Roman didn't know why Remus was upset at his parents but as the four of them sat in one of the multiple dining rooms the castle had, he could feel just how tense and thick the air was. It had been awkward around the castle for several days now. His parents had been meeting with Remus privately, all week and each day Remus would just become angrier and angrier. Nobody had told Roman what was going on which was odd because he and Remus always told each other everything.

But no, his family was keeping something from him and it was upsetting Remus, Roman wanted to know what was going on. What if it affected him or the kingdom? It obviously affected Remus and made him upset, wasn't anybody going to tell him?

"What's going?" Roman asked about halfway through the meal, looking between his brother and his parents as he asked, "You three have been acting weird all week"

"Nothing Roman," His father said to him, "Your brother is being inconsiderate"

"Inconsiderate?!" His brother said loudly.

"Yes inconsiderate. It's just a meeting Remus," Their father said

Remus stabbed at a piece of steak on his plate violently, "You haven't been listening to anything I've said have you?"

The queen sighed "Of course we've been listening Remus, but we all have to make sacrifices here and-"

Remus rolled his eyes, "Sacrifices? All of us? I'm the only one giving anything up!" Remus said, tears beginning to appear.

"Wait, what's going on?" Roman asked, still confused as to what they were talking about

"Nothing," His father said sternly, "Remus this conversation is over, you and I are going to Cririn and you are going to behave like the prince you are. Is that understood?"

Remus stood up, banging his fist on the table, "Go to hell!"

There was surprised silence for all of one second before his mother reacted in that scolding voice all mothers have "Remus-"

"No, I'm fucking serious go to hell. Die a million deaths. I hope satan himself tortures both of you for thousands of years after we bury you. I hope we never see you in the afterlife. I hope your corpses remain in the ground, souls unwilling to go anywhere but down and your body slowly being eaten by the bugs that lie in the mud you'll lie in."

"Remus-!" His father began.

Remus roughly wiped at his tears, ignoring his father's yelling, "Our parents are hypocrites Roman! Traitors to their own son"

"We're not betraying any-!"

"I don't want to have kids!" Remus shouted, sending the room into silence again, "Not like that... I don't want that, I can't do that."

"Remus, what do you mean?" Roman asked softly, though he was already sure he knew what was being implied.

Remus looked away at the ground, "I'm going for a walk," He said to his parents and Roman, "I'll see ya later." Remus began towards the door slowly but it didn't take long for him to start sprinting towards it.

"Remus wait!" Roman called, standing to go after him before his father demanded he sits back down.

"He needs space, let him have it," the queen told him gently.

At sixteen Remus was a hyperactive, immature, and rambunctious teen boy with powerful leadership and battle strategies. Much like his brother he was very fit if he was to take the crown. He knew what he wanted, he wasn't indecisive at all. Talented and quick, and surprisingly smart. Surprisingly as in no one would expect it of him, not as in he was above average in brilliance. He would make a good leader when the day came to it, either as King or second to the King. However, heir to the title was not why his parents had pulled him out of his lessons early at the beginning of the week.

The Kingdom Cririn and his parents had apparently been communicating recently about an arranged marriage between the Light Realm princes and the eldest princess of the Cririn kingdom and Remus was currently their choice. Not his parents, the Cririn. For whatever reason the king and queen of Cririn wanted their daughter to marry Remus.

Remus

They wanted their daughter to marry Remus.

If Remus wasn't angry and gay, he may have felt flattered. But he wasn't flattered. He was mad. He was really mad. He knew he and his twin had gotten lucky, their parents were fine with them being attracted to guys, and when Remus and Roman said they might want to marry someone who wasn't a girl they had seemed fine with that. They had even searched around for suitors that fit their sons but there weren't a lot of eligible suitors part of the LGBTQ community, it hadn't worked.

His parents hadn't understood asexuality, no matter how Remus tried to explain it but as long as they weren't expecting grandchildren from him he could deal with that. And if he did have children, they better not mind if they were adopted because that was the only way it was gonna be happening.

He and Roman had thought that everything would be fine. There had never been any rush for them to get married before this week, why now?

This was what Remus wondered to himself as he went on his walk.

It was a little rainy at the moment, but it wasn't like he was going to melt if he got wet or anything. And he had always kinda liked the rain, jumping in puddles, getting all muddy, and everything else. It was nice. When they were younger, Remus used to throw handfuls of mud at his brother after storms, Roman would hate it and either run away screaming while Remus chased him or tackle him to the ground and shove mud right back in his face.

He wasn't very far from the palace when he heard voices from behind him. He raised an eyebrow and tried to turn around but before he could see what was there something bright hit him hard in the face. Remus stumbled backward, one hand holding his soon-to-be bruised cheek while the other reached for his mace. Who the fuck had hit him? His vision, which had been a little out of focus after the hit, had recovered in seconds and he was able to dodge the second attack before swinging his weapon at the closest attacker.

