Janus hummed quietly, still half-asleep, as he felt around for Remus. They had fallen asleep on the cot this time, squeezing together on the narrow furniture once again and making themselves as comfortable as possible. His hands hit nothing but air and it sparked a sudden fear in him that made his eyes snap open, "Remus?" he asked as he sat up and looked around the dark dank cell, only to find he was alone.

"Remus!" He shouted this time, voice becoming panicked at his boyfriend's absence, "Remus!" He called again, absolute fear coursing through him. They hadn't said they would take Remus from him. They hadn't made any threats that day or the day before. And unless Remus had done something while Janus was asleep, neither of them had done or said anything that could warrant them to be separated. So where was Remus and why did they take him?

"Remus!" Janus stood up from the cot, jumping to his feet as he continued to shout the name despite knowing it would do him no good, "Remus! Remus! Where are you! Remus" His shouting came to an abrupt stop when heard the hallway door swing open and light footsteps quickly came toward the cell before stopping in front of the bars to the cell.

Janus glared at the witch who was behind them, a snarl leaving his throat as he stared at Ira, "What the hell did you do with my boyfriend?" he demanded, his eyes tinting yellow as the words left his mouth.

Ira laughed at the implied threat, "Oh, foolish boy, don't go attempting to waste the little magic you have on me, you know it'll never work."

"Where is he!?" He demanded louder, eyes only glowing brighter. He could feel the magic costing him his energy he didn't have. He could feel it burning through his blood, running through his veins, it wanted to get out and wreak havoc upon the woman. And why shouldn't it? Janus had already called upon it to make his eyes glow, he's used magic to coat his words and make his lies more believable, his voice more confident. He had teased his powers and it was getting hard to keep it all reigned in. "We didn't do anything! Why did you take him?! We didn't do anything! Bring him back!"

"Oh Janus," Ira said, "Sound any more desperate and I might just confuse you for your brother."

"Just tell me where he is," Janus muttered, his hands balled in tight fists in pitiful attempts to hold back the magic. 'Don't use your magic. You're already on thin ice, don't use your magic any more than you already have. They'll hurt Remus if you do. Don't-'

"There are rumors that your brother is on his way to come 'rescue' you," Ira shared, slowly walking the length of the cell from just the other side of the bars. Janus tensed slightly, they'd been teasing him about this for some time now but they always mentioned his uncle as well, why weren't they mentioning his uncle this time? Surely Virgil wasn't stupid enough as to go on this journey alone right? "Of course he won't win, that boys magic is as broken as his brain-"

"My brother is not broken," Janus said with a protective growl.

Ira only smirked at having pushed another one of his buttons, bringing him closer to doing exactly what she wanted, "Please, the boy's trait name is that of a disorder he suffers from. He has high magical potential and yet no clue how to use it, only making himself a danger. And from what I've heard the boys gone mute-"

"My brothers choice to not speak does not make him broken, nor does anything else you've said," He hissed, hands now gripping tightly to his shirt, "And his mutism is a result of what you and your dead son did to us"

Ira froze at the reference to her son and turned to look at Janus with a sharp glare only for him to continue, "It must be so painful, to lose someone you love so much. Did it hurt, when you watched him crumple to the ground? Did you break, when you realized he was dead?" Janus asked her, voice cruel and unforgiving as he spoke. No magic touched at his words, this was purely him, and he could see how it was affecting her. He could see how there were pain and anger in her eyes, "My brother may have killed him, but his death was your fault in the end. Had you not taught him, Black Magic he never would have become corrupted and he would have easily survived such an attack. But it was his use in the Forbidden Magics that ultimately made him weak and vulnerable. The magic that you taught him."

He paused for a moment, allowing the words to sink and sting her before continuing, "Hard to believe that it was neither me or my mother that did it. Neither of us could defeat him. But it was my brother, the one who you call broken, who in the end killed him. What was the age gap between them? Five years? That's five years difference in a magical experience. A very novice wizard against what some might consider a master. A spell that was new, volatile, and performed wrong. Those were the only two things it took for my brother to kill your son"

Ira had tears in her eyes by now, they carefully slipped down her cheeks and Janus didn't feal an ounce of pity for her. She stared right past him, she was somewhere else. Well, Janus knew exactly where she was. She was in that clearing, watching her son die over and over. Janus smirked when Ira blinked, her mind returning to the real world, "I can cause pain with my words too, it's not just you." Janus said in a voice that some might have considered evil, "I can spin webs of lies, yes, but that's not where my natural talent stops Ira. I can also reveal hard truths. You're good with your words, anybody else might have fallen for your trap. But I'm better, I was born to be better. I am Deceit, Lord of the Lies and future king of the Dark Realm." His gaze hardened as he stared her down, "And I demand you bring Prince Remus back to me."

