In an instant, Romulus’s expression turned again, becoming worried. His anxiety made his knees buckle and hr allowed Remus to guide him onto the bed. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Remus steadied Romulus, helping him onto the bed and staying by his side.
“She’s alright,” He was quick to reassure first, he knew for them, that’s where the mind would go first. “But, after you left…Remedy found out that she was pregnant.” He began to explain, expecting that Romulus would have man questions that he wasn’t going to be able to articulate fully.
Romulus felt like everything stopped in that moment, but at the same time, it felt like his mind was moving one hundred miles per minute. Remedy was pregnant? Did she have a baby then? Surely the child was his, right? After all, Romulus was confident that she had only been with him before their falling out. He wanted to ask a million questions, but didn't know where to even begin if he could speak them aloud with his strained vocal chords.
He painfully swallowed and licked his lips before pointing to himself.
"My ba-by?" He managed. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“Bab-ies.” Remus said, a smile accompanying his words then. “Twin boys, if you can believe it.” He added with a wry little chuckle. He felt reassured Romulus wasn’t going to try to make a break for it, at least not for the time being. Romulus pulled up a chair and sat beside the hospital bed then, a hand still on the guardrail of the bed.
“Romano and Venturo, she named them. I guess for you, Spanish sound names.” Remus went on. “I kept an eye on them all, I wanted to be there for your boys. For you.” He explained.
Even if Romulus had had proper use of his voice in that moment, he still would have been stunned into silence. He had never imagined himself having children and it certainly wasn’t a thought he occupied in the last few years given his circumstance, and yet, here he was, a father to not one but two children.
“Are th-…h-ppy? I- sh- h-ppy?” He asked. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Romulus looked away from his brother then, taking his hand from Remus to wring it in his hospital gown.
He knew that his brother would always inherently want him around, they were twins, their souls had been inextricably bound before they ever even drew their first breaths. He knew it would take something heinous for Remus to turn his back on him. But Remedy? He’d already done that and he had no right to even entertain the thought that his presence in her life, let alone their children’s lives, could make her happy. He didn’t even deserve that chance.
He managed a light shake of his head, though it pained him. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Remus let his brows fall back into a frustrated pinch as he reached for Romulus’s hand again. With most people, he tiptoed around and followed whatever queues given. But with Romulus and especially after all this time, it was his way just to love him harder.
“They deserve to know you, Romulus.” He insisted.
Almost as if on queue, there was a knock at the door. Someone was looking in through the window on the door, pink and yellow with her big brown eyes and square face, it was Remedy. Remus had looked over his shoulder to see who was knocking and locked eyes with her; she smiled, and Remus frowned. Astrid must’ve made her calls, Remus wasn’t expecting her to come so quickly. .
Romulus lifted his gaze and followed his brother’s line of sight to the little window in the door. His heart instantly leapt at the sight of Remedy peeking in. Part of him wanted to get up and run to her so long as his body would let him move, but the other part of him, the guilty majority, forced him to remain frozen where he sat. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Remus looked between Remedy and Romulus before deciding whether or not to let her in. Whenever Romulus turned away from the door, he made the decision to not only let her in, but to do it without asking Romulus first. He was planning to do that originally, but now he needed an edge to get Romulus to see reason. Remus stood up, because he was so tall and so long he was able to reach the door without stepping away too far from the hospital bed.
“Hey,” Remus greeted somewhat coldly. “He’s awake, it’s hard for him to talk though.” He explained.
Remedy poked her head in before taking the first initial step. If Romulus were to look at her, he would see that she looked very much the same. Her shape weirdly hadn’t changed even after a twin pregnancy, Remy had always been skinny but tall with a horrendous appetite to satiate her blazing metabolism. Her hair was in the same length and style as it had been since she cut it when she was nine. It was short, chin length, messy and tousled with random waves and ringlets. It was uncertain if Remedy truly curly hair as she never took special care of it, but it had waves and volume. Her eyes didn’t even look tired, they were still that warm and romantic in their gaze; perhaps the most feminine thing about her. She was perhaps more bronze, maybe a few new freckles on her cheeks. Probably from long walks with the boys in a double stroller, pool days with ice creams, maybe spending all day at Coney Island losing money to win prizes for the twins.
She smiled when she saw Romulus, not because she was pleased to see him wounded of course, but because she missed him.
“That’s okay, he doesn’t have to talk.” Remedy said, pulling up her own chair by his bedside. “Have you told him…?” She began, looking at Remus from the corner of her eyes.
“Yes, I just did.” Remus nodded.
Remedy looked back to Romulus again. Normally, Remedy was the picture of confidence, not because of anything extraordinary about her. But because she rarely felt shame, or guilt; she was never embarrassed and tackled most things with her loud personality. But she was nervous now, because of how things were left the last they saw each other, because of the twins, because of seeing him now without any idea how to talk about any of this.