He counted seven of them, five of them armed he wasn't sure about the last two. He had never fought this many people at once. The most was four and Remus had not only lost but it was also a fake battle, as in nobody was actually gonna try and hurt him and cause permanent injury. The same couldn't be said about this group, the way they fought him and used their weapons told him they wanted him dead or close enough to it that they could do whatever they please to him.

It didn't take very long for them to disarm him and force him to his knees. He was covered in blood, which wasn't exactly out of the ordinary except this time it was his blood and not fake. His head was bleeding from when one of them had hit him while his back was turned, a gash across his right leg and another on his left arm. One of them had hit his shoulder blade, another had probably broken at least a rib or two. At this point, he was seriously doubting they wanted him alive.

He wondered how they'd find him. It would probably be one of the guards on their sweep of the grounds. Or maybe Nala, the maid, she liked taking morning walks. Hopefully not Roman, he prayed it wouldn't be Roman. Roman was strong but he wouldn't be able to recover easily from finding his brother's dead body. And holy shit, the last thing he told his parents was for them to go to hell. This was gonna tear them apart.

Part of him thought they deserved it. A little PTSD or guilt or whatever serves them right for trying to force him into marrying a girl and live a life that he would never want. For saying they were accepting and willing to let their sons marry who they wanted and then taking that away from them. For christ's sake, he was sixteen and they had tried to do this. His mother didn't get married until she was twenty-four and even that hadn't been an arranged marriage. For pretending like they were gonna be giving anything up. Another part though did kinda regret having those be the last words though. He could've said 'I love you but go to hell' or literally anything less painful than him calling them traitors and saying he hoped their souls were tortured for all of eternity.

"Prince Remus," A voice said to him, bringing him out of regretful thoughts. He squinted at the man in front of him, trying to remember if he knew him or not. He did seem like a familiar person, but it was hard to tell with the cloth covering their face. The man leaned down towards Remus and he suddenly reached towards the man and yanked the cloth down.

Remus smiled, "Oh hey!" Remus said to him, "I know you. Yeah, I know you." Remus laughed slightly, "Oh man, I knew you were a fucking coward but seven to one, now that really takes it to a new level."

The man glared at him, teeth clenched as he stared down at the injured boy in front of him and delivered a sharp kick to his side. Remus bent over himself, coughing and spitting out blood as he cussed into the ground, "tell me Keiran," Remus said, knowing the man would hate to be called by his first name, "Are you gonna give one of those evil monologues? I always thought you'd be good at those. Do me a favor, before you start go ahead and cut my ears off so I don't have to listen to that stupid whiny voice you have"

Another kick to the side and now he was almost positive that something inside him was broken when it wasn't supposed to be, damn it maybe he should just stop talking. "Pick him up," Keiran instructed the men around him, they did as they were told and dragged Remus to his feet. "Prince Remus, allow me to be the first to tell you how disappointed the kingdom is that both its princes will make horrible kings. We can not have a man like you sitting on the throne."

"Man like me huh?" Remus asked, still forcing a smile onto his face. The only win he'd have is if he succeeded in scaring these men. Only a psychopath would smile while he's about to be brutally killed, and people feared psychopaths. "What's that mean?"

"It is against the law, for a man to be involved in a romantic relationship with another man," Kieran said. The man was wrong. It wasn't against the law, it never had been. There had used to be a law that prevented gay marriages but his mother had abolished that law when he and Roman were very young, "Not only do you fall under that category but you are also unstable, insane, and unpredictable. It is not safe, to have you anywhere near the crown"

"Well, don't we all need a little bit of all that every now and again. A little bit of Remus never hurt anybody" The man ignored him as he pulled a knife out from a sheath. Before Remus could even breathe, much less make another comment, the man plunged the knife into him.

"You can keep the knife," Keiran told him with a smug smile as Remus was dropped to the ground. Remus's hands brushed slightly at the handle, the Light Realm mark printed onto the worn leather. Remus looked up at the man when he began to speak again, the smile wiped from his face and replaced with fear and a pale look, "The King and Queen asked me to pass on their condolences" Remus's eyes widened slightly. His parents did this? He knew they were upset, but he had been sure they would've figured this out like regular people. Argued over it some more until eventually they caved and let him marry someone he chose. The man continued to smile as he addressed the men around them again, "Get him past the border, make it seem like the Dark Realm did it."

Now that was confusing... Why would they want to stage his death if his parents ordered the assassination? Remus couldn't ponder for long, with one more smack to the head, his world turned black.