile, "Haha, alright alright. You can bombard us with more questions later, but we have one more announcement. Some of you caught wind of rumors of a hidden member of the Prince family. Some theories think it's an older brother or sister that ran away from an unhappy, or even abusive life. Some theories think my mother cheated and had a bastard, and hid the child away. Some of you guys had crazy theories about my parents not wanting a second child and killing it or we kidnapped a baby from a competitor and keep them in the basement. Well, sorry to disprove your hopes of my home life being quite so complicated and secretive," Roman turned and waved Remus over, who no one seemed to take notice of, 'till now. His grin dreamy with all the dark rumors about him, "Everyone, please meet Remus. He's not runaway, kidnapped, or dead- the life of fame just wasn't really his style and he wasn't a fan of having fans," Some people laughed, but most people started obsessing over Remus and the roar in the room drowned out the laughters, "He is my twin brother."

The introduction of Remus caused much more uproar than the introduction of "Vanessa". Roman didn't really pay attention, though, his nervousness got to him and put him on autopilot. So many questions…

Didn't he already explain why Remus didn't appear until now? Why is his love life any of their business? Am I a good brother to him? No, but they both say yes. Roman finally snapped back to it in the car when he could finally breathe. God, that was suffocating…

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Roman was pulled into his father's office, and he wasn't happy. God, what did Roman mess up?

"Why were you fidgeting the whole time?"

"I-I was nervous, sir..."

His father barked, "Pathetic! Are you a man or aren't you?"

"I am, sir."

"Really? Cause you sure don't act like one. You act like a little girl, I have to hold your hand through everything as you fidget with your hair because you're a little shy."

"I-I'm sorry, sir…" Roman forced his hands to stay still.

"Stuttering, too? Are you ever brave and strong? The doctors told me I had a boy not a sissy."

"I'm- "

"Put both your hand on my desk."

"Sir?"

"Do it, and don't move unless I say you can."

Roman hesitantly put his hand on his father's desk, palms flat down.

"Don't look away, and if you flinch I'll slap your chubby little face."

Roman trained his eyes on his hands, the fear, guilt, and fatigued in his stomach seeping it's way into his veins. Roman watched as his father brought a belt down on his hands until they were red and throbbing, the buckle scraped a few places and he started bleeding as his hands were wiped raw and he couldn't pull or look away. 

Roman must have flinched his eyes closed because one moment he was seeing black, the next, rough leather stung his face.

He doesn't really know how long he was there, his father whipped his back a bit for tensing and he wasn't allowed to go to his room until he was relaxed through the pain, dealing with it "like a man".

His stomach felt sick and his whole body felt uncomfortably light as he stumbled his way to his room. He felt like oxygen wasn't getting into his bloodstream when he breathed in, no matter how deep he tried. He closed his eyes for a second, but when he opened them everything was muffled in sound and sight. It was dark...Roman wanted to go to sleep, but at the same time, sleeping terrified him and made him feel sick. His eyes demanded to be closed but when he did he saw a vast darkness rather than the inside of his eyelids. 

Roman settled laying down on his bed, and his head started to feel a little clearer. He could finally see properly and he didn't feel like his mind was trying to turn off. He was still tired, though. So he went to sleep.

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planning