Roman was carried out of the closet by his brother the next day, when their parents left. Remus helped him stretch his legs soothe his aching muscles.

"Roman…"

"Don't."

"No. Roman, this has gone too far. This is so much more than some OCD or paranoia. This is abuse."

"Oh, shut up," He huffed, "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm eccentric, Ro, not dumb. You're miserable and you know our parents are wrong."

"I'm perfectly fine, Remus. Mind your own business!"

"No!" Remus exclaimed, "You- we can't keep living like this!"

"Like what?"

"Like empty puppets! You need help and to get away from them!"

"I'M FINE REMUS! YOU WERE OKAY WITH SEEING THAT FOR YEARS, WHAT CHANGED!?"

"YOU DID!"

…

"I did. Ro, we all did. And you need help.

"What do you know?"

"I know we discovered our sexuality at 10, you love red and gold, Disney is your drug, you wanna be an actor, singer, author, playwrights, and an artist. Taylor Swift and Panic at the Disco are your guilty pleasure. You feel like everybody is against you, sometimes, so you play up the role of a villain as a form of self preservation. Because mom and dad hurt you if you don't. Lark and you aren't even dating, you're just trying to please our parents."

"Those were childish dreams, Remus! I grew up!"

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING GROWN. NOT AT 16 AND CERTAINLY NOT AT 11 YEARS OLD. Something happened."

"No. Nothing," Roman winced at his headache and Remus calmed him back down.

"RoBro…"

"Leave it, Remus. Even if something did happen, what're you gonna do about it? What proof is there?"

"I don't know, but we can get you out and run an investigation. Or, at the very least, you won't have to carry it alone, anymore."

Roman huffed, "It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me."

Roman stared. And Roman broke.

----------------------

"And that's the school," The student said, "Any questions?"

"Yes!" He piped up, "What's your name?"

The student blinked and smiled, "Virgil."

The boy glowed, "Like the Roman poet! That's amazing! I'm Thomas Sanders! These are my best friends, Joan and Talyn!"

Virgil blinked, "Oh! You're the Vine guys!" He looked at Joan, "Er- Vine people."

Joan smiled at the change, they came out as non-binary online recently, and it's refreshing when people use their accurate pronouns; or in Virgil's case- correct it when they forget. It gives Joan hope.

Thomas, being who he is, didn't even notice the slip up, "Will you be our friend!?"

Virgil laughed, "Sure. My other friend is out of town, for personal reasons, so."

"Great! And when they get back, we can all be friends!"

Virgil led turn to some lunch tables sitting outside, "Actually, you all came at a rather dramatic time."

Thomas gasped, "Oh, I am interested."

Virgil sighed, "We have some friends who live in mentally damaging households and we're trying to convince them that they need to get out."

"Oh," Talyn said, "That kind of dramatic…"

Thomas sighed, "I was hoping for a love story…"

"Nope…" Virgil said, popping the P.

"Nevertheless!" He cheered, "We'll help out. Mental health is important."

"Really?" Virgil said, shocked, "You don't even know them, you barely even know me."

Thomas huffed, "I don't need to know people to care about people. We have the means to help, so we will."

"Wow, that's... really cool of you guys."

"We know," Joan said before Thomas could, "We can meet them when school starts tomorrow, right?"

"Definitely."

------------------------