“I should’ve been the one to tell him.” Remedy said to Remus without looking at him.
“You did try.” Remus said, offering a weak shrug before crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair. “I just wanted him to know before anything else happened.”
Remedy nodded, not angry but understanding. The important thing was that he knew now.
“They’re here now, you know.” Remedy said aloud, hoping Romulus would hear her. “I left them in the waiting room with Astrid for now but, they are here.” She said, nodding again.
She could see with her eyes that even turned away from her, Romulus was in rough shape. While her twins were spunky and unfazed by many things, it wouldn’t be appropriate.
“I have pictures, if you want to see them.” Remedy said then.
Romulus fussed with the fabric, keeping his gaze low. In truth, he wanted to see photos of the twins, his boys, he wanted to see them and know them, he ached for it, but he also felt undeserving of that even. He also felt that if he saw them, it would be harder for him to go and he had to leave because it wasn't right for him to stay.
He chewed at his lip, but only for a moment before letting out a little hiss of pain, unaware of a split in his bottom lip among all his other wounds.
"I sho-dn't." He said quietly. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
It was Remedy’s turn to furrow her brows. Even after all this time, Remedy felt like she knew Romulus’s heart, he would want to see. She pulled her chair impossibly closer to the bed.
“Well I want to show you.” Remedy said before taking out her phone and opening the photo application and sliding through. Her phone was full of pictures of only two things, her twin boys, and the cars from work (occasionally her own iconic firebird, a car Romulus would recognize as hers). She pulled up a recent photo, it was of the twin boys from maybe not too long ago. They were both smiling, each boy with an arrangement of missing baby teeth as they grinned up at the camera with fists full of dirt. They were outside somewhere, maybe a park, and they were standing around a hole in the ground that appeared trudged by their own grubby hands. They were identical, like Remus and Romulus. They were pink and yellow like their mom, dirty blond hair and sharp hazel eyes. They were smaller with a tilt in the corners, something the descendants of Natas often had.
“I don’t know if Remus said, but their names are Romano and Venturo. This was them playing at the park, they were a less interested in the playground equipment and more interested in digging a hole to Australia. An idea they got from something my mom said.” She explained with a cool and easy chuckle, how she always had laughed. She felt less anxiety looking at the picture, the image of her boys was comforting. Remedy was proud of them, adored them, her sun rose and set on them.
Romulus tried to keep his gaze averted, but his curiosity gnawed on him until the point of aching and he looked to the phone. In an instant, he was taken in. Remedy didn't offer the phone out to Romulus, but he unwound his hand from the pale blue fabric of his gown to take it from her. His brows were pinched and there was an undeniable spark of something joyous in his gaze as he looked at the two little boys in the photo.
They were little yet, they had to be since it hadn't been so long that Romulus left. He couldn't help but notice how much they looked like Remedy with their fluffy blond mops of hair and their peachy skin kissed by an amalgam of little freckles from the sun. There was no denying inklings of himself in their visage with the slight tilt of their eyes and long straight noses, even if his was no longer straight. He hadn't seen enough of his own smile in his life, but especially not in recent years, so it was lost on him that the way their cheeks lightly dimpled and the open curve of their mouths was all him.
He swallowed hard and felt his eyes becoming moist, a stray tear falling before he could even notice it.
There they were, his boys. He hadn't even known about them for ten minutes, hadn't even seen them in person, but at the sight of them in that one singular picture, Romulus knew all he wanted for them was their health and happiness.
Sucking in a shaky breath, he handed the phone back to Remedy before reaching up to wipe his tears away, paying not much mind to his bruised face.
"I sh-dn't be her-" He croaked, voice raw from his injuries and emotion. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“Hey, hey,” Remedy instinctively crooned, she furrowed her brows and reached for his hand as it pawed at his bruised face. In a way, it was like no time had passed. Remedy wasn’t really an especially affectionate person, she showed her admiration by way of playing and negging. But it was nearly engrained in her biology to fawn to care for Romulus, she couldn’t help it. No matter how she felt when Romulus left, she did not wish for him to suffer or to hurt. “I’m glad that you are, I think it’s a good thing.” Remedy said and she meant it sincerely.
She let her thumb drag over his hand once before taking up her phone again to show him more.
“Come on, I haven’t even shown you their baby pictures yet. You won’t believe how small they were.” Remedy began.
"No, pl-se. I sh-dn't s- -em. I d-n't d-s-rve to." Romulus croaked, turning away with fresh tears following the glistening trails the ones before left behind. His head hung guiltily, his face anguished and torn. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
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