There was a moment of pure silence that passed through the tower where neither said anything. They just stared each other down, waiting for them to show some sign of weakness only to find none within each other. Janus knew Ira's tears were not a sign of weakness, tears, in general, were not a weakness. Just how Ira now knew that Janus's desperateness for those he cared to protect, wasn't a weakness either. In fact, he could very easily mold it to fit and fuel his strength.

Right, when Janus was sure he was going to win, however, Ira's hands swept out from out of the sleeves of her long dress, and a blasting blue light came out of it, slamming into Janus's chest and sending him flying backward into the wall. Neither Janus's body nor mind was at all ready for the attack and so he was unable to hold back when his magic instinctively kicked in to protect him, like how a squid shoots ink or a porcupine a quill, and large bolts of lightning came out of him. Ira held some sort of magical pendulum, necklace, rune, thing out to the burst of magic, and almost instantly the lighting flowed into the item, taking it right out of the air.

Janus was left laying on the stone ground wheezing and whimpering at his freshly refried hands and the brand new injury on his chest, staring at the witch who smiled smugly at the item in her hands. He still couldn't tell what it was but he had already guessed that it was meant to have collected his magic, which it had done. Ira slipped the item back into the lengths of her sleeve before looking back at Janus with a smile, "I'll have the guards return your prince to you now, I've come for what I've wanted" she said before leaving the tower just as quickly as she had come.

Janus remained laying and whimpering on the floor until he heard the familiar sounds of Remus struggling to get ahead of the guards and return to him. As soon as the cell door was open Remus was at his side, gently examining the other and searching for the new injuries. Janus tried not to let him see the pain he was in, attempting to bury his head in Remus's lap only for Remus to gently make him turn his head, "It's okay Jan," Remus claimed softly as he brushed a careful finger across his scaled face, "Your chest doesn't look too bad, and I'm sure we can convince that nice medic to try and smuggle us some of that healing cream or whatever it is again"

Janus still refused to move too much, "She captured my magic... she's gonna do something with it, Ree. What if she uses it to hurt people? Or to perform forbidden magic or-"

"Don't worry about that right now my wonderful little snaking," Remus whispered comfortingly to him as he made his lap a more fitting pillow, "Worry about something else... like how it's raining right now."

"How do you know that?" Janus muttered.

"We passed a bunch of windows on our way back. It was raining really hard... like cats and dogs!" Remus smiled and gasped giddily "Janus! What if it actually started raining cats and dogs!? There would be blood everywhere! And you'd hear so many animals sounds right before they hit the ground and-" he stopped when Janus forced one of his injured hands into Remus's, this share was obviously one of those that bothered him.

"One of your more tamer ones recently hmm?" Janus asked, Remus, nodded with an affirmative hum, "Are the more intense ones bothering you?" Another sound of affirmation, "Okay, that's fine. I understand. Keep talking then, where were we? Dogs dying? There better be no snakes falling from the sky in this fantasy of yours Love, or I will not be happy."

"Course there aren't any snakes, I'm not a monster Dee-Dee."

When Patton awoke the morning after 'The Kissing Fiasco', as he had dubbed it, it was to the smell of the ocean, food cooking, and a fire burning. They sat up tiredly, slowly rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as he looked around for whoever it was that was cooking.

He was a little surprised to find Ann as the culprit of the wonderful smell and not Logan who, much like Patton themselves, was often up earlier than the other two to help pack the camp or prepare the morning meal. But no, Virgil sat on the log in front of the fire cooking the rabbit from last night while simultaneously reading from one of his magic textbooks. "Morning kiddo," Patton greeted as he stood up and instantly began cleaning up his things, "You're feeling productive this morning, everything okay?"

Virgil gave him a look before putting away his book to sign to him 'Does something have to be wrong for me to help cook?'

Patton shook his head, "No, of course not. I just know how much you like to sleep in. Did you have a nightmare again?"

Virgil shook his head, 'No.'

Patton hummed in acknowledgment as they began to help Virgil out with the cooking, "Okay, so you're just feeling helpful? That's neat."

'Neat is an odd way to describe it.'

Patton laughed, "You sound like Logan," they looked back up at the prince, "Speaking of, are my two other kiddos awake yet?"

Virgil smirked a little 'Wanna see something that will make them mad?'

Patton's eyes lit up a little, "Are they cuddling?!" he gasped excitedly, Virgil laughed as he put one finger to his lips to signal the other to not be so loud while the other finger pointed to where Logan and Roman sat laying underneath the shade of a tree. Roman's head was resting on Logan's chest while the nerd himself had wrapped an arm around his prince, a book lay discarded to the side of them. Patton squealed excitedly as he jumped up and down, "My kiddos are all grown up and in love! Virgil isn't it adorable?"

Virgil laughed again as he nodded, 'I guess both the twins are cuddlers then, huh?'

"Looks like it," Patton agreed, "Logan too, who knew right?" He watched as Virgil began to separate the food for each of them and serve it out, "Should I wake them up for breakfast?" he asked, Virgil nodded appreciatively as Patton stood and walked over to the sleeping duo with a smile on his face.

"Roman, Logan! Time to wake-eek!" Patton jumped back, tripping over his feet and falling to the ground. Roman and Logan had both woken with a start, and before Patton could attempt to calm them Roman had grabbed his still sheathed sword and pointed at him. One arm was out in front of Logan who looked very confused as he squinted his eyes at Patton, his lack of glasses making it difficult to see anything. "Hi there Roman, wanna put the sword down? Ann made breakfast."

It took a moment for Roman's still waking brain to process the words but he eventually nodded and put down the sword, "Five more minutes," Roman mumbled as he began to lay back down, pulling Logan back down with him.

Logan sighed as he put on his glasses and tried to get up, "That would not be wise Roman, it is better for the mind to-"

Roman hushed him, still trying to hold Logan next to him, "It's just five minutes, when has five minutes ever hurt anybody?"

"Death could occur in five minutes in multiple situations such as-"

Roman sighed dramatically as he sat up, playfully pushing Logan away, "You ruined the mood Nerdy-Wolverine," he huffed with his arms crossed.

"Mood?" Logan asked cluelessly as he watched Roman walk to the campfire and take a seat. "What mood?" Roman didn't respond as he thanked Patton and Virgil for the food and began to eat slowly. Logan frowned, unsure if he had actually upset Roman or if the other was just messing with him but figured he should just play it safe apologise regardless.

With a bit of nervousness Logan rose and went to go sit by the fire with the others, accepting the meal provided for him and sitting next to Roman in the sand. He mumbled his apology to Roman, who only laughed and waved him off as he continued to eat. Feeling as though that had been enough and he had been forgiven for... whatever it was he had done, Logan rigidly wrapped an arm around Roman and hoped that was enough to suffice Roman's mood or whatever it was.

"Your much better at cuddling when you're asleep," Roman told him with a smile.

Logan frowned with confusion, "Am I doing it wrong?"

Roman shook his head, "No, not really. You're just less robotic asleep, it's okay though Logan. I know you're not really a hugger, you don't have to make yourself uncomfortable for me." Logan nodded in faux understanding as he looked away, he didn't understand. Just a moment ago Roman had wanted them to stay hugging and sleeping, and now he was saying that's not what he wanted? And that he didn't have to make himself uncomfortable for the prince? But Roman himself had always said love was about stepping out of your comfort zone for someone.

Logan removed his arm from around Roman's waist and took one of his hands instead, he at least knew how to hold someones hand the proper way. "I don't understand you, but you are a puzzle I have been trying to solve for a long time now." Logan told his boyfriend, who smiled lightly at the words, "I don't understand love either, but I know I love you and I'm not certain how that's possible..."

Roman seemed to tense slightly, "What are you getting at Logan?" he asked nervously.

"Will you teach me about it? Love, and how to do it properly, and everything else there is to it?" Logan asked, "You seem to be an expert on the subject."

Roman stared at Logan for a moment before bursting out into loud laughter only to realize that Logan was not laughing, or joking, and was in fact serious. "Oh Logan," Roman said softly as he placed a hand on the side of Logan's face, "There is no proper way to love someone, there is no understanding it. Love is one of the most confusing things out there, it's amazing and powerful and dangerous and terrifying. But it's the most amazing thing in the world!" Logan stared at Roman with more confusion littered on his face, "There is no right way to do it, but there are a few wrong ways to do it. There are many different aspects and mystery's to it. And Logan, I am far from an expert on it, I'm just entranced by it. There's a difference."

"Teach me anyway," Logan demanded quietly, "You know more then me, teach me anyway."

"Not everything can be taught Logan. I can't teach you, because I'm not you. This is just one of those things you will need to learn on your own." With that Roman rose to his feet and went to go pack his things, leaving Logan alone at the fire to sit in his confusion while everyone else cleaned the camp.

Love.

Logan didn't think he'd ever understand.